"It seems like two sides of the same coin, wouldn't you say, Mr. Finch?" She pulled up a 3D hollow screen, and it cast the familiar image of my pendant. She can pull it apart with her fingers, a front and a back piece shaped like a broken clock gear, and a thin vial of amber liquid between them.

"The sample is kept here, in stasis." She explains, pulling the vial away from the other pieces. "These samples are taken at your birth and combined with a foreign substance. The idea is that upon meeting your mate, the two pieces, in this case, your necklace and Zara's, will lock together and create a new antibody. If your bloodline is powerful, there may be other things they can do with the new agent created."

"But- but I was seeing her in my-"

"You and Miss Rueben were somewhat compatible, and so the pendant picked up on that." Roma interrupts. "Thus, you felt drawn to the girl. It was an experiment gone wrong." Her words leave me on edge. I was someone's experiment? I squelch the concerns and refocus my attention on what she's saying.

"The first treatment is always the worst, but once you're past it, you'll feel like your old self again." I don't want her to realize I wasn't listening so I just nod along.

"Once we've flushed the toxin out of your system, we can move on. Are there any other questions?" When I shrug, she shakes my hand sympathetically.

"I know it must seem overwhelming right now. But we'll take good care of you, Mr. Finch, not to worry."

She squeezes my shoulder and leaves me with my thoughts.

I should let my mother and Adriana know where I am. Mom has probably been worried; Adriana will have been sullen and not herself- The door opening again breaks into my mental planning.

"Finch! I saw all the guards outside and that doctor lady come in; I'm surprised they let me past!" Casper darts into my side, punching my arm in irritation. "Why didn't you send for me? What'd she say?" He demands, hitting me again.

"Stop punching me, for the five's sake! It's fine. Calm yourself." I rub my sore arm, huffing back at him while he takes Roma's vacated chair. "Now, what are you going on about? What guards?" He sighs, rising as quickly as he sits down and gesturing for me to follow him to the door. On tiptoe, we make our way over, and he points at the window in the door.

A glance out explains what he was saying. On either side are security guards dressed in charcoal with radios on their hips and earpieces. Collars buttoned up to their throats; their trousers are ironed within an inch of their lives. The only thing that suggests anything unusual is the batons hanging on their belts.

"I assume that's for the complex; in the instance I become aggressive due to my illness." I return to my chair, ignoring his exclamation of surprise.

"Illness? You were right then?" He asks.

"It would seem so." I shrug. He looks over at the door and back to me.

"You don't think anything about this is odd?" 

I shake my head. “They’re merely taking precautions and are wise to do so.”

Casper crosses his arms, jaw set.

"Of course. Very thoughtful. And for how long are they planning on having this wise guard enlistment on you?" He snags an apple from the fruit basket, waiting for my answer.

"I don't know. Roma didn't mention it. But I assume it'll be until after the first batch of treatments." He chews furiously, mulling over my answer before swallowing decisively.

"Then, I'll be right there with you." He announces.

"Casper-"

“Too late, decision made.”

After a quick breakfast that only Casper can enjoy, we're brought back to the same labs as yesterday, though without the pomp and circumstance this time. Casper is left behind while the guards show me through the glass elevator and allow me to go down on my own.

When I reach the sub-level, Roma is waiting, all but abuzz with excitement.

"Excellent, you arrived right on schedule. If you wouldn't mind changing into this dressing gown?" She hands one to me, in soft cotton and robin's egg blue. "We'll give you the injection and then begin your Treatment. It can be rather intensive the first time, so we'll give you a mild sedative to help ease the way."

I make short work of changing into the provided gown. This done, they put me in the same bed I was in the previous day. To my surprise, Zara is already there and in her rites dress.

Her eyes are closed, and a masked technician sits on her right, wiping at a spot with an antiseptic wipe. It's left a burnt orange color, but the area is sterile. I squirm when he picks up a large needle from the silver tray between the two chairs. It's at least three inches long and gleams sharply under the fluorescent lights.

"The injection is a thick one. You'll feel a bit of pressure and discomfort as it's administered," Roma says, preparing my arm for the same.

"Miss Rueben is already under the sedative?" I look away as the needle pierces my vein and do my best to breathe. In through my nose and out through the mouth, slowly, slowly. "Why is she dressed like that?"

"Yes, she's a bit farther along, so we had to administer the sedative first." She smiles brightly, even while I wince. The smile is beginning to grate. "I think it made her feel more at ease to keep the gown on and pretend things are going the way she wanted them to. We hope that once the first Treatment is done, she will no longer require her dress's security blanket to help through the process."

"I'd like for Mr. Brooks to be pres-" My mouth goes slack, the word laying heavy on a tongue that won't move. That smile is the last thing I see before the room goes dark.

The next thing I'm aware of is a sharp pain in my skull, throbbing just at the base where the head meets the neck. A trembling around me shakes the chair and the ground along with it.

"We can't continue this. They'll kill us all!" A nearby voice is trying to pull at the lines in my arm, and someone else shoves them away.

"Just a little while longer. I know these are the ones we've been waiting for! Give it time to work." Roma's voice, pushing for more.

Someone is screaming at my side; I fling an arm out and meet Zara's hand. The screaming subsides, but the trembles do not. My body is wracked with pain, wrapping and twisting it into contorted shapes. Something like a fire is in my palm, where the skin of my hand touches Zara's. 

I can feel her then—her presence, a river charging and flowing through my veins connecting us. The screaming comes again, though I think it's me this time, I can't tell the difference. I don't know anymore where her heartbeat begins and mine ends. The heat is burning me, boiling me. I want to extinguish the flames, and a loud clang occurs just before someone yells, "He's pulled up the pipe!"

"We can't let it go any longer; it has to stop now, or we'll lose them!" The voice from before comes back in, masculine and charged with panic. The line is taken out. Another injection is given. The heat I felt between us moves up my arm, and where the needle stabs me, and things are black again.

 CHAPTER SIXTEEN-ZARA

When I wake from the final rite, it's cotton-mouthed, and with my legs, all mixed up with someone else's. There’s a much softer mattress beneath me, and Toren is breathing deeply at my side. The lighting has been left low in our "recovery room," Only the swelling of my right arm reassures me it wasn't all a horrid dream.

Toren mumbles something against my neck, lying limp and arm heavily thrown over onto my side of the bed. His face is clammy under my fingers. I make use of the bowl on the nightstand and douse a washcloth in the water it holds, squeezing it out. Hands shaking so hard, I think I might drop the towel; I wipe his brow. He stirs—eyes opening with dark circles beneath them.

"Zara? They- what happened?" He doesn't push away the towel, but I don't know he has the strength to do so.

"I don't know-"

"You're both awake, excellent!" Roma's heels clack into the room; her pink matte lipstick stretched over her face in an ecstatic grin.

Toren struggles against the pillows, trying to sit up. "What did you do to us? What about the Treatment, you-" We must help one another into some semblance of sitting upright. His question only further confuses me.

"Treatment? You told me the final rites-" Roma pats my head affectionately, our ire doing nothing to dampen her spirits.

"While you both took a different path to get here, the destination was the same. Don't strain yourselves; I'll explain everything in due time-" Roma gives me a bemused smile when my hands lighten.

"No. You're going to tell us now." I will my hands to burn brighter and hotter, and they do for a split second. Toren yelps and makes a wild grab for the bowl of water.

"My hands, they're burning!"

"Toren!"

Roma holds up a hand, and instead of helping us, the technicians that started forward hold back. "Are you okay?" He looks at his hands and back at me, his voice low.

"When you did that, with your hands. It felt as though mine were also on fire. I could feel the heat drawn out of my body through my palms." He whispers. "Now that you've stopped-"

"You feel nothing. Isn't that right, Mr. Finch?" Roma smirks. When we both look up at her, she smiles again. I want to smack the stupid smile right off her face. "What you felt was Miss Rueben's gift. You've been joined to one another-"

"What?" I stop breathing. My hand still holds Toren's, wiping it with the towel when I freeze. Roma grins and nods happily.

"That's right, my dear. You've been joined to your Bond Mate, mind to mind, and soul to soul. And it worked, isn't that marvelous?"

I think I'm going to throw up. I think I look like I'm going to throw up because Toren reaches for me, wet hands and all, and holds me up when I begin to double over.

"You're upsetting Miss Rueben. Enough of these coy comments." He orders. "I demand answers, and if I don't receive them-"

"She completed the joining. It's- it's when you've gone through all the rites with your Bond Mate and accepted one another in front of the Clan elders." Am I talking? Is that my voice that's gone hollow, that sounds so far away? "You- there is a commitment ceremony, where a person and their Bond Mate are joined. Mind to mind and soul to soul." I echo Roma's words.

"A commitment ceremony? As in a marriage ceremony? You- are you saying-" He's shaking his head, looking from my hands to his while Roma nods, pleased.

"That's right. Congratulations are in order, Mr. and Mrs. Toren Finch!"

Ten minutes later, guards take three technicians to the infirmary with second-degree burns; one has an oxygen mask on, and a chunk of the floor is ripped up. Handcuffed to the bed, Toren and I glare at our captor together.

"I appreciate that this news has come as a shock, but please refrain from destroying my recovery room." Roma scowls.

“You’re lucky I didn’t burn it to the ground,” I mumble back. Roma huffs, heels clicking as she crosses from the safety of the doorway to our bedside.

"The injection we gave you can come with some… undesirable side effects. I'm going to overlook your comment and these little outbursts." She informs us, arms folding. "But I expect you to understand that what we're doing is important and-"

 She's cut off when Toren shoves his body up from the headboard.

" You treated us like lab rats. You did not apprise us of the true situation nor your true intentions and possible side effects." I expect fury, white-hot, but his rage is cold, frozen in the defiance of his jaw thrust out, the eyes stone and empty.

 "If you've any sense of how a business is supposed to work, especially one working in the line of anything to do with the scientific or medical community, then you're well aware of the risks you took and the many ethics you completely skipped over." His hands fisted in the sheets, and his teeth grit hard enough to turn to dust. "I will personally see to it that you are-"

"Mr. Finch, I don't have time for your threats nor care to hear your blustering attitude." She frowns at him, all but shaking her finger. "I'm shocked at you. You come from one of the founding families and the leading family of Apparatus at that. Risks must be taken in science to create change! These results are the breakthrough of the century." She's back to smiling, drinking us in, and looking like she'd like to bounce on her toes.

"The breakthroughs we make in our labs are always made with consent when involving other individuals-“ He’s gearing up for another rant but she’s swift to cut him off. "If you would stop interrupting, I could explain our motivations." That stupid, ever-present tablet is again in her hand, the steady clack of her fingernails slowly driving my temper to new heights. "We've injected each of you with a serum designed to synchronize your gifts and several neural pathways. In doing so, we've given your minds a bridge. Now, you can lend your partner a hand when you use your gifts! You can work together; your gifts will be stronger! In times of high emotional states, you'll be a steadying influence on one another." She reaches out to smooth my hair, sighing when I jerk back. "Zara, listen to me. I know what you want and why you came here. You brought Mr. Finch to discover the truth concerning your connection." Her eyes are sad and earnest, begging me to hear her.

"You must understand. Mr. Finch is yours, more than you could ever realize. Don't you feel the difference in your gifts? The two of you will always be stronger together. A member of The Clans joined with a high-standing member of The Districts can only bring a new understanding. When the story of the joining and strength of your gifts spread, you two will be shining examples of-"

"Examples of a lie." I correct her. "Examples of a forced joining, and you expect us to allow you to parade us around willingly? How many others have you told these lies to?"

Her eyes dim, her body stiffening. "You will not be lying. You will be giving hope to the fractured nations of today. Surely you know the class distinctions and injustice between The Clans and The Districts? The lack of respect, the tensions rising?" She nods at our wrists, cuffed together.

"When you two came in here, Mr. Finch had nothing but biting remarks, and you, Miss Rueben, were not much better. There needed to be understanding and common ground. I've given you that and more!"

She puts her hand over ours and holds them fast, nails digging into the skin. "Together, the three of us will bring about a change that rocks the nations, clansmen, and District members. If you can manage, think of what others can do with your different backgrounds. I've given you a gift." Now, her nails do cut into my hand. "And I expect you to accept it graciously."