6. A Plan Set In Motion

Scott wasn't sure how to deal with his emotions. They were literally all over the place and were directed towards every single person. He was worried about Fermat who had survived the operation, which could have ended with him losing his leg if things had gone differently, and was currently in a hospital bed unconscious. Meanwhile he was furious at Alan, Fermat's friend who had been driving and put them both in the hospital in the first placed, and then he was exasperated with Jem, who stood there and tried to defend Alan's actions despite not knowing the real story behind it other than that Alan had been driving a stolen vehicle and past the legal speed limit.

"There is a reasonable explanation behind what happened," Jem stated. His arms were folded against his chest as he stared at him with strong and serious eyes. The strength and determination in his friend's eyes tricked him off. How dare he say such a thing? Fermat was like a younger brother to him, who had gotten himself into the hospital because of Jem's adoptive brother.

"How is anything in this situation reasonable? Your brother was driving the car, a stolen car I might add and was speeding. It is the perfect recipe for disaster," Scott said exasperated. He glared at him hard with fire in his eyes. "And honestly, Alan is the one at fault in this whole mess and I find no need for you to defend his actions."

Jem was sort of shocked hearing those words coming out from him, but Scott didn't care because he wasn't the one who had to call Fermat's dad along with his own to tell them how the fourteen-year-old boy had landed himself in the hospital. Still Jem seemed to have snapped out of the shock quickly and replaced it with frustration.

"Don't you dare lay all the blame on him!" Jem exclaimed. His arms waved dramatically as he continued his rant in defending his adoptive brother. "I don't know what had happened, but I'm sure that Alan had his reasons for doing this. He understands consequences of ones actions and he knows I would not hesitate to arrest him if he had truly done something wrong."

Scott didn't believe it, but he kept that opinion to himself and kept pacing back and forth waiting for the doctor along with Brains and his dad. Meanwhile Jem leaned against the wall, glaring at him and was definitely not letting the discussion go. However Scott wasn't going to change his mind about the situation and Alan in general, which is why he said quietly, "Once Fermat is awake and well, I want Alan to stay away from him."

That certainly got Jem's attention as his glare almost immediately changed into a shocked expression.

"What?"

"You heard me," Scott shrugged his shoulders. "I don't want the two of them to hang out anymore, Alan is clearly a bad influence in his life seeing how he acts with the people around him along with his troublemaking ways."

"But…" Jem tried to argue, but was instantly denied to do so by him as he continued his reasoning.

"And it is not for discussion," Scott said determined. "Alan is not to be around Fermat and that is final."

He pushed his right hand against the pinkish wall and used it to support himself before he continued down the hall. His body was exhausted from moving and his knees were at the edge of buckling down, but he didn't take much heed in it. While his body was struggling to keep itself together and his mind on the other hand going haywire as he kept getting a memory flashes, most of them involved him getting disciplined and beaten for his failure and disobedience, but it was hurting and scaring him to see how horrible his former life was. Based on what he gathered from his memories he had been trained all his life to be the world greatest thief and criminal, and apparently he used to be part of the criminal organization, Golden Cobra. However he still didn't remember everything that had happened or how in the world he managed to escape from that world, but if his memory kept coming back like it was doing now then it was only a matter of time.

When he came to the end of the hall he turned the left corner before he staggered back when he heard the loud shouting between Jem and the oldest Tracy son, who he remembered Fermat calling him Scott. He knew that he shouldn't be listening on their conversation, but his curiosity overruled his reasonable mind. So he listened to Scott shouting how it was his fault and that he should deal with the consequences etc. And honestly, he thought the older man was right in his accusations and he blamed himself for how his friend got mixed up in his messed-up past, but when Jem came to his defense something triggered another memory flash.

(Flashback)

"Please understand, Jem," An unknown man pleaded in his cellphone. "I messed up badly, I get that, but please if you don't want to help me then help Alan. He needs and deserves a clean break from his horrible life."

He didn't hear what this 'Jem' said, but based on how this man began explaining the circumstances around him and the Golden Cobra. Once he was done with the explanation it was suddenly quiet before the man's expression lightened up like a Christmas tree.

"Thanks for doing this," the man said, ending the conversation and hung up the phone. The man let out a relieved breath and gave himself a small smile before the man noticed him standing at the door, looking at him with curious eyes.

"Did you listen in on the conversation?" the man smirked. He nodded shamelessly and approached the man before he sat down on the floor in front of him with his legs folded. The man only laughed and used his hand to ruffle the boy's hair.

"You little rascal," the man said with a grin. He smiled at the man and felt oddly enough happy about receiving the care and attention as he did.

Alan was taken back by the sudden memory as he almost landed on his ass due to the sudden shock. Luckily he caught himself from doings, not wanting to catch the attention from Jem and Scott as well getting caught on eavesdropping on their conversation. But at that moment he didn't care if he had been caught or not, the only thing that was on his mind was the fact that the truth behind the recent memory flash. Who was this unknown man in his memory and why did it seem like he trusted him? And could it be that Jem knew about his past? The memory itself didn't show or state that he did, but he did have a feeling that was the case. But if it truly was so then why had he not come forward with this before? Jem knew how having his memory sealed burdened him and made him feel incomplete as a person, so why would he go through so much trouble and simply hide it all away?

He didn't understand anything, but his confused was halted when he heard Scott's demand about him staying away from Fermat. Hearing those words literally shattered his world to tiny pieces and he wasn't sure what to do. A person who was a brother-like figure to his best friend didn't want him around in order to protect him from himself, which is why at that moment he wasn't going to stand around and listen to this anymore. So he stepped out from his hiding place and walked up to Jem and Scott, feeling a sudden energy despite his exhausted body, and directly confronted Scott by saying plainly, "Is that was you truly want? For me to stay away from Fermat."

Both Jem and Scott was shocked by his sudden appearance and his blunt accusation, however Scott caught himself quickly as his gaze was turned straight at him meanwhile his eyes became hard and stern. Still the moment Alan had truly looked into Scott's eyes it was hard to explain it, but he felt like he had seen those eyes before just couldn't remember where. However he shrugged this feeling away since he could have seen those eyes in a picture or something, so instead he waited for Scott's responds that he didn't need to wait long for since he had apparently push the older man's buttons.

"That's right," Scott replied with a barely maintained temper. "I don't want you to be around Fermat any longer since it was because of you that he is in the hospital in the first place. And because he got hurt, it is my responsibility to keep him safe and frankly I don't feel like you can keep him safe based on your actions today."

"What about Fermat? He is his own person, he should be allowed to decide who he want to see, especially when you try to control him," Alan said annoyed. He really hated when people tried to control and giving him limits to how far he could go, which is why he got off the wrong foot with the authority as well as Jem and any other adult who tried to tell him what to do.

"Don't try and talk your way around the issue," Scott sneered. "Right now what Fermat needs is not to get involved in your troubles, which you clearly have after you, and I'm sure that Fermat's dad will support my decision along with my own dad. So stop trying to trying to turn Fermat into a juvenile delinquent like you, because that boy has a bright future and he doesn't deserve to have it tainted by your influence."

That last comment certainly hurt him in more ways than he could ever describe, however he wasn't willing to show Scott how much his comment had hurt him so he kept his gaze down on the floor. Meanwhile Jem reacted on his behalf in a clear hurt and frustrated tone when he yelled out, "Scott! That's enough! You have no right to say those things to him and expect us to be accept you saying such things and deny Alan to see his best friend!"

Scott huffed by Jem's exclamation, but didn't give any indication about changing his mind. Then they continued fighting about him and the entire situation, ignoring him and leaving him to himself. So Alan stood there and thinking through the argument and began to realize that in his overprotective and odd way Scott was right. With his past, his forgotten memory returning and the recent trouble developing Alan was probably the last person in the world who could protect his best friend and family from everything. All he would do was taint the lives of the people he cared about and he didn't want them to get hurt because of him, which is why he made the most difficult decision he would ever make his entire life.

"Fine," Alan murmured. At first he wasn't sure if Scott and Jem heard him correctly, but when their fighting suddenly stopped he knew they had heard him so he continued. "I will stay away from him. I will disappear from his life if that is truly what you want, but I'm not doing this for you. I'm doing it to keep him safe, even if it hurts me tremendously, I will do it because I care deeply about my best friend. However I have one request before I do so."

Scott's eyebrow rose in suspicion and wasn't sure if he was willing to listen and allow the request or not, but apparently decided to at least listen to what he wanted before making his final decision.

"All right, what is your request?" Scott asked warily. His arms unfolded and were placed on his sides, waiting impatiently to hear what he wanted.

"I request to see him one last time, in order to explain things as well as telling him goodbye," Alan explained. "Will you please be kind to allow me this small request?"

Scott went quiet and had a thoughtful expression on his face, like he was weighing the options and consequences before he made his final decision.

"Okay, when he wake up you can go and see him one last time," Scott decided. And Alan almost light up like a Christmas tree hearing those words until he heard the rest of Scott's decision. "However it will only be for a few minutes and after that I want you gone and away from his life, got that?"

Alan's face fell, but he nodded sadly to the decision. Jem looked shocked and most of all sad about the whole thing, but didn't say anything since he knew that his mind was already set and wasn't going to change it no matter what he did or said about the matter. So Alan sat down on the closest available chair near Fermat's room and began waiting for the boy to wake up and had to deliver the toughest and the most heartbreaking news he ever had to say to the one of the few people in his life.

Fermat was for obvious reasons confused when he woke up and found himself in a hospital, and didn't remember immediately how he had ended there in the first place, but then the accident came back to him and the confusion changed to worry about Alan. The last thing he could remember before the crash was Alan driving and then everything turned back. He was worried if Alan had gotten seriously injured or ended up dead, which saddened him even more if it was true, however his questions was answered when Scott came and was relived to see him awake and alive. He asked the older man what his injuries were and when would his dad arrive, and Scott replied almost immediately that they all were on their way and everything was going to be fine. Then he left to inform the doctor and his dad about him being awake, leaving him alone his room once again. However his solitude didn't last long before someone very familiar entered the room and sat down on the chair next to his bed. Fermat was glad to see his friend was okay, but based on Alan's facial expression something was bothering him and was weighing heavily on his shoulders.

"W-what is w-wrong?" Fermat asked concerned. He tilted his head slightly to the left in a questioning manner and kept a calm demeanor as he waited for Alan to explain to him what was going on and why he looked like some skimmed the meat out of his sandwich.

"Because of what happened and how I'm the responsible behind it, I have been asked to stay away from you from now on," Alan said with a heavy heart. "Which I accepted even though it hurts me greatly to do so, but I do it because it is the only way to keep you safe."

Fermat was shocked and sad to hear this, although he can understand why Scott and the rest of his family had suggested this, what he couldn't understand is why Alan would agree with it that easily. He had half-expected the guy to fight tooth-and-nail until he got what he wanted. Something else was going on and that is the main reason why his best friend was trying to pull away from him.

"B-be honest," Fermat said softly, almost comforting. "T-there is s-something m-more behind t-this, i-isn't it?"

Alan didn't say anything, but he nodded his head with a sad face before he began explaining that his memories have been starting to return to him, about his forgotten past and how his past is seemingly coming back to haunt him and that he doesn't want him to get dragged into the mess. Fermat realized as he listened that Alan was just as honorable and protective as the Tracy family, how they had these certain values about the ones they cared about and was willing to do anything to make sure others were safe and sound.

"S-so this is g-goodbye?" Fermat said sadly, not even bothering to hide his feelings on the matter. He was sad to lose his only best friend because the world and everyone he cared about thought that Alan was a dangerous threat and would get him in trouble or in other dangerous situations like this one.

Alan gave him a small smile and placed a gentle hand on the top of his hand for a moment before he let it go and left the room without saying anything more, however what no one would have noticed was that he had slipped a tiny note above his hand. A message?

Fermat's curiosity was peaked as he picked up the note carefully and unfolded it to read what is said and why he didn't try and inform him about the content while he was still in the room. And the note said:

I'll contact you, please don't act suspicious or differently from your otherwise routine life.

See you soon,

A.

Fermat smiled as he read the note again. Alan was a sneaky little fox, no wonder why he thought it was odd how easy Alan gave up, but at least he wasn't breaking up their friendship and that was enough for now. The door knocked once again and Fermat in one motion hid the tiny note underneath his bed sheet before he gently allowed whoever was on the other side to enter the room. His next visitors was his dad followed by Mr. Tracy, Scott and his doctor and then this day continued with being informed about his condition and how his injuries would effect his daily life, which was thankfully not much, but during the entire time they all were in his room all he could think about was when Alan would be taking contact with him. After all he was curious as to how much he could help him retrieve more of his memories and help him through it all.

Somewhere in an unknown location, a man was sitting in the shadows watching the car chase through the traffic cameras and was laughing sinisterly over how much his prodigy thief was causing trouble for them, even before he knew who they were, however that was typical attitude from the Ghost. And apparently a few things had changed these four years apart, but it was reassuring to see the essential tings about him still remained and made him a valuable asset to the organization. His laughter seized when the door into the room opened and a very familiar man entered room, limping with his foot like he was a one-legged pirate.

"Good job, Vinnie," the man said without turning to look at his right-hand man. "I assume everything is going according to plan?"

"Y-yeah," Vinnie replied, his tone relayed signs that he was in pain, which was obvious since he was stabbed in the leg with a fork as a 'nice to see you again' gift from the little Ghost. "But what I can't understand is why we left him alone for four years, we could have taken him whenever we wanted to before, so why get him to come back now?"

The man smirked. Vinnie was useful in many ways, but he was more the brute in the operation, not the brain like himself. Still his questions was justified, however he wasn't interested in sharing why exactly he had not tried to retrieve his golden goose before. What mattered now was to get back what truly belonged to him, but he needed to test out his abilities further as well return the young teen's forgotten memory. He had gotten the access to the Ghost's hospital records from four years ago when he first woke up after escaping out of his grasp, and he learned that his memory had been completely sealed regarding the people in his life, which was a good thing seeing as he couldn't take the organization down. Anyways he needed the young man back in their custody since he was ready and had jobs lining up for him to do. They could no longer wait around.

"All in due time, Vinnie. All in due time," the man reassured him, while giving him the hidden message to drop the questions for now. "Now we have to arrange the second part of the plan."

"Yeah, but again I have to ask why do it this way? Couldn't we just have taken the Brat, it would be a lot easier for us and lose time," Vinnie argued. This time the man figured that he would answer that question, since he needed to at least know something before he did that part of the plan.

"There are several reasons, one of them is to test out his abilities and make him realize his true potential," the man answered. "But in order for him to do that we need to give him an incentive to come to us willingly, remember how difficult and disobedient he was back then? He is most certainly like that now and would no way go along with anything we throw at him, but if we gave him an incentive we wouldn't have to use force to get him back. All we have to do is wait for him to come to us and then he will try and negotiate a deal in order to protect the thing he cares about."

Vinnie nodded, understanding what he was trying to tell him. The man smirked over this as he pulled out a photo from his jacket pocket and handed it over to Vinnie. The picture was of a young short boy around thirteen-fourteen years old with dark brown hair and blue glasses. Standing next to the boy was a young man with long blond hair, who was taller than the boy, smiling with pure happiness. The man turned his back once again to look at the screen where the ambulances arrived and dragged out the two boys from the picture out from the crashed car.

"Are you prepared for what is to come, Ghost?"

Three months later

The breeze was playing with his long locks as he sat down on the beach, watching the sunset while music playing through his earplugs. The music varied as his taste in music was a totally mix between old and new music as well as classical and rock. And like now he was currently listening to Run Kid Run's song, Freedom. How strange that he was listening to a song about freedom he didn't really have despite his recent decisions that would have given him exactly that from a bystander's point of view.

After taking his 'farewell' with Fermat back at the hospital, he had taken Jem aside to confront him about if he really knew about his past and didn't tell him about it. At first Jem was all confused and didn't understand what he was talking about, that is until he revealed the fact that he was starting to remember his past and that he remembered some unknown man saying his name, asking for him to help him get a clean break. In the end Jem confessed that he knew all along about his past and let's just say the result of this realization was catastrophic.

(Flashback)

"How could you keep this from me!" Alan exclaimed in fury. He and Jem were in his hospital room and were currently fighting about this big secret that the one of few people in his world kept from him. "You know how screwed up I was when I first woke up in the hospital without a single memory that could tell me who I was and everything surrounding that. I needed to know and you kept it from me!"

Jem tried to give him a reassuring hand, but he slapped the hand away and took a few steps away from him. He was unable to look at him, especially when he learned that his father/brother figure had hurt and betrayal him in the worst possible way. How in the world was he supposed to be all right with that?

"Listen to me, Alan," Jem began explaining. "When I was first asked to help you and take you in it was our intention to give you a chance for a normal life. Get a fresh start to be who you wanted to be without your past to stop you from being yourself. So when you woke up I made the decision to keep the little I knew about your past a secret when I learned about your amnesia."

Alan clenched his hands, while trying really hard not to go through with his urge to hit him in the face. He was angry, hurt and betrayed by all of this and honestly he wasn't sure how he was going do deal with it. The only thing he knew at that point was that he didn't want to be around Jem or Haley, who obviously didn't feel that they could have trusted him to know the truth.

"It doesn't matter anymore," Alan said hard. "You betrayed my trust, Jem. And with everything that has happened I can't deal with it with you or Haley around. So once I'm out of the hospital I'm going away somewhere I can figure stuff out."

And during the last three months he has spent his time working part-time jobs since he dropped out of Wharton Academy in order to fulfill his part of the promise to Scott that he would stay away from Fermat, even though he had been in contact with Fermat since the accident by not being physically in contact with his friend. He had promised to stay away, but he had not promised to cut all contact. Either way it worked to his advantage, his and Fermat's friendship remained strong. Without anyone interfering and judging that they were spending time using e-mail and text messages.

The sun had already set and the dark was about to appear on the sky, which signaled him that it was time for him to get back to the apartment he had been renting these last few months. So he stood up, brushing the sand off his clothes and began walking back to the apartment, which wasn't too far from the beach. The song had long ended and switched over to another song, however he was barely registering the music in his ears because when he arrived to the front door of his apartment he found the door wide open. His inner alarm went haywire and he knew something wasn't right about the picture in front of him.

So he entered the apartment with caution and noticed someone had broken the lock by forcing the lock open. It seems whoever entered his apartment wasn't afraid that he would call the cops, but he shrugged his shoulders and continued further into the small space that combined his living room and kitchen together. The place looked pretty much undisturbed except for the large duffel bag on his coffee table with a tiny paper on top of it. He knew it might not be smart to see what was in the note and in the duffel bag while there was the possibility that the intruder was still in the apartment, however something told him that wasn't the case seeing how he didn't see, hear or feel anyone else's presence in the apartment. So he approached the duffel bag, picked up the note without reading it and opened the bag. And what he found inside caught him off guard. Inside the bag were money piles like they had been sort out in the bank recently, and the amount wasn't spare change money either, he assumed it was around two million dollars in the bag.

"What the hell?" Alan said confused. That was a new twist; intruders enter people's apartments to leave being a bag filled with cash. Something was definitely wrong with this picture. His suspicion was only confirmed when he took a look at the note and read the message, which said:

Vacation is over, Ghost.

The game has already started, and I hope you are prepared for what is coming for you.

Your prize is waiting for you…

The note was signed with a drawing of gold snakehead. Alan knew then who had broken into his place, but he couldn't understand why they would go through all of this just to inform him that they wanted him back. They should know that there was no way he would go back to them willingly, so why the vague message? It began to sort of dawn to him what was going on once he began realizing the true meaning behind the message, when all of a sudden an unknown voice shouted out, "FREEZE!"

Alan froze automatically. With his back turned he couldn't see the person behind him, but he knew that it was a cop. And if that was the case then that cop's partner wasn't far behind to back him up. He swore mentally to himself how stupid he could have been to fall for such a simple trick. This whole thing was a set up, and even though he didn't know what he was set up for, but whatever it was the Golden Cobra was behind it and he was taking the fall for it.

"HANDS UP!" the same cop yelled out. He did what he was ordered to do, knowing far too well that things would only turn ugly if he didn't cooperate. Then the cop grabbed his hands and he felt cold metal around his wrist, which could only be handcuffs, before the cop turned him around.

"You are under arrest for kidnapping Fermat Hackenbacker," the cop said exasperated. Hearing the charge Alan turned his head to look at the cop with a shocked and mostly confused expression on his face.

"What!" Alan exclaimed. "Fermat's kidnapped? And you think I did it?"

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Thanks again for the response I have been receiving, and I hope you guys like this chapter. For those of you who are reading my other TB story, Whispers in the Dark, the next chapter will hopefully be out on Monday. And for those of you who haven't read it, check it out and maybe you guys will like it.

I will disclaim ownership for the song Freedom, which was mentioned in the story. The owner of the song is Run Kid Run, which is a great song despite being a Christian song (something that I'm definitely not).

Anyways please continue review, favorite and/or follow this story, and the next chapter will be out as soon as its written and done.

xXrebelgirl07Xx