JACKIE:

“What is this important news?” Zayne asked.

Grace shrugged. “Maybe if you saw your daughter every once in a while, she wouldn’t act so crazy.”

“Enough you two! Follow me.” I walked toward the village gate. Luckily, my stubborn parents followed.

After another trek through the woods with constant complaining, this time from both Grace and Zayne, we ended our journey in front of the warehouse.

“How is it being back here?” I asked them.

“Where are we?” Grace asked. “I’ve never been here before.”

“Interesting.” I was still piecing together the disparities in the timelines.

My mom’s voice was laced with annoyance. “What is all this about? I’ve lost patience for your nonsense.”

“Ah, that’s right…” I muttered as the puzzle pieces fell into place in my mind.

Grace never found Zayne in that cage. They must have met under more normal circumstances. They knew less than I thought. My mom looked clueless, but I saw a glimmer of recognition in my dad’s eyes, which he tried to hide by looking at the ground. I needed to unlock more to see the big picture.

“Mom, what’s your parent’s wedding anniversary?” I asked.

“Why? Drop this wild goose chase and come back to the complex. I need a shower. I hope this place still has running water.”

“Mom, please!”

She gave a heavy sigh and said, “May twentieth.”

I entered zero-five-two-zero into the rusty old keypad. A green light flashed, and the door unlocked.

That got my mom’s attention.

We entered.

I didn’t know exactly what we’d find, but it turned out as gruesome as I imagined. The shelves that greeted us were full of torture devices. It reeked of death and decay. Along the back wall, a line of cages had rotting carcasses inside; half Phoenix, half human. Life Rite clearly still made mutants in this new timeline.

Beatrice’s decision not to take the serum spared Zayne, but others were not so lucky. Mark never stopped, even after Beatrice begged him to.

Grace choked on the dirty air. “What is this place?”

“Mom, you need to see this.”

There were hundreds of Life Rite manuals on a shelf. I opened one and showed Grace the mutation photographs inside. She flipped through them, slowly at first and then quickly.

“What the hell is this? Explain yourself, young lady,” my mother said curtly.

I looked for Zayne’s support. He shifted his eyes to the floor instead of meeting my gaze.

“It’s time you knew the truth,” I explained. “Life Rite harvests the Bennu eggs on this island and injected them into local boys they… kidnapped.”

Grace shook her head. “No way. We use those disgusting eggs for the face creams. We don’t make injectables…”

Zayne looked at Grace and said, “Listen to Jackie. She speaks truth.”

His eyes dropped to the dusty ground again, so I continued.

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

“They injected the serum into the locals, and it caused them to mutate, morph, rebirth like a… phoenix.”

Zayne locked eyes with me, ashamed that I knew his darkest secret.

“Mark takes their blood to make another serum that he gives to the highest bidder. The recipient can rebirth without the mutations. Get it?”

“Rebirth? Like, become immortal?” Grace laughed. “My dad wishes.”

“Grace, it’s true,” Zayne asserted.

“How would you know?” she asked.

“They tested on me as a boy. Locked me in a cage for many moons…” Emotion choked him.

“No… No, they didn’t… Why wouldn’t you tell me sooner?” Grace’s voice was tinged with confusion and regret.

“One day, your father released me. Paid me to keep quiet and… we met.”

“No, I don’t believe you.”

Grace stood baffled as Zayne continued. “When a man like Mark Claudi shows you a beautiful daughter… When I saw you, it was love. I protected your father’s secret.”

“I don’t understand.” Grace took a step closer to Zayne. “Why would you keep such a scandalous secret from me?”

“I didn’t want you to know my dark side.”

In front of the cages, Zayne took off his long-sleeved shirt. Dry, scaly skin covered most of his fit body.

“Your eczema!” Grace cried.

Zayne shook his head. “It’s not that…”

He grit his teeth and flexed his muscles. His veins pulsed underneath his skin.

With a scream, he exerted all his energy to make every muscle in his body work overtime.

Grace gulped as his veins lit on fire. Two vibrant wings burst from the back of his arms. Tears streamed down his face as he transformed in front of us. The scaly wings fell to the floor, massive and glowing.

Grace instinctively took several steps back.

Zayne said to her, “Should have told you, Grace, but what would you think? I’m a monster because of Life Rite.”

It pained me that Zayne still mutated. I guess it was the most probable outcome…

He hadn’t morphed into Firestorm, but Mark’s dark secret still marked him. Beatrice’s sacrifice saved him from more injections, enough to stop the gruesome mutations from progressing further.

Grace cried as she looked back and forth between the training manuals and Zayne, struggling to take it all in. “Why do you still work for him? Here, with those disgusting eggs?”

“My people protect the eggs. We make sure they don’t take too much,” Zayne rationalized. “They don’t test on my people anymore.”

Tears came to Zayne’s eyes, knowing Life Rite still tested on someone.

My broken parents looked into each other’s eyes and searched for a lifeline.

I had faith in their love, but did they? They spent an eternity seeking the possibility of staying together, but it was never the most probable outcome. Was Beatrice’s sacrifice enough to tip the scales?

I whispered, “I love you, Dad. You’re beautiful, inside and out.”

“Thanks, Jackie.” Zayne smiled at me and looked back to Grace for her reaction…

As my parents stared into each other’s souls, their deep, magnetic connection snapped back into place. The fire was still burning, and I was the spark to reignite the flame.

Grace made the first step. She caressed Zayne’s face, then his wings.

“Yes, you’re still beautiful…”

He recoiled under her touch, but she didn’t relent. Her fingertips grazed his scaly chest and arms. There was no cage between them. Nothing stood in their way except their own limitations.

“I wish you told me sooner,” she said.

“You already got heat for marrying a poor kid from Bennu. Face it, I ruined your life. After Jackie was born, you got invited to parties again. That seemed good for you, to be accepted.”

“We can’t live in the boxes society puts us in,” Grace reminded herself. “You’ve always been more important to me, Zayne. I chose you then, and I choose you now, dear.”

“You do?”

Grace nodded. “I do.”

Zayne grabbed Grace by the waist and gave her the kiss of a lifetime. She caressed his powerful arms.

I clapped, happy for them. It wasn’t the first time I saw my parents make out, and I hoped it wouldn’t be the last.

I was finally healing some wrongs of the past, but there was still a lot of work to do.

Grace blushed when she pulled away from their kiss. “Thanks for showing me the truth, Jackie.”

“I can’t believe Mark still moved forward with Life Rite, despite B’s best efforts to stop him,” I whispered.

“What do you mean?” Grace asked.

“I guess it was the most probable outcome,” I mumbled, still piecing it all together. “He’s still making mutants, and if it works how I think it does, his drone could end up killing literally everyone!”

“Jackie…” my mom started to say, but I cut her off.

“We’ve got to stop Mark. We’ve got to take down Life Rite!”

“Woah, Jackie. Hold on a sec,” Grace said. “I…”

“Mom, your dad kidnapped and tested on kids. He turned them into mutants. Now he’s developing a technology that could end the human race. We’ve got to stop him. I know I sound crazy, but I am not on drugs again. You need to trust me.”

“He also helps a lot of people,” Grace declared. “He cures diseases. And the Institute is doing important work with the Grid. I regret not getting more involved in that endeavor. There’s important work still to be done…”

“Lives are at stake, Mom. If Mark’s drone gets online, it means global genocide.”

“Don’t be so dramatic, Jackie.”

“Zayne’s truth is the tip of the needle, Mom. Get ready for your mind to be blown.”

A bell rang, capturing our attention.

“The dinner bell still goes off?” Grace asked aloud.

Zayne shook his head. “Never still you left Bennu all those years ago.”

A gaggle of Bennu birds called in the distance.

Someone else was in the complex, and the island was awakening from its slumber.