(AL) Session 3-3 - Brief Respite

## Plot

Bagel Squad continue working in the library, allowing the days to go by as they heal up. They struggle somewhat to adjust to time running as it should after the island ordeal. Leslie's concussion heals up a bit more so that wearing sunglasses inside is unnecessary, and Freya is able to walk without the wheelchair, Evie still wears the cast but is in less pain.

Around a week passes, and Rebecka is once again away at Wales on a business trip, Leslie invites the other two out for an 'apology lunch', otherwise known as paying a visit to the address Val gave her and Evie. While in the library, she pretenses this saying that she knows a good Italian restaurant near an old school of hers. The group travel to Leslie's old school, and from there are able to find the building the address belongs to. Making their way through the building, they come across a door where they need to buzz in; Evie buzzes in and an automated voice responds, saying the current resident is not home and to leave a message, to which Evie says "it's Bagel Squad, buddy". After a second, the door opens. The group continues making their way to the correct apartment, where the door to Sergey's apartment is ajar.

Evie knocks on the door as the three enter, with Leslie holding the door open for Freya as they enter. They look around the main room of the apartment, which has bookcases of different designs lining the walls, and a number of artefacts essentially acting like decorations. Evie steps forward onto the rug on the floor and hears a click, she stops moving for fear of activating some sort of trap. Sergey calls from the bedroom, saying that nothing will happen and she can move her foot. He comes out from the bedroom, his cap is gone and his hair has grown out somewhat, showing that his previous buzzcut hid curly hair.

The four of them greet each other, with Sergey throwing a book and a pen towards Leslie, the book being one of the first publications of her thesis, and asks her if she could sign it for him. Evie reveals the box of his medals that she had taken from the armoury and presents it to him, to which he is quite excited to have them back; he presents one of them which represent 50 confirmed kills, which he casually says he stole from someone he had killed. Evie laughs, Leslie and Freya seem to find it odd.

Sergey proceeds to beckon them into the kitchen to make tea and coffee so that they can talk about what's been happening. After making their drinks and sitting at a mahogany table, the group tell Sergey about them being stranded on Pitcairn Island for months, and about everything going on back in the library with Rebecka. Sergey walks over to one of his bookshelves and pulls out a book containing some information he's collected on Rebecka, telling the group about how he's spent some time tracking Rebecka, which got risky when it seemed as though she started doing the same to him. He then pulls out another book and lays it on the table, Leslie starts to read through it and the book reveals information on the 'Duke of Time' which appears to actually be multiple people across multiple instances in time rather than just one person, and Rebecka may be a part of this odd amalgamation.

Sergey comments that during his years working at the library, Rebecka has always been quite cruel and he assumed that she had gotten 'better' overtime. The group let out a traumatised laugh at this and inform him of the threats that she had made to each of them. Leslie telling him about Rina being sent back to Horizon in 'ziplock bags', Evie telling him about herself being sent back to the IED incident, and Freya telling him about Rebecka making the other two beg for Freya to kill them. During each of their reveals, Sergey appears to become more angry and tense, creating a dent in his metal cup. Evie had begun to tremble slightly and he lays a hand on her shoulder in an attempt to comfort her.

The group realise that they likely won't be able to stay too much longer, Sergey asks how they were even able to come to him and Leslie tells him that they came here on their lunch break, pretending to have gone to a restaurant. He asks if that means they haven't actually had lunch yet and they confirm. He immediately says that he'll make them something, a Ukrainian dish from his mother, and tells them that it only takes 5 minutes to make. They follow him into the kitchen where he prepares a bunch of ingredients and puts them into a dish, he brings the dish to the oven and sets a timer for '3'. Leslie points out that he said 5 minutes, to which he informs her that the 3 means 3 hours. Then, without another word, he hooks up a cable to the oven and tells them to stand back saying "it's only exploded once". The oven appears to heat up an extreme amount and sure enough within only 5 minutes the dish has been cooked.

Bagel Squad sit back down at the table and Sergey brings over the dish along with plates and forks, before digging in Evie raises her fork in a mock-toast saying "here's to a meal that isn't breadfruits", Leslie asks why she's still so salty over the breadfruits. The group enjoy as much as the meal they can before the time comes for them to leave so that they can return to the library. Sergey shares individual goodbyes with the group: a firm handshake for Freya, a friendly hug for Leslie and a bear-hug for Evie. He says that the group are free to come to him whenever they need or want to. They share a last goodbye for now and leave.

Upon returning to the library, Arthur asks them to come with him to check something out in the time machine room. They follow him and he shows them the log for the day that they had been sent to the island, showing how compared to the day before it is completely blank, as though absolutely no activity had taken place that day. He comments that it's odd since there's nothing to show that there was any sort of errors or activation of the multiple fail-safes within the machine. He admits that he isn't entirely sure why this had happened or what it means, but just wanted to let the three of them know. Bagel Squad thank him and they leave.

Once they leave the time machine room, Freya once again brings up her desire to go and talk to Diane. Leslie and Evie absolutely do not understand why she wants to antagonise her so much and after some hushed arguing in the halls of the library they eventually agree to come down with her, even if just to make sure she doesn't get herself in major trouble down in the cells. Once outside of Diane's cell, Leslie resolves to stay out of sight and not be involved. Freya begins talking to Diane through the intercom, somewhat sarcastically asking her about her health and such, through the one-way mirror they see Diane simply reading a book and ignoring them. They see that she now has two eyes, one of which being green.

After some more prodding from Freya, Diane eventually gets up and comes up to the glass, stating that it's quite rude to have a conversation when she can't see them. This prompts Freya to switch the mirror to where Diane can see them, revealing Evie to Diane as well as Freya. She asks them where Leslie is, asking if she's dead. Freya (sarcastically?) tells her that Leslie died in a plane crash and Diane asks why they didn't tell her sooner to celebrate. Throughout this Evie simply rolls her eyes and frowns. After some back-and-forth between mainly Freya and Diane with Evie more so standing by, Diane shifts her focus away from Freya towards Evie, creepily commenting that she "likes the big one".

She asks Evie about Sergey, to which Evie simply responds that she won't be telling Diane anything about him. Diane responds saying that Sergey technically 'owes' her and calls Evie his messenger. Diane asks about how she's feeling and Evie once again says that she isn't inclined to tell Diane anything. Diane then steps back and takes out what looks like a heavily modified screwdriver, which she presses into the window, causing a splinter. She then asks if Evie is scared of her, to which Evie responds "no, not necessarily" and Diane says that she'll "maybe be the only one to survive". With that, Diane returns to her bed and her book, casually waving Bagel Squad away. Freya tries to switch the window back to the one-way mirror but the splinter causes a malfunction and she cannot turn it back. Bagel Squad promptly leave and return to their usual duties.

## Featured Characters

* Evie Vinell
* Leslie Bradley
* Freya Von Franc
* Sergey Tysrulnikov
* Arthur Grimes
* Diane Atan

## Major Events

* Bagel Squad meets up with Sergey in his apartment, they tell him about the situation back at the library
* Sergey is revealed to have curly hair