XY-n 10 : Redemptions & Condemnations (Rebel)

“...every single day seems as if I’ll break down and cry.
Can’t find the strength to make it through the day,
I’m tryin’ to find the strength to say ‘come back and stay,’”
and, all my Emotions lyin’ in the snow,
we’re walkin’ down that street
where the two of us used to go...

- Roger Daltrey, Under a Raging Moon.

Long before Xyn began trying to physically exhaust himself every day, the Hunter had already done so himself, in risking his own life to connect Jayk with Xyn one last time in order to say goodbye. In order to be Xyn/Jayk for one last time.

Long before Xyn ran out of things to talk about with almost everyone but Tym, Jayk didn’t know what to say as the Hunter sat rubbing at his eyes and temples as the craft flew on autopilot. Every now and then he would exhale violently and groan, and it was very clear that he was suffering. Surprisingly, Jayk wished that there was something that he could do for him. Having had headaches and having been just plain miserable at various times in his long and unnatural life, Jayk finally decided that being quiet was the best thing that he could do for his strange captor.

And he did just that, his thoughts upon the feeling of being Xyn/Jayk once again and wishing that it could have lasted longer. He also pondered why the one who had captured him and was taking back to a life of slavery would have done this for them. Jayk simply didn’t understand it, but he kept quiet. He continued to stare out of the window, watching the lights of the last City that they had passed fading into the blackness below them. Somewhere up ahead was New City Mid-something; Jayk couldn’t recall what it was, and frankly, he didn’t care. After that was New City Far South, and the end of their ride.

For in that city, obviously having moved since Shar had wrecked his previous home in rescuing Jayk, waited his old Master, Everett T. Wilson. Then Jayk realized, as he stared out into space, that he had never even know his Master’s full name. He had heard guests refer to him as Ev, but that had been all. Jayk had only been allowed to address him as ‘Master,’ and then only if he risked speaking at all. He wasn’t looking forward to their arrival in Far South, yet something else was nagging at him and he couldn’t quite place it. Something in some far corner of his mind was pecking away slowly at a problem, but Jayk just couldn’t isolate it. So he ignored it, sitting and missing Xyn in silence for a long time.

His stomach growled.

Jayk flinched, his dark eyes moving from the window to his stomach and then to the Hunter.

The Hunter was smiling despite his obvious pain, and the Suit was still glowing blue and shining its light from the collar and cuffs of his body armor. “Computer,” the Hunter said softly, “Security override 2a, release prisoner for limited supply access.”

The computer complied, and Jayk stared in amazement as his wrist restraints popped loose from the seat belt buckle and expanded his hands apart via a six inch rod that kept his wrists connected in front of him. His ankle restraints did the same, giving him just enough of a spreader bar between his ankles to hobble slowly on his feet. He didn’t move.

“Oh go get something to eat from the food dispenser, for gods’ sake,” the Hunter stated, “and bring me one too while you’re at it!”

“Yes, sir,” Jayk replied, slowly getting to his feet and ducking his head a bit. He hobbled back to the food dispenser and stared at it. Of course he knew what it was, his Master had had one in his home. Perhaps this one was voice actuated, since there appeared to be no controls. “Two standard field rations, please,” Jayk told it.

“Fuck that!” the Hunter replied, “ask it for some real food!”

Jayk turned his head in surprise, his long braids swinging a bit. “Cancel order,” he said. He then thought for a moment. “Two full meals ... uhhh ... and two cold waters.”

“Meal selection?” the genderless voice asked.

“Surprise me,” the Hunter replied.

“Surprise him,” Jayk replied.

The computer thought about that for a moment, obviously upset with its orders. Still, it had ‘intelligent’ circuitry and complied. Then the door slid open and two small travel plates full of steaming food appeared. There appeared to be a meat dish, some kind of green vegetable, and a roll. Another small door slid open, revealing two large glasses of ice water. Jayk’s stomach growled again as he carefully picked up the first plate and took it to the Hunter. He then fetched the glass of water and handed it to him. Two trips later, he was seated back in the passenger seat. He didn’t touch his food, however.

“Thank you,” the Hunter said, taking a long but slow drink of the water. “You’re handy to have around.”

Jayk smiled and turned his attention to his food, his weakened body reminding him of just how hungry he really was. He ate quickly, unaware that he was being watched and despite the fact that the ‘intelligent’ computer had given him spinach. Still, he ate it, making faces as he did, and wondering if the ‘intelligent’ circuitry program didn’t include some twisted sense of humor. When he finished, he started to get up to dispose of the empty plate and stopped. His gaze met the Hunter’s and his eyes dropped to the floor. He lowered his head, his beardless chin touching his breastbone. He tensed up just a bit, but the Hunter saw it.

“What’s wrong?” he asked the captive Mutant. “Don’t like greens?”

Jayk looked up slowly. “I ... I thought I’d done s-something wrong,” he almost whispered.

The Hunter picked at his food as Jayk returned with another glass of water. He sat back down and waited. Nothing happened except for a small burp from the Hunter, who looked up slowly and deliberately. “‘scuse me,” he offered.

Jayk raised a sloped eyebrow.

“What?!” the Hunter asked in genuine puzzlement.

“The restraints?” Jayk asked.

“What about them?”

Jayk wasn’t sure what he meant, so he just sat there and snuggled back down in the ill-fitting jacket. He was full and warm ... and soon he’d be somewhere where he had always been full and warm ... and unhappy. He imaged that his Master would be older, different, yet not too different. He himself, being a Slow Mutant, would hardly appear to have aged at all. Jayk thought that he might be a few centimeters taller and perhaps a tiny bit more muscular, but other than that, he’d still be the same cute little sexual plaything that his Master would remember. He shivered.

“Cold?”

“No sir,” Jayk replied, his voice almost breaking, “just thinking is all. Actually I’m warm. Too warm.” He downed the glass of water in one drink.

The Hunter considered this for a moment, then stood up to take his plate back to the disposal. Jayk’s eyes widened a bit, and he started to get up.

“Oh, sit down!” The Hunter ordered, “I’m not your Master, and I don’t expect you to wait on me as if I were. It’s unseemly! Besides, I’m stiff and sore and moving might help. How long was I out?”

“About four hours, sir, I think.”

“What’s with the ‘sir’ business all of a sudden?” the Hunter asked, “This afternoon, you were trying to lie and bargain and be snotty as best you could. Just because my Psi isn’t active doesn’t mean I can’t read you like a book, you know. You’re acting totally different. What’s with the sudden submissive ‘I’m a good little one now’ act? A few days ago, you killed an Adult Approved, which I might add, is in a transport tube back there. Fine job you did on him, too. And now you’re a waiter or busboy or something?!”

Jayk lowered his head again. He shut his eyes and shook his head. He coughed. “Let’s not talk about Kel, please. I’m sorry I did it. I thought you’d be angry at me. I figured that’s why you left me loose, sort of. Besides, after what you did for me and all ... and I might as well get used to it. This time I’ll probably be spending the rest of my Master’s life doing stuff like this ... and worse. Then after he’s gone, who knows who’ll get me or what they’ll do to me?”

“Was he your first kill?” the Hunter asked, rooting about in the cargo area.

Jayk nodded.

“What’s that? I say, was he your first?” The Hunter asked, rattling around in the back.

“Yes, sir. My only one. I swear it was an accident!” Jayk replied, his voice full of regret.

The Hunter returned to his chair and sat down. “You get used to it.”

He checked the readouts. “We’ll be there very soon, Jayk. It will be dawn before long and we’ll have to stop to refuel. It’s a clear shot from there, and we can really cruise. It won’t be long now, and he’ll be waiting. Tell me, is it uncommon for a Master to sell his slave?” he added, wanting to change the subject. After all, Kel wasn’t going anywhere.

Jayk’s head snapped around to stare at him, his fangs much in evidence as his mouth hung open. His dark almond-shaped eyes were wide, and he wasn’t sure what his captor meant. Was he going to try and buy him? Jayk thought for a moment, and realized that he’d heard his Master and his friends talking about buying and selling quite a few times. He nodded. “Sometimes we get traded, rented, loaned, or sold. Not often though. I only met three or four other slaves the whole 13 Cycles that he had me, though, and one of them was Muted so he wasn’t much conversation. I liked him though. I got loaned a lot too, and well, we weren’t allowed to talk much. Most of the time we were busy with other stuff, you know.”

The Hunter flushed and sighed. “Jayk,” he began, “Spare me the details! The law is clear on what I have to do here. You’re a Runaway slave. I have to take you back. BUT you are also a murderer. The only thing saving your cute little butt on that issue is the fact that you tried to eat a Runaway Approved, which is just as bad as being an Unapproved without a Permit or ID Beacon. I HAVE to hand you back over to this Wilson fellow, reward or not. However, I also am bound by law to tell him that you’re a Mutant, which he knows - obviously,” as the Hunter reached over and stroked Jayk’s pointed left ear.

Jayk didn’t pull away. Instead, he leaned over a bit and sniffled.

“I did NOT try to EAT him,” the Mutant protested in a sick voice.

The Hunter went on, unperturbed. “But I’m sure he doesn’t know that you’ve evolved, or devolved, as it were, into a Beast Mutant. He might not WANT you back, you know. Having a bedmate that might change and rip his heart out in the middle of the night as a light snack isn’t really a comforting thought. In that case, there are very few options. One, he’ll have you Exterminated.”

Jayk nodded as the Hunter spoke, making it clear that this thought had already occurred to him. He coughed again. “Two, he’ll tell me to hand you over to the Authorities. Three, he’ll take you back and just be very careful of you.”

They stared at each other for a moment, and the Hunter lowered his hand to rest it on Jayk’s slumped shoulder. Even without his Psi running, he knew that Jayk was very low on faith. It also explained his submissive behavior. Jayk was just acting the part, getting back into practice. He’d felt it earlier in the Meadow, and he knew that something important inside of Jayk had surrendered. The Psionic contact with Xyn hadn’t seemed to have helped; in fact, it seemed to have made things worse.

That or Jayk was trying to prepare himself for death.

He leaned over a bit and put his arm around Jayk, and the Mutant broke.

“I don’t want to die now!” He cried, tears rolling down his face. He coughed and stuttered, but he finally got it out. “I-I mean, I w-wanted to f-for so long, b-but that was before z-z-z ...” but he couldn’t finish the word.

He couldn’t say his name.

“Before Xyn came along?” the Hunter supplied.

Jayk nodded, clumsily reaching his bound hands up to wipe at his face with the too-long sleeves of the borrowed jacket. When he had regained some semblance of composure, he went on. “I wanted to die for so long. I hated my life. It’s been so damn long, and ... and I’ve lost so many. You can’t know what it’s like, watching everyone you ever loved die when you don’t even age a full Cycle while they grow up, grow old, then ... then ... they’re gone! Or watch your friends get caught by Hunters and dragged off like they were just a piece of trash! Then when something good finally happens, you finally think you’re going to be OK and be happy for a little bit, it all goes to Hell! I don’t know if I can take it again. I wish Xyn had never come along to begin with!”

He paused for a moment, swallowed hard, and coughed again. This time, it sounded wet. It was obvious that he still wasn’t fully recovered from nearly dying of exposure back in the Ruins. His face was suddenly drawn, and there were darker circles under his eyes. Those black eyes, so mysterious and sensuous looking, had taken on a haunted look again. It was a look that the Hunter knew all too well.

“You don’t really mean that, Jayk. Remember, I WAS right smack in the middle of your goodbye chat,” the Hunter reminded him, suddenly recalling it all in stark clarity and finding himself amazed at the depth of emotions that these two shared with each other. He recalled it all fully, once he thought about it, and was awed. If only I could really KNOW it, he thought, If only there were some way, or someone who loved me so much ... and now they’re both losing all that matters ...

“But at least I had that one short little time. Thanks to you. I owe you one. No, two. Thanks for letting me find out what became of Scot.” Then Jayk fell silent, his head bumping hard against the window as he leaned over and away from the Hunter’s touch. He coughed again and sneezed.

“You’re getting sick, Jayk,” the Hunter stated, reaching over to feel Jayk’s brow. It was hot.

Jayk smiled wanly. “My luck.”

Of course, the Hunter knew what that meant. Mutants didn’t get sick. Anyone or anything that could survive for more than a few days in the Ruins just didn’t catch cold from being out in the rain. If Jayk was coming down with something and didn’t receive proper care - and fast - he’d die. That much, the Hunter was certain of.

“And damned if you’re taking ME down with you,” the Hunter said to himself as he ordered up a full Medpack and had the computer scan his captive.

He cringed at the diagnosis.

“Respiratory inflammation,” the computer responded after scanning Jayk again, “Bronchial obstructions - mucous, swollen airways. Microbial count rising. High fever imminent, delerium, chills, sweats, coughing, sneezing, congestion, increased mucous production resulting in oxygen deprivation followed by death. Diagnosis - Remnant Respir-5. Bio Treatment - 2 grains Tryclocillin-x-D, oxygen use for two days. Manual cleansing of lungs. Rest and warmth. Recovery in 36 hours or death in 48.”

“Well that pretty well sums it all up,” the Hunter stated, pressing a hypospray from the Medpack into Jayk’s neck and attaching the oxygen mask to his face. “I thought I had you out of the woods back in the meadow yesterday.”

“Sorry,” Jayk coughed. “If I die, you won’t get paid will you?”

“Bad joke. You’re not going to die on my watch,” the Hunter said.

Jayk smiled as the Hunter reclined the seat. “We’ll refuel shortly. It looks like I’ll have to call your Master and tell him you’ll be late.”

“He hates that,” Jayk offered, coughing into the mask.

It was going to be a long three days, and the Hunter decided to place some calls. The first call he made was to the Dealer, Acer, whom he knew kept odd hours and would still be up as the sun began to rise. He smiled as the fat man’s plump face filled the screen - literally. “Did you get him?!” the Dealer demanded, licking his lips.

“Uh, no, I did not GET him,” the Hunter replied, “I got his boyfriend instead.”

Acer leered. “Is he cute?”

“He’s a Runaway slave. You can’t have him, though. Here, look.” The Hunter changed views to let Acer see Jayk.

“He’s sick!” The Dealer exclaimed, pulling back from his screen, “But my, my, is he cute! A nice pretty Mutant. I love the ears! Nice teeth. Fatten him up and sell him off!”

“Thanks, I think,” Jayk coughed.

“Nice to meet you, pretty!” the Dealer replied. Jayk waved at the monitor and laid back. Acer snorted.

“He’s old,” the Hunter resumed, “a very old Slow Mutant. He’s probably too miserable to be amused by you. He’ll be fine in three days or so. Picked up a Remnant from laying out in the Rains for too long. I think he was trying to die, but I interfered.”

“You always interfere!” Acer grinned, “So what am I to expect now? Hide the pretty little old fellow when he gets well and hold him for you? Someone sure as hell needs to FEED him, it looks like to me!”

The Hunter sighed and shook his head. “Sit on the funds chip, well, not literally, I mean. I’ll be in need of you later on. I have some others to contact then I’ll get back to you.”

“Call me anytime,” Acer replied blandly, closing his connection.

The second call that he made was to Master Wilson, and he was surprised by his reaction. It seemed that Wilson had just gotten up and was hitting the coffee rather hard.

“Take all the time you need with him, sir,” Wilson told the Hunter, “I won’t rush you. Can I see him?”

The Hunter nodded and turned the screen’s view, but Jayk had fallen back asleep despite the loud wheezes which tore at his lungs. He coughed softly now and then, but he didn’t move. Onscreen, Wilson just watched him. He could easily afford the comm time. Finally, after a week’s salary worth of time, he spoke. His voice was tender, even concerned.

“I never realized how much I missed him until now, Hunter. Do everything you can. If it’s money you need for help, call me back. Gods, he looks so weak and fragile like that. Are you sure he’ll recover?” he asked, and the Hunter could see tears standing in his eyes.

“He’ll be fine. He’s already too old and mean to die. I also have to inform you, and I don’t want to, but our little Jayk here is uh, well ... a murderer. I have the remains of an Adult XY Runaway he killed in the Ruins not long ago.”

Master Wilson gaped. “THE RUINS? He made it that far?! And he KILLED him? How? Why? Jayk was never like that!”

“Yes sir, happily living with a gang of Outcasts there in the Ruins. East, that is. I think the killing’s because he’s evolved, sir. Jayk may be a Slow one, and now he’s also a Beast Mutant. He literally jumped on him and made use of those fangs - on the fellow’s throat. Ghastly. I found him right after he’d done it. He also claims to know how the change happened, but he won’t share THAT with me,” the Hunter lied.

“WHY did he kill him?” Wilson asked, his face a mystery.

“It seems there were others in Jayk’s gang. Jayk had fallen in love with a stray of some sort, some Runaway, I think. The little XY got sick, and this Adult wanted to leave him to die. Jayk protested - somewhat violently too, from what I saw,” the Hunter sketched in, feeling no need to give him all the details.

Wilson laughed wickedly. “As any good Master would do for his Love! I’m so proud of him!”

“You don’t want him exterminated then, sir?” the Hunter asked, a bit stunned by Wilson’s outburst.

“Hell no! I want him BACK when he’s all better! I can’t wait to have him at my place again. I’ve been lonely without him, and well, you probably know that I have a LOT invested in him.”

The Hunter nodded, and looked over at Jayk. The wheezing was getting worse, and soon would come the coughing and messy part. He finally decided to come right out and say it as Wilson’s words struck him the wrong way.

“Sir, this may be over bold of me, but frankly I don’t care. I answer to no one, and I’ve a tendency to speak what’s on my mind. Jayk’s very upset about being returned to you. He’s scared that you’re going to exterminate him, and if you don’t, that you’ll so severely limit his freedom over the fact that he’s a Beast that he’ll be miserable. Now don’t get me wrong, he admitted that he had learned to enjoy the life that was thrust upon him. HOWEVER, he’s very much in love with this other young one, not so little really, and he’s changed a great deal. He may not look it, but he’s older. I know for a fact that he isn’t looking forward to being returned to you, and that he’s afraid of being hurt. When I found him, helpless and left for dead in the Rains, he begged me to let him die. I didn’t. He’s very fragile just now, even if he weren’t sick. He’s extremely depressed, and there’s only one thing in life that he wants. Unfortunately, he can’t have it, by law that is. And I mean this when I say, despite the reward on his pretty little head, which I intend to claim, I really don’t want to have to come back for him.”

Master Wilson looked confused. “THIS, from a Hunter?! Now you listen to me, Jayk IS my property,” he stated, seemingly at a loss, “And just what do you mean you’ll come back? How would you know to come back? Jayk isn’t allowed Network access without ME with him. And then it’s usually Online gaming or studying. He loves to read.”

“Then buy him a antique book. Words printed on paper. And I have my ways,” the Hunter replied, “And I don’t need the Network to do it. Let’s just say I’ll be keeping an eye on Jayk for a long, long time.”

Wilson’s face paled as the realization hit him. “You ... you ... I mean ... Gods, you’re THE HUNTER they talk about on the Broadcasts?! Why should YOU, of all people, care? You’re reported to be the best in the business! Unapproveds and Mutants all over the World live in fear of you!”

“My reputation precedes me, I see.”

“What do you want of me, Hunter?” Wilson asked, his tone subdued.

“Jayk needs more than a warm bed and food, Wilson. He needs love, which he obviously wasn’t getting from you. The love of his life, possibly the last one he’ll ever know, was just torn away from him. You know who I am now, and you know what I am. You should also know that I now know EVERYTHING there is to know about our Jayk here. I’m not going to deliver him back to you and nurse him back to health AGAIN beforehand just so you can fuck him night and day and keep him locked in his room when you don’t need him. That’s not what it’s all about.

“Jayk knows you don’t love him, Wilson. He KNOWS that you only use him out of lust and for show and status. Mutant or not, Jayk has feelings to consider, and right now they’re in BAD shape. But then again, do what you will, I guess. The law IS on your side, after all, and he IS your property. But I don’t suspect a wild thing like Jayk will survive long in that kind of captivity anyway. I’ll be there in three days. Have the funds ready.”

Wilson didn’t reply, but his face was strange. He then simply closed the connection.

“You sir,” the Hunter said to empty air, “Are a dead man. But it won’t be me who kills you.”

The third call he made was to Rick Abrams at the new Facility #32, after he had landed and refueled the craft. As he was preparing for takeoff once again, Abrams face came on the screen. He looked tired and worn down. The Hunter could hear what sounded like willful and happy destruction in the background. “Rec room?” he asked.

“How could you tell?” Abrams replied, dodging a small ball that sailed in front of the monitor.

“Lucky guess. And before you blow a chip, no I didn’t get Xyn.”

Abrams looked distressed. “Why not?!” he demanded over the din of the frolicking little ones behind him, “Did you even SEE him?”

“I did better than that, actually. I Psi’d with him. I’m sure you know the feeling.” Abrams face visibly paled.

“Why?” he asked in a hushed tone, only to be drowned out by a sudden screech and a loud crash. “THAT did it!” he bellowed, pressing a few buttons and calling in every available Carebot in the place. “Bots, take the little ones OUTSIDE now! The fence should be done, and they could use some fresh air. Make sure their Suits are all fully charged and working, and get out NOW!”

A hushed silence fell over the channel as the Hunter laughed. “Outside?!” he mused aloud.

“I took your advice and made arrangements. I even ordered playground equipment. Besides, they’re driving me nuts and we need to talk!”

“Outside?” a small voice finally said on the other end of the comm link.

Abrams turned and nodded. “Yes, R. Outside. I know it’s different and scarey, but you’ll like it, I think. Listen to the Carebots and don’t touch the fence. Run around and throw some balls out there and roll in the grass and have fun! I have to talk to this nice man on the Network.”

About then, a small round face with no hair and a wearing a black eyepatch popped up on the monitor. He had yellowish-brown skin and was pressing his nose into the glass. The Hunter laughed. “Ewww, what’s wrong with HIM?!” he asked, as Abrams pulled him back.

“He’s an Adult XY, R. He’s a Hunter. Now run along.”

R did that, mumbling something as he went. A moment later, all was quiet and Abrams sighed in relief. He shook his head. “I can just see the broken bones coming in now.”

“You can fix it, I’m sure. Up the calcium intake. Now, where were we?” the Hunter asked.

“You were Psi’ing with Xyn,” Abrams replied in a sick tone.

“Oh yes! Well, when I found Jayk here, he wasn’t in very good shape. I thought he was over most of it, but he got sick. He’ll be fine in three days or so, but I can’t resume my Hunt for Xyn until I deliver him. Runaway Laws, you understand. Now you see, as I said, he and Xyn were rather intimate. I was VERY close in proximity to Xyn when I found Jayk in the Ruins, you know. Once we got underway, I could ‘feel’ Xyn’s Mind sweeping the area, screaming in pain for Jayk. YOU heard it the first time, but I was right on top of him, almost. I can tell you this much, for sure - I’ve never felt such pain and longing in my career as a Psion. I also don’t like what I have to do, Abrams. I don’t think I want to go after this one after what Jayk told me and what I ‘felt’. YOU knew Xyn was a Psion Mutant. What you didn’t know is just how MUCH of Psion he IS! And he’s got some high powered bitch backing him up that’s already taken me out once!

“Jayk misses Xyn, and Xyn misses Jayk even more. I don’t know that either of them will survive long without the other, and that’s going to be a huge problem. I think I should also inform you that I myself need to be checked. I’m having difficulties, my Suit’s had a hard time of it, and I think I’ve got something seriously wrong with me that’s going to need professional Maintenance,” he concluded, not mentioning what “something” was.

Abrams thought for a long while. Finally, he asked, “But Xyn is alive and well? IN the Ruins? His Suit’s working and he’s healthy?”

The Hunter nodded and Jayk began to hack. He immediately scooped him up in his arms and took him to the back of the ship. “I’ll chat while I work on Jayk, Abrams. I think we’re just about to hit the beginning of it here!”

“Sounds like Respir-5,” Abrams remarked, “Fast attacking at that.”

“It is,” the Hunter shouted, bending Jayk over a small dispensary area in the cargo hold and pounding on his back as he hacked. He sneezed several times, moaned, and began to spit up disgusting amounts of sickly colored phlegm.

“What do you mean about Xyn not surviving long without that ... that thing you’re working on there? Gods only know what HE did to him. Poor Xyn.”

The Hunter continued to pound on Jayk’s back and squeeze his ribs. Jayk cried out and coughed some more, then the fit seemed to pass. He went limp in the Hunter’s arms, and he carried the ailing Mutant to a small bunk across from the transport tubes. He covered him and put the oxygen back on him and gave him another shot.

The Hunter considered it for a moment, then just said it. “Xyn’s desperately in love with Jayk here, Abrams, and Jayk didn’t do anything to him that he didn’t want to do. He misses you too, from what I learned in our Psionic contact, but he’s not so sure about YOU anymore. Jayk and the Others told him some things that set some doubts up in his mind, and in mine as well. I’ll tell you this much, after being in intimate contact with both Xyn’s and Jayk’s Minds, I can relate. The bond between them is like NOTHING I’ve ever ‘seen’ before, and I don’t fully understand it. Yes, Xyn misses you, he’d like to see you and still loves you, but he won’t risk Jayk for it. He also won’t set foot inside your Facility again, because he now knows what it was all about! Hell, now that I’ve Psi’d with both of them, I miss Xyn too and I think you know how I usually feel about those sorts of things. And I’ve never even MET him yet! But I also have a lot more insight into why you want him back now. And he’s also got a LOT of questions.”

Abrams groaned.

“I told you, he’s not a little innocent anymore, man! He’s a rapidly maturing young one who’s had a LOT of Psionic contact with older, more wiser Minds. He’s NOT the little Xyn that you loved and miss so badly anymore. Are you SURE you want him back?!” The Hunter demanded.

“I miss him so much,” Abrams replied in a voice full of loss and longing. “I don’t know what YOU think of ME, and I could give a fuck less! All I want is to have my boy back in my arms again, even if it’s only for a little while. YOU touched his Mind, and I hate you for that! And as for that Jayk character you’re trying to cash in on, I hope he dies!

“All of Xyn’s life, I was the only one who ever knew and who ever did that with him! I was the only on who knew what he was, dammit! I was the one who kept him safe in here, changed records, even sacrificed a few of his dormies to keep HIM intact! All of my efforts were to get THEM to let me have him for my own Upgraded, and they won’t. That’s all I want out of life, Hunter - my own boy. A real live Approved Upgraded BOY to call my own! If I can’t have him back, if he won’t have ME back, then I’ll let it go. All I ask is that you honor our agreement, which I won’t repeat HERE, and I’m sure you will. I just want to tell Xyn that I love him one more time, and we’ll go from there. Is that too much to ask?”

The Hunter returned to his pilot’s seat. His face was like a thundercloud. “I’ll go after him when I get myself Serviced, not before. I’m in bad shape, Abrams. That trip into the Ruins and the trip back out tore me up bad. It’s a foul place in there,” he lied, “and the Suit was all that saved me. I don’t know how those Mutants survive in there, but I can bet you this - Suit or not, Xyn WILL survive. Jayk or not, Xyn will survive ... I think. I can’t be too sure, as I said, after all of that contact with his Mind. But that’s what makes me so uncertain of YOU, Mister. I know what Xyn felt like, I know! I know what it’s like to have him in MY Mind, to be in HIS Mind! And Jayk’s! I’m sure you understand, it’s a Psionic thing. It’s not easy to hide things when you’re doing that.

“I don’t know if you had parents or not, like I did, but I know that mine loved me. I know we all hurt when the Agency took me away. But one doesn’t FEEL what one FEELS from just anyone like one can FEEL from Xyn! Do you get my point? Do you see why I have even less reason to trust you now?!”

Then he dug in for the metaphorical kill.

“Do you truly love Xyn for Xyn, and his best chance at a good life? Or do you love his Psionic powers and what he can do for you? Is it the way you feel when you’re with him that you love, or do you love Xyn?! Is it the boy or the Psi?” the Hunter demanded, stressing the archaic term ‘boy’ in reference to Xyn instead of ‘little XY’ as Abrams had just done.

There was a long silence, then the display went blank.

“Visual terminated, audio still open,” the computer stated.

“P-please,” Abrams sobbed, “Just g-get him out of th-that awful place! Let me see him again!”

“When and IF I can catch him, Abrams, I’ll call you. I’ll meet you at a neutral location where Xyn and I will both be safe, and with witnesses and security. Make one wrong move or piss me off again, Abrams, and you won’t live to regret it!” the Hunter promised.

“What the hell is wrong with you?!” Abrams demanded. “The Hunter I sent out after a Runaway was THE HUNTER, not some bleeding heart Unapproved-lover!”

The Hunter snorted at the blank screen, scanning the terrain at the same time. It would be much easier to care for Jayk if they sat down, preferably at a Facility or an Approved Maintenance Depot.

“I told you I needed Servicing for a Malfunction, hell, we’re both on the verge of a Breakdown here!” he replied, closing the connection as Jayk began to cough again.

Ev Wilson, Approved Adult XY and Master to the Runaway Jayk paced the floor for hours. He wandered aimlessly about his large house, which spoke of his wealth and status. When he grew bored with the interior of the house, he wandered outside to roam the well-manicured grounds of his property. Multi-colored flower gardens bloomed in the late Savage Season sunlight, the house being so far to the South that the Storms that ravaged the NorthEast at that time of year were not really a threat. Beyond the gardens were vast stands of Forest, and the prime real estate had cost him more than most Approveds saw in salary in a lifetime. The leaves were still all green, the ColorFall still several weeks away. The day was warm and near perfect. He looked around and swore once.

Master Wilson was rich, but he was also lonely.

He was also distracted by the Hunter’s words.

“How DARE he?!” he shouted to an unoffending lily. The lily ignored him.

But deep down, he realized that the Hunter had been at least partially right. He had purchased Jayk for one reason - sex. He had had him cut for that reason as well. As a Slow Mutant, and one so ‘young,’ Jayk had cost him small fortune. However, the pleasures that he had taken with him and the money that he made from hiring him out had more than repaid the initial investment. And Jayk had come to be very good at what he did, pleasing his Master at every turn.

Wilson sighed. “If I’d wanted a little one of my own to love, I’d go fuck an XX,” he muttered, still pondering the Hunter’s statement that Jayk had feelings too. He was also pondering his own feelings as well. Feelings that he wasn’t sure about, unsure as to what they were and why he was having them. The face he’d seen on the monitor when he’d been called by the Hunter had been so different. HIS Jayk, the Jayk from so many Cycles ago, had been vibrant and full of life. His almond-shaped eyes had almost glowed, and his gleaming fangs had only enhanced his smile when he had pleased his Master. He had been almost tireless in bed, and in daily life as well. He had been energetic, mannerly, always so anxious to please and grateful for his rewards.

“But he didn’t feel anything for me, did he?” Wilson realized with a sharp pang of regret. And Wilson realized then just how much he missed his company.

“Perhaps I felt something for him after all. Ah, stupid of me,” he muttered, stalking back towards the huge house. “But what should I expect him to feel for me? I bought him, I had him fully gelded. I knew what I was doing, yet I did it. But I gave him a good, safe life with me here. Food, shelter, warmth, entertainment, sex! He could have ended up with a much worse Master than me! And he loves another young one now, another Mutant! Damn him anyway. He’ll be sorry.”

He didn’t even believe himself, however. His words fell upon his own ears, and he suddenly gasped. The Jayk that he had seen on the screen after so many Cycles indeed was not HIS Jayk. This new Jayk was older, wiser, and sick. He looked so weak and helpless, hardly the shadow of the Jayk that he had spent so many wonderful nights with. What had he been through since that bitch had totaled his old house and escaped with Jayk? How bad did he miss that life, and his new love? And how would it effect his performance as a slave?

Things were not going to be the same, he knew. Jayk might be well in three days, convalesced fully in a few more, but he would not be HIS Jayk. True, he would still be about the same size and just as handsome when he was well again. He would still be the irresistible e-XY that he had always dreamed of having, and he would still be able to give and receive the same old pleasures.

But he would not be HIS Jayk.

Wilson sighed and headed back to the house, turning over the Hunter’s strange words and threats in his mind again and again.

As soon as they made New City Far South, the Hunter contacted the nearest Facility that could see to their needs. He used his status to pull a few strings, and shortly after landing, he and Jayk were both taken to a high security room in the isolation ward. While Carebots looked after Jayk, helping him to hack out the vile fluids that clogged his lungs and listening to his fever-induced rants in delirium with no interest in WHAT he said, the Hunter was poked and prodded and scanned in every possible way. After the first day, both of them had literally collapsed into exhausted sleep. The bad news came the next morning, however.

While Jayk coughed and spit and clung to life as best he could, the Hunter began to feel even more run down. Despite his Suit’s help - which the Medics had taken away to recharge and diagnose - he was getting worse. He found it harder to concentrate, and his head would NOT stop hurting. His vision was becoming spotty, and he could hardly walk. Following Jayk’s advice, he hadn’t even tried to power up his Psi. It hadn’t helped. He also mentioned to the Medics to reprogram the Suit to cut back on the hormonal balances, stating that he felt it was far too high and that such might be part of the problems. In fact, he had asked them to eliminate that part of its Maintenance regimen altogether, citing anxiety and distraction. One of them, a rather burly orderly with a goatee and dark hair, had smiled knowingly.

He got the bad news on the morning of the next day.

“Cerebral Necrotization,” the Doctor was saying, looking over his data padd on the Hunter. “Abnormal levels of damn nigh every chemical we know of in the brain! VERY unusual wave patterns as well. I don’t know what you’ve been doing, but your Processor can’t take it and is degrading as the brain tissues surrounding it begin to fail. There’s only one other case like this on the books, and she was written off to madness, having gone Runaway and disappeared some Cycles ago. No wonder you’re reporting all of these strange symptoms. It’s a wonder you’re not schizophrenic by now! We’re 99% sure that the treatment will work, however. You’ll be fine in about a week. We should begin Repairs at once.”

The Hunter snorted. “We don’t have a week,” he snapped. “Get on with it. I have work to do.”

The Doctor smiled. “I knew you’d say that. We’ve almost got everything ready for you, but tell me, what is it with this catch? Why go to such lengths to save his life? And where in hell did he pick up Respir-5?”

The Hunter looked over at Jayk, who was catching a nap despite the horrible noises coming from his lungs. The array of wires and tubes made it look even worse as they attempted to pump life back into Jayk. “Sorry, classified info. Let’s just say he’s special.”

“Well,” the Doctor replied, “Let’s leave your young charge here to the Carebots and get you to surgery. What we plan to do is inject some fresh neural tissue into the areas around your Processor to regenerate things in there. Probably have to add a CoProcessor as well. 36 hours of deep sleep, and a few hours of confusion upon waking, then you should be as good as new. We’ll try and keep you on schedule. As for the Mutant,” he gestured, waving the padd at Jayk, “We’ll do all we can for him as well. Legally, we HAVE to with your orders. Lucky you caught it so early. He’ll make a full recovery, I’m sure, I just can’t see WHY anyone would want him to.”

“You don’t know him,” the Hunter replied, not understanding the emotion that was welling up with him as it tightened his throat and made his eyes sting.

“Sounds more like the concerns of an Adopter or a Parent with a sick or Malfunctioning little one,” the Doctor retorted ungracefully, “And not at all what I expected from THE Hunter. Probably due to the tissue damage, though. Like I said, probably beginning to experience schizophrenia.”

The Hunter sighed as they wheeled him down the Facility hallway to surgery. He didn’t argue. He decided, as the sedatives began to put him under, that he really didn’t want to know where this ‘fresh tissue’ was coming from.

There were faces coming out of the blackness. It was so warm and easy, floating ... alone ... all alone. Then there was pain, a fire in his head! The warmth turned cold, and the faces came at him from all directions. Things were closing in on him. He screamed.

Again, the fiery pain. Something was in his head. Someone was IN his head. He was missing something. Something important. What was it? He didn’t know. He asked the white, round face with no hair, but it pulled its hood up and gazed with blue/gray eyes at the other face. He asked it too, but the sloped brows over almond-shaped eyes set in dark skin only stared at the first face.

A little XY ran by them all, screaming. “NO! Don’t take me! I don’t wanna go! Daddddy! Mommmmy!” he cried, and he screamed again as his head blazed. He was there, but there was something not right about him. Then she came, but she wasn’t right either. The flowing mass of curled black hair wasn’t Mommy’s, and the sparkling gold/black eyes knew too much. And the Adult XY wasn’t Daddy. He was a stranger. “GO AWAY!” she snapped, and her Mind lashed at him like a whip. “You’ll never do it again,” the other Adult was saying, waving the knife in his face.

He turned back to the two little ones, not so little anymore, but they only smiled at him and wept. Happy tears. He thought he knew them.

Again the fire. Again he screamed.

“Thank you,” they said to him. “Thank you for this moment.”

And his Mind was beset by alien emotions. He was still floating, but colder now. He was sinking, and colder still. “Is this death?” he asked, but a strange and pale little XY shook his head at him. His hair was light and his face drawn. He looked so old for one so young. Too young, too hurt - too old. “Don’t talk to strangers,” he said softly, turning to go.

He screamed once more, and he was falling. He didn’t want to leave, feeling some part of himself left behind. Something lost, something that could never be reclaimed.

There was a bright light, a cold bright light, and then the pain blazed anew in his head and he snapped his eyes closed. So cold ... so much pain ... so much taken away ... and then he heard a sound as the new blackness closed in on him ...

... “Man, you look ...” followed by rasping cough, “... like shit!” and then another hard cough.

He knew that voice. He fought to open his eyes, but the lids would not obey him. He tried to call out, but his voice was silent. He wanted to sit up, to move, but his body wouldn’t have it. Then he realized something else, vaguely, something else that he could do. He knew HOW to do it, but could he? He tried.

He succeeded.

The voice again, so emotional, “Oh, Gods!” it said, “You’re back!”

Am I back? I know you, Speaker. Yet I do not. I speak, yet I do not.

“Your Psi,” it said, then coughed again for a while and spit, gasping. “It’s working again. You hurt yourself using it, for me. For us. They repaired you. Do you know where we are?”

Jayk! “That’s me,” the voice said, and he felt the smile crossing the unseen face.

With a great effort, he opened his eyes and the darkness fled. A rush of memory came back at him, and he felt something stirring inside of his head. He thought about it for a moment as the Approved and Repaired Processor sprang to life. His hand suddenly reached down to his side, looking for something; he wasn’t sure what.

“They best have fixed the fucking thing right the first damn time!” he grumbled.

Jayk smiled and said ironically. “That’s the Hunter we all know and love.”

“You’re too kind. How long?” he asked, as his thoughts began to clear. He knew that his Psi was running, and it was telling him that Jayk was relieved. It also told him that Jayk was feeling much better, and that meant at least two and half days if Jayk was talking and moving.

“We ran a day or so over,” the Mutant began, “You didn’t wake up on time, and when you started to, well, you were babbling on and on - Mentally, too, I might add - about this and that and some things that I had to lie about until I thought my fangs were gonna fall out! What the hell was wrong with you, anyway? You came up with some pretty wild stuff, you know.”

“My Processor was failing. Tissue necrotization in the surrounding areas, they said.” The Hunter stretched and yawned. “I actually feel halfway good,” he mused aloud, his head aching only just a little as he scanned the entire floor. No one. Bots maybe, but they didn’t ‘show up’. He and Jayk were alone in the isolation ward.

But Jayk was awed. “Shit!” he exclaimed, “That’s what happened to Shar, a long time ago! You don’t wanna know how they fixed it, trust me. Just forget about it. You sure you’re OK? Is it running alright? You know, your ...”

“Yes it’s fine, Jayk,” the Hunter interrupted. “It started up fairly easily too. Hasn’t been so easy in a great deal of Cycles. So she’s the one they were talking about that was ‘on the books’. Interesting! Anyway, how are you doing?”

Jayk coughed, but didn’t have to spit. His voice was a bit nasal, but he did look better. “I’m going to live, so they tell me. You wouldn’t believe what those creepy robots did to me.”

“Try me.”

Jayk thought for a moment, sitting up in bed. He still had an assortment of tubes and wires running in and out of him, and an oxygen mask as well. His collar was also chained to the head of the bed. “They stuffed this thing up my nose and down my throat and shot my lungs full of something. Then they plugged my mouth. When I tried to cough, it filled up my head and they pumped in more! It hurt like hell and I couldn’t breath! Then I started hacking and puking it out the minute they pulled the mouth plug. You wouldn’t believe the mess. Even the Bots commented on it. Then they did it again! Once it was over, they put the mask back on me and I had to breath in some kind of cool gassy stuff that made me cough harder. Then they did the liquid thing again and again, all day long! I thought I was gonna die.”

The Hunter, however, was smiling. “They gave your lungs an enema?!” he joked.

Jayk nodded. “Having had several of THOSE in the past, I think so, yes. But I can tell you this much, I don’t mind having my ass pumped full of liquid now and then, but that lung thing sucked! Literally!” He coughed, but he was smiling.

“So we’re a day or two late and we’re both going to live then?” the Hunter asked.

Jayk sighed and nodded.

“Looks like it.”

They left the following day at dawn. The Doctors were amazed at how quickly the Hunter seemed to have recovered his wits, and they asked permission to write a study about it. He approved of it, but did demand royalties if and when it were published. Jayk shook his head as they left the Facility, glad to be out of it. He hadn’t seen much of the inside of it, but from what he had seen, he had a new respect for Xyn who had grown up in such a place. He hadn’t cared for the way that all of the Adults had stared at him, and the few glances of and from the bald little ones in white Suits was unnerving. He missed Xyn, and the Hunter felt it as their craft took to the sky.

“Did you see the look on that jerk’s face when I told him to let you up without restraints?” the Hunter laughed.

Jayk smiled, pressed back hard against his seat as the craft climbed. He was not restrained. “I thought he was going to blow a chip or something!” Jayk replied, clearing his throat and coughing softly. His voice had suffered from the illness, but thanks to the Facility, he was fairly well back to normal. Then he yelped as the Hunter let off of the thrusters, leveling the craft out to cruise at high speed. His stomach rolled. The Hunter then set the autopilot and logged onto the Network. He had mail waiting.

Jayk stared out the window, uninterested.

Then he heard it in his Mind. What in hell does this mean?

“Listen to this,” the Hunter was saying, “‘To THEHunter@Authority%Old%City.gov from EdwardIV%H2@Facility%Placements.net.’ I’ve got a coded message from a little one I met at the Facility 32 when I stopped by to talk to Abrams. That was right before I found you. He was an Inmate with Xyn, or rather, knew of Xyn and I met him on the way out. Chatty little fellow, anyway, I gave him a coded mail chip just in case he thought he might know something. I really didn’t expect to hear from him, but listen to this : ‘Dear Mr. Hunter, I don’t know if this is important, but my daddy says it might be so he’s helping me send this to you. Did you find N yet? If you didn’t, I think you want to know that the night of the fire when I got hurt real bad, I thought I saw something outside, through the window glass. I don’t think about it much anymore, but I remembered seeing these weird light blue eyes glowing out in the Forest. I thought it was a squirrel or something, but D said that animals eyes don’t glow unless you shine a light on them in the dark and the older XY’s, cause D is older than me, said the same thing. Well, N was there too and his eyes got all funny and stared out at the eyes but they were gone then real fast. Then he shook his head and bit his lip and just went back to his dorm. When we all got in bed and the lights went out, I remember I was dreaming. I think I was, because I saw the eyes again out on the window ledge. They were looking in at us. I was scared, so I covered my head up and it was gone when I looked. But I think it was a bigger little one. I hope I didn’t bother you, but mommy and daddy got all upset when I told them about my dream and said to mail you. I don’t think about it much until I had that dream. My hands are starting to look like the rest of me too for color. Tell N hi for me if you find him. I like having parents. I want them to buy D next, even if he only has one eye. Can they Upgrade that too? I like having a Processor, I can remember a lot - even my name! I know you’re busy, so write back when you can. Bye ... Edward IV.’

Now, what’s that all about?” the Hunter asked.

Jayk thought for a moment. “Nightstalker,” he whispered.

“Yes, my thoughts exactly. But what’s a Nightstalker doing poking around at a remote Facility?”

“I dunno,” Jayk replied, “but from what your little friend says, Xyn knew he was out there.”

“Jayk, if you know something, tell me. I don’t wanna have to dig it out of your head, and this is really important.”

Jayk looked his captor in the eye and told him the truth. “I don’t know why he would have been there. I know it had to be a ‘he’ because there are no XX Nightstalkers. Never are. But it bothers me. Something’s been rattling around in my head ever since you linked me and Xyn up before we both went down sick, and this news just made it worse. I know our Nightstalker, Kefe, wouldn’t have been able to make it across the Flats and through the Forest in one night. I saw him the night before I found Xyn in the Forest and saw him the night I brought him home. I saw him the night before that, too. Thing is, why?”

The Hunter seemed to take Jayk at his word, and didn’t probe him. He wondered at that, smiling as he punched up some data on the computer. The image of the burning wreckage of Facility 32's old location came up, taken by the Recyclers and Rescuers. He and Jayk watched it for a bit, then he ‘rewound’ it. The video started as the building was already engulfed in flames, and all that it basically showed was the fire and the collapse of the framing. The wreckage then burned, the fire was put out, and the clip ended with a shot of a Carebot holding a badly burned little one. “Newscast bit, obviously,” the Hunter commented.

Jayk nodded. “I remember the News from when I was with my Master. We used to watch it every night. He was into the world news, you know. I bet he saw this one and just ate it up. They always cater with sensationalism to get the ratings. The worse the story, the more they play it.”

The Hunter snorted. “Damn talking heads is all they are. I wonder if they’re even real people? How can the same announcer be on the Broadcast for so long? Doesn’t he ever go pee? Or are they Clones?”

They laughed at that for a bit, then suddenly the Hunter let out a vile epithet.

“What?!” Jayk asked, a bit startled by his outburst.

“Abrams,” he mused aloud, “He said something a while back about the fire. It started fast, with no warning and burned too fast and too hot, he thought. Now, if you were going to build a Facility to house something as valuable as little Bios and spare Parts, wouldn’t you put in a really good security and fire control system?”

Jayk nodded, remembering with a chill his distaste for the place that they had just vacated. “I can’t imagine living in there full time,” he commented. “Creepy.”

“But that’s what gets me. You don’t get IN without authorization, and those Carebots can do more than just chase little ones around. Used to be, the Inmates didn’t even go outside to PLAY! Xyn never went outside, right? That’s why he wandered so far, he was so taken in by the Forest and all?!”

Jayk nodded again, not following him. Xyn had mentioned that to him.

“With security that tight, and computers running most of the utilities, how did the fire get started, and how did it spread so fast? It’s almost like someone had to have set it, made sure it was going, then got their ass the hell out of there, and fast. That building was almost indestructible, Jayk. I know the people who helped design it. I helped them test it for break-ins and -outs. Healthy little Bios are a rare commodity, and the Parts trade is very lucrative. It’s almost more secure than a World Bank in there. Abrams didn’t understand it, and neither do I, but it nags at me. HOW did it happen? Buildings like that just don’t catch fire spontaneously. Hell, you could give a little one in there a plasma torch and let him play with it and the fire suppression system would just keep putting out whatever he lit.”

Then it was the Hunter’s turn to flinch as Jayk recalled something. His Psi informed him, despite the mild headache, that Jayk had just had an idea and that it was a big one.

“Out with it,” he said.

Jayk’s eyes were wide and his fangs shining as his mouth dropped open. He was trembling. “No, no! It couldn’t be! He could never have made it that far and that fast! He wouldn’t do it, would he? I mean, I didn’t like him and all, but why would HE do THAT?!”

In the Hunter’s Mind there suddenly danced an image of a young XY with faintly green skin and long white hair pulled back into a ponytail. He was wearing only a ragged pair of pants tattered off above the knees, and his eyes were almost colorless in their faint shade of gray. Even his eyebrows and lashes were white. He was sweating, and distortions like heat ripples on pavement rose from his body. He was almost muscular, the usual softness of a little one gone but not yet replaced by the form of an Adult. His arms and legs were a bit long, and as the Hunter gently probed at this phantom of Jayk’s mind, it reached out a long-fingered hand to greet him. ‘Hi, I’m Chriss ...’ it was saying.

Jayk recoiled from that image, cringing down in his seat and sinking back into the too-large jacket that he was once again wearing. He was trembling worse, and the image of Chriss disappeared as the Hunter pulled back his Psi. He had seen and felt enough.

“A young Pyro Mutant, I see. Rare. Never caught one of them before, but they can certainly do plenty of damage! It’s all beginning to fit together now,” the Hunter stated.

But Jayk was shaking his head, his braids rustling and his mouth still agape. “Chriss showed up later though. I mean, Xyn and I were, well ...” he fumbled, not wanting to tell too much of what he knew, but still wanting to understand it all himself. The Hunter made it easier for him.

“Jayk, I know the Mutants in the Ruins captured a Transport ship and blew it up. I flew in and saw the damage to the Brushline and the tumbled buildings. You were there, you were in on it, and they left you behind after you killed Kel. Now you had to have met this Chriss on the way back home before you got left behind, but after you all had raided the ship, right?”

Jayk nodded, with a sick look on his face.

“Want to tell me more about it?” the Hunter asked, surprised that he just didn’t fire up his Psi and take the information that he needed. In the past, he would have done just that, but in the past his head wouldn’t have hurt so bad either. And he found that he also didn’t want to do that to Jayk. He smiled, realizing with a start that his odd behavior of late didn’t seem to be a Malfunction after all.

Jayk seemed to realize this, having been in the company of Psions for a long while. He drew a deep breath and went back for a glass of water, coughing a bit and still shaking. When he returned to his seat, the Hunter leaned over and touched his pointed ear as the Mutant downed the glass of water without stopping for air. “I won’t force it, Jayk, but it’s too strange. Just tell me what you know.”

“We met him on the way back. Xyn had found this little scrap of an XY, Tym. He was tiny and looked kinda sick, so Xyn went to watching out for him while we raided the ship. See, Xyn wasn’t used to hard work, and he wasn’t holding up too well. This little one was just in the way, really. He was too small and weak to be of much help, so Xyn took him outside and fed him and was getting to know him. The rest of us worked. Anyway, the next morning, Xyn and Tym were nowhere to be found. When I did find them, Xyn was catatonic and Tym wouldn’t leave him - not even to eat! I was talking to Tym when Chriss sneaked up on me and scared me. I was going to tear him limb from limb, but that’s what you just ‘saw,’ him introducing himself. Chriss came from Kel’s gang, the one I killed back there,” Jayk gestured towards the back of the craft where the transport tubes were located, and went on.

“He gave me the creeps. But I could tell,” Jayk admitted, flushing a bit, “that something was different about him. Well, when he reached out that hand, I knew it. I knew he was an e-XY. Castrated, like me ... well, not like ME, I mean, Chriss still has a penis, for all the good it does him. He’s really uptight about sex and things, but I could tell by his build and he admitted it.” Then Jayk shuddered. “He actually asked for it to be done to him, and he likes being an e-XY! Weird, if you ask me. I’ve been cut for like 20 or 30 Cycles now, I forget, and I’m still pissed off about it!”

“I know the feeling,” the Hunter stated flatly, rising to get them both another drink. “He actually WANTED it done?! WHY?!”

Jayk squirmed in his seat and took a long drink when the Hunter returned. He choked a bit and sneezed, staring at the glass. It was full of a dark brown liquid that bubbled. “Root beer,” the Hunter stated, “Like it? The formula was in an old database I found in the Old City some time ago. Some old computing machine, and I took it home and got it running. Something to do in my off time. Now, back to this Chriss nut of yours ...”

Jayk took another drink. “Pretty good, thanks. Well, Chriss told me, while we were looking Xyn over and trying to figure out what was wrong with him, that he’d had himself castrated just after he started the Change. Said he didn’t like it, couldn’t deal with it. I don’t know why, he didn’t say exactly - just that he couldn’t deal with it was all. But like I was saying before, about your headaches?”

The Hunter nodded, sipping his drink with interest.

“See, Chriss wanted his balls cut off. He knew it would stop the Change and keep him from growing up into a real XY Adult. He knew he wouldn’t have little ones of his own, didn’t want any, but also he didn’t want the sex drive. He’s happy now, believe it or not! But he also told me about something else that he found out. He mentioned another little one, a slave, who got cut when he was really little. Full castration, like me. No XY Parts at all left. Chriss said this little fellow hit the time for the Change, and that he was a Mutant too. He thought he might have been, but he wasn’t very good at it or something. Anyway, when the Change couldn’t happen because he was cut, his Mutant abilities went wild, so Chriss told me. I guess whatever he had went off like a bomb, and his Master called the Exterminators on him. He escaped, and made it to Chriss’ and Kel’s gang. He told them the story, and Chriss came up with an idea about it. See, he figured his powers were weakening and he was getting headaches because of the Change! They said they’d seen it before in XY’s, and Chriss was so unwound over his balls making him horny and such that he came up with this great idea - if he got castrated, his headaches would stop, he’d still be a Pyro Mutant, and he wouldn’t have to worry about the sex thing. Now, I KNOW that some Mutant XY’s lose their abilities when they grow up, especially really gifted little XY’s. I’ve seen it before. But you know, come to think of it, I never have seen an XX lose her abilities in the Change. It’s different, you know, but Chriss swore he was right! His headaches were gone in about three weeks or so, and then he said ... he said ...”

But Jayk’s voice trailed off as the Hunter saw him go deep into thought. He didn’t pry. He waited instead. The emotion rising up off Jayk was almost palpable.

Then Jayk raised an already sloped eyebrow and looked at him. “Chriss said something to me like, ‘and you know what? It worked! Pretty soon I was setting fire to stuff that won’t normally burn. You know you can torch a rock if you get it hot enough?’ And that was when we were looking over Xyn, and he noted that Xyn was still intact, down there. His XY Parts, I mean. I’m worried, sir, very worried. I think that if he knows what Xyn is, he might try and talk him into getting castrated too! I know he was thinking it, I just know it!”

The Hunter could feel the near-panic in Jayk’s voice, and squeezed his shoulder. “Jayk, you know what I think? When you were going TO the downed ship to raid it, where was Chriss then? When you were working and unloading, where was he? When you found Xyn catatonic with Tym hovering over him, where was Chriss right before that? Hell, before you even started out, when you found Xyn in the Forest or when you were getting to know and love him all that time, where was Chriss then and what was he doing?!”

Jayk’s eyes were wide and he drank the rest of his root beer and burped - loudly. A long and drawn out burp that made his nose burn. He sneezed again. “Good stuff,” he managed, his mind still unable to accept it.

But it all seemed to fit together.

Chriss was a Mutant. Kel had been a genius in mechanics and programming. Even a basic flyer could make it from the old Facility 32 to the Ruins, if not back again, as his own rescue by Shar had proven. And Chriss’ gang had lost their Nightstalker, hadn’t they? Or was he just not there WITH them when the Transport ship went down and they had joined with Shar’s gang in raiding it? And Chriss had made his first appearance just when Xyn had gone catatonic and was totally helpless. He had been so open about his own castration, and there had been something about him as he had examined Xyn for injuries.

Jayk reached back in his Mind, pulling at fragments from the last interval as Xyn/Jayk to look for clues. He saw Tym in there, and something rattled at his Mind again. Something he couldn’t place.

Slowly, it came together. Piece by piece, it came together in Jayk’s Mind and he opened it freely to his captor. Together, they went over it again and again.

What if Kel’s Nightstalker had been secretly observing Facility 32 and reporting back somehow? What if he’d been seen by little Edward IV, and knew it, then having decided to act that night? He could have relayed his information to Kel, or perhaps via a Psion, and Chriss. Hadn’t Jayk told Tym to run and get his gang’s Psion, only hadn’t he returned with Kel and Shar instead?

Chriss had said it himself: ‘I’m also a weak Psion.’ Jayk’s flesh began to crawl, the very faint hairs on his arm standing up.

What IF Chriss had been in the vicinity of Facility 32, and then set fire to it upon the Nightstalker’s orders? ‘You can torch a rock if you can get it hot enough!’ he had said.

“Those type of buildings just don’t burn down by themselves,” the Hunter reminded him aloud.

Jayk nodded, craning his neck to look back towards the cargo bay and the transport tubes. “He wanted to leave Xyn behind to die, though,” Jayk mused.

The Hunter sniffed, still inside of Jayk’s Mind. What if he wanted to leave him behind so that someone else could come back and pick him up? Or what if someone else was waiting there in the Ruins to pick him up when you all left him behind?

Jayk gasped excitedly, his face betraying his fears. “They wanted him. They knew about him. They burnt the Facility down so Xyn would get out and wander off. What if one of them ‘planted’ that idea in his head, to make sure he got out? I don’t think Chriss could do it, but what if he had help? Once the place burnt, and Xyn was out, Chriss and the Nightstalker could have flown back to their gang, or just to the Ruins and ditched the craft! He could have used his Pyro to mask his craft’s heat trail too, or build false ones! And Comm-Tell was offline long before the ship came in! The Rescuers had to use hand-held units after the fire! They couldn’t track or scan the area very fast! What if Kel somehow took over the satellite and ... and ... all they had to do was wait for Xyn to come to them ... but then ... then ...” but Jayk’s voice trailed off and his Mind raced.

The Hunter played scenario after scenario through his improved Processors, and the more he ran it, the more it seemed to fit. Jayk nodded and tried to keep up with his Mind, but couldn’t. He didn’t want to. He didn’t like where it was leading. His Mind veered away from the thought, but the Hunter supplied it for him.

“And then YOU got in their way. YOU found Xyn, not THEM.”

Jayk gasped, and he shook his head. “But Kel was dead already! HE wanted to leave Xyn behind, but it was my own gang that left me! Why?!”

“Why indeed? Too bad you tried to eat him,” the Hunter said flatly. “I’d like to talk to him. Actually, I’d like to drag it all out of him, wanting to leave Xyn behind like that. Drag it out of his Mind very, very slowly. I can do that, you know!”

Jayk snorted. “I did NOT try to eat him,” he retorted, glancing back at the transport tubes. Then he sighed and reclined his seat. The Hunter laid a large hand on his stomach, but Jayk didn’t move. “But why Xyn?” he whispered. “How did they find him to begin with and why do all that?”

“They want him. Why, I don’t know, but they obviously do. Jayk, our young Xyn is a Psion. And a damn good one, I can tell you. I’ve been in his Mind, and yours too, so I know. I know it all. But he’s in the Change isn’t he? His abilities might be slowing down, yes?”

Jayk nodded, listening with his eyes tightly closed. He didn’t want to cry again.

“This Chriss fellow knows that castration will do WHAT for Xyn?”

“Kill his sex drive,” Jayk muttered glumly, images of their nights together flashing through his Mind.

“Spare me, please,” the Hunter said regretfully, “and NO, not the sex drive! If Chriss and his gang get Xyn castrated, like himself and his other Mutant friend, what then? Didn’t their powers go wild on them afterwards? When the XY hormones faded or weren’t there?”

Jayk sat bolt upright. “Shit!” he exclaimed.

The Hunter nodded.

“Xyn is a powerful Psion, now that he knows how to do it. So is this Shar lady of yours. She pretty well kicked my ass right when you were all going in for the downed ship, and she’s been letting Xyn learn from her, coaching him as it were. I know, I was there, watching. When that big gang crossed the old bridge, Xyn was ‘there,’ his Mind that is, and she was helping him. Anyway, I can tell you, Jayk, that that last contact with Xyn’s Mind - the one that sent me in for Maintenance just now - told me something.”

He paused.

“What’s that?” Jayk asked anxiously.

The Hunter’s face went hard, and he gritted his teeth. His voice was cold and flat when he spoke.

“Xyn is now every bit as powerful as Shar ever was, and she’s the best yet that I’ve ever encountered.”

There was a long silence as they stared at one another. Jayk began to shake his head ‘no’, but the Hunter nodded. He knew it, and Jayk refused to believe it.

“And if Xyn gets castrated?” he asked Jayk again, slowly.

Jayk looked as if he were about to toss his root beer back up. The Hunter reached over and took him in his arms, pulling him close. Jayk was shaking again, badly, and the Hunter’s head ached as he tried hard to calm him.

“H-he ... he’ll b-be ... even m-more powerful than Shar ... or ... or YOU!”

The Hunter nodded and pressed Jayk’s braid covered head into his shoulder. He sighed, furious at the feelings that he was having as held Jayk. He felt as if he were about to explode inside as he rubbed his hand over Jayk’s back, up under the jacket and just held him. His skin was soft and warm, and the Hunter remembered being held like that a long time ago.

But that as all that he could do, and his Mind privately raged.

Then he spoke again.

“Once castrated, Xyn will become a monster,” the Hunter said flatly, “And I don’t think either of us wants that to happen to him.”

They flew on in silence for the rest of the trip to New City Far South. Both of them wrestled with their emotions, but neither of them spoke. Finally, a comm signal came in. It was Ev Wilson.

“I see you’re running a bit late,” he said to the Hunter.

“I had a bit of a Breakdown,” the Hunter replied, “Had to have some Maintenance work done. So did Jayk, for that matter.”

Wilson looked into the screen and smiled. “All better are we? I hate it when I have Breakdown.”

“Yes, sir,” Jayk said, his eyes downcast, “I’m sorry we’re late. I didn’t mean to get sick.”

“No harm done there. I’m glad you’re recovered. Was there any permanent damage?” Wilson asked, his voice betraying nothing.

“The Doctors didn’t think so,” the Hunter replied, “It seems that our Jayk here’s too old and tough for a simple Remnant to hurt him much.”

Wilson nodded. If he caught the insinuation of the word “our”, he didn’t show it. In fact, he was showing nothing. Nothing useful.

“If you’ll check your World Bank status, Hunter, you’ll see that the transaction of the reward money is fully set up and ready to go. I’ll just need your ID when you arrive. I’d be honored if you’d stay for dinner with us,” he added.

Jayk didn’t look up, but the Hunter felt the wave roll off of him. Fear. Dread. Near-panic.

Believe me when I say, Jayk, I WILL be watching him. Acer owes me a favor, and I told him to ‘sit on it.’ Remember? I wasn’t being cordial or funny with him. That’s a coded message. Acer has some very powerful friends and some moles in the Authority. It’s how he stays in business. I’d suggest you spend some time on the Network when he’ll allow it. A LOT of time.

“I would love to stay for dinner, sir. I’m honored,” the Hunter replied aloud without missing a beat as his Psi continued to ‘speak’ to Jayk, who did not look up.

I had this Master of yours, as he calls himself, looked up, Jayk. I have some friends too, and they owe me a LOT of favors. Wilson’s Network terminal will be watched constantly. When he logs on and connects, and even if he’s there with you - which I’m sure he will be - I’ll be only one sentence away from you. All you have to do is tell the computer to open a file called ‘Hunter picture.’ Of course, it won’t be able to find it, but that’s beside the point. What it WILL do is send me a coded mail transmission every hour on the hour from the moment that you say it out loud. As long as Wilson hears you say it, so will I. It might take me while to get here, unless they let me keep this craft, but I WILL come.

“I anxiously await your arrival. I can see you’re very close already! Must be a fast ship!” Wilson commented.

“Oh it is, sir,” the Hunter bantered, “You wouldn’t believe what I had to go through to get it, and it’s still not paid for! We’ll be there very shortly! And thank you!”

Just don’t change on him, Jayk. Whatever you do, control it! No matter how upset or angry you get, don’t CHANGE! I can get the murder charges on Kel back there erased, no problem, but if you kill an innocent - well, bad term, but close enough - and regular Approved, there won’t be much I can do. The house is bound to be monitored, since Shar so dramatically broke you out once already. I’d imagine security there is a real bitch, so just sit tight. Got it?

In reply, Jayk coughed and reached up to scratch his pointed ear. The Hunter smiled. He could also sense that Jayk had no idea as to why he was doing all of this for him. The Hunter didn’t fully understand it either, and he found that amusing.

Some moments later, they landed on Wilson’s designated landing strip in the back yard. It seemed that he had a flyer as well, which wasn’t really uncommon for the absurdly wealthy. The Hunter waited for the computer to tell him that the craft was secure and he popped the hatch. He got out first and helped Jayk down. As they walked towards the back patio doors, the Hunter commented, “This landscaping must have cost a fortune. I hate flowers.”

Jayk looked around and nodded. “He likes plants. The old house wasn’t this big though,” the Mutant commented, looking up at the three story red brick monstrosity that was easily 7,000 sq. ft. in area. The arched windows were real glass, and the deep blue sky reflected off of them in stark contrast to the white framings. The roof was tiled slate, and decorated here and there at the edges with carved finishings that were made to resemble wood. Jayk shivered. “I don’t like this house,” he whispered, reaching up to hold onto the Hunter’s sleeve. “There’s something about it that scares me, and I don’t think it’s Master, either.”

The Hunter nodded. “It’s the feeling of being watched. I feel it too. Ah, our host! Hello, Mr. Wilson!”

Wilson was emerging from the patio doors as they had been looking up at the roofline. As before, if he had overheard them, he said nothing. His face was jovial, and his shaven scalp reflected the late afternoon sun. He was dressed in a long sleeved white shirt and khaki pants with loafers. His neatly trimmed black goatee was set off in contrast to the rest of him, and his teeth were perfect as he smiled. He offered a hand to the Hunter, who shook it and returned the smile. His grip was crushing, and he was as large as the Hunter in size. “You’ll excuse my attire, I hope. I was feeling a bit casual this evening.”

The Hunter nodded, scanning Wilson for all he was worth and ignoring the now-softer pain in his head. So far, nothing unusual. Just relief and lot of lust, he ‘sent’ to Jayk. “Beats body armor,” the Hunter joked.

Wilson laughed and turned his gaze towards Jayk.

Jayk, however, had fallen a step back behind the Hunter was looking down at the smoothed stone patio tiles. Even to the casual observer, he looked like he was about to come undone.

“Oh, come now, Jayk!” Wilson said to him, taking a step closer, “You’re not going to be exterminated, I promise. And what’s this fashion statement you seem to be making?”

Jayk still didn’t look up. Instead, he took a step closer and went down on one knee. “Thank you, Master. It’s the Hunter’s jacket. I was cold, and well, my own clothing wasn’t in very good shape when he found me.” His tone was apologetic, submissive, and the Hunter had to stifle a laugh. Wilson had no clue.

“What about the collar?” Wilson asked.

“Oh that’s just a capture collar, sir,” the Hunter explained, “Standard operating procedure, you understand. Nothing permanent. Mild stun device, tracking Beacon, etc.”

“I see!” Wilson exclaimed. “The Authority thinks of everything! Well, can we take it off, if you don’t mind? I have one of my own, you understand. House security collar, and well, a bit extravagant, but sort of a welcome home gift for our young friend here! Probably the same manufacturer, you know.”

“May I?” the Hunter asked, “Just as a security protocol. Nothing personal.”

Wilson reached into his pocket, still smiling. “Of course! I’d have it no other way. We mustn’t have our Jayk here running about unsecured!” Wilson replied. Jayk was still looking up, but not at, his Master and the Hunter as Wilson produced a small silver device. He handed it to the Hunter, who whistled.

“Model 8 auto-sizing restraint, WITH velvet inlay?” he breathed sarcastically. Only Jayk caught it. Wilson nodded.

“Auto-sizing for the wearer, and fully attuned with ‘smart’ circuitry as well. Sterling silver coating, and turn it over!”

The Hunter did that, and whistled again. Inlaid in the polished silver was a shining blue cabochon cut sapphire the size of an egg. “Jayk, look at this!” he said. Jayk took a step closer and his dark eyes went wide. He reached out a long finger to touch it, trembling, as he smoothed it over the velvet lining.

“Thank you, Master. I’m unworthy of such a gift.” he said softly, bowing his head.

Wilson nodded and watched as the Hunter removed the capture collar from Jayk’s neck and pocketed it. He then pressed his fingers on the new collar in a certain position and it expanded and opened with an audible CLICK. The Hunter bent down, placing himself between Wilson and Jayk and gently probing at Jayk’s Mind with his Psi, easing away the tension. Jayk relaxed a bit. He then put the collar around Jayk’s neck and closed it. Again it clicked loudly, then began to contract. The Hunter stood up as Jayk felt at the collar, tightening about his throat then relaxing some. Again it tightened, and he swallowed hard. The collar relaxed a bit more, then beeped. Wilson laughed.

“All set up and secure now!” he stated. “Now, if you don’t mind, Jayk, can we give the Hunter his jacket back? Nice as it is, I don’t think you’ll be needing it anymore.”

Jayk nodded and pulled the large jacket off over his head, sending his braids in every which direction and taking a moment to disentangle himself. He handed the jacket back to the Hunter, and stood at attention, naked before them, with his hands clasped behind his back. Wilson laughed again, and the Hunter felt the shame and fear rolling off of the Mutant again. He tried to ease it a bit. Model 8's are a cinch to crack, he ‘sent’ to Jayk, Don’t worry about it. Just don’t try and leave the grounds.

Jayk didn’t reply.

“Well what are you waiting for?” Wilson asked, bending down. “Come here and show your Master how much you love him!”

Jayk then suddenly surprised the Hunter by running into Wilson’s outstretched arms and allowing the large Adult to pick him up and embrace him. He buried his face in Wilson’s shoulder and clung to him, whimpering apologies in his ear and dampening his shoulder with tears. The Hunter turned away, his grin broad. You just won the Broadcast Award for best Actor in a drama, he ‘sent.’

Wilson patted Jayk’s back, and held him close. The Hunter probed at him, discretely, since he had not detected any others Psions in the general vicinity but aired on the side of caution. He was still not feeling up to combat of any kind, and he was hungry as well. He sensed relief and joy from Wilson, as well as a great deal of other things. He could tell that Wilson was hard and very sexually aroused; in fact, he was horny as all hell.

However, he felt no love.

What he felt was affection, yes - as one might have for a long time pet or a rare and collectible vehicle. He then compared what he felt in Wilson to what he himself had felt in that instant of playing as a go-between for Xyn/Jayk and found Wilson sadly lacking. He turned back to face them and noted Wilson sniffing at Jayk’s neck, the silver slave collar shining in the sunlight and casting yellow highlights as the shadows lengthened all about them.

“He’s even clean and not in need of a bath! But he smells sort of well, so sterile, don’t you think?” Wilson observed, patting Jayk’s head. The Hunter seethed within, his own frustrated anxieties building. He caught the inflection on the word ‘sterile.’ With a great effort, he got himself under control.

“That would be from the Facility where we both got Overhauled,” the Hunter joked. “I’m sure I smell much like that too, mixed with musty body armor that is!”

“Oh, where ARE my manners?” Wilson chided himself, “Must be my excitement over having Jayk back. Do come in! You can go and freshen up in the guest room. Alfred?” he called as they went into the foyer, which was large enough to encompass the Hunter’s own entire living room.

At that very instant, the Hunter felt something, but it rapidly vanished. He scanned for it, but it was gone. He became wary.

A very old Adult XY in a neatly cut servants’ suit then appeared from seemingly nowhere. “Yes, Master Wilson? Ah, guests for dinner?” he observed professionally with a touch of an accent.

“Yes, Alfred. Do be a good fellow and show our armor plated friend here up to the guest room. And I’m sure you remember Jayk?” Wilson asked.

Alfred nodded, uninterested, it seemed. “Welcome home, little one,” he greeted Jayk, who looked up from his Master’s shoulder and nodded. Alfred raised an eyebrow. “Not so little now, I see. You’ve grown some. I’ll inform the kitchen staff and have Jayk groomed and made ready for dinner now, sir,” Alfred offered.

“Thank you, Alfred,” Wilson replied, setting Jayk down on his feet. Jayk kissed his hand and walked over to Alfred, who took the slave’s long-fingered hand in his own.

“Come along now, dinner will surely be ready before I get you cleaned up and prepared for dining. My, you smell like a can of disinfectant. Are you sure you’re fully over whatever it was that you had? My, my, you must be at least five if not six centimeters taller than when ...”

Both Wilson and the Hunter listened as Alfred’s voice faded off down the hallway as he led Jayk to a long staircase and they started up it. Alfred continued to interrogate, almost in a monotone, as Jayk nodded or shook his head. The fact that he was naked in front of them all didn’t seem to phase him a bit as he walked along beside Alfred, unable to get a word in edgewise. The Hunter noticed something, however.

While Jayk never looked his Master in the eye, he DID look Alfred in the face when the butler was speaking.

“Charming fellow,” the Hunter observed, shaking his head.

“He’s costing me a fortune, but good help’s hard to find,” Wilson stated. “He’s been with the family since I was a little one and as long as I can remember. I don’t know what I’d do without him!”

“He seems to really like Jayk, or it just me?”

Wilson made an indelicate sound. “Alfred’s been after me to find a nice wife and settle down to raise some little XY’s for almost four Deci-Cycles now!” Wilson laughed. “You should have seen his face when I brought Jayk home for the first time! I thought he was going to pop a chip! Of course, he’s known that I don’t really care for XX’s since I was about fifteen, I think. My father didn’t have much time for me as a little one, and Alfred sort of filled in. His own little one died of a cascade Malfunction long before I ever came along, and he’s been sort of sentimental ever since. He spoils Jayk outrageously, for a slave, I think, but then I just can’t bring myself to reprimand him. It would be too much like talking back to the old man, wouldn’t it? And one should never talk back to his superior, be it father, Master or whatever?”

Wilson then laughed again, and the Hunter raised an eyebrow. Something wasn’t quite right.

“Jayk never mentioned him before, to anyone that I know of,” he said, racing through his memories with his new Processors. In an instant, he turned more inward and ran through everything that his Psi had gathered from Jayk’s Mind. He was relieved when he finally found it, and confirmed it with Jayk. His Psi also informed him that Jayk was being given a perfumed bath, in an effort to hide the Facility smell. He wasn’t happy, either. The Hunter breathed a sigh of relief. The memories of Alfred were all neatly shuttled off into a far corner of Jayk’s Mind, and the Hunter wondered at how he had missed that.

But why in hell am I so damn worried about him then?! I know Alfred isn’t feeling like harming him, but how can those memories of the old one be so neatly organized and stored so far back and obscured?! He thought to himself, still not missing a beat of the conversation with Wilson.

“Jayk doesn’t talk much. One would almost think he’s muted. Of course, when Alfred starts rambling, about all one can do is nod in agreement. Let’s have you get refreshed now, sir, and we can meet at dinner. Alfred will be along to collect you, I’m sure,” Wilson offered, gesturing towards the staircase. He led the Hunter to a room that shamed even the best hotel suits and made a sweeping gesture. “There are clothes in the closet that should fit you nicely, I think. We’re about the same size and I took the liberty. Feel free to freshen up, use the Network if need be, and relax. I’ll see you at dinner then?”

“You’re too kind, sir,” the Hunter nodded, pulling off his vizored helmet and tossing it onto the large bed. Wilson left, and the Hunter stripped down to his recently serviced and reprogrammed Suit. In deference to his host’s observations, he peeled it off and headed for the shower. His Psi told him that Jayk, somewhere on the other end of the second floor, was tolerating some sort of hygienic ministrations with forced patience. The young slave was, however, genuinely glad to see Alfred again. “At least there’s that, even if I don’t care for this Wilson,” the Hunter muttered, soaping up and once again agonizing over the frustrations as he felt at his barren groin. He tried to concentrate on what it was that had tripped his instincts, but he had lost it.

Again, the thoughts of being younger and intact assailed him and he began to tremble. His Mind ran over and over the memories of masturbation and he felt the familiar clenching sensations within himself. Carefully, with regard to his recent Maintenance, he calmed himself. There was no time to punch the wall or hurt himself in some other way to alleviate his frustrations, and that would be hard to explain as well. He needed a distraction. He probed at Jayk, who was being toweled off by Alfred, who in turn was paying very close attention to Jayk’s lack of XY Parts.

THAT didn’t help at all.

Instead he ordered up, once again, the scenarios of Xyn’s flight from the old Facility. He thought it over thousands of times per second, rinsing off and reaching for a towel as his Mind paused on something strange. He himself so wanted to flee this place with Jayk in hand, but he pushed those ideas aside. Something was rattling around in a far corner of his Mind, and it seemed to quiet his frustrations as he focused on it.

Before his Mind’s eye came the vision of Xyn, stripped of his Suit and running. Running ... but to where? From whom? And then Xyn was sitting in a large and very old chair, and the strange little one that Jayk had called ‘Tym’ was in his lap reading a book with him. No, Xyn was reading to him and Tym was only listening. His frustrations and anxieties seemed to fade as he focused on that image, heading distractedly for the closet. As he reached in, however, the image disappeared to replaced with ... something.

Again, he felt it and his Defenses raised. Then it was gone, like before.

His stomach growled, and he flinched.

“What the hell is wrong with me tonight?” he demanded aloud, his head beginning to ache a bit more. He pulled a set of civilian clothes from the closet, and on impulse, hung up his own Suit in their place. A strange sense of repetition came over him, and he paused. He left his armor on the bed, but pocketed his weapons. He felt very strange, and for the life of him, he could not think of why. Carefully, he turned his Psi down to casual observance levels and sat on the bed to rehash the ideas of the Facility fire over and over.

Alfred came to fetch him some time later, without Jayk in tow. The Hunter didn’t question this as he followed the butler down the stairs, around several corners, and finally into the huge dining room. His mind was almost numbed by Alfred’s ramblings, and by the time they finally arrived, he felt on the verge of catatonia. He gaped and blinked.

In the center of the parquet floored room was a long ebony table with burgundy velvet trimmed high back chairs. The table was set in fine china, and potted plants lined the light toned wood paneled walls of the room. High overhead hung crystal chandeliers, their pure white light playing off the surface of the polished table and reflecting tiny rainbows in the crystal centerpieces. The kitchen staff, all dressed in food splattered uniforms of gray, brought in several covered dishes and fled. Alfred pulled a chair for the Hunter, and he thanked him and sat. “Marvelous,” he breathed.

“Oh this old disaster area? Looks like the Ruins to me,” Alfred replied, nodding and fleeing.

The Hunter waited a moment, taking it all in. “I could do something like this, come to think of it,” he mused. “But why?” The minutes ticked by, and Wilson entered, alone. He was dressed casually as well, in clothes much like the Hunter had picked out.

The Hunter stood and nodded to his host.

Wilson waved. “Thanks, but don’t bother. I’m not up to formality tonight,” he explained, pulling out the chair at the head of the table and sitting down heavily. The Hunter studied him a bit more, taking in the lines of his well built XY body and his shaven scalp. His clothes, no matter how casual and loose, didn’t hang on him. They fit, and fit well. Wilson, despite his airs, was obviously toned up for action. He wondered if he could take him in a fight. The Hunter turned his Psi away from him, still wary. “Now where is that slave?” Wilson asked, not actually to the Hunter.

“He’s not so little now, you know.”

Wilson sighed. “Yes, you’re right. It’s been so long, and we’ve missed him so badly. I can’t wait to see him dressed for dinner!”

The Hunter cocked an eyebrow again. “Does Alfred know how old Jayk really is?” he asked, attempting to start a chat.

Wilson took a drink of water from his crystal goblet. “Oh yes. He had a hard time believing it at first, but he finally accepted it. Hard to believe Alfred himself’s still going! He’s older than dirt, I think, but so well Maintained! He’s beginning to have a lot more Breakdowns, though, and I’m worried. I don’t know what I’ll do without him.”

“You’ll have Jayk for company,” the Hunter offered.

Wilson smiled, and suddenly the Hunter sensed irritation from behind him. He turned, then gestured and Wilson looked up, grinning from ear to ear. They stood.

Alfred was leading Jayk by the hand, and Jayk had a mock grin pasted on his face. That face, the Hunter noted, was a shade redder and lighter than usual. He looked closer as Jayk approached, the slave’s eyes looking just off to the side, and focused on Alfred holding his hand. Jayk’s nails had been neatly clipped and filed back to almost nothing and painted black.

His eyebrows were even more sloped and darker with makeup. His lashes seemed longer, accenting his dark, almond-shaped eyes which looked out from between blue-tinged eyelids whose color faded up and into the rouge of the rest of his face. From his mouth protruded his fangs, but they had been capped in shining silver with blunted points. The rest of his teeth gleamed white, shining in the light. His lips were also very much redder and accentuated with coloring. His black hair had been unbraided and washed, then styled into tight, neat rows that pulled all of it back to hang in narrow braids off of the back of his head and down his nape. Each braid was capped with either a blue or silver crystal bead. His collar still shone in the clear light of the dining room, and the huge blue jewel sparkled.

About his wrists were matching silver-toned cloth cufflinks, and on the middle finger of his hand that was one finger short, he wore a thick silver ring. On his feet were soft silver lamedh slippers which made no sound on the floor as he walked in step with Alfred. About his slim waist was a velvet lined thick belt in matching silver, much like his collar, with thin straps that went down either side of his smooth crotch to meet and attach in the back of the belt. There was no backing to the belt, either. He wore nothing else, and the fact that he was a eunuch was very much in evidence and accentuated by his attire or lack thereof.

The Hunter took a drink of water and almost choked.

You sure clean up nicely, he ‘sent’ to Jayk.

Alfred nodded to them. “Young Jayk is returned home,” he announced, releasing Jayk’s hand and pushing him forward a bit.

Jayk, very briefly and quickly, looked both of them in the face and then turned his gaze back down towards the floor. He stood with his slippered feet spread apart, and his hands clasped behind his back. “Thank you, all, sirs,” he said in soft and submissive tone.

Wilson breathed heavily and although it went against his better judgement, the Hunter turned his Psi completely off.

“Come here, Jayk,” Wilson ordered.

He did that, and Wilson took him onto his lap. Alfred nodded and retreated as the Master kissed the slave’s neck. The Hunter flushed, and tried to calm himself. Jayk, however old he was, looked so small and helpless as his Master held him. He then carefully touched one of the silver capped fangs and smiled. “Nice touch,” he said softly.

“Thank you, Master. It was Alfred’s idea,” Jayk replied, leaning his head in as the Master fondled his ear.

“What do you say to having these pierced?” he asked.

Jayk hesitated a bit, then reached up and took his Master’s hands down to his lap. “If you think I would look good, sir, then yes, I’d like that.”

The Hunter took another long drink, praying devoutly to every Deity he could think of to intervene and DO something. Nothing happened, however. He was completely amazed at Jayk’s performance, considering some of the things that the Mutant had said and considering everything that he had discovered about Jayk Psionically. He shook his head and cleared his throat, the feelings rising up within him doing more than just distracting him.

“Well, I don’t know about anyone else, but I’m starving!” he said.

Wilson moved Jayk off of his lap. “You’re not the only one! Jayk, Why don’t you pull a chair around and sit in between our guest and myself?” he suggested. Jayk nodded and did that, but before he sat down he refilled both water glasses and uncovered the dishes on the table. The Hunter stared at the meal laid out before him of a large ham swimming in pineapple with cherries and some strange green vegetable covered in melted cheese. There was soft and fine white bread, yellow tinged potatoes with melted butter and sour cream and a ham-based gravy as well. The smell was intoxicating as the steam from the food filled his nose.

“You always eat like this here?” he asked Jayk.

Jayk glanced at Wilson, who nodded. “This is nothing compared to the spread he lays out when he throws a party. You should see that!” Jayk replied with false exuberance. The Hunter smiled.

“Perhaps you can invite me to one sometime when I have some vacation coming,” the Hunter suggested.

“Marvelous idea!” Wilson agreed, slicing into the ham and looking up sharply. “Imagine that! THE Hunter at my party! What would my friends think? Why, I’d be the talk of this little burg of civilization!” he mused, considering the fact that Far South was the second largest New City on the Eastern Seaboard. “You know how to contact him, Jayk? It’s your duty to call him up or give him our address proper so that he can come visit if he wishes.”

The Hunter caught the emphasis on the word ‘wishes’ and smiled. If Wilson wanted to play, he could play as well.

“It’s not hard to contact the Authority, sir,” he stated, “All one has to do is call up the local Authority and ask for Old City Main Authority. They’ll route you straight to our Database, and my email is, well, obvious. THEHunter@Authority%Old%City.gov”.

“Splendid! And I’m sure you know how to reach Jayk when you wish?” Wilson asked, baiting him.

The Hunter only nodded and dipped himself a serving of the cheese-smothered vegetable. He said nothing, only nodded.

Jayk nodded as well and took a drink from his crystal goblet, then dropped his napkin in his lap. He stared at his plate as Wilson dropped a large slab of the ham onto it.

“You’ve been sick,” Jayk’s Master stated, filling his plate with more than he knew that the young one could consume. “You need to eat and get your strength back up. I’ve never been one to believe in just laying about and waiting to feel better. Tomorrow afternoon, we’ll get you a physical trainer and call for your records from the Facility so we can start getting you back into shape. Looks like I’ll have to wait a bit longer to ... umm ... well, for gods’ sake, lad, I can count your ribs!” He exclaimed, changing his line of thought rapidly.

“I’m sorry, sir!” Jayk countered quickly, not looking up. “I didn’t mean to get sick.”

Wilson sighed, sitting back down once he had served them both and filled his own plate. It struck the Hunter as strange as to why Wilson, as Master of this house, was playing the serving man. Still, he wasn’t about to begrudge him the play. He ate and kept his peace, praising the household staff for a fine meal. He watched as Jayk ate all that he could, then struggled to clean his plate.

He failed.

“No dessert?” Wilson asked him as Jayk leaned back and sighed. His stomach was tight, and his eyes were drooping.

“No, sir, thank you.” he replied with a groan.

“I think you’re right,” his Master agreed. “You didn’t clean your plate.”

Jayk closed his eyes. “I tried, Master, I really tried!”

The Hunter tensed up, not knowing what to expect, but Wilson only smiled and continued to eat.

After all of them had eaten more than was probably good for any of them, and Jayk in particular, the Hunter cited pressing business and excused himself to the guest room. Once there, he brought his Psi back up and probed the entire house. His head twinged a bit, but it was nothing compared to the pain of a few days before. It also came to power in about half the time. Wilson was still sitting at the table, cuddling Jayk on his lap and sipping coffee. He was extremely aroused, but extremely irritated at the same time. Jayk was in no shape for wild sexual escapades, and Wilson knew it. The kitchen staff was cleaning up, and Alfred was - to his shock - outside arguing with his craft’s computer as to whether everything was in good working order!

He pondered Alfred for a moment, realizing that if anyone could outtalk a ‘smart’ computer, the old one probably could! He stripped off Wilson’s borrowed clothing, and went to the closet.

Again, it hit him, then fled. Rapidly.

A small voice seemed to be saying, as an echo over a canyon might fade away, Don’t talk to strangers ... don’t talk to ... don’t ...

He jerked his head, as well as his Psi, this way and that but found nothing.

Something is wrong here, he thought.

He changed back into his Suit and body armor and pulled his vizor down. He checked his weapons, then pulled out his wallet. Sure enough, the funds for Jayk’s reward were sitting in a holding tank at World Bank East awaiting Wilson’s and his final signatures. He smiled and headed out of the room, taking care not to slam the door.

When he descended the stairs, he found Master Wilson waiting for him outside on the patio with his own wallet ready. The back yard was well lit, and some night-blooming lilies had opened to fill the air with a sweet fragrance. They signed the funds transfer documents, and shook hands. Whatever had bothered the Psion since his arrival wasn’t Wilson. He was sure of that.

Jayk stood beside his Master the whole time, his made up face questioning. “Thank our guest for bringing you back home, Jayk, and let’s escort him to his craft,” Wilson told him.

“Thank you, sir,” Jayk said in a mocking tone, going down on one knee before the Hunter.

“May I?” the Hunter inquired of Jayk’s Master.

He nodded and smiled.

The Hunter then scooped Jayk up into his massive arms and pulled him close. He held him for a long moment, and finally ‘sent’ to him, Don’t worry. He knows you’re not able to do much of anything for him yet and that you’re still weak. I’ve got to go and report in and file the Runaway documents on you. And be careful. Something isn’t right here.

What then? He heard Jayk ask silently, his Mind full of anxiety and suffering.

Then ... well ... then I go look up Xyn.

Please don’t leave me here! Jayk begged, and Hunter reached into his Mind to stifle the pain.

I have no choice, Jayk. The Law is the Law. Just take care of yourself, and whatever you do, DO NOT try to go Runaway! That collar will kill you if your Master orders it! I don’t think he’ll do that, but you never know. I’d say the edge of the mowed lawn is as far as you can go.

Jayk pulled back and nodded, his painted face a study in control. They knew that Wilson was watching the exchange, and the Hunter felt the pride coming off of him. It was as if Jayk were the grand prize, the one status symbol that must be retained at all cost. Anyone rich could build a house like this, but not everyone could get a slave like Jayk. And anyone who had him would be ruthless in trying to keep him.

Or vengeful upon those he considered a threat to that right!

And THAT was it! Again the Hunter felt it, and right before it vanished, Jayk flinched.

“Am I interrupting?” Alfred was saying, approaching from the craft.

The Hunter then very deliberately kissed Jayk on the cheek and sat him down. The mental noise was near deafening as Wilson fumed, and the Hunter genuinely hoped that he hadn’t gotten the young slave into trouble with his Master. Again, that fleeting feeling, gone in an instant as the stars shone down upon them.

Whatever it was had come from the old one.

“Thank you for your kindness, Master Wilson,” the Hunter said, turning to the craft, “You’re a gracious host and I shall speak highly of you. Please forgive my oversight in my fond display of goodbye to your young Jayk there. I was out of line.”

Wilson gaped and pulled Jayk close to him. Alfred bid them goodnight and went inside, and the Hunter felt it pass by him just one more time. However, the wave of superiority and pride coming off of Wilson showed that he had swallowed it whole!

“Not at all, sir!” he replied. “It’s only natural to want to embrace such beauty.”

As if taking his cue, Jayk piped up, “Thank you sirs. Both of you. Goodbye!” He waved.

The Hunter waved back, smiling.

“Goodbye, and forget what I said earlier, Jayk! CHANGE at the first sign of trouble and smash the Network terminal and run like hell! Kill him if you have to, but get out and run. You never mentioned Alfred before, and now I know why! I Psi’d with YOU Jayk, I KNOW YOU! I know you like him, but don’t trust Alfred anymore. He’s not a Psion, but he’s a spy of some sort - or worse! It’s no wonder I didn’t see it sooner, he’s been specially trained to evade Psions and he’s more Machine in his head than anyone I’ve seen before. Your memories of him are too orderly, and probably false! He’s just playing a part here, up to no good, and I’m not even sure that Wilson knows about it. No wonder he’s so damn old and still going! Watch him, close! And don’t worry about me! You know how to find me. Remember this, Jayk, at all costs when and if you run - find a Hunter, any Hunter and tell him ‘his armor has a chink in it.’ and take care. I look forward to your next party!”

Jayk reached up and scratched his pointed ear, smiling. His silver-capped fangs gleamed.

He climbed into the craft and manually punched up a security scan. It read clean, but that didn’t comfort him as he fired up the engines. As the craft did an auto takeoff, he focused his Psi upon Wilson and headed back to the cargo hold. As he cleared the trees and the craft began to climb, he opened the tube containing Kel’s grisly remains and pulled an old fashioned billy-club from the top of one of his high leather boots. He then methodically smashed the dead Adult’s skull open and rooted around in his dead organic brain until he found the Processor. He pulled it out and shoved it into a pocket, gore and all. Almost as an afterthought, he ripped out the auxiliary chips as well, noticing that there far too many of them.

His Psi told him what he expected it to. As the craft climbed higher, Wilson was exuberant. Jayk was frightened, but so tired and so sleepy from his recent illness and heavy meal. Alfred was despondent, and an image of a dying little XY flashed in the Hunter’s Mind. As he sat back down in the pilot’s seat, he wondered at the poor little thing. He had undergone so much Maintenance and Replacements that it was impossible to tell where Human ended and Machine took over. Alfred’s Mind was filled with grief as Wilson’s gloated and rejoiced, and at the same time the Hunter could see it all as he went back into the house with Jayk stumbling along beside him. Again, the grief and pain - almost beyond his ability to comprehend!

Then the guilt came, and the Hunter knew.

Jayk had come home, but Alfred’s son hadn’t.

And yet there was more, something else. He saw it soon enough as he made his preparations, cursing himself for cutting it so damnably close as the craft leveled and prepared to accelerate. “Computer, soft downward eject of pilot only then emergency climb at maximum power!” he demanded, clapping his vizor down hard and for the first time in his career setting his body armor to full Life support mode.

Then the floor literally fell out from under him and he watched as Abrams’ precious craft, the long range cruiser, veered at a sharp upward angle and sped away.

His Psi found Jayk asleep in his Master’s arms, and Wilson almost on the verge of dancing in glee! His Mind dwelt upon Jayk, however, who suddenly seemed sick again but with pale hair and no fangs. He became disoriented, tumbling, his Processors heating up as his Psi sorted the details and threw them at his CoProcessors. He was falling UP! A voice was speaking, and his armor hugged him as it struggled to protect him. Underneath of it was his Suit, but it wasn’t the Suit he felt. He was sliding out of the Suit, and the image of the closet came again. He was only moments from a reboot, he knew, yet there was nothing that he could do about it as he felt the Suit, impossibly, slide off of his body to be put on this tiny surrogate Jayk. He was looking in the closet again ... looking for a change of clothing.

“HE needs you now, not me,” someone said, someone young. It was all around him, audible, and yet in his Mind as well. I don’t know what to do. Will I die without my Suit on? Am I Mutant enough to survive in here?

For so long he pondered it, finally realizing from whence it came. He tried to right himself, but growing dizzy, failed. He ‘saw’ insanely tall buildings, empty streets, long tunnels underground, then at last a warm and well lighted room with a large bed that was so inviting. Jayk was in that bed, but it wasn’t Jayk because the hair was pale and too short. He was so tired, and he wanted so badly to sleep. Suddenly he WAS asleep, but he was awake again and holding Jayk in his arms. But Jayk was sick, and he was pale.

No, this wasn’t right. His Processor heated up to critical levels, and his CoProcessors tried to compensate. And then, as had happened with Shar in her days of University, his Psi moved in and took over. The new tissues in his brain held as the Processor stabilized, and he realized that he wasn’t going to reboot. Time seemed to loose meaning for him as he fell ... down ... then up ... then ran along the empty streets and up and down stairs in old buildings until he was ready to faint. Then he was underground again, in the warm room with the large bed.

Three seconds later, at near two times the speed of sound, the craft exploded over the coastline.

Goodnight, Tym, he heard Xyn saying, Pull the hood up and the Suit will work better. Just close your eyes and go to sleep!

The Hunter fell, and after a few more seconds of free falling, his parachute opened and he drifted softly to the Earth.