The decision was made. Despite my misgivings, I had to deal with Jeremiah in order to handle Zero.
"I see you have finally seen my point," Jeremiah said with a smile. "So you'll join me, then?"
I looked out the glass window into the empty void. "Yes."
"Good. Next, I need to show you what MARAD really is. It's not some evil group like you believe."
"If you know I think that, then you also know why."
"Yes, Metagor is a little ruthless, but he is our sole remaining asset after-"
"Project Ares," I finished.
He moved on. "Such thinking won't help you here. I think it's necessary for you to be familiarized with the facilities again and reintroduced to our purpose."
"You know about my amnesia," I realized.
"We're part of the government. We know everything," he said in a bored tone. "You don't think we knew about the breakout?"
"You didn't stop me."
"There was no reason to. Would you put a raisin back in the bag with grapes?"
"Are you saying I was useless?"
"I'm saying you are useless as far as Project Ares is concerned."
I reared my hand back for a punch. "Why, you little-"
Zap!
I curled up in a ball on the ground, shuddering. That one was stronger. It must have been the third setting.
"You know, after I get these bracelets off, I'm gonna fry you," I said.
"Would you like another zap?" he asked seriously. "I'm going to electrocute the resistance out of you one way or another."
"No."
"Well, then. Let's get started."
He swept out of the room, his trench coat blowing up air in my direction. I turned my head to the side as I stood up to follow him.
Outside the room, the floor scheme was the same as the complex I emerged into from the pod. Long white hallways, blah blah blah.
I looked back and figured out that the void scene I could see through the windows of my cell were fake. They were probably just holograms. What a dirty trick. Literally.
I tried to start a conversation as we walked. "So, Jeremiah, what did you do while everyone else was fighting?"
"I was fighting your friend Sage. Sierra joined in, too," he said.
My jaw dropped to the ground and I almost stopped in surprise. "How did you do that?"
"Kid, I have more tricks up my sleeves than any metahuman that just popped up. Don't ask me how. Ask me why."
I took this into consideration. Was that his way of telling me he was one of us?
"Alright," he said without slowing down. "Let's get you situated."
He took me to a small, vacant room a long ways from my cell. This one had many of the things I liked from my room, and my clothes were in a cupboard next to my bed. They even changed the walls to the same color as the ones at home.
"I see you've prepared in advance," I commented.
"How could you say no?"
I laughed.
"I wasn't joking."
My chuckles died out when his meaning hit me.
"Wow. You really are hell-bent on having me here. Makes me feel special," I said dryly.
"Don't flatter yourself," he said. He looked around the room himself as if he hadn't seen it yet. "They did a pretty good job."
"Who did? And how did you get this stuff out of my room without my parents knowing?"
"The movers, who else? No one said your parents were out of the loop on this."
"They would never let you do this to me," I said, gesturing at one of my wristbands with a finger for the opposite hand.
"Maybe not that specifically, no," he admitted. "But they want you out of trouble just as much as I do. Face it, you're a hazard and a bother. I don't know how they put up with you."
That stung.
"Cassie doesn't know, though?" I asked hopefully.
"No, and it's going to stay that way. She and Sage can't find out about this," he said in a warning tone. "Remember the raisin? They're raisins, too."
I wrinkled my brow. "You're a raisin."
He raised the remote threateningly."
"Okay, okay! I'm sorry!" I lifted up my hands so he wouldn't be tempted to shock me.
He smirked and lowered the remote.
"I think that's enough of this." Jeremiah turned around to head out. "You still need to see the rest before I go."
He showed me around all of the places I was going to be, including the dining hall, workout room (which was pretty sleek, if I do say so myself) and the lab. When I asked why I would go to the lab, he said I would find out with a sinister tone. Better I stayed away from that area.
When he was done, I requested to meet Ben. He told me it wouldn't be wise to go anywhere near him after what I'd done.
"What I'd done for you, you mean," I said.
"I'm past that with him. He still has issues with you, is all," he explained.
"Why is it that only some of us were in those pods?"
"The others were only there to reinforce our hold on you." He held nothing back. "Other than that, we didn't have to share Jake, Adam, or Ben, and we needed them elsewhere."
"The only ones who worry me."
"They were the best," he said with a shrug. "There was no way we were giving them up for an experiment."
"But they still ended up mentally insane," I observed. "And for two of them, dead."
"Once again, that's your problem, not mine."
"It's mine and Zero's," I corrected him. "I have the face of a betrayer."
"Get over it."
He dropped me off in my room with the only instructions being to head to the lab in a few hours.
"They'll call for you," he said.
A moment after he left, an intercom announced that an emergency had sprung up in Oklahoma and for Agent Green to get to the loading docks. Jeremiah hadn't shown me that part of the facility.
Even though my door slid open and closed automatically, it stood wide open now. It was the perfect time, too.
I jumped off of my bed as I caught a glimpse of Ben's shaggy brown hair hurry down the hall.
"Ben!" I called out. He hadn't seen me.
I heard his footsteps slow. Then, they grew louder and Ben peeked around the corner.
He was actually smiling until he glanced over my face, and then it turned into a deep scowl. "Don't talk to me."
Then he disappeared down the hall and left, his skin stretching and growing and beginning to turn green.