The day after, Jarod woke up holding Miss Parker. She was still sleeping and resting peacefully on his body, with her hands in his and their fingers intertwined. His feelings were too difficult to explain; he looked at her with endless love in his eyes. He put his hand on her belly, wondering how beautiful it would be if, one day, there was a baby inside of it. It was the first time in his life he found himself hoping to have a child; he had always been too much busy looking for his family to think about creating a family on his own. But now she was part of the equation; the only wish he had was having a chance of seeing Miss Parker carrying a child. He smiled, wondering what she would say if she actually heard him talking like that. She would think he was crazy and probably make fun of him for hours.

So, Jarod stood up and went downstairs, where he found Ethan in the kitchen, already awake and full of enthusiasm. He was making breakfast for all of them and he seemed to have completely recovered.
“I see you feel better, little bro!”
“Because of you, Jarod. Call my sister, I would like us to eat together, as a real family.”
“We need to talk, Ethan.” The pretender clarified, thinking about the conversation that had been interrupted the day before.
“I know. Pancakes first.” Ethan answered, smiling. Feeling their smell, Jarod couldn’t help but accept his proposal. He ran upstairs to wake up his dream girl. She was still asleep, but he succeeded in making her open her eyes by kissing her forehead, then moving a hair lock behind her ears.
“Ethan cooked for us, Parker. Don’t make him wait.” He whispered to her ear.
“Jarod!” she screamed, jumping to sit in bed.
“What?” he asked, a bit worried.
“I was dreaming.” she said, taking his hand and squeezing it.
“It was a nightmare, Parker. I thought they had disappeared, since we have gotten together.”
“It wasn’t a nightmare. It was a…feeling.” She explained.
“What feeling?” Ethan asked, appearing at the door. Parker was fortunately wearing her petticoat.
“I’ve dreamed of you…and Michael.”
“Michael?” Ethan asked. Then he closed his eyes, listening to the voices. “Your father’s…baby?”
She nodded. Then she continued, looking at Jarod intensely. “The three of us were together, we were smiling.”
“That doesn’t seem such a bad dream, does it?” Jarod asked, stroking her face.
“No. But suddenly everything changed: Michael was taken away from Raines…And I had to make a choice. Losing you or him. And they…took you away!”
Even if Jarod knew that it was just a dream, he felt a bit disappointed at the thought of Parker choosing the baby over him. Then he remembered that this was just her subconscious, so he calmed down.
“It seemed so real…As if it was a…”
“Premonition?” Ethan asked.
Parker nodded. Her brother was the only one who could understand her. Ethan sat on a chair and sighed. The moment to reveal them the secret he had kept for months had finally come.
“I’ve had it too.”
“What?” Jarod asked.
“The same dream. I dreamed of you and a baby, the same choice to make. This is another reason why I left, I feared the baby might be a mental processing and that I was the baby. But it wasn’t me…the baby is a person…it’s your brother…”
The voices overloaded Ethan’s mind, but also Miss Parker’s. They didn’t understand what they were saying, but one thing was certain. He’s not your brother.
Ethan and Miss Parker looked at each other in worry. Jarod couldn’t realize what they were trying to communicate to each other.
Why just then? Parker had held Michael in her arms many times, she had visited him, she had delivered him. Why she hadn’t felt anything, before? Maybe because she didn’t know about her gift yet, she hadn’t felt it grow inside her. In the last months, instead, her inner sense had got the upper hand, starting to guide her in making choices, in finding the answers. And Ethan’s presence surely had increased the gift they shared, inherited from their mother. It was so powerful for Ethan that it was affecting Miss Parker, too, and it made her a more efficient catalyst.
“What’s going on?”
 “Jarod. Michael is not my brother.”
“But how could that be?” he asked.
“I don’t know, but I’m going to find the truth about that baby. Too much time I’ve asked myself if Mr. Parker was his real father, but now I’m also wondering…if Brigitte was his biological mother.”
“You’re afraid they made an embryo implantation that came from someone else?”
Parker listened to the voices again. “I don’t believe it, I’m sure. And we must know everything about him. He may not be my brother, but that baby is under my duty, now. I won’t abandon him.”
“Neither will I.” Jarod gave her support.
“Count on me.” Ethan whispered.

After Breakfast, Ethan started to do the dishes, as if he wanted to escape his siblings’ inquisitive questions. But Miss Parker hadn’t got time to waste anymore; before going back to The Centre, she needed to know what Ethan knew about the Scrolls.
“Ethan…” she stopped him, taking him by his wrist. “I know this won’t be easy for you, but you must help us.”
The young man sighed, he had known that moment would come all along. He had to tell his siblings the truth. A truth that had been neglected to them for a very long time.
Jarod was looking at him exactly like Miss Parker: They were so waiting for him to spill his guts, but without forcing him to talk, if he didn’t feel like it.
“Let’s sit.” he said to them.
The three siblings sat in the living room, Ethan took place on the armchair, while the couple sat on the couch.
“When I left, I did it because the voices were leading me to do so. I knew our mother wanted me to leave you alone to allow the two of you to get closer again.”
Parker looked at Jarod by her side. They were thinking the same thing: with Ethan around, they would have never left for Carthis. And certainly they would never have the chance to let their real feelings flow as it happened on the island.
“I don’t blame you, it was destiny. And mine was to leave and find out what destiny had in store for us.”
“You’re talking…” Jarod asked, leaning over him. “About the Scrolls?”
Ethan nodded hastily, starting to contrast the voices. He had to hold on and face that conversation once and for all.
“When I heard about your trip to Europe, I did some research on them. I spent hours hacking the secret archives of The Centre, I wanted to discover the exact location of the Triumvirate.”
“No one knows, Ethan.” Miss Parker interrupted him. “Not even my father, neither Raines.”
Ethan shook his head. “I had to find out…Your father jumped from that plane because he knew he was flying over a specific place…”
Jarod tried to remember the excited moments that had taken to that emergency landing.

“Auto-control is down. We're gonna have to fly the rest of way manually. Electronics are gone, which means no gauges and no landing gear!”
Parker gave a worried look at the stricken control panel.
“These are the latest coordinates the flight computer printed out. Use those numbers to find a matching landing area!”
“Got one. Moguai Airport, Morocco…Can you make that?”
“I better…”

“We were flying over Morocco.” Jarod recalled.
Ethan nodded. “Mr. Parker knew that. That’s why he jumped right there. He had a parachute, so I started to convince myself that he could have survived…and that he had premeditated everything.”
Miss Parker fell silent, thinking about the dramatic moment she had seen the man she believed to be her father for the last time.
“You reckon the real Triumvirate station base is in Morocco?”
“The voices led me towards that conclusion.”
Now Jarod couldn’t believe his ears. “You went to Morocco? Alone?”
He almost felt like a big brother giving him a lecture because he had come home too late. But he didn’t really need to: Ethan was a pretender, just like him. And moreover, he had his inner sense, which never abandoned him and protected him from danger.
“A boring trip.” Ethan explained, trying to minimize.
“Why didn’t you call us? We would have come with you.” Parker intervened, a bit resentful for the little trust her brother had demonstrated in her.
“I told you, sis, that wasn’t the right time. I felt I had to do it on my own. And believe me, it was worth it.”
Ethan stood up and took the backpack he never got separated from. Back to his place, he opened it in front of them and took out a satellite picture. It showed what seemed like a fortress in the desert.
Jarod took those papers and looked at them carefully. “How did you find its exact location? I’ve been trying for years!”
“Hours and hours of research…And a good deal of help from mama’s voice.”
Jarod was almost envious of the prodigious gift those two people had. Besides his superior mind, he couldn’t feel like them. Miss Parker guessed immediately his inner conflict, and put an arm on his shoulders. “On the island your pretending skills were enough to make us find the Scrolls, weren’t they?” She said, cheering him up. He was very grateful to her, in that moment.
“The fortress is patrolled night and day by dozens of trained soldiers, they’re mere mercenaries. Inside, there are many sublevels, just like The Centre. And prisons, and torture-rooms.”
Parker winced. “You’re talking like you were still there.”
“Not personally, but when I got inside the fortress, I felt…the pain…the suffering…”
Ethan stopped for a moment, clenching his fists to resist the memories of what he had suffered in Africa. Miss Parker touched his hands and invited him to calm down.
“I had to know what the Scrolls say. The voices kept telling me that they couldn’t be down in the ocean.”
“And you found them?” Jarod asked, at the highest level of curiosity. He was inpatient as a child waiting for his favorite cartoon to air on tv.   
Ethan smiled. He took another sequence of pictures, this time taken by himself. They were photos of the Scrolls, page after page.
“Ethan…How could you possibly do this?” Miss Parker asked him, not believing her brother’s courage – recklessness?
“It was no picnic, believe me.”
Jarod and Parker started looking one picture at time. The Propechies were, in fact, common papyrus rolls not bigger than a normal A4 piece of paper. They were written in English, printed with movable types, with a gothic font.
“The first part expands upon the secrets of human power. They say that power can be gained with control, and that only control can govern a civil and pacific world.” Ethan explained.
“That sound very much like a tyranny.” Miss Parker whispered, not believing what she was reading.
“And in fact…” Jarod echoed her. “Here comes The Centre.”

The Centre shall rise.

A shiver went down Jarod’s spine.
“It describes exactly the birth and rise of the Centre. How your great-grandfather would come to United States to pursue a change in the society, thanks to the foundation of the place that would allow him to gain control.”  
“What kind of sick mind would conceive such a thing?” she asked through clenched teeth. Ethan had thought the same thing, when he had read them.
“Then it expands upon The Centre duties…To raise superior minds…Train genius to lead the purer races.” Jarod read, loath visible on his face.
“Nazism ante litteram” Miss Parker commented sharply.
Jarod suddenly opened his eyes wide.
“What?” She asked.

The Chosen will be found,
a boy named Jarod
will gain absolute power.

“With this we can say goodbye to your inferiority complex towards Ethan!”
Ethan chuckled to himself. He was so proud of his sister, who didn’t show any signs of fear for what she was reading. But she hadn’t seen it all, yet.
“So I should be like…a chosen one, a leader that should take The Centre to…absolute power?!”  
“Jarod…you are.” Ethan explained.
“I don’t have anything to do with The Centre!” he replied, feeling outraged.
“Ethan is right, sweetheart….” and Jarod immediately melted when he felt her hand stroking tenderly his nape and her voice calling him that way. “You were The Centre most valued experiment for years. They obtained power and recognition because of your simulations…”
“They sold what I thought up to make money and kill innocent people!” Jarod shouted.
“I know, but you must admit…” She whispered “that those damn Scrolls…had foreseen it!”
He snorted and came back to his reading. Finally something caught his attention.
“Parker…look…”

The Chosen will escape The Centre.
A girl will be charged with taking him back.  
The Angel will chase, the Chosen will run.

“Well…this explains many things…” she commented, with a tear rolling down her pale cheeks.
Jarod held her tenderly, while Ethan sat in silence and discretion.
“I can’t believe some fanatics bastards who lived centuries ago had foreseen our future…This doesn’t make any sense!”
“Few things in our lives ever made sense, Jarod. That is why I’m here, sitting with my brother and my sister, who are a couple…of lovers…”
Jarod had to admit Ethan was right. He had lived a whole life in mystery, this was just one among the others.
“It’s not over, Jarod…There’s still the last page, the more important…”
Both Parker and the pretender read the last part of the Scrolls.

The Angel will fall for the Chosen  
and they will cooperate to destroy The Centre.
Eventually they will succeed
because without the help of the Angel,
the Chosen won’t prevail.
 
“I don’t know if I should feel cheered up or disgusted.” Jarod commented. The answer came when she squeezed his hand, letting him know the emotion she felt in reading those words. They summarized what they had understood in the very last days: Jarod could never do anything to destroy The Centre on his own. But together, they could be lethal.

The last hope for the Centre
will be their legacy.
Born within The Centre,
final means to make it rise again.

The text was over. There was nothing else.
“Their legacy…” Miss Parker commented. She thought again about her father’s words.

“Daddy, are you just gonna leave me here to die?”
“No, no, you'll be all right. That's not how they say it ends.”
The man had reached the cargo hold door.
“Wait! Daddy, I have to know. Are you my real father?” She had asked him, with the little hope that he finally would say the truth. Jarod was waiting, as curious as her.
“I love you as my daughter. That's all that counts! Don't be sad. The new Parker legacy begins with you. God be with you, Angel…”

“Your father read the Scrolls, I convinced him to. He knew what they said, he knew that you and I would become one thing…he knew we would destroy The Centre.”
“And he probably knew what legacy the prophecies talk about.” She continued, for him.
“A dangerous legacy…” Ethan interrupted.
Miss Parker looked at her brother for the first time after a few minutes. He was right. What could they have left behind at The Centre? A project? Memories?
“A legacy born within The Centre…final means to make it rise again…” Jarod read again, out loud.
“Any idea of what this could mean?” she asked.
“No, but we’ll find out.” he concluded.
“And that’s not all.” Ethan took the floor again. “The Scrolls are not the only thing I’ve found in the fortress: Mr. Parker was there, too.”
Miss Parker couldn’t believe her ears. So he was alive. The man who had wanted to control her fate for years, the man who had caused her mother’s departure, the tyrant that probably had ordered Tommy’s murder…He was still alive.
She didn’t know how to react to the news. She had felt relief, for a moment, when she had realized that Mr. Parker wouldn’t ruin her life anymore. But she was wrong.
“Was he fine?” Jarod asked, indulging her conflicting feelings. He knew that she still cared about that man, deeply inside, and that she feared for his life.
“As far as I could ascertain, yes, he was…I couldn’t set him free, they kept him in a highly controlled room.”
“Well, what an ironical fate for the man who controlled you both for decades.” She commented sarcastically.
Ethan sighed. He knew that he would never want to find himself in the shoes of those who had wronged his sister, for she seemed very vindictive.
“We’ll take care of him later, now the important thing is interpreting the prophecies…And make them come true, at least for the part where they talk about the destruction of the Centre.”
“And what about the last part? We pretend it doesn’t exist?” Parker asked, more and more sarcastically.
Jarod ignored her tone. “We find out all we can about this legacy. If the Triumvirate interpreted the prophecies, they’re going to do all they can to make me go back to The Centre, so that I cannot destroy it. But at the same time, they might want to make you inoffensive.”
“Maybe they don’t know the petname my father gave me!” she replied.
“With Mr. Parker as a prisoner? I don’t think so, Angel.” Jarod teased her.
“Ok.” she stopped him, squeezing her eyes and touching her forehead. “Broots, Sydney and I are getting to work. But in the meantime, you both must leave Blue Cove!”
A choir of not much comprehensible complains arose towards her. None of the men in that room wanted to leave her, now that she needed them so much.
“No way, Parker!”
“I’m not leaving, sis!”
“Jarod, Ethan. It’s too dangerous for you to stay here!”
“So it is for you. You should get away with me, leave The Centre. Guess what they could do, if the Triumvirate really fears the influence you might have on me!”
“At The Centre, nobody knows about us but Sydney and Broots. I won’t allow Lyle or Raines find out! But the more you stay here, the more you put us all in danger!”
Jarod sighed, Ethan fell silent. Miss Parker was right, if The Centre decided to put her under surveillance, it would be the end. They would soon find out that they were cooperating, and maybe they would imprison them, or worse, kill them. Ethan, on the other hand, knew he was a treat that Raines was still hoping to catch. He had unleashed his sweepers all around the country, to find him.    
“It’s a deal. You’re taking Ethan to your family’s house, and until further orders you must stay with them.”
“Parker.” Jarod whispered.
Feeling he was in their way, Ethan cleared his throat. “Uhm…I’ll go pack my things.” he said, giving his siblings some privacy.
Jarod tried to take Parker by her hands, but she pushed him away with a gesture.
“Jarod, please.” she implored him.
“I can’t leave you, not now that we’re so close to finding the truth!”
“It’s necessary, Jarod. If we want those prophecies to come true, if we want that future together to come true…We must part, for now.”
“What am I going to do? I can’t be very helpful far from The Centre!”
“Of course you can. You’re the only one who can penetrate their defenses, you’ve always been able to hit them, even when you were gone.”
“But now it’s different. If anything should happened to you…I could never forgive myself.”
“No, I could never forgive myself, if anything happened to you!” She replied. “I’ve already lost one man I loved because I didn’t send him away in time, Jarod. I won’t make the same mistake again.”
Jarod felt that the situation was completely different from what had happened to Tommy. But was it, really? He was begging Miss Parker to leave with him, just like Thomas. He was imploring her to choose him over The Centre. But the time hadn’t come yet.
“Promise me you’ll call everyday.” He gave up, leaning his forehead against hers.
“Every hour, if it’s necessary.” She answered.
“Promise you’ll be careful.”
“I’ll keep my eyes open.”
“Tell me that when it’s over, we can finally be together.”
“Forever, if it’s up to me, boy Wonder!”
Jarod kissed her, passing on to her on all the rage he was feeling in that moment. He had succeeded in convincing her that he had to come back, and now she was the one convincing him to leave for their own good.
“You’ve got too much ascendancy over me.” He revealed to her.
“Call it payback.” She joked.
Jarod saw Ethan rejoined them, so he understood it was time to say goodbye. His brother hugged Miss Parker, the voices accompanied them both in sweet words of hope. We’ll find each other.
“Be careful, Miss Parker.”
“Take care of him. Lately he has developed the bad habit of giving in to instinct more than rationality.” She softly said to Ethan, but in a way that Jarod could hear her. The pretender smiled sadly.
“I’ll keep in mind.” Ethan agreed.
Miss Parker observed the two most important men of her life going away together, leaving her alone. Again. She couldn’t let them see how weak she felt, she would have wanted to cry. So, she did the only thing she could: she took her jacket and left for The Centre, where she would find comfort in the only two friends she had.