James Bennett.

Much like the rest of the talents of Earth, he too had taken advantage of Earth connecting with the wider Dimensional Verse to explore what lay beyond their world as well. He hadn't ended up going to the same location as the rest of his former teammates and instead ended up elsewhere, the result was him only recently returning.

He had, of course, chosen to come to the coast much like all of Earth's talent had and he happened to run into this situation the moment he had. Regardless of how he had fallen out with Leonel, the fact remained that these were his brothers as well. They had all grown up together from the time they put their first football pads on to the day they won their last championship. How could James sit idly by and watch them die?

Let alone sitting idly, James was actually infuriated and he took it all out on the whale instantly. What he hadn't expected, though, was for his appearance to coincide with Leonel's own so perfectly. Leonel was just a half minute later than him or else maybe their roles would have been completely reversed.

James was quite used to seeing those eyes of Leonel by now. As Leonel's best friend for over a decade, he had long since come to know Leonel's personality as well as his own. In fact, he wasn't even sure if Leonel understood himself as well as he understood him.

Everyone thought that Leonel was a nice guy who had a bright smile for everyone, but James knew better. He knew that Leonel was a man who was measured in the way he acted and would only make a move when it benefited him the greatest while costing him the least. This was how he moved through life, constantly weighing and balancing things to optimize everything for himself.

That gaze Leonel was giving him now was the very same one he gave to anyone he knew nothing about. It wasn't coldness, it wasn't rage, or anger, it wasn't even indifference. It was just a placid, vast and endless abyss with a depth impossible to see and a steadiness impossible to match.

He would use those eyes to mark down every little detail he could about a target. Only when he was confident in his assessment would he make a move

But the trouble was that Leonel should already understand James well. Giving this sort of look to a young man who should have been the greatest friend you had ever had hit differently. It was worse than experiencing a cold glare, one filled with rage or even indifference It was as though Leonel was pretending like he had never known the person before him.

Flashes of what happened the last time the two met took hold of James' mind.

His father had asked him to stall Leonel so that he would end up caught. In truth, James knew that he had lied to himself, convincing himself that Leonel wouldn't be harmed and that he would just be captured. With Leonel's talent, he would be too useful to the Fort to maim or kill, so he would eventually be released on his own merits

But deep inside James knew that was a lie. With how much the Junior Governor Duke hated Leonel and how even Simeon had come for him, how could anyone ever conclude that Leonel would be just fine?

The plain and simple truth was that he almost drove Leonel to his death But those words he said in those moments reverberated the loudest.

~

"I'm disappointed I really took you to be my closest friend"

~

James remembered absolutely snapping when he heard those words. His mind spun and his eyes saw red to the point he released something he had held deep within him for the longest time. Before he could even properly suppress and think about what he had been going to say, it all spilled out.

~

"Bullshit! You pretend to care about so many things, you pretend to be kind hearted, but all you really care about are things ending up exactly like you want them! You don't like killing only because you don't want to deal with the guilt! You don't like playing football only because you didn't get to choose it! You only want to do things your way and nothing else matters!

"You're a fucking sociopathic hypocrite!"

~

No one knew Leonel better than James did aside from maybe Leonel's own father. Maybe his words had a tinge of jealousy to them, maybe they were spoken in the heat of the moment, but in all such things there was always a kernel of truth to be found. James' feelings most definitely didn't come from thin air

However, whether or not he had the right to feel this way was a different matter entirely.

It was hard to tell just how much had changed in the last few years, if anything at all. James was still tied to his Bennett family, working hard so that they might once more regain their former glory. At least when it came to James, nothing much had changes aside from his maturing face having gained a bit of stubble to it.

As for Leonel, he had probably changed the most between the two. He didn't have such obvious signs of maturity on his face, but unlike his previously aimless self, he now had a goal that he was chasing after just as fervently as James was

It could be said that the greatest difference between them now was that Leonel was fighting for himself while James was fighting for his father and his ancestors before him

In what could only be considered a twist of ironic fate, then Leonel hadn't really changed at all in James' estimation, still doing things that benefited himself the most

The veil that separated two men that had once been as inseparable as brothers only seemed even more impossible to penetrate now.