directed | IC Inbox - Entranceway

[He's watchful when the door opens—but even with his talent for predicting potential outcomes, Rip finds himself taken aback when Gideon walks out onto the roof. Of course he recognizes her; how could he not? In so many years of working alongside her, paired together as captain and AI, Rip couldn't help but humanize her in his mind.

And somehow, it seems as if she's been drawn straight from his imagination.]

…Gideon. [He pauses too long, perhaps. He takes a few steps closer as well, unable to help looking her over.] This is a rather unexpected development.

I thought the same thing.

( As did the other Legends who questioned how it was possible. A question that she didn't have an answer for )

It's been an unusual experience.

[Unusual indeed.]

Oh, I'm quite sure.

[He's not unarmed, though Rip keeps his weapon holstered as he walks slowly around Gideon. It's astonishing, as the absent professor Stein might say.]

Have you been made human, then? [By some machination of this world; it's not impossible, given how they've been transformed in the past within Wonderland.]

Despite my appearance - no.

( She lets him walk, keeping still to give him time to look, to assess. It's all come from his mind, in terms of her appearance, and Gideon doesn't doubt that it might be a little strange )

The word that Doctor Palmer used to describe me was an android. ( And Gideon turns slightly now, looking over her shoulder at him ) I'm still myself.

So it would seem.

[Gideon's program, merely housed in a shell seemingly drawn from Rip's own imagination. Wonderland really does have an interesting way of doing things.

But if that is the case, then Gideon's presence could indeed turn out to be quite the asset. He completes his circle, stopping once more in front of Gideon. He meets her gaze; her eyes are a rather lovely shade of green.]

Shogun ballistic.

( There's a couple of seconds silence as Gideon realises what Rip is doing before-- )

Captain, that--

( But that's all he gets. The command takes hold and her words stop, expression going blank as if Gideon is frozen in place. Shut down Gideon stands motionless, almost likes a statue )

[All aspects of her programming then. Rip wears a barely tempered grin as he gives it another moment, though he doesn't go quite so far as to wave his hand in front of her eyes or something equally cliche.]

That will do, Gideon. You're free to come back online.

( It's a quick process. Her 'breathing' stimulates first, then a blink of her eyes. Gideon moves her head, eyes searching around her before settling back on Rip. He's still there -- how long had she been offline for? )

Captain Hunter.

( Her tone's a little hurt, and wary. He'd done it once before but that had proven to be for a good reason. Overriding her on the Waverider before they'd gotten his memories back was something else, but he never shut her down. Rip knew what that meant to her, and it was a point that he'd made in never doing it, and now doing it )

You didn't need to do that.

[She seems dismayed, and for a heartbeat, Rip almost feels guilty for what he's done. Certainly it's not a command he's employed often—only in his efforts to protect the Spear, in fact, when Rip scattered the JSA and hid his own piece in the parlor. Then again, so many years later, when that same duty had him believing grabbing hold of the time drive would be the best method to keep the fragment safe.

They seem so much grander as reasons go. Equally, so much more foolish.]

It was the quickest way to find out what I needed to know. [He doesn't quite manage an apology, but there's a gentleness to his voice that Rip has shown no one since his return to Wonderland—particularly none from their universe.] Your programming seems to have remained intact in spite of what's been done to you. How fortunate.

[For Rip. It means that ultimately, Gideon would be swayed to his side should any confrontation happen with the Legends—whether she wishes to be or not.]

It is.

( And for her. It's made adjusting to being changed a little easier, given that the majority of what Gideon is has remained in tact )

Though you only needed to ask. ( It's perhaps unwise, but if she's to have a hope of helping Rip, to try and see if he might agree, then she has to be straight with him -- to not hide anything that isn't detrimental to the group ) I would have answered.

Is that truly so?

[That he only had ask, and she would've answered. Oh, Rip has no doubt she would have told him something; it is Gideon he's speaking to, after all. But loyalty stands a rare thing, even among those who would claim it easily. Rip doesn't trust any of the Legends as far as he can through him, but Gideon is different. She is unique, and not because of the AI she'd been on his ship nor the android Wonderland has apparently seen fit to turn her into.

He trusts her. Just as he always has, Rip trusts Gideon—and that is a weakness he cannot afford.]

I somehow suspect you have far more loyalty to the man I once was than who I am now.

[And really, it's quite a shame.]

You are the same man.

( He'd just forgotten that. No, he'd had the memories pushed aside; the feelings repressed. They had always still been in his mind, just locked behind what Eobard had turned his thoughts into )

I'm here to help you. As I've always been.

( Though what he takes to mean by help... She wants to "help" him -- to restore him, but also to keep him safe. Gideon doesn't want anything to happen to him no matter what he now thinks. (If he's hurt, or dead, then they can't bring him back) )

[He huffs a short breath, low and amused when she claims with such steadiness that he's the same. Her faith doesn't move him—not truly. But neither does he think of it with the same disdain as he does that of Ray or Sara or Jax.

Gideon, it seems, would always prove herself an exception.]

Somehow I suspect you and I would define help quite differently.

[That like so many, she would prefer to have the Rip of old once more. She may think he's ultimately the same as he once was, but the differences would become apparent, even to her, in enough time.

She would fall in line with the Legends before Rip. He knows this as a certainty. He cannot act otherwise.]

I'll give you the same terms I have given the others: there is no reason why we cannot co-exist, so long as you're willing to leave well enough alone. [To leave Rip be, as he is now. But the Legends had also received a threat to match the promise; a warning of what Rip would do should they attempt to overstep bounds.

He leaves the words unsaid this time. Merely looks Gideon in her eyes.]

Then you forget how well I do know you.

( Perhaps not forget, but ignore. She didn't get a chance to see the differences in him before, with Rip only being on the Waverider for a short time before the intrusion, but she's looking to learn now. Gideon hopes that she can push just enough to really see how he was changed. If they know that maybe they can do something, or he can find something )

I already know of the truce that you gave, but I cannot ignore your presence here.

( Is there something in between co-existing in ignorance and what he'd see as meddling? )

[He almost protests—he could never, but it would be a lie. He had, along with everything else of his life and his identity thanks to his choice to touch the time drive directly. So instead he lets her have her assumption. Her belief in him, the man he once was and whom she believed him still to be, somehow.

It would be a faith without reward, in the end. So often it was.]

You don't have to ignore it completely. [The concession is out his mouth before he can quite stop it, and Rip closes his mouth tightly afterwards. This feels like a mistake; some way to set himself up for a trap, because he knows in the end which side Gideon will choose.

He knows better.]

But I've no interest in being told how much I've changed for the worse, or how if I'll let it happen, the lot of you can have me "fixed." [It's easier when he lumps Gideon in with the rest, Rip realizes. He will still do what he has to, even when it comes to her.] I'm willing to do what's necessary now, and it is better this way. None of you will take that from me.

Then tell me something that does interest you.

( She can only give words, words that he may not even believe with how much his mind had changed. How much were promises worth, even hers, when his contempt for the team extended also to her? )

Perhaps "doing what's necessary" isn't necessary.

( If only. If only it was as simple as them not knowing what he wanted, or not having listened )

You should already know that things are never so simple, Gideon.

[Of all of them, she is the one who has seen the impossible choices laid on Rip's shoulders throughout his tenure as a Time Master, and even after that organization was put to an end. Each sacrifice, each occasion of live versus history, of who must die so the flow of time could be preserved--and to what end?

What ever came of it, other than miserly and grief and his family left dead?

He moves past her. It would be a simple matter to end things there, but something in him urges Rip not to leave her without answer. His steps pause after she's at his back. They're still alone on this rooftop, and he looks up at the seemingly boundless sky.]

I still enjoy listening to music.

[A trivial detail at best--but one solitary thing Rip can say is unchanged in him, even now.]

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