The Past is in the Present [avian/alice]

[Alessandro Moretti]

Years. It had taken several years to reach this point. Alessandro had lost count of the months it had been since he had made his return to New York with the sole mission of finding her. He had looked down countless avenues without so much of a street name and had made numerous choices he wished he did not have to do. There was one thing, however, he had tried not to succumb to; his past. Alessandro wanted to let go of his past and release the tight grip it held over his life. Not her though. He would cling to her like a baby to a mothers thumb. She was a part of who he was and his thoughts were consumed by his mistakes and filled with regrets of what could have been and what had come to pass. But now he would make amends. He would make everything right once again. He could finally be reunited with his Alice Taylor, the young telekinetic who could not control her power. The child he came to love as family.. Whose life he wrecked.

It was by pure happenstance that the Italian had come across a service known as IntelliTouch. He was browsing the internet searching for clues to Alice's whereabouts when he stumbled upon a fascinating online blog. It led him to the chat room. And there he found what he was looking for. And what he'd hoped he'd never find again.

Adele Couteau and Ryan Alcroft. The pair who ruined his life. The monsters. Ryan was primarily the one to blame though Adele made matters worse. They refused to help but she didn't - a woman named Avian. He couldn't recall her surname, which was unfortunate as Alessandro was aiming for a formal meeting with the new employee of the company he once worked for.

The Company was a road Alessandro did not wish to go down despite him knowing it was his best chance. The Company and him had a history and he believed Mrs Harper was still the director. With that belief, Alessandro knew he could not use the company to find Alice. He was wrong. Grace no longer held a powerful position position inside the company which, by all accounts opened up the one path Alessandro was sure to succeed in. The Company.

Alessandro left his small apartment and made a sharp turn to his left, jogging to Central Park. He was wearing a white fitted shirt and dark jeans that, by all accounts, had seen better days; there were a few holes strewn in the fabric. The evening chill bit at his cheeks as he entered the park. His mind raced; did Alice still work for the Company? Was she going to be here? Would Avian help him? Had Alice mentioned him to her child?

The former company agent stopped in his tracks as he saw a woman approaching him. It didn't look like Alice so perhaps it was this Avian? He couldn't tell if she was a company agent or just a civilian.

So he waited.

[Avian Morrison]

Don’t try to escape,
‘cause you don’t have nowhere to go
If nothing is your fate,
there’s no scenario
-Ra, “Do You Call My Name”

Outfit

The moment Avian went AFK, she moved to her closet to find the closest matching, nice clothes she had. She had challenged Moretti to meet her at Central Park five minutes later; the man had promised to be there in three. She had already gotten into her “house” clothes, so she had to throw on a bra and clothing and shoes before heading out the door.

Avian lived in a fairly nice apartment building. Built quite ahead of New York’s mandated safety codes, the building needed a great deal of updating, and Avian had once been evacuated temporarily with the discovery of asbestos within the walls. The heating system was being updated, fortunately in time for winter, and the electricity was as well - too many appliances running at one time used to overload the circuits. It was noisy progress, but it was progress.

There was one other thing to do. While Avian had no intention of “bagging and tagging” Moretti, she did have to keep herself safe. She wrapped a holster around her waist and placed her Sig Sauer on her right and her Beretta on her left. No tasers - she could shoot to disable as well as she could shoot to kill. She also slipped her her switchblade stiletto into her right sock - she never left home without it. She also packed a pair of handcuffs and other Company standard items should Moretti prove uncooperative. These went into a black bag she tossed over her shoulders before pulling her helmet over her head. Once she had slipped her cell phone into her pocket, she left and locked the door behind her.

From there, it was nothing to make it to the agreed-upon meeting spot in time. Her Vespa could go quite fast, especially when she pushed it; she had never found a need for a car in the city, not with all the traffic, and with everyplace she needed just a few streets away. And so, when Avian pulled up to the curb as close to the main entrance to the park as she could, she caught who she knew to be Moretti just arriving as well.

The course of events had gone rather simply. She had designed a script on her computer to wake her or otherwise get her attention whenever the Company or its agents were mentioned. She had been finishing dinner when this occurred. She had logged on to IntelliTouch’s chatroom and found the mess in progress. Quickly she had remotely accessed through a frighteningly secure line Moretti’s Company history and profile. Thus, when she arrived at Central Park, she arrived prepared.

“Mr. Moretti,” she said as she approached, extending a hand to shake his. “Avian Morrison, co-director of the Company. You will please come with me.” She had brought an extra helmet and the Vespa did have room for two to ride fairly comfortably.

[Alessandro Moretti]

There is an old Italian proverb that went chi si volta, e chi si gira, sempre a casa va finire. Translated, it said that wherever you went, however far you had wondered, you would always find yourself back home. It wasn't until Avian extended her hand that Alessandro truly understood what was meant by the saying. His father had said it to him once when he was a child and the ex-company agent had always taken it as a literal phrase, strengthened only by the mere fact that he was led back to his father by the stranger outside of the old record store. But Alessandro now realised what it meant. What home was.

Ever since he was a child, Alessandro had been deeply involved with the Company. His entire way of life was built around the foundations the Company had shown him. It had been his life and he could remember the ache he felt when Grace Harper fired him. He could recall, as vivid as if it had happened just yesterday, his thoughts and feelings. What would he do? Could he stay in New York? Would he need to start his life over? But at the forefront of his mind, Alessandro wondered how Alice would cope. It was not the idea that he would now have no real life that bothered him so, it was the implication of abandonment that he knew Alice would feel when he left. Did she even receive his letter? Would she even know he had been fired? After all, they had barely seen each other since Alessandro was sent after Ryan Alcroft and lost everything.

Alessandro stood at the main gates to Central Park knowing that he was back home. He had tried so hard to stay away from the Company, that he had found himself back in its clutches, standing in front of one of its directors. He stared at her hand knowing that if he returned the gesture, his fate would be sealed. What remained a mystery, however, was which fate Alessandro would become a slave to.

"Salve," Alessandro spoke quietly with eyes looking to hers.

He stood for a moment in quiet contemplation after returning her greet. Did he really want to go down this path? Though it was the most direct to get to his Alice, he did not want to recreate the ties he had with the Company. There was Adele - she could help him. Or the other male from the chat room -- Constant, Alessandro recalled. But they all needed - wanted - something in return. This Avian Morrison was quick to request detention of Alessandro which in the eyes of the Italian, suggested but one of two things; either she knew of Alice's whereabouts (Alessandro suspected Alice to still be a part of the Company) or she deemed Alessandro Moretti to be a particular danger. The latter gave Alessandro a sense of pride whilst the former gave him hope. And he'd choose hope every time.

And that was his home. The Company was his house and Alice, his home. He had gone so far astray only to find himself back in arms reach of her.

Alessandro took a hold of Avian's hand and shook it gently, "Lead on."