The Key to Strangers (Parts 1-9, Complete)

[VividBubbles!]

I SUSPECTED THIS!!! Okay, so Stranger is Keys. No, Keys is Stranger. No... yes... wait no. Woman, you confuse me. You are inevitably, undeniably, most certainly awesome. But, woman, I swear you will be the death of me. One day, I'm going to be reading your fics and the sheer awesomeness of them will overwhelm me--fry my brain to a crisp--and I'll become a Scion zombie, consuming your awesomeness and having no life whatsoever. Well, now that I think about it, I guess I already am a Scion zombie. A Zion? No, a Scombie. I am officially a Scombie. Well, enough of my nonexistent social life. I need more of this! More! Before I go into Scion awesomeness detox!

BYE!

[Ciuty80]

holy cow how i love the way you just mix "reality" with some kind of fantastic unbelieveableness (does this word exist???)

well...so stranger took over keys body if i am right...am i?!?!??!

and NOW..."keys" is back OMG i need to know how lex is reacting

and "keys" killed lex mother....

THIS is SOOOOO wonderful confusing !!!

please more!

[Emily]

oh you, I knew he wasn't gone for good. too much studying, burning me out. today's an off day for wittiness too.

in my mind, Keys is an adorable little kitty. with razor sharp claws.

so I'll just tell you about my Justin Bieber encounter like you care about it LOL little ol' sixteen-year-old me thinks he's pretty. puberty looks good on him, I gotta say. I will forever hold the grudge against the stupid security people who did not let me have my high five with him. that is all. this is totally irrelevant to your awesome story, but nevertheless, I feel like I must complain LOL my love to you, as always

[Akahana]

YGFPVYOD*FU"GAVYPIFUOS"DGVYIFSUO"GAIBVUIOFGPISCUTDIFOY

GPIHONABVCFP&({OG*PIHO:L

KBVSFCU&T({O}Y(PO

HGFYP({T*Y}P({U

JP"H:L"GUK:IYFDTUOPIYFOU{GIPHOJ"PKJHGRFEDFGHJKLKJUHYTRFUIOLWKSY*(OPL:<MNJUYTFCVBNM<MNBB

FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK!!!!!!!! This is so amazing and sad and aahaaahhhhh!!! I'm really happy and really sad and extremely excited all at the same time!!

I think you broke me girl...AFYTOFGVDUTOSZAYIG!!!

[Quite Contrary]

This is awesome! Such a great story so far, I'm so intrigued! I missed reading your stuff on the forum, Scion. I have totally gone back to read your old stories, cuz I just love your writing. More please?

[Scion]

ElementsofGray: That. Is. So. Cool. I should go back and re-read all my old stories, 'cause I kinda miss my old characters! But yeah, writing myself into a corner is kinda fun for me 'cause it keeps my mind busy coming up with the craziest solutions. And I'm glad you like my names! I am ridiculously obsessive when it comes to names. I change character's names at least ten times before I decide (and that's after spending freaking hours looking at different names for inspiration and trying to combine two names into one andddd). It's actually kinda fun, though.

Bubbles!: Well, my goal is pretty much to be as confusing as possible, so I guess I succeeded? But please don't die while reading my stories. You have to liiiiiiiiiiiive and keep reading them forever and ever haha. A scombie!!!!!! My gosh, you make me ridiculously happy. (P.S. Social lives are overrated!)

Ciuty80: Unbelievableness SHOULD be a word! That's all I know. And thank you for taking the time to comment, like you always do! It means so much.

Emily: Studying? B-b-but...it's summer. What is this cruelty? And yes, that's exactly how I picture Keys, too. !! Okay, okay, what's up with those body guard people? No high fives? Back in the day when I was ... 17? Yeah, sure. I went to see this celeb and after the concert he was there giving everyone hugs and and and basically spending 15 minutes with each person. Heck, he even opened all the presents I bought him! Yes, this ramble has a point: SO WHAT IS UP WITH THOSE DUDES? They not be nice.

Akahana: Ohhhh thank you! I think your comment broke ME. Haha.

Quite Contrary: Aww, you're so sweet. THANK YOU! And even reading my old stories? *dies of happiness*

PART SIX

PRESENT DAY

- - -

Lex had a hunch, and if he was correct, he’d soon have his revenge. He parked himself on a flat rock between two pines to the front left of his cabin, fully prepared to wait as long as necessary. Virgo was spending the night at Talesta’s, most likely having a go at poisoning the Phoenix residence--but at least she’d be out of danger.

Munching on the pretzels he’d brought with him as a snack, Lex contemplated his bleak future. Stranger had a familiar face - but Keys was dead, so it had to be some kind of trick. He’d felt the heart stop, felt it deep down to his dry husk of a soul.

After it’d happened, he’d chased after his mother, wanting, he had to admit, to hurt her. And he had. The words he’d thrown at her had been as good as physical blows.

“I HATE YOU! I WISH YOU HAD DIED INSTEAD OF DAD! I WISH YOU WERE DEAD!”

Some kind of son he was. But then, he’d been shattered. And shattered people did bad things. Shattered people could never be unbroken.

When he’d returned to his room, Keys had been gone. Lex had assumed the creepy guys in white suits had come for him, had taken him and buried him somewhere Lex would never find him. It had hurt. It had killed. But it had made sense.

This crap did not.

- - -

Lex woke to the faint crackling of leaves underfoot. Fully alert, he scanned the area, hand going to the gun at his waistband. His mother’s gun.

Two orange orbs peered at him from the blackness. They drifted closer and closer, until Lex could make out the outline of a man, his face hidden by shadow.

The breath froze in Lex’s lungs. Time slowed to a crawl as the figure approached. His fingers, wrapped around the gun, were slick with perspiration.

“I know you,” a voice said from a few feet away. “How do I know you?”

It wasn’t quite right, that voice, but not quite wrong, either.

“You don’t know me,” Lex said. “You never did.” And he stepped out into a wash of moonlight, revealing himself.

The man he saw looking back at him wore Keys’ face. Lex’s hands began to shake. He’d thought never to see that face again and yet here it was - or was it? The eyes were slightly different, orange instead of blue-green, and not as wide. Almost snakelike. The eyes of a stranger.

“You killed my mother,” Lex said.

“No,” someone said from the shadows. “I did.”

Lex flinched. Another form materialized beside the first, taller, and with a fall of long, silvery hair.

It bowed, saying, “It’s a pleasure to finally make your acquaintance.”

What the holy hell was going on? This whole thing was even weirder than he’d imagined, and he’d imagined some pretty far-out things.

“Iliath?” Stranger said, looking at the newcomer with a puzzled expression. “Is that you?”

“In the flesh, Brother Dearest.”

“Where’s Stellen?”

The man, Iliath, smiled like a serpent. “I’m afraid he’s indisposed at the moment.”

“I’m going to ‘indispose’ you if you don’t bring him back right now,” Stranger said serenely, making no move to do as he’d threatened.

Iliath skated a finger down Stranger’s arm. “He’ll be back when he’s needed.”

Stranger shivered and did something that made Lex’s chest tighten with pained remembrance. He hid a sneeze in the crook of his arm.

“Hpt!-ngchh!”

As the stranger who was Stranger rubbed his eyebrow, a wash of memories stormed Lex’s senses. He remembered Keys, curled up in his lap, seeming so vulnerable and small. He remembered the blood. The fear. The end.

“Keys,” Lex said, all of his emotion drenching the single name. “Nooo. Keys. Keys. Keeeys.” And because Lex hadn’t cried since that day three years ago, and because he was looking into the face of someone who was and was not Keys, and because his mother was dead and it was all his fault, he began to weep.

There was that face he remembered, right there, and it was so beautiful but it wasn’t real and it hurt.

Stranger shook his head, pressed his fists into his eyes. Blinked. Lex watched the ocean blue eclipse the rusty orange. Watched the features soften.

“Le…x?” Then Stranger was extending an arm, reaching for him.

“STOP!” Lex, sick and dizzy, held the gun out in front of him. The very same gun that had killed Keys. The one that would kill this imposter. “I don’t know who you are,” he said shakily, “but you’re not Keys. Keys is dead. I saw him die.”

A soft smile fell across his face, one so unlike the Keys he knew that Lex realized with an awful certainty that this person was not his Keys. He was merely a murderer.

“You’re messed up,” Stranger said, still with that gentle smile.

And Lex shot him.

Right after the words sunk in.

“You’re messed up.”

“And you’re not?”

“Nothing gets past you.”

Oh. No. No.

As Keys began to fall, Lex flew to catch him.

“You shot me,” he said, almost laughing as he sunk against Lex. “I see your aim is about as dreadful as I’d expected. If not worse.”

Lex snorted and hid his face in Keys’ wild black hair. “You really are messed up.”

“And--phh--proud of it--ishhu!-huh’ihgshhuu!”

“Cavorting with the enemy, Stranger?” Iliath drawled. “Or should I say, Keys? Welcome back, by the way. It’s been far too long, my Brother.”

“I have to disagree,” Keys said, hand pressed to his side to staunch the flow of blood. “It hasn’t been anywhere near long enough.”

Lex, not caring about whatever drama this Iliath person had going on, book-ended Keys’ face, taking in the tired eyes, the chapped nose and cracked lips. “How is this possible?”

Keys took Lex’s hand, put it to his chest, over his heart. “Feel this?”

Lex nodded. The gentle thrumming reassured him that Keys’ really was alive. And yet, something felt…off in a way he couldn’t put a finger on.

“It’s not real,” Keys said, and Lex felt the bottom drop out from his stomach. “I’m not real.”

- - -

Lex could only stare. “Excuse me? What does that mean, you’re not real? Is that supposed to be funny? ‘Cause it’s not--funny, I mean. It’s really not.”

“Lex?”

“What?”

“You talk too much.”

“I agree.”

Lex glanced up to see a man in a white suit enter the clearing--the one he’d seen years before, long beard, lipless mouth. Anger bubbled up inside him.

“And you seem to have an unfortunate knack for corrupting my puppets.”

“Your puppet?” Lex scoffed. “He is not your--” He was cut off by Keys clamping a hand over his mouth and shaking his head.

“Oh,” the man said with a smirk, “I think he is.” To Keys, he commanded, “Stranger. Kill him.” And he pointed straight at Lex.

“No!” Keys lurched to his feet, staggered away from Lex.

The man in white snapped his fingers.

Keys bent double, convulsing with a volley of breathless sneezes. “Hih’esshh!-iheshhuh!-nxgt-shhh!”

“What did you do to him!?” Lex tried to go to Keys, but the other guy kept backing away.

“No, no, no. Stay back,” he said, his eyes flickering with splashes of orange. “Don’t come near me. You don’t understand.”

“STANGER!” White Suit boomed. “KILL HIM!”

Lex watched Keys’ face transform, twist into a terrible imitation of the one he knew. The eyes narrowed, rusting over with the flat, dead eyes of a killer. Then Keys--no, Stranger--was moving toward him, and it was Lex’s turn to back away.

“Stranger,” Iliath growled, his gaze darting between White Suit and Stranger. “I don’t think you want to do this. Or…He doesn’t. He’s very insistent, in fact, that you not do this.”

“Enough.” White Suit flicked a wrist at Iliath, who crumpled to his knees, clutching his middle and panting in pain. “Stranger, I command you to kill him now.”

Lex, stunned and confused, found Stranger’s hands wrapped around his throat, found himself unable to draw air as sharp nails dug into his skin, felt his eyes bugging and tears staining his cheeks. This was all so…wrong. None of it added up. Keys--Keys was…

…crying.

Crying as Lex scrabbled curled fingers at his chest, trying and failing to get air. Crying as White Suit leered at him, smug glee drawn across his pointy face. Crying as Iliath pulled a flashing silver dagger and thrust it between White Suit’s shoulder blades…

And crying as Iliath collapsed to the leafy ground alongside White Suit.

Dead.

- - -

[EmeraldThread]

All your obsessiveness pays off. Whatever goes on in your head to make such amazing names and plot twists, keep it going. XD

AND THIS. Have I ever mentioned how much I love you? I want you to know. So much DRAMA, I'm so pleased. Keys is so my favorite, and I feel so bad for him! It makes me sad, but so happy he's alive even if he's not 'real'. Oh, but I do want him to be real~! Eagerly awaiting the next part!

[VividBubbles!]

So much confusion! And drama! And seriously! WHAT THE FRECKING CHRIST ON A POGO STICK?! (I Ian!) What is going on in that genius mind of yours?! White Suit, Iliath (awesome name, BTW), Stanger/Keys? All of this is so.... insane. And awesome. What the freck is happening?! What's up with White Suit being Keys's/Stranger's master?! What is with Iliath dying?! Why am I obsessing over this when I could just be begging you for more, in which I shall find the answers I seek?! Scion, I. Need. More.

BYE!

[Emily]

OMGOMGOMG I SAW AN IAN REFERENCE UP THERE <3

Darling, this is totally insane. marry me now please cause I'm at a total loss for words ahaha I kid. I can never be devoid of my verbal diarrhea.

WAHAHAHAHAHAHA ALL THIS STUDYING CRAP IS DONE. OVER. loljk summer school, here I come. my existence is so sad.

and I'm still ruing the fact that I didn't get to touch his hand. goddamnit stupid security. fangirls are too crazy these days.

[Akahana]

MEHEMEHEMEHEMEBUJDHOIUHADUOGUAOSGSIYGFADGAPYVYIDGBFYGSWDVCIFWGSBVDQAYGFD

meeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeehhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh....*epic gasp*

I don't even know what to feel......but this is so addicting. So Keys is not dead, but kind of dead, and the boss and other guy are dead, and Lex is not dead...or is he...I DON'T KNOW!!!!

aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

you're story writing skills are so amazing I've never felt this way about a story...but don't worry it's a good yet sad feeling, with a lot of other emotions in there.

I think you broke me...again...*faints*

[LeadaAlexys52]

I go away for two days and you update twice!!! How is this possible!!! And how do you make such amazing characters? Poor Keys/Stranger he is confused, programmed, and sneezy. But what will happen next.... I guess I must wait and see!

Keep updating fast!

[sneasons greetings]

Oh. My god.

What.. Okay..

Wow.

[Ciuty80]

Scion honestly this is so desperately thrilling me.

i always ALWAYS wonder where you got your talent for such magnificent eloquent outpourings!

is it now "kenger" or maybe "strey"??? i don´t know how to call a person with another person in it

but somehow i can "see" keys battle with his body when "white suit" commanded him to kill lex

...it´s...nearly...tangible...some sort of it...

and..aaaannnd...AAANNNDDD...crying boys/men just awwwwwww...sooo ADORABLE!!!

i´m in love with you!!!

please more!!!!!!!!

[Scion]

ElementsofGray: Haha, have I ever mentioned how much I love you back? I will continue to obsess over names and plot twists in the future, so no worries. And I love that you love Keys. That's the best part of writing!

Bubbles!: What's going on in my mind is a whole lotta weirdness which I guess is good for you! Seriously, do you plan out these comments of yours to make me insane with happiness? Really. You have a gift, lady!

Emily: Ok, I'll hop on a plane right now and we shall be wed! XD Sum...mer...school? What are these words? Me not know them. BUT YOU KNOW your woe with hand-touching and security people gives me a story idea. Shall I play with your pain?

Akahana: Hahaha, keep writing comments like that and I'll never ever want this story to end! Thank you soooooo much!

Alexys52: Well, you know it's you guys who inspire me to write these characters in the first place, so feel free to take some of the credit! Couldn't do it without you.

Ralee: I guess that means you like it? Hopefully! XD

Ciuty80: Aww. Honestly, it's comments like these and people like you who make my writing what it is. Without your support I highly doubt I'd feel so inspired. Reading your comments gives me the confidence I need to write better, I think. So THANK YOU!

PART SEVEN

- - -

“Stellen! No!” Keys ran to the fallen man--Iliath? Stellen?--whoever the heck he was!--and ripped open his shirt. Pressing his ear to the pale chest, he closed his eyes.

Lex kneeled next to him, not knowing what to do or what was going on or who any of these people were or who even he was. “Keys--”

“Hush.” Keys lifted his head, revealing an unusual scar on Iliath/Stellen’s chest: a perfect square, right over the heart. Putting his fingers to the edge of the scar, Keys pulled--and drew open a flap of what looked like rubbery skin. Inside was an equally square cavity that held a still, metal heart. Keys stuck a hand into the cavity, reaching around the heart to a tiny switch, which he flicked back and forth.

Nothing happened.

“Keys, what…?” Lex couldn’t find the words.

“What Brother Blackbarr said was true. We are his puppets. And puppets are forbidden to harm their masters.”

“You mean…he…?”

“Made us,” Keys said. He brought his knees up to his chest, studying Lex with his head inclined to the right. “You see, three years ago I died, and he was thoughtful enough to bring me back as his puppet-slave.” Nodding at Iliath’s metal heart, he added, “He did the same for Stellen years ago.”

Okay, well that explained…nothing. “You keep calling him Stellen. But before he was Iliath. Unless my ears aren’t working, which is quite possible.”

The shadow of his shark grin paid a visit. “Are you confused, Alexion?”

“You could say that.”

“He is Stellen,” Keys said, “and Iliath. Just as I am both Keys and Stranger. That’s what this”--he tapped his chest--“did to us. It made us…more. But with him dead…”

They both glanced at the horrible corpse that was White Suit. Lex couldn’t muster up any kind of pity for the creature. He’d deserved what he’d gotten.

And as for Iliath, the man had murdered Lex’s mother, but had it really been the man’s choice?--if, after all, he’d been White Suit’s puppet, like Keys had been?

“Can’t we do something? To save him?” Lex wondered.

Keys looked at him for long moments before finally replying, “It’s not impossible. But we’d need to get him a new heart.” He dropped his chin to hide a grin. “Within the next two minutes.”

“Great,” Lex said sarcastically. “Well, do you know where we could get one?”

“As a matter of fact…” With a wink, Keys tore open his shirt, and, before Lex could even think to stop him, ripped out his still-beating heart.

- - -

“HOLY FUCK!” Lex screamed, terror and astonishment drowning him. “Are you fucking crazy, you--you crazy person!?” Lunging forward as Keys began to fall, he snatched the heart from Keys’ limp hands and jammed it back into the…hole in his chest. Then he closed the, uh, skin flap thingy…and tried not to lose his cookies.

“You,” he said when the life filtered back into Keys’ eyes, “are going to have to come up with a better plan than that. Should be easy, considering--”

“That was the worst plan ever? I’m well aware.”

“You got a better one?”

Lex did not find the Cheshire grin he received in answer the least bit reassuring.

- - -

“Okay, do it now,” Keys instructed.

They’d dragged Iliath/Stellen into the house and laid him out on the floor by an electrical socket. Then Keys’ had guided the dead man’s finger to the socket, and jammed it as far as he could into the opening.

Grimacing, Lex flipped the lights on and off, on and off--then jumped back in horror as Iliath’s body jerked upright with uncontrollable spasms, his long blond hair fanning and frizzing upward in spikes of silver. His mouth opened in a scream, his eyes rolling around in his head as metallic silver blood dripped from his nose.

Keys, sitting cross-legged beside the poor man, guided Iliath’s head to his lap, smoothing down the untamed hair.

Lex experienced an irrational spark of jealousy at the contact, but shook it off as selfish and stupid. He refused to be jealous of a metal-hearted man who’d just been electrocuted.

“So, which one of you is it this time?” Keys asked the fallen man.

A smile passed like smoke across the pale face. “After what you just did to me…it would serve you…right…if I were Iliath.”

“Stellen,” Keys grinned. “I have this unnatural sense of relief.”

“And by unnatural, you mean disturbing.”

“Exactly so. Actually, I was hoping you could tell me something.”

Stellen closed his eyes wearily. “What?”

“How does it feel to be saved by your baby brother?”

- - -

It was three in the morning, and Lex was in need of food. He was also in need of answers. He just wasn’t sure he wanted them. He’d tried to bandage the wound on Keys’ side, only to find the skin had already knitted back together.

“Hah’ihshhmmshh!”

“I’m starting to wonder if you’re actually sick,” Stellen said from the kitchen table, where he sat slumped, head resting on his arms. “--or just looking for attention.”

“From who?” Keys scoffed beside him. “You?”

Stellen waggled his eyebrows at Lex, who turned away in embarrassment.

“Oo, Alexion,” Keys said teasingly, “pink looks good on you.”

Lex clapped both hands over his cheeks. “You know what? You can just--you can just shut up and--eat this!” He shoved a bowl of milk under Keys’ nose.

Stellen and Keys both stared at it. Then, with a twinkle in his eyes, Keys leaned forward and began to lap at the milk with a pink tongue.

Lex groaned. “I’m surrounded by freaks of nature.”

Keys quirked a brow, licked his lips. “Ever wonder why us freaks are so attracted to you?”

“Because we’re one in the same?”

“You said it, not me.”

“You two are adorable,” Stellen mumbled into his arms. “Sickeningly so.”

“So.” Lex sat down next to Keys and dug into his bowl of Cheerios--which used to be his mom’s top choice. He wondered if he should feel guilty for not being more torn up about her death, but things had changed irrevocably between them since that day. “How did you two end up--if I’m allowed to ask--with that, um, with that, um…”

“With the man I just killed?” Stellen supplied, lifting his head to smile grimly. “Keys, you wanna take this one?”

Keys trained heavy-lidded eyes on Lex. “He’s kind of our sperm donor,” he said, and lapped up some more milk.

Lex arched his brows. “You mean he was your father?”

“Genetically,” Keys told him, sniffling behind his hand. His eyebrows furrowed as if in confusion, and Lex knew what would come next. Keys brought his arm up to shield his face, curling in on himself as he sneezed. “Hih’ihxshh! Hhh…” His face scrunched up along with his nose, his tongue peeking out to swipe at a minor milk mustache as his nostrils flared agitatedly. “Hihh…HUH’mxg!kshhu!”

“I don’t get it,” Lex said, gulping down orange juice. “How can you be sick if you’re not…” Wow, he really didn’t want to say it.

“Real?” Keys quirked a toothy smile. “I’m whatever he wanted me to be.”

“He, meaning…your, um, sperm…donor?”

“Yup. Hey, Lex, when you look at us, what do you see?”

The question was posed lightly, but Lex could sense the importance of it nonetheless. “Well, I see…you,” he told Keys. Then, to Stellen, “Um. Um.”

“Don’t be afraid,” Keys said on a snort of laughter. “I promise he won’t kill you.”

Lex glared. “I’m not afraid. And he looks like a lady, okay? He’s got eyelashes that are way too long and silver-blond hair to match and--and--”

“Pouty lips?” Keys suggested tactfully. “Delicate bone structure? A heart-shaped face and adorably pointed chin with skin as smooth and soft as a baby’s bottom?”

Stellen snorted like a bull.

Blushing, Lex muttered, “I wouldn’t go that far, but…yeah. Sure.”

Keys’ grin was as sharky as Lex had ever seen it. “You, Doctor Alexion, are a Carrier.”

Slumping, Lex finished off the last bite of cereal, which now tasted like ash on his tongue. “Excuse me? What? What are we talking about now?”

“We,” Keys drawled, “are talking about the fact that you, can put us back into our real bodies. Without killing us.”

- - -

[VividBubbles!]

WHAT???!!!!!! You... you... genius. I love this so freaking much! Also, I am no longer as confused as I was your last update! Yay for possible answers and confusing geniuses! More soon!

BYE!

P.S. Guess what! I finally finished my first fanfic! It's a Supernatural fic, unrelated to the fetish, only 2000 words, and unbeta'd but eh, I'll take what my brain gives me.

BYE! Again.

[Ciuty80]

HOOOOOLLLLYYYY....

so much explanations at once just exploded my brain...wait need to collect them from the floor

what a VERY delicious update!!!

and lex´s job is to be a carrier...able to put them back into their real bodies without killing them...

THIS is so brilliant!!!

and keys sneezes are KILLING me!!!!

please more hun!!!!!

[flower]

This is very good. I have been reading from the start but just now commenting (sorry). I've been enjoying all of the many twists and turns! I'm actually enjoying it more for the story than the fetish material. I'm more a fan of the care-taking type story line when it comes to fetishy stuff.

[EmeraldThread]

I don't know who I like better, Stellen or Keys. Why do you make it so hard to choose?! I like them equally for now, and this is so far my favorite part to the story. You keep making it better, thereby making it so much harder to wait for MORE. Illiath is my favorite name that you've created so far, even though he's...the bad side (for lack of a better description). XD

But Lex is a Carrier!! This...this! I need more in order for my soul to be happy.

Also, I found more of your old stories - you had a drabble thread that I only just found...yesterday and I keep reading it because it didn't end, like at some point the ending to that one last part will magically appear. ANYWAY. Update this soon please and thank ya~

[Emily]

oh good lord. ripping his heart out

and this:

“Don’t be afraid,” Keys said on a snort of laughter. “I promise he won’t kill you.” Lex glared. “I’m not afraid. And he looks like a lady, okay? He’s got eyelashes that are way too long and silver-blond hair to match and--and--” “Pouty lips?” Keys suggested tactfully. “Delicate bone structure? A heart-shaped face and adorably pointed chin with skin as smooth and soft as a baby’s bottom?”

BABY BUTTCHEEK SKIN OMG <3 I should love to fondle this man's cheeks.

make full use of my pain in any way you'd like, ma'am LOL I feel like it would make me sadistically happy in the long run anyway <3 you have a way of doing that

[Akahana]

WHAT NOW WHAT NOW WHAT NOW WHAT NOW WHAT NOW????????????!!!!!!!! Ok ok, I gotta calm down *deep breath*

Ok, so starting off...YAY THEIR ALL ALIVE (in a sense...XD)!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And second...Lex is WHAT?! Suddenly important to the story?! PLOT TWIST!!!!

Ok, so this chapter made me REALLY happy and I can't wait to see what happens next and how Lex can help and I DON'T KNOW WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON ANYMORE!!!! XD

I love you ~ TT O TT <33333333 (and Keys )

I will keep writing these comments forever, because I never want this story to end either XD

Thank you for this awesomeness~ <3333

[Scion]

Sorry for the wait, guys. I've kinda been writing really slowly in addition to not having much time. Anyway, LOVE YOU all and thank you so much for all your comments. *is very guilty* Hope this part is okay.

PART EIGHT

- - -

“Your…real bo…dies…” Lex rolled the idea around in his mind--didn’t help.

“Mmhm. Your ears feeling all right, there?”

“Is your brain feeling all right?” Lex shot back, because, come on, the whole thing was insane. Metal hearts and real and fake bodies and…Okay, he’d heard of this stuff happening on the news and stuff, but…in his life? Then again, his mom had been a Justice Sister, who was killed by the very man now sitting at his kitchen table. Or, some version of the man.

Wow, Lex. Wow…

“Now that you mention it,” Keys said, rubbing his head, “I do have a bit of a brain ache.”

“Do you even have brains in those fake bodies of yours?”

They blinked at each other, then at him.

“In a manner of speaking,” Keys said slowly. Then he held out his empty bowl. “Can I have some more milk?”

“Why not?” Lex said on a sigh, taking and refilling the bowl. “Knock yourself out.”

Keys tapped his skull. “Maybe later.” He paused in enjoying his kitty milk to rub at his nose. Taking the napkin Lex handed him, he offered an impish grin and cut off his sneeze with pinched fingers and a hoarse little sigh. “Ih’NXGtssuh!” Moaning dramatically, he dropped his cheek onto Lex’s shoulder.

Lex patted the top of his head. “You gonna be okay?”

Keys smiled trustingly up at him, and Lex felt something, some door deep inside him, swing wide open.

Keys said, “I think that’s up to you.”

Right. No pressure.

- - -

The three of them entered Area-9, and then the Brothers’ compound easily enough with Keys and Stellen there to emulate Stranger and Iliath. The compound was an ugly mish-mash of squat metal buildings with no windows, hardly what one would call welcoming. But he had to admit, the place was clean, pristine to the point of being scary. The streets were void of litter, the sidewalks perfectly flat and aligned.

“So, where are your, um…”

“Our bodies, Lexy,” Stellen said. “You can say the word. It’s not that hard.”

“Bodies, bodies, bodies,” Keys snarked. “And they’re in the freezer.”

“Of course they are.”

“And don’t call him ‘Lexy.’” Keys poked his brother in the arm. “He’s mine. Get your own.”

“Hellooo,” Lex said. “I can hear you.”

“Come on, Doc.” Keys took his hand, threading their fingers together and filling Lex with a sense of rightness. “The freezer’s this way.”

- - -

“Wow,” Lex said as he stared down at Keys’ body, which he’d pulled out of a drawer in the wall; it was like a morgue, but not. “That’s all I can say: wow.”

“Are you sure this guy’s up to the task?” Stellen said in a stage whisper. “He’s seems kinda…” He made a face like a monkey.

“What’s that supposed to be?” Keys snickered. “Are you saying my human looks constipated?”

“Your--human--” Lex gaped.

“That would be the part you focus on.” Stellen rolled his eyes to the sky as if in prayer.

“It’s not something he can really mess up,” Keys said, to Lex’s relief. “How hard can it be to stab us in the heart?”

Right. Oh-kay then. “Keys,” Lex said flatly, “no.”

“Alexion,” Keys said just as gravely, “yes.”

As if he could win against these two hard-heads. “I assume you brought a knife with which to stab you?” he asked pleasantly.

Keys flashed a lopsided grin. “I always come prepared.”

“Why does that not make me feel better?”

The grin expanded. “Because I scare you. You can admit it.”

Ignoring this, Lex said, “Just a few questions first. One: why are these bodies even here? I mean, why didn't he, um, you know, get rid of them?”

Keys leaned down to rake his nails across the arm of his…corpse. The same scratches, oozing blood, appeared on live Keys. “Next?”

“What happens when you…go back into your, er, bodies…if I’m stabbing you through the heart,” he said with false calm, “won’t you be, you know, DEAD?”

“We will be if someone catches us,” Stellen grumbled. “Which they will if we don’t get a move on here, Lexy.”

“We will be dead,” Keys said with a playful glint in his eyes that made Lex want to fall to his knees and beat his fists into the floor, begging for mercy. “But only for a second.”

Swallowing with difficulty, Lex nodded. He just wanted to get this over with and go home. With Keys. He would not be leaving without Keys. Not ever again.

“Okay,” he said, mustering up his courage, “let’s do this.”

- - -

Standing there over Keys’ body, knife poised, all Lex could see was blood; he could practically taste it coating his tongue. He was going to have to do Stellen first, just to make sure this would work. Risking Keys? Not an option.

“Go ahead and stab me,” Stellen said. “You know you want to.”

Lex placed the tip of the blade right where Keys had showed him. It had to be just right, or he’d end up damaging the body and messing everything up. But if he didn’t do it fast, he never would. Holding his breath, Lex thrust the blade home.

Stellen cried out, going to his knees and grabbing his chest. Keys crouched beside him, holding his shoulders. As a rattling groan left Stellen’s lips, his face began to change, becoming more round, the eyes shifting to orbs of black coal, the mouth broadening as the nose became larger and slightly crooked.

It still looked like Stellen, only rougher around the edges, less feminine and more rugged. Iliath. His mom’s killer.

Next to him, the body--er, Stellen, moaned, coughed, and said huskily, “I’m...alive.” Lex’s jaw dropped when he saw there was no sign of the wound.

“My turn,” Keys said happily. A little too happily, in Lex’s opinion.

“You realize this may scar me for life,” Lex said as he got the knife into place on Keys’ chest.

Keys arched an eyebrow. “So delicate.”

“That’s me,” Lex mumbled. “Delicate.”

Then he stabbed Keys through the heart.

- - -

Lex felt a jab of pain in his own heart as he dropped the knife to the floor. Tenderly, he caressed Keys’ cheek, the skin already starting to warm. This time, Lex saw the wound healing, watched layers of muscle re-knit, and skin melt together.

Scarred for life was an understatement, he thought woozily.

Someone knocked on the door, the noise startling Lex out of his trance. Shivering in the frigid air, he looked to Stellen for help. But it was Iliath who spoke.

“You boys appear to be in a pinch. Whatever can be done about this? What say you, Brother?” he said, helping Stranger to his feet.

“Uh-oh,” Stellen said.

“Uh-oh?” Lex echoed. “What do you mean, ‘uh-oh?’”

Iliath opened the freezer door. On the other side stood a man in a white suit, his face red with fury. Before he could get a word out, Iliath punched him. He fell like a tree.

Iliath turned, winked at Lex. “Well? Let’s be on our way. Unless you need a formal invitation?”

Lex shook his head, then stooped to lift Keys into his arms. There was nothing left that could surprise him. After a shared nod with Stellen, the two set off after the Brothers.

- - -

“What’s wrong with him?” Lex panted; they were almost out of the compound. “Why isn’t he waking up?”

He nearly crashed into Stellen as the three men ahead of him came to a sudden stop. “Give him to me,” Stranger said, reaching out.

Lex stepped back, almost tripping over a curb. “Wait--why?”

“Lex,” Keys said weakly, his eyes opening to hazy slits. “It’s okay. Just do it.”

“KEYS!” Tears rushed to Lex’s eyes as relief swamped him. “You scared me, you crazy freak! You scared me.”

Keys’ eyes drifted shut, his lips lifting at the corners. “Everything scares you. Hh--hh!” Turning his face into Lex’s shoulder, he muffled a pair of sneezes. “Hih’itshxshh! Huh! Huhh…NXGTshhg!-uhh.”

“How can you still be sick?” Lex asked, his incredulity masking his concern. “You died, changed bodies, died again, then changed bodies again, and still, you’re--”

Stranger, with seemingly no effort at all, snatched Keys from him. “We need to leave and we need to leave now. Too much talking and not enough moving.”

They almost made it, too.

- - -

[Emily]

oh my good lord, what just happened? D:

my mind cannot comprehend

so Keys switched back into his original body?

or did he die and then switch and then came back to life

just a teensy bit mindblown over here.

[VividBubbles!]

Christ on a cracker.... nope. I'm done. I cannot say anything. I am a Scombie. *zombie moans* Need. More. Fic.

BYE!

P.S. @Emily

Don't worry. You are totally not the only one mind blown. Not the only one at. All.

BYE! Again.

[EmeraldThread]

How? How do you make EVERY SINGLE PART more amazing? I can't even tell you how much I'm enjoying every bit of this, just...I'm trying not to write ten miles of comment but it's so hard not to.

Like. All of this body switchery. I didn't know Illiath and Stranger were...other people? Are these combined people then or are Illiath and Stranger not real people that are...somehow still living? I need to know~

[Akahana]

A-almost...WHAT??!!!! WHAT IS THIS NOW IT WAS SUDDENLY HAPPY AND NOW IT'S LIKE WHAT??????!!!!!!!!!!!!! I...WHAT...BUT...CLIFFHANGERS!!!

AHUOVEDBYUIGHINDGYGSHNZAHLYFGUSILHDJNBLSYFIGUHOIAKJNBDYIGULH....

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!

D,:

Please be ok~ *sobs in anticipation*