Chapter 17

Alex froze in his tracks. His breathing became hard and his chest was aching in pain when he heard Anya's name. His heart was in pain and surrounded by darkness. He didn't realize she would be here during the attack. He looked at Claire with deception in his eyes.

"Was she her during the attack?" Claire didn't answer right away. She gulped silently and spoke.

"She was here, but they probably moved her and her family to safety."

"She and her family would join this fight no matter what. Even if they were injured or something they still would to protect each other no matter what."

"She was here because she started to have symptoms from a sickness." Alex was silent. It's starting.

"What were the symptoms?"

"She had pain her head, she had a fever, started sweating, she had the chills and was exhausted like something was taking her life energy away." Alex looked away from Claire and looked at the radio in his hand. He gripped tight in his hand. The thought of the power within Anya would take control.

"We need to find her." He looked at Claire with determination in his eyes and Claire nodded. They both left the medical facility and walked quickly in the halls, looked through the rooms they came upon and battled the leftovers behind black trench coat guys. After going down all the halls and go through every room in their path. As they came to the last hall which leads to the command center.

"This is the last hall that leads to the command room. They have to be in one of these rooms."

"Or there in the command room. Probably the safest room right about now."

"Are you just guessing or just a hunch?"

"Well by the looks of it, there are eight trench coat guys and my brother is there too." He pointed down the hall were two trench coat guys try to unlock the bullet proof glass doors. Alex peeped around the corner trying to get a good look inside.

"What do you see?" Alex put his finger saying to give him a minute. He looked through the door and saw three people in the room. "Alex?"

"I see three people and their armed. The guy with dirty blonde hair looks pissed."

"That's Leon alright. Who else?"

"Uh, guy with orange hair and a choker around his neck. Looks like a rookie if you ask me."

"That would be Steve, he's a rookie. Joined not too long ago. Anyone else we know?"

"Let me see, there's Jenna and Mikey and that's all I see."

"They rest of them might be in the office which is in the command center. You can't see it from here because it's all the way in the corner."

"Okay, we need to get in there, but we need to get rid of them first." Claire looked around the corner and saw the eight trench coat guys and Ryan in the back watching them trying to open the doors. They needed to take out the trench coat guys along with Ryan.

"I have an idea."

"I'm up with anything you got." Claire smirked at him and she walked around and started shooting the trench coat guys in the head. The trench coat guys didn't see her coming. They all turned around and tried to shoot Claire, but they were slow and too late. Ryan saw her and walked toward her. She lowered her fun and stood there. She was asking for it. Alex saw Ryan running toward Claire. He was about to grab her, but Claire dodged him and kicked him in the back. Ryan yelled in pain and Alex punched him in the face. However, Ryan got back up and strike at Alex. He dodged it and reversed his attack. Claire strikes him from the back again, but Ryan saw it coming. He did a spinning back kick to her stomach and flew a few feet back away from Alex and Ryan. She groaned in pain, but got back up. Alex threw a punch at Ryan, but caught his punch and threw Alex toward Claire. She barely dodged Alex being thrown at her. He fell on the ground, but the dead bodies caught his fall. He got up fast and Claire ran towards Alex and was by his side. Ryan turned towards them and his eyes changed to his yellow cat eyes.

"Oh shit! Run!" Both Alex and Claire ran towards the doors as fast as they can to get away from Ryan. He lifted his arms and both Alex and Claire were lifted by Ryan's levitation. Ryan used full force and threw us towards the door. The doors were knocked down by Alex and Claire and Ryan's full power. They hit the ground hard from the impact of Ryan's power. They groan in pain, but shook if off and got back up on their feet. Ryan ran towards both of Alex and Claire. She dodged, but Alex got caught in Ryan's impact. Alex punched Ryan in the face, but caught it. He twisted Alex's arm and threw him into the wall. Claire kicked Ryan in the stomach and did a rising knee in Ryan's face. He yelled in pain, then grabbed Claire by the throat and started to squeeze her breath away. Alex tackled him to the ground and punched Ryan multiple times. Clare was coughing from almost being choked to death. She looked up and saw Alex beaten the shit out of Ryan. She got up and ran toward Alex.

"Alex, stop. That's enough." He was still punching him uncontrollably. Claire grabbed his arm and held him back. "I said that enough!" He looked up at Claire and saw the fear in her eyes. She saw his eyes were blue cat eyes. Her eyes went wide and in shock. He had the virus in him. "You have the virus; he injected you, didn't he?"

"No, I wasn't injected with it, I was born with it." After he told Claire, she didn't say anything, she was speechless. There was silent in the room until Ryan woke up from his slumber. He used levitation and threw Alex and Claire across the room. They left their guard down. The ground broke their fall and Alex saw Ryan getting up. As Ryan got up, gun shots were heard. Ryan yelled in pain. Alex and Claire didn't know where the gunshots were being fired. They looked behind them and saw Jenna, Leon, Mikey and Steve firing at Ryan. Leon helped Claire up to her feet and so did Jenna with Alex. Mikey and Steve kept firing at Ryan to keep him distracted. Steve ran towards Ryan and did a kick to his stomach and punched him in the face. Mikey did a drop kick to his shoulder and did a spinning back fist. Ryan groaned in pain, but Ryan was far from over.

"Alex was always the lucky one in the family! Mom and dad thought you were special; they didn't acknowledge me at all. Mom gave you everything and dad taught you everything he knows! I was a third wheel in that god forsaken family!" Alex stepped forward to his brother, Claire was about to stop him, but Leon put his hand on her shoulder and shook his head at her.

"I didn't want this! I never did! Don't blame mom and dad for your fatal mistakes! It wasn't their fault and it wasn't mine either! I did what you ask me to do!"

"Why! Why did you take my orders then! Why did you little brother! Why did you!"

"Because that's what brothers do! I did it for you! I idolized you in the beginning, but then I saw your true form! I saw what you were like. Killing innocent people including the squad!"

"You betrayed me and the entire Massacre!"

"Mom and dad transferred me, so I won't end up like you!"

"Well guess what! You are like me and you will never get rid of me! Never!

"NO!" Alex blinked his eyes and powerful force was rushed out of his body. Everyone ducked in cover from the blast from Alex. Leon covered Claire with his body and Steve and Mikey covered themselves. Ryan was thrown across the room and out the window. Alex's power slowly went down and his eyes changed back to normal. His dark, ocean, blue eyes. He fell to his knee, breathing hard and exhausted like his life energy was taken out of him. His chest was in pain and everything all over his body. He hadn't used his powers in a long time. He closed his eyes to try to take the pain away. His head was pounding, everything happened so fast for his power. He was suppressing it. Leon turned around and Claire saw Alex on his knees and pushed Leon out of the way. Steve and Mikey were covered in dark dust; they brushed it off their clothes and slowly walked around the command center to see if everything was back to normal. Even though it was trashed, but everything else was back to normal. Claire rushed to Alex side.

"Alex?" He opened his eyes and Claire kneeled down in front of him. He looked up at Claire's eyes and saw how worried she was for him. He felt the pain go away instantly when he saw Claire. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm okay."

"You haven't used your powers in a long time, haven't you?" He was silent when she asked that question. Alex didn't answer right away; he never liked talking about the virus inside of him. He felt like a freak.

"I never used them before."

"Why?"

"I was a freak already; I didn't want to make a statement of it. I suppressed my power in me."

"Does Anya know?"

"Know that I was born with this virus? Never told her never got the chance too." Claire looked at him with a soft facial expression. She put her hand on his shoulder. He looked up at her and saw how understanding she is.

"Now you have a chance too. If you're ready, if not yet, wait for the right time." He gave her a shy smile and she gave one back. "Also I don't think this is the time to tell her now." He smirked at Claire's comment.

"Believe me, I'll tell her when everything here has been cleared up. She's still a suspect to the murder back in Portsmouth."

"How do you know about that?"

"Because Ryan was hired to kill her."

"Who hired Ryan to kill the blonde girl?"

"The principal of the school."

"Why did the principal of the school hire Ryan to kill the bitch of the school?"

"Good question, I don't know. Ryan didn't tell me what the plan was. He just said follow my lead and that was it. When he finally told me the plan that he was going to kill Anya, that's when I wanted out. It's like the past repeating itself."

"Sounds like it. However, with all the information your telling me, we need to de-brief you of all the information that Ryan gave or told you."

"I'll give you all the information that happened in the last two years from the past to present. I'll give you everything, I promise."

"You're willing to betray your own brother to protect just one life."

"He's killing many innocent lives and I helped him with it and I'm ashamed of it. I may never bury my sins for killing innocent lives, but I will save lives who are in danger from Ryan's wrath." Claire saw the determination in Alex's eyes. She now understands why he would go so far to take down his own brother. Claire sighed out.

"We'll talk about this later; right now we need to know if Anya is okay and get out of here while we still can." Alex nodded at Claire. They both got up and they started walking toward the Leon, Mikey and Steve. However, Leon grabbed Alex by the collar and gave him the death glare at him. Claire grabbed his arm.

"Leon, what the hell are you doing!"

"This guy doesn't deserve to see Anya. Not after what he did to her!"

"He knows about Anya's condition, he can help her, he's the only one who knows about the hidden power within her." Leon looked at her like she was crazy enough to trust Alex. Mikey spoke.

"She's right." Leon looked at him with the face 'you trust this bastard' look at Mikey. "We know Alex, he's the only who knows how to suppress Anya's hidden power. If we throw him out, Anya will just get worse and the power within her will get out of control and she won't be able to control it. I know Alex personally, he's like a son to me and Jenna, and I trust him and so does Claire. We need to him, Anya needs him." Leon was silent and was still looking at Mikey and then looks at Alex.

"You try to hurt her or take advantage of her; I will make sure you never exist." Alex nodded and Leon dropped Alex to his feet. He stumbled a little bit to catch his breath, but he was okay. Claire was by his side and gave the death glare to Leon.

"I trust him, I trust my partner. If you can't trust him, fine, but that doesn't mean can't be his partner whether you like or not!" Leon just stood there in usual stand, an emotionless face. Claire walked away from Leon and walked towards Alex near the broken window. Claire was by his side and watched out the broken window.

"No sign of Ryan?" Alex sighed.

"No sign of him anywhere around the area. He's long gone now. Since I'm using my power for the first time, it's gonna be harder for him to get to Anya."

"It also won't be easy for us to kill him either." Silence fell upon them. All they would hear was their own thoughts racing in their minds. They heard footsteps coming down the stairs. She turned around and walked away from Alex's side. She stopped in her tracks and glanced at Alex who was still looking out the broken window. "Alex." He glanced to Claire and both of them made eye contact. "The virus that you were born with, is there a cure for it?" Alex was silent before answering Claire's question. He turned towards Claire and walked away from the broken window. She broke eye contact with Alex and looked down at her feet. Alex stood in front of her. She looked up at his face; he saw how concerned Claire was. Finally, he gave Claire the answer.

"If there was a cure, I would've used it already." Claire nodded at his remarks. "I'm going to do whatever I can do to stop Ryan. If it does mean sacrificing my own life to save the people I care about." Claire didn't say anything to Alex's determination.

"It was your destiny to kill your own flesh and blood, wasn't it?"

"I was born in this world for one purpose and that purpose only. To put an end to Ryan's massacre."

It was silent in the command room. Claire and Alex were still standing after what he said. She wishes Alex didn't have to do this alone, but that's his choice. Alex wished for this entire massacre to end so it won't cause anymore pain to him and to the people around him. Claire moved closer to Alex and leaned her head against his shoulder.

"It was never over, wasn't it?" Alex was silent. He wrapped his arms around Claire's waist and hugged her. She felt his warmth coming from his body. She felt that warm feeling inside of her. He kissed on the top of Claire's head and leaned his head against hers.

"Death is only the beginning."