Too Much (Open)

[David B.]

Bringing a hand up to her shoulder, he'd gently try to lay her back, not wanting her to keep holding herself up for him. Once she was laying down, he walked around the other side of the bed and sat, one leg crossed over the other, while the doctors worked on Krane. A nurse came in, a small cup with pills in them and some water offered to Bailey.

"Some pain medicine. I understand you had quite the ordeal. It looks like you'll be alright, however, just some light bruising of the bone."

The man would pat her knee, and turn to go. After he was gone, David would be seen searching her eyes, as though he could assess her mental state. After all....she had indeed had one some might call....a traumatic day.

[Bailey Oleander]

;salkdfja;lkjfds touching. Way more attention than she is used to. Bailey leaned back in the bed, as much to end the action as to give her body a chance to actually relax. She took the pills from the nurse with a small smile and nod.

"Thank you." Especially since taking them meant buying more time before any actual conversation started. Setting the cup aside when done, she turned her attention back to David, regarding him like a mouse might a cat before it's fully cornered. Wary and exhausted, he would be able to see the pain and regret in her eyes, the simmering anger that she didn't know what to deal with. Too many emotions at once vied for her attention, and she didn't like them. Shadows stood out under her eyes as she looked away after a few seconds, no longer comfortable with holding the gaze that looked like it could bore right into her thoughts.

"Is there something I can help you with, sir?" She'd turn her gaze back to him as she spoke. It was better than looking away and making it worse.

[David B.]

He'd offer a small smile.

"I know it doesn't feel like it sometimes....but we as leadership, do care about this place. The people in it. Like you."

He snapped a couple times, the doctor that had finished with Kranes clean up setting down the clip board and heading for the door, offering them both a nod as he left.

"I wanted to ask you the same question, actually. Is there....anything I can help you with?"

[Bailey Oleander]

She let the words sink in, reluctantly giving a small nod in response to David advising that leadership cared. Cared about Cabal, its agents, and her. She was a part of this place, though that didn't mean as much to her as it would have a couple of days ago.

"Thank you for your concern." She shifted slightly as the doctor handed over the clipboard, both to ease the discomfort of her boy as well as the thoughts his question provoked. She didn't know what she wanted or needed right now, and being the focus of the conversation just felt weird. She was used to being someone on the sidelines, or doing her job but remaining unseen. Part of the "anyone" type of crowd.

Since he had the clipboard, though, she would divert the conversation for a moment.

"How is he? Krane, that is."

[David B.]

"He'll be alright. He went toe to toe with a Full riche' in 75's army and came out missing only an arm- it's a testament to how far he's come, and how far he has to go."

David set the clip board off to the side, letting her collect her thoughts.

[Bailey Oleander]

"Good." There was a hint of a smile at his words, though the implication said a lot. The son of a god likely had far more to live up to than she ever would. She could feel the knot in her chest tighten as she thought of those who had been killed, of the people she'd found underground, having lived their lives in peace until she had come. Relative peace, anyway. Of how her ignorance had cost them so much. But given how things had turned out, she felt like it wouldn't have been any better.

"To be honest, I don't know what I need. Other than the truth." The smile faded into a steady frown as one of her thumbs absently stroked a fold in the blanket. She bit her bottom lip and shook her head, forced herself to take a deep breath as she felt the tears starting to well up again.

"They asked me if it was okay for them to come out, if it was safe. If they would be accepted. I told them yes. I brought them here." She looked at him again with the emphasis, her voice shaking. "I brought them to Cabal because I knew they were qi users, and they would have likely been brought here anyway. I watched their reactions as they saw the sky for the first time, saw daylight and things they'd never seen before. I protected them and thought I was bringing them somewhere where I thought they would be safe, could be learned and tested to see how well they could control their powers already." The spike of anger and pain strengthened her voice as her hand clenched into a fist and twisted around the blanket.

"I thought I was bringing them to a place to where they could start over, to continue living in peace. I didn't know my commander would turn around and commit genocide!" Tears streamed down her face as her voice cracked.

[David B.]

David listened patiently, letting her anger boil over.

He would not interrupt, watching silently.

[Arianna Barrial]

Arianna paused outside of the door, listening in for a moment. There was too much for her to do to be able to stop and see Bailey, but she would. For all her resentment to David, he was at least showing he was semi-competent as a leader and doing what was necessary for his people.

For now, he could handle this. She stepped by the door, the other doctors seeming to have Krane's situation in control. There were more injuries for her to care for.

Later, she would come back and do what she could for Bailey.

[Bailey Oleander]

The anger keeps boiling over on the first acceptable target it finds. The silence was welcome, but it offered her no indication of his own thoughts. The conflicting need to speak her mind and be silent and let him speak countered each other, making the words more difficult to get out sometimes.

"I trusted him. I trusted Cabal. And then I find out that, sorry, but these people are actually experiments that we never intended to let live. They hadn't even done anything. It's not their fault that it's part of them any more than it is for us having powers. For a qi user going wild or out of control." She took a deep breath and sniffed, trying to breathe as more crying happened.

"I understand the danger. I do. I understand the logic behind it and the reasoning. But it's wrong." Another wavering breath as she tried to pull herself together. Red eyes narrowing at David.

"Is that what you intended? Was I supposed to find them from the start?"

[David B.]

David listened until she came to her questions. While he had no direct influence on the actions taken, he wouldn't say that. He was a supervisor, and claiming ignorance would not instill confidence in her. Instead, he'd lick his lips and look to the ground. It was probably the first time genuine emotions could be seen through the mask the supervisor normally wore. His brow furrowed together as he let a little of the pain came through while he explained.

"Long ago, before the great war and the devastated world that we existed in was commonplace, there was a place we called "The Correctional Facility". Publicly, it was a place problem students with abilities greater than the standard sentence could hold back would be sent to. It was there that they were supposed to be made into more...pliable people. On the inside, the person who ran it performed incredibly dark and abusive experiments, changing and molding many peoples minds to their will. Sometimes without their permission. Sometimes without them knowing."

He looked to Krane, then out the window as he continued.

"The war of the broken that followed was a climactic confrontation who's facts were scrubbed or obscured from history, to avoid all mention of the atrocities that took place. These experiments, the tormented souls, were embedded throughout society. Without anyone the wiser, even family and close friends, these experiments existed with the single purpose. To destroy everything we'd learned and grown to love."

He looked to Bailey.

"Think, for a moment, about who I am. What I'm capable of. I wear equipment that halves my fighting strength, yet what can i do even with that? Imagine if an enemy of Cabal were capable, with a single word, to turn me to a mindless killing machine hell bent on the destruction of Cabal. What kind of Havoc would I wreak?"

He leaned forward a little.

"Now...what if there were two of me? Five? Ten? Twenty? A whole people, who's service to a master still lay dormant inside their minds, who possess strength equal to, or greater than even the Dragons. What do you think might happen?"

He'd stare, waiting.

[Bailey Oleander]

She fell silent as he spoke, the logic appealing to her more practical side. The side that understood risk, numbers, and devastation. The part that could rationalize and be reasoned with. It was not that part that lashed out at him, not the part that had her racing against time with no plan and no hope of success towards that death camp.

"I understand, but I don't agree with it." It was still difficult to think of someone stronger than the Dragons, but apparently David believed they existed, at least as he was now. Even if they had such restraints, their halved strength would be enough to devastate people and leave a path of destruction in their wake. Unexpectedly, it made her think of Blake. How he was going to destroy territory 64 when she left him, and who knew what after that. What if they found him again? Would he face the same choice? Shuddering, she looked back at David's unrelenting gaze as she cleared her throat, the tears drying on her skin and a gleam in her eye.

"Was that the only facility?"

[David B.]

"I don't like it, but I do agree with it. You see...I was there for that broken war. I fought in it. So did Leon. It's not something we speculated about- the only way to deal with the threat was to eliminate it before it could become one."

He seemed uncomfortable, looking back out the window. His voice, genuine, continued.

"Being a leader, having the lives of thousands in our hands....we have to make choices that are difficult every day, between possibility and reality. I will apologize to you, privately, for the pain you're dealing with because of it. I wouldn't wish that on anyone."

He'd look to her calmly.

"We don't know. We only know energy signatures, general information...there could be dozens, or hundreds scattered throughout the world."

[Bailey Oleander]

To think of Kirin or Sil, or any of the others coming to the surface and one day being nothing more than a living weapon, maybe even destroying her or those at Cabal. Of destroying their own little girl in the process. It broke Bailey's heart, but she could see why others would see it as a means to preventing devastation. The big picture over a small group that they had already learned to see as enemies. Another deep breath as she focused, forcing hte anger and pain to be set aside for now. She did not like David's decision any more than Leon's, but her anger would get her nowhere like this.

"I see. Thank you for your apology, Mr. Blaze, and for coming to check in on me. I appreciate it." She wiped the tears from her lashes with a finger brushing on each eye behind the lenses of her glasses before looking at him again, now able to see him properly rather than behind the blur of her tears.

"Do you know where Mr. Sudeki is? I would like to speak to him, as well." He was her Commander, after all.

[David B.]

He sighed.

"Leon is here, of course. But...I would like you not to talk to him. Not about this, anyway."

He'd cock a brow.

"I didn't just come here to check up on you, or to...work out the kinks in your feelings about what we did, although both were on the agenda. I came to talk to you also, about Blake."

He'd turn his icy gaze back on her, watching how she'd react to that.

[Bailey Oleander]

"Why not?" The words came out immediately at the mention of not talking to Leon, whom she had specific questions from their private conversation in his office before she'd broken rank.

Then Blake was mention, and the fight went out of her. Bailey leaned back further into the bed, eyes softening with regret and the caution that sprung back into her expression. She still worried about him, and still meant to follow up on the offer for resources for his people.

"What about him?" she asked softly, not looking away.