Kyle Trager

"Then, I'm going to hurt Jessi," Cassidy walked past me, mockingly, as his taser sent an unbearable shock through my body. "Until she wishes she really had died." I tried to regain my strength to get up and fight. But I didn't have it in me. It reminded me of when the methane gas spread through the old Zzyzx complex that time that Lori decided to investigate the murder site to prove she wasn't scared about the attack that had befallen her only a few nights before. Cassidy knelt down next to me. "Just when you think it couldn't get any worse, I'll hurt everybody that ever mattered to you. Starting with Amanda." His threat sent anger pulsing through me as I gasped for air from his shock. He stood back up as I stared at him, "How do you feel about that, mate?"

Nicole had been right when she said that she hadn't recognized the person I had become, the person I had been before, would've never done this.

I got up surely, steadily. Rage pulsing through my veins as my right arm moved backwards, and then with a full-frontal hit, I swung at his jaw. The power of my punch catapulted Cassidy through the glass window behind him. He lay helpless on the wooden porch.

I stepped through the yellow curtains, now ominously blowing in the breeze. His threat repeating in my head made me angrier and angrier. I picked him up by his throat and threw him against a pole. My sheer strength pulled him up so high that he was no longer touching the ground. My hands throttled his neck tighter and tighter as each second ticked by.

"You won't do it," said Cassidy through his neurotic breathing.

I stare him down. "What makes you so sure?" I asked huskily. I meant it; I was ready to kill him. He came into my home, threatened me. He killed Sarah, he kidnapped Amanda and me, he lied about everything, and now now he had the audacity to threaten my family, everyone I cared about.

"Because Grace Kingsley…my mother," said Cassidy through ragged breaths.

"What about her?" I asked. I was sick and tired of playing Cassidy's game. Just a few more seconds and he'd be silenced. Forever.

"She's your mother too," he gasped desperately trying to release my tight grip on his throat. "I'm your brother."

"That's a lie!" I yell at him, strangling him even further. The anger running through me made my nose twitch. Everything he says is a lie. I heard his erratic heartbeat, trying frantically to hold on to what a sham of a life he had. I stare at his eyes, quickly fading of any pretense of life they may have had. I don't think he's telling the truth, but if there's even a shred of honesty in what he just said, I can't kill him.

My grasp loosened on Cassidy's neck just a smidge; he smiles a sickly; a smile of triumph. "That's right, Kyle." Overwhelmed in thoughts and feelings, my senses tilted off. Then, Cassidy took his chance, and struck his blow. His hand reached into his pocket, and pulled out his taser.

As he hit the button, the electricity arched through me, making me loose my grasp on him entirely. Cassidy fell down to the ground with me, grasping his own neck this time, wheezing for air. His other hand continued to press the button on the taser, and the electricity shot through me again. It was becoming unbearable.

Cassidy got up threateningly. His taser poised. I knew that with this last hit, it would knock me out, with the last moments of consciousness I asked him one simple question, "Is it true?"

Cassidy kneeled down with me so our eyes leveled with each other, he said nothing, he just gave me a mysterious look and tased me. Then, the electricity running through my blood, my skin, finally overpowered me, and I blacked out.

Jessi

"That ring, looks a lot like the one Kyle wears around his neck," said Amanda.

"Nate stole it from Cassidy, it belonged to my mother," I replied. I let out a sigh as I slid the red Latnok ring onto my ring finger. It looked right where it should be. Now that I had it back, I felt like I had more of a connection to my mom, just because of the simple, red ring. "So I guess you kind of helped me find it."

"And you saved me so… I guess we're even," said Amanda begrudgingly. "Look, I know we've never really gotten along. But, I don't know, I feel like we might be a little closer than before." Amanda tilted her head to try and see the expression on my face. "So I think it's only fair that I tell you…" I rummaged through the papers as she talked. If Nate read these, we were in big trouble.

"Tell me what?" I ask looking up after searching the papers thoroughly.

"I'm gonna tell Kyle I want him back," she said. Her innocent, doe-like, brown eyes are filled with sincerity.

I stand up giving her a harrowing glance. "You really have the nerve to say that? After everything that happened tonight?" She continued to stare me down. Those innocent, doe-like eyes were looking less innocent by the second.

"Like I said, fair warning," she replied. I walked towards her threateningly, continuing to stare her down. "You deserve it." I studied her. Not a trace of irony.

"You're a lot braver than I thought," I replied with a flick of my eyes. For the first, and probably the last time, I found myself giving her the tiniest ounce of credit for standing up to me the way she's did.

I turned around to look back at Nate's computer to see the opened folder I was looking at. Instantly my eyes notice the folder labeled 781227 Origin. I sit back down at the computer and open up the file. "Origin?" I mumble.

I scan the article, my eyes widening in awe. Amanda leans in, "What is that?"

"I don't believe it!" I assumed Amanda was several sentences behind me by the time I finished, and based on the amount of time it took her to say, "Wow," I'd say my assumption was correct.

I never thought… after all he did… all the good that was in Kyle… that shouldn't be possible for Kyle to have such bad…. blood in him.

"I've heard Kyle talk about his birth father… but never once has he talked about his birth mother."

I twirl around as it occurred to me. I whipped around so fast that I can hear my hair. The sound was almost tangible. "You can't tell Kyle," I said with a hardened resolve.

"What? He should know who his birth mother is," said Amanda pointedly. Suddenly, her eyebrows rose suspiciously. "Why shouldn't I tell Kyle?"

I sighed. I couldn't tell her the truth, Kyle would be so angry with me. We finally had something going, I can't mess it up now, it could come in handy for possible sabotage later. "If you care about Kyle, and I unfortunately know that you do, you will not tell him."

Amanda let out a sigh. After a minute or two she finally said, "Fine. I'll do it… on one condition."

"What?"

"Why can't I tell Kyle?"

"I can't tell you."

"You and Kyle are always keeping secrets!" Amanda threw her arms up in the air. "Why can't somebody be honest with me? You never try to hide the truth from me." She let out a snort.

"I'm not telling you because I care about Kyle!" I yelled at her. This silences her.

"Fine," she says after a few moments of awkward silence. "I won't say anything about his birth mother. But I'm doing this for Kyle, and only Kyle."

"Fine by me," I muttered. Treaty over. I quickly delete all evidence of Kyle and the experiment from Nate's hard drive and left.

Kyle Trager

I woke up groggily, as if a fog was slowly lifting. My face felt hard and stiff as I realized that I was lying on the wooden porch outside the Trager's house. My hands clenched as I remembered what happened.

I got up slowly as I started to think. I couldn't think of which one's worse, whether he was telling the truth or just lying. If he was telling the truth, then I was related to not only a murderer but also a corrupted scientist with no moral. However, if he was lying than that just shows what's he's willing to say in order to save his life. What he's willing to do.

Willing to do! "Don't worry, they're on their way to The Rack. To meet you." Cassidy's words ran through my head. I had to go find them.

I used the spectrum of my eye to switch out my usual vision with night vision and ran out the door. I ran as fast as I could until I arrived at burnt down Rack. I see Nicole's car parked outside what little remained of The Rack. Ever since Foss blew it up, it looked more like a sooty structure of what could've been created anytime recently or back in the eighteen hundreds. Only the structure of the building, and a few walls still remained fairly intact.

I spotted Nicole, Josh, Lori, and Stephen easily, seeing as there were practically no walls. "Nicole!" The Trager's looked up as I yelled her name.

"Kyle," she said, obviously relieved. "What happened? Where were you?"

I looked down nervously. What was I supposed to say? "Cassidy attacked me," I stated.

"What!" The Trager's sprinted over to me, Nicole, following parental instincts, checked me for bruises.

"What happened? What did he do?" asked Stephen.

"He came to the house, and he tased me," I said. Technically it's not lying, it's just holding back some of the truth. Nonetheless, I still felt guilty, not telling them the whole truth just yet.

"He came to the house? Did he see Jessi?"

"No," I said shaking my head. "Jessi was out, but he knew that Jessi was alive. Somehow he knew." How did he know? Jessi had the same I.Q as me, give or take a few points, how could she let this happen? Wait, where is Jessi?

"What about the fungus? Were you able to administer it to each pod?" I turned to Stephen, his face filled with worry.

"Yes, I was able to stop the experiment before it was able to be used," I said.

"Nice job, bro," said Josh, giving me a high-five. "I knew you could do it." His grin was easy-going, as though his mind had just wiped off the fact that Jessi was no longer 'dead' in the eyes of Cassidy.

"So what now? The experiment is destroyed but Cassidy is still out there, Latnok is still out there," said Stephen. "What now?"

Before I could answer Lori cut in, "We take them down and finally get rid of them." I smiled, the plan was so simple, so cut and dry, which is why it was so perfect.

Nicole shook her head and let out a sigh, "We better get going. We need to check on Jessi." I took out my phone and punched in her number in a flash.

"Kyle," she answered.

"Where are you?"

"At Nate's with Amanda, apparently there's more than one bad guy in play. We're taking all the files he stole from Cassidy back."

"Good," I replied. "I will meet you back at the house, we have a lot to discuss."

Mark

"What are you doing?" Kyle looked around nervously, unsure what to say. "What is this?" What the hell is going on? Why is Kyle here?

"A bacteria," he responded. His eyes instantly flicker around the warehouse, completely ignoring me.

"A bacteria?" I countered. Why was he here? Why does he have bacteria on him? Where did he just come from? "Why would you need-"

"Listen Mark we don't have much time," interrupted Kyle. "Do you have any idea what you've been helping Cassidy create?"

I sighed. "Computerized invetro justastion chambers, for women who can't give birth naturally," I answered.

"I wish that's what it was," replied Kyle. He sounds so tired, like the weight of the world is on his shoulders, his alone.

"What are you talking about?"

"Just know that he's been using you," said Kyle hastily. "Latnok is not what they say they are and I need your help." He looked dead serious. "I need you to trust me. Please."

I fumbled around, wondering what to do, what to say. Do I trust Kyle or Cassidy? Who do I side with? I never trusted Cassidy, but would he really use me? How would he use me? Why would he use me? What about Lori? Does she know about any of this? Does she know what her adopted brother is doing here? Who do I trust? I looked around the warehouse; I remembered looking at those…those pods under the protectors. I knew my answer.

"I'll distract them," I replied. "Just do what you need to do and get out." I handed Kyle the black bacteria, perhaps against my better judgment.

Kyle took it gratefully, giving me a small nod of thanks and continued over to the first sphere of red liquid. He inserted the bacteria like a shot and the black bacteria shot through the red liquid.

Then, I wake up.

I'm panting in bed as I remember the event that happened last night. I'm not quite sure what was going on then but I am going to find out.

"Hey Jackie," I said into my cell.

"Hey Mark, what's going on?"

"I'm not feeling to great so tell Cassidy I might not be in today."

"Oh! I'm sorry," said Jackie. "I'll swing by later, maybe bring some chicken noodle soup."

"No," I responded quickly, maybe a bit too quickly. "I mean… I'm excepting Lori to come over and visit me later today."

"Oh," said Jackie in that voice girls get when they feel like winking at you because they know that the girl of your dreams is going to jump your bones that night. If only.

"Yeah," I replied. "I don't want anything interrupting that."

"No problem, maybe tomorrow," said Jackie in her whole take-your-time voice.

"Yeah, sure," I said as I hung up the phone. I quickly threw on some clothes, ate a bowl of hastily made cereal, and walked out the door.

I had to figure out what had happened last night. Was that even real or was that all in my head? Was that a strange nightmare coming from my imagination?

I headed over to Lori's house, regretting the fact that I had forgotten my coat. It took me three buses and no doubt more money that I could probably spend right now to get there, but I made it by about mid-morning.

As I knocked on the door my boss Stephen answered. "Oh, Hello Mr. Trager," I said formally.

"Now's not a good time Mark," said Mr. Trager, practically slamming the door in my face.

"Wait!" I heard Kyle's voice, strong and commanding, run through the hallways of the house, stopping Stephen. He took Stephen's place at the door, facing me.

"Um…Hey Kyle," I said awkwardly. There were so many things I wanted to know, but how do I ask without sounding…well, like a physcopath.

"Mark," he said simply.

"Um…I was just wondering, well…to put it bluntly, what happened last night?"

Kyle hesitantly shut the front door. "Mark, there's no easy way to say it. It will all make sense. I promise to tell you, but not now. I have… other matters to deal with."

"Look, not to be rude, but I need to know what happened," I said, running a hand through my hair. I never thought I'd feel so nervous around Kyle. Nate and Cassidy, yes, but Kyle?

Kyle gave me a harrowing glance before taking me aside. "Cassidy, Latnok, they aren't the good guys."

"I figured that much."

"They weren't creating human embryo's. They were creating clones."

"Clones?" I was shocked. What would be the purpose of cloning? The better question being, whom would they be trying to clone? "Of who?" I spluttered out.

"Me," he said grimly.

"You?" I was flabbergasted. It made sense; the kid was a genius, creating a hover board in nearly two days, but still, what made him more special than me, Jackie, or even Jessi? "Why you?"

"I'm…special," said Kyle. Special? What does that even mean? At Latnok we're all special, so why just him? "I promise you, I will tell you everything. Just not now, I have more pressing matters."

"You can't just stop at a bombshell like that!" I insisted. "The possibility of cloning is extraordinary! But why on earth would they do that? What makes you so special? Does Lori know about this?"

"I swear I will tell you Mark, but not now," said Kyle.

I sighed. Knowing I wouldn't get any farther with him today. But there was one thing I needed to know, "Does Lori know about any of this?"

Kyle gave a thinking glance, as if pondering whether to tell me the truth. "Yes," he finally replied.

"Is that the truth?"

"Yes."

"Ok."

"Don't ask her about it, though," implored Kyle.

I gave a sideway glance. "Fine," I said. "But I want to be told, sooner rather than later." Kyle nodded and proceeded back to his house.

If there was one thing I had learned from this visit, it was that either Kyle was extremely mental or that Latnok was crazy messed up.