THE NINTH GATE - [modplot]

[letsgolegion]

Who| Anyone who signed up
What| "The Ninth Gate" plot
Where| It starts on Rimbor, moves to Earth
When| The same time as "Gone-Away World" and "Total Eclipso the Heart"
Warnings/Notes| Lots of really fucked up suicide cult stuff.

It's not that difficult to get a lead on where the Catastrophists are recruiting, but so far the survival rate of undercover Scicops is...bad. As in, none of the undercover cops that have been sent in have come back. So with the rise in Catastrophist activity and losing several of their top undercover officers, the Science Police has actually asked for the Legion's help for once. A few tips from their contacts have made it clear that something big is coming, a terrorist attack of sometime, and time is running out. They need to get someone on the inside that actually survives, and they're hoping the Legion can do what they couldn't.

Fortunately, there's an easy in to at least start the undercover op.

The Science Police has long since determined that the Universal Brotherhood is just a front for the Catastrophists, largely due to the references to Apokolips and Darkseid they keep dropping. Science Police specialists and Legion intelligence officers handle the initial contacts, creating fake personas that they chat out as getting duped into embracing the Catastrophists' cause. They even donate enough credits to make it seem like the personas are emptying out their modest bank accounts to support the cause.

The next step is a very thorough briefing given to the Legionnaires going undercover on this mission, so they know every possible detail about their fake personas, and have access to all the chats they need to pretend to remember having.

Then, they're armed with very advanced technology to use to infiltrate the group. Super advanced subdermal hard-light hologram generators, sensor emulators that give off biosigns that fit their personas, advanced psi-blockers that even allow them to project surface thoughts that fit their cover. They have all the knowledge they need to infiltrate the group - now they just have to survive initiation.

They're sent in three pairs to sign up for recruitment in a shady bar on Rimbor, at separate times so them showing up together doesn't seem suspicious. Rimbor is an urban world that's just layers and layers of city on top of older cities. They're all led underground, to abandoned under-levels that used to be on the top levels of the cities only a few hundred years before, but are now that are deemed uninhabitable even by the lowest dregs of Rimborian society.

Once they're in, there are only two ways out: through surviving initiation or in body bags dropped in Rimbor's massive trash incinerators.

Comments

Kyou and Carolina

[letsgolegion]

To explain why they come in together, their fake backstory is that they're human siblings who lost their parents and a younger sister in the senseless attacks on Earth several years ago that were committed by the xenophobic, rogue Daxamite terrorist group known as the White Triangle.

After suffering in the people farms of the aliens known as the Blight several years later, during their reign on Earth, the two siblings have had enough. In the face of a cruel universe, they've found the goals of the Catastrophists the only natural conclusion: existence is suffering, and the end of everything is the only way to stop it.

They're handed brown robes because apparently this cult wants to be a giant stereotype and are led through the dimly lit hallways to a cultist with purple skin, a shaved head, and a glowing eye on his forehead.

The cultist gestures for them to sit in front of him. Armed cultists with blasters stand to the left of the Legionnaires. The wall opposing them, on the right, is blackened with blaster fire and rutted with holes, making it clear that the price of failing this test is high.

"You'll have to speak to Brother Maynard first," says their guide. "He's an empath. We've found telepathic screening isn't the most reliable, due to the Scipos sending undercover officers that are stronger telepaths than the ones we had working for us. But empaths can sense emotions, they can check to make sure our initiates aren't lying about what they feel, that they feel the misery and nihilistic emptiness that that we know is the ultimate truth."

"You must open your hearts to me," says Brother Maynard. "Tell me why you've come to us. Let yourself feel why you've come to us."

[brisance]

She's paired with Kyou, someone she's never met - but she trusts that he can help get the job done. She's usually okay with steal and infiltration, but actually talking face to face with the people she's faking? Not quite her forte.

Thankfully, the hard-light makes up for whatever expression her face can't quite manage, and they say that she doesn't actually have to fake out the empath - just think something along the general lines and the psi-blockers will help with the rest.

She sits down next to Kyou, takes a deep breath when they ask her why she's come to them. She's supposed to think existence is suffering, that ending it all is the way to go. The sad part is, she's felt that way before.

So she pulls deep from one of her darkest times, thinking about recovering, how everyone had betrayed her - how for a time she thought about ending it all.

"We've lost everything but each other," she finally says, managing to project a good amount of bitterness into her voice. "Every day seems to be getting harder and harder. Everyone around us is going through the same thing. I just want it to stop."

[letsgohurtpeople]

It's not...it's not that hard to fake. At all. He really should've said something when they handed him his fake identity, he knows he should've. But that would've entailed being honest with himself about...a lot of things, really.

The anger is the hardest thing to tamp down on. Oh sure he can act in a controlled way while on a mission, but that doesn't mean that's what he feels. He feels angry basically all the time and has just gotten good at keeping a lid on it.

Keeping a lid on it won't work here. The outrage, the "how dare you exploit people's pain over stuff like this" has to be stuffed down deep.

"My family is dead," he says, voice ringing with utmost honesty, "and you want to talk to us about opening our hearts to you? What hearts?"

When his voice cracks, it's not acting, it's him maybe digging just a little too deep in his efforts to be convincing.

"There's nothing left."

The flash of whatever it was...fades.

"That's just the way the world is, and that's why...that's why it should end. We're not the only ones. It'll never stop."

[legionnpcs]

"Yes," says Brother Maynard, his third eye glowing brighter. "Such despair. Such magnificent despair. Betrayal - the Daxamites were supposed to be allies to the rest of the UP. Loss. You understand, don't you. The universal truth. I can feel it."

He nods to the other cult members.

"Stay here. I will go speak to our masters," he says, and he and their guide leave the room to go talk to...somebody, presumably. The guards stay, with their weapons trained on the two of them.

And they're just...left there.

[brisance]

It's hard not to turn and look at Kyou directly when his voice cracks. She doesn't think he's being a part of them - it's just a bit of concern, something she makes sure to stuff down deep before Maynard can feel it.

Thankfully, everything seems to work out for this part, and so she just watches Maynard walk away. Sitting still isn't too hard, although the temptation to look at each of the guards in turn is there. But instead she stares forward.

It's just like being in the military, yes? Trying to see what they'll do. But she makes sure to pull up more feelings of misery as she stares dully ahead. Just because Maynard left the room doesn't mean this isn't a second part of his little empath test somehow.

[letsgohurtpeople]

Now that Brother Maynard isn't actively scanning them, it's a little safer for them to be themselves. Slightly. A teeny bit. (They do still have guns trained at their heads, after all).

The telepathic earplugs give them a safe avenue to talk, especially with the psiblockers, as long as they're very careful in how they school their expressions and what they say out loud. The holograms help but they're still linked in to the real expressions they make.

They're trying to make us sweat, he thinks at Carolina. It's a head game.

He says it like he has quite a bit of experience with those.

Normal people roped into this would just be confused about the hold up and not sure what's going on. Guilty people, like undercover cops, would start to get nervous. Maybe panic.

A pause as he considers that he may be preaching to the choir. It wasn't like they'd gotten more than some cursory information about each other before the mission. Mostly they'd all been briefed in what they should know about their own and each other's personas, no who their partner actually was.

Uh. I mean...you might know that. I figured I'd point it out just in case you don't.

[brisance]

Carolina tilts her head forward a little bit when he speaks. She hasn't exactly forgotten the earplugs - just wasn't used to using them. Thankfully, she keeps staring forward, her expression one of tiredness. Hopefully they'll take a nonreaction as too tired to get confused.

I figured, she thinks back, not considering how short it might come off - but a moment later. But I appreciate it. Thanks. How long do you think they'll draw it out?

Her gaze drags over one of the guards with the blaster, still just looking tired and morose.

[letsgohurtpeople]

Probably just a few minutes. Wait too long and even normal people would start freaking out, even with the guns. They only need to press us until twitchier people would fold.

He looks around the room but makes sure his expression is schooled in a normal amount of nervousness.

Still, if they don't come back in a minute or two we should probably playact a low-key tender sibling drama about bravely walking into our new life - of dicking over the rest of the universe because we had a sad.

The sarcasm is cloying enough to be transmitted by thought.

It's sick enough these freaks drag grieving people into this, but it's still just as sick that grieving people agree to it. They just jump right in on their chance to drag everyone else down with 'em. His disgust is palpable. They're weak.

[brisance]

Sibling drama wouldn't be a bad idea. At least because sitting here quietly is gonna get suspicious enough after a point.

The comments about people being weak make it hard for her to not turn and stare. She gets it - this is way too extreme, joining a cult to kill others and end the world. But there is a point where you just stop caring about everything else - and she'd been there before.

When you're hurting like that, when you've lost everything else, it sounds like a good idea. But what these people need is help, not a cult that tells them the rest of the world needs to end because that's how they feel, she finally projects. They're preying on their emotions.

Widomaker and Garrus

[letsgolegion]

To explain why they come in together, their fake backstory is that they're two widows from the planet Turabeau that found friendship and solace in each other after losing their original spouses to the horrific pain plague that wiped out most of the population. After seeing them suffer and die while begging for death, they lived their days in quiet despair... until meeting each other and finding a like-minded individual with a nihilistic outlook.

They've now decided to join the Catastrophists hand in hand to pursue the oblivion they know was always inevitable. Together.

They're handed brown robes because apparently this cult wants to be a giant stereotype and are led through the dimly lit hallways to a cultist with purple skin, a shaved head, and a glowing eye on his forehead.

The cultist gestures for them to sit in front of him. Armed cultists with blasters stand to the left of the Legionnaires. The wall opposing them, on the right, is blackened with blaster fire and rutted with holes, making it clear that the price of failing this test is high.

"You'll have to speak to Brother Maynard first. He's an empath. We've found telepathic screening isn't the most reliable, due to the Scipos sending undercover officers that are stronger telepaths than the ones we had working for us. But empaths can sense emotions, they can check to make sure our initiates aren't lying about what they feel, that they feel the misery and nihilistic emptiness that that we know is the ultimate truth."

They're urged to sit.

"You must open your hearts to me," says Brother Maynard. "Tell me why you've come to us. Let yourself feel why you've come to us."

[calibrates_big_guns]

Being partnered with Widow after their last few talks is ... strange. Not uncomfortable despite knowing a little bit more about who she is and how she operates, but uneasy. He can trust her to get the job done, that much he's certain of, but they might have some fairly irreconcilable differences considering methodology.

He can't worry about it too much right now. He's made his feelings on the matter clear, and they'll cross that bridge whenever they get to it. At the moment, he's got bigger things to worry about. His disguise may be holding up, but he's not whether or not the psi-blockers are going to cover an empath probing his surface thoughts instead of a telepath.

Knowing his luck, it probably won't. He's not the greatest actor in the world - or someone who can lie worth a damn, so he tries to build his response around the truth, and hope that makes it a little more convincing than it would be otherwise.

"I just don't know where else to go." Garrus says. It was strange hearing his disguised voice - it was higher, more musical than he'd probably ever sounded in his life. Fortunately, the bitter, tired edge he was hoping for is there. "I've lost almost everything that matters to me," he glances over to the Widowmaker's disguised form, and then back to Maynard, "Being here - being with all of you - is the only thing that makes sense to me anymore."

It sounds good to his ear, but he may not be the best judge of that. It's only half the battle either way. The real test is what Maynard feels in his mind.

So he thinks back to Omega, when he found his team dead and butchered. He thinks back to the Normandy burning and falling apart around him, knowing that Shepard went down with the ship, and having Sidonis in the sights of his rifle. Everything that makes him feel worthless, and stupid, and empty inside.

Hopefully it works.

[araignee_du_soir]

Then mission was Widowmaker's focus. She didn't care about anything else right then but getting it done and keeping her eyes on everything. It was a little harder without her visor, but by the time they were lead down to the lower level, she'd already spread her Environmental Awareness over the compound - Rimbor was a piece of shit - mapped it and had an escape route planned if all went to hell.

Which it very well might with an empath questioning them. Between Widowmaker's dulled emotions and her Apathy power, she couldn't even try to fake emotions at the man. Nothing she could say would matter if it didn't fit the void the man would find when he searched her feelings. With that being the case, she had very few options at her fingertips. So, she drew from a place she rarely went these days.

"We were happy, my husband and I," she began, eyes (disguised a light green) staring at Maynard. "Thinking about starting a family in a few years when the worse happened. His death was horrible and weighed heavy upon me. How could something so terrible happen to good people? I asked myself, what did we do to deserve this? I had been unable to stop it and I hated myself for the weakness it brought out in me."

She drew in a measured breath, mind circling about that fatal night with Gerard. She didn't remember everything that happened that night, but she recalled enough. And though she knew what it felt like, she didn't feel it any more. She couldn't, even if she wanted to.

"When he was gone, I wanted to follow him. I wanted to end it and join him. Just fade away and be granted release from the pain and the helplessness. And then one day, I realized that if this happened to me, happened to the people I knew, then there was no hope left. With that came a clarity I did not have before. Our universe has become poisoned and the only cure is to bleed it dry." She leaned a bit forward on her forearms.

"You want to know how I feel? I feel nothing. Not any more. And I would rather be here with like-minded sentients, pursuing the last remnants of a purpose than shuffling through life as an empty husk pretending everything was alright."

a chance for them to talk, cue an npc tag back in with a note in a comment subject when you're ready

[legionnpcs]

"I feel it yes," says Brother Maynard, holding up a hand towards Garrus, his third eye glowing bright. "You feel worthless and helpless in the face of it all. You watched the one you love die and could do nothing. You understand the bliss that nonexistence will bring."

He turns to Widowmaker and shakes his head slightly, looking at her with his jaw hanging open slightly, like a museum curator marveling over finding a lost masterpiece.

"And you - you truly do feel nothing. Such purity of thought and purpose. There are very few that I know of that have walked in through our doors already possessing such an in depth understanding of the universal truth. Your mind is already completely open to the void. It's marvelous. You're a marvel, my dear."

He stands up and nods to the guide. I need to speak with my superiors and let them know the results of your tests. We'll be back momentarily.

They're left with the two guards and this...this is part of the test, too. They'll be left there with the guards a few minutes and watched for their reactions, to see if they get nervous. Fortunately, their telepathic ear plugs and the psiblockers mean they can communicate nonverbally without being heard. Anything they say aloud is being listened to.

[calibrates_big_guns]

Garrus ... he expected the response that he got, but there goes that word 'love' again.

What surprises him more is Brother Maynard's reaction to Widowmaker. He was aware of Widowmaker's profile, her claims to being free of emotion ... but he's seen her smile, take satisfaction in things, and laugh. She hardly wore her emotion on her sleeves, but she didn't seem as hollow as she might have wanted you to believe - at least not to him.

Up until Brother Maynard looked at her like she was ready to teach the next class of Catastrophist trainees, he'd always just figured she kept a tight lid on her emotions. Now, he wasn't sure what to think. He didn't doubt that they were on the same side, but once again, his opinion of her had shifted.

Maynard exits, and they're left alone with the guards. Garrus stays relaxed in his seat, but his eyes clock the guards, their weapons.

++I figure they're going to keep us waiting for a little while. Let us sweat.++ He sent across the telepathic earpiece.

++What's our next move?++

[araignee_du_soir]

It seemed, for the moment, that her decision to access the depths of her Apathy and some truths from Gerard's death was going to work. She couldn't fool an empath, so she stopped pretending to have emotion, stopped putting on the facade she tended to use to make others more comfortable around her. It was just not particularly easy on her visiting those places again. Or coming back from them.

Typically, terrorist cells put their potential recruits through several trials to test their resolve. The weak, the ignorant and the plants are weeded out through this process, she telepathically thought to Garrus. Given the method of communication, her thoughts reflected her emotionless state, far far more than she ever seemed while talking. We will complete their trials and gain their confidence. One way or another.

[calibrates_big_guns]

++Should be fun.++ He doesn't do it physically, but the telepathic echo of his voice gives the impression that he'd be rolling his eyes.

A little casual given the situation? Sure, but humor was how he dealt with such things.

npcs come to us!

[araignee_du_soir]

For one of us, she telepathically quipped back, not specifying which one of them. It was meant to be humorous, but the cold, emptiness of her thoughts obscured that.

Widowmaker glanced at the door the empath had gone through, wondering how long they were going to keep them waiting. She turned over the section of the map through that doorway in her head, just to occupy herself.

Oh, I have an extraction route already planned if needed, she thought to Garrus. It was probably appreciated information.

Pidge and Inertia

[letsgolegion]

To explain why they come in together, their fake backstory is that they're a teenage couple that escaped to the UP from the slave pits of non-UP planet, Rizak 7. They were forced to murder their own siblings to do so, but hoped that in escaping they'd be able to get help for their planet from the galaxy outside...

Only to find that no one cares. other civilizations in the galaxy are doing nothing to halt their planet's exploitation because the commodities they create aren't worth anything. Their siblings' deaths were for nothing.

Being hit in the face by such an uncaring galaxy has convinced them the only answer is the end of existence - and they've been promised that Chronoblivion has the power to reunite them with their siblings in the afterlife.

They're handed brown robes because apparently this cult wants to be a giant stereotype and are led through the dimly lit hallways to a cultist with purple skin, a shaved head, and a glowing eye on his forehead.

The cultist gestures for them to sit in front of him. Armed cultists with blasters stand to the left of the Legionnaires. The wall opposing them, on the right, is blackened with blaster fire and rutted with holes, making it clear that the price of failing this test is high.

"You'll have to speak to Brother Maynard first. He's an empath. We've found telepathic screening isn't the most reliable, due to the Scipos sending undercover officers that are stronger telepaths than the ones we had working for us. But empaths can sense emotions, they can check to make sure our initiates aren't lying about what they feel, that they feel the misery and nihilistic emptiness that that we know is the ultimate truth."

They're urged to sit.

"You must open your hearts to me," says Brother Maynard. "Tell me why you've come to us. Let yourself feel why you've come to us."

[mirror_soldier]

Falling into the persona of someone disillusioned, abused, and desperate was admittedly a far easier task than when he'd forced himself to spend time impersonating his genetic original. He already had traits that worked for this role and required no embellishment; an innate distrust, wariness of anyone who got too close, and his general cold demeanor, all lent themselves to someone who'd been through everything he supposedly had. He barely needed to act at all beyond keeping his story straight.

It was to a point that he wondered if that was at least somewhat intentional. He didn't know much about Pidge, or if their shared background matched her at all, but in particular, the bit of their story that involved being forced to kill their own siblings felt as if it hit a little too close to home to just be coincidental. But intentional or not, the closer the deception was to the truth the easier it was to hold up the act, and when they were asked to explain their reason for coming here, it was an easy emotional well to draw from to bring up what the empath would be looking for.

"We managed to escaped from Rizak 7, but-..." He paused, both a little unsure of how to word what needed to be said and honestly wanting to avoid it. After a pause, he decides to press past it for now, even if it only gave him a few extra secants. He keeps his voice soft and measured, his expression unaffected as he spoke up again. "We were supposed to get help from the UP. Get them to listen to us about what was happening there. That was the whole point, the only reason I went through with it. But when they did listen they refused to do anything. Some of the people I spoke with acted as if I should just be grateful we were out, as if the rest of our planet shouldn't matter to me anymore." There's another pause and this time there's no more getting around it. Dredging up thoughts of his attempt on Bart's life hardly took any conscious effort. The moment was still too fresh in his mind, the psychological wounds from it raw, untreated and easily reopened, and when he speaks up again, his voice is more distant, despite himself.

"When it had come to choosing him or the mission, there was a point when I didn't think I could do it, but when it came down to the moment, it was easier than it probably should have been." Despite the easy connection between Bart and this fictitious brother, oddly enough it wasn't Bart who'd come to mind but Max. He'd never had misgivings about killing his original, but Max...Max had been a struggle. He'd wanted to stay with him more than anything, but when it had come down to it, he'd still nearly killed him. If it hadn't been for Bart, he probably would have. Just thinking about the man made him feel sick with guilt and self-loathing.

"I told myself that even if he didn't deserve it, it would be for a greater good. That in the end, it would undo a wrong greater than the one I was committing." Bart's words from their actual fight still rang in his head though, and they stung just as hard now as they had then. The moment he realized he'd been deceived had left an empty bitter pit in him that still ached no matter how much he ignored it or tried to fill it. He'd thought that confronting his creator, the man behind his mission, would ease that somehow. That it would give him answers, satisfaction, revenge, something, but finding out he was nothing more than a self-serving, corrupt, egomaniac who saw him as a tool, had only made him more bitter, and thinking back to that brought a slice of that sharp bitterness into his voice and expression.

"But it was all for nothing. Apparently, our people aren't worth the price of saving them. If this group can really bring about the end of the universe through, then they can at least have some chance for peace, which is all I care about. And as far as the rest of this universe is concerned, if they're really so self-serving that they can turn their backs to them, then they deserve to share their fate."

[isthisapidge]

On one hand, Pidge's persona was barely different from herself. She can think of Matt, and the Galaxy Garrison, and the Galra, and their subjugation of the universe. All those emotions can swirl around in her head and her heart and they're exactly what she needs to bluff her way through this. The Legion probably based their personas around their own real-life backgrounds, though she can't know that for sure about her assigned partner. It certainly would have been the smart thing to do.

On the other hand, Pidge has never been known for her ability to keep her emotions in check. These guys want nihilism, which is absolutely at odds with Pidge's default state of fiery hopeful determination. There's no denying to herself that keeping control over her emotions and not lashing out in rage at the cult will be a trial. So while she lets Thad talk, she tries to focus on the Galra empire, the sheer overwhelming size of their fleet, the number of races who have been brought to heel or joined just to avoid the worse fate, and the secret fear of the Paladins, floated in private moments, that the Galra are just too big for five of them to ever stop before they subjugate the universe.

Much more reliable than trying to picture herself killing her brother.

"We tried. We both tried as hard as we could to make people listen to our plight but it seemed like nothing was enough. Even trying to make them see how easily it could have been them...They just wanted to sweep it all under the rug. And if they see our suffering as not worth anything then...then no suffering is worth everything."

[letsgolegion]

"Yes, I feel it. So...cold. But there's also...regret. For who you hurt."

He looks to Pidge.

"And you...so passionate. And outraged. Both have their place in our organization. We need those who understand the nature of hopelessness and those willing to dedicate their passion to our cause."

Brother Maynard stands.

"We need to speak to our superiors. We'll be back shortly."

And with that, he and their guide leave them in the room - with the armed guards. They're going to leave them to sweat it out a bit. Fortunately, they have the ability to communicate with each other silently with their telepathic earplugs.

[mirror_soldier]

Afer watching the two leave, he gives the guards a glance before looking blankly down at the floor. His hands fidget unconsciously for a bit before catches himself and he clasps them neatly together over his knees to keep the habit from being mistaken for nervousness.

Glancing over to Pidge, he debated whether or not it would be appropriate to communicate while they were made to wait it out. He still wasn't really used to working with other people, let alone relying on them.

So far so good, I suppose. He thought at her as casually as could manage, because that's what you do with teammates, right? The words end up coming across more timid then he intended them too, but the next thought manages to better match his usual cadence. Have you had to do work in infiltration before?

[isthisapidge]

Pidge planned to use her time alone to take in the room, see if she could find weaknesses, flaws, potential advantages, but then her eyes settled on the wall with all the holes and-

Well, that ends that. Not that she could find much from this vantage anyway.

Well, if you count being stranded on a ship that had been taken over by enemy forces, then yes. But they knew I was there. Putting up a cover like this, though? Never. I was almost afraid they wouldn't buy it.

She can't start rambling, even in her own head, because then it might make her emotions start rambling.

What about you?

[mirror_soldier]

He doesn't mind the rambling, it just gives him more to go off of, but the possibility of it being due to nerves is somewhat concerning.

It seemed like you did fine. They don't appear the type for lead ons if they find people out. He replied in what he felt was a reassuring way, but probably sounded more flat and blunt, as he also noted the holes in the wall.

I've done something like this, but not in order to gain access to a group. Unless fooling Young Justice counted, but they weren't the type for trials (they barely even bothered with vetting new members), let alone killing. I just took over a pre-integrated persona. Depending on how things go, your experience might be more useful to us then mine.

[isthisapidge]

My job one the ship was more not being seen. And then not getting killed when I was seen. I don't know how useful it'll end up being, unless we have to take out the guards.

She's trying to keep things light, but she's also trying to plan out how badly this could south, and what to do if and when it does.

Anyway, I'm not letting my guard down for a second until we're back on Legion World. They're probably going to make us jump through more hoops. A lot of hoops.