Checkmate.

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I do not own Kyle XY. Stop asking already!

The Chair room.

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"The fearsome and powerful XX." Kyle looked at her with a smirk "You are as gullible as they said you would be."

"Kyle what are you doing?" Jessi said in shock, still recovering from the hit

"I am stronger then you are, but there is no need to take unnecessary risk." He said waving the 5 pound metal tool in circles, seeking the grip that would provide maximum momentum for his swings. "Your presence here has been anticipated."

"Kyle this is insane!" Jessi pleaded "It's me, JESSI!"

"On the contrary. It the most logical thing to do. You are the only being who could destroy me. Thus I must destroy you."

Kyle was standing in one spot roughly 3 meters in front of Jessi. The pause was welcome, he was still recovering after his comatose state. Jessi was staring at him trying to figure out what to do. After some time, he finally approached Jessi and took a swing at her.

Kyle was certainly not holding any punches. The speed with which the crowbar would have hit my head would have most certainly broken my skull. I jumped back, and pulled out a couple of titanium rods.

"Kyle, lets talk about it!"

"I see you've come prepared."

Powerful swings of the weapon albeit devastating, are easy to dodge. Kyle proceeded to bombard Jessi with short bursts of the crowbar. Jessi was parrying them with her rods and backing down. Finally after another swing of the crowbar, Kyle extended his left hand and Jessi, unable to resist was thrown back. She looked at him in awe.

"Surprised?" "Your brain is only 10% less powerful then mine. But you spend an inordinate amount of energy focused on your emotions."

"Oh you did not just go there!"

Jessi jumped at him and took a swing with his left rod which Kyle parried with his crowbar. Simultaneously she took a swing with the left rod landing a blow just above his waist. Kyle took a step back trying to recover. Encouraged Jessi pushed forward swinging wildly. Parrying 5 of her hits and backing down, suddenly he pulled Jessi towards him magnetically. Jessi was too slow to counteract. She stomped forward as Kyle jumped to the side and swung his weapon downwards. Jessi attempted to parry but was too late. With sparks the crowbar moved along the rod held in her right hand. Jessi only managed to slow its motion down by 17%. With devastating force the crowbar met her wrist.

My body felt pain. I realized that I was feeling Jessi's pain – our link was strong. What she felt must have been much worse. Her right wrist was broken. What is worse, I still had no control over my body.

Upon hitting Jessi with the crowbar Kyle used his momentum to kick Jessi on the back with his leg. She hit the wall hard, and crouched on all fours resting, while Kyle stood in one spot examining his sensations.

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"I can feel your pain. How?"

"We are connected Kyle." "Please don't do this!"

"Interesting trick. But it won't help you." "Why don't you surrender? I have no need to cause you more pain. I will kill you painlessly."

Jessi was standing on her knees propping herself up with her healthy hand.

"Painlessly?"

"Of course. I don't hate you. Hate is an emotion."

Jessi dropped her rod...

"I am glad you are finally acting rationally"

Kyle approached a little. Suddenly Jessi pulled out her last remaining quantum flare with her healthy hand and activated it. Kyle was alerted by her rising adrenaline level that she was about to do something, but he didn't know what. Instinctively he put his hand in front of his face reducing the effect somewhat. But it was enough. Kyle fell down on his knees grabbing his eyes with his free hand.

I felt his pain. It was devastating. Poor Kyle. I walked closer. Suddenly an invisible force dragged me towards him and I lost my balance. I was levitating towards him a few centimeters above ground, unable to block this action, or to use the strength of my body to fight it. Kyle had his back to me. After 0.62 seconds he swung around and put the full force of his body in a hit of his crowbar. It landed just below my kneecap.

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"Aargh!" They both cried out as Jessi collapsed on the floor. Her left leg broke with a loud snap

Kyle stood up. His brain was working hard to restore his vision, but he still couldn't see well.

"Impressive. It's a shame I have to kill you."

"You don't have to..."

"Oh but I do. You had me at a disadvantage, but you missed your chance. That just proves that you are a threat."

"Don't you get it. I don't want to kill you!"

"Emotions weaken you XX. You could have been great!"

Jessi was twirling around on the floor unable to stand up. Kyle jumped on top of her, and put both hands on her neck. She attempted to fight him back with her healthy hand, but Kyle grabbed it with one of his, and continued choking her with the other.

"At least I am still human."

"Human?" Kyle laughed maniacally. "I know you can hear them upstairs. Over a hundred humans are fighting for who will control us."

It was Taylor's men who started storming the complex.

"You and I are something else entirely." He leaned over her ear as her strength was starting to wane "We could be gods!" "Well I will be one. You will be dead." He added

With the oxygen supply to my brain cut by 75% I could not come up with a clever comeback. But suddenly Kyle's expression changed. He got closer to me and got a scent of my hair.

Kyle felt a new sensation. There was something magnetic about XX. He couldn't pull away. He got within inches of her neck and soaked in her scent. It was like a drug. He knew she was dangerous, but he couldn't help himself.

His hormonal levels were rising rapidly: for some reason my pheromones were having a far stronger effect on him then they did before. 375% stronger to be exact. He loosened his grip so I could breathe.

"What is happening to me?"

"Aren't you all-knowing?"

"You will answer me!"

Didn't we have this conversation before?

"It's your libido."

"You are implying that I want to have sex with you?"

"Yes"

"It's illogical."

A little maybe. But this might just be my chance.

"On the contrary. You would enjoy it immensely. Your body chemistry is responding to me far stronger then it would to anybody else."

Kyle pondered his choices. XX didn't seem to be resisting much anymore. It stood to reason she wanted to have sex as well. Which seemed logical on her part, since death was her other choice. Kyle took his hand from her neck and slipped it under her shirt placing it on her stomach.

"You like touching me don't you?" Jessi did her best to come up with a seductive smile. Thankfully Kyle didn't seem to know better. Kyle's hand gradually moved higher. His blood was rushing away from his brain, and much of his neural activity was shutdown.

In his current state, Kyle was about as appealing as Nuclear winter. But with Kyle's brain concentrated on his groin, this was my chance. I closed our mental link best I could and concentrated my neural activity on causing pain. Down there. His eyes widened, and his mouth let out a groan of agony. An ordinary brain would have shut down many times over by now. Kyle was fighting it back as well he could, but even he couldn't handle it.

Jessi changed the polarity of their bodies causing Kyle to fly off her to the corner of the room still convulsing in pain. She snapped her leg back in its place, letting out a scream of her own. Using the last bits of her mental energy she healed her leg up best she could. Jessi could now walk, but every step was painful, and probably caused lasting damage. She limped outside. Kyle was still laying in the corner stunned by what he endured. His body was refusing to cooperate.

…

I pondered my pain inducing ability for some time, and created a classification for pain on a logarithmic scale from 1 to 10 based on neural activity. Somewhere between 9 and 10 the brain of an average person would shut down. What I did to Kyle was about 12.6. I fully expected him to black out, and I couldn't hold back – it would be my last chance to save us both. The fact that he remained conscious was... But I had no time to empathize. Time was of the essence.

Jessi ran up a few floors ensuring she lost Kyle, and sat at a computer terminal that was still operational.

Kyle and the rest of the soldiers under Grace's control were given instructions remotely. My guess was that Grace herself was on the other line. Having fought Kyle for this long, and briefly accessing his brain, I was able to single out the frequency she was using, and triangulate her location. The rest was a matter of time.

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Sometime later Jessi dialed a number on a cell she picked off a guard.

"Hello?"

"Grace Kingsley."

"XX? You are still alive?"

"I need you to shut down Kyle's link."

"And why would I do that?"

"It's your life or his. What do you think I will choose?"

"Drop dead!" Grace said and threw the phone out of her car window.

"Keep driving James." "We got what we wanted. XY will take care of them soon enough."

It took Kyle a while to recover. Clearly XX had many tricks up her sleeve. Twice had he underestimated her. While she was wounded, clearly she was still a threat. Kyle needed a weapon.

Kyle ran up towards the sounds of gunfire. He opened a door and stood face to face with a team of 10 armed mercenaries.

"Hold your fire. It's Trager." The front one said. Kyle observed them cautiously. Having superior firepower they had advantage at long range. But he could sneak out before they would be able to fire.

"Kyle we just want to bring you back safely. We've met before. My name is Ishmael"

Kyle tilted his head to it's side. Isha gave a hand signal. Several tranquilizer darts and a taser were fired at Kyle. He extended his left hand and opened his palm. All the darts stopped 20cm in front of his hand, and fell to the ground.

Kyle dropped the crowbar and extended both his hands forward with fists clenched.

"Kyle be reasonable, you cannot stop all of us!"

Kyle opened his palms. All the soldiers in front of him couldn't help but open their palms as well. Their weapons fell to the ground. Then the weapons were drawn to Kyle. He picked up an M-16 with his right hand.

"And how are you gonna stop me?"

The soldiers scrambled for cover. Kyle shot Ishmael in the leg, and let the rest flee. He approached the Israeli and picked him up by the neck.

"You are their leader?"

"Yes."

"Order full retreat."

"Kyle we cannot"

"Do it or I will kill you." Kyle said and squeezed his neck.

The Bunker

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"No no no no!" Nate yelled out

"What now?" Taylor asked his protégé. Some good news would have been nice

"The military base I hacked into earlier."

"What about it?"

"I am shut out. On purpose."

"Are you telling us they are onto us?"

Nate started sweating. This was very bad!

"Do we have satellites above it?"

"Yeah we still have control over military satellites."

"Well lets see it."

Taylor and Nate watched in awe as the smart missiles were leaving their silos all flying in the same direction. The satellite feed followed them best it could. All the missiles were headed for a piece of highway in the middle of nowhere. Nate held his breath. There was a single car on the road. It was hit by 25 guided surface to surface missiles. Needless to say it got completely vaporized.

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For 5 minutes both men looked at the scene with their mouth open.

"So I don't think that was the military..." Nate finally said "Unless they really dislike Grace Kingsley"

"Oh I think we both know who it was." Taylor didn't dare say her name

"On the bright side, the military was not onto us..." Nate said

"Well I think they will notice this" Taylor pointed to the large explosion on their screens.

"Should we call her?"

"Tried it already..."

"At least we know she is alright..."

"We need to pack" Taylor said finally

Kyle was holding Ishmael by the neck. Life was escaping the hardened Israeli veteran. Suddenly something inside of Kyle changed. He released Isha putting him in a deep sleep.

This was strange. I was doubting the validity of my mission. There was nothing logical about killing this man – he was no threat to me. Killing him would only unleash a manhunt against me. How could I not see it before? Perhaps XX had something to do with this. I had to find her.

Kyle walked to the terminal where Jessi was working earlier. When he walked in, Jessi was sitting with her back to a wall sobbing uncontrollably. Her face was buried in her knees, and covered by her hands. Without moving she said.

"Just do it..."

"Do what?"

"Kill me"

Kyle walked over to her and looked at her curiously. Why would a sentient being want to end their existence?

"Why?"

"Can't you see? I tried being as good, as noble, as selfless as you. And I couldn't! I took a life. Two of them actually..."

"You killed Grace Kingsley?"

Jessi nodded silently.

"Why did you kill her?"

"To free you."

Kyle grabbed her by her arms and picked her up forcefully, but without hurting her. He looked her in the eyes.

"You choose to make your existence meaningless to make me free. After I tried to kill you." Jessi looked at him and nodded. "Why?"

"Because I love you..."

.

Suddenly I felt a sharp pain in my chest. I realized that pain wasn't mine – it was Kyle's. I was feeling his emotions as well. Our link was weak, so the pain Kyle was feeling must have been worse, way worse.

With a groan Kyle fell down to the floor. Jessi caught him in time to cushion his fall. She got on her knees to be on the same eye level with him.

I have finally broken through. But I feared I would not last for long. My body was rejecting my consciousness. I had to make every second count.

"Jessi! I … am so sorry..." Kyle extended his hand and touched Jessi's face with the tips of his fingers "I tried to fight it... I wasn't strong enough..."

"I'll be fine" She smiled weakly "You are hurting!"

"Listen!"

It was getting hard to think, let alone project my thoughts telepathically.

"I don't have much time..."

"We will figure it out! I promise! There is nothing we can't do together..." Jessi was saying as she was running her hands through his hair trying to figure out the reason for his agony.

"Promise me..."

"Anything!"

"That you will start believing in yourself!" Kyle's eyes were wide fighting the pain

"Kyle don't talk like..." she stopped as he put his finger on her lips

"You have so much to offer the world..." Kyle stopped for a second collecting his thoughts "You are stronger than I ever was." Kyle gestured weakly towards her chest. "In there." Jessi waved her head. Tears were appearing in her eyes. She understood what Kyle was about to do.

"Kyle, there has got to be another way!"

"no...." his thoughts were scrambled "it's up to you now" He was breathing heavily fighting back the darkness "...don't trust Taylor" he found himself repeating Adam's last request.

"Please Kyle!" Jessi was crying

"A kiss?"

Her lips met mine. For a moment I forgot my agony, my misery, my fate. My last sensation – her lips on mine. My last sight – her beautiful face. My last thoughts of her. My Jessi. My other half. Then.....

Darkness

A wave of energy radiated through the compound. Dozens of college students, former 881227 subjects were 'waking up' from what seemed like a nightmare. Quickly dropping their weapons and surrendering to the troops storming the facility they all wondered one thing: how did we get there? Some wondered: what set us free? But none found out the true cost of their freedom...

End of part 2 "Chasing Shadows". Part 3 "In the eye of the beholder" coming soon.