Rebirth - 11. Chapter 11: Smoke And Mirrors

Aries' eyebrows lifted as he stared at Chris.

Chris stared at Aries and then a sigh escaped and his hand fell to his side, leaving the gun. "I guess I should just tell you." He walked over to the couch, contemplating on sitting down and then decided against getting comfortable.

"Tell me what?"

Chris turned back towards Aries. "The truth, then it will all make sense to you." He looked up when Gemini walked in.

"Oh hey." Gemini smiled. "Who's this? Fan from the concert? Stalk us home?" He looked at Chris. "No offense, it's cool if you want to hang out."

"Gem...I don't think he's a fan...I think he has something important to say." Aries stared at the man.

"Really?" Gemini walked closer and looked at Chris.

"It's a lot of information...so I need you to hear me out...and not flip when I tell you just one part of it." Chris said, speaking to Aries, not really having acknowledged Gemini other than a brief glance.

Aries slowly nodded. "I'll try..."

Chris took a deep breath. "Aries..."

Aries squinted his eyes at Chris, an odd feeling coming over him, just by the way the man said his name.

"I'm your father." Chris said in an utterly calm manner.

Aries drew in a deep breath, his eyes widened at the man, Gemini was just as shocked, however at this point, he wouldn't interfere. "So, I guess this is the part where you explain to me why you left? That's why I'm not supposed to flip out?" Aries slowly nodded.

"The reason...might make you flip out." Chris said. "So, the story goes, our father, the one that Kristy and I share, she never knew him, he raped her mother, she was nothing more to him." He looked down. "I knew about her all along. One night we uh...got drunk, later I found out...she had my baby, I swore to kill you. Half siblings don't bare kids..."

"Woah! Woah! Fucking woah, stop it! Slow down! Stop!" Aries screamed. "You're my moms half brother?! I'm an incest child?! She didn't even know it?! And you wanted to kill me?!"

Gemini's mouth fell open and he stared at Aries, not even sure what to say.

Chris closed his eyes. "Yes, I know...you're upset, as I expected." He looked at Aries. "I went to the nursery, I had the knife...but I looked at you, just an innocent, beautiful baby...the cutest one of them all, and you were mine. I couldn't kill you...but I couldn't let myself love you, so I left."

"Oh my God...you were in the nursery, you had a knife..." Aries stared at him with a deeply disturbed expression.

"I'm sorry." Chris stared at him. "I told myself I would find you again, finish the job, I had to do it, you couldn't exist. Then I heard you on the phone, I listened...and you started to become human to me, and I remembered how innocent you were as a baby, how I was tempted to love you. So I decided..maybe it would be okay to talk to you...one time. You just became more human, more so, you were my child, I couldn't objectify you..and if I couldn't do that...then I couldn't ever..."

"So you can't kill me? That'd be nice to know!"

Chris looked down and shook his head. "No, I can't."

Gemini covered his nose and his mouth with his hands, just as Zach and Nate walked in.

"Everything okay?" Zach asked.

Gemini shook his head in response and then held a hand back towards them as if to signal that it was personal.

"My life is screwed up..." His eyes narrowed and he took out his cell phone and started pulling up his ICloud.

"You know what...I was stuck in the mental hospital for months, thrown on medications, diagnosed with all of these fucking issues because no one wanted to believe me, and you know what...maybe I am fucked in the head...if I am an incest baby! But while I am sitting here, freaking out over that, here is my fucking delusion, and it's not fucking mother fucking photoshopped!" He threw his phone on the coffee table.

Zach and Nate stared at Aries in shock as Gemini grabbed Aries cell phone and he looked at it, along with Chris and he flipped through the photos that were taken of the year book and his eyes widened and he lowered his arm, lightly dropping the phone on the coffee table. "It's there..." Gemini said.

"And if you don't fucking believe it...I will get Sage on the fucking Skype right now and she will show you the real fucking year book!" Aries stared at them as Nate and Zach walked over to check out the phone. "So while you all fucking freak out over my past life, I'll sit here and freak out over my current life!" Aries shut his eyes and brought his hands to his head.

"Well...it's not...that much to freak out over..." Zach looked around. "Reincarnation is...well...a debated phenomena...just..." He looked at Aries. "You usually don't come back looking the same."

Gemini walked over to the couch and he sat down. "They didn't tell me anything you said. You showed them this?"

"It didn't matter, they thought I faked it, they refused to take the time to bother to check out the real year book, they rather just call me delusional and threw me in the mental ward." Aries looked up. "But...maybe I should of been." He stared at Chris. "Maybe that's why I wanted to kill Nash and Boyd. I did...I wanted them dead when I beat them with the baton. Worth had to stop me..."

Chris stared at Aries, he didn't know what to say about what he saw on the phone, honestly that didn't concern him, he only saw his son in front of him, who was clearly upset. "I'm sorry..."

"Let me ask you something..." Aries stared at Chris. "Aside from wanting to kill me...or being tempted to...and aside from sleeping with my mom without her knowing you were her brother, both of which is horrible, were you a good person? Would...I have had a good life...with you?"

Chris looked down. "You want to know if I would of gave you a better life than your mother...and Keith." He shrugged. "Being entirely honest...if I were left with you, I wouldn't of killed you, I couldn't...but I can't say what I would have done. I could of still left you...at an orphanage, on a door step...I really can't say. Maybe I could of kept you."

"This uh...all seems personal." Nate nodded. "We'll just be upstairs." He said, following Zach up stairs.

Aries watched Zach and Nate head upstairs and he looked down towards the floor. "Growing up with Gemini was the only good thing that came from being there. All Keith did was beat them up, then after Gemini left...he just kept beating her up..."

He leaned back into the couch. "Then he started molesting me...and that made him mad, but he couldn't hit me, that made him even more angry, so he beat her more, which made him even more angry that he could beat a woman up and he couldn't...he couldn't...hit me. Even before Gemini left, when he wasn't...he still never bothered to hit me, I just didn't exist."

Chris took a deep breath. "I hate that he did those things to you. I...kind of thought you were hinting at that...the first day we met, I was angry when I left."

Aries looked up at Chris. "Do you plan to tell my mom the truth?"

"Do you want me to? Do you care?" Chris asked.

"I'm...not sure." Aries crossed his arms.

"Do you want me to leave?" He asked.

"Being that you tried to kill me as a baby...and had the intentions of killing me now..." Aries looked up at Chris. "I don't think spending the night is such a great idea...but maybe you can come by tomorrow...or some day...when you want." He closed his eyes. "I just...need time to process this."

"Okay..." Chris nodded and headed for the front door.

Gemini watched Chris and once he was gone, he looked at Aries.

"Not now..." Aries pushed himself off the couch. "I just need to go upstairs...the outburst...I'm tired." He then headed upstairs.

Gemini threw his hands up and then dropped them to the couch. "Leave me in all the shock..."

Aries sat in the passenger seat of Chris' truck. "God, they put the cherry on there again." He looked over at him. "You can tell McDonalds not to put the cherry on their milkshakes a million times and they do it anyway because they are fast and sloppy and want all your money and they don't care." He reached in, grabbing the stem of the cherry and pulled it out.

Chris grinned. "Even to hear you rant...I'm just surprised that you...wanted to do this."

Aries threw the cherry out the window. "There, it can go in their parking lot, maybe that will tell them something."

He looked over at Chris and the slightest grin appeared and he shook his head. "Yeah, well...maybe I'm just a weird kid...but I'm just counting who I see you as now...and you've...been decent so far, and I guess liking me enough to not be able to kill me counts for something."

"I know it was wrong, what I did, all of it..." Chris stared at him. "The wanting to kill you part, I would take back walking into that nursery with a knife if I could. Sleeping with your mom...I...I can't say I would ever take that back, if I could and if I did, you wouldn't be here."

Aries swirled his straw around and his eyebrows lifted. "Well, thankfully I wasn't born with webbed toes or something. If I was...I'd be named Donald so people could call me Donald Duck." He grinned as he spoke in a joking manner. He then took a sip from his milk shake.

"I worried about that...or maybe six fingers or six toes." Chris smiled. "But I looked at you...and you were beautiful and perfect."

Aries smiled at him. "Thank you." He grabbed his phone to check his call history. "Oh...my stalker called...I bet he left a voice message after those YouTube videos. I haven't checked my voice mails in forever."

"Put it on speaker, I want to hear this guy." Chris said.

"Sure." Aries called his voice mail and put it on speaker.

"You have five new voice mails. Please enter your pass code to hear your messages now." The robot spoke from the phone.

Aries hit his four digit pass code on the touch screen dial pad.

"Here is a list of your messages, touch the screen to select a message." The robotic woman said as his screen pulled up a list of every person that left him a message.

Aries grinned and tapped Worth's name.

"Aries, do you know that your friends are stalking me?! They followed me with a camera and Sage threatened to assault me and set my car on fire! I don't understand why you have done this. I love you...and I don't mean for you to be scared, I know you have a concert coming up, I'm going to come there and I'll find you..." Worth spoke from the phone. "Aries...just think of that night, think of it...remember it...every second, every detail...every..."

Aries hit the delete selection at the top.

"Wow.." Chris looked up at Aries. "The guy...he sounds...sweet enough."

"It's not that." Aries looked at Chris. "It's the way he...went about contacting me again. First he comes into my chat, doesn't accept it when I said my phone was broke, he calls my phone to see if I'm lying and it rings so everyone hears it on my cam, including him..." He shrugged. "It's not that I hated him, I just didn't want to talk because...I needed space. I guess maybe I shouldn't of lied about my phone, but since then, my friends caught him trying to break into my old bedroom at my mom's house..."

Chris nodded. "Well, he does come on strong...if you find sweet to be...bittersweet." His eyebrows lifted.

Aries hangs up from his voice mail and he nodded. "And it's not just that...it all ties into that past life thing, which...I don't even know what you think of that. It's really complicated..but it's important that I cut all ties to that and...he was a tie."

"How so? I thought it was just about Shane and..uh..his lover?"

"Well, so long as I'm away from triggers, Shane doesn't influence me, Worth was a trigger, he represented what Adam was. He was the jock that was secretly gay, as Adam had been. I've been reborn as a high school teenager, just like Shane had been to begin with, where as Ian's position in the whole scheme, he doesn't fit. So...in that time, on the camping trip with Worth, it gave Shane the opportunity to kind of regress as he influenced me and...then his rage took over and...I really hurt Worth's friends, the other jocks, who were viewed by Shane as a huge threat."

Chris slowly nodded. "I think I sort of get it, so it was kind of like...a deja vu...echo?"

Aries nodded after a moment. "Kind of. See if it had just been me and no Shane influence, I would have handled it all entirely different. Those jocks never made me sweat a drop, but Shane was entirely different." He looked over at Chris. "It's kind of like having a multiple personality, except that I didn't dissociate like you would if the second personality took over, I just sort of let go and viewed through my eyes as it happened."

"And since being separated from all that, you've been free and that's how you want to stay, naturally, so you didn't want to talk to him." Chris nodded. "I understand now."

"Yeah, what's worse is that I blamed Ian for it...and really, that specific situation wasn't his fault, it's just that I went as far back as to think, well, if I never met him, Shane wouldn't have been triggered awake to begin with, Ian was the trigger for me, I was normal until I met him, and I've been normal since I stopped seeing him. Thing is...none of it was bad with him."

"But even if it's not bad with him, you risk bad things happening so long as Shane is active because obviously...he's a very messed up...spirit." Chris said. "So...I hope you don't take this the wrong way, it's just my advice that...you distance yourself and try to live as normally as possible."

Aries looked up at Chris. "It's what I planned. I don't even know where Ian is anyway. My friend, Jay, told me that he quit working at the school after I was taken away."

"Probably for the best." Chris looked at the steering wheel.

"Gemini...you know I am not really good at acting surprised." Aries said as he was steered by Gemini up to the top of the stairs and around the corner, through the door to the attic.

"You don't have to, just enjoy." Gemini grinned and pulled the blind fold off of Aries.

The attic turned bed room was large and had a king sized bed at the back, front and center and Gemini even threw in his futon, setting it up at the foot of the bed and a short distance across from that was a dresser with a forty inch flat screen sitting on top of it and an L shaped computer desk against the back of the dresser, and even still, the room was spacious and empty and appeared as if it needed a lot more to go in it.

"There's still a few things in here, boxes and stuff that I need to move...but it's all ready." Gemini smiled. "In fact, you have plenty of room to fill."

"Yeah, it looks like everything is all on one wall...I could fit a kitchenette in here...and everything. Hell...make enough money, walls should be put up for a private bathroom. There is just way too much space." Aries walked further into the room.

"I'll...help you fill it up." Gemini said, following Aries. "But...you got a desk now...for your laptop, if you want to use it...or we could just put a desk top on it and you'd have both."

Aries walked around and sat on the edge of the bed. "Thanks...for finally getting it ready." He looked at his brother. "Nice to have my own space."

Gemini grinned. "Well, hopefully you won't like Zach too much and just spend every night in his room."

"You got so mad." Aries grinned.

"I still can't believe that you wanted him to bite you..." Gemini shook his head.

"Well, I'm bound to be a little weird, go ask my dad, and if you don't want to talk to him, ask my uncle instead, you can always find them together." Aries joked.

"Ha ha ha, real funny." Gemini smiled. "At least you're handling it...rather well."

"Why not? Better than taking it horribly." Aries shrugged. "And he's nice..." He looked up. "Oh! And surprise! Mom is also my aunt! How about that?" He laughed.

Gemini started to laugh. "You are crazy! You want me to call her and tell her? I'll have fun!"

"She probably won't believe you." Aries shrugged. "I threw the truth in her face and she threw me out of the house...You'd get your phone number blocked."

"If she knows how." Gemini's laugher started to die down.

Aries sighed and looked up, noticing a long rafter that stretched along the ceiling all the way across the attic. He then looked over at his brother. "And you'd...be my cousin as well as my brother, I think."

He stared at Aries. "Oh fuck, I didn't even think of that. I'm a double family member to you too."

"We have to change the band name now." Aries said, faking a serious tone.

"What? You're not serious." He shook his head.

"I am serious." Aries laid back. "It must be correct...because I'm OCD like that."

Gemini laughed. "You're fucking with me. Sorry, act as good as you want, I'm not fooled."

"We'll vote on it." Aries grinned.

"See, there that smile comes." Gemini crawled onto the bed and laid beside Aries. "You're being funny."

"Okay, you got me." He rolled over onto his side. "Besides, I like it the way it is."

"Me too." He smiled at Aries.

His smile faded and he stared at Gemini for several moments, letting the silence fill the air as his mind wandered. "You know, for a little while..if you want, you can forget that I'm Aries, pretend that I'm Shane. You might not even have to pretend...I can be him."

Gemini's smile faded and he quickly sat up and he stared at Aries as he slid off the bed, shocked by what he had just heard. "Uh...what? Why would you say something like that?"

Aries sat up and his head tilted to the side. "We were close, just...we could of been closer." He looked down. "I'm sorry.."

"Uh...okay, given all I've found out...I think...I can keep the freak out reaction at bay...at least try, anyway." He hesitated as he sat on the edge of the bed, staring at Aries. "Nothing like that...is going to happen. You understand? Right? It doesn't mean I don't love you...or that I don't care, we're just not going to be that way."

He looked up at Gemini and then slowly nodded. "Fine, it's okay...I never should of..." He looked down. "It just...came out."

Gemini took a deep breath and then sighed. "I should go...and I'm going to let you enjoy your room."

Aries looked up and suddenly reached out and grabbed his arm. "Don't go!"

His eyes widened when his arm was grabbed as he started to get up. "What's wrong?" He asked, concerned.

"Shane...I can feel him...and he wants you..." Aries shook his head. "It won't go away...it's so strong...I don't mean it, Gemini...but it's there..." He looked up, his shoulders tensing up. "Just go...you should go..."

Gemini stared at him and he snatched his arm away, disturbed by what he was seeing, and as much as he wanted to help, he trusted that Aries knew what he was saying. He turned around and quickly headed out of the room, shutting the door behind him.

"He was supposed to be gone..." Aries laid back and curled up on his side. "I don't understand, what is the connection? How does this fit in?" He whispered, closing his eyes.

"No..that's a long shot." He pushed himself to sit up and noticed the night stand set up beside his bed. He reached over and yanked the drawer open and noticed Shane's diary inside. "At least I kept this close to me." He grabbed it and started flipping through the pages.

"Okay." Aries stopped on a page. "I have grieved Adam for a long time, ever since he died, and I've been lonely, if it wasn't for Mr. Simms, I would have never had anyone. I only knew him as Mr. Simms for so long, he insisted that I call him Jacob. He's very protective of me, it's a strange feeling, I've never had a protector before. I think back to all those times that I needed one, like when the jocks tossed me in the lake or when ever they decided to beat me up or just hurt me with the words that came from their mouths."

"Adam was supposed to be that person, yet he just stood there, in silence, every time. I always gave him a pass, tried so hard not to be angry or bitter, even now I try hard, especially when I tell myself I should hate him, for letting it all happen, only just to die on me, to be found out anyway, after working so hard to keep it secret because of all it would cost him, that was the biggest excuse I always made for him to myself. I always wondered what he was thinking or feeling every time he stood in silence and then when he walked away with them."

"Jacob is protective, funny thing, if I were to ever move on, I wonder, I get curious, the protectiveness is attractive, but I'll never know if it could be. The only reason Adam and I found each other was because everyone just assumed of me, and they were right, and Adam took the leap of faith when he had the chance. I had the lover, now I have the protector, it would just be perfect if I could have two in one."

Aries closed the diary and looked up. "That's it...he's the protector." He laid the diary back in the drawer and shut it. "That's where he fits in." He laid back and looked up at the vaulted wooden ceiling. "Shane is doing everything...he wanted to do...and didn't do." He rested his hands on his chest. "It makes sense...standing up to Nash and Boyd, wanting to kill them. Getting justice for Adam's death, like he tried to do and never could, and testing the waters...with his protector, which he was too afraid to do before."

He grinned. "Good thing you didn't Shane, that man..was a fucking jack ass."

Aries stood at the mirror in the bathroom. "You know, Shane...I think you enjoy riding my taxi just a little too much." He grinned and tilted his head to the side, his eyes widened and his mouth formed an 'O' shape. "Laaa!" He grinned, tilting his head upright. "I should make that a song, riding my taxi! It almost sounds country." He started laughing and headed out into the hallway.

"You enjoy riding my taxi a little too much, do you ever plan to pay up? Baby, at this rate, you're gonna be in debt. Though, why should I give a fuck? I'm gonna be set! I'll make down payment on that convertible I want and the whole time I'll wonder if the repo company is dialing your digits. All your money is coming in to me.." Aries laughed, running down the stairs.

Gemini's eyebrows lifted. "Sounds...rather country." He said, sitting on the couch in the living room, looking towards Aries as he came in.

"Yeah...though it kinda sucked." Aries leaned against the framing of the entrance to the living room from the foyer where the stairs were. "Was just telling Shane he likes riding my taxi a little too much." He then brought his hand up and tapped the side of his head. "I wonder if he would if I became a masochistic sadist. I wonder if he would like it then..."

"About that..." Gemini looked towards the television. "Do you think it will happen again?"

"Well, you know that little book you put in the night stand?" He looked at Gemini and crossed his arms. "It's Shane's diary...and I had theory. Apparently his talent agent, Mr. Simms, otherwise known as Jacob, was protective over him, and he was always curious if they would ever or could ever be together, he wrote that he would never know. He wrote about how Adam had to keep his cover with the jocks and how he stood back while the rest tortured him and he was left unprotected. So...in this life, you're the protector, mine...but he wants you."

Gemini looked up at Aries. "I think...we determined that last part, quite well, the history lesson...helps little in the comfort zone."

"Well, here's the educational part. He's like a ghost with unfinished business, only unlike a ghost, he has a body...and a life. He wants to do all the things he wanted to do and never did or couldn't do. Like when he tried to get justice for Adam's murder and there was not enough evidence, he used me to do it, to scare them into confessing. And you? Well...he didn't test the waters with his protector...Mr. Simms...so he wants to do what he never did, with you, my protector. He's making up all his regrets and mistakes through me and my life."

Gemini's eyebrows lifted. "Okay...so, he will never move on and rest in peace until he finishes this business? And assuming he won't change his mind about me...then he won't leave your body until I help him...make up for what he didn't do?" He frowned. "Well, that puts me in a horrible...awful...damn fucking...shitty, situation."

"Of course...because you would die to help me...and that is attractive as hell to him, at the same time, it's asking you to do something that probably seems like worse than death to you." He smiled and held a hand up. "Not that I'm offended, I'm sure if we weren't brothers and if you were at least bisexual, we would totally hook up."

Gemini let out a brief laugh and lowered his head, rubbing the back of his neck. "Of course...there is no doubt that you aren't hot. It has nothing to do with that."

"I know." Aries nodded and then his eyes widened. "Woah...big revelation moment."

Gemini looked up. "What is it?"

Aries looked at his brother. "What if Worth wasn't creepy?"

Gemini laughed. "He was creepy, I looked at those YouTube videos! Keith chased him!"

"No..." Aries shook his head. "What if Adam didn't leave Ian and go to peace and pass on...at least, not to Heaven...but rather...he passed to." He shook his head. "That night I had gotten on the phone with Worth for the first time, I was trying to help him and Shane made me get super emotional over it because the situation was a mirror image of Shane and Adam. Worth was a jock, gay, in the closet. Ian came in and saw me upset and on the phone, I had to tell him what it was."

Gemini slowly nodded. "And this was before the camping trip?"

"Yes, now...I am pretty sure normal Worth may have crushed on me...it's possible. But on the trip...he was intense, much more so than he was on the phone. What if...Adam crossed over into Worth's body to recreate their teenage lives? And then...when Worth's friends wouldn't leave him alone...Shane went nuts, determined not to let it repeat again."

"And because you didn't realize this until just now...you thought Worth was a creepy stalker!" Gemini cleared his throat. "Sorry...it's just...ironic."

"But that part doesn't make sense, how come Shane wouldn't have let me known different? He made me drawn to Ian...and I was drawn to Worth that one night..."

"Maybe Shane's spirit was as unaware as you, maybe he recognized Adam as Adam when he was inside Ian, his proper look alike body, although slightly older, but as Worth, Shane didn't recognize him, he only recognized the repeat situation." Gemini suggested.

"And then Worth swore to find me at a concert to make me love him..." Aries walked over and sat on the coffee table and handed Gemini the phone. "Watch that video."

Gemini took the phone and looked down, tapping the play button with his phone.

"Last night, eighteen year old Wentworth Meyers was found dead outside of an unused department store that had been rented out, at the time of death, by local indie band The Zodiac Brothers, where a concert was hosted. Several people at the scene, who frequently visit the band's younger brother's live stream, claim that a user had been stalking the singer through the chat and had been calling his phone. Some have said that it's believed that some very loyal visitors may have at least talked about staking out the place in search of the apparent stalker. Whether this is linked to the beating and stabbing of the victim found in the parking lot, is unknown, but, police officials are definitely looking down that road. We will update you with any further information."

The video ended after the news woman was finished reporting the story. "Woah, that was several days ago, we didn't even know it." He looked up. "Why didn't you say anything?"

Aries looked at Gemini. "I didn't want to upset you, our first concert in..like...forever? I didn't want it ruined, I figured you guys would have found out anyway. Police called me, found out I knew him personally, went to Napa High School with him, found out about the whole camping trip. I was honest, I told them that he was the stalker in the chat room, but that I didn't know anything else. I told them that I never disclosed any of his personal information to my live feed and that when he called my phone, I muted my microphone so no one could hear me."

"But people can read lips." Gemini said.

"Point is...he was beaten and stabbed, possibly by a group, as my fans say, in front of my concert. Hello! Adam beaten outside in the parking lot when Shane was performing! Different people, totally different circumstances, but the same symbolism! Especially if Adam was influencing Worth!" Aries slightly extended his arms out.

Gemini grabbed his can of Pepsi and took a sip and then he pointed his index finger at Aries. "You should be a detective."

Aries grinned. "I'll work on that." He grabbed his phone back and got up and ran off upstairs.

A knock was heard on the door and Gemini headed down the stairs and to the front door, opening it. "Ian? What a surprise."

Ian looked up, surprised to find that Gemini was at the door. "Oh...wow, I didn't know. I was..just here because...well, the advertised television."

"Yeah, it was just sitting around and...I figured...why let it go to waste?" He stepped to the side. "Come in." He nodded. "It's cool."

Ian hesitated and then let out a held breath and stepped inside.

Gemini shut the door and waved him on as he walked into the living room. "I just...got out of the shower, pretty quiet day, though it usually is, the house stays...almost empty, most of the time." He sat down.

"It's...a nice house." Ian looked around and sat in a chair near the couch. "I don't know why, I pictured you living in something...smaller."

Gemini grinned and laughed. "It's okay, the whole trailer thing...and then the young community college student, but I have two room mates and with one working and then we do the band, we manage."

Ian slowly nodded. "Uh..this is probably a taboo subject, given how things fell, but..."

"Aries?" Gemini shook his head. "He's been out of the psychiatric hospital for a short time, under the condition that I took custody, our mom and Keith weren't seen as fit, determined that they would worsen his...condition. Though you and I know..he wasn't delusional."

"You believe him?" Ian asked.

"I just found out, I saw his ICloud, of course I believe him, though his telling was under a stressed reaction of his real father coming back." Gemini paused. "His...real father and...uncle, all in one. Oh...and our mom doesn't know it, never knew it, just a drunk one nighter, he knew who she was...but she never knew."

Ian stared at Gemini. "Wait...so...you guys are...incest kids? And your mother never knew? That...that she slept with her brother? But he knew? And did it anyway?"

"Not me, just...Aries. Keith is my dad, our mom cheated, with her half brother, and yes, he knew, no...she didn't know, and never found out. His dad left because...he wanted to kill Aries, went to the nursery with a knife, couldn't do it, swore to return and finish the job. He came back...and still couldn't do it. He and...Aries have started to bond...I think they really like each other...actually."

Ian took a deep breath and let it escape. "Wow...that is...some news."

Gemini nodded. "Other than that...he's been okay."

"No more..Shane issues? If you know what I mean." Ian said.

"We went through that...and he actually had a Shane influence last week. Shane wanted to have sex with me." Gemini looked around in an awkward manner.

"That didn't happen, though in that regard, Aries is really solving the puzzle. He thinks that Adam left you and went into that Worth kid...and influenced him on the camping trip, made him fall in love with Aries to recreate the teenage version of their relationship.

Gemini went on. "Then he thinks...that Shane didn't recognize it because he didn't look like Adam and so he didn't mess with Aries or his feelings, so he felt creeped out, thought Worth was an obsessive stalker...until he got killed in the parking lot outside of the department store we rented for our concert. A beating and stabbing, while we were performing. Aries says it's entirely symbolic to what happened to Adam and Shane."

Ian slowly nodded. "Well..damn. I used to think I had all the answers." He frowned. "But then...I guess he's had to deal with a lot on his own, find his own answers."

"Shane is one demanding spirit, he died for the reincarnation, though it turned out more like a half reincarnation, and...I don't think he expected it to be like match maker, I think he wanted to actually have the life, not help make it and leave it." Gemini looked at Ian.

Ian looked down thoughtfully until he heard a noise coming from the stairs and looked through to the foyer and saw a rubber bouncy ball tumble down the bottom of the stairs and roll across the floor of the foyer, it was the glow in the dark ball that Jay had given Aries on the camping trip, neither Ian or Gemini would recognize it.

Gemini looked over and saw the rubber ball and stood up, along side Ian and they headed into the foyer and Gemini looked upstairs. "Aries?" He called out.

"I hope he didn't hear me here, I didn't know he was here, he made it clear he didn't want to see me again." Ian shook his head. "I should of left."

"If he threw that ball, he wants the attention." Gemini started up the stairs. "It's probably Shane, the little creep, I hate him." He said, reaching the top of the stairs. "Aries?"

Aries stood in the hall, right by the first bedroom door. His arms crossed and he looked at Gemini and Ian. "Paths cross again, they call that destiny."

Gemini and Ian looked at Aries when they reached the top of the stairs. "Aries...I didn't mean to...I was answering an..."

"I know, the ad for the old television and you didn't know we lived here." Aries rolled his eyes. "Yada, yada, yada."

He grinned. "That's just destiny and fate weaving their sick...and twisted little threads while they play a dark and twisted little circus tune and the clowns laugh at you while the puppet master pulls on your strings."

"Aries? Or Shane?" Gemini asked.

"A little bit of this comes from both of us, sometimes we actually share thoughts, don't worry, we don't share thoughts about you." Aries smiled and he looked at Ian. "Now...after everything you've been told, don't you know...we're just meant to die? Well, maybe not you, I mean...every which way I turn it...you don't fit any past criteria, you were born free."

"Aries...it's not me. I've been away and Shane is still with you. Have you even bothered to try the exorcism? Remember? We were going to do that." Ian walked closer.

"Exorcism?" Gemini looked up. "Hell, why didn't I think of that?"

"I doubt it would work." Aries teeth then clenched and his fists balled up. "Two souls should never be put in one body..." He stared past them and looked at the stairs to the attic. "Gemini...why don't you let Ian see my room?"

"What did you do?" Gemini asked.

Aries looked at him. "Just go look." He said in such a calm yet angered tone.

Gemini looked at Ian. "Lets..go see." He then headed towards the stairs and he walked up, Ian behind him and he noticed a folded piece of paper laying in front of the closed door.

Ian grabbed the piece of paper and opened it to see that all that was written on it was his name. "It just says...Ian." He looked at Gemini and then reached over and grabbed the door knob and shoved the door open.

Gemini's eyes widened as they took in the sight of Aries hanging from the rafter along the ceiling of the Attic where he had tied a rope and made a noose out of it and below his feet was a chair that had fallen over onto it's side. "How..." He looked back. "He was just down there..."

Ian stared at the sight in horror and then he looked at Gemini. "I...I saw him too." He looked down the stairs and then back into the room, seeing Aries body, hanging there, it was then that a stereo set up on the floor and plugged into the wall began to play an upbeat tune and Aries voice began to sing.

"Shane and Adam were together. Dreams were abound, a happily ever after. That got killed. But, Adam, like a shining knight, made a light of hope. There would be a second chance. Something we could write free lance. What we didn't know is what would repeat. We didn't know we would get swept off our feet."

"My heart beats faster. There's no happily ever after. It's coming faster. This is my curse, my death, my rebirth. It's coming faster. Here's the truth, we are a destiny made and awaited, completely complicated, controlled by the master, and selected to be a fated disaster."

The music ended and a sigh was heard. "I don't know how good that was, it probably sucked, I was never good at singing anything meaningful, I hope it made my point. I love you guys..and..I'm sorry that..I had to die." Aries said, then the stereo went silent.

Ian fell down to sit on the floor and then turned his head away from the sight, shaking his head, not even able to make up a thought, much less a thing to say or how to even properly identify his emotions, more than anything, he was shocked, they both were.

What was strange was that as they did com back down the stairs to check everything out, the bouncy ball was still laying at the bottom of the stairs in the foyer and by the time they got there, Gemini had picked it up. Neither one of them could have hallucinated it. How else could one explain how the ball got there?

A man in a suit walked into the white room, taking a seat at the cold steel desk that was set up there, a couple of doctors accompanied him, each having clip boards and pens with them and were writing things down.

The man grinned and looked across at the blonde who sat in the chair at a slight distance from the desk. "I take it everything went according to plan?"

"Were you paying attention?" Aries stared at the man, only known to him as Mr. X. "Though...what really shocks me...is how much sense each piece of the puzzle made, as I got the feelings...and the urges...and I had to start putting it all together, despite well written instructions, the picture of it all became so clear to me."

"As we hoped it would, you know that you are part of a great advancement in science, though you were a one in a billion success..."

"A lucky star?" Aries grinned at Mr. X. "I get how you managed to...manipulate the news...satellites and all. How did you keep the pictures out of the paper?"

"Secrets." The older man grinned.

Aries nodded. "And what about Ian?"

Mr. X slowly nodded. "An almost success, a first attempt at what we succeeded in doing with you. Aries, the difference in you and Ian is that Shane wanted his body used in cryogenics, anything we took from Adam was completely covert, it was a quick and rather...messy operation on our part."

"But...how did you know? About the reincarnation pact?" He asked.

"Think back to when you were a child...that time when your mother went to jail..." Mr. X trailed off.

Aries looked down confused. "It was...a black out. I remember being taken away and then the next thing I knew...we were being reunited."

"Exactly, we put you under a deep hypnosis to extract what memories we could, as a child they would have been more easily retrievable, even if you couldn't reach them yourself." Mr X. sighed. "Ian was our first attempt, we succeeded in cloning him, however the rest proved to be a failure...so we had to resort to other methods of merging him with Adam."

Aries slowly nodded, still feeling rather confused. "So...I've seen creepy government movies...particularly I have one in mind. Is this the part where there's a fucked up ending and I get shot and get dead anyway?"

"Why would you think that?"

Aries sighed. "Well...you made me happen...preserved a body through cryogenics...managed to transfer whatever you wanted from it to essentially make Shane part of me, however the hell technical way your people did it. Also allowing me to finish off the little script of a death you wrote up."

Aries shrugged. "I figure, you're not just going to let me go, maybe you'll decide I have some kind of little special gene or something that makes it happen and you'll want to use me for all I'm worth."

"I don't want you dead...not going to terminate such a success, a decision like that takes a lot of thought and delicacy. Of course, you are right, you belonged to us even before your conception." Mr. X explained.

"Even before..." Aries trailed off, confused.

"Well...Kristy isn't your mother, she was simply a surrogate. Not even Chris knows that..." He grinned. "Do you want to know how your daddy found you? Well he took care of your Byron problem, made that car accident get rid of him in exchange for your location."

"That..." Aries stood up. "That wasn't part of the plan! Riley wasn't supposed to die! I didn't even want Worth dead! You all wanted people dead! I don't...I don't understand why! Where is Chris?! Where is my dad?!"

"Eliminated..." Mr. X stood up.

"That's not fair! How could you do that?! Do you not owe me anything?!" Aries screamed as the door slid open and what appeared to be two orderlies walked in. He stepped back.

"It was us who saved you from prison, had it not been for your supposed mental hospital stay, I do apologize if, finding out all that you did, left you feeling...as lost as you looked when..." Mr. X looked down. "When you went to live with Gemini. Though it did give us a chance to reach you, meet...you, for a second time, actually organize our plan."

Aries glared at Mr. X and then he looked at the orderlies and tears started falling down his face. "Stay away from me! Stay away!" He screamed and yanked at the strong men as they grabbed him and pulled him towards the door.

"You'll understand in time!" Mr. X yelled and sighed.

"Please! Just let me go!" Aries cried in a fit of screams that faded off in the distance as he was taken away.

"So what about Ian?" The doctor asked.

"Ian will no longer be a problem. We captured him, implanted the initial memories through hypnosis, driving him to see our hypnotherapist to continue the process, since he discontinued services and Aries has proven to be a far more success, I see no other reason to continue with him. He's not a threat, so I see his project as being terminated."

"What's next?" One of the doctors asked.

"That...is in theory at the moment." Mr. X said as he walked out of the room.