I don't own Race to Witch Mountain.

Chapter One: Betrayal and Intrigue

(Seth Point of View)

Seth ran fast and hard to get out of Witch Mountain, his sister by his side. People flew into the air as he madly tried to get out. A terrified scream issued through the air, making the blood in his veins run cold. His sister! He turned around to see her pinned down, a needle going into her skin. She was unconscious within seconds. This was the umpteenth time that they'd tried to escape, with hardly any success. They never made it past the doors of the level they were on, and they're success decreased each time.

Henry laughed coldly, amused at their new escape attempt. Seth ran on, knowing by now that there was nothing he could do to help her sister. Perhaps he could go back to his planet and hope that they would accept him back enough to bring help. Perhaps earth did need to be invaded if this was how aliens were to be treated.

He had been through much, through many terrible things during his time here. He didn't like thinking about it. And to think that they had done all this to get an experiment that their parents had here! All to help the earthlings! And this was the gratitude they received in return? And because of this, now that technology which could save his world had never reached his world. In fact he was surprised that an attack or an invasion had never happened, and he after a while he had been counting on one so that he could escape. But now he and Sara were doubtless that this would be the case. Perhaps their parents had talked the government out of it.

A guard landed on Seth, pinning him to the ground, and the boy, unable to phase because of what they did to him, screamed aloud. He desperately fought back for his release.

Henry came walking over, laughing. He kneeled beside the struggling and terrified boy and ruffled his hair. "Oh, how you try so hard!" he laughed delightedly and Seth screamed in protest. A doctor, a scientist stepped forward, a terrifying big needle in his hand and Seth struggled harder and screamed more, much to Henry's amusement. The boy knew that Henry let them escape with provisions to make sure they never got beyond a certain point. It was like a game to Henry. It was too see how much they were able to overcome certain barriers, an experiment to see how smart they were, to see how they solved problems. Seth didn't like being treated like a lab rat. It made him feel terrible.

Seth screamed more and the man stepped up to him and jabbed the needle harshly under his skin. A sleepy feeling took hold on the boy, and Seth did his best to fight the feeling and remain awake. 'Why?' he thought depressingly. 'Why did you have to betray me like this, Jack and Alex? Why did you have to leave me here to die, to be used like this?' A feeling of betrayal that was constantly on his mind swept through him once more, as he began falling unconscious. True, Henry Burke had abused him and told him that Jack and Alex weren't his true friends, that they had abandoned him for worse. True, he had defended them at first, believed for a while that they loved him that they'd come for him especially after seeing Jack and Alex go to great lengths to keep him from Henry Burke in Planet Hollywood. But when they had been tranquilized on Witch Mountain, that seemed to be the end, and slowly Seth succumbed, believing that they had truly abandoned him, that they left him to die. It had been around a year since he had been tranquilized there and they had not once returned for him. And since then he had witnessed and experienced terrible things at the hand of these men.

Sara wasn't willing to believe at first, and she put out her belief longer than Seth. But finally, after everything they had gone through, she too succumbed and became hopeless. Even if they did escape, they had nowhere else to go, and slowly they agreed (which they were sure that Henry Burke had overheard since they knew he heard everything that they ever said, often repeating things to them when he would put them in rooms for punishment and confront them about things they said or done, things that Seth and Sara had thought they'd conversed privately and secretly to the extent where no one would know, things that Henry must have only been able to know if he had put hidden technology everywhere and it was heard through hidden microphones and other technology that they had, since Seth and Sara had no privacy and were told that they weren't allowed such or any rights by the law) that they had no choice, despite how much now both of them mistrusted Jack and Alex, they had no choice but to go to them and beg for help which they weren't sure that they'd receive, especially since Henry Burke had wanted them. They were fairly sure that Jack and Alex had coward out of helping them due to threats from Henry Burke. Seth didn't want to go back to Jack and Alex, afraid that they'd hand him in, but he couldn't think of anything else. And they knew of no one else to go to, and if they didn't find a place, a home, they knew that they would starve to death.

And so Seth put out what little hope he had of escape into his heart as he fell asleep.

(A few hours later, now a new day)

(Seth Point of View)

Jack and Alex were now married and Seth and Sara, and Seth and Sara's parents Amelia and Ashton had been staying with the couple on earth for about a month now. Now that the experiment had been given to the government, and the atmosphere was restored, the government was grateful to the family, Amelia and Ashton released from jail, and the government grateful to them, Seth and Sara, and Jack and Alex. And so the government had given Seth and Sara an assignment to stay on earth, learn more about earth culture. They were curious.

For Seth and Sara it was hard to believe that a year and a month had already passed since they had first met Jack and Alex. Jack and Alex were famous now, as were Seth, Sara, and their parents (seeing as Amelia and Ashton decided to attend their kids to earth, and because they were aliens they were famous), and the media occasionally followed them, but for the most part Jack was intimidating enough towards the paparazzi and the reporters to get them to leave them alone, although things and photographs about them were occasionally snuck into the news, which Seth didn't like. He found it intrusive.

Seth mused on things for a bit while looking at his report on earth that he was supposed to hand in to the government. This was the first set of many that he would send to his government via virtual connections, a strange technology from his world. It was through this device that he was to send detailed monthly reports (their months lasted twenty-five days, and Seth was having a hard time adjusting to the earth calendar) to his government on what he learned about Earth, culture and everything.

The boy was grateful that Henry Burke hadn't bothered them upon their return. That had indeed been weighing the boy's mind when they first came over. But because Jack and Alex had them go public, had them announce and prove (in which they revealed their spaceship and powers and the whole nine yards to many press conferences around the world causing mass interest in them) Henry hadn't dared to creep into the spotlight. In fact, he hadn't even seen his face since returning to earth, which was a good sign. Jack believed that this was because they went public that Henry didn't want anything to do with them anymore. Seth wasn't sure why Henry had left him and his sister and parents alone, but as long as they continued to do so, he didn't really care. All that mattered was that he wasn't kidnapped, now or in the future.

The more Seth looked at his report the more sure he was that he'd included everything that he needed to include. He sighed and sent it off, and then he went downstairs to get breakfast.

Seth trudged into the kitchen, comfortable in the designer clothing that Jack and Alex, now rich from their books, had provided his family. He scratched his hair, the fan above him twirling around above him causing his hair to move around and thus his head itch. The kitchen was large, two stoves and two ovens, two refrigerators, and two freezers, (well, really, two of everything) and an island counter in this massive kitchen, placed in this massive mansion. From this kitchen, one of two, this one being the smaller one, it was connected to the humongous dining room with a long straight table from which the small sized group ate from. In Seth's opinion, it was too big for all of them, but in Jack's defense, the man stated that it was often small because they'd invite a large amount of company over. But Seth, when this comment was given had only raised his eyebrows in skepticism, as he had already spent twenty days with them and had yet to see that happen once, let alone multiple times as Jack was implying happened.

As the boy moved into the dining room, he saw Alex Friedman, who had decided to keep her last name in their marriage (both Seth and Sara and the parents were confused as they didn't understand or know about earth customs), pouring hot chocolate into mugs. As he looked outside he saw that it was snowing, the precipitation cover the Bruno's massive property, which was out in the middle of nowhere, somewhere outside the city limits of Vegas, and the white snow covered the gigantic and elaborate ship hanger which the Bruno's had immediately built when they had their house built shortly after their marriage (both having already been millionaires from the book, and with sales increasing each month, especially with Seth and Sara coming to earth and proving that their book was true, Seth and Sara a favorite in the media's eyes, now making Jack and Alex beyond billionaires) for the couple had hoped that Seth and Sara would return to spend some time with them someday, which they did. But Jack and Alex weren't interested in money, nor did they see Seth and Sara as a way to make money. In fact, they were quite fond of Seth and Sara, imagining them as the kids they never had (Sara innocently picking this up from the couple when they didn't realize that Seth and Sara were around, having thought they were already in bed as it was late at night, which both Seth and Sara thought was sweet), and the couple, though only friends with the kids, had a motherly and fatherly fondness and protectiveness for them. Jack would go miles to defend them, that was for sure. Alex was always ready to listen and comfort them on a moments notice. Seth had no worries that Jack and Alex did, or would at any time only want anything to do with Seth and Sara because they made them rich and famous.

Jack and Alex had no servants or cooks, and Alex and Jack cooked all the meals, though everyone had learned by now to be wary whenever Jack cooked, and it got to a point where they begged Alex quietly, when Jack was not around, to tutor Jack and supervise the man whenever he cooked. Alex agreed, and to everyone's relief had managed to convince Jack to do so, but to this day Jack did not know the real intent why, which Seth thought was good as he did not want to hurt the man's feelings. And so he sat down, the homemade-not-even-coming-from-a-store-bought-powdered-form hot chocolate was set by Alex right in front of him. He took a sip from it; if he was human and understood the term, he would have described it as heavenly. To this day Alex refused to give her secret recipe even to her husband, Jack. Truth be told, Seth was somewhat envious, as he wanted to learn how to cook earth cuisines so that his government could try some of the earth culture.

Cooking was a new thing to his culture. Sure, they had read about it from their own history long ago, but it had been a long time, many hundreds and perhaps thousands of years, since their kind had done such things. To them it was only book knowledge, something that was not available to them in experience anymore. In fact, they had only read and had accounts about open-fire cooking and their kind thought that that was the only way possible to cook, and thus they viewed it as a dangerous art, and they had been proven wrong when Seth and Sara came to earth and actually spent some time in the earth culture (something the parents hadn't truly done until their kids went to spend time with Jack and Alex, and thus they followed) and then they found out about electric cooking. Seth was interested in this not only because it was earth culture but because for him and his people it was a leap back in time and they were able to see past history, or perhaps the equivalent, in current action. It fascinated him. There was no doubt that even the store bought food tasted much better than anything from his home world. His world didn't even know about farming anymore. Everything was produced artificially.

Seth sipped the warming drink more and a plate of bacon and eggs was put in front of him. He smiled. "Thanks!" he said delightedly to Alex.

She smiled in return, giving him a warm hug. "It's no problem, Seth! No problem at all!"

Seth dug in immediately, thinking of what they could do while it snowed. It was a good thing it was winter break. He attended public school even though he didn't need an education (perhaps only in earth history and a few other subjects such as English literature and such that his people wouldn't have access to) because he knew it would help him learn more about earth culture. But sometimes the students annoyed him, he and his sister being popular because they were famous, and at first, he found it hard to figure out who was truly a friend and who was only a 'friend' because they wanted to be next to a famous person. But now that it was winter break, and he was practically snowed in to where they couldn't take event the truck into town to be with friends because of the blizzard that had occurred the night before, he needed to find something to keep him occupied. Jack had suggested sledding when the boy had passed him upstairs on his way down to the dining room, and Seth was curious to try this new sport.

He continued to eat his breakfast, hearing his sister trudging sleepily down the stairs, as he ate his breakfast. Perhaps they would go sledding. Perhaps not.

(A couple hours later)

(Seth Point of View)

The boy trudged through the deep, deadly freezing snow, his sister by his side, both their bodies shaking from the lack of warmth. He feared frostbite. They had been lucky to escape the mountain and had been walking for hours now, hoping that they were walking towards Vegas. Something told Seth though that they had not truly escaped, and that Henry had let them go for some reason, to serve whatever purpose he wanted. But the boy was at least glad to be out of the place.

They were not dressed to be in the cold, being only in the medical outfit that they had been put in in Witch Mountain, with no warm shoes and no coats. As night had rolled in on them, a terrible blizzard had ensued and they knew that they were lucky to survive. He had no idea how they'd even survived it, when they couldn't see in front of them. They'd had to hold hands to keep from being separated from one another. Seth and Sara had no knowledge of survival skills, let alone how to start a fire or build a shelter to keep them warm.

They had stolen a page from a phone book in Witch Mountain before they left, Jack and Alex's home address. He was surprised to see that they were now listed as married. So, they had to be joyful and celebrate many things while Seth and Sara suffered? Was that all the kids were to them? It looked like Jack and Alex had a lot of land and lived richly. It even looked like a well to do property in the middle of nowhere outside of Vegas. In the back of the boy's mind, he was confused at this, as both Jack and Alex individually had seemed poor last he knew. They must have had a change of fortunes – a change of fortunes that did not include Seth and Sara in the picture. Perhaps the government, more especially Henry had paid them a lot of money to keep quiet and to convince them to leave the boy and girl in that horrible place, and to Seth's fear, to turn them in if they ever saw them again.

Seth shivered, not sure how much he could go on and live in this kind of weather. He feared that he would collapse, that he would die. Sara, though unable to read his mind anymore, must have guessed from his reactions what he was feeling and gripped his hand tighter. "We must not give up, Seth! We must not give up!" she urged him, trying to pull him forward, a quiet plea in her voice, a desperate plea. But Seth collapsed anyways, weak from the malnourishment due to starvation that he had endured in Witch Mountain. Sara knelt beside him, crying, shaking Seth who was weak. Because of what he had been through, he was only the shell of who he had once been, as was Sara.

"Seth please!" Sara wailed shaking him more. "No! Don't leave me!" she cried more, shaking him, willing him to find the courage to get up. "Just-just," she sobbed. "Just-just think of the warm environment waiting for us in Jack and Alex's home! The food that will be available to strengthen and nourish us, bring us to health! Just think on that! Think on that!"

Seth groaned, using what little strength he had to turn over and face his sister. The wind was blowing fiercely. "If they want us Sara. If they'll even let us in their home. If they won't turn us in to Henry Burke. If they won't leave us in the cold to starve and freeze to death." This statement seemed to strike Sara for the girl knew it was true. Jack and Alex had abandoned them and that meant that the boy and girl might not be welcome in the Bruno's presence. It was all dependent upon Jack and Alex deciding to be merciful to them.

Sara cried out, the betrayal filling her up. So much they had been through. Then, using a lot of her strength, she yanked Seth up and forced him to walk beside her. "Even if that's the case and that's what happens," she yelled. "I'm not going to let you give up! If they turn us away then we'll find somewhere else to go, somewhere away so that Henry Burke won't capture us again!"

They walked on, knowing that they had sustained heavy injuries due to the weather and Henry's treatment and abuse of them. Before they had left, they had been hit and whipped for their earlier escape attempt. They had walked out into the cold still openly bleeding, and the wounds had crusted over as they walked on, occasionally reopening and bleeding. They had lost a lot of blood, a partial reason to why they were weak, and they knew that they needed a doctor and needed stitches, but they didn't trust any doctor around and they had no access to a needle so that they could even stitch the wounds themselves. More than likely, they needed surgery, being in an extreme state. The only medical treatment available for them was back at Witch Mountain and Seth and Sara were unwilling to go back there, knowing the terrifying things they would face if they went back. And now that they had been out in the tremendous cold and horrendous elements, they needed medical attention more than ever.

Seth didn't know how they made it, but they finally spotted a house that could only been Jack and Alex's. It was now for the moment of truth. Seth was cautious, afraid of what they would do, as he walked up and rang the doorbell, desperate for them to answer.

Jack opened the door, and when he saw the kids, a confused expression was on his face. It was that of disbelief also, suspicion. "Seth? Sara?" he whispered, looking like he wasn't exactly sure of them.

Seth knew he was a horrifying sight, unrecognizable in the state he was in. His hair was matted, there was mud and blood all over him, and he was shivering beyond control. "Please, we beg of you!" was all he could say before collapsing and his sister beside him let out a cry of agony at his fall.

The boy could see that Jack was immediately sure it was them, though he still looked confused for some reason the boy didn't understand. "Alex!" he called out to a woman who was heading towards the door and Alex stopped in shock, then ran over. She also looked confused.

Unexpectedly, Seth was picked up and Sara was rushed in, the couple being as warm and loving as ever despite their confusion. The door was shut and Seth was grateful to be in a warm environment once again. It was as if Jack and Alex still loved them.

There must have been more people present for he soon heard massive footsteps heading towards their general area. Then, to his confusion he heard someone saying in a voice that only he had, "What's going on, Jack?" The boy looked weakly over the larger man's shoulder and it was only then that he understood why Jack was confused, why he wasn't so sure that it was really Seth and Sara when he first laid eyes on them, and which only made the boy want to ask more questions than he was able to in the state he was in. He stared at a boy who was a copy of himself, though looked much healthier and much better groomed. Beside him was a girl who looked like Sara, and again was better groomed and very, very healthy, and beside them his parents.

The two Seths and Saras stared at each other for a length of time, both of them in more shock than anyone else in the room, and finally the boy didn't have any more energy to stay awake. He fell unconscious, more confused than ever.

Yes, I know this is short, but I just wanted to give everyone a taster of my new story.

So, what do you think? Should I continue? Any likes, dislikes, suggestions?

Please review! Please tell me what you think!