Disclaimer: I do not own Warehouse 13 and its original characters or plots. If I did, there would probably be an artifact having to do with the worst school mascot ever.

Author's Note: Ah, Chapter 1. I honestly didn't think I would get around to this so soon! But hey, it's okay if I stay up 'til 2AM writing fanfics even though I have school and tests and LIFE to worry about, so long as it's in the good name of Warehouse 13, right? Anyway, thank you so much for reviews and subscriptions I received on the prologue! I hope I don't let any of you down! Again, review if you looove me ;) Kidding, kidding, kidding =P But, for the record, I love you!


Eight years later…

A fierce light poured in through a window, spilling across a gaunt face. A groan escaped lips and slender hands covered squinting eyes. A feminine figure flopped like a dead fish on a bed, now facing the wall and away from the angry light of day. In the cool shade created by her body, eyelids began to flutter open, revealing hazy amber irises. A limp wrist lifted level with the eyes, and the irises screwed to focus on the glowing numerals of a watch.

"Shit!" Claudia hurled herself into motion in a clambering of limbs, "Shit, shit-shit, shit, shit…" she continued to swear under her breath as she hopped about the small, loft-like bedroom, ripping her shirt from the previous day from her body and hunting about for a semi-clean one in the miscellaneous piles of her belongings scattered about her room. She tugged a pair of black Chuck Taylor hightops on before stumbling into the bathroom and falling to a halt in front of the sink. Cold water ran through her fingers and she splashed her face, trying to wash off the dark circles of late nights and over-exertion from beneath her eyes to no avail. She sighed heavily, staring her reflection down.

The woman in the mirror absent-mindedly ran her fingers through a strip of plain, uniform, red hair in the front, as if something might have been there at some point. The woman's nose crinkled with disgust at nearly shoulder-length auburn hair, in a style that somewhat resembled the remains of what might have been a short, stacked style at one point of time, though now badly in need of a trim. Age seemed to have crept up like a thief in the night on the person in the looking glass; lines seemed to have crept their way onto her forehead, and bags fell under her tired, red-rimmed eyes, but her clothing seemed like that of a much younger person, perhaps in their mid-twenties.

Claudia groaned, pulling at her skin to see if it would magically return to the bright fresh-faced ghost of her past. "Yep, just lock yourself in a dungeon with nothing but a computer for a couple years," she told the reflection, her voice dull and sardonic, "that'll do the trick."

College was nothing Claudia had planned it to be. She had imagined four years of terribly boring classes, lacking of any challenge to her; going from class to class to dorms to ignoring whatever people surrounded her; frequent calls and webcam conversations with Pete, Myka, and Joshua to help her keep surfaced in the dreadful ocean of university life; easy work turned in early and perfect scores on each and every assignment and exam. Shortly after arriving did she realize how wrong she had been. To start, though monotonous and boring, the classes and work weren't half so easy as she expected. She quickly found herself devoting more time than she had ever imagined to essay after essay; thesis after thesis. Being naturally independent and rather lazy, as she would gladly admit, the time and effort put in to upholding her scholarships and grants felt like slowly digging her own grave. All the time she had imagined herself using to lounge about in a rather hermit-like manner between classes and phone calls was dashed to pieces the moment she walked into her first class. This was by no means the easy 'A' middle school she remembered. Caught up in schoolwork, her calls back to the Warehouse became further and further between.

Things changed near the end of her second semester of freshman year. She had been planning on going back to South Dakota over break, especially after having stood them up over Christmas to research and write a thesis due the first day back in class. A change leached its way in that brought about the execution of her final expectancy of college: ignoring everyone around her.

Todd.

It had been a rainy day in late April. She was running from her dorm to the library, when he intercepted her, quite by accident. They had stared at one another for several minutes in an awe-filled, dumbfounded, somewhat guilt-induced silence. They both began stammering at once, both running excuses through their heads as to why they had not sought the other out sooner. They shortly discovered that neither cared about the other's shortcomings. And that was the night Todd seduced her.

He led her by the hand down a corridor in what seemed like a dungeon; the basement of some campus building or other. A door opened at the end of hall at his touch, and he led her in. Three college boys sat in a circle of laptops at the center of the room, keyboarding madly. A pale, blonde, pimply one; an awkward, gangly one; and an asian with intense eyes. Todd introduced her to the room, receiving terse greetings in return from the three males whose eyes never left their computer screens. He grinned broadly at her and took his place in the circle, pulling a chair up beside him for her to sit in. He opened his laptop and pulled up document after document of coding, his grin never leaving his lips. His eyes flitted between her face and the screen, awaiting approval. "This…is my baby."

Claudia had stared at the screen with her mouth ajar for several moments, her eyes flying over the characters. "I think I just jizzed my pants."

"Want in?"

"Hell. Yes."

She was a goner.

X

Exhaling roughly, Claudia brushed her hair away from her face and, after momentarily scrubbing her teeth vigorously with a tooth brush, strode back to her bed, slung her laptop case over her shoulder, and exited the dorm.

It had been three years since she had seen Todd, and yet she was still obsessively honing and perfecting and completing the project he had begun over eight years ago; the same amount of time since she had set foot in South Dakota. She had spent all of this time at the university. Upon completing her bachelor's degree, she had opulent time to dedicate to Todd's project, taking courses only once or twice a week. If she had known getting a master's was so easy, she would have planned her life this way all along. The professors hardly cared so long as she had her papers in on time. Thesis after thesis after thesis, written bombastically without much thought. All of her real care was placed into the Project; kept under wraps so carefully. Their top secret Project. Their someday-we'll-be-billionaires-who-don't-give-a-damn Project.

Anymore, that seemed like a vague mirage of the past.

Taking the steps down to the lobby two at a time, Claudia pinched the bridge of her nose between her thumb and forefinger. Migraines were the devil. As she rounded a landing in the stairwell, she shook her head, pathetically attempting to shake away the symptoms of sleep deprivation.

"Ms. Donovan."

Claudia halted. Her eyes flew open. That voice; it was too familiar, and she had the sickly feeling she shouldn't be hearing it. She pivoted slowly on her heels, now facing a colored woman in a stiff-looking, scratchy, red dress suit with a beehive of woven hair atop her head. Fierce eyes leered at her over horn-rimmed glasses. Claudia sputtered. For a moment she convinced herself she was having another of her reminiscent, nightmare-ish dreams. The pounding of blood against her skull reminded her that she was wide awake.

"Ah, Ms. Donovan we meet again." Her mouth formed a smirk; her eyes still leering. Though, the smirk wasn't malicious. It had a queer amicable quality.

"Mrs. …Frederick?" Claudia stammered in disbelief. She knew perfectly well the ageless woman's name.

"Claudia," Mrs. Frederick advanced toward her with one step, and pulled a manila envelope out what seemed to be thin air. She held it out toward the redheaded woman, and Claudia took it gingerly, as if it might contain a bomb that would detonate should she move too jarringly. Nodding to the envelope, Mrs. Frederick continued, "It is a matter of utmost importance and urgency that I hope you will not fail to recognize."

Staring down at the yellow-orange encasing in her hands, only a million questions ran through her mind. What was it? Why now? Why her? When she lifted her eyes to question Mrs. Frederick, she found herself staring at the grey wall. The space which the woman had previously occupied was now devoid of any solid matter whatsoever.

Her forehead cinched in frustration, and she looked back at the article in her hands. Hesitant to move a single muscle for a few moments, Claudia worked up her courage. She tore open the envelope in one swift motion and emptied its contents into her hand. A single, cardstock-like, small document fell into her palm and she turned it over to analyze it properly. Then, she gawked, her amber eyes growing wide as she stared at it.

An in-exchangeable airfare ticket to South Dakota. The flight would board at two in the afternoon, the same day.


A/N: Thanks so much for reading! Don't forget a sweet little review! Just click that enticing little button down there and type me out a nice sentence or two out of the kindness of your heart ;) The joy of such a thing will have me grinning like an idiot for hours =D