Cleanup by glacis. Rated PG13 for violence. Ending scenes for the series finale of Kyle XY.

~~

Kyle stared into the dark eyes tearing up above him and froze. Cassidy was his brother? The man who threatened his family, blackmailed him, killed Jessi’s mother, was his brother? And Grace, the woman behind Latnok, was his mother?

Was this another lie?

His mind flashed to Nicole, the expression on her face, the tears in her eyes, as she bemoaned what he had become. She was his mother. Not Grace. Lori and Josh were his siblings. Not Cassidy. His family by choice was so much more important than his surviving biological family, who saw him as nothing more than a blueprint from which to develop an army of clones. His fingers tightened. Cassidy choked and tried to beg, but he had no air with which to speak.

For Nicole, Kyle would not kill him. Because she believed he was better than that. He’d have to find another way to neutralize the threat posed by the man and his shadowy organization. His fingers gradually unclenched from their death grip on Cassidy’s throat, and Kyle dropped the other man to the ground, glaring down at him.

“Leave me and my family alone, Cassidy. Brother or not, I will stop you.” He didn’t know how, but he knew he would.

From the smirk on Cassidy’s face as he staggered away from the patio, Cassidy thought he’d won. Kyle had a gnawing fear that he just might, after all.

Slowly gathering up the shattered wood from the door frame and beginning to fix the damage he’d caused, Kyle let his hands work automatically as his mind worked furiously. There had to be a way out…

~~

“Well, that was an absolute clusterfuck,” Foss muttered, glaring at Cassidy slouching away from the Trager house. He sighed. Let Kyle’s soul stay as clean as it could. Foss had been cleaning up after Adam for years. He would clean up after Adam’s son, too.

Three miles away, in the shadows of a tall fenced-in estate, he struck.

Cassidy must have been off his game, from having been tossed around like a rag doll by Kyle, because he barely flinched when Foss caught him. He tried to fight back, but his movements were sluggish and uncoordinated. Foss mentally thanked Kyle for the loss of oxygen, probable concussion and multiple bruises earlier inflicted by Kyle. It made his job easier.

A head lock, a quick twist, a sharp report of bone snapping, and Grace’s little sociopath was no more. Slinging the body over his shoulder, Foss stuffed it in the back of his SUV and headed out to the woods. He had a date with a power saw and a shovel.

~~

Jessi held back her growl when Amanda didn’t back down. So Miss Goody Slut was going to go after her Kyle, huh? A niggle of respect kept her from turning the blonde into a grease spot on the carpet.

“You deserve that much,” Amanda told her, and Jessi stared at her a moment longer before conceding, “You’re braver than I thought.”

She’d have to do something about that later. Right now, there were more pressing concerns. Like the fact that Nate’s heart rate was speeding up and he was about to wake up.

Jessi didn’t leave loose ends. Not when they threatened her, or her Kyle. Not after what they’d done to Sarah. At the thought of her murdered mother, Jessi got it in gear. “You have a way home? You don’t want to be caught here.”

Amanda’s eyes bugged out, even more than usual, and she hurriedly grabbed her purse and her sweater and ran to the door. She paused at the doorway. “Do you need a ride home?”

“No,” Jessi told her abruptly, anxious for her to be away. “Go home.”

For a moment, it looked like Amanda might protest. Jessi upped her glare a few degrees. Amanda wilted and left. Jessi smiled after her departure, though it looked more like a snarl.

“Bitch,” Nate slurred from near the floor, as he leveraged himself up into an attack position.

That lasted for less than a second. With her usual ruthless efficiency, Jessi caught him under the chin with a roundhouse kick that put him out. Permanently.

Satisfied with the now-silenced heartbeat, Jessi quickly put the room to rights, erasing all signs of any struggle. She then set a virus program to run rampant on Nate’s hard drive, destroying all the electronic files he had on Kyle and the cloning project, before gathering up all the hard copies and securing them in her bag. Finally, when the room looked as normal as she could make it, she tossed Nate’s body into a fireman’s hold over her shoulder. Watching from the window, she waited until the coast was completely clear. Having disabled the cameras earlier, she made her escape with the corpse, and no one was any the wiser to her presence there that night.

~~

By the time the Tragers returned from their outing, Kyle had the door repaired. The shattered wood was replaced by clean unpainted pine, with plywood filling the empty panes. He’d have to see about replacing the glass later. Nicole’s exclamation brought him from his absent musing on exactly which shade of cream he’d need to match the existing trim.

What followed was an excruciating hour of guilt, recrimination, tears (from Nicole, Lori, and Kyle) and shouting (from Stephen and Josh, although Josh did more squeaking than shouting), and eventually, hugs. It settled into a family planning session that boiled down to Kyle determinedly arguing that he would take care of everything and everyone, Nicole advocating disengagement, Lori lobbying for Mark to infiltrate Latnok to spy for clues, Josh pushing for them all to move to Cleveland (no doubt thinking of joining Andi) and Stephen wanting to call Tom Foss for help.

Little did they know, events were already in motion to protect them. Without realizing it, father, in this case, knew best.

~~

Instinct drove Jessi to the place where she’d made her first kill. Not far from the clearing where the would-be rapist had died at her hands, she stopped, head cocked, listening intently.

A whirring sound, a muffled whine, a dull thunk, then another. Breathing, a little labored, a heartbeat, racing, but not out of control. The smell of sweat and trees overpowered by the stench of blood. Shifting Nate’s body into a more secure hold, she crept forward. Her eyes sharpened, until she could see in the dark as if it were daylight. Between the trees, she saw a small fire ringed by rocks, and next to it, a man, hard at work. He was stocky, with short dark hair, his back to her, as he worked at slicing up a corpse with the skill of a professional butcher. Jessi’s eyes narrowed in on the dismembered limbs, and slid sideways to the head. Blank black eyes stared back at her.

Cassidy.

Well, that took care of one of Kyle’s problems. It also identified the killer. Waiting until he’d finished his gruesome task, she took a breath to call out his name.

“Come on out, Jessi,” he said before she could speak.

With a silent huff, she stalked forward and dumped Nate next to Cassidy’s remains. Foss looked over at the second corpse, his face expressionless.

“He knew?” Foss asked quietly.

“Everything,” Jessi responded curtly. “I took care of it.”

Green eyes flashed up to meet hers. “Clean up after yourself?”

“Sanitized. Nothing to lead anyone back to me.” She looked back at the corpses. “Or you. Or Kyle.”

“Good. Give me a hand.”

With that, he handed her the saw. She began to dissect Nate in much the same way Foss had dismembered Cassidy. When they were finished, they burned the body parts until only charred pieces remained. They burned their blood-splattered clothing as well, dressing in spares Foss pulled from his duffel bag, then buried all the evidence deep in the forest. It took them two days.

They spoke little during that time, but they didn’t need to say much. Plans were laid between them. Foss supplied a target list. Jessi came up with ideas on isolation and elimination. They had to move fast; the confusion surrounding Cassidy’s disappearance, misdirection pointing Latnok in Nate’s direction, and the sabotage of the cloning project, would give them a few days.

They made the best of their resources, which between Jessi’s abilities and Foss’ experience were more than sufficient for the task at hand. Within five weeks, the brain trust behind Latnok would be decimated.

Kyle would be safe, in a way Adam never had been.

~~

Not happy with the way the family meeting had gone, Kyle made up his mind to do what had to be done in order to protect his real family, the Tragers. He left a note for Nicole and Stephen, gathered up his computer, some clothing, some money, and slipped silently out the window. He hated having to do this, but he was the one who’d brought this danger into their lives. With him gone, until he could find a way to root out the threat and eliminate it, hopefully Latnok would put their energy into finding him, and leave the Tragers… and Amanda… in peace.

He barely made it to the sidewalk when a black SUV rolled up to the curb. His instinct to fight kicked in, calming an instant later as he recognized Declan’s heartbeat. He didn’t stop to wonder when he’d memorized Declan, the way he’d memorized Amanda.

The window rolled down, and Declan looked at him, one corner of his mouth turning up in a half-smile. “Goin’ somewhere?”

Kyle nodded, unsure how to answer. He was leaving, but had no idea where to go. Maybe Adam’s old estate? Or would they look for him there? Declan’s voice sounded in the silence.

“Need a ride?”

“I don’t want you to get in trouble,” he finally answered, his voice soft and concerned.

Declan rolled his eyes. “Trouble’s my specialty, always has been. Toss your stuff in the back and get in.”

Kyle hesitated for a moment, but the longer Declan stared at him, the more sense he made. There was something about Declan that made Kyle relax, feel as if there might be a way out of this after all. Maybe he didn’t have to do it alone.

Nodding once, making up his mind, he opened the door, slung his bag behind the seat, and settled himself. Declan accelerated away, and Kyle looked back, once, at the only home he’d ever known.

One day, when this was finished, and they were safe, he’d come back. They’d understand.

He hoped.

~~

Declan glanced over at Kyle. In the dim light of the truck cabin, the other man looked lost. Off on a mission, wanting to save everybody, nobody around to save him. Declan stared back out through the windshield, and made the same promise he first decided on a couple years before, when Kyle came to him and trusted him with his secrets. He’d stick by Kyle, do what he could do, him and Kyle against the world… and eventually, Kyle would catch a clue.

He was looking forward to it.

FINI