February 2017

Alex's screams wake Matthew Moore up.

It's four in the morning, Matthew runs downstairs to meet him. Amanda jumps out of bed and meets them there. Seconds after, Rachel gets out of her room, but stays hidden on the top of the stairs instead.

"Alex, what's going on?!" Amanda looks around. "Where's Amy?"

He looks around in confusion, everything surrounding him is strange. The table by the door is exceptionally small. He has been there before, knows it isn't its size. Matthew and Amanda's faces are blurred and their voices too low for him to understand. She shakes him, shouts, and he can't hear her.

Matthew makes him go numb.

"Where is Amy, Alex?!" Amanda grabs his shoulders.

"Deviants came to our house. Amy amplified my teleport so I could get away. She stayed."

Matthew logs in on his phone to the forums and shows her the video that circulates. Someone films Amy's house, demanding Matthew to show up or they would kill her. The person says in great detail exactly how and how much she would suffer. A few moments later, the house explodes. No one makes it out alive and the video stops.

"Why didn't you bring her?!" She easily breaks his arm.

"I couldn't bring her," he says with no demonstration of pain.

She grabs him easily, despite him being heavier than her, sweat fills her entire body, her veins show in her forehead and neck, her face completely red, she throws him against a wall near the stairs.

Rachel covers her mouth to stop her from screaming. She wants to help him, stop all the pain that he's going through. But her parents are too powerful.

"Why did she stay behind?!" Amanda goes near him and punches through the wall next to his face.

She notices his necklace hanging beneath the plain shirt. A silver A. She takes it out of his chest carefully. It isn't his to have.

"I couldn't bring her too. I tried. It just didn't work."

"As useless as his parents," Matthew rolls his eyes and releases Alex from his control.

The boy starts screaming again, holding his neck, searching for the necklace Amanda took from him.

"Amy died because of you!" Amanda continues to punch through the walls.

Matthew puts his hand on his forehead and controls her emotions, she falls on the floor with no expression.

"We can't have you destroying everything, Amanda. Please calm yourself, dear. Alex," he comes near him, "she's right. This is your fault. Which means that tomorrow you'll start training. Or better yet. Today!"

Matthew grabs a baseball bat nearby, is about to hit him when a fireball breaks it.

"Come out, Rachel!" Matthew sighs out loud.

"Leave him alone!" She sends another fireball this time against her father's back.

His shirt burns, but his skin doesn't. Amanda gets up again, screams, and throws part of a door against Alex and a chair against Rachel. She missed both, but if she hadn't, it would've caused great harm.

"Enough, Amanda." He snaps at her, and she stops even though he isn't controlling her emotions. "Come here, dear," Matthew tells Rachel calmly.

Rachel doesn't move at all.

"Honey, let's talk," he sees that she's in the middle of the stairs.

She slowly comes down and puts herself between her father and Alex.

"Amy's dead, Rachel."

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No... not Amy... The one who always protected her.

"All because of Alex. He killed her..." Matthew smacks his tongue.

"I didn't-" Alex begins hyperventilating.

"Oh, but you did, Alex. She could've saved herself and instead saved you! You. Killed. Her. It's on you." Matthew pauses and caresses his silver hair. "And now, my dearest. You must grow stronger."

He pulls Alex to his chest and grabs with the other hand her shoulder. He isn't hurting her, but she still freezes.

"So do you, Rachel. Our kind is against us. Those ungrateful idiots! We need to show them they need us. We'll kill as many humans as we see fit. And for that, we need strength. We don't have the numbers, so we need the power. It's time. You'll commit the fatal flaw."

"Dad, I... don't... want to," she whispers.

"What was that, sweetheart?" He pulls her closer.

She looks at Alex and the boy is breathing heavier and faster than before.

"It's just..." She looks at Amanda. "Mother, please."

Amanda is back on the floor, by a corner, completely numb.

"Rachel, don't you want to take our kind out of their misery and subjugation? That's your fate. I'm proud of you."

"That's a lie," she whispers.

"Of course, it is. What reasons would I have to be proud of you? We were so happy when you tested positive, and our lives filled with hope when you showed the power of element control. But now, I wish we'd got ridden of you like we did to your brother and sister."

Rachel tries to take a step back, but her father holds her tighter. She didn't know about her older siblings. Newborns killed when they tested negative. Although her father was capable of many monstrous things, she thought he had to draw the line somewhere. Turns out, there's no line.

"Have you seen the news? The human side has this girl. The 'most-powerful-in-the-world' they say. Emily something. And what do we have? Rachel, you're my daughter. No deviant can be more powerful than you. It's your birth right, and the fatal flaw will give it to you."

Matthew releases them both. Telling Alex to go to the basement. That's his place. Rachel goes back to her room on the first floor. When she looks in the mirror, her aunt Amy is beside her. Nothing more than a side effect of her element control.

Why did you leave me? She wants to run away wherever she can.

Her chest aches, and tears pour down her face. She feels a fuzzy sensation on her stomach, but it isn't hers. Ever since she was seven, she would sometimes feel it. Sometimes laughter, warmth, and others, complete loneliness. She tries to focus on this other sensation to overcome her own misery.

On her parents' room, Amanda tries to close the door, but she can't feel her arms.

"If she doesn't want to commit the fatal flaw, we can't force her."

"You shouldn't have used the power on him. He's not worth the price." Matthew closes the door and grabs her into his arms and takes her to bed. "And we can force her."

"That's not how it works." Amanda's legs twitch.

"Dear, I'm glad to see you in pain. Next time you'll think twice before wasting your power like this. About Rachel, we'll find out soon enough if her reluctancy will prevent her from getting it."

"How will she do it?"

"I'll bring that kid that she keeps playing with and have her kill him."

"Is that necessary?"

"We want the strongest fatal flaw that she can achieve. The greater the pain, the stronger the power."

That's a myth. Her cramps intensify.

"The boy is a deviant, Matthew."

"Don't you want to avenge Amy? We need to be stronger for that. I promise you we'll make them all pay. The boy has a useless power. Nature growth or something. Not big of a loss."

The same person who said countless times before that every deviant life matters, even the ones whose ability doesn't develop, even those are extraordinary and deserve a place above humans.

On the next day, Matthew invites Andrew, a small, underdeveloped, 15-year-old boy to their house. Amanda feeds him a cookie, and he collapses unconscious.

Rachel sees him, her best friend, the one who has been with her the longest, her person. And yet, her heartbeat goes through the roof, she shoves him, screams at him. Deep down she knows that it's her father's manipulation.

You can fight it.

But she can't. She has failed time and time again to stick up to him, to stop him from hurting her, and once more she couldn't.

Alex wonders if he can save the day. He could control Matthew's mind. He immediately puts away the courageous thought when Matthew glances at him smiling.

Finally, she is too tired to fight it any longer. From her hands ice spikes form. Tears roll down her face while she closes her eyes.

"Let's hear it, I'm dying of curiosity. Not as much as him, sure," a cackle echoes.

"Nothing, father," her voice begins to shake, and she forces herself to keep it firmly, "I have no fatal flaw."

"So anticlimactic. Get rid of it." He leaves.

"Rachel, I'm so sorry," Alex rushes to meet her, puts his hand on her shoulder and she immediately pushes it away.

"Why didn't you save him?!" Her eyes fill with tears.

"Your father would've killed me if I tried!"

"At least you would've tried."

I couldn't have tried. Alex leaves her in peace.

Rachel shakingly burns the boy's body and uses the wind to keep it under control. A few minutes later, it's reduced to ashes, and in his memory, she makes the ashes dance like he used to. With no coordination, but beautifully. Her entire body burns as well and next to the tree where the ashes fell, Amy looks at her, with a disappointing expression.

She knows the consequences of lying to her father, and that he wouldn't leave her be. There isn't that much time until turning 16 and he'll keep training her and Alex. Her birthday is less than four months away. That's her timetable to force him to back off.

There are three options. One, Alex's mental control. Two, her father's emotional manipulation. Three, her mother's super strength.

Rachel has no plan, and time isn't on her side. The odds of succeeding are far from ideal. But she has to do it. She can't envision a fate worse than her reality.