WT: ...Wow...I really didn't intend for this to be left so long. But I got my mojo for this back and while it still might be a bit slow on updates, I will continue it.

Roxie: Uh-huh.

WT: Hey, I said I was sorry.

Thanks to all you who followed, Favorited, and reviewed!

Dac1: Yeah, I know. I might go back and fix things later. Thank for reviewing!

Blatherskite3: Thanks and yes I will

lilyou22: I'm going to leave that a surprise. And honestly, I'm still trying to pick. I'm stuck before or after ROFT. I'm leaning towards ROFT, but that stuff the Fallen did with Sam on the tv's is something to think about... Thanks and I will try. : )

AngleicScream: :D

Lunar Mist: Sort of, but not really. In my own home I don't eat much one day then the next I'll be snacking a lot. It's just how she lives, but of course Doc Bot wont like that. So yep, you, I and Roxie are like souls : ) Or at least stomach lol. A little romance, but it's way waaay off. Mostly it's about the sisters, not so much is planned for romance love. Thanks and I'll work in that.

DinoSaurusGirl98: Thank you! I really flattered you like this! And thanks for the cookies : ) Don't worry, I'll be careful who I give them too.

HelloPerson123: lol Thanks! That was the intention! I wanted to use more unque names, well, at least for Ratch. : ) At the time I wrote this at first, all the stories had almost the same names. And while I'm not saying yes or no...there is a high chance on the yes for both : ) And thank you!

FireflyAnAutobot: 0.0 Uhhh...thank you? Uhhh...ummm...

Roxie: Just take the complement and ignore the er other stuff.

W: I am, I just didn't expect someone to be doing that in a review.

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Favorites: 7

Chapter 3

The next day soon came and both girls did their morning routines. After making sure they did everything and looked good enough for the day, the sisters went down the stairs, and headed towards the kitchen. They stopped at the bottom of the steps when they saw Alice standing in the living room, and Mr. Orion and Mr. Thatcher sitting on the couch. They sat at the ends, which left space for one more person in-between them.

"Good morning." Roxie greeted, though her confused tentativeness was just slightly heard. What are they still doing here? She wondered.

"Good morning, Roxie. Laura." Mr. Orion greeted back with a bow of his head.

Alice walked over to her younger cousins and gave them a large hug as her greeting. After playful cries of pain and lack of air, Alice let them go. Yet, the playfulness and fun seemed to disappear when the sisters saw Alice look like she was holding something back. Something bad-and painful-because her eyes were wet and her nose was reddish.

"What's wrong, Alice? Did something happen to mom and dad?" Laura asked, visibly worried. Alice quickly waved her hands, and shook her head.

"No! No, your parents are…fine. Just fine, I just…have dirt in my eyes, that's all."

Neither sister truly believed that, but before they could call Alice out, Mr. Orion stood up, and Alice went and sat in one of the chairs. Mr. Orion put his hands on the Drake girls' shoulders and smiled in a comforting manner.

"Your parents are fine. But the reason why I and Mr. Thatcher are here does have something to do with them." He said.

"Would you like a seat?" Mr. Thatcher asked, gesturing to the couch as Mr. Orion turned and sat back down.

Is it just me, or is there more space between them than before? Huh. It's almost like they want sis and I to sit with them. Roxie thought.

Laura shared the same general thoughts, and instead, the sisters shared the last chair. The smirks that crossed the mens' faces didn't get past the girls, as though the older men were impressed with something. "So, um, what's the story?" Roxie asked, feeling uncomfortable.

Mr. Orion leaned forward a bit and started to speak. "As you both know, your parents, Mary and Steven, work in the US military. But what you don't know is that they work as testers for suits and weaponry. Their job is classified, for many of the things they test can easily be stolen and sold to the highest bidder."

Roxie and Laura shared a look of surprise. Out of all the jobs they guessed their parents had, somehow weapons testers weren't on the list. But at the same time, it made sense— in a hindsight sort of way.

"OK, so if their job is so 'classified', why are you telling us now?" Roxie asked with a raised eyebrow, which she quickly dropped when she noticed.

"And where are they? This seems like something they should have told us about." Laura added, not keeping her suspicion hidden as she raised a brow.

"That is one of the reasons we are here." Mr. Orion said, and his face became more serious, and almost on guard. He folded his hands together on his lap, and as he did that, Roxie glanced over to her cousin and noted she looked nervous and ready to bolt. That set Roxie even more on guard than she had been, but she covered it by not moving. Mr. Orion then continued, "Your parents were testing a new sort of suit that—in the right hands—could be a great help, or, a great disaster in the wrong. The technology in the suit and equipment are highly classified, however, and only those working of the project knew about it extensively."

"'Knew.' You said 'knew'." Laura pointed out, crossing her arms as she did, her eye brow moving up a little more.

"Yes, you see, a spy managed to infiltrate the lab where the specs for the suit and equipment were kept, and stole them. My men were able to track him down, but not before he sold off a bit of the informant to our enemies." Mr. Orion explained.

Roxie and Laura looked at each other for a moment, and Laura slyly signed the words 'Enemies? What enemies?'

"Who are the enemies the spy sold too?" Roxie asked, after shrugging one shoulder to her sister.

"That is complicated and this is not the right place to explain all the details," Mr. Thatcher answered with a small hand wave. "But what you need to know is they are dangerous and have a lot of power. Given that, your parents and the others deeply tied into the project were put under Witness Protection as of three days ago."

"Wait, 'they'? What about us?" Laura asked, sitting up a little, and pointing to herself and Roxie in turn.

"Seeing as both of you are still youngli— young ladies, and are not yet legally adults, it was thought best for you to be placed under my team's guardianship." Mr. Orion said.

The Drake sisters looked at him in surprise and confusion, and Roxie was the first to speak, "Wait, why is that? No offence intended, but my sister and I have never seen either of you in our lives. Why weren't we placed under Witness Protection with our parents?"

"Yeah," Laura added. "And you still haven't said where they are."

Mr. Orion spoke calmly, "Your parents are safe, but until everything is cleared out you can't know where exactly they are. It's—"

"WHAT?!" Both sisters let out, jumping from their shared seat. Both had wide open eyes and stared at the two men, adrenaline suddenly activating.

"What do you mean, 'we can't know'?" Laura asked angrily. "They're OUR parents! What could possibly happen if we know where OUR parents are?"

Mr. Thatcher tried to speak, but was quickly interrupted. "There's more to this then you're telling us," Roxie said, cutting off Mr. Thatcher, making him annoyed—and his face showed it. Roxie noticed that, but she honestly didn't care right then. She gently but firmly pushed her sister behind her as she spoke. "Either our parents aren't in Witness, or you really have no clue where they are or—"

"Oh, of course we know!" Mr. Thatcher said, almost jumping to his own feet, and prompting the girls to step back. The man looked a little red in the face and the girls could tell he was losing his patience.

Too bad, so are we. Roxie thought with a frown, interjecting. "Then why can't we be told? What are you two really doing here? Why does our cousin know you and why, if you're both from the army as you've lead us to assume, do you have a semi-truck and a rescue Hummer?"

Mr. Thatcher and Mr. Orion looked at each other, and gave the sisters a firsthand chance to see people appear to talk with just their faces. For a moment, not a word was said between the older men, and Roxie decided it was time to go—right when Mr. Orion stood up as well.

"Look, young ladies, everything will be explained at our base, but we have to go. The longer we're here, the better chance our enemies will track us, and find us here." Mr. Orion said, probably trying to calm them down, but not doing a very good job.

"They can track you here? Why would they be tracking you? And if that was an option; why not drop this bomb in the park or something; there are loads of people out there!" Laura said as she pointed out the window, referencing the people is Alice's neighborhood, which wasn't small at all.

"And what base? And where is it?" Roxie asked, crossing her arms. "We are not going anywhere with you until you tell us more." Roxie paused, "And why are you so quiet, Alice? And why is this happening in your house anyway?" She added as she turned her head to look at said cousin.

Alice looked as though she wished the seat would swallow her up. The sisters had never seen her like that, but even though they were feeling a little guilty about calling her out, right now they wanted answers—and she needed to give them some. "Weeeelllll, you see…"

"Not to be rude, Alice, but spit it out." Laura said, her patience nearing its end.

"…Well, I was rescued by these men earlier this year. There was an attack in Akron when I went there, and I was at the wrong place at the wrong time." Alice explained, her fingers twirling around each other as she spoke. "I could have died. But they caught me and saved me. So I'm in debt to them. And we're on a friendly basis too."

"So because they saved your life, you decided to let them come into your house and—" Roxie started, then stopped when she realized what was going on. "You…you tricked us."

"No! No I didn't—" Alice tried to say but Roxie wasn't hearing it.

"This trip was all a—a sham! A hoax! You and our parents deceived us into coming here so we would be off guard and ill prepared! You knew we'd have no one to get help if things went sour since we don't know your neighbors and that's why the key to the front door is in your pocket!" Roxie said loudly, her hurt clear as she spoke and pointed to said pocket, which her cousin swiftly covered with a hand.

"What is really going on? Tell us! Now!" Laura exclaimed, stomping her foot.

There was a tense silence, only the breathing in the room and the quiet buzz of the appliances was heard. Alice looked from one pair to the other. The grown adults who looked like they didn't know what to do or say, and the young ladies who looked ready to bolt.

"Alright, let's just get this over with." Mr. Thatcher said at last. And then, he lunged at the sisters, with a needle seemingly appearing out of the blue in his hand.

Roxie's POV

"Oi!" I jumped back, and with a blank mind, pushed my sister back with one hand and swung the other at Mr. Thatcher. It was totally blind luck, even with those classes I've been taking, but surprisingly, I got him. I didn't put much force into the slap, but it did stop him for a moment in surprise. That was all I needed.

"Go!" I yelled to Laura and we turned and ran for the door. Thankfully the living room wasn't right next to the door, so we gained a slight lead. Once we started running though, I realized I never grabbed the keys from Alice's pocket.

"I got this," Laura told me, pulling a key out of her pocket. I smiled, proud, when I saw it. The key was a backup our cousin gave us a while back, and I kept losing it so Laura took to carrying it. I turned to watch her back for those few seconds she needed to put the key into the lock, and jerked in surprise when I saw the two men rushing at us.

"What—how?!" I started, not understanding how they got so close so quickly, when my sister grabbed my hand and pulled me out of the open door. I slammed it shut with my foot and my sister and I ran for my car. I almost twisted my ankle as I ran.

"Get in!" I quickly pulled my keys out and unlocked the door and slid into the driver's seat. Laura slid into the passenger's and slammed her door shut a half second before me. I just put the key into the slot and turned the Mustang on, when my thoughts caught up to me. "Oh shoot," I growled as I looked down out my window. "They put a boot on my car!"

"So, we're stuck?" Laura said looking out her window which faced the house. I looked out the window too and saw Mr. Orion standing at the door, as though he was waiting for something.

"I—I know! We can run for the Andersen's, they still live on this street, right? They might let us in," I said, looking out my window this time, my hands on the wheel gripping on so tightly they turned white. "We'll have to be quick, before they can prepare—"

"That is sadly not an option." A voice suddenly said from behind us, making me almost choke on my own spit as I whirled around. Sadly my sister did the same thing and at the same time, sooo I can guess what happened.

"OW!"

I rubbed my forehead as I moved back as the same time as my sister. In the split second I had my eyes closed in pain I felt a sharp sting in my neck. I slapped my other hand on my neck and opened my eyes in shock, to see Mr. Thatcher leaning back in my back seat, holding two needles.

"How?! Where did you come from?!" I cried out, knowing for a fact the doors were locked, and even if he was right behind us, I would have heard the man getting into my car.

"You'll find out soon enough." Mr. Thatcher said calmly. Both of us looked over to Laura as she tried to get out of the car. I quickly unlocked it and tried the same, but for some reason the doors wouldn't open. "That won't work."

"What did you do to my car?" I said, feeling a rising mix of dizziness and nausea hit me. I knew it had to do with whatever was in those needles. And, with how fast it was acting, my quickly fuzzing brain knew that even if my sister and I escaped, we'd probably pass out on someone's lawn in a few minutes.

Laura started to cough and leaned her forehead on the car window. I reached over to her and one word went through my head.

Allergy.

"What…ever…you put in us…better…not," I stopped and swallowed, trying to finish my sentence with at least a little force in it as I glared over to the man in my backseat. "Have peanuts…in it. If my sister…sister…d-diesss…" My vision went in and out and I saw my sister go down, her hand dropping from her neck. I closed my eyes too, and in the last few minutes of consciousness, I heard the doors open and voices.

"Will they be okay?"

"Of course. They'll wake up fully at the base."

"Good. Please tell them I'm sorry."

I didn't hear the reply. By then I had fallen into a drug induced coma.

Last update: 7/9/11

This update: 2/28/14