CHAPTER TWO ♔ a sigh escapes from heaven and worlds end

[savemyself]

♬ The Dream Within - Lara Fabian

WHO || Rafael Giovanni, Burt Becksworth, Isabella Alessandro, Finnick Odair, Myrilandel de Tanos, Buffy Summers, Spike, Elena Gilbert, Dawn Summers, Desmond Descant, Jeanne Gar, Kat Samcelot, Mark Sandazhard, Violet Fiore, Sterling Archer
WHAT || CHAPTER TWO: Following the traumatic and tragic events of Finnick and Rafael's concert, our heroes are taken to be interrogated at the police station
WHERE || Concert Hall > Chicago Police Department, Chicago, IL
WHEN || July 3rd, 2013 [ forward dated]
HOW || Actionspam

Nothing is okay.

What was meant to be the Knights' triumphant collaborative effort to cut off Chad Becksworth's bid for total control of NOVA Records, allowing them to follow the trail elsewhere, has descended into chaos. Rafael's songs triggered some kind of reaction in Jade that allowed her to regain her lost memories, only to have their reunion cut tragically short by the actions of a hitman who took her hostage on stage, demanding her necklace. While Myri and Violet attempted to convince him that the necklace did not lie with her, Jade signaled to Rafael that she meant to utilize the distraction to break free - but things went out of control and Rafael's bullets struck Jade instead. The Knights felled the hitman, as the world watched, and Rafael begged a distraught and enraged Des to end his life. Meanwhile, a mysterious figure that only Buffy & Spike could see assisted Myrilandel in healing Jade enough to hang on for a little time more...

Time for people to say goodbye.

In the meantime, the police have arrived, arresting Rafael, Archer, and Des (or attempting to), and preparing Jade to be taken to the hospital. Everyone else is being ordered to head outside to be taken down to the station for questioning. It's a hectic scene, but people can finally snatch a few moments amid the chaos to try to make sense of what just happened...

Comments

[bigbad]

[Oh that's what that sound was. Spike stands up and walks over to stand behind Myri.]

...you could come out here, if you like. We've got donuts.

[Considering she didn't even want to take his stupid napkin at the concert, she probably won't appreciate attention being drawn to her obvious distress.]

[savemyself]

[ she sits up, and regards them both, before asking, tears continuing to drip despite her best efforts: ] Is there yet any word?

[witchwoman]

[Myri's heart goes out to the woman. Despite her cool exterior, it's easy to see how much she cares for those who are close to her. She steps into the room, rather than calling for her to come out, stepping to the side of the bed and holding out a hand to help her up, if she'll take the offer.]

I'm not certain, but... the others might know. We're going to do everything we can. And... I think they'd want you to be there for any news, if it does arise.

[savemyself]

[ she looks at myri's hand almost suspiciously, but finally takes it and stands up, holding the skirts of her dress. she brushes past her and spike to stand in the doorway, to look around and take stock of everyone gathered. she folds her arms and presses her lips together tightly. ]

I hope you are all very happy. [ her tone is bitter, but it seems very defensive, as if she thinks saying the words will help shove the tears down. ]

[slay]

I can tell you're really putting your all into that one.

[ srsly gurl once more with feeling. buffy rolls her eyes and looks to gar. ]

What's our next move? Some idiot shot the only guy who could tell us who sent him. I think we all have a pretty good idea who it was, anyway, but ... How do we get at them?

[nothingsodivine]

[Des has had enough of this catty BS and inserts himself right into the conversation.] There were snake guys backstage. They definitely saw me- so there goes our in there. But the good news is the Mind Master's been working with 'em.

[rationalizes]

[ gar looks surprised, but nods ] If there's a connection, then that improves our odds of finding proof. We're going to need to look into the man who was sent, and do a little investigating of our own into the circumstances under which he was hired.

Wynn managed to learn, when he was procuring Archer's release, that they intend to build a case against Rafael as well, so the police will be doing their own share of investigating. Hopefully we can find a way to keep tabs on what they discover. It ... may involve a bit of unlawful entry.

[ she pauses, her eyes skidding to isabella, then des, then away. she sounds a bit hesitant as she offers: ] ... I hope I'm not the only one who feels that we have a bit of an obligation to help clear Rafael of these charges. Despite what else he may have done, he's put himself in considerable danger to assist us with finding the Talisman - and he was against the idea of Jade being put on a public stage in the first place. I think he's likely to be suffering enough, without our taking off and abandoning him to face prison, if whatever the police think they have on him stands.

[notaroundme]

[Elena's hoping that this isn't really an issue for debate. It's the good thing to do, the right thing to do. Rafael told her they were good people. They needed to prove it now. They couldn't just leave him behind.]

You're not the only one. Of course that's what we should do.

[She'll fight anyone who says otherwise, okay?]

[isisagent]

Well of course we're gonna clear Little Italy's name.

Seriously, guy would last all of 5 minutes in prison...

[slay]

It's the right thing to do.

[ buffy nods her agreement. it might not be the smart thing to do, and rafael might not have done the right thing by them in this case by dragging this down upon all of them and jade, but they're good enough to do the right thing. ]

But, I don't understand. Wynn got Archer out - he couldn't get them to release Rafael, too?

1/2

[shootfirst]

Raf's not a knight. Wynn can't just go around pulling strings for everybody, he's gotta draw the line somewhere. If Rafael would take the oath, it'd be one thing, but I don't see Italy joining the team official-like any day soon.

[ she shrugs ] It can't be that hard to clear him anyways. Dude's totally innocent, and we know it. Not to mention I already ran a little background check on him when we were first tracking him down. What's the worst they're gonna find on him? That he's a half-elf and occasionally moonlights as a rights activist back home? Stuff'll probably just make him look like a hero if they drag it up.

[savemyself]

[ and across the room, isabella gives a completely humorless, half broken laugh, eyes rolling back in her head. she looks ready to cry again, as she shakes her head, as if something is funny in the most horrible way possible. ]

[slay]

[ buffy shoots isabella a sharp look like BITCH SHUT YOUR MOUTH THIS IS NOT GOING TO GO WELL. but ... despite buffy's will save of 24 holding her poker face, isabella has made it very obvious that there's something there. she grimaces. ]

They might find more bad news than you'd think. We need to block their investigation.

[65]

[finnick doesn't feel much like helping rafael tbh because of everything that went down with jade, but he's also not so petty as to let him get gang-raped in jail. so he offers his nod of agreement to ...everyone else.]

[bigbad]

[Spike glances at Buffy, frowning at her insinuations.]

What do you know?

[And then he glances at Isabella who probably knows more about Rafael than Rafael does.]

And you, love. Might be a good time to share your information, seeing as we're working to free your boy and all.

[isisagent]

Don't take all day though.

[Archer whispers to Spike]
I think she's paid by the hour...

[savemyself]

[ wait a sec, exorcist head turn towards buffy ] I would like to know what she thinks she knows about it. [ GDI RAFAEL SHE IS GOING TO SHISHKABOB YOUR ORGANS ]

[65]

[ finnick hears archer whisper to spike (listen 13) and becomes disproportionately offended, because on his (relatively short) list of things that make him pissed as all get out is prostitute jokes. it's actually what brought him so close to dumage, ok. he stares at him with a 20 total intimidate check this time so i guess he looks like he's about to leap across the room and homer simpson strangle him......... ]

[graveflowers]

[Vi's been sitting quietly on the floor with her eyes shut playing with a daisy, shut up, Finnick knots. But her hand shoots in the air when Isabella questions what Buffy might know.]

Is it that he kills people on the regular for the resistance? Because that only looks heroic from one side.

[And when Raf told her he was fighting for the resistance she extrapolated murder. When in Rome...]

[slay]

[ buffy's voice gets instinctively sharp in response to isabella, because man she just radiates bitch and it's hard not to rise to the occasion. ]

What I think is that your well-disguised [ /sarcasm ] distaste for me and everyone here obviously doesn't mean that much to him, because Rafael told me everything.

[ whoops she rose. she looks to violet. ]

Can you guys please just ... just trust me on this. We need to make sure they drop this before they investigate too far into him.

[rationalizes]

[ wow gar looks like someone just smacked her across the face. she looks in disbelief from buffy to vi to isa... ] I think perhaps we'd best hear the facts entirely for ourselves. Not all of us have been privy to some things, it seems.

[bigbad]

I think I'd rather know what it is I'm covering up. [He takes a step in towards Buffy. He could ask Isabella too, but Buffy's the one he knows.] Come on, Buffy. We're a bit past the time for secret-keeping. [Diplomacy 10 which from Spike is freaking through the roof.]

[slay]

[ the good samaritan - the pierces ]

I need you to understand. It wasn't my place to tell you. And until now, it wasn't even relevant. Not really. [ buffy looks anguished as she gazes around at her teammates, because it really hits her from the look on gar's face and the plea in spike's voice how she's betrayed them; how she's chosen rafael over them. she swallows thickly, looking down and seeming to fade into somewhere else as she reflects on what he'd told her.

and not really is all she can say to qualify that, because the truth is that he mentioned it because it was relevant. it was an option, and she'd made the executive decision to keep dimitris sandaris alive without any of their input because she'd been more invested in saving rafael's soul, in not using him.

it seemed laughable, in retrospect, that she'd worried so much about the knights using him when he'd turned around and done the same for a chance to bring jade back. ]

Violet's right - sort of.

Rafael isn't just an activist with the Resistance. He works with a secret sub-sect called the Italian Shadow Militia to assassinate the more dangerous anti-Shadowkind figures.

He's been working with them for years, since before he ever met Jade. I don't know how many ... [ she swallows the words, blinking and looking back up at them. ] But, enough that we should be worried about how deep the Chicago Police are digging.

[notaroundme]

So he's a good guy, but he's still killing people.

[She presses her lips together.]

Juries don't tend to care much about shades of grey.

[nosdacariad]

[ mark looks between buffy and elena with some incredulity ]

Since when is an assassin a good guy? Did I miss a chapter in the hero book?