Splinters In Time

Several years later, and Doctor Brenner was starting to wonder if that had been a lot of effort to go through to wind up with what might just be an ordinary child.

In fact, he wasn't entirely sure that hadn't been part of Henry's plan— some cruel trick on him and consequently, the girl. From what he knew of the boy, he wouldn't put it past him to machinate such a thing. Fortunately, he had had the foresight not to keep them in the same facility; in fact, Henry didn't even know they had her, and Brenner was keeping it that way as long as possible.

Doctor Brenner, along with a handful of other scientists, was watching through a window of one-way glass. On the other side, a small classroom with a single student; a hard-wearing, middle aged tutor was trying her best to teach a young girl maths. Young Lilith Gray was getting a regular education for a girl her age— at least in a base few subjects— and she was proving to be an intelligent student. What she wasn't proving to be so successful at was the tests.

She had no telekinetic power at all. In terms of telepathy, nothing they could note or that she had ever mentioned.

And yet...

...There were the almost-positives. The things that couldn't be dismissed. The scans that came back strange, the markers that confused results, the small prick if blood he would sometimes see welling in the corner of her eye. The peculiar sixth-sense she seemed to have about some things, like she knew something about you she shouldn't.

The door clicked open and the teacher stepped outside, into the room with Brenner and the others. "She's tired. We're taking a little break."

"But you took one ten minutes ago. And one before that. Your lesson is supposed to go on until four o'clock!"

The woman frowned. Then nodded, and turned back through the door into the classroom. Brenner watched the little girl, who had been quiet happy drawing on her piece of paper, look up in annoyance as her teacher returned.

"Is it possible, do you think," Brenner said to his colleagues. "That someone can have all the potential for powers, but without them actually developing?"

"Quite possible, I suppose." A doctor to his left commented— she was a woman in her late twenties, with strawberry-blonde hair, dressed neatly in a lab coat. "We do have to remember, there is an age difference between her and Henry."

"Not to mention environmental variables." A male doctor piped up, looking almost like an excitable puppy behind his glasses. "We don't know what different stimuli they interacted with prior to our involvement that could play a role. They did come from quite different households."

"Also, she's a girl and he's a boy." The female doctor jumped back in, clawing for Brenner's attention. "Different chemistry. That's not to be discounted."

Doctor Brenner considered it all for a long moment, watching the lesson through the window. "...Well, even if she doesn't develop any substantial abilities, the comparison is still useful data."

"Oh, absolutely." The female doctor nodded. "Besides, once she's fully matured, it might be of value to learn if her having these... genetic traits increases the chance of any offspring developing enhanced abilities."

Doctor Brenner gave her a sidewards look. "...Her and Henry?"

The woman shrugged. "And others."

Suddenly, the door clicked open and the teacher stepped outside again. "She's tired. We're taking a little break."

The man with the glasses frowned. "Didn't we just do this? Miss Green, are you feeling quite well? You've done this four times now."

Miss Green— the teacher— blinked. "Have I? ...Oh yes, I did. Well, that's rather strange." She peered back at the classroom, a puzzled expression on her face. "I suppose... I just felt so bad for her, I wasn't really thinking when she asked."

"...Oh, really now?" Despite the banality of the statement, Brenner seemed intrigued. A thought had occurred— and some things had begun to click into place. Maybe. Just maybe. On the other side of the glass, the little girl contentedly continued her drawing.

A/N: Not bad for someone with COVID, huh? XD Apologies for the late update. My medicine kicked in at last and I had the urge to write.
Actually, there's a 50-50 chance this is an unintelligible mess and I'm just too ill to see it, so please do let me know if that's the case, I'll not be offended.

So yeah, in summary, it took Brenner and his team a while to confirm whether or not she definitely had powers because it's their first time encountering someone with different abilities to Henry. They didn't know what they were looking for. XD

Also, I just wanted to clarify, I did not mean to imply in this chapter that any of the kids in the laboratory are biologically Bonnie's. However, whilst writing it, I did have the slightly horrifying thought of "What if Twenty-Two was genetically her son and that's how he recreated her powers, and she just never knew because he was made in a lab?"
If I had thought of it earlier, I might have been tempted to do something with it. XD As it is, I'm too sick to think about it right now.