Part 3

"Lexa where is Malcolm with my reports? I have to go to my five o'clock training session with the senior group of students soon." Nine inquired wearily.

Lexa tapped away on her tablet. Nine didn't know it but she was tracking Malcolm's phone. His phone was on the landing field so at least he and Taylor were back from their trip to retrieve something, more like someone. "What reports is he bringing me anyway?" Nine questioned.

"He is bringing you the reports on the rate of legacy development in first and second-year students," Lexa answered.

"He can't just email those to me?" Nine impatiently questioned.

"Malcolm said he had something very important to show you about the results. He was greatly concerned about something." Lexa added. She inwardly groaned. He wasn't going to last much longer before she had to admit the truth to him. Malcolm had left three and half hours ago and well Nine can only be screwed with for so long.

She saw his phone starting to move towards the academy grounds and let out a small sigh of relief.

"He's on his way, sir. Give him ten more minutes." Lexa told him.

He sighed and flopped on the couch.

At 1:10 p.m. Malcolm had gotten a call from a processing center in Tacoma Washington. He was to either come himself or send someone to collect Riley Lexa Worthington. Five minutes later Malcolm was asking her to cover for him. Five minutes after that he and Taylor Cook were airborne heading north to collect Riley. Malcolm had told her the whole situation over a secure phone line at three before heading back this way. Nine was gonna be beyond livid after he heard what had happened up in Washington. She didn't know if there was a word to describe how majorly ticked off he was going to be. But this wasn't going to be pretty no matter what they did.

She almost felt sorry for whatever commander issued the cure to Riley. He would die a slow painful death if Nine wasn't the head of the academy. Malcolm's phone was now on the green. He was probably five minutes out hopefully.

"Have you heard anything from the others?" He questioned.

Lexa was so startled she almost dropped her tablet.

"No Nine. No word from Cecilia, Casey, Riley, or Gia." Lexa answered, trying not to reveal how nervous that question made her.

"Why would Riley contact you?" He questioned.

Lexa bit her lip and saw Malcolm had made it into the main office building.

"Thank the elders." She mumbled.

"What?" Nine questioned. He raised an eyebrow like he was getting suspicious.

"Malcolm is here." Lexa sighed.

She took her usual seat on the couch and stared at the door expectantly. Nine looked at her with a questioning yet concerned look. Then it was opened and in came Taylor followed by Malcolm carrying a lanky teenage girl in a backward piggyback fashion. He held her like she was still a small child. Her mane of black inky hair was limp and pasted to her sweaty body. Her body was whiter than the reports Malcolm was supposed to be bringing. They couldn't see her face but Lexa heard the ragged breathing. "Taylor. I think she gonna." He never finished his statement for the girl vomited down his back.

"I'm so sorry Malcolm." Taylor apologized.

"It's okay Taylor. It's not the first time a child has thrown up on me." Malcolm reassured.

Nine just stared in disbelief, all the color draining out of his face. Then he took a deep breath and all that blood came rushing back to his face.

"What in the name of Lorien happened!" He demanded.

He rushed forward and retrieved his daughter from Malcolm's arms.

"Riley was captured during a raid on Olympia Regional Airport. All other targets escaped but she didn't. Because she refused to give up the others they did it." Malcolm slowly explained, avoid Nine's gaze.

"Please continue Malcolm, what is it?" Nine drawled.

"At 1:05 p.m. today Riley was cured." Malcolm closed his eyes, bracing for Nine to explode.

But he didn't yell, he didn't tear apart the room, he just readjusted Riley and grabbed his phone off his desk.

"Lexa, Malcolm, my cabin after dinner. Taylor brings the coffee." He instructed.

"But your class?" Lexa inquired.

"Malcolm I believe you can operate the obstacle course right?" Nine questioned, but his tone implied it wasn't a question.

"Yes, I can operate the obstacle course for your class," Malcolm answered.

"Need help cleaning her up?" Taylor offered.

"I think I can handle my daughter by myself." Nine impatiently answered. With that, he left them alone in his office. Malcolm stripped his shirt off and balled it up.

"I believe once he's taken care of his daughter he'll allow himself to explode." Malcolm simply answered.

"Absolutely." Lexa agreed.

"Is she going to be okay?" Taylor cautiously questioned.

Malcolm took a deep breath and sighed. "Time will tell Taylor. Time will tell."

Nine had cleaned his daughter and redressed her in fresh clothes she'd left there the previous summer. She was coherent enough to sit up on her bed as he combed her wet hair and braided it for her. But afterward, she flopped onto her back and let out a small whimper.

"Are you going to be sick again Ri?" He softly questioned. She shook her head and curled up on top of her sheets. He walked out and to the kitchen to get her a glass of water. He returned and she sat up long enough to drink it before sinking back on top of her blankets.

He crawled onto her bed and pulled her up towards him and the pillows. She softly moaned in pain again and curled up tighter. He frowned at her. How could he help her? He remembered when she was little and he would sing to her for bedtime once a week instead of a story of the olden days.

"And she said what's the problem baby, what's the problem I don't know, well maybe I'm in love, think about it every time, I think about it, can't stop thinking about it. He softly sang, horribly off key. Riley seemed to relax a little. He continued to sing the song accidentally in love to her. By the end of the song, she wasn't so curled up anymore. But he still hadn't gotten his smile yet.

"Like a small boat, on the ocean, sending big waves into motion, like how a single word can make a heart open, I might only have one match, but I can make an explosion." He started. He went through the whole fight song but no change.

This must be serious, time to pull out the big guns.

"I get no kick from champagne, mere alcohol doesn't thrill me at all,"

she let out a small giggle before he could finish the first verse. Nonetheless, he pressed on, glad to see her smile.

"So tell me why it should be true, that I get a kick out of you. Some get a kick from cocaine, I'm sure that if I took it, I took even one sniff, it would bore me terrifically, too, yet I get a kick out of you." Riley was just giggling away with a grin on her face. He sang the last two verses and she was in a fit of giggles by the end.

"I knew that'd work. It's always the classics." He teased.

She smiled and snuggled into his side. She frowned and looked up at him with her big blue eyes.

"I'm sorry dad." She mumbled before resting her head against his chest.

"There is no reason for apologizing. You must need another song." Nine smiled.

Riley grinned and nestled into him like she would when she was little.

"I need a hero, I'm holding out for a hero til the end of the night, he's gotta be strong, and he's gotta be fresh from the fight, I need a hero, I'm holding out for a hero til the morning light, he's gotta be sure, and it's gotta be soon, and he's gotta be larger than life! I need a hero, I'm holding out for a hero til the end of night," he sang regardless of how bad he was at it.

It always brought a smile to his daughters face. She let out a yawn and relaxed against him. But he saw her force her eyes open again.

"It's okay Ri, go to sleep. Your safe here with me. You deserve to rest." He reassured her.

She seemed ready to protest but her body was too spent to do anything but rest against him.

"You are my sunshine, my only sunshine, you make me happy when skies are gray, you'll never know dear, how much I love you, please don't take my sunshine away." Nine softly sung to her.

He just sat there as Riley fell asleep. He sighed and rested his head against the wall. What a complete disaster this all was. He already knew it was all downhill from here.

They'd arrived at his place around eight-thirty that night. Taylor started making the coffee in the kitchen.

"So what's the tiny sliver of good news?" Lexa asked Malcolm.

Malcolm was setting up on the kitchen island.

"Huh?" He questioned looking up. He pushed his glasses up so he could focus on her.

"You told us while you were doing the reports you were supposed to be doing this afternoon you discovered something that might help Riley." Lexa reminded.

"Oh, that," Malcolm replied. What concerned her was the deer in the headlights look he still had on his face.

"So what about legacy development in first and second-year students will help her? The cure is supposed to strip her of her legacies." Taylor questioned, completely lost.

"Exactly. It gets rid of her current legacies." Malcolm smirked.

"Alright, Bill Nye you've lost us," Lexa admitted casually.

"Look at this chart, early bloomers develop few legacies and over a longer period of time. Those right on schedule develop about four to five legacies over a year or so. But then the late bloomers develop as many as seven legacies within a year usually in rapid succession." Malcolm explained. "Then look at Riley, she's a late bloomer. She started the Wednesday after Labor Day last year. Telekinesis was first. Then she developed anima in the middle of November. The first week of December she got telepathy. Then the last Thursday of April she developed invisibility. Then only a few days later she showed signs of externa while at the refugee camp." Malcolm pointed to his chart.

"And your point?" Lexa inquired.

"Emotions play a vital part in developing legacies. Stress or anxiety can kind of force them to the surface. Telekinesis developed on her first day of eleventh grade. She was probably anxious." He circled that one with his finger. "Anima came in the week before she left with her class for D.C. also probably nervous or anxious." He circled that one next.

"Tournament week is the first week in December at her school. From what I understand it's the biggest event of the school year. Stress probably caused telepathy to surface." He circled it as well.

"Then the day she was captured her father knows she was nervous about being caught. Cue the invisibility. Then the day she's told she's part of a mission to rescue one of her best friends, externa rears its head. That's only five legacies. She's at least got one more in her that just hasn't manifested yet." Malcolm continued.

"But the cure will get rid of it won't it?" Taylor inquired.

"Her body's natural reaction is to fight back. All her legacies are fighting this thing. But that's her manifested ones. Not the ones she hasn't developed yet. So there might be hope." Malcolm spoke full of hope.

"Just don't tell Nine." Lexa frowned.

"Why? This is great news." Malcolm argued.

"You don't want to give him false hope. If it doesn't work." Taylor answered.

Malcolm sighed. "The probability of it working." Malcolm pressed.

"I don't care about that. Just promise me you won't tell him." Lexa argued. "Understood Lexa." Malcolm nodded.

"Alright, who wants to bet Nine is out cold with his daughter?" Taylor quipped.

"That's not even a question." Malcolm laughed.

"Let the man sleep, he deserves it. I'm pretty sure we can function without him." Lexa chuckled.

Malcolm smiled and set to his work. These overnight work sessions were private and frequent lately. The work they did here no one outside their group knew about and was most definitely not approved by the board or Earth Garde.

Nine came to only to realize someone was gently shaking his shoulder. "Nine?" Malcolm whispered.

Nine looked at Malcolm confused for a moment before he remembered. They were having a meeting tonight. Slowly Nine untangled himself from Riley and followed Malcolm out.

"Okay, ladies and gentleman I want the name, rank, and neck of the person responsible." Nine scowled.

Lexa already having done this while he was out, pulled it up on her laptop. "Commander William Clark Kennedy. Commander of Washington state. Any and all captives are handled by him personally. In the past three weeks, he's captured six different Human Garde. He likes to interrogate his captives and if they give him what he wants he sends them our way. If they resist, like your daughter, he gives them the cure." Lexa explained like she was trying to suck up to the teacher.

Taylor subtly chuckled at her attempt.

"Neck we can work on in the morning." Lexa finished before he could ask. Nine sat down on the island still stewing. Taylor placed a warm cup of tea in front of him before retreating. Nine rested his elbows on the island and buried his face in his hands. He ran them through his hair and looked up with a sigh.

"What do we know about the cure? I want to hear every detail possible that can help us with Riley currently."

"The cure makes someone severely ill, flu-like symptoms are stage one. Stage two is when the legacies will go haywire, then the final stage will be the most critical." Malcolm answered.

Nine went to open his mouth but Lexa cut him off.

"The last stage her fever could spike dangerously high, she will lose all legacies, severe dehydration, seizure, stroke, organ failure, and potential death." Lexa finished, solemnly.

"Well isn't that just peachy." Nine huffed.

"And all three stages will eventually all happen at the same time over the next week." Taylor finished.

"Nine." Lexa sighed.

"Lexa, Malcolm, do what you do best and try to find anything out about reversing this cure." Nine instructed.

"First we'd have to figure out how this cure works exactly. I only have theories I've shared with Lexa and emailed to Gia."

Lexa smacked him upside the head.

"That's why we hack into Earth Garde and find out how they made it."

"Haven't we tried to do that before?" Malcolm inquired.

"Shut up and let me work my magic. We will get in this time." Lexa huffed. Malcolm nodded.

"While I'm hacking you theorize about what we already know about it," Lexa replied.

Nine cracked a small grin at them. They were an interesting pair to work with.

"Taylor, can you go examine Riley for me? Make sure she's doing as fine as she can be?" Nine questioned.

"Of course. Thermometer in the bathroom?" Taylor inquired.

"As always." Nine nodded.

"After I'm done with her I am making you eat something. You gotta keep your strength up Nine." Taylor knowingly grinned.

She walked down the hall to do her task. Nine smiled at the thought that Taylor is only a few years younger than him and yet she carried herself with the authority of a superior, more like a caring mother. Nine nursed his tea and watched Lexa and Malcolm go to work.

The hacker and the scientist, the alien and the human working side by side in harmony, even if it doesn't seem it. Why couldn't everyone be that way?