Title: Ascension

Parings: Chad Dickson/Rachel McKenzie

Warnings: A little lemon later on, suggested sexual acts, explicit sexual acts, death, cursing.

Summary: Rachel McKenzie, undercover adult-agent for the Kids Next Door, daughter and woman, is unsatisfied with her life. With war brewing in the Galaxy and with the the reappearance of a handsome ghost of her past – will a little spice finally be added to it?

Chapter 1

Rachel McKenzie was bored.

At first, the choice to come home for her twenty-third birthday party was one that was made out of purse sense of obligation and self-preservation. If she hadn't come home, her mother would never let her forget about it until the very day that she died and her father, while he might not have reminded her of it, would still look at her with disappointment. Sitting there in the ballroom, amid all of her parent's boring and snobby friends, not to mention their boring and snobby children, she was almost tempted to leave, almost. The thrashing that she would receive from her parents would nearly be worth it if she didn't have to hear another story about how little Patrick or Caroline did at their term at school. If she had to hear it one more time, she swore that she was going to vomit all over the ground. The same thing would probably happen if she had to sit through her parents praising her with false platitudes or simply praising her to one-up whoever they were trading barbs with.

Sipping her champagne and casting an entirely bored gaze upon the room, she found down the urge to chafe and twitch at the designer gown that her mother had forced upon her. It wasn't as if she wasn't used to gatherings like this, she'd been forced to attend them since she was a small child and she'd just spent the last four years at Harvard University, the epitome of snobbery and gathering point for a lot of the offspring of the elites of the world. However, she was convinced that no matter how much exposure she had to the pageantry that often accompanied the elitism – she would never like it, no matter how much her parents tried to force her to. She was a simple girl, she preferred to blend into the background, observe her surroundings and calculate – perhaps that was a part of her espionage training, perhaps that was a part of her that she never liked to acknowledge, the calculating mentality that she had inherited from her mother, either way, it's what she did.

Good lord she missed the Kids Next Door, she missed being in the loop.

It was no coincidence that she had applied to Harvard, it certainly wasn't because of her parents, the fact that her father was a legacy certainly helped her along in those goals, but she still – she had her choice, she wouldn't have gone. When she graduated from High School, she had been instructed by Numbuh Infinity to begin keeping tabs on the staff of Harvard University – apparently there were rumors of a secret project amongst the staff to develop something of a portable Delightfulization device. Commissioned by certain wealthy benefactors, namely Father, the device would have theoretically removed the need for the chamber and would streamline the process. Father had planned on taking the device, having it mass-produced and putting it up for sale, along with guides on controlling unruly children. Her recon had allowed the Kids Next Door to infiltrate the lab and destroy the device, as well as destroy all of the notes and work that was complied with it.

That had been two months ago – four years of work, of carefully compiling all of the information and sending it back to the Numbuh Infinity had resulted in the quick and very concise destruction of the device.

Now she didn't know what to do – she was still awaiting orders from Numbuh Infinity and she hoped to god that it didn't involve her going back to that place.

She missed Cleveland, she missed its simplicity and the relief that it brought her. She missed her childhood friends and even though most of them were decommissioned and lost to the masses, it still didn't stop her from missing them.

"Pumpkin," Her father's voice drew her attention away from her dry observations of the room and when she looked back to him, she couldn't help but frown deeply at who was following him. No matter how many times she saw them, it'd always be strange to see Harris and Rebecca Dickson outside of their alter-egos. Mega-Mom and Destructo-Dad were one of the few villains that she still held a grudge against – being stupefied and nearly killed had gotten on her last nerves and she never really forgot it. Allowing herself the briefest of moments to remember and indulge in the gut instinct that the very sight of them inspired in her as a child, she quickly quashed it and plastered a false smile on her face, "Remember the Dicksons?"

She had been away from the loop for a very long time and thus she wasn't as active on the latest moves that the villains, other than Father, had been making, so she wasn't sure if the Dicksons were still active.

But the malicious glint in both of their eyes gave an interesting answer, it was clear that they hadn't forgotten her.

Good.

She hadn't forgotten them either.

"Well darling," Her mother prodded her not-so subtly. "Don't be rude, say hello."

"Mr. Dickson, Mrs. Dickson," Rachel nodded to them slightly and her face morphed into a mask of faux-warmth and kindness that she was sure she could have only inherited from her mother. "It's been quite some time, how are you?"

"Very well, thank you for asking," The glint in Destructo-Dad's eyes grew. "I'm enjoying retirement, being able to focus more on my hobbies."

"I hope those hobbies aren't too destructive?" The right corner of her mouth quirked up slightly.

If her parents caught her peculiar choice of words, they didn't say anything and she was grateful for that. Her two innocent and somewhat vapid parents were safely unware of what was happening right in front of them. If they had known that they were witnessing of the slight rebirth of a grudge that was twelve years in the making, they might have made a scene and they could have put themselves in danger if they did that. She didn't worry about the Dicksons spilling their secrets, her parents would probably not enjoy learning that they tried to kill her at one point and it would lead to their social destruction. That was a benefit of having the most powerful parents in town, social climbers like the Dicksons usually bowed to them.

"Of course not dear," Mrs. Dickson replied. "Not since our son moved back home anyway."

That bit of information was utterly delicious – and she had to force herself to forestall her glee at the news and relish it later.

"And how is Chad doing?" Rachel asked gently.

Chad fucking Dickson.

The vaunted, two parts hated and two parts vindicated Numbuh 274.

Even when his cover was blown and he was exposed as a loyal member of the Kids Next Door – Rachel still could not find the power within herself to forgive him. It was a personal betrayal on so many levels and it wasn't just because Chad had been a mentor and a friend, it was because of what he represented to the organization in general. He was charismatic and far more of a leader then Numbuh 100 ever had been – his charm and his tactical brilliance was envied even by her and even when he "left" – his tactics were still used by the whole of the organization. Rachel couldn't forgive the fact that he turned his back on all of that and had attempted to send the entire base into the sun and kill all of them, including her. Her sometimes irrational hatred of him was furthered by his bumbled departure from the teenagers. It made it insanely difficult for her and every operative in the Teens Next Door that followed to penetrate the origination and learn their secrets without exposure.

He could have had a graceful exit from the teenagers and saved them so much time and so many exposed operatives if he had just learned to control his temper and ego.

"Chad just finished his term at Ohio State," Mrs. Dickson's eyes folded with pride and Rachel felt a small spark of even more glee at that news.

Many people had told her throughout the years that she was just as good, if not better than Chad, and it felt good that at least in this, she was.

Rachel could practically feel the smugness rolling off of her mother in droves as said woman put a hand on her shoulder, "Our Rachel just finished her term at Harvard, and we're hoping she goes into the graduate program."

If Numbuh Infinity ordered her to stay at Harvard, then she would accept a positon in the graduate degree program, but hopefully, he would have new orders for her that based her back here. If that were the case, then she would tell her parents to fuck off and she would never again have the displeasure of returning to school

"Oh – you're trying to get into graduate school?" Mrs. Dickson's eyebrows rose.

"I have gotten into the graduate school Mrs. Dickson," Rachel suppressed yet another smirk when fury flashed into the older woman's eyes. "I'm still debating on joining or not."

"You'd be stupid not to do it," His voice came from behind her and she instantly felt her back tense. "But then again, no one ever said that you were brilliant."

Turning around slowly, Rachel narrowed her eyes and morphed her mouth into a scowl as she laid her eyes on the form of Chad Dickson for the first time in six years.