Title: Behind The Jackal Mask
Genre: Romance/Hurt/Comfort
Rating: NC-17/M
Pairing: Rachel/OMC
Warnings: Adult Situations Including But Not Limited To Sexual Relations, Violence, Naughty Language, Child Abuse, Drug Abuse, Sexual Abuse, Underage Drinking, Self Mutilation
Words: 3,143
Disclaimer: I don't own Alphas. If I did Gary would have a porn addiction, because I can so see him watching porn in a meeting. The only things I own are stupid nonexistent words I make up and my Original character.
A/N: I'm taking some liberties with Red Flag… So sue me. Haha. On second thought don't sue me… I'm broke as all fucking get out. Also… I don't know dick about cars… Any of you car junkies feel free to let me know if I got some shit wrong. My knowledge is limited to watching Nascar and Wikipedia.
Big thanks to ShareBearTheDeathBear for pointing out Chinese and Mandarin are the same dialect. I changed it to Korean because the symbols are still pretty confusing to people that know jack squat like me!
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"Yes!" Godric was jumping like an excited toddler as he let the keys he'd been given earlier during the day jingle. Practically jumping up onto Bill's desk he gave a wide grin. "I got a car!"
"Congratulations?" Bill sat back eyeing Godric carefully as the teen wiggled around with a happy laugh. Finally he shook his head standing up. "I take it you want to show it off."
"Gotta get Hicks! Hicks! Come on! We're going outside! You have to see my baby!" Godric was running up and down the hall, appearing on the ceiling at a few separate points in time as he waited for Hicks. The other male giving Bill a strange look as the teen bolted for the elevator with a happy laugh. "Hurry!"
"Where'd he get a car?" Bill looked over at Hicks. Hicks just shrugged as he followed after the eccentric teen. Godric had been bouncing around all morning, flitting in and out of his 'speedster' mode as they'd fondly dubbed it. The teen was currently pawing at the elevator door whining that it wasn't fast enough. "Who bought you a car?"
"My mom's ex-husband got it for me three years ago. I've wanted one since I was ten… You have to see it! Hurry up dammit!" Godric barked, finally smiling as the elevator opened. The teen grinning happily as he pressed the garage button again and again as he looked at Bill and Hicks expecting them to hurry. "It's a limited production car. Only like six of them in the world…"
"How'd you manage to get one?" Hicks was laughing as Godric was turning circles like an excited puppy. Leaning against the wall with his arms crossed as he watched the anxious teen pressing the buttons on the elevator again. Looking over at Bill they just shared a curious look before watching the teen bolt out as soon as the doors opened.
"Yes! Yes! Yes! This baby is a fucking orgasm on wheels." Godric rounded a covered car with a proud grin before gripping the sheet, yanking it off to expose his pride and joy. "Let me introduce you gents… To the Lamborghini Diablo VTTT. This sexy lady goes up to 255 MPH when you get her on a pretty stretch. Her engine is in mint condition and you have to hear her purr."
"You're secretly a spoiled rich kid…" Bill rolled his eyes as Godric popped the back revealing the motor. Even Bill had to admit the car was impressive. "So how exactly did you really get this…"
"Blackmailed him." Godric purred with delight as he looked over the engine. Hicks was peeking over both of their shoulders with an impressed whistle. Popping open the driver's door Godric peeked inside. "Sweet… They redid the accents. They had gold accents originally, I asked them for silver… Talk about an awesome late birthday present. God I love that woman."
"Your mom really goes out of her way to make you happy." Hicks said as he pulled back a little when Godric started the car, the engine rumbling out a soft near silent purr as the teen peeked out from the driver's seat. "You have a license?"
"Since I was sixteen… Jacob took me down to the DMV for my tests… The guy that ran the liquor shop near where I used to live, pudgy and balding, him… Anyways, I'm really good friends with his son Conner. We got our licenses together. And my mom's only trying to sweet talk me so I'll join Shangri-La." Godric revved the engine with a pleased moan as he let his head fall back with a goofy grin on his face. "I love this car…"
"Don't have an orgasm." Bill and Hicks were laughing as they peeked into the passenger side of the car. Bill was the one with the impressed look on his face this time. "Stereo system any good?"
"Bass is a little weak… I'll get it fixed later. I didn't ask anyone to fix the sound system. I planned on redoing it myself. Don't trust anyone with my baby…" Godric turned off the car running his fingers over the dash for a moment. "No fucking way… Step back. You have to see this; I can't believe that they did this!"
Hicks blinked as the underside of the car lit up an emerald green, slow and pulsing as it flickered on and off. Running his fingers through his short hair he just shook his head. "You're so spoiled."
"For a good reason. Shangri-La is part of Red Flag… They're information brokers. My mom wants me to run for them… That's why she's spoiling me rotten." Godric finally said after a moment of silence. Looking at the floor he ran his tongue over his bottom lip. "Shangri-La is sort of an inside joke… Paradise on Earth. In this case Paradise for Alphas… A world where we won't be hunted or feared. They're not a violent organization; Shangri-La merely passes information from one Red Flag operative to the next. Well… A few members are violent. Most aren't."
Bill looked over at Hicks for a moment before frowning as he looked at Godric. "You're aware of all this and you're still working with us? Godric doesn't that make you a targ-"
Leaning over the driver's seat Godric popped open the jockey box pulling out a piece of leather. "I'm already on the list; I have my code name and everything. When I want in… All I have to do is say so. I'm not an active member so I'm not a target. I only know names of those I'm related to. You can tell a member of Shangri-La from Red Flag at a glance." The teen placed the strip of leather over his nose and mouth strapping it into place. "They wear masks… Red Flag doesn't. We need to talk to Dr. Rosen about all this, I'm sure he'll be interested in this 'development' as he calls them."
"Right… So… Can I drive this later?" Hicks gave Godric a grin as the teen just laughed. "I take that as a no… You better not get into trouble driving this. I'm not bailing you out."
"I'll make sure to drive faster than the police then." Godric laughed unhooking his half mask.
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"Hmm… That is troubling, but they're non-violent?" Dr. Rosen looked intrigued as he looked at Godric. The older male leaned back in his seat looking at a few pieces of paper work. Looking at the rest of the team he smiled when Gary tilted his head. "Yes, Gary?"
"The police station just fell down. It just fell down… And the humming is back!" Gary frowned furrowing his brows as walked over towards the computer that was set up for presentations. Typing away furiously he pulled up a YouTube video gesturing wildly. After a few moments it started playing as Gary went back to whatever it was that he usually did.
The video showed a man wearing a black leather mask shaped like a dog mask. The snout was long and elegant as the ears perked up high and almost graceful, clad in a leather jacket and black leather pants the man stood. Slowly lifting up his foot the camera started vibrating as the person trained their cell phone camera on him. In an instant the world seemed to break as the heavy crack of the foundation and walls of the police station filled the audio as the person whipped around to record the police station. "Oh my god! Oh my god!"
The video stopped as the person had continued screaming. Godric licked his lips. "My dad was being held there… He was being held in that station." Panic gripping him as he looked at Dr. Rosen with wide eyes, the entire building had collapsed like there had been a bomb in the basement. Getting up he moved over to the television they kept in the meeting room turning it on as the news flickered to the collapsed police station.
"There are only five survivors that have been confirmed at this point. Many dead… So many… There have been reports that there was a bomb set off, these are unconfir-" The television was turned off as Godric sat down on the ground holding his head in his hands. Shaking his head from side to side he swallowed hard.
"They killed him… They killed my Dad." Getting up Godric just walked past everyone. He hated what his dad had did to him… Call it Stockholm syndrome, but they were still family… and no one deserved that kind of death. Sitting down at his desk he held his head in his hands. Godric couldn't bring himself to look up as Rachel knocked on his door. "Please go away…"
"Godric… Please don't cry. We're going to go out to survey the damage… You don't have to go, but…" Rachel became silent, looking down the hall she sighed before frowning. "Dr. Rosen… I'm going to stay with Godric. We already have enough evidence from the recording, you're just questioning…"
"Alright… You have my cell phone number if you need anything Rachel." Dr. Rosen gave her a sad look as he glanced at the office door that was partially closed. He could hear the heart wrenching sobs that were coming from Godric as the teen tried to keep himself as quiet as possible.
Rachel sat down on the opposite side of the desk waiting for Godric to say something. The young male finally growing quiet after a couple of minutes, rubbing at his eyes as he looked up at her. "I'm sorry…"
"Won't change it… I can't even hate him anymore… It's so fucked up. I spend all this time hating him and he dies like this. Drowning in his own vomit would have been more dignified than being squashed like an ant." He held his head in his hands for a few more minutes, wiping tears off of his cheeks every now and then before standing up. Drawing a shuddering breath he looked at Rachel. "I'm going to head back to Hicks…"
"I'll go… Um, you shouldn't be alone right now. It's kind of hard to take all of this in." Rachel offered him a gentle smile, silently insisting that he shouldn't be alone despite his desire to be so. Godric was a sweet person, but she'd come to realize how emotionally volatile he truly was. "Hicks said you just got a car?"
"Birthday present… My mom's trying to bribe me. What happened to your car?" Godric tried to smile, finding that he failed horribly at the small attempt at pretending to be fine.
"It was Nina's. She let me borrow it." She smiled gently not wanting to upset the teen any more than he already was.
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"Want some ice cream or something?" Godric was poking around in the kitchen while Rachel sat on the couch, he'd made sure to vacuum and clean the place the second they'd stepped in. It had apparently been the right thing to do; Rachel seemed more at ease now that the place was clean. The quiet sound of agreement had him smiling a little. His nerves were a little less frayed as he pulled out the chocolate ice cream that he refused to share with Hicks under the threat of death. He'd written his name on the container in a black sharpie.
Rachel looked up as Godric held a bowl of ice cream out for her. The teen sat down on the other side of the couch looking at the made-for-tv movie that was playing, it was better than the soaps that were on that Hicks had jokingly introduced him too. She just smiled as she looked down at the dish. "Who washed this?"
"I did… I use a little bleach in the water. Makes them a little more sanitary. It kind of grosses me out putting something someone's probably licked in my mouth. I mean… I'd be fine if it was you. But Hicks is a guy… Kind of gross. My cousin Alex used to spit in my ice cream and sodas so I'd give them to him." Leaning back as he put a small spoonful in his mouth he just shrugged. "I'm not scared of germs or anything. I just hate catching what other people have, the only time I'd ever shared a drink I got the flu. I was sick for almost two weeks."
"That's horrible." She couldn't help herself as she laughed, reaching out she changed the channel to something a little more current as she looked over at Godric. Smiling again she looked down at her ice cream, it made her happy knowing he'd gone so far out of his way to clean Hicks' apartment. As she looked back at Godric he just blushed focusing on his ice cream again. "What?"
"I like it when you smile… You look really pretty." Godric said quietly as he curled into himself as he busied himself with another mouthful of ice cream before she could say anything else. Tilting his head back as the apartment door opened Godric just waved at Hicks. "You guys find anything?"
"A ticket… That's all." Hicks gave a grunt heaving himself into a wooden chair at the table as he looked over at Godric. "So you share with her, but not with me."
"You double dip…" Godric stared at Hicks for a moment as if he was staring at a poorly trained dog. Looking back down at his ice cream he frowned. "I cleaned the apartment again, there's a kool-aid stain on the counter… What kind of ticket?"
"One to that fashion show you went to… There's nothing on it." Hicks was digging through his pockets until he slapped something down on the table. A blue and purple ticket, Dr. Rosen had let him take it to show to Godric in case the teen would be able to figure anything out. Holding up the little baggie he frowned.
"You try a black light?" Godric set his bowl on the coffee table as Rachel cocked her head. The teen leaned over the arm of the couch pulling a small black box from his duffel bag he pulled out a small portable black light, flicking the switch on the light hummed for a moment before flickering on. Carefully stepping over his opened bag, placing the black light a few inches over the ticket something lit up. "Standard Shangri-La method of passing things. Leave something insignificant laying around with invisible writing on it."
"Huh… That's pretty smart actually." Hicks cocked his head as he looked at the writing. "What's it say… That's not English."
"It's a mixture of Mandarin and Korean. The nouns and verbs are written in Mandarin while the rest of its written in Korean. Just be glad this isn't written in Russian and German… We'd be out of luck, I can't translate any of that. Give me a piece of paper." Godric pulled the ticket from the baggie as he examined the thin ticket. Brows furrowing as he looked it over. Hicks settled a blank piece of paper on the table next to Godric as the teen pulled a miniature pen out of his left pocket uncapping it as he started writing out in some foreign dialect. Eyes flashing over the coded writing for a few more moments before he clicked off the black light.
Rachel was watching now as Godric started translating the code he'd translated into a single language. Hicks was just as curious as he leaned over watching the young man working with a thin frown. "What's it say?"
"'The Black Dog has sent a present to the Rogue by command of the Queen'. It's a vague code… The Black Dog is code for the man in the video. The Rogue is obviously me… I'm not a member of Shangri-La so I can't be officially included in any of the coded messages without being put in danger. By their creed outsiders are not to be included until they become active members… I'm not sure who the Queen is… But she wanted my dad dead… The Queen is either code for a high ranking member of Red Flag or someone in Shangri-La that I don't know…" Godric leaned back looking down at the paper. Tapping his fingers on the table he furrowed his brows. "This was either a threat against me… Or a bribe in poor taste."
"How the hell do you know Mandarin and Korean…" Hicks finally seemed to snap out of whatever funk he was in as he looked at the teen curiously. Godric just scratched the back of his neck as he looked up at the ceiling.
"They groom people on the waiting list, regardless of whether they enter or not. Seeing as my mother is a member they expected me to join, so they made sure I learned how to read their coding. Shakespeare really helps with the whole code word learning thing… He's a vague humor kinda guy." Godric coughed as he looked down at the writing again. "Black Dog is one of the more violent members of Shangri-La… The only reason I know who he is… Is because he's my cousin."
