Week 74: Shared Experiences

Han sat in the shadowed alcove of the expensive bar he'd chosen in downtown Seoul. He glanced at the screen of his phone, a feed from various security cameras flicking over the display.

Sipping at his glass of Sake, he waited for Fenris to arrive.

Fenris walked quickly down the street, she didn't know what exactly this was about, but she had her suspicions, and she didn't like them. It hadn't gone too well with Silvia, and she was not about to let that happen again, especially in such a public place.

She wasn't exactly brimming with confidence as she entered the bar Han had specified, she just quietly made her way over to the bar. Feeling stereotypical, she ordered a tankard of beer, and wandered over to Han's table. "Hi. So what did you want to talk about?"

Han nodded, and slid his phone away into his pocket. "Hey Fenris, thanks for coming. I just...well, partly, I realised we hadn't really...spoken at all in the last few weeks. And mostly... I wanted to apologize for what happened at the SCC." He cast his gaze down.

Fenris mentally braced herself for this conversation. Again. She sat down kind of awkwardly opposite Han "That... Wasn't really your fault. I don't think any of us considered that they might be able to intercept teleports."

She took a long swig from her tankard to buy enough time to think of another topic to talk about, the only thing coming to mind was the crazy superhero guy she met the other night.

"That's kind of you to say, but it isn't true. I know the Ai-Jinn better then anyone on the team, and I know that they have access to technologies that shouldn't exist. I should have anticipated it." Han opened his mouth as if to add something, but then closed it again. "In any case, I was the highest ranking officer on the mission. I made the call to teleport out. It's my fault we were captured."

He let his head fall in contrition. "For everything that you went through on that station...all I can do is apologize."

Fenris looked at Han, cradling her drink. "So you're just gonna blame yourself for not planning for every conceivable thing? Plus the ones that aren't?" Before Han was able to reply, Fenris jumped on the chance to change the subject. "Speaking of every conceivable thing, have you heard anything about a costumed vigilante recently?

"A vigila- what, umm, thats not important." Han looked confused at Fenris's terrible segue. "Look, I...it's not that I be prepared for everything, it's about taking responsibility. We could have fought our way out of the SCC, but I'd gotten so used to relying on Teleporters for an exit that I didn't even consider if it was the best choice. And once we were captured...I should have known we couldn't take those forces in a straight fight. I should have had you or Silvia go stealthy and get away from the firefight while I drew their attention. It was a string of mistakes that I should have known better...and well, I could tolerate the tortures I suffered because of those mistakes, but knowing that the three of you went through them as well... that I can't live with."

She looked directly into Hans eyes, and she was being deadly serious"Han. They had an entire fucking army parked outside that building. With Tanks. We weren't fighting our way out. And what did you expect us to do if we had managed to slip away? We would have been alone with no supplies, and everyone on the entire station hunting for us." She sighed. "There was nothing you could have done!" She was saying what she felt she needed to, silently hoping that they could move on from this topic as soon as possible.

"You could have gotten to an escape and gotten back to Earth, you could have tried to find broadcasting equipment to call in the others sooner. I don't know how succesful that would have been, but it would have been better odds then a straight up fight with six heavily armed Guan Yu users. Han paused and shook his head. "Look, I'm...I'm just sorry it went down the way it did, okay? And for everything that happened to you on that station... I just want you to know if I could have taken it myself instead of you, I would have."
Han exhaled, clearly glad to have let out something which had clearly been bothering him. He downed the rest of his Sake in a single gulp.

"Han, no-one blames you. There was literally nothing you could have done to stop what happened." She sighed. "It's just... Something we need to deal with and move on from. You know?" Fenris was trying to sound comforting and supportive, but she put a little to much emphasis on "move on". She just gazed into her drink, waiting to see if he was done.