Chapter 20

"Please Katie, don't die. You can't die now. I've finally found you. You can't die now," he pleaded.

Katie ran her fingers softly over his cheek.

"You're being a dork again, Dork," she said, smiling tenderly to rob her words of any offense. The love shone in her eyes. "I have to die, Christopher. It's the only way this can ever end. I wasn't supposed to be here at all. I have to die," she repeated. She didn't seem sad at the prospect.

"Why?" he asked, his heart breaking in sadness.

"Come here," she said quietly, pulling him down until he was lying beside her again. She molded her slim body against his and slipped her arms around his neck.

"Hold me. Hold me and kiss me like you did a few minutes ago," she whispered in his ear. He shivered as her warm breath tickled his ear.

She didn't take chances this time; she held the back of his head as she pressed her lips to his. It wasn't long before both their mouths were open and they were kissing each other with passion. When they separated, neither one of them could talk. They held each other tight for a few minutes.

"What do you mean, you aren't supposed to be here? You're my twin; where else would you be? Why do you have to die?" Christopher asked, sounding heartbroken.

His sister sighed heavily.

"How does it happen that you and I are a mixture of four races? Even if all four could stand to be in a room together, and were willing to do what is required to make a baby, we could only be two races. How can we be four?" she asked rhetorically.

No one answered her.

"We were created, you and I. We were lab rats, designer babies, the future of the empire. The Cornazan worlds? The Qerda Empire? Someone else? Who knows? Who cares? The important thing is that it apparently went wrong.

"Someone attained access to the DNA, monkeyed around with it. They created something new. They had to protect their little secret; they had to keep it from falling into the wrong hands. The only way that could be done was to make it look like the grand experiment had failed. Two babies were born, instead of one. The grand experiment was a failure. The attempt to create a being with the power of the Cornazans, but without having to be twins, was ruined.

"In the middle of the night, the night before the experiment was to be terminated... we were to be terminated ... we were whisked away. Two children, saved from death, by ... whom? Does it matter?

"What matters is that the experiment was not a failure. It was made to appear so. It's like a chemical bomb. Two chemicals separated, harmless individually. Mix them together, and a powerful explosion results. That's what we are, Christopher. We are harmless parts separately, kept apart for easy transport, secrecy, and protection. Well, the time has come for the parts to be mixed together."

"That's a nice story, but I don't care about all that. I care about you. I want to be with you every day. I want to live my life taking care of you.

"I don't want you to die, Katie!" he half sobbed.

I saw the pain in Katie's eyes as she held and consoled her brother. I saw something else there too. I saw excitement in her eyes. There had to be something she hadn't told him yet.

Katie stroked his cheek, then lifted his head up with her finger under his chin.

"You're being a dork again, Dork," she teased. He didn't laugh. He was having trouble seeing the humor in the situation.

"What do you think is going to happen here, Christopher?" she asked. He looked at her as if she was crazy.

"You're going to die, to fulfill some desire of a power hungry idiot, and I'm going to lose my sister again, whom I love more than anyone in the world," he hissed angrily.

"Half right," she admitted, smiling at him.

"Which half?" he asked, still angry.

"I'm going to die. That's the half you got right," she murmured, holding him tight again.

"You die, but I don't lose my sister?" he asked. "That makes no sense, Katie. How can I keep you if you die?"

"It depends on how I die. The way I plan on dying, you and I will be together for a very long time," she stated calmly, her face glowing with happiness and excitement.

"Ok. I give up. Explain it to me," he said, resigned to the fact that he was going to lose her. "Explain to me how you can be happy that you are going to die."

"Christopher, Christopher, Christopher ... what am I going to do with you? You were always so good at figuring out the difficult problems, and so terrible at seeing what was right under your nose," she said patiently. Her voice took on the tones of a mother speaking to a little boy. "Listen to me carefully, and I'll explain it to you.

"We were supposed to be the beginnings of a new super race, a powerful weapon. We were split into two individual people to hide us from the big bad monsters. Neither of us can ever reach our true potential alone. If we were hidden by splitting us into two, when we were supposed to be one, how do you suppose we become what we are supposed to be?" she asked patiently.

"You have to be combined together again," Julie whispered softly to herself, not looking at all surprised.

"Girls are always smarter than boys," his sister declared, giggling weakly.

"So explain it to the dumb boy, because I'm still having a hard time understanding how my sister dying is a good thing," Christopher said huffily.

His sister hugged him tight.

"I'm sorry; I can't resist playing with you again. Don't get mad. My body must die, Christopher. It's going to anyway; I've sustained fatal injuries, and I can't be healed. If I die in the right manner, you and I will merge. Our minds and powers will become one in you, and we will become the person we were supposed to be originally. That's the only way we can end this stupid war," Katie explained.

"And the only thing that has to happen for this to occur is that my precious sister has to die? What a deal," he said bitterly.

I sympathized with him. I couldn't think of any ways that losing Victoria would be a plus. I remembered with pain how I had almost let her die in the last cycle. That had been the low point of my life. No wonder my mind had been wiped after each cycle. It was the only way I could live with myself after I let her die, time after time; time after time, until Megan had the guts to stop it. Was it any wonder I loved my redheaded nut case so much?

"You're not listening to me, Dork," she said patiently. "I will be a part of you. We will be together, the same one. I will be with you every second of every minute of every hour of every day of every year, until you are so sick of me you'll wish I had really died," she exclaimed happily.

Christopher wasn't ready to give up just yet.

"I won't ever be able to touch you again. I can't hold your hand as we walk down the street. I won't ever be able to..."

"Yes?" she giggled as he blushed.

"Never mind. I won't be able to feel you. It's too high a price," he insisted.

"God, you can be such a dork sometimes," she teased again.

"What?" he asked testily.

"That's what you have Katie for, silly. You can't tell her apart from me, so tell me how you're going to miss having me physically around when she's right there with you all the time."

"I ... don't know that she wants to be with me that way," Christopher stammered.

Now, there was a first. Mister 'I can have any girl in the world soaking her panties for me any time I want by just by looking at her, ' and he was afraid pretty, horny, star-struck Katie wouldn't want him. Gag me with a spoon.

"Right," his sister giggled. "Look at her. She's ready to suck your cock and fuck your brains our right here, right now, in front of everyone, if you give her the slightest encouragement. Aren't you, honey?"

Katie blushed, looked at the floor in embarrassment, and nodded her head.

His sister turned serious.

"Look, Christopher, I understand how you feel. Would I like to be just an ordinary girl, enjoying her life with her favorite brother, eating bon-bons and going shopping? You bet. It's just not going to happen that way. We are what we are, and we have to do what we have to do.

"Look at these people. Do you think they wouldn't rather be normal teenage girls, going to dances and being cheerleaders? I didn't ask for this, nor did you, and they didn't ask for it either. Life isn't fair. At least I have the opportunity to remain alive in a sense, closer to my favorite brother than I have ever been before. Whining and complaining won't change anything; it's just the way things are. Get used to it. Get used to me. We're going to be awfully close," she said, gasping for breath after such a long speech. She closed her eyes and tried to slow her breathing.

I felt sorry for them, but I was also impressed with Katie's maturity and perceptiveness. She was right on all accounts. There were many days when I wanted nothing more than to be a Dad, taking my girls to school and cheerleader practice, and terrorizing their boyfriends when they picked them up for dates.

"I'm your only brother," Christopher said quietly, smiling slightly.

His sister looked confused.

"'Favorite brother' loses its meaning when I'm your only one," he explained.

His sister laughed. She knew she had won the argument. It didn't matter; it was going to happen anyway, but she wanted her brother to not be sad about it. Of course, she'd have plenty of time to work on him later about it. Between Katie and her, he didn't stand a chance.

"So, how are you supposed to die to make all this happen?" he asked.

His sister bit her lower lip, suddenly looking worried and scared.

"Well, that was the easy part," she muttered to herself. "Promise me first that you won't be mad at me, that you won't hate me," she pleaded.

Christopher looked confused. I saw the lights go on in all the girls' eyes at the same time. Well, all except Julie and Megan. They already knew what was coming. Amy sat down next to Christopher's sister and held her hand. She smiled at Amy gratefully. Cindi stood behind Christopher and put her arms around him, hugging him while laying her head against his back. Our Katie smiled at her encouragingly.

"It'll be ok, Christopher, really, it will. It's not so bad. It's actually a lot of fun, really. Remember, we love you ... I love you," Cindi whispered.

Everyone looked at Cindi in surprise. That was the most life she had shown since Arrian left. It was the first time she had expressed affection for anyone except me since he left. She blushed as she realized what she had said. He turned his head and smiled at her, kissing her again. She sighed, a sad little sound.

"I could never hate you," he assured his sister. I noticed that he didn't say anything about not being mad at her. I saw the amusement in her eyes as she noticed the same thing.

"Youhavetomakelovetome," she whispered in a rush. I guess she figured if she said if fast enough, it would go better. That didn't work.

"What?" he asked, not understanding what she said. Sammi giggled.

"You ... have ... to ... make ... love ... to ... me," she repeated, exaggerating the slowness. Becky giggled this time. Our Katie looked interested. Sarah and Jessica blushed, but Jessica tilted her head, listening carefully.

"WHAT?" Christopher repeated, shocked.

"Geez! Are you deaf? This is hard enough for me without having to repeat everything twenty-seven times! YOU HAVE TO MAKE LOVE TO ME! Did you get it that time?" his sister asked, not smiling now. I think she was mad. More likely, she was worried about how he was going to take this. I understood completely. I remembered vividly the first time Cindi and then Amy had seduced me. I'm still sometimes embarrassed by it.

"You don't have to shout," Christopher replied defensively. "I don't know why you're mad. I'm the one that should be mad. I can't do that, Katie. You're my sister. It isn't right."

All my girls winced and put their hands over their eyes. They were very familiar with the various reasons for sex among family members. They didn't want to see the bloodletting when his sister tore him a new one.

"Oh, and you've never thought about it before? Don't you dare lie to me; I've seen the way you've looked at me since you were eight years old."

"Thinking about it and doing it are two different things," he insisted. Now I hid my eyes behind my hand. This boy was in big trouble. I wondered which girl would kick his ass first.

His sister handled it well. She reached up, yanked him down on top of her, and started kissing him. She slipped her tongue in his mouth and let him have it with both barrels.

I could see the look in his eyes when they suddenly popped open... 'This is my sister and I'm not supposed to be kissing her like this!' they said. He tried to pull away.

"No. Kiss me, damn it!" Katie demanded.

"But..."

"Damn it, Christopher, I have wanted you to kiss me like this, to make love to me for years. Now I'm dying, and I'll be damned if I'm going to die never having known what it was like to make love. Besides, I want my death to mean something. If you think I'm going to die with my last memory about sex being those monsters inside me, you have another think coming. Either kiss me and make love to me or I swear I will fuck Patrick right here in front of you. He won't refuse me. Then I'll fuck Eric's brains out too. Are you ready to see me with two other men? Maybe I'll even do them both at the same time!"

"You wouldn't dare!" Christopher gasped in disbelief.

"Why not? I've been doing it for a long time now, whether I wanted to or not. At least this time it would be by my own choice, with men I care about. Don't you dare push me, Chris, unless you're prepared to find out for sure. I've been raped God knows how many times, and I'm dying. I will know what it feels like to make love before I go. I love you more than anyone in the world. It would really be wonderful if that occurs with you, and we could save the world at the same time, but make no mistake, it will occur before I die. Make up your mind, brother of mine; either accept what I'm offering, which you have also wanted for years, or get the hell out of my way so I can see what it is about Patrick that can make twelve girls love him, and what he has that can keep them all satisfied."

Christopher looked shell-shocked. I guess I should've warned him. I didn't know exactly who his sister was, whether she was Katie from the future or just had her same genes, but I knew Katie was as stubborn as they come and seldom if ever lost an argument. I assumed this Katie was the same, with so many other things that were identical.

I saw Christopher wilt before my eyes as he realized what he was doing to his sister. She was dying; he could and would do what she wanted, especially if it allowed them to be together as one, preserving her mind and her life, in a way. He took her hand and held it tightly.

"I would be honored to be the one that gets to make love to my dear friend for the first time," he said formally. He kissed her hand, sending chills down her spine.

"It ... I wish it really were my first time. I wish I were still a virgin for you, as I had planned. God damn them!" she hissed viciously.

"It is. You are. Rape doesn't count. You are a virgin, Katie," Christopher spoke in her ear as he nuzzled her neck.

His sister broke down and cried, sobbing against his neck.

"When?" he asked after she had calmed down.

"Let me nap the rest of the day, get some strength back. Arguing with dorky brothers wears me out. Then the girls will help me get all pretty and clean for you. We can spend the night together. Megan can keep me alive that long," she said.

Tears sprang into his eyes as she mentioned dying again. Our Katie slipped in next to him and hugged him tight.

"I will be there for you. I will never leave you," she whispered, and kissed him. He held her tight, trembling as his sister dozed off.

Cindi slipped an arm around his waist and laid her head on his shoulder.

"I'll help," she murmured. Our Katie smiled at her. Cindi didn't know it, but our Katie had been serious about sharing him with her, if it would make her happy. Anyone who saw the twinkle in her eye knew it. Cindi was clueless, as usual.

As his sister slept, Christopher, the girls, and I made plans to vacate the area. Somehow, it just didn't seem right for his sister's first and last experience at making love to be in the same place where she had been tortured for so long. We thought we could teleport her back home without waking her up.

We had several problems that we were working on at the same time. We had over twenty girls, ages ten to fourteen years old that were in various stages of acute distress due to their captivity. I didn't know what to do with them. Obviously we would return them to their families if they could be found, but they needed help immediately in preparation for that return to society. We just didn't have the facilities, resources, training, or time to take care of them. We needed help. As usual, all we had to do was ask.

Another problem was what to do with Tori-llia. We agreed that she would be sent back to her home world after Elizabeth left. That was a good plan, but a hitch had developed that was frustrating Sarah and Jessica. No matter how hard they tried, they couldn't lock in to the coordinates of any of the planets. Planet # 1 was the only one that was of use to us, but we couldn't lock onto any of them. That told me that there was some protection mechanism at work to preserve the secrecy of the location of the planets. We were sure of the general location, as I was sure the source of the dreams were coming from a ship orbiting the general location of the planets, but try as they might, they couldn't lock on. We refused to teleport her 'back home' if we couldn't guarantee with near 100% certainty that she would actually get there.

It was less critical to get her home right away than it had been. Since the night we spent together, Tori-llia was showing less signs of withdrawal from her twin and her husband. I wondered briefly if they were the same person. After all, they had been the same person (me) for her counterpart, Victoria, in the last cycle. There was no way to tell, however, until we understood and spoke her language better, or she learned English.

The problem of the captive girls resolved itself almost immediately.

We were discussing what to do with all the girls when Sarah's cell phone rang. She looked at the caller ID and broke into a big smile. She set it on the table and turned the speaker on.

"Hey, Chris! How you doing? How's the Big Guy?" she asked, giggling as she said it.

"You better not let him catch you calling him that. You know he hates that. My Dad wants to talk to your Dad," Christina, the President's daughter, said.

"Tell him to call Dad. He knows the number. I'm not his freakin' secretary," Sarah laughed.

"You know, you're still not too big for him to spank you," Christina laughed. Sarah gasped and blushed a deep red. I got the distinct impression there was an interesting story there. Jessica tilted her head slightly to the side, then her eyes got real big and she blushed, giggling softly. I wondered how many times Jeff had spanked Sarah, and under what circumstances. I decided I didn't really want to know, especially the way Jessica was reacting. For being such a sweet, innocent little thing, that girl seemed to have a seriously dirty mind. The thought made me smile in delight.

"Hi guys," Valerie yelled in the background.

"How's my favorite girls?" I asked.

"Patrick!" they both squealed.

"Put your clothes back on and give me that phone," Jeff laughed in the background. He won the battle and I was talking to the President.

"Patrick, it's good to hear from you again. I understand from your father that you're in the DC area. How did it go? Is everything ok?"

"The girls and I are all fine, Jeff. Everything went ok."

"I assume you're calling to tell me you-all are coming by to visit before heading home?"

"Well ... not exactly..."

"Give me a break here, Patrick ... my girls will lynch me if you don't come by before going home," he pleaded good-naturedly.

"Don't tell me you're afraid of a couple little girls?" I asked, then ducked as several things were thrown in my direction by the 'little girls' on my end.

"These two girls are the only things I'm afraid of. What's the problem?"

"There are some ... unusual complications, sir," I said. He noticed the formal tone and address right away.

"You have a problem. What is it and how can I help?"

"I have over twenty girls here, ages ten to fourteen that we have rescued from a child sex ring. They're suffering from various disorders, everything ranging from PTSD to Stockholm syndrome. One or two may even be pregnant. I need to find some way to take care of them. I don't have the time or the resources, I can't leave them here alone, and I sure as hell can't bring them to the White House with me if we come to visit," I explained.

I heard the President talking to someone in the background.

"Valerie, ask Grace to come in here right away." I heard a teenager whining. "Go, honey. It's important. TiVo will record what you'll miss." I heard grumbling and stomping as someone left the room.

"Teenagers! They were so cute when they were little, just like kittens. Now, they're like cats. I wonder if I can give them away?" he grumbled. "You want a couple more teenage girls? I'll sell them cheap," he asked hopefully. "I'm sure they'd be good in bed at least."

I laughed, then blushed and shivered as I realized what he had said. I pretended I didn't hear it.

"As soon as we get a little settled here, I can take them off your hands for a couple weeks. My girls would love to have them for a visit," I assured him.

"Like you'll ever get settled. You've been promising that for months. Great. Let me know when and I'll send them. Then I could move and not leave a forwarding address. That would work," he laughed. Then he turned serious again.

"You sure as hell can bring those girls to the White House when you come to visit. I'll bet they've never been here before. It'll take their minds off what they've been through. It might be the perfect start to a return to society. Besides..." I heard him talking to someone in the background again.

"Grace, call that friend of yours that helps runaway and troubled girls. Patrick has twenty or so girls that need help. Have her and her staff come over and we'll have the girls here for her to meet."

"Patrick doesn't have that many girls ... yet ... and they're not that much of a problem," Grace teased.

"It's not for his girls, silly, although Sarah could probably use the help," he quipped. He laughed at the raspberries he heard over the phone.

"Seriously, bring them here. We'll arrange for them to be taken care of, and we can visit at the same time," Jeff urged. It seemed to me he was trying hard to get us to come. I wondered; he probably figured that I knew by now about him and Elizabeth in the past. I wondered if he was trying to repair some damage. It would probably do us both some good to talk.

"I can send Marine One to pick them up. It's big enough to hold that many ... wait, we have your fifteen or so to fit in too. I'll send something big enough."

"We can get them there ourselves without a problem. Just tell me what room to bring them to and make sure no one is there but your family and Russ and David," I suggested.

"Are you sure? The girls might talk about what happens."

"No one will believe them. They've been hostages for quite a while and are in various stages of mental distress. They were teleported to the White House by teenage girls with different colors shining all over the place? Right, that'll fly. With the drugs they've probably been pumped up with over the last few months, they may not even believe it themselves," I assured them, before moving on to the next subject.

"I also need a special favor. I have a boy and girl with me, very special friends of my daughters. The girl is dying, and the two are very close to each other. I need a quiet, private place where they can be together in her last hours and no one will ask questions about their ages or what occurs. Before you answer, be aware that some really strange things might occur. Can you do that?" I asked.

"Strange things happening in your family? Imagine that. Done; no problem. Do you need medical care for her? What am I saying? If Megan can't help her, probably no one can. I remember what she did for Sarah ... Let me send a chopper. I don't like the idea of you getting them all here some other way. Someone might believe the girls. I can send a Sikorsky instead."

"Ok, if you don't mind the questions people are going to ask about that many young girls showing up at the White House all at once," I replied.

"Screw 'em. Give 'em something to talk about besides Iraq. And Patrick ... while you're here ... we need to talk," he said. I agreed.

I decided that he was probably right; no sense in taking the chance that someone would believe the girls.

We used the time while we were waiting to get all the rescued girls cleaned up. Sarah and Jessica teleported Kim and Heather to the house and back to get clothes and other things to make the girls presentable.

The hardest part was actually getting the girls cleaned up. They were still traumatized, shying away from any human contact. I had hoped that they would respond better to my girls, being roughly the same age, but that didn't work out as well as I planned. Apparently, the captors often used one girl against another to isolate them and break them down, so none of them trusted each other. It would have been a complete disaster, and I believe we would still be there, if it hadn't been for Lori.

Lori was unstable as hell. We never knew whom we were going to see each day when she woke up; the sweet, quiet twin or the obnoxious, snotty one. But as much of a pain in the butt as she was, she knew all about suffering and losing everything, depression and suicidal leanings. She was very upset at what had been done to these girls, and she jumped in immediately to help them.

The girls took to her like fish to water. Somehow, they knew that here was a girl that knew what they felt, what they had gone through. She was not a spoiled little rich girl <Hey! I'm not rich! J.>; she was someone that had suffered just as they had. The first thing she did after establishing a rapport with the girls was to show them that Lisa was ok. The rest of us simply stepped back and watched the miracle unfold.

By the time the helicopter arrived, all the girls were neat, clean, and tidy. Makeup had been judiciously applied to cover bruises. Several of the girls had even laughed. They were still traumatized and needed help, but they were starting to realize that not everyone in the world wanted to hurt them.

Lori looked surprised when I picked her up into my arms and gave her a bone-crushing hug. She giggled and blushed when I gave her an affectionate kiss on the cheek.

"I love you, sweet little one," I told her.

"Even when I'm a snotty little brat?" she grinned.

Oops.

"Especially then," I replied. Lori giggled again.

"Nice save, Daddy. Thanks." Then she turned serious.

"I'm just glad I could help. I knew exactly how they felt in some ways, even though my situation was different. I felt so helpless, not able to do anything for them. At least with Mom I was able to help by ... well, I just had to do something," she finished lamely.

I noticed her gaff immediately.

"What did you do to help your Mom?" I asked, curious.

"Never mind. What you don't know won't hurt me," she answered, a dark cloud on her face. I changed the subject quickly.

"Anyway, thank you for your help. I'm sure the girls will appreciate it too. I'm sure you made some lasting friends today."

Lori blushed and looked embarrassed.

Rome wasn't built in a day. We had problems getting some of the girls in the helicopter. Apparently, it brought back memories of their capture and relocations. Part of the breaking process was to isolate them from others as they developed friendships. That usually involved a helicopter ride.

This time we were smart enough to let Lori and Lisa handle it from the beginning. I guess there was something totally non-threatening about six year old girls. In no time at all, they had the girls on board and strapped in. Several of the girls held hands and hid their faces in each other's shoulders. So much for not trusting each other.

It became apparent even before takeoff that the ride was going to be rough on Christopher's sister. Part of it was going to be the rough ride, but the other part was the hard seats we had to sit on. After only a few seconds, she called Christopher over and whispered in his ear. She watched, biting her lower lip nervously as he thought about what she said. Then he gently picked her up, carried her over to where I was sitting, and just as gently set her down in my lap.