Chapter Twenty-Two

He clicked his tongue. "No. I'm not worthy to be in their presence."

Sadness filled his voice. It really had been the best thing for him that Marie had boarded his ship. The class system was very much alive on Merak.

"Samuel, what was it like when you lived here?"

"It's hard to explain. It's different from Earth. We can move effortlessly and our world changes with our thoughts. There is an electricity in the air, but it can also be deadly. We never saw the evil coming. It just happened one day. Our planet was attacked and many died. We can easily change, but that also brings about a weakness to our systems. Unfortunately, Meradors are easier to kill than humans."

"Really?" Theo asked.

"Yeah, I'm not sure why, but our systems are weaker, but then Marie did the research. She knew about your planet and figured out that hiding inside of a human body might be the solution for us. I remember the day she boarded our vessel. Paul and I were getting ready to take off for another section of the galaxy, but then she provided us with new coordinates and then sat back and barked orders at us. When we landed, we found some bodies to disguise ourselves in. It was just too easy on Earth. If it's any consolation, I really do like your planet. I want it to survive and flourish—"

"But you allowed her to start killing off the humans," my eyes narrowed as I let the words escape from my lips. Samuel wasn't completely innocent. He, too, had blood on his hands.

Samuel shook his head. "No. We are not responsible for your planet's demise. We landed just as the war broke out. It ended up being the perfect cover for us. In fact, Marie quickly saw through Troy. She knew he would be a problem. Almost instantly, she knew he was behind everything. We watched him closely and then she began to infiltrate his leadership to understand what he was up to." Samuel looked up at all of us, "Marie is many things and she has been wrong on numerous occasions, but she's not a monster. She truly didn't want to see your planet go through what we did. She just wanted to find a way for us to live and be able to fight back when the evil comes again."

"But she didn't stop the killing on Earth," Theo crossed his thick arms over his chest. "Samuel, you guys may have discussed our problems and tried to infiltrate Troy's inner circle, but you didn't stop it."

Luther walked up behind Theo and pulled down his white suite. It had been months since I had seen his scars, but there they were staring back at me. "This should be a reminder to everyone that she only put herself first. Marie doesn't care about us. She let me burn myself." Luther's voice began to rise. Gave walked up next to him and put his hand on Luther's shoulder.

"Luther is right Samuel. You used us. We understand that now we need to forgive you, but you also need to get why we are so hesitant."

I looked over at the boy I once considered my brother. I knew he wasn't like us, but it was hard to fully comprehend all that had happened. "Samuel, we need to know more about the RaCO flowing through Luther, Audrina, Gave and Theo."

"Why?" His face scrunched up.

"Because it is obviously the reason she turned all of us first. We were her science experiment, but she also had a connection. It wasn't random that she chose us."

Samuel scratched the back of his head. It seemed to take him longer than normal to answer me. "Fine," he finally said. "I will tell you everything I know."

"Good," Luther responded. "I was hoping I didn't have to kick your butt to get you to respond to Esa."

Samuel rolled his eyes. "Luther, remember that I'm not a Cipher. I'm from Merak. If I left this human form, you might be able to beat me, but inside of this body, I'm much stronger than you."

I put up my hand to stop him. "Samuel, you might want to rethink everything. Marie wasn't out creating an inferior group. Obviously, we have some capabilities that you might not have."

He shrugged his shoulders, "Valid point."

I was growing impatient with his lack of providing answers. "Are you going to tell us?"

Samuel then looked over at Gave. "You have the RaCO of what we would consider the top engineer for our world. He was amazing and among the elite."

Samuel looked at Luther. "I knew almost instantly about your RaCO. Marie was mated with an elite soldier. He died. She hated him. I'm sure that's why she brought you back to life."

Luther let out a loud sigh. "I'm not surprised. So, my human self has been paying for what I did when I was on Merak."

"Yes," Samuel nodded. "Sorry."

There was a brief moment of silence before Samuel turned to Theo. "Esadore mated with a man that Marie didn't agree with. He was a soldier. Esadore was pregnant when the evil attacked. Your family died together. Marie found a female soldier who was married to a male soldier and grabbed their bodies. You are both connected through your human and Meradore form. Does that help you?"

Theo put an arm around my shoulders and pulled me close to his body. "I've always loved you Esa. We were obviously destined to be together, no matter what world we landed on," he whispered.

I pulled back, away from his grasp. "Theo, we have a child somewhere."

He stared back at me. "I know, but I'm assuming it's dead. We don't want to focus on that. Really Esa, we don't even remember our former lives, besides it was a child on Merak."

"She's alive. I know who it is. It's Aurora."

"How do you know that?" He asked.

Gave walked in closer. "That's not possible."

"Oh, but it is. I'm Marie's daughter. Aurora is her granddaughter. I knew she looked too familiar. Aurora has probably been a Cipher for the same amount of time as all of us. Marie put her through the war to strengthen her abilities."

Theo put up a hand. "You're getting ahead of yourself. We don't know anything about Aurora."

"Erik!" I yelled, as the rest of the team looked at me like I was crazy.

Erik suddenly emerged in the center of the room. "Yes, Esadore. How may I be of service today?"

"Please go ask the sisters about my condition when I died."

He nodded. "Very well. I will return shortly."

Samuel had a look of disgust on his face. "You've met them, haven't you? I should have known they would find you."

"Yes, we've talked."