by E S Richards
It bothered her greatly as well that the safe haven now had a weapon they could use against the mutants. She still battled with herself to try and figure out what their ulterior motive was, what they really wanted to achieve. She wondered about the Zero Cain had brought into the facility as his excuse to get to her. She wondered whether he was coping with the T128 trial or whether Professor Welbeck had almost killed him as well.
As Zahyra thought of T128 and the experimentation labs where her trial had taken place she couldn’t help but think of her father. It was in one of those labs where he had taken his last breath. Where Asher had pulled the trigger and watched him fall to the ground, all the while Zahyra had been convinced it was going to be her who met with death that day.
That was another thing she hadn’t been able to get through to Asher about. She thought back to how traumatised she had been when she’d killed her first mutant. That was just after rescuing Asher from the mutant camp, when she’d been forced to kill his guard and then two mutants who were stationed at the scout hut in the forest.
Those deaths had haunted her dreams for days and probably still would if she hadn’t seen much worse since then. For the first person Asher killed to be his father... she couldn’t imagine how he would be coping with the guilt. And she knew he would feel it too, even despite how much hatred they all carried for Emerson. Zahyra didn’t believe there could be death without guilt; she saw it in Cain’s eyes far too often for all the people he had killed.
“How are you getting on?”
Zahyra caught Cain off guard slightly with her question, causing his shovel to go into the ground at an awkward angle. He must have been deep in thought just like she had been, her basket of fruit almost filled from her absentminded picking.
“Hot,” Cain replied pushing his shovel more firmly into the ground. “How about we get a quick drink?”
Zahyra smiled at Cain and placed her basket on the ground beside her, reaching out instead for Cain’s hand. It brought a smile to his face that matched hers and he leant forward slightly, planting a kiss on her forehead. It made Zahyra feel more happiness than she thought was possible just from the two of them being so comfortable with each other. She had previously thought they wouldn’t be able to act like a conventional couple, especially with how she seemed to affect Cain’s grasp on his mutation, but so far everything seemed to be going fine.
“Sure,” she replied softly, “I reckon we’re about half way through our morning now. We’ll have a later lunch anyway if Asher is coming up after he’s eaten.”
Turning on her heel Zahyra led Cain out of the farmland over to the small stream that ran through the middle of the warped settlement. Zahyra knelt down and filled up the bottle she carried in her back pocket while Cain simply cupped his hands and drank from them. After they had both drank their fill Cain leaned back against a nearby fence and pulled Zahyra into him, making her gasp.
Immediately his lips were on hers, taking all of her breath away. It was the kind of kiss that made her knees go weak, the kind of kiss that made Zahyra wish they weren’t surrounded by other farm workers and they were back in bed together like they had been the night before. Her body exploded with longing as she automatically pressed in closer to Cain, her mouth tingling from the touch of his lips. Then as soon has it had started it was over and Cain pulled away from her with a smirk on his face.
“You have no idea how badly I wanted to do that all night long,” he growled possessively, the deepness of his voice making Zahyra shiver. For once she was completely lost for words, the intensity of the kiss still coursing through her body.
“Come on,” Cain continued, “we better get back to work.”
The rest of the morning passed swiftly. Zahyra spent a lot of time watching Cain work rather than doing any herself, her mind still wandering back to the kiss they had shared and what he had said afterwards. How she wished Asher would take up a spot on the floor again that night so herself and Cain could claim the bed once more.
Her cheeks flushed pink when her little brother arrived and she had to stop her thoughts from going off track. She could never forgive herself if she let on to Asher the crude things she was thinking about doing with Cain.
“How was school?” Zahyra called over to him as she moved away from her workplace, Cain following just behind her. “Why don’t you head over there,” she gestured to a sunny patch by the stream, “and sit down while we grab something to eat.”
As the three of them caught up over lunch Asher was left to do most of the talking while Cain and Zahyra ate. He filled them in on the history lesson he’d had just before lunch, his excited tone making Zahyra smile as tucked into a salad of fresh vegetables. Cain she noticed however was particularly quiet, not engaging in conversation or responding well to questions.
“Are you okay?” Zahyra leaned over and asked him during a gap in Asher’s story. She noticed then that Cain had hardly touched his meal and sweat was starting to form on his brow.
“Yeah,” he replied through gritted teeth. “I just... I don’t think I should’ve kissed you earlier.”
Zahyra’s eyes widened as she realised what Cain was saying. She knew that being in the warped settlement meant he was having to concentrate much harder on controlling his mutation. The added pressure of the suspicious council not helping him to relax. Perhaps it wasn’t such a good idea that they were now sharing a bed and had given into their desires with a passionate kiss earlier that morning.
“Do you want some space?” Zahyra asked cautiously, resisting the reflex of putting her hand on Cain’s knee to comfort him.
“No, it’s okay,” Cain shook his head. “I need to work through this.”
Zahyra nodded and turned her attention away from Cain, allowing him the slight privacy he needed to regain control over himself. Instead her eyes fell on Asher and she noticed that he too had started to sweat slightly.
“Are you alright bud?”
Asher looked up at his sister with a surprised and confused expression on his face. Zahyra could tell he was breathing more heavily than normal and his hands were clenched tightly into fists. If she didn’t know better she would say that he was suffering the same lapse in control that Cain was, but Asher couldn’t possibly have the same mutation as him.
She looked quickly between Cain and her brother, noting the similarities in their appearance. Slowly the cold tendrils of fear started to inch their way around her heart as she wondered whether this was the true form of Asher’s Gen 6 mutation and Cain had set him off in some way.
“I think I’m okay.”
Cain’s voice startled Zahyra slightly as her gaze was now focused on her brother, watching him breathing deeper and deeper, his chest heaving up and now.
“Cain,” she said uneasily without taking her eyes of Asher. “I think something’s happening to Ash.”
Cain was beside her in a second and Zahyra’s eyes flickered to him quickly, feeling a warm sensation of relief as she noticed Cain’s appearance had returned to normal. He had managed to regain control of his mutation.
“He looks like he’s...” Cain trailed off.
“He looks like you just did.”
“Right,” Cain stood up quickly, “let’s get him out of here.”
Zahyra leapt to her feet behind Cain as he bent down slightly and picked up Asher, flinging him over one shoulder. Asher let out a loud roar as Cain held him and Zahyra could visibly see him losing control of himself by the second. She ran behind Cain who was moving at a fast jog, heading away from the farmland and towards a more deserted corner of the settlement.
Asher had begun slamming his fists into Cain’s back, screaming and shouting as he went, drawing the unwanted attention of several members of the warped settlement. Thankfully Cain seemed to have a good idea of where he was going somehow and they reached a small area of trees, obstructing anyone else’s view of them.
“What do we do?” Zahyra asked frantically, a pleading note in her voice.
> “I think we need to let him let off some steam,” Cain replied, still holding Asher firmly against his body despite the hard blows the young boy was dealing to his back.
“But what if he runs off?”
“We’ll have to catch him.”
Cain’s response sounded more like a question than an answer to Zahyra, but she didn’t see what other choice they had. Cain couldn’t just hold onto Asher, he was wriggling around and desperately trying to get free.
“I’ll hold his attention,” Cain continued as Zahyra slowly agreed with him. “He can get out a few punches on me, it’ll be alright.”
“Okay,” Zahyra said at little more than a whisper, “let him go then.”
As Cain loosened his grip on Asher the young boy pushed off him with his feet and fell to the ground in a heap. He quickly jumped up though and let out another roar, causing Zahyra to wince at the sound he produced. Asher locked his eyes on Cain and ran towards him, his fists balled up and ready to attack.
Cain was prepared however and managed to dodge Asher’s first blows, sidestepping easily to one side. He then held out his palms towards Asher, allowing his punches to connect with his hands. A few times Asher caught him off guard and landed a punch to somewhere more painful, but for the most part Cain was agile and avoided any serious injury from Asher’s attack.
As Zahyra watched, once Cain had settled into it their fight looked more like a training session than anything else. She could see Asher slowly running out of energy, his punches flying out with less and less force as he repeatedly hit into Cain’s hands. Cain had ended up backed up against a tree but thankfully Asher didn’t appear to have any intention of running somewhere.
He had shouted and screamed during the beginning of his attack but now that his arms moved more slowly he had stopped screaming and was panting for breath instead. Then in the blink of an eye Asher fell forward, his body landing in Cain’s outstretched arms as the young boy drifted out of consciousness.
Zahyra ran forward, concern thick on her face. “Is he?” She couldn’t finish her sentence.
“He’s fine,” Cain replied quickly as he lowered himself down to the ground properly, Zahyra dropping down next to him and reaching out for her brother’s face. “Think he just exhausted himself, he should come around in a couple of minutes.”
“What just happened?”
“If I had to hazard a guess,” Cain started uneasily, “I would say my almost breakdown triggered his mutation in some way. But as to why his mutation is the same as mine – although unquestionably not as strong – I have no explanation for. Especially as he’s supposed to be even more developed than me.”
“This doesn’t make sense,” Zahyra sighed, placing her head in her hands. “I hate my father for this. I hate him so much.”
“Hey,” Cain said softly, placing one of his hands on Zahyra’s shoulder. “He’s gone now. You don’t have to think about him anymore.”
Zahyra sniffed as she struggled to stop herself from crying. Cain was right, her father was dead and she shouldn’t give him any more of her time. But after seeing what had just happened to Asher how could she not think about him? He was the one who had turned her brother into a mutant. It was him, and the safe haven, that had taken away the boy that Asher truly was. They had taken away her brother.
“Zahyra?”
Asher’s voice lifted her spirits for a moment and she looked up at her younger brother in Cain’s arms.
“Oh Ash,” she threw her arms around him. “What’s happened to you?”
Chapter 8 – Asher
Asher stared up at his sister. A thousand thoughts were running through his mind as he processed what had just happened to him. Finally, he believed he was beginning to understand what his Gen 6 mutation was, and he wasn’t happy about it.
From first thinking he was a telepath, like Cyrus, then thinking he also had the ability to freeze things, his new mutation had taken Asher on a journey. As Zahyra and Cain looked down at him he knew what they were thinking. He was fully aware that he had just had a mutant breakdown, just like the one that Cain had when he lost control of himself. With that third sign of a new mutation within him Asher now had a good idea of what he really was. A copycat.
He theorised that he could borrow mutations from other mutants in some way, although not to their full extent. It was the only thing that made sense to him. When he was around Cyrus, he could hear other people’s thoughts but as soon as the man was far enough away from him the ability faded. When he was near the woman who had frozen stuff, he could do it too, but only on a much smaller scale.
Now that he had been around Cain whilst he was struggling to contain his mutation, Asher had borrowed that as well. He knew he wasn’t borrowing the mutations completely, as he had not been strong enough to get away from Cain and Zahyra.
But it was still clear in Asher’s mind that borrowing mutations was what his own mutation was. What frightened him the most however was that he couldn’t choose when to borrow them, and he couldn’t control what happened when he did. Using Cain’s mutation had shown him that and it also made it blatantly obvious to Asher that he wasn’t safe to be around. He didn’t know what other mutations were around in the warped settlement and if someone else had a dangerous mutation that he accidentally borrowed he couldn’t predict what would happen.
As the silence drew out between the three of them Asher knew he had to say something. He knew he needed to give them some sort of explanation for what had just happened to him, which also meant he would have to explain how he had borrowed mutations in the past. And what Cyrus had said about him keeping an eye on Cain.
What Asher didn’t know to say though was what they could do about it. He had no way of learning about himself without the safe haven and Zahyra would never dream of going back there. Although... Asher stilled his thoughts for a moment, realising that his sister would actually do anything for him. Making a decision in his mind he took a deep breath. He knew what he had to do, and it was him alone who would have to go through with it.
“I think I know what my mutation is,” Asher spoke barely louder than a whisper, already nervous about what he was going to have to do.
More silence followed his statement, although he felt Zahyra take a sharp intake of breath beside him.
“You’re not like me,” Cain replied after a moment. “You don’t have my mutation Asher, there’s got to be some other way of explaining what just happened.”
“There is.”
Asher spoke firmly, pushing himself up and away from Cain and Zahyra so he was sat facing them. They formed a tight circle, both Cain and Zahyra staring intently at Asher, wondering what he was about to say.
“I think I can borrow mutations.”
Once again silence followed Asher’s statement. He could tell by the look in Zahyra’s eyes that she didn’t know what to say to him. He hated how she must be feeling, thinking that he carried the same mutation as Cain. It must be awful for her, having to deal with Cain’s unstable mutation, not knowing when she was safe around him or not.
“Can you explain that?” Cain questioned Asher, leaning forward slightly to show he was interested in the young boy’s explanation.
“Well,” Asher swallowed, knowing everything was going to come out now. “This isn’t the first time it has happened.”
Cain and Zahyra listened intently as Asher told them how he had first thought he was a telepath. How Cyrus had cornered him after his morning classes and broken into his mind. He explained the conversation Cyrus had had with him, revealing the suspicions the man carried for Cain and how he knew he had lied about his true mutation.
Both Cain and Zahyra were shocked to find out what Cyrus’ true mutation was, both immediately trying to remember if they had ever thought about something they shouldn’t have in his presence. Their brows furrowed, realising it was impossible to guess at what the council member must know.
Asher continued his story, explaining how he had managed to f
reeze some bread rolls the night before at dinner. He told them how he had been concentrating on the woman’s mutation and had frozen his own bread roll by accident. He saw the concern grow on Zahyra’s face as he explained that he couldn’t freeze anything himself when he had tried later that night, nor could he hear what anyone had been thinking. Cain clenched his fists involuntarily when he learned Cyrus had asked Asher to listen in on his thoughts, any trust he had carried for the residents of the warped settlement quickly fading.
As Asher neared the end of his explanation, saying it must have been because Cain almost lost control of his mutation that Asher was able to borrow it, he saw the older man shrink down slightly. As quickly as he could Asher reminded Cain that it wasn’t his fault, that he couldn’t help which mutations he borrowed and when, although he could tell it didn’t help stop Cain from feeling guilty.
“That is why,” Asher swallowed before revealing his conclusion to his companions. He knew this would be the hardest part to hear and that Zahyra would likely put up one hell of a fight to stop him. But he also knew it had to be done. He wasn’t willing to put Zahyra in any more danger, not after everything she had already been through for him and certainly not now she was finally beginning to be happy again.
“I’ve decided to go back to the safe haven.”
Zahyra couldn’t help a cry of astonishment escaping her body. Asher quickly looked at her and shook his head, trying to make her agree with him.
“I’m too dangerous for me to stay here,” Asher continued. “I can’t control what mutations I borrow, or when I borrow them. What if something happens and I hurt one of you, just because I can’t control myself? I wouldn’t be able to live with myself. I know you don’t like it and I know you’re going to try and convince me to stay but my mind is made up.
“You can try and teach me how to control myself like you do Cain, but the truth is until I know what I’m truly capable of I won’t be able to. And also, the second I’m near Cyrus again he will know what I’ve learnt. There’s no chance he’ll let us stay in the settlement if he knows the truth about me, he’s already close to kicking us out because of his uncertainties about you, Cain. This is for the best. The safe haven made me what I am so they won’t turn me away. Please, don’t look at me like that, Zar. I don’t want to do this, but you have to understand that I need to. It’s the only way.”
