Mark felt someone touching his neck and jerked awake. He couldn't remember passing out, but his thoughts all came rushing back. Snatching the wrist of the person, he sat up quickly. Thinking it was Matthias, he squeezed the wrist hard and yelled out. "Where is Sean?!" A soft whine caught his attention enough to bring his adrenaline down. Matthew sat back on his heels, whining out. "He's gone. Matthias had him taken to the Slums. He's in a container... It was all over the news." Mark released Matthew, apologizing to him. Matthew rubbed his wrist, refusing to look at him as he mumbled out. "I'm sorry... I tried to warn you..." Mark groaned, rubbing his sore neck. As he took in his surroundings, Mark asked him curiously. "Why are we at your house?" Matthew gestured weakly to the door, upon answering. "Damage control, I guess. Mother had Matthias's new guards drop us off here. They're too busy addressing the public... The people are in a state of shock. Between them tranquilizing you and Matthias... Well, let's just say that people are seeing a side of the Elites they hadn't seen before."

Mark frowned at the way Matthew was avoiding his eyes. Matthew usually shied away when he was embarrassed by something, but this felt different. He seemed almost depressed. Reaching out, he touched Matthew's chin to turn his head slowly. Matthew flinched at his touch but let him look. Across Matthew's cheek was a deep cut that was surrounded in a deep purple bruise. The bruise was creeping up Matthew's eye making his soft brown eyes seem darker. Matthew always bruised so easily. Matthew swallowed, looking Mark in the eyes as he said under his breath. "He's never hit me before..." Mark curled his fingers back, his knuckles cracking as he told him in a dark voice. "I'll kill him." Matthew rolled his eyes, stating out in a cool tone as he got up. "Yes... That will be great for the people to see... An Elite killing their own. Come on, Mark. It's just a bruise. It will heal." Mark tried to stand up, but he was still too light-headed. Leaning over his legs instead, he told Matthew seriously. "This is about more than that and you know it."

Matthew tossed the tranquilizer dart into the sink, replying with a heavy sigh. "I know... but Mark... I'm scared. How did things get this bad? We aren't supposed to feel... and now..." Matthew drifted off, his eyes going to a bedroom door. Mark briefly glanced at the door. Matthew's apartment was similar to his own. The biggest difference was that Matthew's home only had one floor and two bedrooms. Mark slowly looked back at Matthew, asking him curiously. "Is Nate here?" Matthew nodded, leaning over the counter to hide the fact that he was shirtless. Matthew didn't like showing so much skin if he could help it. After he settled down, Matthew told him casually. "Mother is under the impression that I'm 'experimenting' with him. So, she doesn't care that I have him... Nate saw what happened on the news and when I got back... He attacked the Valkyries and... I had to knock him out." Mark forced himself to get up, moving to the bedroom door.

Opening the door carefully, he peeked inside to see Nate sleeping on the bed. Mark waited to make sure that Nate was breathing. From across the room, Matthew told him casually. "I didn't know what else to do... He's going to hate me now..." Mark saw Nate's bandaged hands that were stained in blood, before closing the door. Trying to sound comforting, he told Matthew. "He won't hate you. You saved his life the only way you knew how. They would have killed him otherwise. And dead men are useless to us right now." Matthew hugged himself, bowing his head to stare at the counter as he mumbled out. "Ya... I guess." Gesturing to his shirtless look, Mark lightly asked. "What happened?" Matthew huffed, lifting his head as he told him carelessly. "It got torn as I tried to pull Nate away... It was stained with blood anyway. I just haven't taken the time to change. I've been... restless and worried." Mark nodded, then moved closer to the counter to ask him seriously. "The paper. What was on it? Why didn't Mother test him like she promised?"

Matthew rested on his elbows more, answering casually. "That's the thing. She promised that she'd test him... but she didn't say that either of you would have to be there for it. Mark, she already knew his results... Between the samples they took before he was auctioned, the DNA from his Pet Expo and the blood she recovered from your home drain. She didn't need him there. She had me double check all her work publicly just to confirm that none of it was tampered with." Mark rested a hand on the counter to steady himself, saying under his breath. "Then he does have the genes..." Matthew piped in curtly in a serious tone. "That's not all though. It revealed something else." Mark looked at Matthew with interest. Matthew removed the crumbled paper from his pocket. Smoothing it out, he slid it to Mark for him to see. Mark looked over the weird DNA information. He could see two different matches... but didn't understand what they were for. Pointing to the paper, Matthew told him bluntly. "Do you see it? Mark, Sean's blood tested positive for the genes AND he tested positive as a candidate to be an Elite!"

Mark tensed up, stating out bluntly. "That's impossible!" Matthew nodded, chuckling out lightly. "That's what I said. I checked it repeatedly. I thought it was a glitch. But no... according to this... He tested higher than Matthias. This is what Matthias stole from my lab! With these results... Matthias should never have been an Elite! If Sean had been tested, he'd be one us. Sean's results were higher than even me!" Mark leaned on the counter, staring at the paper blankly as he mumbled out in disbelief. "But how can that be? To be an Elite you can't have the genes... you have to have the purest and healthiest strain of DNA." Matthew smirked, telling him excitedly. "I don't know... but I can't help thinking that Mother was working with DNA before your creation. And I have a theory... What if she chose Elite's from a group of children that were going to be sent to the Slums? What if these genes aren't what we think?" Mark thought about it a second, then said in a soft voice. "Those with exceptional attributes... Shit... How did I miss this?"

Matthew straightened up, telling him excitedly. "Because we never look at the Slums. It is probably why Mother let me continue my research, despite everything! Because she had already looked into it. She found a solution..." Mark moved away to take a seat on the couch, saying with worry. "That's why Mother is so scared about this getting out... That is why everything is falling apart... on a genetic level... we're just pampered Slum Dogs." Matthew winced, saying reluctantly. "But that means that Matthias... Oh, Mark... What are we going to do? Matthias will expose everything and who knows what damage he's going to cause!" Mark locked eyes with Matthew, seriously telling him. "I think we should worry more about what Mother will do to him. If she has known all this from the start... then that means she's only using him to achieve something at this point." Noticing the remote on the coffee table, Mark turned on the TV. Overhead, the round light began to project a large image on the wall of the news. Turning up the volume a little, Mark watched Matthias giving a long speech about the incident to the reporters and people. What was most interesting... Mother wasn't present.

Somewhere unknown, Sean woke up in a dark room on a bed. As he sat up groggily, the lights came on. The room was rather narrow like a mini apartment without any real color other than black. Looking over his body, he noticed he had been changed into a set of grey patients clothing. The clothes were light weight and comfortable but made him very uneasy. Where was he? Swinging his feet to the floor, he felt the cold metal beneath his bare feet and jerked back onto all fours over the single bed. Sean looked around more closely at the place, letting his thoughts rush back. Leaping off the bed, he ran toward the metal door and banged his hands on it. There was no door handle or scanning pads. He was trapped inside a narrow container! Rushing to the dresser, he dug through more clothes like the ones he was wearing and nothing more. The long kitchen counter directly beside his bed only had plastic silverware for a single person to use. In one corner was a toilet and a stand in shower. While at the very end, the wall rippled from its dark color and into a TV.

When he touched the TV, he locked his jaw. He only felt the hard wall. The TV had to of been built into the wall. On the screen, a man that he didn't know began to state aloud. "Hello, Patient 207. I'm sure you are confused and scared. Let me explain. You and the rest of your Slum citizens have lost your free-range privileges. From this point on. This is where you will be staying. Here we will give you the individual care you require. If you show improvement in your behavior. We may transfer you to Valhalla if you so desire. Otherwise. You are home. You are safe. And you will no longer have to worry about gang wars. So, relax. We'll be playing appropriate movies for you shortly. But first. Your breakfast." Sean heard something happen on the counter and backed up. The kitchen lights clicked on, swirling over the countertop as something teleported in. A single nutrient bar that was a dark brown in color and covered in a slick clear resin. Sean's stomach growled but he refused to eat it. He knew what that stuff was coated in now. He refused to get food poisoning again.

Backing up, he sat down on the bed and curled himself up in the thick blanket. The place was cold. Huddling himself back against the wall, he bowed his head to rest his forehead on his raised knees. He didn't know what to think of this place. He just prayed that Nate wasn't sitting alone in one too. The TV began to play a movie that was clearly meant for babies. It stressed the importance of being good and respectful. Sean tried to ignore it, but the songs were the worst! It was then as the songs started and seemed to repeat a few times, that Sean heard the screaming from outside his container. Men were screaming in frustration and begging for the stuff to stop. Sean covered his ears, huddling under his covers as tears started to fall from his eyes. This wasn't a home... it was a brainwashing prison! Sean closed his eyes, trying to block it all out as he pretended that he was anywhere else. For a time, it had worked. As the movie finally ended, a silence fell upon everything and a familiar feminine voice said. "Hello, Sean."

Sean peeked out from under the blanket to see the hologram of a woman sitting on the counter. She was wearing a sparkling red dress with no shoes. Sitting up, he put his back to the wall and answered softly. "Hello. You must be Mother. I've heard a lot about you." Mother's red lips broke out into a smirk, before she told him pleasantly. "Yes, but you can call me Hestia." Sean eyes narrowed on her closely, before asking suspiciously. "Why are you here? Shouldn't you be with Mark?" Hestia looked away to brush a hand over the counter as she said coolly. "I'm giving him time to adjust. I'm here because I thought we could have a little chat." Sean's fingers curled tightly around the edges of the blanket, holding it closer to himself. This couldn't be good. Hestia turned her bright green eyes on him, starting in. "I never intended for things to get this far. I wanted you to make him happy... but I didn't want him to love you." Sean shrugged, trying not to provoke her when he asked. "Why not? What's so wrong with that?"

Hestia turned her eyes up to the ceiling before she took a breath and said casually. "You can never love him as much as I do. This world is dark and vile. He needs my protection to keep him safe. I have been everything he has ever needed... I'm not going to let you take him away from me." Sean licked his lips, tilting his head back against the wall as he dryly retorted. "I see... You don't know how to let him go. A human mother would know that... but you don't understand. You're treating him like a Pet. You raised him and now you think you own him. I feel bad for you... because no matter what you do... He'll never be able to love you the way you want." Hestia smirked, answering coolly. "Not as I am now." Sean's heart lurched. He didn't like the way she had said that. Hestia grinned after noticing she had gotten his full attention. Lifting a hand to look at it, she told him softly. "I have to thank you. All this time... I thought he preferred girls. Now I know. I'm glad that I made two." Sean leaned forward a bit, asking bluntly. "What do you mean?"

Hestia answered promptly in a sweet voice. "With time. When he realizes he can't get you back. I'm going to comfort him... in my new body. He craves physical contact... I can give him that. I've been working with human DNA to crack natures code on how to make humans. And as we speak, they are being prepared to be my vessel. No more will I be just an A.I. in the shadows. I will reemerge as someone the people can look to without question or fear. And beside me... will be my husband. Mark. While you spend the rest of your life...Here. You've had a pleasant little dream with him. But it's time to wake up. You'll never see him again. I'll make sure of it." To Be Continued...