The Eleventh Hour (CBS): Phoenix (part 1)

It was a late Sunday afternoon, Jacob Hood was resting against a tree as his partner Rachel Young was typing away at her lap top.

"Any luck?" he inquired.

"Nothing good, Jacob, I managed to stop people from reading a number of Geppetto's blogs. But this one is still operational," Suddenly Hood was off the tree and striding towards her.

"How? Miranda Cochran is still in prison and dieing."

"I know Jacob," she said, handing the computer to him.

"Look here," said Jacob after looking through the blogs, "all the notes up till Geppetto's arrest date are marked by Geppetto, the last four are marked as by Lucifer."

"Jacob, could Geppetto of had a student?"

"I don't know, (clock 9) but if she did (clock 10) …we must find Lucifer."(clock 11) (credits)

The wind blew through the open window as a man with hair long enough to just cover his ears was operating a recorder headphone at his ear. "The patient has reported small pains, and more cases of blackouts and dead skin, the disease is now known to be at state 2, deadly and irreversible, cloning a new body entirely will be needed." He was interrupted as a ring came from the head set, pressing a button he listened to the voice of his ally.

"It's me Lucifer."

"Calypso, how nice to hear from you, how is your part of the operation keeping up?"

"Fine Lucifer, soon Dr. Hood will be dead and Geppetto free, Operation Phoenix will go uninterrupted."

"Good."

The setting sun signaled the end of the day for Jacob Hood as he sat upon the balcony of his hotel room. Hearing light footsteps behind him he turned to see the figure of Rachel walking towards him. Sitting in the chair opposite him she looked upon his figure, continually in a state of sadness for the loss of his wife Natasha.

"Jacob, I know your wife may not be here, and I never knew her, but I'm sure that she would want you to be happy," said Rachel.

"How could I be sad when I've got everything I want here with me," he said as she rested her head on his shoulder, he sighed, "It's just so much to take in, Geppetto having a student could mean a huge disaster in the scientific community, if Lucifer leaks information, the world will be in total chaos," Jacob replied, "We need to find Miranda Cochran." He watched as she suddenly began patting her belly.

"Someone's playful tonight," stated Rachel as she continued to play with the child in her womb.

"How about you take a rest? I could get Felix to-," he was cut off as Rachel gave him a stern gaze, "I'm fine Jacob, I can manage to take care of myself just fine."

"I know, but can you take care of you and your daughter?"

"I'd protect her with my life," returned Rachel.

"Don't say that, don't ever say that," responded Jacob as he hugged her to him, "We'll make it through this, I'll never leave you Rachel, nothing will happen to you, never."

Rachel's gaze turned into a smile as she leaned against him, "I know. I'm sorry it's just so hard having to feel like I'm useless and unable to protect you."

"Then why don't I protect you for once," responded Jacob.

"I'd like that," said Rachel as she tried and failed to hide her fits of laughter.

"What's so funny?" questioned Jacob as he looked at her form being wracked by laughter.

"You protecting me? I'd like to see that," gasped out Rachel as she was finding it hard to breathe from laughing so hard.

As the sun rose, Jacob Hood rose with it, walking into the kitchen of his hotel room he stopped for a moment as he admired the skill with which Rachel attacked her punching bag in the living room.

"And I wondered why I was happy I'm on your side," he stated as she walked over to him.

"And for what reason would you not be happy to be on my side," she replied jokingly. As the day dragged on they made repeated stops to all the businesses they had previously linked with Geppetto.

"What's our next stop?" asked Jacob.

"The Nu-Gen Corporation a few miles from here," she replied. Jacob remembered the corporation well, the entire facility was dedicated to trying to perfect a new kind of organ transfer, transferring the brain to a younger body to prolong life, they called it the Phoenix Project, a project created by Geppetto herself. Rachel's head set ringing brought Jacob Hood back to reality with a surprise, Rachel laughed as he jumped up in his seat. "Mrs. Leona Sinton how can I help you?" she spoke into the headset. As she pulled the car into the parking lot of the Nu-Gen building she clicked off her headset. "We've got trouble,' she said with the usual I'm-about-to-tell-you-we-have-a-new-problem voice she got before she told him about some new issue.

"And?"

"Miranda Cochran is gone, and Wayne Swafford is dead, they found him murdered in the laundry room at his prison."

"Anything out of the ordinary?"

"Does a man leaning inside a machine while the clothes strangle him tighter and tighter count? No, other than a whole lot of emerald colored substance around his mouth not really, any idea?"

"First things first,' implied Jacob as they began exiting the car.

"As you can see agent Young, we here at Nu-Gen are facing no problems and are quite comfortable with what we do," said the man with an obvious hint of annoyance in his voice.

"Sorry, could you run that by me again? What exactly is it you do here again Dr. Squaitz?" Hood asked.

""We work at refining organ transfer techniques," came the joyless voice of Renardo Squaitz.

"And-," Rachel was unable to continue as she felt Jacob's hand suddenly and nearly undetectably squeeze hers.

"We're sorry to keep you waiting Dr. Squaitz we'll just be leaving now," stated Jacob as he started steering himself and Rachel towards the hallway, as they closed the door behind them Rachel didn't wait to bombard Jacob with questions.

"What was that?"

"Did you happen to smell that in the air?" Jacob asked without even the slightest hint he had heard Rachel's question.

"Yah, why?"

"You said you found emerald colored substances on Swafford's body right?" not waiting for her answer he continued," Well, emeralds contain a substance called beryllium, it's highly poisonous, definitely deadly, has a highly distinctive smell, enticing yet bitter, and last time I checked wasn't the kind of thing you'd find in a prison."

"Then how did he die."

"We're going to find that out," answered Hood as he walked through a door.

They searched around the room looking for a green substance, finally Hood signaled Rachel over, "Rachel, I think you'll find this is our culprit, but why would a company like Nu-Gen want beryllium?"

"I'll take a look at their computers, see if I can dig up any info on this," said Rachel while walking into a room farther down the hallway. Hood spent the next ten minutes looking around the area.

"Get out now!" came the voice of a very angry Dr. Squaitz behind Jacob, who was quick to start running through a side door into the terminal room, Hood grabbed Rachel's arm and yanked her from the chair nearly causing her to attack him before she saw who it was.

"Jacob what the-."

"We gotta go, now," said Jacob as they ran into the parking lot and quickly pulled the car out. After a few blocks Hood struck up a conversation, "Did you find anything?"

"Only that about two hours ago a man by the name of Kal Dakaro left here to seek work else where," answered Rachel, "Which is a few minutes after they believed Swafford was killed. Dakaro was a major in Genetics with continual classes with our good friend Miranda Cochran."

"Rachel, we've found him, we know who Lucifer is."

Lucifer watched as the man whimpered and trembled before him, tears were streaming out the face of Dr. Renardo Squaitz.

"You failed me Dr. Squaitz," he stated with no sense of compassion, "N.A.M.E. does not and will not allow you to correct your mistakes again, the agents from the FBI have already managed to extract my name, you've jeopardized everything."

"Please…" came the fear filled voice of the crumpled and broken man before Lucifer.

"Wrong answer," came a voice from behind the small man, he never heard the woman finish as he crumpled dead to the floor. She walked to stand next to Lucifer as they observed and studied the dead body before them.

"How'd you do it?" questioned Lucifer to his companion.

"Beryllium, an old trick from my mentor Ms. Muller."

"I thought she was more of a stab and go sort of person? Lea was a good operative, believe me Calypso," responded Lucifer as he planted a kiss on her lips, "She shall be avenged."

"Just promise me I'll get to take care of Rachel Young personally," answered Calypso.

"As long as I may take care of Dr. Hood myself."

"You'll have everything you desire Kal," said Calypso as she hugged her companion.

"Yes Diana, everything…or nothing."

"Jacob, Kal Dakaro had a girlfriend who also disappeared the same day, a miss Diana Carlyne," came the voice of Rachel Young, breaking Jacob Hood from his methodical features of his usual deep in though actions. "I'll try and find a profile of her DNA to send through the office," continued Rachel. For the next few minutes Rachel combed the computer screen with her eyes, not even looking at the keyboard beneath her. "Jacob, you might want to take a look at this," came Rachel's voice as Hood soon walked to her side to see the information displayed.

"I don't see anything out of the ordinary, she has multiple records of use of drugs and violent outbursts, why-," his voice stopped as Rachel scrolled down to another page of information on the computer.

"The 17 year old Diana Carlyne uses drugs and succumbs to violent outbursts, while another Diana Carlyne, has no criminal records in her history…Jacob the last Diana Carlyne… is 28 years old," stated Rachel.

"Rachel, I feel like going out tonight," said Jacob with a stern voice.

"What were you thinking of?" questioned Rachel wondering where her boyfriend was planning on taking her.

"How about the Nu-Gen building?"

The light was dim in the building, two figures were crouching over an operating table, one a man (Lucifer), the other a woman (Geppetto). Hearing footsteps they looked to the source to find a young woman (Calypso) striding towards them.

"Jacob Hood and Rachel Young have arrived, they have no back up," reported Calypso, with obvious hate in her voice when she said the name Rachel Young.

"How convenient," whispered Geppetto under her breath as she began removing her surgical clothes, "Give them a warm reception Calypso, oh and Lucifer," she began, waiting as he turned his attention to her, "Don't play with Dr. Hood, I have a sweeter revenge in mind for our guests."

"Yes Geppetto," answered Lucifer as he too began removing his surgical clothes, replacing them with lab clothes.

"Rachel, in here," whispered Hood as he and his partner moved into a room that looked like a warehouse, but with tools for surgery inside. Hearing a nearly undetectable tell tale pitter patter of footsteps in the hallway Rachel signaled for Hood to stay here as she quietly ran off in search of the sound. Jacob took this moment to look around the room; it was two rooms used for storage conjoined, with surgical equipment in the first and what looked like air purification machines all around a tent of the plastic curtain found in hospitals.

"Dr. Hood, how good to see you again," came the uncaring and compassionless voice of Geppetto from the second room.

"Why are you doing this Miranda? You know you'll only put innocent lives at risk, and many more in a funeral home."

"But not before I put you in a funeral home Dr. Hood."

Rachel continued running, her heart racing as she followed the figure of who she knew was Diana Carlyne. She narrowly avoided a round of gunfire as her target continued to run through the hallways of the Nu-Gen building.

Suddenly she found herself in a huge room with a huge glass window dominating the entire wall she was facing, she caught no clues to as the place her prey was hiding. She didn't have to wonder for long as without warning she suddenly was thrown to the ground by someone behind her.

"You don't have to do this Diana," Rachel stated.

"I doubt that you gave Lea Muller a chance to say those words.

"Lea Muller was a killer, like you will be if you kill me," reasoned Rachel, but Diana would not let her win.

"I've already killed people, so have you, and furthermore Lea Muller was my mentor, my teacher, my friend, she was my mother to top it off. Diana Carlyne is a face, a hoax, Diana Carlyne never knew birth only creation, a mere fake identity. You'll never know my real name, but you can call me Calypso," replied the killer, who shortly afterwards made sure to hit Rachel in the face as she spat at her victim.

"That piece of spit coming from a mere creation, a duplicate of life," said Rachel.

"And those words coming from the latest community member…at the local morgue," replied Calypso.

"Lea Muller was killed by Wayne Swafford, under Geppetto's orders."

"Only because you and your stupid little FBI friends made her divulge all of N.A.M.E.'s secrets," spat Calypso, as Rachel stood up Calypso fired a single bullet into Rachel's chest.

"Goodbye Ms. Young," said Calypso whose voice was now much happier.

"I have a schedule to keep Dr. Hood, so if you don't mind I'd like you to meet my student, he'll keep you company," said Geppetto before she walked out of the room.

"We'll now be taking any and all questions," came the joking voice of a man near Jacob, turning to look upon the young man's face he knew instantly that this was none other then the face of Kal Dakaro. "Geppetto told me not to play around with you my dear Jacob Hood, but what would a student be for if he didn't break the rules?"

"Mr. Dakaro I think I can understand what's going through your head right now but listen to me, if you don't help me stop Geppetto, dozens of innocent lives will be lost," Jacob reasoned as he and the man circled around the operating table between them.

"No doctor, millions of lives will be," sneered Dakaro, "beginning with yours."

Dakaro lunged at Hood but missed as Jacob grabbed his shoulders and pushed him down; Dakaro fell across the operating table, without a moment to spare Jacob grabbed a nearby scalpel and thrusting downwards, buried it into the back of the young man. The body lay motionless against the table as Jacob raced out of the room. Taking a different hallway he raced through a door into a room where the wall at his right was completely dominated by a window, and to his far left, leaning against a wall by a different pair of doors was the small figure of Rachel. Quick to run over, tears began to inhabit his eyes as he gazed at the red stain that slowly grew on her shirt.

"Rachel," cried Jacob as he looked upon her face.

"Jacob…I can't feel her anymore, she's gone," said Rachel referring to their unborn daughter as tears streamed down her face.

"Rachel, it's going to be okay, I'll get help, just…just don't …-," he didn't finish as he felt her hand brush a wave of hair from his eyes.

"I'll never leave you, Jacob Hood," she replied with a smile on her face.

"You damn well better not," joked Jacob as a new reign of tears washed over his face.

"Jacob, I'll be with you always."

The wind blew with a touch of cold and not even the cold temperatures could calm Jacob's raging emotions. Four days had passed since the fight with Geppetto's operatives, and Jacob Hood was still feeling the effects of the aftermath. He quickly strode towards her as he saw Rachel exit the hospital doors.

"Rachel…I'm neve-…I'm never going to-....I'll mak-," he was silenced as tears began to flow from his eyes again.

"You always did talk too much," interrupted Rachel jokingly with a smile, this managed to brighten Jacob's mood, now able to speak he began again.

"I'm never going to leave you again, we'll go away, we'll find somewhere far from Geppetto's organization," he said.

"Jacob, I can't, I'll never rest until I find and kill the woman that did this," interrupted Rachel as she began to move to the door on her side of the car.

"I can't lose you again," spoke Jacob, those words struck Rachel like a bombshell.

"Jacob they killed our baby, I'm not going to let the people who did this get away."

"Where will you start, you have nothing to go by," reasoned Jacob.

"Yes I do, the name of Geppetto's organization is N.A.M.E. I'm sorry Hood I'm going to do this whether or not you like it." It struck Jacob as odd that she had called him by his last name like she did before they had grown more than friendly.

"I made a promise to you that I would never leave you again."

"Then get in the car," replied Rachel with her joking smile that could do nothing less than capture Jacob's heart.

After about an hour of driving Rachel's headset rang, answering it she was quick to drop the illusion of her being Mrs. Leona Sinton.

"Agent Young what you did was against policy, orders, teachings, and so much more, you understood that an agent should not be becoming intimate on any level with an objective, and yet you still kept it up with Dr. Hood, hell, you had a baby along with it," came the voice of her superior.

"I know but please, I have the grief of losing my daughter before she could even see the world and all you care about is splitting us up?" Jacob could see that Rachel was on the verge of tears and guessed that her FBI superior was chewing her out for the relationship between Rachel and himself. Ever since the loss of their child, Rachel ceased to be the Rachel he knew, if she wasn't propelled by anger and revenge, she was a broken woman who cried at everything that reminded her. After a few more minutes Rachel clicked off her headset and slowly brought the car to a stop at the side of the road.

"Rachel I'm sorry," soothed Jacob as he reached to brush a tear off her face.

"Damn it Hood," retorted Rachel with a fierce anger, but suddenly began crying again and leaning against Jacob. "I'm sorry…I can't do this anymore…Jacob, why does life give us something so good only to take it away before it can even see the world around it?" sobbed Rachel as she cried with each new burst of grief. "She never got to see the world…I just wish-…I just wish-…,"she never managed to finish as she continued to sob.

"Rachel, we'll find the people who did this, we'll find Geppetto," soothed Jacob as he brushed away her tears, hugging her close to him.

"What would I ever do without you Jacob?" she sighed.

"Probably hide away in your apartment and gorge yours self on sweets," he joked, he laughed as she swatted at him jokingly.

"He was a failure Geppetto, he failed to listen when he should of taken your advice and not toyed with Dr. Hood."

"Yes, but we still succeeded in gaining our sweet revenge I had planned, with their unborn daughter dead, Jacob Hood and Rachel Young's minds will be clouded with anger and grief."

"And so we strike them at their weakest."

"Exactly Lucifer." As the figures of Kal Dakaro and Calypso walked out of the room, Geppetto made a mental note to make sure that next time she cloned one of her own operatives, to make sure the clone was not a psychotic defective failure like the one killed by Dr. Hood.

As Lucifer and Calypso strode into a different room Calypso was quick to shut the door.

"Calypso? What is the meaning of this?" called Lucifer in the dark.

"Consider it an engagement gift," replied Calypso as she turned the lights on, there before him was a premature baby in a machine. "The premature clone of Jacob Hood and Rachel Young's unborn daughter."

"How about we consider it a sign? A sign that shows how we will rule everything…," replied Lucifer.

"Let me guess...Or Nothing?"

"No, it's not everything or nothing this time my dear, for this time we shall have everything…I'll personally see to that…"

A/N: The End of ELEVENTH HOUR: PHEONIX (PART 1). By the way, I need names for the baby, it's a girl so it has to be feminine, I've picked out Natasha (yes, Jacob's dead wife's name), Crystal, Leona (yah I know…), and Mia. There are 8 available names, there are my four, so now readers please enter a name and then later I will ask for you to vote for four of the names, then later YOU, yes you dear reader will choose the name by votes. So for now, just enter names and later I'll let you vote.

SCENE FROM ELEVENTH HOUR: PHEONIX (PART 2)

"Hello Mrs. Sinton, we received your orders down in the kitchens about you wanting the continental breakfast for two brought to your suite? I'm sorry but that order will slightly be delayed," came the terrible voice of Calypso, a twisted demented woman with a sneer upon her face and a heavily silenced gun in her hands. Before she could do anything Rachel was picked up from behind and as she struggled uselessly to get away she glanced into a mirror to see none other than Jacob Hood holding her and trying to pin her down, the sight left her heartbroken as she turned back to see Calypso, holding in her arms a premature baby girl. The predicament left her sobbing uncontrollably, she had lost her baby, her love, her life, nothing mattered anymore, her world was empty now. She could only greet death as she watched the shadow of an arm raise a scalpel and bring it down upon her back. As she lay there she looked up to see the person pulling the scalpel out with a malicious grin. As she slipped unconscious she heard her attacker's words.

"Did you really think I loved you?"