A/N: Sorry I took so long. But here's the final part. It's written in present tense.


A Little Sister's World – Adam

Adam sees the news about the transgenics and is confused. Everybody says they're bad, evil even, yet he knows they are not. They're not sub-human, they're not super-human, and they're not not-human either. They just are.

How he knows this, Adam's not sure, because the only contact he's had with the transgenics is through the news. At least, he thinks that the only contact he's had is through the news. He can't remember. He really can't.

Maybe he did have some contact. Before, that is. Before he lost his memories, although that doesn't fit with what he has been told about the past. Apparently he's been here all the while, except for a brief period when he was in hospital in Seattle because of the accident.

Accident? It wasn't an accident, it was…

But Adam doesn't know what it was, and it seems wrong to contradict Buddy after all he's done. Buddy and Mary have taken Adam in and cared for him, both before and after the accident. He just wishes he could remember 'before the accident'. Somehow, he supposes it isn't right for him to not know.

There's something he needs to be doing.

There's someone who needs…

Someone?

No one.

Everyone.

Twelve.

An important number. He knows this like he knows… well, like he knows that transgenics aren't evil. Certainty accompanies the thought, but it is unexplained, unclear, like a flawed gem. Imperfect. Yet so very real.

He has amazing recall. Adam can remember anything he sees, cross-reference it and file it away until it's needed later. However, he can't remember Before.

If he remembered Before, would he know about the transgenics? What a scary thought. The entire world seems to want to kill them and everything that is reminiscent of them. So Adam thinks if he knows – knew – something about them he might wind up dead. He might anyway, just because he doesn't remember what it is he's supposed to remember.

But he doesn't know anything about transgenics! They escaped after he came to live on the farm. They only became newsworthy after he lost his memory. There is no way he could remember anything about them. It just isn't possible.

There were other escapes.

Huh? Other escapes? Adam doesn't remember any other escapes and he knows it hasn't been on the news. Perfect recall is good for one thing at least, so he would remember if other escapes had been mentioned. And they definitely haven't. So were there other escapes or not?

The answer might frighten him. He's not a man who frightens easily. In fact, he would say he is nearly fearless, yet he is afraid of the gaping hole in his memory and what it might mean. Why Mary's gaze flickers uneasily to the dusty drive whenever he mentions his past, or Buddy limits how often he can go into town. Something bad? Or does he have an overactive imagination?

The former seems more likely, despite paranoia being the easiest explanation. The connection between Adam and the darkness that simmers in Seattle seems almost tangible at times. Something exists there that is important and dangerous. The only thing important and dangerous in Seattle these days is the place they call Freak Nation.

Terminal City stands dark and cold, reminding everyone of the danger, of the monsters that crawl in the night. The nomilies.

Nomilies?

Yet, as grim and as dead as the city may seem, he knows it is not. The city is infinitely better. Better than what, he does not know – but it is better. Than a cage, maybe? Than scientists who view you as a project, an experiment? Than soldiers who regard you as nothing more or less than a highly sophisticated weapon?

'Sympathy for the devil,' they call it. Sympathy for the one who is evil. Pity, because you know that they can't entirely help being what they are: circumstance has intervened and blown them way off course. Fate is damning in that way, but not entirely omnipotent. The battle back to the right path will be long and hard, perhaps even unwinable. Still, they, the transgenics, fight nonetheless, and he finds he can respect that – from one soldier to another.

But he's not a soldier.

Sympathy for the dark haired woman who leads Terminal City. They've shown her partial image, from when she rode a hoverdrone into a shop window to hold a bunch of people hostage.

Shop? No, it was a messenger company.

Kinder people have pointed out that the only death that day, in the shop, was a transgenic who was shot by snipers from across the street. The transgenics could have killed their captives and fought their way through; yet it was the humans who started the killing, the fighting. "Monster who?" some people have begun to ask, just quietly – no names, no faces. The world is a cold, cruel place, but who made it that way, and who keeps it like that?

Some have called her a monster (let he has no sin cast the first stone). But she isn't. She is a loving woman who cares deeply for those around her. Her soul shines and her smile is bright even through the scars. Freedom is the most important gift that was ever given to her, and she's never forgotten who gave it to her, or why. She fights to live it everyday, to honour him.

She still doesn't use it the way he intended.

No, that's wrong.

She uses it exactly the way he intended, but not in a way circumstance should allow. Not in the way that safety demands. As she does so, she learns that the greatest thing about freedom is you can share it without losing it. Freedom changes, and sometimes becomes crowded, but once freedom has been given it can never be taken away, not completely.

Adam doesn't know how he knows this. He just does. Much like he knows twelve is important, transgenics aren't bad, and there has been more than one escape.

He was there.

Some days it's a strange world out there. Adam wishes he remembers more about Before, because maybe then he'd understand.

Baby sister…


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