torchwoodinstitute | (no subject)

(no subject)

Who: Torchwood + Killgrave
When: January 10th
What: The gang meets a different sort of pheromone driven asshole

They'd been engaged for a few weeks now, but Mohinder had not grown tired of it in the slightest. His face actually hurt from the sheer around of grinning he had been doing and luckily, he was well liked enough not to have everyone at work hating his guts for being on the level of a Disney princess with the way he kept humming or sighing and staring off into the distance.

Gabriel had been off on some sort of mission with Jim, which he knew ended up tiring them both out since neither really got on, and as always when he knew that his fiancé could return at any moment and the vortex opening klaxon went off, Mohinder wrapped up what he was doing, removed his gloves, and went to go and hopefully greet Gabriel immediately after his return. He'd done the same twice today already, though the first time had been the return of Mitchell and Henry and the second was a false alarm.

Those false alarms had been happening a lot recently. Jack said that the Rift was acting up, opening vortexes for a split second in multiple realities when one of their agents did so to return home. He said that there was nothing to worry about, that the false alarms couldn't possibly remain open long enough for anyone or thing to come through.

So far, he'd been right.

But as Mohinder came to lean over the railing of the catwalk overlooking the return platform, he couldn't help but frown. He didn't recognize the person that was standing there. Technically, that was very possible. Sometime the manipulators didn't get the time just right. This could be an agent from the past or future. They tended to right themselves out pretty quickly. "Hello?"

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Gabriel frowned slightly as Mohinder talked about not being able to trace Kilgrave's home universe. They could hardly toss him back into any place, and Gabriel really didn't want him here. At least the cell for him seemed like it would take care of the pesky control issue.

And it was definitely time to bring Jack back in on this. He nodded and opened up his wrist cuff, pinging Jack's manipulator. "Jack? We've got some information for you." He continued to stand next to Mohinder, in case he wanted to add anything.

Gabriel was pretty sure the pheromones (or whatever they were) had enough time to wear off. He didn't feel like his head was being pushed under any longer. So talking to Jack would hopefully be fine.

Mohinder didn't have anything add, having learned not to speak until privacy could be guaranteed. He took Gabriel's hand when Jack agreed and mentioned that he had to pee and really would like some pizza for lunch.

Their boss was such a strange man. Mohinder had yet to figure him out but he was fairly certain such a thing was possible. "I'll handle the pizza. You fetch the Captain. I'm sure Jim will want to be here for this too."

He often saw Gabriel and Jim as brothers competing for Jack's attention, though both men might disagree. Violently.

They had a place not too far away that was use to their strange orders but he did give Sasan a personal call first anyway to see what he might like.

Given their history, perhaps it was strange that Mohinder felt a close friendship with the younger man.

Sasan was happy to hear from Mohinder, and it was obvious he was curious as to what was going on- but he knew that when they were all working hard, he needed to let them concentrate. He was around to help clean up any collateral damage there'd been from saving the world.

He was also happy to be a bit of a companion for Mohinder, on those times Gabriel was on assignment. They got on very well, but he was very careful not to even play-flirt with the man. He did not need his tongue pulled out through his nostrils by his own scary doppelganger, thanks very much. Unfortunately, Mohinder had the tendency to flirt without knowing that, and Sasan just had to keep that to himself.

He requested something with sun-dried tomatoes, then remembered he wasn't in LA anymore and said sausage was fine. And he wanted to hear the basic rundown of what was going on, and goodness- had Mohinder even slept last night?

Gabriel's call to Jim was not quite as congenial. He did so on the way to the monitor room, to let him know there was going to be a pizza party in the conference room in about ten minutes or so. Also, if he or Jack was acting weird to get the hell out of there, although Jim probably knew that part. He didn't think it was too likely there'd be a problem.

Once he got to the room, he immediately unhooked the metal bar and took a look at the long part of the T. It didn't appear bent, which was a good sign. He opened the door with the intent of evaluating Jack, and also to get a look at their prisoner. Kilgrave appeared to be sleeping at the moment, curled up in a rather undignified way. "Looks like I called at a good time. Any problems?"

"None," Jack replied, flipping off the two way communication. "He's manipulative even without the pheromones to help him with that." He stood slowly and made a show of cracking his back, as if that was a problem. It likely was not, given his physiology. "He said his parents experimented on him and then turned him out on the street when he was a child."

So far, at least, Jack was acting normally. He pulled the coat from the back of the chair and threw it under his arm.

"I don't know how much of that I believe. He was testing me for the sympathy vote--". Jack shrugged at Gabriel. "And that might have worked if I was Mohinder or Sasan. He's dangerous. I don't want anyone interacting with him without full hazmat protection."

Jack seemed all right, and Gabriel was counting on the fact that Kilgrave didn't know he could heal. So if he got attacked while unaware, he'd recover fairly quickly. But honestly, he didn't think there was much of a danger, not by this point.

Gabriel nodded along with Jack's assessment of Kilgrave, especially hearing who it was that was running tests on him. Mohinder could be soft-hearted- but in this case, it might not get Kilgrave too far. Gabriel was well aware of what a terrible idea it was to get on Mohinder's bad side.

"Good idea," he told Jack. "Sounds like we're going to have to be extra careful with him. And of course he's manipulative- he might not know how close he needs to be for his commands to start working." Again, that would be another thing Sylar had in common with him, so it just sort of followed. "We'd determined that he'd been experimented on. Mohinder will explain it better, but it seems to be sort of an artificial virus that's causing all of this. The alterations are piggybacking onto his normal DNA."

Jack didn't pause as they headed back up to where the rest of civilization typically started, though his frown was probably visible on his face in Gabriel's peripheral vision. "So evidence is at least telling us that he wasn't completely lying." It didn't sit well with Jack to think that someone's parents could hurt their child like that unless there was a good reason... He had a good reason. Not many others could say the same.

It made him press his fingertips lightly together in thought beneath where his coat was draped. By the time they reached the conference room, a good portion of Torchwood was there. One mention of food generally brought everyone on duty running. It was a good thing that Mohinder had learned the lesson about this the hard way, though.

He had ordered entirely too much. All they needed to do was let the crowd thin out, take whole pies with them, and eventually they would just be left with those that needed to learn what Mohinder found out.

Jim and Sasan were seated at the table, Mitchell was still sticking around and there were a dozen or so other agents or technicians there when Mohinder finally got up to give his presentation on the pheromone enabling virus.

"As with all pheromones, it promotes the lowering of inhibitions. In this case, it allows our subject to tone his voice in a way to play upon the weakness a victim exposed to those pheromones suddenly possess. They become suspetible to suggestion, to the point where they maybe believe the suggestion to be their own thought, or if exposed for long enough, to have the unfortunate side effect of being fully away of their lack of desire to do as directed while still being helpless to do it."

As far as this group was concerned, there was no such thing as ordering too much pizza. Gabriel would be more than willing to eat a full pizza himself (he'd excuse it by saying he'd used more abilities than usual today). Even Henry tended to eat quite a bit, although it was hard to tell where it all went.

Henry stuck around, actually. Although he had little to contribute, he'd started to learn that food generally meant something was going on. And he had gotten wind of something serious among the more active agents. He didn't know what he'd expected to hear, but it wasn't this. The idea of being helpless against commands was terrifying- he could come up with all sorts of scenarios better left alone.

Sasan had put a hand to his mouth, looking as horrified as Henry felt. He'd looked to what almost looked like a permanent frown on Gabriel's face as Mohinder spoke, and it wasn't too terribly difficult to figure out what had happened. Someone had been controlled, and thank goodness they weren't hurt. He wished he could squeeze Jim's hand, just for reassurance. But they weren't drunk and he couldn't pass off such a thing as an accident.

"So that's why Kaylee was running all over the place, earlier," he said, shaking his head slowly. "Is there any way to fight against these pheromones, in that case? Turn off the effects, anything? Or-- are we punting him back to his own reality soon? I mean, we hardly want to keep him around here."

"It could well be a disservice to do so," Mohinder explained, the warmth of his voice and the tone of his not quite British accent leaving him somewhat more reassuring than clinical. He made a fantastic professor, often leading the debriefings because he could keep people interested in what he had to say. But this lecture and the subject material was still terrifying. "Where he is from may be better off without him. In fact, it might be prudent to find more instances of Kilgrave and find a way to neutralise them as quickly as it becomes possible to do so. It should be fairly easy to keep ourselves safe should we need to interact with him. If we use respirators--"

Mitchell interrupted, somehow managing not to splatter red sauce on his fingerless gloves. "So we're treating this like a bloody disease?"

Mohinder always found it strange that the vampire used that term. "Yes. For now, at least. It will take time to find a way to make an antihistamine that will react properly to the pheromone. And we will need to run tests to decide how long of a period it is between affect and dissipation of the effect. Which is why I will be the one delivering Kilgrave his dinner."

"What?! Mohinder, no." Yeah, that was Gabriel. Did Mohinder think he wasn't going to protest that decision? He'd been leaning against the wall, and with this, he uncrosses his arms and marches over to his fiancé. For the benefit of the rest of the room, he did at least lower his voice and speak to the man in a fast near-whisper. "You've done your time with this, Mohinder. You can't just offer yourself up every time something dangerous comes up. Don't you need to run the tests, anyway?"

This might turn into a fight. But this was honestly one of the worst-case scenarios for Gabriel. He knew he couldn't offer to do it, because he might wreck half the place before they took him down. But thinking of Mohinder subjecting himself to being controlled again...damn it. Why couldn't they just kill this guy and be done with it, again?

Mohinder wasn't going to do this. Not with Gabriel and not with his over protective streak. "I'll be in a protective suit. I have no special abilities to speak of. And I was exposed to him the longest. I know what it feels like. No one else here does. I'm the only one that can get a base line."

He wasn't letting anyone bully him, not even the man who had made him cum so hard that morning that he had actually been unable to stop giggling for almost a full three minutes.

"I don't expect anyone to happen, but if something does, I can rather easily rescued. Now calm down."

Gabriel's hands tightened into fists. This was not okay. This was really not okay. "We can get a 'base line' with someone else. He knows you, that's so dangerous. You're just-" He cut himself off, because pointing out that he thought Mohinder was doing this to spare everyone else from having to feel that way....well, it wasn't going to get him anywhere. He knew that from experience. Being stubborn back at Mohinder never worked.

He looked Mohinder in the eyes so the scientist could see how upset Gabriel really was about this. He was terrified. Calming down was what he was already trying to do. "Please, Mohinder. Don't."

Though Mohinder did his best to keep Gabriel from being upset, this was distressing for him too. How could he give into the other man constantly? This was a remarkably dangerous precedent. To do so would give Gabriel a power over his life and career that Mohinder did not believe anyone should ever have. But upsetting the man he loved was also not something he cared to do.

Though there were people here, possibly uncomfortable people, Mohinder decided to say exactly how he felt.

"I plan on doing this because it is wise to do so, important for my work here to do so, and because I would rather have someone I did not love attempt to manipulate me. I will not be in any danger. I'll be inside of a hazmat suit. Jim will be with me, also inside of a hazmat suit to stop Kilgrave or myself if necissary."

Jim looked up from Sasan whom he had not at all be sort of staring at and frowned. "Me?"

"Yes, you were not exposed to Kilgrave and are less dangerous is the hazmats don't work than Mitchell might be. Sorry, Mitchell..."

"You're fine mate, but what do we do if the suits don't work?"

"It'll be like a viral containment zone. Airlocks. There will be a way to separate us from Kilgrave just in case." Mohinder was refusing to look at Gabriel now.

That was fine. Gabriel had gone into something of a 'shut down mode', shoulders slumping as he resumed his position against the wall. He crossed his arms and his eyes shut half-way as he began thinking very hard. He was weighing the pros and cons of just going down there and killing the man right now. He wouldn't do it. Probably. But it was a good way to calm himself down, and keep from breaking every piece of glass in the room simultaneously.

"Uh. I could go, instead of Jim. I haven't been exposed, either." Henry, surprisingly, had spoken up. He'd mostly worked on supernatural-seeming things since he came here, but this seemed close enough to him. And now both of the two identical-looking men seemed very unhappy. Maybe he could help that a little. And even though he hadn't been exposed, he knew the risks and what he was getting into. "...I thought I'd volunteer, at least."

Mohinder would have to do some mending with Gabriel. Later. Right now, they had a man held captive who needed to be fed, but more than that, he had a subject to be studied. "All right, Henry. The air right suits are downstairs. Could someone from engineering check to be sure that the airlocks are tight?"

Jack nodded. He rarely minded someone taking over. He was somewhat emotionally compromised here, though the more time he spent with Kilgrave, the less he was like the Doctor. That boded well for everyone involved.

"I'll bring the cheese with me--" Mohinder was saying as Jack leaned back against the wall Gabriel was leaning on.

"Come with me to the observation room. You'll feel better if you can watch."

Gabriel nodded, his face solemn. Jack was entirely right. At least if he watched what happened, he'd know what was going on. He was really starting to wish he'd worked on the range of his telekinesis recently, instead of the agility.

Henry followed Mohinder from that point. He was afraid, but glad that Mohinder had taken him up on the offer. Sasan gave him a bright smile and a 'good luck' as he left the room. Henry had just nodded, but it felt nice to give him some relief.

"Should I do anything specific while we're in there?" The scientist was clearly in charge of this particular situation, so Henry would defer to him. The young man was still very soft-spoken, but he was also quite dedicated, and he paid attention to his surroundings increasingly well. His past couple of missions had actually gone rather smoothly, surprisingly enough. Henry liked to think it was at least partially due to his help. He wanted to help here, too, even if it just meant watching Mohinder closely.

Mohinder wanted this over with quickly. He needed to speak with Gabriel about this, he needed to be sure that he never speak to him that way again during a potential mission, and he needed to convince Gabriel that he would not rush head first into a mission that would harm him without proper thought and precaution.

But for now...he and Henry, dressed in a suit with its own air supply, were on their way to the carefully set up airlocks leading to Kilgrave's chamber. "You'll stay behind in the final lock," Mohinder said, going over the plan. "Listen to the way he speaks. If there is a command given and I follow it, keep the doors shut. It means that the suits don't work or that I'm still susceptible to him. If that happens, had Jack flood the room with sedatives. When he is unconscious, extract me, taking special care that he has not set any other latent suggestion for me to follow once free."

It was quite the production, but this was his only fail safe.

This guy sounded dangerous, so Henry was glad they had a lot of precautions around him. He nodded at the instructions. "Okay. I'll do that."

Once they reached that final airlock, Henry stopped and basically stood guard there. "See you soon."

When Kilgrave had awakened, cold and sore, he had to realize all over again that he was actually caught. It had never stuck before, not like this. Worse, no one was speaking to him, now. He'd actually enjoyed the talk he'd had with Jack. That was a man he wanted to keep around for a long while. Now, though, he was concerned that he wouldn't get the opportunity. They seemed to be prepared for him, more than anyone he'd ever met.

He heard some clanging around outside his cell, and he immediately went to the door and started banging on it. "Hello? Hello! Can you let me out? Help me! I'm trapped!" He let his voice sound pitiful and haggard. It was truly how he felt.

"I'm aware that you've been trapped," Mohinder called. There were speakers that fed from one room to the other, it was the only way the sound could travel. "Please step back, Mister Kilgrave. I have your meal."

Mohinder didn't really wait for any length of time, he just pushed inward on the door, slowly, aware that Henry was on the other side of the one behind him.

He was safe. His heart was racing but Gabriel was watching him and if anything unsafe happened, he'd be there to be sure he came out of this alive.

"I do hope you like pizza. I've never found any yet that did not!"

It had been worth a try. Kilgrave sighed (rather overdramatically) and sat back down on the cot. His eyebrows rose as he saw Mohinder come in. "I thought you sounded a bit funny over the intercom. A hazmat suit, really? Come on, that's a bit much."

It had been awhile since he had eaten. He figured he could give pizza a try. "I once ate nothing but pizza for half a year," he replied, with a measure of nostalgic fondness. He'd really made himself sick of it, but it had been long enough now. He held his hands out to take the tray from the scientist. "I don't suppose you want to stay for a bit? I've been dreadfully bored. I'm sure you can imagine."

Mohinder felt nothing but relief in those first few moments of Kilgrave spouting off as expected. "I neither wish to stay nor, thankfully, can I imagine what your solitude must be like. I've never committed a crime against another human being in the way you have. However, I would like to speak with you on an experiment regimen. You should know that I am staying here of my own volition and for only a brief period of time. But please, eat. I can give you a moment."

The suit was working and the pheromones had worn off. Mohinder couldn't help but smile. On the video, the smile was likely one that Gabriel knew. It was the smile he had had when he drugged Sylar.

Mohinder was cocky when he was on top. And that was a fairly accurate double entandre.

So that was how it was going to be, huh? Kilgrave downright shuddered when he heard the term 'experiment regimen', and his friendly nature dropped entirely at seeing the look on Mohinder's face. This was not good. He had to turn it around, and that might take awhile. In the meantime, there would be experiments.

"Suddenly, I'm not terribly hungry anymore," he noted, frowning at the pizza, then up at Mohinder. "I didn't commit any crimes, did I? Really? I never harmed you, I just asked you questions. I can't help what I do, so I've just had to learn to live with it. If I offended you, or scared you, I'm terribly sorry." He did look rather sincere in that, not that it was likely to matter.

"Somehow, I don't believe your sorrow to be all that genuine, Mister Kilgrave." Mohinder stood, not even glancing at the pizza. His focus was on the man himself. "I assure you, nothing I wish to learn from you will bring you pain-- well. That isn't quite true. I would like an additional sample of your blood. I am also in need of spinal fluid, but you will be given a localized anesthetic. The pain will be little more than a pinch. I've discovered that your ability is not a mutation, it is a virus. It was present in the small amount of blood already collected from you but I need a more targeted sample."

Kilgrave's petulance and his insistence that he did not hurt him was revolting.

"You have no idea what it's like to be unable to control your own body, your own mind. You say you did not hurt me? It felt like a violation of everything that I am. It felt like you raped my ability to say no to you. It hurt. It hurt a great deal. I don't want to know what you've done to other people. I want to stop you from hurting anyone else ever again."

Mohinder would probably appreciate the look of deep unhappiness that came over Kilgrave as soon as he heard about spinal fluid. They were going to put a bloody needle in his neck again. Again. He would make Mohinder stick those needles in his eyes, in his throat if he ever got the chance.

Scientists were all the same.

By this point, he'd abandoned the plate next to him and was leaning forward, elbows on his knees and hands running over his face and through his hair. "You don't think I know, do you? What it's like to not have control? I wasn't always like this. I didn't want this in the first place." He glanced back down at the pizza, and miserably looked away. "So don't worry, you'll get your 'revenge.' I can't do anything at all in here, can I?"

"There was a time when I believed it was prudent to seek revenge, that it was my duty. I am capable of forgiveness, however." Mohinder moved the plate aside, and likely to Gabriel's horror, took it's place beside Kilgrave on the cot. "I know what it's like to be near someone thrust into a power he can't readily control and therefore, allows to control him. You don't know any other way to be than the way you are. But it's not impossible to be someone else."

Mohinder wasn't offering Kilgrave friendship, just something he had likely never had. Sympathy.

"I'll find a way to neutralize your pheromones. And then you can work on being a decent human being again. That is revenge enough for me."

Kilgrave really wished he had something sharp. A pen. A knife would be ideal, even a butter knife. Anything to stab open the bag of safe air that Mohinder was breathing. This was not tolerable. And now the man was giving him pity? Sure, he'd been seeking it, but that was before he heard there was going to spinal taps.

But there wasn't anything he could do, and that realization led to the reminder that Jack said he could pump things into the air to take him out. He had to try and be careful here. Take the sympathy. Work with it.

His eyes slid over to look at Mohinder next to him as he continued to lean his head in his hands. "It's been this way since I was ten," he told Mohinder, his voice actually quiet now. "Years of testing before that. I don't really know anything else. It's always been control or be controlled, you know?"

Gabriel's facial expression didn't change from its serious, quiet watchfulness. However, every item in the observation room began to vibrate, clattering against everything else. Gabriel closed his eyes and let out a forceful breath, and the clattering stopped.

"Do you really need the spinal fluid?" Kilgrave asked, sounding fragile and small. "Please tell me you don't."