Matchsticks

[Nick Ryder]

"You've met Jack's kids right?" Nick said as he gestured to a hole in the wall. "Jason and Mackenzie found a ball that someone left in here... they though it would be a good idea to play catch... overhand." he chuckled lightly.

[Rebecca Talon]

"Well, you have a point there. She's a good kid and even better with Ethan."

[Nick Ryder]

"I always liked Ethan, glad at least you have him more. Boy needs his mother." Nick said with a nod of his head. "Look, before you say anything... I'm not going to try and get you into anything. I learned a long time ago pushing you into something never ended well." he sighed. "We've never not talked to each other this long."

[Rebecca Talon]

"Yeah, sorry about that," she said. "I hope you didn't think I was mad at you or something, though I know you did. I needed to figure some things out. Thanks to your daughter, and Ironically your uncle I think I have."

[Nick Ryder]

"Well that's good. They always seem to know the right things to say." Nick said as he got up and opened a bottle of soda. "So what did you figure out?"

[Rebecca Talon]

"Well, I guess that depends on you. First if something happens to me, can you care for Kim and Ethan? Secondly, if I go crazy and become Bellatrix can you kill me?"

[Nick Ryder]

"To the kids, of course I would and I have." Nick said and then shook his head. "You are not going to turn into Bellatrix. Bitchy Becca maybe but not a Bellatrix. There's as much chance of that happening as there is of me going full Dominus and you know that isn't going to happen."

[Rebecca Talon]

"You know, I would have thought the same for Kat. Aside from you and Nancy she was my closest friend. It oftentimes doesn't take much to give some a nudge. The right justification for doing the wrong thing for the right reasons. There's a reason Jase'dasis don't train adults and the Ajem'dasis do. I have to know that you will do what is nessicary without hesitation, or I will dissapear, pack up and leave Terra Alpha.

"I saw that moment when I would fall from grace. That moment when Bartym's life was literally in my hands, I wanted to eliminate him. I nearly did despite your orders. And in that moment I saw a future where my justifications for evil became more and more convoluted, and in the end I became no better than Dominus.

"It scared me Nicholas," she said shaking. He head hung and a single tear streaked down her cheek. "But, if I stay here on Terra Alpha I won't be able to sit on the sidelines."

[Nick Ryder]

Nick put his hand on her's and looked in her eyes. "Becca, we've known each other most of our lives and we've both fallen from grace at some point or another. We always manage to find our way back. Still, why do you think you could be anything like Bellatrix? She had Teri's hand cut off, luckily it was a clean cut and we've got surgeons that are experts that fixing that kind of injury of late, but I can't see you turning cruel like her." he sighed. "I don't want you to go and honestly... I'm more worried about what would happen to you if you did leave. It's not as if you can't cloister yourself here. Why do you think for the past six months I've been working like mad trying to get things in place so that I don't have to be here."

He handed her a padd. "My exit strategy. I've watched a man with my face kill tens of millions. Alice doesn't... quite know this yet. Plan is, eliminate his threat and then... disappear. Nicholas Ryder has had a very long, very distinguished career. There's already a memorial park named after me. I talked it over with Dom and the 'other' me that went with the Siofrans and Nancy. We're all going to disappear. If Dominus succeeds in destroying the Earth... there's no coming back from that. For either of us. If the mission doesn't kill me, then this face is going away, I've got some aliases that I'm trying to get set up so that when the time comes, I can live under those. But that means I'm dead. There's no coming back from that. I'm not pulling a Julie and faking it and then coming back months or years later and expect to pick up. I... can do something similar for you. If Bellatrix is at his side, both our faces, our names are going to be mud. We're going to have to prove we're not the 'bad ones'. Jack, now Clint are going through similar issues. Clint's helps him out since now he can blame anything he did while controlled by K'n'zy as Bartyn. And let's be honest with ourselves, when Trinity returns, and I know she's coming back somehow... it won't be the same her. All this because of people with our faces, that represent our darkest aspects of ourselves."

[Rebecca Talon]

"Our last ride?" She said with a smirk. "I think... I think that I would like that. It's already confusing as it is having duplicates of everyone. Old Ethan doesn't even see me as his mother. In his mind she died long ago."