Chapter 10 :: For some reason

A/N: Hey guys, I think I may update this every other day for now so people that want to be able to keep up with the story can, without having to rush ahead because of my constant posting/updating.

V4mp – Thanks so much for reviewing! I honestly don't know what I'm going to do with Leo, but she definitely won't be, "perfect." I'll try to keep her balanced :D

Summary: Gary has initiated his new plan to rid himself of Jimmy Hopkins…by getting rid of Leo? Auel, Sven, and Luke, now know about Doctor Geos' involvement in Leo's recent memory outbreak. Bif visits Leo and is the only one from school who knows her secret. Doctor Geos can tell that Leo has gained quite a bit of attention from onlookers. So, now…

About a month later, Bif's POV

It's been about a month or so since Leo has been in the Happy Volts facility for testing. She hasn't woken up once. I wonder if she really will be alright after everything is done and over with. More importantly, will she still remember me? I contemplate some courses of action I should be taking upon her return. Everyone's acted as if she was never here, that is, aside from some people that actually talked to her. Even so, I heard she used to hang around the jocks and not even they will mention her name.

"…Bif? Bif!" I hear Derby call out my name.

"Yes?" I disconnect from my thoughts and look at Derby who is standing at the front of a meeting table in Harrington House, eyes glowering at me as he leans forward to get my attention. "Sorry, I was just thinking of some more tactics."

"So, what have you come up with?" He asked me. Derby had been planning a counterattack on the grease balls for being too close to Leo. He actually became really possessive after meeting her.

"Uh, still thinking." I say looking at the stares I'm getting around the table.

"Where could she have gone? I haven't seen her in classes or anything. Even Christy started making up rumors about her!" Pinky states as if she was making a declaration while standing at her side of the meeting table.

"I don't know, no one has seen her. When we find her, we must make sure she joins us, otherwise, she may go missing again." Derby clears his throat. He doesn't know that I know where she's been. I feel a bit guilty keeping it a secret from all of them, but Auel told me that no one can know.

Flashback (A few days before)

"So…How much longer will this take?" I ask with a bit of concern.

"Not sure, this has never happened to one of us before." Auel says typing in some data alongside Doctor Geos.

"If my estimate was correct, not much longer from now." The doctor says examining Leo with a clipboard in one hand.

"I've been here everyday, it doesn't seem to be progressing." I say as I tap my foot impatiently, sitting next to Leo's chamber.

"Don't fret", Geos says, "She'll be as good as new."

Auel pauses his typing, "Will she remember everything?"

"I'm not 100% positive, but she'll remember most things." Geos responds, twiddling his pen in between his index finger and thumb.

"Most things?" I ask with a bit of worry, "Will she remember me? Or Bullworth? Or anyone she recently met?"

"It's unclear." Luke says as he messes with some chemicals and a vial of some mysterious blue liquid.

"Are you even qualified to do this? I mean, you're a bit young. Aren't you my gardener's son? Or does your mom clean my house?"

Luke looks at me with a glare of death as he places the beaker down on the countertop in front of him, "For your information, you imbecile, I'm Leo's brother. Secondly, I think she may have already told you what happened with our parents."

I withdrew my question after that; I also started to think about the day I met her and her explanation of her parents. "Sorry." I whispered under my breath. "You're not mad…are you?"

Luke exhales in annoyance, "Just leave me to my work and we'll forget this ever happened."

I sighed in relief, then, Sven came waltzing through the facility doors. "I met up with Hyotei again, Doc. Your brother seems to want a pretty penny in return for the DNA sample he has." Sven says as he hands the Doctor a receipt.

"He wants a hundred grand? That's nothing to scoff at. However, we need that ingredient back in order to fully restore her." Geos says taking the receipt and shredding it.

"I can give you that money; I'll just ask my dad." I say getting up from my seat and walking over to the doctor.

"What are you gonna say it's for? A friend who needs her memories back? I highly doubt that's believable. Also, your father won't want to toss away money for a lost cause that he has no knowledge about." Sven says as he removes his disguise.

"Yeah, but it's worth a shot. By the way, why do you wear that thing?" I point to his cloak and mask.

"Dunno, it seemed cool at the time." He replies.

Auel scoffs, "Let's just keep this all a secret, alright? Besides, Sven, you need to wear it because we can't have naturals* following you."

"Oh, right."

At Doctor Geos room in Happy Volts, Auel's POV, current time frame

So, if I recalibrate her memories from the time we dated…here *click*, she would probably think we were still dating when she woke up, right? I was still typing away the coding for Leo's memories. Even though I wanted her to be with me, I knew I shouldn't mess with her coding. Thoughts like that one just always seemed to come up. 99% Completion. How much more can she possibly need to remember?

"It's been a month, won't people get suspicious?" Sven said as he looked at me with a very bored expression.

"You know, you can help by typing in more codes." I say typing with one hand and handing him a series of codes on a sheet of paper with the other, not flagging from my screen.

"Nah, thanks mate, but I ain't into this right now." He says leaning back in his chair.

Suddenly, the door to the office swung open.

"Ah, Doctor Geos, I heard you were in town again." Another doctor with the name tag, 'Dr. Bambillo' came in walking past Sven, Luke, and I to shake hands with Doctor Geos.

"Ah yes, Bambillo, these are my pupils, Auel, Sventus, and Lucas." Geos introduced us formally to his colleague. He always introduced us as his pupils even though we were just his experiments. Regardless, I took a second to look up from my screen to acknowledge his existence, Sven waved without looking at him and Luke smiled while pouring the remaining contents of his chemicals into another beaker which caused the contents in that one to turn green.

"Almost done." Luke says placing the beaker to the side with tongs.

"Excellent, now all we need is the DNA sample and we're home free." Geos said as he shook his colleague's hand and set his things down to then leave with Bambillo for a break. In the time that it took me to watch their exchange, Sven disappeared.

"Where's Sven?"

Sven's POV

Humph! She honestly thought she could fool us? I jump across the roof tops of the buildings leading away from Happy Volts into New Coventry. This is the area that Hyotei was watching us from before. I make my way to the rooftop that I saw her on that night. I should have told Auel and Luke when I noticed her, they could've done something. I land on the roof with solid footing.

"Well, well, well…Look what the dog dug up." I hear Hyotei's voice behind me, "Can't stay away?"

I watch as a dog passes by on the street with my back still to her. "Aren't you a sight for sore eyes?"

I can hear her laugh quietly, "Oh Sventus, I adore your sense of humor", she says as she turns me to face her by holding my chin with her fingers.

"I told you not to call me that. Besides, we're here for business. Please be professional."

"Did I strike a chord?" She says pacing around me, eyes still locked to mine.

"I'm not one to be patient. Let's get this over with so I can go." I feel vexed for her calling me Sventus again.

She turns away and sighs, "Alright, you have time to collect the hundred grand before we lock that sample in a safe for good. Then we'll never have to see that girl again."

"What about you? From what I know, you need that sample in order to sustain yourself. You can only make one copy at a time before it expires. Clone serums don't tend to preserve very well for too long." I say with a smirk on my face.

"After this mission, I won't be needed. I'm not like her, just as you said before." Although she was smiling, I could see the sadness in her eyes as she looked at me.

"So, you remembered?"

In the Cerebral Chamber, Leo's POV, in her subconscious

KSSSHHHHHTT! KSHHT! KSHHHHHH! I remember hearing these sounds vaguely from the institution.

"Way to go, Leo, you passed the highest difficulty." I remembered seeing how proud my mom was.

In front of me, I felt horrified, I had just killed someone. Even though they were merely another coded* individual without free-will or thought, I felt bad. Tears started to stream down my face which was soaked in blood. I felt my friends Auel and Sven run up to me and hug me. That was probably a memory from when I first joined the institution.

Since that time, I had come a long way, fighting the other codeds that were bigger than me, faster than me, sneakier than me. I was able to surpass them by adapting quickly to their own skill level and even became the number one ranked in the institution. So much bloodshed, so many lives lost all at my hand. I was scared of myself for a long time, unable to bear the sight of my own reflection in the mirror.

"Codeds are meant to protect, not to destroy." I remember hearing Doctor Geos tell me this as he watched my every battle with saddened eyes standing next to a man who he called Mr. Smith. This, 'Mr. Smith' knew that codeds could be used for weapons, I heard him discussing it with someone and saying that he would sell it on the black market. I ended up talking about it with Doctor Geos. That was before I decided to leave.

I had made up my mind after being in the institution for thirteen years. I couldn't take the amount of trauma it was doing to me. I constantly woke up in the middle of the night to nightmares and cold sweat; often I'd be in tears. I was called the, 'renegade chevalier*' for wanting to leave this place by other codeds. I knew in my heart that it was for the better, that this wasn't the type of life I wanted to lead. My mother was getting sick because she had been through the same training regime as me when she was still being trained. I saw the fatigue in her posture, the glossiness in her eyes when she would visit me, the shakiness of her voice when speaking. That is what happened to codeds often times, they lose their luster and become a husk* of their former selves.

That day, when I quit, we were driving home. I was probably fifteen or sixteen at the time. We were on the way home when my mom and I were talking. She wanted to know if I would want to live with my uncle in Bullworth. I didn't like the idea of leaving my mother, she wanted to send Luke and I away because she knew that she'd be passing away soon. My mother was young, in her thirties, but she suffered from so much stress and tension that was building up from experimentation that wasn't garnered as complete. In fact, I had been told that I was the, 'finished product' after many trials done to her. She joined Doctor Geos research on her own free will.

As if the sky was telling me I was making a mistake, the ominous clouds boomed with thunder and lit with lightning. Rain was pouring, just enough to drench anyone foolishly walking around without an umbrella. When I had asked my mom about what she was going to do with herself, should I and Luke depart, I noticed a semi truck forcing its way towards our car with a girl who looked just like me driving it. That was the last memory I had of my mother.

Years prior to the accident, I had already lost my papa. I was probably only six during that time. He was diagnosed with lung cancer the previous year, but even though it said that the cause of death was because he had smoked so much and his cancer got to him, I knew the truth. At one point, I noticed my mother throwing knives at a target in the dining hall from a small gap in the door that I was hiding behind. She didn't like it when I stayed awake in the middle of the night because she knew I watched her. Anyway, I think she had thrown one of those knives at papa and continued to stab him afterwards. When he stopped breathing, she cut open her thumb, sucked the blood right out of it and placed her lips over my papa's mouth, all the wounds slowly started to mend themselves back together. She redressed him into some old clothes of his and told my brother and I the next morning that he died from his cancer. I knew it was a lie, but it took me a while to realize that it wasn't exactly as I had remembered it.

Before that incident, my mother met up with Doctor Geos' brother at a restaurant. The man was madly in love with mother before she married papa. He wanted no one else but her. If he couldn't have her, no one could. He slipped some medication in my mother's tea that she had carelessly left behind when she used the lav. While she was away, the evil doctor put in the powder and stirred it to blend with the tea. Shortly after my mother drank the tea, she felt woozy and needed a ride home from that bastard. He dropped her off in front of the house, but not before he implanted a chip counteracting the one placed by his brother in her hair. She hadn't noticed it, but she was being controlled by him. The Doctor Geos I knew told me this side of the story when he had gone to papa's funeral the days after. His brother didn't know the good doctor had already known about his obsession with mother and followed them to the restaurant and back home. He blamed himself for not being able to stop him, but he needed proof that he was up to no good. Mother wouldn't stop crying every night after that.

During the next few years I had lived without papa, I had a boyfriend when I turned thirteen. He was my friend, Auel who was really funny, charming, and good-looking. I wasn't shallow, but I really did like his face. Auel was one of the boys that came to comfort me when I attended my first bloodbath at the institution with Sven. Sventus was Auel's best friend, I honestly thought he had a very sexy and mysterious quality to him. I even wanted to date him when I made other friends there that told me he liked me. I didn't get the chance to since Auel was determined to ask me out. He had always been there for me and was such a sweetheart. We dated before I left for about two years. Why did we break up? Well, I considered my mother's offer at Bullworth, of course. Auel understood and I knew it was the right decision.

Luke is my younger brother, who I adore. He's five years younger than me. He's always been this adorable little bundle of joy. He looks just like papa actually, but mini. Often, mother called him, 'tiny papa'. I always laughed whenever she did. Mother was still stable at the time and had such life in her. When Auel met Luke, he was already eight years old and loved to play kick the can. He was always around mother. Auel called him, 'wallaby' because it seemed that he would never leave her pouch. It's like saying he would never let go of the hand that feeds him. Luke didn't like the name because it made him feel weak. That wasn't the case at all though when he was with me at the institution, he was so crafty and conniving. My little brother was a lot smarter than me, in my eyes at least.

One person whom Luke could not stand was Gary. Gary Smith was also there at the institution he was there even before Luke was born, but he was often bullied by other Codeds. For the most part, Gary was a natural. Mother once told me that Gary really like me since I was the only one who asked him to come eat lunch with me and would feed him like a baby. He liked me because I was his friend, his only friend. I liked him too, he had pale skin, but medium length dark brown hair that was parted on the left. It covered his eyes sometimes, but I told him that if he were to cut it, he'd look really cute. To my surprise, he listened to me and I saw him days after our last encounter with a cropped haircut that seemed like a mistake. I admired his effort though and I even gave him a peck on the cheek during lunch for being so sweet.

It's funny, that even though I know I'm unconscious and am remembering all these things, I can't help but feel I may be lacking something still. I remember all my new friends, and even the old. Still, I feel like something is missing…I can't hear anything, nor do I feel, not even a smell is present other than my own hair (which smells like berries). I can't figure out why, but I can't wake up!

Petey's POV

I noticed that Leo hasn't been here in a month since Pinky seems a lot quieter in class. Despite talking to Gord about clothes and fashion, I hear no words escaping her mouth. By now, I'd always keep in mind that I'm too cool to be dorky and too dorky to be anything else since I'm always by myself in class, but today I feel exceptionally lonely. I stare at Leo's portrait I painted last month. I feel as though she knew she was going to leave and left me with this image of her side profile to remind me that she was real and existed. I felt like she was just a dream.

"Peter? Peter Kowalski?" Miss Phillips looked at me as if I had been completely zoning out for the entire lesson. Unfortunately, it was true.

"Sorry, I'll pay attention." I say looking back at the picture of Leo, completely distraught.

She sternly looked me over and then to my portrait of Leo, "My, what a wonderful painting, Peter! I'm sure your girlfriend will be proud."

"She's – she's not my…" Before I could continue my sentence, she moved on to someone else and all I felt was lonely again.

After classes, I went to hang out with Jimmy, he usually knew what to do. Even though I gave him most advice, he would still occasionally listen to me and give me feedback on my problems.

"If it isn't the head-boy, Pete." I heard Jimmy say as he turned around from the TV in the boys' dorm.

"Yeah…He-Hey Jimmy, can you talk for a sec?" I limp over to him on the couch.

"Sure, you nervous again?" He asked. Jimmy knew that whenever I had a problem or felt unsure, I limped when I walked.

"No, it's just, that girl, Leo, remember her? I haven't seen her in a while and I'm kind of worried." I say as I look to the TV.

"I bet it was Gary. Every time something goes wrong around here, he's always the guy to blame. It's just like Halloween last year, remember? He dressed like a Nazi officer. Honestly, if there's anything I learned from history class, it's that the Nazi's blamed the Jews for everything and this time, I think we should put the blame back on him."

"You know my family's name is Polish, more specifically derived from Jewish ancestors?" I questioningly look over to Jimmy whose eyes are squinting even more than usual as he goes deep in thought. He's been acting odd recently.

"All the more reason to blame him. C'mon, let's go for a walk to see the maniac." Jimmy says as he gets up and walks past me towards the entrance to the dorms. I follow.

A short while later, we end up in front of the school after hearing from Edgar that Gary would be here. I pace around the benches below the railing and Jimmy comes back up from talking to one of, 'his girls'. I walk to him in front of the staircase to the school and watch him approach me.

"We got to teach that Edgar kid a lesson." He says as he gets within arm length of me.

"Aah, we got the old Jimmy back." I say as I spread my arms out in front of me.

Jimmy makes gestures with his hands referencing Edgar, "That kid is a lunatic… I bet if we knock some sense into him, he'll turn on Gary."

I watch as Jimmy finishes his sentence as he mimics a punch landing on Edgar by slamming one fist into the other hand, "Alright, what's the plan?" I'm taken aback by his gesture and lean back a bit, holding my arms out in front of me as if I was carrying something.

"It's complicated."

"Great."

Jimmy proceeds with his explanation by pointing away to the Blue Skies area in reference from our current position, "Yeah. I march in there and beat the crap out of him." He says imitating his same gesture with his fist and hand motions.

I hold my hand to the side of my head, "Uh, well, at least it's subtle."

"That's right." Jimmy straightens up his posture. I end up swinging my arms to the side in a casual manner. I wonder why Edgar lied to us? Is Gary really trying his plans all over again?

Gary's POV

Why did I get rid of her? You had to. I don't want to lose her again. She's nothing, but a pawn. I look over to the trash can in my room. So much paper, so much medication. I always dumped my meds in the trash with each reimbursement. Nurse McRae didn't know a thing. She assumed that I had been taking them, but there they were, in the trash.

"No, it's just, that girl, Leo, remember her?" I heard femme-boy talking to someone on the other side of the door. I tuned out just about everything else they were talking about when I saw Edgar outside my window.

"Hey, come over here." I said quietly as I opened my window and gestured for him to come closer.

"What, Gary? I'm busy." Edgar says as he attempts to wash off some spray-paint off the wall of the dorm.

"I need a favor." I tell him when he's within feet of me.

"I dunno, after you got me in trouble with Hopkins last year, I don't really trust you." He says as he points to me with a rag in his hand.

"Let me guess, you're doing this for money? I'll tell you what, I'll pay you off for eighty bucks if you tell Hopkins I'm not here." I say as I smirk at him holding the bills in my hand.

"Alright, I could use the break anyway." He grabbed the money from me and I closed my window as he approached Hopkins and femme-boy.

"All according to plan."

Johnny's POV

Where has she been? Is she a slut like Lola? Has she been sleepin' around and gotten knocked up by some other guy? I clench my teeth at these thoughts and walk out of the tenements to the bridge of New Coventry for a drink. At one point, Leo told me that she didn't like the smell of smoke and she didn't like it either when I drank. That was before she disappeared and she slept on my lap in tears. The chick talks in her sleep sometimes.

"That's him." I saw a townie named Duncan point to me with some orderlies around him. As they made their ways towards me, I tried to make a break for it. Now, I had a run in with these guys before when I heard Lola was sleepin' around and I went kinda crazy. This time, I have no idea what I did to deserve this. They caught up to me after I had one too many drinks and injected me with this stuff that seemed to make everything fade away in a flurry of green gas.

Later

I woke up to find myself being dragged through Happy Volts. Shit, this place again. However, I did notice somethin' new. I saw an extra room past the main hall on the right and when someone opened it, I saw a brief silhouette of Leo. She was sleepin' soundly in what looked like a glass coffin.

"LEO! Leo!" I raised my voice shouting to wake her up. I wanted to see her and never had the chance before she disappeared. Looks like we're in the same boat. I noticed two guys and a kid messin' with some of the tools in that room, they couldn't hear a word I said. I tried to break free from the orderlies, but was too doped up on that stuff I was injected with.

Leo, I'll get us outta here.

Luke's POV

We need to wait for that sample of DNA. I said as I marked the measurements on the test tubes for the chemical ingredients.

"That will be the last of it." I said aloud as I managed to pour in all the necessities before the big finale.

"You sure?" Auel said, looking over my work.

"You question me?" I say as I could feel the bags under my eyes from staying here for the past 48 hours.

"Nah, it's just, can't we make a new sample." He says as he shakes one of the liquids in a beaker.

I take it from him, "Stop that, we don't have enough resources at this facility to do so. Besides, we break one of these vials and we're screwed."

Auel walks over to my sleeping sister and places his hand on the glass, "She's gotten more beautiful since the last time I saw her."

"Yeah, yeah." I say placing the beaker back into the appropriate position on a chemical stand.

For some reason, I feel really uneasy.

A/N: Hope you liked the new chapter, I'm still working out what I want to do with Leo. Not sure though. I won't be able to draw anything while I'm at my parents (currently) because the supplies I use are at my apartment. Please leave a favorite, review, or follow as they are always appreciated! By the way, in case some of you are wondering, you say Auel's name as 'Owl'.

Natural* - Those born without any experimentation done to their bloodstreams and don't have any chips embedded in them. They are the most human.

Coded* - The experiments are called 'Codeds' because of the coding done to their bloodstreams, these can be faulty and may or may not turn into brainless entities. Hyotei is a coded.

Chevalier* - A protector embedded with a chip somewhere in their skin as well as a perfectly coded bloodstream. There are no flaws with their programming and training and are able to perform duties well above the expectation of Codeds. These experiments are self-maintained and are in no real danger of becoming husks. Alongside Leo, Luke, Sven, and Auel are considered Chevaliers.

Husk* - A husk is a shell of the original experiment. It has no conscious thought and is thought to be Zombie-like. They're very aggressive and will destroy anything standing in their path. Remember, these were once humans who became Codeds that then turned into Husks because their bodies cannot handle the sample injected into the trial Codeds and Chevalier.

Hope that helps everyone, I'll post another chapter in 2 days!