"They're my sons. And I won't let you kill the other one as well."
The words kept circling in John's mind as they teleported to ground level, Caroline leading him on with her hand on his arm like she had done in the previous days, as if nothing had changed. As if her family wasn't about to go extinct because of him.
How could he not have seen it? If ULTRA was powerful – and cruel – enough to make Jedikiah order the killing of his own brother…
Take care of our people. It had seemed so obvious that Roger had talked about the mutants – who else could be meant with "our", who were the people John and Roger shared?
Except for Jedikiah. And Roger's son, probably…

"Why are you so friendly?" John tensed. He would not trust this man, no matter how serious he seemed. He couldn't trust anyone, not when they all knew how to shield their minds from him. Only four months with ULTRA, and already it had become impossible for John to imagine not seeing into peoples' heads. They might be open or they might build walls, either showed him so much more about his opposite than what they were saying. Words could lie where thoughts couldn't, not without leaving signs. Hiding his own thoughts had been a habit for John even before he knew just how powerful his mind was, so he felt safe within himself now – but he also knew how dangerous the others could be. How much there was to be hidden sometimes.
Except for Jedikiah. He tried his best to keep his secrets, but the wall inside his head was based on pure imagination, not the genetic power he tried so desperately to understand. For all it was worth, John could see right through it. He knew it when the older man was scared, or tired, or satisfied – all emotions the doctor never showed openly, and John wasn't sure if his fellow students really cared enough for the human to get behind the mask… but John did. He knew he was the best student they had, he knew Jedikiah was proud of him. He had proved himself, and for a moment he had hoped that this proof would grant him a place of safety. A home.
Then Tony had been killed.

"Duck!" John threw himself behind a car, dragging Caroline with him. The elder woman hissed as her hip collided with the ground but she didn't complain, only tilted her head slightly, a gesture so Jedikia-ish that John wondered how he could have been so blind to the truth before. Probably because Jedikiah was always everywhere for him, threatening him, sheltering him,…saving him from one terrible fate only to present him with another.
The camera hidden in the building to their left would soon turn, giving them five seconds to be gone from where they had just appeared – 23rd street, close to where Astrid lived. "On my command, get up to the Empire State Building." Such an obvious place that it rarely was checked, and there was only one camera looking for mutants. They would be able to hide between the hundreds of tourists taking their turns.
"Brillant." Even her voice now sounded like Jedikiah, but when she looked at John he could see a spark of Roger in Caroline's eyes. "I know this is hard, not only for me. I trust you."

"I know this is hard", the man sat down next to John. "I'm sorry about your friend."
John sniffed. "He wasn't my friend."
"Well, but he-"
"No, you don't understand", John snapped, he wasn't in the mood to be patient now, especially not with some stranger who permanently seemed to smile. "He wasn't even a friend, he just happened to know me, and now he's dead. That's what happens to people who are friendly, who talk to me."
"I see." The man backed away, but only a little. "I can assure you, however, talking to each other will cause none of us harm."
"You can't know that."
"Well, who knows what the future brings", the man admitted, smiling. It was an honest smile, without the hint of despise Jedikiah sometimes showed, but with the same amount of exhaustion. "My name's Roger. You are John Young, I heard. My brother Jed thinks a great deal of you, and he's not very enthusiastic about people."
John had to laugh. "No indeed, he's not."
"But you still like him, don't you?" Roger became serious.
John swallowed. Was that another test? "I…"
"I only ask because I want you to know that there are people who care for you, John, and that it's important to care for them, too. I know you're a fighter, and you've been on your own for a long time, but that time's over. Family doesn't begin or end with blood. Everyone needs and deserves to have one."
It seemed even more ironic now than it had then, when all John could think about was how everyone close to him was in danger, how the only family he had known was spoilt by fear, greed and alcohol – and how, somehow, he still hadn't been on his own there. Not as much as he was now with ULTRA. Roger had tried to make John feel better, obviously motivated by the thought of his own little son, and deep inside, John had been too grateful to argue, but there was one thing he couldn't – now less than ever – agree with.
Not everyone deserved a family. Maybe everyone needed one, needed people he cared for, but that didn't mean to deserve to have them. Caroline, however, surely had deserved it, and it had been taken from her.
By people just like her son. Her son who would have condemned her, who had turned John into a man and a monster. And now they were back, the broken child and the exiled mother, to save what was left.
John closed his eyes. This is madness.
Caroline smiled weakly as she moved closer to the tower's edge, looking down onto the street she had seen only from beneath for so long. This is family.
If it's always that complicated, why exactly are you all so keen on it?
She shook her head. It's not complicated. I love my sons. Whatever they do is not my concern.
Just like that? John looked up. The atmosphere had changed, the peoples' thoughts were drifting from the sight of New York, they were worried. A storm was coming. He could only hope it was a natural one – it wouldn't have been the first time ULTRA tried to control the weather. Inside the citadel, there were powers John had never even got close to understand. Had Roger talked about them, when he had ordered John to save "our kind"?
Too many questions that would never be answered.
Sometimes you have to find the answers for yourself. Caroline wove her hands through the iron bars. And if you don't tell me how to save my son quickly, I'll do exactly that.
John sighed. Alright. He didn't need to fully grasp his motivation. What mattered was that he saved Jed – saved as many as he could, actually. And that meant, whether she wanted it or not, getting Caroline back to the lair.
Give me a minute. I'll just check the other side. He left without waiting for an answer. Just around a corner was a box containing mutant-secure handcuffs, hidden underneath a bench. He knelt down as if to lace his shoes and reached for it.
It was empty.

Run! The order was so powerful John almost obeyed. Almost. Were it not for the sudden pain in his neck, followed by a clicking as the cuffs found his wrist and ankle.
No! He thrashed and rolled off, trying to get away from the two ULTRA agents who had materialized at his sides. A trap. Had she…
"Too long, old friend. We feared you were getting old, Young."
John clenched his teeth. He knew the sneer, the voice, the hand that lay heavily on his shoulder. The bad, bad joke. "Aaron."
The mutant grinned. "Found yourself a girlfriend finally? A bit old, don't you think? Well, eventually she'll realize the mistake she's made. And she'll regret it. Oh, will she regret it."
John threw himself against the two men. He couldn't use his powers but with all those tourists around, they couldn't either. Even bound like he was, Aaron was no match for him and they both knew it, so why did the other still grin?
Then the shouting on the other side began and John felt Caroline's fear running through his veins like ice.
"Let her go!"
"I think not." Four more men appeared out of nothing, but nobody else seemed to notice. John's mouth felt dry all of a sudden. Jed. Unharmed. Of course he was, how could he ever had doubted it? Jedikiah Price was a master of surviving, of coaxing people into doing whatever he needed them to do.
"I've missed you, John." The smile on the older man's eyes didn't quite reach his eyes. "I hope you enjoyed your trip."
John could only stare at him, unable to talk, unable to think, unable even to feel. It was over. Again. It had been a game, a dream, and now it was over.
"Just kill me already." He barely recognized his own voice.
Jedikiah shook his head. "Not now. We'll start with your… companion. Disobedient soldiers are one thing, but rebels… they're something different entirely."
"She's your mother!" John blurted out as Caroline was led towards them, hands bound as well. Weren't the humans around blind? Or were they just too scared to speak up against injustice and cruelty as they had been when John was a child?
He closed his eyes, shaking with the same desperate rage he had felt when his foster brother Declan had hidden under the bed, his head and back beaten bloody. When the children had been forced to steal their food. When Tony had been killed.

Jedikiah tensed. "I have no mother."
"Jedikiah…" Only now Caroline seemed to recognize her son, her eyes filled with tears. "My dear…"
"Shut up!" It was the same rage now, in Jedikiah's eyes. Betrayal. Helplessness.
"My mother left us when I was thirteen." He pointed a gun on Caroline's head. "She is already dead."
Caroline swallowed. "I understand that you're angry. I understand that…"
Two bullets hit her right in the head, and she fell.