I'm not sure how much time passed since I really let myself go, but all of a sudden I was just...aware again. Aware that I had controlled that. I'm not sure what that meant but it was a new feeling. Almost a new ability.

    There was fighting going on around me, the crowd hat left, there were a few dumb reporters who might get hurt but it looked like my friends were handling it.

    "Tyler!" I heard my name and turned around to see Dylan had his hand on Alex's shoulder. "I got your signal."

    Icie was taking care of some scratches Alex had. I appreciated the gesture while also feeling like my brotherly position was being attacked.

    "Thank goodness." I said. "Where are the adults?"

    Dylan winced. "Uh, my dad kinda split a while back. Long story. I don't know where the Gilligan's went but that lady's over there behind the podium."

    I looked into Alex's eyes to see how he was doing. He still looked mostly crocodile so that means that woman was still manipulating him.

    "What happened to his eyes?" She asked.

    I bit my lip. "I don't know. The boss lady has him under some sort of control-"

    "Her wristband, yeah. I kinda just...talked him out of attacking anyone but he's still...not all here." Dylan explained. "Lucy was right."

    I cracked my neck and walked towards the podium, I picked it up and smashed it into the ground. The woman was crouched there, looking scared and helpless.

    "We can do this the easy way, and no one gets hurt." I demanded. "Or we can do this the hard way, and I make sure you suffer ten times for every finger you laid on my brother's body."

    Her eyes met mine, they were a deep amber color, somewhat familiar. Like I had seen them before in a dream.

    "And your sister too, right? There are three of you." She almost muttered, eyes fixed on me.

    "How do you know that?" I asked, suddenly realizing how disassociated she seemed.

    She was staring at me like she was floating, far above her body. She seemed confused as to how I got up as high as she was.

    "You mean you don't know?" She blinked all of a sudden she was back.

    She laughed, but it was weird because her whole boast seemed to shake violently. "You really don't know?"

    "Just give me the wrist band, okay?" I interrupted, she was creeping me out.

    "The three of you were supposed to be special. It's easier on younger bodies. And my family line, there was already history of genetic manipulation, you three would be the perfect canvas, the perfect combination of everything my family has worked for. The serum was finally going to work on you." She was shaking again, she stood to her feet.

    "Do you know my name, Tyler Santos?"

    I didn't answer her. I wanted to jus grab the bracelet, but something about her twitching frame and weak voice made me listen.

    "Queenie called me Faith. It's been almost five years and I still...I still can't get over her." She brought her hands up to her face. "I'm your mother, Tyler."

    I think I gasped but I didn't really notice anything beyond the outside world blurring away. Just now, in this moment, it was only us.

    "What?" My fingers kinda felt numb.

    "You've never met me, have you?" She seemed to realize, she reached out to cup my face.

    I slapped her hand away. "No, no. You're not allowed to do this! You're not supposed to be-"

    A pathetic shell of a human being who had tried to murder her own kids on multiple occasions.

    "Do I look like I know what I'm supposed to be?" She sobbed. "I just wanted to help."

    "Shut up." I forced out. "You never helped people! All you've done is cause suffering! You blinded your own son!"

    Her brows furrowed and she clamped onto my shoulders, nails digging into my skin. "He was the last one I had left. You were ruined as a child, Gratuity left, he was the only one! I couldn't let you know I had him."

    I stared up into her face in horror. My mouth gaped open in complete utter lack of anything to say to that. Her wristband was right there.

    I grabbed it, bit into it, and kicked her away. It snapped in half and several prices of the band scattered to the ground. It was just as easy to break as a Rubik's cube too. She fell on her back and didn't get up for a minute. I turned back to Alex, who had slumped to the ground.

I crouched down beside him. All around the stage my friends were keeping the guards away. I think that was a police helicopter on the horizon, good. Tui jumped onto the stage, tripping over her own limbs and she slid to her knees and scooped her brother up.

"Alex!" She cried out. "Oh Alex what did they do to you?"

She brushed aside his long bangs as he blinked his eyes open. I saw Tui's hand go over her mouth as she made a small gasping noise.

"Tui?" Alex groaned weakly.

She hugged him tightly again, wrapping her arms around his waist. He took a moment to figure out what as going on, then leaned into it. I watched that, feeling a little awkward for a moment when Alex's hand reached out and brushed against my shoulder. He pulled me into the hug and Tui graciously made room.

I didn't know what to say, is this what family feels like?

"Can you..." Tui couldn't even finish her sentence.

"No." Alex explained bitterly. "No...it's all black."

She squeezed him tight again. At that moment she gasped as a lumbering figure came back towards us. The lady, Faith.

My mom, I guess.

"M-mom?" Tui seemed just as surprised.

Alex's hand on my shoulder subconsciously tightened again.

"You d-don't understand!" Faith stammered, her wild frizzy hair was in an oily mess around her head. "I was just trying to help. I was just try to help. I was just trying to help. I was just trying to help."

"Who were trying to help?" I spat at her. "You've murdered children."

Her eyes widened as she locked eyes on Dylan. Dylan seemed to noticed this and got visibly uncomfortable.

"I've seen you before." He realized.

"I was trying to help her." Faith insisted, walking towards him, I stood up and got in her way.

"Who's her?" I asked again, biting my tongue to stop myself from lashing out at her.

"Tyler...she was my mom's best friend." Dylan continued, making eye contact with me, then looking back at her. "You're Faith Santos, oh my God, you're Tyler's mom."

Well he put that together relatively quickly.

Faith started crying again. "You don't underst-"

"What don't I understand?" I yelled with all of my might.

Faith puffed out her chest. "I loved her. She was the reason I got out of bed every day! I didn't care about any of that science crap my father was into, until...until she started to..."

She looked away, pulling at her hair. "You don't understand. You're making me relive all of this. I don't want to remember-!"

Faith twirled on her feet, red hot anger in her eyes. "I loved her more than anyone will ever love anyone else until the end of time."

She collapsed onto her knees. "I w-was going to be the one to s-save her."

"But you didn't." I realized. "That's what all this biological manipulation junk is right?"

Faith looked up at me, eyes full of tears and admiration that, I actually did understand.

"Why have us then?" I gestured back at Tui, staring at this scene with eyes also full of tears, and Alex, visibly shaking. "What about our dad?"

"She told me to move on. She fell in love with a boy. I thought...I thought I did too. I forgot about our project, she told me the sickness was gone, that she had started a family and had a son," her eyes lingered over Dylan again, "until it came back."

I think even Dylan was starting to tear up. I turned back to my mom, this sorry, miserable, violently disturbed human being. I almost felt sorry for her.

"You know what?" I decided. "I don't care. I don't freaking care."

She looked up at me, confused.

"I don't care about your little sob story, your crush on my friends mom, none of that matters to me." I continued. "Even after all that you are still a murderer. A torturer. You still decided to experiment on children. You still decided to nearly kill all the children you have, ruin your marriage, and mess up any hope of a normal life."

I stood firmly between her and my friends, my family.

"You're not our mom and never deserve to be. Screw you." I downright hissed at her.

She just started crying harder and harder. Across the roof, in the midst of the chaos, the door to the roof was kicked open and a squad of police officers entered the vicinity guns out. Faith's body guards immediate put their hands up, knowing they were on the wrong side. Our side put their hands up to, just to be safe. I saw Mr. Wales talking to one of the officers so I knew we were gonna get out okay.

"Have fun in prison." Was the last thing I ever said to my biological mother before she was arrested and hauled off.

The building was on lockdown after that. The entire staff was going to be questioned and a full examination would finally be held. We were gonna be questioned too, but our appearance on the news and some explaining from Mr. Wales put us in the clear. We were just gonna be stuck here for a little while.

That's when I noticed Theo.

He was standing by a stretcher, alone. There was a body on the stretcher, it was covered in a black tarp. He reached up to wipe his face and I kinda got the feeling he had been crying.

I didn't know Theo. Heck, I had barely met him. All I knew is that he was the guy who ran that little mutant camp out in the middle of Washington. Something compelled me to go over there. I patted my siblings on the back and felt my feet go numb as I walked up to him.

He turned only slightly when I approached, not taking his eyes off the bag.

"Did you know Casey, Tyler?" He asked.

I noticed his voice was wavering thin.

Casey, gosh. I grimaced as the memories came flooding back. She had been like my older sister. My first taste of family I guess. She was the mom of the group, even I hadn't been in for a while. I went from the streets to the Lab in less than a day and Casey had made me feel as comfortable as possible in our little slice of hell. I hadn't really gotten to grieve properly after the explosion, especially after seeing what the Lab had done to her body.

I nodded gently. Theo sucked in a shaky breath.

"I met her when I was just a teenager and she was a toddler. I was adopted, obviously. My family is a wonder bread loaf." He laughed but it came out more strangled. "I didn't come here expecting to see what they'd done to her. My little baby."

He paused to wipe his tears away again.

"We met each other's eyes and she just kind, collapsed. I just kinda held her until her lights went out, you know?"

Yeah. I guess this explained where Theo had been this whole time. We stared at her body again. Sabine came over and Theo hugged her. Gecko joined in as well with an arm around Theo.

I let them be.

The police officer was busy talking to Hayami, who was showing off the wicked scar she got from Alex a few days back. Even Wi and Ryan were here, just kinda sitting by themselves and talking, probably wondering if this was the endgame, was it finally over?

A policeman was just walking away from Will, who looked pretty beat up, but alive. Justin was sitting on the stage next to him, looking equally ruffled but in a much better mood. Will met my gaze as I walked over and he looked shamed.

"Tyler, I'm really sorry." He said for like the millionth time.

I sighed, looked down at my feet, then back up at my feathered friend.

"There's nothing I can do to change what's happened I guess." I shrugged. "I'm still mad at you, but strangely enough I've got some laundry I wouldn't mind you doing, maybe some homework you could help out with."

Will looked confused, then smiled slowly.

Justin barked out a laugh. "Good God, I've seen his grades, he could use the help. Believe me."

I ruffled Justin's hair and his stupid little pointy ears. "Shut up."

That only made him grin wider. "Make me."

"Why does everything you say always come off as so sexual?" Will frowned, shaking his head.

Justin wiggled his eyebrows. "Only if you take it like that, honeybunch."

"Okay stop." I cracked a grin myself.

"Hey how are you guys doing?" Genny sat down next to Will.

She looked at me nervously.

"We're apologizing. Speaking of which, I might have said some things that I didn't mean, heat of the moment, you know?" I offered.

She titled her head, and reached out and touched my hand, her eyes turned a shade of pale purple.

"You're telling the truth." She nodded. "Yeah I'll take that."

"I should probably say sorry to, actually." Dylan rolled over hesitantly. "I saw you guys having a party and I'm bored."

Genny frowned, slightly. I might have been the only one who noticed. "Oh."

Dylan rubbed that back of his head. "I'm sorry, I promise I'll never do anything like that to anyone every again."

Genny pursed her lips. "Yeah. Yeah okay. I'll take that too. Just, be good to Icie for me, will you?"

Dylan blushed a little, but nodded

"Okay what are you guys talking about?" Will glanced between the two of them, very confused.

Genny laughed a kissed him gently. "I'll tell you later."

"Oh boy, that'll be quite a shock." Icie walked up, leaning down to wrap her arms around Dylan from behind.

"Ew P.D.A." Justin gasped mockingly.

"I'm really confused but willing to wait." Will sighed.

Dylan just turned a darker shade of red and laughed nervously. "Oh gosh."

    "Hey, you guys?" Alex came stumbling over, holding onto Tui's shoulder.

    He looked so lost.

    "Hey Alex, how are you feeling?" Justin asked.

    "Um..." He said slowly. "I mean, not good. I'm..."

    He reached up to wipe his face. "God, I'm just kind of a mess."

    "You guys won't believe who turned out to be running the Lab." I sighed.

    "Who?" Justin asked.

    "My mom."

    Will spit out the water Genny had just given him. "Mrs. Santos?"

    Alex winced. "Can we...not? Please?"

    "No problem here." Justin put his hands up.

    I sighed and gave Alex a gentle shoulder pat. He tensed up again, but relaxed. Not big on physical contact, noted.    

    "Yeah I know how you feel." Dylan sighed.

    "Where's your dad?" Justin frowned, looking around.

    Dylan shrugged, grinning. "I don't care."

    "Where are yours?" Genny looked to Will.

    Will also shrugged. "Somewhere getting arrested."

    "You guys." Justin's pointed out. "You know what this means?"

    We all knew the answer, a smile slowly appeared on all of our faces.

    "It's finally over."