Summary: Dutch and the team find a lead on Khlyen based on an old data transmission to Aldross, a science station situated in an isolated region within the Quad. The decrypted transmission show that Khlyen had been on the station in search of a device. Dutch is determined to find out what it is and if it is in fact still present on the station. Using Turin to write a warrant as an official reason to board the science station, it seemed like an easy in and out level 1 mission. Little did they know, leaving the station was a lot harder than any of them predicted.

Note(s): Takes place some time before the episode "Schooled", Season 2. Please note some course language is used in the story!

Disclaimer: I do not own Killjoys or any of its characters.

Aldross Science Station

- Control Room -

"Johnny?"

"Johnny!"

"D'Av?"

"Johnny! Get us out of here. The cargo bay, they've locked all the exits, Johnny! Do you copy?" Sounds of shots fired cracked through the COM link. "Johnny!" It was D'Avin. There was a cry in the background, "Dutch!" Alvis's voice was worried. "Dutch, stay awake." There was more sounds of gunfire. "We need to get her back onboard Lucy, now." That did not sound good to Johnny. The doors. He needed to get them open.

Things would of course move a lot faster for Johnny if his mind wasn't so hazy from the blood loss. The wound that he had taken from Lyaff was probably the same lines as the one D'Avin had given him a few months ago from Dr. Jaegar's mind control. While he wasn't sure exactly how bad the wound was, he did know he didn't have long before he would go into shock and be pretty useless in getting his team off the station. And he'd bet that's what the bastard Lyaff would have wanted when he stabbed him in the abdomen.

But as luck would have it, Johnny was one hard mother f*cker to kill. Though he wasn't dead yet, Johnny had a feeling if he didn't stop the bleeding soon, he would be. But he didn't have time for that. He had his priorities: getting his team the hells out of the Aldross science station. He could finish dying afterwards. Though ideally he wanted to live, for obvious reasons.

The com link suddenly went offline again.

Damn it. Johnny's hands had started to tremble already. He steadied them and focused on reestablishing the link to Lucy. Johnny knew he didn't have enough time to manually hack the Aldross A.I. But he could get Lucy to do it. Lucy would take care of them all. Unblocking the signal that was interfering with Lucy and keeping the com signal with his team was much more difficult than expected. The Aldross A.I. was much more sophisticated than Johnny ever imagined. But somehow, Johnny managed it. Loopholes, algorithms, all sorts of methods and subroutines just poured from his fingertips. Must work really well under pressure, he thought to himself.

Finally, Johnny was able to make some headway for Lucy to link to the facility's A.I. Linking it was one thing, but to keep the connection to the network, that was a different thing. The A.I. constantly tried to unravel his code, but Johnny wasn't giving it the opportunity. No way was he going to let this A.I. catch his girl Lucy.

"Lucy?"

He waited for a moment. There was static. Johnny wiped the code sweat from his forehead, and tried again to reroute some of the programming.

"Lucy?" He tried again. Come on, come on. He was running out of time. His team was counting on him.

"John."

"Yes!" He let the breath he didn't realize he had been holding.

"Lucy, this A.I. is a tough little assh*le, so I'm going to have to keep him busy while you do your best to hack into the main system of this little bastard's playground. Can you do that?"

"Attempting mainframe hack, John," confirmed Lucy.

"Good. Thanks Luce." His breathing had started to become more laboured. While he still had adrenaline rushing through him in keeping him conscious, his body was weakening by the minute. He began to lean against the control console. He was tired. So tired. He wanted to shut his eyes. Just for a moment. A second even.

"John. John, you must stay awake. Your vital signs are not bolding well."

Gods. Did he phase out? Johnny blinked his tired eyes and let out a weak cough. He tasted copper. Blood. Not good. Definitely not good.

"John?"

"Still here, Luce. Any updates with the com?" His voice sounded hoarse even to him.

"Com link has been established, but there is severe interference with the signal."

"Their vitals?"

"Undetermined. Interference from the mainframe A.I. on this facility is blocking attempts to detect their lifesigns."

"But you can find mine?"

"There is less shielding in this part of the station."

"Are you in their system now?"

"I am close."

"Good." Johnny smirked. "Bastards should never mess with you Luce."

"They should never mess with us, John."

Johnny smiled at her response.

"Alright. I don't plan on dying here, so let's hurry and get the hells out of here asap."

Johnny's hands moved as quickly, his eyes focused on monitoring the Aldross Lab A.I., making sure it didn't see Lucy slip in through its mainframe.

"John, I am now connected to the Aldross A.I. It is difficult to maintain without assistance. Aldross is very resistant."

"Too much for my Luce to handle alone? Don't worry, I'll help with a distraction. Just keep yourself under the radar until you can fully take over its main systems, at least the doors if anything."

"Understood, John."

There was silence for what seemed like a hours, but only minutes had passed. But for every second that passed, Johnny could feel himself growing weaker. He knew his body was starting to go into shock.

He was definitely running out of time. His movements were getting slower, his vision phasing in and out.

"Luce, have you connected to their main systems?"

There was a pause, and then, "Affirmative, John. I am in. However, I have limited access."

"Can you detect the team's vitals?"

"They are active. Dutch, however, appears to be hurt."

"Can you access the system doors?"

"I am accessing."

Pause.

"D'Av?" Tried Johnny over the com. It should work. With the shields down, the interference should be gone.

"Johnny?" Was the static response. Thank God.

"You guys alright?"

Static silence.

"Casualties. The doors. Still trapped."

Suddenly there was a loud blaring alarm. Shit. The Aldross had realized it had been compromised. Johnny scrambled on rerouting what he could to keep the A.I. from locking Lucy out.

Come on, come on...there! "Ok, Lucy, try again. Let's get those doors open for them."

After what seemed like an eternity of rerouting the station's A.I. he locked the commands in.

Moments later, Lucy confirmed it.

"Doors are open now John."

"Ok, map them a way out and keep those bastards getting to them."

"D'Av, Lucy's connected to the A.I. mainframe right now. I'm not sure how long she can stay in there, so you guys gotta move fast."

Static silence.

"D'Av?"

D'Avin wasn't answering. The com must have gone down again. But Johnny was wrong when he heard Lucy speak to D'Avin over the com.

"The doors have been unlocked. You do not have much time, you need to get to the secondary corridor on the right wing B in 5 minutes." Johnny could hear Lucy speak to D'Avin through the static.

"Got it, thanks Lucy"

It was a one way communication; the interference was too strong within the control room.

"D'Av?" he tested.

Yep. One way. Well, at least Lucy could communicate with them.

"Lucy."

Silence again.

Damn it. He needed to keep Lucy in the Aldross system, if she was booted out, the teams escape would be impossible.

Johnny decided the best way to keep the com with Lucy was to just route it through the Aldross system. The A.I. kept trying to raise the shield in the control room, and that kept cutting Lucy off through the com. But if it was through the Aldross A.I.'s own communication systems, then it would be less likely to be closed off. But discovery might be transparent. Oh well. You win some, you lose some.

Come on... come on, there!

"Lucy?"

"I am here John."

"Thank god. Can you still connect with the team?"

"I am in contact with D'Avin right now."

"Com is down for me so I can't talk to them. What's their status right now?"

"They are in a difficult position - there are too many Aldross men in position. They require a distraction."

"Is there anything you can do, Lucy?"

"I cannot access anything beyond some of their system doors."

Okay, think Johnny. Think. There has to be something you can do. Got it.

He began to enter in the commands. "Luce, on my mark, you give them the warning to hang on to something."

Okay. Done. Now he just had to wait till it powered up. Next thing to do: get the hells out of the control room.

"Luce, tell me the fastest way I can make it out of here alive."

"The closest route would be to exit through the South wing, make a left at corridor A and -"

Suddenly Lucy's voice was cut off. No no no. Johnny looked at the console. The Aldross A.I. had blocked out Lucy from its communication systems. Worse was that it had also raised the alarm to where the breach had occurred; right where Johnny was.

Moments later, Johnny saw he had company outside the control room. Lyaff and Lorey. And boy, did they not look happy to see Johnny alive and kicking. Lyaff pounded against the control room's door, while Lorey worked furiously on unlocking the door.

Johnny was thankful that he had locked himself in as the first command when he got Lucy in the system. He really didn't have plans to die today, though he wasn't sure if what he wanted was going to pan out so well anymore.

The banging against the door increased. Oh yeah, Lyaff was pissed. But did Johnny care, really? No. Not the slightest. The petite scientist Lorey looked focused and pretty damned frustrated. The tall security guard was no different.

"Get the damn door open, Lorey!" growled the man.

"I'm trying! I'm trying damnit. He's locked out the controls."

"Just get it open. I don't care how you do it."

Frustrated by the lack of results, Lyaff pulled out his blaster and prepared to fire at the door.

Lorey, however, wasn't impressed nor was she taking his frustration to heart. "Put that away, idiot. Do you think that still works after you've been walking and out of this room?"

"It's you're fault he's alive to do this. I told you to just finish him off earlier. Stupid." muttered Lorey.

The man looked abashed at the woman's words. He reholstered his blaster pausing a moment before he continued slamming his fists against the panel doors.

The scientist said nothing except let out a sigh as she continued to enter codes into the key panel.

Johnny, while he could easily find their odd relationship entertaining on a regular day, he really didn't care too much about it at the moment. They were trying to kill him and his team afterall. Instead, Johnny was using all of his concentration on two things, connecting to Lucy again and also making sure his algorithm worked Aldross's system. His team needed a distraction, so he was going to give them one. The panel in front of him blinked 100%. Time to wreck some havoc on this science vessel.

"Lucy?"

"John?"

"Tell the team to brace themselves. We're going in for a ride."

Johnny gripped the console as he activated the algorithm he had programmed. The entire station shifted out of orbit. Ship wide alarms went off. The Aldross, forced to deal with a station wide panic was distracted, giving Johnny his chance slip Lucy into their higher operations. Now Lucy could navigate them out of there properly.

And now for himself... ah shit.

The door to the control room suddenly slid open. Lyaff walked in, Lorey following slowly behind.

"Release the controls back to Aldross," he growled at Johnny.

"Um..no?" Honestly, Johnny didn't know where his sarcasm was coming from. Especially given his circumstances. Must be the lightheadedness from the blood loss. Or it could just an inherent part of his personality. D'Avin always said that was his problem when it came to bullies. While most cowered away, Johnny went straight into the sarcastic territory, causing well...more agitation and broken bones in the process.

"You do not want to test me, Mr. Jacobis."

"Wow. We're on to last names now? I didn't know you cared enough to look me up."

Ah shit, Johnny. You really need to stop, seeing that Lyaff's side temple vein was visibly throbbing.

"Lorey, unlock the controls. I will deal Mr. Jacobis."

The woman didn't bother to answer, she was already on it.

Good luck to her. Johnny put enough subroutines to keep her from isolating out Lucy.

Things, however, were not looking good for Johnny. He wasn't going to be able to get out of here alive today afterall. But he wasn't going to take his team with him either. They needed to go.

"Luce, my last request: run protocol Jacobis 2 7 R. You do what it takes to get them to go, okay? Can you give me a sign you heard me?"

The station did an abrupt shift. That's my girl, smiled Johnny.

Lyaff, however, was anything but happy. He had stumbled from the shift and he was rather pissed. With one hand, he knocked Johnny away from the controls; Johnny having no way to really strength to do anything, fell backwards against the side of the wall like a ragdoll.

If a body could bounce from a wall, Johnny felt like he did. Or maybe he didn't. He couldn't tell. He was just in a lot of pain. Cracked ribs? Bones? Multiple fractures? It didn't really matter.

Johnny saw red for a moment, his pain sensors overwhelming him. He tried push himself up to stand and fight, but found that he couldn't. Instead, all he could do at the moment was be at the mercy of Lyaff. The man crouched down to his level, his cold eyes meeting Johnny's.

No. This was not good.

The man reached to his side boot and drew out a weapon that Johnny found disturbingly familiar. It was the same dagger that had been used on him earlier. Even still had some of his yet to dry blood on its hilt.

"Recognize this?"

"Me and your dagger there are becoming best buds. You sure you want that? I think you guys should really reconnect."

Oh sarcasm, Johnny. Best weapon ever. But not working in your favour right now. Good time to stop...

The man's face turned into a snarl from his remark.

Yep. Not helping.

He pointed the tip of the blade at Johnny's prone body, teasingly: Heart, Throat, Abdomen.

"Eeny, meeny, miny ..."

Bastard was having fun. Johnny really didn't want to give him the satisfaction of that. He wanted to fight him. Give him a hard time. Do anything really. But in reality, Johnny was out of energy. The adrenaline that had been rushing through him earlier had drained.

He couldn't fight this bastard even if he wanted to. One consolation was knowing his team was safe. His friends. His family. Dutch. D'Avin. Alvis. Lucy. They were all safe.

"Moe."

Johnny felt the blade sink into his abdomen. The twist. The pain that came with it. But Lyaff didn't end it with a single stab. Instead, the man removed the blade only to sink it back into Johnny again. He did this over and over again, until Johnny saw nothing but darkness.