AN: Hi, I know some of you probably thought I forgot about this story but I haven't. It's just been torn apart a couple hundred times so I could have it the way I want. Sometimes it felt like Carter was too un-Carter like and then I struggled with the Samaritan plotline and how I wanted to go about it. Well, I have come up with the way I want it now. And I have till chapter 7 finished but outlined the entire thing. So now it's just a matter of doing. But I promise there won't be this long of a hiatus between updates ever again.

Thanks for being patient with me XOXOXOXOXOX

P.S. Italics is a flashback

Kubir Ganesha entered his luxury penthouse talking on his iPhone. He turned on the light after locking the door. "Yes I'm sure, Mr. Greer, my staff assured me that Martine's injuries are nonfatal and have already removed the bullet that she received in the shoulder," he assured Greer. He listened for several more minutes. "Yes, yes, take care." He ended the call.

He put his cell phone and keys down on the table beside the door, before slinging his coat off and dropped the briefcase down near the door. His wife and kids left for out of town this morning to go visit her mother, which left him the place to himself. He rolled his shoulders, tucking some of his unruly long locks behind his ears, hearing a faint sound. He furrowed his brows, stood still, and listened. When nothing sounded again, he shrugged his shoulder and turned to walk towards the study when he let out a cry as a hand wrapped around his neck, and he felt something placed at his neck. He crumpled when he felt high electrical voltage course through his body, pain ebbing from his neck as he sunk to the floor unconscious.

Joss eyed the man as he laid on the floor of his penthouse before looking at Mila. "Pick him up," she demanded as she walked into the study the man had been going into.

She grabbed out the desk chair at the large desk, pulling it out into the middle of the room. Mila did as she was told, using her considerable strength to pick up the skinny man, and placed him in the chair. Joss tied his hands with zip-ties to the armrests, and legs to the legs of the rolling desk chair.

"Who is he, boss?"

"One of the doctors that placed the chip in my brain, I wonder if my screams keep him awake at night," she wondered and Mila looked down. If she was screaming that meant she had been awake when they performed the unfortunate surgery on her.

Joss dragged a chair to sit across from him before she pulled out a smelling salt, opened it, and placed it under his nose. Kubir jerked upright and tensed when he couldn't move. His eyes opened and he looked panicked. "Hello, Dr. Ganesha, remember me? I'm your favorite patient, Joss Carter," she greeted with a soft pat of his knee, sitting back crossing her legs, and smiling void of any warmth.

"J-Joss,"

Her smile turned genuine. "I'm so glad you remember me, because I remember you and your crack staff, we have so much catching up to do." Joss turned to look at Mila who was standing in the doorframe leaning against it. "Leave us, Mila, please," she asked gently.

Mila nodded, laying a gentle hand on her shoulder. "I'll be outside, call me if you need me." She turned and left. Everything was quiet in the penthouse.

Joss waited several minutes until she heard the door to the penthouse open and shut. She watched as Kubir struggled in his chair. "You can scream if you want, but no one will hear you or come to help you." Joss said. "That's what Greer told me."

"J-Joss,"

"Is that all you can say?" she demanded as she sat forward. "Not even nice to see you, how you've been, how's your noggin? Nothing?" she rifled off. She rolled her eyes. "Fine, I'll start. How's the wife and kids?" she asked out of the blue as if they were old chums.

Kubir's eyes lifted. "You…"

She laughed as she waved him off. "Killed them? God no. Your kids are cute, I sincerely hope they have your wife's genes though, young too, so they won't remember the filth of a father they had. Your wife is a sweet little thing; surely she'll be able to find a new husband without much effort." Joss said with a soft tilt of her head.

"Greer said you died," Kubir whispered. "I'm glad to see he was wrong."

She snorted. Of course he said that. Because to Greer whenever he was able to find her she was surely going to be executed. But the stupid bastard made the error of putting Samaritan into her head because she knew their moves before they did. They weren't ever going to find her until she was damn well ready to let them.

"Oh I am very much dead. You see, the old me would never have dreamt of revenge or murder. No, she was a good woman but I'm not her, not anymore."

Kubir stared at her. "What are you going to do to me?"

"Simple, I'm going to kill you but don't worry I promise I won't make you suffer months upon months of torture. I'm much more humane than that, your death will be quick, no suffering. I'm not a monster like I look." Joss leered at him, before getting to her feet as she circled him.

She watched as tears welled up in his eyes as she came around to stand before him. "Please, you don't want to do this." She made a face, unmoved by the waterworks.

"No?"

"I-I kept y-you alive."

She chuckled. "Oh you mean the surgical repairs you did on me, keeping me alive enough so they could torment me some more. Yeah, I guess I should thank you for making me this way."

"They employed me to save your life when you nearly were fatally shot in the chest. I saved your life, Joss, I didn't know they were going to save you just to torture you," he said.

Anger bubbled up in her. "So what about those surgical repairs huh? I asked you to not suture my wounds to not give me blood transfusions, to not save me, and what did you say? You were paid to keep me alive and that's what you were going to do, money meant more to you then human life. And then you drilled a hole in my skull, oh sure you gave me a local numbing agent which I do appreciate, but I knew what you were doing, could smell the iron scent of my own blood, and I begged you to stop. I begged you to stop because they implanted this chip in my brain making me their lab rat so they could make super soldiers to do Samaritan's bidding quicker, like robots. And do you know what those operatives that would get the implant in their brain would immediately do?—go after the people I care about, hunt them down like animals, and kill them," she explained coldly.

"I had to keep making surgical repairs, to give you blood transfusions and to save you. I couldn't stop the surgery to implant that chip in your brain because Greer threatened my family when I tried. Please, Joss, I'm sorry," he interjected as more tears fell down his face and her anger exploded.

She felt hollow inside, she didn't believe him. "It's a little too late for apologies and tears isn't it, Dr. Ganesha. You made your decision and so have I."

She watched as his tears dried up and he lifted his chin a little in defiance. "Do what you must, as I did what I had to so I could protect my family from Greer. I'm sorry for the role I played in your torture, I'm sorry for what they did to you, but I chose to protect my family over a stranger and while it sounds cruel I'd do it again in a heartbeat. My wife and my children mean everything to me." Joss eyed him as she trembled a bit. His fear of dying was gone.

"Just as John and my son mean everything to me," Joss agreed softly.

"I just ask of you to take me somewhere else to kill me, or to call it in so that my children and my wife won't come home to find me dead. I beg of you."

She couldn't murder this man because she believed him. The moment he stopped begging for his life and asked for her to move him to protect his wife and kids from the sight, told her the truth. Kubir was hired to save her from the near fatal wound by Simmons, only it became something far more sinister than the doctor ever anticipated. Kubir had probably thought of it as easy money to save her, then he became Greer's lackey forcing him to save her so they could torture her for information. They had the right leverage on Ganesha, his love for his family.

She couldn't take this man's life because she couldn't fault him for choosing his wife and children's lives over hers. She was so set on getting her vengeance on those that did this to her that she allowed her judgment to get skewed. She needed to keep her vengeance solely on Greer and the agents that tortured her and turned her into this monster she was.

"Maybe you do have some use to me to live."

"I'll do anything," Dr. Kubir Ganesha had an in to Greer, Greer would never suspect that Ganesha would be working for her. She smiled.

"Alright, Kubir you work for me now." She said turning to press a hand to her ear, hitting the button on the earwig. "You can come back in now, Mila; we have a new asset in exterminating Decima," she whispered.

"Yes, boss."

She turned to look at Kubir. "If you, in any way, let Greer know that I made contact with you, I won't hesitate to kill you because I'll be protecting my life and those I love, understood?" she said coldly, making sure he understood her explicitly.

"You have my word, I won't tell him."

She nodded her head. "Good, now Mila, you, and I need to have a nice long chat to come up with a steady plan on taking down Decima."

Shaw was getting out of bed no matter what anyone said. She had been listening to Mila, to Carter, and to her body for weeks now, trying to regain her strength and let her body heal. Carter and Mila took turns helping her shower, change her dressings, and change her loose fitting pajamas. Shaw typically slept in the nude, but had to admit that the matching pink-satin tank/shorts pajamas that she was currently dressed in were comfortable, even if they were too girly. Maybe, she'd buy a set and rip anyone's tongue out that even attempted to make a joke about her owning a pair.

But she was going to die of boredom if she didn't get out of this bed soon for more than going to the bathroom, and she was going to do it without anyone's help.

While she had been cooped up trying to recuperate over her wounds, Shaw had studied the room she was in to the smallest and finest detail. She memorized every spider-web, every minor paint chip, and every scuff on the dark hardwood floor that needed some cleaning.

Shaw flipped the blankets off, slowly wiggling her short legs over the edge of the bed. She was going to go slowly insane if she didn't see something besides these four walls. Shaw grabbed the headboard as an aide in her endeavor but quickly realized her body was a piece of shit. She gritted her teeth as it was difficult to get into a sitting position, so much so that sweat beaded above her upper lip and on her forehead. She didn't even breathe until she was sitting up, exhaling roughly, blowing her bangs that fell on her face up in the air and dragged in air through her nostrils.

"I hate fucking gunshot wounds," she muttered to herself.

"I do too." Shaw jumped in surprise at the soft voice which did nothing to help her aching body; she hadn't heard the door to her room open; Carter stood in the doorframe with an unreadable expression.

Shaw focused on her rather than the aches and weakness she was feeling. Carter's hair looked good short and colored; she had soft makeup on, and was wearing a purple sweater with tight black pants. The scars…well, they were a new detail to Carter that Shaw was still getting used to.

"Don't you ever make a noise?" she grumbled. Shaw enjoyed sneaking up on people as much as the next person, but Carter was eerily quiet.

Carter shrugged. "I prefer not to," she admitted as she entered the room fully to slide her arm around Shaw's waist, helping her stand up. "If you are dead set about getting out of bed and out of this room, let me help you."

"I can do it myself," Shaw assured her irritably, which was met with a nonchalant shrug as Carter let go of her. Shaw nearly took a header when she tried to take her first weak and pathetic step alone, before Carter caught her.

Carter eyed her with a knowing look as if she had done something similar herself, as Carter held her up. "Your body needs time to heal, Shaw; it has suffered some serious trauma, as an almost doctor you should know that." As Carter helped turn her towards the door to leave, Shaw scowled as Mila entered with an empty wheelchair.

"That better be for Carter, because it sure the hell isn't for me," Shaw said with a dismissive wave of her hand in Mila's general direction.

Carter eyed Shaw with an expression that she couldn't easily read. "Look, I know this has been hard for you, but you can barely walk, you need the wheelchair."

"I don't need that damn thing," she countered.

"You do if you are going to get out of this room. I'm not going to let you do irreparable damage to your body, Sam. You need to get better to help me and our friends take down Decima, Martine, and Samaritan," Carter said as if knowing what the magic words would be. She'd do anything to bring down that wrinkly old prick along with the blond Terminator. They had some unfinished business that was to be continued from the department store. Shaw looked at Carter, then back at Mila who had the wheelchair handles in hand.

Shaw motioned at the wheelchair irritably. "Bring that stupid thing over here." Mila smiled and did as asked. Shaw pushed the helpful hands away, wanting to do this by herself. Once seated, Shaw sighed, much better then standing. Mila went to push her but she shook her head, grabbing the wheels stubbornly. "I can do it myself."

"You're very stubborn," Mila murmured.

"Me? You work for Carter, she's like ten times more stubborn than I am," she said and Carter actually chuckled softly but said nothing as she led them towards the hall that she had only seen glimpses of from her place in bed.

She eyed the hall. "Where are we?"

"Main floor of an old Victorian mansion I purchased out in the Catskills where there is limited cell service, and cameras aren't nearly as prominent here. However, I made the inside of this lovely Victorian mansion more up to date than the outside surrounding it," Carter murmured and Shaw had no doubt as she eyed the steel elevator that was near a spiral staircase that went up or down. "The home I purchased under an assumed name; Joss Jones, with some of the stolen funds I procured. It is three stories including the basement, top story I converted into my private quarters which is off limits on the little tour I'm about to give you."

Carter's flat tone told her she meant business that it was indeed off-limits, which meant that she was going to go snooping around when she felt better and find out what Carter was hiding up there.

They toured the main floor of the mansion, to the kitchen, to the den that was made into a training facility, and to the living room that was just that, a living room with a large television. Mila showed off her guest room on the main floor level that was beside hers, before they entered the elevator, where Carter firmly pressed the down button. It was quiet in the elevator on the short journey down and when the doors opened, Shaw looked around while Carter wheeled her out. She couldn't even grunt out an angry retort because she was surprised by the basement. It was updated and state of the art, high-tech, and kind of a cooler version of the Batcave.

The basement was converted into Carter's base of operation. There were several long tables with laptops, paperwork, and old takeout food containers littering them; not to mention, behind those tables were six large projector screens, each with a different camera feed. One of the feeds was of the precinct and she saw Fusco's fat head. Shaw noted that two screens scanned the streets of New York, one flipped through Victorian home suggesting that Carter had webcams littering this place, while the last two said 'no connection' which meant they were probably used to watch whoever they chose for Athena to go after.

"The webcams that are placed in here and at the precinct are on a private network that is encrypted so even Samaritan can't gain access to them." Carter explained as she wheeled her further in and Shaw was taken aback at how upscale this was, it must have taken Carter a great deal of time to renovate this basement. Carter was good at the details, she decided. There were three rolling bulletin boards that had a map of Decima workers and at the very top was pinned a Greer picture.

"This is pretty bad-ass," Shaw admitted, seeing an eyeful of the weaponry and body armor in the back that was neatly laid out, as if they needed it at a moment's notice it was within reach. "Reese would be impressed," Shaw muttered. Actually if she bet money, this side of Carter would make Reese horny as hell.

Carter didn't comment as she wheeled Shaw back towards the large projection screens. Shaw eyed the precinct feed, sliding her friend a sidelong look as Reese walked in view of the camera. Carter's gaze softened the moment he did and for the first time since finding her friend alive, she truly looked content, for a moment at least. Shaw might not be able to feel her emotions but she understood them, the look on Carter's transfixed face was easy to read: love.

Shaw glanced at Mila who excused herself, leaving them alone in the basement. "Maybe it's time to come out of hiding, Carter," Shaw suggested the moment they were alone. Mila, to her, was an outsider, she didn't trust her.

"I can't,"

"Why not?—if you and Mila teamed up with us we could take down that old prick, his blond puppet, and Samaritan."

Carter glanced at her. "I doubt Finch and John will let me continue my work as Athena."

"Are you really doing the dirty work or is Mila?" Shaw demanded. It was one thing plotting and planning, but doing the work was completely different. She needed to know how far gone her friend was.

"I've killed four Decima agents; two to escape and the two that were going to harm you. Mila has specified she'd do all the Athena killings."

"Why is she doing them all?"

"Mila says I'm a good person," Carter growled. Clearly Carter didn't agree with Mila's estimation, however her friend wasn't exactly overriding Mila either. Shaw relaxed, this Mila was trustworthy, she knew that Carter wasn't a coldblooded killer.

"Why are you having them killed, you know they are just going to replace them?" Shaw asked. This was something she had been wondering for the two weeks she'd been here and since learning Carter was Athena.

"I want them to."

"Why?"

"Because the men and women that are replacing the Decima agents are people that I have saved since being freed from my death sentence. The machine has known I've been alive for several months now, since I contacted her. She has been sending me the names of men and women who landed on the irrelevant and relevant lists, helping me build my army, while sending you any other irrelevants," Carter murmured.

Shaw's eyes widened. "You were working numbers?"

She shrugged. "The number working was left mainly for you, John, and Finch. I only requested the machine to give me the numbers of those who were military trained so I could build an army to infiltrate Decima."

"You are having Mila kill off loyal Decima workers, replacing them with people loyal to you, and when you are ready you are going to cripple Decima from the inside out." Shaw said in awe, she had to admit that it was some fucking plot. Good thing Carter was on the side of good and not evil.

Carter shrugged. "I have a man on the inside who I forced to help me keep my guys that have infiltrated Decima alive."

"How do you make sure Decima takes these new recruits?"

Carter smiled. "Greer really shouldn't have placed Samaritan into my brain because I know how to do things that I didn't before," she murmured quietly.

"Are you ever going to tell me how the hell that thing works in your head?"

"Eventually," Carter said slowly, which meant not today. "But now you see why I can't give up Athena. I have come too far now to stop."

"I get it, but it's also a way to be close to Reese without showing yourself," Shaw muttered. Reese had become absorbed in the Athena case since 'Athena' had started addressing the calling card to him, as if taunting him to figure it out. Carter had created a cat and mouse game with John, she was the mouse teasing John, the cat, and Reese was falling for it hook, line, and sinker. It was bugging the hell out of him that there were no clues, no trace, and certainly no evidence.

Carter smiled a real honest to goodness smile. "Yes, it reminds me of when we first met," she admitted softly as she got a faraway look in her eyes. "I was so dead set on finding John and arresting him I had become fixated on the man-in-the-suit."

Shaw nodded recalling when the three of them had gone out for beers. She had listened as Carter and Reese reminisced about how they met after she asked. Shaw had paid attention to their looks, struggling to make out what was going on between them. It didn't make sense then, but now it did.

"But I don't think it's a good idea of us joining forces though, us operating separately is better. They have two threats coming at them from different angles." Joss went on.

Shaw eyed her. "I think it's better if we did, Carter, I mean we would have the machine's knowledge with Root and Samaritan's knowledge with you. We would have both gods fighting for our cause, in tandem, and unbeknownst to the old waxed mannequin!"

"Root has sure rubbed off on you with the 'god speak,' just how close did you two get, Shaw?" Carter asked with a carefully arched brow.

Shaw didn't rise to the bait. "You'd get to see Reese and your kid again, while helping take down Decima, so it's a win-win." And she'd get to see Root again, not that she needed too or anything, but it was just to make sure the nerd was alright.

A kaleidoscope of emotions flickered across Carter's normally neutral face before everything was carefully masked. "I'll think about it," she hedged and Shaw felt a glimmer of real hope at ending that miserable old man's existence and taking down Samaritan. Root was right, when Pandora's Box was opened all that was left was hope, and that hope came in the form of Joss Carter.

AN: In the next chapter we'll be seeing Reese and Root again.

Thanks for reading and thanks again for being so patient with me XOXOXOXOX