The Second Key

By Be Boring

Chapter 5: They Did A Bad Bad Thing

Brin, Max, and Jondy had been talking for an hour now. There didn't seem to be an end to the things they had to say to each other. They laughed over hearing about Max's first meeting with Joshua, Brin's first attempt at cooking, and Jondy's attempt once to be a stripper to throw Lydecker off her tail when he was following her. The stories just seemed to get crazier as they kept talking. They had only gotten on this subject because Jondy had nearly gone into shock when she learned about Brin and Zack's encounter during Brin's heat cycle. She, like Max, could not imagine any of her siblings together in a romantic way. That was what had bugged her about Kay and Ben's relationship. If Ben had to end up with one of his sisters, why couldn't it have been her?

Brin leaned back into her chair, lifting its front legs off the ground. "I wonder what time Alec will come back."

Max set down the water she'd been drinking. "Alec? He was here?"

"Yeah, he was with Jondy at the door. He left not too long after I answered it. It didn't look like he and Jondy were enjoying each other's company too much."

Jondy groaned and rolled her eyes. "That guy is so annoying! I swear, I've seen five-year-olds more mature than him. Where did you pick him up, anyways?"

Max shrugged. "Well, he was supposed to be my breeding partner at Manticore, but I think you can guess how that went. Once Manticore was gone, he just popped up and started hanging around with me and my friends. He even started working at the same place as me. My boss thought he was the best thing since Bush." At her sisters' raised eyebrows, she said, "Don't ask."

"Personally, I don't think he's all that immature. He's a troublemaker, but not necessarily immature," Brin commented.

Now Max raised an eyebrow. "What makes you think that?"

"I met him when you were in the hospital a while back. Logan had an Eyes Only mission for him and Kay. It was pretty funny with him and Ben, they didn't like each other at all. He did some pretty stupid stuff while he was there, but you can see there's more going on inside his head that he'll never let anyone know about. He's sort of similar to Zack. Zack hides the fun side of himself because he thinks we won't respect him if he's anything less than the hard-core leader that he's turned himself into. Alec hides the deeper side of himself because he thinks he won't be respected if he's anything less than the hot-to-trot womanizer that he's turned himself into. Those two actually have a lot in common."

Jondy crossed her arms fiercely. "They're polar opposites."

Max shook her head. "No, I can see Brin's point. They're both deeper people than they'll ever let on. When I first got Zack back after he was turned into a machine, he didn't remember his past. When he got it back, he started crying because he felt he had let us all down. He didn't think he was a good enough leader. As for Alec, I found out a few months ago that he fell in love with the daughter of one of the people he was supposed to kill for Manticore. He botched up the mission because he wanted to warn her about what he was going to do to her father. She wound up saving her father's life and getting put into a coma by the bomb that was meant for her dad. Alec never stopped blaming himself for that, just like Zack never stopped blaming himself for Ben, Tinga, and you, Brin."

All three women were silent, not knowing what to say next. Jondy was the first one to say anything. "Do you think I should apologize to Alec? I've been a major bitch to him lately."

Max nodded, then smiled. "You should apologize, but don't search him out to do it. His head doesn't need to get any larger."

Alec looked at the respectable pile of guns in front of him. He was even faster than Mole at putting them together. At the rate they were going, they'd be ready to get out tomorrow. Mole frowned at Alec's pile.

"How is it that as soon as you get started, the number of weapons skyrockets?"

"I'm just that good."

Mole snorted and examined one of Alec's guns. "Don't get too far ahead of yourself, kiddo. You can go fast, but your guns aren't any better than mine."

Alec grinned ruefully. "That's what you tell yourself so you can sleep at night."

The two of them were still throwing insults at each other when someone tapped Alec on the shoulder. Alec turned around to see Gem standing behind him.

"Hey, what's up?"

For some reason she looked nervous. "I'm not really sure what to do. I had my eye on Freedom Pass like I always do, but I reached down to pick up my water bottle and when I came back up I found this."

She stepped to the side to reveal a little boy with sandy hair standing behind her. Alec looked down at the kid, then gently turned him around by the shoulders so he could see his neck. There was no barcode. He took his hands off the kid and studied him. There was something so familiar about him.

"What's your name?"

The little boy looked up at him with no fear in his eyes. "Ray."

Alec scratched his head, trying to figure out where he had heard that name before. Suddenly, his face grew pale. "Ray White?" Ray nodded, still not showing any fear. "What are you doing here?"

"People came to the farm and started burning things. Aunt Julie brought me down here cuz there was nowhere else to go, then our car crashed. She didn't move, so I came here."

Alec tried not to groan out loud and ran a hand through his hair. "Where's the car?"

"Not that far."

"Show me."

Kay sat down on the bed and stared down at the hamburger in her hand disdainfully. She was really getting sick of fast food. White was out in the hallway, talking to the guards. That was just fine with her, she didn't need to see him any more than she usually did. Of course, having someone around was a good way to keep her mind off other unappealing subjects. Her thoughts wandered to Ben, then she shook her head and forced the thoughts away. She didn't need to become sad right now, she needed to stay positive. Getting out of here would be no piece of cake, and she couldn't let sad thoughts keep her down.

Thoughts of Ben always came up when she didn't want them to. Memories of kissing him, laughing with him, and even arguing with him popped into her head at the most inappropriate times. Why was it so hard to forget him? She had forced herself to forget many things before, so why couldn't she do it now? That was a stupid question, she knew why. It was because as painful as losing him was, it would be more painful to forget him. It was hard to imagine her life without him, but it would be like that if she forced herself to forget him. She just couldn't deal with that.

Kay could still remember when she had first met Ben, the way they had hated each other. It was hard to believe that at one point he had wanted to kill her. Well, fortunately he loved as strongly as he hated. As much as he scared her when he hated her, that was how much he attracted her when he loved her. He had turned from the scariest man in the world to the sweetest.

The hamburger finally found its way to the garbage, she couldn't convince herself to finish it. She had completely lost her appetite. After sitting on the bed staring at it, she got up, undressed, and went into the bathroom. She had been dying for a shower ever since having to ride in the car all day with those guards. It hadn't been hard to figure out which one of them had been the one to look through her clothes, he had been looking at her strangely whenever he got the chance. Thankfully he had been the one who was sitting up front with White, so he didn't get too many chances.

The hot water was a pleasant shock, she hadn't gotten the chance for a hot shower in a long time. It had hurt too much because of her back, but her back had started the healing process almost immediately after the cream had been put on. Right now it didn't even hurt, despite the hot water. She grinned when she picked up the hotel shampoo, it was lavender scented. She had always loved scented things and lavender was one of her favorites.

Ames walked back into the hotel room, he was sick of talking to the other Familiars. Despite the fact that he knew their purpose for being here was to watch 358, he couldn't help but get the feeling that the Conclave wanted their eye on him too. It was as if they felt they couldn't trust him, the idea made him furious. He had turned his back on his father for them, gave his son's life to them. They really felt they couldn't trust him? What did they think he was going to do, join the side of the transgenics? The thought was ridiculous, he hated the transgenics more than anything. They had stolen his father's affection from him and had ended up being the reason that the Conclave didn't fully trust him. If his father hadn't wasted his time trying to create beings as powerful as the Familiars, their family would still be one of the most respected families in the cult. It had always been that way, then his father had to go and spoil it. Didn't it occur to him that going against the Conclave wouldn't just ruin his life, it would ruin the lives of those who were close to him as well?

He sat down on the bed and looked down at the pile of clothes next to it. 358 always seemed to leave her things lying around, the lack of tidiness bugged him. You would think that growing up as a soldier she would have learned the importance of cleanliness, but apparently she hadn't done so. Oh well, she would have to suffer the consequences. He picked up the items on the floor and tucked them behind his bag that he had set in the closet. He would give them back to her in the morning, but she would have to do without them for tonight. Usually he wasn't such a petty person, but he was taking out his anger at the Conclave on her. The thought of how uncomfortable she'd be sleeping in the same bed as him with no clothes on made him chuckle out loud. Maybe it would be enough for her to remember to at least take the clothes with her when she went to take a shower.

Kay finally stepped back out of the shower stall, feeling refreshed and more than happy with the smell of lavender in her hair. She grabbed a towel and started drying off as she turned to grab her clothes, unpleasantly surprised when she didn't see them. Did I leave them out in the other room? Wrapping the towel around herself, Kay stepped to the door and peered out. White was there by the bed, but there was no sign of her clothes. She saw the wry grin on his face and immediately heard the warning bells go off in her head.

"What's made you so happy?"

He shrugged and turned to the window. "Nothing, but you might not want to take off that towel, you don't have anything else to wear at the moment."

"Yes I do, I just have to find them."

"Good luck, I got rid of them." He made sure she couldn't see the smile on his face, he didn't want her to know he was lying.

Kay rolled her eyes. "Where did you put them?"

Now White turned to face her. "I told you, I got rid of them. To me, anything that's just lying around on the floor is considered garbage. Your clothes were on the floor, I threw them out. It's as simple as that. You're going to be awfully cold tonight."

"Fine, but I'm getting most of the covers. You can sleep in your clothes."

Alec groaned at the sight of the car as Ray led him up to it. He couldn't believe the kid had survived such an impact, that car was a total mess. Come to think of it, the kid didn't even have a scratch on him. Gem stayed back with Ray as Mole and Alec went to examine the damage. Mole gave a low whistle as they got closer.

"I'd say that kid has one less relative to deal with now. There's no way an ordinary could make it through this."

Alec nodded and crouched down where the driver's side was. He couldn't really see inside, but his nose told him all he needed to know. "She's dead already. How did he get out?" Alec gestured back towards Ray.

Mole shrugged and walked around to the other side of the wreckage. "Made of steel, I guess. I don't think even a transgenic would have walked away from this one. Those people aren't that tough, are they?"

"I'm not sure. Max said she saw White get hit by a car and get up as though nothing had happened. Maybe his kid is just as tough."

"That's a scary thought. How would we ever win a war against them if crushing them like bugs isn't even an option?"

Alec frowned as he walked over to where Mole was and noticed the condition of the passenger side. It was almost crushed flat. "I'm not so sure he was in the car when this happened. I don't care how tough they claim to be, not even Houdini could have escaped from this one. He's lying about what happened, I'm almost positive."

Both transgenics jumped when Ray's small voice reached their ears. "I never said I was in there with her. I just said the car crashed."

Alec turned to face the little boy. "Ok then, where were you when this was going on?"

Ray turned and pointed to a dumpster that was about twenty yards away. "I was eating my supper and she was going to get some more food, so she told me to keep eating there while she went to get it. When she came back, she was driving really fast and she just crashed into this wall."

"Why was she driving so fast?"

"I don't know."

Mole and Alec exchanged worried glances. If the cult had somehow found out about Ray being alive, they would most certainly take out Julie first. She was too much of a liability. Of course, they couldn't be sure that was what happened.

Zack poked his head around the corner and looked down the hall that he knew Kay's room was in. He could see three men stationed at different points down the hall, he had no doubt they were from the cult. He had never taken on a Familiar before to even know how he'd be able to handle it, but three at a time was definitely going to be too much.

One of the guards yawned and leaned back against the wall. Zack took a closer look at the other two and realized they weren't completely awake either. Maybe this wouldn't be so hard after all. Zack turned and headed back down to the lobby, making plans the entire way.

Pulling as many blankets around herself as she could, Kay tried to make herself comfortable on the bed. It was a little unnerving to be laying here with no clothes on with White just behind her. She just made sure no skin was showing from her toes to her chin. She'd be a little warm tonight, but she could handle it. She really didn't have any other choice anyway.

"Comfortable, 358?" Ames asked cheerily from behind her.

"Snug as a bug in a rug," she replied, pulling the blankets closer around her.

"I'm surprised you even know that saying."

"I know a lot of things."

"Unfortunately, you don't seem to know your place."

Kay rolled onto her other side and glared at him. "My place is not where you think it is. I'm more than that damned number you keep calling me by."

He smirked as he pulled on the sweatpants he'd been sleeping in the past couple nights. "Well, what would you prefer I call you?"

"My name's Kay."

He slid into the bed next to her and grabbed one of the blankets off of her for himself. "Did you come up with that in the past year? It's not very creative."

"For your information, I've had that name for as long as I can remember. No matter how simple-minded Manticore wanted us to be, we still gave each other names."

"So 452 has a name as well? And the others with you?" He didn't really care, he was just not ready to go to sleep and this made for good conversation. Besides, it was sort of interesting to hear that the transgenics had disobeyed as many orders as the Familiars had when they were young.

"452 is Max. The one you shot was Ben, and the other two were Zack and Brin. Why do you care, anyways?"

"I don't, I'm just bored."

"As long as we're talking, I want some stories too."

Ames raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean by stories?"

"Growing up as part of your people. I'm pretty sure you all weren't perfect little soldiers."

"Not always, but we don't consider each other soldiers. We are family."

"And families tend to have a black sheep."

Kay was a little surprised when a wistful smile broke out on White's face. "That would be my father. I heard so many stories from him and my teachers about what a holy terror he always was that I could probably write a book. According to my mother, who was one of the few normal people who knew about our kind, she met him at a party at her college where he spiked the drinks with a new concoction. He was always a scientist, and back then he more or less did it for fun. He could make drugs for anything, and the one he spiked the drinks with was particularly nasty. It made everyone see things flying in the sky, then diving down and attacking them. The people there made the biggest racket that town has ever seen. They basically stampeded down the streets, screaming loud enough to wake everyone in town up. The whole place was filled with police cars, firetrucks, and ambulances. They thought everyone was dying, then when they didn't see anything wrong they thought everyone had gone insane. Dad even got it on tape."

"How comforting to know I was created by a practical joker," Kay joked, then remembered that Sandeman really hadn't created her. She would have been alive with or without him, he just made her stronger.

White tensed at her comment. He had allowed himself to loosen up and forget for a moment that she wasn't human. He could never make a mistake like that again. "I would get some sleep if I were you, we have a busy day tomorrow." With that, he turned his back on her and went to sleep.

Kay sighed and rolled onto her other side, letting herself drift off to sleep. It wasn't the most peaceful sleep she ever experienced, and it didn't last long. She could see Ben right in front of her, smiling and holding his arms out to her. Knowing perfectly well that this wasn't real, she hurried into his arms. He felt so warm, so completely true to life, that any doubt she had of his authenticity suddenly went right out the door.

There were some differences to him though that she noticed immediately. When he kissed her, the kiss wasn't gentle and sweet but was deeper and more passionate, and somehow, more needy. It felt like he had missed her as much as she had missed him. His grip was different too. His hands clutched her roughly, not as though he was trying to be cruel but more like he was afraid she would disappear if he let her go.

It felt so real as he pushed her down into the bed and pulled the blankets away from her. Her hands slid over his bare chest and headed down until they reached his pants. He usually wore jeans, but it felt like normal cloth under her fingers. Although some part of her recognized that this couldn't be happening, there were so many qualities about it that couldn't possibly just be a dream. One of the things that stood out in her mind was when her fingers ran over a scar on his hip as she removed his pants. She couldn't remember Ben having a scar there, so why was it there now?

Ben deepened the kiss even farther, if that was possible, and she wrapped her legs around him as she urgently returned the kiss. With having to keep at least some of her guard up the past few days, she needed a release of some sort. He pulled his lips away from hers and started moving them down her neck. Now that she had room to breath, Kay had time to think. What was going on? Ben was dead, this couldn't be real, it had to be a dream. Still, it felt like he was really there. As she felt a tiny nip of teeth against her collarbone, she shivered slightly. Ben had never done that before. She moved one of her hands up his back and lifted up his head to look into his eyes to reassure herself that this wasn't real. She froze when his head came up and she got a good look at him.

This was all too real.

Brin jumped when the cell phone on her hip went off. Max and Jondy looked at her curiously, but all she could do was shrug and press the TALK button.

"Hello?"

"Brin?"

Brin recognized Sandeman's melodic voice in an instant. "Yes, what's going on?" She knew he wouldn't be calling her if it wasn't an emergency. She didn't even know how he got this number since Zack had been sure not to give it out.

"Zack is on his way to Terminal City. He was in a hurry, otherwise he would have called you himself while he was here. He wanted you to be waiting at Freedom Pass with a drug."

"What kind of drug?"

"It was one that I made when I was set up there. There's no time for me to explain, you need to be waiting for him when he gets there. I assume you know where my lab is, right?"

"Yeah."

"Go there right now."

Brin stood up and covered the mouthpiece of the phone with one hand. "I gotta go, I'll see you guys later." She was out the door before either of them could ask questions.

It didn't take her long to reach the lab, it was nearly in the center of Terminal City. She frowned at the state of the inside of it, it was all too obvious that someone had gone through it like a whirlwind. She remembered Max telling her something about finding a lot of computer equipment in here that Logan needed to get his Eyes Only operation under way again. They had apparently been very rushed in their search.

"I'm here. Where is the drug?"

"If you go up to the second floor, there should be an office at the end of the hall."

Brin headed upstairs and saw the fancy-looking door right away. Did Sandeman always have to make his office stand out from the rest of the building? She pushed open the door and headed in, surprised to see that it didn't look as though Max had come up here with her search. The room was basically untouched and the computer system appeared to be intact.

"Now what?"

"Go to my desk. On the right-hand side you should see three drawers. If you open the second one, empty it out and find the tab at the bottom. Pull it up and you'll find another compartment inside."

Brin couldn't help but smirk to herself as she followed his instructions. Secret compartments? This guy had seen too many James Bond movies. The tab wasn't too hard to find, but it would have been nearly impossible if she hadn't been looking for it. There were several vials inside that were labeled according to their position. Sitting in twelve rows and seven columns, each vial had a label like '5-3' and '4-10' and so on. "Which one of these is it?"

"6-4."

Brin easily grabbed it out of the drawer, holding it up to the light. It was a strange liquid that had a red tinge to it. She was about to open it up to get a better look when Sandeman suddenly snapped a warning from the other end of the line.

"Whatever you do, don't open it! Its fumes will knock you out instantly."

Brin slid the vial into her pocket, luckily unopened, and headed for Freedom Pass. "Why does Zack want this?"

"He didn't share the details. All I know is he wanted something that would put a Familiar to sleep for several hours. Familiars, like transgenics, are immune to many drugs. That includes sleeping powders and such, but I designed something to knock them out for my protection. That entire drawer was filled with different drugs that were specifically meant to attack Familiars. That's why I kept them hidden from my other chemicals."

"If these drugs were meant to work on Familiars, then wouldn't they hurt you?"

"How do you think we tested them to see if they worked?"

Brin was honestly surprised, she would never have thought that he would compromise himself. Of course, these drugs were meant for his protection from the others.

Headlights could be seen as Brin approached Freedom Pass. She muttered her goodbye to Sandeman and dashed through the opening in the fence before the soldiers could look down. Since it was only her going through, she didn't need any other distractions. Zack had already pushed open the passenger door for her by the time she reached the car, so she just jumped right in. His eyes were already questioning. She rolled her eyes and pulled the vial out of her pocket.

"Did you really think I would come without it?"

He snatched it from her hand and smiled strangely as he slipped it into his coat pocket. Brin couldn't help but be curious. Why did he need that vial and why did he need her help?

"What's going on?"

Zack's face grew serious again. "You'll find out after it's over."

Brin sighed and leaned back against the seat. She wasn't going to get any answers from him right now. Still, the number of questions only increased as they headed for Logan's old part of town.

This wasn't a dream, but it also wasn't Ben. She found herself staring up into a very confused pair of brown eyes.

"Ames?"

She didn't know why his first name came out of her mouth, but it seemed to reach him better than calling him 'White' would have.

It was almost like waking a person out of a sleepwalk, which was probably more or less what it was. His eyes cleared as he looked down at her, it became clear through them that he was slowly waking up and realizing what was going on.

"Kay?"

A shiver went down Kay's spine when he said her name. It sounded so strange coming from the mouth that she usually heard '358' from. Apparently it had stuck with him when she had told him her name earlier. Ames shook his head hard and lifted himself up from her so he could look down easier.

"What the hell are we doing?"

It had been the shock of his life to look down and see Kay's face. He had been dreaming about Wendy, but he should have known that the dream had seemed too real. Right now since they hadn't done anything yet, he just wanted to get away before he lost control. He braced his hands on the pillow on either side of her head and started to push himself away from her, but the legs she had wrapped around him suddenly squeezed him hard, refusing to let him go.

Kay couldn't explain it, but she was wound up now and didn't want to stop. Even seeing who she was really with hadn't made the urges go away. She knew she wasn't in heat, that wasn't due for another few days and it was always punctual, but she still needed him. It almost didn't matter who it was, she just needed someone to be with her. She reached up and pulled his face down to hers.

"Don't stop."

They had gotten delayed at the checkpoints several times so they were nearly an hour behind schedule, but they were finally almost there. Zack hadn't said a word during the trip and Brin hadn't pressed him, but she still wanted to know what was going on. It had to be important otherwise he wouldn't be going through all this trouble. She could see him fingering the vial in his pocket as they pulled into the parking lot of a hotel that was just down the street from Foggle Towers.

"Why are we here?"

Zack didn't even bother to say anything, he just pulled up to the front door and got out of the car. Brin clenched her jaw, furious that he wasn't even bothering to say he would tell her later. Maybe he wasn't planning on telling her later. That thought angered her further. She got out of the car, but he blocked her path to the hotel.

"I need you to stay out here. As soon as we're back in, you need to get going. Understand?"

Brin nodded and watched him as he headed into the building. We? That was the end of the mystery, this was a rescue mission. She should have guessed sooner, but who could it be? Was another one of her siblings here? Well, they must be being held by the Familiars, otherwise he wouldn't need that drug.

Zack was so intent on being quiet that he almost stopped breathing. He had to make sure they didn't hear him, he didn't want White to be able to get Kay out of there before he could get to her. He already had the vial out of his pocket and was preparing himself to hold his breath for a while.

The guards weren't much more awake than they had been earlier. This job must not have been very eventful before, otherwise he was sure they would be more careful. He pulled in a deep breath and held it, then popped off the top of the vial and rolled it down the hall. He needed the effects to hit them fast before they could question what the vial was doing there in the first place. They did turn to look at it, but they probably didn't even get a good view of it before they collapsed. As soon as he was sure they were unconscious, Zack headed to the room he knew Kay was in. It only took one swift kick to open the door.

At the sight that greeted his eyes, Zack was damn lucky to be able to keep his breath in.