A/N: apologies for taking so long to update this... tissues at the ready ;)

He should have been used to death by now; he witnessed it on a daily basis after all. But losing someone close hit hard, and the entire squadron had been rocked by his death. Sam had been like a father to many of the new recruits and Gideon had been his right-hand man for a number of years.

Once it took hold, the illness consumed him quickly. Like so many others before him, the extended exposure to the toxins in the air on the surface had destroyed his lungs to a point where they no longer worked. Gideon had been at his side until the last gasp of air passed his lips. He then closed his eyelids and pulled the sheet over him, ready for the clean up patrols to take his body away. It was the least he could do for his good friend and comrade; one last moment of dignity. There wouldn't be a funeral, just a cremation over and done with in a few minutes; the graveyards were full decades ago so there were no other options.

He stood looking through the small window in the door, watching Siobhan playing with Matthew in the lab. It shouldn't have surprised him in the slightest that she had wanted to keep him instead of sending him up to the orphanage. She had stalled the move for several days, saying that they were having trouble extracting the files from the ancient computer chip on the ID bracelet. Then the storms hit, and they were confined to the residential quarters for three days. By that time, Siobhan and Matthew had bonded like mother and son, and separating them would only cause trauma for both of them. Dakin had agreed to a formal adoption, and Matthew became Matthew Anderson; to anyone else who questioned it, he was Siobhan's nephew and they'd taken him on when her sister died.

At the age of two, Matthew was already showing an inquisitive mind and a degree of intelligence beyond his years. It had saddened Gideon that after the usual "mammy" and "daddy", the boy's first words were "predator" and " 'nomaly", but he also accepted that those were words that would be part of his daily vocabulary. Sooner or later, he would also have to learn "breathing apparatus" and "death" if he was going to function in this crazy world he'd been born into.

Siobhan looked up and smiled at him, beckoning for him to come in. As he went over to her workstation, she flicked the screen off; something she'd been doing for a while now. It never used to bother her if Gideon saw what she was working on, but he had dismissed it as her way of giving him and Matthew her full attention.

"Has he gone?" she asked softly. Gideon could only nod, and Siobhan pulled him into her embrace, stroking his hair for a few moments until he pulled away.

"How has Matthew been?"

"He's good. Learnt a new word today too. I think you'll be pleased." Siobhan picked Matthew up and sat him on her knee as she activated a new screen on the desk to the side of her computer. She flicked through a few photographs and stopped at one of an orchid.

"Flower!" Matthew squeaked and looked around for praise. He liked this game.

"Yes, Matthew, it's a flower. Clever boy!" Gideon clapped and smiled, and Matthew mimicked him. "You've started teaching him about the world before the apocalypse?"

"I figured the sooner he starts learning what we're all fighting for, the better. He wouldn't have got that at the orphanage you know. They'd have turned him into an emotionless fighting machine with no idea of what or why he was doing it."

Gideon smiled to himself. Siobhan always seemed to need to justify keeping Matthew. "You're doing an excellent job with him. He'll grow into a fine man, and hopefully he'll be able to make his own choices."

Siobhan felt her stomach turn. She knew the likelihood of Matthew surviving long enough to become a man was very slim. Things were getting increasingly worse on the surface; the number of Predators seemed to multiply on a daily basis, rumours of a rebellion against the government were growing stronger and now there was a new threat – a giant beetle-like creature that had managed to adapt to life underground and was stalking it's prey in the very tunnels that had been carved out to shelter humans from the Predators. "Do any of us have a choice these days?"

"Matthew will. The research you're doing here will turn up a solution very soon; I feel it in my bones. Now, let me take him home whilst you finish up here. We took a shipment of some kind of root vegetable earlier and I'm keen to try cooking it. Apparently it's very closely related to the potato. Those scientists at the Irish colonies are extremely clever." Gideon picked Matthew up and nodded at Siobhan as he left.

Siobhan hated keeping secrets from her husband. If she had her way, she'd have told him months ago that her research had found the solution they'd been looking for for many years, but it was all pointless. They knew it had all started some time in the early 21st Century, and Dakin had ordered that she and Ryder went through all of their gathered data and models to find when a suitable anomaly would open that would take them to somewhere within a reasonable time frame. She had triple checked her results, and then Ryder did as well. When they presented their findings to Dakin, he ordered that they rechecked their calculations again. But they couldn't get a different result. The next anomaly that was due to open to approximately the right time would not be for another 18 years. By that time, it was very likely that there wouldn't be any more humans in existence. It was hopeless.

Ryder had suggested picking up an old project he'd been involved in some years ago; creating a device that would force open an anomaly. The theory they'd worked on was that the anomalies were there all of the time, just waiting for the right conditions to exist that would open them up, a bit like earthquakes along the fault lines in the Earth's crust. They knew where the anomaly to the 21st Century was, so if they could force it open now they could send some soldiers through. Dakin had shot the idea down immediately. "It was forcing an artificially created anomaly to open that caused all of this in the first place," he spat. "Interfering with the natural course of the anomalies is far too dangerous. I will not allow it. If we have to wait 18 years, then so be it."

She and Ryder had been sworn to secrecy for the sake of morale amongst the soldiers and scientists. Whilst they still believed that a solution was possible during their lifetime, they would still have hope and keep fighting. It was an extremely difficult position to be in, and Siobhan wished she could just go back home to Ireland. At least there it seemed the scientists were doing something useful for everyone. Rumour had it they were creating artificial environments within plastic domes, and that was how they'd produced these new vegetables. Could it be that eventually these domes could be made large enough to sustain human life? That was a project she'd love to be involved in, but she was tied here now. Gideon had his responsibilities and she could not ask him to give them up. She would have to find other ways to feel like she was contributing to their continued survival.

-o-

After Sam's death, there were shifts in responsibilities and new recruits drafted in. When young Lieutenant Greene had arrived at the facility, he had a pregnant girlfriend in tow. She was in the latter stages of her pregnancy, which was a rare enough thing in itself since many women who fell pregnant miscarried within the first half of their pregnancy. She seemed pretty healthy at first, but she showed signs of respiratory problems and was struggling. When she went into labour, it was feared the exertion would kill her and the baby, but the birth went relatively smoothly and a baby girl, Katie, was added to the population of the living quarters. It was an opportunity for celebration, and Siobhan was happy that Matthew would have a playmate close to his own age as he grew up, but grew increasingly annoyed at the assumptions that Katie and Matthew were "the future" and that they'd end up married with children of their own.

The mother's health deteriorated rapidly after giving birth, and it wasn't long before she could barely muster the strength to lift her own head, let alone nurse a baby. Everyone rallied around to help, including Siobhan who was the only one with any recent experience in taking care of a baby. By the time the mother had passed away, Siobhan had made a major decision about her own life. Whilst baby Katie would continue to live with her father, Siobhan would take care of her during the day alongside Matthew. She would ensure that Katie had the same opportunities that her own Matthew had; education, training, security and most of all, the love of a mother.

"I'm worried about you," Gideon said, looking around what had once been Siobhan's office. In the far corner was the makeshift cradle that Matthew had had. Baby Katie was having her afternoon nap having just been fed. Next to the cradle was a small, child sized desk and chair, where Matthew was sat playing with various objects on a holographic screen.

"I'm fine, these two are no trouble at all."

"I didn't mean that. I know you're more than capable of looking after the children. It's just... well, this isn't you. You used to have such faith in the work that you do, but recently you've seemed... removed from it." Gideon reached for his wife's hand, and she grasped his tightly.

"Having Matthew has changed my priorities, that's all. Ryder and the rest of the team can handle all of the data collation and send it to me. What's the point in fighting for a future if the children we're bringing into the world have no appreciation of what they're missing?"

Gideon understood. He'd changed too if he really thought about it. He was more cautious when out on the surface, especially since Sam had fallen ill. It brought it home to him that they were all vulnerable, and since Matthew had already lost one set of parents it was almost unthinkable what losing his adoptive parents would do to him.

"Daddy?" Matthew was frowning at his screen. Gideon moved over and crouched beside the young boy and looked at the screen. "What's this?" Matthew's tiny finger pointed at the picture of a garden, the sort you'd imagine beside a quaint, white cottage in the countryside.

"That's called a garden, Matthew. They used to have them in the old days before the bad men made the air poisonous and blocked out the sunlight with the dust storms."

"Why?"

"Who knows, Matthew, who knows. They were bad men with crazy minds." Gideon sighed and ruffled the boy's hair, then turned and caught the angry look on Siobhan's face. She took him to one side, out of Matthew's ear-shot.

"Don't tell him things like that!"

"The boy needs to know the truth. He'll work it out for himself some day anyway, I'd rather he heard it from me than through some gossip grapevine that will twist everything."

"How do you know they were 'bad men'? Maybe they didn't know what they were doing?" Siobhan cast her mind back to the grainy video that had been on the chip Matthew's mother had. The man, Connor Temple, had said 'we didn't know this would happen' and she firmly believed these people were just like her and Ryder; scientists trying to make sense of the anomalies. She also remembered that that man was trying to do something to put it right, sending his beloved daughter off to find help. If he had evil intent, then why would he do that? He was a distant relation to Matthew too; he couldn't be that bad a person.

"Always looking for the best in people," Gideon smiled. "It doesn't matter whether they meant to do this or not, the fact is they did it and they need to be stopped."

The conversation was interrupted by the sound of an alarm. It wasn't one Siobhan recognised. "What's that for?"

"The worst kind of enemy," Gideon swallowed. "Our fellow humans. It'll just be a drill. I'll be back in a while." He kissed Siobhan's cheek and told Matthew to look after his mother before disappearing down the corridor.

-o-

Before Gideon had even reached the assembly point, he knew this wasn't a drill. The angry chants and the banging on the door had to be the rumoured rebellion they'd been hearing about for some months. The soldiers were preparing weapons; ones with real bullets not electro-magnetic pulses. This was a whole different ball game to shooting Predators on the surface; at least they were somewhat predictable in their motives for attacking. Another human would have so many different reasons for behaving in this way, and that unpredictability made them more dangerous.

"There's about a hundred of them outside!" someone yelled. "And more on the march." Gideon glanced instinctively to his left to seek the reassurance of Sam, but realised his comrade was not with him. This was the first call to action since his death, and suddenly Gideon felt as if he'd lost a limb. He couldn't do this without the man that had been his guide and he froze to the spot, watching the younger men preparing to defend the complex. As he closed his eyes to try and shut it all out, he could picture Siobhan, smiling down at young Matthew and keeping a watchful and loving eye on the sleeping Katie. They meant more to him than anything.

"Anderson! I need you at the main door," Dakin barked, shaking Gideon from his moment of loss and bringing him back to where he should be. The soldier's brief for this situation was to protect the scientific complex at all costs; nothing else mattered. If they had to kill someone, that's what they would have to do. If push came to shove, Gideon wasn't sure he could just kill another man. In some ways, he sympathised with those on the outside. They were struggling to survive; each newly discovered underground chamber would only sustain life for a limited period. Once the breathable air and the clean water was gone, they had to move on. It was far removed from the relatively easy life that the government workers had and he couldn't blame them at all for being angry.

The defences at the main door lasted just over an hour. Just the sheer strength of numbers outside finally caused the seal on the door to be breached and hoards of men, women and children poured through. Gunshots were fired into the air in an attempt to move them back, but it was pointless. They knew they outnumbered the soldiers and would soon overwhelm them and be inside the complex.

Gideon could only watch in horror as the hoard spread out, tearing vents open, smashing generators and ripping computers from their fixings. "Stop!" he cried out. "If clean air and fresh water is what you want, then destroying our systems is not going to help."

"We're tired of waiting for your scientists to put things right. They're in no hurry whilst they live a life of luxury like this!" one man hissed. "Perhaps if they have to suffer like we do, they'll find a solution a whole lot quicker!"

"We all want the same things. They're working as fast as they can. Destroying the complex will only set back their research."

"Easy for you to say, soldier. When was the last time you watched a loved one die in front of your eyes simply because they haven't had a drop of water for days?"

Gunshots rang out from both sides and Gideon heard demands from the rebellion to be shown where the scientists were. He had to get to Siobhan and warn her; she had to take the children to safety. Making sure he wasn't followed, he slid down the corridor and through the security doors to where Siobhan and the other scientists were working.

"What's happening out there?" Ryder asked.

"It's the rebellion. They're coming after you all. Take whatever research you can and head for the bunker. Siobhan, you have to take Matthew and Katie." Gideon's voice was urgent, and the scientists realised this was serious. They began ripping their hard-drives from the casings and shoving whatever they could into bags.

Siobhan hugged Gideon. "The children matter," he said, stroking her hair. "Make sure they're safe. I have to go back. It's pretty desperate in there."

"I understand. Go."

Gideon gave a lingering look around, told Siobhan that he loved her and turned to rejoin his comrades on the front line.

-o-

Around her, Siobhan's colleagues were desperately trying to rescue whatever they could of their precious research. Her only thought was the secrets she had been forced to keep regarding Matthew's connection to those that had been the cause of destruction of the earth, and also the date and place of that important anomaly that would open in 18 years time to allow someone to go back in time to fix things. She feared if the truth about Matthew was known, he would be a target for those currently attacking the complex. She stared at his computer chip. It didn't need to be kept, she knew the details by heart and would one day be able to tell Matthew herself. She placed it on the desk and took the large, metal hammer that was fastened to the wall 'in case of emergency'. The chip shattered into hundreds of pieces.

Ryder gave her a questioning look but when she just glared back at him, he knew not to push it. "Do you have that anomaly model we were working on?" she called.

"It's all downloaded onto this." Ryder patted a metallic tube like object under his arm. "And that anomaly is marked."

"Good, bring it with us." Siobhan then took the hammer again and smashed both her's and Ryder's computers. No-one else would get hold of that data. "Don't look at me like that," she said to Ryder, who was staring wide-eyed. "Didn't Dakin say we had to protect that information at all costs? That's what I'm doing."

"No arguing from me. Now, you take the children and I'll follow behind." Dakin ushered Siobhan towards the hidden door that led to the emergency escape tunnel and to the bunker. Siobhan scooped up Matthew into one arm and Katie into the other and slid through the doorway whilst Ryder held it open for her. He then closed it firmly behind them, sealing it from whatever danger was lurking beyond the other walls.

-o-

It felt like they'd been there for hours. Both Katie and Matthew had fallen asleep against Siobhan's chest, and Ryder had been trying to hook into the communication network but failing. They'd expected more of the scientists to have arrived by now, and maybe even some of the soldiers, but none had come.

"Something's wrong," Ryder said, pacing around the small room. "I'm going to take a look."

"You shouldn't go out there alone," Siobhan warned. "I'll come with you."

"You need to stay here with the kids. If they wake up alone in a strange place, they'll be scared."

"It's just for a few minutes. They'll sleep for hours yet." She sat up, carefully moving Katie so that she was propped against Matthew, and then slowly slid away so that he was resting against the wall. Giving them a quick glance to make sure they had not stirred, she followed Ryder back along the corridor into their lab.

She was not prepared for the horror that greeted them. Gideon had described the devastation he witnessed on a regular basis when the Predators attacked a residential colony, but it was nothing compared to the reality. The bodies of their colleagues were scattered around the room, some barely recognisable as human. She put her hand over her mouth and forced back the nausea.

"How the hell did Predators get in here?" Ryder asked.

"When the rebels broke in, they must have left the entrance open. With the soldiers fighting the rebels, no-one would be watching for the Predators. Oh god! Gideon!" Siobhan blinked back her tears, trying not to think the worse.

"He'll be fine. He's been dodging those critters for years." Ryder placed a comforting arm around her shoulders. Just as he was about to suggest that she went back to the children, the unmistakeable sound of a baby's cry echoed through the corridor.

Siobhan screamed and grabbed a gun from one of the bodies on the ground, running towards the sound. Ryder gave chase after her, having also grabbed a gun.

A Predator was stood in front of the two children. Matthew was desperately rocking Katie in his arms, trying to make her stop crying. He had had it drummed into him that these creatures located their prey by sound, so he knew he had to get her to be quiet.

"Get away from them, you bastard!" Siobhan yelled, pulling the trigger on her gun and repeatedly firing at the creature. Ryder fired too but it was too late. An eerie, stunned silence filled the room, and then the muffled cries of two terrified children.

"Mammy? Mammy?" Matthew crawled over to Siobhan's motionless body. "Wake up, Mammy!"

Ryder sat up and pulled the young boy into his arms, whispering that it would be OK. He'd seen the Predator turn from the children and pounce on Siobhan, her bullets not even scratching it's leather like skin. He had fired directly at it's head but it still kept coming, Siobhan's lifeless body slumping to the ground as anger and adrenalin coursed through his body. Three more shots and the creature fell. He'd killed it.

The pain of his own wounds was indescribable, and now his head was spinning. The last thing he would be aware of before he blacked out forever was the sound of little Matthew sobbing for his dead mother. At least the children were spared, and that thought was his last.