Oh wow, really sorry about taking so long to write this chapter. Hope everyone will still read it! I know most of you are probably ready to strangle Simon at this point, but you have to feel bad for the guy. I mean, the girl he loves is in love with his brother? That can't be fun. Soooooo…I made a poll about his love life on my profile. If you have even an ounce of sympathy for Simon please take my poll and decide who he will love (although I have to add something to one of the options and can't figure out how yet…FYI in my story Tori and Simon are not brother and sister).

It was only a minute after Derek left that Liz arrived. I gasped as she suddenly materialized at the foot of my bed but she held a finger to her lips for quiet.

"I didn't want to scare the others," she explained.

My heart sank with dread. "Scare them?"

"Yeah. I was doing some scouting after you guys retreated back here- glad to see you're ok, by the way- and I think I saw all the people hunting for you in the woods…"

"How many?"

"There were four pairs of two that I saw- so eight. At least."

"Did you recognize anyone?"

She bit her lip, avoiding my gaze. "That's what I wanted to talk to you about, Chloe." I waited patiently for her to continue. "I saw Margaret and Andrew." Though I had been expecting it, the knowledge still stung.

"Any sign of Gwen?" I dared asking. She shook her head.

"No, but as I said I only think I found everyone. For all I know, there could have been fifty more people out there."

I sighed, hands twisting the hem of the blanket on my bed. "Ok, so we now know for sure that Margaret and Andrew have gone over to the dark side-"

She muttered a pessimistic "or been there all along."

"-and maybe Gwen too."

"Yeah, but there's one more thing…" from the reluctant look on her face I knew she had yet to get to the worst news. I internally tensed, fearing how anything could get worse. "I also saw Kit. Chloe, I saw Simon and Derek's dad."

I felt as if I'd been punched in the face, doused with cold water. It was that mind-numbing shock of everything you believe being reversed. Suddenly I knew why Liz hadn't wanted to talk to me in front of the others. If I felt this devastated about a guy I had never met betraying us, how would his kids feel? "Are you sure?" I managed at last, clinging onto the hope that she was mistaken. "I mean, you've never seen him before, right?"

"I'm sorry Chloe," she stared into my eyes earnestly, "his partner, Margaret, called him Kit. And," she gulped, "he looked lot like Simon, minus the blonde hair."

"No." I was talking more to myself than her. "It can't be him- it can't. He's the one we're supposed to find! He's the one who's supposed to fix everything!"

"Chloe-" Liz froze, head cocked, finger back to her lips. I held my breath to listen to the soft clump of footsteps coming back up the stairs. "Gotta go!" Liz gave me one more sympathetic smile before blinking out, leaving me alone to bear the weight of the heavy knowledge of Kit's betrayal.

Derek walked in but froze several feet away, eyeing me intensely. "Are you ok?"

"Yeah." I had to get better control over my emotions. I wasn't going to tell them, not yet at least. "My head just kind of hurts, that's all."

"Right." his face didn't lose the suspicion but then again, Derek always looks suspicious. "Want me to see if we can find some Advil or something?

"Thanks, but I'll be fine. Tell me what Simon and Tori found."

He plopped down on the opposite mattress, crossing his legs and toying with the zipper of his jacket absently. The sight of Derek fidgeting alarmed me, he was truly deep in thought. "Oh, just some science journal type things. You know, about us and our powers. Starting from when we first arrived here." he said.

I wasn't surprised but I gave a little gasp. "What did they say?"

"It was mostly observations, not too many opinions. Just little comments and facts and stuff like 'Victoria can throw a fireball twenty feet.' That kind of thing."

"What did it say about me?" I braved asking, feeling inclined to ask.

"You can read it for yourself." he tossed a thick packet of papers at me. "We printed the whole thing out so you could read it for us." I could tell by the way he was avoiding my gaze that they had already read it and were just trying to give me something to do so I didn't feel bad.

I set the papers down on the bed next to me without glancing at them. "Who wrote them?"

"Andrew Margaret and Gwen. Our 'mentors'" he made air quotations around 'mentors.'

"So there was nothing…"

"About me?" he barked a bitter laugh. "No." I couldn't fathom why this fact seemed to disappoint him but decided not to dwell on it.

"So Margaret, Andrew, and Gwen can't be trusted." I was almost relieved that they had been able to come to this conclusion themselves and I hadn't had to be the one to tell them.

"Not necessarily," he frowned, choosing his words carefully. "As Simon pointed out, they could have just wanted to keep track of our powers so we could learn more about them and how to control them." His expression was shadowed with doubt and I knew he was just trying to be this nonchalant for my sake so I wouldn't worry.

I sighed. "Derek?" for pretty much the first time since this conversation started, he looked right at me.

"Yeah?"

"While you were gone, Liz came." I took a deep breath. "She said she saw Margaret and Andrew helping search the forest for us."

He let out a heavy breath through his nose, turning back to the zipper he was fiddling with. "I only wish I could say I was surprised," he sighed. "This is really going to kill Simon, though."

I was instantly glad I had decided not to tell them about their dad. They'd have to be told eventually, of course, but there was no reason for them to find out now. "Does he have to know?" I asked, thinking about how crushed Simon would be because of Andrew.

Again Derek let out a long breath. "Yeah, we should tell him. In fact, I'd better go down there now and tell them to call off the search. It's not like hunting through his computer will help us anymore."

"Well, maybe it will." I tried to sound optimistic. "Who knows what other information is on there and I bet our little computer geek could extract it all-"

"Yeah, you're right. We shouldn't stop searching the laptop, at least not yet. Besides, it's probably one of our best clues right now. But I really should tell Simon."

I nodded my reluctant agreement. "Did you want me to tell him for you? I mean, would that make it easier for you because you trusted him too-"

"Me?" there was that bitter laugh again. "No, I didn't trust him. Not really, ever since we got here. But I think it'd be best if I was the one who told him."

"True." I conceded. It would be easier for him to hear the news from his brother.

"But hey- Chloe?" he had been walking towards the doorway but he turned back to look at me. "Thanks. And tell Liz thanks too."

He left, leaving me alone to wonder how the hell I'll ever be able to tell the guys about their dad.

Ok, here's where I really start to veer away from the original story. Sorry Kit, I just thought it'd make an interesting plot twist. BTW- double thumbs up to lululara on your plot guess…you know what I mean :) I hope knowing doesn't ruin it for you when I get to that part…