Chapter 109 - Itchy Fingers

In the Conference Room of the New York base, a slight ripple occurs and then four people are blasted out. Consecutive grunts of pain could be heard as the four collided with the microglass present in the conference room.

A bout of fierce kicking started as everyone was scrounged together in peculiar manners. They stomped at each other recklessly as John was over Zeel's back, who was between Vishnu's leg, who was on top of Stanley, who was kissing the knocked out Cody.

After everyone was finished untangling, they could see the situation of those beside themselves; the tired Stanley carrying an amulet gripped tightly in his right hand, a smoky Zeel whose favorite Captain America shirt was ruined causing him to kick Cody in the head out of anger.

John who was on the ground steaming from running beyond his limits, and finally a severely injured Vishnu whose entire arm was missing with burns all over his body, most likely from protecting the fat guy laid out on the side.

"Who's the fat guy?" Zeel asked feeling disappointed that Vishnu would risk his life for someone not even in the group.

"Sam Goode's father, Malcolm Goode," Vishnu replied immediately, though he didn't act like it.

Vishnu sought Zeel's approval since he wanted to be a guy like Zeel – not feel the pains of love and loss.

Shrugging Zeel said "Could be a spy,"

"Could also not be a spy," John retorted, barely propping himself up. He had grown tired of Zeel's method of reading memories first asking questions later. At this point, Zeel knew each of them better than they knew themselves – even the girls.

"Got the betraying asshole?" Stanley asked with muscles aching and twitching; even if he didn't like Zeel very much, Stanley had to admit that Zeel always got the mission completed in style.

"Yeah, we have a decision to make, call the girls," Zeel commanded as he used his nanites to scan the base for the girls.

What Zeel saw gave him a little nose bleed, after which he quickly erased his presence and ceased watching. If Alice found out he had witnessed their little 'Teaching to kiss' session, she no doubt would have killed him.

Thirty minutes later, everyone was seated in their respective seats that corresponded to their numbers around the conference table.

"So we have a decision to make," Zeel said as the signal for the meeting's commencement had begun.

"Hmmm. You've figured out a safe way to do it?" asked Alice knowing well what Zeel was about to attempt.

"Do what?" asked Ella, a sentiment that was echoed by Marina and Cindy who had flushed cheeks and haggard breathing.

The guys looked at them suspiciously, but Zeel just gave Alice a condemning gaze. Alice bowed her head in guilt, she did not mean to bully the girls, but Zeel bullied her into sadism.

"A way to transfer legacies from one person to another," Alice replied hesitatingly after raising her head. She was not sure how the group would take the information – legacies were holy gifts on Lorien but now they could be transferred from those chosen to those not.

"Why would we need that?" asked Stanley a bit confrontational and jumpy at the mere thought of transferring legacies.

"Hmmm. To wake Henry and the other Cêpans," replied Marina after careful considerations "Right? I was always wondering why we hadn't awoken them yet when they've already been fully healed for a couple of weeks now. But then I thought back to what you said when you put Crayton inside – maybe benefits too. So you already knew a number would betray us?"

Smirking Stanley then chimed in "That or he had been planning this experiment for a while and just needed someone to slip up, who knows maybe he would have made the slip up then we just did the sliding,"

Everyone exchanged glances and for a moment, Zeel could even see Elizabeth doubting him, but he didn't really mind as they were right about it. He did require just one slip up from any of them aside from Elizabeth and they would become the next experiment, but they didn't account for the fact he couldn't do it on Alice's watch.

Alice's intuition told her that this situation should be exactly what Zeel wanted for some reason, she would have stopped the situation but if she would limit him too much, their relationship would take a couple of steps back instead of forward.

In the end, she chose her relationship over what her intuition was telling her.

With everyone giving Zeel distrusting looks, he simply said "You soon forget the reason you're all still here alive, not being chased by authorities, how many of you would have died if I wasn't here?"

Stanley smirked "Still everything is based on trust, especially now that everyone is gathered, can't have a clog in the machine especially now since its most dangerous,"

"I think we should all take a breather for a moment and get our head on straight," Elizabeth suggested stopping the situation from escalating. Elizabeth did not want to pick a fight with Zeel ever.

They literally had his nanites in their bodies, Zeel could just think them dead, and they would die.

"How can we be sure we can trust him?" John said as he walked over to Stanley's side, though if he was honest about his feelings, it wasn't this situation that irked him but Zeel giving Sarah the choice of whether or not to be with him.

"Ella?" Stanley called out to Ella who was hesitating on which side to choose but she ultimately just walked over to Stanley's side.

"Marina? Vishnu?" Stanley called out but Marina with a nonchalant attitude simply walked over to Elizabeth's side, with Vishnu remaining exactly where he was saying "Well I don't know much about either of you guys, so I won't choose who has the bigger balls,"

"Cindy?" John called out to which she replied "I'm sorry he saved my life, he is the reason I am here," as she walked over to Zeel's side.

"Is this how it is? Numbers choosing fake numbers to side with?" Stanley asked irritated by his 'becoming the boss plan' not coming to fruition.

On the side an awoken Malcolm Goode was watching the entire situation, before speaking up "Uhm, is it okay that I am here listening and all?"

Zeel flashed over and grabbed his head skimming through his surface memories roughly for a few moments, only Alice noticing that his brows twitch briefly before returning to normal, turning to the group and saying smilingly "He is clean,".