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I don't own Race to Witch Mountain

Chapter Ten: Political Asylum

(Many years ago when Mary was a teenager)

(Mary Point of View)

Mary ran blind with grief through the thicket of trees. She hated him! She hated him! Why did her mother have to betray her like this? Why did she have to marry that man and betray her human father who was dead? Was her father not good enough because he was human and now she wanted to marry one of her kind, a Cortan man? Sure she had opposed this from the get go but her mother hadn't listened. Without taking any regard for her daughter's feelings she had gone ahead and married this man.

Her father had died when she was very young, a little girl, but she could still remember him clear as day. And when he had died when she was six it took only one year for her mom to find another person, her step-dad.

She remembered her father, a good and loving person. He and her mom had gotten married on earth and it was there that she was born. In fact, earth had records of her. But six months after her birth they had moved to Cortan. But she still went to earth every year; for six years she went to earth, until her father died. And a year later her mom met her step-dad and betrayed her in the harshest way possible, marrying a stranger.

She hadn't known much of him, his personality, or anything else other than his name and that her mom was dating him until one day she had brought him home and said, "Meet your new father!" She resented this heavily. A year later her mother gave birth to their first child together and named her Emily. Mary adored her half-sister and often babysat her on the rare occasions that her mom and step-dad needed someone to do that. She had nothing against Emily at all. She loved Emily. It was Emily's dad that she hated.

And so she and Emily grew close. A year later their mom gave birth to Coraline and Mary adored her, though not as much as Emily. Emily was the favorite. But she was still fond of Coraline. And Coraline was the last sibling mom gave birth to. Fortunately enough her step-dad didn't have any children before marrying her mom so she didn't have to worry about any step-siblings.

She grew close to her siblings and they played all the time. There was very little age difference and Cortan became somewhat like a home to her, though she still loved earth more. But she wasn't allowed to go there anymore because her mom couldn't take her for she was now busy with her new 'husband'. Mary resented this and finally, when she was seventeen she had had enough. After getting into an argument with her mom and step-dad when she pointed out how much her mom favored her step-dad over her, and even Emily and Coraline, she ran away, taking the ship that she had purchased six months before and hidden from her mom and more especially her step dad for fear what he might do with it. She didn't want her only escape route cut off. She was only seventeen.

And so she came to earth, unknowing how she was going to support herself. The only thing she could think of was going to Wright-Patterson where her father had worked. There they knew of aliens and were friendly with them. She had a better chance getting a job there and supporting herself.

And so she left secretly taking no food to get her by for the three days. She knew how dangerous it was to pilot the ship herself without a copilot for their ships were designed to be piloted by two, but she had no choice. She had to get away. She was lucky she made it off the ground and was able to cloak the ship so that no one knew that she was leaving. She took some precious devices with her and put them in a pouch that she had hanging around her neck and then she began the dangerous and perilous journey that drained her as every hour went by. 'I hate him! I hate him!' she kept thinking.

She barely managed to land the ship. It was a miracle that she only crashed when she was six feet from the ground, so no big explosion happened. The rest of the time she had control of the ship, barely. What happened is she was distracted for a brief second and the ship dropped six feet to the ground. But the drop was enough to render her unconscious even though she wasn't noticed. When she regained consciousness she made her way out of the ship, stumbling, and ran towards the base, hoping that she could find a job. 'I hate him! I hate him!' she thought.

She panted as she ran, drained and depleted from energy as she hadn't eaten in days. When she reached the base the men moved to surround her, she being an intruder. "You're trespassing!" they aggressively called out though she knew that it was only a pretense for earthlings to keep them away from the base and thus, their secrets. But she knew they wouldn't hurt her.

"Political Asylum!" she gasped, using the only words she knew would give her safe passage until she was in a state to explain herself. "I declare political asylum!"

She watched as they looked at her in confusion and then they began collaborating. "By law we can do nothing with her until she is heard."

"She shouldn't be here!"

"But we have to hear her out!"

"Then take her somewhere else, but not the base!"

"Look at her! Look at the state she's in. She needs medical treatment. She looks dehydrated and malnourished. And it looks like she's injured. She needs to see a doctor right away!"

The other man agreed grudgingly. 'Yes!' she though in triumph. Now she would stand a chance. But as she heard their decision she could stand no more. The energy that she had left after running on adrenaline and getting no rest day or night, it ran out of her body and she collapsed, fainted. The men picked her up and took her into the base.

(Several hours later)

(Mary Point of View)

Mary woke up in a very comfortable bed with IVs running through her. As she looked around in confusion she saw a young man standing over her, taking notes. "Hello," he greeted when he saw that she was awake. "I'm glad you're feeling better."

Mary smiled; he seemed nice enough. "Are you a nurse?" she asked him.

He chuckled with good humor and gentle amusement. "No, I'm a doctor. I managed to skip several grades when I was younger and I graduated at age fourteen. I began college at fourteen also and I doubled the amount of classes I took so I graduated and got my doctors degree after six years instead of eight. I just graduated. I'm now twenty."

"Oh," Mary said, not knowing what else to say. But she liked this man. She was already starting to have feelings for him.

The man looked at her curious. "You're only half-human, aren't you?" he confronted her.

Mary smiled. "Yes, and you must be very observant."

"No," he replied. "I'm just looking over your test results. I hope you don't mind." He grimaced when he said this. "Technically I wasn't supposed to take your DNA and run tests, but I was curious. You see, I just started my shift and I noticed them bringing a damaged ship into the base. When I noticed you were injured I wondered if you were from the damaged ship..." 'Hmm,' Mary thought. 'They must have discovered it already. Hopefully they know it's mine.' Then the man continued. "My superiors would eat me alive if they knew I did the tests without your consent. You're not mad at me, are you?"

"No!" Mary responded, mesmerized by him.

"Good, because I don't want to be fired. I won't do anything the like again, though, I promise." Mary smiled at this. He was a good man. "So which is it?" he asked and when Mary stared at him in confusion he explained, "Which one's the alien parent?"

"My mom," Mary admitted. "My father's the human. His name's Allen Burlington."

The man's beautiful eyes widened. "The Allen Burlington? The legendary man that worked here? Our ambassador to Cortan?"

Mary nodded. "Yep," she said. She had known that one of the reasons her father had come to live on Cortan was because he was an ambassador for friendly relations with that alien planet. It was the treaty with Cortan that allowed them to establish bases so that they could do their research and save their planet. But the government didn't require the Cortans to tell them where they had put their bases, and thus they didn't know where they were. "I'm the ambassador's daughter, or I was. He died several years ago. Then my mom remarried."

"Oh," the man said pity in his eyes. "It would have been a pleasure to meet him."

"She married a Cortan," Mary explained though she didn't know why she was telling all this to a stranger. Maybe it was because she felt connected to him. He was easy to bond to. He listened to you and made you feel important.

"And you don't like Cortans?" the man assumed.

Mary shook her head. "I love them, I just don't like my step-dad, and I don't like that my mom betrayed me like this. But I have no problem with my half-siblings. I have no step-siblings though, thank goodness for that. I don't think I would have liked them if they had existed." The man nodded in understanding. "And so I've come here to this base to try to find a job. I was hoping, since my father used to work here, they'd honor me as his daughter and find me a position?" She looked at the man hopeful.

He smiled at her and she realized that he must have a crush on her. "I'll see what I can do," he promised and she knew he would. He would do anything for a pretty girl like her.

"I'm Mary Burlington," the girl gratefully told him.

The guy smiled. "I'm Henry, Henry Burke." Dr. Burke.

(Years ago, when Seth and Sara were about five and six years old, many, many years after the incident above)

(Seth Point of View)

Seth was mesmerized with the family charts. A hologram was before him and showed his different family members and what they looked like. Sara was in the same room with him although she wasn't interested in what he was doing. Then again she didn't have this as a school assignment. That was when he came across her and her hologram, the hologram of an aunt he'd never known.

He was curious. Why was she never mentioned? "Mom!" he called out. He heard her footsteps in the hallway, easy, laid back footsteps.

Emily came silently into the room and when she saw who he was looking at she froze, as if she were afraid. "Who's this?" Seth asked.

Emily seemed to recover and she rushed over and turned off the hologram. "Mom!" Seth exclaimed. Then he repeated his question. "Who was that?"

"No one you need to know about!" Emily snapped at her son, almost panicked.

Sara was now getting interested in the situation. Did mom have a secret? "How can she be no one if she's listed in the family archives?" the girl asked. Then she moved and to her mom's horror she turned the hologram back on and began searching to find out who the woman was. But Emily was too shocked to do anything about it.

Seth moved beside his sister and began looking at it as well. "According to this her name is Mary Burlington and ... she's your half-sister?" Seth turned to his mom in almost frustration. "How can we have an aunt that we don't know about? Who is she, really? And why have you never spoken about her before?"

Emily's eyes softened even with all the questions being asked. She had a grave look on her face as she replied, "She died, years ago."

"How?" Sara asked, pressing the issue.

Her mom pursed her lips together. "It's nothing you need to worry about, Sara. Now come on, both of you. Seth, you too, you've done enough homework for now." And she began shepherding the kids out of the room.

Seth looked back at the still glowing hologram in confusion. It was odd, almost like his mother didn't want him to know something. She had never been secretive before, at least not that he'd known. His parents had always kept him well informed, regardless of age. That and they had never encouraged him to stop doing homework before. In fact they had always encouraged them to do more homework than the average student did.

He couldn't explain his mom's peculiar behavior. But this he knew; it had something to do with that woman, Mary Burlington.

(Many years ago, when Mary is eighteen and Henry is twenty-one; approximately one year after the first incident in the chapter)

(Mary Point of View)

Mary was standing in front of the holograms of her two little sisters, Emily and Coraline. Apparently they had missed her and were begging for her return to Cortan, especially her mom, but Mary refused. The Wright-Patterson base had offered her a job since she crashed into their planet a year ago, (after all how could they refuse the daughter of Allen Burlington) and since then she had made earth her home more than before. She couldn't move back! Plus, her relationship with Henry had increased and they were now engaged to be married. It was lucky that her work place had allowed it in the first place because normally they wouldn't allow people in a relationship to work together. However, because Henry was military and she was not, they had allowed it.

"But Mary!" Emily complained, Mary's favorite sister. Coraline knew that Emily was Mary's favorite but that didn't seem to bother her as it would others, even though Mary gave Emily special treatment. But that was probably because Mary reserved one-on-one time for Coraline too back when she had lived on Cortan. Emily continued to complain. "Cortan's your home, not earth! You can't get married to an earthling! Then you won't be there for us!"

Mary sighed. How to explain this to a little girl so that she would understand? It's not like she would understand true love. "But earth's my home, not Cortan! Cortan never was home to me, especially since dad died."

Tears were running down Emily's face. "I don't want to lose you!"

"And neither do I!" Coraline complained.

Mary shook her head. "I'm sorry, but I have to do this. And do you want to meet him or not?" she demanded.

The two kids eagerly shook their heads. "Henry!" she called out and Henry entered the room, a wide, friendly grin on his face.

"Hey kids!" he greeted. "So," he began, looking at the two beautiful children. "These two will soon be my sister-in-laws."

"And you better treat them nicely!" Mary joked with him. The kids laughed at this to.

"Yeah!" Coraline chipped in. "You'd better treat us nicely if you want to be part of the family!"

Henry knelt next to the little girl. "You have my word," he promised solemnly and truthfully. "I will always treat you nicely and with respect. And when you and your sister get married to two total strangers someday and have children like me and Mary will do, I give you the same promise. I will always treat them nicely and with respect."

(Present day)

(Seth Point of View)

Seth stared at Mary in shock, feeling shivers run down his spine. Why would she order for his death? Why did she hate him? What had he ever done to her? Then, slowly as the reality set in he began to sob hysterically. And then he wailed at this. He didn't want to die.

There seemed to be much shock in the room for no one moved. And when Mary saw that they didn't move she screamed at the workers, "I said, kill him!"

Timothy shook his head in shock. "We can't," he explained. "Dr. Burke has given us orders to keep them alive. They're needed for, you know, the procedure? They're compatible."
Mary stood stalk still at this. "They're compatible?" she questioned in a whisper that was barely heard. Then she grinned like the news was even better. "Well why didn't you tell me?" she whispered. "If I had known."

Mary walked over to Seth and the boy stopped sobbing, his cheeks red. "This is more delightful than I initially thought," she whispered, but more to Seth as she tried to intimidate him. "I'm glad that they didn't kill you for death would be far too merciful than what you will go through now. And now I can finally watch you suffer. You'll go insane because of what we're going to do to you. All the better..."

Mary turned to Timothy and commanded, "Make him suffer in agony before he goes through the process! I want to him and Sara to have the hardest time, harder than anyone else that has gone through this process. Do I make myself clear?"

The rest of the men nodded eagerly but Timothy stared at her in shock. "But he's your nephew," he protested, unable to say anything else.

"THAT THING IS NO NEPHEW OF MINE!" Mary shouted back and even Timothy flinched at the venom in her voice. Mary took a menacing step forward to him and the man backed up. "If I ever catch you questioning me again," she threatened him in a whisper that only he and Seth could hear. "You'll regret it. I'll make sure you are 'fed to the dogs,' as the phrase goes. You, and your sister and her family. Do I make myself clear?" Timothy nodded his head, more uncomfortable with her than he had ever been before. Mary smiled. "Good," she announced to everyone. "I'm glad we're all on the same page now. Get to work!" And Mary sat down in a chair to watch. "No anesthetics or anything to dampen the pain. I want to hear him scream!"

Seth stared in horror as the men approached him.

(A few hours later)

(Seth Point of View)

Seth was whimpering from what was done to him as he was dragged out of the lab blindfolded and restrained. He was too weak to resist. When they reached their destination and the door was shut the blindfold was taken off, though the restraints were still left on. He saw that he was in a prison like room and a cell of bars stood in front of him. They opened the cage of a room and threw him roughly inside, quite literally.

Seth collapsed on the floor, out of energy and weeping from his treatment. Why did his aunt and uncle do this to him? Why did they hate him? Why did they treat him horribly? Seth tried to gather the energy he could and with it he curled into a ball, trying to comfort himself. He cried and cried and cried for what must have been hours until finally a noise was heard outside. His cell door was opened and a tray was roughly slid in, hitting Seth in the back. He screamed at this as it hit him painfully and he realized that his nerves were still overactive from what they did to him. He did his best to block the painful memory from his mind. He didn't want to think about it. And to think that that wasn't even the procedure, just torture that his Aunt Mary had ordered him to go through.

"Dinner alien!" someone snickered through the door and then the door was slammed shut loudly, hurting the boy's ears with the sensitive position that he was in. The man walked out laughing, clearly enjoying the boy's pain. "That was quite some entertainment, wasn't it alien?" the man called to him before shutting the main door to the prison. Then Seth heard nothing more as he was once again left alone in the cold and dark cell. They had shut all the electricity off and there wasn't even a bathroom. Earlier some men had come in with buckets and poured ice water next to him on the stone-cold floor, to make it as uncomfortable a place for him to stay, they had said. He wondered if his Aunt Mary had also ordered this.

And so, he was stuck in the dark cold damp cell, with no energy to reach his food, suffering. He cried long and hard but found no relief as he did. And he was still in excruciating pain. 'Why do they hate me?' he though over and over. 'What have I ever done to them?'

How long he lay there he didn't know, but finally he heard the footsteps of another visitor behind him, opening his cell and coming in. "Get up!" a rough voice commanded him, the voice of Henry.

Seth wasn't able to move. When the boy didn't comply Henry kicked him onto his back. "Insolent little thing!" he sneered.

"Please!" Seth begged. He tried to look at Henry and managed, despite the weak state he was in. "Why didn't you tell me you were my uncle?" he feebly asked the man. But he didn't know if he wanted an answer or not. He didn't think he could stand any more emotional pain. The boy began sobbing again.

"Pull yourself together!" Henry yelled at him harshly. "And you're not my nephew! You're only my nephew if I claim you as such!" he replied, using Aunt Mary's words.

"You... hate me?" the boy questioned, fearful of the response.

"What do you think, boy?" the man snapped back and Seth flinched. "Did you actually think I would love you? You're an alien! You're an abomination and disgrace!"

Seth began crying again and the man slapped him. "Why?" Seth begged. "Why do you hate me? What have I ever done to you? All I've ever done is tried to protect myself from you!"

But Henry wouldn't answer. "I don't need to tell you anything," he coldly replied.

Seth sobbed and sobbed again and as Henry moved to slap the boy Seth curled in a tight ball, trying to protect himself from Henry. "Uncle, please!" he pleaded.

"Do not call me such!" Henry ordered in his ice voice. Then he kicked the boy and Seth screeched in pain. "Get up," he ordered Seth. "You'll be needed in the lab soon." Then he took Seth by the hair of his head. "And I suggest you cooperate. If I get one hint that you're trying to cause problems – you'll regret it."

He dropped Seth onto the ground and Seth broke into another fit of hysterical sobs. Henry left him lying there and exited the room. 'Why?' he thought. 'What have I ever done?'

"Jack, Jack Jack," he moaned and sobbed on the hard floor. "Alex, Alex, Alex! Mom, mom, mom! Dad, dad, dad!" He cried more and more. "Save me please! Take me from this horrid place! Get me out of here!" His cries grew weaker and weaker and finally he fell half-asleep, completely drained of energy. He had cried himself to sleep.

All right, this will be all for now. Hopefully I'll update soon. Read and review please! I love the support when I get it!