EYES ONLY II

Seattle

December 2040

More than two weeks passed before Max thought about going back to Terminal City again. They were in regular contact with Seth and the others there, but she was also happy to be a little distant from Alec.

Seth had planned a few things with Oliver and in the meantime they had also talked about what Max had discovered in the apartment in Wyoming. Ben and Max had had a lot of time to talk about everything and it became increasingly clear to everyone that the target value noted in the file made Ben the key to the whole thing.

Now they just had to find out more exactly what that meant.

Seth and Gray were alone in TC with Alec for a long time and, like Ben and Max, had a lot of time to talk and take a closer look at a lot of things. Seth sat at the computer and tinkered with Dix and Luke and constantly talked to Oliver in the shared apartment. It was approaching Christmas and everyone planned to spend the holiday together.

Gray joined Seth on the platform and just saw Boas leaving the computer room in the shared apartment.

"What does Boaz have to do with your plans?"

"He helps where he can," Seth replied.

"Aha and does it help you see your feelings for men more clearly?"

There was a hint of sarcasm in Gray's answer. Seth turned to him and at first didn't understand what it was about and asked Gray with a grin:

"Are you jealous"?

Gray waved and walked off the platform. Seth realized he was more serious than he had suspected. He went after him and held his arm. Gray wriggled out and continued walking in silence.

"Why are you so pissed out of the blue?"

"I've been trying to spend more time with you for a few days but you ignore me and prefer to talk to Boaz, I have to get out of here."

Seth couldn't handle it and let Gray go for now. Maybe the ceiling just fell on his head here.

Gray walked out of the hall, angry that Seth didn't even try to stop him further. He stormed headlessly out of TC and onto the street, at first just walking without a goal, but then he wanted to go to the shared apartment to confront Boas. He had completely forgotten to stick to one of the safe paths and practically ran straight into the arms of the Familiars. By the time he recognized her it was already too late. They had been watching him for some time and called for reinforcements because they had already seen what Gray could do in the pharmacy. They attacked quickly, Gray had no chance to defend himself and in a few seconds found himself in the trunk of the bastards' black car.

Harper, one of the Y1s in the shared apartment, was currently on her shift in front of the surveillance cameras. She immediately called for Oliver.

"Shit, what's going on? BEN! BEN! You need to get Seth on the screen immediately."

Max, came to Oliver instead, Ben hadn't heard him. She looked at the recordings in horror and stormed over to Ben's room. She didn't knock and just stormed through the door, which she already regretted at that second.

"Whoa, Max, would you please at least turn around?"

Max stammered and turned first to the right, looked at the wall then to the left again at Ben, who was trying to fish for a pair of boxer shorts.

"Mom!"

The first time he called her mom and of all times when she caught Nika and him in flagrante.

She finally turned to the door and fled out, feeling a slight blush rising on her face.

"Finish in the future! I hope you protect yourself!"

"Muuuuum"!

Ben exclaimed that it was as if they had always lived under the same roof and she had just given him another typical mother's line.

Max fled straight to the computer room where Oliver already had Seth on the screen.

"What's going on with you guys?"

"Typical puberty drama I guess," Oliver jumped in with an answer while Max lowered his head a little embarrassed.

Seth grinned: "Well, luckily I'm not at the point where that could happen to us yet with Gray."

"I'm calling because of him."

"He just got out of here, about 30 minutes ago."

Oliver told Seth that Gray had just landed in the trunk of the Familiar. There were tears in Seth's eyes, but he pulled himself together and told Oliver that he should set off immediately with all the technology they had developed together. Oliver was already starting to pack everything up when Ben came dashing around the corner with a hoodie and boxer shorts.

"What's wrong guys?"

"Ben was just a bit indisposed, I'll put him in the picture."

Max tried to push Ben out of the room but he saw how horrified his brother looked and pushed towards the front of the screen.

Seth knew what Ben was like and immediately tried to calm him down. If Ben had one of his knee-jerk reactions now he would be in danger and that was the last thing Seth needed right now because he was already worried enough about Gray.

"Stop Max and stay where you are Ben".

Seth said this firmly and Ben was amazed at how calm it made him. Seth had a plan.

Oliver had packed everything together with Damon and Jack and he now needed Boaz and Aiden to transport all the luggage to TC. Each of the three had a route and they shared the luggage.

"We'll let you know later when we've installed everything there."

Now it was time to wait. Yara was excited and afraid for Aiden. She sat down in the kitchen. The others came to her and everyone waited. Jade and Carson made everyone something to eat and handed out tryptophan and something to drink.

Jack was bored and sat on the sofa with Damon and turned on the TV.

They waited forever and gradually everyone went to bed. Max sat down on the large sofa with the two little ones and the three of them fell asleep there.

The next day there was still no message from TC. They didn't know yet whether everyone had gotten there safely. It was now a day before Christmas Eve and the mood was anything but celebratory.

Jade and Carson were in charge of the kitchen this week and were preparing breakfast when there was a rumble and the boxes of shoes were knocked over in the hallway by the front door.

Jack was the first to jump up and see what was going on.

"Oh great guys, you're great!"

Harper and Madison came into the living room with a tree around the corner. A Christmas tree!

Yara had also come out of Aiden's room and was hoping to find Aiden. But when she saw the tree she immediately agreed to decorate the tree with the two little ones. The three of them immediately started looking for useful things to make jewelry.

"Harper, do you think you could get some more baking stuff?"

Yara quickly came up with a plan for what she wanted to hang on the tree and for that she needed a few more ingredients.

"Sure, I'll take Jade, Carson and Madison with me and we'll get you everything you need."

Yara knew that the four of them were exactly the right people for this job because they had many contacts all over the city and could get almost anything. So she wrote down everything that was needed and then sat down with the little ones to do crafts. Ben and Nika came over and asked if they could help and Max was also happy about the welcome distraction.

In the afternoon the four of them came back from their errands and had everything with them.

Yara got straight to work and soon it smelled of cinnamon and cookies, gingerbread and crafts and the pine green of the tree. It was almost comfortable if it hadn't served as a distraction from the fear for Gray.

They decorated the tree with cookies and curls, gingerbread, bows and anything else they could find that looked Christmassy.

The next evening they sat together on the sofa, leaning against it and everyone looking at the tree.

"It would be nice to have a Christmas with the whole family," Ben looked at Max longingly.

"Soon Ben, everything will definitely be fine soon".

Aiden, Boas and Oliver just came back in the door and all three were amazed at what had happened here in the last few hours. They sat down with the others.

Now they had to wait to receive more information.

Suddenly the picture on the television, which was still running in the background, went into crisis, two stripes ran across the screen and a computer-distorted voice spoke up. In the middle two eyes.

Max couldn't take his eyes off the television

"Logan," she whispered.

She knew it couldn't be him but all her grief clouded her mind and so only Ben recognized who was there. He recognized his brother's eyes.

"This is a Streaming Freedom Online Video. The break-in into your cable network takes 60 seconds. It cannot be traced or stopped. Eyes Only is a free voice for this city that continues to fight for justice."

Now it was clear to Max that it wasn't Logan because the text had been changed. At that time it was the only free voice, but now public life had become freer and only the underground was still riddled with familiars. As long as the boys were safe, things had been pretty quiet here and there was little activity from the familiars.

After the announcement, the 60 seconds showed the video in which Gray was overpowered by the Familiars and thrown into the trunk. It showed a picture of Gray and enlargements of the four guys who caught him.

There was a call to report to TC if you recognized these guys or could provide information about their whereabouts and an appeal to the kidnappers to contact city councilor Alec McDowell with their demands.

Then the video stopped and the normal program continued.

Everyone stared at the screen.

"I have to go to TC".

Ben was already standing up and wanted to go straight away.

"Seth is coming here," said Oliver from the computer room at the same moment.

There was a murmur in the living room and everyone wondered who the new "Eyes only" could have been. Many people knew Eyes Only from stories and from the stories of transgenic adults. Max said that at that time the voice of Eyes Only was actually one of the few free voices in the city, if not the only one. No one seemed to have any idea who it was but Ben was sure it had to be Seth and he was sure it had been Logan back then.

It didn't take very long before Seth knocked on the window. He was just able to slip in before the guard drone flew along there. They were able to tap into the images from the drones. This gave them an overview of what the infiltrated familiars were observing.

Ben and Seth hugged and Ben was happy to finally see his brother again.

"Shhhh," Seth held his finger in front of his lips and Ben knew he couldn't reveal who the new Eyes Only was.

Max also came to the two of them and the boys took her into their midst.

"Almost united, now all that's missing is Dad," Seth said.

Max looked at him in shock:

"You know, do not you…".

She couldn't say it but Seth knew she meant Logan's death.

Seth looked at her with a smile:

"Alec has been a father to us and has looked after us all these years, we have had a few conversations over the last few weeks and he deserves to have a family".

Max looked at him and knew exactly that this was exactly what Alec had been looking for and needed all these years.

"I have to go to him. If information about Gray comes in I want to be there."

She didn't know why she was drawn to Alec but after what Seth had just said she had to talk to him and talk to him again about then and all the years up to now.

"I'm worried about what they're doing with Gray."

"As soon as information comes in, I'll let you know. "Try to somehow reconstruct the path of the car."

"I'll go straight to it with Boaz and Oliver."

Ben winked at Seth:

"Aha, you go with Boaz."

"Hey kid, don't get too carried away with this topic yet, that's the same reason Gray ran away and got caught."

Seth was a bit sensitive when it came to his emotional life and couldn't yet react calmly to this little tip.

Max said goodbye:

"Don't argue and keep your eyes open. And don't go it alone!"

"Yes, Mum," the answer came from both boys as one.

Max set out on the path that Oliver had written down for her.

It was becoming increasingly safer to move around unnoticed because everyone was doing a good job gathering everything and the hackers among them had now tapped all the options.

Ben finally wanted to get out now that Seth was here. And he realized how long he had been stuck here. He had trained and tried to focus his energy and Nika had distracted him as much as possible, but she hadn't quite expected his explosive temper either. He stood up and paced back and forth. Seth knew the calm before the storm and the look on his brother's face before he usually went running or hit a punching bag. Nika had a similar temperament and was infected by his restlessness.

"We can't sit here and just wait," she said and Ben just nodded.

Seth tried to calm them both down:

"It's about my boyfriend after all, I should be freaking out, not you two."

"Your boyfriend?"

Nika and Ben looked at him questioningly and Seth realized what he had just said. He had said it for the first time that Gray was his friend. His boyfriend? He couldn't figure that out until he got him back and that's what he wanted more than anything right now. Ben realized that his brother needed him and he took him and Nika by the hand and they went into the living room. There they sat down on the large sofa where Aiden and Yara were already waiting.

Yara looked at Seth and he took her hand and squeezed it briefly. Then he walked over to Aiden and patted him on the shoulder:

"Thank you for putting up with the little one and not allowing yourself to be provoked."

"Nika caught it well," said Aiden and everyone remembered the violet that Ben had carried away and they had to laugh heartily at how slow-witted they had been. It felt good and relieved Ben of his tension for a short time.

They sat back and enjoyed the tree, the smell of Christmas and their company.