After the whole reveal of my former best friend being public enemy No 1, things were definitely going to be different. My past had finally decided to rear its ugly head and I couldn't run from it this time either. Alexis was here in Charter and I was finally going to get the chance to crush her to repay her for her betrayal back in grade school.
"Can't believe that your childhood friend is the leader of a criminal organization," Kato said. "You gonna be able to handle her?"
I shrugged. "Only one way to find out. Was really hoping that I'd never see her again."
"The past rarely stays buried, Jo," Ashley said, pressing her shoulder against mine to comfort me. "Especially a past as complicated as yours."
I sighed. She had a point. I hadn't exactly buried the hatchet with Alexis but I was still certain that I had put a lot of distance between us and yet here she was in my new hometown causing problems. And I was going to have to be the one to stop her before things got even more out of hand. I had a lot of questions circling in my mind as well. How had she gotten her hands on an amplification drug? Was she making it or was someone making it for her and she was just the person giving it to people who wanted it? She had given one to Braxton knowing that he'd use it but had it been intentional? Had she been trying to sent me an indirect message? There was a part of me that was also wondering how long she had been here in Charter without me even realizing it. Regardless, I was certain that I could beat her this time around.
Can you though? I thought to myself. You weren't a match for her four years ago so how can you be a match for her now?
"I'm more than a match for her now," I muttered to myself.
"Huh?" Kato said.
I shook my head dismissively then turned my attention to Yasmine. She was sitting on her couch staring out the window with her face screwed up in annoyance. She caught my eye and turned to look at me, her eyes slightly narrowed. This ordeal was going to put a strain on our relationship and I could only hope that it wouldn't result in the end of us. But life had a funny way of ruining things for me. I was determined though. I was determined to maintain my relationship with Yasmine and make things work. I was determined to gain better control of my powers and start acting like an omega and protect the people that I cared about so that what happened with Braxton would never happen with anyone else in my life. But most of all…I was determined to make Alexis answer for what she had done eleven years ago. Even if meant fighting her head to head. But Alexis was a dangerous opponent, possibly the most dangerous person I would ever have to face. She was cunning, manipulative and formidable with her being the only person who had ever beaten me in hand to hand combat. There was also the unknown variable of her ability. Even though I had been the closest person to her at the time, she had never once revealed her ability to me and had only told me that she had no need to use it when fighting someone. She solely relied on her fighting skills and always came out on top regardless of who she was fighting. She was a deadly combatant who wouldn't hesitate to try and kill whoever she was fighting if she felt it was necessary to do so. The total opposite of me.
"You must really hate her," Yasmine said suddenly. "I know you said she revealed your secret but your hatred borders on the pathological. So it makes me wonder if there's more to the story that you're not telling us."
Ashley hummed in agreement. "She's right. Four years of hatred is a huge burden to carry and I'm scared it's going to blind you and make you reckless."
"I'll be fine," I said quietly, listening but not really listening. "This time it's different."
Kato frowned at me. "Meaning what exactly?"
I shrugged. "I'm a lot stronger than I was four years ago. I have a better handle on my powers and I'm not afraid of her anymore."
Things were different this time. I wasn't the same kid from four years ago who was afraid of his powers so much that he hid them from the people around him. I had grown and gained control over my abilities in a short timespan and I knew that I had the capability to take her on. I had been secretly training myself for the day that I knew me and Alexis would cross paths again. I had spent long, arduous hours honing my body to be able to withstand the backlash of my powers. I could exert my ability far more than I had ever been able to in the past and I had new facets of my power at my disposal to use against her. But there's a part of my mind that kept replaying the last words she had said to me before I left Chicago.
"No matter where you go, what city you run to, I'll always find you. We belong together," she'd said, her cold voice ringing through my head.
I clenched my fist in anger, flashes of my past suddenly playing through my mind like movie scenes. Every moment with her; every laugh, every joke, every conversation had all been nothing but manipulation tactics to get closer to me and use me and I had fallen for it because I'd been vulnerable, scared and alone. I had trusted her and she used my trust against me like a weapon. I had left my whole life back in Chicago to protect my family and now the source of all my pain and misery had shown her face and was now ruining my life once again. Why? Why couldn't she just stay away? Why did she have to come here and stir up trouble? Everything had been fine until she reared her head and brewed chaos and now I was going to have to face my past and bury the hatchet permanently. But I couldn't help to feel angry at the entire ordeal.
"Josiah!" Kato yelled.
I glanced up at him and saw that his eyes were wide with shock and apprehension but I didn't know why until I looked down at myself and saw that my powers had unconsciously activated due to my emotions running high. My anger had triggered my powers to activate and my telekinetic force field was surrounding my whole body and causing an enormous amount energetic pressure in the room. Yasmine, Kato and Ashley all had strained faces from the pressure my powers were exerting and I immediately exhaled to power down. The minute I did, the pressure in the room disappeared and they took huge deep breaths to steady themselves.
"What the hell was that?!" Yasmine asked in between gulps of air.
"Telekinetic pressure," I said quietly. "My powers are tied to my emotional state so I guess my anger triggered them to exert some sort of telekinetic pressure and expand my force field to mimic the effects of heavy gravity."
Kato let out a low whistle. "Your power is freaky. Can you control it?"
I shook my head. "It's subconscious and activates when it wants to, just like my ability to disassemble objects by touching them."
"To do what?!" Ashley said incredulously.
I scratched the back of my head sheepishly. "Yeah, I discovered that one when I accidentally disassembled my laptop typing a paper."
Yasmine shook her head in disbelief then got up to go to the kitchen. I watched her go then felt a nudge in my back from Ashley who motioned her head to say 'follow her' then proceeded to push me to my feet. I walked into the kitchen and saw Yasmine bracing herself against the sink, looking at me out of the corner of her eye with an expression that I couldn't quite read. Her eyes were distant and forlorn, like she was seeing something that I couldn't.
"What?" She said softly.
I leaned against the wall, crossing my arms over my chest as I stared at her. I could tell that she was upset but was trying to hold her emotions in so as to avoid arguing with me but I didn't like the tension that was between us either. I knew there was so much that she wanted to say to me but she had been biting her tongue so that we didn't end up fighting with each other but the brittle silence between us wasn't doing much for our relationship. I knew she was angry at both me and her dad but more so at me for agreeing to help without so much as a second thought. I understood her feelings but I also needed her to understand why I was so keen on doing this.
"You know why I agreed to help your dad," I said finally, looking her in the eye.
"I know," Yasmine mumbled. "I still don't want you to do it, though."
I walked over to her and cupped her chin, forcing her to look up at me.
"Why not? What're you afraid of?"
She sighed, placing her hands on my chest and leaning into me. I wrapped my arms around her, slightly rocking back and forth to comfort her while also rubbing her back.
"I'm going to be okay, Yas," I said, kissing the top of her head. "Stop worrying."
"I'm always going to worry," she huffed, her voice muffled since her face was buried in my chest. "Because I care about you and I don't know what I would do if I lost you."
I sighed contemplatively. I didn't know what to say so I held her tighter, taking in the moment. What I was getting into was way outta my league but I felt obligated to make sure that what happened to Braxton didn't happen to anyone else. I owed it to him to stop anyone else from going down the path that he had gone down. I was apprehensive but I knew this was the only way. Alexis had to be stopped before her drug got into the hands of someone who was much more morally evil than Braxton, someone who wouldn't hesitate to use their boosted powers to cause wanton destruction and mayhem across the city. As much as I didn't want to, I had to step up and try to be a hero. And a hero was nothing without an archenemy who was capable of taking everything away from you in the blink of an eye.
"Try not to get yourself killed," Yasmine said, pulling away from. "Or you'll more than just death to worry about."
I nodded solemnly and she left to go back to the living. I could faintly hear her cracking a joke to Ashley and Kato but my mind was on other thing at that moment. I was headed down a path that would possibly change my life forever but I knew it was a path that only I could walk. My mom had told me that in order to protect the people you cared about, you had to do things that would break you and challenge you as a person. I was confronting a piece of my past that I had been the driving force behind a lot of my actions and I was ready to finally be rid of that part of myself.
Alexis, I thought to myself as I turned back to look at my friends, I hope you're ready. I'm coming for you.