Chapter 14

MUM

Seattle, October 2040

What a crazy day it was. He himself was still confused and had to run after one after another. A little defiance arose in him and he was about to throw in the towel because of such a difficult situation. But he was always very dutiful and now that was breaking through again. Ben would have shouted angrily a long time ago, but he now set out to clarify the situation for the second time. It was already dark and he saw nothing for a moment as he stepped out onto the unlit street. Then he looked around and just at the last moment caught Gray darting around a corner and disappearing. He followed him and tried to catch up with him. But when he supposedly had to be right behind him, a pain suddenly shot through him and knocked him to the ground. He let out a scream and then another groan as he landed on his knees in the dirt of the side street.

"It's just the bro, where the fuck is the Y2?"

He got up as quickly as he could and saw that they were the disgusting specimens of Familiars that had already ambushed them in the pharmacy.

"Where did the freak come from? Did you see which door he came from?"

It seemed the two guys hadn't seen where he had come from because he was already a ways away from the apartment because he had run after Gray. He thought that he was now defenseless against the two when suddenly one of the two was lying in front of him. A rear wheel of a motorcycle had, so to speak, mowed him off his feet.

"Jump up!"

A familiar voice and a hand pulled him onto a motocross bike and he was sitting behind the driver of the motorcycle and they turned away and disappeared into the night. With the angry screams of the two pursuers still ringing in his ears, Seth clung to his rescuer and the security and warmth that had already brought him calm flowed through him again.

"Grey?"

"Yeah, couldn't leave you to them, right?"

They drove for a while until they reached a club called "Crash", in front of which Gray parked the machine and simply went in. Seth followed him.

Gray went to the bar and had a mug of beer poured for him. He took a glass and left the second one provocatively at the counter. Seth grabbed it and followed Gray to a table where a pretty African-American woman with a wonderfully confident air was sitting. Gray put the mug on the table and sat down. Seth introduced himself awkwardly, sitting down next to him and looking expectantly at the woman and Gray.

"This is Original Cindy, she helped me back then, maybe she can help you too".

With that he handed her his glass and left. Seth wanted to go after him but Cindy stopped him.

"Let him go, Original Cindy has known the little one for a while, he needs a little help sometimes. What problem do you two have that she can help with?"

Seth had rarely met anyone who spoke of themselves in the third person. Somehow she looked familiar to him.

"You were in a newspaper article picture with my mum," he stuttered out.

"Who is your mom supposed to be? Original Cindy has gotten a lot of beauties over with her lesbian arguments so far, but you're so cheesy, you can't be mine."

She grinned at him with a confidence that left him speechless. He only managed one word:

"Max!"

Her eyes widened.

"Jeez, you're a spitting image of Logan, I should have seen it straight away."

He must have frightened her so much that she suddenly forgot the third person and spoke to him normally. The ice was broken and he just nodded. Then he told her what he knew about her so far and why he and Ben had come here. He also tried to give a short version of what they had experienced so far on their journey and that they had no idea how to contact their mother.

Cindy looked like she had a plan though. She quickly told Seth that she was going to pay and stalked over to the counter. After a few teasing phrases, she told the bartender, who also seemed to be the owner of the barn, that she would now be taking Max's son home with her.

The guy behind the bar stared at him and then burst into cheers and exuberantly turned off the music and announced that the place was closed for the day. After all the guests had left the somewhat shabby shop grumbling, Cindy pushed Seth up the stairs to the door. Sketch, as the bartender had imagined, followed and quickly locked the shop upstairs before they took Seth into their midst and simply marched off with him.

"Are you going to tell me if I survive the night or will it be a surprise?"

"Look who's found his sense of humor again," Cindy smiled and explained to him that they were on the way to her apartment and that the two of them were well aware that if he had received even a little genetic inheritance from his mother Surely the only way to move voluntarily would be to follow them.

Seth agreed:

"I may be a Y1 but you are right. Can you at least tell me on the way why we had to leave so hastily."

"Because otherwise she goes to work," Cindy replied.

Seth was confused, was she referring to herself in the third person again or was he supposed to be seeing someone? He didn't get a chance to ask because they had arrived at a large house and Cindy went straight to the stairs, leaving the stairwell on the third floor. Sketch still held him back. She went to a door, unlocked it and went in. It felt like an eternity before she came out again and signaled for the two of them to come in. Seth was pushed by Sketch and was very unsure what to expect next. He was alert but peered curiously over Cindy's shoulder as he entered the apartment. There, in the semi-darkness of the apartment, sitting at the kitchen serving hatch was a woman with a cup of coffee. When she looked over at him, a tear ran down her cheek in the first second, she jumped up and stood there as if petrified.

"Seth?"

Seth was shocked and happy at the same time. He recognized her immediately, even just saying his name and hearing her soft feminine voice, he knew it immediately:

"MUM!"

He almost ran to her and flew into her arms. He cried and couldn't let go of her, let alone look her in the eyes because the tears flowed like a waterfall. She caught herself quicker.

"My little Seth, finally!"

She stroked his face and dried his tears until he was able to look at her and finally find his language again:

"I have so many questions!"

"Then I'll cancel normal and go blue today."

She made a short phone call, giving Seth time to regain his senses. Original Cindy and Sketch also stood there with tears in their eyes and couldn't believe it, but they pushed Seth towards the sofa and sat down too. Max came and sat next to Seth, pulling him towards her and his head now resting on her chest like a small child's. He enjoyed this moment to the fullest. For how long he had longed to finally get her back and now it wasn't that difficult.

"Did Gray arrange this?" Seth suddenly asked, turning to Cindy.

"No, the little one actually wanted something completely different from me and didn't know who he was bringing together."

On the one hand, Seth was overwhelmed by his happiness, but there was still this "completely different thing" that still caused him the greatest confusion.

But at the moment there was only one important topic for him and that was Max, his mother!

"I still remember what you whispered in my ear when you dropped us off at Marga's, I took good care of Ben."

"Where is he anyway? Didn't he accompany you."

Seth explained that his trip wasn't actually planned and that Gray had brought him to Cindy because he was going through a bit of a rough patch. He also said that he had almost been caught by the Familiars and that was why Ben wasn't allowed to leave the apartment because it seemed he was the target of their efforts and they really only wanted to get him.

Max and Seth both gradually explained what had happened in the last few years. They talked until the sun came up and Cindy and Sketch had already fallen asleep next to them. In contrast to the transgenics, the two had a normal need for sleep and despite all the exciting stories, it overwhelmed them towards morning. Seth told how they had stayed in Nika's apartment and Max told how she had spent the last few years saving other children and lived so invisibly, inconspicuously and hidden from the family that they had stopped following her every step for several years .

Nevertheless, she hadn't had the courage to dare to bring them back. She never would have thought that those bastards would actually track them down.

"Alec let you train well, he can be really tough sometimes."

Seth nodded and talked about the training and the letters that sometimes brought even harsher measures. He had sometimes been a bit afraid when new instructions came along, but the trainers had explained it well to the two of them and both boys had always started the even harder training without complaining. Ben had often cried back then, but at some point he also became stronger and since, as they now knew, he was a Y2, he also developed a strength that was even superior to him as his big brother.

"Wait, you said you're Y1 and Ben is Y2?"

"Yes, we thought that was a kind of order, but later we looked into it more closely and had our doubts about it."

They talked about the others in the apartment, the other Y1s who knew they had a human and a transgenic parent, and the Y2s who said they came from some sort of breeding run by the Familiars in collaboration with Manticore.

Max's ears pricked up, she had had the feeling for a long time that something had happened differently back then, but since she couldn't remember the time around Ben's birth, she had always explained it to herself by saying that he must have been on the move before the kidnapping.

"We'll have to talk about this again sometime, is there any way you can get Ben here?"

"No, as soon as he leaves the apartment the entire group is exposed."

Seth didn't want to put Ben or the rest of the group in danger and immediately said that they had already been able to contact Alec in Terminal City and that he would be on his way to them soon.

"Why hasn't Joshua contacted you?"

She told him that she was still in Vancouver until this morning and had something to do there. When he looked at her skeptically about what she had to do so far away, she continued that she had still been looking for her own mother for many, many years and was always following various leads.

Next to the two of them, Cindy was stretching out and squinting in the sunlight, which now suggested that it must be at least midday. The two had talked all night and now half the day and Seth was still explaining how they were staying at the moment when Cindy spoke up:

"Say, the two of us actually wanted to talk, I promised Gray."

Seth looked at her and all the confusion and despair that came with it came flooding back to him. His eyes filled with tears.

"I don't know what's going on myself."

He put his head back on Max's shoulder and whispered, "I think I love a man."

"That's wonderful, Original Cindy is delighted, there's nothing to cry about, little one."

Max stroked his hair and nodded in agreement.

"It's all fine if you just have the ability to love someone, no matter who they are or what gender they are, you're already better than some other people who can't feel love for someone."

Seth looked at her, thinking clearly on the subject for the first time in days.

"I still have to get used to it, I think," he said quietly but with a little more confidence.

But he felt that he definitely needed more time.

Cindy woke up Sketch and first announced to him that the educational talk about love had resulted in the best family reunion in 15 years. Sketch grinned sideways and rubbed his eyes.

"Coffee would be a good thing," he replied, rather unimpressed.

Seth looked at Max: "How do we get Ben to finally get to know you, Mom?"

"You have to keep this a secret for now, there are too many of the enemies after him, I have to talk to Alec first and then he will come to you. With a plan."

"How am I supposed to keep from him that I met you? I can't lie to him."

"Then go with me to Terminal City and contact your friends from there, tell them about the attack by the Familiars and that Cindy took you there and Gray should just come by there. That's the name of the young man you have a crush on, isn't it?"

Seth nodded and they got ready to head to Terminal City.

Sketch said he would go ahead and pick her up in a car in an hour. Original Cindy was supposed to accompany him and stop by Normal's Jam Pony Express afterwards to inform the other transgenos what was going on and ask them for support for the upcoming actions. Sketchy and Cindy took off and Seth was happy to have some time alone with his Vom. As soon as the door closed behind the two of them, he blurted out:

"I know Dad is dead. How did that happen and was he "Eyes only"?

"Slowly, slowly I'll tell you everything," she took his hand and began to talk about the day she and Alec came back after getting him and Ben to safety. She talked about how Alec had been the last person to talk to him, how she herself had woken up and fallen into a deep pit of sadness. She had been alone from one day to the next and had spent several years looking for her mother. Unfortunately without success, but she couldn't look Alec or Joshua in the eyes. Over the years, she was able to leave behind the anger she had felt towards all those accompanying the mission and become clear about many things. After that she tried to lead a very boring, quiet life so as not to attract any attention from the family. Joshua had always spied for her and reported to her every now and then. Alec had taken on the hardest part, namely all the planning of the training and what the trainers had to do. He had had to rethink his own training over and over again, reliving all of his own traumas over and over again as he had to write the most precise instructions for the letters. Back then, after Max and her friends had escaped and later when Ben, his brother, had crashed in the shower, he had ended up in a special program that was ten times stricter than that of the twins, who only had escapees and not crazy duplicates.

"Ben? That was Alec's twin? Is that why you chose the name?"

"Yes, because Ben meant a lot to me and Alec suggested it back then.

Logan had the idea of calling you Seth, he knew my brother Seth, who also died and that name also had a strong meaning for us."

Seth looked at the clock and saw that the hour had flown by. They had to go. Max quickly put on her leather jacket and stood in front of her son. Seth was taller and a real man. She seemed petite but Seth knew it was just a facade because she was one of the best fighters if the reports and articles he had read were anything to go by. They went down and crept along the wall of the house to the street where Sketch luckily drove up at the same moment. They jumped in the car and headed straight for Terminal City. It took less than a quarter of an hour and they reached the gate where the guards checked them. Max was of course the best ticket you could have and they were waved straight through. Once inside, they got out and Joshua was the first to come to greet them.

"I'm happy little friend, you have your family back, at least half of it."

She hugged Joshua and little by little more and more of the transgenics came to finally get to know the prodigal son, who was not allowed to be spoken about out loud in order not to endanger him. A big lizard man named Mole, Luke, Dix and whatever they're called. Seth had a lot of trouble remembering all the names and was completely overwhelmed. He was very happy when Luke called him to the computer:

"The connection is established, speak quickly, briefly and don't dwell on unimportant things."

Seth came to the screen and sat there across from his entire group of new friends, all of them poking their heads into the small computer room because they were all worried about where he had gone. He was as brief as possible:

"I'm fine, Original Cindy brought me here to safety, continues to work on the plan for Alec to infiltrate him quickly and send someone here to discuss further details," he quickly added, "Maybe Gray can take care of that and Ben absolutely has to stay in the apartment," before Luke cut the connection.

"Always under 30 seconds. "stay" he said to Seth after he had cut the connection without compassion. Seth knew he was right but he wanted to talk to his brother, who looked very worried.

After the short conversation, Max took him with him and showed him everything and introduced him to many other transgenics. Mole was almost overjoyed by his standards and while patting him on the shoulder he even offered him one of the holy cigars, which Seth politely declined. Luke and Dix wanted to know a few things about him and he quickly showed them who his father was, because he clearly seemed to have inherited his computer genius from him.

Meanwhile, Max was making a few calls. But when she was finished, she took him with her again and they looked for a quiet corner where they could continue to talk because the last few years had not yet been worked through. It would take a while until the plans could be put into action and before it started, the two of them enjoyed just being together. Seth put his head on her shoulder again and she stroked his hair.

"You have become such a great young man, I am so very sorry that I wasn't able to accompany you as you grew up."

"Mum, it was necessary and over time we understood it better, we are so grateful to you for the sacrifice you made".

"As for your crush, I have your back, you're perfect and I'm proud of you."

Seth looked at her and there was still a lot of confusion and uncertainty inside him, but he felt accepted and understood, that was enough for the moment.