Extraordinary Mistakes II - Blood Ties

Nine lives

The group all gather in the basement. Ánh and Diego are side by side, Alex is next to Rachel, and Emily and Abigail sit together. It's late in the afternoon, Ánh shows them on the screens the plan to bring the children home.

"We have one plane that Abigail's parents got us. It's all taken care of. Maximum discretion from the crew. The children are from Eurasia, Africa, and South America. The first stop will be the countries in Eurasia, then they'll head to Africa, South America and finally back here." Ánh explains.

"When?" Rachel asks.

"Day after tomorrow." Ánh refuses to look at Rachel.

"One of us has to accompany them." Rachel says and looks at Alex.

"Me?" Alex laughs.

"Out of us, I'd say you are the best person for the job."

"Why?"

"You can control someone if needed. In case things go wrong, you can teleport away."

"I can't teleport from South America to here, sis!" Alex elevates his voice.

"My power is more useful than Alex for this." Diego gets up and looks at Rachel.

"I don't think-" Rachel faces him.

"I'm going. Alex can stay." Diego turns around and heads upstairs.

"Well... that's settled!" Alex smiles.

"About Megan..." Ánh says and everyone looks at her. "There's no update."

"It's been a week. About time we admit that Megan's either dead or she was caught." Alex says.

"Those aren't the only options." Rachel says while curling her fists.

"No? If she isn't dead. If she wasn't caught. Why isn't she here?" Alex tries to meet Rachel's eyes. "No one else wants to say it out loud. You don't want to admit it, my dearest. The truth is... Megan's gone. For good. Run the odds, Ánh!"

"I can't run the odds, Alex, because Megan is a mathematical anomaly. The probability of a third power existing isn't zero, because it's always a possibility, but it was close to zero. She has three powers. The probability of her surviving the white field on the day of the massacre was close to zero. As it turns out, the light would never hurt her."

"Yes, Ánh. Still, she isn't here."

"My point is... if someone defies odds, it's Megan. She has faced death before and survived!"

"She's not a cat, Ánh. She doesn't have nine lives." Rachel looks at them.

"Rachel-" Ánh faces her.

"If she's alive, she'll come back home. If she's not... her death was not in vain." Rachel's heartbeat increases. Her rapid breathing goes unnoticed. "The children are safe." She tries not to alter her tone. "Diego and Alex are here." A high-pitched ringing goes through her ears. "And..." she opens and closes her fingers, "And... we know more about these people. We can fight them. End them."

"Megan isn't dead." Ánh says.

"No. She'll make it home." Rachel smiles and goes upstairs.

You don't believe that, sis. Alex teleports to Diego's room.

***

"Dejame en paz por favor, Alex. I have things to do before I leave." Diego is taking his clothes from the drawer and putting them in a bag.

"So many clothes for just a three-day trip. Maybe five-day trip." Alex teleports next to the bag and counts the shirts.

"Better safe than worry."