"And as a result of his untimely death, the uploads changed hands many times through several generations, waiting for the right person and the right technology to come along."

They were forgotten in a storage facility for decades. They were only labeled FOX, and came to be known as the Fox Inheritance. Finally, the battery docks that kept you suspended neared their expiration and gave a two-year warning signal. The small research facility that had acquired them didn't have the resources to decipher the outdated codes, and they didn't want to get mixed up in something they suspected might be illegal, so they gave them to Dr. Gatsbro, who was known to conduct research beyond established boundaries--for an agreed-upon price, of course.

"Finally, after two and a half centuries, the right person came along--someone with the resources, expertise, and vision--to give us a second chance, our very own Dr. Gatsbro." Kara smiles sweetly at him and tilts her head like she is truly touched.

Dr. Gatsbro is silent. He finally nods. "Excellent job, my dear." He turns to me. "And for you, Locke, your job will be to describe your new bodies and how they are every bit as good as your old ones. Better even. Can you do that?"

I look at my hands. Their sense of touch is amplified. They can detect a grain of sand in my palm. I rest them on my thighs, which are stronger and more muscular than the ones I remember from so long ago. Better. But not exactly mine. It's taken me a full year to get used to that. Could he have made them the same, or did he just have to guess? I look up, his eyes still fixed on me. "Yes, of course, Dr. Gatsbro. Better even."

I recite my well-rehearsed spiel, but I know my dramatics are subpar compared to Kara's. Still, he seems pleased.

"Well done." He draws the words out like a gourmet meal. "Very well done," he repeats to himself and sends us to our rooms to await the arrival of our visitor. When we are almost out the door, and perhaps at what he judges to be a safe distance, he adds, "And if our visitor should bring up the subject of Jenna, leave that to me. Understand?"

He couldn't leave it alone. My eyes lock on Kara, but she only nods and walks out of the room.

Chapter 6

Where were you, Locke? Where did you go when you didn't answer me? When you left me alone? Where did you go? Why didn't you answer me?

She doesn't want to know.

She shouldn't know.

Because where I went is hurtful, and I don't want to hurt her. I went where I had to go. I went where I survived on gulps of memory and scraps of touch. I went where I remembered a good kind of quiet. A peace. I went to be with my memories of Jenna. Her voice may have been gone, but my memories of her were still alive.

"I don't remember where I went. I died. I shut down. I was lost in a black hole. Just like you."

Where were you, Locke? Tell me. Where were you?

Chapter 7

It was always Kara, Jenna, and me. Or at least it seemed that way. We were friends for only a year and a half before the accident, but for me it was a lifetime. We were instantly bonded. Maybe it was because it came at a turning point in our lives--just the right window where our worlds were all aligned, all needing something, maybe the same thing, maybe one another. We lifted one another up. Strengthened one another. We held hands. We crossed a line. We made one another braver.

I was the youngest. Only two months younger than Jenna, but a whole year younger than Kara. A whole year. I shake my head, thinking of that now, but then a year meant more. When you're fourteen and you meet a girl who is fifteen and she smiles and is nice to you, nice, a new world opens up for you. And then when Jenna did the same, I couldn't get enough of either one of them. Jenna was the first girl I kissed, and then Kara. It was only in fun, and I laughed right along with them, but inside it felt like something more. Something important. I was somebody different.

When Dr. Gatsbro told us that Jenna had survived the accident, I was relieved. More than relieved--I had to sit down, 260 years of guilt flooding out of me for what I had done. And for the first time, I thought I could see tears in Kara's eyes. But when Dr. Gatsbro told us Jenna was still alive, that was when Kara had to sit down too. "They saved her? All these years, alive? Free? While we were--"

Dr. Gatsbro continued with his explanation, but Kara was only hearing a fraction of it, her voice rising as she tried to process it.

"Just because she still had ten percent of her brain and we didn't? Ten percent?"

I watched her change. Right then. Like veined marble was traveling up her legs, across her lap, up to her shoulders, stiffening her neck and finally covering her face, leaving a cracked version of who she once was.

"They saved her, but didn't bother with us?"

She stood up and began pacing. By this time Dr. Gatsbro had stopped explaining and was telling her she needed to let it go. Her voice only grew louder. She mimicked the words that Jenna had so often said to us when she was frustrated with her parents. "Precious Jenna. Their precious, adored Jenna. Anything for Jenna."

She stopped pacing and her eyes fixed on a lampshade across the room, staring at it like she was looking right at Jenna. "All this time, going on and living your life and you never tried to help us?"

That was when she grabbed the nearest thing to her hand, a decorative glass cube on Dr. Gatsbro's desk, and threw it. I don't think she was aiming for him. The Kara I knew would never raise a hand to anyone. But then again, she wasn't the Kara I knew. I had seen that from the first day, when she slapped me. She had changed. We both had. And by the next day, I was wondering right along with her, Why didn't Jenna save us? We would have saved her.