Origins

"We are nothing alike, and never will be."

"I know." Jaden responded. From the glower he was casting Max it wasn't hard to see he wasn't catching on to the significance of what she was trying to say.

"That isn't what I mean. Jaden, I'm saying that I'm not human. I can't understand everything that is just common sense to you. I am something people will project feelings onto. I only mimic humans Jaden-"

"So are you saying you don't have feelings or something? Because that's a load of crap." The young man snapped .

"Well then good thing that's not what I'm saying now isn't it?" The shifter growled in response. "What I'm saying is that if you ever want to see me again, then we have to consider that we both have to be willing to stop and listen. To try and understand each other. I may talk, act and look like you, but I don't think nor always understand complex emotions from other people like you do. It's hard to explain okay? If you ever want anything from our status to one another then we both are going to have to work on communication." The assassin sighs in defeat. "You need to get an idea of my reality versus the one
I'm trying to pretend I have."

Jaden stared back at his soulmate. He didn't know what he wanted. He just new he'd be lying to himself if he said he wanted nothing from their meaning to one another. He watched Max for a long while, noticing how she shifted uneasily under the constant gaze but didn't give any indication that she was detoured from him.

"What exactly are you? And not just the whole "I'm not human" explanation. What makes you not human. Who are you? What's your origin?" He finally asked softly.

Max relaxed slightly as he spoke. His words were nervous, a feeling of discomfort in the air as Jaden made a decision to ask a creature who possessed more knowledge of the past than any human could ever hope to know, what she remembered and who she was.

"Do you want to sit down? What your asking if me isn't going to have a simple or short answer." Max answered softly. "That and you probably don't want your landlord to see me standing in fear outside your door." She added with the start is a smile

She couldn't ruin this moment. She couldn't make a mistake here. This would be the one and only moment that they would have where she could choose to open up to him in hopes he was accepting. If he wasn't it wouldn't be a world crushing loss for her, but she also doesn't want to not try to avoid it. As much as she loathed that What Vaughn said of her desire for companionship was true, she couldn't ignore it.

"Um, yeah, why don't you come in." He said, moving aside to invite her in. Max hesitated a moment before taking a monumental step forward and entering her soulmate's home.

Jaden glanced back at the wings folded carefully behind her. They were hard to look at but also impossible not to. They were unnatural, but amazing all at once. The young man's eyes traced the wings edge down towards the floor only for his eyes to pause as they glanced over the small of her back and just happened by malarious chance to look over her ass. The way the straps of her leg holster sat right bellow her cheeks accented the shadows and made her look like she carried more than what he knew was actually here.

She glanced back at him with an awkwardly shy look as she adjusted her wings, able to feel his eyes on her in that way when you can just sense you're being stared at. She didn't comment and just pretended to ignore Jaden's slip up. She understood that males were wired differently and he looked guilty enough after being caught for her not to feel the need to snap despite how fixated he'd been. He was probably just looking for something human to Focus on.

"Over here," Jaden said after locking the door, moving aside to lead her farther into the single bedroom apartment. She followed him over into the kitchen/living room. The place was nice for an affordable apartment in New York. She at least couldn't hear any of the familiar sounds of cockroaches shuttling where they couldn't be seen. "Uh, sorry. I don't normally have anyone over." Jaden said, scratching at the back of his neck as his eyes glanced over the appearance of his crowded kitchen counters. He knew she was coming over but he still felt unprepared.

"It's aright." She assured. The place has obviously been cleaned. It was just things he didn't have a room for in a cupboard. There were only like four after all in the whole kitchen area.

Jaden fell quiet, leaving Max to walk over to the couch which served as the only seat in the very much unfilled living room. Max didn't say anything as she went and sat on the edge of the arm, waiting for Jaden to come over expectantly. It took a few hesitant seconds but eventually the young man sat down on the opposite side of the couch facing her.

There was silence between them for a another few long seconds before Max spoke first. "So where do you want me to start?"

"The beginning?"

"I'm not quite that old. You're going to have to go to the Bible for that one." Max said, giving Jaden a serious look until he smiled with a shake of his head to which she smiled in response.

"You're beginning," He clarified as he visibly relaxed slightly as he adjusted to sit with his legs stretched over the cushions of the couch since Max was making no intentions of sitting on them herself.

"I suppose you aren't going to appreciate the talk From me either then aye?"

"Not really if I must be honest."

The shifter shook her head with a hint of a smile. "Well, my mother was a dragon-"

"Did she get turned into a human?"

Max frowned and looked over at the young man sitting to her left. "What? No."

"Did she hook up with a human than?" Jaden quizzed, seeming quite set on trying to figure the story out before it even began.

"Ew, no. Could you imagine trying to mate with a scaled leopard with wings the size of a two story building?" Max said, a pained look on her face as she watched Jaden's reaction to the truth of what that situation would be.

"Oh... wait, could we?" He said, gesturing between them with a questioning look, indirectly asking if that was a possibility between them or if that would how it would have to be done.

"Oh my word, just shut up. No. Absolutely not, that's disturbing. Can I continue now?"

Jaden gave a curt nod, while giving the ground a look that was something too close to a smirk for comfort. Max rolled her eyes with a sigh.

"She was born cursed as being host to the entity of Death. When she was young, like human mutants she wasn't in control of her powers and ended up killing many of her siblings because of it. One of her siblings, Skyress became a sleeping protector of the Earth, and another Lyn was thought to go to the sea and was later thought to be Jormungand, Loki's son who would be the one to start Ragnarok. Anyway, Darkfang finally gave up the will to live with her abilities and was forced to resign from the Earth to where she would stay for the rest of her existence keeping the population pool of every living thing in check."

"She doesn't do her job very well," Jaden commented, causing Max to stop.

"Well, could you imagine someone telling you that you had to choose who and when someone must die while having to look over every single one of these people all their lives and then having to just end it? She does as well as she can I guess."

"Why are you telling me about your mother rather than yourself? How am I supposed to understand this?"

Max paused as she glanced down at her hands and where they sat on her leg. "You need to be able to grasp the idea of what she is before I can explain further... just think of her as the Angle of Death, only she's on the job 24/7 and hates it. That and she's not within God's legion."

"So she's  basically grim reaper."

"Sure. Anyway, before she was promoted to the position of dreaded Grim Reaper, she was with egg. She laid her clutch in the realm of darkness where she no remains. All but one of her eggs were laid without life." Max continued, having picked up a USB that had been sitting on the side table next to her and was fiddling with it, not continue with what she was doing.

"How do you know if an egg is stillborn? Don't eggs take a while to hatch?"

"Well, no. Dragons carry their offspring in the womb like mammals until a few days before they are ready to be born. A shell forms around the hatchling and then it's laid until its hatches which is around a week at the most. If the hatchling is dead in the womb then it won't form a shell and will be absorbed back into the mother. Her eggs died after being laid because they were alive and didn't inherit her abilities. They were born into death so they died instantly upon emerging from her womb."

"Except for you?" Jaden asked, a small frown on his features as he watched his soulmate continue to fidget as she spoke.

"Yeah." She said awkwardly, adjusting uncomfortably as she sensed Jaden tense in his spot.

"So you're not Alive?"

"Well I'm Not dead, but no. I'm not completely alive. I inherited her ability to control death. I'm a little grim reaper child I guess." Max grimaced as she held her arm up like she was holding onto a sickle before slowly lowering it back down. She was quiet for a moment longer before continuing.

"Anyways. Something happened and somehow I ended up down here. My species, the dragons had almost died out due to human interference. You slaughtered all the hatchlings you could find until my species was just about extinct. Adults either died of starvation due to humans overhunting and destroying territories. Since there was a lack of my kind I grew up entirely alone. My mother didn't come back to get me, I didn't even know what I was for a long time. That really messes up a kid you know?"

Jaden nodded. He was going to have to quiz her on the past of "her species" later but he understood the damage that would be done to a child's mind. It's how the world gets psychopaths like Tony Stark and Deadpool. At least that's what Jaden had been told. He'd once talked to some bartender who seemed to know a lot about the world of the supers and just how fucked you're the most of them are and how most of it started when they were kids. It made sense.

"So once I figured about who my Mother was, what I was and how powerful I was I may or may not have purposely started doing some things that most would look down on..." Max added.

Jaden paused to see if she would elaborate before having to ask "like what?" He had a few ideas. It was probably some sort of general rebellious teenage act anyone would expect. Hanging out with the wrong crowd, doing things with said wrong crowd...

"I started most wars and uprisings that affected the world, not the small things, those weren't worth my time. There were a few plagues I started too but I put those out before they could get too far. In accent times when leaders would concur and spread their empire, Alexander for example? Wouldn't ever have been possible without what I did."

Jaden blinked, that wasn't anything like he'd been preparing for, the idea what she said wasn't even really sinking in. "Uh what? Why?"

"It was a way of throwing dirt in my mother's face. Her job to keep life and death balanced on Earth is hard. By making the humans go to war I was making her life hard because you were killing off more then you guys could make, and while I was at it I was getting revenge for you all killing off my kind... I keep my nose out of religious stuff and politics, but if someone wants to take over the world? Back when that was the cup of tea. Last one I started was World War II. When I wasn't focused on something like that I spent my time as an assassin." Max said, making a point of not looking over at Jaden after giving him a few major examples. She cringed when she felt the tension around him grow.

"No you didn't, that's bull shit! So you're saying that you're the reason millions of innocent people were slaughtered? Really? Why would you tell someone that even if it was true? What's wrong with-" Jaden faltered as he realized the answer to his question. She said that she got screwed up as a child. Is that what she's trying to pin this on? She's trying to say that it wasn't her fault but her mothers? What exactly did she take him for? Crazy or not she knew what she was doing. She knew exactly what she was doing, she said that.

"Understand that I was not aware of what wouldn't happen after the war was started. I'm not a mind reader, I had no idea what the people who were in charge had in mind once I got their ball rolling. I just convinced them to do it and have them some luck on the first big steps before moving on. The only thing I did in World War II allowed him to get the land he wanted in order to expand. That was it. And just because I did it doesn't mean I was or am proud of it. It was just something I couldn't help myself from doing." Max defended calmly, trying to explain that she wasn't just killing for the sake of killing.

"That doesn't make it justified. It's still your fault."

"But isn't it justified? Can you imagine trying to live your life as the only human on earth with only wolves to keep you company? Eventually, you're going to become like the wolves. You humans are horrible creatures Jaden. I did it because I hate them. It's no different than a little boy kicking an anthill. The only difference is that no one actually cares about the ants even if the boy is scolded for killing a whole small civilization." The shifted points out, succeeding in remaking calm despite the blaming tone Jaden was giving her. She couldn't blame him, she walked into this expecting this reaction. It was what she'd prepared for. She just had to remind herself that Jaden was a human and she couldn't shove him along with the few she like such as Wade and Peter into the same category as everyone else.

"But they're ants. They aren't people, there's a big difference." Jaden tired to stress, trying to show her that she was wrong. That everything she did was wrong.

"Am I a person?" Max asked as she turned her head to lock her dark eyes onto his. They were harsh when she asked, the look challenging and hiding an anger underneath that the question had triggered.

"W-what? Of course, you are. Look at you, you can talk and think. Of course, you're a person."

"But I'm also just an animal, Jaden. That's what you need to understand. I have a genetic mutation that normally was viewed as a curse that allows me to mimic the appearance of another creature. I can communicate with you only because I by chance can shift into a human, meaning I have vocal cords. I think like a dragon, without words. Emotions, pictures, and colors is how I understand and perceive thought naturally. I think like an animal, reacting upon instinct to my surroundings. If I need to, yes, I can think in words, but it's the equivalent of you hissing a growling in your mind rather than thinking 'I hate peas, why do we have to have peas for supper?'. A dragon thinks like a smart animal, and all animals think in a similar way, some more comprehensive of the world than others. Some aren't stupid, they just see the world completely different." Max explained, a hint of a growl in her words as she continued. "The reason I justify my acts is that all I was doing was playing the role of the little boy and you humans were the ant hill. You just aren't used to being the ant hill and that makes you mad. Because you're used to being the ones always killing off these innocent animals for no reason than entertainment. There's a difference between hunting and slaughtering and you humans don't know where to draw the line! At least I didn't go around slicing the throats of babies whenever I hear them crying out of their mother, just like your people did. I spent decades alone because of your ancestors before I'd learned how to shift much less speak.   I was killed as an infant, did you know that? That sometimes I go to sleep and wake up thinking that there's this huge man standing above me shoving a blade into my throat? It's quite the first memory to live with."

Jaden watched her, trying to understand what she was trying to describe. He understood, he just didn't want to. He wanted to pretend that people were better now than they used to be, he wanted to pretend like he had nothing to do with anything and he'd never at some point been that little boy who kicked the anthill. He wished he couldn't imagine a man finding the small infant of a predator as it cried out for a parent who wasn't there. Jaden couldn't help justifying that killing the infant wasn't wrong, but he understood it was a selfish desire to be able to solve a problem before it happened.

It was wrong but in his mind, he'd grown up being taught that because he was superior, because he was human that he could do as he wanted. Max had been the victim of such treatment and had just given back a taste of civilizations own medicine.

"I'm not asking for you to approve of what I did, I just need you to understand."

He did understand, but he didn't like it. He wasn't sure of what he felt about being a soulmate to a serial killer, to a monster, a dragon of all things the world could spit at him.

"I watched everyone be rewarded for what they did by getting a soulmate. I'm sure you can imagine what it's like watching the world around you move on happily unaware of their Evil. Your ledger isn't clean either. You have a history of working for dirty people because you have some unnatural abilities up your sleeves." Max said, Wade had told her plenty of what he'd found out about the young man when he was brought up once.  Max obviously didn't care, but she was willing to guilt him into understanding.

"I get it okay. . . I understand that people suck, and that it sucks even more to watch them be happy about life because they have someone to go home to at the end of the day. Especially when you don't have even a number countdown to look forward to. . . So why did you stop after the second war?" Jaden asked having calmed down after the 'you're not a flower either' card was pulled.

"Because I wasn't alone anymore. I'd found Vaughn, someone like myself. I came across him during a fly over across the US in the California region during the war. He was being beaten by his adoptive father at the time." Max said quietly as she recalled meeting her best friend. "I can't imagine what it would be like living a life like he had been. Being a mind reader and living with a family who had obviously beaten him often. He had been just covered in bruises when I took care of his attacker. . . Vaughn kept saying that his father didn't mean it, that it just needed to be done, that there was nothing bad going on when I took him away. Because of that he's fallen victim to being used many times over. Darkfang had found him to be useful and wanted him for her own use."

"So what? She just started telling him what to do?" Jaden asked.

Max played with the edge of her sleeve as she slowly curled on into herself as she sat on the arm of the couch. "No." She said softly. "She made me kill him."

Jaden stared over at her in confusion, watching as she hugged her legs in order to protect herself. "How did she make you kill him?"

"I don't know." She said, her hands having moved to clasp behind her head as her elbows remained on her knees in order to hide her face for him. "I couldn't control my hands. I couldn't move. I just had to watch as I murdered the most beautiful person I've ever met. She made me do it in order to make him scared of me when she got him., So when he saw her that she'd see me." She said, trying suck in air as he was coming to find that she was being met with a choice that needed to be made, either cry or be angry. she chose for the latter.

Jaden watched quietly, awkwardly sitting on his side of the couch not entirely sure what he was supposed to do as she bared fangs. He also wasn't sure what he was supposed to do about her comment about the other male. He'd never been given any reassurance of what they were. He'd never quite trusted the childish young man. From what little he'd been able to see he'd gotten the feeling that he was hiding something beneath that perfect act he held up.

"He was screaming at me the whole time, trying to fight back, but he'd already lost the upper hand because he didn't know what I was doing at first. It wasn't until I tried yelling at him to run that he realized what was going on. Instead of just trying to get away he tried to stop what was going on, he was trying to overpower whatever Darkfang had done while fight with an adult. He was full grown but only a bit older than Grey at the time, he wasn't as strong yet." She continued. Her eyes shifted, leaving him to stare at reptilian eyes as she relived the memories, looking seconds away from raking her claws through someone.

Jaden's heart raced as he internally panicked, he didn't know what to do. He wasn't sure if he was supposed to an approach and try to calm her down. He couldn't say it wasn't her fault. You don't just kill your friend and say it wasn't your fault.

It was a comfort to know she was capable of guilt, but that didn't help that he was still staring at her stupidly in alarm. Eventually, he scooted himself over to the other side of the couch, close enough to be a warm presence next to her but he kept his distance by not moving to try and hold her or something.

At least he had reassured her that he didn't see her as a complete psychopath for the fact that he came up close enough to brush sides.

They sat quietly for a few minutes, Jaden entertaining himself with thinking over what he'd just been told while Max calmed back down. In order to finish what she started.

"Immediately after he was dead, Darkfang gave me back the control of my body." Max said, recalling as she froze wide-eyed to stare at Vaughn's limp body in horror, unable to process what exactly she'd just done. The world had been silent as she fell to her knees next to him, trying to pull his life back into him. It had been too late, Darkfang had made sure she had him trapped before she allowed Max to regain control.... "A few moments later Darkfang ordered him to subdue me."

She was lost. She wasn't in touch with reality and Jaden could feel the dangerous presence in the room. He was second guessing whether or not he should move away again. "I woke up five or six years ago having no recollection of who or what I was. I was strapped to a bed in some government based organization."

That had been why she was so spooked when Shield had done it again. She was scared that she'd have to go through the pain of remembering again, of waking up alone and confused once more. It's why she was reluctant to go back.

"I played their games for about a month before I booked it out of there. That's when Vaughn started talking to me again. Just a voice in my head that I recognized but couldn't remember. I knew he was supposed to me once I remembered who he was. Or at least once he allowed me to remember who he was." Max chuckled as she recalled those first few months with that experience. "I thought I was fucking batshit crazy. I had a voice in my head who just happened to know everything about everything. It was weird and it took me a while to remember most of what I do. I picked up my assassin work again, weaseled my way into the Avengers and Shield with the thanks to Vaughn and that's how I got into my current predicament."

She sighed. "But you can't repeat any of this. Vaughn doesn't know that I remember as much as I do. I'm not supposed to remember anything of my past. That's why he's allowed to stay here. As long as neither he or most importantly, Darkfang don't know I remember then he should be allowed to remain alive. Otherwise she'll just kill him completely instead of keeping him captive. He thinks he's doing his job. That's what I need him to keep doing."

"So he's a telekinetic or something right? Shouldn't he already know that you know?" Jaden asked, as his brain started to hurt from all the information.

"He's used to reading human minds. He isn't used to mine. He only hears what I think and words and partially understands the most of my thoughts. It isn't a set language. He doesn't understand that he can't read me."

Jaden was about to say something as he looked at her, their eyes meeting, hers looking desperate, like she was waiting for him to make a promise. She was relying on him to keep his word.

Before anything could be said a cackle from behind made them both whip around with alarm, the sound dark and cause for concern when Jaden's eyes landed on the source.

High key was supposed to end here but that didn't happen.

TBC