When classes ended, Cas followed Jasper to his home. He looked like a stalker, but no one could see him. He just wanted to know where he lived. If he couldn’t help him, he could at least send the system to watch the situation. Maybe the kid could even buy him time. He was glad he didn’t encounter any problems during the travel, and Cas could head to his own house.

He ended up in the bed, watching the notes his system left him on the desk while thinking about the next step. For now, he still needed to get information about Jasper situation, and maybe understand why them could target him, and if not them, who would be able to do a big move on him. Now, he had both numbers of a hacker and a detective, and if he had to, he would have back up.

He sent a mail to the hacker. He asked how much he can track from a phone number. The guy responded almost immediately, saying he could try first, if nothing went wrong, he could see the information the operator kept and the factures they got. It could be blocked or, he could be easy. He also said he could easily pass through their defense if there weren’t any backers monitoring their network. Cas gave him the phone number the system got, the “unknow lover” Maria Ronan got behind her husband back.

Then, big brown envelopes appeared on top of him, then fell on his belly.

“Already?” Cas asked.

“Money made the process faster.” The system answered in his mind.

“Where are you?”

“Following the father in the company and watching his passwords. I’ll soon be able to enter his computer and watching the information he had. I will send you the list of his employees and the project he’s currently working on.”

“When he’ll leave and go home, you could take the night off.” Cas said.

“I told you, I don’t need breaks.”

“Aye.”

Cas opened the envelope. One had his name on it. He watched the content. Nothing special. He knew already. He was the son of a mistress, and Patrick Ronan was his biological dad in this world. The test Cas asked the system to do didn’t show something outside of his expectations. Then, he moved on the content of the envelope where his brother named was scribed. He opened it, and this time, he finally understood his stepmother better. Maria was genuinely his mom, but Patrick and Darius didn’t have any blood relation. Darius wasn’t his biological child. Cas and he weren’t brother at all. That’s possibly why the mother didn’t like Cas so much. He was the legal inheritor of the company, not Darius. She wanted to make sure her son got the company before turning her heels to her husband, even if their relationship was already cold.

Cas thought about the scene he could make if he confronted them altogether, but he needed to have the last information he wanted to make sure nobody could contradict him. He had proof, but the mother could always say the illegitimate child wanted to get the company and falsified paper to do so. He talked about it earlier, but maybe Cas could hire a lawyer. He really didn’t want the company. He didn’t care enough to. He noted in his mind to send everyone a note later when he knew who the real father was. But maybe he didn’t need to wait that much.

Cas heard the ‘tilt’ indicating he had a new mail, and he looked the screen of his computer. The hacker already finished his job and Cas could only thanked him and sent him money in compensation. He printed the documents send, and then called the system, who appeared in the next second.

“How should I do that? Cas asked. “I really wanted to confront them head on, but I’m sure nobody will believe me. Maybe it’s best to make sure the father put his hands on the documents without knowing who did it. Maybe he wouldn’t believe it, but he would have suspicions. Maybe that is enough. I will send him the video you made about the secret lover, and we’ll find out if that guy truly is the real father.”

The system said nothing.

“Arg. Fuck. 452 said this world was easy. How is it easy?”

The kiddo didn’t open his mouth, staying at the bed’s side.

“First” Cas said while giving the paper the hacker just got him. “This guy, Sebastian Cowen. I just obtained the background check the hacker did. He works for a company. Guess what company?”

The kid didn’t answer.

“You’re not fun, buddy. Castol. He works for Castol&Co. I just looked, and it’s one of the bigger concurrent of the father. It’s everywhere in the news. Is that the secret lover? I’m interested. I will pay him a visit, maybe. Well, second, could you follow Darius tomorrow?”

The system didn’t answer.

“Are you broken? Kiddo?”

The system didn’t react. Cas straighten his back, ready to come out of the bed.

“Hey! Hey, are you ok? Ruben?”

“It seems something is wrong in the space.”

“What do you mean?”

“I don’t know, but I have to get back. I don’t know how much time will pass before I can descend back here again. I am sorry for the inconvenience.”

“You can’t tell me what’s wrong?”

“452 said… He said to continue the mission. If you fail, he won’t blame you because it’s your first time and you can’t have help anymore. He asked me to tell you he’ll explain to you after this world is over. I’m sorry. Good luck.”

The system disappeared.

“Shit.”

The appointment with the lawyer was reserved for tomorrow in the night. Then, Cas thought about all the things he still had to do. Without taking account Jasper in the process, he still had to prove that the chef of the Castol company was indeed Darius father. According to the websites, he had to get a piece of DNA. He could go from the back door, giving money to a guy to make sure he wouldn’t utter a word to anybody, but he also had to get the signature of both parties. He didn’t know how the system manage to get it done, but it will be hard. If Darius didn’t know about the plot his mother built, maybe he will be willing to sign an authorization. The harder will be the chef of the other company.

Cas sighed. He didn’t want to think about that tonight. Maybe trying to do more was impossible, after all. Maybe he was too greedy. He didn’t have the confidence to convince them by normal means. Maybe he should focus on Jasper and see what happen. He already got enough for now to counter something that could happen.

The building was on fire. Cas was standing up in the middle of the white corridor, body half bare, a jerrican in one hand and a lighter in the other. He didn’t remember how he ended up that way. Did he start the fire? Where was he? But his questions stopped soon; he had to get the hell out of here if he didn’t want to become the fuel for the biggest torch he’d ever seen. Cas released what he was holding and before he could hear the plastic hitting the floor, he’d already run. Oddly, he knew what way he was supposed to take. In thirteen steps, there will be an intersection. There, he had to take the left, walk for another three hundred forty-seven and a half steps and pass through the cafeteria. He planned to open the valve to allow gas leaks. Then, he would have to run, to run as fast as he could. Finally, he would have to jump through the window – even though he was currently on the sixth floor when time came to break the window as stating in his plan, Cas never hesitated. He used his momentum and his speed from his run to ram into the glass with his shoulder, and a few seconds later he was rolling in fresh grass.

It was night, and when he looked up, he could see the stars, the moon, a sky he couldn’t see for five years, and it seems foreign. He stood up, and heard men talking. He went that way, because he didn’t know them and perhaps, they could tell him where he was.

They were all cops. When Cas arrived near the cars, they all pointed their guns toward him because he was unexpected. The police were hiding behind trees, and they all seemed like they were waiting for quite a long time. Did they prepare an attack against the lab?

Then, before any of them could open a discussion, the largest explosion Cas never heard destroyed everything. The building in his back shriveled, and when he turned back, he could see glass’s fragments and piece of the bricks flew in his direction, and in every other. Maybe some scratched his skin. Maybe a bit of blood was dripping from one of the new wounds, or maybe one of the oldest just opened up again, but Cas watched the flame without any concern for his own body. He was almost naked, cold, hungry and just killed all the people piled up in this fucking house.

He laughed. He could feel in his back all the eyes and the canon directed on him, but he didn’t care. He laughed and laughed and laughed, and it was hysterical, tears were coming out and he laughed until he couldn’t breathe. Then, he hiccupped, before spiting bile, because he didn’t have anything in his stomach he could throw up. He fell on his knees, gazing at the smoke raising in the black sky, dancing before the stars, illuminated by the moon, and he wondered why the cops he waited for so long, for so fucking long never came before. Now, his family was dead. Now, his friends were dead. Now, he just burned everything to the ground. Now, he was just a broken body with monster-like abilities, and he was out, but he had nothing to go back to. Everything was over, but he didn’t feel glad. Everything was their faults. They were waiting, waiting for an opportunity there, they were hiding from them and never suffered a thing. They never moved when they were truly needed. They stayed here, and everything was their fault.

Maybe someone understood, or maybe he was just plain stupid, because one of the younger policemen approached Cas. He put his hand on his shoulder, and Cas jumped, screamed. “Don’t fucking touch me” he said. “Don’t touch me”. He crouched down, took his knees between both his arms, holding tightly. His fingers were white from the strength he used, but his eyes were already far away.

He was shivering all over. He was cold, so cold, he almost wanted to jump in the fire.

He was so tired, but before he could fall asleep, before his body hurt the ground, everything came back in his mind. He was wrong, everything was his own fault. “Don’t touch me.” he said again. This time, he couldn’t put any force in his voice, and the tremble and the hoarse was the only thing the cops heard. But Cas closed his eyes. He was finally outside, but he never really left. He couldn’t breathe.

When he opened his eyes again, he was on the bed. Not a hospital bed like he was expecting to lay, but the bed of Castiel Aster, the guy he currently impersonated. He had a task. Something to do. He died. He was already dead.

When he sat, pulling his body up, his hair stayed glued to his forehead and his cheeks, and because of the sweat he couldn’t shake it off. He was panting. He fell asleep without taking his meds. Cas didn’t know if it was because the body he had wasn’t used to such a treatment, but he should have known better. He only had two options; either gazing the stars on the roof until dawn or knocking himself with meds to make sure he slept like a pig, without comfort but with the certitude he couldn’t dream.

This time, his breathing quiet down after he cleared his mind. He stood up and went into the shower, preparing himself for the new day. Drying his hair with a towel, he saw the mess he made with his bed, and try to pick up the pillows and the sheets. Aside from the blanket, envelopes had fell during the agitated night. Cas crouched down, opening them up. Those were letters the original’s birth mother left him before dying from cancer. She gave him and told him to read them at each birthday he spent without her, but Castiel Aster didn’t listen and had read them in one go. He browsed them again at least one hundred times in the next years and hid them between the mattress and the wall. Cas read them, feeling the content was somewhat familiar.

Everything was weird. This Castiel had a mother that cared for him that much, who died but during the illness still wrote letters. Castiel had such a family relationship, problems with his so-called stepbrother, a stepmother who alienated him, and a father who treated him like air. He had a complex personality, seeking attention from the family he gained, mourning the one he lost. Cas could tell, Castiel Aster was a real person from a different – or the same – world he once lived in. Castiel wasn’t a person they created for him, he wasn’t an empty shell with created memory, he was alive.

Cas didn’t know why 452 lied about that. True, Cas could have hesitated if he knew, but his decision had to be one he made once aware of everything.

Did coming into this peculiar body mean he had a sort of purpose? Something he must help Castiel to obtain? Did the task 452 gave him was linked to “Castiel” and his identity?

Will they give him real answers this time? The system told him 452 wanted to talk. Did this have a connection? But in any case, if the system didn’t come back quickly, Cas wouldn’t have his answers soon enough to change his way to approach the task.

With his head full of thoughts, he couldn’t organize, Cas went to school. When he went to the classroom, Jasper wasn’t here yet. When the teacher began the first lesson, Jasper still wasn’t here. His absence in front of Cas made him think he did something wrong. He neglected him. He planned for his family again and again but didn’t know enough about Jasper situation and didn’t protect him when he was needed. He wasn’t better than the cops who were hiding in the tree.

Just when Cas thought about skipping and looking for him, Jasper arrived, and sat down. He only murmured a “hello” before turning his head down on his books. The teacher never interrupted his class to welcome him, as if it was common occurrence. Cas gritted his teeth. Something had to change. This time, Cas would sleep on Jasper’s roof if he had to. Nevermind stalking him, he would be the psycho who will enter the room to search for clues.