Melinda blinked in surprise as the words slowly sank in and her mind wrapped around the meaning, "There were a little more than 300 people." the words fell clumsily from her lips, "What do you mean I'm the only survivor."

Albrecht just looked at her, a hint of pity on his face, "Just as I have said." he shrugged almost nonchalantly, "There was nothing to be done. The genetic material of that woman...of Mystique is akin to a mystery." Albrecht's blue eyes then found Melinda's brown ones, "We were all...surprised to find that there had been a survivor. You." he emphasized, his accent rolled heavily, "However, you were not as the experiment had intended. You were not as we had intended. You were different than what we had imagined."

"Who is Mystique? And what do you mean I wasn't what you guys intended?" Melinda couldn't help asking. She was having trouble trying to wrap her mind around the conversation. She didn't even know who or what this Mystique woman was. She could deduce the obvious, that this Mystique woman had amazing or rare abilities and that people wanted them. They wanted them so much so that they conducted what was probably inhumane experiments on other people to try and copy those abilities.

Albrecht frowned at her for a moment, "Mystique is a woman of a unique genetic mutation." he had paused for a moment before answering her question, "She has the talent to...become someone else to perfection." his eyes lingered on Melinda before moving to the fireplace and staying there as he continued to speak, "As I have said before, there are many people who wish to use that power and yet Mystique fundamentally works for her own purposes."

"I'm sure that you can deduce enough to realize that you were part of an experiment to replicate her abilities." Albrecht's eyes flicked over to her for a moment before going back to the fireplace, "Of course, as you know, the experiments yielded very little if no promising results. No matter the genius intellect that your parents possessed." The man sighed and settled himself into his seat comfortably, "It seems as though there are some things that people are not made to have."

Melinda almost felt frozen in her seat as she listened to Albrecht talk. His tone was as light as if he was discussing the taste of food or the scent of a perfume that he enjoyed. It seemed that the worth and weight of human lives sacrificed because of his greed didn't even scratch his conscious. They had been nothing if not disposable trash to him. In fact, to people like him, there were probably too many of 'them'...too many of 'us', Melinda realized a little belatedly.

"Some years went by and as the subjects died from all the...testing, we all realized the futility of such an undertaking and so, I decided to shut it all down. It was a waste of Mystique's genetic material and my time. By then, there were only a few subjects left, you among them." Albrecht continued not noticing or caring if Melinda was listening or not, "At that time, I did not know exactly what your...parents saw in you," he paused, "but it was you they chose to take and run away with." his ice blue eyes now found her brown ones.

Melinda blinked as she let all of this information sink in. It didn't feel like she was listening to her own story but rather someone else's.

"One year after they left, all the test subjects had died." Albrecht tapped a finger on the arm of his chair thoughtfully, "I know what you're about to ask." he smiled but there was no warmth, "Why did I let them get away?"

The two people stared at each other for a few moments of silence before Albrecht answered with a shrug, "They were not worth my time. I had much more important things to do and everyone including myself, was under the impression that the test subject they had taken, namely you, had died anyway."

But I'm here now, Melinda thought to herself bitterly, a survivor of some kind of freak experiment. She took a big swig of the amber liquid in her cup and winced a little at the burn she felt as she swallowed.

"But," Albrecht's voice took on a sudden sharpness and there seemed to be a strange light in his blue eyes as he looked at her, "we were mistaken. You were special."

"Special." Melinda repeated almost scathingly. She could not think of anything that made her stand out from anyone else. She was a freak. Her own 'super power' would be the death of her one day. There was no use for her abilities anyway, Melinda's mind flashed back to Tony Stark's machine that had healed her some time ago.

"Yes." Albrecht ignored Melinda's skepticism and leaned forward, "No one expected this. It did not cross the minds of anyone involved in the project. Not even your parents." the blond man settled back into his chair once again with a shrug of his shoulders.

Melinda's brow crinkled as she tried to think of the possibilities but of course...there were too many. There was no way she could come up with the right answer for herself.

"What was it?" Melinda asked when Albrecht didn't say anything. He was pouring himself another measure of the liquor and offered her some but she shook her head.

Albrecht stoppered the decanter and swirled the contents around in his cup before taking a sip. He held the crystal cup up to the light of the fire and then looked at her for a moment, "It was that you had abilities of your own."

"I had what?" Melinda couldn't believe what she was hearing now.

"Yes, we all had that same reaction as well." Albrecht chuckled at the sight of her face and took another sip of his drink, "It took everyone years to figure it out but it took your parents only a couple of months." he sighed, "Earlier I said that I did not know why they chose you to take. It took us a lot of time to realize the reason why."

Melinda had no words to describe how she was feeling right now. Sure there was some disappointment and fear, but more than that there was anger and a big sense of betrayal. She thought back to the faces of the people who called themselves her parents. So this was why they had chosen her, because she had her own powers.

"You had become...something else entirely." Albrecht turned his head to look at the fireplace this time, "To make the story short, I had some of my people track down your family."

Melinda straightened up in her seat at his words, he had done what?

"It's been a while since you saw them isn't that right?" Albrecht set down his glass on the tray and settled into his seat comfortably, "They were very willing to part with every bit of information they had on you." his tone of voice was very light as he told her.

"And?" Melinda couldn't help but to shrug at his comment. Whether or not this man did something to her 'parents' was of no concern to her now. Especially after all that had been revealed to her. Maybe she should have felt some kind of emotion for them like worry, but there was nothing like that.

Albrecht blinked at her for a moment not expecting the edge to her tone, "And well, your parents have hypothesized that before we began the genetic experiments, your abilities would have been to repair the physical structure of cells or accelerate cell division in organisms."

"So in other words, I would have been able to just heal them." Melinda stated bluntly. Of course, it was more complicated than that but the simplest way to sum it up was just that.

"To put it simply, yes." Albrecht nodded, "Had we not interfered with your original abilities it would have stayed just that."

"So then...because of the experiments, it became what it is today." Melinda summarized quietly. To be honest, there were no words for the emotions she felt at the very moment. She felt it all and at the same time she felt nothing, "How can you be sure of all of this?" she asked slumping back into her chair.

"It turned out that your parents had been secretly doing their own research after leaving me." Albrecht began softly in a tone that made Melinda suppress a shiver of revulsion, "Over the years, they had collected more data while caring for you." he glanced at her briefly before looking away, "They...hypothesized that, as I have said earlier, your original unaltered abilities would have been merely to just heal." there was a brief silence as he gathered his thoughts before continuing, "You read from the files that there were sub groups of the experiments. Some children were injected with blood, others had different sections of their DNA spliced and replicated within the body, and so on. You were in the first group that I mentioned. To be clear here, the amount of blood actually injected was but a mere 3 milliliters and it only needed to be injected once for any changes to occur."

Melinda blinked, so it hadn't been as she had pictured it then. Reading the case file had only painted gruesome pictures in her head like kids strapped to a metal gurney screaming and crying while masked scientists hurt them. But then again, that was something movies did to excite the viewers, and this was definitely not a movie.

"When Mystique's blood was introduced to your body, you can say that there was a reaction. Almost like an allergy." Albrecht continued, "It took a few days for your body to adjust and adapt to the anomaly in your veins and your new abilities lay dormant for a couple of months afterwards."

There was silence for a few minutes as Melinda gathered her thoughts, "So what does all of this have to do with me being here then?" she finally asked. She'd had enough of her 'origin' story, she wanted to know what was going to happen.

"Ah yes, I almost forgot about that." Albrecht's eyes lit up and a small smile curved the edges of his mouth up before quickly disappearing, "Your job." he leaned forward.

Melinda blinked and suddenly felt regret squeezing her chest as she looked at Albrecht. The look on his face told her that his next words wouldn't be pleasant.

-.-.

Forgive any typos please. So sorry for the long delay. I've started a new job after graduating and it's been super busy, not to mention the super annoying writer's block that's been harassing me for a while. I hope to be updating regularly now that everything is starting to settle and things are starting to move forward.

I appreciate the reviews that you guys have been posting and once againn forgive me if the chapter has been a little redundant. It's hard to pick up where I left off after a long time. It's short but it's another start!

Thanks people!