"You don't understand." He was too drunk. How could she explain the situation? His hands flirted higher and so did Noel's panic level. Short of stabbing him, her options were severely limited with her lower body pinned beneath him. She should never have let it get this bad.

If Noel had to roll her eyes any harder, they might have popped out of her face. I can't resist this any longer? She should have punched him in the nose just for that, but she was busy using her arm strength to keep party Devon as far away from her face as possible. The man was like an octopus. How did he possibly have so many hands all over everywhere?

"Stop!" She couldn't even think while he was pawing at her.

> “The real you,” a terse, too calm voice intoned.

Hadden. The real Hadden. His voice both made her feel guilty, like a kid whose hand was caught in the cookie jar, and galvanized. She could fight party Devon without killing him. She wasn't helpless, just scared. She could defend herself.

"He's less disciplined, inebriated, and I think the last time he took his medication was at least three months ago." Noel shouted back toward Hadden the short list of information she thought might be most useful to him. She was still wrestling to keep him off her, but now she had back up and an alternate course of action to pursue. They should probably catch party Devon, right? At least hold him until he'd sobered up. "He's like you, but different choices. Different Haven. Different ambition."

Noel tried again to torque her body beneath party Devon in order to flip him onto the bed beneath her. If she should just get him off of her, maybe that thread of panic would ease up and she would be able to think past her blinding headache.

>> "He's less disciplined, inebriated, and I think the last time he took his medication was at least three months ago."

Noel shouted while Not Right Devon started to leave the bed. She mocked his choices, as if. There went the party. Wait, how did she know he hadn’t taken his meds in a while? Telepath? Spy? Christmas was a sham! Did you know it wasn’t even Jesus’ birthday!?! Terrible!

“Yeah I don’t pass up a beautiful woman,” Not Right Devon smirked as she tried to turn him over. She got out from him, sure, but he fell back to the side and rolled right off the bed. He laughed as he tumbled off the end and knocked into the bureau even as he started to rise. His eyes were solid pools of black, much like the other Devon at the entrance to the room. Light flitted over him from the bathroom.

There was a series of breezing wind currents starting to move around the room haphazardly. A contest of wills even as the Real Devon focused on preventing this doppleganger’s attempts. “Oh don’t want a storm do we, but what’s going on outside, Devon Do Good?” he mocked. With a hand he swept a few pictures off the bureau as a gust followed but they rose in the bathroom, living room, and outside too.

“He’s out of control,” Devon Do Good said through gritted teeth. The gust from the bureau died before it could hit Noel or him, but a lamp fell over in the living room and his things on the bathroom counter danced over its surface.

He wouldn't pass up a beautiful woman? Augh. Gross. She may have been a bit too vigorous in getting party Devon flipped over because he just continued right off the bed. There was the briefest of moments where Noel caught Hadden's eye. Oops. Or maybe it had been party Devon's plan all along. He laughed from the floor and when he stood, his eyes had bled black.

Noel started to make the sign of the cross before she realized what she was doing. Maybe it was the dim lights and the creepy laugh and the fact that he'd touched her more than she'd intended, but somehow party Devon seemed more demon than man. She'd seen Hadden's eyes bleed black on Plum island and it had been no big deal. Somehow context made all the difference.

The air in the room became turbulent, like being in the narrow corridors between buildings when a nor'easter came roaring through. Noel pitched forward off the bed to catch one of the lamps before it crashed down into the carpet, flyaways tugging free of her careful ponytail.

> “He’s out of control”

She glanced up at party Devon and got a small bout of vertigo from the quickly changing air pressures. This needed to stop. Now.

"He definitely doesn't see it like that." Noel yanked the lamp's plug free of the wall, reeled it in enough for slack, and then whipped it out to the side in order for the plug to wrap around party Devon's neck. Noel stood and yanked as quick and hard as she could to pull him off balance and out of focus.

Did she want to kill him? No. Otherwise she would have kept the garrot-like wire taut. Let him waste a few moments freeing himself of that.

"He never grew up, Hadden. His emotional baggage--" She let the lamp and wire fall, instead opting to capture one of party Devon's flailing arms. She turned, stepped, and levered at the waist in order to use his momentum to flip him up and over the hunch of her back. If there hadn't been a bed there, he might have hit hard. As it was, he landed on something softer than a practice crashmat. "--is keeping him in Neverland."

Noel had lost control of his arm in the throw. She tried to grab it again, but the man knew better that to let her have it. She took a glancing hit to the jaw that more her fault than his, but when she moved up to keep him down, he landed a solid hit to her gut that left her momentarily breathless.

No. They were not doing the whole on-the-bed wrestling thing. Breathless or not, Noel flipped around until she was behind party Devon. The crazy stop-start, push-pull of wind was still happening and as she fought to get purchase enough to put party Devon in a rear choke, Noel noticed that Hadden's eyes were pitch black as well. She'd been wrestling party Devon's body. He'd been wrestling the man's power.

The Tempest was connected to the weather in more ways than simply calling or controlling it. Devon’s emotions influenced it. The power of a storm could influence him. An angry thought and rising temper could summon a thunderstorm. Depression and sorrow brought drenching rain. A roller coaster high brought intense heat and sunshine. Sometimes it created a terrible feedback loop that was difficult to escape. Muse had helped him see why that was, the bigger picture of how it was all connected.

This Devon didn’t care about any of that. Party Devon snickered at his counterpart and grinned maniacally from the lightning-sharp darkness as Christmas tried to explained his viewpoint. Really? Out of control? This guy was so wound up, no wonder Devon Do Good seemed such a tool to those around him. He tried to thrash another gust into the two in the room, but it was stopped before it left him.

Devon Do Good was watching him closely.

But he struggled to stop everything. This alter Devon’s power was running wild, electrical energy gathering in spots around the room. His alarm clock sizzled and sparked. The lights in the bathroom grew brilliant and then popped in death. Party Devon gagged as Noel dragged him hard off his feet. His arms went wild to catch himself or pull the cord away, lightning gathering and dancing in gathering currents around him.

Again, Devon Do Good stopped them before they could hit Noel.

To the bed they went and she was mocking him. They tumbled softly, thankfully, though Party Devon was feeling a bit dizzy. There was a lot of liquor sloshing around inside his stomach. He hit something on her face and she shifted to grab that arm, but he went for the solid punch to her stomach.

“Oh Wendy, did you really fall for Pan’s shadow?” he laughed. Shifting breezes around him stirred his hair and the bed linens, struggling to blow back and toss the woman away but they never grew. Furniture jumped and lurched in the living room while Devon Do Good kept it in line here in the living room. “Who’s really the one pretending here?” he struggled, the pitch of his voice rising with the choke around his throat.

Thunder boomed outside and Devon realized it wasn’t simply his anger. It was a strain to keep this room in check and the other Devon’s attacks from electrocuting Noel. His emotional state was feeding off the storm and throwing caution to the wind quite literally. So little of it was on purpose, merely an allowance of raw emotion. He strained his focus on their tug of war, while trying to quiet the raging patterns around them.

Thankfully Noel was this well trained but Party Devon wasn’t a slouch. She wrestled herself onto his back and he giggled as he pushed with his power violently. The gusts helped fling him to his feet as the patio doors flew open. Though it surprised Devon Do Good, he lessened the blow as he stumbled back against the doors of his closet. “Shouldn’t you still be in there?” the other croaked.

The Devon Demon turned at his side as the gust was stopped by the other man, and threw his back and Christmas into the wall. He roared as he saw stars before his eyes and the room shook as discordant gusts tossed all about. Devon raised a hand to help his control but the Demon was strong, simply wild. The patio doors burst from the pressure as he simply took off, but not before hitting Noel on the top of the door flame. Glass shattered back into the room as the patio furniture whipped about, some flying into the pool.

“Third star to the right!” the Demon croaked quietly as he flew in a random path upward as rain from the clouds above came pelting down. Lightning danced the clouds and raced toward the couple, but suddenly arced behind them. Tempest, suit and shirt torn from the broken glass, was illuminated as the bolt hit his form rising from the patio. Black eyes glared back at ones he’d never seen in the mirror.

With an uncaring grin the Demon spun and twirled, rising ever higher, to drop his stowaway.

The sound that she made as he slammed her against the wall was not incredibly lady-like, but then neither was the rear naked choke. He had pulled them both up off the bed and Noel had wrapped her legs anaconda-like around him so that she wouldn't get left behind. His freaking chin was in the way of a great hold, otherwise he would have been down already, but Noel knew that if she could just hold on, if she could just endure, that he would eventually pass out.

And, of course, it was his job to make that as hard as possible. And to make smart remarks. Noel didn't dare readjust, but she tried to squeeze down harder by using her other arm to help.

Party Devon was giving them both hell. Devon was shoved back. With some help, Noel got her forehead smacked into the door frame on the way out. She was too stubborn to know when to quit. Her vision came back in spots as small and delicate as the first kiss of rain she felt on her cheek.

Wait. Were they outside?

> “Third star to the right!”

"No. No. Nononono---!" She blinked and had to let go to wipe at her face and stinging eyes. The rain had really picked up as had the wind. It was a mistake to clear the blood from her eyes because it loosened her hold. They weren't just outside. They were airborne and moving fast. He rolled and the first wave of vertigo tightened Noel's throat with fear. She scrabbled at his neck, but this was more panic than anything else. And that panic and surprise magnified tenfold when he managed to roll out from her clawed grip.

She hoped those scratches got infected.

Noel got to see him above her as her trajectory parted with his and her heart tried to strangle her by squeezing her through her panic. The dark and the rain and the bleeder of a cut she had on her eyebrow kept her from seeing much other than the fact that party Devon kept going and she just... didn't.

Her arms and legs flailed, but there was nothing to hold onto. There was nothing to grab!

The near constant chaos this other Devon wrought by his wild emotional state was enough to keep the calmer Devon busy. He had to watch for every sudden building gust, though focusing on keeping the electrical charge of lightning at bay had been more important. Still this other Devon had different ambitions and clearly different practice of his abilities. Power was strong but his focus was limited.

Devon caught the attempt to knock him back through the doors and into his closet but not before stumbling back from the strength of the gust. The pressure in the room and the apartment went tight, oppressive as the patio doors burst, furniture jumped and fell, and who knows how many of his things fell off their shelves. Glass shattered and sprayed; Tempest’s shifting breezes raised quickly to protect him with varying success. The alarm clock was toast and the TV turned to a bright blue channel before smoking.

Apparently the sicker Devon could still fly. This Devon took a moment to swing his arms out in a flourish and then slowly press his hands downward from above his head toward his waist. Then, Tempest too flew out the bedroom and into the storming night. The rain stung the scratches on his faces. His clothes were torn, ruined. He paid them or the racing Demon little attention; they weren’t the primary concern.

The Demon roared from the high of the storm racing through him. He used that energy, sailing and spinning in mad glee. Oh what a high and he rode it ever higher. Suddenly it was far easier, but he had hope that Christmas would come again this year. There’s no way the Do Gooder would let her fall.

Right he was. Tempest flew with eager speed suddenly, increasing in velocity until he got close. A rush of wind blew against Noel with practiced precision before soft gusts spun from below to cradle and catch as he neared. The two were nearly floating some four hundred feet above the streets as Tempest rolled his arms beneath her. He turned his head at her flailing until that calmed and their descent turned into a horizontal arc. They returned to the not-so-grand sky estate quickly.

Those protective, encircling winds spun and rose once more to make their alight onto the patio easier. The rain was pelting down, deep impressions clear on the surface of the pool. Tempest exhaled slowly as thunder boomed above and lightning zig-zagged across the clouds, reflecting off the glass shards now decorating the outdoor space.

“I’m sorry,” Tempest frowned, his chin dropping. “I could not prevent everything he was causing.”

There was nothing to hold onto. Noel cast around, but the buildings were too far and despite— or maybe because of —her flailing, it was taking forever to fall.

And then he was back, ready to gloat no doubt about how easy it was to play with life and death. Noel all but climbed up out of the princess carry that Hadden had her in before she realized that it was Hadden, not Party Devon. Her terror didn’t leave, but she didn’t manage to keep herself from using his face as a push off point in order to try to reach one of the buildings rising next to them.

By the time Hadden had them back on his patio, Noel was down to a tense shaking. That had been just a little too wild for her tastes, too out of control. She had to work to make her hands unbunch from Hadden’s clothes.

> “I’m sorry. I could not prevent everything he was causing.”

”You did great. I- uhm.” She touched her forehead and came away with blood. The rain was making this messier than it should have been. "That was inexcusable on my part. I should have kept my wits better. He was just one drunk guy…" And she'd let him touch her. Noel rolled her shoulders forward and wrapped her arms around herself. There wouldn't be a shower hot enough.

”I should, uhm, go write down everything I can before I forget.”

Noel touched her forehead, realization sweeping her and Devon alike. He saw the blood, dripping now as the rain hit her. She said something self-deprecating and he shook his head. Clearly this was different than just some drunk guy.

With a sweep of his arm a curtain of wind wove up and then spiraled out around them in quick winding breezes. It sent the rain aside at weird angles. He’d already urged the storm to dissipate but it got the rain off Noel now. He nodded slowly at her idea.

“Yes, right,” Devon nodded, glancing into his bedroom. He gestured as he concentrated, ending the breezes before they headed in. “We can go to my office.” He led her past the kitchen to the small seating area near the front balcony. Central Park loomed outside across the street. A door near the TV was locked, but he opened it quickly with a key.

While clearly meant to be a bedroom with its own bath, instead it had a large wooden desk with a few screens mounted on the wall. A couple pads of paper were one on side, pens and pencils in a desktop holder. A couple leather chairs were against the interior wall while the desk had its own. A photo of Devon’s parents sat near the desk’s phone. “I’ll be right back,” and out of the room he went.

Devon returned a few minutes later, a first aid kit in hand. While no paramedic, he’d had a little training now thanks to Juliette’s first classes at the Sanctuary and a follow up in case of emergencies. He set about clearly her cuts first. “This may sting…” he muttered quietly as she wrote.

On some level, Noel was glad that her power was not a showy one. Flying was a terrible, totally out of control experience. Motorcycles were bad enough, but add in the third dimension of elevation and a storm of wind, rain, and lightning? The memorymancer shivered as they crossed the threshold inside and had to pick their way over the wreck of Hadden's room. It wasn't just the chill of centralized air conditioning that had touched her. This entire evening had gone terribly wrong, really fast.

Now things were considerably more in control. Everything was locked down tight and Noel was glad to follow Hadden to his office. She just needed to work to put herself in a similar frame of mind. It was difficult after crawling through the head of someone so... emotional.

Paper and pen in hand, it took Noel a moment of closed eyes and concentration to pull up the memories she needed to review. She had both an outsider and an insider's perspective and it was sometimes difficult to separate the two. By the time she had, Hadden was back with some first aid.

> “This may sting…”

She nodded once by way of acknowledgement, words already going on paper. It did sting, but mostly because her brow was knit in concentration and the cleaning agent pooled in the creases. Every now and again, Noel would pause to close her eyes and review. Her hands, while left unsupervised, trembled against the paper. Her shoulders were ratcheted up tight, her whole body taut. These were not pleasant feelings nor pleasant memories. She was distilling years worth of information and writing the best summary with the most salient points.

When finished, she'd jotted down a full page and half of bullet points with a few scrawling notes of her own commentary off to the side: things from the two Devons' pasts that didn't match. Key moments where Party Devon had made a decision. Differences in the other Haven and this one. Notes about their key codes being the same, phone numbers, police involvement, etc. Noel gave Hadden a moment to scan the information. It was weirdly personal for him, no doubt. She spent her time watching his face and huddling in on herself.

"Would you like to ask me anything specific? I'd really like to dump this information once we think we're finished so it's important to ferret out what's important now, while I have it still."

Devon didn’t interrupt her. His lips remained a line as he studied where she’d been hurt. He put a few pills of Tylenol in a sealed packet on the table beside the paper. His jaw was set, clenched as he focused on his work. He carefully wiped disinfectant over all the cuts, including the gash on her head. With clean cotton he dabbed at the wounds made fresh from the alcohol until the blotting started again. Disinfectant and antibacterial was dabbed onto linen and then pressed over the scrapes, cuts, and again that gash. They were band-aided or bandaged by the time she had finished the page and a half.

>> "Would you like to ask me anything specific? I'd really like to dump this information once we think we're finished so it's important to ferret out what's important now, while I have it still."

His eyes had avoided hers but they instinctively found one another when she spoke. Devon was a man of frequent meetings and public appearances now; that meant eye contact. There was a heavy lidded weariness in them. The warmth had gone, but the cold hadn’t come in either. They glanced back quickly to the list.

A long breath escaped his lips, clearly unwilling to let them sigh. “Any idea what he wanted here or if he’d met with anyone today? I already changed three of my primary passcodes on the way up the elevator when I was alerted I was already upstairs with you,” his brow rose and fell. “Apparently I was drunk and you came to get me. Was that a plan of his?”

She didn't realize how many scratches she'd had until each one had a little something to tell her. Noel wasn't entirely present in her body when she was viewing memories, but here and now she was feeling each and every one while she waited for Hadden to process. Her head was the worst part. She was likely to lose more than just flux time, she realized. There'd just been too many avenues of information to follow. There was no way she got it all and yet there was still too much crammed in between her ears.

Hadden looked as wrecked as she felt.

"I don't think that man plans, to be honest." She could feel every word resonate in that gash on her forehead, but they had important things to discuss. She could lick her wounds later. "I don't have a lot of his dealings from today. My power is memory and he won't have a lot in his state." Noel was getting distracted explaining the things she understood best rather than answering the question. She rubbed at the edge of the bandage on her head.

"He had no idea who I was. I'm not in his memory, that I can confirm. As for where he was, Devon was at a gay bar this evening. He had chicken for dinner which he ralphed onto a pool table in the dive I picked him up from. He told me 'the gays were too nice,' and that along with the inebriation was more than enough to let me know it wasn't you. But he had your codes. He had the number to get ahold of Haley and she called me. We both thought you might have just... had a really, really bad day." Noel couldn't help but glance around at the office. This door had been locked and as a result the office remained immaculate, but the door to his bedroom was open to the chaos.

"You... he was drunk enough that I told him kissing should be off the table. He wasn't in a state to consent, really. But a kiss from me doesn't mean anything." She could trace the logic back now. Without the context of her power it did sound like she was soliciting him for fun rather than offering a clinical dive into his memory. "I can see now how that sounds without him knowing me or what I can do." Report of the evening's events done, she looked to Hadden for further questions.

>> "I don't think that man plans, to be honest."

What didn’t Devon plan? Everything about work, volunteerism, the Havens, Haven itself. His life was his work; he was passionate about it. Every meal was planned. The morning jog. When could he get training time in. What time did he need to be up by. Even now he was likely to have to cancel a few morning meetings.

>> "I don't have a lot of his dealings from today. My power is memory and he won't have a lot in his state."

Devon nodded solemnly but Noel went on. You could see where his jaw connected to his skull as he seemed to chew the words over. His eyelids drooped and his brow along with it, but now he maintained his eye contact when she offered the chance. He didn’t want to miss anything she said, any chance to understand.

His head tilted slightly at the idea of a really, really bad day. Did they actually expect he’d dash off to a gay club and some pool hall to get drunk? Secret Keeper was at the point of contact for him. Did this other Devon have one too? The secrets were bound to hurt them eventually.

>> "I can see now how that sounds without him knowing me or what I can do."

“He’d likely have simply passed out,” Devon nodded once. “At least eventually. You must have been in chaos kissing him. All that conflicting information, right?” his tone almost sounded worried. “We need to keep you awake for a while in case you have a concussion. We can check downstairs with CLASS.” Now he sighed, the breath slowly escaping as a hand went to the back of his head. He looked away, glancing at the framed picture on his desk.

“Do you think he’s simply sick? How dangerous? How much of him do you think is malicious?” the man queried, his voice soft. “He’s raw. The emotional turmoil he’s feeling, trying to bury, whatever. The power he can throw around is dangerous enough.”

"The conflicting information is fine. For the most part, I know how to separate out what I know from what I know from someone else." For one thing, her memories couldn't be manipulated by her power. Noel could fast forward, slow down, or topic jump between Devon's memories. The same could not be said of her own memories. Those were always chronological and painfully slow by comparison. Context clues were the other best chance she had to identify who believed what. Maybe someday Noel would get a nose piercing, just so she could see it and reference it in her own memory.

"What scared me was that I can't be in two places at once. I could crawl through his head or I could pay attention to my body, but not both. The more inconsistencies I found, the deeper I wanted to go into his memories. Lots of mixed signals. Add to that the fact that I can shut my power down, but I can't keep it from kicking on endlessly. A long kiss is a trap. I wish I could just shut it off. Instead, I just don't kiss people who mean something to me." Noel continued to report in a flat way, just too tired to get upset about it. This was nothing new and her adrenaline had receded like the tide sucking all the energy she had left back out to sea.

The one thing that did get some emotion was the thought of going down to CLASS. The siren song of bed was strong and she could only keep her leash on her eyes for so long. She sighed softly, but longer than was polite.

"If we're going anywhere I'm going to need sunglasses."

> “Do you think he’s simply sick? How dangerous? How much of him do you think is malicious?”

Noel found a spot just to the side of Hadden's mouth to fix her eyes. Safe. It was always better to be safe rather than scared.

"I don't actually think he's malicious. Dangerous? Oh yeah. To himself as much as anyone else, but a lot is aimed at gaining advantage." Wait. Was that conflicting? "I just mean... I looked for some good in him, some redeeming quality. There's some lines he won't cross." There was that at least.

After all that Devon was a silent a moment, then frowned. “Are you telling me you lost my sunglasses?” his eyes narrowed into a clearly false glare. “I’m so disappointed,” he slowly grinned as he said the words. “But good. I’m glad this other me isn’t too far gone. It’s terrifying to see what you’re capable of reflected back at you like… like that.”

Clearly there were some choices he’d made about sticking to his medical regimen, meeting with his doctors, and monitoring his emotional state carefully that were important. “It’s difficult not to feel responsible for this. I hadn’t anticipated anything this certainly,” he shook his head. “And yeah, we can get you sunglasses, of course,” he nodded, the comment coming back to him.

“We’ll need to make sure the rest of Haven is aware, especially Muse. Other Devon meeting Muse would be catastrophic,” Devon frowned. “Not that him meeting you or anyone else isn’t as dangerous. Any idea how long he’s been on our side?”

If he focused on these details, focused on what this other Devon wanted or how it had impacted the people around him than he wouldn't get upset. Not yet, anyway. The last time he'd felt this way was at Sanctuary when Odessa had crossed the news. That was almost a year ago now.

His accusation about the sunglasses was so far out of left field that it sent Noel mentally reeling. Sunglasses? Was she meant to have his? Noel pat the top of her head in case she'd forgotten and pushed them up. Did they get smashed against the door? She thought it an odd thing to erase from her memory, but for all the precision she had in controlling other people's memories, she had very little control over what her own mind did. She was nonplussed by his disappointment and momentarily crushed until she realized that it didn't quite taste right. She processed his slowly spreading smile.

A joke.

She put her hands away, elbows on her knees. The joke wasn't exactly at her expense. He must have needed to lighten the mood. She was just so bad at that kind of thing and she'd just been in an adversarial situation with a man wearing his face. He didn't even get a twitch of a smile. She was already battling emotional whiplash.

"I don't know your mind from the inside, Hadden, but I feel like I know you well enough to say that you're not him. Take it as a cautionary tale or whatever, but I'm sure I'm not the only one who'd try to kick your butt if you started down that path." They were only similar by way of looks. Even then, party Devon had some serious circles under his eyes. Noel might have just been talking herself around to make sure she didn't put any of the fear that came from the evening's events onto the Hadden that was here and now. She was pretty sure she was right.

"I don't think I'll confuse the two of you again and now we can make sure everyone else is prepared as well. Not just for another you. Who knows who else might show?" She wasn't going to get emotional about any of this, no matter how bothered she'd been... or continued to be. It was Hadden's cross to bear, and only hers until she was allowed to put it down and walk away. "You can't be held responsible for what's already happened. Just be responsible for what we now know is possible."

Noel stood stiffly. Sitting down hadn't been the greatest of ideas. She made sure to keep her eyes down as they shook in her head, just one of the ways her body and power let her know she wasn't feeling great.

The Muse thing only made sense. She was a powerful asset whether she wanted to be or not. Too bad Noel hadn't seen her around in a bit. They could leave a voicemail or something.

> "Any idea how long he’s been on our side?”

Noel closed her eyes to more closely review some of the most recent days she may have captured snippets from. "A few days at most, I think. I wasn't grabbing memories chronologically." It was willpower that made her open her eyes again. A quick glance at Hadden and then back to the floor. "You wanted to go down to the CLASS area?"