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.
"Iâll explain everything to you later, I promise. For now, help me look after her till I get back. Cerci, letâs 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 Jasonâs 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.
â
Jason and Cerci stood outside Miraâs 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 donât talk about her. This is the only warning youâll 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."
"Thatâs not happening."
Jasonâs answer was immediate and Cerci frowned slightly as he continued.
"I donât need to tell you about how dangerous she is to you. Her presence brought more trouble for your family than youâve experienced in the past ten years. Jason, I understand youâre a man of your word. Youâre just like your father. You promised her that youâd take care of her and now youâre risking the lives of everyone around you to keep that promise, but itâs not worth it. The only reason Iâm 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 familyâs matters. But we canât turn a blind eye when youâre 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 couldnât turn a blind eye anymore since Riyalaâs 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 shouldnât 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 âdifficultâ 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 fatherâs 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 werenât ready to handle it yet. Even Mira didnât know everything about what really happened with Richard because Richard had made Cerci swear never to tell her. But Cerci wasnât 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 weâre telling the public isnât true. At least, not completely. Itâs true that the Rulers went into the Green Gate to confront the monster on the other side, and itâs also true that they saved the world by closing the Gate. But what we didnât say was that they werenât 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, thereâve 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 couldnât handle that. It nearly killed all of them, and it would have succeeded if your father hadnât 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 donât know where in the Primordial Expanse they are now, but I thank God it isnât here."
Cerci threw his cigar to the ground and crushed it with a frown.