He looked Meg in the eyes and nodded. “Williams sat me down with a couple of the scientist responsible for studying me after my return to the Facility. Gavil was also present. Though at the time, I didn’t know why. He started by bombarding me with questions—testing my amnesia. Then he told me what I did during my first assignment. He said I turned traitor against him so when he had a choice to kill me he only opted to let me live so he could experiment on me. He wanted to know how I could heal from those lethal wounds I received. Once he figured out I’d been exposed to an Infinite serum from the St. Paul lab that had awakened heightened abilities in my body, he only kept me to use as a guinea pig.
“He told me he had ordered his scientist, Bjorn was his name, to extract semen from me while I was in a medically induced coma.”
Meg blushed. “I’m so sorry they did that to you, Creed. During my last—empath reading into Williams, I learned of his plans to use your seed to father the start of metahuman embryo. It’s one of the reasons we were so determined to come help you.”
“You were going to come for me?” Creed stared at Meg with wide-eyed revelation for a moment before looking across the room at Margo and Theo.
“Of course we were,” Margo nodded earnestly.
“We were trying to get Meg healthy enough and figure out a way to get you to come with us,” Theo added.
Meg felt compelled to explain, “It was during that same reading that I found you had lost your memory. So we were trying to figure out how to come rescue someone who maybe didn’t want rescued and certainly didn’t even know who we were.” Her brow crinkled with the worry she’d felt so deeply. “We didn’t know you survived the Island until that reading.”
Creed looked into his lap, still and quiet for a moment. “I’m…wow…I’m not sure what to say,” his voice was thick with emotion. He still didn’t look up. “I can’t imagine why you’d be willing to risk yourselves for me.”
“You’re family Creed. Whether or not you remember us, we remember you.” Margo smiled warmly at the young man.
Creed glanced quickly up at the woman who had treated him like a son and looked back down to his lap, nodding slightly.
He took a deep breath before continuing. “Well, you know about what they did to me. Does that mean you know about what they did to you?” He looked at Meg, directing his question to her.
Meg frowned. “What do you mean?”
“Your eggs?”
“My what?”
Creed shook his head, anguish slipping across his face like a well-worn mask. He took a deep breath. “I hate having to be the one to tell you this part.”
Meg’s face drained of color. “Just tell me.”
Creed swallowed hard and continued. “After he told me about what they did to me, Williams went on to talk about his first research lab. The original one in California and he talked about you three.” Creed looked over at Evan and Alik then back to Meg. “And about you Dr. Winter. He told me you welcomed me into your family. He knew how important family is to me…” Creed’s voice trailed as he stared off into space for a moment.
“He’s not done punishing me for my betrayal. This is where you come in Meg. He talked about you at length. He has this sick fatherly pride in you.” Creed visibly cringed at the memory of the look on the bloody scientist’s face as he spoke of the beauty holding his hand. He wanted to kill that man so badly he could taste the copper of blood.
Meg’s hands began shaking in Creed’s. “Meg, when you were a baby—when he first dosed you with the serum and realized you’d live—he did something,” Creed coughed, visibly shaking with anger. “He told me he harvested two or three hundred of your eggs and put them in a cryogenic freezer in Germany.” The words spilled from Creed’s mouth like vomit. He pinched his eyes closed.
“HE DID WHAT?” Margo flew to her feet, arms waving frantically at her sides. “He took her eggs when she was just a baby? You were all just babies! He’s inhuman. Lord help us, he’s the devil incarnate!”
“I’m so sorry,” Creed offered miserably.
“It’s all true.” Gavil had let Creed tell the whole story, respecting the fact that this was his trauma, but now he felt compelled to speak up. “Like Creed said, I was there. I heard the whole thing myself. Williams means to combine the two and study the results. He wants to dissect metahuman embryo.”
That set Margo and the brothers on an even more frantic tirade.
“Oh, my God!” Theo gasped.
“He’s a monster!” Margo was so mad the veins in her neck stuck out.
Meg couldn’t speak—feeling like she’d been sucker punched in the stomach. All the air whooshed out of her and left her as empty as her ovaries.
She felt numb. Creed’s hands were still holding hers, but she didn’t feel the warmth anymore. She felt shocked. Violated. Raped.
The room spun in a flurry of angry voices for what felt like an eternity. Margo kept screaming her fury while Meg’s brothers and the others in the room started talking all at once.
Meg forced herself to stare at Creed’s strong fingers and found her voice. Leaning closer to him Meg spoke directly into his ear so she’d be heard over the room.
“Why? Why take my eggs?” Meg pleaded.
Creed shook his head sadly, “Please don’t make me say it. Please don’t hate me for this.”
Meg searched Creed’s anguished eyes. “No.”