I got inspired during a discussion of the new boys on facebook. We were posting theories of a big secret that will be revealed in the first few minutes of the episode and I threw this out there. Then I decided to write it. I have battled a determined toddler to get this out. I have battled the urge to vomit multiple times because apparently being pregnant isn't agreeing with me any more the second time than it did the first.

I'm also aware that it's very unlikely that Jeff would ever do anything like this.

Disclaimer: If Scott is there for the taking I'll have him. Otherwise I own absolutely nothing and I'm just playing.

A New Beginning.

Jeff Tracy looked around at the young men who populated his Tracy Island living room. All of them were tall, all of them were handsome. They were all young and strong and occupied with pursuits appropriate to what he knew of each of them. Seeing them gathered there, interacting quietly, he knew that his heart should have been filled with love and pride for their selflessness. Instead he felt nothing but a bitter hollowness, a pride that was utterly selfish and based upon achievement rather than on their sacrifice for this future. There was no love, no joy, in this gathering. They were little more than a creation, something he had achieved with all his wealth and the power that brought. They were simply another secret that he would have to keep.

"It is done, sir," The woman's voice rang through his memory, as clear today as it had been three months ago .

"The modifications?" He had asked the question as though utterly disinterested, from behind the mask that the business man in him had perfected over years of board meetings and tiresome negotiations. "Were you able to achieve all of them?"

"Some were more difficult than others," she confessed. "We won't be certain of Five's until we are able to get it out of the atmosphere."

"Very well," he nodded. "Are the personality prints holding?"

"In four of them they have proved completely successful. However, we have found that they do not hold up if they make use of the modifications. Four's became unstable after immersion in the training tank. We were forced to wipe and reprint."

"Any side effects?"

"None so far. We really should take more time to run more tests. One is showing signs of recklessness that is not present in the personality print."

"There is no more time. Wipe and reprint them, I don't want them aware of this place. Sedate them and place them in the Penthouse. I'll take it from here."

Intelligence and charisma - One

Strength - Two

Speed - Three

Able to breathe underwater - Four

Able to survive a vacuum - Five

They looked like his sons, walked like them, talked like them and acted like them. To the casual observer they were his sons. Jeff Tracy knew what that observer would not, could not, know. These men were not his sons. Instead they were genetically modified clones, grown from DNA taken from each of his boys and programmed with memories stolen as they slept. These men were little more than copies, created to survive where a normal human might not. Created to survive but entirely expendable.

There were flaws, of course, the process was not yet perfected. Two's playing was not as perfect as Virgil's, One was showing a recklessness that was not a part of his eldest son. These differences were small enough that if noticed they would hardly be questioned, a fluke of memory. Besides, his secret lab was already working on the next batch of them, already working on ironing out the flaws.

He was under no illusions that this would have to be kept a secret forever. It could cause a panic if the world found out what he had done. Certainly one day the truth might come out, but he hoped to be in his grave by that time and free of the repercussions. Until that day he would have to act like these clever imitations were his beloved sons. He had to call them by name, not number, and prevent anyone from learning the truth.

These clones were the only way for International Rescue to work. Without their existence he would have to ask his real sons to take on the task. After losing Lucille, losing his soul mate, when Alan was so young Jeff knew that his heart could not take the loss of even one of his sons. Especially if that were to come to pass due to his dream. Let his sons have their own lives. Let Scott marry his girl and John write his books. Let Alan race, Gordon stay with WASP and Virgil run the engineering team. They had as much right to live their dreams as their father.

It would be exhausting, he knew, keeping it all a secret and separate. Exhausting when he saw his real sons to remember that they had nothing to do with International Rescue. He would do it, however, too much depended on it for him to fail. So One through Five would be treated as his sons and the real boys could live their own lives.

It was the best that their father could do for them.

AN: This went a lot darker than I thought it would and my original notes went further still with an army of clones grown from the dead bodies of his young sons and wife. I could still go there but not while battling a determined toddler and epic morning sickness. Maybe I'll write it by hand and type it up one day.

Artemis