Losers/Push Fusion Fic: The Past is Only as Far Away as Your Shadow (2 of ?)
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Pooch and Cougar didn’t have any trouble upstairs beyond two crying kids, and it doesn’t take long for Pooch to figure out what the intruders did to the power and fix it. Jensen maintains that he’s gone through worse, which is true, and that he’s fine, which is not. Cougar and Cassie, however, give Jensen the exact same glare and soon he’s seated at the kitchen counter, letting Cougar fix the stitches in his arm and add a couple to his head. Jolene sits with the baby next to Pooch, and Cougar is on her other side. Aisha looks at Cassie. “What was that?” she grinds out and Clay knows she left out a few choice words because Beth is sitting right there.
Cassie just looks at Aisha for a long moment, arms wrapped loosely around Beth. Then she begins. “There are special people in this world. We don’t ask to be special. We’re just born that way.”
Watchers see the future, which Cassie stresses is not as simple as it sounds. Movers are telekinetic. Stitches heal and damage with just a touch. Sniffs can know an object and its history by smelling it, Shifters can temporarily change an object’s appearance, and Bleeders emit high-pitched screams to rupture blood vessels. Wipers erase memories and Pushers can put thoughts into people’s heads. Most major countries have a Division, and it tries to manipulate their powers, make them stronger. Cassie’s mother was taken away by Division. They killed Jensen’s dad.
“I’m a Watcher,” Cassie says. “And when Beth is older, it’s likely that she’ll be a Watcher, too.”
“The reason Aisha didn’t find anything real on me is because Jake Jensen is made up,” Jensen says and downs a couple of codeine dry. He winces and goes on, “My real name is Nick Gant, though there won’t be a whole lot of files on him either. I spent a lot of time running from Division. Cassie caught up to me in Hong Kong. She saw Kira coming to Hong Kong with a syringe of the drug Division had pumped into her. Long story short, we met other people who were like us, some tried to kill us, some helped us. The ones who tried to kill us died, and the ones who helped us were there when we took down Division.”
“After, Nick and I moved around for a while,” Cassie goes on. “He got good with computers. Really good, enough to make new identities for us. He joined the Army when I got pregnant with Beth-”
“Is Jensen the father?” Aisha asks with a raised eyebrow and Clay tries not to think about Jensen having sex with a teenager.
“Ew,” Cassie says with a disgusted face while Jensen stresses, “No. What- no. Kira and I were together, but we split not long after beating Division. We haven’t kept in touch.”
“Did you know we were alive?” Clay wants to know.
“And that you were innocent,” Cassie confirms. “The problem with seeing the future is that it always changes. I saw all of you die a hundred different ways.”
“Did you know Roque was going to flip on us?” Pooch this time. “Or about Aisha?”
“I saw Aisha shoot Nick. She changed her mind at the last minute, which was good for all of you because you would have killed her and then Max would have killed all of you. I didn’t see Roque betraying you, probably because he was a Shadow.” She shrugs a little at Clay’s surprised look. “He wouldn’t be in my drawings sometimes, even if I knew he was supposed to be with you. I made a few calls when Jensen joined your team.”
“Cassie thinks Max might be a Shadow, too, or have a powerful one close by,” Jensen adds. “She doesn’t usually see much of him, either.”
“Most Shadows aren’t effective long-term against Watchers, so really it’s only a matter of time before I find him,” Cassie finishes confidently. She looks down at Beth. “But for now, we should go back to sleep. The Donovans are too arrogant to keep a Shadow on board. We’ll know if they’re coming.”
Clay thinks they need to finish talking about this. There’s too much that hasn’t been explained. The drug, for one, and why these Donovans are such major players, and if Jensen is going to leave. Jensen catches Clay’s eye and turns to Cassie. “You and Beth go ahead,” he suggests. “I need to explain a couple more things first.”
Cassie hesitates, like she might stay because she knows Jensen will need help with those couple more things, but decides in the end to leave. Likely, Clay thinks, because this is not something Beth should hear. “You should have said something,” Clay says as soon as Cassie and Beth disappear, Jolene and the baby with them.
Jensen scoffs and demands, “Like what?” He may have a point.
“You never thought to use your telekinesis shit on the job sometimes?” Pooch asks. “J, you know how useful that would’ve been whenever we got captured?”
Jensen stares at him. “Doing it that last time had a better chance of getting all of you killed,” he says and his expression darkens as he goes on, “Plus, you think it’s hard being a Mover here? At least Division would have only locked me up and pumped me full of drugs. Divisions in other countries would cut into my brain. If a Watcher saw me Move, I would have disappeared and you wouldn’t have gotten me back.”
“Yes we would,” Clay counters because they’ve all been captured at some time or other, even Clay- even Roque, but Clay shoves that thought to the back of his mind- and they’ve always pulled through for each other.
“Body, yeah. Mind? No, that would’ve been gone.” Jensen shakes his head. “I trust you guys, you know that. But telling you any of this would’ve put targets on you, too. And now, you guys have to go, before you get sucked into this mess.”
“What about Max?” Aisha demands before Clay can. “We’re going after him and we need your help.”
“You forget about those kids?” Clay adds in.
The cabinets rattle once, sharply, as Jensen snaps, “No, I didn’t forget them. But I’m not going to forget that keeping us together puts other kids in danger. If it was just us? Yeah, sure, I’d stay with you and we’d work out both problems at the same time. But Cassie has Beth to worry about, Pooch and Jolene have the baby, and I’m not asking them to get involved. I don’t know what all Aisha’s ever dealt with, but this isn’t anything you guys have ever faced and throwing you in during the middle of a psychic turf war.”
“So what are you going to do?” Pooch asks. He doesn’t want Jolene and his baby hurt, wouldn’t wish anything on Beth either.
“You guys are going to take Jolene and Mini-Pooch and get the hell out of Dodge. Cassie’s calling Emily, a Sniff from back in the day. She’ll find Pinky and Pinky can hide Cassie and Beth because he’s a Shadow. Emily’s had years to track his scent, but there aren’t a whole lot of other people who’d be looking for him, or whoever he chooses to Shade.”
“And you?” Cougar asks, speaking for the first time during this discussion. He looks vaguely annoyed, which means he’s actually very pissed.
Jensen just looks at Cougar and seems almost regretful. “I can’t tell you,” he replies. “But no one’ll come after us by the time I’m through.”
“We’re a team, Jensen,” Clay reminds him. “We’re doing this together.”
This causes Jensen to shake his head. “There’s really no convincing you otherwise, is there?”
“No,” his entire team, Aisha included, answers.
The hacker shakes his head again. “Should’ve known.”
Clay looks at everyone. “All right, we’ll keep talking about this in the morning. Everyone get some sleep, we’re planning at 0600.”
Cassie is at the head of the stairs and looks a little apologetic. “Beth can’t sleep,” she says.
Jensen smiles, pulls Cassie into a one-armed hug, kisses the top of her head. Clay thinks even if they aren’t related, they’re family in all the ways that count. “Your bed’s biggest. The three of us can camp out there.” He picks up Beth when she appears at her door and grins at her. “Want that? We can make a fort of pillows and everything.”
“Yes,” Beth says with a solemn nod.
Jensen looks over his shoulder as he goes into Cassie’s room. “Night, Clay.”
“Night.” Clay goes back into the guest room with Aisha. Somehow he gets back to sleep.
He shouldn’t be as surprised as he is when he wakes up the next morning and Jensen is gone.
==
IMPORTANT NOTE: I'm going to be in Rhode Island for the next 12 weeks with little to no internet access, so this'll be the last update for about that long. Leaving in a couple days, so this update is a bit of a rush job. Sorry everyone~
Chapter 2
Pooch and Cougar didn’t have any trouble upstairs beyond two crying kids, and it doesn’t take long for Pooch to figure out what the intruders did to the power and fix it. Jensen maintains that he’s gone through worse, which is true, and that he’s fine, which is not. Cougar and Cassie, however, give Jensen the exact same glare and soon he’s seated at the kitchen counter, letting Cougar fix the stitches in his arm and add a couple to his head. Jolene sits with the baby next to Pooch, and Cougar is on her other side. Aisha looks at Cassie. “What was that?” she grinds out and Clay knows she left out a few choice words because Beth is sitting right there.
Cassie just looks at Aisha for a long moment, arms wrapped loosely around Beth. Then she begins. “There are special people in this world. We don’t ask to be special. We’re just born that way.”
Watchers see the future, which Cassie stresses is not as simple as it sounds. Movers are telekinetic. Stitches heal and damage with just a touch. Sniffs can know an object and its history by smelling it, Shifters can temporarily change an object’s appearance, and Bleeders emit high-pitched screams to rupture blood vessels. Wipers erase memories and Pushers can put thoughts into people’s heads. Most major countries have a Division, and it tries to manipulate their powers, make them stronger. Cassie’s mother was taken away by Division. They killed Jensen’s dad.
“I’m a Watcher,” Cassie says. “And when Beth is older, it’s likely that she’ll be a Watcher, too.”
“The reason Aisha didn’t find anything real on me is because Jake Jensen is made up,” Jensen says and downs a couple of codeine dry. He winces and goes on, “My real name is Nick Gant, though there won’t be a whole lot of files on him either. I spent a lot of time running from Division. Cassie caught up to me in Hong Kong. She saw Kira coming to Hong Kong with a syringe of the drug Division had pumped into her. Long story short, we met other people who were like us, some tried to kill us, some helped us. The ones who tried to kill us died, and the ones who helped us were there when we took down Division.”
“After, Nick and I moved around for a while,” Cassie goes on. “He got good with computers. Really good, enough to make new identities for us. He joined the Army when I got pregnant with Beth-”
“Is Jensen the father?” Aisha asks with a raised eyebrow and Clay tries not to think about Jensen having sex with a teenager.
“Ew,” Cassie says with a disgusted face while Jensen stresses, “No. What- no. Kira and I were together, but we split not long after beating Division. We haven’t kept in touch.”
“Did you know we were alive?” Clay wants to know.
“And that you were innocent,” Cassie confirms. “The problem with seeing the future is that it always changes. I saw all of you die a hundred different ways.”
“Did you know Roque was going to flip on us?” Pooch this time. “Or about Aisha?”
“I saw Aisha shoot Nick. She changed her mind at the last minute, which was good for all of you because you would have killed her and then Max would have killed all of you. I didn’t see Roque betraying you, probably because he was a Shadow.” She shrugs a little at Clay’s surprised look. “He wouldn’t be in my drawings sometimes, even if I knew he was supposed to be with you. I made a few calls when Jensen joined your team.”
“Cassie thinks Max might be a Shadow, too, or have a powerful one close by,” Jensen adds. “She doesn’t usually see much of him, either.”
“Most Shadows aren’t effective long-term against Watchers, so really it’s only a matter of time before I find him,” Cassie finishes confidently. She looks down at Beth. “But for now, we should go back to sleep. The Donovans are too arrogant to keep a Shadow on board. We’ll know if they’re coming.”
Clay thinks they need to finish talking about this. There’s too much that hasn’t been explained. The drug, for one, and why these Donovans are such major players, and if Jensen is going to leave. Jensen catches Clay’s eye and turns to Cassie. “You and Beth go ahead,” he suggests. “I need to explain a couple more things first.”
Cassie hesitates, like she might stay because she knows Jensen will need help with those couple more things, but decides in the end to leave. Likely, Clay thinks, because this is not something Beth should hear. “You should have said something,” Clay says as soon as Cassie and Beth disappear, Jolene and the baby with them.
Jensen scoffs and demands, “Like what?” He may have a point.
“You never thought to use your telekinesis shit on the job sometimes?” Pooch asks. “J, you know how useful that would’ve been whenever we got captured?”
Jensen stares at him. “Doing it that last time had a better chance of getting all of you killed,” he says and his expression darkens as he goes on, “Plus, you think it’s hard being a Mover here? At least Division would have only locked me up and pumped me full of drugs. Divisions in other countries would cut into my brain. If a Watcher saw me Move, I would have disappeared and you wouldn’t have gotten me back.”
“Yes we would,” Clay counters because they’ve all been captured at some time or other, even Clay- even Roque, but Clay shoves that thought to the back of his mind- and they’ve always pulled through for each other.
“Body, yeah. Mind? No, that would’ve been gone.” Jensen shakes his head. “I trust you guys, you know that. But telling you any of this would’ve put targets on you, too. And now, you guys have to go, before you get sucked into this mess.”
“What about Max?” Aisha demands before Clay can. “We’re going after him and we need your help.”
“You forget about those kids?” Clay adds in.
The cabinets rattle once, sharply, as Jensen snaps, “No, I didn’t forget them. But I’m not going to forget that keeping us together puts other kids in danger. If it was just us? Yeah, sure, I’d stay with you and we’d work out both problems at the same time. But Cassie has Beth to worry about, Pooch and Jolene have the baby, and I’m not asking them to get involved. I don’t know what all Aisha’s ever dealt with, but this isn’t anything you guys have ever faced and throwing you in during the middle of a psychic turf war.”
“So what are you going to do?” Pooch asks. He doesn’t want Jolene and his baby hurt, wouldn’t wish anything on Beth either.
“You guys are going to take Jolene and Mini-Pooch and get the hell out of Dodge. Cassie’s calling Emily, a Sniff from back in the day. She’ll find Pinky and Pinky can hide Cassie and Beth because he’s a Shadow. Emily’s had years to track his scent, but there aren’t a whole lot of other people who’d be looking for him, or whoever he chooses to Shade.”
“And you?” Cougar asks, speaking for the first time during this discussion. He looks vaguely annoyed, which means he’s actually very pissed.
Jensen just looks at Cougar and seems almost regretful. “I can’t tell you,” he replies. “But no one’ll come after us by the time I’m through.”
“We’re a team, Jensen,” Clay reminds him. “We’re doing this together.”
This causes Jensen to shake his head. “There’s really no convincing you otherwise, is there?”
“No,” his entire team, Aisha included, answers.
The hacker shakes his head again. “Should’ve known.”
Clay looks at everyone. “All right, we’ll keep talking about this in the morning. Everyone get some sleep, we’re planning at 0600.”
Cassie is at the head of the stairs and looks a little apologetic. “Beth can’t sleep,” she says.
Jensen smiles, pulls Cassie into a one-armed hug, kisses the top of her head. Clay thinks even if they aren’t related, they’re family in all the ways that count. “Your bed’s biggest. The three of us can camp out there.” He picks up Beth when she appears at her door and grins at her. “Want that? We can make a fort of pillows and everything.”
“Yes,” Beth says with a solemn nod.
Jensen looks over his shoulder as he goes into Cassie’s room. “Night, Clay.”
“Night.” Clay goes back into the guest room with Aisha. Somehow he gets back to sleep.
He shouldn’t be as surprised as he is when he wakes up the next morning and Jensen is gone.
==
IMPORTANT NOTE: I'm going to be in Rhode Island for the next 12 weeks with little to no internet access, so this'll be the last update for about that long. Leaving in a couple days, so this update is a bit of a rush job. Sorry everyone~