Xaviers!

"Now play it cool," the Morrigan says to Tereza as they start down the alleyway.

"The junkies down this way are a little easy to spook. Still, I'm not sure they just hallucinated this."

"Hallucinated what?" Tereza asks, frowning at the word 'junkies'.

"Something about a man who wasn't there."

The man who wasn't there was a consistent raving of the addicts in this area of Lambeth. Some described him as a voice, some as an empty coat. Others still as a bearded "Man With No Name", and a rare few as a caveman who hadn't yet learned the decency of a loin cloth, but all of them described him as disappearing and re-appearing which meant he had to have been a ghost as far as they were concerned.

To date, no one had bothered to inspect or check in on these claims as group hallucinations were known to exist even without the presence of narcotics.

All agreed he haunted the one, private room in this horrid squalor and none of them dared to go in for fear of what the man might do to them if they did.

The junkies mostly ignored the two of them until they got close to the room, the door of which was closed to outside distractions. It was then one of them blurted out a warning.

"Don't go in there lassies! You won't like what you find!"

Tereza looks at the man, pure intimidation in that glare. "We can take care of ourselves."

"Even if it is a ghost, that's my meat and bread," she says as she tries the door.

For a moment he seemed as if he might still be in the mood for arguing, but some other thing distracted him fully in the matter only the heavily stoned would be and left them to their devices.

Sam would find the door locked, but it didn't seem like anything a good solid blow couldn't fix, if they weren't looking to be subtle.

"Feel like blowing off some steam?" She asks Tereza.

"If you want to make a grand entrance, I can certainly open the way," Tereza says as she cracks her knuckles, "but if this is someone you're hoping to make nice with, I don't know that barging in will get you the best results."

"Just thought I'd offer," she shakes her head and raps her knuckles on the door.

There wasn't an answer but after a moment, the door would be heard to unlock and then swing open.

All and all it'd be a very clever trick indeed, if it had been played on one of the junkies or any two mutants who couldn't otherwise identify there was something very much alive in this room. The smell and mental presence of him were subtle, but still there.

Tereza raises an eyebrow and looks at Sam, twitching her nose to indicate that she smells something.

"Oh, he's in there definitely," she says quietly, making her way in.

Tereza steps forward, nose and ears alert for trouble, but willing to take the brunt of any retaliation.

And then he did something very foolish and not at all clever.

The weight of him, (what little was left) came bearing down on Tereza's back from his hiding spot behind the door in an attempt to get the drop on her. It kind of felt like he hadn't really considered what he'd do when he had though as any savvy person would have beaned her as soon as they could.

Tereza's response is relatively swift and predictable, twisting with the weight on her back and slamming herself backwards against the doorway, trying to sandwich whoever had just attacked her between her and the door frame.

It worked to an extent and the unseen form let go of her, but his small frame and general invisible status allowed him to scurry away, The Morrigan could feel he was doing so with some kind of frantic purpose in mind.

"...there," the Morrigan says, her eyes tracking something unseen as she points.

Tereza lunges as directed, reaching to grab anything of the individual that she can get her hands on.

Tereza get's a good grip on his leg, but not quick enough to keep him from reaching his goal. A large bag, which he clutches to his chest and pulls a Walther P99 from it. One can assume what it's probably loaded with.

"Have a go love! It'll be the last thing you taste!"

Tereza freezes, but doesn't let go, sniffing for the tell-tale tang of silver from the gun on reflex.

"If you harm her, you're going to have the worst time of your life."

"And I'll make certain it... lingers."

"You birds started this! I didn't knock on your door uninvited!"

Tereza did indeed smell silver, where he would have gotten such things was a wonder.

"All you had to do was not open the door. Open door's like an invitation to some people," Tereza said, staring at him.

"You were looking. People have tried to take down that door, and pick the lock, but no one has knocked before.

Which means you knew I was in here. You were looking for me. Why should I assume you benevolent?"

The voice seemed sharp enough mentally, though maybe a bit paranoid. But who could blame him with the world the way it was now.

"Because the Authority wouldn't have sent just one of her."

"And if I were one of them, your leg would be over there," she gestures with her free hand, "as punishment for attacking me."

"Still would have got you before I bled out..." He murmured. There was some shuffling sounds as the invisible man stood upright with his backpack, the gun pointing at Tereza dropped to the entity's side and floated along towards the door. It closed again, presumably re-locked.

The entity brought his bag with him and grabbed an empty chair which he annoying drug across the floor to a calculated spot in front of the only mirror in the room, and now they could see him too.

His bag he draped over the chair back which allowed them some level of censorship from his nakedness, as he sat in the chair backwards, his legs straddling either side of the seat.

Apparently trousers weren't an important part of negotiations afterall.

"Talk." Demanded the wild, naked man.

"There aren't many of us left that they haven't gotten to. We had to take a chance when we heard about you."

He didn't seem impressed much as he played with his beard.

"Well good job finding me. You can mark that off your 'weird shit to see before I die' bingo card.

What's next, Giant Heads or World's largest ball of twine?"

"You're obviously no friend of their's, packing silver like that. What if we said we were interested in hurting them and making it stick?"

"I would say you're fighting a dying battle." He replied. "Just because I was to protect myself doesn't mean I am looking for a fight."

"We can set you up in a place that's better than this."

"What's in the bag?"

"Oh, but I like it here. No one bothers me.

Usually."

His eyebrows raised at Sam's question.

"Oh you know, rations, my poncho, the liquefied remains of a once great woman kept in a hermetic glass jar.

All the usuals."

Tereza raises an eyebrow at the last item, leaning back against the wall in a deceptively relaxed stance.

"But 'remains' tends to imply something that died."

"That's not dead."

"No." He replied, reaching in to fish out what he'd been referring to.

What he removed was a sealed tight glass jar, about the size of an American football. It was filled with a gelatinous substance that held the slightest tinge of pink still, but was otherwise translucent. Inside the goop was a dark, nondescript organ which wasn't responding to outside stimulus.

"She's not exactly doing cartwheels either."

"What happened to her?"

He was silent for a long spell before answering. The mixed expression in his eyes showed that this wasn't an easy topic for him to broach.

"The Authority isn't the only thing to worry about out there you know....

She thought she was invulnerable, but throwing herself on a explosion to protect me tested that theory and found it lacking.

These are the bits I could salvage. They thankfully got stuck to me so I didn't have to worry about spending time collecting them."

Tereza looks sympathetic, "I'm sorry she's not with you. I know how much that hurts."