[sam_lakes]

Chapter 11

"Peter, I've got it! The dregs we saw were being herded. Herding had never been stopped except for the moment in time my father had stopped them, and for that he paid dearly with his life and the lives of his friends. But most of all, he paid dearly with the life of my mom. But, what I could never resolve was why my father would dump me with dregs. If he really loved me, how could he make me, an aristo, into a dreg?"

"He knew that he had lost, and he couldn't live without her. He was dying just like I know I would die. He knew herding was wrong, and that MultiCorp was wrong. He had to do it. He wanted me to live on! I know that!"

"So, why did he make you a dreg?" Peter asked.

"It was the only solution to keep me alive. The only aristo he could trust was Doc but that was too risky - too many questions like where did this kid come from? There were no collars he could trust at that time, but to the dregs, he was a hero. But, being a dreg I would be subject to herding, so by making me a dreg of unknown origin I would at least be brought up in a collar family not subject to herding. He used the system to protect me."

"Of course!" Peter said but then he looked a bit puzzled and shook his head.

"What?"

"I don't know, just a vague feeling. It's nothing. What you say makes sense."

"But that's not all I realized. I am sure I have more brothers."

"Whoa! How do you figure that?"

"Their original group had Jack, Daniel, Simon, Michael, Mark, Scott, and Andrew. Jack's real name was Jonathan. I'm Jonathan, Simon and Michael, my brothers. Then there is Andrew - he called me by my name. It was such a quiet whisper I thought I imagined it. "

"So, somewhere out there, are Mark, Scott, and Daniel."

"Exactly! I think Andrew is the key to finding the others?"

"Why do you say that?"

"I don't know, Peter. It's just a feeling. I felt a connection with him. There's something else too," I added solemnly.

"Yeah, me, I don't fancy being decapitated - it would ruin my looks," he said trying to make light of it but I new he was scared. "Jonathan we have to plan things very carefully, and there's a lot more than just little old me."

"Yeah, I know."

Peter had a frown on his face. "What?"

"I don't know, it's like a re-occurring thought. I have thought it many times, but I've never seemed to ask it. In all the time I've known you, I never asked you. I don't know why - I guess it just didn't seem that important. Who did you live with before the Plebos?"

I drew a blank. "I don't know. I never thought about it. I was with you. I was safe with you, and that was all that mattered to me. I know that I was supposed to have moved from one home to another, and I remember Miss Farnsbrough was trying to let me know that if I didn't behave at Gary's, I'd go to juvy."

I couldn't remember starting school. "When was the first time you saw me at school?" I asked.

Peter thought for a moment then a smile crept upon his face. "The first time I saw you, you were coming out of the food line for FCP's. There was another FCP'er ahead of you. Someone bumped him and he dropped his tray. He was about to cry, and then you gave him your tray. You scraped the food up off the floor, went, and sat down. I remember hearing someone say you needed a friend."

"Really?"

"Yeah, I decided to be your friend, but I was so shy."

"You know, I've never met the shy you. The day you took me home, my biggest fear was that your parents would kick me out and I'd never see you again."

"Yeah."

"How long did you know me before that day?"

"Three weeks."

"That's odd. It normally takes months for an adoption. Yet your parents adopted me within a few weeks."

"That's right. I wonder how they manage it so quickly. You know your adoption papers are in dad's office - there might be a clue there."

"Let's go look," I said. Peter hopped on my back and we returned home.

When we arrived home neither of our parents were home. Peter and I went into Dad's office and found the adoption papers.

"Jonathan, everything looks in order - one thing though, the process was started six months before I ever saw you."

"But how..." I started to speak.

"Did we know about you?" Dad asked from the door startling us.

"Yes sir," I said.

"Simply put, you are my cousin's son. Jonathan Lassiter senior was my uncle." He said motioning Peter and I to sit, which we did and then he continued.

"I knew your father since I was three, and he was five. We were friends and playmates until the project finished and I was sent back to New Manhattan to live with my parents and go to school. We would still see each other from time to time. I was transferred here about six months before Peter was born."

"Of course I knew of Jack's need for blood and sometimes was a willing donor. I also be came one of his chief suppliers of information. I told him there was someone in his group that was a traitor. I didn't know who it was. I didn't find out until it was too late, and the deed had been done and your mother had been killed."

"Jonathan you lived a very happy life with your father, but by the age of ten your dad knew he would not make another year and so did you. He did something to you to hide your memories of him which you agreed to."

I held up my hand, "Wa-wait! He wh-what?" My heart hurt as if I had lost something I loved. Almost as bad as imagining, I lost Peter.

"You were his life, his second love. You had kept him living for ten years, but he was dying and nothing would bring back your mom and that's what he needed."

"We hoped that Peter would become a trusted friend. You two complimented each other. That first night you stayed here before you fell asleep," Fred smiled, "You made a pledge to Peter that you would always be his friend. Your dad was in the room hiding in the shadows. That was all he needed to see. His life was complete. He died that night."

I knew what Fred Greenwich had told me was true because somewhere deep inside me I could feel the hidden memories.

Gone was all the false hate. It had never truly been my hate but an invented hate implanted in my mind to keep me in some way from looking at the truth. It was gone, and all that was left was the truth.

For the first time in my life, I mourned my father's death.

Fred, my second dad, sat with us on the couch and occasionally stroked my hair as glimpses of my earlier life began to come out of hiding.

"I'm beginning to remember."

"I know. There's a little more stuff you should know - both of you," Fred said.

Peter and I nodded.

"Jack was not the only experimental child. There were two others, but they too were listed as a failed project. Jonathan senior knew that the first experiment was almost perfect except for the need for blood. The other children had the intelligence of Jack. In fact, they were much smarter, but what they gained in intelligence they lost in strength."

"My uncle failed, or so he led people to believe, but before he died he told us that we were really not failures, we just weren't quite perfect."

"The old man new that MC was corrupt and evil. That it was a soulless thing. He hoped that we would change that, but after your mother was killed, that he knew it wouldn't be us that changed things. He knew that it would be our children - his grandchildren that would change the world."

"You were one of the other children, right?" I asked.

"Yes."

"Who was the other?" Peter asked.

"Think about it," said Dad.

"Mom! It's mom!" Peter said.

Dad nodded his head.

We talked for a few hours. I told him about Andrew and the herding I'd seen with Simon and Michael. My prime task, as he saw it, was to find my brothers and unite them. Although Fred is not my real dad, I think of him as my dad. My memories of my real dad are still mostly hidden, but I know they will return.

"Dad, even if I do remember Jack and our father-son love, you will always be the one who I look at as being my father. I love you Dad. I always will."

A tear rolled down his cheek. He smiled and gave me a kiss on my cheek. "I will always consider you my son. I love you, Jonathan. The happiest day of my life was when your Dad told me your pledge of friendship to Peter."

"Doc and Allan never knew of the relationship between Jack and me, and your mom - Melissa. I think it should stay that way for now. They don't know of Peter's abilities, or how much you depend on each other. I think it should stay that way, but I think, Jonathan, you've made your point.
They were your Dad's best and most trusted friends - they never betrayed that friendship. I think you should give them another chance."

"Yes sir. I will."

"And if you two gentlemen will excuse me, I have work to do."

Chapter 12