Dark Heart

Jean Grey took Ray by the wrist, impulsively and anxious. Unable to believe what she witnessed, what she partook in. They entered that alleyway and Ray crossed his arms, waiting for her. 

She opened the rubbish can and picked up four heavy black bags filled to the brim with money, threw them on the floor and awaited an explanation. Ray only stood there, he didn't say anything, but she felt those black eyes of his were hollow like never before. 

He wasn't always friendly, he could be very detached. But at the very least, he behaved like a human. 

Now, however, his eyes looked completely different. Like he could take a knife any second and plunge it into her heart. 

One of the bags began levitating until it landed at his feet, it was then that his countenance changed drastically.

"It was you…" He recognised the individual who had assisted him but never could have thought that it was Jean all along. 

"Why did you do it?" She asked.

"Do what?" He laughed menacingly.

"Why steal the money!? I thought you just wanted to save the hostages, save Annie's dad, why pick up the money?!"

She grabbed him by the collar of his shirt, tears in her eyes like an idol had died. She had rushed for his safety, she had put herself at risk, and she had thought they were doing something good, being heroes. But as it turns out... she became just an accomplice in a crime.

When she raised up her gaze to look at Ray, he was holding both her wrists, glaring at her as if she was nothing more than trash. Jean felt breathless underneath that gaze. 

"So what are you going to do, Jean…?"

"A-Answer me, please… why steal the money?"

"I have ambitions… ambitions need money. I saw an opportunity and took it, that's all. That's too hard to understand for you?" For his part, Ray only thought it was a pitiful circumstance. It could have been perfect, but it had to be Jean. 

"I thought you were a good guy. I thought you were saving the hostages! That's why I tried to help! I know how they mistreat mutants so I even tried to cover your identity!"

"I did save the hostages, but so what? did you expect me to just leave that money there when there was such a perfect opportunity? Are you stupid?"

She felt gawked, having her hands flung off his collar. He felt so foreign.

"Don't act like you know me, Jean"

Ray picked up the bags, took a few bills out of them and threw them on the floor in front of her shivering self.

"You stopped some bullets and deviated the cameras. Here's your payment, if I were you I wouldn't put it in a bank".

"I-I don't need your filthy money!"

"Then don't take it… and I'm warning you. If I get exposed, I'll come for you first" He left just like that.

Jean fell on her knees... panting, trying to resist the recurrent headache her powers caused her. She took the money and looked at it deeply, shivering. It was dirty money. Completely against what her parents had taught her.

'I have ambitions, ambitions need money... I saw an opportunity and took it'.

While she was still on the floor, she saw a cab stop by, Ray boarded it. He only gave her a last cold glare before departing.

All she could do was remain in her thoughts, holding her head and crying, grieving how the boy she had fallen in love with, wasn't who she expected to be. 

**

**

Ray arrived home under the scrutinizing gaze of the cab driver who asked what the bags were. Ray said they were clothes and thought about Jean.

'Since when does she have powers? from the start? what powers are they exactly?'

If she was just a little clueless girl, he could have just left her be, but being a mutant. She could become a threat. Nevertheless...

'I don't want to kill her, if possible'.

At this point life or death had little to no meaning, he himself knew death was not the end of everything. There could be way worse things in existence than death. No, death was only the start.

He threw the money in the living room and counted it.

"Three million… but I've heard that once a bank is robbed the serial numbers get reported so if I don't launder this money quickly… it will be wasted".

He sighed and thought deeply about the issue at hand.

'I don't know anyone, I don't have much contact. Especially this amount shouldn't be easy to launder by regular means… all this may very well have been for nothing'.

*KNOCK!*

*KNOCK!*

Someone knocked on the door sorrowfully with prolonged thuds, he opened the door, it was Jean. He frowned and got on guard, but she looked so lost and defenceless that he recalled what sort of girl she was... she's not that type of person.

"What do you want, Jean?"

"Can we talk for a bit?"

He let her in and she sat on the sofa, silent. She extended her gaze and saw the money dropped in the living room, he didn't even bother concealing it. Ray got some cans of coke and she didn't shy away, she took it and drank it.

"What we did… was that okay?" She asked.

"You didn't do anything, Jean… I did. Why are you getting involved where you're not asked? nobody saw your face, you were not in the bank. Therefore, you didn't do anything. I could be discovered, I could be somehow traced... if you don't want to be involved in this, then you should stop coming here to see me".

"Why are you so damn cold, Ray Stark! I helped you didn't I?! If it wasn't for me those bullets-"

"Those bullets wouldn't have killed me".

"..."

He lifted up his shirt and she saw it... several bleeding holes with pitch-black blood. Ray groaned and took the bullets out one by one, throwing them inside the empty can of coke. His wounds closed in front of her eyes.

"W-What are you?"

"I don't know... but I'm not human, that much I know" He put his shirt down but then felt a slight itch on his right thigh, lifted up the shorts and there it was another bloody hole. She blushed a bit at the sight of his crotch, not completely exposed. 

"You helped me free the hostages, I decided to rob the money. Leave it at that and don't make things more complicated than they have to be".

The room was dark and cold, with only a faint light coming from the closed curtains. She didn't say anything else after that, but he noticed she was still a bit shaken. 

"So, did you take it?" He asked her.

Jean sighed and pulled the money out of her jacket.

"I still don't think this is right, b-but Mom and Dad can barely cope".

"..."

"It is as you said, Ray. Ambitions need money, b-but... becoming a criminal".

"You don't have to become a criminal. I gave you that money because you did me a favour, that's all".

"Then will you become a criminal!?" She also didn't want that, the boy she liked to head down that path. Ray laughed slightly at her concerns.

"If I wanted to, I wouldn't have covered my face. I told you I saw an opportunity and took it. Do you think I go from bank to bank robbing them all? That was my first time".

Relief showered on her like fresh water in the desert, which had been her concern all along. This wasn't his first time, he was used to this, he was a de-facto criminal. 

"You looked fairly experienced" She finally smiled.

"I just use logic, you see money thrown there and don't take it? only a fool would. But this money is unlaundered, Jean. We might not even be able to do anything with it" He shrugged his shoulders.

"What are your powers? To be honest… I knew something was wrong with you from the start" Jean started. 

"Why?"

"I can read people's minds… that's my power. Although I don't know why… I feel a headache every time I do it. When I looked at your mind, there was a lot of darkness, I couldn't see anything... but I only thought that darkness was kinda soothing".

"What are you talking about?" He frowned.

"I told you, when I use my powers my head starts aching horribly, that's why I never use them ever since that day... but when I do it with you, rather than feeling a headache, it feels relaxing. I don't know how to describe it" She hugged her knees

"…" Ray's brows tilted, there was no way for him to even understand what she was onto, "You can also move stuff telepathically, you did it with the cameras" Ray proved.

"Yes, but that's even more difficult to be honest. I get a hard migraine every time I do. Also, I have a limit on how far I can do it, the farther I'm from the object, the harder it is for me to manipulate it. It was painful to help you, you know?" The redhead pouted.

"No one asked you".

"Tch, ungrateful" She muttered under her nose, irritated.

"So, what are you? what are your powers?" Jean then asked with intrigue, even leaning towards him.

"A mutant, like you. I can phase through things-".

"How did you make those people unconscious?" She then asked.

"Unconscious?" Ray scratched his head, troubled... they were not unconscious, they were dead... but perhaps it be better if she didn't know that.

"Oh, I can 'empty' up stuff… so I just emptied up their minds and they collapsed" he didn't lie, it was just a half-truth.

"That's a bit scary… so, what do you think I should do? With this money".

"Are you asking me? it's your money"

"You just said it is unlaundered so what I can do with it?"

"It should be good for a while… if it is only that much. But eventually, they will trace the serial number, so the best thing you can do is buy something valuable with it to get rid of it… the faster the better" He didn't know much, but he knew some things.

"S-Should I buy a Rolex or something?" She wondered, using her head a bit and thinking about the possibilities.

"Yep, you can buy someone's Rolex for cash and then sell that Rolex to someone else, and the money you will get back is legal. Nothing is written on paper, so... that's money laundering".

"It feels bad, my father always said doing those things is not okay" She scratched her head, troubled and still filling like a sinful bitch for even considering it... but then she thought by doing so she'd have her first savings. 

"It is not. You can still return the money to me and be completely out of this", He extended his hand forward, and all Jean did was give him a high five, making him laugh.

"Not a bad choice~"

"It is the first time I've ever seen you laugh" Jean giggled.

"Really? I don't think so".

"Really… you never laugh. Today was the first time. Although that smile with Annie, looked fake. This one looks more real".

"I see, she was all over me; I didn't want to make things awkward".

"Ray".

"Hmn?"

"Are you... going out with someone?"