Aug. 17, 2013, 8:16 a.m.
Leap of Fate: Chapter 9
E - Words: 5,456 - Last Updated: Aug 17, 2013 Story: Closed - Chapters: 10/? - Created: Jun 29, 2013 - Updated: Aug 17, 2013 223 0 0 0 0
A moment passed in which Kurt and Blaine looked at Kevin with identical 'what the fuck?' expressions. Expressions that were made even more pronounced as they felt each other's apprehension through their link... Mind meld? Brain bridge? Kurt's still trying to settle on a name that completely describes the connection he has with his boyfriend. But Kevin's gaze was one of incredulity. "You do know that you are soulmates, right? Even more so than anyone can hope to be, at least for now." His statements just further confused both Kurt and Blaine.
Soulmates.
Seriously?
Sure it made a kind of weird cosmic sense. For one, they practically read each other's minds, at least on an emotional level. And sure Blaine does feel connected to Kurt in a way that he never thought was going to be possible for him, not with a person that isn't a jumper. A person who may not understand or may not want to understand the difficulties that society imposes on him, for no valid reason.
But that's not Kurt, not by a long shot.
In fact he doesn't think he could possibly find another person who would accept him so completely; freaky glowing hands and all.
And Kurt, being a man of science, was skeptical of anything he couldn't confirm with empirical evidence. Only, this situation was not one of those cases. Kurt could confirm this with absolute certainty. He could see it in Blaine's eyes, feel it when Blaine drags even the slightest touch anywhere on his body. His nerve endings would light up at the surge of power that flows through him from Blaine's smile alone, much less any skin to skin contact they have. He could feel Blaine within himself. Something he never thought was possible. And this term made more sense than any other to put this feeling into perspective.
But still, soulmates?
It essentially meant that half of your soul was with this other person, half of your entire being, your essence. Yes, it was a heavy and maybe even clichéd term, but it was the only one that seemed to fit their very particular situation. Both boys turned to look at each other at the same time.
During the boys' struggle for comprehension, Sara and Hunter were busy trying to find the universe in each other's eyes, and probably succeeded; going by the looks they were currently giving one another. Sara couldn't wait for this connection to be deeper, to be just as she saw it, couldn't wait to be a well oiled machine together. Because that is what soulmates are; counter parts, puzzle pieces that fit exclusively together. Hunter was a tad confused; he couldn't pinpoint what exactly he was feeling. All he knew was that he didn't want to stop feeling this way, ever. He never wanted to stop looking at this girl.
Kevin gave a great sigh, pointed at Blaine and said, "Him being a walking talking weapon of mass destruction we can all believe but the idea of a soulmate is beyond your understanding?" He shook his head in disbelief and moved to sit on the row directly below Blaine on the bleachers. Her brother's movement prompted Sara to shift towards the seat below Hunter's seat. Hunter in turn inched forward, bringing himself a little closer to the girl.
"Sare." Kevin called.
"I know, I know. Just two more minutes okay?" She replied. Kevin rolled his eyes in exasperation.
"Just wait 'til you see yours," she said with a little smirk, "you both are going to be vomit inducing." Sara let out a sigh that morphed into a pout as she resigned herself to being sociable. She leaned toward the group. Hunter unconsciously angled himself between her and the rest of the guys. It was a motion he didn't quite understand at the moment, but he had an overwhelming feeling that he was about to find out about it. "Hello boys!" Sara greeted. "Apparently we have a wave of enlightenment to get to."
Kurt and Blaine both turned to her, still at a loss for words. What does one even say in a situation like this? Hunter sat forward a little. He too was confused, but felt at ease with it. As if somehow he knew he wouldn't be confused for long. Sara looked at him and smiled and he couldn't help but return it. She then turned around to look at the boys in front of her.
"Blaine Anderson, in the flesh. I've been waiting to officially meet you for a while. It's sort of really exhausting waiting for glimpses to manifest themselves. I mean you can't rush things to happen when they aren't supposed to and you can't slow things down, it's all very frustrating." She rambled. "But here we are- aaaaaand you're still confused as all hell, at least about some things. Let's correct that, shall we? Our names are Sara and Kevin Murtagh. We have an older sister, Laura Murtagh-"
"Who's gonna be pissed she wasn't here." Kevin interjected.
"I've told you I didn't see her here for this. You know how this works; I'm just the messenger here. This is how it's supposed to be at this particular moment." Sara said to Kevin patiently.
"Alright. But I still don't like it." Kevin replies.
"I know, big bro. It's fine; you know we can trust them." She said, as if repeating this for the twelfth time.
Kevin rolled his eyes and Blaine could see that it probably was a habit for the guy.
"Do you guys think we could go somewhere a little more private for this conversation?" Sara suggested knowingly. "On the bleachers is definitely not the best venue." She said decisively.
Kurt looked at Blaine intensely and Blaine felt this wave of complete deference from him. He understood perfectly; this decision was his because this secret was his. It was the reason Kurt never mentioned him or Hunter to the twins. It was a testament to how thoroughly Kurt thought things through, how aware Kurt was of things that might directly affect their anonymity and by extension, their freedom. It's one of many instances that proved how right Kurt being a part of his life was, how right Kurt was for him.
The twins seemed harmless enough, well- they seemed 'not so threatening that he couldn't deal' if conflict arose. But they also gave the air of allies that cancelled out any glean of a threat quite thoroughly. He knows he can trust them; he doesn't know how he knows, but he does.
"Hunter, jump Sara to the house, I will be along with Kurt and Kevin." Blaine rattled off. Hunter was only too happy to obey any instruction that placed him in any form of contact with Sara Murtagh. He held out his hand for hers and she took it with an amused smirk; they disappeared the minute she took it.
"When we get to the house, you can call your sister Laura." Kurt said almost absentmindedly. And Blaine looked right at him astonishingly. Kurt met his gaze and paused as well, his eyebrows in danger of disappearing into his hairline. Blaine needed a moment, because it quite literally seemed as if Kurt had lifted the thoughts right out of his mind. Not just feelings in the abstract, but this actual sentence word for word and then just said them. He knew Kurt was gobsmacked; he could feel it.
Kevin looked between the two of them, smug and knowing as he said, "shall we?"
Kurt gave his head a little shake and stepped fully into his boyfriend's (soulmate's?) space. Blaine automatically wrapped a hand around his waist, eyes still glued to Kurt's prone form. He looked Kurt in the eyes intensely, transmitting feelings of assurance and comfort to combat the subtle modicum of uncertainty he could sense beneath Kurt's always calculating consciousness. Kurt actively took a deep breath, allowing the action as well as Blaine's sense of calm to soothe his concerns. At least until he can find a way to logically explain what the fuck just happened.
When Blaine was sure that Kurt was okay, he held out a hand to Kevin and the three boys disappeared with the faintest pop and the smallest tuff of smoke.
Cooper Anderson is a genius- a self-proclaimed genius, but that doesn't make it any less true. For who else could come up with this? Who else could combine elements of fiction with something real and tangible and make it work. A genius, that's who and Cooper Anderson was one.
He has had time to sit down and really think about the situation they are in. Some sinister people are after his kid brother, people who will demolish everything and everyone in their path to get to him; they've proven that. Yet, the security of the house they call home at the moment is negligent at best. Sure it's top notch, Nana had made certain of that, had continued to have automatic payments go to the service provider of the house security system to upgrade whenever it needed to be. However, the mere fact that Cooper knew this was a testament to how weak the system really was. He hacked it from the comfort of his own laptop, didn't even have to use the gorgeous high tech top of the line beauties that lined the walls of what Kurt calls "Cooper's play room". No, this current system couldn't help them until it was too late, until danger had a knife to all their throats.
So Cooper, in his genius- or maybe under the influence of ridiculous levels of caffeine, had this wondrous idea come to him; what if he could somehow fuse the idea behind Tony Stark's JARVIS (yes he is a proud comic book nut), the caterwauling charm from the Harry Potter novels (who the hell doesn't know of HP? Which rock have they been hiding under?) and the RAHTS frequency meter into one kick ass of security system? When he had voiced this to the boys, Hunter took his coffee mug away and Blaine hid all the coffee beans in the house. Kurt though, tilted his head a little to the right into what they dubbed Kurt's 'huh, that's crazy enough to work' expression. Cooper took that as confirmation to at least attempt the coffee induced vision.
If Cooper succeeds, he would be able to be forewarned if anyone or anything were to come into close proximity, (or really any proximity he chooses) of their home. He would be able to visually perceive who they were and assess their motives before they get close enough to do damage. He'll even try to make it interactive like Tony does, so that he doesn't have to be around his computer to be able to give the system commands. Considering that Cooper is an Avid worshipper at the feet of the magnificence that is Tony Stark, he's a little embarrassed that he didn't think to replicate JARVIS sooner. Of course this will be a little different; for one, they aren't hunting jumpers in Tony Stark's world. And two, it's not like there's a 'how to' manual for constructing holographic interacting AI. It's gonna take some time, a shit load of money and a whole lot of genius; there is a reason why it hasn't been done in real life.
The RAHTS use the frequency meters to tag a jumper's signature. The smoke that a jumper leaves behind is unique to that jumper and contains linkable DNA properties. Whether it's a tuft or a huge billow of smoke depends on how long this jumper has had to hone their abilities. Regardless, the meter is able to scavenge for the residue left behind, so that if the jumper goes back to that point, the frequency meter is able to identify the jumper and feed this information back to the RAHTS. He would use frequency meter technology to recognize the signature of the jumpers that live in the house, rewiring the circuits to only recognize who he tells it to recognize, subduing any cause for alarm when they jump into or out the parameter marked off by him. But if someone not acknowledged by the system attempts to jump into, or out of the parameter, a horrendous sound would rend the air and assault everyone's eardrums within 50 km, serving as an alert and a means of defence- exactly like the caterwauling charm does in HP. Who knew reading those books to his brother would contribute to genius... or crazy- depending on how you look at it really? Never mind that he's got the box collection of the hard cover version of the seven books in the series safely tucked away.
Of course, he'd have to design small unobtrusive noise cancelling ear buds for everyone who frequents the house in this case, but no matter. He could custom make them, Kurt would love his with a little sparkle, and come to think of it, so would Blaine. But then Hunter will complain that he was left out of the bedazzlement- damn it- okay, everyone's ear buds will be covered in fairy dust!
He can then link the system to feed the info onto the monitors in his tech room, Kurt's lab, Blaine's training dungeon, Hunter's drawing room, and the bedrooms as well as the other common areas they frequent in the house. This way someone will always have an eye out. He was particularly proud of using the technology that was made to enslave persons like his brother in order to protect them- suck it evil people, suck it hard.
Never mind that the main inspirations he drew from were fictional; Cooper is a GENIUS. Now, he has a lot of tweaking and reworking and re-imagining in progress. He hadn't slept properly since the idea stuck him, his head always buzzing with schemes involving numerous sequences of code. He's so close he can taste it; he just needs this bout of encryptions he wrote on reworking the frequency meters to fit and he'd be golden to attempt the next phase.
Suddenly, a loud familiar pop sounded in the house and Cooper looked up from his almost finished encryption to see two people appear in his living room. The smoke from the jumping snaked its way around the legs of the travellers as well as the room. Then another distinctively fainter and even more recognizable pop sounded and three more people appeared. Cooper's hand slid off his keyboard; He can sure as hell say goodbye to finishing his encryption today. It's a lucky thing he hadn't moved to his play room yet, he'd miss the beginning of whatever the hell this was about to be.
He shouldn't be surprised about anything that happens with Blaine anymore really. Since he was young and told to trust Blaine's instincts by their Nana, he hadn't truly had reason to question the rightness of this course of action. Squirt just had good instincts, great instincts actually. Even when they were both in agreement, Blaine's perspective was usually sharper in terms of situational endeavours. However, the government is looking for jumpers and some murderers are looking for his baby brother; yet still he decides that carrying two strangers to their safe house was perfectly fine. With even more people on the way, if the boy who was on his cell phone giving their address out had anything to say about it.
See this is why his security system is needed A-fucking-SAP. Also he needs Kurt to come up with a name for it so he can stop calling it his security system. When he's finished with this project, he's going to be genius-ed out. At this point he can trust only Kurt to come up with something functional and cool. Blaine and Hunter would no doubt name the system something heinous and he'd be too fried to stop them.
"Okay," Cooper said, calling attention to himself, "just what the hell happened now? Why are you home so early? Why is our address being disclosed and who are these guys?" He looked at the boy and girl he didn't know. Twins? They looked similar enough. And Hunter has a death grip on the girl's hand. What was up with that? Wasn't he dating Tina, or something? Cooper had a million questions and someone better start answering them, fast. "You do realize that you all just jumped here," Cooper continued "you know, that thing I keep begging you not to do all willy-nilly." Cooper flapped his hands to make his point.
"Hello Cooper, my name is Sara." The girl said as she held out the hand that wasn't attached to Hunter for Cooper to shake. "That dude over there on the phone, is my twin Kevin." Kevin waved distractedly at Cooper with his free hand. "It's so great to meet you." Her smile was radiant, genuine. Cooper shook her hand, more than a little lost for words.
"How'd you know his name? Hunter asked. "Come to think of it, how do you know everyone's name?" He turned to face her, still holding her hand even as he questioned her. Her smile softened a bit when she turned to look at him and Blaine could see the back of Hunter's head becoming a deep shade of red. He stifled a chuckle before Sara started speaking again.
"I think we should all sit down." Sara indicated. Kevin finished talking to their older sister and sat on the opposite side of Sara and Hunter. Blaine took Kurt's hand and led him to the two-seater. Cooper sat back down in his computer chair.
Sara took in a deep breath to begin. But her eyes became glassy and white for a couple of seconds. She stood tense and still and then let out the breath and blinked. Her eyes went back to their normal greenish-blue-grey. She looked at her brother, rolled her eyes and said "I finally know why Laura is gonna be 10 minutes later than she meant to be; she took highway 401. I mean who takes highway 401 at this time of day? You don't need me to tell you how backed up it's gonna be." She let her exasperation through and Kevin shrugged at her.
"That's just Laura." He said resignedly. Sara let out a long suffering sigh and turned her attention back to the others in the room. Cooper's jaw was practically on the floor, Kurt looked at her with utter fascination, Blaine with mirth and Hunter... Hunter looked at her like she hung the sun in place, and he can do nothing but orbit her. That alone gave her the strength to say what she knew she must.
"I have these little flashes, or visions. Premonitions maybe? I call them flashes of sight, because most of the time that's what they are. A few seconds. Just flashes of things, places, people... Like a minute ago I was transported for a second to the front seat of my sister's car, I was shown the time and the multitude of cars in front of her. However I knew she would be late, because believe it or not, I had a flash of this moment happening, I just wasn't shown why she would be late until a minute ago." She began.
"But maybe let's start at the beginning? I don't think I could explain properly how I saw this moment or even my limitations without doing that." She said while scanning the faces around her.
"The beginning would be best." Blaine said and gestured for her to continue.
"We are Sara and Kevin Murtagh, youngest children of Justin and Samantha Murtagh. Well, I'm the youngest; Kevin will tell anyone who will listen that he came a full twelve minutes before I did. Laura Murtagh is our sister, she's five years older than we are. Which is still pretty young, I mean we're 17."
Kevin rolled his eyes fondly at his sister's words. Sara just continued on.
"Our parents were geneticists working with the GBOS, so we know how the jumper gene is distributed. Any family with the jumper gene trait can attest that it skips every other generation. Then when it manifests itself, it is either the latent version that has to be activated, or the active version where you were born fully capable of moving yourself anywhere through space instantly. Kev was born with the jumper gene, but the latent version. Our parents assumed they caught a break. Our Mom's Dad had an active incarnation of the gene, but he also had cancer of the lungs. She had to watch her father waste away because he knew that if he ever went to a hospital and did blood work, they would take him. They would find out he had the active gene and that would be the last his family heard of him. He preferred to spend the time before he eventually goes with his family. They were hoping to avoid putting that kind of stress on their offspring; my Dad's family didn't have the gene and they thought that this lessened the chance of their children receiving it.
However, they were both geneticist and knew that the jumper gene always showed itself in some form every other generation. With the government becoming crazier and crazier about the inheritance of the gene; it was great that their daughters wouldn't be saddled with the burden of the gene. And as long as they kept their son from anything dangerously traumatic, he'd also be fine, because he had the dormant, or recessive form. With me so far?"
Sara glanced at the faces in the room seeing different indications of understanding. Now came the hard part, she continued.
"But then we came home from school to a ransacked house. Everything overturned and rooted through. Our important documents were gone; birth certificates, medical history documents, even school reports, just everything. And..." She took a deep breath, her voice shaking a little on the next words.
"And... a-and there was blood. Blood everywhere. I s-somehow instinctively knew it was our parents. Kevin jumped for the first time that day, right into Laura's apartment; Laura drove back to get me, we took what we could and we never looked back."
Hunter shifted a little closer toward Sara, and settled her hand into his. Sara felt a rush of emotions at the gesture. She knows what's happening between them, knows that this person was meant to know her inside out. She just couldn't get over the human logistics of the situation. How exactly could a person she has formally known for all of 30mins, know precisely what she needed in this moment? What phenomena could cause that? She doesn't know, it's something she's never been shown, but she's entirely grateful for its existence. She took all the comfort she could get from Hunter's presence and continued her recount.
"That instinct I had? It developed into my flashes, and at first I didn't know where this was coming from. I mean how the fuck can I see into the future? How could I instinctively know something I shouldn't possibly be able to figure out? By the way, someone get the door, Laura is gonna ring in about three, two, one."
The doorbell sounded as if on cue and everyone did a synchronized turn toward the sound and then back toward Sara in noticeable awe. Except Kevin, who looked like this was an everyday occurrence. Which for him, probably was. Cooper got up to answer the door and Sara began giggling. "Watch this." She said to the group left in the living room. A tall, confident, beautiful Laura Murtagh strode into the room like she owned the place, dark gold hair wrapped into a high ponytail, leather boots and jacket donned. She looked like a perpetual badass and Cooper looked like a lost puppy seeking the attention of said badass. Kurt chuckled at the expression on Cooper's face while still dealing with the astonishment he felt at Sara's abilities. Blaine had never seen his brother looked so gone so fast on anyone and was just resigned to look at Cooper like he'd lost his mind. But then he remembered how he felt the first time he saw Kurt and decided to cut Cooper some slack; the Andersons know perfection when they see it.
"Greetings everyone, I'm assuming my sister already told you all who I was?" Laura said as she stood in the mids of the room. Everyone nodded to answer her question. She continued, looking around at them all, "I'm so happy to meet all of you after hearing so much about you from her." Her eyes settled on Cooper and her face broke out in a charming smile. Cooper's cheeks resembled ripe tomatoes as he asked her to take a seat.
"Oh this is prime blackmail material!" Hunter exclaimed at a shuffling Cooper. It was the first time Hunter had said anything remotely near to his original demeanour since he met Sara. It was like his brain checked out of anything that wasn't her for a while. She turned to him with excitement in her eyes.
"Fucking hell, you really are perfect for each other." Kevin snarked as he looked at his little sister with Hunter. "Shouldn't you continue Sare?" He said to break her from the trance she was sure to get into, staring at Hunter like a she was.
"Okay," she said, "I'm assuming that you know about Mutation 2.0. I don't even have to use sight to figure that one out. Good old logic will do. You've got Kurt Hummel, boy genius in your corner and you've got Dr. Clarington's devastatingly handsome son (she winked at Hunter and Hunter's ears went scarlet) who probably had his papers." Sara paused to get confirmation that she was correct.
The faces in the room looked a bit stunned at her correct deductions. Kevin sighed and said, "She is a cross between Sherlock Homes and Phoebe Halliwell; it's flipping exhausting."
Sara grinned at her brother's jab and took it as a cue to continue. "So the jumper gene and mutation 2.0 is intertwined. All the studies Dr. Clarington has done shows that if the effects of the mutation should manifest themselves, it would be in someone who had the active version of the jumper gene. So then 2.0 is actually a mutation of a part of the jumper gene. Therefore you can be a jumper without the effects of the mutation simply because that section of your DNA is not mutated but you cannot have the effects without the ability to jump. Right?"
Kurt nodded mentally sifting through all he learned about the mutation from Dr. Clarington's notes, and then cross referencing what he learned with what Sara said. Cooper figured that if Kurt understood what was being said, then it had to be correct. Blaine tilted his head to the side as the understanding filtered from Kurt to him.
"Well, it's even freakier with Kevin and I." Sara said, interrupting everyone's thoughts.
"What do you mean freakier? Aren't 'hands are actually energy weapons' freaky enough?" Blaine said incredulously.
Sara chuckled and said "Try 'gene splitting between identical twins giving each twin a separate part of the gene' freaky. We think, like many of the other things Kevin and I share, that we literally split the gene between the two of us. Kev got the part of the jumper gene that codes for actual jumping and I got the part that codes for mutation 2.0. We think that's where my ability comes from." Sara took a breath while the room processed the knowledge she just gave them.
"Blaine," she said eventually, turning in her seat to face him, " you aren't the only one experiencing this. In fact I reckon that people around the world, especially in our generation, up and found themselves with some strange psychic ability when either their loved ones or their person was in some sort of danger or distress.
I think even your Grandfather possessed some inkling of it, and may be even his grandfather before him. This... this is the reason they are looking for you, it's the reason your Nana went to such lengths to make sure you could disappear."
Kurt had figured as much; being able to access Dr. Clarington's papers lead them to deduce this several months ago. But this new information from Sara is more or less putting things into some perspective beyond the fact that these people want Blaine. It made Kurt a little uneasy, made him sure there was something else. He figured they knew that Blaine wouldn't be the only one with abilities, which is why they are trying to round up all jumpers. But that doesn't explain the killing spree they went on for information that was Blaine specific. Murdering the Murtaghs for their data and Dr. Clarington for direct information on Blaine's genes can't be any sort of coincidence.
"What else don't we know that we should?" Kurt piped up when his thought process hit a snag.
Sara let out a breath she seemed to have been holding, stretched out her hand and grasped Hunter's. She looked from Blaine to Kurt and then back to Blaine as she continued.
"You see Blaine, you are by far, the strongest of us all. You have the ability to grow the power you have now to extraordinary bounds. You have the ability to tap into any realm of possibility that exist for people like us."
The pieces started to fall in place for Kurt now, and he could feel the knowledge being shared with Blaine through their link. They held each other's gazes and didn't let go as Sara kept speaking.
"My parents thought that this was the result of the jumper gene being present and strong in your blood line for as far back as it has. Sons and daughters diligently passing it to grandsons and grand daughters. They were working on your genealogy Blaine, your bloodline."
Sara paused a bit and assessed the damage her words wrought. Blaine's face seemed relaxed but anyone could see the storm behind his eyes while Cooper's lower jaw has made peace with it's place on the floor. Kurt's face looked to be in deep concentration going over the vast information he had just been given, but he kept his eyes on Blaine, almost as if to make sure he was still there. Laura and Kevin both looked astonished, like their sister must have not told them this much about Blaine's significance til now. Hunter was at a loss for words as he tried to take in all the strange being thrown their way.
"I think," Sara continued, "that this whole tumultuous time our country has been going through with this organization gaining so much support for their cause, is an effort to acquire you with some semblance of legality behind them. I think, they mean to harness you into some kind of weapon. The person who controls the most powerful being in the world would be the most powerful person in the world. And right now, Blaine Anderson, you are the most powerful being in the world."
The storm in Blaine's eyes spilled over at those last words Sara spoke. He got up out of his seat, barely saying 'excuse me' before he headed for the training area. Kurt got up like he was compelled and followed Blaine, the exhaustion and trepidation on his face reflecting both their state of minds. Cooper got up to follow them; he could see that his little bro was having a tough time accepting all this, even though they all knew instinctively that Sara was not lying. The theory and the knowledge she gained from her parents and not to mention her psychic ability, gave her astounding credibility. But still, this is a lot for one person to handle. He must have voiced the last sentiment out loud because Sara said, "you're right, it is a lot, and I haven't even explained the concept of the soulmate yet. But he has Kurt. And right now, Kurt quite literally knows exactly how he is feeling. You should stay here and leave them to work it out."
Cooper paused, staring at where Blaine disappeared, then he sat back down in his seat and thought about the implications of all this information. They had figured out on their own that these assholes were looking for his brother, but they just now found out exactlywhythey were looking. Blaine wasn't justaperson with the mutation, he wastheperson with the mutation; the one with the most power. He's the one. They just found out that these murderers were cutting even more people down like tree stalks to get to Blaine's power. More people than they knew about, genuinely good people like the Murtaghs. God knows who else had to die as a result of this fucked up quest. So here they were, with probably as clear a picture of what was going on around them as they've ever had. The question now is where do they go from here?