I sat in a fetal position on my bed, still in my soot covered mission suit. I was exhausted both physically and emotionally.

When Bree walked into the room without so much as knocking, I snapped at her.

"Can't you knock?" I exclaimed angrily.

"Sorry." I sighed harshly and went back to sulking. I felt the bed dip as Bree sat with crossed legs beside me. "You ok?" She asked after I made no move to speak first.

"I'm fine." I replied shortly, making her scoff.

"Right, of course you are." She said dryly, seeing right through me. This made me more angry.

"No offense Bree, but I really just need to be alone right now." I said harshly, not caring if I hurt her feelings. I just can't get two seconds alone anymore.

"Fine. Geez, I was just wanting to check on you." Bree said. Instantly filled with guilt, I reach out and stop her from getting up.

"Wait. I'm sorry." Bree settled back down as I sighed deeply. "It's just been a rough night." I added quietly.

"I heard. What exactly happened? You were doing fine and then suddenly just ran off." I laughed dryly while shaking my head.

"It's stupid." I said, and Bree put a hand on my shoulder, silently telling me to continue. "When I was in there with the fire surrounding me, it brought back memories of the fire I almost died in a few months ago. And I don't know, I guess I just lost it." Tears smarted in my eyes, from embarrassment or frustration I don't know. Most likely a mixture of both. "And it almost cost us the mission. Without my help, it took longer for them to get everyone out and Chase and Adam almost didn't make it out." Once I finished I slipped off my gloves so I could wipe away the tears, angry at myself for letting them fall in the first place. I must have looked pathetic, but Bree didn't say anything. She wasn't looking at me, and looked ashamed.

"I'm sorry. If I hadn't destroyed my chip, I could have been there."

"Don't blame yourself. I'm usually good at suppressing my emotions when I need to, but lately I just can't anymore. At least not as good as before."

A silence fell between us as we both thought about our mistakes. While I didn't think that what Bree did was entirely wrong, I could tell she was deeply regretting it. I wanted to comfort her, but at the moment all I can think about is what I've been dealing with and I needed to get it off my chest.

"Bree, I don't think I'm meant to do this." I admitted, my voice barely above a whisper, yet she heard me and shook her head.

"Come on, don't say that."

"I'm serious. I haven't told anyone, but since our fight with Krane, I've been having doubts about whether this mission thing was for me." I looked down at my soot covered mission suit, not feeling deserving of wearing it. It was something a hero wears, and I'm no hero. "Tonight just made it more clear."

"Look, it's been a long night for you. Why don't you get some rest?" I bit the inside of my cheek and forced down the anger over the fact that she didn't take what I said seriously. I know I'm right and that the bionic life isn't for me. I need to find a way to get rid of my chip.

Actually, there's someone who can help me with that... But I can't sneak out if Bree sleeps I here with me.

"Do you think you can sleep somewhere else tonight?" I asked her, and she looked surprised at this. "I just really want to be alone right now." I added quickly. She obliged and said she would sleep in Tasha's room. I waited, hiding my impatientness as she gathered a few of her things to take with her.

Once she was gone, I briefly wondered if I should change but was to lazy to. I just wanted to get to Douglas and have him get this chip out. Then I can be normal again.

Douglas was asleep when I got to the warehouse. Grabbing him by the shoulders, I roughly shake him until he wakes up. He must be a light sleeper because it didn't take long for his eyes to open. After the initial shock of being woken up, he asked what I was doing here through half lidded eyes.

"You're going to remove my chip and you're going to do it now." I said firmly. After yawning and rubbing his eyes, he looked at me confused.

"What?" He asked, still half asleep.

"I want my chip taken out!" I shouted, startling him and making him more alert. Once it registered what I had said, he was back being confused.

"Why?"

"Because this whole going on missions and saving the world thing just isn't for me. So this chip is a waste of my time and I want it gone. I want my freedom back! And you're the only one who can make that happen!" Douglas put a hand out.

"OK OK, calm down. Don't want to glitch." I closed my eyes and breathed in deeply, holding it for four seconds, then breathing back out slowly. "Good. So you want your chip removed?"

"Yes."

"Well I can't do it." I glared at him threateningly.

"You can and you will." I said through gritted teeth, hoping the death look I'm giving him will scare him enough to do as I say. But it didn't.

"No, you don't understand. If I remove it it'll kill you." I rolled my eyes, getting more impatient as I already knew this stuff.

"Yeah I know, my bionic infrastructure will self-destruct." I said, then I pointed to him, "But you have to know how to remove it. You put it there in the first place." Douglas rubbed the back of his neck and looked nervous for some reason.

"Technically, yes I did give you your chip. But I didn't put the self destruction app on there."

"Who else would know how to do it? Krane?" Douglas slowly shook his head, getting more nervous. "Who?" I pressed.

"Harper, there's a lot you don't know." He said, and it was obvious he was reluctant to say anything more. But I wasn't going to be nice and let the conversation slide.

"Then enlighten me." I countered, and he looked down at his lap with a conflicted expression. "Who did this to me?" Even though he wasn't looking at me, I could tell he was having an internal battle with himself.

"You're parents." He finally said, looking at me with an emotionless expression. That was not the answer I expected. I started sputtering out questions.

"What? How is that possible? You know them? Where are they?"

"I don't think you're ready to know about them." Douglas said, and I became indignant. How dare he think he can just not tell me anything.

"And what makes you say that? You don't get to decide whether I'm ready or not. I do. And I'm more than ready to know about my past." Just as quick as the anger came, it was gone and replaced with desperation. I wasn't mad at him. I let some emotion slip into my next sentence, so he can know how much it means to me. I was already emotional from the day I had, so it wasn't that hard. "I want to know - I need to know. Please Douglas." He looked at me, and I could see he was surprised. In the entirety of the time we've known each other I worked extra hard to keep my emotions locked up, so he couldn't use them against me. I never intended to be vulnerable around him, but he held the answers to all my questions and I won't lie and say it's making me feel all sorts of emotions that I can't suppress. Confusion. Wonder. Fear.

Douglas could see this, I could tell, and his resolve to keep his secrets was torn down.

"OK. Sit down, it's a long story." I sat down across from him and looked at him with eagerness, which made him chuckle but he became serious when he started talking. "Yes, I knew you're parents. We grew up together." Douglas paused and reached into his jacket pocket, pulling out a folded piece of paper. He handed it to me and I raised an eyebrow. He motioned for me to open it. I did.

It was a picture of four people standing with their arms around each other. The two in the middle I recognized as younger versions of Donald and Douglas. They couldn't be more than 20 in the picture.

Douglas had his right arm around a woman and there was a guy on the other side of Donald. I didn't need super intelligence to know who these other two people were. The woman's hair was black like my natural hair color is and the father's green eyes matched mine, except his were not as bright. At least not in this picture. I could see a little bit of myself in both of them, and it stirred something inside of me that I couldn't name.

"After college your parents got married, started a family. But they started getting involved in shady stuff to make money. Donny cut ties with them but I stayed in touch. When I figured out a way to create bionic superhumans, I needed a place where I could create them without Donald knowing. Your parents were more than willing to let me build a secret lab in his basement where I successfully created Adam, Bree and Chase. On one condition: I create another one. You." I stopped him there.

"Wait, so I was created in a lab like Adam, Bree, and Chase?" I suddenly felt sick as a thought came that made me question my relationship with Chase. "Am I their sister?"

"No, you were born a normal human being. They just wanted me to implant bionics in you, like I've done with Krane." I sighed in relief. I was afraid Chase and I were about to be a real life version of Princess Leia and Luke Skywalker who didn't know they were siblings and liked each other in a romantic way before they found out the truth.

I frowned when his last sentence made me realize something.

"So you didn't turn me bionic when you kidnapped me. I was already bionic?" He shook his head. "But how did I go all those years without a capsule?"

"I'll get to that." I nodded and motioned for him to continue, glancing at the picture every once and a while every time he mentioned my parents. "Anyway, your parents wanted me to implant all of Adam, Bree, and Chase's abilities plus more. Since they paid me a lot, I did the best I could." So they were rich. Interesting. "I had just finished with Chase and by that time I found a way to make room for upgrades, so I knew it was possible to give you many abilities but it would have to be done gradually as you got older since it was already risky implanting bionics with you being so young. But your parents were impatient. They went behind my back and tried to install all the abilities I had created so far. One of them was the self destruction app. I had created it but decided against installing it. But they didn't know that. The chip was overloaded, and when they activated it, your bionics went haywire and it almost killed you because it was too much for your body to handle. Thankfully, I was able to save you. Your parents wanted me to destroy you and start fresh with your twin brother but I couldn't bring myself to kill you. I secretly found a nice family to take you in. By that time Donald had found out about Adam, Bree, and Chase. And I was kicked out of Davenport Industries."

"Wait, you found me an actual family to adopt me? Then how did I end up in the system?" Douglas shrugged.

"I don't know. The couple who took you in were happy to adopt you."

"All I know is I was dropped off at the doorstep of an orphanage when I was three." I said, and he hummed in thought.

"Something must have happened to them." Looking down at the picture I had set on my lap, I worked up the courage to ask a question that's plagued me for years.

"What about my real parents? And my twin brother?" I added quickly, recalling him mentioning the twin I knew nothing about.

"There was an explosion in the lab... and your parents didn't make it out alive. This was after I had faked my own death and Donald took Adam, Bree, and Chase. Your two brothers and one sister were put in an orphanage as far as I'm aware. They assumed you died in the explosion even though they never found your body." So like in the parallel universe, I did have siblings and they're alive. I wasn't sure how to feel, and I still had more questions.

"I have a twin brother?"

"Yep. And one other brother and sister. Both were older than you."

"Why didn't they turn one of them bionic? Why me?"

"They wanted to be able to raise a bionic soldier with no contact with the outside world. No attachments. They wanted me to start on you first to see if I could actually turn a normal human bionic, so your twin brother was the back up incase I messed up with you."

"So I was the lab rat. Figures." After an awkward silence, I asked another question. "So where does Krane fit in all of this?" Again, Douglas shrugged.

"I don't know. I didn't meet him until after your parents died. My guess is he somehow knew about you, maybe your parents showed you to him at some point when I wasn't there."

"So everything I thought about my parents - it's worse than I could ever imagine. I was just a bionic soldier to them and when I couldn't live up to their potential they wanted me dead."

"I'm sorry, Harper." Douglas said, and it was genuine.

"Why do you have this picture?" I asked, and I saw the corners of his lips turn up as he took the picture from me.

"It reminds me of happier times. Before I went and screwed everything up." The little smile he had faded.

"You blame yourself for their death, don't you?" I saw the guilt in his expression, try as he did to hide it. I wasn't sure what to do. I put a reluctant hand on his shoulder, and he looked at my hand then at me, unsure how to feel. I figure I should say something too.

"There wasn't anything you could of done." I told him with a gentleness that surprised me and probably him too. But I think he appreciated it.

An awkward silence ensued, neither of us knowing what to say. What is there to say anyway?

I left shortly after that, deciding I'd heard enough for one night. If course Douglas' story brought up a million other questions, but I needed to time to process everything I just learned. I didn't even ask about how he was able to get rid of my bionics so I could be adopted.

Next time.

Thanks for reading the chapter!