51. Greeting

Pain shot through his nerves and stars exploded in his eyes. One thing he had not missed about the Raza was getting hit in the face.

He held a hand up to his bleeding nose. "Who are you? Where's Two?"

"I'm not here to answer your questions." The strange woman with brown hair and a see-through top twisted One's arm painfully behind his back. "But you're going to answer mine."

"Stop! Leave him alone! Where is everyone?" Five dug her nails into the woman's forearm in an attempt to get her to release One. The woman didn't seem to notice.

52. Initial Disbelief

"Take it easy." Another stranger, a man with blond hair, approached. "Let's just wait until the others return. I can sedate him if we need to."

"Don't you recognize him?" The woman shoved One towards the man. "This is Jace Corso."

"No, I'm not. I'm One."

The man studied One's face for a moment. "We should wait for Two."

o0o

Five didn't know what she was angrier about—that these strangers, these interlopers on the Raza, were hitting and restraining One, or the fact that they hadn't done a single thing to her, they barely even acknowledged that she was there.

53. Say Something

It was the third time in his three-month memory that One had been bound to a chair. He was going to have to learn a new technique to free himself, or, better yet, figure out how to avoid ticking off people who were stronger than him. Slim chance of the latter, given pretty much everything about his entire life.

Trying to talk his way out had not been particularly successful in the past, but it also hadn't really hurt. Actually it had, but One couldn't stand to do nothing any longer. It was a long shot, but it was something.

54. All About the Eyeliner

"I'm not wearing eyeliner."

One's female captor just glared at him.

"Maybe you don't know—Jace Corso has a thing for hair gel and make-up. I don't."

She continued to stare at him, apparently unmoved.

"Pull up his photo, you'll see."

"For what it's worth, he's right," the blond man confirmed as he poked at his tablet. "Jace Corso does like his eyeliner."

The woman with the see-through shirt shifted, crossing her arms even tighter. "We are not freeing this man because he happened to remove his make-up before impersonating a dead man."

One sighed. It was worth a shot.

55. Return

A shriek startled everyone. Nyx drew her gun. Devon trotted into the hallway. One stiffened in his chair.

Voices filtered in from the hallway:

"Two! Three! Four! I've missed you so much!"

"Kid! Where ya been?"

"Are you okay? Where did you come from?"

One relaxed. The others were here. Soon he'd be free and things would start getting back to normal.

"Hurry! They've got One tied up. You have to tell them to let him go."

"One? Didn't you hear, One is—"

Two stopped mid-sentence as she entered the room and saw One.

"Two. I'm so glad—"

56. Unrecognized

She had a pistol to his forehead before he could finish the sentence.

"What are you doing here, you scum-sucking filth?"

"No!" Five threw herself in between One and Two. "It's One!"

"One is dead. Killed by this bottom-feeder. It's been all over the news."

"No! This is him! This is really One!

"We knew Jace Corso was coming. So we used clones."

"Sorry, kid. Clones disintegrate when they're killed. People would know." Three stepped forward and put his finger under One's chin. "Sure does look like him, though."

"I am him. Just let me go and I'll explain everything."