Jess went to her old neighborhood alone. She asked her friend Susan to provide an alibi and left her stuff from school at her friends home. Even thought her friend helped her, Jess decided to go alone to her old neighborhood since it was a little dangerous and she didn't want to put her in danger

After 3 years of not going back, Jess found some change here and there, but mostly it looked the same. If there was one big difference from before, it would be the new building that some construction workers were making in the place where the old factory was before

Everything else looked almost the same. Stores open, people walking, cars running, people begging, etc

Jess first tried to look at the old factory first, finding it was a construction in progress, she decided to try her luck in other places. She went to take a look at their old spots, but all she found was a kid she didn't know in her spot, a lady with a baby on John's, a guy with no leg in Sara's and a blind guy at Max spot

There wasn't even a graffiti on the walls or something like that anywhere, so she didn't know how to look for Sara or where she may be

She couldn't stay too long there since her mother would come look for her in the afternoon, and it took some time to get from there to her friends house. Without much time or options, Jess decided to look around for acquaintances from her past, even if it was one of the mafia guys or something

Luckily, after looking for a while, she found Sam, and old friend of hers and her old family. He was a blond kid that use to hear stories that Max told in the factory and got along with Jess and the rest. He did look a lot bigger since she hadn't seen him in 3 years, but she still managed to recognize him when she found him begging in the streets in his old spot

He had the typically miserable dead eye look on his face that any good beggar had, with a cup by his side with a few coins inside

When Jess approached him, he didn't recognize Jess after taking a look, so Jess had no choice but to approach the guy and try to make him remember

"Hey Sam, remember me?"(Jess) said in the hope of jogging his memory a little bit

When Sam heard his name, his dead eye expression changed and he took a hard look at Jess

"Jess?"(Sam)a little uncertain

"Right! How have you been Sam!(Jess) happily answered

Meeting old friends is always a good thing

"Surviving I guess. I thought I would never see you again, where have you been?"(Sam)

"Oh, I was adopted, my new mom didn't let me come so I had to slip up"(Jess) kind of told the truth

Actually, until she found out a few days ago that Sara was alive, she didn't really wanted to come back. Too many memories

"You were adopted? good for you I guess. Do you know if Lisa was adopted too?"(Sam) asked a little hopefully

Lisa was Sam sister like Sara was Jess sister

"Sorry, she wasn't in my orphanage"(Jess) said while feeling a little guilty

She actually didn't even bother to look for her, but she didn't remember seeing there anyways

"Oh......"(Sam) got depressed

"Actually, I came looking for Sara. I thought she died like Max and John.."(Jess)

"Wait, Max and John are dead?"(Sam) Interrupt her before she could finish

"Yeah... I asked for their whereabouts after I woke up, and after telling them their description, they showed me their bodies to confirm if it was them"(Jess) said a little sad

"Oh......."(Sam) got even more depressed

"I thought Sara died there too since she wasn't in any of the orphanages, but I just recently found out she may still be alive since she was the one that looks after me when the roof fell, she just didn't go to the hospital"(Jess)

"Yeah, I helped her move Max body to a doctor, but I guess it was too late by then. We went diferent ways after that, but we did saw each other a year later"(Sam)

"So she is alive then! Great! Do you know where she is?"(Jess) Got extremely excited

"Dead"(Sam)

"Uh?"(Jess)

"She messed with the Grey Cult, and they took care of her shortly after we talked"(Sam)

"WAIT!! Is she really dead? did you see her body?"(Jess) started to panic

"Well, I didn't see the body, but I knew she was asking questions about their activities, and a friend of a friend saw her being taken away by them. No one saw her again after that. You know what that means, right?"(Sam)

"but why!? why would she try to do something so dangerous!? It doesn't make any sense!"(Jess) was practically screaming at this point

"Because she believed they kidnaped Max and John"(Sam)

"That doesn't make any sense. They are dead, why would they have them?"(Jess)

"Sara didn't know that, she heard they kidnaped children and since they weren't at the hospital or the streets, she thought the Grey Cult kidnaped them"(Sam) said

And Jess froze

She was processing what she just heard. It was insane!

She finally found out that at least 1 person in her family survived all that and now it turned out she died in a fools errand!

It just didn't make any sense!

"Aaare you sure?"(Jess) tried to confirm, in hope pf hearing a different answer

"Yeah, no doubt. She lived around here you know? but she never went back home after that day"(Sam)

And everything in Jess mind went blank

She just left Sam there and started walking to her friends house. Her mind was in such a mess, no thought was coming through, only though about going back

She didn't know how long it took her to arrive at her friends house, but it took her long enough, since when she arrived, she saw her mom Angel waiting at the door with a relieved face follow by a furious expression that wouldn't show any mercy

It was even the first time Jess saw Anger make such a face, and normally it would make her panic and try to find a way out of the deep sh-t she was in, but instead when she saw Angel, she actually feel relieved and started running to her instead of trying to escape her fury

She just ran to her, and she just hugged her while crying her heart out

She just cried like she never cried before

Even when she thought she was all alone after the incident, since she didn't have anyone to open up at the time, she just got really really depressed

Even when she was adopted by Angel, it took her a long time to finally cheer up again. It was like part of her heart was like cover in ice, refusing to move for others

But now it was different. At the start, she had a hard time opening up to Angel, in part because she was afraid of being a bother and losing her place, or getting close to her to later lose her to something else. It was a fear that started strong and slowly fades away with time, but part of it still remained in her heart

It was after finding some hope and being crushed again by reality that the final broke the ice in heart and finally depended on Angel when she needed her the most

On the other hand, Angel didn't know what to do. She wanted to scold Jess for doing something so dangerous like going alone to the bad parts of town, but not only it was a bad moment to stard a lecture, it was the first time she saw Jess cry like that and she didn't know how to comfort her

All she could do was hug her back and wait for Jess to finally calm down. Angel was sure she would scold her later for the idiotic thing she did, but for now, she would wait until she calmed down and ask her why she was like that

If she was sure of one thing, it was that when she finds out who makes her cry like that, she would make them pay for what they did no matter the cost

No matter the cost

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Note: Susan mistake fixed, thanks for pointing it out Neiden. Originally, I wrote that Susan and Jess went together, but since it made more sense that Jess went alone, I erased most of the Susan's parts, it looks like I missed one :P