Chapter 3

Jessi was furious. She just saved Amanda's pretty little face from being beaten by Nate. And Amanda acted so nice to Jessi an hour ago! So why was she doing this to her? Her anger caused the lights in the house to flicker. Why couldn't Amanda just leave her and Kyle alone? Why did she have to ask him to come back to her now when he was just developing feelings for her? All the furniture in the house began to vibrate. Jessi took a deep breath and used all her energy and did something that neither she nor Kyle ever did before. "B…B…BITCH!" she yelled at the top of her voice.

She turned around and saw a very confused Josh. "Uh…okay… just came down to check why the lights were going crazy and everything was shaking…" he said.

"Sorry…" she mumbled and quickly walked towards Kyle's room very embarrassed that everyone in the house had heard her.

"What was that about?" Kyle asked her as soon as she came in and closed the door.

"Nothing it's just…Amanda…never mind," Jessi wanted to change the subject. "So…now that you know who you're mother is, are you going to try to find her?" she asked.

"No," Kyle replied being honest. He didn't feel the slightest need to do that. "She may be related to me but it was Nicole who adopted me and cared for me. Nicole's my real mother," he said.

Jessi understood. She was the biological daughter of Brian Taylor but he was never much of a father, instead he used her for his own dreams. She considered Steven a much better father.

"How did the mission go?" she asked him. "It must have gone pretty well if Cassidy was so mad he actually attacked you in your own house," she said smiling.

He smiled. "I did it," he replied. "I contaminated all the fluid. Nothing can ever grow in there."

"Until they make's more fluid you mean." Jessi reminded him. "He still has the pods and everything else that the Latnok students gave him without realizing."

"I don't think he has the formula anymore," he said. "We stole the disc from his apartment and destroyed it remember?" he tried to reassure her.

But Jessi didn't look convinced. "Kyle, do you honestly think someone would back up all that important data only on one disc? The senior members of Latnok probably have their own copies of it. Like his mother." she said.

Kyle thought about it and said "Well according to the data I stole from his hard drive he only backed it up on one disc. And I don't think he shared any of this data with the senior members because he's doing this experiment on his own."

"But isn't he part of Latnok?" Jessi asked confused.

"Well he's not actually one of the scientists," Kyle explained, "His job is just to find talent for them. But I think he has bigger plans. I asked him earlier if Latnok had everything they needed and he told me that he had everything they needed and he was going to give it to them. I'm pretty sure that Cassidy was planning to sell those clones of mine to Latnok for profit. And he tricked the Latnok students into doing all the work for him, including me." Cassidy may not have been a super genius but he sure was smart if he came so close to pulling a scheme like this.

"You know, Kyle, I know its wrong for Latnok to make clones of you but…," Jessi paused or a moment, "but maybe it's not such a bad idea for them to make more people like us. We wouldn't be alone in the world. I mean, imagine how much civilization could progress if everyone was as smart as us. Imagine how good that would be for the world."

"I know it sounds like a great scenario, Jessi, but I think the reality would be much different. First of all we're dealing with Cassidy here. I'm pretty sure he's motivated by profit. He was planning to give or probably sell some of the clones to Latnok but what if he also sells some them to others who'll keep them, people like you and me, in the tank for their whole lives like Zyzzyx did? Or even worse, what if he sells them to some dictator who wants to build an army out of them and use their abilities to harm others? How do we know that Cassidy won't do that himself? Jessi do you really trust giving this technology to someone like Cassidy? Someone who is capable of murder just to get what he wants?" Kyle felt very strong about this.

"I guess you're right," Jessi said "I'm sorry."

"Jessi you don't have to apologize," he said cupping her cheek. They stood really close to each other and stared into each others eyes. Both of them moved towards each other to kiss but then Kyle pulled back and asked, "By the way, what did Amanda do that made you use that word?"

Jessi really didn't want to talk about this now but she answered, "She told me she's going to ask you to come back to her tomorrow."

Kyle smiled. "She is? She said this to you?" he asked in a dreamily. He noticed the sad look on Jessi's face and immediately snapped out of it. "Jessi you know how much you mean to me," he said hugging her.

"Does that mean you're going to choose me over Amanda?" she asked him.

Kyle wished he could have answered her. Even if it was a no he wished he could have said something. But he didn't know the answer to that question himself. He was so confused. He had feelings for two girls…

"Well you're going to have to choose one of us Kyle," Jessi said finally. "You can't have us both."

"I know," he replied. "I'll have an answer by tomorrow."

Jessi left the room and met Lori in the hallway.

"Sooo….I guess you and Amanda are not getting along very well." Lori said referring to Jessi's outburst.

Jessi blushed in embarrassment and continued walking.

"Jessi wait." Jessi stopped and turned around.

"Look I'm sorry I said that about you and Kyle" Lori apologized to her. "I guess it just seems weird because…your personalities are so different… and I'm just so used to seeing Kyle and Amanda together as a couple."

"Well they're not a couple anymore," Jessi said looking hurt, "and Kyle and I have more in common with each other than we do with anyone else."

Lori hugged Jessi and apologized once more. "I know I'm sorry. So are you and Kyle officially a couple now?" she asked.

Jessi wished she could say yes but she told Lori the facts. "Kyle says he's confused about how he can have feelings for both of us. Amanda told me she's going to ask him to come back to her tomorrow and he's going to have to make a decision."

Now Lori understood why Jessi cursed so loud. "Jessi even if Kyle chooses Amanda over you it won't be the end of the world. There are lots of cute guys for you to choose from in the world. You and Kyle can still have that special connection and continue to be friends" she said sympathetically.

"But I don't want to be just friends!" Jessi said desperately. "He's always been there for me when I needed him. He saved my life more than once. I love Kyle," she cried sobbing into Lori's shoulder while her sister did her best to comfort her.

Meanwhile at the police station Cassidy walked out with an older woman.

"Thank you for bailing me out mother," he said to Grace Kingsley.

"It was nothing Michael darling" she replied in a British accent. "And you can pay me back after you selling off those clones." The senior members of Latnok had still not figured out that Grace and Cassidy were in this together to get money out of Latnok.

"But tell me," she asked, "what the devil happened to you?"

He had forgotten that he was covered in cuts and there was a massive bruise on his cheek.

"Ah yes…we ran into some problems," he said.

"What kind of problems?" Grace asked with her voice louder and eyes glaring.

Cassidy looked down nervously. He didn't like making his mother upset. "Well?" she asked.

"Kyle and Jessi tricked us," he explained. "Jessi wasn't dead at all. She was just pretending. It was all a very elaborate scheme to trick me into telling him what we were up to."

"I see, and then what happened?" Grace asked patiently.

"He…sabotaged the facility. He contaminated the fluid with some kind of bacteria. It's useless now."

"But we can make more can't we?" Grace asked. "You have the formula don't you?"

Cassidy was silent. "Michael? You do have the formula don't you?" Grace's voice was now sounding dangerous.

"He…uh…broke into my apartment and stole the disc that it was on," Cassidy confessed.

"And… you…ONLY SAVED IT ON ONE DISC!?" she screamed shaking with rage, "You Idiot! Imbecile! Because of your stupidity all our hard work is destroyed!"

Cassidy remembered unpleasant memories from his child hood. He hated making his mother upset. "You know mother, there is another place where the formula could be stored," he said.

"Where?" she demanded.

Cassidy smiled sinisterly. "His brain."