A Bitter Pill To Swallow

Searching the phone, Augusta sees a number of names she recognizes, members of high society in both Graybridge and Annesburg. Both city's mayors, a number of council members, members of the wealthy elite. She recognizes the name of her friend Peyton among the contacts. She also recognizes some other names that have come up before. The TANC's warden is in his contacts, as is Rosalind Parker, the prison guard they interacted with during their last visit there. He's definitely well connected. But she doesn't find a contact that jumps out at her as Eva's mother. Of course, there are a number of names she doesn't recognize and she doesn't have the first clue as to what Eva's mother would be called, so that isn't saying much.

"I choose to believe I'm too valuable for them to just get rid of me based on an assumption," Brian says to Dave, though the man's words clearly are making him nervous.
He turns his eyes to Melissa. "I'm sorry that I made you feel this way. But I'm not lying to you. I did promise you full honesty tonight, didn't I? Of course that was before you had those people who you have fallen in with kidnap and beat me up." Through the blood on his face, he looks at her with seemingly nothing but kindness in his eyes. "I was really hoping that we could make this work tonight. That we could speak openly and honestly and reconnect. I knew this"—he nods to indicate the warehouse and the others present—"was a danger, but I was willing to take it for you. But even if you don't have any more feelings for me, Mel, I cannot believe you have lost yourself so much in such a short amount of time. You would not let these new friends of yours kill or torture me, would you? You're not like them. You're a good person."

Brian looks concerned. He has been counting on Melissa to be his way out, or at least, for her to stop the others from roughing him up too much. And now she's gone. He turns his eyes to Eva when she approaches him and his smile reappears on his bloody face, still looking mostly convincing. "If you want a chance to meet her, maybe you should start being a bit nicer to me, Eva."

Brian looks uncomfortable with Dave's threats, but he still maintains his composure, "The key card in my apartment will help you much more than ripping out my eyes or hands would. Not that you'd be above doing the latter just for fun, I assume." He briefly glances at Eva again before adding, "Of course you're assuming that Eva's mother even is at Wyvern Lake. Or that you would be able to get out again once you're inside."

His expression softens when he turns to Augusta. "You were always going to fuck up your life sooner or later. There's so much anger inside you, Augusta. You won't be able to contain it forever and it will break out at some point. Then you'd never perform in public again. But I gave you an outlet for your anger. You can do whatever you want in this beautiful form and nobody will ever know she's you."

Brian's eyes dart between the three people all talking at him at the same time, all demanding answers. He glances to the door through which Melissa - the one person he was counting on to keep the others from killing or torturing him - left. He swallows, then says, "I'll tell you, alright." His eyes are on Eva more than the others. "I'll tell you what you want to know. Just, let me go afterwards? I'm your enemy, I know. But I'm not the only one. You won't gain anything by killing me. Someone else will just take my place." He let out a heavy breath, then said, "Better the devil you know, right?"

Oni Augusta frowns, her claws furling and unfurling. "What you tell us will determine that, Brian. If you hold out, we'll have no reason to keep you alive."

She considers what she wants to know. "First, what did you do to Melissa and me? How many others? And then we'll have a lot of questions about Wyvern Lake, starting with Eva's family."

"No reason except your morality," Brian said with a hint of hopefulness. He let out a sigh, then said, "Wyvern Lake is researching metahuman abilities. What I gave you is one of our most successful experimental formulas. I gave it to you because I knew that deep down, you both wanted it. You pretend now that you don't, but sooner or later, you will thank me."

He then turned to Eva. "And as for you. The experiment didn't start with you. It didn't even start with Plaxo. Your mother was a military experiment, the perfect soldier. But, as she unfortunately had to discover, her DNA wasn't quite safe to pass on to children. She had twins and both of them were developing symptoms. She came to Plaxo for help and once they had figured out a treatment, it was an easy deal to make. Lose both children to their disease or trade one of them for the medication to keep the other alive."

"You did it against my will because you thought I might like it? Do you even hear yourself?"

Brian looks at Augusta when she makes her comment but he doesn't respond to it, instead turning his eyes to Eva again. "You were displaying signs of powers similar or even superior to your mother, even at an early age," Brian says. "From what I read in the files, it was no surprise my predecessors wanted to get their hands on you. As for your mother's motivation, I guess one child was better than none. I don't know whether it was luck of the draw or if you were just the less loved daughter." He chuckles, but quickly grows serious again, aware of his current situation. "And yes, some DNA samples of her and her husband, for research purposes."