Engineered Chance

[Kyle Roberts]

His mind was a maelstrom of emotions, ninety-nine percent of them negative. Of course he was happy to see her again, ecstatic to see that she was apparently safe and sound. But meeting like this...? It was almost more than he could take, every bit of his willpower needed to keep the gun steady on her.

Believe it or not, even after all of this, there was still a small chance that he might forgive her. Hell he might even take her with them. That chance was extremely small, and getting smaller every second, but it was there. No matter how hard he tried, even presented with all this evidence that she cared absolutely nothing for him, he couldn't bring himself to hate her. He had raised the girl, cared for her from the day she was born. She was almost more like a daughter than she was a sister. That was why it utterly tore him apart to know that it had all been one sided. He had always loved her. But to her, he was nothing.

Kyle listened to her words, eyes closed in mock thought as he tried to hold back the tears. She had said that it would be a while before their mother was here, that meant they didn't have much time. He half turned towards Kris, voice still tight and strained as he spoke. "Kris, go get the shotgun. The front right leg on the nightstand by the couch is fake, the rest of the money is there. Hurry." There was no room for discussion in that voice. He waited until the blond had obeyed and disappeared inside before he turned back to Sarah, tears magnifying the pain in his eyes. He remained silent for a few moments, and when he spoke it was in a barely audible choked whisper. "I always loved you Sarah...." The words were barely out before Kris was back, and Kyle motioned towards the woods. "Go on ahead Kris, you know the way.". Theres something i have to take care of here....

[Kristopher Roberts]

Kristopher could careless about his sister at this very moment. He never really was fond of her, after all...she liked to torment him in the past and pull on his curls. But the boy looked at the two and sighed, "Alright." He backed away slowly before slinging the rifle over his shoulder and dash back into the house.

He came into the living room and let his eyes scan the room for a moment. So far, everything looked safe to him so he went to the nightstand and pulled on the leg. At first he got it wrong and then the second time he grabbed the correct gun. He held it in his hands for a moment, cracked it open to check it was loaded and seeing that it was he cracked it shut quickly.

"Man, and I really liked it here." He sighed to himself, chewing on his lower lip and going over things in his head for a moment. Going through a mental check list and so far, he got everything they needed. It was all in the backpack. So by licking his lips he waved to the house said, "It's been fun." He stated, then he turned and went out the door. However, he didn't make it to far as he stood a good five feet from the door when something caught his attention.

What was that?

Confused he waited a moment, then thinking it was nothing but a trick of the eyes he ran back to Kyle only to be told to leave. Kristopher looked at him like he was psychotic. "L-leave? Without you? Fuck no!" The fake burnette said as he tugged on his brothers arm. "Forget her, let's go!" The blond turned his head towards the road that was to the left of Sarah. Kristopher was not leaving his brother and that much was clear! There was that movement again, and lights---wait a minute.

"K-Kyle." Kristopher stuttered as he let go of his brothers arm. There was headlights aproaching them and not to far off. "Kyle come on!" The blond said in a frightened voice and pulled harder on Kyle as he took a few steps back. It looked like Sarah was wrong, Mama wasn't to far off.

But maybe it was just the neighboors?

[Sarah Roberts]

Sarah heard the car, more than saw it. She was more intent on keeping her eyes on the gun pointed at her. Still, it shouldn't have been Mom. It had taken Kyle longer to drive out here from the bar, and he knew where he was going. Unless . . . Nah! Surely Mom wouldn't have . . . . . . Um, oh, crap.

Okay, Sarah had to think fast. How to manipulate this situation? Which way was she going to go with it? She needed to figure it out, and soon. Otherwise, things were going to get way out of control.

"Don't go into the forest! Mom will have this place crawling with police and rangers and the like. She has a lot of pull, you know that. And where she doesn't have it, she gets it. Fast. She's known where we were this whole time. It's the only way she could have gotten here this quickly." And it was true. Mother dearest must have had her phone tracked. But why? Sarah had never given Mom any reason not to trust her. She'd been a good daughter, always doing what mother wanted. Why would she do this? Sarah wasn't really happy with this. She'd have to talk with Mom about this. "Your best chance to get out of this is to stay put. Let Mom put you in her car, then try and escape on the way home. Hell, use me as a hostage on the way out, maybe you'd even get away with it." Also true. Mom had a way with authorities. Had to be, with all the illegal activities she was involved in. She never got caught. Ever. That took skill. And money. Mom had plenty of both.

Mom's SUV pulled into the drive. It was game time, and the ball was in her brothers' court.

[Kyle Roberts]

The sound of the vehicle grinding down the worn path reached his ears a split second before it did the others, and soon he could see the headlights rip through the early morning half-light. Apparently he'd been right when he'd assumed Sarah was lying to them. Head-1, Heart-Zip. It was too late for them to make a break for it, they wouldn't be able to get far enough away before she arrived. That meant the only thing to do was stand their ground, face her head on with no fear. ....Good luck with that.

He saw the car, and he saw the woman inside it. Pain and panic immediately turned to rage, a lifetime of suffering and hatred boiling up at the sight of her. What right did that bitch think she had to come here and ruin their lives?! They weren't children anymore, they weren't the scared little boys who cowered in the corner everytime their parents came in higher than a kite or drunker than a skunk. They were full grown men now, and this bitch had no call to be coming to their home like this. The injustice of it all completely overcame Kyle and he turned the pistol from Sarah, sending a shot through the windshield that hit the rearview and ripped it from the ceiling of the vehicle. Obviously he wasn't gonna go quietly.

[Kristopher Roberts]

Like hell Kristopher was getting near that SUV let alone his mother! Kristopher gave Sarah a look of surprise and utter fright. She had to be kidding him! Give in and try to escape on the way! Was she insane? Mother would no sooner tie them up and throw them in the back seat and even if they could get away what then? Foot versus car? Ha, fat chance.

"You have to be kidding me!" He finally said to Sarah as he held the rifle in his hands tightly even though he felt as if he was about to faint with fear. But he wasn't going to faint, not in a million years. He slowly switched the gun to rest in his left hand, his right was starting to feel funny. Not a good sign but he wasn't going to let Kyle know. Kristopher wouldn't be able to squeeze the trigger, if he shot it he would have to pull his whole arm back to fire it correctly.

However, Kyle suddenly firing his gun made Kristopher jump and grab hold of him again. "Kyle, what are you doing?!" He all but yelled at him with wide green eyes, his small curls getting in his eyes. He didn't miss a beat though, with his hand grasping his brothers arm, he jerked his bother towards him and moving backwards quickly.

"We need to get out of here! Not sit here and play who can run out of bullets!" He looked away then and towards the woods. They could try to make a run and maybe make it. If they could get there and on the path they practiced then they could get away. But it was just the task of making it to the foliage. His right hand was losing its grip on his brother however, no matter how hard he tried to stay attached to him.

Kristopher didn't want to be here when his mother got out of the SUV or anything! He wanted to be away from here with his brother and find a new town. God, they should of left three days ago! But, on second thought. Kris turned back towards the SUV, raised his shotgun and fired front right tire of the SUV with some difficulty. The shot gun knocked him back a bit and would leave a nasty ass bruise on his shoulder then, but it was better then having a SUV trying to run them over and with a flat tire.

The playing field was even.

"God, take this from me!" He shoved the empty shotgun in his brothers hand. "Now come on! We have a few seconds!" Kristopher was scaried, he didn't want to go back to that place where he grew up. Back to dark rooms that reeked of beer and drugs where no one gave a rats ass about him other then his brother and there was no way in hell he was going to be a there for his mothers uses.

[Sarah Roberts]

Oh, this was going well.

Kyle shot at the SUV. Then so did Kris. Sarah's eye went wide at the sight of gunfire being directed toward her mother. Sarah didn't always like the way she was treated, but she loved her mother. Then, Kris tried handing the shotgun to Kyle, which Sarah used as a signal to move. And move she did. She spun around, grabbing at Kyle's gun hand with her right hand, and pulling her knife free with her left. When she got hold of her brother's hand, she wrapped her fingers around the outside, dug her thumb into the base of his thumb, and twisted for all she was worth. Kyle outweighed her by a lot, but a grab like that didn't take much before it got to be painful, and even Kyle's strength wouldn't be enough to stop it. The human arm wasn't made to twist that direction. His arm was hers, and she could lead him around by it at will. If he tried fighting back, the knife in her other hand would discourage it. Mom didn't want her boys damaged, but sometimes a little blood was necessary. She twisted Kyle's arm more, trying to get him to drop the gun. She wasn't worried about Kris. Even if he had the guts to shoot her, he wouldn't dare with his brother so close. The shotgun would kill them both.

[Kyle Roberts]

Needless to say he was completely caught off guard when Kris grabbed him and started yelling. "What the hell do you think I'm doing?! I'm buying us some time dipshit!" That was all he could say before the blond had grabbed his arm, dragging him off towards the forest. To be honest he couldn't complain, he was just about to do the same. It was time to clear out and fast, before she had chance to react. And to make matters worse, he'd recognized the person in the seat beside her. It was their dad.

Kyle was swearing as they moved, not understanding how the hell this could have happened. Hell they were thousands of miles away, and even in another country for god's sake! If they could find them here, then nowhere was safe. That scared him more than just a little, something that wasn't easy to accomplish. Which meant that he jumped about three foot into the air when Kris suddenly turned around and let loose with the shotgun.When he tried to shove it into his arms, all Kyle could do was stare at him in disbelief.

At first he was surprised when he felt himself being grabbed, not having seen anyone even leave the vehicle let alone run over to them. But then he realized that it was neither his mother nor his father that was attempting to subdue him, it was Sarah. This time the rage outweighed the pain, and he didn't hesitate. Ignoring the searing pain in his arm he grabbed the wrist of the hand that held the knife, squeezing it tightly. Then he threw his weight forward, slamming her to the ground and pinning her body beneath him. Sitting on her legs and holding her arm to the ground, he slammed his other arm against the ground along with the hand that was gripping it, thus keeping her fully pinned despite feeling like his arm was going to snap. He glared down at her, no mercy left anywhere in him. "We're leaving Sarah. I'll kill you if you try and stop us." And he would, there was no way they were going back to that hell.

[Kristopher Roberts]

Kristopher turned his head to look at the event between his brother and sister. He stood there in shock for a long moment and then finally shook his head to reclaim his senses. "Kyle!" He called out with concern and worry thick in his voice. For a moment he thought his brother was seriously hurt but then he came out on top and that in itself made him let out of relief.

However, the idea of this getting them more time was shit, he turned his head to look at the stopped SUV and then back to his brother as he threaten the younger sibling. "Forget her, knock her out and let's go!" He told him, not liking standing her like a retarded lamb ready for the slaughter. The blond felt his heart race and his blood surge through his body so quickly, he feared he might pass out.

Knocking his loose curls away from his eyes he suddenly heard what he thought was a door open. Dropping the now empty shotgun to the ground, he reached around his body and pulled out his rifled, holding it tightly against his already bruised shoulder. The teenager took a few steps to the side to get a good look at who opened the door and to keep the gun pointed at them. His hands shook, but the gun stayed still as his right hand was starting to feel better and yet still awkward. He might be able to use it, it was all a 50/50 chance.

But he wasn't getting close to the car, not im a million years and he kept a safe distance from it. It was time for a retreat and quickly. Slowly, the blond took a few steps back wanting nothing more then to turn and run as fast as his long legs could carry him.

[Sarah Roberts]

Sarah's breath was knocked out of her as Kyle brought her to the ground. Damn, her brother was tough. The Roberts family had a lot of problems, but, genetically, they were pretty well off. . . Well, except for Kris. Not sure what had happened to him, poor boy. However, Kyle, the more immediate threat, had benefited form Dad's brute strength and endurance. Sarah had one chance of doing this right, and it had gone wrong. Damn it. Well, she'd done what she'd come her to do. It was up to Mom and Dad to finish things. She hoped they hurried. This was an uncomfortable position . . . though, under different circumstances, it could be fun.

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Mom and Dad got out of the car. Mom noticed the gun pointed at her almost immediately. She raised her hands, and moved slowly. She took a few steps toward Kris, and started talking in slow, gentle tones. "Whoa, there, Krissy, dear. Hey. How are doing, deary? What happened to your beautiful hair? Brown doesn't suit you. That's you brother and sister's color. You were my golden child. Such a precious dear."

While Mom was taking the gentle approach, Dad had other ideas. While kyle was distracted pinning Sarah to the ground, Dad marched up and shot him with a taser gun.

[Kyle Roberts]

It was a bit hard to concentrate on Sarah when Kris kept screaming at him like that. If he could have just bashed her in the head and ran he would have done that first off, but as soon as he freed something up to hit her with, she'd find some way to stop him. Somehow the Roberts children had gotten the smarts that their parents so obviously lacked, for the most part at least. Unfortunately, panic seemed to negate that intelligence, because Kris was acting like a complete idiot. He turned towards the terrified blond, snarling at him without meaning to. "Dammit Kris!! Get the hell o--"

From the corner of his eye he saw them approaching, and he saw what was held in his father's hand. He could recognize the tazer from ones he'd seen before, and he knew the results, just as he knew the target. With an inhuman effort, and a roar that was just as animalistic, he twisted his arm in just the right way to free it from his sister's grip, though it meant that his wrist was shattered in the process. Without even thinking of that though he bolted to his feet, slamming into his father and grabbing hold of the gun just as the prongs hit him in the chest.

He rolled, landing some feet away, body spasming beyond it control. A short bit later and he climbed shakily to his feet, almost falling once or twice, body still shaking and jerking from the effects of the shock. Weakly he raised the stun gun, holding it between him and the others. He hoped his father wouldn't come after him, he was no match for him like this. If only he could buy some more time...

[Kristopher Roberts]

Mother.

As soon as Kristopher say his mother, the blond took five steps back and held the gun strongly in his hands. Oh god, it was his mother, oh all people. Why couldn't it been the Dad to step out of this side of the car? He could handle his father! He had no problems shooting him but the mother was different. His mother was his source of troubles and so much more. The blond shook but still, held the gun true.

"Whoa, there, Krissy, dear. Hey. How are doing, deary? What happened to your beautiful hair? Brown doesn't suit you. That's you brother and sister's color. You were my golden child. Such a precious dear.

Kristopher shook his head, "That's why I changed it!" He said in a stern voice even though it was starting to quiver. "Stay away from me and Kyle! We have nothing to do with you anymore!" The blond pulled the bolt up, back, and down to load the chamber with a bullet. He then shot at his mothers feet, but it wouldn't hit her. It was a warning shot, then reloaded the chamber. However, due to that shot, Kristopher's hand suddenly went numb and he cursed mentally. He might not be able to fire the gun again. It was taking all his will power to keep his finger on the trigger and hiding his sudden realization.

Kristopher had raised his gun to take aim at his mother again, but the sudden cry of a stun gone going off on his brother caught his attention. Shocked and concerned as well as suddenly frightened, the blond turned. Without missing a beat, as soon as he saw what was happening he jerked his arm back and fired the gun...shooting his rather squarely in the leg. It was a lucky shot but now that meant Kris had a problem.

He bought his brother time, but now Kristopher had none. He turned on his heels quickly. Slamming his wrist up on the bolt to try and reload it.

[Sarah Roberts]

Mom stopped cold as the bullet ricocheted off the ground at her feet. Her eyes went wide, not with fear, but with rage. Kris had just shot at her! That was not a good idea, on the blonde's part. Mother had ways of punishing her children when they acted up. This was something Kris new well. His right hand bore the mark of such punishment. She was surprised he was even able to fire. "Krissy, dear," she said in a perfectly calm, level voice, "you shouldn't shoot at mommy."

Then Kyle got shot by the taser, and Kris got distracted. Her husband got shot in the leg, but Kris was having trouble reloading. That was her chance. She ran up and tackled the boy to the ground, pinning him there. She didn't need a taser for Kris. The poor boy was generally too sickly and weak to put up much of a fight. She just hoped her husband could handle Kyle with a wounded leg.

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Dad fell to the ground, his wounded leg buckling underneath him. Damn, that hurt like a sonna bitch! Luckily, the booze hadn't quite worn off yet, so the pain wasn't what it could have been. Though, that also meant that getting back up was going to be troublesome. Which was unfortunate, as Kyle would be incapacitated my the taser for only so long, and he was sure the boy would have no trouble kicking his old man while he was down. Well, let the boy try. Even with a blown out leg, he wasn't going down without a fight. He'd still show the little whelp what for.

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Sarah picked herself up off the ground, and grabbed the gun Kyle had dropped. She saw Kyle, there, holding the taser, and pointing it at their dad. She pointed the pistol at Kyle, and said, "Drop it, Kyle." She glanced over to where Kris was, to make sure he was stil suitably distracted. Last thing she needed was for Krissy to be shooting at her. She retuneed her attention to Kyle. "Don't make this get any more ugly than it already is."

[Kyle Roberts]

Dammit. Dammit dammit dammit all to fucking hell! They were in quite a fix now. His left wrist was broken to bits, not to mention the fact that the wrist of him was still weak and twitchy from all the volts that had surged through his body. It was at this point that he remembered the tazer's prongs were still in his chest, and he promptly reached up with his good hand and ripped them free. He gritted his teeth, used to pain by now. The physical sort didn't bother him, he could take it all and just keep coming. It was the mental torture that got to him. Of knowing that the people (though it had been reduced to person this night), were suffering, that the chances of their survival grew slimmer everyday, and that there was nothing he could do about it. The knowledge ate away at his soul until there was nothing left but despair. He snarled. No, there would be no more days like that, he would put an end to all of it. Tonight.

And then the unimaginable happened, their dad was shot, by Kris of all people. At first Kyle was stunned, so much so that he was unable to stop their mother as she tackled Kris, as well as being unable to prevent Sarah from retrieving ht pistol he'd dropped and turning it on him. He almost laughed at her words, she actually acted like the choice was his to make. Whatever happened from now on was all up to her and their parents, none of it rested on him. "I told you Sarah. Either leave us alone, or die with them" There was no hesitation, he would kill them and not even bat an eye. And, if she forced him to, he would kill her as well. The qact would haunt him for the rest of his life, but there could never be a price too high to pay in order to ensure their freedom.

Glaring at his sister once more, he reared back and hurled the tazer as hard as he could manage at the moment, straight at his mother's head. Hopefully it would connect and give Kris the chance to get away. If not, then he'd just have to hope that he could deal with his father and sister before she could harm Kris. And on that note, he moved foreward towards the drunken bastard. Snarling like a wild animal once more he brought his leg up and slammed his booted foot into the side of the man's head with all the strength he could muster. Unfortunately, seeing as the effects were still wearing off, the action sent him stumbling to his knees, leaving him vulnerable as he righted himself once more.

[Kristopher Roberts]

"you shouldn't shoot at mommy."

"Fuck off!" The blond replied right before he hit the ground, landing on his back. It hurt like a bitch but he was sure it was much better then being tased or shot at. However, he was having a bit of trouble now, his mother was on top of him and the only thing between them was the rifle that he held. He used that said weapon to jab her with under the chin, granted he really wouldn't be able to hold it very well with his right hand deciding to give him the finger and not work.

He did his best not to look at her or anything like that. His heart was pounding with fear that echoed through his body. What should he do? He glanced at his mother, fear in his eyes. He was so afraid of her that it wasn't even funny. In truth he was surprised he even surivived this long with her so close. But he felt happy at being able to take his fathers leg out from under him and giving Kyle some time. That is until he barely say Sarah grabbing the gun and hearing her.

Shit! What should he do now?

"Get off me!" He screamed at his mother, doing his best to fight back with the gun, trying to flip it around to completely reload it and fire or at least knock her head off with it. Anything to get away. Hell he would even punch her if he got a clear shot. He just had to keep all of his fear in check and it wasn't helping that he was in tears at the moment. Not good at all.

[Sarah Roberts]

Mother struggled with her little boy. She was surprised at how well he fought back. Kyle must have been helping his little brother get stronger. This would not do at all. The people who paid for Kris didn't want ones that fought back. That had always been more Kyle's niche. Looks like Krissy dear would have to be locked up in the closet for a few days before he was ready to put back on the market.

Kris continued to to try and hit her with the rifle, and she continued to try and rip it from his grasp. The times she came close to succeeding and ripped it free of one of his hands, he'd swing at her with it, distracting her enough that he would be able to reaffirm his grip on the rifle. This wasn't going anywhere.

Mom was so involved with her struggle with Krissy, that she didn't even notice the taser flying at her until it hit her in the head. It was more than a little distracting, and she paused for a bit in surprise. She realized her mistake in pausing quickly, and hoped Kris wouldn't be able to take advantage of it before she recovered.

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Dad was almost proud of his little girl. She held the gun quite well, and aimed it squarely at Kyle's head. Thus, it was quite a shock when Kyle was allowed to throw the taser, and come at him. The boy's boot landed hard against his head, and disoriented him for a few moments. Luckily, the kick had knocked the dumbass kid over.It gave him enough time to aim a kick of his own at the boy. He aimed for Kyle's head, but ended up hitting his collarbone. Oh, well. That still should have hurt. That's what Dad wanted. Kyle deserved to feel pain, and lots of it, for the trouble he'd caused, and it was his job to deliver.

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Sarah stood there, the gun still trained on Kyle, but she wasn't really paying much attention. Her mom and other brother were locked in a wrestling match, Kyle and her dad were about to be in much the same situation, as soon as one of them could find the orientation required to find the other, and Kyle had just given Kris the distraction he needed to fight back. Her family was ripping itself apart, and, at this rate, neither side was going to come out of it unscathed, regardless of who won. Sarah had the power to stop it, to end it all, but she couldn't. She was standing there, frozen and unable to do anything.

"I told you Sarah. Either leave us alone, or die with them"

Those words hit her hard as a ten ton anvil. It wasn't the words themselves that bothered her, but how they were said. She knew her brother well enough to know when he was bluffing, when he was serious, and when he'd just made an oath. This was an oath. An oath that he and Kris would get out of this, no matter what it took. And there was no doubt he'd take her down if he had to. She might shoot him. She might even kill him. But he'd find the strength to live just long enough to take her with him. Her parents, too. She knew this. It wasn't even in question. That's how her brother worked. What was she going to do? From the moment Kyle had caught her on the phone, her options has started dwindling at an alarming pace. What was she going to do? There wasn't much that would get her out of this. What was she going to do?

Sarah pulled the trigger. The pistol in her hand roared with a deafening boom, far louder than a handgun that size should have been capable of.

Her father, the only thing keeping Kyle at bay, collapsed, his head half gone.

Sarah swiveled, reorienting the gun on Mother.

Sarah had done the calculations. The only way she was living through this was to let her brothers go. She was surviving. Just the way Mother had taught her.