A/N: Just an idea, something for me to work on. Also, the experiments sound somewhat like JP's Maximum Ride, so I'm going to put two disclaimers, just in case. James Patterson mostly came up with the idea of scientists who experiment on children and give them wings, so that thought is mostly his. Kelley Armstrong owns the characters and main idea. The story plots and twists and Phoebe, James, Ava, and Tobais are mine as well as any other characters I add. ^^ R&R PLEASE.
Prologue
"Alright, Phoebe is right there." James whispered, pointing to a map. Tobias nodded silently. His little sister, Phoebe, would be rounding the corner in a matter of seconds and they- James and Tobias- best friends- were about to ambush her. They had to.
"Ready…" James was bouncing forward a little, the part of him that was half demon enthralled at the chance to attack someone. If not to kill, then to at least do some sort of damage. Tobias scowled at him; he may have been best friends, but he hated the way James acted sometimes. Phoebe started around the corner, alone, a sheet of paper in hand. James lunged, hitting her, throwing her against the wall. Her head bounced hard against the wall, her eyes doing a slow roll into the back of her head. Tobias hissed and grabbed the paper, reading it. He sighed- they'd gotten to her just in time, just before she went to assassinate four young supernaturals:
Souza, Derek- werewolf Saunders, Chloe- necromancer Bae, Simon- sorcerer Enright, Victoria- witch/sorcerer hybrid
"Alright, the chip is on the back of her neck- or, I guess, in. We have to do this quickly." Tobias told James, who was already moving Phoebe's long hair. Tobias gathered it into a long ponytail so that there wouldn't be any blood in it when they finished. James took out the scalpel he managed to steal and lowered it toward Phoebe's pale skin. Tobias looked away.
Phoebe woke about an hour later. Tobias was happy to find her snapping at him about the risk he took and listened when she lead the way to Ava- the youngest child at the institute, age 7- and then they went for James's escape plan. He prayed that this would work. Because otherwise they were dead. Literally.
Chapter One- Chloe's POV
Kit had moved us closer to New York State again, this time to monitor. One of his contacts had told him that the laboratory that we'd nearly demolished was cleaned up and running again. This was news to us. So we got closer, just to watch it. We didn't get much, just people coming in and out, children, teenagers. Looking completely normal. We were in another hotel, as we had been since we found Kit, rescued Aunt Lauren, and had escaped the Edison Group (again).
"Chloe, are you okay?" Lauren asked. "You've been quiet." She kept trying to get me to talk, but I wasn't in the mood to speak to her at the moment. It wasn't that I was mad at her – I wasn't- but more of she treated me like I was still her sweet little Chloe when I wasn't. I wasn't her little girl anymore. I may have only been an inch taller than a year and a half ago, but in maturity, I was pretty much an adult. It was almost unfair that she treated me like a ten-year-old.
"I'm fine." I lied, and then looked out the window again. "I'm just tired. I had a nightmare last night." That was the truth, but I'd woken up before raising any nearby animals from their graves. Or from the side of the freeway. I was proud of myself. I hadn't accidentally raised anything since the graveyard with Margaret, and I hadn't purposely raised anything since the laboratory.
At this thought, my stomach clenched in disgust and guilt, but I knew it had to be done. Dr. Davidoff was going to shoot someone, and if I hadn't have done that it could've been Kit or Lauren, or Tori, or Simon, or—I told my brain to shut up, because if I let myself think of who else it could've been, my face would show that panic; it wasn't worth the fuss that it would cause.
"Right. I heard you tossing and turning- and Tori was complaining about it earlier. Do you want to talk about it?" She asked, leaning closer almost eagerly. I knew it was because I had been ignoring her offers to talk and instead going to Derek with my problems. I also knew that it was my choice and I didn't have to tell her anything I didn't feel like telling her. That was something I wasn't used to, a freedom I never realized I'd wanted.
"I can't remember it." Or most of it. This was also true. The dream, at this point was more a few flashes of pictures and a sense of fear than anything. If I talked to Derek about it, he'd just demand that I remember the details, and then tell me those things were nothing to worry about.
"Hey, Dr. F- Lauren, Chloe. Dad wanted to know if you guys want Chinese tonight, instead of pizza." Simon said, coming in with a smile. He'd grown in the past year and a half, way more than I had. He'd been 5'6, and was now a proud 5'11, which, considering how tall his father was (or was not) we figured he wasn't going to pass into the six foot range. Derek remained 6'4, still as muscular as he had been. He looked more like an adult now, in the face, so people weren't scared of him so much as admiring (at least the older, middle aged women- he scowled about this, but I thought it was funny). Kit made it a point to tell him that he was lucky- I could've been jealous of all the attention he now got; Derek always shot back that he could feel the same way. I had no idea what he was talking about.
"Yes, we'd like Chinese- I can't eat any more pizza." I said, shuddering. Lauren shot a look at me, like I shouldn't have said "we" but I ignored her.
"Same here. Are we invited over?" She always asked this, because she knew that Simon wasn't exactly fond of her considering the way she treated Derek now that we weren't in a life threatening situation. Kit was a little better at hiding how he felt, but I had a feeling that he wasn't happy about the way Lauren treated him either; I wasn't . Tori was mostly the same- even the shock of losing her mother couldn't keep her down too long. By down, I mean normal, nice, quiet….not snarling at everyone that moves too close to her…
"Yeah." He shrugged carelessly and led the way to the boys' room. Tori was over there, working on a computer we'd gotten from a friend, with the files we got from the lab. Kit hadn't told her that she was his biological daughter- yet. I wasn't sure if Derek knew, so I hadn't told him, even if it bothered me not to.
"I just ordered the food, okay?" Kit said, smiling at us as we came in. Simon moved back to his bed, falling on his back. Derek was sitting at the table, reading what could have been a normal book, but I'm sure it was a book on math or scientific theories or something. Tori was at the coffee table, typing rapidly, eyes skimming.
"Hey, here's something. Didn't you say that Royce said something about an Icarus project, Chloe?" Tori called. I hurried over.
"Yeah, he did. He also mentioned the Phoenix project, too."
"Well, I don't see anything about a Phoenix project in here. I'm just going off what I can find." She snapped. "Just the Icarus project. And there's not even that much on here about it. Just some….things. I'm not sure I'm fond of what I'm understanding though."
"I don't understand." I said slowly.
"Look." She pointed to a paragraph. "They were experimenting on them. As far as I can tell, the kids are teenagers, and they're still locked up there. There are five of them, apparently. There isn't a lot of information here, but…" she shrugged. "I'm just glad we got put in the Genesis Project, instead of the Icarus." Kit was leaning over her, grimacing as well.
"I don't think our department was involved in that one." He shook his head. "Either way, maybe we should try to get them out."
"What if…" I started slowly, glancing around. Derek gave me a slow nod: he was thinking along the same lines. "What if they got out or escaped when we escaped? What if we let them out with all the destruction we caused? We can't have been the only ones locked up there."
"Ava." Lauren whispered, hand covering her mouth.
"What's that?" I asked, glancing over at her.
"There was a little girl named Ava locked up there, too. She was seven. They barely used to let her out at all- she used to play tricks on their minds, because she was upset. Her parents had given her up. The way they talked about her though, I think she was in the Icarus project."
For a while, we all talked about this, and what it could mean, and how we were going to find these other five. Because we had to, at least to see if they were still alive. This was probably what was going on, why the lab was back up and running again. We all discussed theories, though Lauren kept shooting Kit looks, like he was telling us too much, letting us be involved too much. We weren't children, though, and were grateful that he let us stay and discussed theories with us. One thing in particular was the story of Icarus, flying too close to the sun, wings melting, all that. I had no idea what the connection could be, but no one knew anything else involving the word/name Icarus. Tori finally threw her hands up at midnight.
"Screw this! Fine. Maybe they have wings on their backs and they can fly and that's why it's called the Icarus project. Can we go to bed now?" she snapped.
"Yes, I think it's time to go to bed." Lauren said, standing up. She had dark circles under her eyes. I sighed and stood up, too, deciding it was not worth the fight with her to argue that we could be close. Kit looked tired, too.
I think it was dawn or somewhere close to it, but suddenly someone was shaking my shoulder very gently. I blinked awake, groaning a little when I saw the clock: 3:15 AM. I wrinkled my nose and glared through my bedhead hair at whoever had woke me up. My heart gave a painful thump. Derek's eyes were glowing like a wolf's, his face just a little sweaty. But he was used to this, and calm as he waited for me to get my bearings.
"Wanna come?" He always asked now, so that it sounded like a question, instead of him begging me to come with. I think he liked having me there, but I'm not sure. Maybe he thinks I like coming- I do, but because I think that he likes me there…
"Yeah." I said, standing up quickly. He handed me my sneakers, then a jacket. It wasn't mine- it was his. "Won't you be cold?" I asked, then realized my mistake. He grinned.
"Do I look like I'll be cold?"
"I just thought you might be after…" I mumbled. He kissed my cheek, as was his habit when he said I was doing something "cute" which he was getting bolder about saying.
He took me out behind the hotel, into the conveniently placed woods. We walked for awhile, talking, but I noticed that he was breathing just a little heavier, walking a little faster, the longer we took. Finally, we found a clearing, and Derek stripped to his shorts, (he brought an extra pair this time, for when he Changed back), and crouched down. I sat on the ground next to him, encouraging, though the Changes came a lot faster and easier for him now, now that he did it at least twice a week. It would HAVE to be only once a week, but the brainiac noticed that the more he Changed, the easier it was.
When he was a wolf, he gave me a dog-like grin and nudged me playfully, as if he was proud of himself; he always was. He was like a little kid in this form, playful, much bolder. It was "cute", as much as a 200 pound wolf can be cute.
"As cute as you think that is," I panted when he tackled me from the side, "you're a little too heavy to be doing that." He jumped off in a hurry, prodding me with his nose to check for injuries. "I'm fine." I said, batting him away. "I was kidding." He still whined a little, lowering his head onto his paws to watch me. I rolled my eyes, yawning. "You woke me up to stare at me all night?" He snorted, standing and walking away with his tail stiff behind him. I grinned, sticking my tongue out at his back. But then he kept walking. "Derek?" He kept walking; I stood up.
"That's not funny." I snapped. "D-don't-" I swallowed hard. "Fine." I sat down on his clothes, curling his t-shirt up around me like a blanket. He snorted hard and looked around, tongue lulling out. I smiled at him, though shivering a little. He stared at me for a minute before coming back and sitting dutifully beside me. I gave him a hard look, telling him that I was completely fine on my own, but he ignored me or pretended to not understand what I was saying.
I think I fell asleep at some point, because I woke up in a bed, but it was facing the wrong way- I was in the boys' room. I tried to organize my sleep-addled thoughts, to figure out what had woken me, but all I could hear was an ominous pounding. It took me a moment to realize that's what DID wake me. I looked around- Derek was on the far side of the bed, sleeping in sweats and a t-shirt. There was a very chaste space between us, a foot or two, but considering that I knew it was Lauren on the other side of that door, I gave Derek a very hard kick to the hip. He woke with a sharp jerk, looking around.
"Is that-?"
"Yes. Go move Simon." I hissed. Simon got his own bed, as did Derek-usually- and Kit slept on the couch. Derek made a quick leap of faith and shoved Simon as far from himself as he could, then yanked the covers up over himself; Kit woke up then, glancing at me, then at his sons. He looked confused- I looked asleep; at least, I hope I did. Then he heard Lauren pounding on the door and went to answer it, yawning fiercely.
He opened the door to a disheveled, demented Lauren. She was still in her pajamas, looked thoroughly pissed, and her eyes were bloodshot. She looked around, then snarled something at Kit, pointing at me.
"She's asleep, Lauren. Nothing to get in a fuss about. Derek's with Simon; they know better." He assured, yawning again. She was still red faced and gesticulating. "Well, if you think there's something wrong, go wake her up and talk to her yourself, then." He yawned once again and I wondered what was with him. He shuffled back, allowing Lauren to move into the room, then headed for the couch. Lauren shook me "awake". I made an effort to wake slowly, blinking and looking confused.
"Wha'?" I said, yawning. "Wha's matter?" She glared at me suspiciously, then whipped around to look at Derek and Simon, who were both "sleeping". I could tell they weren't- Derek was just a little too still, a little bit tense; Simon wasn't snoring.
"Why are you in here, Chloe?"
"Think I fell asleep…" I mumbled, making a face. Ew. Morning breath. "Watching a movie." I finished, yawning again, for real this time.
"Really? What movie?"
"Resident Evil 3." I said easily, shrugging. "Zombies, blood, fighting. It was okay. Better than the second one, anyway." I looked at her expectantly. She seemed at a loss for words.
"You know better. I told you-" She halted because in all reality, she hadn't told me anything about falling asleep accidentally in here. She just said not to be in here unchaparoned, which I could point out that I wasn't- Kit had not left the room the entire time I was here, as far as I knew.
"Told me…?" I prompted, which I knew was so unlike me that I flushed. "Look, we didn't do anything. Derek must've noticed that I fell asleep and put me here, then fell asleep on Simon's bed." It was the wrong way to explain things. Her face reddened in anger again and she spun on Kit.
"See? She fell asleep before him. What if he'd done something-" We never found out what he would've or could've done, because the sound of a loud BANG cut her off. Then Tori started screaming.
"I told you not to do that, Fee!" An unfamiliar male voice all looked at each other in panic, and then we flew through the door, running to our room. The door was open, the frame broken and splintered. Something shoved me down; black boots came into my line of sight.
"Sorry about that. That's your room right? My sister didn't mean to break the door." A soothing male voice said. A fair skinned boy with dark auburn hair stood before me, a half smile on his face. He grimaced, then quite suddenly disappeared, reappearing inside the room. I blinked as Derek pulled me to my feet carefully.
"Are you okay?" he asked, brushing dirt off my cheek. I nodded.
"Derek- he just-"
"Disappeared?" he asked dryly. I nodded, then looked into the room. Tori and a girl with very long auburn hair were arguing. The girl was about three inches taller than Tori and seemed to be using those inches to her advantage.
"Funny, isn't it? I have always admired Phoebe's antics. She's adorable, but Tobias'd kill me if I tried with his sister." I spun around- Derek growled, startled. A boy with dirty blond hair and blue eyes was there; he was probably two inches shorter than Derek. He was tan and long, leaning against the railing. He seemed completely unfazed by what was going on. He also had a southern drawl, not quite as Texan as Liam's had been, but definitely southern.
"Who are you people?"
"You people? That's a rude way to put it." The blond said, yawning. "We came here to help you." He added, scowling. "I said we should just get out, but Phoebe was insistent. And as you can see," he nodded to where the other boy was arguing with the girl and Tori, "that's not something you can ignore."
"Phoebe's nice. Don't be mean to her." A new voice said, this one belonging to a dark haired young girl standing next to the blond. She had hazel eyes and black hair, matched with fair skin. "James is just angry that he didn't get to set the lab on fire."
"Lab?" I asked, almost eagerly. "What lab?"
"The lab." "James" stressed, looking at me as if I was stupid. Lauren looked at the little girl, finally managing to say something:
"Ava?" The little girl looked at her, then shrank back, behind James; he noticed Lauren and sneered, drawing himself up to his full height, no longer slouching leisurely.
"Dr. Fellows. How…pleasant to see you here." He bared his teeth; not as threatening as Derek, but it got his message across.
"They're from the Edison Group Lab." I mumbled, looking at Lauren. What could she have done to Ava to make her shrink away like that?
"Yeah; you're Chloe Saunders, right?" the little girl looked at me, and smiled widely. "You're the reason we got to escape. Because Phoebe didn't want to kill you, and Tobias didn't want to let her, because you did so good." She was missing a tooth, I noticed. She must've been really young.
"Are you- part of the Genesis experiment?" Kit asked, looking confused. Lauren swallowed hard.
"Genesis? No, that's you guys." Ava shook her head. James yawned widely.
"Stupid girl. We're the Icarus Project." He grinned then, revealing dimples in his cheeks. It did nothing to make him look any less threatening at the moment. Simon frowned, coming up from behind his father.
"Hey!" The girl with long hair looked over, face snarling. She had fine bones, delicate features, and an excellent snarl. She could've rivaled Derek's, really. She started toward us, dark gray eyes stormy. The other boy- who I assumed was her brother "Tobias" – was right behind her, telling her to calm down first. Things were whipping around the room, and I wondered what kind of…thing she was.
"Phoebe, stop." Her brother appeared in front of her, in her way. To my great surprise, she just plowed through him, ignoring him, eyes focused and intent on us outside the room. Derek started to shift in front of the rest of us. James bounded forward, momentarily distracting this Phoebe girl into stopping. He kissed both of her cheeks, startling her more. She batted him away then.
"Quit it." She snapped, still batting at him. She hit his face, then, and his eyes went stormy, mad. His hands glowed faintly, on her shoulders. She yelped, then really hit him, knocking him back with the force of it. That was surprising. She couldn't have been that much stronger than him- he was definitely bigger than her in more than one sense.
"Get a hold on yourself, James." She spat, rolling her eyes. "You're so immature, losing control all the time." James picked himself up, glowering, but definitely a lot calmer than he was. Tobias grabbed his shirt sleeve and jerked him aside, talking to him. "You." She looked at me now. "You're Chloe Saunders." This time it wasn't a question or her even assuming; she definitely knew me. "You destroyed the lab a while ago, right?" I took a breath, preparing myself to answer. I could deal with bullies like her any time.
"Y-yes." Oops. "But these guys helped. They were keeping us captive."
"Us too." She eyed me skeptically, obviously taking into account my size, or lack thereof. I felt my face twist into a scowl. "Alright. Well we should all talk then. I was supposed to kill you." I blinked.
"Supposed?" I managed through my shock.
"Supposed to, yes; are you slow?"
"Hey, don't talk to her like that." Tori snapped, clearly forgetting that it was her who first called me this so long ago in Lyle House.
"Shut up, it's an honest question when she can't seem to keep up with normal conversation." Phoebe said impatiently. "Obviously you're not; then you should be intelligent enough to know that, yes, I was supposed to kill you, but I don't plan on it now. Not that I wanted to in the first place."
"Fee, you aren't explaining this well." Tobias said, shouldering his way to the middle of the circle we had formed in an effort to not let them have any of our backs. "She was sort of under the control of the people running the lab. The new people running the lab, that is. She didn't have a choice. There was a chip in the back of her neck that was controlling her. There's another one like that somewhere. They're the assassins that were made after you guys destroyed the place. They made them to take out all the failed experiments, you know, clean up their messes." He said, his voice soothing and calm. "They chose Phoebe because of her power and the control she had over it and she hasn't really had a choice to stop herself. But when we heard that she was going after the Genesis two experiments, including you guys, the ones that set the standard for mutiny, we couldn't let her kill you. And trust me," he added when Derek let out a snort, "she could have. Very easily."
"How do we know you aren't-" Simon started, interrupted when Phoebe turned around and moved her hair, showing an open wound on the back of her neck, still bleeding a little, very deep, and unattended.
"That's how. That's where the chip was. Happy?" She asked, peering at the rest of us. "I'm trying to help. If you don't want the help, if you don't want to listen to what we have to say, then forget it and we disappear." I looked at Simon, at Derek and Kit and Tori. Then I looked at Aunt Lauren. She looked pale and unhappy. Kit, Derek, and Simon looked wary and cautious. Tori just looked angry.
"Alright, let's get inside before people come to investigate." Kit said slowly, earning a surprised and non-to-happy glare from Derek. Simon didn't look pleased either.
"Good. Now, about this door…" James said, finally speaking up again. "I think, personally, it'd look great on this wall over here." He pointed near the television. "But it'd also look fine between the beds or in the closet!" Phoebe scowled at him.
"The door will be just fine. I had to get it open, didn't I?" She snapped, closing her eyes. She flicked her wrist and the door settled inside its frame, though it wasn't fixed; it looked normal, though. "We need to move after everything gets explained." She told us. "It's not safe here. So after we're done with this trust circle powwow, we need to move on."
"This is the other room." Kit gestured at the guys' room, and we all trailed in after him. James, I noticed, was always close to the little girl, Ava. Or, maybe it was her sticking next to him, trying to disappear behind him. I couldn't really tell. I sat between Derek and Tori; Simon sat on Derek's other side, and Kit and Lauren stood at the ends of the couch. Their arms were crossed distrustfully, all of our eyes were narrowed and faces pinched.
"Who wants to start?" James asked excitedly. "This is pretty damn awkward." He grinned around at us. Then he sighed. "Alright, I'll start. Hello, my name is James." He waited a moment, then Ava smiled.
"Hello, James."
"Thank you. I'm an Exustio half-demon, and also part of the Icarus project. Any questions?" At the silence that met him, he shook his head and sat back, arms crossed now. Tobias stepped up to the plate next.
"I'm Tobias, and I'm an Abeo half-demon, which is to say, I can teleport. I'm part of the Icarus project- we all are."
"How far can you teleport?" I asked. James rolled his eyes and muttered, "always the teleport-ers."
"Ahhh…fifty feet, max. I can also teleport vertical and horizontal, whereas most teleporters- lower level ones, anyway- can only teleport horizontal." Tobias said, smiling encouragingly at us all. "Anything else?" I shook my head. Ava stepped up.
"I'm Ava, I'm seven." She smiled widely. We waited expectantly, but she didn't go on for a long time. Finally sensing that we were waiting for something, she said, "I'm ALSO in the Icarus project." But that's not what we were waiting for. James coughed lightly, hiding a laugh. Tobias looked very uncomfortable. Phoebe's face was unreadable.
"I'm a Volo half-demon." She shrugged, then. "Our mother wasn't exactly a saint, if you can imagine." I wondered sincerely if she was joking or being serious, but Tobias cracked a smile, so I did, too. Derek looked around at them, eyes narrowed in a calculating manner.
"What about the Icarus project? What- why is it called that? What did they do?" Kit asked. Phoebe's mouth shut with a snap; James turned away. Tobias looked at his feet with an expression on his face like anguish; Ava swallowed hard.
"Sorry, but we aren't ready to talk about that yet." She said briskly. "There are things that you need to know and there are things you want to know. We're willing to tell you all that you need to know about us, but nothing that you don't need, not yet." She took a deep breath to go on, but Derek cut her off.
"Okay. We need to know about your powers." She nodded, a hard expression coming to her face. "You told us about his," he nodded at James, "and his," he nodded at Tobias, "and yours. But what about hers?" He nodded at Ava. Lauren looked very pale, so pale that I wondered if maybe I should stand up and let her sit down for a bit. I asked very quietly what was wrong, but she shook her head in an almost imperceptible movement.
"That doesn't –" James started, a fire in his eyes.
"We need to know what you can do." Tori snapped. James glared at her and she glared right back. "We have to know how to defend ourselves against her." They continued glaring.
"You can't." It was Phoebe who spoke now. "Are you happy? There's almost nothing you can do to defend yourself against Ava." Ava blushed, trying to hide behind James again; it was a useless effort, as everyone's eyes were on her now.
"What do you mean by that?" I asked very quietly, my voice nearly leaving me in my fear.
"Ava's powers are unique. There's no stopping them." Phoebe shrugged. "She can get into your mind and make you see things or hear things or do things. But you don't even know she's there. She can whisper suggestions about what to do or she can just push an illusion on you or a sound that isn't there. You usually can't tell if she's there or not." I felt the blood drain out of my face. She could control minds?
We all gazed blankly at the girl, mouths slightly parted. Derek looked furious and even a little scared, if anyone who knew him was looking. Because, really, if there's anything in the world to fear, it's that someone can get into your mind and take control. Phoebe smiled dryly.
"It would suck, having your will taken away, wouldn't it?" She said. I had a feeling- from what was said in the hall- that she knew what it felt like.