After a long day shuffling between two jobs, she ended up at home tired and hungry. Still in her gear from work with Cora, she phased through her own front door, dropped her bag on the floor by the door and headed further in. She wondered if Blue was home, if maybe he had made dinner already, and if she was going to make to through her plate without passing out in it first.

As she was kicking her shoes off and hanging her keys on the little hook on the wall, a voice crept up.

"Welcome home, pepper."

She damn near had an instantaneous heart attack, then went on full offensive since that clearly hadn't been the voice of any of her friends. A figure in her computer chair facing away from her slowly turned toward her.

"Did ya miss me, darlin'?" Her stomach bottomed out.

There he was. Black jean pants and a black button down shirt with the sleeves rolled up neatly to his tattooed forearms. He had one long leg crossed over the other at the knees and his hands, with stocky thick fingers, folded and resting over them. Fairly new brown work boots, an aged watch on one wrist, and a well worn gold bracelet on the other. She could see the usual white wife beater on under his button up, and recognized the thin gold chain around his neck. He had a longer beard now, a little more white in the center that stretched out to the edges of his mouth. His smile hadn't changed at all, either. His upper lip still vanished into his mustache. Teeth that were too straight and white gleamed out from within. That damned smile always made her feel like ice was starting to form inside her, just behind the ribs and around her heart.

His eyes; a beautiful blue in any other face and set under thick graying eyebrows, still crinkled around the corners without the smile quite reaching them. His hair looked a little longer and more wild, but he had obviously combed it back before breaking into her apartment.  

Sitting there, in the middle of her living room, was her Uncle.

"... How did you get in here?" Her voice was like a whisper. She could barely draw enough breath in to form them in the first place.

Her door had still been locked. As she stood there and gaped at him, he leaned a little to the side and pulled a small folding knife from a back pocket of his jeans. After sliding it open he began casually cleaning his short nails with it. 

"I spoke with your landlord. He's a quirky little fellow, aint he? Kind enough ta give me the spare key after I introduced myself."

That information was like a shot to the chest. He had a key to her place.

"Go on, sit down. I ain't gonna hurt ya, girl." He gestured at her couch with the knife in his hand, with a smile that could have come across as friendly to anyone else. It was horrifying to her. Full on promises of pain and misery.

As he expected, she turned right around on her heel with every intention of fleeing her own apartment. 

"Ah ah, I wouldn't do that if I were you, Pepper. Or, should I call ya "specter" now...?"

She froze inches from her door. Her eyes went wide and a ripple of fear raced through her. How did he...?

"I might not be the brightest bulb in the box, Pepper, but I can certainly spot my own beloved niece in a picture. By golly, can you imagine my surprise the day the story hit the papers back home and who do I see on the front page? My Darling Pepper! All dolled up in black like a proper little thief. My, the apple sure doesn't fall far from the tree."

She had turned by that point, staring partially around the little corner in her entry way at him. That same smile was still on his face, but he had gone back to casually cleaning his nails with the knife. 

"Well? You gonna stand there all day like a log, or are you gonna sit? Go on, sit." 

She bristled at the command, fighting against the fear in her. She didn't need to bow to his commands anymore like she was 13 and powerless again. Thus, she made no move to follow his directive. "Get out."

"Oooh, still have a bit of a backbone huh? That's okay. I'm sure there are plenty of papers out there that would love to hear how I figured out that the notorious small-time bank robber was my own dear niece."

With a grimace at the threat, she forced her legs to move and finally sat on her couch across from him. He adjusted his position in the computer chair and pointed the knife at her.

"Good girl. At least you seem to remember some of our rules then, huh?" He chuckled and her skin began to crawl. The golden rule that she'd tried so hard to bury deep in the past; Do what you're told, when you're told, and it will be less painful in the long run.

"... So, I see this story pop up in the Sunday paper while I'm out getting a haircut, right? I didn't think much of it. Everyone's always trying to get rich quick or make a name for themselves these days. Heheh, Me included, right? But, as I'm briefly glancing through this article, guess what I see?" He used one large hand to gesture, adding flare to each word as he said it, "'Suspect appeared to pass through southern bank wall using unknown power'"

He paused, letting that sink in. She was aware of what the story had said since she had read it. During the time after her first robbery, before her second, she had been horribly paranoid. She'd read most of the stories over the years.

"Now, I know your parents kept you pretty sheltered, and in doing so most of the other folks in town had no idea you really existed, but me? Why I could spot you from a mile away by your lips alone."

She cringed. "So what? What exactly is it that you want now? Why are you here?"

He leaned back in the chair switched which legs he had crossed. She couldn't help but notice that he still wore the same style of the boot as he had years ago. She was fully aware that there was steel hidden in the toes.

"Well, Pepper, as you can imagine after I got out of prison I had quite a list of things to do. I've been in there, what, four years now?"

"You were supposed to be in there for nine." Not long enough. Never long enough. Three counts of three years each.

"Yeah, well, what can I say? I'm a very likable guy." He chuckled and it sent shivers across her skin. Yeah, sure, likable .

She scowled at him. "What do you want."

He continued on casually, no sign that her clipped attitude was getting to him at all. "So anyway, I get out and I have this huge list of things to do, yeah? So I gather together a few of my boys from out of state, we form a little club, and wouldn't you know it? There's room for one more."

She was clenching her fingers into the fabric of the couch, brows pinched as she slowly came to understand what he meant.

"You... want me to work with you?" She couldn't help it. Juniper laughed, loudly, right in his face. "After everything, you @#$%ing put me though to think I'm going to work for you??"

His smile dipped a little, temper flaring a bit as she laughed at him.

"Never in a million years." She continued, getting to her feet with her hands clenched at her sides. "I don't care what you are threatening to do, I won't work with you. Ever. Period. Get out of my apartment!" She pointed angrily at her door.

He folded his knife shut, slowly, and tucked it away in the pocket of his button-up. Then, he folded his hands back over his knee. "Pepper, honey, did'ja know it's really easy to take insurance policies out on people?"

He didn't react to her anger like she had expected him to. Like he used to. She could still tell that he wasn't happy with her because she could see a dimple on one side of his face and that horrid thing only ever appeared when he was clenching his teeth.

"Cindy and David took real easy to my suggestion that I be in charge of their business if anything should happen to them while they are off galavanting around the world. Did'ja know that they took a liking to diving while over there in Hawaii? My dear sister wouldn't shut up about reefs and fish every time I talked to her from prison."

A chill washed over her, and some of the confidence she had built up faded away.

"It's such a shame though. So many people die every year from diving accidents. Did'ja know that? It's scary easy! Go down with the wrong weights... accidentally go down with an air tank turned off..." He clicked his tongue and shook his head, reaching up to smooth down the thick hair around his mouth and chin. "Happens all the time. It's even easier if you have friends in the right places... you know what I mean?"

She sat back down, but only because she couldn't really feel her legs anymore. He... was threatening her with her parent's lives?

"So... let's say that, hypothetically, they head off for their next diving trip, and wouldn't you know it, Joe, their regular instructor, is out sick! Not to worry though, a fine fellow named Sam is there to help them in his place."

She stared at him mutely and he stared back. His smile widened a tad bit further. "... A few hours later a search team drags Cindy and David's bodies up from the depths. Your poor mom. Poor old pops. A few days later I, as their sole beneficiary, file my claims. A few weeks later I'm a little more wealthy, and you are on your way to prison for multiple felonies. Newly orphaned and with no one to turn to."

She... she didn't know what to do. What was she supposed to do?! She didn't love her parents necessarily, but she didn't want them to die either. Her uncle took in her expression, the way she had started to shake a bit and how pale she had gone, and his smile widened even more.

"Of course, Pepper... that doesn't have to happen. None of it. Just do what I tell you to do, and all of that will go away. Poof! Ideas on the wind."

"What....." She swallowed and became more distressed since it felt like her throat was closing up. "... What would I need to do."

He clapped his hands together and laughed, delighted when she jumped in her skin. "That's the attitude! But, I'm not some savage, Honey. I'm gonna give you some time to think it over. Really stew on it. I wouldn't want you jumping into a decision than then go and think about changing your mind later."

He shifted, leaning over the arm of the chair to the floor where a black backpack was. She hadn't even noticed it before. From within it, he brought out a collar. Black, with glints of metal and a chunky bit on one side.

She was familiar with it already due to an unrelated incident months prior, and seeing one in her apartment only made her panic rise. The kind of collar she had inadvertently gotten trapped in once and had to have Xavier break her out of. A mutation suppression collar.

... why did he have one of those?

He leaned forward and set it delicately on her coffee table between them, then leaned back and interlinked his fingers over a knee again. "I only have one condition for you, other than you agree to work with me. You will wear that collar at all times. I have the key for it and the remote, so when we need your power I can turn it off." She was trying desperately to control her breathing and not make it obvious that she was close to losing it.

"I wish I could trust you, pepper, I really do, but you've proven over and over to me that I just can't. So, if we are going to go into this venture together I need assurance that you won't turn on me." He sighed, "Oh, how I miss it when you were little and never argued."

She hadn't looked away from that collar yet. She was running through all of the scenarios she could think of for how to get out of this. Go to the police? The x-men? Blue?

"You have 24 hours to make a decision. I'll text you tomorrow, same time, for your answer." That insinuated that he knew her phone number as well. Had Saul given that to him too?

"And, just as a reminder darlin'.... You either work for me and obey all of my rules, or your parents die and your little secret gets leaked. Your life, or your dear ole' ma and pa's. Don't disappoint me, baby. I have such hope that we can get along like we used to."

He stood, and she was ashamed that she flinched on instinct.

"G'night, Pepper. See you tomorrow."

She was aware of him collecting his bag and heading for the door. She heard it open and then click closed again. She was aware of being alone again...

... and then she broke down.

She sat for a while, with Berry newling quietly from the bedroom where he had been left. She had 24 hours. A day to try and figure out what to do, but... it all felt so hopeless.

Calling her mom was out of the question. Cindy wouldn't believe a word out of her mouth. She always sided with her brother, Keith, over her only daughter.... and, even if she did what if they couldn't stop it in time?

Her parents had stopped by briefly for three days and then had headed off on their grand adventure again. She didn't even know where they were going this time, of if they had gone straight back to Hawaii.

...If... If she could make it to the school, maybe Saph could do something? He had said-

...he'd said-

But, again, would finding and killing her Uncle stop some unknown assassin from murdering her mom and dad? What about her secret? Keith wasn't a smart man in a classic sense, but he was just conniving enough to make up for it with just a sheer determination to make your life a living hell if he wanted to.

Not only was the thought of going to someone to get help stressful because of the timing of it all, but because she would have to prove it. Where was the proof that her Uncle had said those things? It would just end up being her word vs his again and... and the last time that hadn't gone so well.

Juniper laid back on the cushions of the couch, palms pressed firmly into her eyes as she soaked in the quiet of her apartment. She could head Xavier over in his place punching his weighted bag. The walls had always been thin, but since they were used to hearing each other's noise neither of them really bothered being quiet anymore unless it was super early in the morning.

Tears gathered in her lashes and she pressed harder to the point her vision went white even with her eyes closed. Tears wouldn't fix this... never had before. So why did her gut reaction always seem to be to bawl her eyes out?

"...Fuck."

Berry mewled a little louder, and she heard him start clawing at the door to be let out.

Why couldn't it be simple, like in the movies? A hero appears, thwart the bad guy, saves the day, and everyone lives.

"Fuck.

She pushed herself up, rubbing the sleeve of her thin shirt on her face to dry it, and went to et Berry out.

One thing at a time, Juniper. Just... one thing at a time.

Three more hours passed. Berry was fed and happy, over in the corner where he and Clyde used to cuddle in their beds. It was just Berry now, with a glaringly empty spot beside him.

She'd tried and failed to eat something. Unable to hold toast down due to the roiling in her guts. She spent a bit splayed out on her bed, with her photo book open on top of her duvet and other contents of her trunk scattered around. Honestly, she'd dug it out because she missed Clyde again something terrible, and she had a dozen or more printed pictures of him at various landmarks.

The book was littered with other pictures as well. Candid shots of people she now considered friends who might not have agreed to a picture if she had asked, as well as full-on selfies with some of the more enthusiastic ones. Xavier's face was bright his signature smile popped out in multiple places. Blue's pictures were all from angels were he couldn't see, or of him sleeping with cats on or near him. Pic of her and Zek were spattered around and hard to miss seeing as he wasm't often facing the camera in a normal way, and his blue tongue was a show stealer. So many more faces, even some she didn't like all that much (One picture of Xavier with Elke beside him just exuded evil like a thick miasma).... but she appreciated them all the same.

They were proof. Proof that she had gotten out and lived a little, even if it wasn't in a typical fashion. She had promised Mason that much at the very least.

Sounds of Blue finally coming back filtered in and she was quick to slap the book closed and throw it on top of her trunk, leaving her various other treasures out for now as she headed out to greet him. Dinner was still something she needed to do... maybe something plain again. Maybe she'd just cheat and drop the food out of her stomach later when Blue wasn't looking. She just needed everything to be normal. Nothig wrong.

She walked out pretending she had taken a nap, still in her work clothes, and waved.

"Heeeey."

He groused about something and she chuckled like she always did, running a hand through her pixie cut and threw out a non-answer like normal. The process of making dinner was slower than usual because she was out of energy, and for someone who was almost always high energy it was noticeable. She explained it away as a bad day. Just a dip in her mental health, which would happen sporadically and vary in intensity. No worries, it would get better. It always got better.

It just had to

She hardly slept. There was a great big invisible clock ticking away that she couldn't ignore. She thought about telling Blue. She thought about asking Xavier what he would do in her shoes. She thought about calling Saph again; rip the bandaid off and just... live with the consequences.

Would he actually kill her parents? His sister? She... didn't know. She had no reason to believe he wouldn't. He was a violent, angry person and loved taking it out on people he felt were lesser than him. Or... maybe just easier victims.

Maybe she should just kill him herself. It'd be easy to do. Didn't even have to be bloody. Just... push him into the ground never to be seen again.

At midnight she picked up her phone and dialed her mom's number. It rang four times and then went to voice mail. She tried again and got voice mail after the first ring.

... Looked like her mom was still mad at her for the while Elke suitcase thing.

Groaning, she slung her arm over her eyes, phone still in hand, and let herself marinate in misery for a while.

So. She had no way to contact her parents right now, various options at her fingertips for how to possibly take care of the issue, but no promises that the end goal of her parents staying alive would actually happen. She was at a point where she didn't really care so much about the threat of her illegal activities being leaked to the public- she could always just skip down again and go settle somewhere out in the boonies of the midwest with what money she still had.

...but.... she didn't think she could live with the possibility that she was the direct cause of her dumb ass mom and dad getting whacked out in the middle of the ocean and her slimy uncle benefiting from it in any shape.

Maybe Zek could pull some miracle out of one of his shiny balls and they could drop her Uncle in front of a moving train?

Too good to be true, probably.

--

The next morning she got up like normal, dressed for work, and left Blue with Berry. She walked a few blocks before ducking into a park, sat, and called her work. She'd never given her two weeks over the phone before, kinda felt bad doing it to her Boss too, but... it was better than just straight-up ghosting her again. She didn't know how this was all gonna go, but any which way she definitely would not just be able to return to life as normal.

After quitting the only job she had been able to hold down for more than a week, a miracle really and all on Cora's part, she walked around a bit more before digging her phone out and scrolling until she found Saph's number.

She hesitated to hit call, then tapped it, and after it rang for six seconds she chickened out and hung up.

@#$%.

She'd contemplated this a lot during the last four years, mostly the first three. She'd fancied the idea about driving back home to Ohio to the prison Keith had been sent to, letting herself in and making him disappear. Fantasized about various ways to do it, too... but... in the end, each one just made her feel slimy on the inside.

She had never killed anyone before. Never had the urge except for with Keith. She had urges to harm people in proportion to how they had harmed people she cared about, or herself to a degree, but she also really didn't care for how that felt inside either.

She mostly just ignored it all until it became too big to ignore anymore, and then- Well, she supposed that was how she ended up here.

Juniper tried dialing Saph one more time and ended the call 4 seconds in, and then very nearly chucked her phone in a lake when he called her back Oh@#$%... but instead, she just let it ring without answering.

Saph was a convenient method, he had offered after all, but he was also a person and if there was a chance that killing someone made him feel slimy on the inside too, she couldn't ask him to do that.

After wasting a few hours walking around, she headed home and gave Blue a very lackluster excuse about why she had been "fired". She didn't think he believed her, he was smarter than that, but she also wasn't gonna budge on the story. Might have pissed him off a bit with it, even, as she didn't really lie to him like she tended to lie to everyone else.

A tense lunch passed in which she tried to make sandwiches, failed, and Blue had to begrudgingly re-make everything if he wanted to eat.

Juniper had, by that time, already kind of fallen into an answer she didn't like and had decided that she was going to try and spend as much time with him as possible before her deadline was up. She dragged out her laptop, found a pirated movie she had never seen before, coerced Blue into sitting and watching it with her and cuddled in. She probably could have done a lot more... but, it felt like this was gearing up to be her last meal before execution. She liked the idea of something soft, Calm, Warm.... Something that wasn't fleeting and she could cling to in the darkness, as it was about to get very dark in the near future, she was sure.

She fell asleep on Blue in the middle of the movie, tired from a night of no sleep and too much stress, and didn't wake up until much later when her phone chimed.

A text.

It was time.

With trepidation slowly filling every inch of her body, she phased herself off of Blue and the couch, miraculously not waking either of them and grabbed her phone from the kitchen counter.

'What's your answer, Baby girl?'

Ugh, those @#$%ing pet names.

She glanced over her shoulder toward the couch, with Blue and Berry sleeping and some ad on her laptop droned on quietly.

'I'll do it.'

A moment later her phone pinged quietly again, and an address popped into her inbox.

She headed for her room, changed into some comfortable, baggy clothes, packed a simple bag, and turned her phone off. The address was scribbled on the back of her hand and she didn't want anyone trying to track her down. She tucked it away in the drawer on her side table and left her room.

A short, apologetic note was left on the counter for blue, as well as directions for him to use the stash of cash in her room to keep the apartment paid up. She left it vague, hinting that she might be back after a while, but she just didn't know when.

She walked out of her apartment with purpose, leaving behind every single thing she any attachment to, and didn't look back.

An hour and 3 bus transitions later, she arrived at the address she had been given. Surprisingly, it was a fairly upscale looking building, in a decent part of town. She hit the buzzer and a moment after the entrance door unlocked and she was let it.

The first step inside was heavy and got her heartbeat really thumping.

It was clean inside, which wasn't really surprising. Her uncle hadn't ever really been a slob. Just a monster.

"Back here, Darlin'!"

Keith's voice echoed out from the back of the empty shop and yet again she paused, hesitating just inside the door. Was.. she really doing this? Was this happening?

This was happening. She had to choose this. Short term suffering for, hopefully, long term results.

Swallowing thickly, she pulled her hood up and started back.

Soft jazz was being played inside from the back storage area. Keith was hovering around a pool table with two other men his age. It appeared that they had been deep into a game when she showed up.

"There she is! See boys, I told you she had a good head on her shoulders." He stood back from the table with the stick in his hands and smiled. Juniper didn't say anything as the two older men turned to look at her. She had never seen either of them before, but they certainly looked like people her Uncle would hang around. One man was balding and silver-haired, probably about 5'ft 8 or nine. It was hard to size him up as he was still leaning against the table. The other guy was a bit shorter but more muscular. She could tell from the way the dark suit he was wearing pulled around certain parts of his body. She caught sight of a big gold ring on one finger, maybe a class ring. It looked heavy and painful. A weapon you could wear in public to keep people in line. Her Uncle had one just like it, and now that she was looking, so did the bald man. Old classmates?

Her Uncle beckoned her forward. "C'mon c'mon, come over here and introduce yourself."

She stared at him for a moment, then moved in closer. "...I'm Juniper."

The dark-haired man grunted slightly, setting his cue down so that he could fiddle with the same ring she had been staring at. She was sure he used that thing as a control device, now. "James." He rumbled, and she noticed that his voice was deep and a little gravely. A smoker maybe?

Baldie introduced himself next. "Eli." He nodded at her, showing no outward signs of aggression. Or... really anything for that matter.

Totally psychopath vibes. Euugh.

"Pepper, show em' why your here hun. Be showy about it."

...Showy? Well, okay, but he asked for it. Turning, she spied she'd behind her with a few assorted empty beer bottles, a bottle opener, and a pack of cigarettes next to an ashtray.

She slipped one foot out of a shoe, placed it on the ground next to the shelve, and phased the ground. The shelf dropped immediately, swallowed up in the pavement with only a discarded bottle cap and a scattering of ashes on the floor to show that anything had been there at all.

One of them whistled lowly as she turned back. "That good enough?"

"It'll do. You could've walked through a wall or something else, but no matter. Let's get right into business."

Keith turned away, grabbing something off the table behind him, and plopped it onto the green pool table material.

"Let's just go ahead and get this out of the way, first, shall we? C'mon Darlin'."

She... didn't move for a little while. Just stared at that dumb contraption from across the room and once more, for the last time, re-considered everything. Once that thing was on that was it, it was over until he said otherwise. It was her worst fear, being without her power as a safety net, and he knew it.

She glanced away from the collar to Keith, spotted that telltale dimple, and forced her feet to move.

Getting it on was easy. It was off, currently, and once she picked it up all she had to do was phase it on herself. She didn't know enough about them to know if it was the same model she had encountered before, or if it was like the ones they apparently used in prisons.

Once on and unphased, the weight that settled around her neck reminded her of a dog bark collar. A big, brick of a thing that would shock her if she got loud.

"Aaatta girl. That's the Pepper I know and love." He produced a little metallic-looking remote from his shirt pocket, fiddled with it, and the collar around her neck beeped. She immediately made sure she was 100% physically there. Getting shocked by the last one had not been pleasant.

"So, how do we know it's workin'?" The Bald one, Eli, questioned. Keith pretended to mull it over for a bit. "I suppose we could just trust it, right? Then again technology often fails these days, so..." She trailed off and her hackles rose.

"James, why don't you give it a test to see if it's workin'?"

James immediately reached out and backhanded her across the face, and that same @#$%ing RING she had been theorizing about knocked her off her damn feet.

Juniper landed and rolled, groaning and curling up into herself as she cradled her face. Keith hadn't been one to strike her much with his own ring, because, as he had put it once,"Rings like this... This here'll leave a mark, and marks like that will lead the cops right back to ya."

... Apparently, that caution was off the table now.

"Looks like it works, boys!" Her Uncle's roaring laughter was met with two more as Eli and James joined in, and Juniper grumbled under her breath and started to pick herself up off the floor. A hit like that wasn't meant to down ya. It was meant to rattle your brain and any smart ideas you thought you had, right out of your skull.

Wiping her cheek on the sleeve of her sweater to get rid of a little blood from the new wound, she stood shakily and turned back to the three men.

"Alright, now that that' out of the way, here's all you need to know Pepper." Keith wandered over, clapping a big hand on her shoulder that almost knocked her over again, and directed her back to the table.

"We have a fifth partner we're bringing in, but he's not ready yet. Until he is you'll be stickin' with me day and night. Think of it like... you're a bodyguard, got it?" She nodded mutely, "Good. This here is home base. I got a good price from it from the old gal who had been selling," He chuckled, "and that room over there is yours, Baby Girl."

He pointed a finger across the room, toward a lone door that had very obvious locks on the outside of it.

... super.

"Why don't you go check it out while us lad's chat, hmm?" He gave her a shove. She stumbled, caught herself, and walked the rest of the way to the door. It wasn't locked when she tried the handle.

Inside was a simple and short wooden bed frame, a small three drawer dresser, and a single built-in light in the ceiling.

"Leave your coat and bag out here, would you?"

... She had no reason to argue, so she did. Shoes off, coat off, bag by the door. If he expected to find something dangerous n her, he was about to be disappointed. She walked in and turned around as Keith came over to grab the handle and hovered in her door frame.

"Try ta get some sleep, Darlin', you really do look just awful."

He shut the door and she heard the lock click into place and... Well, she just stood there for a while. She could hear the three men out there laughing about something in a muffled kind of way.

Eventually, she moved to sit on the bed and started trying to rub the address ink off her hand. It smudged into one big blue spot and her vision swam.

She missed everyone already.

"You're fine. You're fine, Juni... you're okay... It'll be okay."

-end-