When the lies come tumbling down...

[Svetlana Ustinov]

“Inconvenient...ohh.”

It did dawn on her, a moment or two later, when her normally sharp mind finally caught up with what was actually happening. Further thought on the precise ramifications of the realization could wait, Lana decided.

“Yes well...the luxury I’m accustomed to normally means I eat alone in a dining room that can seat twelve people. Natasha is a bit of a stickler for formality, when it comes to dinner. Upstairs will be just fine...but I should call Sergei to let him know. If he’s seen the rally footage, he’ll be worried.”

She freed one hand and patted her pockets before wrinkling her nose. “I think Alex still has my phone...I gave it to him at the rally when it wouldn’t fit in my pockets with my cards and my keys.”

[Saladin]

“Of course.” Saladin rubbed her hand fondly for a moment before releasing it. “I’ll let you speak with Alex.”

There was a slight curl to the edge of his mouth that said Alex would also be a topic of future conversation.

[Alex Kaine]

Alex had recently finished a rather terse conversation with Aidan and was pacing idly in the hallway with his hands jammed into his pockets, trying hard not to try too hard to eavesdrop. Saladin and Lana were speaking in hushed tones, far too hushed for him to make anything out anyway.

He had just calmed himself enough to sit down in an antique wooden chair when the door opened again, and when he saw Lana emerge, he immediately bolted back up to his feet. “Hi. I just got off the phone with the House. Are you ready to go?”

[Svetlana Ustinov]

Brushing at her eyes, she smiled and for a split second ignored his questions and just kissed him soundly. Lana took her own phone from him as he held it up to her, and gently shook her head. “You will have to head back by yourself, Aleksanderr...I’m going to stay and have dinner here.”

Lifting a hand, she rested her fingertips on his lips. “I promise I’ll explain, but not tonight. I’ll call you when I get home, ok?”

[Alex Kaine]

“You... you are?”

Alex’s eyebrows came together in conflict and confusion. Leaving Lana alone here seemed fundamentally wrong - but even then he wasn’t entirely sure if he was merely concerned for her or also a bit jealous. Tess’s warning about Saladin flashed across his mind, no matter how much he wanted to disregard it.

“Lana, what am I going to tell Anna - that I just left you here?”

[Svetlana Ustinov]

“You’re telling her that we’re with the Brotherhood to begin with? The woman is pregnant, Alex, she doesn’t need that kind of stress. But if you’ve already mentioned it, then no...tell her you left me at my place. I’ll call Sergei and warn him to expect her call in case she needs to verify.”

Lana frowned slightly and set her phone on the small table by the door. Her hands lifted to cup his face, her thumbs gently stroking his cheeks.

“I’ll be perfectly fine, love. Trust me. Now go and make sure Anna and the other kids are alright. Do you need a ride?”

[Alex Kaine]

It took a moment to dawn on Alex that Lana was actually advising him to lie to an authority figure. Alex felt like he should make note of the date and time for posterity.

“Spectre said she’d get someone to drive us... I mean, me, back to the House. I’ll be waiting for your call, then. Hope you enjoy...” He glanced over to the room where presumably Saladin was still lurking. “...dinner.”

He returned his eyes to Lana’s, then leaned in to kiss her. After a lingering goodbye, he was on his way.

[Saladin]

Dinner was carrryout from Cheesecake Factory served on mismatched dishes that probably would not have looked out of place at Redención House. The dining room had probably been designed for entertaining wealthy business clients back in the 1930s; it had that patina of old luxury that didn’t age well when it wasn’t constantly maintained by an army of curators, but it was clean, spacious, and, even with the windows frosted by necessity, reasonably bright.

Saladin savored a morsel of seared ahi and washed it down with a mouthful of Kostriker Schwarzbier. “So,” he said, “what can you tell me about this Alexander?”

[Svetlana Ustinov]

Her dark eyes were lit with golden pinpoints of light as she took in the decor of the room, and suppressed the urge to trail her fingertips over what remained of the once glorious damask wallpaper. It reminded her a great deal of the formal dining room in the house back in Saint Petersburg, and drew a smile to her features once more.

At the table, Lana tucked a long leg beneath herself, aiming for comfort instead of perfect posture for a change. The pasta she’d chosen was absolutely delicious, and she savored the heat from the cajun spices that had been liberally applied. Another bite savored, and the warmth from the spice reached a comfortably high level. A sip of raspberry iced tea cooled it down a bit, while she lifted a napkin to her lips before answering his query.

Her father’s query, she reminded herself, and in spite of the arched brow she sported, her lips curled into a smile. “His name is Alexander Kaine, he has a twin sister named Andrea who’s currently at the Jericho Center here in LA. We’ve gone to see her a few times. He’s seventeen, lives at Redención House, and needs plenty of prodding to do his homework.”

Lana sipped from her iced tea again and grinned. “And he has one of your t-shirts.”

[Saladin]

Saladin paused with his fork hovering in midair. “One of my what?”

[Svetlana Ustinov]

Plucking her phone from the table beside her, she flipped to a picture she’d taken of Alex with his “Evolution!” t-shirt on. Sliding the Blackberry across the table with mirth dancing in her gaze, she took another bite of her pasta.

“That one...”

[Saladin]

It was a curious thing to be made into an icon. Though Saladin had always made it his goal to inspire young mutants, becoming a countercultural fashion statement wasn’t really what he’d had in mind.

“Oh dear...”

He kept his face diplomatic as he looked over Alex’s modeling pose. Considering the Internet generation’s penchant for irony, it was difficult to tell what the boy really meant by it. He made a mental note to ask Tron for his recruitment file. He slid the phone back toward Lana.

“Well, at least I look younger in that picture. Redención House, you said? I’ve visited Ms. Fernandez there. It’s a good work she’s doing.”

Saladin daubed at the rich sauce on his plate. “And you? Your mother has told me a little about you, but all my information is years old. There’s so much I want to ask you. But fair is fair. Is there anything you want to ask me?”

[Svetlana Ustinov]

“Anna is amazing. She’s so good to everyone and has such a big heart. Everyone adores her.”

Lana said with a soft smile, taking the phone back and politely turning the screen off as she set it aside again. She savored the last bits of her pasta and its spicy sauce, catching as much of it as she could with her last shrimp.

“I...” she blinked, glancing over at him and shrugging slightly with self-deprecation. “...you can ask anything. I’m fairly average for a mutant, really.”

Sitting back in her seat with her drink, she sipped and considered a question. Any question. “How did you meet my mother? What was she like?”

[Saladin]

It was one of the more innocent questions she could have asked. Saladin set his fork delicately on the side of his plate and settled against the back of his chair as he tried to organize a class of memories he didn't use very often anymore.

"Ahhh, well... I was younger than I'd care to admit," he said. "In those days I was a student of Dr. Gregory Cullen, one of the most extraordinary minds ever known to mutantkind. He, I, and a few of my classmates were touring several universities in Europe during the summer to speak on the difficulties facing our kind. Well, one evening I and a few of my friends went to a bar in Amsterdam after our seminar, and there she was."

He said it matter-of-factly, with typical Danish reserve, and he took a calculated sip from his beer.

"Apparently she had heard me speak and wanted to hear more. She was modeling for one of Amsterdam's top designers, but she had never told anyone outside her family about her mutantcy. I could tell that even confessing it to me took a great deal of courage for her. We talked long into the night, until the bar closed and we were forced to leave. Afterward, when I had returned to America, we wrote each other as often as we could. We only ever spent a few days at a time together, but the time was always precious."

There was no use elaborating on that. After all, Lana was material proof.

"I remember her as the most beautiful creature I had ever seen," he said. "And yet, because of her family, she saw herself as... as disfigured, diseased. I did everything I could to show her how wrong they were to think that way, but... it takes a long time to break free of that kind of bondage."

He looked at Lana with the sort of earnestness that causes charges a revolution. "I hope you've never been made to feel that way, Lana."

[Svetlana Ustinov]

Svetlana's eyes were bright as she curled both legs beneath herself and sat back in the chair, fingers clasped around her drink. She didn't sip, however, only sat with rapt attention on her father as he spoke.

Her father.

His words eventually sank in and gave her pause, her features marred with a touch of sudden sadness. "My mother's family...tried. Grandmother Nihilova didn't like me. Neither did Grandfather. Dimitri's family was worse. But they stopped speaking to mother and I after Mikhail died." Lana took a long sip of her drink and stared down into it.

"But it didn't bother me very much. I had Mama and Piotr and Mikhail, so it was enough. My mother though...was very good at hiding how much it hurt her. How much Dimitri hurt her. Piotr and I wouldn't have known if our ghost hadn't told us. But by then it was too late - she was away on a mission and I..." fingertips absently rose to touch her cheek, almost able to feel the bruise that had once been there. "...was on on my way here."

[Saladin]

Saladin's face hardened as Lana told him more of the injustices she had been subjected to by that hateful man Yelena had been browbeaten into marrying. He'd have gladly dealt with Dimitri himself if Yelena had not already taken matters into her own quite capable hands. Saladin reminded himself that Lana most likely knew nothing of this, and it was not his place to tell her. But at least he could take satisfaction in knowing that justice had finally found Dimitri Ustinov.

"You don't know how sorry I am that you had to endure that," he said. "Dimitri lied to me as well. Had I known what he was doing to you and your mother..."

The hardness crept into his voice then, and he broke it off, realizing he was very close to showing his daughter a side of himself that he wasn't yet ready for her to see. He used his fork to separate his rice from his tuna, just to give his hand something to do.

"Your mother is a strong woman. Stronger than you know. As for Dimitri, I have nothing but contempt for a man who would repay your love with fear and intimidation. I wish I could atone for his sins. I wish I could give you the kind of home you deserve. I'm afraid the life of a revolutionary is not the best start for building a family."

Now he was stepping onto uncertain ground, but it was ground that had to be covered. Otherwise, he could not claim to be any less manipulative or selfish than Dimitri had been.

"I don't know what you've heard about me, other than what Dimitri told you. But I am not an innocent man. I have made many sacrifices for the Brotherhood of Mutants, and I have made many enemies. Some of them hurt you today, and for that I am sorry.

"I can't blame you if you are repulsed by the things I am said to have done. Some of them are even true. I hope that you will not be ashamed of me, or afraid of me. But I also don't want to force myself into your life without your permission."

[Svetlana Ustinov]

"You...have nothing to atone for. You didn't know. Knowing that you would have done something if you had any inkling...well that's enough for me." Lana began, her voice soft as she tried to take in everything he was saying. It was...alot to process. In the span of one day her life had gone from perfectly, if painfully ordered to radically different than anything she could possibly have dreamed of.

She shook her head as he continued, interrupting him briefly. "You have nothing to be sorry about, not for today. This..." Lana grimaced slightly as she took the bandage off her neck and felt some of the healing skin pull away. Jewel green, a few drops of her 'blood' trickled down her skin only to be wiped away by her fingers. "...is nothing. But nothing is also what I know about you. What I knew or learned was carefully monitored, and details were never permitted. I was told you were any number of terrible things, but they would never tell me what."

"But my mother...there was always such a wistful look in her eyes when she spoke of you, that it told me more than she did. It tempered the nebulous horror that Dimitri always laid at your feet." Lana sighed and wrinkled her nose, the words seeming too simple to convey everything she intended. There was more she wanted to say, to ask...but she needed to talk to her mother first. To ask why.

To try and ease the headache that was slowly building behind her eyes.

"I want you in my life, so please don't think you're forcing your way in. But I...I need to talk to my mother and I have no way of contacting her right now. I've been cut off."