Chapter 6
"What on earth? I don't understand." And I didn't. Andrew looked nothing like my father. I should know. Derek might have caught a glimpse of him when I had come to Lyle house, and I knew Ashes had never met him formally- being dead and all.
Derek seemed to know what I was thinking. "Uh, Chloe, most of the subjects somehow got separated from their real parents, Tori being one of few exceptions to this rule. What we think is possible is that your biological father is actually Andrew, and that the man you think is your dad is actually just someone who accidentally got caught up in the experiment." Way to put it simply.
"What? But how would he get caught in it? He was married to my mom. He wouldn't allow her to do that! I know he wouldn't. That's not..." 'That's not possible' was a stupid thing to say when you could accept that there was such things as supernaturals, that you raised the dead, that you watched a guy turn into a wolf, watched two or three people cast spells to harm others.
Ashes wasn't as outright as Derek. He didn't say everything so loudly, and he acted like you was reluctant to tell me.
"I think what Derek was trying to say is that your mother took part, allowing the man you call Dad to think that you were actually his child. Sad, I guess, but I can't imagine him understanding the situation and still looking after you as his own, or staying with your mother, till the end. Dramatic and all that, but it isn't probable that he would." I waited for some part of me to be tearing up for this, but I felt a little hollow, with just a tiny part of me slightly disappointed and even a little angry, but mainly I was numb and confused. And though the idea of Andrew as a father made me rather curious, I wanted to know the rest of the story, know what made Ashes assume this, and try to catch on to what had given the idea to Derek, despite the necromancer part.
"Can you go back to the story? I wanna know what happens next."
"Sure. I'm guessing you want to know what on earth this actually has to do with your parentage, and I think Derek's a little caught up in the story as well."Ashes smiled at Derek, who gave him a look that clearly said, 'continue'. "Right, where was I? Oh yeah. A nice nurse explained to us that we were there to 'run through a couple of procedures'. We got separated, well they attempted to. Andrew cried, and I did too, screaming that I wasn't going anywhere without him. They agreed, clearly not knowing how to properly deal with children, rather than just examining them then giving them what they wanted."
"Still the same." Derek rumbled. Then he turned sharply, making me bounce to the side slightly, and forcing Ashes to have to appear on the other side. Slowing slightly, Derek muttered sorry, and rubbed my arm where he had hit it.
"True. The Edison group don't really like actually learning from experiments, as they put it. They can do the same thing over and over again and still not find a pattern. With powers and childcare. I think they just enjoy the feeling of mutating something.
Anyway, they didn't do anything to Andrew. Just monitored him and his powers. You see, male necromancers are very difficult to come by, only about 7 ever in existence. Normally through a recessive gene. 6 out of the 7 times anyway. Andrews was passed down hereditarily, through mother to daughter, him being an exception. He was the most powerful necromancer they had ever seen, and they probably thought that necromancers couldn't get any more powerful than that. Until they met you, Chloe. Blasted right off the scale. Waking up animals through sub-consciousness, bringing spirits to bodies involuntarily, seeing them so well that they appear as people. Mainly the same as Andrew, though your powers came on a lot more suddenly than his." He stopped and I couldn't help but think how obvious a relation between Andrew and me would seem to them. And typically, the first thing that came to mind was that I would be Simon's cousin.
"And though we are brothers, we don't have the same powers. His are unusual, and mine were given to me by the Edison group, hoping to create a hybrid without me even having a power to begin with. It wasn't very well thought through. It was quite a good plan though, after Edison's telephone to the dead. See if a necromancer and sorcerer hybrid can cast spells on ghosts, on their bodies as well, maybe find a way to bring them back to life. Or even interrogate a murder victim to find out who killed them. It would make a lot of things simpler."
"Oh. What did they do? To give you the powers?" Derek was the one to answer, though the question was rather obviously pointed at Derek.
"They extract DNA from another subject of that supernatural race, preferably the strongest they can find, and edit the formulae extracted before putting it into the bloodstream of the other subject. Not nice, and if entered incorrectly, or if it isn't properly compatible with the blood, organs, ect., it can go wrong and cause what they would call a 'system malfunction'. Basically the body rejects it, and you die. That makes you very lucky, Ashes."
He smiled."I know. It was clearly a success, as Simon is fine and using the powers with a strength I didn't think you could get from hereditary ruining of the genes. I was worried that the power would harm him, or he would be 'terminated' because of the lack of powers."
"You care about him a lot." I noted. "You know, I think he is gonna figure out about you soon, whether you tell him or not." Then something else occurred to me. "Derek, is that why you are so good academically? I know you're smart already, but did you try, so you could learn more about the mutations and the projects?"
Derek looked at me, kinda strangely, like he was thinking, 'you were paying that much attention to me, rather than the actual story'?
"Yes, Chloe. That's how I knew about everyone, except Liz, that is. Her chemical makeup is a mystery to me. This brings me back to you, by the way. You DNA is almost identical to Andrew's, it just didn't occur to me at the time."
"Okay, I have somehow accepted that I'm related to him. And I'm sorry, Derek." He looked rather confused.
"Ummm, for what? I should be apologising for dragging on this hunt for Simon, nearly killing you, you almost getting shot, attacked by a girl with a knife and nearly being eaten by a random group of wolves. I haven't looked after you very well, have I?"
"You weren't meant to look after me. No one is meant to. Except me. And I don't mind looking for Simon, this is interesting. You weren't really close to killing me, you just scared yourself, the knife was my fault for running off, and the wolves was the wolves fault. They were just looking for a fight." I lowered my tone slightly, hoping Ashes wouldn't try to interpret my apology as something it wasn't.
"I'm sorry, I've been so harsh to you. Acting foolishly, blaming you. And... for not liking you when I first came to Lyle. I just didn't want to listen. Strange, since you are kindest, most selfless person I've ever met. Thank you, for looking after me. And keeping me with you. If I was you I would ditched me a long time ago. After all, as Tori always says, I'm a helpless blonde who always needs rescuing." I yawned, like the talking had worn me out, even though Derek was doing all the work; I was just kinda lying there.
To my utter surprise, Derek, smiled softly, and kissed my forehead. Never pictured that. "It's quite alright, Chloe. You know I like thinking, I can actually look after people rather than killing them. And I don't expect thanks for it. We're about half a mile from Simon, Tori, and Andrew now. You can go to sleep. I'll wake you up later, so you can talk to your father." I just looked at him, thinking that this version of Derek seemed to suit him better than the grouchy one. I was more used to the grouchy one though. "I won't let you get eaten or anything, honest."
I smiled."I know." I squeezed his hand, closed my eyes, mumbled something incoherent, and promptly fell asleep.
Author's notes.
Late chapter, and a not to interesting one, though not to boring, I hope. Explaining stuff. No more explaining really needed from now on. Fluffy chapter with a little rivalry next.