Healing couldn't do everything that modern medicine could? Hmm. That was certainly something to mull over as she slushed the syrup around to a more even distribution on her pancakes. Healing couldn't do all the preliminary tests, that was obvious. So a bullet or wire or any other foreign objects would heal inside a person. That much they had figured out from the various injuries the Order had sustained and then had healed by this man.

"At least a healing ability would give you some serious leeway in your medical practice." That she had also seen. They'd dug around with their dirty, grimy fingers to pull out splinters and shrapnel. Well, not Lori. But she'd seen it.

And none of it was world threatening.

> “Is there anything I can do to help?”

Lori cut into the fluffy pancakes so that each bite was a triangle before she popped it in her mouth. "You could threaten Capital Hill with a nuke." One of many options, really. Lori continued to cut her pancake wedges carefully.

A nuke was a nuclear bomb. Even though it was modern slang, no one who had lived through the middle of the twentieth century and picked up a newspaper even once could escape knowing what that was.

>>“You could threaten Capital Hill with a nuke.”

Heh.

Threats of disaster: that was certainly one way to bring people together. Sebastian would have chuckled, but there was something about the way she said it that told him it was no joking manner.

Lori kept eating her pancake, as serious as the black plague. Sebastian tilted his head at her.

“You mean that, don't you?”

"I wouldn't want you to actually bomb anyone, least of all something so populous that the fallout might affect so many people, but... yeah. A serious threat wouldn't be so bad in the way of a uniting force."

What would the world be like if Washington were suddenly gone? Lori didn't think the people were ready for that violent a change. Yet.

"The thing I would worry about most would be the fact that you and I are mutants. I wouldn't want to give anyone carte blanche to persecute a single group of people." If it were an immortal Asian, would the media and the people want to lock up all Asians? How far had society advanced since the second World War?

And of course this was all so "hypothetical" that they could calmly sit an eat pancakes while they discussed it.

She did mean it, but not as literally as he had originally thought.

Why ever not? If she really wanted to achieve her goal, a threat like that would be perfect to unite everyone against a common enemy.

“You're too afraid,” he stated bluntly. “Too afraid to use a real bomb, too afraid to hurt people or alienate people, too afraid to make it work. If the threat isn't real, the enemy isn't real, and the possibility of catastrophic damage isn't real, the world won't unite.”

He took another thoughtful bite of his pancake.

“And once the enemy is defeated, people will go back to their separate lives and forget the whole thing happened.” He'd seen it happen. People could forget the arbitrary lines they drew between them for a time, but as soon as they didn't have a common enemy, they went back to squabbling over their tiny differences in hair color, eye color,family name, caste, class, race, or gender. It was in their nature.

Either human nature would have to change or humans as a whole needed to be in constant fear of something so great and powerful that they could never defeat it. Something immortal and indestructible, untiring, uncaring, and without anything to lose.

Did she dare hope? Lori blinked at her pancakes and lifted her head slowly as if she might scare this new thread of thinking out of Sebastian if she moved too fast.

If anyone had a stethoscope on hand, they would notice a drastic change in Lori's heartbeat when the unicorn said those words. She tried to hang on to her cool. He had to want to do this himself. She had to keep playing it safe.

"What are you suggesting...?" If anyone had been listening in to this conversation, they would hear an idealistic girl talking to a potential psychopath. Her pancakes lay forgotten for the moment and she looked back and forth between his eyes as if one might indicate that he was lying or leading her on.

It was easy for Sebastian to see it: the logic of how her plans could succeed or fail. She was letting moral qualms get in the way of her goals. That wasn't bad, or good, it was just a fact. She had a simple solution to her problem, but unless she did something about it, nothing was going to happen.

“I'm suggesting that the perfect enemy isn't going to just appear for your convenience. Unless you are willing to do something about it, you'll never see the unity you want. And unless the enemy that you find, make, or become is some kind of unstoppable entity, once he or she is defeated, the world will go back to exactly the way it was before.”

He set his fork down on the edge of his plate to take a drink of his water.

“Are you full already,” he inquired. She seemed to be slowing down on her pancake, but she'd barely eaten any of it. Then again, it was a huge pancake and she was not a very large woman.

Errrrgh! He was so close! Lori had long since come to this conclusion already. That was why she sent him a mind-wiping guardian angel. That was why she stole his wife, sent spies after him, and put a mischievous little fighter against him.

She was carefully crafting an experience to lead up to this moment and hopefully to the moment when he actually tried to do something truly horrible. Why could Sebastian not see that he was her perfectly unstoppable force?

It was entirely frustrating to have him dance around the realization and her not be able to tell him. This was delicate business. The fate of the world. He just didn't know she was handing it over to him yet.

> “Are you full already?"

Lori glanced down at her plate and the fork she had been gripping tightly in her hand. She stubbornly skewered a triangle and ate it.

"I'm not giving up yet." On the pancakes or Sebastian.

"And I know... about the unifying enemy thing. If I could be that enemy I would." She skewered another and another. "I wouldn't last a day if someone actually wanted to stop me. My best chance would be to move slowly or covertly."

She laughed then because that idea was ridiculous. The powers and the people she had at her disposal were not slow or covert. The Order was a freight train. They would try to protect her and themselves, but Lori wasn't about to sacrifice them for this. There shouldn't have to be any sacrifice for this if a certain immortal would get it in his head to volunteer.

>>”If I could be that enemy I would....”

Right, like he'd never seen the helpless maiden act before. Sebastian hid a smile by taking a sip of water. All she needed to now was to make some cute little kitten eyes at him over her pancakes. But this was Lori, and the idea of her making kitten eyes at anyone seemed ridiculous. Even to her apparently, because she laughed it off.

She could be that enemy, except she wasn't immortal. He could be that enemy, except he just didn't care.

It wasn't that he was opposed, since he really had nothing to lose, he just didn't have anything to gain.

“Like I said before, you need to be willing to do something about it. The perfect enemy won't just jump in front of the cannons and the bombs because it is convenient for some pretty little blonde girl.”

He took a thoughtful bite of his pancakes.

“So the question becomes, what is the pretty blonde girl willing to give that the perfect enemy actually wants?”

Hardball. That jerk knew exactly what she wanted at this point, he was just holding out for... for what? "Not money, and not leisure time, I would think it might be done for the sheer enjoyment or challenge."

As much fun as it was to not use pronouns and to play their little word dance, it was time to be frank. "What could you possibly want that you can't already achieve?" Because Lori had resources and she was willing to back this pony. Covertly, of course.

Right, because getting shot was enjoyable and challenging. No, if he was going to do this thing, she was going to have to make it worth his while.

He set his fork down on the edge of the plate and pushed it an inch or so farther from the edge of the table. He crossed his arms and leaned slightly closer to where Lori was sitting.

“You could start by inviting me to go home with you.”

From helpful unicorn to extortionist in a matter of minutes. Clearly, his change in personality went all the way down to the core.

Also... not the response she had been expecting. Lori blinked at the horned man. Was this... a trick? Somehow? Her fork hovered an inch away from pancake remnants, entirely forgotten.

"Would you like to... come home with me?" Surely he meant her home at the Sanctuary. Did he want a room there again? Or did he want in her room? On this, Lori would make no assumptions.

She was so hesitant.  Either she didn't really want to achieve her goals all that badly after all, or she had been expecting him to ask for the whole world on a silver platter.  

"You're going to have to try a little harder than that if you're going to make this worthwhile."

He steepled his fingers and pressed them against his lips, all business. Did he really have to spell it out in that much detail for her? Perhaps. This was a business contract after all.

"How about this, you give me one year's time to make my preparations and I will play your perfect enemy. In exchange you give me a night to remember for the rest of my life, however long that may be."

---

Musical accompaniment: "Sebby I understand, you are a uni-man, and you have been without, for a thousand years about! Lori please find a way, to make this uni's day. He will give you the world, it is so easy, girl. Hormones are raging, guns will be blazing, It's all so very logical. It's logical. It's logical."

"Check please?" Lori raised her hand to flag over Mr. Waiter Man. One day (or night, rather) in exchange for a whole year? That seemed like too good a deal. He must really have been lonely. Or... well... a man. With needs.

"Make it half a year and you can have one night a month." At least negotiations were something Lori could understand. The Order Leader did eventually put down her fork when the waiter came by with the bill. The blonde nabbed it up before Sebastian had any say in the matter and fished around in her purse for her billfold and the cash she carried inside it.

Yeah. She was pretty sure this made her a hooker. But if that was what it took to create the ultimate villain, then that was what it would take. At least this was something she knew she could do.

Today was November 6th, a Sunday.

“Ah, but November 5th is such a good day for a conspiracy,” he sighed as she took the bill before he could do the gentlemanly thing. If she really wanted to pay, fine, he wasn't going to fight her for it.

Six more months would make it May 5th, Cinqo de Mayo, a celebration of victory, also fitting. It would be a tight schedule, if he was to get everything done he needed to get done.

“Nine months.” They could leave America reeling the same way they had left Japan on that date in 1945. Sebastian crossed his arms, not moving to get up from his chair until they had an agreement. He could probably do it in six, but he could pull together a much bigger bang in nine. Revolutions weren't born overnight.

9 months. The exactness of the timing wasn't lost on Lori. Was there something deep, deep down that knew Lori was keeping his pregnant wife from him?

She searched his face and just couldn't tell.

"Nine months, six visits. Agreed." And she already had some pretty good ideas of how to make those rendezvous unforgettable. In return, she expected to see some fantastic things in August. Also, that would give Lori some time with his children.

Lori could activate the children's powers and have a decent amount of time for observation. Their baby momma would likely be anxious to leave once she had no reason to keep her power-suppressing wrist band on. That could be an issue. Lori might have to start talking her around like she talked to keep the men in her penthouse.

Six visits. That was also a good way to keep personal tabs on the unicorn's progress. All new things to consider.

"You should schedule your appointments through Lisa." Yes. Much classier than the usual fare. Lori pushed her plate away and stood up so that she could offer her hand to Sebastian. Yes. It seemed their business negotiations were concluded for the day.