Brie and Connor spent the rest of their work day in shock, attempting to puzzle out what on earth they had just discovered in those files, locked in that long since abandoned lab. Still wearing a look of shock after she and Connor read and re-read all the Nebula files, Brie just looked back at him with more than a few hundred emotions.
Taking a breath, she had to say something, anything, to try and make sense of any of this, “how is it possible that we have literally no memory of ever being in this place, or ever doing what it says we did? I mean, our names are the only ones on any of these notes. This was an independent project. This was just the two of us. Yet we don’t remember anything about ever even being here, let alone what these say about the children we’ve raised since they were infants? It’s like we just locked up one day, went home, and forgot any of this ever happened! Then moved onto whatever company-approved experiment they had for us next. Then spent the next seventeen years just going home to our alien children; who also apparently have psychic powers that we’ve given them, by the way. And then we just acted like we just adopted them one day, and all was normal and well? How does any of this make any sense?”
Connor just shook his head, obviously having no more of an idea about any of this than his wife did. He then finally managed some response, “it looks like we never gave our bosses any of the details about our pet project though. I guess that’s one saving grace. Chances are, if we had ever told them about these so-called abilities, we never would have seen either of them again; let alone, raised them for the next seventeen years.”
“And I can’t believe we can actually refer to our children as a pet project” Brie scoffed.
“Apparently that’s all they were, originally” Connor stated sadly, “til we suddenly one day, just seemed to forget about any of this, somehow...” he just shook his head again, “and then suddenly we were just the couple who adopted them?”
“At least now we get that ‘loved each other all our lives’ comment” Brie sighed heavily, “But, how do we...” she began, “I just don’t know how to...” she lost the words again, as she looked back down at the scattered files around them with another sad shake of her head; having no idea how to even react to any of this new information at all, let alone how to interact with Sky or Star after this anymore either. And it was only made that much worse by everything else that had happened in their children’s lives that week.
After another long moment, Connor spoke again, “I mean, do we tell them? How would we even tell them?” he shook his head, then looked up with another shocked thought, “what if they actually already know? More about it all than we even did?”
Brie just scoffed, “how could they? They were babies when this lab was locked up” she denied, though bit her lip in thought.
“Psychic abilities?” Connor suggested, though nearly under his breath.
Brie just gave him another look of dismay, “please, we’ve not seen one piece of evidence for that. And we have lived with them for seventeen years.”
“Why would it be in our notes if it weren’t true, Brie? And there’s plenty of other evidence for that ‘inexplicably drawn to each other’ note. I mean we always thought the connection the two of them had was beyond bizarre, inexplicable, possibly supernatural even” he added more quietly.
Brie tried to compose herself in the face of all these new facts. She finally spoke again, “if they had any kind of abilities, then how could this have happened to Sky?” she asked, voice breaking a bit, as she had already spent seventeen years thinking of him as her son, no matter what she now knew he actually was.
Connor sighed heavily then, “I don’t know, Brie. I don’t know much of anything anymore. Even about my children, or my self, apparently” he added with defeat.
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At least nothing any worse had happened at school that day, other than the ever so awkward study hall during second period. Though Curt mostly held his tongue for one more day, amazing as that was. That day was also when Sky started his seventh period study hall instead of gym. But at least he shared that study hall with Alana and Crista, since it was not a real class and therefore students from all four years were there. So at least he had two friendly faces for one period; not that his own face was very friendly in return, as he barely looked up from his desk despite Alana’s shy smile and Crista’s smile of some other emotion as she stared at him for almost the entire hour that they were in that room together.
When Sky and Star got home from school that day, they had managed to beat their parents home once more; not that that was of much significance considering their continued moods. Once again, Sky went up to his room somberly with Star following just as sadly. When he stepped through his bedroom doorway, Star lightly grasped his wrist, still thankful her fingers no longer came into contact with that horrible scar anymore. At least not yet.
As Star simply looked down, her fingers gently caressing his wrist for a few long seconds, he spoke “yes?”
“I just, I miss you” she stated sadly.
“I’m literally standing two inches from you” he returned, which only caused her to look down again, which in turn caused him to sigh sadly.
“I’m sorry. I don’t know how to fix this Sky” she stated as her voice broke.
He then had to force back his own reaction every time he saw her tears, “some things can’t be fixed, Star” he whispered back, his own eyes cast down then.
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“I mean I’m afraid to even try to kiss you, let alone...” she just shook her head.
“Afraid to kiss me cause you think we might end up in another time, place or planet? Or afraid to kiss me cause you think I might break?” he asked more sadly.
“A little of the first; a lot of the second” she whispered back.
Sky let out another sad, shaky breath of his own, as he closed his pretty eyes a moment to gain what little composure he was still clinging to. He then finally took a step toward her and moved his hands to her face, turning her own tear-filled eyes up to meet his. He then slowly moved to cover her mouth with his, though the kiss was gentle, almost tentative, rather than the hundreds of much more passionate ones they had shared in multiple lives now.
When the kiss finally ended, he tried to force a smile, “see, still here” he glanced around them, “and still not any more broken than I already was.”
With that, Star moved to embrace him tightly, “I just don’t know what’s ok anymore. I’m afraid to even hope that maybe we’ll ever be able to be... like we were, again.”
Sky sniffled as he did hug her back then, “you’re not the one that hurt me, Star. You’re the one who’s the only reason I haven’t hurt myself” he confessed as he squeezed her more tightly then.
It wasn’t too much longer before the two had slowly made their way into his room again, and reclaimed their spots on his bed where they had actually fallen asleep together the previous night. Though, this time, it was Star’s head resting on his chest.
“Can I touch you?” she asked him after a long moment of just laying there together.
“Touch me?” Sky raised a brow at that.
“Not sex, but just, being close, feeling your skin under my fingertips. Is that ok, still?” Star attempted to clarify.
“Other than the one time I didn’t wanna hug you cause I was afraid of getting hard after the first time Curt tried shit, have I ever denied you touching rights?” he attempted some small piece of humor.
Star shook her head, “like I said, I just don’t know what you’re ok with anymore.”
“And like I said, you’re not the one who hurt me Star” he told her as he gently kissed her hair again.
Content that that was as close to an answer as she would get, she gently slid his shirt upwards to run her fingers even more gently over his stomach; all the while, taking brief moments to gently kiss the places her fingers had just touched as well.
The two then tensed slightly as they heard their parents arriving home at last, though they made no move to put any more distance between them. “Do we really think they’ll come up here again today?” Star stated with another heavy sigh,
“Does it really matter at this point?” was his only answer as he again let out a matching sigh.
When Brie and Connor entered the house, they both still looked more than distraught about how to even deal with their children/genetic experiments at all still. Despite being two brilliant genetic engineers who finally created the first two viable human-alien hybrids; even they couldn’t figure that one out in just one afternoon, apparently. They almost seemed relieved that the two lovers were upstairs together right then. Odd as that change of their world view was.
The two did decide to let Sky and Star be, at least until dinner time. Mainly, they were just hoping that some idea of how to deal with any of this new knowledge would come to them. Especially when they were already dealing with another life-altering event in their children’s lives as it was.
When Sky and Star did join them for dinner, it was once again a silent meal wherein hardly any food was touched by anyone around the table. Finally, Brie found something to say, hoping she would only receive a blank look from each of the teens in return.
“So, have you two ever heard of something called Project Nebula?” she asked, trying to sound conversational. Though, when Sky and Star both snapped their heads up, what little color they had draining from their faces, their entire bodies tensing, Brie knew that this was not going to be an easy conversation in any way.
“What?” Sky choked on the word, as Star was too frozen to even speak at all then. As the last time they had ever heard themselves referred to by that name was the last night of their year of sexual slavery; the year that had culminated in them killing over fifty people, with only their minds... while forcing themselves to be intimate with one another again, just to save what little was left of themselves at all.
Connor just looked at them with his own shock, as Brie tried to force her shaking voice to continue, “I take it that’s a yes?”
“That never happened here. That didn’t happen in this life” Sky denied, very nearly hyperventilating again.
“This life?” Brie asked, with further confusion, voice still shaking with many emotions, one of which almost seemed to be fear.
“Where did you hear about Project Nebula?” Sky asked, forcing back his own emotions as the only thing that had made this life bearable was those erased memories; erased memories that seemed to stay completely erased for years, and now were suddenly there again, inexplicably so.
“I think I asked you first” Brie stammered as she cautiously watched them both.
Sky’s voice breaking in desperation, “please tell us what you know about that. Please” he pleaded.
Brie swallowed a bit, “it’s kind of hard to know what we even should say, when we don’t know what you know.”
“Well we know everything. Your turn” he stated with the same breathless tone, still frozen there just as Star was, but in silence.
Brie took a deep breath, trying to force herself to be as open as she could. After all, these were still the same children she had raised as her own all their lives, weren’t they? “Do you know why Connor and I don’t remember anything about any of the stuff that we found in those files today?”
“Files?” Star finally spoke, her voice just as strangled as Sky’s had been.
“The files about how we made you” Connor supplied, trying to call on his own bravery as he looked between the children he too had raised all their lives.
“You found files about how you made us?” Star whispered as she cast a desperate look at Sky.
“And we don’t have any memories of being there in that lab at all. Or doing what we supposedly did to... create the two of you. Or why we suddenly just left the lab locked up never to return for nearly two decades, while we just decided to raise you as our children instead. We don’t remember any of that” Brie stated warily, “but you two say you know all about that?” she asked as she tried not to make the words sound like an accusation, though she fell short.
Sky finally took a brave breath as he forced his words forth, “this isn’t the first time we’ve lived our lives, mom” he dropped his volume on the last word, then continued, “the first time, you and dad did know all about us. All about what we were. And we were the ones who didn’t know a thing about what we are, or why we felt the way we did, or could do the things we could do. And in that first life... when you did know... you and dad, and your bosses; you destroyed us in every way possible, just for the sake of your fucking experiment. The only way we could survive at all was to make you forget. It was the only way we could save ourselves from the two of you.”