Disclaimer: Kay, Paige, Jacob, and Sate are mine.

Black Ice

By Be Boring

Chapter 12: Grim Confrontations

"Welcome to your new home," Jacob announced cheerily as he led Kay out into a chilly, dingy, stone holding cell. She glanced back at the room behind her, which she could barely see around the side of the truck. It looked like she was going to be locked in a portion of a substantially large garage. Judging by the sound of traffic outside, she was in a major city, and from the strong chemical scent in the air, she was sure she was at least nearby a lab of some sort. Well, I started out in a lab, it's only fair that I die in one.

Once the door was shut behind her, Kay realized that absolutely no light was able to get in. She pressed herself against the door, listening to the footsteps of the familiars walking away. Sate's were easy to pick out, his stride was considerably longer than everyone else's. She slowly felt her way around the room, mentally measuring the length of each side as she sidled along. It seemed that they were hoping she was claustrophobic, because the room was only five feet by six feet. I guess I know which way I'll have to lay down to be comfortable. How long was she going to be in this room? She knew it would be approximately nine months, but were they going to keep her in here the entire time? That wouldn't give her much opportunity to escape, but undoubtedly that was their goal. She stood in the very center of the room, shaking from the cold and unwilling to lie down. These people probably won't even let me take a shower while I'm here. Hey, I don't remember running into a toilet. Great, they really did plan on making this an unpleasant visit.

"This isn't very hospitable!" she shouted irately in the direction of the door. At least she was sure now that Paige wasn't anywhere around. She would have heard her on the truck if she were there. It felt so unfair to her that the only chance she had to hold her daughter was when Paige was unconscious. She didn't get to look into her baby's beautiful blue eyes and see if any recognition was there. By now she was probably more comfortable with Ben than she would be with her own mother.

She paced the tiny room almost obsessively until she heard returning footsteps. Ugh, why is he coming to see me again? She didn't even bother to lunge forward and attack as the door whipped open. Sate would have just sent her flying back in anyway. He seemed surprised by her lack of energy when he entered the room, carrying a flashlight with him. Once the door was closed again, he turned it on.

"Captivity suits you," he remarked blandly, pointing the beam of light directly into her oversensitive eyes. "It certainly mellowed you out."

"I haven't mellowed out, I'm just saving myself," she replied stiffly, leaning against the opposite wall and crossing her arms casually. "No use burning myself out at the beginning of the race."

He smirked with amusement. "You think of this as a race? You're not going to be getting very far. You wouldn't get farther than this door. Do you know I'll be one of your guards?"

"I heard something about it."

"Well, it won't be an exciting job, but I'll make due."

"You know, guards are generally supposed to stand outside the door," Kay stated coldly.

If anything, that just seemed to amuse him more. "I was supposed to make sure you weren't injured too severely during your capture. You see, they want you in perfect health until they've taken a good supply of eggs. After that, you're a toy. It's not like you'll be alone all the time. When he recovers, I'm sure Curtis will want to spend some time with you. Not only will he want to pay you back for the damage you caused to his arms, but I believe he signed up for the job in the first place because he liked your picture. Did I mention he's also a scientist? He's one of the few people in the entire building that has access both to you here and the drugs inside. If he chooses to sedate you and discover what Brother White found so interesting about you, nobody will care. He's also one of your guards, just to let you know. I'm sure you'll have plenty of fun with him once he has recovered."

Kay couldn't believe what she was hearing. Why didn't they just kill her after they took the eggs? If the babies didn't turn out to be keys, what were the chances they would have better luck on a second attempt? Besides, Paige was always out there, so why did they insist on keeping her around? I guess they're just cruel that way. "How many people have access to me and the drugs? You said Curtis was just one of them."

"Well, a couple other scientists have volunteered for a small portion of the guard duty. I don't think you'll need to worry about them, it's Curtis who you should try and avoid."

"Why are you telling me this?" she asked suspiciously. "If some of your cult brothers are perverts, I would think you'd have kept it to yourself so that you could enjoy my shock when I found out from experience. Whether you show it or not, I'm not stupid enough to believe you're my biggest fan."

He stepped forward and she automatically tried to back up farther, succeeding only in cramming herself awkwardly against the wall. He stopped just short of her, leaving only around half a foot's distance between them. "You're right, I'm not a fan, but I'm not a fan of Curtis either. Why let someone I don't even like enjoy you so thoroughly? I gave you that warning to give you time to prepare. If you're lucky, you'll be able to defend yourself against him when he comes for you."

"When will he be healed?" she asked nervously, wishing the wall behind her would give way just a little.

"With what you did to him? Even with his blood, that will take at least two months, so you're safe for now. I'm just wondering if they'll choose to impregnate you as well, instead of leaving it all to the surrogates. Perhaps the key needs to be nurtured inside someone of your strength."

She finally stepped to the right and walked around him, giving herself room to breathe again. "So the surrogates are going to be ordinaries?"

He turned to face her again, smiling at her blatant discomfort. "A few, yes, but many will be other familiars. They want your filthy offspring to get the best start possible. We even have a few captive transgenics. I believe we have a few female X6s, perhaps the Conclave will choose to involve them as well. I'm most curious about who the fathers are going to be. I have no doubt that they'll split the eggs up into groups and inseminate each set with different fathers to see which shows the best results. If we're lucky, the identity of the father and the blood of the surrogate won't make any difference whatsoever. It's you that counts."

She stepped back again as he started to approach her once more. "You must be a close talker, because you insist on standing right where the only part of you I can see clearly is your sternum."

He chuckled and waved the light around playfully so that the beam darted all around her face. "Actually, I just like seeing that cornered look in your eye, because you know what I can do if you try to attack me. This time, though, I'm going to follow my orders and check you over."

"What makes you more qualified than any of the others to do that?"

"You probably didn't know I went to medical school. I'm extremely useful in the operating room, I don't even need an assisting nurse. Hold out your arm." She frowned and held it out grudgingly, tensing as his long fingers gripped her wrist and began to check her pulse. "Hmm, that's a little too fast for my liking, but I'm sure with time that will slow down." She pulled her arm back quickly when he released it. "Do you have any bruises anywhere in your abdominal region?"

"No," she replied quickly, hoping he would leave it at that. Naturally, that wasn't the case.

Suddenly, she felt a powerful chill around her stomach. When she looked down, she realized that he had lifted her shirt about six inches, showing pale skin that hadn't seen the sun for well over a year, marred only by the occasional fading stretch mark still stubbornly hanging around from Paige. His head jerked lightly to the left and her body started to slowly revolve on the spot, her toes just barely out of reach of the floor. When he was satisfied that there was no bruising, his eyes moved away from her and her shirt fell back into place over her midriff as her feet landed on the solid ground again. The smile that played on his malevolent features showed how much he was taking pleasure in making her squirm, but she was starting to feel relief that that was all it was. He hadn't seriously hurt her yet, nor had he showed any signs of wanting to be the first here to do what Curtis had wanted to do. Sure, he was working as hard as he could to humiliate her, but so far it looked as though he was treating it like child's play and nothing more.

"Well, you appear to be healthy," he commented, watching her wait impatiently for him to leave. "Were there any problems when you gave birth to your recent abomination?"

"No, my beautiful little girl was born without anything going wrong, and if I may say so, she's probably the most attractive child your freaky people have ever produced. It must come from me."

Sate took a step forward, apparently just to watch her automatically move backward. "Let's not forget, had Sandeman not interfered, you would have been one of us."

In the same tone he had used, she replied, "Let's not forget, had Sandeman not interfered, I would have been killed before birth. Now, wouldn't that have been a shame?"

He walked forward again, this time stepping past her and reaching out for the door. "Not really, but I must say that you're easily the most interesting specimen Sandeman ever brought into this world." With that, he left her alone again, breathing heavily from the rush of relief that had hit her. It was rather surreal to be treated like a rag doll with which he could do what he liked without even having to touch her, which was weird enough as far as she was concerned. Out of her few confrontations with him, that had easily been the worst. She doubted her stomach would disentangle itself for days.

When Alec finally returned to Logan's house, alone this time because he still didn't want Jondy involved in this, he found everyone sitting around the kitchen table. "What's going on?"

Logan looked up at him. "We're trying to think of how we can track Kay down without being able to use my computer. I'm sure they had a special kind of transport for her, and they would have needed to get her near a hospital or a lab somewhere, but without my computer I can't even find out which way they went out of town. We're helpless until the electricity comes back on."

Alec rolled his eyes at the glum looks on everyone's faces. "Come on, wherever they took her would probably be a place with a lot of familiars, and you're going to tell me we don't have a lead? If we beat it out of him, I'm sure White can tell us of a few facilities like that. Just because he doesn't know specifically which one they took her to doesn't mean he can't narrow it down for us."

"Do you realize how long we're going to have to kick him around for information like that?" Zack commented sharply. "That could take hours."

"It would still be faster than running around in the dark with no clue what we're doing."

Max stood up, glancing apologetically at Logan. "I want a piece of this. Who else is going down?"

Alec's hand went up right away. Zack had already started to stand up when he noticed this. "What do you want to go down there for?"

"Are you kidding? That guy put an explosive against my brain stem, I've got to have a part in this."

"Fine, let's go." As soon as all three were gone, Brin, Ben, and Logan were the only ones left. Paige started crying in the back, so Ben rose and left to tend to her. Brin stared at her hands for a moment, then decided she had to get something off her mind.

"Your police scanner hasn't said anything about anyone breaking out of the city, so is it possible they're not far away? I know it would take a while, but couldn't we find out who went through the different checkpoints today? They'll still keep written copies since they can't put it all in a computer. It would be a lot of sneaking, but it would be worth it."

Suddenly, Logan's eyes lit up. "Want to take a road trip? I think Matt Sung can help us get things rolling faster."

The trio in the basement never heard Brin and Logan leave, they were too busy with White. So far they hadn't even asked him anything, they just kept beating on him. They all had their own reasons for wanting to turn him into a human punching bag. He had hurt them all in one way or another, and to each of them, their circumstances had been the worst. Max took particular pleasure in kicking him in the ribs, even though a small part of her felt bad about it. Dammit Logan, you've turned me soft.

Ames had no idea what this was all about. As much as he hated her, he knew 452 wasn't unnecessarily violent, so why was she doing this now? They hadn't asked him anything and gave no sign that they wanted him to say anything at all. Although they were all throwing kicks and punches at him, the only part of him that really hurt was his collarbone, which 494 had managed to break almost right away. When the third X5, the one that had held him captive in Terminal City and who Kay always called Zack, kneed him in the face, he finally spat out, "What do you all want?"

The beating paused momentarily as Zack kneeled down and replied, "We want to know if there are any medical facilities that your people control."

"How should I know?"

Alec's foot connected with his left cheek, making his head snap back and causing his neck to ache horribly. "We know better than that. For some reason, your people trusted you with a lot of information, so don't give us that crap. Tell us and we'll make it easy on you."

He rolled his eyes, refusing to let them see any pain in his face. "If you had wanted to make it easy on me, you would have asked right away instead of having your fun first. Now I doubt I could take you at your word."

Max crossed her arms, moving directly in front of him so he couldn't avoid seeing her. "But you know you can trust mine. I know you don't like me, but you know that I can keep a promise. So, answer the man."

"Perhaps my memory isn't quite what it used to be."

Zack glowered at him, wishing they didn't have to deal with this miserable excuse of a human being. "A few days of no water ought to change that."

"What if I decide not to talk and die instead? Then where are you going to get your answers?"

"Maybe," Max snapped, "we should go get Ray and see if you ever let anything slip to him. It may not hurt you much to go a few days without food and water, but I don't think Ray is strong enough for that yet, do you?"

Ames stared up at her, trying to read her expression to see whether or not she was bluffing. "You tell me to trust you, and then in the same breath you tell me that you'll torture my son if I don't cooperate. Does that sound like something to inspire trust in me? Why don't you just threaten Paige's life too, that way you'll have both of my children's lives as leverage?"

"It's not a bad idea. We don't plan on putting a lot of effort into you, so if you don't help us out, you leave your kids without a father. In Ray's case, you're leaving him an orphan. That's how it could turn out for Paige too if you decide not to help us, because without your help, we won't be able to get Kay back and I'm sure the Conclave will eventually kill her once they've exhausted her uses. I realize you don't like her, but it sounds to me like you love your children. I think that's better incentive than anything."

Ames gritted his teeth determinedly. As long as he didn't say anything, they wouldn't be able to kill him. Who else would they be able to get that information from? "I'm not telling you anything."

Zack pulled up his sleeves, smiling grimly. "Wrong answer."

When Kay heard footsteps returning again, she was relieved to hear that they weren't Sate's. Whoever was coming was of regular height. Just as she thought, it wasn't Sate who opened the door, but Jacob. "It's time to get started."

She stared blankly at him as he approached, holding his gun out in front of him the entire time. "Start what?"

"How long did you think we were going to wait before taking your eggs? We want this all done with as soon as possible, then we can happily be free of you."

"Isn't your job supposed to be done? And I didn't think you'd be able to do anything until the electricity came back on?" she asked as he shoved her out the door.

"The electricity just came back about fifteen minutes ago. As for me thinking I was done, originally yes, that's what was supposed to happen," he responded with a slight edge of disappointment in his voice, "but after you pulled that stunt with Curtis, I've been assigned guard duty in his place until he can take over again."

"Sorry, I know you wanted to be free of Sate."

"You're not sorry," he scowled.

"Actually, yeah, I am. I feel bad for anyone who has to work with him. Has he ever given you the slight impression that he's a Dracula wannabe?" she asked lightly.

She could have sworn his breathing changed abruptly behind her, like he was trying to stifle a laugh. "I'd never thought about it that way, but yeah, I can see where you'd get that idea. I've always personally felt he was the son of an Amazon."

She gazed around as they headed through a door on the right adjacent wall from hers, which led them directly into a long hallway glowing with fluorescent light. She couldn't see much through the open doors because they were walking so quickly, but she was starting to get the idea that this was a college setting. Most of the people she caught brief glimpses of were in their late teens and early twenties. "Sure, an Amazon that managed to screw a poltergeist. He must have been a really gangly teenager when he hit his big growth spurt. You'd think he would have a permanent dent in his forehead from the amount of times he ran into doors before he adjusted to his height."

This time Jacob allowed himself a small chuckle. It felt dangerous to be joking about Sate like this, especially when no one else on the team dared to do it, but who cared if they were caught? He could just blame her. "We shouldn't be making fun of him like this," he said in a mock scolding voice. "He's really a great guy."

"Sure, I'll bet he's a riot at parties. He could just flip up the girls' skirts without having to lift a finger. It's probably the most he's ever seen of a woman. Who would be brave or dumb enough to date him? 'I'm having a great time tonight, would you like to come home and sleep in my coffin with me?' It almost makes you feel bad for the guy."

Jacob bit down on his lip to keep from bursting out laughing. "Turn here," he managed to choke out as they reached the ninth door on the right. She walked straight in, grinning when she turned around and saw the laughter in his eyes. He forced it away quickly, he couldn't be seen joking with their hostage. "Someone will be in with you shortly, and don't bother trying to escape. If you can bust down this door, you deserve to get away."

"You know," she said thoughtfully, tilting her head to the side as she studied him. "You look a little like a red-haired John Travolta. Has anyone ever told you that?"

He raised an eyebrow in surprise. "No, actually, I've never heard that one before. By the way, you're supposed to put on that gown on the table." He closed the door behind him, shaking his head. She had spent every second she had with him earlier insulting him, and now she was complimenting his looks and joking around with him? That didn't make much sense to him. I suppose if you're made in a test tube, you're more likely to come out a little bit bipolar.

Kay smiled to herself as she sat on the cold, sterile table in the middle of the room and started to change. Jacob wasn't a bad guy, he actually seemed to be fairly nice despite his earlier coldness, which meant he would be easier to fool than the others. They already had a common ground; they both hated Sate. If she played her cards right and managed to have some real conversations with him, she might be able to sucker him into being her friend. That had always been one of the reasons she was so good at her missions for Manticore. She could convince her target to become her new best friend if she chose to. For now, her target was Jacob. He seemed to be the only person other than Sate who would stay in the same room alone with her, and Sate had made it clear that he wasn't an option.

When the door opened again, a young woman entered with two armed familiars that Kay recognized from the alley. As the younger, unarmed woman walked around, Kay had the distinct feeling that she was also a familiar. "All right, let's get started," the woman said quietly, pulling on her glove. Kay sighed and gripped the starchy cloth of her gown unhappily. She didn't want to do this at all.

Ben lounged around the kitchen, rocking Paige as he walked along. She seemed to have a terrible headache because she just couldn't stop bawling. The crying didn't annoy him, though, as it would have a week ago. Instead, he empathized with her. He knew exactly how she was feeling, he'd been suffering through the same pain for nearly a year. If he wasn't mistaken, however, the lump was already shrinking. Apparently her blood was just as apt as the rest of the transgenics to heal her quickly. About a half hour ago everything electrical in the house had come blaring back on, giving him the task of running around and shutting everything off before Paige's headache worsened. He would have thought that the others would have come up at the racket, but he had the feeling they were busy. From the sound of it, Max, Zack, and Alec were still in the basement with White and they didn't appear to be making much progress, but he had no clue where Brin and Logan were. He didn't have to think about it long, though.

"Where have you guys been?" he asked immediately when he heard the front door open. He had been alone with Paige for hours.

"On a wild goose chase," was Brin's grumbling reply. "You wouldn't believe what a waste of time that entire trip was."

Ben walked into the living room, still gently bobbing Paige in his arms. "What were you doing?"

Logan slid off his jacket and hung it up. "Finding out personally from the sector police at the checkpoints what vehicles passed through today. The most we've come up with is that they were transporting Kay in a semi with the Lethil & Prowdovet logo on the side. The problem is that they went through every single checkpoint in town, and our sector police are so incompetent that practically none of them copied down the time they went through. The only checkpoints they didn't go through were the ones leading out of town, so we're sure they're still in the city, but they could be anywhere. I just feel bad for wasting Matt's time like that. Even though he could flash a badge and get us information much faster than we would have been able to on our own, we're no closer to finding them than we were before. It also appears that they found their destination before the blackout ended."

Ben glanced at the paper that contained the list of the sectors the truck had passed through. All but the ones leading out of the city were checked off, and only three had times next to them. The truck had woven through the sectors, making sure to hit every checkpoint around every sector. None had been passed through twice and there were no times to tell them which one had been passed through last. "You know," he said quietly, staring hard at the paper, "what if they came back to this sector? I know it's no more likely than any other sector, but it would be a smart thing to do. Are there any labs around here?"

"No," Logan replied. "Not an independent one, anyway. The college in this sector has a lab next to it, but there's way too many college students running around that place to hide her in. Besides, the place is only half built. Construction stopped after the Pulse hit. I think some volunteers turned the unfinished portion into a gigantic garage so the students didn't have to park outside, provided they even had vehicles. Where would they be able to hide Kay?"

Brin shook her head, her eyes lighting up as she thought everything over. "If it was unfinished and the volunteers weren't part of the original construction crew, then how do we know something couldn't have been added on that wasn't in the plans? For all we know, the familiars could have taken that place over a long time ago. They may have been able to build something that would hold a prisoner if they ever felt so inclined. Do you think we should run over and take a look? Maybe we'll see something useful." She looked at the squirming baby in Ben's arms. "Maybe just Logan and I should go again, that kid just doesn't respond to anyone but you."

Ben thrust Paige out quickly. "I've really got to get out and spend some time away from her for once. You're not bad with her, she'll be happy enough with you until I come back. I just really need a break."

Brin looked dubiously down at the writhing baby. "Fine, but you owe me." She took Paige hesitantly into her arms and watched them leave, wishing she could go again. She liked feeling like she was doing something useful. I'd better go see how far those three have gotten. She opened the basement door and slowly made her way down the stairs, cringing when she caught sight of White. Could he possibly be any more bloody and still be conscious? "Anything yet?" she called out nervously, unsure if that would disturb their rhythm and make them turn on her for interrupting them.

Zack sighed and stepped back. "Nothing yet, but he can't last much longer like this. We'll break him soon enough."

"Good luck," White growled, spitting a mouthful of blood onto Zack's shoe. Zack responded automatically by kicking him in the face again, then he turned back to Brin.

"What have you been up to?"

"Nothing, I'm just babysitting Paige for now." Everyone stopped momentarily to take a break, giving White the time to look up at Paige. Brin saw his eyes soften ever so slightly, so she thought that now was the time to catch him by surprise if she was ever going to do it. "Ben and Logan went to that half-built college to look for Kay." She watched as his head jerked up in alarm. "What? Did I say something wrong?"

"Your friends are going to get themselves killed," he declared in the same tone of voice he would have used to say, "It's going to rain today."

Max raised an eyebrow and looked down at him. "So, is that one of your freaky cult's bases? It makes sense, a college would have a lab. Maybe it's a college form of their kiddie school. Maybe it's chock full of familiars too."

"Well, Ben and Logan should be able to at least tell us something when they get back." At least, maybe they'd have something to share if White's prediction didn't come true.

Author's Note: Please read and review!