Chapter 189: Endless Curiousity
Mira looked around before turning to Jason with a question.
"Jason... where is Gina?"
Jason grit his teeth internally while he kept his face perfectly calm. He released a small breath before he gave his mother a smile.
"I’ll explain everything to you later, I promise. For now, help me look after her till I get back. Cerci, let’s talk."
Jason turned and began to walk out of the house without bothering to see if Cerci was actually coming or not. Mira still had a lot of questions, but she could see the seriousness in Jason’s gaze and she knew that it was better to just let him finish his conversation first. Cerci reached down and took the cup of coffee that Mira had made for him. He drank all of it at once before he released a calming sigh, smiled at Mira thankfully, and walked out of the house.
—
Jason and Cerci stood outside Mira’s apartment. The moon had risen high in the sky and its light cast a silver hue across the street, but both men seemed to have silently agreed that they preferred staying away from the light, so they were standing in the shadow of the building where no one could see them. Jason had his hands in the pocket of his coat and he watched as Cerci brought out a cigar and lit it. Cerci took a puff and blew it to the side before he spoke.
"Just out of plain curiosity, is your girlfriend still alive?"
Jason gave Cerci a hard glare.
"You don’t talk about her. This is the only warning you’ll get."
Cerci nodded calmly while looking up at the night sky with a hum. There were stars littering the horizon, and it would have been a peaceful night if not for the large cloud of smoke that had taken up one side of the city skyline. Cerci took another puff from his cigarette before he threw it to the ground and spoke while putting his hands in his pockets.
"That girl, the inter-world traveler. I need you to give her to us."
"That’s not happening."
Jason’s answer was immediate and Cerci frowned slightly as he continued.
"I don’t need to tell you about how dangerous she is to you. Her presence brought more trouble for your family than you’ve experienced in the past ten years. Jason, I understand you’re a man of your word. You’re just like your father. You promised her that you’d take care of her and now you’re risking the lives of everyone around you to keep that promise, but it’s not worth it. The only reason I’m talking to you right now is because I owe your father that much. He saved our lives, and in exchange, we promised not to interfere in his family’s matters. But we can’t turn a blind eye when you’re harboring an inter-world refugee."
Cerci massaged his neck calmly once he was done talking and waited for Jason to say something in response. Cerci was trying his very best not to involve himself in the Marc family, and if not for the fact that Jason had taken Riyala in, then Cerci would have never bothered to meet Jason like this. But Cerci couldn’t turn a blind eye anymore since Riyala’s presence here could mean trouble for all of them!
Jason remained silent for only a few seconds before he spoke.
"How do you know my father?"
Cerci blinked in surprise at that question. It was the last thing he expected Jason to ask after everything he said. But Cerci realized that he was talking to the son of that bastard, so he really shouldn’t be surprised that they would have the same personality. Even with all the physical power they had, the Marcs were also very curious. Strength and curiosity were a dangerous combination and it was one of the things that made Cercei uneasy around Richard, and now he could sense the same personality trait in Jason as well. Cerci brought out another cigarette and lit it before speaking.
"Your father showed up on Earth twenty-five years ago. He was a one-man army with more power than the military might of the entire planet combined and the government was terrified of him, but I spoke to him and he told me about how his world was destroyed and he came here to rest. We allowed him to stay in exchange for an agreement that he would aid us in ’difficult’ situations. He met your mother a few years after he started working with the government and settled down with her. But he still helped us from time to time."
Cerci shrugged once he finished his story and Jason hummed. Jason had been trying to fill the holes in his father’s lore for a while now, so it was good to know that there was someone who could help him with that. At least now he could be certain that the Book of the Apocalypse was actually written by his father.
Jason asked something else.
"Do you know where he is?"
Cerci gave Jason a curious look. The story that was recorded about Richard Marc was that he died ten years ago during the appearance of the first Gate. But of course, that was a lie. The government had hidden the truth from the world because they knew the people weren’t ready to handle it yet. Even Mira didn’t know everything about what really happened with Richard because Richard had made Cerci swear never to tell her. But Cerci wasn’t surprised that Jason would know that Richard was alive since Jason seemed to be more intertwined with the Primordial Expanse than most other superhumans.
Cerci took another drag from his cigarette and looked to the side calmly as his mind traveled back to the truth about that day.
"The story that we’re telling the public isn’t true. At least, not completely. It’s true that the Rulers went into the Green Gate to confront the monster on the other side, and it’s also true that they saved the world by closing the Gate. But what we didn’t say was that they weren’t the only ones to go in there. Remember I told you that your father made a deal with the government? Well, the government had been calling on him a lot. After your father arrived, there’ve been at least two hundred other appearances of interworld travelers. Some of them were seeking refuge, like your father, but there were others who were here to cause problems. Your father dealt with the most dangerous ones and we cleaned up the mess and made sure no one knew about the attacks to prevent unnecessary panic. But that day when the Green Gate appeared, it was different.
"The Rulers went into the Gate, and what they saw in there was a monster unlike anything that they could ever imagine. The Rulers couldn’t handle that. It nearly killed all of them, and it would have succeeded if your father hadn’t intervened. From what the Rulers told me, your father pushed the monster back during the battle and the both of them fell through a Dimensional Tear. I don’t know where in the Primordial Expanse they are now, but I thank God it isn’t here."
Cerci threw his cigar to the ground and crushed it with a frown.