Yay! I updated faster than I expected! Next chapter!

Disclaimer: Don't own anyone but Tessa, Red X's alter ego, and [technically] Jericho and Grant's personalities (sorta).

Chapter 8- Unraveling Secrets

X frowned as he stared down at the various papers he had spread out on his dining table. What the hell are you up to Slade?

Since he was sixteen and Jack had been killed, X wondered why Slade had targeted Jack and his parents. Why had he killed them? What made them so special?

He had dug up as much information as he could. He figured Slade had killed Jack for power over his company, but why? As far as he knew, Slade was a successful businessman by himself. Why had he needed Jack's?

X looked over the papers that had information about Jack's company. Jack had been a scientist deep down. He had a passion for solving life's greatest mysterious through science. His company experimented a lot, though their main job was creating new medicines.

Did this mean Jack had made some sort of discovery that Slade had wanted? But what? X had looked up project after project and had found that Jack hadn't been working on anything major when he had been killed. Nothing that seemed so big that it was worth killing for. So what had been Slade's goal?

"He was thorn in my side, disrupting my business. He had to go."

Slade's words to X that night rang through his head. What exactly had Jack been disrupting? X furrowed his brow in thought, folding his hands together.

"X?" the voice broke him from his thoughts. Red X looked up and his expression softened slightly as he caught the worried look in Raven's eyes.

"You okay?" she asked, setting down a cup of tea in front of him. He usually drank coffee but since ever Raven had come, she had banished coffee from his diet, saying the amount of caffeine he drank was unhealthy. She had then served him some tea and grudgingly he had to admit it did a better job of calming him and making him focus than coffee did.

"Not really," X admitted, breathing out with exhaustion as he tilted his head back, hands crossed over his chest. "I feel like I'm missing a piece of this puzzle but I just can't figure out where it's supposed to be or what it's supposed to look like."

Raven slowly thought over his words, sliding onto the seat across from X. She sneakily eyed some of the reports on the table, seeing that they were all about Slade Wilson and a man named Jackson Hanover.

She sipped her tea quietly, her eyes moving to stare at X. Her mouth tightened into a firm line as she saw how tired X look. Worry lines that shouldn't have been there could be seen around X's eyes as he pinched the bridge of his nose. His ocean blue eyes wearily stared at the reports, an almost hopeless look in them.

"Why exactly are you so fixated on this Slade person?" Her eyes were fixed on X's face, watching him carefully as he turned to look at her, a frown marring his face. His brows knitted together as he folded his hands together.

"Why do you want to know?" he asked.

Raven bristled at his suspicious tone. Was it wrong of her to ask that? She was worried about him god dammit! She would admit, this wasn't like her, and she shouldn't feel like this at all towards her enemy. But she couldn't help the wrenching feeling in her chest as she watched X work tirelessly towards a goal that seemed impossible.

X was only a man. A man who was recognized as a killer by society. Sure, he may be a hero to some, but even with their support X could only do so much.

Touching a man like Slade Wilson without dire consequences was impossible. And for reasons she'd rather not think about, Raven didn't want X to suffer.

He wasn't as bad as she had first thought. In fact, he was just like her. He was working towards bringing down a person who was way above him in order to procure his revenge. How was that any different from what she did as a cop who wanted to bring her father to justice?

No, Raven thought, trying to banish these thoughts from her head. I can't sympathize with him! He's the enemy! He's a killer! He's…he's…

X had to a double take as his mouth slightly opened with shock at the sight of tears running down Raven's face. He had never seen her cry.

Suddenly guilt filled him. Was it his fault she was crying? Had he sounded that harsh when he responded to her? "Raven…" X reached out to her, almost hurt when she turned away, rubbing her eyes quickly.

"I-I'm fine…I-I-…" Raven's face burned as she cursed herself inwardly. She never cried! Especially in front of people she hardly knew! This wasn't like her at all! Raven Roth did not shed tears.

But she wasn't Raven Roth right now was she? How could she so easily lose her persona around X? Why was it so hard to maintain control of her fake self? Why couldn't she act around X? When had it become this difficult to lie to him? When did her lies start to hurt her?

Raven almost gasped when she felt warm arms envelop her. She didn't have to look up to know X was hugging her. Her face grew redder, but she couldn't help herself. She leaned into his comforting warmth, letting the tears stream down her face freely, letting it all go.

She couldn't believe herself. It was almost shameful. She was supposed to be the best undercover agent ever, cold and emotionless as always. She was supposed to bring down her enemy.

She wasn't supposed to feel safe in their arms.

But that's exactly how she felt as X held onto her tightly, whispering comforting words in her ears.

She wasn't supposed to fall in love with her enemy.

-x-X-x-

Jericho didn't know what to say as he looked down at Tessa. It was obvious she had been crying as dry tear streaks were on her cheeks, her eyes red and puffy.

He knelt down to be face to face to her, caressing her face softly, asking what was wrong.

Tessa just clenched onto his shirt, pressing her face into his chest as she trembled. He wrapped her arms around her, bringing her into his lap as he soothingly rubbed her back, letting her cry to her heart's content.

As her cries subsided, Jericho wondered what had happened. Why was Tessa sad? He worried about whether the scientists had done something to her when Tessa's voice broke him away from his thoughts, "Jericho, do I have a mother and father?"

Jericho started slightly at the question. He bit his lip, wondering whether he should tell Tessa or not. Before when he had taught her about a family tree, he had looked at Tessa's file to see whether she had any living family. It was then he learned that Tessa's parents were dead. It didn't say how they died, though Jericho suspected his father probably killed them. He of course was angry at his father once he learned this, but at the same time it came as no surprise to him. His father would do anything for his own power gain.

Jericho looked down at Tessa who was looking up at him expectantly. He forced himself to smile, telling her that while she didn't have parents, she had him. He would be her family from now on.

This brought a small smile to her face as she hugged Jericho tightly, "Thank you Jericho."

For some reason, Jericho had a vague sense that Tessa knew she was all alone. This thought prompted him to hold onto Tessa tighter.

He wouldn't let his father corrupt her anymore. She had already gone through so much for a girl her age. She didn't belong here. She wasn't a monster like he was. She was pure in her own way, and he wanted her to stay that way.

"Jericho?" Tessa felt his arms squeeze her tighter with an almost urgent-like feeling. All she could do was squeeze back, silently comforting Jericho in her own way.

The two kindred spirits held tightly onto each other, as they were the only ones they had.

-x-X-x-

X groaned slightly as he felt the vibration of his cell phone. He quickly sat up and flipped open the cell phone, reading the text message he had received.

To: X

From: Jinx

We need to talk ASAP. Meet me at the usual place.

X sighed, wondering what was wrong this time and why they needed to talk at four in the morning. He got up from the couch quietly, looking towards the bed to see Raven was still asleep. He walked up to the bed, looking down as Raven slept peacefully, moonlight from the window above the bed spilling down to make her skin glow.

X pushed a stray strand of hair from her face, smiling softly to himself. After Raven's breakdown a few days ago, the two had grown quite close. X wondered how this woman so easily caused him to let his defenses fall and let her in.

"X?" He looked at Raven who was facing him with confusion on her face.

"Sorry, did I wake you?" X said softly, moving to sit on the edge of the bed as she moved to sit up.

Raven shook her head, peering at X curiously. "Why are you up this early?"

"Ah, well, Jinx texted me saying she needed to talk."

"Oh." Raven wondered what they had to talk to about. "Do you want me to come with you?"

When Raven had first come here, X didn't trust her enough to leave her alone in his home. Whenever he went on missions he asked Jinx to babysit her and when he just went out he would drag her along.

X shook her head, "No, you can go back asleep. I bet Jinx just called me up to bitch to me about her roommates again."

Raven laughed slightly as inside her heart thumped loudly. So X trusted her enough to leave her alone now? That made her happy…and at the same time very sad. Don't trust me too much, X.

"I'll be back soon," X promised. He then paused, the expression on his face debating. Raven wondered what he was thinking about when suddenly X leaned forward and placed a chaste kiss on her forehead. She felt her face heat up with embarrassment and happiness as X smiled. "Night Raven."

"Y-Yeah! Whatever. Hey, didn't you have a meeting to get to?" Raven muttered as she threw the blanket over her face to hide her blushes.

X chuckled at her embarrassment, getting up and grabbing his coat before he left the warehouse.

"Stupid X…" Raven mumbled as she finally went out from the blanket's cover. She touched her forehead gingerly, feeling her face heating up again as her heart beat faster in her chest. Stupid me…

-x-X-x-

"So why'd you call me out here, Jinx?" X sat down on the ledge of the roof of the abandoned building. He looked out at Jump City just as pink rays from the sunrise began to peak out from the roofs of apartments and office buildings.

Jinx stood behind the ledge beside him, also looking at the sunrise. "Remember when we first met X?"

"Yeah," X mused, smiling slightly as he remembered.

Flashback

"Tch," X grumbled as he stared down at the dead body in contempt. The man's eyes were still wide open with fear as blood seeped from the cut around his neck. "You got my clothes dirty." X glared at the splotches of red on his shirt in distaste, hating the color. He quickly stripped off the shirt, throwing it next to the corpse as he pulled his jacket back on.

"Wow, I wasn't expecting a strip show as well," a cheerful voice rang out as slow claps accompanied it. X whirled around, weapons ready in his hands as he scowled at the intruder. A pink haired girl with pink catlike eyes just smiled back at him. Her skin was pale and her black and purple Halloween-esque clothes looked out of place. She held her hands up innocently, showing she meant no harm.

"Who are you?" X demanded as he warily backed away.

"The name's Jinx," she announced as she did a flamboyant bow. "And you must be that assassin I keep hearing about. Red X, correct?"

"What do you want?" X narrowed his eyes suspiciously.

"Do not misunderstand," Jinx told him, crossing her arms behind her back. "I'm not here to stop you. In fact, I'm here to help you in a way."

"What do you mean by help?" X inquired, relaxing his stance slightly when he realized this girl wouldn't attack him.

Jinx shifted her eyes slyly, her mouth curling up into a cattish smile. They both could hear guards approaching from the outside, but they both knew that by the time the guards got here they would be gone. "Let's just say we have the same goals, you and I."

"And what exactly would that be?" X raised an eyebrow in curiosity.

Jinx's smile only got wider as she stated, "Why, the downfall of Slade Wilson of course."

X perked up at the mention of Slade Wilson. He studied Jinx, intrigued by what kind of connection they both could have. Jinx walked forward to X just as they heard pounding footsteps outside the door of the office they were in. She pressed a piece of paper into his hand as she whispered in his ear, "Give me a call sometime, comrade."

With that, she saluted him and ran towards the window, crashing through the glass and falling. Red X ran up to the window and looked over the ledge, a little surprised to see she had landed on the ground perfectly on her feet and was running away.

"What a weird girl," X muttered as he moved to crawl upwards to the roof, conscious of the crumpled piece of paper now in his pocket with a phone number scrawled on it.

End of Flashback

"Why'd you bring that up?"X wondered as he turned to Jinx, surprised to see she had a serious look on her face. She usually acted so happy and carefree that a grave facial expression was a rarity on her face.

"Do you know why I wanted to bring down Slade, X?" Jinx turned to X to look at his eyes.

X shook his head slowly, wondering what was bothering his friend. The two had met up shortly after that first meeting, and while they never outright told each other their reasons for going after Slade, they bonded over their mutual goal. Ever since they met, Jinx would help X research more into Slade's life, letting him kill people she found with a connection to Slade. With each kill, they found out more and more, but they still hadn't found anything incriminating enough to use as evidence against Slade.

While X was more than satisfied with just killing Slade, he found out through the years that that wouldn't be enough to Jinx. She not only wanted him dead, he wanted him to suffer. She wanted to rip apart his perfect reputation and show the city for the evil man he was. She wanted Slade to be hated by people that loved him so that they would turn on him and Slade would be left all alone.

He wondered what had caused her to hate that man so much, though X figured Slade must have done something to Jinx that was similar to what was done to him.

"X…" Jinx started slowly, contemplating over her words. "You know how I'm an orphan, right? Well, I used to have a younger brother. His name was Wyatt. When Wyatt was a little over a year old, that's when we met Slade. He came to the orphanage to adopt us. At first, he only wanted Wyatt, but because I said I wouldn't be separated from my brother, he adopted us both. He took us home, clothed us, fed us, and treated us real nice in the beginning."

X had a bad feeling as he watched Jinx's face become bitter. "One day, Wyatt suddenly came to me crying, saying he was afraid of Slade and that he wanted to leave. But I didn't understand and told him that Slade was our father and that was our home. We couldn't leave. Not when we had finally found a family. I was such a fool." Jinx bit her lip, feeling the tears pooling in the corners of her eyes. Her hands clenched tightly into fists.

"I didn't know that behind my back, Slade was using my brother as a test subject. That he was…experimenting"—the word was spat out from Jinx's mouth like it was poison—"on him! I didn't want to be alone again and because of my selfishness, Slade turned my brother and me into monsters." Jinx's face fell into her hands as she started to silently sob. X could only look at her with understanding as he listened to her continue.

"I didn't always look like this," Jinx murmured as she wiped away her tears, trying to will herself to be strong. "Once I found out what Slade was doing I tried to make him stop, but I only ended up becoming one of his test subjects as well. That's how come I look like this and how I'm different from normal people."X knew that Jinx had always been slightly different, but he didn't know that's because she had been Slade's lab rat.

"That's how I met her." Jinx turned to look at X as her next words made him freeze over in shock, "Your sister."

"T-Tessa?" X stammered, almost not believing her. He had not seen or heard anything of his sister in so long that he didn't want this to be a false hope. But as he reached towards Jinx, grabbing her arm and shaking it senselessly, he couldn't help but wish it were true. "You saw Tessa?"

Jinx winced at how strongly he grasped her arm. She tried to push him away, "Yes! I saw her! I didn't know she was your sister at first but when I met you, I saw the resemblance right away." Jinx stopped, feeling the grip on her arm slacken as X could only stare incredulously. Jinx murmured, "She has the same eyes as you."

It was then he felt his heart get lighter. His sister…she was still out there. Alive. He had proof that she was indeed alive and that he hadn't lost! He could still get her back! "Where?" X demanded as he looked at Jinx seriously. "Where did you see her, Jinx?"

"X!" Jinx growled warningly, tightening her own grip on his arm. "Let go of me! You won't be able to find her without me!"

At that, he let her go. He glared at Jinx though as he growled back, "Why didn't you ever tell me this? You knew this entire time where my sister was! Why didn't you say anything?"

"Because if I had, you would have stormed up to Slade's home ready to just start shooting at anything, and who knows what he could have done to your sister! I didn't want to repeat my mistake again!" Jinx screamed, angrily glaring back at X.

X paused, Jinx's words sinking in. He looked at his friend who suddenly lost strength and turned back to the ground. Her voice was quiet and full of sadness, "I didn't want you to lose her like I lost my brother."

There were a few moments of silence between the two before X broke it, "Jinx…what happened to your brother Wyatt?"

At the sound of his name her strong face crumbled. She burst into tears, burying her face into her hands as she sobbed, "He killed him! That bastard killed him! He was only a little boy, and he killed him!" Her face turned back up to X, and he was shocked by the amount of raw emotion in her eyes. "All that experimenting on Wyatt's body finally broke him down! He couldn't handle it anymore! That beast that Slade turned him into ate Wyatt alive!"

Before X could say anything, Jinx rambled on: "And I was scared! When I met you, I knew I had finally met the man who could probably bring Slade down. But I was scared of telling you what I knew because I was afraid that if I told you, what had happened to me would happen to you. You don't need to see that X."

"See what?" X demanded. "What exactly are you afraid of me seeing."

Jinx looked straight at him in the eye as she said this in a grave tone, "I was afraid of you seeing yourself lose your sister as she turned into something you would no longer recognize as her. Something that would kill her. A monster."

-x-X-x-

"Come in," Slade responded to the knock on his office door as he shuffled some papers around his desk.

The mayor's office was as luxurious as one could expect it to be, with modern, posh furniture and pictures of Slade with important people and frames with awards and certificates inside of them hanging all over the wall. A large mahogany desk was where Slade currently sat in the back middle of the office, his back facing a large wall made of windows overlooking the city. A platinum nameplate with his name and position sat atop of the desk along with various items expected to be on a mayor's desk.

Slade Wilson smiled as congenially as possible as he watched Richard Grayson enter his office. "Ah, Mr. Grayson, what a nice surprise. I assume you came to visit to update me on my case?"

"Yes, sir." Richard nodded. "Currently our agent is still working undercover to determine a weakness of Red X and undermine his plot. Our agent is still unsure of what exactly Red X intends to pull off but has warned us of some possibilities. We are doing all we can to ensure your safety, Mayor Wilson."

"Good, good," Slade nodded, inwardly grimacing and grumbling about the Titan's incompetence. How hard could it be to catch a single man? "Thank you for the update, Mr. Grayson. If that is all, I have some business to attend to. You know the way out."

Richard nodded, slightly frowning at Slade's attitude but leaving like he was ordered to nonetheless. Once Richard was gone, Slade growled under his breath, pressing a button on his desk phone, "Stacy, please tell Grant to come to my office immediately."

"Right away Mr. Wilson," a feminine voiceresponded.

About a minute or so later Grant burst through the door, smiling widely and laughing as he flirted with the secretary. Always loud and obnoxious, that boy, Slade thought with a sigh.

"So what'd you need me for, pops?" Grant asked as he closed the door behind him, sticking his hands in his pants pockets and looking excited. He had been bored sitting around and "guarding" his father. He hoped that his father was going to give him an interesting job now.

"Grant," Slade folded his hands together, a wicked smirk on his face. "I need you to find a man called Red X and kill him."

Finally! Something interesting! Grant smiled a wicked smile all too like his father's as he cracked his knuckles, "No prob, pops."

This was going to be fun.

Hm, this chapter is a little shorter than I wanted it to be, but I wanted it to end like this. Actually, I believe in three or four more chapters this story should be done. Man, it's taken me a while to get here.

I'm glad I was able to update faster this time. :)

Thanks for reading a reviewing as always!

Ciao,

Xaleria