Nothing Less than Extraordinary

xx3xx

"So where are we supposed to be going, Chev—"

"Do NOT call me that," Tyler roared, grabbing Cheshire's shoulder and stopping him on the sidewalk right outside the train station.

"Why does it matter? If we started over then you shouldn't care."

"Cheshire, stop," I warned and Tyler let him go.

"I brought you here because I know that Macintyre had a unit here, so why would you bring up that name when anyone from that division can overhear?" Tyler asked Cheshire in a low hiss.

"Yeah right. Like the police are going to arrest you for being an accomplice for some super genetic genocide they don't know about," Cheshire retorted.

"You'd be surprised in how—"

"HEY!" I yelled. "Can we just get to a damn hotel before you rip each other's throats out?"

"You think he can keep his mouth shut as we trek through this city?" Cheshire asked.

"Trek?" Tyler asked, raising an eyebrow. "I have a car."

He gestured forward and we saw a beautiful, gold Porsche.

"A two-seater car," Cheshire described. Then he turned to Tyler. "If you ever think, that I'll let you alone with Aspen—especially in a car, you're gonna have to think again."

"Please," Tyler scoffed. "By the time that you get to the loft, I can run halfway to China."

"Let's test that," Cheshire dared. I grabbed his wrist and pulled him along, taking the keys from Tyler's hand in the process.

=XXX=

"So you guys tracked every person that ever showed signs of being special for the last two years?" I asked Tyler as we were now in a sort of loft-looking place very similar to the one had exploded back in D.C., only this was in an actual hotel. My memory served reasonable cause when I recognized why I had mentioned the layout and color themed suited someone going for my old high school's colors—considering it was all Tyler's.

"Not everyone, but the thousands with potential powers, yes," Tyler answered as I looked down to papers that surrounded the table. Nothing was cleaned up.

"So you're saying that they can easily find us right now," Cheshire recognized, standing up.

"I don't know what they you're referring to when you, of all people, know that Jase is dead," Tyler replied.

"And everyone else in on it? Where are they?" Cheshire stepped toward him. Not again. "Probably on their way here since you led us here."

"The only other person able to do anything is Macintyre, okay," Tyler told him. The sound of Macintyre only reminded me about his connection with Zaine. And just the thought of him made my eyes sting, heart clench, and stomach ache. "He's the only one with full disclosure on how the mutation genes are even detected."

"And how do I know he's not on his way?" Cheshire questioned, but my mind was still stalled on Macintyre and Zaine. If what Zaine said was true, Macintyre had more information on him than probably anyone else. And while the boys argued back and forth and my stomach was starting to turn, I stood up and leaned over the table, pushing around stacks of papers until I saw Zaine's name.

"What are you doing?"

"Trying to find Zaine's file," I notified.

"Why—"

"Just—" Suddenly, someone was pulling at my arm. I swatted them away, but then I was yanked up. I was right against Cheshire.

"You can't do that," he told me, and I essentially avoided eye contact with him.

"Do what?" Tyler questioned as I was feeling my heart in my ears. Cheshire looked at me and then let me go, but I stayed a step away from him. What was I even doing? Just because Macintyre had information about him didn't mean anything. I was being selfish. I just wanted to know why the "man of steel" was impaled and dying back in Washington. I felt my own abdomen squeezing at the thought, but the pain was becoming less and less. The thought of Zaine was both lifting and depressing at the same time and I didn't know how to deal with it. At all.

So I retired into one of the back rooms while the boys hopefully didn't kill each other as they worked up a plan about how we were going to find the other special kids and recover all we needed to in order to end the assembly trying to execute our species.

I ended up falling asleep, refusing to turn on the TV or the computer in the other room. The nap wasn't sound, nor complete. I felt as though I was hibernating and completely aware of my surroundings and hearing the front door slam and someone sitting on the bed beside me, but my physical self was on snooze.

When I opened my eyes, I saw Cheshire sitting at the very opposite edge of the bed, leisurely watching TV. Through the blinds I could see that the sun was either setting or near twilight. As if he could sense my consciousness, he looked over his shoulder and sent me a half-attempted smirk. I kept a straight face because I needed to be straight with someone in the world.

"How did you deal without being with Alice?" I muttered to him. He sighed and managed not to hang his head while turning to face me.

"I didn't," he informed. "Like I told you, I got wasted as soon as it happened and that's why I got caught essentially, and other than that I've just been angry and destructive at the Academy."

Even though I knew Cheshire had a destructive path and a quick nasty remark whenever he deemed necessary, but why had he turned out this way? The Cheshire he was with me was more than enough to prove that he was more than the delinquent the government saw him as. And the heartbroken look on his face as he looked down was more than enough to confirm that. And then his beautiful eyes met mine.

"But I didn't change," he denied. "My behavior could be taken under contrast, but the only thing that changed was the person I am. I used to be Blake Nichols and now I'm Cheshire because of what they did to her...what they did to me. They made me into the person I am today because I didn't know who else to be without Alice." That made my heart break for him since his own was turned to dust. "But you're different; you'll get through this."

"I don't know how," I immediately replied. "Tyler died and I didn't have to cope because I was shipped off to the Academy...I have nowhere to go after Zaine to deal with this other than back and forth to the people that remind me of him."

"Maybe Zaine isn't dead," I was hearing for the first time. My throat became dry.

I never wanted to hear anything with Zaine related to death, but I rather him be dead than try to live on with such high hopes of his existence being extended. I also didn't want to have any sliver of a thought that he was dead and reclaimed to life like Tyler. The only thing worse than losing someone is losing someone, establishing a life without them and then realizing they came back. I did that exact thing to Tyler—who threatened my life and others' and look where I was now.

I didn't know how to express that to Cheshire, no matter how well he could relate to it. Truthfully, I thought it was rather selfish and naïve. I wanted him to be alive. I wanted to figure out how his powers failed. I wanted the feelings of uplifting yet clenching cardiac impacts just at his presence. I wanted to fall asleep next to him and kiss him and wrestle with him and make him happy. I just wanted...Zaine.

Suddenly there were two knocks on the door and then Tyler peaked his head in the door. My face heated up and my head dropped at the thought that he heard anything.

"We have a problem," he said with urgency.