Reviewer: KazumaR1 Signed 
Date: March 11 2014
Title: Chapter 15: Talk
So many answers and yet so many questions still.
If anything this story effortlessly keeps someone like me interested.
Kayla is difficult to pin down… she’s a very complex character. She’s kind but very controlling. I do like despite all her power she has very clear flaws, like her relationship with her son, whom she must have had with another Omega possibly. When Abigail is reminiscing about the past it appears Kayla had a relationship with Graham that went beyond just friends, though.
I didn’t say it last chapter but I do pity Abigail, she has a lot of emotional baggage and has to deal with splitting herself between work and family. Working under a god-like being can’t be anything but stressful.
Not surprised to hear Corey’s mother abandoned him and left his father. From what was said in Chapter 13, it seems alpha’s that are happy to have beta children are far from the norm. At least he ended up with a loving family.
Now moving away from the character stuff, the “Fire” continues to be a head scratcher. I can only assume when Kayla says the fire is a piece of her, she means whatever energy she wields. The fire also seems to have a mind or at least follows Kayla’s desire to find people who shares a similar mindset to her concerning beta’s, but it’s clear she can make anyone an Omega if go by Abigail.
I’m not sure how the fire is guiding in the natural born Omega’s though. When Claire mentioned that Omega’s feels intense satisfaction helping Beta’s or punishing Alpha’s, is that the fire causing that? And the reason Jenna doesn’t need the fire helping her with that is because she naturally feels that way. I wonder why Melody is different then. It’s a bit confusing.
Ah well, at least we now know why the three girls was transferred out of Jenna’s hands. She wouldn’t have cared if Naomi and Stephanie had the potential to be reformed. Marion being a “treat” for Claire is messed up, but understandable considering what she’s done.
Author's Response: One of the things I tried to get through with Kayla is that she isn't perfect, not by any means. She has a shitty relationship with her son, has never taken the time to visit Abigail's family despite how close they are (and only agrees to do so here out of guilt), has no issues with employing a young woman that she knows to be a sadist as long as she keeps her shit under control, is incredibly invasive, and has some violent tendencies of her own. And this is before getting into anything she did in the past.
That baggage is also what makes Abby a bit of a treat to write for me. Woman went through a lot of shit when she was young that deeply affected her, and she may in fact have very few peers that can relate to her.
You are mostly correct about it. The Fire does contain a bit of what Kayla derives her power from, as well as an imprint of sorts of her will. I would not assume that she can just make anyone an Omega. Abigail ultimately is the only one she's done this for, after all.
Think of what the Fire is doing as this: Normally, Claire does attain a sense of satisfaction from acting kindly toward and helping a Beta due to a combination of instinctual and learned behaviors, whether they be learned from her own experiences with Betas/from how she was raised/from the lessons given at the Institute. The evolved Fire perverts this, and establishes a link between those behaviors and delivering a punishment to an Alpha. What might have originally been an act that was carried out with some level of resignation becomes one carried out with a level of satisfaction, because it's "helping." As for why Melody is different, well...she doesn't want to be an Enforcer, because the work itself disagrees with her character. It's why she pursued another path within Aegis. With no impetus to evolve into a state to help ease the emotional cost of carrying out that work, her Fire remains the same.
