Retribution || A Henry Creel AU

Control

Things were surprisingly normal after that point and they drove for a few more hours. Not directly west, more like south west, but still in that general direction. The reason she was heading that way was because she knew that traveling to Japan was much easier leaving from California than it was from the east or middle of the country. There wasn't much talking between them but that only seemed to be because Henry was very content with amusing himself by using his powers to mess around with the radio. Something that would have annoyed her if she wasn't really fascinated that he could just sit there and effortlessly do it. Besides, it was much better he focus on something like that than hurting anyone.

When they got into their next motel room he went to lay on the bed and she went right to the phone to call her friend in order to make arrangements for the flight. It wasn't something she did frequently since she was perfectly content flying commercial even when going to Japan so she wasn't sure how to do it. Her friend, probably the only one she had left, knew the logistics of it because she was also the CEO of the company that had been left to her when her parents died. Rika had been the logical choice to run the place, among a board of trustees who had resented her at first but then grew to respect her over time when she'd increased their profit margins so drastically over the next few years of her leadership. The entire conversation was in Japanese, even though Rika spoked perfectly fluent English. She only did that as a safety precaution. She doubted they had been followed but at that point she was just as paranoid as Henry must have been.

"Okay, so they can have a plane ready for us in about twelve hours. Not too bad right? We can spend the night here and head to that location in the morning then off to Japan." She said once she hung up the phone.

"You speak Japanese." He said, though it wasn't a question at all.

"I was raised there, my parents were business people and they started this company that kind of took off and here we are." She sighed, not wanting to get into detail about how all of that had gone or how badly it had ended. "I technically own the company but I don't run it, I just pay people to do it for me so I can stay here and work as an FBI agent though I guess that's kind of over now."

"Because of me?"

"Don't feel that way it's...I got into this line of work because I wanted to help people. Make a difference. Maybe this will effectively end my career but it's because I've decided this is the right thing to do. I don't need the money, what I need is to make sure that you are safe and somehow, in some way, Brenner is stopped." She sat down on the bed next to him and he looked over at her.

"You're very upset about what he did to me."

"It wasn't right and just...no one there stopped it?"

"I don't think a lot of them wanted to. I think they agreed with him. It's not as if they didn't do their fair share of...torture." He said. "There are others though, others that don't deserve it. What is going to be done about them?"

"The FBI is sending in more people so, I guess we'll find out sooner or later." She said, "It's out of our control if we like it or not."

"And all of this is about making choices right? Giving me the freedom you believe I should have been given with control over and access to my powers?" He asked.

"Yes," She said, "No one should have kept that from you, especially not in that way." He nodded and she walked over to the window to look out of it for a moment before pulling the curtain. When she turned back he was standing and looking at her in such a manner that it was reminiscent of how a predator would study its prey.

"And you intend to continue helping me?" He asked.

"Yes..." She said slowly, not knowing if she was supposed to be terrified or aroused by how he looked in the moment. It was a bit of both, actually. If she liked it or not she knew she had a very big problem being attracted to dangerous and powerful men. Mark was barely even a threat compared to this guy. He could snap her neck just by looking at her if he wanted and the massive adrenaline rush that it caused was already addictive. "Why? You don't have to hurt me to make me do anything I'm already helping you so-"