Chapter Text
The problem with having a perfect memory—being able to remember almost every damn thing—was knowing when the memories were truly yours… and when they weren’t.
Ever since Chase could remember—which, in his case, meant since he was two years old—he had known he wasn’t normal. And that had nothing to do with being a genetically modified bionic kid designed to either save the world… or destroy it, depending on who you asked.
He knew Adam, Bree, and he himself were special in ways humanity had never seen before. But at the end of the day, their abilities came from something scientifically explainable.
A bionic chip at the base of his neck, connected directly to his cerebral cortex and nervous system. Genetic enhancements. Advanced technology. All originally designed by Douglas Davenport while they were being grown in the plates… and later perfected by Donald throughout their training.
That made sense.
That had an explanation.
But that wasn’t what Chase was talking about.
Because Chase remembered thirteen years of another life.
He remembered a short childhood. A sickness. A slow and lonely death in a hospital room.
He remembered being a boy named Pete.
He remembered something else.
For an entire month after dying, he had guided the other children in the hospital not to be afraid. Frightened children. Lost children.
And then she had arrived.
Melinda Gordon.
With her gentle smile… and that light.
The light.
Chase remembered the light.
Just not for very long.
Because after that… he was back in the Davenport lab, playing with Adam and Bree as if he had always belonged there.
As if he had always been Chase Davenport.
The smartest boy in the world.
…but he was also Pete.
A thirteen-year-old boy who had only ever wanted to be loved.
And now he was.
He had a family.
He had siblings.
He had a home.
He had everything Pete had once wished for.
And yet…
For some reason Chase still couldn’t explain…
He felt like he had come back for something.
Something even bigger than saving the world.
Not even Chase Davenport, with the brightest mind in the world, could explain one thing.
How it was possible that he remembered the light…
When no one was supposed to come back from it.
Souls that cross into the light don’t return.
Melinda Gordon knew it.
The spirits knew it.
Even the universe itself seemed to know it.
Everyone…
Except Chase Davenport.