AUSTIN, TEXAS - PRIVATE AIR STRIP

Jarod stood between the two sweepers that held onto his biceps.He wore a belt around his waist which held the two chains that kept his arms and legs shackled together.

The Center jet had landed moments ago; its temporary grounding had now been lifted. Corporation Zero was no longer a physical threat. They were likely licking their wounds caused by losing the three assets they had gone to such lengths to acquire. With the death of Alex, they had lost their last source of reliable 'insider' information, and would now be focusing their efforts at fighting the financial battle that Jarod's stock manipulation software was raging on them.

Jarod had not seen Lysander that morning. He had hoped that he would at least catch a glimpse of the woman whose life was in terrible turmoil because of his stupidity, but he knew any communication between the two would be forbidden. He would be kept in strict isolation until they tried to move him to Africa.

Jarod's stomach sank as the staircase from the jet was lowered to reveal a gleeful looking Mr. Raines. As much as he detested Mr. Parker, the man had always been a reasonable chairman, and had been most likely sheltered Jarod from most of the unnecessary abuse Raines had wanted to inflict upon the pretender. Even if Mr. Parker had only seen Jarod in the form of dollar signs on the Centre balance sheet, he realized that tormenting the young pretender, would only hurt overall revenues and thus had kept Raines on a very short leash. However now Raines was in charge, Mr. Parker was MIA and assumed dead since he had taken the scrolls and leaped into oblivion over Morocco. Despite Lyle's torturous nature, Jarod feared Raines as Chairman far more. Raines was admittedly the only person in the Center who truly wanted Jarod dead.

Jarod knew he had determined his own fate in Raines' eyes when he had failed to bring home the man's daughter safely. Whatever resentment Raines harbored before that terrible day, had been significantly worse after Annie's murder. It hadn't matter that Jarod had tried; how petrified he had been to simulate the killer, Jarod's efforts just hadn't been in time; he had failed. Even Jarod wondered to this day, if he had hesistated less, would they have gotten to Annie in time to save her?

Jarod watched carefully as the old man wheeled his oxygen tank over to the pretender.

"Ready to go home Jarod?" The now chairman wheezed.

Jarod suppressed a sarcastic reply that threatened to escape. Talking would only get him into trouble. Instead he gave Raines what he knew he wanted – he bowed his head in submission.

The former doctor chuckled, before turning to face Lyle, who had made his way over to the group. "Where is your sister?"

Lyle shrugged. "She elected to take a commercial flight back last night, something about managing the second phase of our electronic war against Corporation Zero."

Jarod shot his head up at hearing this, a movement that did not go unobserved by Lyle.

"Between you and me, I think our boy here finally managed to seriously piss her off. She wanted nothing to do with either of them when they were 'reacquired' last night." The twin continued, focusing his stare on the pretender.

"Do, what I think you are planning to do, and I swear to you Jarod, you will never see me again."

She really was going to try and write him out then. Jarod, conscious of Lyle's eyes upon him, struggled to maintain a neutral expression on his face. He could not let them see he cared, could not give them any indication of how much they really could use her against him. He had to keep it together.

Raines nodded, scanned the airfield. "Where is the second subject?"

Jarod glared at Raines, although grateful at the distraction. "She has a name."

Lyle smirked. "It was rather combative this morning. We were forced to sedate her so she's sleeping it off in the van." Lyle stepped over to Jarod, patting the pretender on his shoulder, enjoying the flinch he felt as his hand made contact. "Never thought I would see the day when Jarod was the compliant one." Jarod shifted his weight, attempting to shrug Lyle's hands off him, but the sweepers held him firmly in place.

"Just get them secured on the airplane." Raines ordered.

Jarod took a deep breath as he was pulled forward, the chains on his ankles making it difficult to keep up with the sweepers. Somehow he managed to make it up the small staircase without tripping, where he was roughly pushed into a seat.

Jarod was aware that Raines had followed closely behind them.

"Hold him." He commanded to the two sweepers after they had fastened Jarod's seatbelt.

Jarod watched with untrusting eyes as Raines pulled out a syringe, and filled it with a clear liquid.

"What's that for?" He questioned the former doctor, although he already knew. The Centre didn't have a good track record keeping him in custody on airplanes, and he knew he had a date with some very strong sedatives.

"Our insurance policy." Was the wheezed reply.

Jarod's face darkened, he wasn't going to make this easy for them. He feigned compliance until Raines was in striking distance, lashing out with his feet. He was rewarded with a grunt as Raines stumbled backwards, one of the sweepers at Jarod's side rushing to help the chairman.

Once steadied on his feet, Raines glared evilly at Jarod. "Do it." He ordered.

Jarod sucked in a breath as he was roughly backhanded by the sweeper to his left. He met Raines' angry eyes with a defiant glare. He knew what he was doing was pointless, but it was just so satisfying.

"You will learn Jarod. No one fights the Centre and wins. Not even you." The wheezing man promised, carefully sidestepping Jarod's legs as he approached the pretender again with the dreaded syringe.

Jarod broke eye contact. "I've been doing just fine for the past six years."

"Is that was mommy thinks?" Raines returned, obviously referring to the one thing Jarod had failed to accomplish with his freedom – find his mother. Jarod refused to return the barb as the former doctor pulled his sleeve up, jabbing the needle into Jarod's upper arm.

"Sweet dreams" was the last sentence Jarod heard as closed his eyes and waited for the drug to carry him to oblivion.

CENTRE CORPORATE JET – IN FLIGHT EN ROUTE TO DOVER

"Is the girl secured?" Raines questioned Lyle as he emerged from the back of the airplane.

The twin smiled. "She's not going anywhere. We topped up her sedative, so I highly doubt either her or Jarod will regain consciousness until well after we have returned them to the Centre."

Raines nodded his approval. "The Triumvirate wishes to escort them personally to Africa. They will be sending a jet in three days. They have also ordered full psychiatric and medical exams to be done on both of them."

Lyle scowled. "And let me guess, Sydney is the only one qualified to reside in the latter."

"Despite my warnings, the Triumvirate remains oblivious to Sydney's personal attachment to Jarod. They believe he is in the best position to adequately quantify what is going on in the heads of those two."

Lyle snorted. "I can only imagine what goes on inside Jarod's demented psyche. Besides why do they care what those two are feeling? A little 'boo-hoo I want my mommy? How is that going to get anyone anywhere?"

"Re-education." Raines replied evenly.

Lyle smirked. "They want to define their boundaries."

Raines nodded. "They don't want another disaster like Alex." After Alex had failed to escape alongside Jarod and Edward, he had been shipped over to Africa, as had been originally planned. His already dark mind had subsequently been so scrambled to the point he had killed his own parents just to escape the hold the Triumvirate had on him – driving the former pretender to complete madness.

There was a fine line between genius and insanity, and Raines knew that each of their inmates balanced preciously between the two. The Triumvirate had learned their lesson with Alex, and would be trying a new approach with Jarod and Lysander. Jarod for all of his morality, had exhibited flashes of the same darkness Raines had fed into and encouraged in his own subjects. As much as the pretender liked to protest – he really wasn't much different from Alex, from Kyle, even from Lyle.

While he didn't have an exact idea of what the Africans were planning for the two defiant subjects, he had to smile at the thought of a broken Jarod. The pretender had had it coming to him for a long time. And then – Jarod would be his. As far as Raines was concerned, they couldn't get him on that plane to Africa fast enough.

THE CENTRE – TECH ROOM

Broots smiled in satisfaction as he finished typing the small coded message he had committed to memory days ago. Pressing the send button, he prayed that he had put enough electronic barriers in place to avoid alerting the wrong people to the exact meaning of this message.

"Broots." A calm accented voice sounded, causing the poor tech to jump out of his chair.

"Oh god Sydney." He cried, clutching his chest.

The psychiatrist raised his eyebrows, but said nothing. Sometimes he wondered how Broots, who was so terribly transparent, had managed to regularly deceive Raines and Lyle through the years.

"What can I do for you Sydney?" The tech questioned kindly, guessing the older man was out digging for information about Jarod. It had not been well received when Sydney had been forbidden to accompany the group down to Texas. The man had argued, borderline begged Parker to go with Jarod, but there was no convincing them. When it came to keeping Jarod in Centre custody, Sydney was a liability. They had wanted him as far away from the pretender as possible for the 'reacquisition of Lysander', as Lyle had phrased it.

The shrink just smiled sadly, "Jarod" was his one worded reply.

Broots looked around nervously. "Maybe we should go out to one of biotracts Sydney?" The older man nodded his approval, and the two made idle chitchat as they worked their way up the maze of sublevels to the ground floor.

"It's not good Sydney." Broots admitted once the two were safely out of audio range.

"Apparently there was another pretender at Aquastar the entire time we were there. He was just watching Jarod, analyzing his every move."

Henrik's presence had been kept a secret from Sydney and Broots for their entire tenure at the complex. Broots had been informed of Henrik's presence only when he had been forced to provide tech support to Lyle's retrieval mission.

"Jarod was planning on escaping." The shrink said simply.

"You knew?" Broots questioned.

Sydney let out a slight laugh. "Even with what little interaction you have had with Jarod over the past few years, can you honestly tell me you didn't even consider the possibility he would be using this scenario for his own benefit, as much as ours?"

Broots gazed thoughtfully at the psychiatrist. "The thought did cross my mind. But with the way Miss Parker was acting, I never thought the Centre was on to it."

"What happened Broots?" The shrink pressed, almost desperately.

"The other pretender, Henrik, he knew where Jarod was going, what he was trying to do. Jarod walked straight into Lyle's trap. Both him, and Lysander were brought back to the safehouse last night. Mr. Raines took the jet this morning to pick them up, I think they are expected later this tonight."

"Why are you back now Broots?"

"Miss Parker, well she was adamant that we return last night. We took a commercial flight into Dover. I've never seen her like this Sydney." The tech responded truthfully.

"What do you mean Broots?" The older man pressed, concern obvious in his voice.

"I mean, I've seen her angry at Jarod before, but this is different. She told me to forget about him; to erase his existence from my mind. It's like she just wants to wipe Jarod from her life!"

Syndey shook his head sadly as the tech continued. "Rumour has it the Triumvirate is coming here within days to personally escort Lysander and Jarod to their complex. They'll be gone by the end of the week."

"Broots– I need to get in to see him. They'll be keeping him in strict isolation, but it's imperative." The psychiatrist begged.

"I don't know Sydney. They were preparing the security this morning in the tech room. The feed to their rooms was placed on a different server, controlled out of Africa. Even if I could manipulate it.. I just can't. It's too dangerous."

The psychiatrist turned away in frustration.

"I'm sorry Sydney. Jarod doesn't deserve this." The tech offered.

Sydney started to respond, but was cut off as he cell phone rang.

"This is Sydney."

Broots knew just by watching the psychiatrist's features that this was definitely an unexpected call.

"It's true." The shrink said to the mysterious called. "He'll be arriving later today." The call was unmistakably about Jarod. Broots observed curiously as Sydney checked his watch

"Six hours from now. Are you sure it's safe?" The psychiatrist listened intently for about thirty seconds before adding "Why are you trusting me?" Sydney turned away from Broots, conscious of the tech's eyes upon him.

"Understood. I'll be there."

"Who was that Sydney?" Broots questioned as the older man disconnected the call. The psychiatrist studied him intently for several seconds. "That was Jarod's father. Apparently he just received an email informing him that Jarod was perhaps in our care."

Broots looked away guiltily as Sydney flashed him a knowing look. "He gave me my daughter Sydney. I owe him."

"We all do Mr. Broots." The psychiatrist countered.

Broots look up at Sydney, resignation on his face. "So where are we going to be in six hours?"

THE CENTRE – SL-26: ISOLATION BLOCK 'D'

Jarod sighed heavily. He was back in the same decrepit cell Lyle had left him during his last stay with Centre, they had quickly figured out, he couldn't get out while locked up in here.

He had woken up here; his last memory was of Raines standing over him gleefully as Jarod had slipped into the drug induced oblivion on the plane. It unnerved him greatly, not knowing exactly what had transpired as his unconscious self had been transported across the continent. By the bruises that he had found on his legs when he woke up, the sweepers hadn't been entirely gentle with his prone form.

Shortly after he had groggily regained consciousness, Jarod had been escorted to the infirmary, and subjected to a detailed physical examination. He had been poked, prodded, measured and sampled for what had seemed like hours.

Jarod ran his fingers through his now short hair. After leaving the infirmary, he had been escorted to some dark room and removed of his last sense of personal flare. He now wore the same cropped hair style he had been given for his entire life. Between that and his black inmate uniform, they might as well brand 'property of the center' on his back, not that he would share that thought with anyone. Lyle would probably find it an entertaining idea.

Jarod had been escorted back here, and left alone for the rest of the day. The silence was making him nervous. He had expected Lyle down here, to taunt him, and any moment he was positive Sam would be down to 'exact his revenge' on the pretender for leaving the sweeper bound in the access tunnel at Corporation Zero. However no one had came, and while his already bruised body welcomed the physical respite, his mind was screaming warnings. Being ignored at the Center, especially when considered their prize catch of the day, was never a good thing. Jarod almost could swear that he could hear Lyle and Raines plotting their next moves in the tower.

And then there was Lysander. A pang of guilt attacked Jarod every time he allowed his thoughts to turn to her. His heart went out to the woman. He had only been four when he had been cruelly stolen from his family, old enough to remember some things, but young enough to mostly forget. However he knew from what information had not been censored out of the copy of Lys's file he had been given, that she had been stolen when she was sixteen. The strength she must have to have dealt with her captivity given she could so firmly remember everything that was denied to her when inside their cage. Jarod shuddered as he thought of sixteen more years in the Centre, given everything he knew. He was not confident he would have what was required to survive.

Jarod had shown her the stars, and then cruelly taken it away.

Jarod flinched as the door leading to the room to which his barred cell was located, squeaked open. It was finally time. He stayed lying on his cot, feigning disinterest.

"New friend needs help." Jarod nearly jumped out of his skin as the garbled voice of Angelo sounded.

He rushed to the bars that separated him from the empath.

"Angelo!" He cried happily.

The empathy frowned. "No Time. Go to girl. New friend needs help." Jarod stared in wonder as the empath handed him a screwdriver.

The pretender studied the manhole behind him. He had tried that way last time he was locked in here, it led to nothing but a chain-linked dead end.

"I can't get out that way Angelo. I was caught last time." Jarod said desperately.

"Not out – go to girl. She's fading!" The empath rambled.

"Lysander, she is in trouble?" Jarod questioned.

Angelo nodded furiously, again thrusting the screwdriver in Jarod's hand before adding.

"Revisit the past."

Jarod grasped the screwdriver, considering the empath's words momentarily, panic growing in him. "They are keeping her in my old room?" He asked, trying to make sense of Angelo's disconnected sentences.

"Hurry! Soul is fading!!"

Jarod hesitated, glancing at the camera in the corner of his cell, not entirely surprised to see the absence of the red blinking light.

"Way is safe. Angelo take care of friend."

Jarod scurried over to the manhole cover, quickly unscrewing the bolts that held it in place. He slipped the tool into the waistband of his pants. It could come in useful later.

"Thank you Angelo." The pretender added gratefully, before disappearing into the vent system.

He made it half way to his old room when the alarm bells sounded.

THE CENTRE – SL-21: CORRIDOR B – Jarod's Old Room

Jarod peered cautiously into Lysander's room, half expecting to see a dozen sweepers waiting for him. It was unexpectedly empty. Taking a deep breath he pushed the vent out before lowering himself to the ground. He forced all thoughts of what Lyle and Raines would dream up for him if he was caught in here out of his head.

Jarod's eyes found Lysander's form instantly. She was curled up on the bed, seemingly oblivious to his presence. They had her chained to its metal frame, bound at hand and foot, probably as a result of the piercing alarm that was sounding in the building. Jarod's confidence increased as he saw that Angelo had seemingly disabled the camera in Lys's cell, the red blinking light thankfully absent. For all that Raines had scrambled the poor man's head, the empath was incredibly gifted. Jarod prayed the Centre would never find out the depth of Angelo's deception.

"Lys." He whispered urgently, his panic growing as she failed to respond.

Jarod ran over the bed, turning Lysander onto her back, instantly noticing her breath was deeply laboured. He looked around desperately, his eyes widening in horror as he caught sight of brown pill bottle that had been concealed under the woman's curled up form.

"Lys!" He yelled, shaking her form harshly. He was rewarded as she moaned. "Ja-rod." She croaked; her tone barely audible.

Jarod grabbed the pill bottle, his panic increasing as he read the label for a very strong form of a sedative. He could only assume she had visited the infirmary as he had, and managed to swipe the bottle.

"How many did you take?" He questioned.

"Please…….please……just…..let…me…go…"Lys barely managed to whisper, before slipping out of consciousness once again.

Jarod shook her violently. "Lys!!" He felt around for her pulse. It was alarmingly irregular.

"Please Lys. You can fight this. We'll get out of this, I promise. You can't give up. I won't let you." Jarod grabbed her hand, flinching at its ice cold touch. "We'll find a way to be safe. Please, just don't give up."

Jarod took a deep breath as he dropped her hand, walking over to the door.

"I'm sorry." He whispered before he began pounding on it frantically, praying she would forgive him when all was said and done. He couldn't let her give up.

THE CENTRE – SL-21: CORRIDOR B – Jarod's Old Room

"What's this – a rat out of its cage?" Lyle yelled as he rushed into Lysander's room, his attention instantly focused on Jarod, who was held firmly in place by two sweepers.

The pretender ignored him, instead watching as the medical team placed Lys's unconscious form on the waiting stretcher. One of the medics attending to her rushed up to Lyle. "Sir – this was found with her. If that bottle was full, I don't think I need to warn you about the likely outcome."

The twin swore under his breath. "Who was the idiot who secured her after the alarm was sounded due to our boy genius over here?"

"Mr. Lyle, she was awake. She glared at us as we attached the shackles." One of the sweepers holding Jarod offered desperately.

Jarod felt his stomach flopped as Lyle met his eyes with a murderous gaze. "And let me guess, you just conveniently happened to be in the neighbourhood when she did this. What, did you two make some sort of Romeo and Juliet pact?"

Jarod squirmed under the sweeper's hold. "No! I …" Jarod stopped himself before he gave away Angelo's involvement. "I just had a feeling." He finished, forcing calmness into his tone.

"You had 'a' feeling." Lyle sneered. "Do you think I'm really that stupid Jarod?"

The pretender looked away.

"Sir– we found this in the air vent." Jarod grimaced as the screwdriver Angelo had given him was handed over to Lyle.

The twin cocked his head. "Who helped you Jarod?"

The pretender desperately tried to shake himself out of the sweepers' hold.

"I…"he started lamely, he was unable to focus, his fear for Lysander overwhelming him.

Lyle handed the screwdriver back to the sweeper. "Fingerprint it."

Lyle stormed over to Jarod, body slamming the pretender against the wall. "Why do I feel I'm going to find Angelo's fingerprints all over it?"

Jarod looked at the floor.

The twin stepped back satisfactorily, before turning back to the sweeper that held the screwdriver. "If you find Angelo's prints on it, which I suspect you will, I want him shot dead on sight. I've had enough of that circus freakshow."

"NO!" Jarod cried, sinking to the floor in desperation. "He was just trying to save her life."

"Yeah, and just call me the King of Thailand." Lyle responded sarcastically. "I've been looking for an excuse to get rid of that thing for years Jarod. You just handed me one, gift-wrapped and under the tree."

Jarod met Lyle's stare with pleading eyes. "It was my idea – please, Angelo was just trying to help."

"You chose her life over his Jarod the moment you left your cell." Lyle replied meanly before instructing the sweepers. "Put him away, and make sure he doesn't have the capability to leave if someone bombs a hole in his wall." The twin gave Jarod a dangerous glare.

"This is far from over." He promised, before exiting the room, ignoring the pretender's desperate cries.