Author's Note: As is usually the case, fun stuff has had to take a back seat to reality. Thank you for your patience, your kind words and the gentle proddings. I won't make promises that I can't keep: this story will continue to be moved along but I don't know how quickly I will get to it. This is just an incredibly busy time for me and I don't want folks to think that chapters are going to appear a few weeks apart. (Boo hiss! I know, as much as I would like to just devote all my time to this, there really are other things that must take priority.)

47-12 Mark 25; 0753 Hours

The sun was already over the horizon when the jumpship landed alongside the lake. Inside, Hawk shut down the ship and turned in his seat to look at his teammates. His voice was soft, filled with emotion, when he finally spoke.

"This is where we used to come to vacation. Before the war, when the kids were younger. Jon wants to bury Jennifer here. I couldn't deny him this."

He looked down at his hands, then back at Scout and Tank a few moments later. "I had to pull rank because I didn't want him to get himself killed. I'm giving him back command of the team as soon as he's thinking rationally again."

Scout was already shaking his head. "You had to do it Hawk. He wouldn't have listened to Tank or I."

Hawk nodded, running a hand through his hair. "I don't know what we're going to do, where we're going to go. The only safe place is the Passages, but we can't stay there too long. We can't risk the lives of so many people."

"Maybe we could contact Elzer's group. Or even Cypher's," Tank said quietly.

Scout blew out a deep breath, shaking his head slightly as he leaned forward in his seat. "We don't even know what's going on with Cypher right now. I've been trying to raise his group on the comm but I'm not getting anything."

Hawk looked at them hard. "I don't need to tell you that we're in serious trouble if Dread has the colonel. Thank God he doesn't know where the Passages are, but he's got information that will destroy the Resistance. For all we know, that's how Dread found the base. We had Cypher there and maybe he managed to figure out where it was, even though we took every precaution in the book." He stopped for a moment before continuing. "We need to know what was on that disk from Locke."

"It's possible Pilot had Mentor analyze it before the base was found. It might be in his data flows." Tank looked at the bag on the floor beside him, seeing the remaining Power Suits and the backup of Mentor's system.

Scout nodded. "I can check into it, but I'm going to need some time to get the Jumpship's system reconfigured to work with his. We had it set up to interface through the comm channels before, but I'm going to have to get him into the mainframe now."

"Alright." Hawk's expression turned grim. "We'll head to the Passages once we finish here." He pushed himself out of the copilot's chair, looking toward the hold of the ship. "I'm going to talk to Jon."

"Let us know where he wants her…" Scout trailed off, unable to finish the thought. He'd been able to push the loss aside while they made their next plans, but now it was returning, stabbing deep inside his gut. "Just…tell us and we'll get the area ready." He looked down at his hands, then back up at Hawk. "Matt, if losing her is tearing us up this bad, what's it doing to him?"

Though none of them had ever acknowledged what was happening between their two team mates, they'd all seen it and knew the love Pilot finally vocalized in her last moments had been felt equally by Power.

The older man clenched his jaw, swallowing hard against the emotions that were welling up. "I can only imagine," he lied to the younger man, unwilling to tell him what a loss like that felt like.

He headed to the rear of the ship, where the medibunk was located. Power's back was to him as he sat on a crate beside the bunk. Jennifer's hand was wrapped in both of his and he was staring at her.

Masterson suddenly felt like he'd had the wind knocked out of him. He saw himself, years before, kneeling near the bodies of his wife, daughter and son. He'd held Joanna's hand just as Power was doing now. He knew the pain Jon was going through and wanted desperately to take it away from him, though he knew it was impossible.

"Jon?" Hawk came up beside him, lightly squeezing the younger man's shoulder.

Power hesitated a moment, then turned his head toward him. Tears were welling up in his already red-rimmed eyes and his chin trembled from the effort of keeping his feelings locked inside. His cheeks were wet with the tears he'd already shed. "Just a few more minutes with her. Please?"

Hawk hesitated and then he nodded. "Did you have a special place in mind? Tank and Scout…"

He stopped talking, unable to finish the words, just as Scout had been unable to say it earlier. Tears began to fall and he looked at Jennifer's body on the bunk. Jon had washed the dirt and blood from her face and with the blanket carefully tucked around her, she once again looked like she was merely recovering from taking one too many hits to her suit. He reached out and touched her cheek, his other hand still on Jon's shoulder.

Jon's eyes followed Hawk's movement and he felt the tears roll down once again. "I was thinking near the maple, if it's still there."

Matt nodded. The maple tree had been a favorite for climbing and hiding as the kids had grown. His own precious Katie had boldly followed her older brother Mitch and then became stranded in that tree, too frightening to climb down. Matt had had to scale the limbs himself to pluck her out of the leaves and carry her down, piggy-back.

It had provided shade for picnics and naps, burned the seemingly endless supply of childhood energy and would now be the place Jennifer would find peace.

"Alright," he said softly. He stared at her and slowly exhaled. "We'll finish this for you, Jennifer. I promise you." He simply stood there, trying to memorize every detail of her face. For a moment, he saw Katie. Jennifer was as old as Katie would have been, had the same honey-blonde hair. He hadn't wanted to admit it to anyone, even himself, but he'd grown attached to her so quickly because of their resemblence.

"I never told you, but I loved you as if you were my own daughter." He bent down and gently kissed her forehead, stroking her hair. "Goodbye sweetheart." He turned away, squeezing Jon's shoulder again before he quietly left the ship.

47-12 Mark 25; 0804 Hours

Stuart Power sat on the corner of the desk in his office, staring intently at the monitor on the wall. The results of the tests he'd run on Jennifer Chase's power suit filled the screen. He'd only heard rumors of people who had been pulled out of the digitization storage banks, but what he had learned was that they were reintegrated exactly as they had gone in, with intact clothing, jewelry and medical implants. This partially assuaged his fears regarding the circuitry of the suit. As each of the tests had been completed, he'd begun to relax. The conductance and resistance measurements had come back well within acceptable limits for the circuits and there were no fractures in any of the connectors. Detailed surface scanning of the fabric detected no breakdown in the material. Although the circuit pack held no charge, its memory chip contained the inaccessible imprint of Chase's mitochondrial DNA and the genetic map of her X chromosomes. The only way to know if the chip had survived intact would be to put Chase in the suit and recharge it, then energize the system. The suit would randomly scan cells in her body and match the information to that contained on the chip; built-in parameters allowed for aberrations that inevitably occurred within the genome as the cells divided. Within seconds, the suit would be able to detect whether the body enclosed within it was that of the person encoded on the chip.

That would be the final test. If he could convince the Council to allow Chase access to the suit, he would make a slight modification to the system, preventing her from being harmed if the chip had been damaged.

The Council.

Power closed his eyes, his mind replaying events from nearly two decades prior is if they had occurred the previous week. The world had been in turmoil, but intact. Wars raged between countries, fought by robot warriors, instead of humans. These soldiers had come to be called BioMechs for their ability to adopt the actions of a person, yet be completely mechanized to remove the "emotional" aspect.

The leaders of many of the world's countries had grown weary of the constant battles and the lack of resolution to the underlying causes. These leaders had developed an unofficial coalition in the hope that they could put an end to the fighting. Many of the smaller countries of the world saw this unification as a threat to their own defenses and fought harder against the larger, more powerful nations.

The coalition had been named the Unified Countries – the "UC", as many had come to refer to it – and the leaders of it the Council. Discussions had begun amongst the Council members of a "good faith" gesture – something they would be able to do that would alleviate the distrust.

Stuart had been shocked when he and his colleague, Dr. Lyman Taggart, had been approached by the President of the United States. The US had been one of the four founding countries of the UC and remained one of the strongest as well as one of the most trusted among non-member nations. The President had requested that the two computer geniuses go before the UC Council to discuss the creation of a supercomputer that would be able to control the mechanized armies. Initially, it would be used only on those under the direction of the Unified Countries. They would be shut down, unable to fight without the proper authorization from all leaders. Once the outside nations realized the UC would use combat only as a last resort, the hope remained that they would be more willing to negotiate instead of fight. As each country agreed to this, their BioMechs would come under the control of the supercomputer and when all had agreed, the Mechs would simultaneously be destroyed with a single command. And finally, peace would be achieved.

He and Taggart had discussed the possibilities for days. What if the computer malfunctioned and the BioMechs went rogue? What if none of the non-member nations would comply and the UC was caught unguarded? What if the UC turned on everyone and used the amassed warriors to take over smaller, less defendable countries?

He had talked it over with Morganna as well. They had discussed all the scenarios he and Lyman had come up with, as well as what it would mean to their relationship. They both knew it would mean endless hours apart, yet she'd urged him to take on the task. Especially if it meant giving their family a chance at a more peaceful existence.

The planning stage had taken two long months to complete, yet they felt confident in the outcome and presented the schematic to the Council for its approval. After that meeting, they found themselves with a team of electrical and mechanical engineers at their disposal, as well as unlimited resources.

As time had passed, Stuart had noticed a change in Taggart's demeanor. Although he'd always been brash, Lyman had grown more zealous in his desire to donate his own engrams and synaptic firing patterns to establish the artificial neural network needed by the computer. Power had strongly cautioned against it, knowing that the donor of the engrams would need to be level-headed in times of duress. Taggart had never fit that bill and Power doubted that even he himself would be a prime candidate. There was one possibility among their staff, but the validation process was incomplete. He'd urged Taggart to run more simulations and install additional protective measures against infiltration from external sources - hackers. Hackers. The last thing they would need was for a computer to be created that could control an entire army, only to be taken over by a renegade group that desired nothing more than total world domination.

Power had gone to the UC leaders and warned them of Taggart's change. He'd tried to impress upon them that Taggart was becoming more of a liability to the program than an asset. He'd been there when Taggart's neural scan had been done and they'd all decided his patterns had been too unstable to use. That the instability could cause significant fluctuations in the programming and send out orders that did not exist. He'd informed them of programming within the computer that hadn't been agreed upon and when he had questioned Taggart, there were always excuses or denials. He'd requested that Taggart be watched by other members of the team, those he trusted both implicitly and explicitly.

The leaders had been divided on how to proceed, knowing how close they were to seeing the project completed. Stuart had doubted they even comprehended the gravity of the situation and continued to watch his longtime friend and colleague grow more disillusioned with the UC, insinuating that it was them they should be concerned with, not hackers.

In the weeks that followed, Taggart had become aggressive, almost hostile, in his desire to give complete control to the computer. Power had again gone to the Council to express his concerns once again and finally, Taggart was brought before the full committee. He had assured them Power was being overprotective of the computer; assured them that there were no problems. Gave them his word that the computer would function as intended.

In their desire to bring the project to an end, the majority had sided with Taggart.

Stuart had left the meeting weary, both physically and mentally, and sought out his wife. Morganna had been there for him during the entire process and knew every step they had taken. She had known Taggart since they'd first started working together at the university level. Although she'd been unsure of their alliance as partners in a technological collaboration, she'd given her blessing to her husband. Once again, she had held steadfast in her belief that Stuart was doing the right thing and that keeping a close eye on Taggart was of the utmost importance.

When he had returned to the lab later that evening, Power had found Taggart hooked up to the computer, in a trancelike state. Panic had swept through him as he realized what had happened. Yet Taggart had "woken up" and appeared to be unchanged by the linking. The computer, dubbed "Overmind" in the early days of the development, came online and diagnostic tests gave no indication of malfunction. Power immediately informed the Council and they were elated; Power had felt no such joy. He began to wonder if the Council had even heard a word he'd said for the past three months.

In the middle of that very night, Taggart gave the order to Overmind to take control of the UC armies. And the Metal Wars had begun.

As the mechanized soldiers marched through the countries of the world in blitzkrieg fashion, the Council had turned to Power to provide counter-measures against Overmind and Taggart. He had agreed, provided they give protection to his family.

And now, almost twenty years later, the war continued. The world had been devastated, the Council had been decimated and he had lost the people he loved the most.

Forcing himself out of the reverie, he focused again on the readings in front of him. He needed to speak with the remainder of the Council. He closed and secured the files, gathered his notes and left for the impromptu meeting. The path to the briefing room led him past the medical ward and he hesitated at the door. She would be asleep and he didn't want to wake her. It would be the fourth time that he'd stopped by since she'd been moved to the recovery area. Let them yell at me for being overprotective, he thought and slid his access card through the reader.

The door to the infirmary opened in front of him and Stuart entered, scanning the bunks quickly. Hers was empty.

A nurse in green medical scrubs walked silently toward him, noticing the disturbed look on his face. "May I help you, Doctor?"

His brown eyes held hers. "Where is Corporal Chase?" Anxiety began to slowly creep forward.

"She was transferred to another facility an hour ago."

A chill ran through him, forcing himself to maintain his composure. "What other facility?"

The nurse shook her head. "I was not given that information."

He turned without another word and left. I shouldn't have left you alone. I swore I wouldn't let anything happen to you. Walking quickly, he navigated the maze of corridors, working his way to the far end of the complex, which housed the hangars and the briefing rooms. In the six minutes it had taken him, he managed to calm himself only slightly. He would need more control over his emotions if he was going to locate Chase.

The door to the "war room" slid open silently with his authorization. He was surprised to find all three of the remaining Council members seated at the table in the center of the room. He'd expected one of them and had hoped to persuade him to call the others.

"Ah, Stuart. We were just talking about you." Stanton Sheppard, leader of the Council and former president of the United States, turned in his chair slightly to stare at the newcomer. Though he and Power were the same age, the gray hair that covered Sheppard's head made him appear older by at least ten years.

"Where is she?" Power said, nearly cutting him off mid-sentence. His original reason for requesting an audience with the Council, the power suit, was no longer on his mind.

Sheppard folded his hands on the table in front of him, his expression filled with curiosity. "Who are you referring to, Doctor?"

"Don't feign ignorance Sheppard. It doesn't suit you." He glared at the man, unimpressed by the starched and freshly pressed suit, the clean-shaven face and the appearance of utter calm. "Corporal Chase. Where was she transferred and why wasn't I informed of this?"

Sheppard sat back in his chair, studying the man before him. In the seventeen years that he'd known Power, only the outward appearance had changed. It had been unintentional and without his consent, but Power had come to accept it.

Power had been unconscious when the team located him inside Volcania after the explosion and had remained in a medically induced coma for nearly three weeks while his body fought to recover from the injuries he'd sustained. Yet he had recovered. The surgeons had smoothed away most of the burned skin from his face, arm and chest, but there had been little they could do for his left hand. It was still functional and that was all that had mattered to Power when he'd awoken. His face was now clean-shaven and his brown hair closely cropped to minimize the loss of the hair follicles, yet his eyes retained the same intensity as before. The fire that raged inside, the passion that drove him initially, was still there and was bubbling to the surface.

Sheppard saw it smoldering, ready to erupt. "The decision was not yours to make, Stuart."

Stuart felt the anger rising, yet forced it down. "She is a member of my son's team. He needs her expertise to fight against Taggart." He crossed his arms over his chest, staring straight into Sheppard's eyes, aware of the attention the other two members of the Council focused on him as well.

"She's also in love with your son. Do you suppose he feels the same?"

"This is irrelevant to the discussion. What have you done with her?"

Sheppard clicked his tongue in disapproval. "Humor an old friend Stuart. How do you suppose your son feels about this woman?"

Stuart resisted the urge to grab the other man by the collar and shake him as he responded, "I wouldn't know. I haven't spoken to Jon in fifteen years."

A half-smile turned up the corners of Sheppard's mouth. He settled back into his chair. "And why should we believe you when you say that, Stuart?"

Power hesitated for a moment, seeing Sheppard's gaze sharpen ever so slightly beneath the smile. He'd seen that look before and wanted to explode, yet reined in the anger, knowing it would get him nowhere. "Because I've never given you a reason to doubt me or my dedication to this fight. If you will recall, Jon thinks that I'm dead. I've gone along with this little situation you've created to protect him and his team. I do believe that your exact words were 'As long as you cooperate with us, we will ensure no harm comes to Jon or any member of his group'. I've given up fifteen years with my son to get rid of Taggart and now one of Jon's team has been severely injured. I want to know where she is and why she was moved."

Sheppard leaned forward, resting his elbows on the table, his fingers forming a peak in front of his face. His blue eyes pierced into Stuart's. "Yes, Stuart, you have shared your expertise with us. We had expected this war to end relatively quickly and that you would be reunited with your son." He paused. "We had expected to rebuild what Taggart has destroyed and allow those that remained to enjoy a safe, new world in which to live."

"I don't understand why you're speaking in the past tense Stanton. All the plans that the Council has put forth will be realized, but we have to take Taggart out of the picture. We have to give Jon all the resources he needs, the personnel, the weapons! How many times do we have to go over this Stanton? How do you expect him to finish the job now that he's lost not only his base, but all his weapons, contacts, tactical information and a member of his team?" Stuart nearly slammed his fists on the table in front of Sheppard.

"Your son is a resourceful man. At your unfortunate disappearance, he channeled that anger into the completion of the Power Base, the assembly of a formidable team and has defeated Dread at every turn in the New Order plan."

Stuart stared at Sheppard, his hands splayed across the tabletop. His patience was gone. "Where is Corporal Chase?" he demanded with finality.

"Jonathan will go on without her; we will see to that."

Stuart's voice was low, almost a growl. "If you've done anything to harm her – "

Sheppard began to chuckle. "You are hardly in a position to threaten us, Stuart." He saw the confusion in Power's eyes and activated the monitor on the wall. "Stuart, would you tell us what this is?"

Power averted only his eyes to glance at the screen. "Gibberish," he replied hastily.

"So we thought as well." He typed for several seconds and the screen cleared, then was filled with words.

Stuart straightened as he read, feeling the color drain from his face.

Stanton began to read out loud. "Blastarr and squadron of mechs deployed to Power Base. Warn team of attack. Confirm Arianna's safety." He finished the message, then he slowly turned to face Power again. "This transmission was intercepted from Volcania." He was silent for a moment. "Corporal Chase's full name is Jennifer Arianna Chase, is it not?" With no response from Power, Sheppard spoke again. "What interest would someone at Volcania have in the well-being of a member of Jonathan's team?"

Stuart Gordon Power knew there would be no way out of this one. "Where is she?" he asked again, this time, his voice barely above a whisper.

Sheppard crossed his arms over his chest, his eyes turning cold. "Jennifer Chase is being debriefed."

47-12 Mark 25; 0824 Hours

Hawk stared into the sun as it ascended slowly into the sky. It was the first time they'd seen it in almost a month. The times they'd been out during the day, it had been gray and rainy; most of their recent missions had been at night, when the risk of being seen was lowest. It was almost like Jennifer was sending them a message. They were still fighting for something. The sun had broken another day and there were still trees and grass and people to save it for and share it with.

He felt sweat trickle down the side of his face and absently brushed it away with his sleeve. Scout and Tank had done the bulk of the digging, but as each of them had gone inside to see Jennifer one last time, he'd taken over, shoveling dirt and rocks with everything he had to release some of the anger and pain.

Movement at the entrance to the Jumpship caught his attention and he saw Jon step out, Jennifer's blanket wrapped body cradled tightly in his arms. The younger man looked devastated, but the tears had stopped. At least for the present time. He saw Scout move toward the hole they'd dug, getting ready to jump inside and accept Pilot's body.

"Rob." Power's soft voice caught their attention as if he'd yelled. He shook his head slightly, his eyes on the grave.

Scout took a couple of steps back while Jon moved forward, resting Jennifer carefully on the ground at the edge of the hole. He lowered himself inside, then lifted her into his arms one final time, hugging her fiercely against his chest. Matt's heart began to ache and he felt the tears fall once again as Jon kissed her cheek softly before placing her down. Tank and Scout each reached out their hands to pull him out and they watched in silence as Power added the first shovel of dirt to her grave. None of them spoke as they finished the task, but the pain was evident on each of their faces.

As Hawk boarded the Jumpship behind the rest of the team, he wondered if this would be the final blow that would bring about the destruction of Dread. Or if it would be the blow that would destroy the man he'd come to think of as his own son. He passed Jonathan on his way to the copilot's seat and saw the look in his eyes.

For the first time since Matthew Masterson had met Jonathan Power, he realized that the younger man had lost his reason to live. Not even the death of his father had caused him to look so utterly defeated.

Hawk felt shaken to his soul as he set in the coordinates for the Passages.