The Ship, way past Midnight

"That'll be easy," Dmitri replied, mockery lining his voice. "Convincing a mourning son that his father was killed so that mankind can become ever powerful." His tone didn't change as he continued, "I'm positive he'll join in with his father's murderers, as well. He won't have a grudge on them at all!" As he spoke, his voice was still low, so as to not be heard. Sighing, his tone became less mocking, and he continued, "I don't know how, but I'll try." In response to the last bit of her instruction, Dmitri asked, "'Use his anger'? Use his anger for what?"

"It's a life of using people's grief against them," Luke responded.

"They're as selfish in their grief as they are in their happiness," Alistair stated with firmness. "They expect the world to show compassion for them because they are in grief. The world simply moves on. They can either accept that or they can wallow in self pity and let the rest of the world spit on them." His brow furrowed and he acquired the slightest frown. "I'm no different than the rest of them."

*********

"I have been assigned to watch the Fairchilds and, if I may, bring them in for study. The eldder recently developed power to speak with the dead, while the younger has had the power to manipulate water since his youth. If we can understand why, we may discover much more about the human aura that will help us to reach our ultimate goal." She paced some more, smiling. "Does the younger brother have a latent talent for ectomancy he has not yet realized? Is the elder secretly an aquamancer? Why did the elder develop late? We must bring those auras under control to understand them."

"Everyone deserves time to grief," Luke grumbled, a bit of a sad look appearing on his face. "Not grieving makes bastards out of everyone. Can't move on if you never get the chance. An' while you're no different now, you can be different. Can be better at least."

The knowledge that his entire family was dead and died on a ship was driven home at that moment, though it was hard to grieve something you couldn't remember in the first place. A permanent case of being stuck in limbo.

"I see," Dmitri said. "I suppose they would be useful, then..." Not having any more to say on the subject, he asked, "When is this Fairfax fellow getting here, if you know?" He wasn't looking forward to talking with him, but there wasn't really any way to get out of it. Besides, if he was somehow able to try and convince the guy to join the Order, maybe he would be excused of his recent screw ups.

"And what will that get me?" Alistair answered with a grimace. "Nothing but the same thing other fools who wallow in self-pity get."

*********

"He should be arriving soon. Maybe even as early as tomorrow. Do be prepared," Lavinia answered.

"A sense of closure? A chance to move on? Maybe some relief?" Luke responded, still keeping his eyes on the ceiling.

Dmitri nodded, saying, "I'll try." Since that seemed to be what Lavinia wanted to talk to him about, he asked, "Is there anything else?" He left it open to questions or talking, since they hadn't seen each other in a while. And, at least for himself, he didn't know when they'd get a chance to talk in relative privacy, where they didn't have to worry about appearing as if they didn't know each other or talking about things they shouldn't say around other ears.

"I have already moved on," Alistair insisted. He moved to the Luke pile and grabbed a hat, plopping it on his brother's head. "Now let me see this on you."

*********

"Who was that woman at dinner?"

Luke offered a half hearted glare to the rim of the hat that had been placed on the front half of his head. He removed a hand from behind his head and pulled the rim down over his eyes, return the hand back behind his head. "You're changing the subject. No fancy dandy 'ats are going to distract me." He replied from below his hitchhiker's sleep mask.

Alistair readjusted the hat with a bit of a glare. "No, I simply ended one conversation and started another."

"I wasn't done with the first," Luke responded, still laying back on the bed with his feet off the side. He casually reached up again and pulled the hat off his head, setting it down lightly over his eyes again. This time he didn't bother relaxing again, instead keeping the free hand by his side. "If you're a good person, good things come to you. Simple logic really. You remember that Ripper fellow? 'E got 'is. And every saint's 'ad it pretty good."

"Woman?" Dmitri knew who she was talking about, but spoke before he thought. Answering her, he said, "I managed to piss off her family. As such, they've vowed to kill me, has trained each of their descendants to be vampire hunters. She looks to be most recent Kuzlov, if she knew I was me, I doubt she would have necessarily attacked me there, but I'm sure she would be after me once I left." More to himself, he muttered, "I'm surprised she didn't recognize me, actually..." He spoke to Lavinia directly again, saying, "So, that's why I used fake name."

"No, actually. Being good doesn't mean good things come to you. Life is too arbitrary for that. Bad things happen to good people all the time because they can't keep the bad people taking the good things," Alistair grumbled. "That's how life is."

*********

"And what caused them so much anger that they feel the need to hunt you down forever?"

"It doesn't have to be that way," Luke replied, moving to sit up on the bed and pull his hat back to keep it form falling off his face. "Good things come to those who ask nicely an' don't screw other people over."

"One day," he started, "I went out to feed. I found someone who I thought was alone, fed from them. I fed for too long, though, wound up killing him..." He sighed, continuing, "His family came into view with him slumped in my arms, my teeth in his neck. From then on, they vowed to avenge him." He chuckled slightly, even though this was no laughing matter. "Over the years, I've managed to rekindle their hatred, through a couple of accidental deaths of the ones they've sent after me..." He went silent at a particular memory of a woman caught in a burning building.

"Prove it," Alistair answered. He'd certainly never run across an example of a good person winning out in the end.

******

"Regrettable," Lavinia answered blithely. "One might think that they would have decided to leave well enough alone by now."

"Well, you know, saints and the old Pegasus knights from Coxland," Luke responded, offering a slight shrug. He had never had much of a chance to meet the lucky people in life. Granted, most people he had spent much time with on Phiah were criminals or had something severely wrong with them. Often times both at the same time. Every once in a while he met a soul who was just unfortunate, though they were quick to develop problems as well.

With a stretch he got to his feet. "So about these hats... Don't think they suit me much. Too upperclass and what not."

Dmitri shrugged, saying, "Maybe they have. Unfortunately, I don't want to risk chance of finding out." It had been true that he hadn't seen a Kuzlov in over a hundred years. Maybe in that time, they had decided to give up going after him. Either way, he didn't want to try and find out.

"Actually, they do suit you," Alistair objected. "You look handsome."

*********

"Of course," Lavinia answered. "You have enough to worry about at the moment."

"Da..." He looked at Lavinia, remembering a child that put him in a pink bonnet and had him have tea parties with her. The woman he saw today almost couldn't be that child from so long ago, and Dmitri was almost sad for it. He wondered if it were her father or the Order that made her the way she was today. Either way, he continued, "I'll try not to mess up."

Luke moved to set the hat on Alistair's head instead, grumbling in his cockney accent, "Suits your style better. I don't like standing out much and I'm pretty sure this qualifies as standing out."

"Good," was Lavinia's answer. "If you do, I will be forced to inform our superiors. We have already failed in our duties to recruit Syme. If we fail in this there will be dire consequences."

*********

"I've ordered you some relatively plain things, Luke," Alistair answered with a frown, firmly removing the hat from his own head and placing it back on Luke's. "You will stand out less than I shall. An still look much better than you do now, I might add."

"Plain by the rest of the world's standards or your standards? Because by your standards plain means I'll only 'ave to wear something slightly outrageous and only get the attention of the next two blocks down instead of the next three," Luke replied, crossing his arms and pouting slightly at his lack of ability to ditch the hat.

"How is you've failed, again? As far as I can tell, the only way you failed was by letting an object fall on his head." He stood up straight, more for the fact that he was getting uncomfortable than anything else. "By all other standards, that's an accident, and not anyone's fault at all."