“You are such a coward, Nick” I said to the kid when, much to my surprise, I found him in our room, just a couple of minutes later.

“Shut up!” he said defensively without even looking at me. He was sitting on his bed playing with one of those little games he and Brian were always inventing. They were pretty similar to the Gameboys we used to have on Earth.

“Just admit it, Nicky, you are a coward. Kevin showed up and you ran.”

“I didn’t run. I just had something to do.”

“Yeah, right!”

“Even if I had run, would you blame me? I don’t like to be around him when he is mad.”

“He was mad at me Nick, not you.”

“AJ, picture this, Kevin mad and you and me in front of him,” he said finally looking at me. “Who’s the one who will end up in trouble most of the time?”

“Oh, come on Nicky. Don’t you dare to play the victim here. Kevin yells more at me. The guy is always defending you.”

“Yeah, he treats me like a baby,” he replied placing the game aside.

“Because you whine like one.”

“Ha ha” he said making a face and for a minute I thought he was about to stick his tongue out at me like he used to do all the time when he was a little kid. Sometimes it was hard to remember that he wasn’t a little kid any more. “I don’t whine” he added. Right, and you are not whining right now.

“You are exaggerating. He doesn’t treat you like a baby, Nick.”

He lifted his arm showing me his bracelet. Okay, you got a point there.

“Okay, he treats you like a kid but he treats me the same way. He just does that because we are the youngest in the family.”

“He doesn’t treat you the same way he treats me.”

“Excuse me, but where have you been the last few days? He is treating me like a baby. The little brother who has to do what the others say.”

“Fine, he treats you like his baby brother. Good for you. He treats me like his son.”

“What?” I said smiling.

“Don’t laugh. He treats me like his son, AJ. Not his little brother. There’s a difference there.”

“What are you talking about?”

“You want an example? When was the last time you had to ask for permission to go anywhere?”

“What? I have no idea. I always have to tell the guys where I am going.”

“You have to TELL them. There’s a difference there, Bone. You just tell them but I have to ASK for permission.”

“Nicky come on. I’m two years older than you.”

“That’s not the point. And don’t call me Nicky. I hate it.”

“How’s that not the point, NICKY?” I can’t help it. I love bothering him.

He just rolled his eyes. “Because you never had to ask Kevin’s permission.”

“Man, you really hate to ask for permission.” I said burying my face on my pillow. The kid got on my nerves pretty easy with his whining. “Ok, I admit that I never ask permission. But except for that you have to accept that he treats us the same way.”

“No way.”

“Yes way. Didn’t we learn about our powers the same day.”

“Man you are obsessed with that. Fine, we learnt about our powers the same day. That’s the only time he treated us the same way.”

“Nick…”

“Is that a gun?” he said pointing at the laser I had placed on our desk.

“What?” Shit, I get it. “Well, it isn’t mine. Mine is ruined and…”

“You get the point, AJ” he rested his head on the headboard. “You got a laser the day you became 14, right? I’m about to turn 16 and Kevin still doesn’t let me have one.”

“You know shooting is just related to my power.” Man, I would be hating Kevin if I were Nick.

“Yeah, whatever.”

Yes, he is right. But there’s probably a good explanation for everything. Kevin practically raised him. Nick passed from the little angelic baby that Kevin always baby-sat on Earth to the little child that became his entire responsibility when we left our parents. I had the chance to create the 'nuisance cousin' relationship first before Kevin took charge of everything.

“Jeez, Nick. I never thought about that.” I said looking at him. “I guess you are right. And here I was complaining about Kevin being too hard on me.”

“Yes. You’re a jerk.”

“Don’t push your luck kid”

“Bone, you ARE always complaining about everything. Man, I would change places with you any day. The others treat you like and adult. They tell you everything.”

I raised my eyebrows.

“Okay, except for that.” he said understanding what I was thinking.

“You said it like it wasn’t a big deal.”

“How am I supposed to know if it’s a big deal or not? You guys never tell me anything.”

We kept silence for a minute.

“You were right about them working for the rebels” he added out of nowhere.

“What?”

“I said you were right.”

“And how would you know?”

“Because I’ve followed them.”

“YOU HAVE WHAT?”

“Followed them. I’ve seen them on that rebel base.”

For some reason confirming that Kevin and Howie are working with the rebels doesn’t seem so important as hearing that Nicky has been there. Maybe because part of me already knew that Train and D were with the rebels.

“You have been in the rebel base? When? How?”

“Not in the rebel base, you dummy. I was following them. I didn’t get inside.”

“Let me ask this again because I don’t think you were listening.” I said leaving my bed and taking a seat in front of him. “WHEN?”

“A couple of times.”

“You have been using your powers without Kevin noticing it. Today you didn’t even want to help me," I complained

“I have been there, AJ, not my astral projection.”

“How? You are always with Rok and you have that bracelet now.”

“This thing?” he said moving his hand “Jay, Rok made it years ago. This thing is old and I know exactly how it works. I can’t do whatever I want with this old thing. And it's not like I’ve been doing it every day, since you were never here and I had to help Brian. But the days you actually stayed here I took advantage of the situation,” he answered giving me one of his patented grins. I remembered that when we were living on Philippians one of those smiles usually made all the women there say something like 'Isn’t he adorable?'

“So every time I’ve been working with Rok and the little monitor he has, showed him you were in your room or somewhere else in this ship…”

“I was really outside.”

“Damn, that’s not fair. You got away with everything.”

“You just love to see me in trouble, don’t you?”

“Like you don’t enjoy watching me in trouble.”

“Well, witnessing Kevin today get mad with you when you activated your shield was hilarious.”

“Man, it really was a reflex. He started to approach and…Wait a minute. I thought you ran as soon as Kevin appeared.”

“Well, I…”

“You were there all the time?”

“Not all the time. I did go away.”

“When? You didn’t leave because of Kevin, right?”

He didn’t answer.

“Then why?” I finally saw it clearly “Jeff?”

He started to play with the gameboy again.

“Nick!”

“There was a chance he could recognize me okay!”

“Recognize you from where?”

“The bar,” he whispered and once again he avoided my gaze.

“The bar? You’ve been into a bar? Are you nuts? What the hell were you doing there?”

“That’s none of your business.” he said looking up defiantly.

“You are just a kid.”

“Fuck you, AJ. If you can go, then I can go. And don’t say what I can or can’t do.”

Man, I feel the urge to hit the boy. Okay, I will try Howie’s approach. Try to stay calm AJ, and maybe he will tell you everything.

“What happened in that bar?”

“I got in trouble and your friend saved me.” He saved him? He saved me and then he saved him? Oh god, there’s a voice on my head screaming 'too many coincidences'.

“He is a good guy.”

“Yes, he is.” Or at least that’s what I used to think. Because if he is such a good guy then why am I feeling so suspicious about him?

“But he has some friends I don’t like.”

“Friends?” Jeff has friends here? Wasn’t he a loner?

“These guys in the bar he was talking to. There was just something about them that I didn’t like. Something that kept me watching them but I’ve no idea what was it. But maybe it was just because they were humans and we don’t see humans too often. I had this strange feeling when I met Jeff too. Strange? Didn’t I had a strange feeling when I met him. What the hell is going on here?

“So, you were in that bar just once?”

“Yes, AJ” he said rolling his eyes again “just once.”

“What exactly happened?”

“I entered the bar after I lost Kevin and Howie one afternoon. I was following them but they just disappeared. Once there, I noticed nobody was paying attention to me, so I decided to have a drink and this stupid drunk Gris started to make fun of me. He made a joke about me and you know me, I wasn’t going to leave him make fun of me without saying anything, so I kind of made a joke about him too, which wasn’t difficult considering the guy WAS a joke. He didn’t like what I said and I think he was about to hit me when Jeff intervened. Not that I needed his help. I was bigger than that Gris.” I rolled my eyes.

“Did you two talk?”

“No, he just told me that maybe that wasn’t the right place for me to be. I thanked him and left.”

I really don’t like any of this. He just bit his bottom lip before answering my question. There’s a good chance he is lying but if that’s the case there’s no way he is going to open up to me. Man I don’t want to think about what Jeff could be really looking if all this is not a simple coincidence. It has to be a coincidence. This planet is making me ill. There isn’t a single night I don’t feel like there are people following me. And those dreams…

“Nick, I have to ask you something. Are you by any chance having strange feelings since we came to K-Tawoor?”

“Strange feelings like what?”

“I don’t know. Have you had strange dreams? I’m not dreaming about my mother anymore but last night I’ve dreamed about my father. I don’t know how he looks and I didn’t even saw his face in my dream but I’m sure it was my father and for some reason that dream scared me.

“No. But what I’ve noticed is that you are acting weird.” Great! I shouldn’t have asked.

“I’m acting weird?”

“Yes, you are acting weird ever since we are in this planet.”

“Why do you say that?”

He didn’t reply.

“Well, maybe you are right. For some reason I don’t want to be here. I hate to see Sargons on every corner and I hate not being able to use my powers.”

“Not that again!” he muttered standing up and going to the door.

“What?”

“Man, you ARE obsessed with your powers. Is not the first time we are planet side and unable to use them, AJ. Why is this time so different? You are becoming really annoying,” he complained before leaving the room.

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