The headache was getting to her, the concept of different lives. She understood it, logically, emotionally she was struggling with how she was supposed to react to it. Earlier that day she’d seen Neal crossing main street and had to stop herself from going up to him. Here, in Breckentale, he didn’t really know her, she didn’t really know him. They were strangers for the most part and yet all she wanted was to tell him the truth. That wasn’t smart, and she knew it. She’d sound crazy.
She headed into Motherload, even though it wasn’t somewhere she normally would go with the goal of finding Abe, it was weird, to her he was just Dellie’s uncle, and now he was her best friend’s father. The conflicting memories played in her mind as she caught sight of him and he nodded. Lissa followed him to his office and took a seat across from him. He’d texted him earlier asking to come speak with him.
“I’ve been trying to decide who to tell, and I keep changing my mind.” Lissa started with a little bit of frustration. “Sorry, that was a little rude of me,” she smiled sheepishly. “How are you doing? Well, with everything?”
Ever since the revelation of what was really going on had hit him, Abe had wrestled with coming up with some sort of plan. At first, he’d thought he was the only one but as it turned out, there were a handful of others who knew the truth including the Moroi Queen and his daughter’s best friend. Or, in Breckentale, he was her uncle. When she arrived at Motherload, they went back to his office. He’d been distracted ever since learning the truth, so he’d spent a lot of time in his office the last few days.
Abe shook his head and waved off her apology. “It’s fine. It’s been a strange few days, and we’re all stressed.” As for how he was, he just shrugged. “I’ll be alright.” Even though life in Breckentale seemed as normal as it could have, he was concerned that this was some plot by COS to keep them out of the game while they struck somewhere when they were out of commission.
“I’ve had some of the same thoughts. Telling too many people poses a danger, but we have to be selective with who we tell.” Selfishly, he could think of a select group of people he would want to tell, but in order to get them out of this? They needed to tell more people other than just friends and family members. This clearly had been caused by some sort of magic, so they needed magic to reverse it. “How are you?” He asked her after a moment.
Lissa nodded, “the last thing we need is for people to panic and too many being told and bombarded with the information could cause panic, and we don’t really know what will happen if we do try and force it on too many people. It took us all time to remember and figure out what was really going on.” Lissa thought back to the day when she was sitting with Rocco and Clarice talking about what was happening, at that point she still believed she was Zasha.
She smiled softly. “I’m okay,” she answered. “I think as well as any of us can be expected.” She wasn’t going to dwell on how she felt. “If we each tell one person, they need to be people who could logically help, not just the people closest to us.” She frowned knowing they both probably wanted to tell Rose.
“Yes, I agree.” Abe was often a meticulous planner; it was a trait that went back to his business dealings long before he ever came to Atlantis, but sometimes he would act in instinct. Right now, he was fighting his instincts not to tell the people closest to him and just say the hell with everyone else. It wasn’t that easy, though. Nothing in Atlantis ever was.
“We should probably find out who the others are thinking about telling, but in order to get ourselves out of this, we have to find our way back. Since clearly being aware of our true selves doesn’t lift the magic that’s keeping us here.” He thought for a moment. He didn’t know all about the different individuals who practised magic, but he knew some by name and when they came into the bar. Dive, not Motherload.
“It’s likely a mix of magic and tech, and knowing Atlantis, it will be magic that isn’t specifically like any one person’s but a mix or something else entirely.”
Lissa nodded in agreement, she’d been a Queen, ran a town where people arrived that was oddly familiar to Breckentale, she knew how to think practically and not just emotionally.
“Rocco is a magic user, as are we but we’ve got a different set. I’m not sure of Eleanor’s skills, Daisy, Marcus, and Connor have a lot of the tech skills, Abby medical, Clarice I’m not sure but her ability to open a portal might be useful.” She spoke of who already was awake. “Castiel, while human right now has a depth of knowledge. If I were to guess who he’ll want to tell it’ll be Sam Winchester, again someone with a lot of knowledge but not magical ability that I know if.”
Pulling out a piece of paper and pen she wrote down some thoughts. “Sharon Carter and Captain Becker know the most about the base and Atlantis that are here, along with Jemma Fitzsimmons who from what I recall was in Atlantis before the rest of us started to show up.” Although Jemma had just left town.
“But, you’re right, we need a better range of magic, someone from different worlds. John Constantine and Stephen Strange are well versed in different magic.”
As Lissa gave a run down of all of the powers the group of people had who were already awake, Abe had to wonder if Clarice could portal them right back into Atlantis. It all depended on how this place was set up, but perhaps they could enhance her ability somehow to get everyone home.
One of Abe’s first thoughts was Becker or Carter, but there were down sides to that too. Either of the Fitzsimmons could be useful depending on what set of skills they needed. He tried to think about this from all sides, but it was harder when he didn’t know all of the specifics about some of the newer arrivals in Atlantis. “Either Constantine or Strange could be very helpful. Each have their own way of seeing outside the box, so to speak. On the tech side, there’s Stark or I believe a young girl named Claudia Donovan is very familiar with unusual devices.” There were other types of witches and wizards too, but they needed to keep this as contained as possible. Alerting everyone was a very bad idea.
“Strange seems to have a view of the scientific as well. I think he would be useful.”
Nodding as Lissa took down a couple of notes about the different people she glanced up after taking a moment to think. “If Strange also has the scientific side as well, he could be very useful and someone one of us should potentially pick.” She said thinking about it.
“I’m not completely sure who else anyone is going to pick, but perhaps we should set a list of our top 5, see who everyone is picking.” She sat back trying to think of who else would be a good person, she didn’t know everyone well enough. “I wish we had access to some more information on the newer arrivals.”
Abe nodded. “Me too. I suppose we could look at some of their current professions and wonder if it may line up in reality.” He, after all, owned a restaurant and Lissa was involved in a similar field. “The problem is that in most cases, we likely won’t even know their real names. So, looking up information about them in some sort of fictional source material isn’t a possibility.”
He agreed that a top five or so would probably best so that then they could compare it to the others once they had a final idea of whom everyone else would be telling. There was no need to duplicate different types of magic or skills, so they could narrow it down once others chimed in later. “Strange seems to be at the top of the list so far. Constantine, Mordecai, Stark, Donovan. Perhaps one of the other witches. There’s one that’s also a Cupid, right? One of the Fitzsimmons or Coulson. And of course there’s Becker or Sharon, but I think I’d like to keep this a little less official for now. We don’t know what we might need to do in order to get all of us back.” If that included something a little unsavory or off the books, he preferred to do it under the radar.
“Mine did, but I can think of a few that don’t exactly fit what their skills are at home versus here,” she said with a few exact examples. A few were really closely aligned, a few were anything but.
Lissa nodded agreeing that Strange seemed to be top of the list and put a star by his name as she looked up with a puzzled expression. “Cupid?” She asked as she tried to figure out who he was talking about. “Oh, you mean PJ Halliwell?” Lissa found it amazing how many different versions of some people there were.
Lissa thought for a moment about his comment about keeping it less formal. “I’m not sure either of them has the skills we currently need, and we have enough strong leaders to make it work, but we should keep in mind we could add them should we need that level of leadership.” She assumed part of Abe’s reason was just his background.
“Yes, that’s the one,” he said with a nod. They probably had most of the traditional sort of magics covered, but it helped him to work through the possibilities by mentioning several and narrowing it from there. Drumming his fingers on the desk, Abe sat back and tried to think past all of the swirling and conflicting memories inside his mind. There was Strange and the possibility of another. They may have had the tech side of things covered with those that were already awake, but it wouldn’t hurt to have others on backup.
“So, in addition to Strange, we can see who everyone else decides to tell. Constantine, Mordecai Roberts, Stark.” As he spoke, Abe reached down on a small and somewhat hidden shelf next to his desk. There was a bottle of good bourbon and a couple of glasses. He poured himself one and offered some to Lissa just in case she wanted a drink. He certainly needed one. “Would you be leaning towards anyone for the last two spots on the list?”
Lissa tapped her fingers together as she tried to think about who else would be a good pick, she did feel like Daisy had the tech knowledge that they needed, she nodded yes for a drink which wasn’t always like her but given the situation that they were in she felt like right now she could use a drink.
She made sure Strange, Constantine, Roberts and Stark were all on the list as she tapped the pen. “Do we want someone else with medical skills? We’ve got Abby, but what we’re doing could potentially be dangerous.” She said thoughtfully as her mind remembered reading about one of the people who arrived in mid July. “Bethany Hawke, she arrived shortly before we arrived here, she I believe is a field medic along with magic, which would add another kind of magic as well.” She suggested.
Taking a drink, Abe nodded. “Yes, I think that’s a good pick. Someone familiar with both especially if they’re different than what others may be familiar with would be helpful.” He knew Lissa would also be able to heal someone if necessary, but he didn’t want her to have to do so unless it was necessary. He wasn’t a guardian, but she was still his daughter’s closest friend and he felt protective over her.
“We’ll get together with the others soon and narrow down who would likely be the best choice.” Sighing, he motioned to the office where they were sitting. “I’ve been spending more time here ever since I woke up. It’s easier than pretending our lives here are a lie. You’re welcome to stay here for a while too if you like, but I understand if you have somewhere you need to be.”
Lissa nodded. “At the list, I think it depends on who else everyone picks, but one of us should lean to Strange, otherwise, Bethany would be good for extra medical, and magic,” Lissa said deciding those two were her top two.
Lissa smiled softly. “Thanks, I’ll finish my drink and head out, I’m trying to keep up my life here but it’s so strange seeing people and them not knowing me, the real me.”
He nodded in agreement. The two names weren’t written in stone, but they at least had a good start on where to go from here so that they could back to being normal. Or maybe he should have said reality rather than normal since Breck had more of a normality than the unusual nature of Atlantis ever did.
“Yes, it is.” Some of his life was similar to what it should have been, but many relationships were somewhat different. He mostly looked at others and saw how different their lives were over his. “We’ll find a way to get us back to where we’re supposed to be,” he said with a nod and took another drink. There wasn’t any other option.