Hey guys! I just want to apologize in advance for the late update. I went through a kind of scary situation in real life, but hopefully everything is back on track now. For all of you who are still reading, I hope you enjoy the latest chapter. P.S. – today is my eighteenth birthday, and the best gift you guys could give me is reviews!

Disclaimer: I don't own Fringe.

"But how is that even possible?" Olivia asked. "This girl's only eighteen – she's way too young to be a Cortexikid."

"Slow down," Peter commanded her. "You still think it's Miranda Pratt?"

Olivia nodded. "I can't explain it, but she's dangerous, Peter. We need to look into her further." She ignored the dubious look that Peter gave her and turned back to Walter. "So how would someone get powers like these, if not through Cortexiphan?"

"There are a number of ways. It could just be simple genetics; the girl could have gotten the powers through a mutation. Or her DNA could have been modified somehow." Walter paused. "Perhaps she was drenched in a toxic chemical during the walk back from her first day of school, giving her the power to–"

"Walter that's The Secret World of Alex Mack," Peter interrupted. "I caught him watching reruns on Nick at Night at 3:30 in the morning."

"The show is shockingly scientifically plausible," Walter maintained.

"Hey guys, I think I found something," Astrid called from the computer. She pointed to the screen showing bank-records for the Pratts dating back to the last twenty years. "Eighteen years ago Mr. and Mrs. Pratt received a check for 500,000 dollars from a Pegasus Genetics – right around the time that Miranda was born."

"Good work Astrid," Olivia praised. "So Mr. and Mrs. Pratt could have sold their daughter to be one of the company's test subjects."

"Then I guess I know where we're going," Peter said wearily.

An hour later Peter and Olivia pulled up at an abandoned warehouse about 20 miles outside of the suburb. Its grey concrete walls and lack of windows gave the building a prison feel, and the long shadows it casted in the sunset's dying light made it appear even more ominous.

"Are you sure this is it?" Olivia asked. The place certainly didn't look like a laboratory.

"According to the address it is," Peter said.

Olivia knocked on the rusty padlocked door. "Hello? Anyone here?" she called.

"Looks like no one's home," Peter said. He picked up a long piece of scrap metal and weighed it in his hands before lifting it up over his head and bringing it down upon the lock. The old lock broke in two and fell harmlessly to the ground with a clatter. Peter looked pointedly at Olivia as if to ask was that legal? She mimed looking the other way.

Peter slid open the heavy metal door, and the two of them walked inside to find the building in complete disarray. Scattered papers covered every surface of the floor; files were placed haphazardly into unmarked cardboard boxes; and lab equipment lay on metal tables, untouched and ready to be used.

"Someone left in a hurry," Peter noted as he picked up a piece of paper from the ground.

Olivia scanned the room. "It looks like we're just going to have to dig through it all. Why don't you take the left side of the room and I'll take the right?" she ventured. Peter nodded, and the two of them got to work.

As Olivia dug through the files she discovered a variety of information ranging from a history of the building's repairs to detailed sketches of hybrid animals, but found nothing on human genetic modification. She opened a box labeled "Project Cobra" and scanned the project overview in the front of the file.

Project Cobra aims to test the effects of genetic modification on children using artificial insemination with the aim of creating a new breed of genetically enhanced humans.

It was dated 1992.

"Peter," she called excitedly. "I think I found something!"

She gave him the cover page while she sifted through the rest the box, which included a file for each of the test subjects.

"Peterson…Putman…Pratt! She was a test subject!"

Olivia opened the file and tried to hide the slight tremor in her hand when she felt the pressure of Peter's arm on her shoulder. Inside, the file contained a set of shorthand notes for Miranda's yearly progress.

1992: Insemination a success. Development of the child is normal. An early kareotype shows the gene to be translated, however only time will tell if it is expressed.

The notes then skipped forward a few years to describe a series of test Miranda faced to see if the genetic modification was successful.

1995: Subject 12 underwent extreme trauma in test 8 (the cooling room.) Subject wasted a few hours crying for her parents, but eventually the test caused manifestation. The subject conjured a strong set of winds, breaking down the door and allowing her to escape. No one has ever escaped from test 8 before. Development appears auspicious.

1996: Subject 12 underwent test 14, which pitted her against subject 6, a telekinetic, in a combat environment. Subject 12 performed admirably and dropped the temperature of the room to 30 degrees below 0. Subject 6 went into hypothermic shock.

1997: Subject 12 underwent test 36, which pitted her against several other test subjects. All other subjects were incapacitated. Subject 12 is quickly proving itself to be one of the strongest of the set – an utter success.

1998: Subject 12 is unresponsive to tests. Claims it can no longer access its abilities.

1999: Subject 12 is still unresponsive to tests.

2000: Subject 12 has been removed from the trials.

Peter closed the file. "What happened to her abilities?"

"I guess we're going to have to ask Miranda," Olivia said grimly.

"Hello," Olivia greeted the servant (who was becoming like an old friend from all the time they were spending together.) "Can we speak with Miranda?"

The servant brought them outside to the pool area, where they found Miranda flirting and splashing about with a new boy around her age just hours after the death of her beloved. Olivia watched as Miranda sat on the pool's steps and ran her hands down the boy's chest.

"You have goose bumps, Declan," she cooed.

"Yeah? So do you," he replied in a husky voice. The two of them embraced and began to kiss. This girl's a sociopath, Olivia thought. The kiss grew deeper and deeper until she could take no more.

"Alright," she said, stepping out from the shadows, "Party's over." She pointed to Declan. "You, leave now."

"Trust me, it's for your own good," Peter echoed her.

The startled boy jumped out of the pool and rushed to put on his clothes, throwing startled glances back at Miranda to ask what was going on. The girl never looked at him – she kept her gaze locked on Olivia with eyes that could have burned through steel.

"A little early to be moving on, isn't it, Miranda? It couldn't have been eight hours ago that you were sobbing over the body of your dead boyfriend," Olivia said sharply. An image of John Scott popped into her head, which she forcefully shoved out. No. It's not the same. With Peter and I – it's not the same.

Miranda said nothing, but continued to glare at Olivia fiercely as she moved into the pool chair across from her.

"Miranda we know what you can do," Peter said softly. "We've seen the files at Pegasus Genetics."

"They turned me into a freak," Miranda said harshly, each word sounding like a shard of glass ripping through her throat. "I was their little science project – all those tests, year after year. And mommy and daddy were so proud, because I was their project too." She stopped and twirled her hair. "Until I stopped doing them."

"Why?" Peter asked her.

"Because I wouldn't let them control me anymore! My mother and father begged me, pleaded with me to listen to the doctors and do what they said, but I refused. I played dumb and said I couldn't do it anymore."

The girl drew her knees into her chest, suddenly appearing much more vulnerable. "And that's when they started leaving. Daddy said it was due to his job, and mother said she had to travel while she was still young, but I knew that it was because of me, because I had failed." She laughed bitterly. "Or so they thought."

"That's why you killed those boys," Olivia said quietly in a moment of understanding. "Because they would leave you, and you were afraid to feel alone."

"Yes," Miranda admitted. "A soft rain fell overhead. Olivia was beginning to understand that the weather of the town was tied to the girl's mood, with the rain most likely reflecting that the girl felt drained after her confession.

"Well, are you going to come quietly?" Peter asked, looking at the girl with compassion.

"I'm sorry, pardon?" Miranda intoned.

"Are you going to come with us," Peter clarified. "You just confessed to murdering three boys."

"I will not be locked up like a common criminal," she remarked haughtily. A bolt of lightning crackled across the sky. Winds picked up all around as Miranda soared higher and higher into the air, and the formerly light rain became a torrential downpour. "I'm going anywhere with you."

Suddenly Olivia saw what was going to happen.

"Peter, watch out!" she cried. Olivia sprinted over to him at full speed and knocked them both to the ground. Miranda's lightning struck the exact spot where Peter had been standing.

"Thanks," he panted from his position beneath her, the two of them laying tangled in a heap on the now soaking ground. Olivia blushed as she felt his rock hard abs and wondered what the two of them must look like.

Miranda screeched furiously in the distance.

"No problem," she breathed back as she pulled Peter to his feet. "Now run!" The two of them took off and ran for cover in the woods surrounding the Pratt mansion.