Altered Ch. 04

"If the smell gets you all hot and bothered we could always share..." she teased, and she sucked and nibbled on my earlobe and backed away quickly before I could recover. "He, he!"

She dodged my half-hearted attempt at smacking her ass as she went around me to get to the fridge.

"Don't tempt me, I might just take you up on that," I returned.

"Promises, promises," she smirked.

"Nate, we're bored, take us to a bar or something, it sucks being cooped up in here all day and it's too hot outside -- PLEASE!" Robin begged.

"Fine, but put some actual clothes on, the last thing I need right now is to get in a bar fight over some guys thinking you're prostitutes!"

"And they say chivalry is dead," Tracy sneered.

I put my laptop away as the girls took turns sponge bathing. We were trying to conserve water since we had no water hook up at the stop. Conserving water seemed like a good idea at the time however the girls used their daily sponge baths to tease me. If I wasn't careful I would get an eyeful of their strip tease.

There wasn't a lot of room in a class B motorhome, they are designed to be small, the advantage was that they used less gas, could fit in a normal parking space, and were easy to take pretty much anywhere. The disadvantage being that the bathrooms were really tiny and so the girls would use that as an excuse to change wherever they could. I don't have an iron will so I must admit to sneaking a peek every now and again. They always seemed to know when I did too, and I caught hell every time, not so much because they cared but they were ball-busters. I often would have to wait outside until they finished just to avoid the embarrassment.

"We're finished!" Tracy called.

When I stepped back into the RV I got an eyeful of Tracy as she was topless and bent over tying the laces on her boots.

"You like?" she asked, raising herself up and splaying her hands off to the side.

She had a big grin on her face; I should have been immune to her by now but I turned a darker shade of pink. Her breasts swung invitingly and her nipples were fully erect and my cock soon followed.

"I thought you said you were done!" I sputtered.

"I'm done with my sponge bath," she giggled.

"Fine, you want to show off, I'll watch."

"Oh, you're no fun."

She pretended to be upset and quickly put on a white lace bra and yellow V-neck shirt. She looked up then smirked at me and I realized I was touching myself watching her. I quickly pulled my hand from my crotch and turned beet red.

"That's why I wait outside," I muttered and she laughed.

"What? What did I miss?" Robin queried.

"Nate was perving on me!"

"Ah, I always miss the good stuff," Robin quipped. "Nate? I was looking up places to go and all they have are strip bars around here. Do you mind if we go into town [El Paso], there was a really cool looking bar in town I want to try out?"

"Um, sure why not? What's it called?"

"Border City Ale House -- I know where it is can I drive?" she asked, brushing the side of my face with her fingertips.

Argh, what can I say? I'm a sucker for a pretty face. Don't get me wrong, she doesn't drive bad, she just drives like an 80-year-old grandma. For someone with fast healing she was really cautious, but my driving was the exact opposite and I really hated driving anyway so I let her take the wheel.

We were about two hours from town and it took us three, after a while I got used to the honks and curses as people sped around us. The bar was in the middle of a shopping center with a Chilies and Taco Bell in the parking lot and a lot of various shops interspersed in the main strip.

After we parked the girls got out first and started whispering and conspiratorially giggling at each other.

"Hey Nate, if a guy wants to take me home and ravage me, are you going to come to my rescue?" Tracy mewed.

"That would be ridiculous! I'm not going to fight every guy we meet!"

"Ahh," she mewed, and leaned into me and kissed me on the cheek, "you're sweet," not taking offense at my backwards compliment.

She skipped off towards the bar with a happy grin on her face. Robin grabbed me by the bicep and pulled me to a stop.

"Nate," she looked about her worried, "don't be mad..."

"At what?"

"I invited someone to the bar. You might not want to talk to her but..."

"Who?" I asked and must have shown a look of betrayal because she looked worried.

"Deena, your mom -- Nate she asked me a couple of days ago if she could meet. I owe her my life. I'm sorry if you won't trust me after this but I don't think she wants to harm you."

"I love my mom, but she is a psychic and she might have manipulated my mind, you don't know what she is capable of..."

"Yes, I DO! Your mom saved our lives and risked her own life so that we could get out of that hell hole your father had us in. I trust her and I know you should too. Please, just come with us."

"Why didn't you just ask me, instead of ambush me with this?"

"I knew you would just convince me that it wasn't a good idea..."

"Fine!" I shrugged her hands off of my arm.

I walked toward the bar a little angry, feeling betrayed, and a tiny bit guilty that I shrugged her off. As I walked toward the bar, I looked toward it with my third eye and found a bright aura that I found consistent with those with psychic abilities.

I walked into the bar and did a quick assessment of my surrounding; there was a long bar off to the left with a raised one-step platform with some bar stools and tables on it; behind the platform were more tables and further back past the bar area were more tables and some games, a jukebox, and a pool table. I knew right away where my mom was, there was no hiding her signature -- she sat at one of the tables behind the platform about two tables in from the door with her back to me.

Even from behind, I knew it was her. She was a gorgeous blonde woman, if she wasn't my mom I'd be all over that. But, I had no attraction towards her other than recognizing that she was a beauty. I walked up to her, no sense in trying to surprise her like I used to, there's no way she wouldn't know I was already there.

I put my hand on her shoulder as I was about to pass her and leaned in to kiss her cheek, "Mom, how are you?"

Her eyes were full of worry and trepidation, there was no deceit in them, just like I remembered her, at once I felt at ease and stupid for ever considering her malevolent. Once she saw my face, she brightened up and her smile beamed at me.

"Nathan!" she cried, rising up and wrapping me in a hug.

She felt like home and for the first time in more than a month, I felt at ease; like everything was going to be alright.

My mom was a voluptuous blonde, her hair a little duller with her age but hardly a wrinkle touched her face and had a body a teenager would kill for. She worked out often and was in great shape from all the Pilates and yoga she took. She had deep blue eyes, a slightly upturned nose, full ruby lips and a tiny mole on her left cheek.

I sat down across from her and Robin and Tracy sat next to us.

"Soooo..." I started, "How have you been?"

"Nate, I've missed you so much," she said, "This is the longest we have been apart since you were born."

"Mother, you know that I have found out about myself. Why don't you drop the act?"

She looked aghast, "Nate, I don't know what you 'found out' but I AM your mother. No one can take that from me. I have loved you since the day you were born."

Her face was full of sincerity, and when I thought about the past there is nothing I could think of that contradicted her.

"Look, Mom, I want to believe you - really but I have been told so many different things one contradicting the other and all pointing to the fact that my life has been a big lie. So, if you love me like you claim then why don't you start telling me the truth?"

She hesitated and looked concerned but then her face turned to one of determination.

"Nate, it's not that simple. If I tell you what I know, I will be hunted -- but I love you and you deserve to know everything," she said ominously. "Know this though, after I tell you, I will have to go into hiding."

"I don't want to put you in danger Mom..."

"I know honey but I believe in you. What they are doing is wrong and you are the only one with a chance to change anything," she said with hope. She put her hand on top of mine and started rubbing it with her thumb. "We can't talk here, they have eyes and ears in a lot of places and a lot of henchmen on their payroll, you can never tell if you are being listened in on. I have scanned the room and we are safe for now but you never know when someone may walk in."

"Fine you let's take this to the RV."

We went into the RV and broke down my bed and converted it to a table and bench. Mom sat across from me and once again the girls sat next to us.

"Why don't you start by telling me what you found out so far and let's go from there," Mom started.

"OK, explain this," I said, handing her my phone with my father's email opened for her to read.

She read it attentively and looked upset. After she finished, she looked angry, her face was contorted and scrunched up like she ate a lemon unexpectedly.

"Look Nate, your father is an accomplished liar, a good liar always mixes truth in with lies to get you to believe what they want."

"OK, I'm ready to listen to you, you have always been good to me and he has always been evil to everyone around him. I just need you to sort this out and let me know why he would say you have been manipulating my memories all my life."

"Oh Nate, I wish I could say he was lying about that..."

"Wait what? You admit it!"

"Honey, that's the thing about your father, he could tell the truth and still be lying to you."

"What does that mean, is it true or not?"

"Yes, it's true but it's not what you think. He left out a big chunk of why I had to do it."

At that point my mother started crying and she was gripping my hands tighter.

"What your father failed to tell you is that he altered your mind when you were young. He tried to put his memories and personality into you. I didn't know what he did until it was too late. You went from being a sweet kid who loved everyone around him into a sadistic little monster."

"How did he do that, he's not a psychic right?"

"Your father's scientists developed a backup for your memories that they implanted into nanobots. I believe there are billions of nanobots distributed throughout your body and each one of them has a small bit of information from your brain, they have many redundancies and are meant to help you restore your memories if you have a head trauma such as getting shot in the head. Before the nanobots were injected into you, he had a backup of his own memories put into them. They took over your mind."

"That explains a lot, like how I am remembering things that supposedly didn't happen. I even had a battle with some sort of latent personality while being controlled by a psychic."

"Yes, your father thought the nanobot would completely control you and he would be able to take control over your body, but you fought him and were able to keep some of your personality. But, you were also young and your mind wasn't strong, he wanted to test out his control over you so he had you kill the neighbors..."

"What?" I retched, "There's no way I would kill Natalie! I loved her -- didn't I?"

She reached over and stroked my face, "Yes you did. Your love for Natalie broke you free of his control, you saved her from the fire. You almost died," and she smiled with a look of admiration. "It's why I had to wipe your mind and give you false memories, it wasn't you that killed her parents it was him and I had to wipe him out of your mind."

I felt sick and wanted to throw up, but Robin reached over and pulled me into a hug from the side, Tracy grabbed my hand in empathy and cooed that it would be ok. I don't know why I felt so bad. I just got through killing more than 30 people less than a month ago but they were all armed and out to kill me -- this was murder.

"What happened exactly? I have just a few bits and pieces to go on," I said with some determination.

"I don't know exactly, I just picked up a few details about what happened. I was only there when you saved Natalie. The truth is, your father told me that you killed her parents and started the fire to cover up. He might have been lying but he seemed proud of what you did. You can ask him more about it one day when you confront him."

"So, you just wiped all of my memories?"

"I couldn't let your father control you and take over your mind! Besides, you wanted me to wipe your mind! There is no way I could have done it without your help, if you would have resisted it wouldn't have worked to the extent it did."

"Did you wipe out everything? I mean if the memories came from the nanobots, what would stop them from coming back?"

"The nanobots only restore memories that are signaled as missing -- like if you got shot your brain would heal but your mind would be missing a lot of data, this would trigger the nanobots to push the information back to your brain. It doesn't happen overnight either, it took years for it to 'restore' your mind."

"My brain was never injured, so what triggered the restore?"

"Your mind was young and you didn't have any memories, but your nanobots saw that there should have been memories since they had them and that triggered them."

"Wouldn't your mind wipe do the same thing?"

"No not really, I didn't wipe your mind, as much as fill it full of static and false memories, I overrode your memories. So, your nanobots aren't smart enough to compare their data, and eventually overtime their redundancies get replaced by new memories. But I cannot guarantee we got everything."

"OK, let's talk about this more later. What I don't get is why didn't you stop my father? The higher ups in the Illuminati were OK with what he was doing?"

"No, not really, but they put up with him -- your father is part of another secret society call Oriri Ex Cinere, which is Latin for 'rise from the ashes'," she whispered the name as if afraid someone might hear her say it.

"My father is part of two secret societies?" I said, incredulously.

"No, he isn't technically part of the Illuminati, he is cooperating with them," she said, looking to the side worried. "Nate, your father is a hybrid from alien ancestors not of Earth! He is part of an alien race, from a planet called Ataru, that crash landed here more than 300 years ago. Most of their technology was destroyed in the crash. In order to access the undamaged technology, they need technology that wasn't available back in the 1600's, like electricity etc. They were shapeshifters but compared to humans they were frail and weak and a lot of them were killed by humans. The only thing that kept them alive was their psychic abilities and their ability to mate with other species and create hybrids. All psychics today are hybrids of the Ataru. Oriri Ex Cinere's sole purpose is to recover the alien technology and return to their home planet. The Illuminati found out about them and proposed a swap of resources for technology. Your father doesn't work for the Illuminati he works WITH them. They put up with him because they want his technology. He is the oldest living hybrid left, he is more the 200 years old."

"Wait, you're a psychic... and Natalie is a psychic..."

"Yes! We are hybrids also -- and he is our unofficial leader."

"I'm psychic too, what does that make me?"

"You are special. You are not a hybrid, but more like an extrapolation -- a best guess. You are years of experimentation to bring back the pure alien DNA. You see, some of the technology only works when used by a full grown Ataruian, hybrids won't cut it. You are the key to accessing Ataruian data. Your father wants to control you because he wants to control the technology, the technology is power."

"Why would the Oriri Ex Cinere need the Illuminati's help if they have superior technology?"

"Believe or not, Nate, the Ataruian's aren't any smarter than humans, their range in intelligence matches humans. They are few in number; they needed the Illuminati's access to the human brain trust. Without the Illuminati's scientists and resources, it would have taken centuries to crack the technology and frankly your father didn't want to wait. So, the devil is in bed with the devil, so to speak."

"So why can we," I pointed to me, Robin and Tracy, "change shape and not you? You are a hybrid of Ataruian and human like us, right?"

"No, you, Robin and Tracy are not hybrids, you are neither Ataruian nor Human. You are genetically engineered to have the best of both. You see, as I said when the Ataruian first landed on Earth they were weaker than human; diminutive in comparison, your father wanted something that was stronger than either."

"If I'm a hybrid species wouldn't the Ataruian genetic checks fail on me?"

"The technology doesn't use a genetic test, rather it uses psionics as a key -- literally. Although we Ataruian hybrids still have psionic abilities to this day, they are far weaker than the originals and normally singular. For example, a mind reader is not able to do telekinesis and vice a versa. As a matter of fact, there are abilities that we lost over time that none of us have any longer. We needed a strong psychic with multiple abilities like the original Ataru but we didn't need to produce an original, that would be next to impossible anyway since we don't have a genetic sample any longer. We are so watered down that we almost lost all of our Ataruian traits. The last century in order to keep our alien heritage there has been a lot of hybrid racism, where we no longer mix with the humans, the more mixed with humans you are the less valuable you are. The biggest problem has been the rise in incest with hybrids."

I decided to make a few wisecracks, my sarcasm getting the best of me, "So are there Ataruian dating sites, an Ataruian Power movement and Ataruian political parties?"

She didn't even blink at my jest, "As a matter of fact yes."

"Oh -- interesting," I felt a little buzz killed, "Is that why you never had children of your own, I mean genetically your own, you didn't want your children to mix with humans?"

I felt embarrassed, almost like she would be insulted by my question and was expecting rebuke but instead she answered, "Yes."

"My mom's a racist," I thought, "An ACTUAL racist..."

As if reading my mind, she said, "Listen, Nate, I don't hate humans, some of my good friends are humans, I just want to preserve my heritage before it goes extinct. There are less than 10 thousand Ataruian's on Earth and as far as we know we are the only ones left on any planet. That's why you are so important to us Nate, your genes were designed to be dominant as they are passed down, your progeny will inherit all of your superior traits so that once you start having children, we Ataruians will no longer need to resort to..."

"OK, so if Dad was telling the truth about you, what was he lying about?"

"Most of what he told you was true, but his parents were never part of the Illuminati, they hated your father. As a matter of fact, your father had them killed. They had the last laugh though because they left all of their money to you. I am guessing your father wants you to believe that HE gave you all of your money because, plain and simple, he wants your money -- from what I hear you have a lot -- millions? -- and if he wants to break free of the Illuminati influence he will need all the money he can get his hands on."

Robin decided to interject, "Don't forget that he lied about us too..."

"He might be right about you being able to procreate with Robin and Tracy -- at one point in time it was your sole purpose."