Controlled chaos.

Ranger and Noel were the embodiment of chaos as they travelled across the country. Two train rides led them to Texas. Once off the train in Taylor, Texas they took a cab into Austin. In Austin Ranger hotwired a beater that looked like it hadn’t been driven in months. From there it was just an issue of getting where they were going before the car was reported stolen. Up I-35 they went to Morgan’s Point Resort, Texas on Lake Belton. Ranger ditched the car into the lake. A little cash up front and they had themselves a cabin to stay in on the lake for two weeks. Electric, water, and internet access included. There was even supposed to be a few days worth of food in the refrigerator.

It wasn’t a large cabin. One bed one bath with an open area serving as the kitchen, dining, and living rooms. While it was small it was nicely furnished. Table, chairs, couch, loveseat, recliner, wide screen tv, and smart appliances. Not to mention enough rustic decor to warrant a tetanus shot.

Ranger noted that it you pushed the furniture around you could make an impromptu dance floor on the wooden floor.

As Ranger was tossing his duffle bag onto the ground by the couch, an unmarked SUV was blocking in a Lincoln Towncar in Arkansas. A very terrified couple was having their car torn apart by government agents who were growing more frustrated by the minute.

Once Ranger and Noel had arrived in Taylor, there had been no more time for him to search through any files on their history. That was fine. Ideally their erratic trail had bought them enough time to search out some form of truth for themselves.

”A little quint, but it’ll do.” Ranger said looking around, ”I’ll take the couch, y’ can have the bedroom.”

She'd managed to hold it together. Between dozing off through the next train ride and borrowing and ditching cars, they'd had enough of the here and now to talk about that things weren't weird.

Walking into a cabin and knowing they had nowhere to go and nothing to do for the next who-knows-when was. It was totally weird.

Considering the fact that the Ranger hadn't strangled her to death for funzies yet, she was pretty sure she was okay. He also did the gallant thing in offering her the bed. The entire bedroom, infact.

"Thanks." The couch didn't look like much. She made a mental note to bring him a pillow at least.

Noel dropped her bag just inside the bedroom door and took a moment to stretch. There wasn't much to the room. It was "cabin chic" with exposed wood log rounds for the walls and rough hewn furniture. Everything smelled a bit rustic, but not totally unused. Someone had been there recently enough to stock the fridge, and there were sheets on the bed.

They were gonna have to talk about this eventually. It had been building in the car and through their escapades. Only, she didn't know what to say... So she grabbed a pillow and tossed it at the Ranger's head, instead.

"How's the butt?" After all that sitting, she wanted to stand for a bit and her sore spot wasn't as poorly placed as his was.

Noel went to drop off her bag and Ranger checked what was in the fridge. An assortment of ‘Healthy’ options, or as Ranger referred to it, ‘rabbit food’. There was some meat with it though. A couple steaks, some turkey, and salmon. There was no beer. There were a couple bottles of wine in a wine rack though.

Range shut the refrigerator door and turned around in time to receive a facefull of pillow. He grabbed it out of the air after it bounced off his face. ”Thanks.” Ranger said in a slightly sarcastic tone.

“How’s the butt?” Noel asked.

Ranger resisted the urge to touch the site of the wound while thinking about it. ”Feels like I just got my shots t’ head overseas, but they gave ‘em t’ me all at once. In the same spot.” Which was double digits and most of them were in the rump. ”Sittin’ idn’t on the itinerary f’r a while.”

”How’s the back?” Ranger asked. Noel had a wound in a not quite as problematic but still inconvenient for travelling location.

There were few things funnier than a harmless prank. If both parties ended up smiling and shaking their heads, then that was a total win in Noel's book. And according to her digital notebook, they'd had more than a few shenanigans in their time... times that were effectively erased now.

"Have you been overseas?" She should have guessed that, honestly, with the acronyms and the official... officiallness he had. Noel, too, was official, but so rarely trusted to go anywhere by herself. It made absolute sense that she had a partner, especially a semi-permanent or totally permanent partner.

Noel found herself a bar-height seat to lean against the back of. Sitting was still out for now, more because of sitting too long rather than tracker soreness.

"Nah, I'm fine." And... that was actually all she had to say.

This was going to be a really long foreseeable future.

"So... we order take out?" Sure, there were ingredients, but what kind of New Yorker knew how to cook?

”I’ve been overseas…” Ranger paused trying to add up the number of times before settling on, ”The lion’s share of the past six years. Mostly combloc countries with a sprinklin’ of time in the Middle East.” Keeping Ranger and his team overseas and continually cycled through operations kept them mostly out of the political reach of anti-mutant politicians stateside. Mostly.

Noel suggested ordering takeout. Her tone led Ranger to believe it had more to do with the not cooking and less to do with wanting any specific take out option. Ranger pulled open a couple drawers looking for take out menus. ”Always an option.” He rummaged through another drawer. ”I can also grill the steaks ‘r the salmon. Have a high class dinner.”

Ranger wasn’t attached to either option. Though he did want to make use of those two particular items sooner rather than later. Cook them while they’re fresher. It wasn’t like the take out places were going anywhere.

There was also the feeling that they were delaying the inevitable discussion. Their past with the agency and their past with each other. The latter of which they both had details about on their respective computers. The former seemed off. Ranger had mission reports about it but Noel had nothing in her files about it.

The last 6 years? "You mean the last 6 years before the last 10?" Noel presumed, and just that much presuming made her head hurt. Were they supposed to pretend that those years didn't happen? They effectively hadn't, physically or mentally. She ran her hands over her face as she listened to the food options.

Noel didn't even know if she liked fish.

"Okay. New plan. Fish goes bad first. If you know how to make it then... I don't know. People eat that raw too? No, you said grilled." Her indecision was crippling.

The more she'd read, the more twisted up she got about being in the same room as Michael Hunter. Before, it'd been easier to focus on doing and going. Just being was different.

"So where do we go from here, Ranger? Do we pretend the last ten years didn't happen? Do we... try to catch up?"

“You mean the last 6 years before the last 10?”

Right. Ten years were missing there. ”Yeah… The last six years that I remember.” Ranger said and rubbed his head with his hand. Chronology was broken and it was giving Ranger a headache. That or riding in a car and train for so long messed up his back enough to give him one.

Noel decided on fish for the best reason to decide which food to eat first. Fish spoils quickest. Decided might be a strong word for it. Regardless she latched onto the idea of fish. ”It doesn’t smell too old, but as I understand y’ only eat super fresh fish raw. That’s been in there f’r an unknown number of days. Doesn’t smell yet, but why risk it when y’ know a good way t’ cook it?”

Ranger started a casual search through the kitchen for what he would need to prepare the salmon. He got as far as a knife and cutting board when Noel finally cut through the tension to ask about the elephant in the room.

Do they pretend the last ten years didn’t Happen? Do they try to catch up?

Setting the knife on the cutting board Ranger looked pensive for a moment. ]”I don’ know.” Ranger finally said. There was no etiquette or general rules for this situation. Ranger doubted this exact situation had ever happened before. Sure, maybe a similar situation with an amnesiac or some other retrograde memory loss happening to a member of a couple had likely happened hundreds of times. But for both to forget everything and then read about it?

”I’d say we could just carry on, this bein’ our second meetin’ and just let that roll, but…” Ranger Ranger paused to gather his thoughts, ”But we’d know an’ always have in the back of our minds that there’d been somethin’ between us. That it seemed t’ work… But even then, ten years from now we’re likely hardly the same people… Maybe we jus’ see where things go? Carryon like those ten years hadn’t happened. Look at ‘em as curiosities an’ see where we fall. Don’ try t’ force somethin’ ‘cause we know it once was.“

Noel made the universal hand gesture for 'by all means, continue' as far as the fish went. As a grown up with manners, she would at least have to try it. The Ranger didn’t know anything as decisively as Noel wanted him to. Then again, if he’d up and started bossing her around, maybe then they wouldn’t have been as good a fit as they’d ended up.

This was weirdly like being in a room with an ex boyfriend. Only, Noel hadn’t had any exes that she could recall. They’d had something. But it was over, or not yet. There was the weight of a lot unsaid words in the room, even after asking the first big question.

The next big one loomed.

Naturally, Noel ignored it. She didn’t have an answer and asking wouldn’t tell her if SUPER was her future. She didn’t know if the pieces she was missing from that puzzle were even in this room, but there was at least one thing of major value here. She had told herself in her notes that she could trust him, take him at face value. He wasn’t hiding anything. He was just a dude, doing his thing.

”I can see how we ended up as a team, I think.” She eased herself onto one of the barstools to watch the Ranger work. ”You’re scary capable,” a certain destroyed window from the wedding came to mind, ”you’re not a braggart so you don’t stray into stretched truths. You can carry out a directive without having all the information.” It seemed like there should be more…

”Oh. And you can cook.”

By comparison, she was functionally useless and that terrified her. If she was only good for one thing, she didn’t have any options besides SUPER, did she? Noel hopped down to collect napkins and forks and cups to make a proper place setting. Someone in her memories liked setting places. It wasn’t a harmful urge to give in to.

”Looks like there’s tea, or water, or wine.” The tea was as of yet unmade, but there were instructions...

What else would he need? Something to cook the salmon on. He could sear it in a pan but it wasn’t quite the same. Ranger rummaged around and found a grill pan. Good enough. He set it on the stovetop and turned on the heat. He wanted it incredibly hot when it was time to use it. That done he took out the salmon and set to filleting it while Noel spoke.

Noel commented on why she thought they worked well together as a team. Or, more precisely, why Ranger worked well with her in a team. When she commented on him being able to cook, Ranger gave a soft chuckle and waved the knife around with a slight flourish.

”Cook might be a bit of an exaggeration. I can grill with the best of ‘em but I couldn’t make a sauce ‘r bake a cake without some serious hand holdin’.” Ranger said. In the army he’d had his share of times when he was up on the grill and after rejoining the civilian world he never had much cause to branch out.

Ranger returned to the fridge to claim a couple lemons and some butter. He put butter into a bowl and sent that to the microwave. While it melted he dug around until he found garlic, salt, and red pepper.

”I’d say, we worked well ‘cause we complement each other.” Ranger began as he zested the lemons before slicing them thin. ”Sure... I can pull windows out of walls, fight a herd of ninja, an’ apparently lift emergency vehicles… But that doesn’t make me good at intelligence work.” Butter out of the microwave. Add in the zest, salt, red pepper, and garlic. Stir. ”Y’r perfectly equipped f’r that. Able t’ lift memories, discern lies, an’ with y’r looks what guy idn’t gunna let y’ hang around close.” Spoon the butter over the fillets. "T'gether we'd be a force t' be reckoned with. A bulldozer that can act on incomplete intel an' a one woman intel network t' point it in."

The salmon prepared, Ranger dropped a bed of lemon onto the grill pan which immediately put out a wall of steam and smoke. Then he lay the salmon atop the bed of lemon and hunted for something to cover the pan. Once it was, he checked the time.

Tea, water, or wine. Why not go with an ‘inclusive or’? ”I hear wine can add somethin’ t’ salmon when paired. Normally I gravitate toward whisky, but could be worth a shot. And some tea t’ go with it sounds good.” And it would make a good fallback in case the wine pairing goes south.

She started at the wine rack, not at all knowing anything about anything. Luckily some of the wines had short descriptions. Dry, fruity, white, red, note of caramel? She picked a white one that sounded safe.

"Refreshing, expressive, and aromatic," she read, with notes of citrus?" He added lemon. She deemed that a match and called it a day.

He'd also said tea so Noel set about making tea. There was a glass pitcher and glass glasses. Glassware? It wasn't fancy looking, just straight sided cups and a single kind of wine glass, but it felt fancy to Noel. She knew her memory held fancier, but... this was real glass and it was really here. The memories that weren't hers were as good as watching a tactile television sometimes.

To be extra super-duper safe she washed it all again, especially around the lips of the glasses.

How very... domestic. Even the compliments and downplay of personal skill was idyllic in it's own way. Like something she'd seen on TV once. She deftly ignored his compliment. That was neither here nor there.

"On paper, we sound like a complete set, though if the decision making is up to me..." What? They were screwed? That's what she'd started to say and then stopped. Noel had a decent gut reaction and at least some training. Discerning truth was a major advantage in a lot of do-or-die situations, too... he was right. They were a balancing act. It would take the both of them to ram through an agenda. "If it's up to me, I'm not used to that."

Right now, he was the only crutch she felt she could lean on. Everything else had been ripped away. She didn't like having no back up, no verification. Maybe she even had all that if she took the time to sort through it...

"I'm used to kiddy-proofing my life. The things I remember- none of this fits that. I don't have glassware. I don't cook. I leave myself notes and I follow my rules. Rules like, don't trust anything written down that's not written in my own handwriting. Only, there's a computer now instead. Check your tattoos... only I don't have any tattoos! Before all this, I would have sworn I did and I'd pass that polygraph."

Her name. An address. Don't trust anyone. She'd had quite a few words as well as pictures, and she was sure none of that was purely decorative. Noel turned the tap to the hot water, hot as it would go and let it run.

"I leave myself a trail. I always leave myself a trail. Even if it's just marker on my arm."

Maybe that was her big problem. It wasn't that it was ten years gone, and an active ten years at that. It was that she hadn't seemed prepared for it. Every single bit of permanence was gone.

And, now that things were sizzling and buttered, Noel unknit her brow to peek over the Ranger's shoulder. Oh! Right the tea. She moved the pitcher into the sink to catch the now steaming water. She also re-read the instructions for the third time so that she double-triple knew how many 'sachets' of tea to put in.

"What's the last thing you remember? Like, up to the very minute." Last time she'd asked, he'd said something general like packing a bag for an oversea thing. She'd forgotten to look it up and see if it happened with him in it. She was going to google up everything, if she could. Maybe the traffic would out them, but there had to be some proof of some of that stuff.

Noel went through the wines while Ranger attempted to gage how long the salmon would take to cook. He’d never used a grill pan to grill salmon so he was unsure of exactly how long to cook it without there being an actual flame directly below the salmon and lemon.

The wine Noel read off when she seemed to settle on one sounded like it might work, ”I never understood wine descriptions. I get refreshin’ an’ hints of citrus. But I’ve seen wines use body, roundness, angular, structure, an’ laser-like t’ describe themselves.” Ranger said and shrugged, ”Maybe sommeliers jus’ like soundin’ fancy.” Ranger butchered the pronunciation of ‘sommeliers’.

The description of why they work well together went over well with Noel, except for one Aspect. Her making decisions. ”Might be there ain’t that many descisions t’ make. Might be over ten years y’ grew int’ it.” Ranger lifted the lid and looked at the salmon. ”In Delta each sabre squad had three units. Two assault units an’ one recce unit. The recce units provided intel an’ sniper cover. Once greenlit, the assault units used that intel an’ acted on their own. I could see how we were the same. We were sent our missions, y’ gathered intel, an’ I unleashed the hate. Decisions only necessary as the situation evolved.” That was the structure Ranger was used to from being in the military. His time as a contractor was only different in that he had to do more intel work himself. Otherwise, he was still a gun pointed by the one paying. In many cases, this was still the Department of Defense.

Noel spoke as she went about getting the tea started. Nothing about their current situation, her situation, fit what she remembers as being how her life works. It seemed much more had changed in her life than in Ranger’s. In his life it was a change of who he worked for, his power seemed different, and him and Noel were an item. Everything else was a minor detail. Noel on the other had, her whole life seemed upside down by comparison. All her tools to mitigate the damage her power could do to herself were gone or different. She always left herself a trail, but now while missing ten years she has no trail. Likely one of her biggest wipes and nothing.

”Maybe y’ didn’t have the time r’ a chance?” Ranger suggested, but even he didn’t quite believe it. In light of her dedication to leaving a trail or breadcrumbs, there being nothing was suspicious. ”Maybe it has more t’ do with us bein’ no older than we were ten years ago…” Which was never satisfactorily explained. How were they ten years younger than the documentation showed? Had they just lost memories they would still look like people in their thirties.

The last thing Ranger remembered. Down to the last minute.

Ranger closed his eyes and thought about it. ”Bag open on bed. Loading with clothes.” He mimed the actions as he worked through recall. ”Hard case on the bed. Checkin’ rifles an’ pistols before loadin’ them in. Laptop chimed. An email. I turned t’ check it. It was from my contact at USCENTCOM… I… I don’t remember readin’ it. I saw it, who it was from an’ then I awoke on the gurney. How about y’rself? What’s the last thing y’ can remember?”

Not having the opportunity was an option she had considered before, in her time as the only one awake on the train. She'd tried on a lot of different scenarios, thinking back to the times she'd been embattled and desperate. She'd had a sharpie most times she could remember. Not every time, but most. She also wore suits and heels always. None of that had been in her bag, either. Though judging by the underwear the guy who'd packed had gotten her a VERY informal bag. Not a work bag, despite the weapons.

"I keep thinking this is my fault, but unless I got a power upgrade just like you... I don't change people physically." Though, now she sure as hell was gonna try... after she got the plates out, though. She still had a table setting to make.

She also should have foreseen that the Ranger would turn that question back on her. It was easy enough, though. She had already probed the edges of her memory and explored where the stolen memories ended and hers began. Similarly, she'd thought long and hard about where she ended before all this began.

"Inter-departmental cooperation in chasing down a drug ring. Red pills with a fancy letter stamp. I was taking a taxi home and had my back all scuffed up from being dragged across the asphalt. I mean, it was mostly the suit jacket that got the worst of it, but no scuffs when you were back there, I assume." She also assumed she would have felt it, but so far as Noel knew she didn't even have a scab.

"I do know there's healers in governmental employ. I used to have a nasty scar right here." Noel traced the line of where it used to be, from the side of her upper lip and up around her cheek. It had taken some letting go to allow that to be healed away. But it was gone in the time she remembered. She knew scar healing was a thing that was possible. "So, I guess I'm saying if it was time travel they'd have had to heal my back and that makes that less likely. So. I guess it's not time travel." That cut off one large avenue of options.

So, time had passed. But then, it didn't.

"Did you know they let mutants on the force now? Like, just... out there. My contact was a water mutant."

Of course now was technically ten years ago. It was probably more of a thing now than it was back then. Noel folded napkins and went to fetch the glassware.

"Wonder if that old water mutant kicked the bucket yet. He was old even back then." She could almost see her notes under the photo as she reviewed the memory. Personal memories were spottier and harder to review, harder to trust, too. Jorge (hor-hay). She couldn't remember his last name, though she could guess it wasn't a super-duper long name. Maybe it'd started with an M or a C? V? Could it have been a V?

"...you think cryofreezing is a thing? They did it in Futurama."

”If y’ did an’ it works like y’r memory erasin’ power that could explain why we’re both younger than we should be.” Ranger said and then had the thought that some people would likely pay for that. Be younger, forget the troubles of the last few years. Pay up and pay Bill Gates money. ”An’ if y’ did do it y’ likely had a damn good reason.” The older Ranger trusted older Noel completely. Younger Ranger trusted in his older self.

Noel reverse aging them both and not leaving notes. It likely would have had to be a catastrophic reason. Hell, if Ranger knew it was coming he likely would have left himself a note if he could. ’Dear me; Had to do a mental reset and got to shave off a few years of aging. You can trust Noel. Nashville is still awful. -You’[/color]

The answer Noel provided was much more interesting than what Ranger was doing in his last memory.

”No scuffs.” Ranger confirmed, ”An’ only the one scar.”

Noel brought up government healers and how they healed a facial scar. She mentioned how if it was time travel then her back would need healing. Thus she eliminated time travel as a cause. Which was good. The last thing they needed was time travel and the headaches it brought along when trying to think about it too much.

”If it was time travel… They’d have had to heal my sword wound… And left a scar on purpose I guess.” Ranger said providing additional evidence that it was not time travel.

Noel asked if Ranger knew they had mutant law enforcement now. ”Yeah… I don’t remember any from before all this… An’ maybe that doesn’t count… I have a mission file that mentions a female officer from another universe. We had a knock down drag out. She was me from that universe ‘r somethin’.” There was supposedly a video on ViewTube of the fight.

Ranger poked the salmon with his finger to see if it was ready. Still needed a little more time. Noel asked if Ranger thought cryofreezing was a thing. ”I don’t know what Futurama is, but I heard somethin’ about cryofreezin’ before. Rumor is Walt Disney was frozen.”

Only the one scar. Noel hadn't ever bothered to carve out a time to go get that healed away. It wasn't exactly a priority since literally no one had ever had reason to see it... until now.

"I think I've heard that about Walt Disney, but I haven't seen him walking around recently, either." So that was gonna be hard to prove.

The Ranger mentioned a file on the other universe. That was a thought. "You think we stumbled into a different universe?" How would they know? Noel puzzled it over as she finished the table setting. Forks, knives, napkins, plates, glassware, she had it all.

"There's no tablecloth, but someone's grandmama would be proud." And it made her at least a little happy to see everything in its place. The wine... she found a place for the bottle on the table and went back to the kitchen to scrounge for an opener.

A sound against the window made Noel curious enough to check what was going on behind the over-sink curtain. Gentle patters of rain landed sideways, pooled, and ran down the window's surface. By the puddles on the ground, it must've started soon after they walked in the door. She just hadn't heard it until now.

"And how do you not know what Futurama is? Do you not watch any TV?" Thunder rolled gently and extendedly over the surrounding hills. That somehow settled things a bit.

"I guess it doesn't matter what happened. We can't undo it. I haven't watched the news, but I think we'd know if it had happened on a large scale. So the best path is to move forward." And that was a freeing decision, one she'd likely had to come to time and time again.

”It’s possible.” Ranger said, considering whether it made sense for them to have found their way into a different universe. ”I don’t think so though… Too much points t’ us being the us in this universe. ‘R at least I’m the me. Why would Sideshow grab us stuff if there was already another of us hangin’ around? Why would we be told about us workin’ for the government an’ not told that? Y’d think they’d tell us that so we don’t cause an issue f’r their agents in Haven.”

Ranger looked at the table. Noel was right, it was set in a manner that someone’s grandmama would be proud of. ”My mom too. She always made me set the table an’ do it right when I was a young kid.” Ranger smiled as he remembered something, ”She would tell me that I needed t’ know how t’ set the table. She’d say that girls like guys who know how t’ set the table.”

Noel checked out the window. Ranger looked over as he pulled the lid off the pan again. Rain was falling outside. It had looked like it was going to rain when they had arrived, but while busy with cooking, Ranger had missed the sounds of the rain.

Ranger turned the stove off and grabbed a plate and a spatula. As he was transferring the salmon from the pan to the plate Noel asked how he didn’t know what Futurama was?

”I watch tv. I watch Scrubs, some show about a Wizard private eye - It only had one season though- the Price is Right. I watch a bit of old tv too. Walker, Friends, Have Gun - Will Travel, an’ MacGyver.”

The fish on the plate, Ranger scooped up the lemon and set it around the salmon. He brought it over to the table as Noel stated decisively that it was best to just move forward.

”I can agree with that.” Ranger said. He was curious and felt that knowing what happened could affect how they should proceed, but spinning their tires without any ability to get the knowledge was a waste of time and effort while also keeping them from acting. Analysis paralysis serves no one. ”If what caused it matters we can always adjust course then.”

Ranger looked at the table. It was set; plates, silverware, napkins, bottle or wine, bottle opener, food, tea, and glasses. ”Dinner is served. Sorry it’s jus’ the fish… Never mastered cookin’ sides.” Ranger, ever the gentleman, pulled out a chair and gestured with his arm for Noel to have a seat.