[ 02 ]

ALL HIS LIFE, Finn hadn't had to play many roles. It was always only one - hero. It had never been his own choice, rather people telling him what to do, whether it was some Crux Agent or every citizen in Semper City. They all expected so much, in exchange for so little. Thinking that if they gave him crumbs, he would return golden loaves to them. But they were wrong, all of them. He was just a kid, barely eighteen, with vague memories of his parents and even more vague memories of a life outside of Crux. One of the only things that he knew was their names; Katherine "Karen" Johnson and Christopher Johnson. Just two office workers, no other children listed, both tall, both born in New Jersey.

Just two normal people, burdened with a child that cost them both their lives while the golden boy lived on.

That was how he imagined them, anyway. He'd only seen their file once, a glance during some testing when he'd been, what, eight? But those words, no matter how much they faded in his vision, remained in his mind. It had been a way to lull himself to sleep, reciting their names until Wildfire grumbled at him from the other bed to shut up. His friend had never known anything about his family, not even his own name. Wildfire had never known his own parents, but never complained about it. Not outwardly, at least. He wasn't a man of many words, but Finn could see the sag of his shoulders whenever family was mentioned.

Finn didn't blame him - at first, he shifted the blame onto himself, and once they were fourteen, onto Narcissa. Crux told him that she was selfish and cruel and ruthless, but she could only remember the burn of her black diamond gaze and the scrape of her bloodied knuckles against the punching bag, thumping out a steady pattern. He wished that he'd joined her more in those endless days spent in the training room, spoken to her just a while longer. Maybe, some wild part of him imagined, he could've stopped her from leaving.

In the darkest corners of his mind, he could still hear her voice, sharp yet blunt simultaneously, strangely close by. Or was it in his mind?

To his surprise, his eyes opened as soon as he told them to, and his stomach lurched as he found himself at the top of a flight of impossibly steep stairs. Steep enough to break your neck on, he thought, clutching the steel bannister. Had he moved even an inch, he'd have fallen. Narcissa's voice continued, slithering into his ears until he wanted to scream to drown it out, and he looked around, searching for the source. The one thing that he hadn't expected was to see her standing right across the landing, muttering something that he couldn't make out. She was leaning against the wall, one foot flat on the dark tiled floor and the other rested on the distantly grimy wallpaper. Black hair cut to her collarbone rested on a burgundy v-neck under a black leather jacket. A huge necklace sat around her neck, looking so heavy that he wouldn't have been surprised if she had to hold it up with her hands.

"You're awake," she said at last. Her red lips curled into a smirk. "You didn't fall."

Finn looked over his shoulder at the stairs. "Nah, bad for you. Last time we met, you were the one falling, huh?" he said calmly. His jacket wasn't on him, but all his other clothes were. He wondered where it was, but didn't ask.

She regarded him with ice in her gaze."I saved your life after you tried to dip your sheltered toe in real criminal activity." Her hand went to the diamond necklace around her neck that Finn could've recognised anywhere, despite it now cut into a blade.

"The Mask."

Arguably the most famous, expensive, and well-guarded jewel in all of Semper City. He hadn't even heard that it had been stolen, but here it was, in her clutches. "Do you known what they call you, Narcissa?" he asked, stepping towards her.

She seemed to recoil at the sound of her own name. "I've heard them all. Viper. Scarlet Serpent. Even goddamn Persephone."

"And what do you call yourself now?"

Shrugging, she clasped her fingers tighter around the Mask. "Same as I always have. Alive." She barked a mirthless laugh. "What have the kids been calling me now?"

Finn's voice whittled down to a knife's point.

"Crux."

The word left his lips like a hiss. Narcissa's hand went down so quickly that the necklace bounced, the blade scraping against the exposed skin of her chest. A normal person would've bled after a cut like that, but nothing about her was normal. Expression darkening, she brought her foot down silently.

"Are your friends going to try and find you?" she said at last, pursing her lips. Her head cocked mockingly, a lilt of sorrow in her voice.

"I don't know, Crux." He walked away from the stairs till they breathed in the same air. "You might want to take that off before they arrive, you know."

"Why should I? I'll take them on, all of them. Your only two friends."

It stung to hear, especially knowing that up until four years ago, Narcissa had fought alongside them, been their friend. Now, she was acting as if she'd never once met them. Finn thought of them, Sasha and Wildfire. The worst thing was that she was right, painfully so. Sasha's power wouldn't work on her, and Wildfire would have to fight with all he had and more. She was worth all three of them - perhaps that was why Crux hated her so much - she was their most powerful asset, but not for her superhuman abilities. No, it was how she was incredible at everything she did, whether it was taekwondo, speaking Mandarin or stabbing the people that loved her.

He remembered, with a pang, the collection of black belts dangling from the walls of the training room. Finn only had one, Sasha one and Wildfire two. Narcissa had six. Regrettably, most of their lives had been spent harnessing their own abilities. She hadn't had that chance, the least fantastical powers belonging to hers. Could she bleed gold, or turn things to gold with her mere touch? Could she control minds with her song? Could she play with fire and come out unscathed?

No, their handlers always said. Let her stay in the gym, she needs it.

The joke was on them now. She'd defeated them all with nothing but her bare, human fists and a silver tongue.

"Why do you act like you don't know them?" he inquired slowly, tasting the words on his tongue.

"I don't know them, not anymore. I am not the same girl that stepped into the Crux labs thirteen years ago. I am not even the same girl that raced out of them with a knife in my hand and a life left behind me."

Finn looked at her sadly. "You really do have no sense of loyalty. A hungry dog, just alive to survive."

"Yes." She ran her tongue over her crimson lips. For a moment, they almost looked as if they were dripping blood, but then when he blinked, it was just lipstick. "You're exactly right, Finn."

"Are you proud of it?"

Her mouth became a thin line, and she looked him straight in the eye, onyx eyes blazing with a flame that rivalled Wildfire's. Head dipping, she nodded, a veil of hair tumbling over her face. A smirk slowly spread over her face, and she seized his collar till their noses almost touched.

"You don't think that you'll go so easy, huh?"

Her bared teeth were perfectly white and straight, a slight imprint on her jaw where the anarchist's masks always rested.

Finn slid out of her grasp, pulling up his sleeves up to his elbows. The room was swelteringly hot, beads of sweat travelling down his back. For the first time, he bothered to actually look around. The hallway was lit with yellow glaring lights, wallpaper peeling and floor a cracked, dusty tile. Completely empty, they were the only things in it, spare a faded painting with chipped paint depicting some medieval battle. Not that he particularly cared, but it was a good way to break the uncomfortable eye contact that had settled between them.

"Narcissa-"

"What?" Her black eyes narrowed to slits, teeth trailing over her bottom lip.

"Do you want to know why I tried to seek you out?"

Chewing on her nails, she raised an eyebrow. "Enlighten me, Fineas." She didn't meet his gaze, almost as if she was looking straight through him than at him.

"Can we sit down, at least? I have a lot to say."

She released a noise halfway between a laugh and a scoff. Inclining her head toward a door on their left, she started down the corridor, obviously letting him know to follow her. So he did, stooping in the doorway that even Narcissa seemed to have trouble getting through. Cursing under his breath, he bit back a gasp as they entered the room. Though he wouldn't dream of telling her, the room was incredible - and she must've known it, because a smug smirk tugged at her lips before they thinned into a red line.

A golden chandelier dripped jewels from the ceiling, a glass floor giving way to a magnificent view of Semper City, all skyscrapers and townhouses, the grey meander of the Hartsicke River, foaming and roaring in the distance. All over the walls, expensive-looking paintings were strung up - here the walls weren't covered in moldy wallpaper, but angry red paint that matched her lips. In glass cabinets, pieces of jewelry that Finn recognised easily, gleamed, almost blindingly so.

"Holy shit," he breathed in awe, before swallowing his words as Narcissa's eyes swept over him. One particular ring caught his eye, the golden band engulfed by a massive diamond that almost looked cartoonish, it was so perfect. "The Adner Museum heist - that was you?"

She nodded, the barest incline of her head. "Yes."

"The Adner Diamond, the signet ring, the Mask? All of them?"

"Look - you're not here for a goddamn sightseeing expedition. What did you want from me, Johnson?"

He sat down on the couch, so plush and golden-threaded that he seemed to sink straight in. Trying to remain composed, he forced the words out as calmly as he could. "We need your help."

"I have some questions for you first, before you even tell me your sob story," she said coldly, fiddling with the Mask, dangling heavily around her neck.

Finn ran his fingers along the arm of the couch, exhaling deeply. He pinched the bridge of his nose, closing his eyes, before answering. "Ask away."

"When you say we, who do you mean? Sasha Sperova and Jasper Lee?" She smiled slightly as Finn faltered. "I found out Wildfire's name a while ago. His mom was the daughter of Korean immigrants and she's an art professor at SCU, dad died young. His mom was the only one to survive all of this-" Narcissa gestured sound, "because she gave him up for adoption when he was one, after her boyfriend, Wildfire's dad, died of cancer. She knew, I think."

"Why are you telling me this?"

"Leverage, Fineas. So you feel indebted to me," she said sweetly, taking a long sip of milky coffee. The smell drifted into Finn's nose and he realised how hungry he was. He'd walked across all of Semper, then driven outside the city limits with a crate of gold in the boot of his car.

Narcissa set a single gold ingot, polished and sparkling, onto his lap.

Speak of the devil.

"Is that what's left?" Finn asked, disappointment flooding into his voice.

Her lips twitched. "I rescued you, supplied two cars and stopped an assassination attempt on the both of us, and you want your merch?"

"No," he admitted truthfully. "I-"

"Yeah, yeah, I know. Midas touch, whatever. Don't care. Tell me why you're actually here, or I hit you over the head with this." She picked up the ingot, weighing it in her hand.

"Look, I come in peace. No white stallions, no armies."

"I can see," she snorted, sitting down abruptly.

"I need your help-"

"No."

Finn cocked his head, looking down at his shoes. They were scuffed, laces fraying, mud lining the bottom of his jeans. Next to the black-leather ensemble, he felt painfully aware of how dirty his clothes were. He wondered whether Narcissa hadn't noticed, or whether she didn't care. It would always be the latter, he thought as he searched his mind for the right thing to say.

"Narcissa," he snapped, losing his patience. "Crux has gone rogue. They've tried to kill us, and are currently trying to destroy Semper. We need you. You're completely off the grid, you know?"

She batted her lashes, expression stormy. Finn guessed that she wouldn't grace him with a response.

"You're stronger, faster and smarter than us. If you help us get control of Crux again, keep Semper safe, then you get..."

He hadn't imagined that his plan would get to this point. His brain had gone completely blank as he thought of a reward that would actually motivate her.

"Money?" he slowly suggested, but Narcissa laughed.

"You make money with your touch. Give me something that will help me as much as I would hypothetically help you."

"What do you want, then?" Finn asked, tracing his hands across the golden thread of the couch. He looked down through the glass floor, his stomach dropping to his feet as he registered flashing traffic lights, influxes of tiny cars making their way through tiny streets.

"Let me live."

She kicked her feet up on a diamond-encrusted table and Finn cringed.

"Is that it?"

Though it was a valid request, it wasn't one that he would've expected from someone as greedy as Narcissa Corvus.

"No, obviously not. Give me access to all of Crux's records. Medical, scientific, population," she paused for a moment, before adding, "and - make me a merc. I'm sick of this city. I'll find out where my family was from. Send me on a mission there. I'll be your mercenary. I'll be alone, anyway." Her voice was raspy and desperate, but her eyes remained steely.

She seemed less scared than angry. Angry at Crux, angry at Semper, angry at the world.

"Let's shake hands to it," Finn said finally, clasping her hand.

So they did.

[ FINNished]