Love & Deceit

Chapter 5: Remnants of the Past

I couldn't even begin to fathom what I'd just heard. James is alive? But...I saw The Darkness take him. I saw him die. It's not possible, it...I...I don't know how to feel right now. I must have been quiet for too long, judging by the look on Masao's face. I decided to voice out my thoughts, but I couldn't think let alone speak, so only one word came out of my mouth.

"How?"

"Oh thank god, for a second there I thought I broke you."

"..." I turned to him in disbelief, still unable to speak.

"Right, not a joking time...I-I don't know Raven."

"What do you mean you don't know?"

"I..."

He let out a heavy sigh, and the next words he said, pushed me off the edge.

"I can't tell you."

"You can't tell me, or you won't?"

"I can't."

"Bullshit."

"Rave-"

"No! I don't even wanna hear it! You can't just tell me that the love of my life is still alive and not expect me to ask questions, Masao Nakamura!" I took deep breath before fixing him with a chilling gaze, "So you either tell me, or I'll make you, and that won't be pleasant for either of us."

He looked at me in a way that I can only describe as somewhere between pitiful and worried.

"Raven...the only way I can say anything, is by you rejoining the Plight. Do that and I'll tell you everything, I promise."

"Rejoining the Plight? But that means..."

"It's one of our extremely classified cases."

By now my anger had subsided and was replaced by a nagging curiosity.

"Does that breach that Gareth was sucked into have anything to do with this?"

His eyes widened for a fraction of a second which gave me my answer.

"Just...think about my offer, okay?"

I nodded, not entirely present in the moment. I was lost in my thoughts, until Masao's pager started beeping, snapping me out of my stupor.

"I have a mission Raven, I have to go; I'll see you later."

"Kay..."

He disappeared from the room with a blue flash. Leaving me alone with my thoughts...rejoining the Plight? It's the one thing I swore I wouldn't do...but the circumstances are severe. Does this have something to do with The Darkness being back?

Something just dawned on me. I need to give Ash a piece of my mind; I cannot believe that he would even consider hiding something like this from me. If I hadn't overheard the conversation then I wouldn't have known about this. It's about JAMES for fuck's sake.

I teleported my way back home, into Ash's room with one goal in mind: to find out more. He was hunched over reading stacks of important looking papers inside a folio. The second he realized my presence he discreetly closed the folio and looked over at me with a smirk.

"I know this is your apartment, but don't you ever knock?"

I glared at him. Not in the mood at all for his jokes. He picked up on my irritation, and looked at me, trying to figure out why I was mad.

"Raven?"

I remained silent, not knowing whether to scream or cry.

"Raven, you're scaring-"