"FASTER!" Scott yelled at me, swinging his cattle prod up and catching my shoulder. I jerked away, it still stung me, and I felt tears in my eyes. I leaned forward, readying my legs to run; I had to beat the boy this time.

The boy smirked at me. He was a little older than me, eight or nine, and he was Scott's, he did whatever Scott said, no matter what.

"GO!" Scott roared. I tripped into a run, my legs hurt so bad. I felt my bare toe catch on something, and slammed down onto the track, biting my check hard. My head pounded, and the white lights burned my weepy eyes. I could taste my blood, warm and salty. I felt the tears on my cheeks, and I wanted to die. If I was dead, Scott couldn't do this to me.

"Taking a nap, little waste?" the boy asked, getting too close to my face.

I spat my blood at him. He cursed and kicked me in the chest, hitting my tender ribs. "We have a race to finish, little waste, get up so I can beat you again."

"No." I murmured.

"What's that?" the boy got close again. I punched him as hard as I could from the ground, and felt his nose give under my fist. He screamed and lurched away, holding his nose. "You little freak!" He said, his voice funny.

"Nice scream, girly." I said, trying hard to sound like Max.

He kicked me again, this time in the stomach. I lost my pancakes on the track. The boy laughed. "Can't take it? You puke when you get hit, little waste? You're just as useless as everyone's been saying," he leered at me. "You're wasting good air by being alive, you know."

Don't take that from him. The voice said. You might be a waste, but you're needed alive.

That didn't make me feel any better.

Get up and fight back. The voice ordered.

I pushed myself up, wincing as I moved. I spat more blood on the track and looked up at the boy. I bit into my lip, and tried to punch him.

He caught my hand and shoved me back to the floor. He twisted my arm until I whimpered.

"The little waste can't fight?" he said.

"No," Scott said, coming close to me. "That's why she's useless, aren't you, Alley?" he poked my shoulder with the toe of his shoe.

"Yes, sir." I said. I closed my eyes and wished myself dead again.

"Look at me when I'm talking to you!" Scott snarled, and I felt the searing end of his cigarette on my palm. I pulled my hand away. "You will take the discipline I give you, young lady." He kicked me in the chest. "Do whatever you want to her." He said to the boy.

The boy kicked me in the tummy again. I gagged, but there was nothing left to throw up. "You're useless." He said, his voice was so much like Scott's hating voice. "And you're insane; you hear voices, don't you? They tell you to slit your wrists, and you do it."

"Just one voice." I whimpered.

"You needed help from outsiders. You let them treat you like a pet." He grabbed my arm. "They put these in, didn't they?" he touched my stitches.

"Yes." I said. I was so sad and… I felt, like, like I was lost. Like I had a place, and this wasn't it.

"You were too weak to stay in the air." The boy said. He dropped my arm. "You should be dead, now, you know. You little freak, no one loves you."

"I know." I wondered where my place was.

"That's enough for now, Todd. I have to take her home, now; she'll need some sleep for tomorrow." Scott picked me up, careful not to touch my puke, and carried me through the lab complex and out to his car.

"You know, Alley, the voice in your head is your friend, it only wants to help you. Having it doesn't make you crazy." He dropped me in the back seat.

"I'm never, ever going to do anything else it tells me to." I said coldly. If Scott said it was my friend, then it was going to hurt me.

"What makes you say that?" he asked.

"The voice." I snapped. It didn't make any sense, and I didn't care. I closed my eyes again.

"Alley, there's something I need to tell you." Scott broke the silence when I was almost asleep.

"What?" I asked. I tried hard not to let him hear that I actually wanted to know.

"Do you remember your mother?" he asked.

That was he wanted to tell me?

"Yes." I didn't say the part about remembering everything. I've never told anyone that. It's secret, like the voice, even though the voice wasn't secret to Scott and the boy, because they had both known, and that had to be a bad thing, but I wasn't sure how… my head hurt too much to think everything out.

"She loved you very much," he muttered.

"Why are you telling me something I already know?" I felt like a novelist for stringing that many words together half asleep and in pain.

"She wasn't your biological mother," he said too loudly.

"Huh?" I said.

"You're not technically her child. She was just a surrogate, I had her falsely impregnated. You're a mixed gene clone." He said, too quiet.

All I really got out of that was 'mixed gene clone'. Whose genes? Who was I a clone of? Did this mean that Conner and Momma weren't my real family? Who was? Mixed, did that mean more than one person?

"The mix included various staff members, none of whom you'd know. It also included two people you do know…" he trailed off.

I guessed that one would be Max. I was her replacement. The other could have been anyone… Conner, maybe?

"Max," he said stiffly. "was one, and the other was Fang."

[ok, quick thing, I know next to nothing about genetics, soooo, if what I wrote is wrong, don't get mad or anything. Anyvays... REVIEW! PLEAASSEE REVIEW! AND FAV! AND SET THIS STORY ON ALERT! PLEASE! thanks.,...]