Nikita exited her 2000 Porche Boxter and slammed the door shut. She walked unhurriedly across the pavement of the underground parking lot, towards the door that led into the main building.
She sensed movement behind a nearby car, dropped to the ground and rolled while drawing her gun. Gunfire seemed to come from all directions as she tried to determine her attackers whereabouts. Nikita was soon surrounded by a dozen people, all of whom were wearing battle gear and black ski masks. The gun was knocked out of her hand, and two of the attackers grabbed her arms while she tried to escape their grasp. They held her in a position where she was forced onto her knees.
One of the attackers stepped forward, obviously the leader of the group, and raised a pistol to her head.
"Michael!", Nikita screamed. "Michael!"
The attacker pulled the trigger...
Michael woke up suddenly, gasping for breath, and soaked with perspiration. He quickly remembered his surroundings. He was in his bedroom, in the house he had shared with his son, Adam, for a little over a year.
The image of Nikita screaming his name was still fresh in his mind, and it refused to leave. He glanced at the alarm clock on his nightstand. It was six o'clock in the morning. Michael rose from his bed and headed to the bathroom.
By the time he had showered and dressed, he could hear Adam's alarm clock announcing the time to be six-thirty. He knocked gently on Adam's bedroom door.
"Adam, it's time to get up."
Michael slowly opened the door. Adam's bed was empty.
"Adam?", he called.
He turned off the frantic beeping of the alarm clock.
"Adam?", he asked again, a bit louder this time.
Had Adam been kidnapped? It wouldn't be the first time. It had happened once before, but that was before he had left Section One...
A sudden movement from inside Adam's closet caught his attention. Michael opened the door.
There was Adam, curled up in a pile of blankets, slowly opening his eyes.
"Hi, Daddy." Adam's facial expression changed from sleepy to frightened as he remembered something.
"I had nightmares again."
He did not have to explain what the nightmares were about. He had had the same one for the past year.
They weren't really nightmares; they were memories.
Memories of dead bodies, ones that had been shot down right before Adam's eyes. Section One operatives, Operations, Mr. Jones. They had all died in an attempt to save Adam from death at the hands of the Collective, the remainder of several terrorist organizations that Section One had destroyed.
Michael had been forced to take Mr. Jones hostage, with the reluctant help of Nikita, and bluff upon counter-bluff ensued over the location of the hostages. They finally agreed that Michael would give himself over to the Collective in exchange for Adam's safety.
At the last moment, Mr. Jones said that he would give himself over to the Collective; it was him they wanted, not Michael.
His only condition was that Nikita would have to become Section One's Operations. Mr. Jones and Adam walked across the bridge at the same time, and Nikita was forced to watch the last remnant of her family, her father, be shot dead less than thirty feet away.
Nikita and Michael decided that it would be in Adam's best interest if Michael left Section One to take care of his son. Michael promised that he would come back to her when Adam could live on his own. They finally acknowledged out loud that they loved each other, and Michael and Adam left to start a new life.
One year later, Adam was still living the past in his dreams.
"It's OK, Adam. They can't hurt you any more," said Michael.
It was a feeble attempt at reassurance; Michael wasn't sure if it was true.