Chapter Text
“You know, from TV?”
“Oh… Oh! Is that why I know your face?” That’s the wrong answer, almost instantly. It’s a shame, too, because Taako had a good feeling about this guy. But if he’s recognized, he isn’t safe.
“It’s just a thing I say. Haven’t actually been on the air in years.” Taako has to get out of here, but he needs to end the conversation naturally. Running will look suspicious. At worst, someone could call the police. At best, this guy might try to help him.
“Well, what was the name of the show? I might know it.” This guy--Magnus, he’d said--is staring at him with an uncomfortable intensity. He’s like some kind of jock, Taako thinks, and this is probably the most brain power he’s put into anything in a decade. What an unfortunate use of it.
“You don’t.” That much, Taako can guarantee beyond a doubt. “Listen--”
“No, really, I’m determined now! Merle, can you pin this guy?”
The third figure at the table is a dwarf who looks a few centuries out of place in this club. So these two did come together. Taako can’t fathom why. Like, did this guy bring a friend’s grandpa in here?
Said grandpa is now looking Taako over with a newfound scrutiny. The total lack of augmentations on Magnus is what drew Taako to the table in the first place. Now it’s the only thing keeping him from sprinting out the door. Merle doesn’t look like he has any tech good enough to photograph or ID people, either, but it’s still a relief when the old man shrugs.
“Couldn’t tell ya! If I’ve seen him before, he may as well have been a patient at my old job, ‘cause I sure don’t remember any of those faces…”
“You literally recognized me yester… Oh, shit!” Magnus turns back to Taako with a grin. Taako’s hand darts to his side, near his weapon.
“Those broadcasts, on the Institute TV’s!” Magnus continues, looking absolutely elated. Taako freezes. “Department updates, safety stuff--I knew I remembered you; there were two of you!”
“Sorry?” Taako knows he doesn’t have any memory-space augmentations in his head. He knows this, but his thoughts are going in a loop, looking for some way this guy could’ve somehow read his mind, his memories. It’s impossible to read a fully-organic brain, at least without a thorough scan, and you can’t do those subtly.
“You--You had a twin!” Magnus’ grin is faltering, slightly. “You guys researched tech stuff, forefront of the whole Institute, and she was all about… energy sources? I actually met her once, and she was so cool, she made blasters as a hobby! And, and, sometimes there was this other guy on your channel, in jeans?” Magnus is babbling on, looking increasingly desperate. Taako is staring at him with wide eyes, which he’s apparently interpreting as a blank expression.
“No, I know all of that shit,” Taako cuts him off. “How the hell do you know that?”
Magnus looks incomprehensibly relieved, like he’s just finished a race with his eyes closed, and then gotten told that he won.
“Ohhh, I remember now,” Merle says. “You sciencey nerds got eight people sent to the infirmary with that blaster explosion that one time!”
“The Institute isn’t real,” Taako says, echoing a thought he’s heard and hated countless times. “You cannot tell me that the first fuckin’ people in ten years to actually remember it are a couple of losers in a club!”
“Now, that’s just hurtful.” Magnus is a bit distracted, rummaging through his bag. That’s another thing that stands out, the physical bag. Most folks these days just go for pocket-dimension lockers, but it looks like this guy’s gone full analog in every way.
“Not wrong, though,” Merle adds with a chuckle.
Magnus pulls something out of his bag, careful not to unearth everything else along with it. It’s a red cloth of familiar color… and shape. He turns it upright in his hands, and then holds it up to Taako.
The jacket is old and ragged, sewn together in a dozen places and sporting holes in a dozen more. The tag behind the neck looks like it might have had a name on it once. And on the front, there’s a patch.
Dark blue, with the emblem of an hourglass filled with multicolored sand. It’s immediately familiar, but the kicker is the four-letter initialism emblazoned across the patch.
Taako has had ten years to get familiar with every tear and patch on his own, near-identical jacket, and that’s the only thing keeping him from accusing Magnus of stealing it. This one belongs to Magnus. Magnus was in the ITRE.
“Shit,” Taako whispers, staring at the letters. He knows, with more certainty than he has known almost anything, that he cannot let these people go. They’re the only people who remember. They’re the only people who might help him find--
“Wait, if we’re the first people you’ve met who remember, does that mean your sister forgot?”
“Wouldn’t know,” Taako says, looking at his nails so he doesn’t have to meet eyes.
“Oh--Oh, I’m sorry--” Magnus begins, but Taako cuts him off.
“No, no, don’t give me any of that sympathy bullshit, she’s not dead,” Taako snaps. He doesn’t like the empathetic recognition in Magnus’ eyes, and he really doesn’t like the sorrow in that look. “I’m gonna find her. She’s just off the grid, like us.”
“You don’t think she’d… y’know, get an ID again? At some point?”
“Are you kidding me?” Taako rolls his eyes. “She’s not stupid. When you get a free pass to shed the government’s eyes on your whole life, you don’t just walk back up and hand them your name again.”
"Yeah, okay, got me there," Magnus says, looking a little uncomfortable. "Guess I didn't know anyone else had beef with, uh, government… people. I mean-- now that I say that out loud, I--"
"Aw, man, my ID! That's what I keep forgetting to do," Merle says.
"For ten years?"
"Well, keep forgetting," Taako says.
"You got it, pal!"
Seeing someone who remembers it all is such an enormous relief, even if it doesn't mean anything yet. Taako knows, despite every habit he's made in the past few years, that he's got to hold on to these people like his life depends on it, because his sister's might. It's all a means to an end. As long as he can get her back.
So he can't let these idiots slip through his fingers, not when they could be his only lead--
"...Anyway, I was thinking we could get together, travel around a bit," Magnus is saying. "Merle and I've got a job, actually-- like, a one-time gig-- and I wouldn't mind the extra backup, but it's kind of under-the-table and I dunno how you feel about…"
--Oh, that works too.
"Sounds like a plan!" Taako cuts into Magnus's rambling again. "How well's it pay?"
"Lemme preface this by saying that it sounded ominous to me too," Magnus says, "But our client said it'd be the last job we ever need to take."