Chapter 39.1

 "Hey, wait up!" Katherine cried out but Fenrir ignored her. After escaping, Katherine flew out towards the city, expecting Jason to follow her lead and stay close to her. However, Jason pulled away as soon as he reached the city and Katherine had to double back and fly after him.

Fenrir ignored her and landed on Feng Shui Building's roof. Katherine slowly descended, her burning wings of flames slowly died out while he got off his bike, which immediately flew away on autopilot. Without looking at her, he began to walk away, stumbling slightly from his injuries. Katherine raised her hands in exasperation when she saw how Jason was treating her.

"Hey, Katie, thank you for saving me," Katherine said with mild annoyance while imitating Jason's gruff voice. "Thanks, Jason, I really appreciate the fact that you're thanking me for helping you out!"

"I didn't ask for help," Jason paused and said coldly. His voice modulator was damaged during the fight, causing a switch from an electric gratingly metallic to deep husky voice erratically. He turned his head halfway and turned to look at Katherine through his broken visor. His exposed eye, which was healing rapidly, twinkled like a black opal while his helmeted eye which was a large cyan blue color observed her mechanically. Together, they gave Katherine a visceral feeling that he was attempting to distance himself from her because he was frightened. "And I certainly didn't need it."

How? How were we able to fight so well together? Jason thought. Unbeknownst to Katherine, Jason was truly frightened of her. He couldn't make out her intentions and the lingering feeling he had for her was unnerving.

"Oh, so you enjoyed the beating you got? Wait a minute," Katherine stepped back from Jason as though he had something contagious. "Don't tell me you're an M?"

Jason was rendered speechless by Katherine's question and he blanked while she pulled her mask off. Only after seeing her face did he regain his bearings and he watched her coldly. After a moment, Jason raised an arm horizontally and pressed a button on his gauntlet. From the distance, a small light appeared before charging off into the distance at supersonic speed, a line of fume remained while it made its way to the ship that looked like a dot. Right after, a brilliant flash of light occurred, followed by the shockwave of an explosion that trailed in its wake. A few seconds later, the sound of an explosion reached the two of them.

"I had it under control," Jason said coldly to Katherine.

During the fight, Jason threw an emitter onto the ship's control deck, an emitter that could broadcast a signal identical to the one that targeted a missile into his apartment. Even though he told AEM to fix the loophole that allowed the missile to be launched, Jason knew they wouldn't be able to fix it overnight and decided to use it against his enemies. Katherine stared at the distant ship that exploded before turning back to Jason.

"That was your plan? Blow the ship up with a missile? You know you wouldn't have made it out of there in time, not without me," Katherine said while gesturing at the flaming debris in the distance. "You'd have been caught in the blast."

"I've survived worse," Jason said coldly. He wasn't lying, considering that he did survive a missile strike earlier.

Katherine shrugged. "Doesn't mean you need to be a lone wolf."

"My name," Jason said quietly, his voice threatening and impatient. "Is Fenrir. The name says it all."

"It's not a weakness to rely on others Jason," Katherine said as Jason walked away. "Especially when it comes to friends and family."

"It is to me," Jason replied. He paused before jumping off the building. "And you're not a friend nor are you family."

He slashed his sword downwards and created a crack in the sky from which blackness appeared surrounding it, slowly spreading and engulfing until it was large enough to consume him; he had torn an opening through space and time itself to create a path to his dimension. Katherine, who only saw him fall, rushed to the ledge but froze when she found nothing below.

"The fuck? Where'd he go?" Katherine muttered in disbelief. She put her mask on and flew down to the streets, searching for Jason but realized that he had somehow disappeared. As she flew up and away, her mind went back to Jason and she noticed how he saw her as a stranger. She realized just how alone she felt in this world and her eyes became watery as she closed them for a moment.

"I just hope we can be friends this time again, Jason," Katherine muttered to herself.

***

"Aw fuck."

Jason coughed again as he exited the dimensional tear. He staggered and tried to rebalance himself while swearing. He had wanted to escape from Katherine but he also didn't want her to know his secret, hence he traveled through to his dimension without having the proper coordinates of his location in space and time. Because of this, he miscalculated his exit by a few centimeters, resulting in his internal organs dislocating themselves. With a deep breath, he gritted his teeth and used his telekinesis to twist the organs back in place.

"Hmgh. Shit," he swore again as pain wracked his body.

After that, Jason looked around and saw that he was back in his alchemy room. He sat down on a chair and closed his eyes, the exhaustion of not sleeping and fighting for two days overwhelmed him and, very quickly, he fell asleep. After an untold amount of time, the door to the alchemy room opened and a figure walked in. Her graceful steps were full of elegance and her naturally arched eyebrows and tanned skin gave her a familiarity to Jason's features. She walked up to Jason and brushed his hair, her fingers ran through his short hair.

"Honestly, Jason," Helen whispered as she placed a blanket over him. "Just what am I supposed to do with you?"