(A/N): Hey guys, it's the second chapter! 4,252 words without the Authors note! I would like to point out to my second reviewer Air Bender Aang, that although your review was interesting, the flashback at the start of the previous chapter wasn't in the future, but actually in her past, in the desert of a war torn country. I used the houses in the Afghanistan desert as a reference. The Future Predator came through an anomaly, and since the ARC was shut down at the time there was no ADD to detect it. I've actually got a major twist brewing further on, like, after I've finished writing up to the end of Series 5, so I hope you look forward to that. I would also like to thank lezzles1956 for reviewing. Hope you enjoy the chapter, and I'm sorry about how long the bit about her getting ready is.

Disclaimer: I don't own anything except for Mercedes, Jacob, Eliza and Elizabeth.

I groaned as my alarm chimed into my sleep with its familiar and aggravating chirp, alerting me that it was five in the morning. I sat up immediately after, knowing by now that if I didn't I would fall asleep again. Rubbing the sleep from my eyes I swung my legs over the side of my bed, shivering as my bare feet touched the icy wooden floor. I stretched my arms over my head, cracking my neck and back in a fluid motion, flexing my knee's to ready them for the day ahead. Yawning, I shuffled over to my walk-in wardrobe and pulled out the clothes I needed before pulling open the set of draws and pulling out my undergarments. I hopped quickly across the tiled floor of the bathroom, shivering in my thin, over-sized shirt. Setting the clothes on the towel rack, I turned the water on full cold before throwing my nightwear in the clothes bin in the corner and stepped into the shower, gasping as the freezing water cascaded down my back, doing its part to wake me up. As soon as I decided I was awake enough, I turned the heat up bit by bit until there was a steady stream of hot water warming my body. I pumped the shampoo into my hand and massaged it into my thick black hair before rinsing it out again. I sighed and let the water coarse down between my shoulder blades, working out the tension pent up there. I pushed down on the pump of the conditioner bottle and smoothed the resulting liquid over my hair, coating every strand in the refreshing smelling conditioner. I used the shower gel to clean all the dirt the water didn't catch off of my body before rinsing out the conditioner and wringing out my wet hair as I turned off the shower. Stepping out of the shower onto the bath mat I grabbed my towel from the rack and dried myself off before pulling my clothes on. I unwrapped the hair drier and set to drying my hair out. When my hair was as dry as I could get it I wrapped the drier back up and set it back on the hook it had come from before grabbing the hair straightener from the drawer, if I didn't straighten my hair it was going to be just unmanageable by the time I could even eat breakfast. By the time my hair was as straight as I could make it, it was past 5:30, so I ran out of the bathroom, pushing down the plunger on the toaster and pulling the marmalade from the cupboard across from the stove. I fished around in the cutlery drawer for a knife while sliding the margarine container across the cupboard, ignoring the need for a plate. I pulled the piece of toast from the toaster, nearly burning my fingers on the edge of the four slot metal toaster. Setting the toast on the counter I quickly buttered the piece before adding a scraping of the marmalade, placing the knife in the sink behind me so it didn't wake Eliza up. I shoved the jar back under the counter and shoved the food in my mouth, chewing quickly while running to the bathroom again. Swallowing the last chunk of my breakfast I squeezed a string of toothpaste onto my toothbrush, breathing out before shoving the brush in my mouth and cleaning all remnants of the food from my teeth. Rinsing the toothbrush I threw it back in my drawer, ignoring the clatter it made as I pulled my hair into a pony tail. Rushing from the bathroom I stopped into Eliza's room, placing a soft but swift kiss on her forehead, brushing her blonde hair from her sleeping face. I pulled on my jacket and grabbed my keys, hurrying from the house and into the car. Turning the key, I reversed the car out into the street and drove away from my apartment and towards my new job at the ARC.

It was just past six when I reached the Anomaly Research Center, driving into the underground car park and parking the car close to the entrance before turning the cars power off before opening the door and climbing out onto the concrete, my combat boots making muted thuds against the ground as I turned and threw my jacket onto the seat. Shutting the door I clicked the remote for the alarm, hearing the familiar blip of the car alarm activating. My stride was strong and swift as I crossed the small amount of concrete to the elevator doors, pressing the number for the main floor, the hub, they had called it. The army green cargo pants I wore stopped a centimeter or two above the bottom of my boot, allowing me to keep my legs warm but not to trip over the edge of them. The black tank top I wore allowed for comfortable arm movement and covered the necessary bits, though I was the slightest bit chilly without my jacket. I stepped into the elevator and waited for the doors to close before leaning back against the metal wall, sighing and closing my eyes for a few seconds before composing myself, my face a perfect mask of stern indifference one I was sure I was going to need when Eliza grew old enough to date. I breathed a calming breath as the door slid open almost silently and strode into the glossy surfaced, openly designed room, noting the computers taking up most of the occupied space. I heard a quick clacking noise, accompanied by a slight squeal and a sliding sound, before the sound of a relieved sigh found my ears, and a slightly surprised looking 19-year-old girl turned the corner in front of me and grinned like a Cheshire cat as she saw me.

"Oh hello! You must be one of the new team members! I'm Jess Parker, the new field Coordinator." I looked at her clothes and gave her a small smile.

"You know, if you said you were the new team leader I would have freaked out about your clothes, but since you'll be running everything in here, I think you'll be fine with your heels. They look nice on you, I wouldn't dare to wear heels, the fact I can't run in them unnerves me a lot." She looked a little uncertain, but smiled anyway. "I'm Mercedes Crest, but you can call me Sadie, everyone else I know does." She smiled brightly and I resisted following her action.

"I wasn't actually sure whether you were a man or woman, because the only name I got for you was 'Crest', so you really could have been either, and I didn't get a file for you like I did with the other two team members. Lester, the boss, wouldn't let me read it, something about it being 'classified' or something." I grinned at her back a she walked slightly ahead of me, still rambling. Pulling the mask back on I glanced around, my eyes sliding from on high-tech machine to the next. I hadn't seen this many computers since High School, and definitely none this intelligent, I can assure you.

"Um, Jess…What do you know about the others? I mean, I would at least like to know their names before I meet them." She smiled at me sheepishly, realizing that she had been rambling on for the past few minutes while I had looked the place over.

"Well, there's your Team Leader, Matt Anderson, and the Military Captain, Becker. Quite impressive those two, Matt has established himself very well in many professions, he also climbed Mount Everest." I raised an eyebrow and silently wondered why he would put that on his resume. "And Captain Becker trained at Sandhurst," I raised an eyebrow again, looks like we trained at the same place. "Before becoming part of the Special Operations Team, he was then switched to the ARC Team two years ago and was part of the old team, employed to try and keep them all alive. He was fighting an uphill battle really, first Nick Cutter was murdered by his insane wife Helen, then Abby Maitland, Connor Temple and Danny Quinn went through an anomaly to the future to stop Helen while Becker distracted Christine Johnson's men. Then came the death Of Sarah Page, another member of the team who was killed by a Future Predator during the last of fourth rescue missions they sent after the missing three members. It's tragic really." Jess finished, turning back to her computer and typing something in. So, this Becker saw his friends and colleagues die before his eyes, or watched them disappear into an anomaly? Looks like we have another thing in common besides training at Sandhurst. "Do you know when they're meant to be arriving?" A slightly disappointed and embarrassed look crossed her face and I instantly felt bad. "Not that I don't like you, it's just that I'd like to meet everyone sooner rather than in a life or death situation, you know?" She smiled and I thought about the way she kind of reminded me of my sister, naive, way too nice and could make you feel good or bad with a single smile or frown. God dammit, talk of reincarnations.

"Yeah, they should be arriving later today." I smiled behind her back as I thought of all the rushing I did this morning and how unnecessary it was. "Just so you now, I'm not usually this excited, it's just that its been me and the creatures all alone for the past two weeks, awfully lonely, but very interesting." I pitied her, two weeks all alone with no people, just the creatures that could rip her head from her shoulders any second of the day? God, I don't think I'd be able to survive.

"Would it insult you if I said thank god?" She giggled, so I assumed not.

"No, I'll take any socializing I can get." I sent her a small smile and she replied with a large one. "Well. I guess you need the tour." She sighed, and led me over to the largest computer in the room, which was actually three computer screens joined together. "This is the ADD, the Anomaly Detector Device. I, or the other replacement if I'm needed elsewhere, have to be near it at all times once the others arrive." I looked the system over, in awe of a computer that big.

"Its kind of pretty." I commented, pointing at all the glossed edges and the fact it shone and stood out above the other computers littered down the sides of the room.

"I thought so too." Jess smiled, typing something into the system, watching it for a second until it beeped. "Nothing unusual detected." She said with a tone of voice that sounded like she was proud of the large machine, and I guess, if I were as interested in computers as she was I would be proud of the magnificent machine too. "That office up there belongs to James Lester, the man responsible for everything the ARC's done since it was built, but now, with the public-private ownership, this place is Co-owned by Philip Burton, a top scientist with his paycheck in the millions. He doesn't come in very often, he prefers to get his information through Lester." I nodded and noted this fact for future reference. "It's required that you watch a video from Burton, it's right this way." I trailed after her reluctantly, I always hated the shit rich people put in their welcome video's. After listening to some drabble about how he was glad to have me working for him, Jess led me back out of the room, and directed me down the corridor's, showing me all the labs and science-y stuff before we reached the place I was really excited to see, the armory.

"All right!" I exclaimed as I saw all the guns lining the walls, and sitting on the tables, just mocking me with the fact I couldn't fire them at anything yet.

"Actually, the Matt Anderson ordered non-lethal weapons to be used, so you'll be using these, the EMD's." She gestured to the wall I had my back to, and upon turning I whimpered in despair.

"I have the feeling I'm not going to like this guy. But eh, at least I get weapons." I said, picking one of the rifles of the wall and looking at it curiously.

"The highest setting is designed to take down a Tyrannosaurus Rex, so be careful where you're pointing that thing please." I noticed the barrel was pointing at Jess's face and quickly lowered it to my side.

"Sorry." I replied sheepishly, placing the EMD back on the wall. "So, what does EMD stand for?"

"Electro Muscular Disruption weapon." I smiled slightly at the wussy name for it, why couldn't they name it something awesome, like 'The Death Ray' or something? After her saying this, she practically dragged me from the room and showed me around the rest of the place, even showing me the outside of the menagerie. When we got back to the hub she sat me down at a computer and set up my password, allowing me to use the computer to basically anything I wanted, considering we'd be waiting a while. I sighed the familiar Google homepage loaded, and I decided to just give up and play pinball until the others arrived.

Two hours later I was spinning around on my chair, slouched down with my eyes closed, letting the wind blow over my face. I heard Jess giggle as she turned around to check on me, only to find me slacking off, just like the last time she had checked, except this time there was no pinball filling the computer screen. I pulled my mobile phone out of my pocket and saw a message from Jacob pop up on the screen. Rubbing my eyes to get them focused again I pressed the open button and chuckled quietly as a picture of Eliza covered in her mushy banana food. I opened the new message folder and quickly typed, 'What the hell did she do?'. Only a minute or two later did a reply message appear on the screen. 'I thought it'd be a good idea to switch on the TV to the cartoon channel, turns out the cartoon had a food fight in it. She covered us both.' I chuckled again. 'Tell her I'm proud of her.' I typed back, my fingers moving soundlessly across the keys. 'Will do." Came his last reply, followed by a smiley face. I smiled warmly as I revisited the earlier picture of Eliza covered in banana, a spoon full of it prepared to fling in the direction of Jacob's phone. I pressed the button to remove it from the screen but not before I saved it to my pictures. I slid my phone back into the pocket of my pants and stood, stretching my legs. Unfortunately, my stretching was interrupted by the sound of the elevator doors sliding open for the first time in two hours. Jess stood and rushed to the elevator, and approached the man who had exited it's side.

"Captain Becker! Welcome back to the ARC! Well, the new ARC. You have no idea how good it is to finally have some company here." Jess gushed, tripping over her words as her excitement bubbled to the surface again.

"I'm supposed to report to Parker…" He said, looking slightly confused. Jess held out her had, a large smile on her face.

"Jess Parker, at your service." He took her hand and shook it carefully, looking her up and down.

"You're- You're the field coordinator?" Jess let go of his hand, still smiling.

"Sorry, I'm not usually this crazy, promise." She apologized, sobering up a little. "Well, not unpleasantly crazy. Only, I've been here on my own for the past two weeks, just me and the creatures. Well, and Sadie for the past two hours." She said, gesturing to me as I spun side to side in my chair slowly, watching them with a tiny smile on my face. "I've been going through all the mission reports."

"Fun." He commented dryly, turning back to Jess a he said so.

"No! They're good, really, best part is I already feel like I know you, and Abby and Connor and Danny…" She trailed off seeing the slightly weirded out look on Becker's face. "Um, if you want to come through, I'll get you set up." Becker sighed with what sounded like relief as Jess led him down towards my position on the chair. She handed him a file as he lent against a tabled, and he started to flip through it. "Matt Anderson, new team leader. Or, will be. Lester wants you to look this over, see if everything's okay." Becker looked over at her.

"Lester still chooses the staff?" He asked before gesturing to the roof with his eyes. "Though the ARC was privately owned." Jess tilted her head side to side.

"Well, fifty-fifty government/private."

"And Lester still reports to the minister, not this Nobel prize winning bloke from Prospero? What's his name?" Becker asked Jess and she glanced back at me before looking back to him.

"Philip Burton. He seems to have to keep both of them happy." She replied in answer to his earlier question of which Lester reported to. "Pretty impressive CV." Jess commented on Matt Anderson's file, looking over Becker's shoulder as she did so. "All the stuff this guys done, you think he'd be old and crusty, but he's not, he's young. Fit too."

"Hm." Becker half laughed, and Jess glanced at him again.

"What?" She asked, staring at Becker now.

"Nothing. Nothing. Is he the only candidate?" He asked, holding up the folder to Jess.

"Got to the bit about Everest?" Jess asked, earning a squint from Becker.

"The way some people feel the need to…boast, about things." Becker commented, still looking down at the folder.

"Insecure much?" Jess asked before spinning and starting to walk back towards me and the ADD.

"Excuse me?" Becker asked quietly, staring at her back before getting up himself and following her. Jess spun around to face him again.

"If you're going to put the brakes on this guy for being too good, that would be pretty lame." Becker shook his head, looking confused.

"I'm- No one's putting the breaks on anyone!" he denied, staring at her as she sat at the chair in front of the ADD.

"He's ex military, decorated for heroism, he's an expert in animal behavior and he's got countless glowing recommendations, he's perfect." Jess pointed out, her eyes still on the screens.

"I merely meant whether he was the only candidate!" Becker explained as Jess turned to face him again.

"Anyone would think you didn't want to be better than you were." Jess insinuated and Becker looked at her face again before realizing what she was doing.

"Ah, I see, you're making fun of me." Jess laughed.

"Totally. Just checking to see if you smiled, and you do!" She said as a grin formed on his face. "Which means so far, you're way better company than the mammoth." Becker chuckled quietly and started to turn away before turning back to her and rubbing his pointer finger against his cheek.

"Oh you've um- you've got a little…something. It's disgusting." He started to walk off and I swept my gaze over her face and smiled as I saw nothing on her face. Fortunately, she didn't know this so she grabbed the small mirror at the front of her desk and inspected her mouth before looking at Becker's back, sighing but chuckling at the same time. As Becker walked away from Jess his eyes found me, sitting low in my chair with my legs crossed. Damn, it would make a better impression with a skirt, or even tight pants. Oh well, at least these are comfortable. I stood as he approached me and held out my hand, the mask of indifference forming on my face again.

"Captain Becker, sir. I'm Mercedes Crest, but I'm asking everyone to call me Sadie, it's shorter and easier to say out in the field. Or, just call me Crest, I don't really care." Becker smiled slightly and shook my outstretched hand just as Jess walked by and slapped wristbands on both of our wrists. Pulling back I inspected mine.

"Not to ask the dumb question, but what are they?" I asked, glancing at her curiously.

"Your ID. Matches a reading of your skin. Scan doors to gain entry and it won't work for anyone else if you lose it." I sent a small smile to Jess.

"Awesome." I flexed my wrist and swung my arm around to make sure it didn't restrict my movement or anything. Jess disappeared again and I glanced at Becker and we shrugged before following her slowly. By the time we reached her she was talking to a man, this must be the new Team Leader, Matt Anderson.

"You must be Matt Anderson." Becker said, voicing my thoughts. "Welcome to the ARC." Matt nodded.

"Good to meet you." He replied and I heard an Irish accent in there.

"Lester tells me you might have a problem."

"We don't really have to get into this now, but as it happens, yeah, I think the security teams should be in Civvies." I glanced at Matt, then at Jess who was sending me a look that said 'Becker's going to blow.'

"You're- you're ex-army, right?" Becker asked, looking at him like he was slightly stupid.

"I just think the whole black things a bit conspicuous."

"Conspicuous? It promotes unity and gives my men authority in the field." Becker argued, and Matt glanced at Jess.

"Well I suspect the big guns will have the same effect."

"Uniforms promote public confidence, especially when weapons are involved. Neither Nick Cutter nor Danny Quinn ever had a problem with them." Becker pointed out.

"Well we can talk about this again, can't we? Why don't you just show me around?" Matt suggested.

"Of course. Let's start with the armory, shall we?" Becker said, starting in that direction.

'Good luck. He's nice, really." Matt glanced at me before Becker called for him to hurry up.

"It's fine, you can meet me later." I said, waving him off and he began jogging after Becker. I followed Jess back to the hub and sat there in a comfortable silence, interrupted only by the regular tapping of Jess's nails on the keyboard. After a while Matt came back behind Becker, and Becker left to take care of the new security upgrades. I stood as Matt was talking to Jess and waited patiently with my arms behind my back. Eventually, Matt and Jess stopped talking and he turned to face me holding out a hand.

"Matt Anderson." I shook his hand before returning it to its place behind my back.

"Mercedes Crest." I saw Matt's eyebrow twitch and I glanced at Jess to see that she was watching us intently. "But everyone here is free to call me Sadie, it's more convenient and I like it better." He smiled and nodded.

"Crest huh? I've heard of you and your sister." Jess craned her neck curiously as I resisted the urge to cringe at the mention of my sister. Even though it had been four years I wasn't exactly over her death yet.

"Really? In what context?" Elizabeth and I were well known on many facts. One being the fact we were top in our class, second that we had both been commemorated for bravery, and the third being the fact we got up to a lot of trouble in Sandhurst.

"Oh, quite a few." At this time Becker entered the hub, and after casting a slightly suspicious looking glance at us, lent on the ADD desk next to Jess. " You two were the top of your class were you not?" I nodded in conformation. "That and the fact you both were excepted into Sandhurst at age sixteen is quite a feat in its self." Out of the corner of my eye I saw both Jess and Becker raise eyebrows. I smiled back at Matt, an actual smile before dropping it and glaring at him.

"Say what you want, flattery can't command my respect." I replied before spinning around and sitting in the chair next to Jess's. "So, what are you two up to?"

(A/N): So that was the second chapter, I hope you liked it! Next chapter I am hoping to write soon, but I have to finish my homework by Monday and its Saturday night and I haven't even started. Hope you have a great rest of your weekend guys!