Evelyn cleared her throat for the third time as Jude flipped back through the files in the Haven section of the BlacTac drawer. They weren't unorganized. He should just be going straight for what he needed and then be done. Only, Jude was delaying. He couldn't come up with a good reason to get out of this meeting. He could not escape this time.

A fourth throat clearing had Jude grab the incident folder. He waved it in the air for a sarcastic goodbye.

He always sent someone else for Haven meetings. First, because it seemed like someone with more direct hands-on experience should handle it. Second, because in the power vacuum left by their charismatic leader who'd gone MIA, Jude knew the woman who'd stepped in to lead. A lifetime ago, but... they hadn't exactly left on the best of terms. He was supposed to be retaining this business relationship, not endangering it.

He mentally added to his excuse pile as he made his way through traffic. Thirdly, all his days were gobbled up by meetings. The new client work seemed like a clear priority with the entire future of the company weighing on his shoulders, but now he was having to look at retention too. Because, somehow, Jude was now the person in the company with the most seniority, experience, and client connections. He'd gone from filing boy to Director of Client Relations in just a few years. He would love to brag that his meteoric rise happened because of his reliability, but the truth was far more complex.

Jude was not-so-secretly convinced that the Ranger had totally run off and gotten turned into a kid near his age just to avoid meetings. He'd paid fir it with memory-loss, but clearly it'd been worth it since it was Jude on his way, not the Ranger.

He checked in with security, extra protocols put in place for meeting with the big wig, herself, and extra protocols put in place for him, since he so often had to show up at places while not looking quite like himself. All in all, it wasn't too bad.

He hesitatied when he felt Svetlana's aura of coffee jitters hit him. She was in there. He could still go find a face changer, maybe. It'd make him late, but he knew of one at the...

"Are you going in?"

"I'd rather not' and 'I'd rather face a stampeding moose.' both died on his lips before they could make relations here worse. "Of course."

Jude opened the heavy boardroom door, armed only with a well-fit suit and a few file folders in a leather portfolio.

Sveta was not technically the big boss of Haven, so she only took small portions of the pie out for herself, whenever she could afford it. Private use of a hot tub, apartment with the best view, that sorta thing. Nothing big; she clearly was not gonna take money out of the cause. But one of the small perks she usually allowed herself was delegating some of the meetings to other people. Including, up to now, the security updates.

Except, with Nate and Devon and Noel all gone, keeping Haven safe had been added to her list of personal priorities. Therefore, she was waiting for the meeting with a representative of BlacTac to bring her up to speed, and discuss the pressing issue of the two mafia families still warring over Haven moving into their territory. And some of their goons getting their legs broken or iced or whatever.

Sveta had dealt with representatives of BlacTac before. She sat back in her office chair (good back support wasn't really a perk, it was a job necessity) and folded her hands on top of some files. Hopefully, this would be a quick and efficient meeting too.

...

Or maybe not.

Sveta's eyebrows ran up as a blast from the past walked into her office in a suit and all of his official twenty-something glory.

"Oh you've got to be f*** kidding me."

It was well that Jude had some experience in controlling his face, despite the emotional turmoil and the personal mutant power that strained to reach out and copy the juicy morsel at the end of the table. Correction, at the HEAD of the table.

"Neither f*cking nor kidding today, unfortunately. How are you Sveta?" He'd nearly called her Svetty and that was likely to be as welcome as his face was.

Jude surveyed the seats. He didn't want to sit RIGHT next to her, but they had paper documents to pass back and forth so he had to be in arm's reach, plus or minus paper distance... Jude chose one chair of padding. He wasn't afraid of her exactly, but there would be absolutely no accidental touching at this space.

"I'm sure you know, given your previous arrangement, but Michael Hunter is no longer able to function at his previous capacity for Black Forest Tactical. As such, a large portion of his duties have fallen to me." He realized that he'd been avoiding looking at her, really looking at her so he made sure to make full eye contact. It was her. She was mad. He was still going to press on anyway.

"Don't worry, I'm not moving in." He tried not to smirk, but... well, he was trying not to do a lot of things today.

>>"Neither f*cking nor kidding today, unfortunately. How are you Sveta?"

Really f**ing bewildered would have been the accurate term, but stating it would have been redundant. For a moment, Sveta thought it must be a mistake; that Jude just happened to show up at the time she had a BlacTac meeting. Evidently not, based on the files he was carrying. He was the BlacTac meeting.

"Busy" she said finally, as he took a seat, keeping a polite social distance.

>>"I'm sure you know, given your previous arrangement, but Michael Hunter is no longer able to function at his previous capacity for Black Forest Tactical. As such, a large portion of his duties have fallen to me. Don't worry, I'm not moving in."

Goddammit, Hunter. Somehow, this was now all his fault.

"You... run BlacTac?" Sveta reiterated. Great. Awesome. Her nebulously aged ex was now also her head of security. Wonderful. Sveta couldn't help but let out a little laugh. "Looks like we both landed in a place we didn't expect."

Sveta looked a bit rocked. That satisfied Jude to some degree. She'd always maintained such cool collection while managing to throw him wildly into self doubt and turmoil. Finally, it wasn't him on the back foot. He knew how to run a security briefing.

"I don't run BlacTac," he admitted. Jude would only ever strive to tell the truth to her, even if she wasn't a client. But with money in the mix, that was doubly true. "I administrate for BlacTac. Mostly, I do the talking and contracts. The Ranger still makes all final decisions when he can, but..." He had to let that one dangle. Sometimes the Ranger was around less, sometimes more. In the end it all boiled down to the fact that Jude had his boss's trust, otherwise he wouldn't be here now. He wasn't so insecure that he needed to flout that, but, boy was he tempted.

She commented about the similarity in their situations which made him realize that maybe he'd been uncharitable in thinking of her as power hungry before.

"You got left holding the bag too, huh?"

He caught himself cautiously smiling. That was probably too personal for a business meeting, but he missed their personal connection. He missed his friend, lover, and confidant. Jude had to admit that connection was well and truly dead. He'd expected… hostility. And he hadn't yet gotten any.

Jude's anxiety whispered that it was on it's way, but maybe if they stuck to business that whole mess could be saved for another day. His power strained it's leash, so he shortened it's mental freedoms even further. No. Bad power.

"Do you have specific concerns for BlacTac to address, or would you like to start with a debriefing of recent incidents?"

Here they were, one Russian ex-mail order bride running a mutant-friendly corporation, and one de-aged, re-aged, de-aged...? Whatever, one Jude, running a security business. Life was funny sometimes, but this was not one of those times. This was a little too over the top to be fun.

>>"I don't run BlacTac. I administrate for BlacTac. Mostly, I do the talking and contracts. The Ranger still makes all final decisions when he can, but..."

But Ranger was doing god knows what right about now. Sveta nodded. She knew.

>>"You got left holding the bag too, huh?"

"The entire damn vault, more like" she sighed. She was still no leader in any official capacity; she was just the only IE member left stubbornly standing. Jude, on his part, was looking a bit less hostile. Good. Going over grievances was not on the agenda.

>>"Do you have specific concerns for BlacTac to address, or would you like to start with a debriefing of recent incidents?"

"I have some things to talk about" Sveta glanced at her notes, than back at him "But talking about Hunter, maybe you could start with telling me more about how two of our people found their way to SUPER?"

Three, technically. But Pippa had been intentional.

Oh dear. She had notes. Hopefully those were about the zany hijinks of the mutants housed in the tower and not about his team.

Her first question was a doozy.

”To hear them tell it, SUPER found them.” His mouth twisted like he’d tasted something sour. SUPER was not yet a problem, but it definitely felt like one.

”Boots, er Noel, she was a part of SUPER a long time ago, so this was like going home for her. I don’t know if she roped Hunter in or what exactly. They’re both conveniently missing memories around that time span.” He would admit bias where Boots was concerned, her attachment to the Ranger felt just a little too convenient to Jude.

”Do you know what she was doing here? I mean, she wasn’t a double agent reporting on Haven so far as BlacTac can tell, unless you have alternate information.” Though admittedly, they’d been too quick to rely on Noel’s ability to taste lies and inability to not show everything she was thinking on her face. If she had successfully lied to them, that would be impossible to prove now.

Well, Jude might have had a problem with Sveta running Haven, but judging from the look on his face, he at least also had a problem with Ranger and Noel... doing their thing.

>>”To hear them tell it, SUPER found them. Boots, er Noel, she was a part of SUPER a long time ago, so this was like going home for her. I don’t know if she roped Hunter in or what exactly. They’re both conveniently missing memories around that time span.”

Sveta sighed and rubbed the bridge of her nose. The memory thing was a problem. The de-age was a problem. The whole mess was a problem, and she could count herself lucky that Sabine at least was not taking advantage of it yet.

>>”Do you know what she was doing here? I mean, she wasn’t a double agent reporting on Haven so far as BlacTac can tell, unless you have alternate information.”

"Here? She was part of the IE. The reporting though, that's your department..." she shrugged "Good news is, Sang and I have some kind of a truce going on. For now." It was not an official thing, but it was a thing.

"Shall we compare notes? You tell me what you know about being f*** up, and I tell you what I know about being f*** up, and then we discuss?"

The sigh of resignation and disappointment was not directed at him this time. Having a common beef against SUPER was making an unexpected ally of Sveta. It rocked Jude to hear that Boots had been in the inner workings of Haven before. People trusted her too easily. Hopefully they changed their passwords regularly.

”The truce being that.... She won’t snipe any more of your people?” He had to guess since Sveta wasn’t exactly helping him there.

Should they compare notes? Jude opened his folio and started to pick up his pen until she said she wanted to talk about how everything was so messed up. He set the pen down and leaned back as he tried to read her face and tried even harder not to tap his foot. He wasn’t used to being in range of her any more. All the pent up energy was… distracting.

”What do you mean exactly?” F-ed up covered a whole spectrum in Jude’s book. ”Like how a bunch of quadragenarian war veterans are begrudgingly going where I tell them or the 8-going-on-30 year old that works in my mail room? Wait. Put a pin in that. I can't do this anymore." He shifted in his seat and it was Jude's turn to rub his forehead.

"Would you mind if I shut your power off for a bit?” His power strained like a trained pointer. He wouldn’t even have to touch her, he was sure. But he sure as hell wasn’t shutting off a mutant’s power without permission again. He’d already been chewed up and spit out for that.

>>”The truce being that.... She won’t snipe any more of your people?”

"That, and we have dinner sometimes" Sveta sighed. Pippa was a whole other story. According to her, Sabine was playing nice so far. She just hoped it was not part of a longer nefarious plan, because she was so damn tired of being disappointed in people she might just shoot the next one.

Talking about disappointments...

>>”What do you mean exactly? Like how a bunch of quadragenarian war veterans are begrudgingly going where I tell them or the 8-going-on-30 year old that works in my mail room?"

"We have more than one of those in this building?" Sveta blinked. She could not envision L in the mail room. "Yeah, put that on the list..."

>>"Wait. Put a pin in that. I can't do this anymore. Would you mind if I shut your power off for a bit?”

Jude looked jittery, but as far as she could tell, he was not copying her powers yet. She knew what that felt like, and this was not that. Still. At the suggestion, Sveta's eyes narrowed.

"Actually I would mind. I'm not putting on a damn collar."

Putting on a… oh. OH. Jude's eyes widened.

"Nor would I suggest you do." Oh holy f#ck did she think so little of him? "I have a gentler suggestion if you can trust me. Say yes and sit still or I'll have to move a few more seats over."

Jude folded his arms and closed his eyes, his foot still tapping beneath the table. He could wait, but his power didn't want to. It was taking a lot of focus to hold back. It would take focus to shut her power out, too, but a different kind: the kind he had practiced.

Jude looked shocked. What, did he just expect her to shut her powers off with some damn tech so he could be comfortable...?

>>"Nor would I suggest you do. I have a gentler suggestion if you can trust me. Say yes and sit still or I'll have to move a few more seats over."

A gentler suggestion. Now she was honestly confused. If he was not going to hit her with a power dampener, then what? She sat still, more out of confusion than out of conviction, but she had to admit deep down she wanted to know. Her powers had not been shut off before, not unless she was in an adapted aura. (Don't think about that.)

But if BlacTac had somehow found a way to weaponize adapteds, she felt like that needed to be a part of the briefing anyway.

His foot tap, tap, tapped.

She didn't say yes.

Tap, tap, tap.

She didn't say no either...

Tap, tap...

Jude sighed and resigned himself to moving a few seats down. Why did he think she would trust him, of all people? He glanced at Sveta before folding up his folio and then again when she didn't seem to be getting the message. He looked around, but honestly, if this room wasn't secure, what room in this tower would be? Maybe it wasn't a trust problem, but a communication problem.

"I don't advertise, but I can shut out a single person's power. Two, technically, since it takes everything from me, too. In this case, that's a double bonus."

They just... looked at each other for a while. Sveta was not sure what Jude expected, and she was trying to puzzle out whether she wanted to know at all. But he waited, tapping his foot, and did not make a move without her consent. That was... still the man she knew.

Sveta arched an eyebrow.

>>"I don't advertise, but I can shut out a single person's power. Two, technically, since it takes everything from me, too. In this case, that's a double bonus."

The other eyebrow rose too.

"You... can cancel my boosting?" she reiterated. So. Many. Questions. "How does that even work?"

Adapteds were not mutants, as far as Sveta knew. Which meant Jude had an entirely separate set of the same powers. Yay for evolution?...

"Sure. Show me."

He confirmed again with a nod what Sveta obviously didn't dare hope to be true. She asked "how" but all he could do was shrug. How did any of their powers work, exactly? They had cheeky medichlorines or something.

"It's not exactly showy..." For anyone else, he would ask to touch them. Maybe hold their hand just to make sure his power was homing in on the right one. But Sveta had always been different to Jude. And her power made his feel hungry. "Just be still. I think you'll feel it."

He let his power off its leash. In his mind's eye, it dashed straight out like the reaching arm of an octopus snatching up a tasty morsel. Jude knew that if he left it grabbing onto the power that was when he was able to copy mutant abilities. But when he pulled, the power inside the other mutant would budge, too.

The power felt like it was tethered inside Sveta at two different ends. He had never tried to yank a power totally free, it was hard enough just to pull it out of other mutants. Jude's power strained and Sveta's power stretched toward him like a rubber band, constantly wanting to snap back where it belonged.

He never knew what the other party felt during all this, but by now, for sure she would feel the absence of her power. While his power was arm wrestling hers, and neither resided in either body, neither his power nor hers would do anything.