by Stan Lee
Jasmine smiled. “I’m guessing the answer is no.”
“A lot of bad stuff has happened, this past year.” He smiled back. “But I wouldn’t trade the good stuff for anything.”
“I wouldn’t, either.” A dark look crossed her face. “Though the bad stuff is pretty bad.”
Steven sat down in Duane’s vacated computer chair. Jasmine paced again, faster this time. Steven had the feeling she was trying to avoid talking about something.
“You met two other Tigers,” she said.
“Yeah. Malosi and the old man.”
“Malosi went off with Maxwell.”
“Yeah, but…I think in the end he’ll do the right thing.” Steven paused. “Mince is the one who scares me.”
Jasmine nodded, not looking at him. “There’s a lot to be scared of.”
“The old guy,” Steven said, “he talked about the past Zodiac users, the ones you mentioned before. What really happened to them? Do you know?”
She shook her head.
He watched her for a long moment. She seemed very far away, thinking grim thoughts. When she finally spoke, her voice was barely more than a whisper.
“We blew it,” she said.
He frowned. “What?”
“You and me. Both of us.” She turned and grimaced straight at him. “You went off to Berlin by yourself, to learn the secrets of your power. And I pushed the team into that assault, against everybody’s advice. I was so obsessed with…with finding him….”
He nodded.
“We both thought we were helping the team,” she continued, “but we weren’t there when they needed us. That’s why all this happened.”
He tried to smile. “I think the team forgives us.”
“We’re lucky to have them,” she said. “But we need to start running a tighter ship.”
She reached up for the party banner and ripped it off the wall.
“The Dragon is out there,” she continued. “In hiding, learning how to live in our world. But he’ll be back. It’ll be back.”
“At least we got Carlos,” Steven said. “How is he, anyway?”
Jasmine looked at him, her lip quivering. Something in her eyes scared the hell out of him.
Then she let out a loud primal cry. She burst into tears, releasing all the emotion she’d been holding in for so long. Steven rose, surprised, and reached out to embrace her. She buried her face in his shoulder and sobbed.
“It’s okay,” he said. “We’ll cure him. We’ll make him better.”
She kept crying, digging her chin into his shoulder. He patted her on the back. Her tears soaked into his shirt.
“I was…” She sobbed, gasping for breath. “I was the Dragon. I thought I could do anything…thought I could do it all alone.”
He reached down and felt the heart-shaped object in his pocket—the qi amplifier that had helped him get through to Malosi.
The gift from his mother.
“Nobody can,” he said. “Nobody can do it alone.”
For just a moment, very deep down, he heard the Tiger roaring. Just loud enough to say: I’m still here. I’m always with you.
“I didn’t think I needed other people,” Jasmine continued. “But I do. I need you. I need all of you.”
Suddenly, Steven flashed back to a year before—to a time when he’d thought about quitting the Zodiac team. Maxwell had attacked Jasmine, trying to draw the Dragon power out of her. And Steven had reached out with the power of the Tiger, lending her his strength.
I’m still lending her strength, he realized, just in a different way.
“That’s what I’m here for,” he said.
She pulled back, smiling in embarrassment. She reached up and brushed at his shoulder, trying to wipe the tear stains away.
“There’s only two Zodiacs left, you know,” she said. “One is your friend Rat.”
“He’s not my friend,” Steven replied.
“But your parents are working with him. We may need to exploit that connection.”
He nodded unhappily.
“And the other one,” he said, “isn’t showing up on our trackers.”
They stood facing each other for a long moment. Jasmine reached out a hand, and he took it. They shook awkwardly, like old friends who hadn’t seen each other for a long time.
“Let’s get to work,” she said.
“HEY, THERE. Just calling you back. First of all, you don’t sound lame. You never sound lame. Second, my dad’s doing better….They’re gonna let him out of the hospital today. I better stay out here for a while, though, because he needs a lot of help. I hope you’re okay….Say hi to everybody. I want to hear all your adventures. Oh, this is Kim, by the way! Duh, back at you.”
Click.
Maxwell sat at the long table, his eyes glowing bright in the dark room. He didn’t speak; he didn’t move. The Dragon rose up from him, dark and solid, its bat-like wings folded.
For a moment, Mince wasn’t sure whether he’d understood the message. “You want me to play it again?” she asked.
He turned to face her directly. The glow in his eyes faded, and for just a moment Maxwell seemed to return. He looked at Mince, and his mouth formed two silent words:
Help me.
Then the Dragon surged brighter. Fire filled the room, blazing across the top of the conference table. Mince ducked down.
When she looked up, Maxwell’s eyes were filled with Dragon-fire again. He stared straight ahead, unmoving.
Mince shrugged. She held up the cell phone that had belonged to Steven Lee and pressed REPLAY.
“Hey, there. Just calling you back. First of all, you don’t sound lame. You never sound lame….”