xp_logs | Angelo and Scott (Reply)

After the log with Paige, Angelo goes to see Scott in his office in the hope of some concrete answers on what happened to Nathan. And gets them.

Angelo left Paige in his room, after some time, fast asleep in his bed with Joyita curled up beside her - she'd been tired to the extreme, and had needed the comfort besides. And now she was asleep, he had something to do. He made his way purposefully to Scott's office, hoping he'd be there and willing to share some answers.

Scott finished the report for the rest of the team and hit send, leaning back in his chair with a sigh as he rubbed at the bridge of his nose. He was approaching the point of serious exhaustion, he knew. Between yesterday's events, no sleep, and the mission today, he was running on fumes.

Angelo arrived outside the office and knocked on the door, waiting patiently for an answer.

Scott looked up. "Come in," he called, realizing that he even sounded tired.

Angelo wasn't surprised by the note of fatigue in Scott's voice - it was only to be expected in the situation. Opening the door and going inside, he nodded a greeting to the older man.

"Angelo." Scott gestured for him to sit down. "What can I do for you?" he asked, managing a faint smile.

Angelo took the nearest available seat, returning the smile as best he could. "Was hopin' you'd tell me what happened to Nathan. I mean, I know who got him, what they'll likely do next, all that, but... it won't stop goin' round an' round. Was hopin' maybe some facts on what happened would help make it stop."

Scott leaned forward, folding his arms on the desk as he regarded Angelo. "You and he had--have gotten pretty close," he said, hoping that Angelo wouldn't call him on the switch in tense.

Angelo noticed, but didn't particularly care to think about that, let alone make Scott talk about it, so let it slide. "Yeah", he answered simply. "He's been helpin' me a lot, whatever he thinks."

"Whatever he thinks?" Scott asked a bit blankly.

Angelo shrugged, having meant that as nothing more than an afterthought. "He doesn't seem to think he helps us as much as he does. Me, Amanda, some of the others. He's wrong. That's all."

Interesting. Scott shook his head slowly, then wished he hadn't, again. His neck still ached from yesterday. "How is everyone handling it?" he asked a bit awkwardly, rubbing at the back of his neck. He hadn't had much time to notice what was going on with the kids, obviously.

Angelo considered his answer, thinking over what he'd read on the journals. "'Bout how you'd expect. Pretty much everyone I've talked to's at least worried, or scared, or both. What with the Professor's post, an' then Amanda's as well..."

He had read both. "The Professor needed to make the risks very clear for all of you," Scott said in a low voice. "All of us, rather."

Angelo nodded. "I know. If someone'd tried t'talk him down, not knowin'..." He let that train of thought die, not especially keen to think about what Nathan might already have been turned into.

Scott studied him for a long moment. "What did you want to know about what happened in the warehouse?" he asked, not sure how many details he would give the young man even if he pressed for them.

Angelo shrugged a little helplessly, not knowing enough solid fact even to know what he needed to know, if that made any sense at all. "As much as you'll tell me about what happened."

Scott considered it for a few moments longer. "How much did Nathan tell you about what happened to him back at the beginning of May? When he vanished for that weekend?"

"He couldn't remember too much about it, he said", Angelo answered. "That's pretty much all."

"And what about his former employers in general?" Though Charles had been fairly specific about the brainwashing, in that post of his.

Angelo scowled. "What they did to him when he was a kid. That they wanted him back. An' Domino told me they were at Columbia, but I'd pretty much figured that out already."

"There was a telepath in the warehouse," Scott said finally. "He did something to Nathan, took his mind over."

Angelo winced - he'd expected something of the kind, since it was the only way Nathan would be captured with an X-Men team at his back, especially since Angelo knew what had been done to him before, but to hear it flat out like that... "Right. Well, I guess that'd be the best way for them to get him..."

"Betsy did her best to try and stop it, but it all happened too fast," Scott went on quietly. "They ordered him to bring the warehouse down, and he did."

Angelo paled, then reminded himself that everybody had made it out with seemingly nothing worse than a concussion. "So then they got him out in the chaos?"

Scott nodded. It had clearly been a tactic that Nathan had practiced, as a Mistra operative. A couple of dead operatives had been left behind, but that certain didn't account for the whole team. "The dust settled and they were gone," he said. "And Haroun and Paul - they were outside the warehouse at the time - had to focus on getting the rest of us out."

Angelo nodded. "Oh, yeah, of course. 'Specially since you had people hurt, an' Nathan was already gone anyway."

Scott smiled faintly, humorlessly. "Does it help to know?" he asked with a sigh.

Angelo paused, then shrugged with a sigh of his own. "Not all that much. But at least I can stop imaginin' stuff now. Helps some t'have actual facts about what happened..."

Scott stared down at his screen, which was still displaying the report he'd sent to the team journal. "I expect you to keep this to yourself," he said finally, "but he got away from this morning, for a little while. That's why the jet headed out again. He called, and we were trying to get there in time to help him."

Angelo's head snapped up, with something like hope in his eyes, which quickly died when he went back over Scott's words, taking in the "trying" and the "for a little while" and realized they'd have announced it if they'd brought Nathan home. "You didn't make it", he said flatly. "Or he'd be here. But maybe there'll be another chance."

"We can hope," Scott said, but couldn't make it sound convincing.

Angelo hadn't expected it to be - he was running a little short on hope himself, which gave him another very good reason to do as Scott had asked and keep the new development to himself, if he'd needed one. "And pray", he added quietly.