[A/N: Does anybody out there still read V fanfics? No? Just me? Haha, anyway, I'm pretty sure that no is going to read this, which means I'm posting it purely for my own enjoyment. And perhaps my twin's (are you out there?).
I wrote this nearly a year ago, when I first watched V. I was incredibly disappointed that there was no season 3 so I wrote my own. I just recently re-watched the series and found this among the mess that is my computer, and I decided, "why not?" So I'm posting this for fun and to improve my writing :)]
Disclaimer: I do not own V... if I did, the show would never have ended.
V: The Final Battle, Part 1: A Step in the Right Direction
Kyle Hobbes
Somewhere outside New York
There's something to be said about Bliss. It's a wonderful feeling. You feel as though nothing in the whole world can touch you. There's a sense of peace deep within you that blocks out every unpleasant thing that you've ever experienced. It almost feels as though you're floating. Floating away from the problems and worries of the world. You never want to leave.
That just makes reality even harsher.
Which is exactly how Kyle Hobbes felt at that moment. The feeling of intense euphoria that had been there a second ago vanished like the sun during a storm at sea. Everything he had ever done—all the mistakes he had made, all the horrifying guilt that he had managed to bottle away for years—came rushing back like a tidal wave and struck at his heart.
There are some things that Bliss cannot alleviate.
For a few minutes, Hobbes sat in the driver seat of a car that he had no recollection of ever acquiring. If fact, he had no idea where he was or what he was doing. All he was aware of was the horrid feeling that he was experiencing, heightened by the Bliss of a few moments ago.
His training came back to him and he immediately checked out his surroundings. He seemed to be on a deserted road; and more than that, his car had been driven into a tree off the shoulder. No doubt his own doing during his brief incapacitation.
Hobbes nearly groaned as the pain from the crash started to enter his body—he ached all over and he had surely hit his head on the steering wheel. It crept back much more slowly than the guilt, he noted. He attempted to unbuckle his seat belt; but when he found it was jammed, he let out a growl of frustration and violently ripped the whole thing off of the car wall. With another burst of force, he pushed the slightly crumpled door open and stepped out into the cool night air. He could still see the Mothership from his position, hovering in the sky like a snake poised to strike. Deadly and accurately.
He walked to the trunk and opened it. His few personal items (mostly guns) lay scattered in the back. He could remember stripping down his bunker like home and depositing most of his things in another equally safe location. But beyond that, he couldn't remember anything.
With an internal grunt of frustration, he pulled a duffel bag from the trunk and sifted through its contents, hoping for some clue as to what he was doing in the middle of nowhere. Especially when he could be with the other members of Fifth Column, taking down the lizard queen.
His eye caught something in the bag, and slowly, he pulled it out. The face of a woman stared back at him. Her eyes held sadness and disapproval, like she knew exactly what he had done.
And suddenly, so did he.
He remembered why he was on the road, running away from the Fifth Column and from Erica.
Erica.
Hobbes closed his eyes for a brief moment and drew a shaky breath—the first he could remember taking in a long while.
The guilt and sadness made much more sense now. And he seemed to care a whole lot more than he had before.
Hobbes clenched his jaw and slammed the trunk closed again. He threw himself back into the driver's seat and turned the key, silently daring the engine to stall. Miraculously it didn't, and he wedged the damaged door back into its place. With one more glance at the picture still in his hand, he reversed the car away from the tree and started back down the road. The car make noises of protest but Hobbes didn't hear it. He was fueled by rage.
The picture now lay in the passenger seat and Hobbes gave it one more almost tender look as he floored the gas pedal.
"I'm coming, Sarah," he said quietly.
Lisa
Secret Prison
She could feel it. The Bliss. For that was surely what it was. But it wasn't anything like she had ever experienced before. It was different. The voice was different. It didn't belong to her mother; it belonged to someone else.
Maybe that was why it was easier to fight off. Or maybe it was because she had just watched the man she loved be murdered by someone who looked exactly like her.
Love. It was such a strange word. No, not a word, an emotion. She knew that was what it truly was. An emotion that both made her weak and kept her strong. And in her heart—her soul—she knew that love was the real reason that she was able to fight off the strange new Bliss. It was also love that drove her off of her perch on the only seat in the prison and sent her on a mission to find a way to stop her mother.
Lisa walked the halls of her cage, looking for something—anything—to help her in her quest. Surely her grandmother wouldn't have spent fifteen years in this pit without doing something or preparing something. Surely there was something physical that she had left, a contingency plan of some sort.
It hit Lisa like a ton of bricks. The Communicator. She had given it to Dianna before all this took place. Was there a chance that she would have hidden it in her cell? Maybe she had an idea what would happen?
Lisa couldn't take the chance that the answer was no. With a renewed purpose and a sense of hope, she began scouring the prison chamber for the little white ball that could help her out of this mess.
"Don't worry Tyler," she said. "I'll do what I should have done to begin with. I will kill my mother, and I will avenge your death."
Chad Decker
On route to Anna's ship.
The moment that those guards had come to collect him, Chad had known that he was in big trouble. The moment that he found himself by a V transport with a feeling of complete euphoria and no idea how he got there, he knew that he was in bigger trouble.
He found himself staring up at the Mothership, visible above the New York skyscrapers, for no apparent reason. He shook himself and looked around. The four beefy guards surrounding him seemed to be experiencing the same disorientation that he was; and though Chad didn't know what they were there for, he had a feeling of deep unease as he looked at them. He had a sense that if he got on that ship, he wasn't getting off it alive.
He had two choices. One: to run and hide and hope that the guards didn't catch him and kill him. Or two: to do something he had never done before.
As he saw the guards began to regain their senses, he made a split second decision. He quickly grabbed the immolation gun off of the nearest guard and even more quickly shot him. The guard disintegrated into a pile of ash. Chad whipped around and fired three more shots. Each guard was blown away before they even had a chance to go for their guns. Chad was left standing, alone, amongst four piles of what used to be Vs.
He felt sick.
The gun dropped from his shaking hands and he bolted away from the shuttle. Down the streets he ran —as far away as he could— until he could run no more. And then he promptly threw up.
He hadn't felt this way before, not even when people died as a direct result of their actions. That had always seemed so far away from him. He had hardly felt involved with those deaths.
But these… these deaths had been caused by his hands. He had murdered four Vs on nothing more than gut feeling.
Chad spat out the foul tasting bile and wiped his mouth on his sleeve. He looked around but didn't recognize his surroundings. The only thing he knew was that he was in a park of some sort.
As his mind slowly came back to him, he took a few steps forward, thinking of ways to contact Erica and the rest of Fifth Column. He had just recalled how the V guards had come to collect him at WNT, right after the failed attempt on Anna's life, when a hand covered his mouth with a cloth and another pinned his arms to his sides. Chad tried to yell out but the fumes he inhaled from the cloth prevented him from doing so. The last thing he saw before losing consciousness was the outline of several black clad figures surrounding him.
Jack Landry
Middle of the street
When Jack finally started coming back to himself, the first thought on his mind was peace.
And the next was Anna.
How could he have been so stupid? he thought bitterly. How could he have ever thought that the Vs had come to earth for anything except benefit to mankind? Surely someone as good as Anna would never think to harm the humans. Surely she could only want the best for him. After all, she had given them so many wonderful gifts. And hadn't countless lives been saved by the Visitors?
And then it was as if a bucket of ice water had been dumped over his head. Reality took hold of his senses. He shook himself and took a few stumbling steps forward—his head felt like a foggy mess. Had he really just been praising Anna?
Jack looked around and saw dozens of others all looking as confused as he, though most of them had expressions of pure euphoria on their faces. Many were smiling at nothing. Jack backed away, looking left and right at the mass of people. Finally he turned around and broke out into a run. He ran down the street, not even knowing where he was or where he was going. All he knew was that he needed to get away from the crowd.
As he was running, he recalled the voice he had heard just moments ago. He recalled the comfort he felt when the voice spoke, and the feeling that nothing bad could ever happen to him again.
His pace slowed, and the same empty smile that the others had sported appeared on his face. He looked around and the world seemed so much brighter and filled with love.
Jack caught sight of his old church and stopped dead. The sight of it brought back memories that he wanted nothing more than to forget. His brow furrowed. The sudden need to go inside overwhelmed the joyful feelings from moments before. He began to walk towards it, each step more difficult than the last. By the time he reached the door, he was trembling; and when he stepped inside, he could barely stay on his feet. The familiar sight of the wooden pews and the cross at the front just reminded him of all that had happened in the building.
Jack gasped at the sudden assault on his mind. For he saw every death that the Visitors had caused, but he also saw every death that the Fifth Column had caused.
It was too much for him, and he bolted from the church, once again running down the street. He only stopped when he was too exhausted to run any more. He bent over resting his hands on his knees and breathing heavily. When he looked up, the first thing he saw was a bar a little ways down the street.
It was like a sign from God.
Without hesitation, Jack made his way over to it. He entered and sat down in the first vacant seat he came upon. It was fairly empty, and most of the people inside seemed to still be in a daze. Whatever he had felt before seemed to have affected everyone, no matter where they were.
The bartender came over and Jack slapped a few bills on the table.
"Give me a bottle of the strongest stuff I can get with this," he ordered.
The bartender left and returned a moment later with a bottle in hand. He took the bills and replaced them with the bottle of Jack Daniel's.
Jack took it as another sign.
With a grimace, he picked it up and took a swig. The liquid burned all the way down his throat, but it was a welcome feeling that distracted from the turmoil in his head. Jack took another drink and his eyes watered. When half the bottle was gone, Jack exited the bar and staggered down the street. There was an annoying buzzing in his head and the ground kept shifting beneath his feet. He screwed up his eyes, trying to make it stop.
He didn't know how long he walked for, but by the time the whiskey had run out, he had ended up at a cheap hotel. He scrounged together enough for a room and somehow got himself into what was most likely a bug infested bed. But Jack was too drunk to care. He reveled in the numb feeling and the inability of his mind to haunt him further.
Somewhere in his head, he knew that the consequences of his actions would be great. But at the moment, he couldn't care less. Jack fell into a fitful sleep, dreaming of Vs and Fifth Column, and the entire earth consumed with fire from a war that they had started.
He wouldn't remember the dreams when he would wake up. But perhaps the future would have turned out differently if he had.
Erica Evans
Home
Erica roughly shoved her key into the lock of her front door. She had gotten home as fast as she could after what she had witnessed in the streets of New York. From Lisa's description of Bliss, that was the only thing Erica thought it could be. Anna had finally found a way to Bliss all the humans at once, and now all the people of the earth were under her control. The sight of it had sent her into a panic that was mostly concerned with Tyler. Erica didn't want to think about the consequences of the Bliss on him. He was in deep with the Vs and had been Blissed once already. There was very little chance that he would believe anything she said if he had felt the Bliss.
"Come on!" she yelled at the key that refused to unlock the door. She pulled it out and glared at it; but then she noticed that it was the key to her office at work.
She sighed and ran a hand through her frazzled hair. She turned the knob of the door and pushed it open.
She had forgotten that her kidnappers must not have had time to lock her door as they dragged her away.
Striding into the room with determination, she called out.
"Tyler!" She looked around the house. "Tyler? Are you here?"
There was no answer, and Erica went directly for her phone—lying uselessly on the counter—and dialed Tyler's number.
"Please pick up," she whispered and held it to her ear.
It went right to voicemail.
Erica growled and dialed it again with the same results. She threw the phone across the room and slid down the wall to the floor, clutching at her hair. She felt broken and without hope. Her son was missing. Joe was dead. Even Hobbes had left without a word. She was alone.
The ringing of a phone jolted her back to the present. She scrambled off the floor and retrieved her cell phone where it lay on the floor.
"Tyler?" she gasped into it.
"Erica," it was Kendrick. "We need you back here."
Erica repressed a scream of frustration. "Well, Paul," she said slowly, "I don't agree. The whole world just stopped and stared at the sky and my son is missing. I need to find him, and I don't have time to deal with this right now."
"Yeah, well, the whole world just started up again. This isn't up for discussion, Erica. We need you here," said Kendrick.
Erica didn't respond.
She heard Kendrick sigh and then much more softly, he said, "Look, Erica, I know you need to find your son. But you won't be able to do it alone. We can help you. Come back here, and I promise that we will do everything we can to help you find Tyler."
Erica bit her lip and took a shaky breath. "Alright," she conceded. "I'll be there soon."
She hung up before he could say anything else.
"What have we got?" Erica asked the moment she stepped into the main room of Project Aries. Kendrick and Bolling were both talking together with Lars but they stopped their conversation when she came closer to them.
"We picked up one of Anna's men," said Kendrick. "And I mean an actual man."
"Alright," said Erica, crossing her arms. "Who is he?"
The two men looked at each other, but Lars spoke first. "Why don't you come see for yourself."
The three of them led Erica out of the main room and down a dimly lit hall. They ended up at a door; Lars pulled out a badge and ran it through a scanner. There was a buzzing sound, and they entered a room with a one-way mirror that looked into a holding cell, much like the one she had woken up in. Through the window, Erica saw a man handcuffed to a chair.
"That's Chad Decker," said Erica in surprise. "What's he doing here?"
"He's one of Anna's most trusted humans here on earth. She's been using him to get her propaganda out to the country."
"He's not one of Anna's men," said Erica coolly. "He's one of mine. He's been working as a double agent." She didn't bother to register their astonished faces and strode to the door. "Let me in," she said turning back to them.
Lars nodded at a man sitting behind a bunch of computer monitors on the wall, and a light by the door turned green. Erica opened it and saw Chad's surprised face.
"Erica?" he asked. "What are you doing here?"
"I could ask the same thing about you," she said with a small smile. She looked down at the handcuffs. "They thought you were working for Anna."
"Yeah, well," said Chad as Lars, Kendrick, and Bolling came into the room, "I don't think Anna thinks I'm working for her anymore. She sent a bunch of guys to deliver me to the ship."
"Why would she do that?" asked Kendrick.
Chad felt much more courageous now that Erica was there. He tilted his chin upwards. "Uncuff me and maybe I'll tell you," he said boldly, shaking the cuffs.
Lars looked at Erica. "You trust this man?"
"With my life," Erica replied unhesitatingly.
Chad was swiftly released. Rubbing his wrists, he told them all that had happened.
When he finished, the others were silent for a moment.
This didn't last long though. There were too many questions to be asked.
"I hope you don't mind me asking," said Bolling to Chad, "but how did Anna's puppet ever turn against her?"
Chad glared at him. "I found out the truth," he said simply. "When I was on the ship, one of Erica's contacts showed me what Anna was really doing."
The men all turned their attention to Erica. "You have contacts on the Mothership?" asked Kendrick.
"Yes," said Erica. "A high ranking official."
Bolling and Kendrick looked impressed; Lars remained expressionless.
"And how exactly did you come to find an ally on the ship?" asked Bolling.
Erica didn't answer.
There was silence for a few moments.
Finally, Lars said, "How do we contact your man?"
Erica gave a small laugh. "Not so fast. Before I tell you people anything, I want some answers. What exactly is Project Aires? And anything you say to me you can say to Chad."
Chad gave a firm nod.
Lars smirked slightly. "Alright Agent Evans, you'll get your answers."
He led her and Chad out of the holding cell and through another hall. When they stepped inside a room, Erica could see that they were in a conference room.
Lars sat down and folded his hands on top of the table.
Erica and Chad both sat as well.
"Tell me everything you know," said Erica.
Lars smiled a little. "There's not much to say I'm afraid. You already know all about the Vs. Project Aries was first initiated some fifteen years ago when the United States government first became aware of the presence of Vs on earth. Our first contact was a V who had turned against Anna."
"John May," said Erica quietly.
"Precisely," said Lars. "John May came to us and showed us proof that what he was telling us was the truth. The Vs looked and sounded like us, but they were not. They were infiltrating us for an unknown purpose, and we needed to learn what that was. Needless to say, the government was concerned. Several high ranking officials were selected from the different branches of government to head up Project Aries, myself included. Our job was mainly to learn all we could about the Vs and keep tabs on known Vs. See if they were doing anything suspicious or threatening in any way. And for many years, there wasn't a whole lot of activity."
He looked at her solemnly. "That all changed very recently."
Erica nodded. "Anna came."
"Even before that," explained Lars. "The Vs activity increased almost a year before Anna came to earth. We believed that they were preparing for something. And we were right.
"All activity of the Vs has spiked even more since Anna's coming. It's our belief that we are looking at a full scale invasion if we don't do something first."
Erica crossed her arms. "And what exactly have you people been doing since Anna came here?"
"We've been placing our people close to the Vs," said Kendrick. "Basically, they've been picking up information. We're hoping that we can get close enough to learn Anna's plans for humans and stop her before she gets too far."
Erica glared at them. "Well, I hate to break it to you, but Anna's plans are already pretty far along. She wants the humans for breeding; and she has already prepped every human on this planet for it. You remember the red rain?"
"A high concentrate of phosphorous," said Lars. "We know what it is. What we don't know is what its purpose is."
"For breeding," repeated Erica. "Vs need phosphorous to reproduce. They can't survive without it."
"How do you know this?" asked Bolling.
Erica looked at him. "Because I have been working with the Vs who are a part of Fifth Column. The only way to learn about the Vs is to ask them themselves, not watch them from a distance."
"Speaking of which," said Kendrick, "who are your contacts on the ship?"
"What," said Erica mockingly, "doesn't Project Aries have contacts on the one place that might actually be of worth?"
"Project Aries is extremely secret," said Lars. "We have been planning our moves and gathering information for years. If we moved too fast, then we would have been discovered."
"And we aren't as spread out as Fifth Column," said Bolling. "We're only based in the U.S. although we do have agents in the other cities with V ships over them."
"If it's so secret that you can't afford to expose yourselves," said Erica, "then isn't it hard to do anything useful?"
"We aren't out in the open like Fifth Column," replied Bolling. "But just look at how many people they've killed."
Erica clenched her jaw. "There are many different groups of Fifth Column. Most of them haven't killed anyone, and they certainly weren't all responsible for those bombings."
"That may be the case, but it's not like they've done much good at all."
"At least we've done something, unlike you people."
"Enough," said Lars before Kendrick and Bolling could retort. "We can still be effective," he said to Erica. "We have the means and resources that Fifth Column lacks. If Fifth Column is willing to work our way and stop killing innocent people, then I think it would be prudent to ally Fifth Column and Project Aries. If we are going to win this war, then we need all the help and support we can get, especially from ordinary people out in the open. Can you get us in contact with Fifth Column?"
"I should," said Erica dryly. "After all, I am the head of the global Fifth Column."
There was silence for a few moments as Erica's words were digested.
"How did you get to be head of Fifth Column?" asked Bolling.
"Eli Cohn left me in charge when he was killed," said Erica. "And after his death, I stopped all the suicide bombings. Fifth Column can do a lot of damage to Anna with the right resources, and if you want my men to listen to you, then you'll have to work with me."
Lars looked at her for a moment before laughing.
"I like her," he said to Kendrick and Bolling. "Alright Evans, we'll work with you." He leaned back in his chair. "Now about your people on the ship."
Erica smirked. "I have people all over the world—in Concordia sights and Peace Ambassador centers."
"We have our people there as well," said Lars.
Erica nodded. "But there are also Vs that are part of Fifth Column. Does project Aries have that?"
"Not as of right now," replied Lars. "Who are these fifth column Vs?"
"One is named Joshua. He's the chief medical officer and one of Anna's closest advisers."
The men nodded.
"The other," she said, "is Anna's daughter Lisa. Though I don't know what's happened to her after today's failed attempt on Anna's life."
"You were going to kill Anna today?" Kendrick asked in shock.
"Anna's daughter is Fifth Column?" asked Bolling, surprised.
Erica nodded but ignored Kendrick's question. "She turned against her mother and helped me destroy thousands of Anna's soldier eggs."
"Wait, what?" asked Kendrick. "You destroyed soldier eggs?"
Erica sighed. "I guess if I'm going to be working with you people, I better tell you everything. My first group consisted of three people plus myself. Jack Landry, Ryan Nichols, and Kyle Hobbes."
"You were working with a known terrorist?" Bolling asked hotly and in disbelief.
"I didn't like it at first either. But," Erica shrugged, "Anna wanted him dead and I wanted to know why. He's been useful to us."
"Where is he now?" asked Kendrick.
Erica clenched her jaw. "He's gone," she said shortly.
The others didn't comment, though Erica knew that the topic would come up again at some point. For nearly an hour Erica explained everything that had happened since the arrival of the Vs.
"So let me get this straight," said Kendrick when she had finally finished, sans a few details. "You went from working with a priest, a V, and a wanted mercenary, to being the head of the global Fifth Column?"
"That about sums it up," said Erica.
Lars looked at her. "While this is all very nice, we still have the little matter of contacting your man on the ship."
Erica smiled. "First I need a few things from you. One, I need to find my son, and if you want me to continue to help you then you will do everything in your power to locate him. And I want your people to find Sidney. Make sure he's okay. Lastly, I want to talk to Eli's lieutenants. Now."
Lars pondered her a moment before nodding. "Fine. We'll find your son and your man. In the meantime, get a station set up," he ordered Bolling and Kendrick.
They all stood up. "This way," said Lars, beckoning them out of the room.
Chad, who had previously been silent, leaned into Erica as entered the hallway. "What happens now?"
"Now," said Erica quietly, "we find out if we can truly trust these people."
"But if you aren't sure we can trust them, then why did you tell them everything?"
"Because right now we need all the help we can get, and I'm not going to pass up this opportunity," said Erica grimly.
Chad glanced at the men in front of them. "What do you think their plan is?"
"I think they'll take over Fifth Column if they have the chance," she said. "But that is something that I will not allow to happen. We have done more with a dozen people than they have with a thousand. We've been the ones fighting, not them, and I'll be damned before I let them take everything away from me."
She strode ahead and Chad was left to ponder this new world he seemed to have been thrust into.
Back in the main command center, Erica saw that Bolling and Kendrick were waiting by a prepped computer monitor.
"It's all yours," said Kendrick.
The corner of Erica's mouth tilted upwards and she bent over the computer. After a few clicks, the five faces of Eli's lieutenants came up. They had been waiting to hear from her ever since the Bliss.
"What's your status?" asked Erica.
"All people over the earth seemed to have been affected by some device of Anna's."
Erica nodded "It's Bliss. I'm sure of it. It's a mind control device of Anna's. She's found a way to use it on humans."
"That seems to fit what we've seen," he said. "And although it took some time to get out of it, it appears that all of our men have been relatively unaffected. They still support Fifth Column."
"Good," said Erica with a sigh of relief. "So it's possible to fight it. I'm in a secret bunker right now, working with the United States government. They've been monitoring the Vs for fifteen years, ever since John May told them about the Vs."
"Do you trust them?" asked the lieutenant.
Erica glanced back at the faces behind her. "Take your orders directly from me, and don't do anything without my approval first," she told her men.
They nodded and the screen went blank.
Erica faced the others.
"Still don't trust us Agent Evans?" asked Lars with a smile.
Erica gave him a blank look. "You haven't exactly earned my trust, now have you?"
"No, no we haven't," admitted Lars. "But maybe we'll start now. We've already sent men out to locate your friend Sidney, we've put as many people as we can spare on finding your son, and we've allowed you to talk to your people, although you've conveniently made it so that we can't get rid of you anytime soon."
Erica smirked. "To communicate with the ship, we used an old V communicator. But I don't have it right now."
"Who does?" asked Bolling.
Erica looked at them. "Jack Landry."
"The priest," said Kendrick. "Any idea where he is?"
"No," said Erica. "So I suggest you start looking."
One way or another, she would get her team back together.
[A/N: (again) If you have read this I would love a review to know that you're a real person and not just my imagination creating friends for myself.]