"You killed him, well done."

Riley didn't look up when he heard the familiar voice, rather he stared downward at his hands. These were the hands which had killed taken a life, and yet here they were holding a spoon and bowl of uneaten and soggy cereal as if nothing had changed.

"I knew you could do it."

Riley heard the footsteps come closer, but he still refused to make eye contact, "How did you get in here?"

"You always ask me that, and never once have I answered."

"What do you want?"

"To congratulate you that's all."

"On what?"

"On murdering your own brother of course. I knew I could trust you with this."

Riley scoffed and set his bowl and spoon down with more force than necessary. "Do your mutant powers allow you to see the future too?"

"No, but you humans are all the same. I can figure you all out quite easily."

Those words drew Riley in. He looked up to see as Jack leaned against the doorway peeling a clementine and acting completely nonchalant. "Humans?" Riley repeated feeling his anger rise. "You're not human, you're a mutant! A vile creature which must be kiled in order to restore balance to the world you destroyed!" Riley watched Jack, but the other boy gave no reaction so Riley took a breath and continued. "But with you can do I'm not even sure if you're anything greater than a monster."

Jack gave a soft chuckle as he crossed the room and put the peel of the fruit in the trash as he popped a piece in his mouth. "We agree on a few points at least," he said finally. "But if you truly believe all that bullshit you just spouted then why did you kill your own brother? You once told me you owed everything to him, but that you never knew how to repay him. Who knew death was a way of thanking-"

Riley didn't think- it seemed he had been doing that alot lately- he grabbed the bowl off the table and a swift move threw it on a path to Jack's head, but he sidestepped and it crashed into the wall and then the floor the sound of broken glass lingering. "Don't talk about him."

"Then what else is there to talk about?"

"Then get out."

"I think I can guess what happened," Jack continued popping another piece another piece of fruit in his mouth as he leaned on the counter across from Riley. "I think you confronted him and then he said something you didn't like. He told you the truth, and you snapped. Just like when you killed me. You're impulsive, you get mad and you act without thinking. I mean you just threw a glass bowl at me knowing full well even if it connected I wouldn't sustain an injury. Am I wrong?"

Riley took a deep breath as his fingers curled into fists, "I told you to get out."

"Am I wrong?" He asked again, this time slowly.

Riley's fists vanished and instead his hands covered his eyes as tears began to form.

"I asked you a question Riley, and I'll give you one last chance to answer, am I wrong?"

Riley choked back a sob before he answered, his voice barely a whisper, "I wish you were."

Then he broke down.

Through his sobs he could hear Jack's comforting words, and now and then his own voice telling Jack to "fuck off" as he buried his face further into Jack's shoulder.

He was a mess, that was the long and short of it. He looked like a mess and he was a mess of emotions the most prominent ones being sadness, and hatred. He hated what he had done, he hated his brother for his lies and manipulation, he hated Jack for how he had used him, he hated Jack for being the one to console him, he hated how he felt about Jack, and he hated himself for being so blind that he let it all happen.

He wasn't sure how much time had passed when he finally calmed, but at the same time he wasn't sure he wanted to know how long he had spent crying about things which had been his own fault. He sat criss cross on his couch holding a warm cup of coffee in his hands, and he could hear as Jack made noise doing something or other in the kitchen. He took sip then frowned as he stared down into the mug. After about a minute he looked up when Jack entered the room and sat on the other end of the couch a cup of water in his hands.

"Something wrong with the coffee?" Jack asked him.

"There's grounds in it," Riley replied putting the mug down. "You didn't hit clean on the coffee maker before you made it."

"Not mine to clean."

Riley rolled his eyes as he looked over and studied Jack. His short black hair, brown eyes, and his splash of freckles remained unchanged. He still looked too skinny, and as usual he was dressed in black and even so he was a mutant. He was the same and at the same time so different- no. He had always been this way, he had just kept Riley in the dark.

"So you're really a mutant?" Riley asked aloud.

Jack nodded, "Correct, one who can't die. I heal from all injuries and I don't grow in any way."

"What do you mean by that?"

"How old do I look to you?"

Riley shrugged, "A bit younger than me."

"That's not a number."

"Fine, sixteen."

"Because when I was sixteen I jumped off my apartment building," Jack told him and Riley eyes opened wide.

"You-"

"I was completely fine," Jack continued cutting him off, but not making eye contact and instead staring down into his glass of water. "I have been since, no matter what happens to me. Can you guess how long I have lived?"

"Sixteen years?"

Jack gave a short laugh, "Not even close. It has been hundreds of years."

"You're lying. That's not possible."

Jack finally looked over to him an amused smile playing on his lips. "Can you guess how many?"

"That's not possible," Riley repeated.

"I was born at the very end of the 20th century. I am old enough to be considered your ancestor."

"That's not-"

"The world hasn't changed much," Jack continued standing. He walked over to the window and looked out at the city below them. "Technology has changed, but the people haven't. Humans used to thrive off how mutants made jobs easy, until they couldn't find work. So mutants were forced from their jobs. Then they sent us off to fight wars since we had the advantage, but if something went wrong it was always blamed on a mutant. And not so long ago a few mutants made a mistake and so many people died. Then suddenly the extinction of mutants became the agenda. Years and years and years of pent up rage had finally turned into genocide... And I've lived through it all."

"What is it that you want?" Riley asked him quietly. "If any of this is true-"

"You know it's true. You've experienced my power first hand, most don't live to even think about telling the tale."

"What do you want?" Riley asked again.

"I want the EXTP's notes, I want their whole database."

"So you want to destroy the EXTP so you can save the mutants?"

Jack shook his head and walked back over to Riley on the couch and sat down beside him looking him in the eye. "No, I want the opposite actually."

"What?"

"I've wanted the same thing I've wanted for most of life, I want to die. I want the database to find a way to kill myself. But I want to do it for me, I don't want to be someone else's test subject. I don't want to live in agony and pain forever as people toy with me for their own enjoyment. I just want to end. I am taking down the EXTP for my own good, I don't care about anyone else."

Riley frowned, "No one?"

"Caring for people who die when I don't just ends with me getting hurt over and over again."

"Why are you telling me all this?"

Jack smiled, "Because if I do, I can align our agendas."

"What?"

"With your brother gone you will now take his place in the EXTP. If you can search your databases and find a way to kill me, I will give you all the mutants you want. I lead a faction of the rebels after all, and I was just granted with another."

"Shouldn't you be leading them, you're the oldest?"

"If I lead forever people will get suspicious. I need power yes, but I also need people looking the other way. So will you help me?"

Riley stared into his crazed eyes for a moment or two as he thought about everything said, "Why should I?"

"I just told you why!" Jack shouted lunging forward and grabbing Riley by the shoulders shaking him. "I told you I could get you-"

"I understand that," Riley told him plucking Jack's hands from his shoulders and lowering them, but not releasing them. "But that's not what I want."

"What do you want?" Jack asked, and Riley could see the desperation is his eyes. "I can get you anything."

Riley bit his lip as he stared into Jack's eyes debating his next statement, finally he sighed and spoke, "What if I said, that despite everything that's happened between us recently, that I wanted you live... and- and care... about me?"

Jack said nothing, and Riley watched him carefully and he could see as Jack's eyes searched his face with that annoying guarded expression so once again Riley found himself wondering what the hell Jack was thinking.

"Then I'd tell you that I'm going to continue on the path I'm already on," Jack said finally as he pulled his hands away and stood. "The one thing I can't give you is myself. I'll admit you're the only person I have forced myself to have any sort of a relationship with in a long time, but this relationship only exists because I wanted to use you. If I can't, I'll lead an army against you. But if you change your mind on what it is you want, let me know."

He left then, and Riley didn't hear him leave through the door as usual, but unlike usual he didn't give him a proper goodbye. Rather Riley stared at the spot where Jack had been staring as he wondered why the hell he didn't stop him.