Hi everyone! So before you start reading I just wanted to say a few things about my other stories, and then about Terminal and this story. Okay, starting with my other stories: I will NOT be updating them. It's been way over a year, I've lost complete inspiration, there's been two new books, and honestly, I just wasn't as good of a writer. I'm sorry if you were fans of them (I know, at the moment almost all of them end in cliffhangers, and a lot of you have asked in reviews and such when I'll update), but I will NOT be updating them. I really am sorry. If you're interested in continuing one of them where I left off just ask, give a general description of what you want to happen, and I'll consider letting you continue it.

Now about Terminal. While I loved the book (it was amazing!) it had a good ending for a book, but there was so much more that needed to happen. Several things that were ongoing themes throughout the books either didn't wrap up well enough for me, or just didn't wrap up at all. (Like Tory and Jason. I know she ended up with Ben and he with Madison, I know that and totally ship it, but the whole Jason liking Tory thing that went on throughout all the books...I just felt like it was never fully resolved. Among other things). So yeah, that's part of what this story is about. And the ending. That ending. Ugh. (Also: BENJAVIC is in here. Of course. Obviously.)

This picks up right where Terminal ends. I've tried to keep with Brendan and Kathy Reichs' theme of the title relating to plot while simultaneously being a medical term. I hope it makes sense. One more thing, then I'll shut up and let you read (okay, two): One, this is currently rated T, but I might decide to change that later, depending on what happens in the story. I'll let you know if it changes. (okay three): Two, please review because I need constant motivation to write, and I know that sounds like I'm fishing for compliments, but I'm not. If I don't hear good reviews (or even constructive criticism, which is totally accepted) then I won't have inspiration to write. That's just the way I am :( (okay last one I promise): Three,

I do NOT own the Virals series or any of the characters in this story. Brendan and Kathy Reichs do.

I stared at my eyes in shock.

Obviously, I've always seen myself with green eyes, and I had become accustomed to gold, as well.

But blue.

It was a calm, pale blue, unlike the deep swirling gold of our flares.

All at once, what this meant hit me and I jumped back from the mirror. Our flares may not be completely gone! It was different, though; this flare was serene and soothing, not the crazy maelstrom of before. I was in complete control.

Leaning back towards the mirror, I stared at the blue - calm was not the only difference.

Stronger. More powerful.

Reaching out the boys in my head, I felt a pang when I couldn't connect with them.

Severed. Torn apart.

Temporarily, if I can help it.

I tried to let it go, finding that it went as quietly and easily as it came; no more effort than a single thought.

After looking in the mirror for another few seconds, I scrambled into my room and grabbed my phone off my bed.

Meeting. Sewee. NOW, I sent to the boys.

After changing out of my pajamas, grabbing my bag, and flying down two sets of stairs, I grabbed a granola bar before sprinting out the door and down to the dock to wait. As I tossed my bag into the bottom of Ben's boat, a door opened and slammed behind me. Turning around, I saw Ben, bag slung over his shoulder and his hands in pockets.

I suddenly remembered that Ben and I were, like… dating. That, for the first time, I should greet him as his girlfriend instead of just friends..

Oh crap. How do I do this?!

Relax. You're just making it awkward.

Just do it how you always do! That's what he likes about you anyway!

Ben reached the dock, and glanced up at me. He smiled, and tossed his bag next to mine in his boat.

"Hey," I said, grinning back at him, new flare suddenly forgotten.

"Hi," Ben responded. He took my hand, twining his fingers with mine. He pulled me close, his other hand on my shoulder. I leaned against him and he dropped a kiss on my forehead. "What did you want to meet us about? Is it" - he lifted his head and glanced around, making sure no one was within hearing distance, even though we were clearly the only ones and the sound of the waves would have drowned us out anyway - "about what happened the other day? Is everything okay?" he asked.

Dropping his hand, I wrapped both arms around him. "Better than okay. Let's wait for Hi and Shelton to get here then I'll explain."

Ben looked as if he wanted to ask questions again, but nodded. He pulled away and hopped into the captain's seat of Sewee. "Well, they better hurry up. I'm going to drop you guys off at the Charleston Marina, then go up to Wando and dock there since I'm staying at Mom's tonight. I don't want to be late, 'cause it's a ten-minute walk from there to school." Ben looked back at the townhouses and glared, as if his glare could make Hi and Shelton move faster.

"Relax," I told him. "They know I'll be pissed if they don't hurry, and they don't want to deal with that."

"Yeah," he said, smirking. "No one wants to deal with a pissed off Tory Brennan. Not even the government."

"What?" I asked.

"Oh, come on," he said, still smiling. "You saw their faces. They were terrified of you. You're terrifying, Victoria Grace Brennan."

"Oh, shut up. They were the ones with guns plus they're agents for a top secret government organization. They didn't get there by being scared."

"'Yeah, and you were the one with never-before-seen superhuman powers. They were terrified. I win," he said. He most definitely did not win, but I didn't get to answer before Hi jumped into the boat.

"Win what?" Hi asked, glancing between us. "Having a fight already? It hasn't even been twenty-four hours."

"Shut it, Hi," I snapped. "Where's Shelton? I must have texted you guys twenty minutes ago, and I know he gets up earliest."

"Hey, how am I supposed to know?" He complained as he grabbed a life vest.

Glancing up, I saw Shelton closing his door behind him. He turn and quickly walked down to the dock.

"Finally," Ben said, starting up the boat as Shelton untied the lines.

As soon as we pulled away from the dock, Hi and Shelton looked at me.

"Well?" Hi demanded. "Why did you want us to meet? Everything's over, Tory."

"Not necessarily," I said, huge smile on my face. "You see, this morning I was mourning the loss of our flares. And I was kinda thinking, you know, that I don't want to change. And then something happened."

Ben had stopped the boat so we were drifting, Morris barely visible in the distance. I had all their attention now. They listened intently, hopeful expressions on their faces.

"Well what happened?!" Shelton asked. "Do we still have our flares? How is that possible since we didn't have them yesterday?"

"Yes and no."

"What do you mean yes and no? It's one or the other."

"No, it's not. Here, let me show you. All of you try, too."

I closed my eyes and called on my wolf DNA. Just like a half hour ago when this flare happened the first time, something clicked in my head, and warmth surged through me.

My senses (something that, since I had been shocked, I hadn't really paid attention to before) sharpened. Each one became a dagger, piercing my surroundings with a razor-sharp edge. I could smell the crisp morning air with startling clarity, even more so than with the previous flares. The aroma of my lunch drifted to my nose through a plastic bag, a paper bag, and the thick PVC of my backpack. Even stronger, the smell of my cucumber melon shampoo drifted to my nose. I almost vomited right over the side of the boat; all it smelled like was a bunch of synthetic chemicals. I could also still smell the emotions of those around me, even more strongly now. The guys were feeling a whole mixture of hope, confusion, and dread, all at once. My brain sifted through each scent around me, storing and identifying them to call on at any given moment in the future.

My sense of smell was the best out of the rest of us before, but now it was even stronger. And, I imagine, my hearing now rivaled Shelton's before - I could hear another boat far in the distance, so far it had to be behind the horizon because I couldn't even see it. I could hear all of our heartbeats, and even the steady pumping of blood through the artery in my neck, and I could hear the sound of individual droplets of water hitting the side of Sewee as we rocked back and forth on the ocean. I could even faintly hear the sound of fish, several feet through the bottom of the boat and into the ocean, pulling water into their gills as they swam beneath us.

My vision was vastly improved over even the last flares. I could pick out my specific townhouse back on Morris, could see the dock in incredible detail; where just a few seconds before the entire island was barely a speck. On the end of the island I could see the Morris Lighthouse towering high above the water; could make out the biggest words on the sign at the entrance - Danger. No trespassing. - holy crap, that's over half a mile away. Looking the other direction, I could now see the Charleston Marina in disorienting detail, could see fisherman getting ready with their nets, could see others pulling in loads of thousands of fish.

The taste of my hastily eaten granola bar lingered in my mouth now when just a little bit ago I couldn't taste it at all. My mint toothpaste was still strong, and the chemical smell combined with the scent of my shampoo, nearly made me dizzy. I could even faintly taste vestiges of last night's steak. My sense of touch was stronger than before as well; I could feel the wind pelting me with microscopic droplets of water. Every brush of my clothing against my skin, every particle on the inside of my shoes, and every strand of my hair that blew into my face was incredibly strong, so intense that it had probably never been felt by any person who'd ever lived before.

My mind, faster with the flare, processed all this information in seconds, though it felt like minutes. I'd read somewhere that when time feels like it's slowing down it's likely because you're processing a lot of information at once, and that was exactly what was happening here. Only seconds had passed since I'd first flared. The guys had barely moved; they were staring at me in awe. None of them had flared. As they looked at me, Hi and Shelton took a step back in shock, while Ben took a step closer, making eye contact. He lifted his hand to my chin and tilted my head up towards his, looking directly at me.

"Your eyes are blue," he whispered. "They're beautiful."

"But wait," Hi said. "Are you like actually flaring? With crazy senses and everything?"

I nodded. "Try it… it's incredible. Stronger than the other flares." I was pumped on adrenaline. It felt unreal, the precision with which I could pin down my surroundings.

The guys each tried. Shelton opened his eyes a few seconds later, and staggered back onto a seat. "Whoa."

I looked. His eyes were blue, greatly contrasting with his dark skin. They were wide as he took everything in. "Wow," he breathed quietly. He looked up at me. "It really is a lot stronger. And way easier to control."

"Hey! Why can't I do it?" Hi whined. "I want to do it too!" He glared at Shelton and I. "How'd you do that?"

"Same way we always have."

"Damn it!" Ben said. "I can't do it either." He was still standing in front of me; hand still on my chin. I stepped back, and he dropped his hand.

"It's the same as it's always been, but a lot easier. It probably hasn't returned yet - I mean, none of us could do it yesterday. I'm sure you'll both be able to flare again soon," I reassured, looking back and forth between Hi and Ben.

I could tell that Ben was pissed, and Hi just looked like a child who was told he couldn't play tag with the rest of the kids, but I was confident they'd be able to flare soon.

"What does it feel like? You said it was stronger and easier to control than the other flares," Ben asked, making eye contact with me again.

"It's… amazing, but calming at the same time," Shelton said.

"It is. I feel like I could swim the rest of the way across the rest of the harbor, then participate in a decathlon and then the Tour de France then climb Mount Everest without even breaking a sweat."

"I do feel kind of nauseous, though," Shelton admitted. "It's so much stronger… all I can smell and taste are chemicals."

"Me too, but it went away. Just wait a minute, I guess."

"Can you still do the creepy mind connect thing?" Hi asked. He still had that injured-puppy look on his face. I felt kind of bad, but I knew he would be able to do it later.

"I don't know. But I don't want to try until it's all of us, either. It just doesn't feel right to do it without you."

And that was true. With the old flares, I could feel the others wherever they were, but now I could only feel Shelton. Not that that was bad, but not feeling Ben and Hi just left a gaping hole in my mind where it usually connected to theirs.

A sudden shrill, piercing sound made me wince and cover my ears. Shelton did the same. Ben looked at us and with wide eyes, but Hi didn't notice because he was rifling through his bag. He pulled out his phone just as Ben said snapped at him, "Turn that off! It's bothering them."

Hi's head snapped up to glance at us, and then he quickly silenced the alarm on his phone. As soon as it went off, I relaxed, and my flare shut down without me even trying. I started to slump over, but Ben caught me and gently pushed me into the captain's seat, kneeling down and looking at me with concern. "Are you okay? What happened?" He asked it softly, placing his hands on my shoulders. I reached up and grabbed one of them. I almost whimpered with the quick change from the high sound to Ben's gentle voice. It took me a few seconds to readjust myself to normal senses before I could answer.

"The sound - it was so loud."

"Sorry! I didn't even have it all the way up. Are the new flares really that sensitive?"

He and Ben looked at me, waiting for my answer. "Yes," Shelton said from behind them. "They're really that sensitive."

"Everything's ramped up even more than our old flares, and your brain is trying to process so much that it feels like everything slows down," I added to what Shelton said. "It's great, but at the same time, worse… I could smell the individual chemicals in my shampoo and taste them in my toothpaste. And loud, sudden sounds obviously bother us, too."

"I hate to do this, guys, but that alarm was telling us that we need to go. Like now," Hi said.

"Just a minute," Ben said. "How can you even do this? We took the cure, same as the others did. Does this mean they'll get their flares back too?"

The thought hadn't occurred to me yet, but I was sure of the answer. "No. I think that, since Chance had the cure engineered from their strain of virus, it should work perfectly for them. With us it could have left some… remnants, since it wasn't exactly the same."

"I don't understand," Shelton said. "It was still the same virus, though. Shouldn't it have erased everything?"

"Maybe not," Hi said, getting it. "Think of it this way: every year, a bunch of scientists get together and predict which strains of the flu are going to be strongest that winter. A vaccine is then developed from those predictions and administered. Sometimes, though, the strains they predict aren't the ones that become widespread. So basically, you have strains that aren't covered under the shot that you can still get."

I nodded. "Exactly like that. There's no chance they still have their flares." I felt Ben and Shelton relax, and I agreed. It wasn't a bad thing they wouldn't get their flares back. They hadn't handled them well.

Moving out of the captain's seat, I let Ben sit back down. We were all quiet, thinking about what this meant. There was no talking as he went the rest of the way across the harbor to the Marina. When we arrived, Shelton asked, "Should we go see Chance? He said he wanted to watch for side effects, anyway."

I thought about it for a second, then said, "No, I think it's best to keep this to ourselves for the time being, while we figure it out."

That's not the reason you don't want to see him.

Hi and Shelton hopped off and started walking along the dock. I started to go, but Ben caught my hand and pulled me back. "That's not why you don't want to go," he said.

"Yes it is." Damn it, he knows me too well.

"No, it is not. You don't want to hurt him because you just broke his heart literally yesterday."

"Fine," I said, looking directly at him. "Do you have a problem with that?"

He shook his head, surprising me. "No. I know you don't like hurting people if you don't have to." Ben looked at the time on his phone and cursed. He gave me a quick hug, which I returned. "Go, I'm already late." He grabbed my bag and handed it to me, then gave me a playful shove towards the side of the boat the dock was on.

I suddenly thought of something. "You know what the best thing about these new flares are?"

"What?"

"As long as we aren't around anyone we know, we can do it in public. It's not like the other ones, where the eye color was unnatural."

After looking at me for a second, he leaned forward and pressed his lips against mine. My heart nearly leaped out off my chest, and I leaned back against him. He pulled his mouth away from mine and wrapped his arm around my waist. "You're absolutely right," he said directly in my ear. "But you should really go now, or else we're both going to be late."

"Okay, okay," I said, laughing. I hopped out of the boat and called, "See you later!" before sprinting to catch up with Hi and Shelton.

Okay so there it is. Continue or not, let me know. Like I said, I appreciate constructive criticism, but please don't just say "I hate this it sucks" because honestly that just shows that you have the problem. Okay I'm leaving before I start ranting again, sorry. Thanks for reading! And I feel good about this one, like I'll actually finish it. I'm not sure how long the chapters are going to be but I am sure that if I keep typing here I'll never stop so bye and thanks again for reading!