Last Stand (Break)

[Gabriel Seran]

(OOC: Prior to Ground Zero)

The dark clouds lingered overhead as a cloaked figure walked slowly towards the school grounds. The goal was to go unnoticed. To remain a shadow. This itself was to be a secret mission one that if things went badly the next day at least there was an escape route. One way or another Gabriel would always have a back up plan. He had to resort to the big plan. The end goal.

Over his shoulder was a big burlap sack. Within were several electrical conductors. If he were to leave the school in darkness how was he to use his Qi. No that would not do he needed that for his escape route. Not for the actual fighting. Fighting would consist of his own valor.

Tonight would be long and laborious as he crouched in the main building's staircase planting the electrical ware down. Anticipation kept him awake and weary. The metal outlets came out easily with small clinks as they attracted towards one another. Yes, tonight would prove a long evening.

[Victor "Break" D'Armond]

Victor "break" D'Armond, a man of dignity, no shame, and mostly nonsense, humor, of believing in having fun and making friends, just enjoying the simple things in life. How on earth did he get involved in this? madness, riots, take-overs, hostility that wasn't just for good fun. Ever since first meeting the mysterious, but admittedly charismatic leader of the Black knights Victor had found himself... curious, of the man, especially after he handed break such a nice whooping. Victor was unbothered by that, fights meant nothing to him, if anything fighting someone only brought you closer to them in break's book. But gabriel... it seemed impossible to get close to him, and he brought about such dark thoughts in victor. Darkness that was unexplored, never used, never desired in victor's heart. But still it was there, and Victor wanted to explore it, because as victor always said "try everything once, twice if you like it."

And so, the night before D-Day victor found himself as curious as ever to see a shadow on the school grounds. Of course, what was victor doing there himself? meditating of course. where else could you go at night to simply be alone? the school, duh... He sat on the roof, thinking his thoughts and sorting out his dreams, wondering how and why he had gotten into any of this at all. So when Gabriel appeared it seemed almost like a dream, a hallucination that should be ignored. still, Victor couldn't help but notice the large olde-tyme burgler style burlap sack that Gabriel was carrying. There was no way anyone who wasn't on the roof would have noticed him, he was sticking very well to the shadows. he entered the main building in silence. Break took a moment to snap himself out of his dreamlike state, inside his pea coat he was nice and warm, and all of that may have very easily been a dream. still, he wanted to make sure. He got up from his seat and walked toward the stairwell, entering silently and walking down with careful steps, not trying to be silent but simply trying not to attract attention. He knew only he and gabe would be in the building. he thought he saw motion at the bottom of the staircase...

"Hello?" he called out, his rich unmistakable voice echoed through the staircase and lower building. oops... not very good at being quiet...

[Gabriel Seran]

A voice broke the dark silence and Gabriel continued undeterred till the echo reached him. He could pick it up fairly easily. Friendly, though what was it to be a friend? He seemed to be losing them, dropping quickly as flies. Trust was limited and reserved. A small volt shuddered to metallic orbs from each others close proximity. Just as emerald hues focused on the dark like a hunter before cooling to a complacent calm.

"Victor..?" He could have been mistaken but he was almost sure it was the man he'd fought.

He was curious of most of his followers. There were those he knew like Sylar, Sara, and even Dots. Yet there were those that still confused him, as to why they continued on with such purposes Victor remained one of them. His long fingers stroked at the small pieces before faltering into the bag again grabbing a small hammer and serrated shovel.

"Care to assist me? I'm sure it'd go a lot faster." His eyes had yet to adjust to the complete darkness but he could notice outlines, "It'll help us both out..."

[Victor "Break" D'Armond]

Gabriel looked up, his emerald green eyes unmistakable and cat-like in the darkness of the stairwell. Break shrugged, "sure... something special for tommorow?" he asked, his hand trailing the cool railings of the stairs as his footsteps echoed through the empty room. As his foot hit the last step he saw the many things lying around gabriel. "what exactly do you want me to do?" he asked, his deep blue eyes examining the scene before him.

[Gabriel Seran]

Gabriel shot up a concerned grin. He didn't want too much information to leak out. He had a basic schematic of what the details were. Till he could be sure to trust anyone at all he needed to leave Victor in the dark... How Ironic.

"I need to dig out small holes from this concrete and fill them with these metal pins."

He didn't fluctuate his voice. He didn't want to alert anyone to the secret to his scheme. Tough only his fallback plan should his bluff not work to its desired extent. In the end he'd have to retreat and this would give him ample time to make a quick escape. It was a prototype and uncertain of it's success.

"A little surprise for later.... hopefully we wont need it."

[Victor "Break" D'Armond]

A little surprise? one eyebrow lifted almost comically, but break just shook his head. he didn't mind that gabe didn't tell any of his plan, it wasn't victor's desire to really know it anyway. He didn't care what these people did, titles, power, how stupid theres so many better things in the world to live for... which brought up once again why he was doing this... to make friends? probably, he certainly had met some people through all of this... but there had to be more. He wasn't interested in power, he was too laid back for things like that. he kept thinking about it.

he walked over, sitting next to gabriel. He grabed a little pick from the burlap sack and began chizzeling at the concrete without question, he was asked with respect, he returned the respect. Thats how he worked.

plans plans plans, this gabriel was always making plans. it seemed a little off that there where people who loved to spend time on stuff like that, to each his own victor supposed... he certainly didn't judge, whatever makes someone happy... which brought up a good question.

In the darkness he chizzeled away, grabbing a pin he stuck it in the tiny hole in the wall he'd created. "are you happy gabriel?" he asked, his voice calm and deep, it was a very straightforward question, and it wasn't a challenge at all, just a conversation starter.

[Gabriel Seran]

Gabriel grinned when he had recieved the answer he wanted. The silent obedience to work as an equal. He enjoyed the thrill of what common curtosey provided. Rather than skillful manipulation it proved to have it's benefits as well. Surely Gabriel was always plotting always thinking. Always behind some master scheme. The reason for which was his uncertainty of this world. Everything seemed to have its own decision. And all of which seemed to choose a path to their own self destruction. It killed him inside to see people in such pain. At such ends, they were doomed to repeat in an endless cycle that was until. Someone broke it.

"are you happy gabriel?"

Gabriel's eyes shot up intently. He opened his mouth in search of the word 'yes' but couldn't find it. He stopped his word and forced himself to say it. In the end the words never came. He gritted his teeth before looking down.

"No, though you can't stop trying can you?" Gabriel looked up with a faked smile.

He thought he'd given up long ago. Though he was still here wasn't he? But of course there were still things to do around here.

'False tears bring pain to those around you. A false smile brings pain to one self'

[Victor "Break" D'Armond]

Victor was chizzelling at the wall, being a bit of a perfectionist he took his time to make a perfect square for the pin to fit into. He nodded at gabriels answer. Victor considered himself something of a natural philosopher, and that answer seemed almost too textbook for his liking. "can't stop trying..." he repeated under his breath, he laughed a little, his pick moving in rythym with his large shoulders heaving from his chuckle."you could... but that would be rather mean... it is nice to see the good in people thats for sure" he said, he honestly did believe in the good in people, even the most evil people can have good intentions, its all a matter of perspective. "well, I guess... but honestly, what is the gain here, they say don't fix what isn't broken... so why? I don't want to know the actual plan, but why are we..." he trailed off, he had a hard time saying we as he felt very little actually apart of this whole thing, he felt more like a pawn, which for the moment didn't bother him, like he said, as long as there was respect it didn't matter. "why are you trying to change everything" he continued "where is the problem that needs to be fixed... I just wanna hear your perspective on this" Victor asked, he had a smile, but it was genuine, sometimes he wondered how he kept such a positive outlook on things

[Gabriel Seran]

Gabriel turned up a bit releaved now. His subordinates, no his equals came to him now to know what he had in mind, why they were fighting. In reality everything was broken nothing was ever perfect and in which case everything needed to be fixed. Everything needed to go through those tremulous cycles of destruction and recreation.

"We're doing this for change, if something is left unchanged, uninterupted we go down a path we may never return. This is the appex of such an event. For future hopes we must make a stand, we must stand an risk everything for the sake of others. We ourselves have yet to face the culmination of such events but surely enough you can see them now. Chaos, riots, tyranny and oppression it surrounds us. Whos to say it isn't broken?"

Gabriel looked up at him valueing his opinion as an equal. Adequate of his time and attention. Something much more important than a simple tool.

"You know what the most durable piece on the board is?"

"It's the pawn," a small grin, "In an everchanging world these are the most important far stronger than any queen or knight, because in the end every pawn is a potential queen." Gabriel gave him a full smile.

"I can see more than enough potential within you..."

[Victor "Break" D'Armond]

victor looked up, his eyes meeting Gabriel's and returned the smile, not his usual goofy grin, but a true and tiny smile that belied a little more understanding than victor usually gave off. "thank you" he said simply, politely, he didn't like to stroke his ego too much so he left it simply at that. "So... familiarity breeds content, and content leads to madness, so we have to change things simply for the sake of changing them so that nothing even worse happens? is that the basic idea?" Victor asked, he liked the tone gabriel was taking with him now, it wasn't quite friendlier, but it definately had a kinder tone to it, more like they where equals. on some deep primal level this acknowledgement pleased victor. Maybe he could make a true friend out of gabe, something more than just an ally, or "mutually interesting person"

[Gabriel Seran]

"I'd like to think of it more than that. But to hope for the moon leads you ending up dissapointed when the sun rises."

Gabriel forced another smile feeling that falsehood. The boy had struck a nerve one he wasn't so fond of showing. Gabriel was not a servent to his emotions he was a man wo controlled them to serve his ambition his goal of not only strength but strangely enough he hoped for a world at peace. Somewhere where he could perhaps be happy?

Happiness was simply a plow somethng he could never attain to its greatest ends. What of Olivia then had he wasted such a precious gift that had been given to him in search of such ambitions? Stay the course. What ends did that have in mind. He was no longer being selfish if anything he was providing hope to the people. But martyrdom in its own way was selfish, he vexxed himself devising the answers the solution to the ever paining problems and paradoxes.

he'd never truly be free of them. The thoughts... The memories.

Gabriel burried the last of the metal orbs. in the concete. All that was needed was a layer of cement which he had mixed in the bag prior. Tomorrow would have to decide if he truly was right. Would fate guide his hope, would it defy him and seperate the sides even further apart?

Hope... It was all he could yearn for.

"We'll be able to tell if this all goes to plan... tomorrow."

[Victor "Break" D'Armond]

"I see" he said simply, his voice full of understanding as he did his job, "well, we each hope in our own way, and we each find our own reasons for everything" he said, using his pick to smooth the new cement that gabriel had pulled out of the bag. it was a little thing, everything was unimportant in a way, so it was important to enjoy it while it lasted, cause if you're not enjoying it, whats the point?

"thank you for your insight, it's been a lot of fun... next time you want to randomly sneak onto school late at night give me a call" Victor said with a little laugh, it was a bit weaker than his regular laugh, almost more vulnerable in a way. his eyes looked a bit more rested than usual.

[Gabriel Seran]

Gabriel turned his feature up to take in the boy assisting him. Perhaps if they'd met at a different time when Gabriel had been less absorbed with his duties they could have been great friends but as things had turned out Gabriel was made to choose his path. And ambition ruled above all. Above friendship, above love, above peace... Above Emily, David, Conner, above Olivia, Bastille, above even the greatest of his influences Jonathan Winters. It all came to the climax of events. Tomorrow would prove if it was all for naught.

"Victor, Tomorrow I will request you stay out of this area... anyone caught in it will not recover, stay safe." Gabriel said whole heartedly assuring him of what his plans were. In the end... To the very end Gabriel would bring about this change.