Author's Note: Hello again. Here is my little alternative ending to Vigilante. I loved the episode, especially, the end with Will and all the moments between Helen and John. It was just awesome! Anyway, I wondered what would happen if the Big Guy hadn't got Father Clark and if he'd done what he'd intended to do and go after Magnus. So here it is. Please review. And also, I updated on An Old Allegiance just now so go and check that out :)

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

Home Invasion

'Long day' didn't even begin to cover it. Magnus was exhausted, not that she'd readily admit it and if any of her staff knew she was not yet in bed, they'd be queuing up to have her head. It was currently eleven fifty six pm and as far as Magnus knew, her manservant and Kate were up with Henry in his room, Will was still filing paperwork in his office and Nikola and John were holed up in the library, continuing to exam the holographic city.

The day had been, on the whole, a productive one. She and John had retrieved the keystone from Hong Kong, they now had the coordinates for the gateway and Kate and Will had prevented a massive attack on abnormals. They had not, however, managed to apprehend Father Clark. He had managed to escape while her team had neutralised the attack. Magnus was not overly concerned by his escape; she was confident they would catch him when he tried again. He had said he would come after her and while she was in Old City, so was he. They would catch him.

Right now, her major concern was her deteriorating health and the obvious distraction it was becoming to everybody else. Will had definitely noticed the tremor in her hands. It wasn't something she could easily conceal or control. As far as she could tell, the antibiotics and other drugs in her system were limiting the various symptoms. So far she'd felt no nausea, had no fever. Fatigue was also a symptom but after the day they'd had and the little sleep she'd had before that, it was impossible to tell whether it was because of all they'd done or because of the radiation that had poisoned her body. Unfortunately, she was now feeling the beginnings of a headache, one accompanied by dizziness. And that was why she was leaning heavily against her desk, trying to clear her vision as it blurred.

It was just getting better when an alarm went off on her computer. She looked up and saw that the perimeter had been breached. The EM shield was up despite John's presence so the only option left was someone manually forcing their way into the grounds. Magnus clicked through the surveillance feeds, looking for the intruder. She was only halfway through when her radio beeped.

"Doc?" It was Henry.

"Yeah, Henry."

There was a crackle on the line. "What's going on? The alarm just went off..." It was Kate's voice this time.

"As far as I can tell, someone has penetrated our defences and is in the grounds somewhere." Magnus replied. "Will?"

There was another crackle on the line as Will picked up his radio. "Yeah, Magnus?"

"Would you go to the front door and check the security systems from there? Henry, if you're feeling up to it, I need you to go down to the small weapons lab and see if you can run a thermal imaging scan. I want to know where this guy is."

"Sure, Doc." Henry replied.

After that, it was radio silence. Magnus continued to search through the security cameras, looking for the intruder. Nothing. She couldn't see anything. And there had been no word from Henry or Will. She kept going through the camera feeds but she was restless. The silence was making her uneasy. And to make it worse, the stress and adrenaline was starting to impact on her headache. It was now bad enough to make her wince when it throbbed particularly badly and that pain was starting to scare her. It made her hands shake as she tapped on the keyboard. She was starting to really regret not making Nikola and John not carry radios, and unless Henry, Will or Kate had warned them, they were still blissfully unaware of all that was happening.

"Will?" There was nothing but crackling on the other end. "Henry? Kate?"

Nothing. Silence.

"Hello, Helen."

At the unfamiliar voice, Magnus whipped around, snatching her gun off the desk. However, before she could raise it, she became aware of the revolver being pointed at her. Father Clark stood just inside the doorway, holding the gun aloft, levelling it with her head. "Put the gun down." He nodded at the weapon in her hand.

Magnus tipped her head, and placed the gun on the floor by her feet. She kicked it away.

"Father Clark, am I right?" she asked, trying to keep her voice calm. She clasped her hands together behind her back to prevent the man seeing the tremor of her fingers.

Father Clark shrugged. "You are correct. That is one of the names I go by anyway." He stepped closer to Magnus. She didn't flinch.

"I hear you told my manservant that you intended to come after me." Magnus attempted to stall for time. "That you intend to kill me."

"Your manservant?" Father Clark spat, distain radiating off him. "Yes. I will kill you. For you are allowing monsters to roam and to infringe the rights of humans."

Magnus considered arguing with him but decided against it. The only thing it would achieve would be angering Father Clark and with the gun in his hand rather than hers, that was not a route she wished to go down. "But what would killing me achieve? Someone else would step up and take my job. In fact, I'm not even in charge anymore. Killing me would achieve nothing."

Father Clark frowned, confused. He lowered the gun slightly. "What?"

"I'm dying. I'm probably going to last another three weeks. Why don't you just help me out? Get it over with." She pressed, taking a step forward. Father Clark shifted backwards slightly. "Go on. Do it." She was right in front of him now, the gun almost touching her chest.

Father Clark was clearly taken aback. He'd expected her to fight him, even beg for her life but here she was, daring him to do it. It felt wrong; it was unnerving. He raised the gun to rest it against her forehead. She didn't flinch. She stared into his eyes and Father Clark saw her tense her jaw. She was serious. He was saved from making a decision by the crackling of Magnus' radio.

"Magnus, the security systems all seems fine other than the original incursion." Will.

Father Clark's finger twitched on the trigger. He glanced at the radio and then back at Magnus. She stared him down.

"If I don't answer, he'll come up here." She warned him.

Father Clark's grip on the gun shifted as he decided what to do. Magnus' eyes were boring into him and he could feel himself beginning to sweat. He had to make a decision.

"Magnus? Everything okay?" Will's voice was concerned.

"Answer it." Father Clark snapped.

Magnus walked slowly back to the desk and picked up the radio. "Will?"

"Everything okay?"

Magnus glanced up at Father Clark. She had a split second to decide whether or not she could get out of this without letting Will know. She wasn't convinced she could. "Father Clark's here..." Before she could say anymore, Father Clark fired a bullet. It buried itself deeply in the wood of Magnus' desk, missing her by mere centimetres. At the sound, Magnus had dropped the radio and it clatter to the floor and before she could move to pick it up or back away from Father Clark, he was right in front of her. Using the butt of the gun, he hit her across the face, knocking her to the ground. Her chair spun away as she fell into it on the way down. Collapsed on the floor, Magnus looked up at him, looked at the gun inches from her face.

Just when she thought he would fire, there was the flash of light and Father Clark toppled forward, landing on top of Magnus with a thud. She coughed, his dead weight heavy on her body.

"Magnus? Are you alright?" Will's voice was panicked. He sprinted over and heaved Father Clark off of Magnus, throwing him to the side without a second thought.

Magnus shook her head to clear it. "Yeah, I'm fine."

Will reached out and took her hand, pulling her onto her feet. He touched her face, angled it for better light and looked carefully at the gash across her cheek. He winced. "That looks nasty."

"I've had worse." Magnus sighed, moving away from Will to retrieve her radio and her gun. She placed them on the desk and glanced from Father Clark's unconscious body to Will's face. "I'm glad that worked."

Will nodded, raising his eyebrows in agreement. "Hell yeah."

Magnus ran a hand through her hair. She looked exhausted.

"Hey, are you sure you're alright?" Will asked. He touched her arm lightly.

She looked up, almost surprised that he was still there. "Yeah, I'm going to go to bed. Can you get Father Clark in a cell?"

"Of course." Will nodded. "Do you want a hand cleaning that cut?"

"Thank you Will but I'll be fine." She smiled tiredly at him and turned towards the door. "Good night."

"Goodnight." Will returned before setting his attention to Father Clark.