He'd not had a bite to eat in two days. Really, that was the worst of it. He told himself he could handle the pain, but what he wouldn't give for a plate of hot chips. He half regretted not taking the meals they had offered him that first afternoon. They'd still been trying to turn him then, to get his cooperation with bribery or threats.

The beatings hadn't started until the following morning. He'd no sense of time passing as he steadfastly refused to answer the questions put to him by Helen as twin Cleaner Clones drove the point home with force. He had swallowed the pain, knowing Cutter wouldn't have given in to Helen and neither could he. He had tried to retreat into himself, distract his mind from the pain by thoughts of Abby. He missed living in the flat, seeing her every morning, hearing the comforting sound of her moving about to remind him he wasn't alone. Sometimes in the afternoon he'd find her doozed off on the soda, Rex curled up under her elbow. But at one point that day he'd felt bone crack beneath a heavy boot and a tiny measure of his control slipped. Connor screamed himself hoarse until evening.

Around dawn a ferocious howl outside brought the room to a standstill.

"Time's up." Helen said. She motioned to the Clones ranged around the room, weapons aimed at Connor. "We're going forward with our plan. Gather the supplies." They filed out of the room as Helen turned back to Connor's bloody form and sneered. Nick's taste in sidekicks had fallen somewhat after Stephen's death.

"This is your last chance, Connor. Help me save mankind from this future, or I will leave you to do die in it. Give me the code on the artifact!"

He glared hatefully back at her, fuming. Blood trickled down his cheek from the cut above his eyebrow.

"I wont help you anymore than Cutter did." he snarled.

Furious at her failure, and at the mention of her husband - dead by her own hand and for nothing, she backhanded Connor viciously. The chair he was lashed to toppled over and he knocked his head painfully against the dusty floor. He blinked away the brief double vision of what he hoped wasn't another concussion just in time to see Helen disappear out the door, the last of the weapons slung over her shoulder and an odd glass device in her hand.

Connor struggled against his bonds, twisting around to search the floor for anything he might to use to free himself. But there was nothing to be found, he was totally at the mercy of the Future Predators he could hear snarling in the distance as the footsteps of Helen and her clones retreated. Exhausted, he lay his aching head on the floor, closed his eyes, and wished he was back at the flat with Abby.

"This doesn't make sense. I thought most anomalies didn't reopen, at least not for hundred of years? And most anomalies stay open a while. It was gone before we go there, that ain't long enough for any beasties to come wandering through." Danny Quinn lowered his firearm to his side, scanning the clearing where the anomaly had been picked up two hours ago, identical to the one the ARC had picked up two days ago. The day Connor had gone missing in the field.

"We don't know that, we need to make sure there's danger. There must have been an incursion last time, Connor didn't just trip and fall through the anomaly! "Abby cried.

"We've check three times, Abby," Danny said. "there's no creatures there. And no Connor." He glanced at Danny "The only other time an anomaly has behaved this way was the one at Christine's Johnson's lab. Becker, we're wasting time here, there's no lead, this isn't going to help Connor." Danny sighed impatiently. Abby vehemently disagreed. Danny was all for storming Christine Johnson's HQ but their arguments got no response from Becker as he prowled their immediate vicinity, his senses tuned to his search.

Suddenly he signaled them with a raised fist and dropped to one knee. He pointed at something on the ground at his and placed the butt of his gun against his shoulder, ready to fire. He covered the other as they approached in a cautious crouch.

"I recognize that boot." he murmured, pointing to footprints in the soft earth. "Cleaner clones. They could be here."

Danny swore. "This isn't Christine Johnson's work. We're dealing with Helen."

Abby's jaw sagged as they realized the implications. "But… Helen always seems to know where the anomalies will be. She could have taken Connor anywhere, to any time!" Her hand shook slightly as she covered her mouth, for the first time really despairing she might never see Connor again. Danny put a hand on her shoulder, squeezing gently to comfort her.

"She wont go far. If she took Connor, it means she want something. And she wont stray too far from that something."

Becker radioed his men, establishing a perimeter. "I don't know why Helen would risk returning to this spot, but if she comes back again we are going to be ready. I've called in more reinforcements from the ARC."

"She must have needed a specific anomaly to get where she needed to go. Of course. She must have needed a base in some time that she's brought Connor to." Abby clutched Becker's arm "If that anomaly opens again we can go after him!"

Danny stood, furrowing his brow. "That's exactly what i plan to do."

—

Helen had left the door ajar. Connor had awkwardly crawled over to it, hampered by the chair he was still firmly tied to. He shifted around and wedged his foot against the door, inching it closed as far as his toes would reach. A shadow passed before it and Connor jumped as he heard a familiar blood-curdling shriek. With a mighty kick, Connor slammed the door closed just as a Predator crashed into it. After picking itself up, it circled to try again and this time the door splintered and crashed inwards, almost catching Connor as he shuffled awkwardly to the side.

Squinting through the dust kicked up at the creatures entry, he saw it silhouetted in the doorway. It was poised to leap when gunfire sounded in the distance, followed by a chorus of snarls from other Predators, causing it to hesitate. Opting to join the more successful group hunt, it retreated from the door and bound off. Connor had wait for his heart-rate to slow its mad dash before he dared to move.

Once he had calmed down, he examined the remnants of the door the creature had splintered like kindling. The twisted metal hinge plate caught his eye. Scooting as close as he could, he turned his back and groped for the sharpest metal edge he could reach. He used it to saw at his bond, pulling and tugging with quiet desperation. That Future Predator might have lost interest for now but it wouldn't forget the easy kill laying here.

He grimaced in pain as the sharp edges of the hinge cut him and the rope rubbed his wrists raw. When it finally loosened his shoulders screamed in complaint; his hands had been tied behind him for two days. He had to wait for feeling to return to his appendages before he could even lift himself from the floor.

Abby, Becker and Danny watched from a hidden vantage point as the anomaly opened and the first of the Clones came through. They had weapons at ready and scanned for threats, but Becker's covert team had the area surrounded. As more Cleaners emerged, Abby began to wonder if they could even manage to fight their way to the anomaly. But suddenly the orderly group around the anomaly became a turmoil as the newcomers came falling through the anomaly, guns blazing at a threat evidently pursuing them.

The distraction was all Becker needed and, with a signal from him, his team efficiently took out the group of clones. The last few to fall through were injured before any bullets took them; something savage had chased them through. Becker instructed his men to approach with caution, in case a creature followed. When he turned to Abby, intent on telling her to stay behind where it was safe until the area was secured, he found she was no longer at his side. She was halfway across the field, sprinting for the anomaly.

"ABBY!" Becker and Danny tore after her but she disappeared through it before they could catch up to her.

Connor watched from the empty doorway as Abby came sailing through the anomaly and crashed into Helen. They both fell to the ground but Abby quickly rolled into a crouch, ready to fight or flee, before she locked eyes with Helen. His warrior woman. Even from a distance he could see when Abby noticed the last of Helen's Cleaners still with her, weapons blazing.

At the ring of Future Predators surrounding them.

He had to help Abby. With one hand pressed to his burning ribs he ran towards the action. His pace was shuffling at best but it was as fast as his weakened body could manage.

—

Helen smirked at the little blonde. Fortune hadn't favored Abby on that leap into the unknown. Her men had dispatched most of the remaining creatures. Once the rest were under control, Abby would make excellent leverage for Helen to get what she needed from Connor.

Helen pulled a pistol from her satchel and trained it on Abby. But just as she'd opened her mouth to gloat, a nerve-grating scream sounded from the last Predator followed by a hoarse yell.

"NO! Abby, look out!"

Abby whipped around to see Connor hobbling towards her. Her smile of relief died before it was half-formed; from the corner of her eye she noticed the blur of the Future Predator streaking towards her. Maddened by multiple gunshot wounds and confused by the noise around it, it was attempting to retreat. But its path took it straight towards the anomaly. And Abby and Helen standing before it.

—

Becker gave orders to his team as the anomaly locking device was being set up.

"Open the anomaly again in one hour, leave it open for 5 minutes. No longer." He told his lieutenant. "If I don't return, its too dangerous to unlock it again."

"You mean if we don't return." Danny stepped up next to Becker, wearing a flak vest. He checked the clip on his handgun and slid it into place.

Before Becker could object to endangering another member of the team, the Future Predator burst through the anomaly. Becker's training and lightning reflexes had two shots fired into the creature's skull before it had made half a dozen strides. With the injuries it had received before it appeared in this time, the Future Predator offered no further resistance. Before it even hit the ground, Danny was running through the anomaly. With an incursion, Future Predators no less, he knew Becker would be under orders to lock the anomaly permanently. Danny couldn't leave Abby alone god knows where. If she found Connor they'd need backup.

—

Helen had just regained her feet after she and Abby had thrown themselves out of the path of the Predator's mad dash. She raised the anomaly closing device she had lately procured to seal the creature on the other side. Before she could activate it, Danny Quinn came sprinting through the anomaly. As he ran straight into her, he flung an arm out, knocking the device and her gun from her hands.

Helen screamed with fury at being thwarted with so little dignity and her Clones came running to exist. Danny was quicker however. He hustled the other two back through the anomaly, pulling Abby to her feet and taking Connor's arm to half-carry, half-drag him back through.

Helen stopped her remaining Cleaners from following them and, retrieving her device from the dirt, closed the anomaly.

"I have other ways of getting what I want."

—

"Connor!"

He collapsed as soon as they have made it through. Abby knelt besides him, afraid to touch him without knowing where he was hurt. Tears came to her eyes as she saw the bruises purpling on his cheek and the raw bloody gashes on his wrists. He held himself tense, as if every movement was agony. But his glazed eyes sought hers and he managed to catch one of her hovering hands.

"Its not so bad, be on my feet in no time," he attempted a game smile but a hiss of pain betrayed him. "I'm tougher than I look, love."

She stiffened a little at that word, 'love', he'd not said it for so long Abby had almost convinced herself he never meant it. Before she could think how to respond he had fainted from the pain. It took a full half hour to get a medic into the field, another to check him over and stabilize his fracture ribs. And another hour to get Connor back to ARC and settled in to the infirmary. Abby never once let go of his hand.

—

[set sometime 3.6-3.8. in my headcanon, they don't know that this is the same Future that Jack ended up in since none of them saw much of during this quick snatch and grab.]