CHAPTER 73
PETER
December 11, 2010
3:51pm
Carthis, Scotland
The New Centre
Alex began to thrash about as the pair of sweepers approached her. The sweeper on her right had a needle filled with a clear liquid. Alex knew that if the sweeper managed to sedate her it would all be over.
"Hold...her...still," Raines ordered the sweeper that wasn't holding the needle. Alex suddenly relaxed, she realized that she needed to conserve her energy and would have to wait for the perfect moment for her to rebel.
As soon as the two sweepers had their hands on her Alex, used her pyrokinesis to raise her body tempter and incase her whole body in flames. The pair of sweepers howled in pain as their hands blistered from the fire around Alex. The sheets on Alex's bed began to catch ablaze and flames trailed up the I.V. tube causing an explosion to ensue. Fire sprinklers came on attempting to douse the fire caused by Alex.
Had Alex not of spent the last of her strength by encasing her body in flames the sprinkler never would have succeeded. But Alex was only able to keep up her power for just under half a minute before she faded off into unconsciousness.
The flames around her body dissipated. Seeing an open opportunity Cox commanded the sweepers to carry the girl out of the room and to her new cell.
Though still in great pain the sweepers reached down to pick up Alex. Again they recoiled once they came in contact with her skin.
"Sir, she's too hot," The first sweeper told Cox.
"Then carry her using a sheet. I don't care what you do as long as you get her down to SL-19," Cox snapped. The sweepers quickly found bed linens stored in the closet of Alex's room and managed to roll Alex's unconscious form on to the sheets. Using the linens as a makeshift gurney the sweepers followed Raines and Cox down to SL-19.
December 11, 2010
4:00pm
Carthis, Scotland
The New Centre
The moment Bane exited the elevator he knew something was amiss. Three pairs of wet foot prints and tire treads led form Alex's room to the elevator. The whole floor reeked of charred fabric. Bane's heart pounded furiously in his chest as he ran down the hall to Alex's room.
The door was cracked open and water was flowing out into the hall. Bane pushed the door open and saw that what had once been Alex's bed, was nothing more than a charred mattress and sheets atop a metal frame. Walking into the room Bane was suddenly drenched from the sprinklers. But he paid no mind to the water, his thoughts were on nothing but Alex.
He knew who had taken her, and was even sure of where they had taken her. Bane knew that there was no way John would have been able to have had Alex removed from her room in the few minutes it took Bane to make his way from John's room to Alex's. No, Raines and Cox had taken Alex to use in their twisted experiments.
"Damn it!" Bane screamed as he flung his chair next to Alex's bed into the wall. The chair shattered as it came in contact with the wall. But the violence did nothing to alleviate his anger or fear. So Bane began to punch the cinder block wall with all of his strength.
With in seconds the cinder block was beginning to crumble from the force of Bane's punches. At the same time Bane was doing damage to the wall he was hurting himself but could not feel it thanks to the experiments Raines had conducted on him as a boy. Bane's knuckles were a bloody mess. Blood ran down his fist and was washed away by the water from the sprinklers all the while Bane continued to punch at the wall.
He would of continued had a hand much smaller than his not stopped him. Bane felt a hand on his shoulder and looked down to see John...or was it Peter? The ten year old boy seemed different his eyes had softened as had the rest of his facial features. His hair was no longer slicked back it was instead spiked. And John no longer carried himself as the future Centre chairman, but there was still pride and inner strength in his stance.
"Raines and Cox took her didn't they?" John asked Bane. Bane nodded his head. "Then we have to get my sister back." John/Peter said voice full of conviction.
December 11, 2010
4:02pm
Carthis, Scotland
The New Centre
"You know who you are now," Bane stated looking down at John.
"Actually I have no idea who I am any more," John replied bitterly. "But I do know that Alex...that she's my sister, and that she came here to save me. Now it seems I have to save her."
"You aren't the only one. Other's are coming to get both of you out. And apparently myself as well," Bane told the not quite eleven year old.
"Who?" John asked.
"Alex just said that the calvary was coming. I'm assuming that to be the rest of the Black Files at the very least," Bane replied. John contemplated Bane's words using both his memories of John and his cloudy memories as Peter to figure out just who was coming and how they planed on rescuing Alex, along with himself and Bane.
"Master Parker," Bane began.
"Don't call me that," John interrupted.
"What do you want for me to call you then?" Bane questioned.
"I don't know," John sighed. "To the people here I'm John Sebastian Parker. To-to my...to my family I'm Pete. Call me what ever the hell you want."
"Well if it makes you feel any better, I was once David Malcolm Collier, then Bane and Alex calls me Midas," John raised an eye brow at this. "Tell you what. You pick a new name for yourself." John thought for a moment, his eyes closed water still falling from the ceiling.
"Just call me Peter, not Pete but Peter," The boy told Bane. "It means rock or stone. That is what I am, a piece of stone that has been shaped into someone who has no idea who he is."
"Peter it is then. We'd better go and find you sister. God knows what Raines has done to her," Bane said.
"Fist we need to pay a visit to my Fa- to the Chairman," Peter stuttered. "I never granted Raines or Cox access to this room. They must have petitioned the chairman."
"But even before that I suggest that we change into something a bit on the dry side," Bane commented gesturing to his and Peter's soaked clothing.
"Go and change and meet me in my room from there we will confront Fa- the chairman," Peter replied. Bane nodded his head and set off to his room where he would bandage his knuckles and then change into dry clothing. Peter went in the opposite direction to change. He was on a mission, a mission to rescue his sister. His sister who had given up everything for him.
December 11, 2010
4:22pm
Carthis, Scotland
The New Centre
Bane entered Peter's room not bothering to knock. Peter was sitting on his bed sketch book in hand. He was wearing a pair of black jeans and a long sleeve black shirt, his hair was spiked, and he wore a small silver hooped earring in his right ear. Bane had never seen Peter -John what ever that kid was calling himself- dressed in anything other than dress pants and a dress shirt save for when the two were training and then Peter had been wearing sweats.
"Like the look. Didn't know you actually owned jeans," Bane commented.
"I didn't realize until after I got dressed but this is how my Dad and Will kinda dress," Peter said not looking up from his sketch. Bane peered down at what John was drawing. It was a group of children ranging form the ages of fourteen to sixteen sitting on a poach of an old farm house. There were eight boys and six girls in the drawing.
In the center of the drawing were what seemed to be a set of identical quintuplets three boys and two girls. There was a boy on either side of each girl, their arms draped across their sister's shoulders. All had similar facial features and were roughly the same height.
To their right were two sets of twins. One pair -a boy a girl- were fair skinned, with calculating eyes. They didn't seemed to be as truly relaxed as the others, it was although they were on guard, waiting for an attack. The other pair of twins -also a boy a girl- were darker in complection, the boy had a lopsided grin, and his sister seemed to be shaking her head in amusement.
To the far left of the drawing was another boy girl pair of twins and a set of triplets -two boys and a girl. Bane could see the hidden sadness in the twins eyes. The triplets were practically identical yet out of all of the groups of siblings they seemed the most unalike. One of the boys had a wide smile, while his sister was glaring at him. It wasn't an unfriendly glare, just the type of look one would expect a sister to give her brother when she found him annoying. The third boy seemed to stand apart from his siblings as well as the rest of the group. And there was such pain and inner turmoil conveyed in his eyes.
"Who is he?" Bane asked pointing at the boy who seemed to stand alone.
"Jeremiah, along with the rest of the calvary," Peter replied.
"Why isn't he standing with the others?"
"Because he's Jeremiah," Peter said simply. "I started this two days ago. I didn't know why I was drawing them until now. How am I going to face them Bane, after doing what I've done. I have become then one man I swore I would never become."
"You had no choice Pete. Parker manipulated you, used you to his own advantages," Bane told the boy.
"But I ignored the voices and the visions that were warning me what Fa- Parker had done to me!" Peter yelled. "My sister was shot because of me. I-I allowed for the Triumvirate to fund the New Centre. I got the money to find surrogate mothers to-to cl-clone...oh God... because of me they nearly cloned my brothers and sisters." Tears were falling down Peter's face. The boy was horrified at what he had done in the past month as John Sebastian Parker.
Bane sat down next to Peter, unsure as to what to do Bane patted Peter on the shoulder. "It's okay Peter, that wasn't you. Your family knows that and they aren't going to blame you for what happened."
"My eldest brother and sister are parents because of me. You just can't go forgiving shit like that. Stuff like that is unforgivable. I can say as sorry as much as like, I can do penance as much as I want but no matter what I won't be forgiven. Jer hasn't forgiven Bobby for what he did. How are they going to forgive me for what I did?"
"Alex already has," Bane said softly. "She has never blamed you for what has happened. She knows that you aren't responsible for the babies or Shadow her getting shot, Kaine posing as you or even Jack being sick."
Peter's head shot up. "What are you talking about? Who is Kaine and what do you mean Jack is sick?" Peter's memories of his old life were still fuzzy but he know who Jack was and just how much he loved his baby brother.
Bane sighed realizing that Peter had no idea of what had occurred back in Charlottesville after he had been taken. Bane quickly explained everything Alex had told him over the past day.
"I-I've been cloned," Peter said in shock looking up at Bane.
"Yeah. Parker, he...he had you cloned three times. The youngest Seth died when he was little. Benny is the second oldest he was here with Alex but left with Jeremiah and the others. The oldest is he pretended that he was you, made your whole family believe that he was you. Kaine also poisoned Jack under your father's orders. He's dying Peter," Bane said gently.
"I...He never told me that he had was going to try and hurt Jason or Jack. Do...do the other's know what's wrong with him?" Peter stuttered.
"No. It's up to us though to find out ," Bane told Peter. "But first we must find Alex. We can't let Raines hurt her. I can't lo-...I mean she's our connection to your family," Bane stumbled over his slip. Yet Peter caught Bane's slip and a small grin crossed features.
"You're in love with my sister," Peter stated.
"N-no I'm not. I just promised her I'd keep her safe from Raines and Cox," Bane replied.
"You're lying Bane. You're smitten with my sister. I've been watching the two of you over the past thirty six hours. You've become rather close, and Katie well...she just doesn't trust anyone," Peter told Bane.
"What did you call Alex?"
"I called her...Katie," Peter looked up at Bane and both boy's realized that more of Peter's memories were returning. "We call Alex, Katie all the time. Dad, Will and Uncle Sam call her Katie-girl and Momma calls her Katie-did. We call Jacob, Jake or Roland 'cause Roland was the leader in Stephen King's Dark Tower series and Jake is the leader of all the Files."
"Michelle doesn't go by Michelle. It was Sam who named her, but Uncle Lex wanted for Uncle Sam to call her Maddie for short when she's not Maddie she's Maddox. Aaron-Daniel only goes by Aaron but there was a time he went by Danny 'cause he was going through an identity crisis. Which is weird considering the fact that it scars the shit out of him, Andy and Katie to be different. Only other time Air is called Danny is when bad shit is going down," Peter said talking quickly he was excited at the fact that his memories were coming back. Bane smiled at Peter's excitement.
"You're memories are coming back," Bane stated.
"Yeah. But I still have my memories as John though. It's confusing. But that doesn't matter we need to go and see the chairman now," Peter said placing his sketch pad on the bed next to him. He got up and Bane followed the boy to the Chairman's room.
Up Next: Alex's actions in defending herself have effects on not just Aaron, Andros, Mike, Maddie but a few other's as well. And Alex finds out just what Cox and Raines want with her.
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