Break

Chapter Eleven

Threatened

The transgenics rushed into their home base to find Otto sitting in the corner with the young woman Max had seen him disappear with. Anger boiled inside each of those that had been on the mission, because as far as they could tell, Otto had put them all in danger by bringing this woman to their headquarters. Some, like Xandy, couldn't help but blame the newcomers for this threat, after all, the Created never would have trusted an Ordinary if it weren't for the traitor and her lapdog. And Zane, who insisted that the Created trust 452. However, it was too late to change the fact that the human had endangered them by bringing a possible plant inside the Created, but it was not too late to take more preventative measures. Xandy was the first one to charge forward, her hands flashing in front of her as she jerked Otto away from the woman and pushed him against the wall. Gage made his own way to the woman, holding her arms behind her back, keeping her unable to move. She yelped as a slight pain ripped through her shoulders, and her eyes widened in a curious gaze as she saw Otto's predicament.

"I thought you said we would be safe from him. You lied to me!"

"It's okay, Mrs. White…" Otto tried to comfort, intending to say more than he was allowed. Xandy cut him off before he even had the chance to complete his thought.

"You brought Ames White's wife into our headquarters. Are you insane!" Xandy pushed Otto against the wall once more, knocking his head against the side. She had half a mind to snap his neck on the spot for betraying the Created like that. Before Xandy realized what was happening, Max was trying to pull her off of the Ordinary while Alec tried to get Gage to relax his grip on the woman, presumably Wendy White. Xandy threw her arm back, elbowing Max in the jaw.

"Get the hell off me." Xandy growled dangerously. If she didn't have a hold of one traitor, she would be strangling the other. How dare Max try to stop her from interrogating the human. Xandy's eyes were glittering in anger, a look Zane recognized immediately from where he stood.

"Maxie, it's not a good idea to interfere with Xandy when she's got her mind set to do something. You know as well as I do that Otto shouldn't have brought this woman here…especially here."

Xandy was almost as shocked as Max was to here Zane take her side. Zane seemed to think Max could do no wrong, and if Max deemed anything to be true or important, Zane would follow her every whim. Probably because they were both traitors. However, Xandy was pleased with the development that maybe Zane still had a bit of sanity left in him, even with his precious Max around.

Max whirled to look at Zane, surprised that it was he who protested her stopping Xandy's mistreatment of Otto. She would have expected it from any of the others, but not Zane. How could he betray her like that? They were a team; they had been since they were children. Sure, they had been separated for the last years, but they were still family.

"She's over-reacting. She doesn't need to be hurting Otto over bringing Wendy White here. Logan told me she'd been missing for several days, shortly after her son had been abducted. The third, by the way, of Ames White. Where do you think he was taken? Why do you think she was taken?"

Zane shook his head, not truly listening to what Max was saying. "Who cares what your Ordinary said. Zack told me all about your buddy, Logan, how he used you and made you think you were human, instead of embracing who you are. And how do you know this is actually Wendy White, just because some Ordinary says so. I know that you trust Otto, for some reason, or are at least willing to listen to him, even though I'm still not sure how I understand how you three came to be connected. I'm not going to trust him. He has no proof that this is Wendy White, or that she is ultimately good, even if she is."

Xandy knew now was the time to add in her two cents. "Honestly, Max, Otto endangered this entire organization by bringing this woman here. She could be waiting, spying on us, ready to turn us in at any moment. We have to be cautious, because if we're not, we could all end up DEAD. I'm not willing to take my chances on this, just because a human claims she's someone who is good."

Wendy finally spoke up, tentatively, "I am Wendy White. I'm…human, since you all seem to be throwing that word around a lot. I was married to Ames White. I am married to him. But he kidnapped my son and took me from my family and threatened to kill me. Obviously, I'm a horrible judge of character. But I'm not here to betray you…or your organization, whatever it is."

Her speech did nothing to ease the tension in the warehouse. More Created had become interested in the scene that was happening in the corner of the warehouse. They had seen Otto return with the new woman, but since Otto had been cleared by the higher ups in their organization, they assumed the woman had been too. Obviously they had been wrong, and more than a few feared the wrath of Xandy when she was done torturing Otto and the woman. Still, the fear didn't stop them from crowding around the small group to find out what was happening.

Xandy didn't ease her grip on Otto, but it was obvious that Gage was considering what Wendy had just said. Along with what Max had offered as far as information about Wendy's background went. Sure, her information came from the ordinary that Zack had warned them against not too long ago, but still, he was starting to wonder if they had misjudged the poor woman. He could sense her terror at being held captive…again, possibly, and he understood the terror. He'd been locked up himself for not being able to withstand some of the breeding cult's tests. He didn't want to hurt this woman if she wasn't there to hurt them.

"Maybe there's some truth to what they're saying, Xandy. You know she's terrified. If she was a plant, she wouldn't be as scared. You know she's not acting it, either, you can actually smell the fear, can't you?"

Xandy hated to admit that Gage was right. She could smell the fear, a perk that her animal DNA offered her. She was almost 99 sure that a human couldn't fabricate the scent that boiled deep inside of them. She would be able to sense some sort of calm if she was a plant. Still, she didn't want to admit that she might be wrong. Especially when Zane had practically sided with her.

"How do you know that this isn't some elaborate lie between Otto and White? I mean, sure, it's possible this woman isn't a plant, but Otto could be. He just happened to find White's estranged wife when we broke into this warehouse. It's sort of coincidental."

Max continued forward, ignoring Zane's warning at interfering with Xandy when she was as stubborn like she was now. Alec understood the look on her face and he almost pitied Xandy. He understood the way Xandy felt, the distrust. He had felt it before too. The distrust was breeded in Manticore. He knew there was nothing that could stop the confrontation that was about to happen, though.

"We don't know if it's a plan between Otto and White, but Wendy is not in on it. And it's too late to do anything about it if Otto isn't trustworthy. You have no proof that he's gone against us, though, or is working against us, so unless you want the animal to take over you, let them both go and let us talk about this rationally. Hurting Wendy and Otto isn't going to help the situation. White would already be here storming the warehouse if he knew where we were. You know he's not the type to just sit around and wait for us to come to him."

Xandy let go of Otto angrily, not at all happy with having to follow what Max said. She knew that Max was right, but admitting it was a whole other game. She didn't want the traitor to get the wrong idea. Xandy was in charge of this outfit, in charge of The Created. This was her organization and she wasn't going to let Max come in and destroy everything that she had worked towards.

"We will be leaving them both out of any kind of planning we do from now on. They will be guarded, but still allowed to move around freely. We will not let them know what our missions are; they will only follow us where we decide to go. Is this understood?"

Gage released Wendy as soon as Xandy said this, not wishing to prolong the woman's suffering anymore. She collapsed onto the torn couch not too far from where she had been held up. Otto joined her immediately, worried about her state of mind after being held by the breeding cult then by the Created. He had always believed in what the Created stood for, until he had just been held hostage by him and seen this woman slightly mishandled at the smallest suspicion. Maybe the Created wasn't all it was cracked up to be, and he almost felt guilty for bringing Wendy back to the warehouse. He had thought they would protect her, but he might just be wrong about that.

Xandy quickly assigned two Created to watch the Ordinaries, and then motioned for Zane, Riley, Sora, Max, Alec and a couple others to join her on the other side of the warehouse. They had some specifics to discuss about the next mission, as well as the lockbox at Otto's feet to go through. There was much to be done and not nearly enough time to get through it. McKinley would be running for President soon, the elections were coming up. And they had to stop McKinley from being put into office.

The tension remained high as the Created separated into their assigned groups. Xandy was still amazed that Zane had taken her side, amazed that most of them had at first. Of course, reason set in shortly after, but she was still proud that Zane had taken a step to support her instead of Max. Max, on the other hand, found Zane's support of Xandy to be some sort of betrayal and could do nothing but glare at her brother. Alec had smartly remained out of the mix, though he clearly had his own thoughts on the matter, and Gage and Riley had been just as supportive of Xandy as Zane had been. These were the head of the Created, Gage, Riley, Zane and Xandy, and Max was quickly trying to become one as well. It was up to them to decide the Created's next move, and this little meeting would be the one to decide it. But first, the transgenics needed to calm down after the heat of the last situation, and they needed to ready themselves for a normal conversation.

Xandy was obviously the one who would pitch her next plan, give the specifics of the next mission. Everyone took their seats, while Xandy paced nervously in front of them. Her next plan was a big one, something that would truly hurt the Breeding Cult if it all went of without a hitch. However, this was going to be a big risk, a huge risk, for all involved. She would do it, though. She had to.

"We're going to Seattle."

Already, the group was in an uproar at the concept of doing this. Max had run away from Seattle for a break, as had Alec, and they were not going to return with a whole new group of transgenics…and Familiars.

"No, before you say anything, I'm going to explain it all. Listen, we didn't have any place we could have a base of operations, but now that Max and Alec are conveniently on our side, we can have one. You have places we could stay, don't you?"

Max hesitated immediately, but Alec was ready to help immediately. "Of course we do. You can stay at my place, Max's, Joshua's, even the Log's, I'm sure. If you bat your eyelashes, Maxie."

She punched Alec out of habit, but not with enough heart that it actually hurt him. She sighed and nodded slowly, agreeing with what Alec said…all except the eyelashes part, that is.

"We've got places for you, it's true. But we don't have any kind of transportation, and I doubt we're all going to fit on Alec's bike and in Otto's car."

"We can take care of that, Max, don't you worry." Xandy said it somewhat sarcastically, as if she was offended that Max didn't think she had thought of transportation.

"We'll be leaving tomorrow at 0800 hours. And as of now, I'm planning on how we're going to infiltrate McKinley's campaign and follow White. Familiars are hard to track, without them realizing we're doing it."

Max tossed a harrowing look in Otto's direction. "Well, I think I have a way…"

Otto sat next to Wendy White quietly, who was twisting her hands in her lap. She was obviously terrified of everyone in the building, even though she wasn't bound and gagged anymore. He could hardly blame her; he had never expected the Created to turn on him, or this woman. He reached his hand out and took Wendy's, and he noticed that she was shaking. Otto felt immensely guilty again, for bringing her here, for not being able to protect this woman who had been hurt so deeply by her husband.

"It's going to turn out okay, Mrs. White."

"Stop calling me Mrs. White. I wish I could forget him, right now at least. Our whole life wasn't real, and he obviously didn't love me enough to count for anything. He kidnapped my son and tried to kill me. I am no longer Wendy White."

Her speech was impassioned, and he understood the hate that was boiling beneath the surface of calm that she had put up.

"Okay, Wendy," he tested her first name cautiously, "I'm sorry that all this happened. They won't hurt you, they just don't trust you."

"I know why they don't trust me. They're trying to protect their own, and I understand that. I was trying to do that when I looked for my son. I just don't know who these people are, or who my husband is affiliated with, and I'm just so confused. I don't even know who you are."

He smiled at her comfortingly, and it warmed her somewhat, but she lowered her gaze when she felt his eyes boring into her.

"I'm Otto. I worked at the NSA with your husband, until I became suspicious of his actions and his deep-seeded hate of the transgenics we were trying to capture. Then rumblings of the Created reached me, and I realized who White really was…"

Otto continued his explanation, trying his best to bring Wendy into the loop without scarring her for life at what she was about to find out.