The mansion in Marseille, France.
Jean and Isis were walking along the grounds of the manor when he asked the woman, "What do you think?"
It was an empty question and he could have been asking her of many things but she knew exactly what he wanted. She smiled with a soft puff of a laugh through her nose and she said, "I think we're in trouble this time around..."
"Why do you say that?" Jean asked.
"Because all signs point to something big. There is only so long before the governments are out for blood, before they want to study us, before they want to weaponize us. We're going to be in trouble. We may be in more danger from the people we intend to protect, as opposed to our own enemies..."
"You think so?"
"I just feel it. Whatever it is that is coming, it doesn't feel good."
"What do you think of our new friends?"
"Friends... You know I don't do well with those Jean?"
Jean chuckled and said, "But you're not like Molly, Isis, I can mask you. Are you going to stay this time?"
"For a little while. I kind of promised someone something..."
Jean, surprised, showing it well in his old French face said, "You made a promise to someone? That is new. Are we changing after all of these years?"
"No, Jean, I'm not changing at all. He just reminds me of myself back in the day..."
"You haven't changed in nearly thirty years and you want to talk about 'back in the day'?"
Isis laughed softly and hugged herself against the cold morning air. "Alright. He is very much like me; full of pain, rage, sadness-just wants to make amends."
"Oh, yes, that does sound a lot like you..."
"He set his family ablaze, I crushed mine in a sphere of darkness that I couldn't control, didn't understand, all because a Shade attacked. I was trying to save them. I don't know if he was attempting to save his family at the time but I know what he did and I know he is very sad about it. I know what he feels. I know what it feels like to believe that if you'd had just a little more control then you could have saved them as opposed to condemning them with powers outside the lines of your control."
"It was an inevitable end. There is little that we can do when these things happen. We try, but we fail. We all fail sometimes."
"But why have the responsibilities that come along with these powers to fail so often. I feel like we're breeding in weakness-fighting a Goddamned losing battle. I am left with this stinging pain, Jean, only because I feel responsible for so many that I wasn't able to save. When will we come out on top, when will our power burgeon so that we can destroy those that deserve it will little to no resistance? Why fight so hard to lose so many?"
"I haven't the answers for those questions," Jean said solemnly and Isis knew that it hurt the man not to have them. She smiled at him softly. He was an old man after her very own heart. She looked away from him, watching the ground ahead of her feet. "You know, Jean, I love you."
"You do, Isis?"
"Oh, don't be like that."
Jean laughed as Isis took a hold of his arm closest to her and walked closer to him. "Well," he said, "I love you too, Isis. And I really want you to stay here this time. It is enough not to be able to have Molly here with me. I don't have many of my friends with me. Delilah is in Paris and Daath will not come back."
"I will stay..." Isis said. But her mind drifted away to Daath soon enough. They needed him.