FREED

Nicky had been shivering on the floor for several hours, with an empty plate besides her.

Alexa burst into tears on sight of her and Curtis was filled with rage.

He yelled for them to let her go but his father took the phone and said,"Look at the black sheep finally giving the orders."

Curtis calmed down then said,"Fine, we'll give you whatever you want, even if you want revenge, just let the child go, don't let her go through what I went through."

His father chuckled then said,"You already know what I want and I want you to bring it to your old training facilities by the next full moon, otherwise, you will never see her again."

Before he could speak, the call was hung up.

He threw the phone to the floor in rage as Alexa sobbed, then he knelt down besides her to console her then the children ran to them, having already sensed what had happened.

Micky came forward then said,"Don't worry mom, we'll get them back."

And by we, he meant he and the rest of the children.

The had already gone over their plan telepathically, and were going at that same night...

Nicky was lying on a hard, uncomfortable bed, in the frigid cold of the mountain air, when she heard someone speak in her head.

She looked around as the person said,"Calm down, you don't know us, but we know you, we need you to look at the guards watching your quarters.

Speed up time to make them fall asleep then cause the door's hinges to corrode.

She shivered violently then said,"I don't want to be punished."

"You wouldn't be, you would be rescued, just trust us."The voice said.

She slowly touched the doors then there was a thud, before the doors collapsed on top of the sleeping men.

She walked out to see a scary looking man who was about to alert everyone else but she kicked his knee then rammed her knee into his chin as he fell and gave him a knock out punch as he was on the floor.

The voice had changed, but was still giving her instructions on what to do.

She was told by the voice to go into the ' Space between spaces ' and into the Fourth dimension, from where she would be able not only to escape but to destroy the whole place.

She had no idea what that meant but the voice said it should be easy as she did it all the time, she just had to want to do it.

She closed her eyes and thought the words,' Space between spaces ', over and over again.

She heard some of the men running to her who were immediately thrown into the air by an undetectable force.

She felt a massive weight on her and as she opened her eyes, she saw everything, but strangely.

She saw billions of men lying on the floor, the same eight, but in every moment of their lives, everything was out of order, with objects that were previously on the floor being to her sides and she being able to disgustingly see through the men.

She also saw a haze around them, like a faint white glow, someone tapped her and she screamed then tried to attack the person but they vanished and appeared to her side then told her to calm down.

She wasn't anywhere near trusting the person, but she had to win their trust.

She nodded then the person walked in front of her but she immediately attacked him, her, it.

She could see it as a human but it folded in on itself, several times and she was just holding one version of it, there were more where it escaped and she was prepared, till she passed right through the person thingy and fell through the floor.

She screamed and her own voice was earsplitting, as she was pulled back by the person, who said,"Gotcha."

The thing pulled her up and she was hyperventilating till she fainted.

The five children looked at their sister, cousin, niece and knew she wasn't used to staying in the Space between spaces for long, but was also useless unconscious.

Ricky sighed then they all abruptly turned when they realized, they were in Toronto Canada, they weren't actually experts in the fourth dimension either.

They had to get home and fast.

They were about to move when they were surrounded by several men who started appearing out of thin air, then a woman who started clapping then said,"So you must be the fantastic five."

Catherine was growling furiously as the woman progressed, the woman then said,"You just made our deal a lot more expensive."

Jessica then said,"You'll never get anything from Curtis you witch!"

"Aww, that's not a nice way to refer to a relative, besides, he's the big bad wolf in this story, I'm just the grandma who was impersonated, men, get them."

The people started coming forward with several different lights or weapons at their disposal and the children had to form a circle around the unconscious Nicky then someone stood in front of the children and said,"Leave them alone."

"Oh Curtis!"The woman said,"What a pleasure it is for you to drop in big brother."

He frowned deeply as Alexa went to attend to her daughter.

The children called their father's name then ran to hug him and he hugged them and kissed them.

His sister from the back giggled and said,"He's not your father, sillies, maybe Catherine's, but not the triplets, I think it's about time you spilled the beans."

Curtis stood up as Alexa shook her head, it wasn't the time.

He then said to the children,"She's right, I'm not your father..."

Alexa didn't know whether to be proud of him for telling the truth, or angry for making things harder for himself, but he continued,"... I'm not your father, I killed your father..."

This came as a shock to all of them, even his sister, who began laughing at the turn of events.

Alexa asked,"Curtis, what are you talking about?"

He looked away as he said,"I hired the men to kill Trevor, I did it out of remorse, greed, jealousy and hatred and I..."

She slapped him across the face as she couldn't hear anymore as the children sought shelter in their mother.

She was crying bitterly as he looked back into her eyes, with his face, devoid of emotion, but his eyes, filled with guilt and sorrow.

Alexa asked in an almost inaudible voice, drowned in her tears,"Why? Why would you do that to me?"

He stuttered for the first time ever since she had met him,"I...I... I'm..."

His sister then interrupted,"Okay, wrap them up, we need all the children, alive."

The men rushed towards the children then Curtis turned back and ran towards the ones in front of him.

He was shot into the air by a powerful gust of wind then darted down and immediately sliced through three men like a knife then spun and a powerful wind blew the ones at his sides far into the air.

He hit the ground with his palm then portals opened below and above the men, making some fall through onto the others then they got stuck in a stasis and he ran and sliced through each of them with his own two dimensional arm, snapping his fingers for them to be sliced into two.

Curtis faced his sister who was loving the suspense, till Ricky, Micky and Catherine yelled,"Dad!"

He turned back but it was too late, the sword had already been thrusted...

Alexa was still in tears but then saw an injured man limping towards Curtis with a sword.

He pulled back the sword and the memories flashed back to Alexa, she couldn't save him, she couldn't save Trevor...

She screamed then Curtis turned back and yelled when Alexa was stabbed right through the belly.

Time slowed down for Curtis as he yelled his wife's name then the man pulled the sword out right before his face was exploded by the impact of Curtis's punch.

Alexa fell into Curtis's arms then her eyes fluttered as she touched his tear wet, rosy cheeks.

He held her palm and said,"I'm sorry."

She smiled then said,"I forgive you..."

Then she closed her eyes.

He started crying as a sword was thrusted through he as well and the children screamed as his sister pulled the blade, cackling the whole time.

Curtis fell to his side then slowly placed his shivering hand on Alexa's cheek, then slowly kissed her forehead and closed his eyes.

His sister then appeared by the children and grabbed Catherine roughly by the arm, then screamed loudly as her skin started to rot and literally melt from her flesh.

A blood curdling shrill came from her as the pain was overwhelming, with her scratching herself madly just to make it stop, then she fell to her side, lifeless and behind her was Nicky, with her arm outstretched and a frown on her face.

She knew by the past of those crying children that, they were her siblings and those on the ground, were her parents.

She knelt down besides them then looked into their eyes and said,"It's now or never."

The others nodded, knowing exactly what to do, then they placed their hands on their parents and the blood started flowing back into them, intermingling and mixing on its way.

Soon, they woke up with a start then looked at each other, and with tears, at their children, who just healed them then hugged, five to two, two to five and Curtis had never been happier...