Author's Note: First thing's first. This is a sequel to "The Second Key," which is also a sequel to "Outside." I can guarantee that you will be completely lost if you don't read those first. Secondly, I took a new approach to writing this story. Instead of writing it as I update, I wrote the entire thing before I posted this, so the story is actually completed. That's so I don't leave people waiting if something comes up at home and I can't update as soon as I'd like.
Disclaimer: Kay is the only one I own.
Black Ice
By Be Boring
Prologue: 4 Months Later
Pain. Extreme pain. Why was it that she couldn't feel anything else? The wall of her room looked so far away, or was that her ceiling? She had been disoriented like this for at least an hour as her contractions tore through her abdomen. Ames was at work, Ray was at school, and they were suffering another brownout. Kay had already tried to use the phone several times, but nothing was working yet. It shouldn't be like this, why is my head so screwed up? she thought frantically, clutching her stomach and struggling to breathe like all of her books had told her to. Perhaps it was her odd DNA that was throwing everything off, but she didn't care at this point, she just wanted someone to make it all stop. Her room was spinning around her until it was to the point where she wasn't even sure she was standing or not.
It was another few hours before there was hardly a period of relief between the contractions, and something told her that she was going to have to push soon. Sure enough, she put as much power behind her pushes as possible and suddenly there was another shriek blending in with hers. She sat up quickly so that she could see her own child. Her body froze as her eyes landed on the deformed figure that was on the floor between her legs. Was the skin really red, or was that blood all over its body? Its head had no skin, but left her staring at portions of a brain peeking through cartilage that also allowed its blood to flow freely onto the floor. The arms and legs were far too short and shriveled, and the back was curled over like it was hunchbacked. Suddenly, the thing lifted itself into a sitting position and glared at her with eyes that sent a horrible chill straight through her. Those were Ben's eyes.
"It's all your fault," it hissed, making terrible gurgling noises as it gasped to get air through the fluid that was in its throat. "You did this to me and to him, and we will get our revenge. You won't get away with hurting us like this." Those awful eyes suddenly lifted up and stared at something behind her, forcing her to crane her neck to look up behind her. Ben stood not even a foot away, but it hardly looked like him anymore. Like the thing that was supposed to be her baby, there was no skin on his face and blood dripped onto her shoulder as he bent over her.
"That baby should have been mine, so I made it mine in my own way. Don't you see a resemblance?" he sneered, a trickle of blood running down his chin and dripping off. Then his hand was on her shoulder, shaking her until the scene around her blurred and the only thing she could hear was his voice calling her name.
A hand really was on her shoulder shaking her and a voice was really calling her, but it wasn't Ben. "Kay? Kay, wake up, you're having another nightmare!" Ames was almost shouting in order to break through the panic that her dream had placed on her. She sat up and clutched the blankets against her body to hold off the chill of her cold sweat. A sheet was wrapped around Ames's waist, so she must have woken him up and brought him running from his bedroom. He moved silently to a crib in the corner and reached in to pull out something wrapped in a warm, knitted, miniature afghan. As he approached her again with the bundle, she heard a soft cry and a tear of relief slid down her cheek. "See? She's just fine."
Kay reached up and eagerly took her daughter into her arms, reveling in the perfection of those ten little fingers, cute little nose, and clear blue eyes. A tuft of light brown hair curled on her sensitive head, and Kay just had to run her fingers through it. She had had the same dream every night, but it never failed to shake her up. She had told Ames about the deformed baby in her dream, but she had left out the part about Ben. Why aggravate him? He hated Ben with a passion, although she wasn't quite sure why. It wasn't like he could possibly be jealous, seeing as how he didn't care about her as anything other than an occasional bed partner when they were too lonely. That hadn't even happened for over a month, and she didn't think she ever wanted to be with him like that again. It confused her mind too much, and it was uncomfortable for both of them when they would unwittingly say the wrong name in bed. It was easier to just remain separate.
She didn't understand why that nightmare wouldn't leave her alone even when she knew her daughter was perfectly healthy. She had hoped that her child's birth a week ago would be the start of a new page in her life, which was actually why she named her Paige. It stuck in her mind better than anything else, and Ames couldn't talk her out of it. As far as she was concerned, Paige was entirely hers and he didn't even have a say in what she should be named. He already had Ray and hadn't even wanted a hybrid child in the first place, so she considered their daughter solely hers. She hadn't told him that, but she knew he could sense it. Tonight was actually a rarity, he almost never got the chance to hold Paige unless he was bringing her to her mother.
Soft footsteps padded down the hallway and Ray's small head popped around the side of the doorframe. "What's going on? Why is everyone in here?"
Ames unconsciously gripped the sheet around his waist tighter, as if embarrassed to be seen without clothes. Kay gestured for the little boy to come in and replied, "I just had a bad dream, so your dad and sister were trying to calm me down. Want to help out?"
Ray automatically jumped on the bed and hugged her, his small fingers digging into the soft cloth of her tank top that she wore to bed. "I had a bad dream too, that's why I woke up. Can I sleep in here with you?" He rested his cheek against her blonde hair, taking in the lavender scent that it always carried. When Kay's hair had started to grow out and the blonde was visible at the roots, she had asked Ames to buy her some dye with her original color. Why bother with keeping it red?
Kay smiled and nodded. "Sure, as long as you don't mind Paige crying every now and then. I think we should all go back to sleep before we have to get up again."
She started to climb out of bed to return the baby to her crib, but Ames held out his arms. After a second of hesitation, she sighed and handed Paige over to her father. She never took her eyes off of him as he carried her back to the crib, even though she knew that he wouldn't do anything to hurt her. He had a strange soft spot for children, especially his own. As soon as his arms were free, Ames gave a quiet nod to say goodnight and left the room without a word. Ray slid over and latched himself onto Kay's side as she lay back down. She chuckled and ruffled his hair, then turned off the bedside lamp. She listened silently as Ray's breathing slowed until she knew he was asleep, then she contented herself with falling into a deep slumber to the sound of his light snores. As she faded into sleep, it occurred to her that she hadn't been this happy for months. If Ames could magically disappear without it affecting Ray she would be even happier, but she was fine with how everything was right now. She had Ray and Paige, and right now she wasn't sure she would ever need much more.
Max groaned with frustration as she and Alec came to another roadblock. There seemed to be an epidemic of these things in Seattle lately. A small contingent of Familiars had been spotted a few days before going through an initiation ceremony with one of their children, and now the population of Seattle was in an uproar over the fact that any of them were still left in the state, much less their own city. Max was glad that the scar had faded off her palm by now, she would hate for the police to see something like that.
"Remind me again why you're not with your girlfriend right now?" she asked irritably. Alec had been practically clinging to her all day.
He glanced all around as though he was afraid Jondy was hiding nearby, then he mumbled, "Her next heat cycle is coming up, and she said something really weird to me last night. Since you guys are so damn fertile during your heat, we usually pile on the protection, but she told me that she didn't want to do that this time. Hey, she might be ready for a kid, but I don't want anyone calling me 'Daddy' who's under the age of eighteen. I would just tell her 'no way', but you know how pissy she gets right around this time."
She lifted her glasses so they were on top of her head and glared at him. "Okay, I can see you're scared of Jondy right now, but why are you following me? Why not Zack or Brin? You know how willing they'd be to keep the two of you from having sex. Neither one likes you very much, even though Brin works harder to tolerate you."
"Because Zack's solution to keeping me from getting Jondy pregnant would be to castrate me, and Brin would just hand me over to him anyway. That's something else I'm not looking for at this stage in my life."
"Listen, grouchy as she may be right now, you'll still have to tell her sometime that you don't want kids right now. She'll understand, it's not like she would force you into something like that against your will. Now, if you really want to keep following me around, at least come up with something clever to get us past this roadblock!"
He slid off his bike and looked at the crowd of people carefully, then grinned and strode off until he was out of Max's sight. Suddenly, she heard his voice shout, "Hey, here's one of 'em! It's one of those cult freaks!" The cops tore through the crowd and Max heard several tasers go off at the same moment that Alec returned to her. "I recognized a guy that nearly busted my kneecap back at the big fight."
Max didn't have to ask what he meant by "the big fight." Everyone, whether they were ordinary, transgenic, or Familiar, knew what the big fight was. It was the day that all three groups clashed together at the football stadium; the day that the cult was exposed to the world and Thula, the key to the Coming, died. The months since that day had been almost heaven for Max. She suddenly didn't have to hide since the majority of the country viewed them as heroes for stopping the cult, and she had managed to meet the rest of her siblings. Zane had been the first, and his smiling face was only the first of many that she saw in the following weeks. Syl and Krit had been thrilled to see her again, and Gina, Cade, Vince, Lynn, and Kyle were all so excited to see her.
The two of them slipped through the throng of people and passed to the front of the line without a single person looking in their direction, but as soon as they were through, Max lit into him again. "Are you sure she flat out told you she didn't want to use protection? Maybe you just misunderstood something she said."
"No, I understood. She directly told me that she didn't want me to buy condoms this time."
Max grimaced slightly. Of all the people in the world she had to have a sex talk with, it had to be Alec. "Are you sure that she just doesn't trust them and has decided she doesn't want to have sex at all during her cycle? I know I didn't put a lot of faith into anything around that time. We're so fertile that it almost doesn't matter what you use, if it doesn't work perfectly then we're more than likely going to end up pregnant."
"You know, I hate to ask this, but you made me a little curious. What happens to those of you that were cured of your heat cycles in Manticore? Are you less likely to get pregnant?"
She shrugged, not sure how to answer that. She wasn't a doctor, how would she know? "I don't really know, but I wouldn't think so. Jace got pregnant when she was at Manticore, and I'm sure they got rid of her cycles. Look, I doubt Jondy really wants to have a kid right now, things are still a little unstable for us. I know I sure don't."
He smirked, following her as she held up her pass and shouted, "JamPony messenger!" As they went through, he asked, "Does it scare you that a baby with Logan may not have our extra abilities?"
Max slowed and stared at him. "What do you mean? I just think it's too soon to have a baby, that's all, not to mention I'm not sure I'm ready for it. Tinga's son Case was just like us, so why wouldn't my baby be?"
"It's just that Manticore did several experiments with transgenic offspring, including crosses between ordinary people and the X series. The results weren't positive, most of the kids either came out as simple and ordinary as their non-transgenic parent, or they were disasters. Some of the kids were seriously deformed. Only a few came out with more-than-human capabilities, but they still weren't anything extraordinary. By Tinga, by the way, are you referring to 656? She was considered a fluke. She's the only one to have ever given birth to a promising child."
Why did he have to tell her this? It's not like it mattered to her if her future child was more like her or Logan, but just the thought that it could be deformed seriously worried her. "Then why did Renfro start the breeding program if we didn't produce kids as powerful as us?"
He rolled his eyes, then started talking in a manner that was strangely similar to how a teacher would talk to a child who didn't understand what one plus one was. "That's different, in that case both parents were X5. The DNA merged perfectly and the children were what you would expect a second generation X5 to be. I know they're not old enough to see anything special yet, but Gem has been doing a lot of blood tests on Ty."
This was news to Max. "Really? I didn't know that. How did you find out?"
"She ordered some equipment and I'm the one who delivered it. She told me all about it then. She just wanted to know that Ty would be able to defend herself in the future if things start going backwards again and everyone turns on us."
With how far things had come in the last several months, Max didn't even want to think about everything going back to the world of fear. This was the most free she had felt in a long time. She was free to come and go as she pleased, without having to conceal her barcode. Naturally, there were still people who didn't like the transgenics, but enough people were on their side that the antagonists kept their mouths shut. She just hoped things kept moving forward, then she could think about settling down and having a real life.
The tiny café around him was falling apart, but it didn't concern him much. The taste of their coffee was foul in a way that he couldn't describe, but it gave him the necessary boost he would need for the day. The sun was still rising in the sky, which meant that he was late. Usually he drank his coffee before the sun came up, but he had worn himself out yesterday. Traveling was more of a chore than he remembered. Then again, his head hadn't always hurt like it did last night. That was something that had happened regularly after his head injury of several months earlier. Since then, frequent migraines had plagued him, sometimes so strong that he couldn't bear to get out of bed and face the world, and last night had been one of the worst he'd ever had. After driving nearly all day and being confronted by a very unpleasant truck driver who didn't think too highly of the barcode on his neck, he'd started to feel the beginnings of what he had hoped then would just be a regular headache, but, as he had feared, its power had steadily increased until he trapped himself in a hotel room with the lights off, lying on the bed with the blankets thrown up over his face to block out any spare light trickling in through the window.
Some people smiled and tipped their heads at him politely as they passed, while others simply ignored him, but he didn't pay much attention either way. His tolerance for the general public was nearly gone, which was why he preferred to sit in a distant corner of the church all day. This café was much too crowded for his liking, and he was starting to tire of ignoring a woman sitting at another table who kept sending him suggestive looks. Dealing with people was not his strong point.
The door to the café swung open again, and finally Ben rose to his feet, ready to head off for the church. This place simply couldn't fit one more person into it and still be comfortable for him to be in. The newcomer swept straight past him without even looking at him, but Ben whirled around. Was he seeing things? He had to be, his mind was playing tricks on him after last night's migraine. After a good second look, however, he knew nothing was wrong with his eyes. Ames White was standing in line at the counter, glancing at his watch every so often and throwing irritated looks at an older couple at the front of the line who couldn't seem to decide what they wanted to drink. Ben pushed the other sounds in the café out of his mind, zeroing in on White's voice. "Damn it, people, just take the cow shit they call coffee and get out of the line!" he muttered grumpily under his voice. Although it was particularly hard to tell with Familiars, Ben thought the other man looked tired, which was confirmed when White barely stifled a yawn with his hand.
Just get out of here, he told himself viciously. He didn't want to have to stare at that man any longer than he absolutely had to. He would, however, be perfectly happy to let the rest of the cult know where he was if he found an opportunity and let them tear him apart. No, just forget about him. He's not the one to blame for everything that's happened, she is. With that, he strode out the door without looking back.
Ames White's head jerked up suddenly. Why did he feel like someone had been watching him? The haunting feeling of eyes had caused the hair on the back of his neck to stand straight up, but he couldn't spot the culprit. His eyes wandered to the still swinging café door, and, almost against his will, he rushed to it and peered out into the street. Nothing caught his eye, but the feeling that he had just missed whoever it was continued to nag him as he walked back in and settled himself at the back of the line. He couldn't worry about that just now. He had a special meeting later, and he wanted to be completely focused. With his current displacement from the cult, it just wasn't safe to be distracted around the High Priest of the Conclave.
A/N 2: Please let me know what you think. :)