It was damaging information and would increase not only Gwen's doubts about Alexander but about herself as well. Leaving the young woman wrapped up in vulnerable emotions and making her weak as she tried to get away from him. Stephanie watched as the elevator disk lit up and they continued to wait with nothing happening. Jason asked confused about the delay, and Stephanie grinned internally, knowing what it probably was. It meant, either Gwen or Alexander would be coming up alone--
Another? Hm, that was interesting. So they'd picked up someone else along the way. It wasn't something they'd anticipated but she doubted it changed much. Gwen had already fixated on Alexander back at the apartment - her writing a book about him had been evidence of that. It was unlikely that Gwen would be shaken loose from that fixation so easily. Well, now the possibility was most definitely open with the seeds having been planted for their trust to crumble. She wasn't worried and she mentally rolled her eyes as Benoit got upset and angry over not knowing about this other person or being able to identify them.
She almost smiled at Jason as he was dragged forward by Jean and slowly lowered from sight on the disk. Waiting for the thing to respawn, she turned to Benoit and idly asked, "What is the name? You said there was only a name and a file number. Who is it?"
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Why couldn't he just be the way he seemed? Why couldn't there be one man, just ONE who could be everything she liked and hated about him and actually love her back? And why did they always try to victimize her? Did she have a frigging sign on her forehead? Or did she just have a talent - a hidden super power - for attracting narcissistic men? Now more than ever she felt the weight of all that had happened pushing down on her. She just wanted it to be over and to have a relationship with someone that the worst thing that would happen if he lied and betrayed her would be he cheated on her with someone else. As opposed to actually endangering her life and selling her out to the "bad guys".
She stood beside him in the hallway near the elevators and she just stared at him trying to make it fit, trying to just hate him for what he was planning on doing - and Xander had the nerve to pretend he didn't remember the city, even after she'd just said it. Gimme a break, Mr. I-Need-To-Find-My-Body! His plan to break in here was almost as faulty as the banshee's insistence that they search the computer for her own in the middle of everything and just about as neurotically fervent.
At the same time as wanting to get away from him, of just leaving and never seeing him again, she also found herself wanting an explanation. After what she'd been through, she really did feel like everyone knew something she didn't - which was really odd considering that she could read just about everyone's thoughts - as if there was something that was wrong about her. She could almost make herself believe that he'd chosen her for some reason, right from the beginning. And that possibility, more than anything else, made her feel incredibly wounded. It made her realize how much she'd liked him and how much she'd invested in him and for him to turn around and cut her like he was going to... She'd been so stupid...
Brought back to the present by David's inclusion into the conversation - oh, right. She'd forgotten about him a little bit - she agreed that they should try and find something to defend themselves with. Gwen's powers gave her only a slight advantage over what these people were supposedly capable of, and even compared to what the techies had known how to do with their training, it was right at her level. With Stephanie's impenetrable wall of static, if Gwen went up there, she would be stuck with normal taijutsu without any psychic advantage - anyone within a few feet of Stephanie would be enveloped within the static as well - and she would be useless like that.
But Xander's alternative plan was not one she agreed with. Oh, right. He was going to go up there and "beat them up" and come back down to get David and her and everything would be hunky-dory? No. She knew what was likely to happen - he'd go up there and in the cloak of Stephanie's block, they'd all have a little meeting and hash out the details of the deal they were going to make. Then their Agent friends would disperse "defeated" and he'd come down and proceed to drag her to Charlton where he'd get his reward and hand her over. Nice try. She was done playing the fool.
"No. I'm going with you now," she said and started forward after him, stopping in her tracks as he did, doubling over and gripping his head in both hands. Something was wrong. Reaching out mentally, she gasped harshly and nearly fell over as the pounding pain in his head assaulted her as well. Instantly, jarred and vulnerable, she retreated from him and closed him off from her senses, blinking and breathing heavily as she stared at him. And still in her head she remembered the terrifying sound of Alex screaming in agony.
It seemed like all of her previous hatred for him disappeared and sympathy and confusion filled it's place. The goggles. He'd said they'd give him a really bad headache, didn't he? Well, now he had it and she suddenly was at a loss for what to do, but desperately wanting to help him. They didn't have time to sit around and wait for it to run it's course, but she had no idea how to solve it. "Alex?" she asked hesitantly reaching out a hand to him, feeling sorry that she'd been so angry before, almost as if this sudden excruciating pain was her fault.
Then David was suddenly leaving - she'd been mildly aware of the conversation he'd been having with Maggie but hadn't been paying too much attention, completely focused on what was happening to the ever-ready hero. As he walked past her, telling her what he was planning, she whipped her head around to give him an anxious, blue-eyed look, before she was left glaring after him. "What the hell, David? Thanks a lot, you coward!"
She kept a link up with him even as he disappeared around a corner, but then she found herself looking back at the lowering elevator and the man standing upon the disk platform. Her breathing came in labored gasps and she quivered in place as she looked him over, his tall, wide bulk of muscle and flesh being more than enough to crush her without blinking, and she realized just how utterly helpless she was. There was nothing she could do before he'd stepped forward and was smashing his fist into Xander's body, making her flinch in response, looking towards the empty hallway where David had disappeared as if he might return suddenly to help her somehow.
So many distractions. She hadn't even noticed he was there until her head was jerked back and her air was cut off with a sharp yank of the goggles strap. Surprise clouded her mind and her hands flew up to grip the front of the goggles to pull them back and stop him from trying to choke her, frantically reaching out mentally to try and figure out who was attacking her. She figured it out just as he spoke and she was able to get a few images from his head before he reacted and closed her off.
"Jason!!" she gasped aloud, her right hand flying back to catch him in the face. He saw it coming a mile away however and easily tossed his head out of the way. Her left elbow came shooting back into him right on the heels of his dodge and she caught him in the gut, but he wouldn't let go. The blow had landed but seemed to bounce right off of him. She couldn't do anything so long as he had a hold on them, his grip on them as fierce as if his life depended on it - from her previous times connecting with him, she knew it did.
Gwen was loathe to give them up. Not only were they her new special thing that gave her an extra special boost with her powers - and plus, she really liked them and enjoyed using them - but she knew once he had them, his suit would be complete again and his already present physical advantage would go up. As it was, every time he pulled on them, she felt her air cut off and dizzyness overcame her - she couldn't fight him like this. She had to give them up.
Tucking her chin and pulling back against the goggles with her hands, she stretched the strap and slid her face through them, her hair briefly tangling with the machinery of the eyepieces before she slipped away from him. Her breathing coming labored now, a hand went to her throat and she looked for him but couldn't find him. He was invisible! Like the ladder and the doorways had been! Shit! And he was doing a good job of keeping her from seeing too far into his mind - probably something he'd learned from Stephanie although he hadn't done this good of a job last time.
Physically and mentally, she wasn't going to win - but really all she needed to do was distract him enough to get away. The best she could do was unsettle him in some way. "There. Happy now? Don't feel too bad that I got your little text buddy Gary to destroy everything on them. He's such an idiot, he did it, no questions asked with lots of "lol's" and "hugs"."
She knew that would mean a lot to him, that she'd had the system reset and he'd have to start everything over. She just hoped that maybe he'd be distracted enough to actually try and ask Gary right now, giving her enough time to do something. Glancing at Xander and the other guy, she bit her lip and turned back searching the empty hallway for her opponent. There was a temporary blip of thought just a few feet from her and she circled away from it warily before he disappeared again.
Something else, something else! She had to get away from him so she could help Xander! Where the fuck was David!? "So, Stephanie, huh? You like a dominant woman who shoves you around like that? Like to be owned by your ladies? And everyone knows. Does that get you off, Jason? Got a little bit of a humiliation fetish?" Off to her right, between her and Xander and Jean now, she felt another pulse of emotion and she moved further away from him back towards the elevator with a smirk on her face. "Or are you just too big of a pussy to do anything about it? She's a spoiled brat. A child. and you let her get away with so much - for what? A perfect record? Give me a break. You either like her molesting you, or you've got no spine at all. And like I said - and I should know - they all know about it. Sure, someone who follows orders makes a good team player and they might promote you or whatever - but it's unlikely they'll ever let someone like you lead others. Specially with how weak the suit makes you."
She was running out of things to bait him with - although the particular memories she had grabbed before he'd shut her off had really surprised her. When she'd originally thought that Stephanie should pursue Jason in a relationship, she hadn't had that in mind. The woman seemed incapable of healthy social interaction. And now she didn't feel anything from him at all. She had no clue where he was, but she was standing right in front of the still cycling elevator, her feet light and ready to move out of the way as soon as he made an angered dive at her. That is...if he would at all.