75 Godiva Street, Saturday Afternoon

[geniuswithasmartphone]

So, everything was terrible again. Hardison was pretty sure that Tony and his TA were evil, Eliot had brought home a version of Kathy that needed babysitting a lot more than she needed to be out heroing, there were slugs pretty much everywhere, and last night Eliot had insisted they all sleep down in the panic room in the basement. Which was actually more like a 'panic suite' because Eliot had built it and he was kind of extra about things, but even so, it was a little more claustrophobic than Hardison was comfortable with. He'd found himself calculating how much air was available in their hidey hole, which wasn't something he'd done since they'd moved from Portland.

That itchy restlessness hadn't left him, even when they'd all come back upstairs for brunch. He needed to get out for a little while. Do something. Spend some time in the open air while feeling useful. So once the meal was over, Hardison grabbed for his jacket and his laptop bag. A walk across the island to the school for some quality research time would hopefully settle him.

[Open for housemates and visitors!]

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[geniuswithasmartphone]

"You remember how I mentioned folks havin' other versions of themselves here?" Hardison asked, like it hadn't just been moments ago. "This is a different version of Kathy. She's from an alternate reality, comin' here to stop another group of people from settin' the world on fire or whatever."

Kathy's explanation hadn't been very helpful. Or direct.

"She, ahh, ain't the only one. With another version of herself runnin' around."

He turned to Kathy. "Hey, now, it's a'ight. This is a good Raven. This Raven is your best friend. Ain't nobody needs protectin' from this Raven."

[godilovedthis]

Tell that to everyone who got bear'd, Hardison.

Kathy still looked at Raven, mistrustful. "Eliot?" she called. "This true?"

Sorry, Hardison, she was getting a second opinion.

[vdistinctive]

"From what I hear, your Raven wasn't trying to hard to pretend to be good," Eliot said. "We'll keep an eye on her --" oh good! He wasn't doing enough of that already "-- but she's probably okay."

[tigerundercover]

"Gee, Mr. Spencer," Raven said. "Thanks."

She looked over at Kathy, eyebrows raised, hands still up. "Would it help if I was a different color? Or smaller? I can do that."

[geniuswithasmartphone]

"More'n that, she had no idea what I was talkin' about when I mentioned her trek from LA to the island. This Raven brought it up first thing." Hardison gave Eliot a hard look. "This is my TA. I vouch for her. More'n that, I trust her. Implicitly."

[godilovedthis]

Kathy looked back and forth between Raven and Hardison, face not losing an ounce of its suspiciousness. Finally, she nodded. "Look...different," she said eventually. "I won't remember so fast if you look different."

[tigerundercover]

"I can do that," Raven said again. She shifted into someone small and blonde, giving Kathy a little smile. "It can be rough when you've been on edge for a long time."

[godilovedthis]

Kathy nodded, still suspicious and on edge, but at least she set the knife down. "It's been...years, I think," she admitted, grudgingly. "Fighting monsters and hollows. Going hollow. And now the cult."

[tigerundercover]

Raven nodded, climbing up on one of the stools by the kitchen island, always keeping her hands in sight even as she played 'little kid' for all she was worth. "I had to do that before. Not for that long, but I get it. You kind of lose track of being a person."

[godilovedthis]

"I'm not gonna be a person much longer anyway," Kathy said, turning back to the dishes. The shattered remains of the plate were still at her feet, but she'd forgotten about them. She'd remember in a moment, when her shoe crunched over shards of ceramic. "I'm almost gone."

[tigerundercover]

"Where do you think you'll go?" Raven asked. "when you're all gone?"

[godilovedthis]

Kathy shrugged. "I'll become a hollow," she said. "I should ask Dante to make sure to kill me when I finally go. I don't want to hurt anyone. That's what hollows do. They hurt people." She looked up at the little girl. "I protect people. I don't want to kill anyone."

Apparently, even when you reformatted Kathy's brain, the desire to be a hero remained.

[tigerundercover]

That was so Kathy, Raven couldn't help but smile. "I know you do," she assured her. "But -- that's what your body will do. I bet the rest of you goes somewhere nice."

She actually wasn't sure if she believed that at all, but she definitely didn't not believe it.

[godilovedthis]

"Maybe," Kathy said. "I don't know if I ever thought about that before. I wonder if I'll have all my memories again. I know some of them hurt, but I miss the hurt. It meant that something meant something."

Ceramic crunched under her feet. "Oh no!" she said. "What happened here?"

[tigerundercover]

Okay, how bad did the other Raven have to be that Kathy forgot dropping the plate but knew instinctualy that she was bad?

"It's a plate. It fell. That happens, sometimes."

[godilovedthis]

Well, one of those, she'd put effort into remembering.

But still, it was probably better not to ask.

"Well we should clean it up before someone gets hurt." Kathy looked up at the girl and frowned. "I'm sorry, what's your name?"

Beat.

"Oh! I know! You're Sarah, aren't you?"

[tigerundercover]

Raven had no idea how to answer. She shot a glance to the side, hoping maybe Hardison would give her a hint. It couldn't be good for this Kathy to confuse her like that.

But on the other hand, she never wanted to see that scared look on Kathy's face again if she told her her real name.

"Yep. That's me."

[geniuswithasmartphone]

"She won't remember in a few minutes," Hardison said softly, by Raven's ear. "And she doesn't know who that is anyway."

[godilovedthis]

"I have your name on my arm!" Kathy said, pointing to her bicep. "With a heart! But I didn't remember who you were."

Mystery solved!

[tigerundercover]

"Right," Raven said softly to Hardison. "Because that's better." She shifted up onto her knees to lean in and look at that bicep. "Look at that. I must be real important, huh."

[godilovedthis]

"Yes," Kathy said, giving her a smile. "I only write down important things. Things I want to remember. So I must have wanted to remember you very much."

She didn't know why, but it felt right.

[tigerundercover]

Raven didn't see her own name anywhere on this Kathy. She tried not to think what that meant, especially alongside Kathy's reaction.

"Guess so. What are some of the other things you want to remember?"

[godilovedthis]

"Some are names," she said, pointing to her other bicep where the crew's names circled her arms. "Some are instructions, so I don't forget why I'm here." Before she'd written that down, she'd kept asking Dante if they were going out on a date. "This one says fire bad, trees pretty so I remember what I'm fighting for."

She pointed at a few others, day to day instructions, like where to go if she was lost and a reminder to eat whenever she could. Her life seemed to mostly revolve around scavenging, fighting, and struggling to remember things.

[tigerundercover]

Memory holes aside, that was pretty familiar to Raven. "That's a lot of stuff. I bet you're a pretty important person."

[godilovedthis]

"Me?" That got Sarah a surprised, pleased grin. "No. I'm just Kathy. I just don't like forgetting things, that's all."