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Thirty-Five - Zeus

Light flicked in his eye. Squinting hard, he shook his head. Shoving away the pin light being used to test his ocular reflexes.

"I said I was fine." He growled.

He needed to be out there with his team, even though Castian had gone out as soon as the other hybrid was on a bed in the lab. Her injuries were more severe than his, and she wasn't healing as fast as she should have been. Not that he knew a lot about the Calico species. Only they were feline in appearance. Wolfeen people shared similar characteristics to those of wolves. Zema didn't leave her side and brushed away attention from any of the doctors. That was her right though, plus it likely helped a lot Zema was a Queen amongst her people.

She'd been used by the Ghoul to extract Calico DNA. Whether Zeus believed the hybrid Isa was a direct experiment from that DNA, he wasn't sure, but it was possible. It posed a question of whether Wolfeen know when a hybrid was created using their DNA.

It was a question for Sam, but Sam was busy. Once he checked out, he was on his feet to help in the lab. More Wolfeen and Raptodon soldiers were trickling in, injured.

The ones that were captured from the lab were in handcuffs. Zeus didn't like being in the same room with them, not while Tati, Khole, and Erika were nearby.

"You have a concussion, several broken ribs, and a bruised ankle. I'm clearing you from the medical bay, but you are not cleared for field duty." The Raptodon physician said, his slitted pupils narrowing.

"Don't worry Doc, we'll keep an eye on him," Erika said. She glanced up from a tech pad in her hands, which she'd been glaring at throughout his examination. "It looks like we've got another load of baddies being loaded onto the other ship right now."

Zeus sat up, moving with a shuffle to look over her shoulder as they all gathered around her.

"How are you seeing all this?" He asked,

"Oh, there are like...cameras and stuff all over the ship from the outside. Vexx figured it out and Apollo told me I could at least watch from here... way better than a camera. Of course, it would have been nice to know before they went out. Apollo didn't tell me until he was out there," Erika said, tapping the earpiece tucked into her other ear.

Gasping, she looked up at them.

"It's Castian, they got her. They got Webb. And there were a bunch more hybrids down in some lower levels, and" Erika's brow creased. Eyes scanning around the room. Looking over at Tabetha.

Since they came in, she'd followed them to the med bay, but almost immediately she complained of a headache. Samfred noted it was similar to the one she'd had before they were captured.

"What is it?" Zeus asked, following her line of sight.

Erika shook her head, motioning for them to follow her out into the hallway.

The energetic little hybrid was pressing her fingers to the piece in her ear. Listening to whatever was being said over the com in her ear. Her feet put distance between herself and the rest of the group as she got as far away from the med bay as possible.

"Guys... that's not Tabetha," Erika said, turning to them, her face pale. "She's a clone," Erika said.

Zeus' spine straightened, turning on his good leg, moving back to the med lab with Tati close behind him.

"What are you going to do?" Tati asked, half running at his side to keep up. His ankle was feeling better, but he was still slower than usual. By tomorrow, it would be like he'd never been interrogated. Webb's men wanted to know where Castian would take the Khole and Erika, but he didn't know, so he couldn't tell them a thing. Even if he had known, it wouldn't have told them where the hybrids were. It was bad enough Webb had gotten the drop on them twice already and now he knew how.

A clone. Webb could use Tabetha's replica to find them.

"I don't know yet," Zeus told her as he pushed the doors open. He spotted one of the Raptodon soldiers watching the men they brought in from Webb's base.

"You need to cuff her," he said, motioning toward Tabetha—well, the Tabetha look alike. Tabetha 2.0.

The Raptodon glanced at him for a mere second. His only response was a nod as he retrieved a set of handcuffs from his belt and cuffed her to the railing.

"What's going on here? Take those off of her." Samfred said a tray of gauze was in his hands as he stopped dead where he stood.

"She's a clone, Sam. They're bringing the real Tabetha in now. Webb had her in some kind of...tank." Erika said, her eyes landing on the duplicate, her face scrunching. "How did we not know? She looks exactly like Tabetha."

Sam placed the tray down, absent from his prior duties, as he walked over to the bed to examine his friend once more.

"We wouldn't. Cloning has been banned all over Luna Centra and many other galaxies as well. When a person is cloned, their replica holds all of their memories. Everything until the moment they are created. Once they realized what they are, those memories are wiped. Who knows when Webb got... the real Tabetha." Samfred sighed, brushing a stray hair away from her forehead.

"Is she dangerous?" Khole asked.

Sam shook his head.

"I don't know, Tabetha, our Tabetha wouldn't hurt a fly... we can only make assumptions until we figure all of this out. For now, she remains under watch. It's all we can do for now." Samfred said. His posture was stiff as he moved back to the tray he'd placed down. Samfred got back to work, though, as Zeus watched him, he could see the Grey stealing glances at the clone.