Dolly's Curse

Disclaimer:

The Tomorrow People (new series) belong to Roger Damon Price, Nickelodeon, Thames Television, etc. and not to me, as do the characters Adam, Jade, Megabyte, Lisa, Kevin, Ami, their respective parents, siblings and enemies. The characters of Eve, Sarah, Jonathan, Rachal, and their respective relatives belong to me. No resemblance to anyone, living or dead, is intended.

Sarah's dream began with thunder and lightning, something she didn't find particularly appealing, and then she was standing on a beach. She sighed internally and thought, it would be a beach. She hated beaches, especially during storms. She stood there with the wind whipping her hair across her face and stared out to the sea. There were two lights blinking there, like a ship tossed, that suddenly blinked out, and then it had pulled up beside her without her noticing. Without hesitation she reached for the ladder and climbed up onto the boat, and rose to the deck. No one was in sight. She walked to the front of the ship and stared out at the darkened starlit water. The waves wanted to push her from the shore but there was a heavy anchor lodged at the bottom of those seas. She stared out and as she did the cold seemed to bite very lightly at her ears and nose, but not very hard at all. She wasn't cold at all. She rested her hands on the wood, and it almost seemed alive, it was so warm. There was nothing strange about this at all, she thought, nothing. She could feel her mind reaching out to embrace the sky-

Something pressed her body back down to the bed and she awoke disoriented, gasping for breath. The ceiling that had always been above her head was now confining. She needed to see the stars, to breathe the air of night.

She nearly tripped down the stairs as she ran, her bare feet nearly slipping on the smooth carpet. The back door was tugged by her impatient hand, and then the cool air slipped in around her like silent ghosts. The new air stung her eyes as she gazed up at the clear starry sky.

Almost thoughtlessly she pulled the door closed behind her and sat down on their back deck. The stars drew her eyes and seemed to swallow her mind up, like meditation effortlessly. There were fingers of thought running over her mind like the imagined touch of a boyfriend, and then she seemed to be floating in midair-

**

"Sarah! Phone call!"

Her mother listened distractedly on the line as she waited for her daughter to pick up. It was Saturday morning, and Sarah usually slept late.

"I think she's still asleep, Henna. I'll get her to call you back, all right?"

"Sure, I'll talk to her later. Bye."

She was about to head up the stairs when she remembered her unmade coffee. As she walked into the kitchen she noticed that the door to the back deck was open slightly. The doorknob turned easily at her touch.

"Oh my Lord," Sarah's mother breathed, then headed back upstairs as fast as she could. Sarah's sheets were rumpled, and there was no sign of her. Her bathroom was empty and she wasn't in the computer room.

"Jack! Sarah's gone!"

**

The stars she had been staring at were gone now. She opened her eyes. A cold wave lapped against her legs and tugged at her soggy nightgown. [I'm in the dream,] she thought dazedly. The sun bore down unmercifully, and she turned her face away from it, into the sand. She spat out the grains and sat up.

Her nightgown was drying in the sunlight, and it was then that she finally realized. It was no dream. No dream of hers had ever made sense for more than five minutes before it proved itself a malicious imagining.

"How long have I been here?" she tried to say, but apparently she'd swallowed some seawater. Her mouth felt dry and tasted nasty. She coughed for a few minutes and then sighed pitifully. Her mother was probably having fits. How had she arrived at this place?

Her hair was wet and plastered against her face, which already felt sunburnt. She brushed it away and grimaced at the pain the touch caused, then at the pain of wrinkling her face. Her feet refused to carry her the first few times she tried, then finally she struggled upwards. She looked down at her nightgown and realized that she really didn't need to run into a guy around then.

She shaded her eyes and scanned the area around her. Palm trees and some beach shrubs dotted the area sparsely, but up against a dune, almost nestled there, was a metal thing, like a tree trunk with no limbs on it, but stranger. About ten or fifteen feet from the metal manhole cover beside the tree trunk thing was a blue and red tent, looking sturdy enough to be protection from the sunlight.

She hurried across the burning white sand and ducked quickly inside the tent. It smelled of seawater, slightly, but she didn't mind as long as she was out of that heat. Her vision was covered with purple dots for a few minutes, and then she could see inside the tent. There were two sets of clothes and a pair of shoes lying on the floor of the tent near the entrance, and she looked at them suspiciously. They were clean, perhaps not new but not old. She pulled her nightgown over her head, glaring at the entrance, hurriedly put on the big white shirt. Its tails reached her knees, nearly, and the pair of jeans she put on next had to be rolled up at the ankles.

She tied the shoes to her feet and stared around the tent again. A bed was rolled in the corner, and she reached over and pulled it to her out of curiosity. She put her hand into the center of the bedroll and pulled out a knife. Its edge was evilly serrated, and it looked to have been used. She placed it back inside carefully. A cooler was in the corner too, but it was only filled with water, lukewarm water at that.

Taking a deep breath, she pushed the tent flap back and emerged into the sunlight. There was a particularly bad glare off the top of the metal thing, and she headed over toward that. She touched the tree trunk thing first- it was taller than she was, and sturdy. She stared at it for a long moment, then got tired of the pain in her eyes and dropped to her knees.

The manhole had sand scattered over its surface, and there were strange markings surrounding it. For a brief mind flash she was trapped inside a British scifi drama, but then the flicker disappeared. [This is ridiculous,] she thought. [There's no way my life could possibly be so interesting.]

Her hair pushed forward into her face and she brushed it back angrily. The metal was hot to her touch, but she brushed a little of the sand away. The signs looked Japanese, but not: something was even different from that language, though it seemed to have its basis in picture-words also.

A furious curiosity filled her; she brushed the sand away more quickly, eager to see the rest of the words, to see if they could possibly mean anything to her. There was a strange trembling in the ground beneath her, but it disappeared in a moment. She returned to dusting the sand with her trembling fingers.

Suddenly she was falling forward, into a hole newly appeared betwixt the symbols. She grabbed the edge of the metal hole but the heat burned her fingers, and reflexively she let go. She screamed as she fell, headfirst, down the pipe, or whatever it was. How had she missed the hole opening? She couldn't remember seeing anything different, and then here she was-

She was tumbling through the air, and now her back hit squarely on a pile of sand. A headache had apparently formed on the way down and was now plaguing her mind ruthlessly. She noticed that her eyes were closed and tried to open them, only to find that her body had other plans. [Enough shock for one day,] she thought silently. [I've had enough. This is the strangest dream I've ever had, and it doesn't make sense and I just want to wake up in my own bed-]

She opened her eyes and nothing had changed, except maybe that blinding sunlight. Again her eyes cleared away the purple dots and she stared in awe at whatever she had found herself inside.

She slid off the pile of sand and hit a metal floor. All around her was metal, and there were windows, but now they were surrounded by water. Diluted sunlight arced through the windows and hit the floor she was now sitting on. There were circular-shaped doorways with no doors. They were surrounded by the same strange writing that had surrounded the outside manhole. Panels glowed behind her, with a soft yellow light that wasn't as blinding as the sunlight outside. Through the round doorway she glimpsed something-

She climbed to her feet and ignored the pain that stretched through her calves as she crawled through the doorway and emerged in the next room. A large cylindrical light glowed through something that looked like dead vines surrounding it. Two seats were suspended from its middle by bars, but she couldn't tell why the seats would be there. The light tube was surrounded by another ring of metal, with the same characters covering it. She walked to a place beside it and reached down with a trembling hand, touched one. Her fingers caressed the metal for a second, then pressed against it, feeling a heat there that was out of place, somehow. The light pulsed a bit more brightly, and a tone emerged from deep within it.

**

Sarah's mother had searched every inch of their deck for a trace of blood, a splinter of wood out of place, a snatch of clothing, but could find nothing. Desperation was finally showing in her eyes. She had called every single person she could think of who was friends with Sarah, but none of them had known anything was wrong, except for Eve, one of Sarah's best friends. Eve had known something was wrong when she heard Mrs. Miller's voice on the telephone.

Jack, Sarah's father, had said confidently that his daughter would be somewhere in the house, that there was a logical reason for why she was missing, but the wear was even showing on him. He had come home early from the office and was roaming around town in their car, searching desperately for a hint of where their daughter might be.

Eve could feel fever on her face and some on her arms. When she thought of Sarah she could sense safety, and some fear, but not very much at all. She had tried telling Mrs. Miller this, but Sarah's mother wouldn't hear it for all the world. Eve was a somewhat strange person and Mrs. Miller wasn't sure she could be trusted. For all she knew, Eve had taken Sarah out and they had been separated, and now Eve was afraid to tell Mrs. Miller about their little mishap.

**

A finger slid down the surface of Adam's mind. His eyes opened while his mind moaned, [Oh, not again, not now!]

He and Lucy were standing on the front porch of Lucy's sister's apartment, it was dark, and Lucy was standing there waiting for him to kiss her. He'd been waiting for this forever, and now the moment was here, but there was a little nagging warning. He tried to lean forward again but an invisible wall seemed to hold him back.

[Fine, fine, fine!] he shouted inside, and jolted forward so hard that he nearly sent Lucy backward over the railing.

A giggle erupted from the bushes, and Adam turned from his expectant date to glare there. "All right, come out!" he demanded, his accent strong.

Ami Jackson and Jade Weston stood up and then erupted into full-fledged gales of laughter, while Adam's face colored quickly. Lucy opened her eyes and glared down at the two. "I've had enough of this foolishness!" she shouted, then flounced inside the apartment and slammed the door.

"Lucy! Lucy, please!" Adam said against the door. When it was painfully apparent that she was ignoring him, he turned his frosty gaze onto the two girls, still in the bushes. "All right, how long were we playing eavesdropping telepathy?"

"We weren't, it was enough to hear you on the telephone. Lucy, my love!'" Jade quoted, then bent over double with her peals of laughter.

Adam next turned his gaze on Ami, who was trying harder to hold her laughter in. "And you? You, who should know better?"

"I'm sorry- it seemed such a good idea at the time," Ami said, then looked from the helpless Jade to the stone-faced Adam. "Now it doesn't seem nearly so much fun. But that look on your face-" Ami nearly collapsed too.

Adam finally descended the stone steps and came up beside them. A streetlamp was all the illumination he needed to see that Ami was laughing so hard she was crying.

*Come on now, why do you do this to me? It's so embarrassing-*

*She's such a b-* Jade popped off without thinking, then covered her mouth with her hand, as if that could alleve the damage.

*Come now, she's not,* Adam thought almost pleadingly.

*Adam, you could do so much better,* Ami thought. Her face was streaked with tears, but it was drying quickly. *I mean, Lucy Allen? No. Not at all.*

*Who are you to tell me who I should date and who I shouldn't?* Adam asked.

*Your friend, nothing more and nothing less. You have the looks to catch any girl you should want, and here you are harping over a journalism student at college. You're settling for less than you should have!*

*What about Jade? Isn't she settling for less?*

Jade's face colored, while Ami thought, *I'm going to tell Megabyte about that crack. You deserve it. That was cold, Adam.*

*You know I was just playing with you. Let's go out for a soda or something. My mouth seems so dry now-*

Ami interrupted Adam's statement with a wry smile. *Where? Paris, Hong Kong, Belgium, Leningrad?*

*Their sodas are way too watered down. We could get one straight from the Coca-Cola plant in America-*

*Sounds good to me,* Jade interjected.

**

Megabyte slammed the cartridge into his Nintendo 64 and waited expectantly for the title screen to come up. "Home sweet home," he sighed, looking around at the mounds of dirty clothes and tacked-up posters that had marked his American house. Finally, his mother had allowed him to remodel his room!

"Megabyte! Laundry day!"

He groaned. Mario will have to wait, he thought as he stomped down the stairs. "Yeah, laundry day, and it's Millie's turn to get the clothes."

"Is not!" Megabyte's little sister poked her head out from behind the kitchen doorway, gave him a sullenly angry look.

Oh snap, Megabyte thought, then rallied. "Look, if you do it today, I'll do it next two times, okay? Isn't that a nice trade?"

"No." Millie crossed her arms and glared at him from beneath a mop of tangled brown curls. Megabyte emitted the sigh of a wounded martyr and knelt down.

"All right, and you can have an hour on the Nintendo 64."

"Yes!" Millie flew upstairs, faster than Megabyte could follow her with his eyes. "Mine until four o'clock!"

"No, not now!" He hurried back upstairs, having to pass through the living room to do so. His father was watching CNN off the satellite, though it was a tad fuzzy.

"Hey, there's a story on here you'd like to see," his father said, watching the red-headed blur pass in front of the TV.

"Not now, Millie's in my room with my new Nintendo 64!"

Feet were heard marching up the stairs, and then the angry shouting of children as the General turned the volume up.

"...and in further news, right here in the United States, yet another missing child case has been reported in a slew of new cases. This child was particularly special in that no clues whatsoever can be found with her kidnapping. She simply vanished from the house one night, apparently going outside for some fresh air. The girl, in her teens, has been reported by one of her apparently psychic' friends as in a safe place' and suffering no harm.'"

"What in the world?" The General smiled at hearing Megabyte's exclamation, and then his feet pounding down the stairs. "What was that?"

A girl with boisterous curls appeared in a clip on the screen. "My friend was not taken, by aliens or by humans," she said. The voice would've sounded hokey, had it been self-assured and silky, but here it was agitated and frustrated. "I would know! She can solve this all by herself if everyone will quit worrying about her!"

Now there's a girl I'd like to know better, Megabyte thought, staring at the image on the screen. He thought guiltily of Jade and then dismissed thoughts of her from his head. This girl was brushing back that mane of curls and appeared genuinely distressed. And it would be an added bonus if he mentioned to Adam that the girl might've been a TP breaking out-

Why do I even have to ask Adam's permission? a little rebellious voice in Megabyte's head asked. The sounds of Millie on his prized Nintendo machine were forgotten, and he teleported, or at least tried to. His image vanished out for a second, but flowed back into reality as Megabyte asked, "Where was that again?"

"Outside Charlotte, North Carolina, US," the General quoted from the screen, smiling. He had been in anticipation of this whole conversation, right down to Megabyte's disappearance.

**

"I know a trick to this," Lisa said, smiling evilly. They stood outside the Coca-Cola Bottling Plant in Charlotte, hidden only by a few bushes.

Ami started laughing, and it only took Lisa a second to feel what she was laughing about. "Who's Lucy Allen?" Lisa asked, temporarily forgetting their mission.

Instead of answering, Adam turned to Ami and glared at her hard. Jade was only looking around, her eyes wide and fearful. "What if we're caught?" she asked, meekly.

"We won't be, I've done this a hundred times," Lisa said.

"Yeah, with me," Megabyte said, the flash from the teleport vanishing.

"Oh, so we're all going to nick colas now?" Adam asked, giving them mock scowls.

"Actually, that's not why I'm here," Megabyte began.

"Save it, we need some cola!" Lisa said, pulling them closer together. "Now there's a tour going through about now. All we have to do is sneak into the end of the group. No one will notice we just came in. At the end they give everyone a free coke. It's like purity control. But anyway, once we have the coke we can leave, and no one will be the wiser. It's not like they can't afford it."

"I still don't like it," Adam said firmly.

"Come on, you were the one who suggested we get cokes in the first place," Ami said, her voice cajoling. "Come on!"

"All right."

"You caught Lucy and Adam on a date again?" Adam heard Megabyte ask Jade, just before he teleported, and considered throwing himself back into the sea to avoid the ribbing that would ensue as soon as they arrived.

**

Sarah thought that perhaps if she kept herself wide awake, soon she would need to fall asleep, and then she would wake up in her own bed, in her own house, away from this strange dream that was fast becoming a nightmare. The little glowing panels produced a strange fruit juice, and she had had two glasses of it. But the strange replication thing had frightened her, and now she cowered in the corner, trying hard to ignore the strange noises coming from the glowing light cylinder standing before her. It sounded pleading, if such a thing had the capacity to, but she couldn't help the fright running through her. She wanted to go home, even if it meant losing this place for good.

**

*Lisa, did you go nicking cokes again without me?*

*Sorry, yes.*

"Then you have to share," Kevin demanded, appearing beside her. He looked expectantly at the bottle in her hand.

Adam groaned. "How many of us are involved in petty larceny on a regular basis?" he asked, not really wanting to know the answer.

Lisa, Kevin, and Megabyte raised their hands freely, while Jade simply sipped her coke nervously and Ami commented, "Well, only one other time than this."

"I came here for a reason," Megabyte said, ignoring Adam's glare. "I think another girl disappeared from around here somewhere. They showed her friend on the TV and I think we should go speak to her."

Jade was staring at him. Finally she said, "You take that back."

Megabyte looked at her and said, "Take what back? Anyone here would think she was beautiful."

Kevin cut in to avoid one of the long arguments that had been forming over the past few weeks. "Like we saw Lisa on the TV?"

"Yeah, like that," Megabyte said, still just a little angry.

"Well, when we went to Virginia to find Lisa, she was at the ship- maybe this girl is there too."

"I'll go," Adam volunteered just a tad too quickly.

"What about your undying love for Lucy Allen?" Ami asked archly.

"Enough! Enough! Enough!" Adam exclaimed, holding his head. Finally he put his head back up and pushed his hair back. "Then I'll take Ami with me. We need to split up. All these people knocking on this girl's friend's door, and on her mother's door- I don't know. Who wants to go back to the ship?"

Megabyte raised his hand, then put it down under Jade's glare.

"I'll go if you're going," Ami said to Adam. Everyone else chorused, "Oooohhh!"

"Really, we're not children anymore," Adam said testily. "I'll go to her mother's house. Ami and Lisa can go to her friend's house. Kevin, you take Megabyte and Jade with you to the ship. And make sure they don't fight the whole time, if this girl is there that'll scare her out of her mind."

"All right," Megabyte said, his voice fading as he and Jade vanished.

"Something's really up between them," Adam said to Kevin. "Can you try to help?"

"I can try, but Megabyte has a habit of not listening to me. Be careful," Kevin said as he vanished.

"Have you any idea where we can find the house? You've been here more than I," Adam said, turning to Lisa.

"Yes, but not in Charlotte proper other than the plant- mmm. If we knew her name we could look her up in a phone book- wait a sec." Lisa closed her eyes and saw the house in the background, through Megabyte's memory of the news clip. "This is what the house looks like," Lisa said, sending both of them the image.

"That doesn't really tell me anything," Ami said.

"It wouldn't tell you anything if you were walking there. But since we're teleporting-"

"Is that a good idea?" Ami asked, turning to Adam.

"We won't get there any other way. Just go a little past it and then walk there, and nothing will be wrong."

"And we'll have to do that tomorrow. I can already smell the brownies in the oven," Lisa sighed. "I was supposed to be back at nightfall. Want to meet at the island?"

"Sure," Adam said glumly as Lisa vanished. He sat down on the stone steps next to Ami and said, "So what's wrong with you?"

"I want to go see this girl, her family, to reassure them, but I don't want to go without Lisa." Ami shrugged. "I just can't shake that feeling."

"I'm sure it's nothing," Adam said, reaching over to give her a hug.

"I don't know. Let's go to the ship," Ami said, her voice muffled by speaking into Adam's shoulder.

They flickered in two bright spots of light. All of them had been hidden in the darkening shadows of a parking garage, they weren't quite sure where, sipping their cokes and talking.

Eve blinked her eyes several times, as she had upon seeing each of the bright flashes, but no faces appeared in the darkness, no more flashes of light manifest themselves.

"Come on, Eve," said Beth from the wheel of her car. "We have to get going if we're gonna make it to the movie."

Eve reluctantly climbed into the car, still glancing over her shoulder as they pulled out of the garage and out onto the street.

**

"I can't believe you're blaming me for a stray thought! I mean, really!" Megabyte's famous temper was up at arms, just as Adam had suspected, though Megabyte and Jade had never experienced the jealousy angle of their relationship so vividly.

"That's not the point. I thought we-" Jade was usually slow to anger, but Megabyte got under her skin faster than anyone else she knew.

"Can you do this another time?" Kevin asked, annoyed. He hopped over the doorway and then motioned for them to be quiet. "Look at her," he whispered.

*You looked that way once* Adam thought, appearing beside them. *Shhh, we don't want to wake her. She looks like she needs her sleep.*

*And those are your clothes, Adam* Ami thought, an evil grin on her face. *I promise, first Lisa, now this girl-*

*Enough!* Kevin thought, echoing Adam's earlier words. *I need to go home. My mum worries when I spend over an hour away.*

He vanished, and that seemed to startle the girl in her sleep. She turned slightly, then slumped back down, her chin resting on her hand.

*Look, I think it would be better if she didn't see all these faces at once when she wakes up* Adam thought, concerned. *Maybe the three of you should go into the other room.*

*You just want to be alone with her* Megabyte sent back his final shot.

*Yes, but not that way* Adam thought, his attention too centered on the new girl for him to respond angrily.

**

Sarah awoke again but didn't want to open her eyes. She still smelled sand and the strange musty smell that clung to the inside of whatever she was in. She placed her palms flat on the metal shelf she had been lying on and wished with all her might, [When I open my eyes I will be gone from here. When I open my eyes I will be at home.]

Her mind seemed to expand, and a ticklish feeling spread over her from head to toe. But then something went wrong, and ocean water closed over her head, cutting off her air.

*Snap* Adam thought loudly as he teleported to the beach outside.

*Sarah!* Ami thought, and then she was out on the beach with Adam, running towards the water. She kicked her shoes off and let her dangle bracelets drop from her wrists, and then the cold water splashed on her jeans. "Sarah!" she cried verbally, scanning the water. Finally she saw a head bob above the waves, and a choked cry.

"We're coming!" Adam yelled, and Ami watched him with awe as he dove into the water as if he belonged there, swam deep under the waves and then emerged between Sarah and the shoreline. He dove again and now he was pulling her in a lifesaver's hold, swimming closer to the shore with every stroke. Sarah was coughing and crying as they emerged onto the beach. By then Jade and Megabyte had heard the screams and were at the shore.

"I want to go home I want to go home I want to go home-" Sarah finished coughing up seawater and had turned her face away from them, was sobbing into the sand.

Adam brushed back his wet hair and finished coughing too, shot a glance at Ami. *Maybe you can handle this better than I* he thought.

"Sarah?" Ami asked, kneeling down on the sand next to her. Sand clung to the wet fabric covering her legs.

"Take me home," Sarah said, gazing up at her, emotion cracking her voice. "This isn't a dream but it can't be real either- please take me back home."

"You don't understand. You're frightened and you're scared and you want to be where you feel you're safe. You're safe here with us. We would never hurt you." Ami's voice was soothing.

"Why did you kidnap me?" Sarah blinked, her eyes still stinging from the ocean water.

Ami's brow wrinkled in genuine confusion. "Kidnap you? What?"

Sarah sighed. "You must've. You must've taken me off the porch. You put some kind of weird drug in me and that was that tickly feeling- and then you dumped me on this beach and waited for me to wake up. Tell me where I am! Let me go home! I promise I won't tell them anything about this!"

"Sarah," Adam said, in that voice that made girls all over the entire world melt. She turned over, and her eyes became wider and wider.

"Oh my Lord, this is a dream. This has been a dream the entire time- pinch me so I can wake up- maybe not." She opened her eyes again. Adam still sat there beside her, drenched nearly as much as she was. "Adam. Thank you for pulling me out of the sea. Now take me home."

"Much as I would like to, I'm afraid you don't understand some things." Adam completely held Sarah's attention now.

"Like what?" Sarah was now staring into Adam's eyes, implicitly trustful of someone she'd barely met.

"Like how you got here, for example." Adam's voice was patient. He'd been over this argument before, with Lisa.

"That's easy. You brought me." Sarah finally tried to sit up.

Adam shook his head slowly, to make sure it would register with her. "No, I didn't."

"Then-" her brow furrowed, then cleared. "You must be lying. Or it was Ami. Or those two, Jade and Megabyte."

"You know none of us did this to you. Stop trying to deny it," Adam said, gently.

"I couldn't've come here by myself." Sarah shook her head.

"But you did," Adam said, still patiently.

She closed her eyes and shook her head, as if to clear it. "No. I would never have done this to my parents."

"You haven't been gone over two days." Ami knew from experience that they would've heard her telepathic screaming if she'd been gone much longer.

"But still-" Sarah looked around them, at the deepening twilight.

*Sarah, can you hear me?*

Sarah closed her eyes. [This dream is too good to be real.]

*It is real* Megabyte thought, gently.

*It can't be* she thought, opening her eyes to stare up at the four people around her. *No. This dream has been mine forever- and it is only a dream.*

*I thought that too* Jade thought. *And now I'm here- and it is no dream.*

**

[I'm hallucinating; that's the only explanation] Eve thought, staring at her ceiling. [People don't just disappear in columns of light. Not like that. Lord, Sarah's disappearance must be affecting me more than I'd thought!]

Just then Eve propped herself up on her elbows and stared at the clock. It was 11:56. [I have to call Sarah's house] Eve thought.

There's no way, her common sense said. Her parents are getting some sleep, finally, and you're not going to disrupt that.

Eve rolled over and was asleep in seconds.

**

*This isn't a dream* Adam thought as they appeared inside Sarah's house. It was dark there, as dark as it had been the night she had vanished so completely.

"I know," Sarah whispered. "And I can come back when I want?"

"You will want to," Adam said in answer to her unspoken hesitance. "Something will nag you about this for a long while. You can sneak away whenever you want, or call one of us and we'll help. And we'll make up for what your parents went through. They'll never be mad at you for this."

"Thank you," Sarah whispered, staring up at him. She drew her gaze away and began walking upstairs. She paused for a second.

"Hold on- these are your clothes, aren't they? When do you want them back?"

He smiled. "Just keep them until you come back. It will be soon."

**

"I can't believe-" Jade had instigated the argument again the moment they had appeared inside Megabyte's house.

*You know it meant nothing.* Megabyte felt somewhat calmer now, after being at the ship only that little time.

*I know that, but how do I know you don't feel the same way about me?*

Megabyte sighed. How was it that Jade was a mind reader, and yet she still didn't understand that he was telling the truth? *Look, it was just that she's beautiful. Adam turns your head a lot, and you don't see me all upset about it, do you? You have nothing to worry about. She's not even a tomorrow person.*

That seemed to mollify Jade, and after telling Megabyte that she loved him, she teleported out of the living room.

"I wish you wouldn't talk in your heads like that!" Millie poked her head around a corner, her arms folded.

"And I really wish you wouldn't eavesdrop!" Megabyte growled, chasing Millie through the house.

**

~her name is Eve~ the ship kythed to him.

Adam turned over to stare at the glowing column at the center of the ship. From there he seemed to feel the telepathic voice of the ship, but telepathy wasn't the proper word for it. Jade had read A Wrinkle in Time by Madeline L'Engle and thought the voice sounded very similar to how she imagined kything. The transference of thought was there, but not so clear-cut and put into words, and often it was carried more on emotion than any kind of language.

Adam hadn't felt like leaving, but now it was tempting- *First Lucy, then Ami, now Eve? Like the Bible story? I really can't handle this!*

~Megabyte saw her on the television- you must go find her~

*Why? It'll just be another reason for them to rib me later-*

~you must go find her~

There seemed to be no further discussion on this point, so Adam turned over and stared at the wall. Eve. It was too much, he wasn't just imagining. Lucy would never speak to him again- and it might have been Ami's influence, but he was beginning to see why his friends had thought her so wrong for him.

[I hope Sarah comes back soon] he couldn't stop himself from thinking.

**

Lisa couldn't stand it any longer. She arose from her bed and walked into the kitchen wearing only her nightshirt. On the stove was the pan of brownies her mother had made earlier in the day. Her eyes glowed as she saw the chocolate- her plans to stick to that diet all seemed to fade away. Mmmm-

*Sarah where are you*

The voice seemed to come from a little corner in the kitchen, and she turned there to find absolutely nothing. "Hello?" she asked uncertainly.

"Lisa? What are you doing up?"

[Oh snap] Lisa thought, carefully replacing the aluminum foil over the brownies, sneaking one out of the kitchen in her hand, gobbling it down and throwing herself into the bed. She hoped her mother wouldn't-

The light flooded into the room, and Lisa's eyelids crinkled, giving it away. "What were you doing up?"

Lisa stayed silent, hoping her mother just forgot about it.

"Come on, I know you're not asleep. Is there something wrong I should know about? I know it's four in the morning, but if you want we could make a pan of brownies- or maybe bar cookies-"

[Aaaaahhhhhhhhh!] Lisa thought, jamming the pillow over her head. Her mother's voice got more intense. "I knew you were awake. Come on, let's see if there's any brownie mix in the kitchen."

"No, Mom, that's all right, I was just at the ship for a little while today. Or I was going to be, but I came back. I just was preoccupied about going there tomorrow."

"That's not all, I'm sure," Lisa's mother said.

[Sometimes I just wish the world would go away] Lisa thought, trying to wake her mind up enough to win the argument with her mother.

**

Ami stood inside the ship. It was dark, because none of the sunlight was coming through the windows, but the lighted panels let her see the way to the glowing core of the ship.

Suddenly she ran for the exit, and shot up into the starlit sky like a butterfly. She landed on her feet as gracefully as a fairy and then set off running, not caring about anything, just running down the darkened beach.

*Ami! Ami, wait up!*

Ami laughed gleefully and didn't slow up a hair. "No! Not while I feel so free!" she screamed at the sky, and the beach seemed to last forever.

*Ami! I have to see you!*

"Not now! Can't you see how I feel?"

*Yes! But I have to see you now!*

That finally slowed Ami down. "No! Don't you understand?"

There was a flash of light before her, and he stood unafraid. "Yes I understand, but I can't condone it," he said. His eyes were dark, and so was his skin, almost as dark as the night they were standing in.

"Jonathan, please? I thought you understood."

"I did. But I've waited long enough. It's time."

He vanished in a flash of light.

As the threads of the dream unwound and dispersed Ami sat up in bed, gasping quietly. "What in the world?" she whispered aloud. "Jonathan? Is that his name?"

**

"...To say the least, that's the gist of the problem."

Megabyte rolled his eyes. First his father had summoned them to the WorldEx Securities building where he worked. He'd had his fill of it during the Culex business. His father had chewed him out about interrupting an important meeting about the Cornucopia machine (which, it later turned out, was moot anyway). Now he couldn't stay far enough away. Sometimes, though, after a random nightmare or when he needed some cash, he would reluctantly go inside that haven for teleporter-capturers. Now the man was involving them in yet another fiasco involving the company he worked for, even though he'd done his best to keep all of them out of the whole Culex affair, and tried to keep them away from those evil pod-aliens! Megabyte could study psychology for years and still not understand how his father's brain worked.

"Problem? That's no problem, that's a nightmare!" Adam shoved his hair back with his hand, fighting the urge to pace the room. "It's- complete and utter heresy!"

"Lisa, what do you think?" General Damon tried not to be upset by Adam's view of the predicament.

"How could anyone have even considered it?" Lisa exploded.

"Our job is to think of the future, of the consequences that will occur. This was one of them since you'd heard about it, I know you must've considered it." Damon had adopted the knowing-father voice all of them despised.

"We're not exactly untouchable anymore, are we," Jade commented wryly. She sent another worried glance at Megabyte, who was staring out the window.

"There could be armies of us all over the place, brainwashed and willing," Kevin said, and he appeared to be imagining one of the B science-fiction movies he loved to watch.

"Or even worse, choosing to be the way we were, immoral and inhuman," Megabyte commented, finally looking away from the window. He was another sci-fi buff. "The consequences are too heinous to imagine."

"Beyond heinous," Adam murmured.

"Like that psycho Culex with us as the bugs." Kevin shuddered.

"Ami? Do you have anything to add?"

Ami stared out the enormous window in General Damon's office. Her fingertips barely brushed the polished glass. Underneath her cabs and buses whirled away in a frenzy, barely stopping long enough to catch their passengers. And there, in the midst of an enormous crowd-

"Ami?" *Ami?* Megabyte's voice was worried.

"He's here," Ami whispered beneath her breath, staring down with wide dark eyes at the street below, all the bustle and confusion. "He's here, I know he is."

"Ami? Are you okay?" There was a note of panic creeping into Megabyte's voice as he placed his hand on her shoulder.

She shrugged his hand away. "No- I have to find him-"

"...and we can have a subsection at the cloning meeting a week from today, where only authorized people may enter, sweeping for bugs every five minutes, all the usual precautions. Do you think parents should be invited, especially if..."

General Damon's voice faded away from Ami's consciousness, and everything blurred except her view of the window. Desperate curiosity filled her mind. He was here. He had to be here.

*Adam, something's up with Ami. We need to get her out of here-* Even Megabyte sounded worried, and that alerted Adam faster than anything else.

*You take her. I can be at the ship in a few minutes.* Adam had to make sure Damon's dire predictions didn't come to pass.

"Ami, come on," Megabyte spoke aloud, putting his hand more firmly on her shoulder. "We have to leave."

"No!" she cried, whirling around to face him. "Don't you understand?"

"I can't understand if you don't tell me," Megabyte said in a level voice.

"He's here- Jonathan- down below us somewhere- we have to find him-"

"Why? What's wrong with him?" Megabyte was trying to understand, but was falling far short.

"Nothing's wrong I hope- we have to find him!" Ami tore away from Megabyte's hand again and returned to staring pensively out the window.

Adam nodded in final agreement with General Damon and turned to find that Lisa, Kevin, and Jade were staring at Ami and Megabyte, who were in turn staring out the window.

"What's wrong?" Adam asked. There was still a twinge of fear in his mind from discussing the prospect of cloning them, and then he knew.

*Ami? Your soul mate is here?* Adam's voice sounded calm and sure again.

*Yes- oh Lord yes- at least someone understands now-* Ami pathed.

*How can we find him?*

*I don't know- I can feel it burning on the surface of my mind- help me*

**

Upon clawing her way to shore, Sarah collapsed down to the sand and breathed deeply for a while. The current had seemed strong- and Adam's wet clothes were plastered to her body. Fortunately, she'd planned for that. She ripped open an enormous ziplock bag and pulled out a new set of clothes.

"Hello?" *Hello?* Sarah thought upon entering the ship. She patted sand from her slightly-damp clothes and looked around in consternation. Hadn't Adam said he'd be there whenever she came? "Hello?"

Like a moth to the flame she walked toward the glowing light column, barely recognizing her actions. The thing seemed too pure to touch, other than the metal characters surrounding it; she settled for sitting on one of the metal shelves in the room and staring at it hypnotically.

~Eve must find Eve must find~

The words finally came to focus inside Sarah's mind. Eve? What did Eve have to do with anything? The red-headed boy had seen Eve on television, Sarah remembered, but that had nothing to do with anything. But she trusted the ship; it had no reason to give off a false warning.

But I want to see Adam again-

She smiled wryly. Adam and Eve. They would make such a very good couple, Sarah thought, feeling a twinge of jealousy. [But he's mine!] she thought. [I was here first!]

**

"Get mobile on that problem we discussed," General Damon said into the phone, in his most authoritative voice. "Every single one. It is most definitely a problem now. Including a note- let me send you this clip. Take care of this too."

**

*There are too many cabs to search!* Lisa thought desperately.

*That doesn't really matter to Ami right now!* Adam thought back, checking yet another cab. They only had the dream-image to go by, and Lisa couldn't find anyone nearly so beautiful- [Wish I had dreams like that] she thought ruefully.

An ambulance plowed down the street, and they took the chance to run up to the slowed taxis and look at their passengers. Kevin watched anxiously from the street, having developed a slight fear of running out into the middle of the highway.

"Wait a second," Kevin spoke aloud, then shook his head. [No way.]

**

"Is there a cell phone in her car? And is she on it? Good. Yes, thank you. Try for another, just in case." The dark-haired man hung up the telephone, deep inside the WorldEx building. He reached up and switched the security camera back on, then logged onto the Internet on his PC. He clicked on the WorldEx AutoTape system and made sure there were no records of his phone call, nor any tape of them. He then double-encoded the hard drive and left the office.

**

"Don't believe I've met you before-" Penny Weston said.

"Samantha Davis," Lisa's mother said, shaking hands. "So your daughter can-"

Mrs. Weston cut her off with a shake of the head and a rueful smile.

"I've never heard so much whispering in my life," Frank Wilson said to his wife, Susan.

"...and you were involved in that thing, with the mosquitoes? Ami spoke so highly of you," Ruth Jackson said to General Damon.

"That's kind of hard to believe, considering-" Damon said, thinking back to the whole affair.

"Considering what?" Ruth said, curiously.

"Never mind," General Damon said, sighing. He turned to Jones and motioned for them to speak in the corner.

"Adam Newman's parents?"

"We can't find a single trace of them. We can't find a single trace of him, as far as that's concerned." Jones's eyes were hidden behind his usual tinted sunglasses. Even after Damon had transferred Jones to WorldEx and had tried to tell him that sunglasses weren't all the rage for spies these days, he had refused to change.

"You checked in Australia? And London?" Damon's brow furrowed. He'd never actually tried to hunt for the older, dark-haired boy before.

"We started there and then spread out. He doesn't seem to be listed anywhere, own a credit card, have an account anywhere, anything. No other Adam Newmans match his description." Jones's voice began to carry monotonally again.

"Strange," General Damon murmured. "And the girl on the news?"

"Sarah Miller's parents are on the way from US."

"Good- did you get anything on the girl that was in the clip I sent?" Damon hoped they'd come up with some kind of lead.

"Eve Blair? Um..." Jones seemed to get a bit distraught at that.

"Out with it."

"There's no trace of her at all. Her parents say that she must be out, and we have surveillance on the place for when she comes in. Everything'll be taken care of."

**

"Mr. and Mrs. Blair? May we come in?"

"Back so soon?" she asked, backing up so that the two people could enter the house. Mr. Blair sat on the couch, watching the television.

"We're from the local police force, ma'am," the taller one said, flashing a nondescript badge. "Your daughter- she was involved in something, ma'am, and she's gone upstate for therapy. We hate to tell you about this-"

"Where is she? What clinic, what place?" Eve's mother appeared frantic.

"We're sorry, we can't tell you, ma'am." The badge snapped from view and disappeared into a many-pocketed leather jacket.

"I'm her mother! Surely you can tell me something!"

"No, I'm sorry, ma'am. Just know that she's safe and we're hoping she can be returned to you within a month or two."

"A month? School starts in a month!" Mrs. Blair's tone bordered on hysteria.

"Not my problem, ma'am," the tall man said.

Citing another appointment, the pair left the house silently and climbed into a rental car. The driver calmly sped away while the passenger picked up the secured cell phone.

"Her parents have been notified. Everything's fine, as long as we are not proven wrong on the time element. WorldEx has been outsmarted yet again."

"Good, Gloria. I knew I could count on you for quality service. Much better than Galt ever was."

The phone clicked into the man's ear.

**

"It's no use," Ami said, coming over to find Adam. Her face was dejected, and she looked as though she was about to cry.

"There, there," Adam said, hugging her. "It's not too late. If you knew he was here this time maybe he'll break out soon, and everything will be okay."

"I don't know," Ami whispered into his shoulder. "I just want to go home and cry."

"Now, now," Adam said. He gestured to the WorldEx building looming above them. "They've set up a meeting just for us."

Jade and Megabyte wandered over, hand in hand, and Adam shot Megabyte a short look. Megabyte sneered back and was about to shoot back a remark about Lucy when Lisa and Kevin came over. Megabyte decided it wasn't worth it, but didn't release Jade's hand.

"Come on, let's go the conventional way," Adam said, rolling his eyes and walking toward the large glass building. Ami followed him, her arms wrapped around her sides, not really seeing what was in front of her. Jade dropped Megabyte's hand and strode forward to put an arm around Ami's shoulders. Megabyte turned to punch Kevin in the shoulder and smile at Lisa.

"Maybe this time my mother won't be kidnapped by some crazy goons that don't know any better," Lisa grumbled.

"Yeah, that was kind of bad." Kevin remembered the ordeal, but it was jumbled up with memories of almost being run over by a really big truck, and teleporting onto the moor with Megabyte, and drinking lots of hot cocoa.

"Kind of? It was awful." Lisa was surprised he couldn't remember that well, but then, it hadn't been his mother.

"I think something was up with that ambulance," Kevin remarked during a break in the conversation between Megabyte and Adam.

"That's only because you're rather familiar with them," Megabyte said.

"No, that's not it," Kevin insisted as they all climbed into an elevator. He looked crestfallen when he noticed that the walls of the elevator were glass, so they couldn't teleport out of it. "There was something else."

As the silence fell everyone could hear Ami crying, and they all turned around and surrounded her with their arms. "It's going to be fine," Adam whispered to her.

The elevator opened up, and there were five parental units waiting expectantly for their children.

In the midst of the din Adam suddenly said, "Oh no- Sarah's at the island by herself!" And he was gone.

"Ami, dear, why are you crying?" Mrs. Jackson asked, gently.

Ami and Lisa shared a glance before Ami wiped her eyes and began talking.

"Where's my daughter?" Jack Miller asked as he swept into the room.

"Enough, enough!" General Damon said, waving his hands in the air. "Let's move to the conference room and get this show underway."

**

"Sarah? Sarah?" Adam asked, wandering into the ship. He carried the drenched clothes she had apparently brought back with her, stowed inside his tent. His other fingers gripped the handle of his knife. "Are you here?"

~Eve is scared, alone, afraid~ The ship's "voice" was calm as always, and insidious as it entered his mind.

*I completely forgot about that- where is Sarah?* Adam hoped the ship could give him some sort of logical, understandable answer.

~she waits for those who are to help her, and you do not come~

*I am sorry, we were searching for the one who is Ami's soul mate. Have you any knowledge of-*

~Jonathan is among us and yet not~

*I wish she could come here so you could tell her that in person, but I was only supposed to come back and find Sarah. Is she sleeping?* Adam asked hesitantly.

~in her sleep she dreams of you~

Adam grinned ruefully. *I really didn't need that.*

He jumped the low doorway and saw Sarah, sleeping near the same place he had. He walked over and said softly, "Sarah? Are you awake?"

"Mmmmm-" she whispered, then opened her eyes. "I thought you said you'd be here for me-"

"I would have been, but we were looking for someone. You have to come with me." Adam held out his hand.

"Yes, let's go home. I want to tell my parents- about this beautiful dream I've had-" Sarah's voice was still scratchy from sleep.

"Yes, all soon, just not now. Come, take my hand."

They were gone in a flash of light, but as Adam's mind reformed at WorldEx, the ship whispered

~Eve is still in the cold without us~

**

"What's different about these chromosomes?"

"Nothing, really," the doctor said nervously, addressing the dark man standing before him. That man's eyes, and voice, were so hard, and black, and he couldn't imagine where the man could have obtained this sample of cells, outrageously weird genotyped cells. The doctor recovered his train of thought with some effort. "They just- their genes produce different proteins than ours, but it's not one base pair off. It's more toward the magnitude of five- that is a serious mutation. And here, in this other one, four pairs are off. I'd need to examine a brain cell to see what repercussions this would have in the neural pathways, on the myelin sheaths, to the synapses. This appears human- but it can't be- no human has cells like that."

"And you can clone it?" Somewhere, in the many-pocketed coat the man wore, there was the badge he had flashed at the Blair family earlier. Gloria was nowhere to be found. Leather-jacket Man hoped he remembered the simplified details well enough to report them accurately to his superior.

"I'm not sure- the one attempt we've made has failed-" the doctor trembled, interlocking his fingers nervously.

"But it came rather close to succeeding, doctor. I have someone who knows what you did wrong, the one number in all the calculations that made that perfect specimen of a human being so deformed. If you clone this cell, we will give you the information." Actually, Leather-jacket Man had no idea whether they would even keep this doctor or not for their project, but he was prepared to tell the man whatever he wanted to hear.

"The moratorium on no cloning of humans-" the interlocking of the doctor's fingers became more violent. His bald head grew slightly shiny with sweat, but his voice refused to completely betray his fear, even as his hands telegraphed it like a light.

"What you are cloning will not be human, and therefore that stupid moratorium doesn't apply." Leather-jacket Man sighed internally.

The doctor sighed nervously, wrung his hands. "The temptation is so great-"

"And we will triple the bonuses you now have in your practice." [And that's pretty darn good for a British doctor] the man thought.

The doctor sighed again. "Fine, you have a deal."

**

The teenagers drew lots for the rooms they would be sharing. General Damon said they could now add psychokinesis to their growing list of abilities, because Megabyte and Jade had drawn the same room. They had to promise not to do anything, swear upside down to Jade's mother that they had no plans to do anything, and sleep with the light on. Lisa and Ami roomed together by default, and then Kevin and Adam.

Around 11:00 PM Adam was growing tired of hearing giggling through the walls of the suite. He was about to pound on the wall when there was a whisper in his head.

*Adam*

*Sarah?*

*Adam I'm worried about Eve*

"Snap," Adam spoke aloud, turning over in bed to stare at the ceiling. Kevin cracked an eye open in the other twin bed and decided not to ask; Adam would tell him.

*What's wrong with her?*

*I haven't spoken to her in a while- I'm afraid-* Sarah's telepathic voice indeed sounded so, in his head.

*It's all right. We can go find her tomorrow.* Adam desperately wanted to go back to sleep.

~no it's late enough now~ the ship interjected.

*Adam!* came another voice.

"What, am I Grand Central Station now?" Adam complained aloud. *What is it?*

*I found him.* Ami's mental voice was breathless.

Now Adam sat up in bed, switched on the light beside him. *You found him? Where is he?*

*He's in hospital, Adam. He looks so far gone- the doctors don't seem to have much hope.* Adam could almost hear tears in Ami's voice.

*I'll be right down, as soon as I wake everyone up-*

*No, don't do that. Later, maybe, but not now. Just please come!*

*Ami-*

*please?*

Adam sighed. *Okay. I have to tell the guard I'm going somewhere first.*

He threw back the covers, pulled on a sweatshirt and shorts, and walked to the door of the suite. The armed guard at the side turned to regard him.

"May I help you?"

"I need to see General Damon right now, please."

After Adam gave his explanation of, "I just need to go somewhere," General Damon kept asking him questions. "Why do you need to leave? Are you going to the ship?"

"No, I just need to go somewhere. I'll be right back."

"Do you promise?" Damon was still rubbing sleep from his eyes.

"Of course, on my word." Adam twitched impatiently.

"Then go ahead. Why are you waiting?" Damon squinted at him.

Adam gave him a lopsided grin and then turned back to the suite. *Kevin.*

*What?* Kevin's voice was sleepy, and Adam longingly thought of the warm twin bed he'd left behind. Oh well.

*I need you to do something for me. There's a girl-*

*Adam, please hurry up!* Ami's voice broke through the wave.

*All right, all right. We'll just get it done when I come back.*

**

Nurses on late shift who were only awake because of the caffeine in their drinks eyed the dark-haired, dark-eyed boy that strode down the corridors of the hospital as if he owned it, without asking a single person where he was going. He turned to a room in the Intensive Care Unit and opened the door.

Ami sat beside the bed in the chair usually reserved for the anxious parent or relative. She was only wearing a long t-shirt and a pair of cotton shorts. Her face was streaked with tears as she looked up to regard Adam.

Adam stared at the form on the bed. Ami hadn't been lying when she'd said the doctors weren't hopeful. The boy was the same one from the dream, but now he appeared almost wrapped from head to toe in bandages. The skin that Adam could see was rended in healing scars or clotted wounds. The bandage on his head looked particularly menacing.

Adam walked over to the bank of monitors attached to the boy with a tube in nearly every limb. The heart rate monitor was ridiculously slow, and the brain wave reader was erratic. [If not for the brain waves I would think he had been bitten by a Culex mosquito- but we're not going to relive that again, are we?]

Slowly Adam walked over to check the chart, aware that Ami's eyes were staring hard at his every move. Her sobs and gasps were more subdued now.

He was on heavy painkillers, addictive ones, but that didn't quite explain that activity- Adam thought. Finally he gave up and put the chart down.

*Ami, I'm so, so sorry* Adam thought, kneeling down so that they were eye to eye. *He is so deep inside himself- almost like Kevin was in that coma.*

*No* Ami thought firmly, and Adam was distressed to find a spark of something that could've been insanity in her eyes. *He is not gone. He is not buried. I can feel him fighting.*

*We can do nothing for him here, and if we disconnect him from some of these machines, he might die. You know that. The ship cannot help him if he is that dead.*

*Lisa came back. Adam, you brought a man back from the dead.*

Adam's eyes screwed shut in pain. He bowed his head and then met her gaze again. *He was not dead.*

*And neither is Jonathan!* Ami seemed too ferociously passionate about this, Adam thought.

*Ami, you know if I still had the power, you know that even if I had the slightest belief I still had that power, that I would do this for you. But it's gone. Otherwise Kevin would never have been in that coma so long- and General Damon would never have given permission to that crazy man to lead the rescue operation.*

*But for Kevin there was an antidote!* Ami thought wildly. *And General Damon was not hanging on for dear life, not for nearly as long as Jonathan here! Adam, please, for me, just try, one more time.*

*I don't want to fail you on something this important. Please, don't make me.*

*Adam-* there were fresh tears flowing from eyes that should've been dry hours earlier- *please, even if you fail at least then you'll know that he didn't die without a little of your help- please-*

Adam looked into Ami's eyes. She knew that he was going to die, she knew that probably nothing could stop it, but if Adam could, if Adam could do a single thing, then he would have to. Ami wanted this thing so desperately, and he couldn't resist a heartfelt plea if he'd tried.

"All right," he sighed, finally speaking aloud. "All right. Close the door. No one in here but us."

Ami beamed at him, through her tears, and closed the door, pulled the curtain.

"Now," Adam said, rolling up his sleeves, "you do understand that everything I told you was true? I don't think I have this anymore, even to the smallest degree."

Ami nodded, glad that he had finally agreed to do it.

"Adam!" Lisa jerked upright in bed, turned to see if Ami was awake too. The other twin bed was empty.

"Where's Ami?" Lisa demanded of the guard, pulling open the door even though she only had on her nightgown. "Where's General Damon? Why doesn't anyone hear these things?"

Kevin poked his head out from his suite. "I think Adam went to hospital."

"Why would he do something crazy like that?" Lisa suddenly yawned.

"Something was up with Ami." Kevin was having a little trouble remembering, but he was a sensitive telepath, and he recalled hearing Ami's mental voice.

"Was she sick? Hurt? Mentally ill?" Lisa's curiosity grew with Kevin's intangible statements.

"That was cold," Megabyte remarked, stepping out of his suite with Jade in tow.

"Seriously though. I just got a flash that something's going wrong, something we can stop." Lisa actually did look worried.

"Where's Sarah?" Kevin asked, stifling a yawn.

Lisa closed her eyes, then said, "She's in such a deep sleep that none of us could wake her up. She's been through a lot in the past few days-" all of them understood how it was, the shock of discovering powers, a group of friends who would defend to their dying breath, the wonder of telepathy and teleportation- "so we shouldn't wake her up. Where's General Damon?"

**

"Another of the kids for you, sir." Jones yawned.

Bill Damon muttered something angrily under his breath and switched on the bedside lamp. Millie was cuddled up against her mother, who was on the opposite side of the bed. Why on Earth Millie had to be afraid in hotels-

"All right, I'll just get my robe on and be right outside." Damon sat up in bed and felt his contact lens shift. He mumbled something about saline.

Jones nodded and closed the door.

"Why on Earth does everything have to happen at night- can't even get a good night's sleep-" he mumbled as he pulled on a robe and tied it hastily. He ventured out into the hall, squinting in the more intense light. "What is it, Lisa?" he asked, hoping he wasn't mistaking Ami for her.

"Ami and Adam are gone." Now Lisa was fidgeting.

Damon yawned, not quite thinking very clearly. "Ami's almost of consenting age, how does-"

"There's something wrong. I don't know what it is. But there's something up with Adam, and Ami is probably there with him."

"Where did Adam say he was going?" Kevin asked.

"Did Ami even tell you she was going anywhere?" Jade put in.

"Does anyone have any hot cocoa?" Megabyte and Bill chorused.

Only Ami's mother was to be awakened, but then Frank Wilson poked his head out of his suite and asked what was going on, so eventually everyone was in the downstairs conference room in their nightclothes.

"All we have to do is teleport to the hospital, I don't see what's so wrong with this," Lisa said, fidgeting in her chair.

"No, we've got men going down there to secure the area before any of the rest of you leave. Until the cloning issue is settled, no one's going anywhere without a guard."

"But-" broke in ten voices at once, and General Damon had to shout to restore order. In the following buzz of voices, Sarah's sounded against the rest.

"Where's Eve?"

"Who?"

"My best friend. The ship was talking about her." Sarah twirled a lock of hair about one finger, nervously, her eyes still puffy from sleep.

Megabyte and Jade exchanged glances with each other, and with Lisa and Kevin. *This is bad,* Megabyte thought.

Before anyone could reply to Megabyte's observation, the phone on the conference table rang.

"It's Jones, sir, and we have a situation. It might be preferable for you to bring all the kids, sir."

**

The vans that WorldEx owned presently were eerily similar to the one Lisa had been shipped around in, that time that seemed a million years away, when Adam still had long hair and they hadn't known that they could teleport other people. She shivered for a second in the cool night air, and Kevin put his little arm around her.

There had been a little hint of dread in Megabyte's heart when he'd heard Jones say those dreaded words over the speakerphone, but now all the fear was gone, replaced by a need to be the leader that they didn't have right now. [Everything will be fine] he thought, squeezing Jade's arm a little more tightly. They exchanged a glance, a weak little smile, and then looked away from each other.

[I wish I was like that now] Sarah thought, seeing the ways all of them depended on each other. She felt close to Adam and Ami, but they weren't even here. Her worry about them swallowed up the enduring nagging feeling of dread over Eve.

They exited the van, and Megabyte's feeling was replaced by annoyance at the phalanx of guards surrounding them wherever they went. He thought about making a smart remark about it to his father, but the General's facial features looked as though they had been cast from stone. Adam had almost been a second son to the family, to everyone's family.

"Oh my Lord," Jade gasped upon entrance to the hospital. Megabyte couldn't spare the energy for asking her what was wrong, just kept his hand around hers as they took the stairs two by two toward the room.

Ami's legs were drawn up in the chair and her forehead was against her knees when they walked into the room. Methodically her head moved back and then fell forward, striking with the force of bone against bone. In the bed beside her lay the boy they had searched the cabs for, now breathing without a respirator, his pulse steady and firm, the brainscan apparently normal.

"I didn't think it could do any harm," came Ami's voice, muffled.

"It's not your fault," the four of them chorused at once, and all of them went over to hug her, give her a little pat on the shoulder, at least something. Sarah lingered in the doorway, unsure of what to do.

"What happened here?" Bill asked quietly from outside the doorway.

"We're not sure, but we have the surveillance tape."

**

[There's no record of Adam teleporting into the hospital, thank God] Bill thought, glad to have less track to cover.

"Now here," Jones said, placing another tape into the VCR, "we have Adam entering the room with Ami and the other boy inside."

For a long time neither of them said a word, their lips didn't even move. Then Adam knelt down in front of Ami, and then there were words.

"We can't tell what he said, but we can get that from Ami soon enough," Jones remarked.

[Then comes the kicker] Bill thought, his eyes glued to the screen. He had heard the reports but never seen it in action-

Adam, captured perfectly on the tape, rolled up his sleeves, glanced at Ami once, for luck, then turned back to the nearly-comatose body and closed his eyes. It seemed to take a ridiculous amount of time for his hands to begin to glow red, and then he placed his hands directly onto the boy's head. On the tape Bill could see Adam's eyes moving back and forth rapidly beneath his eyelids, almost as rapidly as REM sleep, but then it seemed to increase in intensity. Ami's eyes grew wider.

Bill couldn't explain what happened next, but it was as if there was almost a flash of light, not quite. Now Adam was slumped down on the floor, the heart monitor clearly showed a steady heart rate, and Ami was standing over the prone body, horror written on her face. At that moment two of the General's men entered the room.

"All copies of this tape are mine," Bill said, again in his giving-orders voice. "No one hears or sees anything about this. Arrange for immediate transfer of Adam from this hospital to one run by the Agency, preferably close to WorldEx. Same for that boy in the other bed. Those children are to be surrounded at all times by those I've personally selected, no substitutions. We're changing hotels, too. Transfer all the clothes and baggage and everything to the Park, down the street. I want..."

**

Gradually everyone but Sarah drifted away, to the hospital, to see either Ami or Adam. Ordinarily their parents would've been angry at the inconvenience of moving, would've been packing their clothes slowly in protest, but now they were only hurried and silent. Everyone had seen the still white face of the boy that had been so vocal at their meeting, so charming, and they had realized yet again that their children weren't really children anymore.

**

*Adam- Adam, can you hear me? I know you're rattling around in there somewhere- speak to me!*

Megabyte placed a trembling hand on Adam's pale forehead, closed his eyes.

He was surrounded by darkness. There was weakness there too.

[It must have nearly killed him when he brought Jones back to life] Megabyte thought, realizing it for the first time. [Maybe that's why- maybe that used up all his power for a long time, and he needed a recharge- but maybe he wasn't recharged enough, and he put too much of himself into this-]

The heart monitor gave off three staccato beeps in quick procession, and then returned to the steady, frail rhythm that it had been in before. The nurse that came in to check on it was held back by the guard standing outside the door. Megabyte didn't even seem to register their altercation.

[If I try, will I end up the same way?] he asked himself.

~you cannot do this- you can surround him with love until he is strong enough to be with you again~

Megabyte sighed angrily. *But he is my friend, and I have a responsibility-* he tried to make the ship understand.

"Two wrongs don't make a right," General Damon said from the doorway.

Megabyte's eyes flew open. "Why couldn't it have been me?" he asked.

**

Lisa was about to close her eyes and teleport back to the hotel when she remembered that evil briefing from General Damon: "No teleporting inside the hospital, unless you want one of our doctors to see you and take you in for study. They will do it, and some of them have authority over me. I've held them back this long, but maybe not for much longer. Don't give me another excuse to be angry."

"I feel so awful-" Ami was near tears again.

"Don't, Ami. It's not your fault." Lisa sighed inwardly. She didn't want to blame Ami for what had happened. Adam had chosen to try and heal the boy, after all.

"But it is! He never would've done this if it wasn't for me." Ami didn't want to be convinced that she wasn't responsible.

"If you keep blaming yourself, it doesn't help him any. He needs us to be concerned about him, not trying to take back what happened."

"Maybe if I try-"

Lisa stopped Ami's train of thought with a hand. "General Damon forbid it, after Megabyte was about to try. He appreciates what we're trying to do but he thinks it's too dangerous. After all, Jonathan still has to wake up."

Ami sighed, looked over at the bed. She was afraid to place a single hand on him, for fear that he would vanish like a soap bubble. But the day had been trying enough- "Lisa, could you-"

"Sure," Lisa said, moving around beside the figure on the bed. Kevin poked his head around the doorway as Lisa opened her eyes again. "He should wake up soon."

"It worked for me, Ami," Kevin said, moving into the room. "Cheer up!"

Ami smiled for the first time in quite a while as Kevin put his arms around her in a little hug.

**

"The procedure is finished?" Leather-jacket man asked. His voice was tight.

The doctor nodded, sighed wearily as he stripped off his gloves. The latex seemed garishly white in the bright light of his surgical stage.

"And it went as expected?"

The doctor wondered why the man sounded so ridiculously thug-like. But then, the doctor hadn't been exposed to much more than old gangster movies. "Yes, green lights all the way down the line."

"Good. And now you know that you are ours."

Another cliché. The doctor nodded dismally even as he accepted the briefcase of money.

Around midnight Jade awoke. The bed beside her was empty. "Oh no, not again," she groaned. She tugged off her nightgown and put on her street clothes from earlier that day.

"Megabyte, Megabyte," she hummed under her breath as she walked the corridors of the hospital. One doctor stared very intently at her and began following, but she ditched him with a side stairway, cut around another floor and began walking in the correct direction again.

Very gently she turned the doorknob of the room Jonathan had been placed in. Ami had finally left after Lisa assured her that there was no way she couldn't tell if he'd woken up, since the two of them had so much connection.

"Where are you?" Jade whispered softly under her breath, leaving that room and turning to the next one. Adam's dimly lit figure was stiff and silent underneath the immaculate sheets, and Megabyte stood beside the bed. His eyes were closed, and Jade didn't dare reach out and read his mind.

"Where are you going to take him?" Jade said softly, in a tone that slipped right into his imaginings.

"The ship will heal him." Megabyte opened his eyes and stared into hers.

"He is weak. Teleporting might do him more harm than good." Jade wasn't sure, but she didn't really want to take a risk where any of them were involved. After all, teleportation was nothing but becoming energy and then becoming matter again, but who knew that Adam's molecules would retain enough cohesion to-- oh Lord, she sounded like a Trekkie.

"What other choice do we have?" Megabyte asked angrily. "He cannot die in this hospital, without any of us around him. He will not die on the way."

"If you feel so strongly about this, what about Jonathan?" Jade asked, gesturing to the other room. "He is more stable than Adam is. Why don't you take him?"

"Ami would-"

Jade folded her arms. "Ami would think it was the right thing to do right now. We shouldn't be sneaking about to do these things. Your father-"

"My _father_ says no teleporting in sight of the cameras. We must do it here, now, and let him explain it. He'll think up reasons why we can't possibly do this."

"And have you forgotten about Eve, too?" Jade raised an eyebrow.

Megabyte stared at her. "I'm surprised you would bring that up."

"Sarah's worried about her, and it seems irrational."

"So you want to go to the US without any guards at all, find this girl and bring her back, and just let Adam fend for himself, wherever he is?" Megabyte folded his own arms.

"He is stronger than any of us. Let him fight for himself." Jade wasn't sure she felt that way, but she had no doubt he would recover.

"All this, because Sarah's worried about her best friend." Megabyte shook his head.

Jade nodded, held out her hand. "We can always take Adam to the ship later, if your father says it's all right."

"Why do you always listen to my father?" Megabyte grumbled, following Jade's lead regardless.

"Because you don't," she said, walking towards an exit. Suddenly with a gasp she slid behind a corner, pulling Megabyte with her.

"What's wrong now?" Megabyte tried to peer around the corner.

"Shhh," Jade hissed, shoving him back and peering out herself to see the same doctor who had been trailing her earlier. "Where are the guards for Adam's room?"

"I don't see them."

"That doctor's heading this way. I don't think he's one of the ones your father assigned."

Before Jade could say another word, Megabyte had vanished in a flash of light.

**

Mentally Lisa recalled the picture of Eve's house that Megabyte had seen. She crossed her fingers and mentally wished that General Damon wouldn't notice she was missing. It wasn't like she was planning on being gone that long. She removed Eve from the picture, made sure no one was watching, and concentrated on going to that house, to right in front of it.

Lisa materialized and shot another glance around. No one seemed to be watching. She walked up the front steps and rang the bell.

"Hello?" the woman said as she answered the door. She looked as if she'd been crying, but not for too long. "Yes?"

"I'm here to see Eve," Lisa said slowly, still trying to get a feel for the place.

"I'm sorry, she's not here." That seemed to distract the woman, who held the door without seeming to intend on Lisa coming in.

"When will she be back?"

"I don't know, a month? I can't believe she got mixed up in all this-" Eve's mother blew her nose, motioned for Lisa to come in.

"Got mixed up in all of what?" Lisa asked, allowing herself to be guided to the couch.

"I don't know- after the USSIA people, there were the police people-"

[USSIA? Scientific Intelligence Agency? General Damon's people] Lisa thought, reassured.

"-who said that Eve was at a center, that they were sorry to tell me, that it would be a month or so before I could see her again-" Eve's mother visibly held back tears. "That's all I know. That's all they'd tell me."

After asking a few general questions and refusing the perfunctory cookies and lemonade, Lisa walked out of the house in a quandary. [Why is it we had to do something about her?] Lisa wondered. [She doesn't seem out of the ordinary, just a little on the freaky side.]

Lisa began to walk back to the alley she had teleported to when two men emerged from a long black car and began walking toward her, rather leisurely. She recognized the two of them and nodded.

"So what are y'all doing here?"

"Staking out the Blair home. What did you find out?" asked the larger of the two partners.

"There's no reason for you to be here. She's been taken by the local police." Lisa picked at a stray thread on her shirt as she spoke. She remembered one of the agents from the testing General Damon had asked them to do, early on.

"There's no way- we would've heard of that. Someone's been lying." The smaller man reached beneath his jacket to where his gun was holstered. Lisa finally remembered his name, Agent East.

Their conversation was interrupted by the screech of brakes on the road. A police car came around the curve and stopped in front of the Blair home. An apparently drugged girl was taken from the backseat, given a glass of something, and propped up as the threesome approached the door.

"Looks like I can take that little quote back now," Lisa murmured wryly, watching the scene in utter amazement.

**

*What's going on?* Jade thought frantically at Megabyte.

Megabyte closed the door and searched frantically for a way to lock it. Finding none, he melted the bolt out of panic.

[And not a second too late] Megabyte thought, admiring his handiwork as the doctor tried to open the door. "Nurse!" he heard.

*Jade, distract them somehow!*

There was an enormous crash in the hallway, followed by the sound of splintering glass. Then there were Jade's footsteps, and the cries of the doctor to hasten the nurses. "Get her!" he demanded.

"And why didn't I think of this before?" Megabyte asked himself. In his mind he reached out to the surveillance cameras and inserted a simple command: [Loop your data from an hour ago, random pattern, making sure most pixels interlock, until new command function appears.] Obediently the machines clicked and whirred, and then he reached into the computer system and deleted record of Adam's room for the past half hour, and then inserted footage from the half-hour a few hours before, with systems responding to his command, though in five hours they would default back to original programming. Dusting his hands off and proud of his handiwork, he left.

**

*Ami*

Ami bolted straight upward in bed and had to restrain herself severely from teleporting on the spot. Though she couldn't reply, she still smiled so hard she thought her face might crack from the strain.

**

Kevin walked out of the bathroom in a daze, staring blankly at the bed, dreaming already. Accidentally he walked toward the left-hand bed and crawled on top of the bulges in the blanket. As soon as he realized someone was supposed to be in that bed, he also realized that the lumps were too soft to be a human.

"Oh no, not again!" he said audibly.

**

There was a knock on General Damon's door.

"It's only ten o'clock, why couldn't they have at least waited until I'd had a little bit of sleep?" General Damon asked rhetorically. "Come on in, Jones."

"That's what happens when their home base is ten time zones away," Jones said. "Teenagers," he sighed and shook his balding head. "Won't ever listen to reason."

"Well, these kids have a way of finding a loophole that suits them," Bill said. "So who's gone now?"

"Well, in short, your son, Jade, and Lisa." Jones had that look on his face that Damon identified with disapproval.

"What d'you mean? I'm not gone," Megabyte said, walking down the corridor.

"Nor am I," Jade said. "What's all the fuss?"

**

"Where have you been?" Lisa asked Eve.

"Now, don't put too much of a strain on her," the man who had escorted her cautioned. "She's been through a rough couple of days."

"I don't care, I want to know where she was!" Eve's mother exclaimed.

"I don't think you're understanding the terms we put down at the beginning of this meeting," the man said.

"And I don't think you understand who has the authority here," said Agent Yates, the other of Damon's men. "She is under our jurisdiction now."

"Prove that she has the right to be." Lisa shuddered when she realized that the silent partner was Gloria, that android-like agent who had pursued her friends when they had first all "broken out."

Through all this argument over her, Eve seemed utterly gone. Her eyelids drooped down over her eyes and her blank stare surrounded the room without any hint of recognition.

"What makes you think you can come around here and boss us around?" Mr. Blair was asking the man angrily.

"We're here for your protection." The man seemed to be getting angry.

*Eve?* Lisa tried hesitantly.

One of Eve's eyebrows twitched, as if she couldn't quite remember how to respond to the summons. Lisa tried again.

*Eve?*

"What is it?" Eve asked groggily, aloud. All the adults in the room turned to regard her. "What is it? What is it?" she repeated aloud.

*You can hear me?* Lisa pathed.

"Yes, of course, why couldn't I?"

Gloria's gaze was set on Lisa while the man said, "She's hearing voices. That's a bad sign. We need to take her back to rehabilitation right away."

"She doesn't belong in rehab, she belongs with us," Lisa said. Yates shot her a warning glance.

"And how do you know this?" Dark-suited Agent inquired archly.

"Once the drugs you've pumped into her work their way out of her system," Lisa said bitingly, "maybe then these voices' you claim she's hearing will go away."

"And if they don't?" Dark-suited Agent inquired just as acidly. "Then you will have wasted this girl's life based on your one assumption. She has less risk if she comes back with us."

Agent East said calmly, "Enough. She no longer is yours. We take full responsibility for her treatment as to whether it succeeds or fails. Leave the premises."

"I don't think we're communicating," Dark-suited Agent said. He didn't seem to like the least bit of lost control. He motioned to Gloria, and she took hold of Eve's arm, in a grip that seemed deceptively loose.

"No, we're not," Lisa said. *Eve, listen to me. Don't say anything out loud-*

Something wasn't quite connecting in Eve's brain, due to the drugs. Her mouth opened and there was a tiny rush of air, and then her eyes turned toward Lisa.

Dark-suited Agent turned to Lisa. Lisa sensed that both he and Gloria knew what Eve's parents would be loath to admit; Eve was a telepath, and the voices' were Lisa's own telepathic voice. Her suspicions were confirmed at his next words. "Stop your meddling," he snarled.

*Eve! Get away from that woman!* Lisa cried mentally.

"Don't you think I would if I could?" Eve enunciated slowly.

**

"Have you located Lisa yet?" General Damon asked.

"No. She's not in the hospital, though." Jones was developing a symbiotic relationship with his cellular phone.

"All right. Bring Jade and Megabyte in." Damon's voice had taken on the disciplining-parent tone again.

Megabyte had hung his head, and Jade didn't look much brighter.

"All right. What's this I hear about the surveillance cameras at the hospital?" General Damon began.

"I don't know, I'm not one for eavesdropping." Megabyte sounded sullen.

"So you wouldn't know anything about the fact that the cameras have been looping data for the past twelve hours? Something's gone haywire, and there's no outer tampering." General Damon folded his arms.

"Um-" Megabyte said, meeting his father's gaze. "I might know something about it."

Damon tilted his head and looked over at the accomplice. "And you, Jade, do you know what equipment you knocked over? Do you want to know how much it costs?"

"Um, no sir, I'd rather not know. I sleep better not knowing how much money I owe," Jade said, twisting her hands. "But I promise we did it for a reason, Mr. Damon-"

"This had better be good," the General said, leaning back in his chair.

"I was visiting Adam," Megabyte began, after Jade glanced at him to begin. "And-"

"You wouldn't mean, perhaps, visiting Adam without telling a single guard where you were going? And not, perhaps, with the express intent of teleporting in full sight of the cameras?" Damon raised an eyebrow.

Megabyte's temper finally blew. "Look, Dad, he is my friend, and I'm entitled to do whatever I can for him. All those stupid rules you make up can't change what I feel, and you should know that."

Damon took that in silence, and then began again. "So you do admit that you tampered with the surveillance cameras? and Jade, you do admit that you pushed over one of the most expensive pieces of equipment in the entire hospital?"

Megabyte nodded dismally, while Jade blanched and said weakly, "Um, I'm not sure I want to admit to that until I have a lawyer present."

"Okay. If that's all you were there to do-" Damon began to rise from his chair.

"No, you didn't hear the rest of the story," Megabyte shot off, still angry. "We were leaving for the hallway when this doctor headed for Adam's room. I knew which ones you'd assigned, so I teleported in there and melted the door shut. And since those are two very bad things, things you don't want to have to get rid of,' I saw a way out and took it."

Damon settled back down again. "And we have no way of verifying that story, nor any way of seeing this evil doctor, because you've effectively erased the security tapes."

"That's not-" Megabyte began, then fell silent.

"Ah, yes, you see now, that it was very fully well your fault."

**

Kevin rubbed sleep from his eyes as Sarah sat down beside him. "You're Kevin, right?" she asked softly.

"Yep," Kevin said, putting his fists down. "And you're Sarah Miller. Nice to meet you."

After they had shaken hands, Sarah asked him softly, "Why are we here exactly?"

"Because Lisa's missing." Kevin stated that as simply as he would've told her the sky was blue.

"Well, can't we just teleport-" Sarah began hesitantly.

Kevin shook his head and rolled his eyes. "Normally yes we would. But now they're having fits over this cloning thing. Everything might be a trap, they think. So we're hemmed in like children here. Lisa's perfectly fine," Kevin went on to say, "but General Damon needs concrete proof.' As if a human being's not dependable enough." Kevin's chin sank down onto his hands.

**

"I've had enough of this," Mr. Blair snarled. "None of you have given me police ID, so I'm gonna call them now. And all four of you are _leaving_ with them. Got it? This young girl- can call a cab, whatever. Eve is going to the hospital."

"Sir," said Dark-suited Agent, while Gloria read his intentions and placed a hand on Mr. Blair's, effectively paralyzing his fingers.

*Eve!* Lisa cried out. *Hold on!*

Lisa reached out and took hold of Eve's arm. Eve's eyes opened a tad more, but otherwise she seemed unimpressed. Gloria's other hand reached for Eve's sleeve, trying to flick Lisa's fingers off.

Lisa took a deep breath and, digging her fingers into Eve's arm, teleported.

**

*So Jonathan _is_ better. So this wasn't for naught.* Adam finally got around to asking the question that had been bugging him.

~yes, he is returning more quickly~ the ship kythed back, reassuringly.

*Sleeping on the shelves is so much more easy, now, than sleeping on these soft hospital beds* Adam thought, racial memory telling him how Kevin's body had relaxed into the thin mattress for his brief stay in the hospital.

There was a silence, and then, *Why can I not come back?*

~there's barely enough of you living to be kything this way, much less running your body~ the ship chided.

*And if I could come inside you? And feel the healing?* Adam asked his questions with the wonder of a child.

~you would be running on borrowed energy for a while, just as Lisa was- and that borrowed energy might run out more quickly~

*But still- there is Eve-* Adam remembered.

~that is fine now- as well as can be said, now~

**

"Lisa, honey-" Mrs. Davis began.

"I'm _fine_," Lisa growled, willing herself to not become angry with her mother. Lord, she could use some blood sugar about now. All the adrenaline had sapped her clean. "But this girl needs some help-"

"Lisa!"

Lisa's brown eyes looked up in amazement to see a brown-haired boy come hurtling into the room to encase her in his arms. "And hi to you, Kev."

Sarah had responded almost as enthusiastically to her friend's arrival, Adam nonwithstanding. "Eve? Are you okay?"

"...caffeine," Sarah heard her mutter.

"It's fine. You need some sleep. We all do," Sarah remarked, seeing Kevin's sleep-rumpled hair, nearly standing on end.

General Damon, encased in the ubiquitous robe, came into the room, glanced around for a split second, and knew exactly what had happened. "Okay, Lisa. Some of my men were there. Who were they?"

"East and someone, I think, but Gloria and another henchman were there too. Hey Kev, I'm gonna stop breathing if you squeeze any harder," Lisa said.

"That's all right, we can just take you to the ship and get you all fixed up if that happens," Kevin remarked happily.

"The ship," Ami said from the doorway, her chocolate eyes wide. She spun on her heel and walked back to her room, probably to change.

"Oh, Lord. General Damon-" Lisa began, but he was on the cellphone, barking orders to the two agents left at the Blair home.

"What's all the ruckus in here? Kev, I could've read your mind from a mile away," Megabyte said, smiling from the doorway. His arm was wrapped around Jade's waist. "Hey, Lisa, I think you almost had my dad as worried as he gets about me."

*I think they've hooked back up,* Lisa thought. Kevin just smiled.

"...never wanna see another blond woman in my life... Lord, my stomach hurts..." Sarah listened to her friend's voice worriedly.

"Here, there are some Tums, and Pepto Bismol, and an aspirin," Sarah said, fetching them from the suitcase. She sat down beside Eve, who she had propped up against the other twin bed's headboard, her legs stretched out in front of her. "Oh wait, I'll get you some water."

"Don't think the Tums will do any good," Eve said. Her eyes were growing a bit less droopy, and she was nursing her stomach with wary hands. A little too much pressure made her suck in her breath as though the world was coming to an end.

"Drink this," Sarah demanded upon reentering the bedroom, handing her friend the glass of water and aspirin. Eve placed the pill on the back of her tongue and took a sip of the water. Something inside her resisted swallowing, though, until she finally pushed the pill back with such force that she nearly gagged. Tears came to her already irritated eyes, and she moaned softly.

"Are you all right?" Sarah asked, even in saying the words picturing herself as a mother hen.

"Fine, fine, just need a little sleep," Eve said, standing up slowly to pull the covers back.

**

[Have to get there soon- less time I waste, the better-] Ami thought, yanking the nightgown over her head to pull on a t-shirt, not knowing why she was bothering to put on her necklace. [Why not the earrings now] she thought. She gazed into the mirror, watching her hands shake as she tried to thread the fishhook through the hole in her ear.

"Ami Marie Jackson, I demand to know what the matter is with you."

The forgotten earring nearly dropped from her fingers as Ami's gaze turned toward the doorway. Her mother leaned against the doorframe, arms crossed.

"Nothing, mum," Ami said weakly, dread filling her stomach as her gaze dropped from her mother's.

"'Nothing?' That's what you told me last time, and look where it got you. Mixing with all these strange kids, nearly getting yourself killed. Is it Adam? Do you have _feelings_ for him?"

There was a silence that filled the room with a nameless dread as Ami looked everywhere but her mother's eyes. "No, nothing like that," Ami stammered, wishing she had enough guts to speak clearly whenever her mother had _that tone_ in her voice.

"But no, Ami. I heard you. I put Adam into this,' I heard you say. How? What has it to do with that boy, nearly swathed in those bandages? Or at least he was," her mother said, something near amazement in her voice.

"Mum, please," Ami said, feeling time slip away from her. She _needed_ to get to the hospital, no matter what kind of rules General Damon had made. Everything would be fine if she could only get there!

"No. There will be no buts,' no pleading. You are coming with me. We are going to have hot cocoa with the rest of these strange kids, and then you are going to sleep. Deal?" Mrs. Jackson said, trying to soften the words with a smile.

"Oh, mum," Ami sighed, making one last halfhearted attempt to string the earring through her ear. [Even that won't work right for me] she thought, taking one last glance at her already apprehensive eyes. Feeling guilty for doing so, she reached out.

*Adam, if you can hear me- if it's not too much to sense this thought- I'm sorry.*

**

[Warm milk does wonders] Megabyte thought, falling into his bed. He was stock still, though, as he thought [and Adam wasn't here for it.]

"Come now," Jade said. She emerged from the bathroom, where she had yet again been combing out her long hair. "No use dwelling on it. He'll be fine soon enough."

"Do you believe that?"

Jade's fingers were still on the light switch of the bathroom, and as she accidentally flipped it off there was no more light in the room. Only the streetlights to show her the dangerous glint in Megabyte's eyes as he asked that question.

"I don't know," Jade finally admitted, her hands outstretched before her to assure her that she wouldn't run into anything before she fell onto her bed. She crawled up until her head was near the pillow, then turned on her side and propped her head up with her elbow, fearing sleep was near. Her eyelids were trying desperately to give in to gravity.

"I know he'll recover; he's Adam," Megabyte said reluctantly, his eyes still lit by that streetlight. Here they were, propped up the same way, facing each other, alone in a darkened hotel room... Jade's lips were twisted in a wry grin.

"...but Ami's so hung up on Jonathan," Megabyte continued, and with little effort Jade forced her mind back to the conversation. "It really tore her up at first, you know, but then she was off about Jonathan again..." Megabyte's eyes met hers sharply. "Jade, are you listening?"

"Yeah, I'm here," Jade said, stifling a yawn. "But Ami's found her soul mate. She felt she _had_ to save him, no matter what the costs. And now she's shown us that she's still confident in that decision. I mean, five or six of us are crying over Adam, and here Ami is, the only one worried enough about Jonathan to care."

Megabyte was silent for a second. "You make us sound selfish."

"We _do_ have a little right to be, after all; we are without our leader." *And our most handsome guy,* Jade thought, knowing full well Megabyte would hear.

Megabyte shot her a wry smile, but in a fluid motion he had grabbed the pillow under his head and had sent it sailing at her. She ducked with utter incredulity, then grabbed her own and pulled herself up off the bed, rushing toward him.

"_This_ will teach you to hit a girl!" Jade shrieked madly.

"No, it'll teach _you_ to stop trying to bait me!" Megabyte shrank back a little, though. He was pretty sure his- girlfriend- had some Irish in her.

Kevin and Lisa had been trying to sleep in the next room, _trying_ being the operative word. They had come over with slight smirks, jokes about how _difficult_ being roomed with girlfriends and boyfriends could be.

"Look, guys," Kevin said, opening the door, only to be socked with an ill-tossed pillow.

Amazingly, all the parents slept through the banging on doors and muffled screams that floated down the hallway. General Damon came down the hall to the conference room in the morning, only to find crashed teenagers crammed into every corner. A throw pillow was curiously close to an overturned lamp, and Kevin's hair was more tossed than usual. One of the more caring of the hotel staff had tucked a blanket around each of them, including Jade and Megabyte, who were sleeping a tad closer than any other pair in the room. Even their newest addition, Eve, who had barely had two hours of sleep the night before, had apparently participated. She was lying on the couch, her feet propped up on the arm, her face propped up by a slowly sliding hand. Finally it dropped and she nearly fell off the couch.

"You'd barely believe they were the next stage of human evolution' now, would you?" asked a quiet voice.

Smiling, General Damon surveyed the room again with his wife. Kevin made a muffled sound in his sleep and turned slightly, a little closer to Lisa. Ami's head was directly where it would get the most damage if Eve fell off the couch. Sarah's hand was curled around the edge of the blanket that covered Jade and Megabyte.

"True," General Damon whispered. He could so easily imagine Adam in this picture, nestled in there between Sarah and Ami, but even now waking, making sure they were all okay. He was like that. He would've made sure that Kevin wasn't left out, that the throw pillows weren't hurled with too much force, that Ami didn't have such a desolate look on her face while she slept-

Bill's hand tightened its grip on the doorway. "We have to do something," he stated in a harsh whisper. "Anything."

**

*Jonathan, Jonathan, Jonathan-* Adam said over and over, like a little chant. He drummed mental fingers against mental air.

*Ami*

Almost so tiny he couldn't even hear it. Adam stopped the drumming and cocked a mental ear.

*Ami*

Persistent it was, and almost hopeless in its cries, as though it knew trying was futile, and reply too much to hope for.

*Jonathan!* Adam cried, trying to put a little more power into it. Accidentally, though, it went a tad farther than he'd aimed it for.

**

Ami groaned at feeling the hard floor beneath her back, and opened her eyes to find a peach hand floating not three inches away from her face, its nails like daggers. Stifling another groan, Ami slid away from it and sat up gingerly.

"That was a heck of a pillow fight," Megabyte commented in a stage whisper, sitting up and shaking his head vigorously. "Owwww, that hurt," he mumbled, slightly louder.

"I either need coffee or an actual _bed_," Jade commented, not even attempting to open her eyes.

"Are you sure you don't harbor some secret grudge toward me, Megabyte?" Ami asked, stretching her arms up over her head and stifling a tremendous yawn. "I swear I'm going to have bruises before this day is over."

Simultaneously, Eve fell off the couch and Sarah turned over, moaning softly.

"What was that?" Kevin asked, slightly loudly, shooting up in the bedcovers. His hair nearly stood on end.

"Nothing. Go back to sleep," Lisa said, groping around blindly, as she refused to open her eyes. She finally found the edge of Kevin's nightshirt and attempted to pull him back down to his pillow. She was nearly stymied when the resounding _thud_ of Megabyte's head hitting the floor alarmed Kevin again.

"He's going to get a concussion if he keeps doing that," Jade said, sitting up and finally opening her eyes. She rubbed sleep from them vigorously.

"I would give _anything_ for an aspirin right now," came Eve's voice, muffled by the fact that her face was pushed up against the arm of the couch. She turned over and moaned. "I thought hangovers were supposed to be bad."

"Don't believe we've met. Jade Weston," Jade said, proffering a hand to the girl. Eve eyed her outstretched palm warily, then shook it.

"Eve Blair. And the rest of these people- I know them, though I shouldn't." She shook her permed head and closed her eyes, too willing to fall asleep again.

"Yeah- I dreamt about chocolate brownies," Lisa commented to no one in particular, a blissful smile crossing her face.

"Did someone run over my head with a truck?" Megabyte asked from the floor.

A tickling danced across Ami's mind- and she pulled herself to her feet and raced from the room just as Sarah called out, "What time is it?"

"Time to go back to sleep..." Ami heard Eve reply.

**

Agents East and Yates of USSIA were leisurely waiting for the boarding call of their plane when Gloria and her partner, Dark-suited Agent, strode into the airport. East, short, stocky, blond, and rather belligerent, and Yates, taller, milder, and darker-haired, exchanged a glance, and East headed off.

"What are you doing here?" East began preemptorally.

"Going back home," Agent Kryder said. He was also known as Dark-suited Agent to those who hated him as much as East and Yates did. "I promise, you two are paranoid!"

"If I so much as see you anywhere around us when we arrive, we're taking both of you in." East had dealt with these people before.

"Let me introduce you to my partner. This is Gloria, Mr. ... East, is it?"

Agent East didn't allow a hint of fear to show in his eyes as they trailed upward- farther and farther- to meet the eyes of the extremely tall, extremely blond agent named Gloria.

"Charmed, I'm sure. You heard what I said," Agent East continued briskly, meeting Agent Kryder's eyes again.

"Can we go ahead and load the plane?" Mrs. Blair asked Agent Yates, worriedly.

"Sure, as soon as I make this call," Agent Yates said. He pulled open his cellphone. "General Damon- we have a slight situation..."

**

[If seven sleeping teenagers is a situation-] General Damon thought, then did a double take. [Oh wait-]

Megabyte was standing unsteadily and helping Jade up when he accidentally released her hand, sending her sprawling on the floor. "Ami, wait!" he said, then vanished.

"My Lord, not again," Jade sighed, then looked up at General Damon, her eyes pleading to be allowed to go.

**

"Ami-" Megabyte said as he rematerialized, his outburst cut off when he took in his surroundings. He was in a dark stairwell, a thin ribbon of light emerging from beneath the door to the hall. The door clanged against the metal doorway, and he reached out and pulled it open with little caution.

"Ami-" he said again, but all around him were orderlies and doctors and nurses, shouting orders and exclamations. He closed his eyes. *Ami!*

Again he was interrupted as a large doctor collided with him, pushing him up against the wall, the force making him hit the floor. He ignored the ringing in his head long enough for him to hear the doctor mutter, "Should've watched where he was going- teenagers..."

Megabyte pushed his anger away for the present and stood unsteadily again. [Man, I should've had some coffee like Jade said] he thought.

A man with a large and dangerous metal-cutting tool stood with a few of his fellow workmen in the middle of the hallway, staring at the door that Megabyte had welded shut and smoking a cigarette that a nurse was desperately begging him to stamp out. In the next doorway, barely noticeable behind one of the burly workmen, stood Ami.

"Ami," Megabyte said, reaching out for her arm, only to be swung around by a much larger hand on his shoulder. "I'm getting about sick of this-" Megabyte began, raising his eyes to meet those of the stranger.

"You think you are," said the same doctor he had been trying to guard Adam from. There wasn't any malicious intent in the doctor's eyes, but nor did he seem very benevolent. "Come with me, young man, or I'll report you to security, along with your young friend there." He nodded toward Ami.

"You're not gonna report either one of us," Megabyte said angrily, shrugging away from the man's heavy hand. "Ami, come on. We're going back to the hotel."

*he's awake oh my Lord* Ami's voice was breathless.

"_Ami_," Megabyte began again, even so not able to resist the urge to look at the boy Adam had so nearly given his life to save.

**

The girl's eyes tried to open, but as her eyelids pulled back from the tender surface of her eyes something burning and stinging flowed inside, something far different from the air. She closed her eyes again and tried to take a breath to hold. Ahh, now she could feel the warm liquid drench her lungs again. Warm and safe. She shifted in the near-zero liquid and settled back to sleep again.

[I must open my eyes! I must see what is happening!]

She tried struggling against that noisy, infuriating voice, but gave up finally. She steeled her teeth and jerked her eyes open, only to have them reflexively close again.

What was even more disconcerting than the fact that it had stung so, so badly-

all she had seen was blackness.

**

"You're coming with me," the doctor said again, roughly, pulling at Megabyte's arm.

The voice faded from Megabyte's consciousness. Now he knew what Jade had been talking about- Ami and Jonathan looked at each other like long-lost friends.

**begin 10/18**

It was so easy to just float, to just let his mind wander, and wander...

*Jonathan, Jonathan!*

There were two voices. Jonathan could hear the distinctness between them now. Both of them were important and cajoling, and he was drawn to them- but there was pain where they were, and he didn't want that again. Even though he felt that his entire body had been bathed in sour cream, he didn't think that the pain had decreased that much. It couldn't've, he could still remember screaming so vividly...

And then, almost like reflex, Jonathan's eyes snapped open. The light became brighter and brighter, and then relaxed as he blinked. In front of him was a girl he had never seen before, and though almost every angel he'd seen in his life had been white, he wondered if this girl was one.

Then the noise from the corridor caught his attention, and he could barely pull his gaze from her own to look at the doorway. A red-headed boy stood there, staring at him, and a doctor grasped the boy's arm as though he was a criminal. Why were they staring at him? Was something wrong with him-

He remembered again. He remembered the pain, the utter unbearable pain, and the voices, the screams, the coolness and then the shock of pain as he had felt hands on him, and then they had been gone, and then there had been no more pressure...

Jonathan opened his mouth and his deep, dark eyes stared back into Ami's, trying to reach out for something, anything, any hope or relief she could give him, but then the memory flooded back onto the surface of his mind-

*butterfly*

It was so weak, so tiny and frail, but when she heard it her face lit up so brightly, her smile seemed large enough to crack her face, and there was so much concern in her eyes-

He collapsed back down onto the pillow with a smile on his face.

**

One day the girl, the prototype, who had just recently learned to open her own eyes, was being fed the strung carrots and green beans; the next she was trying crackers; the next, the little chunks of hot dog and baked beans. Her eyes seemed to pierce everything and take it in, every day, now that she could see. And there were racial memories, too; some of them, the scientists, hadn't thought it possible, but now upon analysis of her mother's life, they could see where she was getting some of the mannerisms, some of the laughter. They hadn't thought it would be so like a child, though that was a prejudiced thought, held only by non-geneticists of any kind.

And then the clock began to slow down in its ticking, and the girl grew until she was so perfectly like the original, the girl from whom she had been cloned, that it could scare people. They weren't even really sure how they'd made the growth slow down, when it had been so slow in the first place...

All that was left, they had to make her hair curly somehow, and that was how she ended up in London that day.

**

*-where he is and where you are until the two meet*

the two of them met and Jade and Lisa appeared in the stairwell. Jade's face broke into a wide grin.

"What is it? Adam's not awake," Lisa said.

"No, but Ami's so happy right now-"

They turned the corridor and then Jade pulled them back. "Curse, same doctor as before, and he's got Megabyte."

"Maybe if we bring him back, General Damon won't be as mad at us," Lisa said, slightly sarcastically.

"That seems to be all we're good for around now, making General Damon mad, isn't it," Jade replied. She peeked around the corner again. "Let's just go and see what happens."

**

*he's awake enough now!* Ami thought.

"Ami, don't!" Megabyte cried out, but then she and Jonathan disappeared, leaving all the medical equipment and tubes and monitors to squeal in frustration. Megabyte shoved the doctor away with all the force he could muster and teleported, leaving the man startled behind him.

"Now's our time to disappear too, while it's good," Lisa said, tugging at Jade's sleeve.

"I want to go see Adam," Jade said stubbornly, a little put off that Megabyte would leave them both there, though he had no way of knowing they would come to rescue him at that moment.

There was a little color in Adam's face, though it was so pale, he could've blended in with the bedsheet underneath him. Lisa reached out and pushed a stray lock of hair from his forehead, then looked back at Jade, her gaze almost challenging the younger girl to say anything. Jade avoided the glance and stared down at him.

*Adam, Adam, speak to us, speak to me, tell us what you need to come out of this, we will give you anything, we need you-*

They didn't even feel it as Leather-jacketed Man came up behind them, and the sickly-sweet smell of chloroform began to seep into their noses. Adam's heart monitor went crazy, and no one was in the next room to hear, as Ami, Jonathan and Megabyte were currently at the ship.

And no one had even thought to look at Adam's waist, to see the large needle-puncture mark there.

**

~wake up wake up wake up wake up wake up~ the ship kythed urgently.

As Adam regained some semblance of consciousness he attempted to open his eyes, only to see the darkness again. He cursed silently, then sent out a silent query.

A paralyzing pain stretched around Adam's waist, and he wondered if somehow he had a stomach injury in conjunction with that ugly head pain he felt. Then something clicked. The blood in his veins turned to ice water, and an ugly feeling of helplessness and frustration spread over him.

And he knew it was only a matter of time before he was replaced, and he would never see any of them again.

**

General Damon cursed again, when he saw the look in Jones' eyes as he approached him. "Tell every single one of them that there is to be no teleportation, and that's final. Who's left, just Kevin and the two new girls?"

"Yes, just them."

**

Adam fought the darkness, like a wet blanket around him, tried to shove it away only to be stymied. He couldn't sense anyone anymore, he couldn't feel the essence of their minds, and it frightened him. He had to have confidence to feel them, and for now he had none. He could only feel a wordless, nameless terror, creeping over him, waiting for him to let his guard down.

**

The cloned girl with the newly-permed hair walked into the hospital. She knew that they would find her in a few minutes, but she took her time. No use tripping and falling or any of that rubbish when she could go carefully.

She peeked into rooms, sometimes closing her eyes in pain as she saw the patients, sometimes smiling. She reached one room and made a decision; she walked up to the boy on the bed and put her hands against his head.

As Adam's monitors went haywire and he opened his eyes, blinking against the bright light, the men found the girl and began to pull her away. Wordless communication stretched between Adam and the girl as he followed her with his eyes, his expression asking her questions. Most of them she couldn't answer; then, as he struck a nerve, her eyes widened, and then she was out of sight.

Adam slumped back onto the pillow, feeling a brief flash of pain in his abdomen before sliding off again into unconsciousness.

**

*Megabyte, Ami!*

Megabyte's eyes cleared. Ami was kneeling down beside Jonathan's prone form, and Megabyte felt the upsurge of power reeling through the ship as though it was an extension of his own body. A faint blue glow surrounded Jonathan's body, and there was a humming that would've driven any non-TP mad.

"Ami," Megabyte whispered. Seeing that body so still and quiet made him lower his voice. "Ami we shouldn't've done this-" He could barely believe he was saying the words aloud.

*Megabyte!* Kevin cried into Megabyte's mind.

*Kevin, it's all right, don't get your underwear all in a wad!*

Ami stilled both his voices, mental and physical, with a glance, and then bored her eyes into his soul. "This is the only way," she said. "And after this is done Adam can come and then everything will be fine." Her tone dared him to contradict her simple logic.

"Why Jonathan first?" Megabyte asked, coming over and looking down at Jonathan. A wing of red hair fell over Megabyte's eyes and he pushed it back.

Ami shrugged. "Someone had to be first."

*Your father has me at gunpoint, Megabyte, please answer me.*

Megabyte gave Ami a disgusted look and then turned his attention back. *Kevin- oh no oh no-*

Even as Megabyte's body crashed to the floor Ami could feel Kevin's mind reaching out and snaring him, and Megabyte's body vanished in a flash of light.

*'Ami, come back _now_,'* Ami heard Kevin's mind sending her General Damon's directive as he spoke it.

Ami stood next to Jonathan's prone body and placed a palm against his face. "You will be healed," she told him, as though trying to convince herself. "Everything will be all right, in the end." Her voice trembled with the force in which she said it, another prophesy that absolutely had to come true. She vanished, only to leave a tear, which splashed down upon his forehead.

**

"She's gone," Megabyte gasped as Kevin shook him awake. Tears glistened in his eyes but he pushed his teeth against his tongue and they didn't emerge.

*Jade do you hear me Jade please oh Lord what am I going to do*

Megabyte's eyes focussed again and he saw Kevin's worried face. "And Lisa's gone as well."

"Adam- we have to take Adam to the ship- let him- he has to wake up- help me find her- I don't- it doesn't matter what we do as long as she gets back-" Megabyte sounded near breaking.

General Damon regarded his son with a cross between frustration and fear. He had tried to fathom this before. It had escaped him. "Jade isn't the end of the world," he murmured, just to see what would happen.

Megabyte turned to him, and in a fit of anger lashed out, "No, she's not the end of the world, she is the world." One tear shimmered on his lower lashes before sliding down to the flushed skin of his face, and then he was burying his head in his hands. Not a sound emerged. Kevin stood, his gaze slowly traveling back and forth between his friend and General Damon, and the latter didn't like what he was seeing. Ami, upon seeing Megabyte in tears, nearly fell into them herself. Eve's face looked slightly pinched, as though that stomach problem was still affecting her, but the shock in her own face was unmistakable. Sarah dragged a hand through her hair.

"I'm sorry, I didn't know she meant that much to you," Damon said, his voice a whisper again. Megabyte's head twitched slightly at the sound of his father's voice, but the words seemed to echo hollowly in the room. Damon stood and left.

His wife, Megabyte's mother, stood just outside the door. "Let me go in," she said, something in her voice pleading yet something in her eyes accusing. He nodded slowly and she shoved the door open, walked into the room.

**

The feeling nagged Adam. He had to get up. He had to leave this bed and go help someone or something but it felt so good to just lie there and let the machines breathe for him and feed him and he could just lie there in a sleep so deep- just like Jonathan had felt.

Adam's brain pushed outward, like an atrophied muscle, kept still too long.

*Megabyte? Ami? Jade? Lisa? Kevin? Sarah? Eve? Jonathan?*

Adam was pleased he could remember them all, whispering in his mental voice.

**begin 11/18**

Megabyte's head finally lifted, and his mother was relieved. Finally, she thought, he's responding to the sound of my voice.

Actually, Megabyte had been trying to reach out for Jade and hadn't even known his mother was in the room. But now the tickling inside his head became Adam's voice. His head cocked reflexively. *Adam?*

*the damage has been done, go ahead and let's teleport him*

No one knew who had actually pathed the thought, but then Adam stood there, his hospital gown not quite thick enough for the air conditioning in the room. He slumped down on the couch, with something like a low moan emerging from his lips.

"Aspirin," Adam murmured.

Both of the newest trainee TPs,' as Megabyte referred to them, had their eyes set upon Adam. Eve had never seen something like distance teleportation done. Sarah wanted desperately to reach out and see whether Eve was thinking about Adam at all. An atom of jealousy formed inside her stomach. She watched Adam's movements hungrily.

Adam's brown eyes searched the room as Kevin went off for some aspirin, and they settled on Megabyte's mother. She smiled and moved over to the couch beside Adam. Lord, she and Bill had been his surrogate parents for how long now? Years, it seemed.

Adam smiled for a split second into her eyes, and then his lids slid down, almost too quickly. He squelched the moan of pain before it crossed his lips, but he couldn't stop himself from slumping down on the couch and curling slightly into the fetal position. "It hurts," he said, very softly, with so much control in his voice it hurt them physically.

"He's like me," Eve whispered, standing and staring at him. She had never seen him before, but now everything seemed to fall into place. "The pain- is it from right here?" Eve clutched her abdomen, and Adam nodded, gritting his teeth.

"But I saw you- at hospital- why isn't your hair straight?" Adam managed, then reached out with his mind. She felt the slightest brush of his mind against hers, something so personal she jerked back from him reflexively, but he had found what he needed to know. "You're not her. She was exactly like you. The clone that General Damon was fearing."

"Adam, we're having problems," Megabyte finally said, and Adam focussed on him and noted the red streaks on his face.

*Jade?* Adam asked knowingly.

Megabyte's nod was nearly imperceptible, and he stanched the tears ruthlessly. *Jade and Lisa are gone.*

All of them pretended not to notice the fear in Adam's eyes when Lisa's name was mentioned. Not that it had been a secret. Some- well, most- things can't be kept secret around Tomorrow People.

*And you and Jade are-* Adam began hesitantly.

*Connected* Megabyte supplied readily. *Somehow.*

*I can't think* came Adam's mental voice, apologetically. *Let me sleep for a while, and then-*

Megabyte watched Adam down the aspirin and curl up on the couch, Mrs. Damon rubbing Adam's back for a few seconds before she tugged one of the blankets up on the couch.

*Who's doing this to us?* Megabyte called out to the room, agony in his voice. *There can be no more of this. They have to be stopped, right now.*

**

For the first time the clone decided to play innocent. "He was only a boy in hospital, what was the harm-"

"Hush, girl," came the voice of the driver harshly, clipping her own as thoroughly as he would've with a slap. "You _knew_ you could not do that."

Across the distance separating them somehow the moments of birth matched, and Eve, almost like an identical twin, could hear her clone. But only for a second.

"What do you hold me for any longer? What is this delay?" the girl asked the driver angrily.

Eve turned with wide eyes to Sarah. "I... have a clone..."

Mrs. Damon's face turned deathly pale. "No, this can't be true."

Eve turned to her, her own face nearly so white. "I could hear her for a second- sense the way she felt- her thoughts- oh Lord- and Adam thought- she was me- she _is_ me- she will be me once everything- happens-"

*Eve what are you talking about you don't make any sense at all-* someone pathed to her.

"I can't explain it. I don't want to. I want to go to the ship. I want to be there by myself. No more of this." Eve settled onto the floor and began to rock back and forth rhythmically.

Ami walked into the room at that second, and Adam stirred slightly. "Jonathan is there, and we will all benefit for even being in there a second, please, Mrs. Damon, let us, please-"

Sarah and Eve with expressions of slight anticipation (for Eve had never been at the much-famed ship), Megabyte with still a rebellious tear on his lashes, Ami with an expression darker than midnight, and even Adam in his uneasy sleep, seemed to plead with her. "All right," she whispered. "As long as I can come with you. And Bill can find out about this. I wouldn't feel right any other way," she said, shifting her weight away from Adam so she could gently wake him.

**

At the moment that Eve's clone's voice carried to her, the same happened to Eve's clone. The blood in her veins expanded, threatening to choke her heart.

clone'

So that's what I am, the clone Eve thought to herself. A copy. An unwanted twin made years after the fact. I was not delivered. I am all they have taught me to be.

"What are you going to do to me?" clone Eve finally asked the dark man who drove the van. At least he didn't have the fake-gangster air some of the other scientists and henchmen had held around her. He was only in it for the money, and she knew as such. "You must have some plan for me. Otherwise I would be allowed to see sunlight more often, to be normal. Not everyone has this accelerated growth rate, like you said. You lied to-"

Her vocal cords froze as one of his hands flew off the steering wheel, threateningly close to her face. "Shut up," he said softly. "You are as expendable as the rest. You are a tool, that is all."

"So you'll just make another of me, should I fail, is that it?" clone Eve crossed her arms, her face flushing in anger. And not a little bit of suicidal feelings.

"Yes," he finally snapped at her, his patience at an end. "I have half a mind to go ahead and get rid of you. You are rather annoying."

"I'll save you the task," clone Eve said, straining to keep her voice at a speaking tone without betraying her feelings. In a fluid movement she grabbed the steering wheel from his hand and jerked with a not-so-steady movement.

**

Mrs. Damon started from the room after waking Adam, who sat up blearily. The teenagers' eyes followed her hopefully, until a sharp cry came from Eve.

"She's gone," came Eve's voice, palely. Adam's hand stopped from its rubbing sleep from his eye, and he stared at her with the beginnings of alarm. "No-"

"Stop her," Adam cried out as Eve pulled herself to her feet and tried to run from the room. "Don't let her near anything sharp."

"I can't live alone this way-" Eve whispered.

*I'm here, Eve. You aren't alone. You can exist without her. You did for this many years.* Sarah was trying to understand.

Eve turned around and stared at Sarah with barely masked anger in her eyes. But that anger was tempered with deep pain, and Adam recognized this too late. "You have _no_ idea how this feels! You haven't a clue about what it is to know your half and then find she's gone!"

*I do, Eve* came Adam's words, softly. *So does everyone in this room. Through you the pain is our own.*

*It is _my_ pain!* came Eve's shout now, almost greedy in its desperation, its anger. *You cannot take it- it is not yours-*

*I have lost those I cared about* Adam thought, coming within Eve's view. *You know this. You can feel the pain, let loose the floodgates.*

*Not here* thought Kevin desperately, his eyes wide in fear. *All espers in this hotel would go crazy.*

*On the island, then* thought Adam, staring at Eve as though they had made a life-or-death wager. *You will see that you have no monopoly on pain.*

When Mrs. Damon returned to the room Eve was slumped on the floor, her face reddened with anger and pain. Ami and Megabyte looked as though they had been supporting her until the last. Sarah's face was ashen, her hand methodically clutching and unclutching the arm of the couch. Kevin was staring at his hands, and Adam was sitting on the couch, moodily staring off into space.

"He said we could go, if we take him," Mrs. Damon finally said in a hushed whisper.

Wordlessly, all in the immediate group and security detail disappeared, leaving Jones behind to handle all questions.

**

Kryder and Gloria watched the Leather-jacketed Man pace, and neither made any nervous movements. "We saw the crash, sir," came Kryder's steady voice. He brushed back his black hair. His blue eyes were steady and calm. "No evidence of teleportation. Her remains were found later."

"So it is true." Leather-jacket Man stopped pacing. He looked up at the two agents. "Good. We have that of the leader. And the two girls, here. That should serve more than enough. Good. Leave me."

**

"It was- before."

The firelight flickered from the seven faces. The beach gave a splendid view of a starry night, and the security men had respected the privacy General Damon had requested. Now the Tomorrow People and Megabyte's parents formed a loose ring around the fire, eyes flickering nervously from face to face, in apprehension. Adam had not fallen through on his promise.

He spoke aloud, in a clear, steady voice, so the two Homo sapiens could hear his words. None of them had to ask what he meant by before.'

"Someone- important to me- died." Adam's gaze abruptly shifted to the sand, then back up. The leader persona was back in place. He looked around the island, though, with eyes still steeped in grief. "I was trying to help her. I wanted to help so much- I teleported. Here. But- I couldn't get back." A sob barely escaped his lips, and his dark eyes swam with tears that never fell. Not again. "I tried and tried, I was her only help, but the beacon called me back, again and again. And when I could finally leave, she was gone."

Ami leaned toward him, put a hand on his arm. "Adam, you didn't have to hold it in."

"But it's all right now," Adam said, his voice breaking slightly, his smile wavering. His eyes dark with pain.

"No, it's never been all right," Ami said, leaning over. "Here," she said, putting her arms around him and holding him tight. In her mind was the picture of an open hand, ready and waiting, should he accept the offer. But the picture was gently pushed away.

"Thank you," he said, looking at her as he pulled away, and in her mind she saw his burden upon his back, so much heavier th