CHAPTER FIFTY
A/N: Sorry if you get confused guys, this chapter jumps around a lot, I have the recaps from the first 4 'A look into the past' chapters here, and then there are new moments here as well.
Nathan Reeves yawned loudly as he rubbed his eyes, getting his stuff together for class that morning. It was tedious, he knew everything that was happening in each of his classes and it bored him. But there weren't any more classes that held his attention or challenged him a little so he was stuck. But he was thankful that his classes that day were mostly science ones as science has always interested him. His mother had always said that if he didn't end up being a scientist later in life that it was the sign of the apocalypse.
Nathan sighed as he looked at his watch, he still had time before his class started, and he could get a head start on his next project.
Grabbing his laptop, he moved and sat back on his bed, waiting as the computer powered up. It was times like these, in the early morning and late at night that he wished he had decided to get a double room with a roommate instead of s ingle. But in the end, he liked his privacy, so he could deal with the loneliness after away. Just the same, he made a mental note to call his parents later.
As he pulled up the internet, instead of using a simple Google search like normal people did, Nathan decided to go a different way through the internet. He was an excellent hacker, and new a lot of how computers worked and how people would use different codes and storage files to keep their documents a secret. With the project he was doing for science, he would have to get a lot of information from the government, and instead of trying to sweet-talk his way into it, he decided to just get the information himself. As he was scrolling through the files, he noticed an odd one that had a lot of data in it, due to the size of the document.
As he pulled it open, his heart started to beat faster. Nathan knew ways that computers could hack into other computers without being detected, but this was the government that he was dealing with and they had scientists and computer experts that were trained to deal with this sort of thing. As he pulled open the document numerous news reports; images of newspaper clippings, news station videos, charts, graphs filled up the screen and they all had the same topic. 'Super humans' that were in Japan. Nathan's eyes widened as he continued to read.
The 'super humans', from what people had reported, were able to control elements like fire, water and were being witnessed. Some of them were using the power to help other innocent people who were in trouble, and others were using it to rob banks and wreak havoc. Each document that Nathan looked at had to do with the super humans and more and more appeared as Nathan continued to look through it.
By the time he had finished looking through them, Nathan had missed his first class and he had a name for them.
Elementals.
"What else have you found, Christian?" Reed Jackson questioned as he sat down next to Nathan. He looked up as two women passed and he lowered his voice, leaning forward. "Is it just us?"
"Yes, it is just us," Christian Manning replied and brushed his brown hair out his eyes. "I have gone around and asked people, without telling them everything exactly, what we have found, and no one else has even given a hint that they knew about it too."
"People that can control elements," Nathan let out a breath as he leaned back in his seat. He laughed incredulously. "Sounds like it came out of a Sci-Fi movie."
"I was thinking the same thing," Reed stated as she shook his head, leaning back as well. He sat still for a second and then crossed his legs. "There has to be a reason that we found out about this," he looked at Christian and then over at Nathan. "The three of us, there has to be a reason why us three college guys are the only ones that found out about this."
"I was wondering that exact same thing," Christian commented as Nathan opened his mouth to say something. He closed it when Christian continued. "From some of the information that I had found, elementals had awakened from finding out that others were elementals, so, maybe that has something to do with us."
"So what you're saying is that we're possible elementals?" Nathan questioned as he raised an eyebrow skeptically.
"I'm not saying that exactly," Christian replied, shaking his head. "I'm saying that it be why we're the ones that found out about it."
"Either way, it's something that we have to research more," Reed interjected, lowering his voice even further. "I think that we should continue our studies on this on our own and meet up again, same place, same time, next week."
"Agreed." Nathan nodded.
"So I bet that you three are wondering why I've asked you to stay after class today," Professor Trethaway stated as he closed the door to his classroom and looked over at Christian, Reed, and Nathan. The three of them were sitting in their seats, silently casting glances at each other out of the corner of their eyes.
What had they done wrong?
Were they talking too loud during class?
Did he notice them passing notes?
Maybe they just weren't paying as close attention to their work as they used to.
"I'm sure that you're aware that your science projects are due soon," Professor Trethaway continued as he sat down on the desk at the front of the room and crossed his arms over his chest. "But that's not really what I wanted to talk about. I have noticed that you three haven't been doing as well in this class as you used to. Bluntly, I can tell you that I could never get you three to shut up when I wanted other students to try, and now you're just completely silent." He raised his eyebrows. "You do know that class participation is a big percent of your grade?"
"With all due respect, sir, I think that the class participation that we have done in the past will put us above and beyond the minimum that we need for class participation," Reed spoke up. "Even if we don't talk in class."
"Duly noted." Professor Trethaway confirmed after a moment. He took a deep breath and then changed the subject. "So how are your projects coming? I don't think that you've told me what your ideas are for it."
Well, we definitely can't tell him that we found out about something that the government is hiding Christian thought to himself as he shifted in his seat, trying not to let his teacher know that he was nervous. He had been told numerous times before that he wore his heart on his sleeve, and he didn't want the whole thing to blow up in their faces, especially if they could potentially go to jail for having accidentally tapped into something they shouldn't have seen. But I haven't even really decided what my cover was going to be. I should have thought about it before.
"We are researching the science behind the idea of reincarnation." Nathan spoke up smoothly. Christian and Reed exchanged glances and looked over at their friend, but he continued to look ahead, silkily avoiding their gaze. "As well as the psychological aspects of it."
"Interesting," Professor Trethaway had a wicked gleam in his eye as he rubbed his chin. "What do you think about it?" he started to uncuff his sleeves and roll them up to his forearms.
"Well," Nathan paused for a second as something caught his eye. He looked down at Professor Trethaway's forearm and his eyes narrowed slightly when he saw a strange symbol sitting on it. "We haven't really been able to get a lot of answers, because we have been researching many different things at once. To be honest we're kind of disorganized, but we'll get our heads in it soon." He lifted his eyes to Professor Trethaway's and they narrowed even further when he saw a flash of something.
"That's good to know." Professor Trethaway nodded and pushed himself off of his desk. "That's all I needed to know boys, thanks." He turned and walked out of the room.
"I don't know how," Nathan spoke up before Christian or Reed could. "But he knows what we're really doing."
"So what you're telling me is that you think that there is a certain way to tell who is an elemental and who isn't?" Christian asked as he watched hotdog vendor spread mustard on his hot-dog. "Like, there's some sort of a tattoo that they each have?"
"I didn't say it was a tattoo," Nathan commented as he crossed his arms over his chest, waiting for Reed and Christian to finish getting their lunch. "I just said that there was a mark on his arm."
"And what makes you think that Professor Trethaway is an elemental?" Reed asked as he grabbed his hotdog and took a large bite. "I mean, because it can't be the way that he seems to know what everyone is doing when his back is turned. I think every teacher has that ability."
"Two reasons really," Nathan rubbed his fingers through his hair, suddenly feeling self-conscious. "The fact that when I looked at him after I was explaining what our fake project is, which I have to get started on by the way, he looked at me as if he was lying."
"Yeah, then you said that he knew what we were really doing?" Reed insisted through a full mouth. "What was that supposed to mean?"
"Ok, well, I don't think that he knows exactly what we're doing, but the look on his face…" Nathan stopped short and shook his head. "I don't know, maybe I'm over thinking this." He turned and looked across the park that the three of them were standing in.
"I could have told you that," Christian snorted and turned, holding onto two hot-dogs. He held one out to Nathan. "Now calm down, pull that stick out of your butt, and eat your hotdog." Nathan looked down at it for a second before knocking it out of Christian's hand, smirking. "I was going to eat that if you didn't want that." Christian protested as Reed burst out into laughter.
"You know the most irritating thing about you two is that you never seem to know when to be serious." Nathan realized.
"And yet, you're still our friend." Reed shrugged and gave a half-smile. "As for that mark thing that you were talking about, don't you think that it would be a little obvious if all elementals had the mark in the exact same place with the same symbol? The way I see it, it would be in a different spot and have different symbols, probably going along with the element you control."
Nathan's eyes flew wide open. "Dude, that's it," he cried.
"What's it?" Reed looked startled at the sudden outburst and Christian just looked interested.
"The mark, tattoo thing, I just remembered," Nathan lowered his voice. "I just remembered that when we were first looking into the government thing, one elemental had the mark on his ankle."
"So that means," Christian nodded slowly. "That there could be anyone in our school, or in the world, that's an elemental, but we wouldn't know because their mark could be disguised as a tattoo or it's just covered by their clothes." He turned and tossed his half-eaten hot-dog into the trash can. "So what are we going to do now?"
"We're going to see just how many people we know are actually elementals." Nathan replied.
"I had a feeling you were going to say that." Reed sighed and then studied Nathan. "I think I liked you better when you were quiet."
Nathan grinned.
"So someone explain to me how we're going to be able to check to see who has an element mark and who doesn't?" Reed stated as he scratched his eyebrow, bringing his feet up and putting them on Nathan's bed.
Nathan walked by and knocked them off before going over to his computer. "You're getting annoyed aren't you?" he questioned as he shook the mouse and brought up a web browser.
"No, what gave you that idea?" Christian replied, chuckling as he passed a tennis ball back and forth between his hands. "The fact that he's starting to use his Australian accent again, or the fact that it's a very beautiful day outside, we could be going to the park or into town or something, but instead we're dealing with something that could potentially get us killed." He shrugged.
"Yeah, well, there's a reason we found out about this," Nathan turned in his chair to face his friends. "To save the world, maybe," he shrugged. "I don't know, but you can't tell me that you're not interested in this stuff."
"I didn't say that." Reed interrupted, raising his eyebrows. "I'm just wondering how much time we're going to invest in this stuff."
"Don't worry about that," Nathan shook his head. "At least not for now, for now it's just a project that we're researching…when we're supposed to be researching something else for an actual project that's for a grade." He turned back to his computer and then motioned for Reed and Christian to join him. "See," he jabbed at the computer screen with his thumb. "These two images that I downloaded on my computer, and hid amongst a bunch of files in case someone gets my IP address, these two elementals have the same mark-"
"The element mark," Reed interrupted and then smirked when Christian and Nathan looked over at him. "What? Someone else should have a chance to name things other than Nathan." He defended himself.
"Anyway," Nathan turned back to the computer. "These 'element marks'" he used air-quotes around the words. "Are in different places, kind of like tattoos, like I said before. They could be anywhere on the persons' body, so if we're going to look for them, we're going to have to keep from drawing attention to ourselves and what we're doing."
"And how do you propose we do that?" Christian demanded, crossing his arms over his chest.
"You're going to have to figure that out on your own."
...
..
.
"Geez Nathan, didn't you ever think that this was going to be harder than you originally thought?" Christian asked aloud as he rubbed his neck.
He hadn't had any luck with looking for elemental marks, most of the ones that he had been able to get close enough too turned out to be tattoos, and the others would just notice that he was staring at them funny and walk away as fast as possible. It didn't help much that many of the women he was looking at slapped him for staring at them so intently. "He better be having better luck than I am or someone is seriously going to pay for this."
He shook his head as he continued walking along the streets of the city, minding his own business and looking around at everyone hat he passed. He had just stopped at a crosswalk and was waiting to go across when he heard a voice form an alleyway almost to his immediate left.
"Give me all your money!" A strange man said.
Christian's first instinct was to figure out what was going on, he never was one that was able to just sit idly by while someone was being mistreated. It was never his nature.
"Here, take the purse. Just . . . just, leave me alone." A feminine voice said.
Christian turned on his heel and hurried into the alleyway, looking back and forth as he slowly inched forward, making sure to keep his footsteps light. The man was about five and a half feet tall with short brown hair wearing jeans and a black jacket.
The woman had shiny black hair and was petite, but despite her size, she was standing her ground and glaring at the man. "You got your money, now leave." The woman said forcefully.
The man began laughing. "I don't think so," he walked over to her and leaned close to her, whispering something in her ear. Christian couldn't tell what he was saying, but it seemed to make the woman angrier. Christian moved closer to the two of them, still staying as silent as possible. When he was close enough, he spoke up.
"Leave her alone!" he declared.
The man looked at Christian and snorted. "You're going to stop me?" The man laughed a little.
"Yeah."
The man turned around, making it seem like he was going to turn away from Christian, but then spun around and punched Christian across the face. Christian stumbled back a few steps, caught off guard, but then easily returned with a punch to the man's stomach.
The man bent over, gasping for air as he tried to catch his breath. Using the time that the man was down, Christian reached over and grabbed the woman's arm, lightly tugging her forward. "C'mon. We gotta move."
The woman looked away from the man that was kneeling in front of her and turned to Christian, her eyes still blazing with the will to fight. "Thank you," she said with a nod.
Christian nodded back, "You're welcome. Now, let's move!"
The woman stood rooted where she stood. "My purse, he still has it."
Christian turned around, his eyes scanning the ground, and then moved forward, retrieving the purse. While grabbing it, he kicked the guy on the back, as he was on all fours, sending him to the pavement. Christian shook his head, and handed the purse to the woman. "Let's get out of here."
The woman nodded, "Sure. My name's Kristin."
Christian smiled, "Christian." His smile then faded a little. "I don't mean to be rude when I ask this, but, it's obvious that you're part Asian, so how can you have the name Kristin?"
"Old fashioned father…liberal mother…different views," Kristin replied with a shrug and a smile. "It's a long story."
"A long story meaning that you don't want to tell me?" Christian raised an eyebrow.
"A long story meaning that I would like to meet up to tell you about it." Kristin replied, raising an eyebrow herself before smiling.
Christian smiled back.
It was a chilly Thursday afternoon and Reed had to get out of his dorm for some fresh air. Really, he didn't have a choice; there were a bunch of his hall mates that were screaming and yelling and chugging beer. How they could do that so early in the day, he wasn't sure. But he didn't need a throbbing headache and a sore throat (from effectively screaming at them) that early either.
So the library was the first place that he thought of going, besides, it wouldn't hurt to see if there was any books there that could help him, Nathan, and Christian. He made his way up the stairs to the first floor, instinctively going over to the back where the fantasy section was located.
He stopped and watched as a petite young woman was standing on her tip-toes, trying to grab a book that was on a shelf above her. Obviously she did not want to be put off by this; she tried jumping several times, without much success. She gave up and turned her back to the book and sighed exasperatedly.
Reed then strolled across to where she was to help her; with ease, he lifted up his arm and slid the book out from the shelf from where she was trying to reach and after looking at the cover and smiling, he handed it to her.
"Here you go." He said. "I noticed you couldn't reach so I thought I'd do the gentlemanly thing and help you out", he said holding his gaze into her eyes a bit longer than normal.
"Thank you", the woman replied gratefully. She fidgeted with her hands, shifting her weight from foot to foot.
"Um …" she started, thinking of how to begin a conversation to ease the awkwardness of the situation.
"So … what's your name then?" Reed prompted.
"Ruriko", she said shortly, before adding "And why are you staring at me so much? Is there something on my face, or hair maybe?" She touched her dark hair nervously.
"No, not at all," Reed said defensively, shaking his head. "I just thought how pretty you look close up …" He gave a shrug.
Ruriko looked shocked, her mouth hanging open. She glanced to her side twice then pointed at herself, fixing her brown eyes on him in astonishment.
"You find me attractive?" she said unbelievably. "Is this a practical joke you and your mates dared you to say to me?" She then looked angry."
"What?" Reed looked annoyed. "No! Course not! Look Ruriko" he spoke slowly, obviously trying carefully not to offend her again, "My name's Reed Jackson and I came here alone today, and I promise you this isn't a joke. I seriously think you're pretty."
"Well" she said hesitantly, "I really don't know what to say, Reed. I'm flattered, it's just I'm not used to such compliments. Thanks", she managed a small smile.
"No problem," Reed grinned in reply.
"I can't believe that you're thinking of bringing them into your lives," Nathan said, shaking his head. "Don't you realize how stupid that is?" He turned in his chair to face his best friends. "The other thing I find funny though is that you're roommates, best friends, and just so happen to be dating a set of twins."
"Hey, I met her first," Christian declared. "And it's not my fault that Reed can't make his own identity," he gently jostled his friend's shoulder before standing up and moving next to Nathan. "And there's no problem with having a girlfriend, it will keep us from going insane while we're trying to figure this stuff out, it's-"
"Irresponsible?" Nathan supplied with a shrug.
"Normal," Reed replied, blinking slowly. "Besides, you're acting like we're going to marry these girls."
"You might." Nathan pointed out.
"We might not."
"But you might," Nathan insisted. He stayed silent for a few moments as his eyes darted around his dorm room. Everything that had seemed so simple before, go to college, get a job, get married, have kids, live life, and die. But he didn't think that something as big as the discovery of elementals would derail everything that he had been working for. He shook his head. "I guess I just don't get it," he muttered after a moment. "Why you would bring someone else in this…?"
"Maybe they know something we don't," Christian shrugged. "I don't' know, I got kind of a weird vibe from Kristin, like she was hiding something from me."
"You've only been dating her a month!" Reed snorted.
"Still," Christian insisted. "I don't know why, but for some reason it seems to me that things like this all stem from Japan, or something, and they're Japanese-American, so-"
"That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard!" Nathan stated after a moment. Christian shot him an offended look, and Nathan just gave a smile in reply, before chuckling. He then rubbed his eyes tiredly. "It's stupid, but it may be plausible." He turned back to his computer. "I have to check that out."
"What you have to do is get a girlfriend," Reed then got up and walked over to Nathan, slapping him on the shoulder. "Come on; hang out with us tonight, Nate. You can get to know our girls and maybe you can find a nice girl and relax."
"I'll relax when I can finally figure this all out," Nathan replied. He looked up. "And please don't call me Nate; I hate that as a nickname."
"Then what can we call you, because Nathan sounds so goddamn boring it almost puts me to sleep," Reed pretended to yawn. He shrugged as Christian turned his sharp look to him. "What? I can't be blunt with my friends?"
"I don't know," Nathan shrugged. "I was just thinking about the nickname Core. That sounds cool, right?"
"Yeah, awesome," Christian licked his lips and placed his hands on his hips. "So are you coming or not?" Nathan shook his head. "Ok, but it's your loss."
"Really?" Nathan didn't sound convinced. "Going out with two girls to get something to eat and quite possibly get drunk and watch as Reed races around the roads like a speed-demon, you think that's fun?" His humorous look faded. "Trust me, from experience I've learned that getting involved with girls is going to do nothing but cause the death of you."
Nathan Reeve's face held no emotion as he walked back to his car. Once arriving, he looked around at the people; men, women, and children dressed in black as they walked to their cars, murmuring about how the funeral service was beautiful. Nathan's lip curled as he watched them, his hand clenching into a fist around the key he was holding.
He ignored the pain.
It couldn't be as painful as losing one of his best friends. There was no pain in the world that would help him get over it. He finally unlocked the car and slid inside, behind the steering wheel. He pulled his phone from his pocket and, making sure he changed the settings so his number wouldn't be traced, he called someone.
"Hey, it's me," he greeted. "The funeral was fine, I guess. Too stuffy, Reed definitely wouldn't have wanted that, you know he'd had wanted a party." He gave a brief smile. "I called to tell you that and to tell you that you need to stay in hiding, your daughter will be fine, I'll watch over her and over her cousins, but you need to stay out of sight. I'll continue to watch Halo Syndicate, don't try to contact me unless you really need something and don't tell your daughter anything if you catch up to her again." He paused. "Pretend that I'm your enemy, things will go better. Ok, ok, you too, bye."
Nathan hung up his phone and peeled out of the parking lot, heading onto the highway, and driving out of sight….
A/N: I showed how Ruriko and Reed met because I wanted to show their personalities and how it goes into their kids; Reed's outgoingness is Julius, Patrick, and Sydney and Ruriko's shyness is Noah, her sudden anger is Riley, and her suspicion is Rhuben. I had thought about adding in their weddings and realized that that wasn't really that important. And I bet you're also wondering why Gattaca's attack them or the revelation of whether or not Ruriko and Kristin are actually elementals was not shown. But don't worry, it will be done soon. I hope you guys liked this chapter. I'll update again soon. I know that I said that this chapter would show the traitor, but I felt that it was stronger on its own, so the next one shows it.
Cheers,
-Riles
