One (One Universe)

“The whole family is leaving town. Today.”
    “Leaving?” My eyes narrow. I can’t leave Nebraska, not when the other half of me — of my Super — lies strapped to a table with electrodes dotting his chest. “I’m not going anywhere.” I look pointedly out the window at Elias.
    “There’s nothing we can do for him, honey. He told us he displayed a second, after all this time. Vice President VanDyne brought him in, saying he finally flew. But when they tested him, nothing showed up beyond his One. They’re doing some more intensive testing with the girls now — to see if they can transfer between the siblings. But I’m afraid… Well, I don’t even know what substances they’ve got in him, to be honest. It’s best to leave him.”
    At that, it’s all I can do to keep from snarling at Dad, from lunging at his throat and beating him senseless. If there was ever a time I could bring myself to do it, now would be it.
    “Dad, I love him. I am not leaving him.”
    Dad takes a step toward me, reaches an arm out, looks at me with sad eyes. “Oh, honey…”
    “Don’t you dare call me that after all you put me through, after all you’ve kept from me. And when you want me to just leave Elias here like…like a failed experiment.”
    I jerk my arm from his grasp, surprised at my own strength.
    Dad’s face twists, and his lips set in a hard line. “You’re not thinking clearly. Your mother and I have planned this. Just stay here while I make sure the coast is clear. Your being here… Well, it’s a complication, Merrin.” I bristle at the way his voice raises at the end, the way he uses my full name. “But we are going to get you out. We’re not going to let them test you like they’ve tested…others.”
    I cross my arms and stare at the wall. I have nothing to say to him, can’t look him in the eye.
    He closes the door carefully behind him, and I watch him cross the testing arena floor, check Elias’s chart, and grimace. He looks back at the window, meets my eyes, and shakes his head, slightly, once. I don’t exactly what that means, but tears prick my eyes. I know enough from the look on his face to know that something’s wrong.
    Dad crosses to stand next to Mom, who seems to be the only one besides the nurses in the arena. Must be too early for anything to have really gotten going yet.
    He leans in to her, puts his lips to her ear. Her eyes jerk over to me, then close for a few good, long seconds like they do when she’s upset about something and needs to take a deep breath.
    She reaches out and runs a hand over one of the twins’ heads — Michael’s, I think. Then Mom and Dad walk out together, through a door on the other side of the arena, not looking back.
     
    I peer through the window, my stomach twisting more and more and more as I look from the boys to Elias, then back to the boys again. All three, so terrifyingly still.
    Making the leap. Filling the gap. That’s what we did. Or I did, at least, with the transferring, with the damn floating apple. Made them think they could close the gap from One to Super. Tie one Super’s powers to another. And after all, isn’t that what we did? Aren’t I the one whose birth got this whole thing started? Who made Leni burn herself and countless other horrible things happen to Ones?
    Then a sick sensation freezes me where I stand. I understand now. Why the boys are here, and why there are three times as many vials for “Grey” as there are for “Suresh.” It’s for me. For all the Ones they tested 11 years ago. They’re testing our siblings, the ones who actually have powers, to figure me out, to figure us out. Figure out why we didn’t respond to that study. Why I can’t make other stuff go light.
    To figure out how Fisk could have saved his son.
    Unless we did respond. Unless I can still transfer. And then it hits me like a ton of bricks right in the chest.
    That’s what we’ve been doing. We’ve been transferring every time we flew. Every time Leni and Daniel flame on.
    If they knew that, it would save Michael and Max. The Hub wouldn’t ever leave us — Elias and me, and probably Leni and Daniel — alone, but they might leave the twins alone. Might leave Nora and Lia.
    I have to get Elias out of here. Because together, we’re the only ones who can do the same for the twins. And for Elias’s sisters, wherever they are.
    I have to get to them. Because I might be the only one who can stop this.

TWENTY-SIX
    W hen I push the