The sun had disappeared behind the grey clouds and the warm temperature had fallen a few degrees during the last few hours. It looked as if it would start raining any minute. Two hours had passed since their last meeting at the basement and Erica was currently driving through the busy streets of New York with Jack in the passenger seat. After they had discussed everything that had happened and what they were going to do next, Erica had agreed to take Jack to the Project Aires headquarter. She was going to tell Paul and Chris who Jack really was and that he was one of them, if they didn't already know that. Erica had no idea how much they actually knew about the Fifth Column.

As she parked her car next to a silver car, which she recognized as Paul's, she glanced over at Jack who was staring out the window. His warms breaths were creating mist to form at the inside of the window. But as soon as it came, it disappeared. His expression was troubled and his eyebrows were drawn together, creating a small frown above his eyes. But after everything he had been trough during the last few weeks it was just natural that he felt anxious and frustrated. She knew exactly how he felt, she felt the same.

"This is it." Erica said as she motioned for him to follow her down the stairwell and through the door. She pressed the elevator button and took a step back.

"How far down is it?" Jack asked as he looked at her with his soft eyes.

"About a mile." Erica answered as she stepped into the elevator.

Jack followed her in and stood next to her. Close to her. The elevator wasn't creating any of the loud growling noises they usually did. It was almost completely silent. All that could be heard were their breathing. Erica suddenly felt hot. Her cheeks became flushed and her breathing got a bit faster. Her heart rate spiked when she saw him turn his head and looked at her. She tried to look away but ended up meeting his eyes anyway. He gave her a worried look as he took her expression in.

"Are you okay?" He asked with a concerned voice.

"Yeah, I'm just a bit claustrophobic." She lied as the elevator dinged and she quickly stepped off. He looked suspiciously at her but apparently decided to drop it since he followed her without saying anything. Erica liked Jack, but as a good friend. Nothing more. But why did she just react like she did? And what about Hobbes? She took a deep breath to clear her head from all the distracting thoughts. She needed to focus.

They walked quickly down the long hallway that led to the center of the underground headquarter. She knew there were elevators going directly to the center but this way was less crowded. And she didn't feel like being around a lot of people at the moment. Even though this was a bit of a detour, she continued to walk through the hallway. There were doors on each side of the long, narrow corridor which made it feel like a cave with lots of different paths. The floor, the walls and the doors were all painted in a dull grey color. Erica had no idea what was behind those doors. She knew that Hobbes had a room to live in down here somewhere but she didn't know where exactly. He had mentioned something about a small room, almost like prison cell, with a hard bed and not much more. When Erica thought about him sitting there in his cell, all alone and Paul probably hadn't treated him as a guest, more as a prisoner, she felt a twinge in her chest. Kyle was dangerous and probably deserved a lifetime in jail, she couldn't really deny that, but he was more than everyone else saw. They only saw him as a fugitive. But underneath all that cockiness and arrogans, he was good. She knew he wasn't only the person he pretended to be.

Erica pulled the heavy metal door open and stopped to wait for Jack to walk through the doorframe. He slowly walked past her and his expression turned into a deep frown as he took it all in. The computers that were lined up on the desks, the big board with information and plans at the end of the room and his gaze stopped at the sight of the armed men outside the elevators. He didn't look nervous or afraid but he seemed a bit confused about the whole thing. It was a lot to take in. But his expression was curious, like when a child visits a new place or discovers something new.

"Back already?" said a calm, rich voice that she recognized.

Erica turned around to see Chris standing there. He was wearing the same brown suit he had yesterday evening when she'd been brought here. His expression was friendly as usual, but he looked tired. There were dark circles under his eyes, indicating that he probably hadn't slept for a while. On the other hand, he was a FBI agent and there wasn't much time for sleeping when you were on a big case. You would stay up almost the whole night to go over information, search for some more information and facts about the thing you were working on. She knew how it was.

"Yeah, I left pretty sudden yesterday." She said slowly. "And I didn't really get a chance to talk to any of you about the Fifth Column."

"Well, I have a few minutes." Chris said with a small smile before he turned his gaze and looked at Jack. "I have to admit, I am a bit surprised to see you here though."

"I would say the same about you if Erica hadn't told me about everything." Jack said.

"Yeah, she seems to trust you." Chris said. His expression was unreadable. "And if she does, then so do I." he continued as he put his hand out. "Chris Bolling."

"Thank you. I appreciate it." Jack said and shook his hand.

"Now that you've made up, let's talk about the more important things." Erica said firmly as she nodded to a corner where they could talk a bit more privately. "We need to know if you have any plan how to stop Anna from destroying humanity?" She continued.

"No, we don't." Chris said as he looked at her.

"You're a group of high ranked government agent and you don't have a plan?" Jack said with a frown.

"Chris, you can't be serious?" Erica said.

"Look Erica, there is something you need to understand when it comes to Project Aires." Chris said calmly. "We didn't create this organization to put up obstacles to delay Anna's plan, we want to eliminate her, and in order to do that we need to do something big."

"Then why haven't you done anything?" Erica asked him.

"There is nothing we can do right now. We don't have enough information about the Visitors or Anna's plan." Chris answered with a small shrug.

"Maybe we can help you with that." Jack said slowly and looked at Erica for approval. After all, she was the leader of the Fifth Column now and he needed to follow her orders. She nodded slowly. "We have contacts on the ship and Sid can explain everything we know about the Visitors to you." He continued.

"Who the hell is Sid?" Chris asked with a frown. They had been tracking Erica for a while but the name Sid had never been mentioned.

"Sidney Miller, an evolutionary biologist." Erica answered. "And he is also a member in the Fifth Column here in New York." She continued with a small nod.

"I suppose he is the one that was handling the virus you stole and gave to a number of persons?" Chris asked with raised eyebrows.

"Yeah." Erica answered nonchalantly.

"How did you know that was us?" Jack asked confused.

"The security guard said he heard a woman call the name Hobbes, and he recognized your voice from the news." Chris answered with a nod to Jack.

"You know about Hobbes too?" Jack asked. He couldn't believe that they knew that Kyle Hobbes, their most wanted man, were working with the Fifth Column and they didn't do anything about it.

"Kyle Hobbes is working here at the Project Aires too." Chris said. "We managed to buy his loyalty a few months ago and we got him to work for us."

"In change for money, right?" Erica answered with a tiny smile. She knew his conditions.

"Yes." Chris answered shortly. "We needed him and that was the only thing we could do." He continued with a shrug.

"What did you need him for? What was his mission?" Jack answered hesitantly.

"We needed him to infiltrate the Fifth Column to find out more about the people involved in New York and what your plans were." He answered firmly. The smile fell from Erica's lips in a second. Jack looked confused, but there was a bit of anger evident in his eyes.

"So he has just been pretending to be a Fifth Column to provide you with information?" Jack asked although he already knew the answer.

"Yes. But he hasn't really given us anything useful, just short text messages saying what you were planning on doing so that we wouldn't dig any deeper into it." Chris said. "We know that you stopped one of the Concordia sights for example. Hobbes told us, and that's why you are not behind bars right now." He continued as he looked at the two of them.

"I can't believe this." Jack said and shook his head. He couldn't believe that Hobbes had been doing this behind their back and they never suspected a thing. He worked for anyone, as long as he got cash it didn't matter who it was or what they wanted him to do. But that was who he was. "Did he tell you about us too?" He continued.

"No. We found out about you two before we even sent him out in the field to find you." Chris answered sincerely. "Hobbes hasn't mentioned anything about the Fifth Column's contacts around the world, what you were doing in Asia or anything about his own or your personal lives." He said as he glanced at Erica. "We figured those things out on our own."

Erica looked away to avoid the look Chris gave her. She knew what he meant when he said that Hobbes didn't tell them about their personal lives. She was a part of his personal life and he was a part of hers. If they had been tracking her she was sure that they had put up cameras around and inside her house, which meant they knew she had been sleeping with Hobbes. They probably knew everything about what happened with Tyler too. She didn't have anything to herself anymore. Except the things she hadn't told anyone. And Kyle knew. He knew that they had been tracking her, spying on her, and he hadn't told her anything about it. He had only been pretending to be with them, and she had believed him because it all seemed so real. The time when her car flipped while she fought with Malik and got hurt, she thought her cared. When he stopped her from running to the shuttle that had been loaded with the missing people she thought he cared. When she was sick last night she thought he cared. But it was all an act.

"I need to take this." Chris said as his phone beeped loudly. "Erica, just go on with the Fifth Column like you did before. If you need anything contact me or Paul." Chris said quickly before he turned and walked towards the elevators.

"So what do we do now?" Jack asked as he looked at her.

"We do what he said." Erica answered and started to walk towards the hallway they came from. "We continue with the Fifth Column. But for now we need to lay low for a few days." She continued as they walked out.

V – V – V – V – V – V – V – V – V – V - V – V – V – V – V – V – V – V

Anna walked down the familiar hallway to the medical center where Joshua and the rest of the medical crew usually were. She knew that Joshua spent almost all of his time down here because she told him to. And Joshua was loyal. He always followed her orders when she gave them to him. He was one of her most trusted men, and that was the reason why she had assigned him to be the physician in charge of the whole medical crew on board the ship. He knew how everything worked and he was good at what he did. He never made mistakes or disobeyed her orders. He was a true Visitor.

When she walked through the doorframe she wasn't surprised at all to fins Joshua standing there in the middle of the room, just as she thought he would. He was currently going through some information and results on one of the high tech computers they had.

"Joshua." Anna said in a light voice as she walked towards him. He turned around at her voice.

"Anna" He said with a nod.

"How is Lisa doing?" Anna asked referring to the clone she'd made a few days ago and then used to mate with Tyler last night.

"So far everything is going as planned." Joshua answered slowly. "She is resting like she should and there haven't been any problems so far." He continued as he pulled up a video with a small hand movement. The video showed "Lisa" lying on a big white bed. She was indeed resting, just as Joshua told her.

"Good. I need you to keep monitoring her carefully." Anna said sternly, almost threatening, not that he wasn't used to that tone. "She is an important part of the evolution of our species and nothing can go wrong."

"I will do my best." He said in a soft voice. "But I can't promise you that this will work exactly the way we expected it to."

"What do you mean it might not work?" Anna asked quickly.

"We have never put these big amounts of human DNA inside one of our kind." Joshua explained calmly but his voice was serious. "This is all new to me and out technology, which means there are risks." He continued as he looked into Anna's questioning eyes. They were cold and distant. They didn't have any traces of emotions. Anna had no soul.

"Then you will monitor her as closely as you can to make sure none of those risks can happen." Anna demanded.

"Of course, my queen." Joshua said with a nod. Even though he hated calling her that, he knew he had to.

"I trust you Joshua." Anna said calmly, yet firmly. "I have an announcement to make this afternoon." This definitely caught his interest. He was a Fifth Column after all.

"May I ask what kind of announcement?" He asked softly. Maybe she would tell him, maybe not. He couldn't read her at all.

"The humans are upset about what happened to them yesterday and I need to fix that." Anna said slowly. "I still need the trust of humanity."

"How will you do that?" Joshua asked hesitantly. He had to be careful, Anna couldn't suspect anything. If she did, he would lose his place as one of her closest men.

"I will tell them the truth about the bliss." Anna said with a smile as she turned around and walked towards the door. Her smile was as fake as his loyalty to his species was.

As soon as Anna left the room and he was sure that no one saw him, Joshua went back to what he was really doing before she arrived. He was trying to figure out a way to destroy the human DNA inside of the clone. But he had to find a way to make it seemed as the clone rejected the DNA, which was a hard thing to do. But he was determined to find a way. Anna couldn't get a thousand new, better soldiers. That would be the end for the humanity and Earth.

Joshua wondered where the real Lisa was and what she was doing at the moment. He knew she was down on the ground, but what her plan to do down there was a mystery to him. Since she still was a Fifth Column, or at least worked with them, she was probably on her way to see Erica. If she was, she might tell Erica about Tyler's death. Even though Joshua was a V, he felt incredibly bad when he thought about how Erica would react. He hadn't known her for a little more than a month, but he felt as if he'd known her for years. And he knew that when she would find out her only child was dead, it would break her. It would hurt a lot of people that Erica knew.

Joshua just hoped that Lisa would tell her that there was a way to bring Tyler back if Anna was eliminated and Lisa became queen.

V – V – V – V – V – V – V – V – V – V - V – V – V – V – V – V – V – V

The water splashed under his shoes as he walked through one of the many empty alleys in the streets of New York where it had started to rain a little. The air was humid and warm, as if it would begin to thunder any second. Hobbes liked both the rainstorms and thunderstorms since he was born in the United Kingdom, where it rained almost every day. He liked to just watch the lightning as it made the whole sky shine.

After his parents had died he often sat out on the big balcony in his childhood home in Somerset, a county in South West England, and just stared at the sky and the horizon. He knew what he wanted to do back then. He wanted to get away from the life he had in England. The unexpected loss of his parents had affected him hard and he was just seventeen years old and already at the breaking point. The social services had put him and Sarah in the custody of their aunt and uncle. She was a kind and loving woman and her husband was a good man, but they weren't his parents. No one could replace them. He loved his aunt and uncle, but he couldn't wait until the day he turned eighteen and he could do whatever he wanted. And he already knew what he was going to do. He joined the army to earn some money so that he could support himself and his sister as they moved back to their old house at the coast of Somerset.

He stayed in the British army for a few years where he trained hard both in the field and at the base. The army training was tough and it took a lot out of him, but at the age of 24 he was already a weapons expert who knew both how to make advanced explosive devises and fly a lot of different air planes and helicopters. He became the best SAS soldiers in Britain with so much experience at his age. A year after that, he was the youngest soldier in Europe to ever fly a Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor. At that moment, he was really happy for the first time since his parents had died.

When Hobbes turned 26 he decided to continue with his plan to get away from his life in Britain and get a fresh start from everything that had happened to him and his family. He used the money he'd gotten from the army and moved to a small apartment outside New York with Sarah, just as he'd promised her when she was just a child. His sister was all he had left and he needed to take care of her until she got her life in check. He helped her find a real job in the city so that she could earn some money for herself. They lived together for a few years until she bought her own apartment that she and her boyfriend shared. Everything was going well. Until that rainy night when she was on her way home from work and a car came sliding down the highway. The rain had made the roads slippery and apparently the driver had lost control and flipped over. The cars collided front to front. There was no way Sarah would have survived.

A loud thunderclap brought him back from his thoughts and he looked up. The clouds that now filled the sky were dark and almost threatening. Maybe he shouldn't have taken such a long walk through the alleys today. But he liked it. The alleys were a part of New York that wasn't crowded with stressed people or the typical yellow cabs that filled every street during the day and night. He never liked them. He didn't really know why, maybe because he'd read an article Sarah had showed him about taxi drivers kidnapping women at night when the stepped into the cab. She had been upset about it. He didn't have any problems to take the cab by himself, since he was a trained soldier, but he just preferred walking through the dark alleys. He didn't need a cab to get to where he wanted to go. A smile formed on his lips as he thought back to one night when Erica had persuaded him that they'd take a cab from the basement to her place instead of the subway and a long walk through her neighborhood.

"Kyle come on, let's take a cab instead." Erica said as they walked from the alley near the basement. They'd agreed to go to her place for a while after a long day. Or well, they hadn't really agreed on anything. They just assumed that they would go to her place. Again.

"The subway is fine." He said with a small grin. He liked to tease her.

"A cab is faster." She said quickly. "Don't you want to get home as quickly as we can?" She whispered seductively as she hooked her arm around his elbow. He knew what she was trying to do. She was trying to seduce him to get her way.

"I can wait." He answered with a shrug. He had to stop himself from smirking when he saw the annoyed look on her face.

"But it's cold and it's raining and I am freezing." She complained as he just kept walking.

"It's not raining Erica." He said with a laugh. She was acting a bit like a kid who was tired from walking around all day. Even though she was trying to be annoyed with him she had to smile when he laughed. She loved to hear him laugh. He didn't do it often, but when he did, it always made her smile.

"Please just take a cab with me. I am tired and I don't want to wait for the subway." Erica said with a sigh as she stopped to look at him. "Or I will take a cab and meet you at the house." She continued and looked him in the eye.

"Fine" He said as he looked at her pleading eyes. He didn't want to take a cab and listen to some annoying driver talking about the Yankees and their new players. But he wouldn't let her take a cab on her own, especially at this time of the night. Even though she was a trained agent and she could take care of herself, he didn't want to let her go. "Let's go find a ride then." He said with a sigh and started walking.

Kyle scoffed to himself as he thought about how easy she had persuaded him into doing what she wanted. Erica was as stubborn as a kid even though she was 38 years old and had her own kid. He knew she was 38 years old because he'd read it when he looked through her medical files this morning. Tyler had just turned eighteen which meant she was only nineteen when she got pregnant with Tyler. She had only been nineteen when she'd gotten extremely sick and needed to take medication that could have left permanent damage to her body. He didn't know if it had. He never got to that part of the document before Erica came into the room and distracted him.

Suddenly he was brought back from his thoughts as the rain began to pour down heavily from the dark sky. In the corner of his eye he saw a flash of lightning in the distance. New York was a place where you never had to worry about being struck by lightning when you're walking on the streets. The reason for that were the high skyscrapers that covered the whole Manhattan. They all had lightning rods on the top which made the electricity go straight down and into the ground. One of the reasons he liked New York was that he could walk around in a thunderstorm without worrying about anything. He could just walk. And he loved it.

His dark hair was clinging to his skin as the water poured down on him where he stood on the dock, looking at the orange ferry that went between Staten Island and Manhattan. The Staten Island ferry. This was the place where Kyle had met Paul Kendrick the first time. He had picked the place himself when Paul had called him and said that he had a mission for him, just like today. He ran a hand through his soaked hair and then he put his cold hands in the pockets of his thick jacket and walked on board the ferry. Even though the air wasn't cold, the rain was pretty cold. And it would be even colder out on the open where the wind was a bit stronger. But Paul had told him this was important and he didn't really have that much of a choice.

V – V – V – V – V – V – V – V – V – V - V – V – V – V – V – V – V – V

A few hours earlier

Lisa stood in the middle of the FBI office and waited for the woman she'd talked to just a moment ago, would return. The room was filled with desks and boards. There were a few smaller offices that probably belonged to the higher ranked agents in the bureau. She knew that Erica had one of them but she couldn't remember which one it was. The phone on the desk next to her rang out loudly but a young man quickly grabbed it before it even had time to ring a second time. There were people talking everywhere, phones ringing at the same time and the click of letters being typed on a keyboard was stressing her out. She couldn't believe that the people here could work like this every day.

The young brunette who had went to find Paul Kendrick for her returned to Lisa and told her to go to his office as she pointed to the office where the blinds were closed. Lisa thanked her and slowly made her way over and knocked on the class. At first she didn't hear anything but then she heard a faint come in, and so she did. She closed the door behind her and turned to find Paul looking at her with a surprised, yet confused face.

"Lisa?" He asked both as a question to why she was here and to make sure that was the name he remembered.

"Mr. Kendrick. I'm sorry to come here so unexpected but there is something that you need to know." Lisa said as she swallowed hard. This was harder than she thought and she hadn't even come to the hard part yet. "It's about Erica Evans." This definitely caught his attention.

"Go on." He said with a frown.

"I didn't know who else to go to or what to do but I know you have worked with Erica for a long time." Lisa said as she took a shaky breath. "And that is why I came to you." She continued as she looked into his eyes. They were filled with worry and confusion.

"Came to me about what?" He asked firmly. Paul didn't like this. Something had happened and he didn't know what.

"Tyler is dead." She answered shortly. A lonely tear made its way down her cheek but she quickly wiped it away. "Erica doesn't know and I can't tell her."

"How did this happen?" He asked himself more than her. She could see the sadness on his face as he looked away from her and stood up. He walked over to the window and stared at the city. Then he took a deep breath and exhaled slowly.

"One of my people murdered him last night aboard my ship." Lisa answered. She saw him flinch slightly as she said the word murdered. Usually he probably didn't have any problems with dealing with murders and crimes, but this wasn't an ordinary case. This was his friend's son. Her only child had been murdered and he was the one who had to tell her.

"What do you mean one of your people? Why would they kill Tyler?" Paul asked with a frown. He looked angry, but mostly confused.

"My mother is not who she says she is." Lisa told him quietly. She knew that her mother still had a few of her people working inside the FBI so she needed to be careful. If they found out that she told the head of FBI the truth about her mother, she'd be dead. "And the reason she is here is not what you think." She continued firmly as she looked him in the eye.

"What do you mean?" Paul asked suspiciously. He knew what she meant since he was working with the Project Aires. But he couldn't tell her that until he was absolutely sure that she was a Fifth Column. He'd seen her with Erica and the rest of the members when he and Chris had been tracking her. They weren't completely sure that she was a member, but they had their suspicions.

"I can't tell you everything. Not here. My mother has contacts that are working for you. No one can know about this." She said firmly. "I need to leave before anyone suspects anything." She continued as she took a few steps towards the door before she stopped and turned to look at him. Her eyes were glassy with tears. "Just make sure you tell Erica about Tyler." She said with a broken voice.

Paul nodded slowly as he watched her walk out through the door and continue towards the exit. A few of his agents looked strangely at her while she left. Maybe some of them worked for Anna. Lisa had mentioned that there were moles inside this office, but he had no idea who it could be. He let out a deep sigh as he sat down in his chair. Now he had some huge problems to deal with. Anna had moles in his office and Lisa had things she wanted to tell him. But then there was Erica. He needed to tell his coworker, and friend, that her son was dead and that he didn't know who did it.

Paul pulled his phone out of his pocket and pressed in the numbers. He didn't like making this phone call, but he didn't have a choice right now. The phone rang a few times before a deep voice answered him.

"Hobbes. We need to talk." Paul said.

"Look, I already gave you the information you needed. There is nothi-" Hobbes answered before Paul interrupted him.

"It's about Erica." He said quickly. There was a silence before Hobbes answered him again.

"What happened?" He asked. There was a bit of worry evident in his voice.

"Anna's daughter was just here." He answered slowly as he sighed. The next thing he had to tell him was making him sick. He didn't want to say it out loud, because that made it real. But he had to. "Erica's son is dead."

V – V – V – V – V – V – V – V – V – V - V – V – V – V – V – V – V – V

Back in regular time

Hobbes walked around on the deck aboard the ferry that was currently on its way to Staten Island. Kendrick had told him he would be on the top of the orange ferry with this number on it. The wind was a lot colder up here, especially when they were out on the open water, and the rain was still pouring down. But he had to meet Paul to find out what had happened to Tyler on that ship. He spotted him in the corner where he was leaning against the railing on the boat. He didn't have his usual FBI jacket on, just a regular black rain coat.

"What happened to Tyler?" Hobbes demanded before Paul had even registered that he was here. He turned around and looked at him.

"I don't know. All Lisa told me was that he was dead and that somebody on the ship did it. I don't know how or why." Paul answered loudly, but it was still hard to hear what he said between the pouring rain and the strong wind.

"What do you mean you don't know?" Hobbes yelled through the heavy rain. He was mad. Not specifically at Kendrick, but at everything. Nothing they did worked. Anna still managed to win over them.

"Lisa wouldn't tell me more than that!" Kendrick answered loudly as he wiped the water from his face. He didn't have the answers Hobbes wanted.

"Does Erica know?" Hobbes asked him as he looked out on the water.

"No. I don't think so." Paul answered.

"So when are you planning on telling her?" Hobbes asked as he turned to look at Paul again. "Or are you going to lie to her for weeks just like you and your bloody friend did about the Aires organization?" He continued with anger in his voice. Erica deserved to know, it was her son.

"I am going to see her when we get back to Manhattan." Paul answered coldly as he gave Hobbes a threatening look. "She shouldn't be alone tonight, maybe you can comfort her like you've done a few times during the weeks you've worked for us." He said before he could stop himself. Once he realized what he'd just said Hobbes strong fist met his cheekbone and he staggered backwards a few steps.

"Sorry about that. My fist slipped." Hobbes said coldly as he rubbed his knuckles that were quickly getting red and sore. "I don't care what you say about me, but don't bring her into it." He continued as she turned and walked away, leaving a stunned Paul Kendrick behind. He knew that Paul probably suspected something after what he'd just done. There was no way to hide it after this. Hobbes had real feelings for Erica Evans.

AN: Sorry about the long wait for an update, I hurt my shoulder so it was a bit hard to write for a while.

But thank you so much everyone for the reviews and thank you for reading this fic :)