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Sixteen

Chapter

Fuck. This was not happening. Rom was not about to face off with the most terrifying adversary they’d ever faced—with no backup. Rom’s spine plates were up and vibrating as though they were trying to lift his feet from the ground. Hayley was frozen with fear, and as far as Rom knew, she wasn’t even aware of all the new things Dean—better known as Zakarri now—could do. Hell, he’d taken out every single augmented Tau Ceti soldier on the bridge at once. Rom was certain they’d find nothing but Tau Ceti bodies throughout the rest of the ship. He’d killed them all without touching them.

Except for Norem. No, Zakarri had chosen to kill Norem up close and personal. Slowly. Horribly. Painfully.

Mindy started barking. Not at Dean, but at Rom. She let out a piercing, plaintive whine. Wait, dogs couldn’t make a noise like that.

“Oh shit,” he said. “Katie’s tank.”

Rom ran to it, trying to find a way in without hurting her. Norem had been correct. If Rom tried to force it, he could easily kill her himself. Katie was awake, her eyes wild with fear, though her pupils were still dilated from the neuro-suppressants she’d been given. She couldn’t keep the tech from killing her. Rom gripped the top of the tank, trying to pry it off.

“There’s a dead-man’s switch keyed to Norem,” Rom yelled. “It’s on the deck.”

He wasn’t sure why he was bothering. It wasn’t like Dean would help. Silver light glinted off the tank’s glass. Rom looked over his shoulder to see Norem—no, Dean—stoop down and pick the device up off the floor. He pressed the button, sending a shock through Katie. This close, Rom could hear her scream, even muffled through the liquid.

“What the hell are you doing?” Rom yelled.

“Resetting it,” Dean-Norem snapped, hurrying closer. As he did, spindly silver legs erupted from his torso, lifting him high off the floor. Another set of arms pushed out from his chest, each ending in deadly-sharp pincers. “Hold the tank steady.”

Rom wasn’t sure he could hold himself steady while staring down this monster. He ducked down low, on eye-level with Katie, and wrapped his arms around the tank. She wasn’t being shocked anymore, but the terror on her face as she stared at the nightmare-Norem approaching her would haunt Rom forever.

“It’s okay,” Rom yelled. “He’s going to help.”

Rom couldn’t believe what he was saying. Either way, he hoped it eased Katie’s fear. Without Dean’s help, Rom couldn’t deceive himself that they would be able to save her. He had to put his faith in his enemy.

Dean-Norem reached the tank, the device carefully held in one of his relatively normal-looking hands. With his two silver arms, he gripped the top of the tank, then twisted and pulled. The pincers sliced through the transparent material right at the top joint as if it was nothing. Rom had used all his strength while attempting to separate them, and it hadn’t budged.

Once the lid was off, Dean tossed it aside, then rose up higher on those thin, spider-like legs. He reached down into the tank, his pincers morphing into another set of skin-covered, humanoid hands. Katie screamed again, bubbles erupting around her mask. She pushed herself deeper into the tank, trying to get away from Dean.

“It’s okay,” Rom shouted. “He won’t… he won’t hurt you.”

Katie glanced at Rom, eyes still wild with fear. She was too smart not to have noticed his hesitation. She looked past Rom to Hayley. Rom looked at Hayley questioningly. Hayley nodded.

Katie slowly nodded back, then straightened, bringing herself closer to Dean’s outstretched arms. She shuddered when he touched her, but didn’t fight as he lifted her from the tank. Viscous liquid flowed down the sides of the glass, but Rom maintained his grip on the tank until she was free. He stared up at Dean, hearts pounding, wondering what surprise would pop out next.

“He won’t hurt you,” Hayley said in a thready voice. “Because you’re my friend and he knows it would hurt me if anything happened to you.”

Dean-Norem frowned. He pulled Katie closer, then took a few steps away, easing them both to the ground. The spindly legs pulled back into his body. He crushed the device and tossed it away, then reabsorbed his ‘regular’ arms as well. The arms he was using to hold Katie shifted position, his entire body glowing. By the time he set her on the floor—with surprising gentleness—he was back to looking like himself. Rather, his most common assumed form. He was back to being Dean.

“I won’t hurt her because I know what it’s like to be trapped in a tank and experimented on by people who don’t care about your pain and see you as nothing more than a data set to manipulate,” Dean said. He carefully removed the mask from Katie’s face, helping her to lean forward as she coughed and sputtered. Looking at Rom, he said, “Get two of their jackets.”

Right. Katie would want to be covered. Rom quickly complied, only wondering about the second jacket as he handed Dean the first. The Scorpiian assassin responsible for countless deaths, who had destroyed the ecosystems of entire planets, took it and gently wiped away the worst of the liquid still clinging to Katie’s skin. He stood, bringing her with him as if she weighed nothing, and set her on her feet. Rom draped the still-dry jacket over her shoulders, holding on to help her stand.

“Th…thank you,” she said, leaning against Rom.

Dean didn’t say anything. He turned to face Hayley. Rom was about to step forward, to do… something. He wasn’t sure what. But Hayley’s voice was already in his mind.

“ Don’t ,” she thought. “ Let me handle this .”

“ Be careful ,” Rom replied. “ We don’t know how he’ll react when he finds out… ”

“ That I’m not who he thinks I am .”

The sadness that went along with the thought wasn’t as intense as Rom expected. He hoped that meant she was accepting it—accepting herself. And he really, really hoped that Dean would accept who and what she was as well. If they played this wrong and Dean found out they were bonded soulmates before he understood that she wasn’t his Hayley… Rom looked around at the bodies surrounding them and suppressed a shudder.

Dean wasn’t having as much luck with that. He was visibly trembling as he took a step closer to Hayley. His hand shook violently as he ran it through his hair again.

“I…” he began. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean for any of this to happen. Everything I’ve done, I did to try to find you. Please, you have to believe—”

“Dean.” Hayley spoke his name sharply. She hesitated, before she slowly approached him. What was she doing? She should be keeping her distance in case he freaked out when he learned the truth. Instead, she stopped right in front of him.

“Look at me,” she said. “Really look at me.”

Dean intently scrutinized her face, studying her features. At first, all Rom saw was longing, until Dean’s brow furrowed and confusion swept over him. Rom readied himself, not that he could do much against the Scorpiian. The best he could hope for would be to stall him while the others ran away.

“Do you remember the garnet and silver earrings?” Hayley said. “Your one-month anniversary gift?”

Dean reached up and gently tucked her hair behind her ear. His hand wasn’t shaking anymore. As he started to lift his hand away, she grasped it, pressing it against her cheek.

“My ears aren’t pierced,” she whispered with a catch in her voice, her eyes filling with tears. “My freckles are gone. And my scars. The ones on my body, anyway. I remember everything. And I understand now. How your pant legs weren’t wet from the rain until I mentioned it that first night. How you offered to show me the galaxy—the universe. How you offered your heart, before I was ready. Before she was ready.”

Dean closed his eyes and lowered his head, shaking it. “No. No.”

“I’m not her,” Hayley said. “I’m not Hayley. I’m not your Hayley. The woman you hope will be yours.”

“No,” Dean repeated. “Please, no.”

When Dean looked at her again, Rom’s hearts clenched, his breath rushing from him as if he’d been struck. He had thought he’d experienced despair before, wondering if he would ever find his soulmate. Now, this intense agony on Dean’s face told a different story. Rom had never known that level of hopelessness. He’d never known a universe without a glimmer of light.

“What did he do to her to make you?” Dean murmured, scanning Hayley’s face as if searching for answers. “Are you all that’s left?”

Rom’s spine plates vibrated even more intensely. Would Dean want Hayley to stay with him? Would he try to claim her as his own? And if so, how could Rom stop him?

“She’s still out there,” Hayley reassured him. “She’s still alive. We can sense her.”

Dean’s features twisted with fresh pain. “With Norem? While he’s doing things like this to her?” Dean looked Hayley up and down, then shook his head. “It’s almost better if she were—”

“Don’t even say it,” Hayley cut in. “She’s holding on. She’s doing what she has to do in order to survive. You need to do the same.”

“I’ll never find her now.” Dean pulled away from Hayley and stepped back. His hands were shaking again and ripples of silver light swept over his skin.

“ Hayley …” Rom warned.

“This was my last lead,” Dean said. “My last hope. Even if I find her, the amount of biomass Norem would need to make a clone that could hold her memories… What he must have done to her to make it happen…”

The pulses of light quickened, intensified. Dean dropped to his knees, wrapping his arms around his middle. He rocked back and forth, shaking his head. His skin rippled, nubs of appendages appearing and disappearing from his torso, his features morphing from the captain’s to Norem’s and through dozens of other faces that Rom didn’t recognize.

“She’ll never forgive me,” he said, his voice distorted as his throat changed form yet again. Dean was curled in a ball, it was as if he was collapsing in on himself. With the way his body was changing uncontrollably, maybe he would. Spikes and spines shot out from him, quicksilver oozing from wherever they emerged. He cried out in pain as his body began to tear itself apart.

“ This is our chance ,” Rom thought. “ We have to get away while we can .”

“ No .” Hayley shook her head. “ I can’t leave him like this.

“Hayley ,” Rom near-shouted in his mind.

“She cared for him ,” Hayley thought back. “The original Hayley. She might have loved him, if things had gone differently. I have to do this. For her .”

Rom wanted to argue, but he knew there was no point. As much as he was terrified for her, he had to respect her choice.

“ Be careful ,” he thought. “ I love you .”

“ I love you, too. ”

Hayley dropped to her knees next to Dean and wrapped her arms around him, as if she could hold him together. Maybe she could, because the spikes stopped appearing. He still bucked and writhed, but she only held on tighter.

“Dean,” she said. “You have to stop. She needs you. I need you. We have to work together if we’re going to save her.”

“She’s gone,” Dean shouted, his voice distorted almost beyond understanding.

“She’s not. I can feel her. I know she’s out there. She’s changed, but she’s stronger. Norem has no idea what he’s done in making her what she is.”

“What is she?” The erratic shifts of Dean’s body slowed a bit.

“A survivor,” Hayley said. “She’s holding on. You have to as well.”

Long moments dragged on as Hayley held on to him, his movements slowing to a few twitches. The silver light bathing his body faded, leaving the lanky human form Rom was most used to seeing. Dean looked up at Hayley, beads of quicksilver coating his face. He was panting, even though he didn’t truly need breath.

“Things didn’t work out the way any of us hoped,” Hayley whispered. “That doesn’t mean they’re hopeless now. You found me on your own. I can feel her. We can work together to find her.”

“ Tell him about me .” Mindy stepped forward and barked once, her tail wagging slowly behind her.

“ Mindy, I don’t know if that’s a good idea ,” Hayley thought.

“ Please ,” Mindy thought.

Hayley looked to Rom. He said, “It’s her choice.”

“What’s whose choice?” Katie blinked rapidly and shook her head as if to clear it. She listed to the side, but Rom kept her upright. At least she was talking. Hopefully, that meant whatever Norem had put in her system was wearing off.

Hayley turned back to Dean. “Did Norem ever tell you about his MIN-D project?”

“No,” Dean said. “I knew about it anyway.”

Hayley couldn’t suppress her grin. That was a glimpse of the Dean she remembered—original Hayley remembered. Her smile faltered.

“Well, Norem didn’t know that he succeeded,” Hayley said. “Mindy and Hayley connected. That’s why he took Hayley in the first place.”

A muscle in Dean’s jaw began to twitch. Damn, it was uncanny how well he could replicate human emotion. Rom would never guess he was a Scorpiian if he hadn’t already known.

“ Tell him this ,” Mindy thought. “ Tell him that if he doesn’t believe you can help find Hayley, he knows that I can. Hayley is my friend, too, and I’m not going to stop looking for her. ”

Hayley laughed and reached out, petting Mindy’s shoulder and bringing her closer for a hug. She kept her other arm around Dean. Rom wasn’t surprised when the Scorpiian reached out and pulled Mindy into a group embrace. They knew he had a soft spot for animals after he’d spared an entire space station at the request of one of the space-kittens he’d befriended.

“I heard her,” Dean said, his eyes wide with wonder. “I heard her in my mind.”

“ Shit, can he hear us, too? ” Rom thought.

“ No, only me .” Mindy looked up at Rom over her shoulder. “ I think I’m getting stronger, too. I’m learning to control what I can do. I wanted him to hear me, really bad, so he did .”

“ We should still be careful ,” Rom thought to Hayley.

Mindy turned back to Dean and stared at him intently. “ I will go with you, ” she thought clearly. “ To help you find my first-friend-Hayley. ”

Dean’s eyes widened. Rom was sure he’d heard that, too.

“What?” Hayley said out loud. “No. No! You can’t.”

Mindy whined and leaned over to lick Hayley’s cheek. “ New-friend-Hayley can feel her, too. Rom said his prism can find him better if they split up and feel where he is from different directions. If we both look for her from different places, it’ll help us find her .”

Damn, she was right. But Rom didn’t like the idea of her going off with the Scorpiian. He didn’t trust Dean.

“ I know you’re worried ,” Mindy thought. “ But Dean understands. He was alone, just as I was, until first-friend-Hayley. She made us both feel… togetherness. Not alone. He understands. He’ll take care of me .” She leaned over and licked Dean’s cheek gently. “ We’ll take care of each other .”

Dean released Hayley and wrapped his arms around Mindy, pulling her close. He buried his face against her neck, her fur muffling the sound of him crying. Rom’s hearts clenched. He reached down and clasped Dean’s shoulder, despite himself. Despite everything the assassin had done. In that moment, he had never known his enemy to be so… human. Hayley rested her hand on Dean’s other shoulder.

After a moment, Katie threw her arm out, her hand awkwardly patting Dean’s head.

“I’m not sure what’s going on,” Katie said almost drunkenly. “But, I’m here for it.”

Rom chuckled, he couldn’t help it. Hayley joined in and he could hear Mindy’s laugh in his mind. When Dean looked up, even his lips were quirked up on one side. He wiped at his face with his arm, pulling himself together with an obvious effort.

“I swear on my life, I will keep you safe,” Dean said, scratching behind Mindy’s ears. “And even though…” His voice cracked, but he kept going. “I know Hayley can never forgive me for my part in what’s happened to her, I won’t give up until I find her. I’ll bring her home.”

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