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Surprisingly, it was not one of the boring days up at the FBI building for Neal Caffrey. There were things going on, a case to be solved, and just enough work that Neal could keep his mind off other, less legal activities. As much as he ever stopped thinking along that train of thought, anyway. But for right now, Peter was up with a witness that Neal's presence kept agitating (how was he supposed to know George Langely's old poker connections would end up flipping on this guy?) and Neal was left dithering around at his desk. Waiting for a new lead to present itself. Currently, their witness was the only chance they had at catching up with their real suspect, but until they could get him to say something or otherwise frighten him into going underground to be followed...

Well, it left a lot of entertainment to be desired.

With not much else to do, Neal made his way to the coffee machine and eyed the rest of the room in speculation. Everyone had something going on today, but there were a few agents who were easy to distract in the office today. They were hard workers, capable of catching up on any work he'd make them lose, and Peter rarely ever called him on it since the fear of getting in trouble for stopping to chat tended to make them work more efficiently anyway. He was just about to make his way over, extra mug of coffee in hand, when he spotted the stairwell door opening. Black hair popped out on top of an attractive face, glanced around in abject confusion, and then shut itself back in.

"One of these things is not like the other," Neal muttered to himself, making a quick drop of the mugs at a random agent's desk as he made for the office doors. He waved behind himself when Jones spoke up ("Grabbing some real coffee today!"), and hurried his way into the elevator to let himself off at another floor and slip into the stairwell behind the stranger.

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By the time Peter got to his desk and sat down, he didn't even have the chance to start chewing Neal out, instead listening to what he had to say. When he was done, Peter looked over at Eli, who was standing there awkwardly as if he wasn't sure if it was the right thing to tell Peter or not. Just by looks, he could almost see how they could thought to be like each other, but when it came to Neal and anything that had to do with him, he lived by the phrase 'trust, but verify'. If this was some sort of trick, Peter would try to catch it before anybody got truly hurt. "Is that true?" His voice was not nearly as firm nor upset as it was previously and his expression had softened slightly. Part of him hopes this is true for Neal's sake. "You know what's going on with Neal and you're going through the same thing."

Eli glanced back out of the glass wall to see if anybody was coming and if Thomas had shown up. Not yet. "Kind of? It's complicated. Like the sort that might make you think I'm crazy?" The look Peter gave Eli is one wondering what his point is and Eli sighed, pulling himself out of his awkwardness and deciding to just go through with explain. "Neal and I, along with eight other people, are called Aspects. To put it simply, we're reincarnations of dragon gods who once ruled over the universe." He paused at Peter's expression of disbelief and sighed, running his left hand through his hair.

"Look, I told you it sounded crazy, but listen to me. Neal's flashbacks, they're like memories of a different person doing things Neal could have never done, right? His body temperature can flare up to incredibly dangerous levels, he has accidentally set fire to things, correct? That's because he's the Aspect of fire and he's not only starting to access the memories of his past life, but is also tapping into the abilities that he had. Watch, I can prove it to you with my own abilities."

He looked back over his shoulder to see if anybody outside the office is really paying attention to them and once satisfied that nobody is, Eli started to concentrate. There's some crackles of electricity bouncing along bare skin and the area around Eli started to visually warp. And then in a split second, he was gone.

Edited 2014-01-22 05:05 (UTC)

Neal was mostly quiet for Eli's explanation. As if in a show of support, he had not taken his usual place opposite of Peter at the desk, instead standing nearby and letting his presence do the talking. It was good that Peter wasn't immediately shooting him down; he knew for a fact that Peter was grasping at straws what to do with him in regards to the memories of an impossible life, the magic Neal had suddenly started developing a talent for at the beginning of their arrangement. Nowhere in the work release papers had it mentioned dealing with an accidentally-pyrotechnic criminal informant. Neal was lucky Peter knew as well as he did that throwing him back to the wolves with no other reasoning would look fishy and, to be entirely honest, probably make things so much worse.

Something inside of him stirred at the idea of dragon. Almost like a whisper across his skin, someone caressing his mind and trying to urge thoughts and feelings into wakefulness that had no right taking over. It sounded right. It sounded crazy. All it really meant was that Neal's life was crazy, but no less real because of it. He gave an uncertain, yet trusting nod to Peter.

Elijah's proclamation of showing off his power didn't surprise Neal. He had already given a small indication in the elevator. It was what other things he could do with it that got a startled breath out of the conman. Why did Neal get stuck with something unsubtle and bombastic like fire when he could have gotten that? (Ignoring for a moment that he had managed to use the unintentional arson to the benefit of the FBI on an occasion or two, even with Peter's blessing more often than not. That was creative use of difficult resources, which was completely different.)

Thoughts falling immediately to keeping this under wraps, Neal glanced to the bull pen. No one had yet noticed, but the place was crawling with competently trained federal agents. Stuttering only slightly, Neal reached out to the space where Eli was just a moment ago. "Elijah? What did you do?" Another glance to the milling agents. "Now would be a really good time to come back."

When Eli vanished right before their eyes, Peter leaned forward to study the space where he had been. There was a very slight distortion in the air, less so than when Neal couldn't keep the heat from leaking out of his body. He was about to point it out when Neal reached out to where Eli had been and called out. He filed away the name Elijah for looking up later when they weren't doing magic in his office.

Touching Eli while invisible was a bad idea, as a small jolt, stronger than the one on the elevator, went through Neal's hand. Then Eli popped back into sight, appearing out of breath as he looked at both men and grinned.

"Bent the light around me so that you couldn't see me," he answered breathlessly. "Sorry for scaring you guys like that and for accidentally zapping you, Neal."

Neal didn't yelp, but he did recoil and begin shaking out his hand while he stood transfixed, watching Eli pop back into existence. It was so surreal to see someone else doing something impossible; when it was himself, it was easy to file away as just something weird. When he watched Eli doing it, his perspective shifted and he suddenly, truly understood why Peter was uncomfortable with Neal sometimes messing around with his own powers. It was so extraordinary that it made the rest of the world feel tight and unfitting around it.

"Don't worry about it," Neal said, a slow grin spreading across his face. "Small price to pay for a show like that."

Peter wasn't so much uncomfortable with the fact that Neal had magic than Neal having fire magic. Having been in white collar crimes as long as he had made him wary of fire because fire meant destroyed evidence and destroyed evidence meant no case against the criminal he was trying to apprehend. Which is something that Peter had discussed with Neal whenever he decided to make a plan involving fire. Right now though, there was one thing that Peter had to ask. "Neal can't learn to do that, right?"

The question made Eli laugh and grin widely. "Nope, he can't learn it. He's the Aspect of fire and I'm considered the Aspect of light. They don't overlap when it comes to making yourself invisible, so you're safe from him sneaking around."

Neal turned to give Peter a mock hurt look. "You don't trust me to be invisible?" he asked. "That hurts, Peter. Really. Right here." He tapped at his chest, right over his heart. Then, he spared a speculative glance toward Eli. Light. Something about that seemed very odd from the Swiss cheese recollection Neal possessed of Nate's life. He just couldn't really place his finger on what the contradiction was.

"Et tu, brute?" he asked Eli. Why did no one want him to go invisible? That would have been so useful, and it wasn't like it would take him off the anklet's grid anyway. Just... make it a little harder to apprehend or pin anything on him anyway.

"I don't trust you to stay out of trouble while invisible," Peter answered, leaning back in his seat and looking thoughtful. He didn't like the situation at all. Some kid showing up and having all of the answers to Neal's questions like that? There was something going on here and he wanted to know what it was. But there was a small part of him that was immensely relieved by the fact that Neal wouldn't be going invisible time soon. Neal got into enough trouble while visible. He'd be a nightmare with invisibility in his arsenal.

"I just think it'd be a shame for you to be invisible is all," Eli said with a shrug. He's not going to lie about the fact that he thinks he's attractive. Which was apparently the right thing to say because Peter rolled his eyes and appeared thoroughly unamused by his response. Eli just grinned at him and glanced over at Neal. "Right, as fun as this is, I'm under a time crunch, so Neal, could you...?"

Neal refrained from commenting on the fact that he would still be on his tracking anklet, or that Peter would never have caught him in the first place if he could have gone invisible and would make the whole thing moot. It was just a fantasy, but a nice one to indulge in for the time being.

"Oh, right." Neal turned to Peter, gesturing vaguely toward Eli. "He's looking for someone and I figured we could run a search, see if anything turns up to give him a lead. Jasper Keaton? He's like us."

Peter was well aware of those facts, though the latter was doubtful since even with invisibility, Neal would have screwed up eventually and Peter would have caught him. When the topic changed, Peter looked between Eli and Neal before deciding to respond. "I don't know if Neal told you this, but we're the White Collar Division, not Missing Persons. Officially, I can't help unless there's a white collar connection." He paused to sigh, knowing exactly what responses he'd get. "But since you're the first person to help Neal out with the flashbacks and his pyrotechnic side and if you're anything like him, you'll go behind my back and get into trouble anyway, I'll do the search for you."

Eli looked elated at the response and grinned widely. "Thank you so much. This could finally be the break I've been looking for these past couple years." He stopped for a moment, realizing something. "Wait, if you do a search, can you tell if anybody else has done the same thing previously? My contact would have attempted to do the same thing once he found out I was coming to town."

Speaking of, Eli trailed off and went over to the windows, peering outside to see if he could figure out where exactly he had Jumped. Big city, skyscrapers, and peering down allowed him to see busy streets and lots of taxis. "New York, maybe? Huh, unexpected," he muttered to himself softly. "How the hell is he supposed to find me here?"

Neal followed Eli's gaze, nodding to Peter to start the search to get the ball rolling. He had the feeling that the sooner they got this solved, the sooner everything would get a whole lot better for everyone involved. Maybe they would have more time to work on the issue of Nate Silverman, maybe not. Knowing someone else out there was enough of a relief in and of itself. Cherry on the sundae that it was Alexis. Only problem was that Eli was most certainly hiding some things and Neal was not one to overlook people hiding things from him.

Sidling up next to Eli, he tilted his head and murmured, "Nice view, right? You'd think they get paid the big bucks here." Shifting his hand behind his back again, Eli's wallet successfully procured, Neal gave Peter a pitying look and continued, "But they really don't. Kind of sad, actually. All that work these poor agents put in and the most they get is a nice office. Or even just the bullpen."

"Maybe they don't want anything more than what they have. I mean, sure, the work must be grueling, but I bet they enjoy it. They wouldn't go into this line of work if they were expecting anything else," he said. He didn't seem to notice that Neal had taken his wallet. "It's the same with my job. I went into it knowing the best I'd get is a pat on the back or maybe an award if my article was good enough, but to get either of those, I'm going to end up with death threats and shots fired at me."

There's a somewhat annoyed expression on Peter's face when he sees Neal take Eli's wallet and then the pitying look Neal gave him before he turns right back around and starts the search for Jasper. He figured that he could let Neal handle this for once and that the wallet would answer the questions he had about the young man.

"Pretty noble of you," Neal noted amicably. He tilted his head back toward the office at large. "Not really anything I'd be interested in pursuing, but it's always nice to see how the other half lives. Coffee? Peter's search is going to take a while, we might as well make ourselves comfortable."

Placing his arm behind Eli's back to begin leading him toward the coffee maker, Neal set the wallet down on the edge of Peter's desk as they passed. Much as he wished for the chance to peruse it himself, he doubted he would get the opportunity with Peter pulling much of the legwork for this. It was Neal's job to work Eli and see what more he could get out of the lost man.

"It's so much noble as following in my father's footsteps," Eli answered with a shrug. Doing what Marcus did had always seemed like the best choice out of what he had and had never really thought about doing anything else. "Coffee sounds wonderful right now."

Once Neal leads Eli out, Peter finally opened up the wallet he had been handed and pulled everything out of it. Fifteen dollars, a couple expired credits, two driver's licenses (also expired) with a different name on each, and a couple of photographs which caught Peter's eye. One was of two men and a kid that he could recognize as Eli. The other was what really caught Peter's eye as it was a picture of Neal wearing glasses with a guide dog by his side. On the back was written "Shannon and Lacey, August '87". Peter glanced up and out of his office, wondering what the hell was with this kid and why he had a picture of Neal with him.

Neal bobbled his head a little at the information. "Your father, huh? Always nice to follow a family tradition." Not that Neal would understand it himself, but that was something Neal had never told Peter; Eli wasn't even going to get a hint of it. "We don't keep the greatest stuff here, but at least it still has caffeine in it."

Thankfully, the pot had some coffee leftover in it and Neal poured it out. Far be it from him to anger the rest of the agents, he began putting together another pot. "You said Jasper's been missing for years now, right? What other avenues have you tried?"

"It can't be worse than the stuff we had at the paper." He wrinkled his nose at the memory of it. Some things really weren't meant for human consumption. "I think by this point I'm immune to bad coffee."

Eli yawned slightly and stretched himself while Neal worked on making some more coffee. Jumping into different time zones was going to give him serious jet lag if it kept up. "Local law enforcement, my contact, and a few friends in high places. Mostly it's just me jumping in and looking for any sign of him. I'm the only one who can bring him home, so the investigation is usually placed on my shoulders with a few well wishes."

Jumping in, huh? Neal made note of the odd phrase, ticking it away with the other bit of information he already had, setting both it and the coffee maker to percolate. He threw a glance up to Peter during the yawn, hoping to glean some sort of reaction from him on what he might have pulled from the search or Elijah's wallet. Things were getting curiouser and curiouser.

"Only one? Not like that's too much pressure or anything," he said. "Law enforcement couldn't pull anything up? Or is that what led your friend to lead you here?"

The only thing that Neal would notice about Peter is that he's thinking hard and is looking at something in his hands, his expression the sort he'd have when trying to figure out something that doesn't quite make sense.

"I'm special among the Aspects, so I'm the only one who can do it," he explained. For a moment, it was almost visible that it was a strain on him before it disappeared and he looked like his normal upbeat self. "Law enforcement had already been looking for him for about a year before I got involved and they had found nothing."

Not anything quite out of the ordinary, although it did signal to Neal that they probably had gotten some sort of lead to follow. It wasn't that Neal didn't trust Eli so much as he knew most people tended to hide things. Considering this wasn't any sort of sanctioned investigation, Neal was going to have to do it a little more his way than Peter's way.

"Pretty bad odds. What do you think is going on? Nobody disappears that well."

"I think he was kidnapped. He wasn't the type of person to just up and disappear of his own volition, especially without some sort of plan to take care of his company and the family he left behind." He crossed his arms and looked thoughtful. "My contact says that if he was taken, it's because he's an Aspect, because if it was anything else, there'd be a better trail to follow."

"Meaning... someone else with resources like ours," Neal inferred. Magic. Something that modern science couldn't possibly interpret and the public would never believe in. No wonder the trail had gone cold. "So, you're taking one hell of a road trip to find any leads."

"Yeah, that about sums it up. Even though they may have similar abilities to us, they're bound to screw up and that's really what I'm looking for." From the look on his face, it was obvious that it hadn't happened yet. "They're good, but I'm better and hopefully your FBI friend will be able to help me out, even if all he can find is something small. After all, anything is better than nothing."

The coffee was nearly done. Neal eyed it for a moment before turning back to Eli. Once they got their coffee, they could return to Peter and see what he'd found, if anything. Neal was pretty sure he had some idea of what was going on now just by reading between the lines of what Eli had let slip and what he was actually saying now. They just needed something to tie it all together.

"If there's anything to find, Peter is going to find it. He's good at what he does," Neal said. After all: Peter Burke was the only person in the world capable of tracking down Neal Caffrey when he went on the run. Who else was going to find someone like this Jasper Keaton?

"If he's as good as you say he is, I might finally get a break in this case." He glanced a Neal for a moment and decided to test something out. "If I'm Alexis then Jasper's Benjamin. Does the name ring a bell?"

Benjamin definitely rang a bell. Neal grimaced as he reached for the pot and two mugs to split the coffee between them, his expression saying more than he probably would. "Yes, Benjamin rings a bell. Alexander, too." It was an unfortunate fact that seeing Kate die had shaken loose quite a bit. Killing Alice and the events surrounding it were top among them and Benjamin had been so intricate to it all. (Michael, too, but that hadn't been the question.)

"Is he still..." Fragile?

He noticed Neal grimacing at the memories and moves closer to him, trying to look more interested in the coffee than him. "It gets easier, dealing with those memories, but it takes a while."

That earned a shake of Eli's head in response. "Reincarnation's been good to him. I think not having a longer than normal life has helped him in the end."

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