Cataclysm

Queen

Nathalie accepted the coffee the man handed her with a stoic thank you, refusing to let it show how much the smell made her want to cry. She hadn't had proper coffee (Proper anything, really) in almost a year now, but she was also very much aware that her and Gabriel's treatment was not the usual for criminals charged with terrorism and conspiracy against the people of France. The former secretary and her ex-boss were given nice enough (Separate) rooms to spend their confinement at, instead of going to public jail like everyone else.

The man in question was beside her, staring coldly at the American that requested an audience with both of them at the same time. She resisted the urge of ignoring the foreigner completely and hugging Gabriel Agreste like she had wanted to do so badly these past months. She wanted that more than the coffee, but she knew she had to content with the beverage for now.

''So, what would a member of the CIA want with a French terrorist?'' Asked Gabriel in perfect english, the mockery on his tone concealing most of his curiosity. But she knew him, he was anxious about this.

''Please, Gabriel, I just want to talk'' The blond man smiled as he sat down in front of them. His gaze then went to Nathalie, and she couldn't help but shy away from his scrutiny.

''If I understand correctly, the French government still has no idea what to do with you, Gabriel, can I call you just Gabriel, right?'' Nathalie had the feeling that this man wouldn't care if he had permission to be so informal or not anyways. ''In any case, my government does have some ideas''

Nathalie frowned slightly, then looked over to see her boss's reaction. Nothing. Not even a hint that this was exactly what he had been waiting for all these months.

''Please elaborate, mister....?'' Spoke Gabriel after a moment of awkward silence.

''You can call me Chris'' Said the man, still smiling ''I can't tell you all the details right now, too many eyes on us at the moment, but I'm sure we can accommodate a better reunion''

Nathalie couldn't believe her ears. If that man was implying what she thought he was, then he was offering, on behalf of the American government, a release from prison for them. Well, for Gabriel at least, though there must be a reason why she was called too. Even if it was only temporal, she was pretty sure the people listening in from outside the room and watching through the cameras that surrounded them would not be happy. At all.

''I'll think about it, Chris'' Said Gabriel flashing a copy of the agent's smile. It was way more intimidating on the designer than it was on the American.

For the first time in years, Nathalie Sancoeur had no idea what her boss was planning. And she didn't like that one bit.

-*-

Luka didn't think that having to go to highschool again would be a hard task, but he underestimated how much a person can forget in a year. Not to mention that, for him, it had not been just a year since he filled his brain with useless information that even then he knew he would never use again. He was Viperion, he had all the time in the world to learn anything he wanted... and he did precisely that in the past months. But it wasn't like he was going to use his powers to re-learn math formulas and read highschool books. He was supposed to be Nino only for a couple of days, except he didn't know how much effort Nino actually put into classes, and keeping his image up was a lot more than just ending every phrase with ''dude''. At least the music knowledge was not a problem.

He could feel Alya's stupid smirk beside him as they frantically took notes. She was a lot more relaxed with her studies apparently, and didn't think that telling him beforehand that they had a freaking test that day was important. Maybe she just wanted to see him suffer. He knew Chloe was enjoying it too. And now Juleka. He sighed. Girls were so cruel.