Alec's face showed a mix of emotions. Love, hope, sorrow, pity, guilt, confusion, all of these were written there.
She sat up, and Alec, stiffly, like a sleepwalker, went to her side.
"Rachel?" his voice was soft, nearly inaudible, and it almost broke. Kylie/Rachel nodded.
"Oh my god. Rachel, I missed you so much. I'm so sorry." his voice choked with the tears that finally overran his defenses.
Rachel bestowed him with a gentle smile, "I know. I couldn't talk that night you came to visit me, but I could hear, and I forgave you... Alec."
He embraced her tightly, "How'd ya know my name was Alec?"
"This girl, Kylie? She told me." Rachel replied.
"Speaking of 'the girl' when are getting outta her?" Joss asked, reminding the other two that she was still in the room.
Joss was seriously freaked out by this. She wanted Kylie back.
Alec's handsome face cracked as he realized for the first time that Rachel would only be here for a moment.
She was gone. Rachel was dead.
She was buried in the cold hard ground eight miles away from this huge mansion.
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This was the oddest experience Kylie had ever had in her entire strange little life.
When she allowed Rachel Berrisford access into her body, she had no idea what to expect.
It felt like someone with a powerful hand had grabbed her brain and squeezed. Then Kylie was watching herself, well, actually it was Rachel, now, converse with Alec and Joss.
It was like watching yourself on television.
Minus the brain-squeezing.
But as she listened to Joss ask when Rachel was getting out of Kylie's body, and she saw the look on Alec's face, she knew she never should have allowed it to happen.
The look on the handsome X5's face said he was stepping closer to hell than he was before she had made her decision.
Can I talk to him Rachel? She asked the girl who was currently occupying her body.
Go ahead. And the girl relinquished control to Kylie.
"Alec, it's me Kylie,"
"Kylie, thank god you're back." Joss said fervently.
"Shut up for a second." Kylie said to Joss, gesturing to a defeated-looking Alec.
"Alec, I know you're hurting, but just listen to me." Kylie tried to put a hand on his shoulder, but he jerked away from her touch as if it was scalding.
"It was stupid of me to do this. Thought it would magically make it all better." he muttered.
"Alec..."
"Leave me alone." he said.
Suddenly, Joss who had been sitting cross-legged on the floor, snapped upright. "Somebody's coming."
But the warning came too late. The door burst open to reveal several beefy men, presumably security guards, with semi-automatic rifles.
"All right, get down slowly. Nice and easy now... Put your hands up."
The trio pretended like they were going to obey, slowly getting down on their knees. But at the last second, they jumped back up, Alec and Joss charging at them.
They might've made it, except one gunman got off two lucky rounds, both of which hit Joss. She went down, hard.
"Joss!" Kylie screamed, watching the younger girl take the bullets to the abdomen and calf.
She got back up though, as two of the guards grabbed the distracted Alec, and the other snagged Kylie.
"Go Joss, go!" Alec yelled, though he didn't know if the girl could even walk.
She limped to the window, and with considerable effort, leaped through it.
"Goddamn it, she's gettin' away." one the guards snarled.
He grabbed his radio, "This is Kaufman, one of the transgenics got loose. See if you can catch it on the grounds."
How'd they know they were transgenics?
Kylie decided to keep her mouth shut for now.
"Simon Lehane?"
Alec glared, "Yeah, what's it to you?"
He was rewarded with a vicious slap across his face. But thanks to their enhanced genes, it barely rocked him.
Kylie twisted back towards the bed, where Rachel was watching all of this with wide, sad eyes.
"Is this Mr. Berrisford's idea?" Alec asked
"Shut up!" the guard snapped, and hit Alec on the head with the pistol, tearing scalp and drawing blood.
Kylie looked at Rachel, "Rachel, come here. Let's join together again, and maybe we can both talk to your father."
Rachel looked hesitant, but she finally got to her feet, "Fine. I hope my father will listen."
As Kylie steeled herself for the joining, she whispered to herself, "I hope so too."
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Joss landed on the lawn with a groan, agony flaring through her body. She had been hit, twice. Once in the abdomen, once in the calf. The wounds were seriously going to hinder her chances of getting back to Terminal City, and getting help. She checked her cell phone, but it was damaged when she did her leap out of Rachel Berrisford's window.
Stifling another groan, she heard the static of radios, and knew that more guards were coming. Holding her hand over the bullet wound in the side of abdomen, trying to staunch the blood, she limped towards her motorcycle, almost dragging her wounded left leg.
As she pulled herself onto the bike, she heard a man shout, "There's the other one!"
With a gasp of pain, Joss gunned the engine, and took off.
******************************************************************************
"Kaufman, the other transgenic escaped. Repeat, the third transgenic escaped."
Alec grinned, as he wiped blood from his eyes, "Too fast for ya? Maybe you guys should go on a diet."
For that remark, he got a fist buried deep in his ribs. Alec dropped to his knees, coughing.
While silently, unnoticed, Kylie was blending with the late Rachel Berrisford.
She let out a small gasp when the transfer was complete.
Alec, concerned, turned to her, "Kylie?"
"It's me Alec." Rachel opened Kylie's eyes, which were now a jade green.
"Rachel. What's going on? Why did you and Kylie blend, or whatever you two do." Alec was confused.
"So I can talk to my father," Rachel said, and she touched his face softly, the wounds on his face, "So I can get you outta here."
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Joss drove into the gates of Terminal City, barely holding onto consciousness.
She heard pounding footsteps, and realized foggily that they had seen her on the security cameras. That was good, she could lay down right here...
She fell off of the motorcycle to the cement with a hard thud.
She stared up at sky, her eyelids flickering. In the corner of her eye, she saw a group of transgenics run through the shadows toward her.
Max, Joshua, and Mole, all coming towards her with looks of concern on their faces.
"Joss! What happened? Where's Alec and Kylie?" Max asked, kneeling beside the wounded X6 teenager.
Joss coughed weakly, her voice coming in gasps "Kylie was doing Alec a favor... went to some whack rich dude's house... with a weird name. Berry..."
Max's hands stilled for a moment, "Berrisford?"
"Yeah. He caught 'em. And I, maybe you didn't notice, I took two bullets." Joss joked, then groaned as Max pressed down hard on the wound in her side.
"Shit. Mole, go get Luke, tell him Joss got shot, and we need him, fast." Luke was Terminal City's resident doctor. He was only a medic, but he was the best they had.
Mole obeyed, disappearing back into the darkness.
"You're gonna be all right Joss, hold on." Max said, pressing on her side wound with one hand, clutching the younger girl's hand with the other.
"Josh, can you put some pressure on her leg wound?" Max asked.
"Sure thing Little Fella." The big gentle dog-man immediately complied, kneeling by Joss, and putting a surprisingly gentle hand on the girl's leg.
She still stiffened however, arching her slender back in pain.
"Sorry." Joshua said apologetically.
"It's okay. Not your fault." Joss panted, her blond curls stuck to her forehead with sweat.
"Hey, what's going on here?" The bald and potato headed Luke emerged with Mole.
"Joss got shot."
"Yeah, that I can see," Luke said, kneeling besides the wounded girl, "Here, we have to get the bleeding stopped," He pressed thick gauze pads against the wounds, "Can somebody hold these here for a second? Max, I gotta talk to you...In private."
They stepped away from the others, Max zeroing in on his worried face, "Okay, what's wrong?"
"Her wounds are pretty bad... not totally serious if we were in a hospital, but we're not. The bullet in her abdomen must've hit a couple of ribs... by the sound of her breathing, a shard of bone has probably hit a lung. The leg wound, in itself, is painful right now, but not serious at the moment. But left alone, it's not gonna heal right, and she'll be permanently lame," Luke glanced over at the pain-wracked teenager, "We need some supplies, blood, scalpels, antibiotics, pain-meds, the works. Basically, all we have is gauze, tape, band-aids, and hydrogen peroxide... that's about it."
Max's eyes tightened as she nodded slowly, "I guess I could see if Logan has any contacts..."
"Wait, come here" a voice interrupted.
It was Joss.
"I overheard your conversation. You should've went farther away, enhanced hearing, remember? Right after we escaped, Darien, the guy I escaped with, we scored some medical shit because some of the kids were with got hurt. I could call him... he could help you get Alec and Kylie out too."
Max considered it for a moment, they would get much needed medical supplies, and added team members to help free Alec and Kylie.
"Okay. How do you get a hold of 'em?" Max asked.
"Do you have a phone I could borrow? Mine got broke at Berrisford's... Had to jump out a window." she said.
Max handed her hers, and Joss rapidly dialed some numbers, and waited.
"Hey. Calling All Freaks, Calling All Freaks. This is Joss, Dari... and I got a situation in Seattle, in Terminal City, with Kylie. I need you to come here right away, and bring all the medical stuff you can...'cause I got hurt. And bring the sibs."
Joss hung up the phone, and handed it back to Max, "Got his voice mail. But he'll check it, and he'll be coming."
Max nodded, and worriedly stared at the girl. She was seemed terribly pale, growing worse by the minute. Lines were etched by her mouth as she gritted her teeth, obviously trying not to give voice to the pain she was feeling. Her eyes were tightly shut.
"Hurt bad?" Max asked.
"Nah. I should do this more often." Joss said, not bothering to open her eyes.
"I hope your boy checks his mail pretty soon."
"You and me both."