"Hey," Jace greeted as he settled with a thud on the seat beside Natalya. She glanced at him and offered a curt smile and a nod before returning her attention to the book in her hands.
Confused by her sudden coldness, Jace observed her coldly, his thoughts all over the place.
He had almost forgotten. Natalya was not just anyone, she was a Tucker as well as the best student in class and the most beautiful girl in school.
As for him? He was a nobody, a simple teleporter and he wasn't the first, many others could do the same things he could.
Why would she want to spend time with him? He studied her and his lips parted but the words he wanted to say remained stuck in his throat. It had been too long but she was still on the same page. She wasn't reading.
"Hey," Natalya suddenly turned to him at this moment. Her eyes shone dangerously.
"Hmm?" he replied in confusion.
"Your powers, how does it work?" she asked excitedly.
"I'm not telling you that" Jace reeled.
Everyone's ability had weaknesses, the more one revealed about what they could do, the easier it would be to decipher their weakness. Weaknesses were not ingrained into people or abilities, they were often the aspects people neglected to develop or defend.
Jace for example was known to have the super ability to teleport, and he could take people and things with him but he had to be in physical contact with them. This wasn't a rule that came with his ability, it was simply what he knew how to do.
"So much for trusting friends" Natalya replied gloomily feeling a little hurt despite also realizing to her own irritation that she had asked a private question.
"The kid those men were talking about. He probably doesn't know what's coming for him, we have to save him" she started explaining.
"Didn't your parents say they'll handle it? Besides, we are just students, what can we do? We don't even know the identities of the people you heard or where they were or even what they were talking about."
"I know, I know" Natalya cast him a blaming glance.
"My parents work with the system, these people don't. Besides, it's true we know little but we still know more than they do"
Jace shook his head and noticed the teacher entering, a middle-aged woman with a scarf covering her hair.
"Even if we wanted to help, what can we do?" He asked again.
"Simple, we go to the library and you figure out the place where the spatial disruption came from and we start from there" Natalya smiled victoriously.
***
"This is it, this is the place," Jace said turning in place as his eyes scrutinized the ground.
They were in the library only two rows from where they were yesterday when she eavesdropped on the conspirators.
"Try to see if you can trace where the spatial nodes around here lead to, if they teleported in, you should be able to find it and take us to the kid"
Jace turned to her, opened his mouth, and closed it again.
"How?" he asked warily.
Natalya simply at him feigning confusion but then she sighed.
"I'm sorry." she apologized.
"I hear truths, that's my ability" she started to explain.
"Explain" Jace replied coldly. His muscles immediately turned tense.
"I don't know much about my ability, no one does. I just know that I don't hear what people say, I just hear the most clarified truth about what they mean" Natalya shook her head feeling that she was failing at explaining her ability.
"So when you asked how my ability works and I said I won't tell you..." he trailed off.
"I heard the answer to my question" Natalya completed it with a nod, her expression apologetic.
Jace felt a pang of pain in his chest and a feeling of being betrayed.
"Jace I'm sorry, I can't control it. I can't control it I swear. It applies to me too, the things you hear me say are not actually what I'm saying, I mean, I do mean I'm sorry and that's what I'm saying.
"I'm sorry, what I'm trying to say is that I didn't do it on purpose, I swear." Natalya fell into a panic as she noticed Jace's impassive gaze on her.
"I have to go," Jace said and walked away without hesitation. He still couldn't get over the fact that his privacy had been invaded. Perhaps on some level, it was the vulnerability he was worried about, perhaps he was more afraid of what could happen in the future than what had already happened.
Regardless of the case, Jace didn't know why he felt betrayed even after knowing Natalya didn't intentionally use her ability on him. Perhaps he didn't believe her when she said she could not control it.
With conflicting emotions, he returned home without attending his last class.
***
Jace came from a typical family and was a middle child, he had two brothers, Simon and Prince.
Their parents were energy manipulators, Stacy could convert and sustain any amount of energy while her husband Jace Senior could generate it.
They were all seated in the living room when Jace entered, his younger brother Prince immediately ran up to him hugging his legs tightly.
"Hey," a smile replaced Jace's troubled expression.
A loud voice attracted his attention and he looked up at the others still engrossed in their conversation, his mother who was sitting on a recliner waved at him with a loving smile before stuffing her mouth with more beef chops from the bowl on her lap.
"How is that even a bad ability? That doesn't count" Jace Senior sounded exasperated.
"Of course it counts, he has to spend more than half of his lifespan simply eating to sustain his constantly excited cells" Simon retorted.
"What are they arguing about?" Jace leaned down to ask Prince.
"Which ability is like a curse on the owner" Prince replied.
Jace Senior finally noticed him and his eyes brightened.
"JJ, what do you think, is eating a lot a significant ability weakness?"
"Umm...I'm not getting involved in that" Jace quickly shook his head and stayed out of it. His father and older brother could argue through the entire night if they found a good enough topic.
"I know who has the worst weakness in the federation" Stacy suddenly spoke up causing the two men-children to turn to her. But she went silent after that, baiting their interest.
"Who?" Jace Senior asked.
"Natalya Tucker"
Jace's muscles tensed as he heard that name.
"Are you going to keep standing there?" Stacy turned to him, her brows creased in confusion.
"Are you okay?" Simon asked also looking at him, a trace of concern in his eyes.
"I'm fine," Jace shook his head and joined them on the sofa, he snatched his mother's bowl of beef chops as he passed and sank into the sofa beside Simon.
Stacy glanced at her son coldly before continuing.
"I met the girl once when she was younger. I was at their house to change some wiring, poor thing refused to talk because she was mad at her father but even with her mouth closed, words just kept coming from her. She couldn't stop talking which made her angrier and she just broke down into tears, even then she still couldn't stop. I watched this little girl try to keep a single train of thought to herself but her ability wouldn't let her. She lost it and grabbed a knife fortunately I was close enough to stop her in time"
The room turned somberly silent.
"What do you mean she couldn't stop talking?" Jace asked tentatively.
"Well, her ability is unclear but it has something to do with intention. She kept her mouth shut instead of expressing herself to her father but her ability sensed her intention to be heard and just went ahead to do it for her. Imagine someone hurts you so much you don't want to talk about it but you can't stop talking about it"
"That's not the only weakness she has, she can't lie, she can't feign civility, she can't pretend to be nice or fake being angry or fake anything. At the same time, she can't comfort people with nice words nor can anyone comfort her in the same way, her ability makes her a bit cynical."
"Extremely realistic" Jace Senior corrected.
"Cynical" Stacy glared at him and the man opted to keep his lips shut.
Meanwhile, Jace's mind traveled and he mentally smacked his forehead at the realization that he messed up.