Striker

Let me tell you now: spending a night in a jail cell is not fun. Agent Victor Benedict – one of my six brothers, according to him – didn't seem very happy about leaving me there but he had no choice.

I spent the whole night wide awake and thinking about how crazy all of this was. Medea had always told me that my family had abused me, that by the time she saved me when I was three years old I was being abused on a daily basis and I was apparently covered in bruises as well as being way malnourished. She hadn't told me anything else about my family and I had never wanted to know. If they'd hurt me, why would I want to know who they were? I can't think of any reason why she'd lie to me so I'm pretty pissed that my 'family' know where I am now.

Half an hour ago I was dragged out of my cell and locked into the same office I was in yesterday, hands still in handcuffs. Now, I glare at Victor as he finally joins me in the room and sits across from me.

"Morning," he says, nodding a hello to me. "I hope a night in the cells wasn't too tough on you."

"As if you care, brother," I reply, sarcastically emphasizing the last word.

He sighs and looks at me as if he's disappointed with my attitude. What else does he expect? I wonder. "I do care, Zed," he says in a sad tone. "You're my little brother, of course I care. The whole family does. You're the reason I joined the FBI and our brother Trace joined the police force – we thought we'd stand a better chance of eventually finding you if we were officials ourselves. All the family have been desperate to have you back."

I frown at that. Why would the Benedict family even care if I weren't with them or not? They abused me, they were cruel to me and must have got some enjoyment or satisfaction out of it.

"I've been working all night," Victor continues, unaware of my thoughts. "Usually when an assassin is captured we keep them in jail for a couple of weeks whilst we gather evidence against them. Even if we know that they're an assassin, we still need proof of their crimes to be able to convict them. I doubt you'll tell us yourself the crimes you've committed?" I just stare at him. "No, I didn't think so. Assassins never talk; that's dedication for sure.

"Anyway, we can already convict you for the injuries that were inflicted upon our men at the apartment yesterday. Thankfully there were no deaths so you're not being done for murder. You resisted arrest, so you'll be in trouble for that too. But my colleagues are still trying to connect you to other assassinations and crimes, which means your court case will be in one month's time."

"Guess I better get comfortable in that cell then," I say, leaning back in my seat and crossing my arms across my chest.

"That's not needed," he tells me, confusing me straight away. "I managed to pull some strings because of my position at work and because of my family's status in the net, and I've managed to get you released from prison. That is, on one condition: you stay in our parents' home. Ordinarily, you'd be kept in jail so that you can't run away and hide in the assassin's guild, wherever that is. You'll be on house arrest though and will have an ankle tag so that you get an electric shock whenever you leave the property, as well as an alert being sent immediately to the police who can track your location. I'll be checking in on you daily and monitoring your behaviour. If I feel like you're a threat to our family, you'll be dragged back here and locked up in a cell until your court date."

This is not news I am happy to hear. Why the hell would I want to go stay in the family home with people who hated me when I was a child? No matter what, they are not my family. If anybody is my family, it's Medea and her other 'children' – and even then I don't think I would fully consider any of them family.

I raise my eyebrows at Agent Benedict. "Do I have to go there? Frankly, I'm not dying to be reunited with my so-called family. I don't want or need a family, so you can get lost."

He looks surprised, as if he wasn't expecting me to say that I didn't want to go. "Fine," he says through clenched teeth, almost glaring at me. "Be difficult. You don't have to go there although it will disappoint our family. Stay in jail for the rest of the month. Hell, you could even be here for the rest of your life if you don't get the death sentence. Might as well start now, right? It's your choice, Zed."

I open my mouth to tell him to shove the choice up his ass because I'm not going anywhere with him, but I hesitate. I don't hesitate because I've suddenly changing my mind about wanting a family, because I haven't. I hesitate because the way I see it, if I want to escape – which I know I'll have to do seeing as Medea won't help me out of this mess – I stand a better chance of doing so if I am already out of jail. Yes, I'll have an ankle tag which will certainly not make things easy for me, but it'll definitely make it easier than being locked in a cell.

Victor Benedict's thoughts drift into my mind without me even realizing I'm using my power: Come on, Zed. Say yes. We all want you to come home, you have no idea what we've been through. Why is he being this way? What the hell have the assassins changed him into?

Resigning myself to do the thing I least want to do right now, I sigh and say, "okay. I'll be on house arrest at your parents' house." I refuse to call them my parents.

Victor physically relaxes, his whole body heaving with a relieved sigh. Why, though? Why would he be happy that I agreed to go back to the house I was abused in? It doesn't make sense. Unless they want to control and abuse me again, which I will certainly not let happen.

"Thank God," he mumbles under his breath before looking at me again. "I have to deal with the paperwork but you'll be out of here by evening. I'm going to help you as best as I can, Zed. This is the start of a new life for you. I'll try and help you get away from the court case scot-free and then you can fully enjoy your life with us again."

Fat chance of that happening, I think to myself. I'm only going to stay with the Benedicts for as long as it takes to escape and get back to the guild where I belong.


Striker

In his car on the way to the Benedict family household, Victor tells me about my family. He tells me how I have five older brothers: Trace, who can see the past of objects he touches; Uriel, who can see people's pasts; Victor himself who can manipulate people's minds because he is very strong telepathically; next is Will who has the ability to sense danger; then there's Xav who is a healer. I also have a twin brother called Yves who controls the element fire. My mom is called Karla and she sees the future and reads minds (this gives me shivers a little because I have those exact same powers), and my dad is called Saul and like Will he senses danger.

I will admit that it sounds like the family is much more powerful than I thought they would be. Hearing about all their powers initially made me feel like escape would be impossible with all of them living there, but I feel a lot better now because Victor informed me that only Xav and Yves still live at home with the parents.

As he pulls up in front of the house, I unbuckle my seatbelt and look out of my window. The house is large which I guess it has to be considering the size of the family. It sits on the top a hill, next to a mountain covered in snow. There's three storeys to the house, the house itself looking quite old but still in good shape.

"We own the ski lodge on the mountain there," Victor explains to me as we both get out of his car. "Have you ever skied before?"

"No, but me and some my... friends," I say, thinking of Dagger and Archer, "go snowboarding a lot during the winter. I'm pretty good, not that I'm bragging or anything."

"Ooh," Victor winces. "Snowboarding is the enemy in our house, I wouldn't mention that to the others if I were you." I know he's joking, but I still can't help but think that snowboarding isn't the enemy here, I am. We walk up the gravel driveway and stop outside the front door. "Just to prepare you, the whole family is in there. They couldn't resist, they just want to see you again. Mom's cooked a meal – she's a great cook – so we're all gonna sit down together. There's no getting out of it unfortunately."

Great, I think to myself as we enter the house. A lovely family meal. Just what I need.

I don't have time to take in the décor of the house as Victor leads me straight into what looks like a dining room. There are two large tables pushed together and an array of mismatched chairs. Sitting in the chairs are people. A lot of people. Looking at them, I know with a sad heart that I can't deny that Victor was telling me the truth: these people are my family, at least biologically anyway. The resemblance between me and them is just too uncanny for us to not be related.

"This is Zed," Victor breaks the silence, speaking to his family. "It's really him."

A cry follows his words as a small, dark-haired woman jumps out of her seat and shuffles towards me, instantly throwing her arms around my waist and sobbing against my chest. My arms hang limply by my side and I awkwardly say, "um, you must be Karla?"

She pulls back and wipes tears from her cheeks, an elated smile on her face. "I'm your mom, yes. Oh Zed, I just can't believe we finally have you back! We are so, so happy to have you here."

Uncomfortable at having her undivided attention, I take the seat that Victor tells me to, sat to his left. I am introduced face-to-face to everyone and realize that I am sat next to Yves, my twin. We're clearly not identical in looks or style: his hair is shorter than mine and much neater, he's wearing round glasses, and he strikes me as pretty geeky and plain.

The meal is served and I must admit that Victor was right, it's delicious. I can't remember the last time I had a full meal like this, at the guild we usually just have takeaway or simple food. Nothing like this for sure anyway.

Around me, the others talk so easily with each other but I don't try and catch up with their conversation. I feel out of place here, sat with a bunch of people who's intentions towards me are still unclear, and I wish so badly that I was sat in the cafeteria at the guild with Artemis by my side as we take the piss out of the other assassins around us. I miss my best friend already.

When the conversation around me stills to a stop, I pull myself out of thoughts and look up. They're all looking at me as if they're expecting an answer to something. "What?" I ask as if I didn't understand or hear the question.

"I said," Saul says in a gentle tone, "that we're very pleased you're here with us, we've missed you a lot. Obviously, we now know that it was the assassins that kidnapped you so that you could be one of them, but we wondering if you at least had people that you were close to? We hate to think of you having nobody, Zed."

My first instinct is just to not answer him and leave the room or something. My second is to shout and scream at him. Instead, I go with my third instinct. In a voice just as calm as his had been I say, "I would prefer not to talk about my life in the guild, thank you. Also Saul, I would really appreciate it if you would all stop calling me Zed. I am not that person. My name is Striker now, please call me that."

They are all silent and staring. Surprisingly, it is Yves that answers me. "If you want to be called Striker, I'll call you Striker. I don't have a problem with it."

"Why did you call him Saul?" Karla blurts out, tears still in her eyes like there has been since I got here. "He's your dad, you should call him that."

"I don't have a dad," I reply bluntly. "And I don't a mom or brothers. I'm sorry but you're not my family. I don't remember a thing about any of you so why would I so suddenly go along with it and pretend like everything is so much better now? This isn't my life and my name is not Zed Benedict."

I can tell that I'm seriously hurting Karla's feelings and it hits me that I actually feel bad about that and feel sorry for her. Pushing my chair back, I storm out of the dining room and leave the crying lady behind me. I stop in the hallway, running my fingers through my hair and wishing that I had the option to go to the training facilities the guild has so I can give my pent-up anger a release.

"Hey," a voice comes from behind me.

Spinning around, I come face to face with Yves. "If you're expecting me to go in and apologize, you can fuck off right now."

"I'm not going to ask you to do that," he shakes his head. He nods his head towards my right ankle which is encased in a thick metal ankle bracelet issued from the police. "I was wondering where you thought you were going to go." When I don't answer, he continues. "I know that I can't possibly know exactly how you're feeling right now but I can guess. This is obviously hard on you, none of us expected it to be any different.

"Mom and dad have just wanted you home with us for so long and mom can get carried away at times. Don't blame her or get angry at her, any parent would act the same as she is. She just wants her family back and she knows that will take time.

"I'm guessing you don't want to go back in there, so why don't I show you to your bedroom?" He sighs loudly when I don't answer him. "Come on, Striker. You have nowhere else to go."

"You called me Striker."

"It's your name, isn't it?" He asks; I nod. "Well then. Follow me."

He heads up the stairs and a second later, I follow him.


Artemis

Medea named her three boys based on what they were good at. For example, Striker got his name because he never hesitates to strike at people in any given situation. She named her three girls after Greek goddesses that are connected to them in some way.

She didn't call me Artemis for nothing.

The goddess Artemis is primarily known for being the goddess of the hunt. To explain my savant power basically, I can sense people's energies. This also includes being able to sense where people have been most recently which helps me track them down; helps me to hunt them. I am the best hunter in the guild and I think I definitely live up to my name.

Against the nurses orders, I discharged myself from hospital earlier this evening and quickly got a shower and got dressed, as well as hiding a few weapons on my body. I was determined to track down Striker. I may be going against Medea's orders but I have no regrets. I know that Striker would do anything to help me too if our roles were reversed.

It didn't take long for me to hunt Striker. I knew that they would have taken him to the local police station and just standing outside of it I had felt a lasting imprint of his energy. That had surprised me – I had thought he would still be in there, but he clearly wasn't.

After that, I stalked around in the darkening shadows of the street, waiting for my power to alert me to the feel of his energy. My power drew me towards one of the snow covered mountains and I spotted a golden glow on the hill beside the mountain. There.

I found a house on the hill with numerous cars parked outside of it. Now, I'm hidden in one of the huge trees – there is basically a small woodlands area behind the house – that face the back of the house, the thick brush of leaves concealing me from view.

I can feel Striker's energy inside the house, as well as an energy that also feels somewhat vaguely familiar to me. It takes me a second to figure out where I've felt that energy before: in that blasted apartment yesterday. There are other energies too, seven savants by the feel of it, but none are energies that I recognize.

Why is Striker here, in a house on a random hill with a bunch of savants that we don't know? It doesn't make any sense. He should be being held in jail right now, that's how this usually goes.

I'm not complaining about him being here of course, it'll be easier to rescue him from here than a prison cell, but I hate not knowing things. Why is he here?

A light goes on in the window of a room on the third floor and my entire body tenses when I see Striker walk up to the window and glance outside. His eyes scan the tree line and I wait with held breath whilst waiting for him to notice me. He doesn't though of course, I am too well hidden.

Striker closes the bedroom curtains, hiding himself from my view.

Tonight won't be the night I rescue him. I don't doubt that he'll be being watched with it being so soon since he was captured, plus I have no idea who is in that house with them and whether Striker and I will stand a chance against them when we're that outnumbered.

I climb easily and silently down the tree, deciding to pay a visit to the Archives room in the guild that holds every document somebody would ever need. Surely there will be something about this house and who lives here, those are the kind of records an assassins needs when stalking a target.

I cast one last look at the house and send a thought to Striker even though I know he won't hear it because I'm not using telepathy and I'm protecting my thoughts in case there are other mind readers around. I won't let you get killed or sent to prison, Striker. We've always looked after each other and that isn't going to change any time soon. I'll come back for you, I swear.

Then I look away from the house and let the darkness of the shadows swallow me whole.


Author's note: I know that Yves and Zed aren't twins in the books, but for the purpose of this story I have made them twins.

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