Jake Wayne stood in a mansion in California.
He gazed through the bedroom's wide window as the sun shone its light against the grass outside. After fighting for his life inside a Freeman base, he savored the safety Sabrina's home provided. Brown walls surrounded him, not that Freeman building's gray ones. His socks touched carpet that was the same color as this bedroom's walls.
Kevin had flown a gray Freeman spaceship from Washington to California and he had parked it in the backyard. One day Jake might ride in the spaceship again.
He had called Peter. He knew Jake was safe. Peter and Maggie had escaped the Freeman base together, and they were at the mansion in Seattle.
"Jake," Sabrina said.
Jake turned. Sabrina stood near the doorway, holding Ben. She didn't wear her hoodie. The red blanket that had been wrapped around Ben wasn't wrapped around him anymore. He wore blue clothes.
"Tell me what Maggie told you," Sabrina said. "Please. Not knowing is really bothering me."
Maggie had whispered five words to Jake, words that had made him run away from her and Peter. Jake frowned.
"Just say it, Jake," Sabrina said.
"Lock Tannis is a Soynite," Jake told her. "That's what Maggie told me. It's exactly what she told me. Lock is a Soynite, but Maggie didn't elaborate. She didn't get the chance to, because I ran away from her."
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Sabrina shook her head. "No. Lock can't be a Soynite. That's not possible. He has a strife sword, and he shouldn't be able to use any Saves if he's around strife."
"He might be immune to strife. I don't know how that's possible, but it is."
If Maggie had indeed told Jake the truth, Lock had been born a Soynite, not a Freeman. Jake couldn't transform himself into a member of a race he didn't belong to. But Reed could.
"I think Lock is Reed Pisces," Jake said. "He was able to shapeshift. And we both know that shapeshifters can transform into Freemans. Reed was angry at Theo Majestic, so it makes sense that he started the Invasion. He must be Lock. And he can't be recognized as a Soynite by sight, otherwise the Soynites who saw him in the past would've told the Soynite public what he was. Lock is one of us."
"Why didn't you tell me and Kevin that earlier?" Sabrina asked.
"I was going to tell you," Jake said. "But I wasn't going to do it inside that Freeman base. I don't even know how Maggie knows that Lock is a Soynite. There's so much I don't know about her."
When Jake met Maggie, he hadn't known Lock was a Soynite. She had told Jake the truth inside that gray building, the one where Kevin had informed Sabrina she was Theo's daughter. She had found Ben in that building. His birth parents had supported Lock, who might be Reed, whose hatred of the Freemans had gotten him exiled.
Sabrina sat on the bed, and Jake put his hands on the blue comforter. When they were five, they used to sleep together sometimes. Ben would sleep in one of the cribs within the mansion. With his Soynite mother's help, he might reach adulthood.
"Call Peter," Sabrina said. "Get Maggie on the phone."
"No," Jake said. "I don't want to think about Lock Tannis. We've dealt with enough horrors today. I don't want to talk about one. Lock is a Soynite, and the only thing we can do is try to kill him. That's what matters."
"We won't just try to kill him. We will do it."
"You shouldn't believe something just because you want it to be true, Sabrina."