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Though he is not proud of it, Rei has become an incredible liar.
In his defense, he has to be, otherwise he fears he may completely lose himself to madness.
While John made his way back to the dorms, Rei kept watch from above on nearby buildings, and his posture did not relax until the building doors shut behind the raven hair boy and there was no explosion following. It was starting to get chilly; the morning air whipped harshly at his face and turned his already unruly hair into even more of a mess. Though his eyes were burning, and a dull ache was blooming in his lower back, Rei had felt more rested from the previous night than he had in weeks. Maybe because he wasn't awaiting death, expecting to be strangled in the middle of the night or wake up with a knife in his chest. A small smile pulled at his lips, he had actually felt like a young adult who was sneaking out of college for a late-night snack trip rather than...whatever he was now.
Unfortunately, all good things come to an end, and Rei knew that if he did not return soon his boss would come looking for him and he didn't think he could lie his way out of that one. And so, he dropped the smile from his face and allowed his eyes to unfocus just enough to look mentally absent. Two clicks on a device from his pocket and the feeling of falling-it took him several weeks to no longer flinch-and he found himself back at the front doors of what he supposed was now his home. He allowed himself two more seconds to take a deep breath before pushing the large metal doors open and stepping into EMBER's headquarters.
There were murmurs,
look who's back
took him long enough
still alive?
Some were more aggressive,
not dead yet?
I'll kill him myself
he's lucky his ability is useful
Rei pretended not to hear the comments, though everyone around him knew it was his eye that was damaged and not his ears, pretending wouldn't cause them to stop. He pondered, as his steps echoed along the steel walls, if he activated his ability and fried every single one of them if their comments would stop. With a huff he jerked his head to the side-maybe they would think he was insane, maybe he was-and tried to clear the thought from his mind. There wasn't much to comment on about the building, it was meant to look like some agency from the outside and a little bit on the inside, so there were a few chairs and desk splattered aimlessly around to give the impression that this wasn't some screwed up mental hospital. Deeper inside though, where no one dared to scream, lest it echo and attract the attention of the higher ups who wouldn't hesitate to stab their flaming claws through an innocent teenager's chest, the leaders of EMBER watched over their employees.
'Or their prisoners,' Rei thought bitterly.
From a balcony up high, green eyes seemed to gaze into his soul and Rei had to bite his tongue to keep from glaring up at the man. It was sort of funny, in the past, Rei couldn't imagine looking at anyone with the amount of disdain he held for Brims. But Brim's had also stabbed him through the chest with burning flame claws that hurt like a bitch, and sometimes he woke up holding in a scream from the phantom pain in his chest, so he was allowed to be a little salty. Despite his thoughts, Rei flashed a bright smile up to the man and waved as if greeting an old friend. Brims and the green haired lady next to him, Fury, both waved back at him with their own fake, forced, and blatantly hateful smiles. 'Good," Rei thought, 'I hope they do hate me.' The only one Rei didn't make eye contact with from the balcony was the blonde haired, golden eyed, murderer who ran over the place. It was honestly hard to believe that all three of them went to work every day under different names and no one suspected them of kidnapping, torturing, and even killing so so many people.
"X," came a call from above, because they wouldn't use his full hero name. He might actually remember who he is and decide to attack them. Rei laughed to himself, he hoped that he scared them, that would be funny. He knew what they wanted though, and he was honestly tempted just to keep walking back to his room so he could relish in their faces turning red with anger, but he had to remember that he was supposed to be meek and submissive to them.
That didn't mean he couldn't also be a menace though.
So he kept walking, right past the stairs that led up to the balcony and then paused. There were a few more murmurs that circled around him, about how he was childish and should grow up. He merely smirked at these comments though, because at least this little stunt was closer to his actual personality.
"X!" There was the expected call, so he rounded around the corner and plastered a huge grin on his face, "Kidding!" And with energy that he most certainly did not actually possess, he quickly hopped up the stairs and faced the three adults who had absolutely ruined his life with a smile. "How was the mission," Fury asked. She was the only one who seemed to actually believe his bullshit happiness act. Yes, he had them all convinced they had successfully brainwashed him and removed all that made him Rei. Sure, there were a few things that they managed to destroy in his mind. He hadn't been lying to John when he said he couldn't remember his birthday or the names of those close to him, and when he tried to think of their appearances, they did come up blurry in his mind. Rei was sure however, that if he were to see them in person, he would recognize them on the spot. Fury, however, was convinced that he was just a naturally cheery person and that no amount of brainwashing would take that away.
'Maybe it's just in his nature to be happy.'
Rei snickered to himself.
"Fine, there is little no vigilante action in Wellston," probably because EMBER had already taken care of the few people who were, "but even so, the few people who have been distributed amplifiers have made no action either." At his words, Brims' face settled into a frown, his hand coming up to run a frustrated hand through his hair. "Why? It's not like there is a lack of low tiers in Wellston, there are plenty of opportunities to test out their new strength." Rei held in his scoff and simply shrugged before Fury set her hand on his shoulder, her grip tight. "This morning, continue your patrol and see if there is any difference." 'I just got back,' Rei inwardly whined but gave Fury a curt nod nonetheless.
"X," and despite his amazing self-control, a chill still ran down his back as Volcan spoke up next to him. When she had gotten so close, he wasn't sure, but he could feel her breath against his neck and fought to keep his posture upright and hide any sense of fear that may have racked his body. "These past few missions, you have come back later than usual. It is true that there is no time limit on patrol duty, but I find it odd that you've been spending more and more time out on the field rather than your room." Brims and Fury both looked at him, and Rei could feel Volcan's eyes practically burning into his skin. A part of him still wanted to fall to his knees and accept his fate, accept that he would never get out of this place.
A few months ago, he almost did accept that fact. When the endless beatings left him gasping for air, when the withdrawals from several drugs pumped into his body made his head want to split in two. When he would catch a glimpse of himself in the mirror-that he ended up breaking after the second month-and realize he even looked beyond saving. There were times where Rei had curled into a ball in the farthest corner of the room and wept, where he cried and screamed until his throat was raw or until someone came to shut him up. There was a phantom pain in his chest whenever he breathed too heavily, his left eye was always dry, itchy, and foggy, his knees cracked when he moved a certain way, his left pointer and middle finger always felt stiffer than the others. Rei had long ago accepted that some part of him really would never leave this place. There was a part of him that died in that alleyway, and there was a part of him that died here.
He just hoped that the part of him that died here wouldn't end up being all of him.
So, if he was going to eventually make it out, he had to face these challenges head on. Rei turned his head and met the blazing gold eyes of Volcan who narrowed her eyes as if she could see into his soul better that way. "Truth be told, I've been keeping watch over an interesting individual." There had to be some truth in his words, or else they would never believe him. "Oh, and what is so interesting about this individual?" A smirk played on Volcan's face, "not many things capture your attention nowadays, you always seem so absent." Ignoring the hum of agreement that was made from Brims, Rei slightly nodded his head. "He has been present every night that I have been on patrol, and he was even attacked at one point."
"Can you describe what this guy looked like, maybe we already have him in our database." Fury began to pull out her phone, but a hand from Volcan stopped her.
"Is that why you attacked that group of men a few weeks ago?" Shit, "Yes ma'am, I stopped their ambush after noticing that the boy held no ability." A brief look of confusion crossed Volcan's face. "I simply wanted to further investigate why someone like him would repeatedly put himself in danger like that." Brims made another hum of acknowledgement, "maybe there is something he needs from there. Has he been visiting a specific place?" Rei shook his head, "every time I see him he's in a different area." Fury gave a quite chuckle, "could be our next customer if he keeps digging around in areas he shouldn't." Rei made a mental note to tell John not to visit the apartment for the next few weeks, just in case one of those three decided to personally look into the matter. "I see," Volcan finally added, "continue as you were X, but report to us if you find anything noteworthy." Rei nodded, "yes ma'am," and turned to make his leave.
His nails dug into his palms as he made his way back down the stairs and turned to go further into the building where their "rooms" were. Rei actually couldn't remember the last time he had a mission during the day, but he did remember that he had to cover his identity as much as possible. His current outfit would work, but it would attract to much attention. Rei sighed, 'baseball cap and hoodie it is then.'
Meanwhile, John was in a predicament.
"You want me to what?"
"See, he doesn't want to come." Isen hissed after a harsh thump on the head from Blyke and an elbow to the ribs from Remi. "I've become a punching bag it would seem," he muttered but went ignored by the others. Remi fixed a smile on John once more, "we're inviting you to lunch. Blyke noticed that you haven't left campus much these past few weeks, so I thought you would enjoy being treated to a meal." While Blyke's face went beet red, John's thoughts were completely elsewhere. 'Oh Remi, you have no idea how much I've left this campus recently.' But John kept his thoughts to himself and instead said, "well, it is a fact that I will never turn down food." Remi lit up while Blyke and Isen seemed to just accept the fact that he would be coming with them. While things had definitely gotten better between him and the golden trio, he knew there was still some tension, particularly between him and the other two boys. "Oh Blyke," Remi turned away from John to address the red head, "is it alright if Kuyo tags along? I promised to treat him to lunch after me and Isen eavesdropped on you guys a while back." John arched an eyebrow, but Isen simply waved him off with a look that said don't ask.
"Who's Kuyo," John asked anyway. Blyke was still pouting when Remi turned back to him to answer. "He's a friend of mine, he was good friends with my brother too."
"Ah," John muttered, he wasn't really interested in making new friends today so he figured he and this "Kuyo" guy would just exist in the same space for the next hour or so. "You'll like him!" John wasn't so sure about that, but he didn't feel like arguing with Remi today. So, he just kept to himself and mindlessly listened to whatever the trio decided to talk about as they walked to a nearby burger place that Isen swore had the best fries in the world. "Do you only like their fries?" Isen shook his head, "well they are to die for, but the burgers are pretty good too."
"You obviously don't share the same enthusiasm over the burgers that you do with the fries."
"Priorities man, priorities."
John rolled his eyes.
"Kuyo!" John looked up when Remi exclaimed and saw a young man maybe two or three years older than him with long blue hair embrace Remi when she ran up to him and gave him a hug. "Good to see you pinky, and you as well Blyke." Kuyo gave Blyke a smirk which obviously made him uncomfortable while Isen scoffed, "do I just not exist?" With a chuckle, Kuyo sat a hand on Isen's head and ruffled his hair ignore the squawks of protest from the younger boy. "Oh Kuyo," Remi ran back over to John and gestured to him, "this is John. I've mentioned him a few times to you before." John waved awkwardly, he had to wonder if mentioning him included the times he beat her up, terrorized the school, and was just a general asshole. "Sup," Kuyo just nodded to him, and John went ahead and assumed that Kuyo didn't have the best opinion of him. 'What a great start,' John inwardly cried.
"So like, burgers or are we just going to stand here?" Remi laughed at Isen before hurrying instead and naturally everyone followed after her. As he walked through the door, John caught Kuyo's gaze lingering on him and an uneasy smile settled on his face. "Hey, if Remi is cool with you then I don't have a problem." John let out a sigh of relief though the uneasiness did not disappear until they were all sitting down and Kuyo was in the farthest seat from him. The others were sitting in a booth, and a chair had been pulled up on the end for John to sit at.
Which was admittedly very awkward, and it took way too much effort on John's part to not suddenly announce that he had to leave.
But as idle chattered floated around him, soft music played from the speakers around the small restaurant, and John found himself becoming a little more comfortable with the whole situation and actually began to enjoy himself a little bit.
Isen and Blyke were mumbling back and forth between each other, Remi was very animatedly telling a story from her youth while Kuyo watched with a fond smile. "I swear, me and my brother used to get into so many little fights over the strangest things." Isen chipped in, "that's just how siblings are. Between me and my siblings, we've each got years' worth of grudges and blackmail. Actually, my dad had to break up a fight between the three of us over something that happened when I was like six." Laughter bloomed around the table and admittedly, John sometimes wished he had a sibling.
'Maybe Rei will adopt me as his younger brother, that would be nice,' John thought. Maybe if John had had a role model-not to say his father wasn't a good role model-he would have had someone to guide him through school and maybe he wouldn't have made the choice he did. He'd have to bring it up to Rei the next time he saw him.
"Do you have siblings John," Kuyo asked.
John shook his head, "I wish I did."
"Nah they're overrated."
"Isen you can't say that."
"They're o-ver-rated."
Once again, everyone laughed but John caught the somewhat solemn look that crossed Remi's features. "You okay Remi?" His words caused the rest of the table to glance to her and John couldn't help but catch the slight grimace on Kuyo's face. Remi nodded, "Yeah I'm fine, just thinking about my brother. He um, passed away half a year ago." John felt his stomach drop, "oh I'm...I'm so sorry." There was bile rising up in his throat, 'oh no', he thought.
Your brother can go to hell for all I care
Oh no...
"I can already tell what you're thinking John and trust me I'm...over it. You didn't know."
"What happened?" John bit his tongue hard at the glare that Kuyo was sending his way. 'And things were going so well,' John sighed. "When Remi and I, well, I'm sure you already know. But when Remi tried to negotiate with me before our fight, she told me what her brother did to encourage peace at the school." Kuyo nodded, go on, he seemed to say. John licked his lips, ran a hand through his hair, scratched his neck, glance at Blyke and Isen but they were just staring at him expectantly.
"I told Remi her brother could go to hell. I swear I had no idea he was dead otherwise I wouldn't have said anything about him." John hurried to defend himself, but if looks could kill, John would been dead after the look that Kuyo was giving to him. Kuyo looked ready to jump over the table and strangle John, and if it weren't for Remi's hand sitting on his shoulder, he probably would have. "Damn John," Isen mumbled and didn't even react when Blyke punched him in the arm, shut up. "I'm sorry guys, I didn't mean to dampen the mood," Remi started to apologize until Kuyo grabbed the hand that was sitting on his shoulder. "No trust me Remi, this needs to be discussed. I would be pissed if I heard him say that about Rei as well. I am pissed actually."
John paused.
Hold up.
"Wait, what was your brother's name?"
Remi arched an eyebrow at him but answered anyway, "Rei?"
'Oh my gosh...'
"Wait Remi, was your brother a vigilante?" Now Remi was frowning at him. "How do you know that? We didn't tell anyone," Kuyo spoke up for her instead. 'Kuyo was his partner!' While the rest of the table looked at him in confusion and some with annoyance, John was too busy having an internal crisis.
"What did they do to you?"
"I don't know."
John slapped a hand over his mouth as the events of the past month came back to his mind.
"You're a strange kid John."
"Rei, that's the pot calling the kettle black."
"I used to be king you know."
"Really! What was school like for you? Wait, let me guess, you don't remember."
"Bingo!"
Shared laughter that bounced across dingy apartment walls. Somehow the place had become a safe haven for the young men.
"Wait Kuyo, were you there?" John was tiptoeing the line of being disrespectful but, he just had to know. "When he died?"
Now Kuyo really did reach across the table and grab him. The chair beneath him made an ugly noise as it dragged across the floor and John barely registered Isen and Blyke getting up out of their seats and trying to pry Kuyo's hands off of John's collar.
“I can’t remember the face of my best friend. I remember fighting alongside him, and I remember him being there that night. But when I try to think of his name, it just…”
"Were you there?"
"John, please stop." John vaguely wondered if that odd pitch in Remi's voice was the sound of her crying.
"What do you know John," Kuyo's grip tightened, "where did you learn about Rei?"
“John…forget about me.”
“It’s the only way to keep everyone safe.”
Rei wouldn't want him to say anything, he would say it was best that they didn't know. But when John glanced at Remi's tear-stained face and at the guilt and regret that was buried beneath Kuyo's anger, he thought that they really deserved to know. 'But they won't believe me.' Yes, that was John's biggest problem at the moment. How was he supposed to tell those two who were clearly still deeply grieving, that Rei was alive. But even if they did know, Rei wasn't exactly in a favorable situation, and it's not like he could just bring them to him. Rei's memory was also a problem, because technically John could prove that he was telling the truth by showing them the letters, or even bringing them to the apartment. But there was no guarantee that Rei would recognize them, and none of them would be able to take that heartbreak. Rei had also stated several times that the area wasn't safe, and that John should really stay away from the area. What if an EMBER agent showed up, or someone from the group that attacked John that night?
He would have to talk to Rei about it first. See if he could jog his memory, see if there was any way to make things right.
"...Their safety, is my only priority.”
Rei would never agree to it. The entire reason he was in this situation, aside from the cruelty of the authorities and EMBER, was because he thought it was better for him to suffer than to put the people he loved in danger.
He sighed...
"Remi's ability is lightning, the superhero X-Static also had a lightning ability. Arlo also mentioned Rei once to me once, I guess I just didn't put the dots together sooner."
Which was complete BS, John still didn't know about the connection between X-Static and Remi until this afternoon. Kuyo's face screamed, bullshit, but he released John's collar and sat back in his seat. John, taking advantage of the fact that he was now standing, quickly took his chair back to the table they had snatched it from and grabbed his phone and wallet off of the table. "I am so so sorry. Thank you guys for inviting me to lunch but I really ought to go." John didn't give any of them a chance to protest before quickly left the smaller restaurant and began his way back to his dorms. In his hurry, he roughly shoulder checked a person that happened to be passing by and glanced back to apologize.
John narrowed his eyes, 'who the heck is wearing a hoodie in this weather?' The person didn't turn around to meet John's eyes though and just kept walking without pause. "Rude," John muttered before he noticed something on his shoulder. It was a small piece of paper, like a flashcard, that had hastily been scrawled on to the paper.
"Stay away from the apartment for a while."
John jerked his head back up, the name Rei resting on his tongue, but he found no trace of the young man and his shoulders dropped. "If only you knew," he mumbled to no one but himself, "your family is right there. You walked right passed them, just tell them you're okay." John took a deep breath and once again turned to walk to his dorm room.
He had a very urgent letter to write.