Author's Note: The "Hyde" in this chapter title is a reference to Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.
All the Bree stuff is revealed...kind of like S4 of Falling Skies for Lexi.
I miss that show too much. WHY DO I HAVE TO WAIT A WHOLE YEAR?
Also...we get to see an entirely new side of Krane in the next chapter and this one, as well as some knowledge Chase has not been forthcoming with...to y'all, at least. I know everything in the concerns of this fic. Otherwise I'd be a bad author. :)
On a funny note, I had my friend read the summary of this fic, then the reviews, and she just stared at me, asking "How do you manage to combine all this into a fic and have it make sense?"
We're all insane, here, guys!
SO MUCH FALLING SKIES IN THIS CHAPTER!
"Have you come to taunt me? To gloat? That doesn't seem like something you would do." He had never imagined the voice of his former enemy could sound so defeated.
"I haven't, in fact, come to do any of those things. I've come to give you a proposition." Chase kept his voice even, unwilling to sound desperate, even though he was. After all, despite his dire situation, Krane was still a former enemy. A label that wouldn't be soon forgotten.
"Oh, and what might that be? Me selling my company to Davenport Industries, lest my bionic activities be ousted? No, thank you. It's all I have left." His voice conveyed the hollowness of a person who could be shot right then and wouldn't feel any different than if they had kept on living. Hollow, defeated, things that never came to mind when I thought of Krane. Not that I ever thought of him as pure evil, either. Chase knew better than that, he knew Krane better than Krane himself did.
"I actually could care less about your and my family's businesses. I'm concerned with more pressing matters, like say the end of the world perhaps. And how you and I might stop it." Chase took a step forward, knowing Krane would listen to him, for a menagerie of different reasons, all self-serving. Still, at least he'll be listening.
"The world never did anything for me. And I have no wish to rule/destroy it as a normal human, and seeing as I'm no longer bionic, I care nothing about the affairs of the world."
"You miss the power that came with your chip? How superior it made you feel? You felt invulnerable, like no one and nothing could harm you again. I can give you your chip back, all you have to do is loan me your resources for a bit. That's it, nothing else." Krane chuckled, a sound that soon turned into a full-blown guffaw. Darn it, why couldn't he have forgotten it while we were negotiating?
"I want my chip back, and yours. We both know the truth about your chip." Chase felt fury spark in him, spreading through his bloodstream at an insane rate. How dare he-
"Then you know why I can't give it you. No deal. Not at that cost." You really think I'm going to give you the means to destroy the world? Ah, no, think again!
"Fine, then go find someone else with my resources to find your sister. Oh yes, I know all about her, inserting my chip and all. When I find her...my process of removing the chip from her will be much more...deadly, on her part." Chase's heartbeat sped up, and he had to resist the urge to punch him. He took another aggressive step forward, his emotions getting the better of him. The air temperature decreased slightly, the windows frosting over, inside and out.
"If you know the truth about her, then you know it's your fault she's like this! You have to help me get her back!" Krane shook his head, staring at the carpeted floor. That one motion made the temperature drop further, clouds of icy mist exiting their mouths with every breath they took. "You weren't content with your level, you wanted more bionic power! You tried to unlock it with your chip, but Douglas made the chip incapable of holding that much power. Instead, you just created a bug that would alter a person's reality! For a person with bionic smarts, you were really stupid." Chase folded his arms, mentally berating himself for losing control, though his face was an icy mask.
"Whether she has my chip, or I have yours, the world will end. Not to mention all the other countries wanting a piece of you. The world wants to end, and it will come at the hand of the humans, at one time or another. I just want to survive it and lord over the survivors. With my bionics. Did you know that your chip has the power to permanently stop your cells from aging, and giving you unlimited energy? You won't unlock it yourself, because you're weak! Give the strong the power."
"You already have the power. The power to find Bree, and I will take your chip from her. Then we retrieve Adam from China, and...I'll give you my chip. My extremely powerful chip. Happy?" Chase had no intention of handing over his chip to Krane. It would be like giving a sociopath all the nukes in the world, but worse. The world would never be safe as long as Krane was in it, and Chase had every intention to make the world as safe as the world could possibly be. Even if he had to do so by means that would scar his soul forever.
"You wouldn't lie to me," Krane stated, and Chase wondered how he could be a hero with such dark thoughts inside. "Deal."
Chase had just made a deal with the devil, unaware of the ramifications.
"We suck at being parents," Donald muttered. In little under an hour, they'd managed to lose three teens. So what if they're bionic? It doesn't change the fact they're still teens!
"No, you just gave them to much responsibility. Having them save the world before they were older, before they had honed their bionics! Really, Donnie?" Donald knew his brother was picking a fight as a distraction, but that fact didn't make it any easier to control his temper.
"I was being selfless for once in my life! Thinking of others besides myself and my family! Do you think I liked seeing them stressed and wounded? No! I died inside every time! But they had the power to protect the world, and had I let them grow up at normal teens...they could be using their powers as practical jokes, or for evil! I had a responsibility to the world, to the human race, to them! 'With great power comes great responsibility', ever heard that Douglas? Or were you too busy planning on what warlord you could sell them to!"
Douglas sucked in a deep breath and exhaled, and Donald could feel the anger just from that one motion. "I made some mistakes, okay? But I would never have let them get put in this position! I'm sorry I'm trying to make up for my horrible parenting these past years by trying to keep them safe! Since you and I clearly have different definitions of 'safe', I think I could do a better job on my own!" Douglas turned and was about to storm out, but Donald couldn't resist one last jibe.
"I'll always be better than you, Douglas, at parenting, at everything! Hasn't life taught you that?" It was completely ad hominem, and completely false. Donald regretted the words the second they came out of his mouth. Pain flashed across Douglas' face for a milisecond, his mouth opening ready to retort. Then he just turned and left without another word. Great, Tasha and Leo are somewhere in the world, my children gone, and my brother going who knows where! I'm definitely in control and in the know! Not! Feeling the weight of it all come crashing on his shoulders, Donald collapsed against the cyberdesk, drained of energy and will.
And he sobbed, having finally broken.
Bree walked around her quarry, enjoying the fear etched in one of their faces. The other had yet to wake up, but soon they would. And would find themselves alone in a dark, cold, cave of uncaring stone. A description that matches my heart. One was whimpering, begging the other to wake as best they could with the gag stuffed inside their mouth. "Quiet!" A fireball flared into being above her palm, making the awake one silent. The only source of light and warmth for miles around, it was the first time the captive had gazed upon the face of their captor, the flame making shadows dance across the familiar face in a way that would terrify him for months.
The name would have passed his lips clearly without the gag, but it was still audible, albeit garbled. "Eee?" Bree nodded at the person who legally held the title of "stepbrother", and had once been the brother of her heart. Now she cared no more about him than she did a spider she squashed. "Eee! Tooooop!" The gag made it sound like he was saying "poop" but with "t". Once she would have laughed. Even with the garbled quality, she knew what he was truly trying to say: stop.
"Too bad, Leo," She drew a nail down his cheek, with enough force to break the skin and draw blood, the small beads running down his cheek, mixing with the tears that had been born of betrayal and pain. "Don't worry, it'll all be over soon when my brothers come. Then you can all die together."
"You actually trust me enough to do this?" Krane scoffed, though he did not receive the expected response from Chase.
"I know you. When I synchronized our chips...I understood you. Empathically, memory-wise...Krane, I know you. I know all about your past. I know that you're angry at the world for not saving your siblings, why them out of the billions of other people who committed far worse crimes? You also blame yourself for not double-checking to make they were outside, for not saving them as you heard their agonized screams in your head. I heard those screams, and I felt the pain as much as you did, I feel the same pain you do now. Time doesn't heal all wounds, it only numbs them. I'm trying to save my siblings, and you're the only person I can think of who would understand why." I'm also hoping for you to forgive yourself and stop being evil so I don't have to kill you. As hard as it was to kill someone, killing someone you knew as well as Chase did Krane would've been unbearable. Surprisingly enough, Chase's little speech was able to bring water to Krane's eyes.
"I'm going to turn on the machine now. You ready?" Chase wiggled a bit, trying to comfort himself from the suction cups that attached electrical wires to his head. This machine was supposed to act as a Cerebro of sorts, amplifying his telepathic power, as he had no idea how to tap into his chips' nigh-omnipotent power yet. The machine could also spread his consciousness across the world, rendering him into an incurable coma. Then the world, to his eyes at least, went black.
In Chase's mind, it was more of a dark, smoky gray. He picked up stray thoughts, and listened for any that sounded like Bree's. He heard the thoughts of the whole world, and it was a beautiful and terrifying experience. After five minutes of searching, he felt his sister's mind. And how uncaring it was. Ignoring the already-known information, he found her location. The surge of endorphins in his brain made Krane pull him back to normal reality.
"I know where she is,"
Predictions for next chapter?
Expect lots of fight scenes...among a few heartwarming ones.
Falling Skies...kind of influenced this, though I mostly came up with this on my own.
Please review to show support!
Until next time!