history - through chapter 13

[smokefilledroom]

It's the 1920s in Melbourne, and a post office has been bombed-the fifth in a series of terrorist attacks by a mysterious woman named Violet. A young girl named Petunia Elkwood is dealing with the bad tempered Todd Allison. And somewhere in the city two men sit, one named Meredith, talking about whether one of them is a villain or not.

Soon enough, they're seen again, waiting for the same man who will threaten to blow Petunia's head off. Here the other is named-Elijah-and he is completely distressed over his picture in the newspaper (no one told him his hair sticks up like that) up until their contact, now named Cyril, shows up. Elijah has a job for him, and after hearing Cyril's rules, decides that he's just the man for the job.

Fast forward a bit to the threatening. Cyril drags Petunia inside to meet Elijah and Meredith-where it's revealed in no time that she's their adored little sister. Nearly smothering her from his greeting, he nearly decides Cyril must have done something to her and is about to go off on a crusade of vengeance when she stops him, instead questioning why she's just seen Todd Allison being beaten by people and dragged away just before Cyril found her-which she's already linked to Elijah. While she goes on a tirade about how she'll never forgive him if Todd Allison dies, he tries to make his excuses, but freezes when he hears Todd Allison's name. Something about that name makes him change his mind instantly, then marching in and demanding Cyril go to cancel the job. On top of that, he declares Petunia's going as well, and Cyril must listen to her.

Cyril ends up cluing Petunia into what she already knew-the men were part of a plan Elijah set up. The plan in its entirety was to get a government worker-specifically from the unit that's investigating the Violet bombings-and put them with people that hate the government. Meanwhile Elijah and Meredith have secretly followed behind, staying hidden for the sake of ensuring Petunia wouldn't be upset by them. They get there in time to see a lot of corpses, Cyril leaning against a wall, and a gunshot from a room where Petunia is rescuing Todd Allison. Meredith demands Cyril let them in, but after learning Petunia has a pistol, Elijah says to give it five minutes before doing anything. She ends up killing a man, and Elijah decides it's best to slip out before she notices him and Meredith are there.

Elijah's next seen in Parliament, poring over Todd Allison's file before having to lie himself out of trouble-under the alias "Mr. Gabriel"-and escape to a meeting, a day before Petunia and her friend Hana sneak in to the same building because of Hana's determination to find out more about Violet. The siblings almost run into each other that day, but Petunia escapes Elijah's watch, only finding and crying on Meredith, and Elijah returns to an unconscious man on the floor, no Petunia, and Meredith refusing to divulge details.

Bits of his life are revealed through flashbacks scattered around-though both Elijah and Petunia consider Meredith family, he's not blood related to them, rather he was adopted into their family and Elijah has been attached to him since. Both her brothers have been caring and protective of Petunia since she was small, Elijah to the point that Petunia thought he knew everything. Meredith and Elijah moved to Melbourne from Perth many months ago, and before they did, Elijah harshly warned Petunia away from going with them, getting furious at her idea that it was unfair and telling her that it was final.

The next evening Elijah is seen, he's hanging out of a window just because he thought the rain would feel nice, and looking...less than sane, to be honest. Meredith pulls him back, but Elijah tells him not to worry, that he remembers their "promise." The morning following, gossip is the main source of information about "Elijah Gabriel" from Internal Affairs, colleagues whispering about his position and how he got it through a sponsor, though Lowell Clancey cuts them off before they reveal too much. Later in the day, Elijah's shown with a different colleague, the two going over something. It seems like he's getting frustrated with Elijah, but he's forced not to show it in the face of answering Elijah's completely uncomfortable question of "You don't like me much?", complete with depressed look. Before an answer's really given, Meredith sweeps Elijah off to a meeting with someone known only as Mr. Brampton, a meeting which Elijah insists on being in alone.

Cut before anything else about this Brampton is revealed to the evening, where the brothers are on the roof, looking over papers. Cyril shows up, sarcastically commenting on how nice their job is before Elijah pays him the money he owes for the assignment involving Todd Allison. It seems like that'll be the end of it, but Elijah asks Cyril to stay and smoke with him for a while. The two end up having a conversation about dying, in which it's revealed that Cyril doesn't worry at all, seeing death as inevitable, that all humans bleed and rot in the end. Elijah takes a different view, expressing that he does worry sometimes, and apologizing for even asking if it was such a personal topic, wondering if Cyril had such strong views because of offense taken or if "you don't like me that much?", not even bothering to hide how it's meant to provoke Cyril. Offense taken now, Cyril leaves, remarking that he'll see Elijah in hell, and takes the opportunity to prod Meredith on the way out.

Meredith looks to his brother, and remembers last night and the restatement of the promise Elijah brought up-"When this is all over, you have to kill me." For a moment, Elijah looks almost sad, then turns back with his usual smile, as if nothing distressing even happened.