[ 20 ]

SEMPER CITY, AS IT HAD ALWAYS BEEN, was never beautiful. No, as much as people liked to think, with its demure skyline and sloping streets that charmed everyone but its inhabitants. But even they, who always dreamed about one day packing up their bags and taking the highway to somewhere better, maybe Pittsburgh or New York if they were feeling particularly adventurous, couldn't find it within themselves to live. Mother Semper was like that, casting a spell that lured people in like charmed snakes, mindless.

Jasper tended to not care as much as most people, but even he found himself tightly intertwined in the city's pulsing heart, each breath an ode to its life. His feet tapped on the glass floor, stomach clenching as he peered through. He didn't know why exactly he was so scared -- it wasn't as if the floor would just give way to air, but it definitely felt that way. Casting Jasper a half-amused look from across the room, Finn winced as his stool scraped across the floor as he tucked it under the table, where his third coffee of the day was placed. 

It was only nine in the morning.

As much as Jasper loved his best friend and trusted him with everything (including his life, but that was a story for another time), it took all of the strength bestowed within him to stop himself from pouring the contents of the mug into the sink. Finn and caffeine did not mix -- and Jas had learnt that the hard way, namely, when they were eleven and got into the coffee supply that Narcissa had stolen from the mess hall days before. 

He would never forget the sight of him, Crux's golden boy, practically bouncing off the walls and snickering like a maniac. The memory brought a trace of laughter to his lips, but it faded away when Finn's brown eyes became full of blazing anger, something so rare that Jasper found himself marching over as fast as he could. 

"Wildfire."

"What's happening? You aren't okay, dude."

Finn laughed dryly, yet another uncharacteristic move. He drained the mug of coffee in a few gulps, despite the quite visible steam rising from the brim.

"Talk to me, Finn."

"What is there to talk about? You hide so much from us. I thought we were-" he brought the mug down, a sharp crack sounding as the handle snapped off, "-friends. We grew up together," Finn added dejectedly, a chord of sadness in his otherwise flat voice.

"What do you mean?"

Confusion hammered through Wildfire, until his gaze swept over a small stack of official-looking documents on the tabletop, the pages dog-eared and worn with use. "What is that?" he asked, but Finn's eyes were half-shut, his chest heaving as his head fell into his hands, every inch of his body sagging with pure exhaustion.

"The files. About the Yakuza. And here," Finn indicated his chin towards a smaller stapled pile after a long moment of silence, "about you. There are so many links, Wildfire. So many." His voice was pained, shaking like that of a small child who had lost their mom in the grocery store. 

"I don't know what you're talking about, Finn." 

"Just tell me what's happening," came his friend's weak response, his voice flat.

Guilt flooded into Jasper, and he found himself leaning against the wall, heart racing. "I-I..." he plucked up the strength to tell him. "My name is Jasper Jaehyung Lee. I'm Ayana Nakamura's brother."

"The Yakuza boss and Narcissa's associate?" Finn lifted up his head, eyebrows furrowed. Jas could almost see the gears clicking his mind, racing at a hundred miles an hour. 

"The one and only. My mom was unlucky enough to trap herself in the Nakamura family. I don't know how -- she wasn't Yamato's wife. Ayana is his legitimate child."

"That's not what it says on the file. How do you know that, then?"

Jasper drew a chair, sitting down at the table and thumbing through the paper mindlessly, trying to get words to form on the tip of his tongue. "I take -- well, took, trips to the city. Scrounged around. I remembered the name of my father from when we were kids, when they showed us by accident. Found out about the whole Yakuza situation when I was like, fourteen."

"Goddamnit, Wildfire. I-I...you created ties between Crux and the Yakuza? Voluntarily?"

"I didn't tell you because I knew that you were gonna react like this. You didn't grow up nameless, just so that a peace treaty could be protected. They didn't care about me, Finn. Why is it so hard for you to understand that? All I want is to collect the pieces of myself." Tears prickled at his eyes, but Jas blinked them away, turning his head to look Finn dead in the eyes.

"You shouldn't have done it yourself, though. You were fourteen, and this is a faceoff between a goddamn global crime syndicate and the biggest independent law enforcement agency in America. You are walking a thin line, Jasper. Now -- just tell me it straight. What did you do for information?" Finn's agitation was clear in his voice, and his dark eyes blazed with fury. 

"I-I..." 

He couldn't say it. Saying it would only confirm it, and after all the time that he'd tried to forget, it was all flooding back to him. Fire, smoke, burning flesh. All the things he'd tried to forget. Black hair, the ends catching fire first. Feeling the heat beat at his face, but no pain. Just numbness.

"I snuck into the Nakamura Mansion. It was Yamato who was the most interested in me. I don't think Ayana knew that I was even there -- she was in Japan then. Yamato and his wife, Sara, they slept in separate rooms. I..."

Finn's hands were shaking as they clutched the mug of coffee, grey enamel peeking through where the handle had snapped off a few minutes before. A lap of brown liquid went over the side, droplets sliding down his fingers. Knuckles pressed against lean brown skin, so strained that it looked like the bone was going to burst through at any moment. 

Jasper found the strength to continue. 

"I looked at Yamato, and I saw how much he looked like me. It was like looking into my own eyes, and I wanted to throw up. I was angry, scared and fuelled by vengeance, and when he laughed at me and put a gun to my head, and I couldn't take it. Next thing I knew-" his voice broke. "The gun exploded. But I was fine. He dropped it, and the gunpowder was hissing -- it was on fire. Carpet."

Bile rose in his throat, and Jasper stopped, his breathing heavy. His body trembled.

Finn nodded gravely. "You ran."

"I ran," Jasper repeated, his head spinning. His eyes rolled back into his head.

"Wild-Jasper?"

He didn't respond, but only felt the weight of everything crashing down upon him, all at once. 

Everything went black.

~•~ 

"THE KID ISN'T OKAY. He's unstable, Neleesha, and we can see it."

Forcing his eyes open, Jasper scanned his surrounding, relief flooding into him as he recognised the familiar outlines of the kitchen that he'd been in just before. He sat up, nearly smacking his head against the wall behind him.  He tried to think of something witty or characteristically charming to say, but the only thing that left his mouth was a long, drawling, "hey." 

Sasha's eyes met his, the icy grey of the winter sea, and she gave him the slightest shake of her head, crinkled jeans weighted around her ankles as she stood up. Her hair was tied up, an unusual feat, thought dark waves still hung around her hairline like a halo, glints of honeyed brown seeping through the charcoal as the light came down in blinding beams from the high ceiling. 

The Director of the CIA, Kinnon, frowned at Jasper through wire-rimmed glasses that balanced half-hazardly on the tip of his nose, but let out a rumbling laugh as soon as the boy opened his mouth to speak. "The Sleeping Beauty is up," Director Kinnon announced, seeming to address the whole room as he said, "No need for concern. Kid just decided to take a nap at the kitchen table, didn't ya?"

"Sure. Yeah, that was what I did," Jasper responded with a wheeze, jitteriness causing his leg to tremble uncontrollably. All he wanted at that moment was to go to sleep, but the grim look on Neleesha's face told him that now was decidedly not the time. Her dark eyebrows were arched, jaw set in an attempt to look alert, but her eyes closed every few seconds in a gesture that was far too long to be a blink, as well as the shadowed circles underneath them. It was clear that she was exhausted beyond measure, as much as she tried to conceal it, and looking around, Jasper found that his friends carried that same exhaustion, too.

"Well, we have no time for rest, do we? Or have you forgotten that there's a megalomaniac slash supervillain just wandering around Semper?" Director Singh's voice drooped, and she clenched her eyes shut for a long moment before opening them again, the mascara on her eyelashes slightly smudging as she did so.

"Why d'you drag him here, then?" Narcissa looked down at her nails, red lips baring into a snarl. Jasper didn't know when or how she'd gotten her hands on lipstick, but the sight of her like that made him remember being a kid, laughing with her and Finn as they gorged on strawberries in the rooftop gardens.

God, they'd been so naive back then, so carefree. He hated it -- but at the same time, half-wished it could be like that once more.

"We could still have you charged, Narcissa. Don't think that you're above the law -- because you're not. I hear Rex's room are available," Director Singh snapped back, and a small smile played on her lips.

Jasper resisted the urge to laugh at the glower on Narcissa's face, but then remembered whose side he was on. Mouth twitching, he crossed his arms before looking up at the two Directors expectantly.

"Well, I'm up now, aren't I?"

Neleesha glanced over at Director Kinnon, who gave her a small, quick nod, sweat soaking his short hair as he ran a hand through it. Heaving a breath, she lifted a gun from the table, tucking it into a loop on her belt.

"Follow me."

"Dramatic, but okay," Jasper murmured as he followed the Director's lead, the faintest smell of seawater and lavender alerting him of Sasha's presence nearby. As a curtain of dark hair came into view, he restrained a smile, her cold hands carefully cradling his own.

She leaned in, breath tickling his ear. "Blood money," was all she said, before lingering back, leaving him to ponder over her words just as Finn closed the gap that she had left.

"What do you want me to say?" Jasper asked as soon as Finn opened his mouth. 

They'd gone into a side corridor now, the beep of Director Singh's keycard alerting him to the fact. Grey walls pressed into a black floor, with bleak white light and no windows -- as far as he could see, the narrow spaces was seemingly never-ending, which made the awkward conversation between him and Finn even more agonising.

"I actually wanted to say something. I-I...I'm sorry, Jasper." Finn's words were clean and polished, just like his perfect clothes and face and probably entire existence. It was infuriating, but Jasper had gotten used to it a long time ago -- after all, they were best friends, and friends weren't jealous. The golden boy had clearly practised his words, chosen them well. "I understand your place of grievances and I still think they're wack, but that's your shit to deal with, bro."

A playful, good-natured grin crossed his face just as Neleesha turned sharply, opening a door that didn't look to be locked in any way. "Oh, by the way, if anyone without access to this door tries to open it, it slices their fingers off. All of you have access, though. Have fun," the Director said, stepping into the threshold, the glare of the aqua lights turning her black hair a dark blue. "This is a Batcave of a sort, really. Look under your names." Folding her arms, she watched them as they followed her instructions.

Jasper held back a  gasp as he lifted a tight-fitting black, obviously fireproof, suit out from a hanger. Around the wrists hung little circles, with a small picture of a fire being put out on one, gasoline another and water on a third button. With an experimental nudge of the latter, he watched as a wave of water rushed out from a jet on the side of the cuffs, leaving a puddle on the floor.

"Time to be superheroes."

[ end ]