I don't own Nikita or any of its characters etc.
I'm a little bit tipsy as I'm writing this so please excuse any errors :)… Happy New Year! 2011. I hope you enjoy this chapter.
11 hours 59 minutes.
Nikita threw a blueprint on the table and it started to uncurl from its tight roll. She unfolded it and placed four mugs at each of the corners to hold it down while she examined it.
Owen looked at the complicated drawing absolutely baffled by what it meant.
"What is that?" He asked.
"It's a plan." Alex said sarcastically. "Shouldn't you know that? Being special ops and all that?"
Nikita said, "This is a plan of the whole of Division. Every single room, hallway and secret entrance is covered on this thing. It's like the holy grail of Division, if anyone gets hold of this there will be mayhem. Michael will be held in one of these rooms."
She ran her fingers across the paper, pointing at the top floor.
Alex studied Nikita as she drew a route with her fingers, "Where did you get this?"
Nikita smiled remembering, "I stole it. From our dear friend Birky."
Owen coughed trying to stifle his laughter.
Alex raised her eyebrows and sat down at the table with Owen, "Birky?"
"It's catchy," Nikita said.
Owen smirked at Nikita and said in a playful tone, poking her arm, "Ooo, Birky. I love you Birky."
Nikita punched Owen, but not as hard as pervious times, she'd learnt her lesson from having to listen to Owen complain about it time after time.
"Shut up," Nikita sounded offended but she couldn't help laughing at the way Owen had said it. "I most definitely do not love Birky."
Alex had no idea why Nikita hadn't jumped Owen yet, he was quite hot, smart and completely into Nikita.
"You two can flirt later. Can we please focus on saving Michael?"
Nikita blushed and said, "Yeah, sorry."
Owen turned to look at Nikita and slouched back in his chair, "So you agree with her? You think I'm a flirt."
Nikita raised one eyebrow at Owen and said, "Well…"
Alex turned and looked at Nikita with accusing eyes and said, "You're just as bad!"
Nikita shook her head vigorously and said, "Ha! Me, flirt with Owen?"
Alex narrowed her eyes at both of them and how childish they were being. Michael and her had admitted how they felt and it turned out great, so why wouldn't they?
She sighed and said, "Oh please. You two are all over each other. Every time I look. And don't even make me mention the eye sex."
Nikita pointed to the old escape hatch on the diagram.
She smacked her lips together and said, "This section right here got sealed off last time I escaped from Division. They also put up extra security and have every possible place covered, that we could try to get in and out from."
"So how are we going to get in?" Alex asked.
Nikita thought out loud, "Well, it will be easier for you, you have access to Division. You will enter by the front doors past the two guards, but you need to act normally or they'll pick you out. You need to make some sort of distraction, so Owen and I can break through the escape hatch in the field again, by blowing it up. Then we'll come in, and you will go up to Michael and tell him we're coming. We'll manage sneak into Division but it won't be easy, so if we don't make it," Nikita stopped to look at Alex. "You have to find out a way of getting Michael out of there yourself, promise me?"
Alex said, "Don't be stupid. You're Nikita and Owen. You'll take them all down, easy."
Nikita frowned at Alex and asked her sternly, "Promise me?"
Nikita knew that Alex would do a lot of things but what she wouldn't do was break a promise.
"I promise," Alex replied.
"Good."
She pointed to the elevator shafts in the picture.
Nikita explained to Alex, "Take the elevator up to the floor of Percy's office. Pretend like you need to talk to him about something if anyone asks. Don't be seen. Then sneak across to the other side of the hallway and take that elevator up to the top level."
Alex put her hand up, as if she was back in school again and she needed to ask her teacher a question.
"Yes, Alex?" Nikita sighed.
"One question," she said. "Why do I have to switch?"
"It makes it more difficult for them to track you." Owen butted in, pleased at his answer.
Nikita shot him a look.
"What? I know my stuff," Owen said defensively, shocked at how little the two women thought he knew.
Nikita carried on with her lecture, "The top floor is like hell, Alex. You need to remember every single turn you make or you'll never get out ok? There are at least 19 rooms up there but the one Michael will be in will most likely have a guard outside. The guard will be on shoot to kill orders, so take him down first."
Owen said, "Once we're all in there, they'll realise and have the building on lockdown. The only we can get out is if we kill anyone who gets in our way and escape out into the field. We'll have to find our way back home from there."
The realization of what betraying Division now meant as a Field Agent dawned on Alex.
"We'll have to home to go to. If I betray Division I won't be able to stay here anymore. It's the first place they'll look."
Nikita chewed on her lip, deep in thought, "Don't worry we can stay at my loft for a while, until things cool down slightly and then we'll have to move somewhere else."
Alex's imagination went wild, "Like out of the country? Could we go to Spain? Or Italy? Or even a little place by the beach?"
"Maybe," Nikita said. She didn't want to crush Alex's hopes by reminding her that they might not all get out of there alive.
10 hours 31 minutes.
The room was virtually pitch black and Michael leaned against the hard walls, swallowed up by the darkness.
The smell of death drenched the air in the room and that as well as the decreasing amounts of oxygen, made it hard for Michael to breathe.
He clenched his fists and his freshly bitten nails that dug into his skin felt like daggers. He was frustrated, sick, worried, tired, upset and in a lot of pain. Emotionally and physically.
He pushed himself off the wall and banged his fist against the cold, hard, metal door that was keeping him trapped in his prison.
He shouted out to the guard, "Goddammit! Let me out of here! Please, I just need to hold her one last time."
Michael's eyes were out of tears but he felt the pain of them just as much in his heart.
The guard outside opened the steel slot but even the small hole was covered in bullet proof glass.
He said, "I can't let you out. I'm under orders straight from the boss."
Michael banged on the door in frustration, "How long have I got left?"
The guard looked at his watch and meanwhile Michael looked as far down the hallway as he could, but there was no one else there, "10 hours and 29 minutes."
"Thanks," Michael said.
The guard was about to reshut the slot when he stopped and looked at how much pain Michael was in. He asked, "Who is she?"
Michael asked, "What?"
Grady said, "The woman you were talking about. You said you needed to hold her one last time."
Michael studied the guard. He was relatively young and looked like he didn't belong at Division at all.
He asked him, "Why are you doing this? Keeping me company?"
The guard gave Michael half a smile, "Hey. You're Michael. You're legendary and I think that Division was wrong to cancel you. I've seen how you look after those recruits of yours, you care."
Michael smiled and whispered, "Here name is Alex."
"Alex, like the recruit, Alex?" The guard asked.
Michael laughed and said, "Yeah, that's her. Her full name is Alexandra though, I prefer it but she insists I call her Alex like everyone else. The first time I ever saw her, I, er, I thought she was beautiful. I've let her down and put her into tricky situations that I could have stopped and she still loves me."
"Wow," the guard said. "Sounds like she's worth it. I'm sorry she can't say goodbye, I honestly am."
Another guard approached Grady and said, "Percy has ordered me to switch with you. Apparently you're being too friendly with the prisoner."
Grady stood his ground and said, "Man, he's one of us."
The other guard shoved Grady out of the way and took over his post, "Not anymore he isn't, now move."
The guard who had taken over Grady's place said, "Let's get one thing straight. I don't feel sorry for you. In fact, I hope you rot in there."
He slammed the slot shut.
Michael slumped back down to the floor and now that his moment of relief had ended, the reality of things sunk back in.
7 hours 18 minutes.
Nikita, Owen and Alex pulled up in Alex's flashy red car 500 metres from the front entrance of Division. No one knew the exact whereabouts of Division except for very few Divison agents, Percy, Amanda, Michael, Birkhoff and of course, Nikita.
There was no official front entrance to Division. All there was was a small, green, corrugated shed on the outskirts of the city. Alex jumped out of the car and concealed her weapons in her pockets and jacket and waved goodbye.
"Good luck!" Nikita and Owen both shouted at the exact same time. They always did that and it annoyed them both how they had so much in similar.
She treaded through the knee- high grass and entered the rusty old shed. The guard on the inside of the door asked, "What's your name?"
Alex replied, "Alex. I'm a Field Agent."
The guard checked the database and then gestured Alex over to the small, secret elevator, where another guard was waiting to take her down.
Alex watched at the buttons lit up in a flash as they went down from G to -20 to B.
The guard swiped his card into the keypad and opened the elevator doors for Alex.
"Thank you," she said as she watched the guard nod and go back up to the surface.
The small elevator opened up to a hallway, but it was simple enough for Alex to figure out. There was only one grey door to go through, and behind it was the training level.
The recruits all greeted her and she smiled back. She had become some sort of a hero amongst them after she brought in Nikita. She looked around and smiled at all of the people that she missed. She even missed Jayden in a strange way. Alex tried to pick her out but she couldn't find Jayden anywhere among the mix which was strange because she usually spent all of her free time training to be better than Alex.
One of the recruits shouted out from the back of the room, "Do you know what happened to Michael?"
"No," she lied. "What happened?"
Another one muttered, "Go ask Percy. He was the one who authorised it."
Well at least that gives me a reason to go and see him, Alex thought.
Before she went to see Percy, Alex knocked at Birkhoff's door and he swung around in his chair to greet her.
"Hey Alex, what's up?" Birkhoff had a cheeky grin plastered on his face. He was stuck at his computer for so long that he rarely came into contact with people who weren't recruits or other techy guys, or girls.
Alex breathed in and decided to tell Birkhoff something that would either get her killed, or help her save Michael.
She said, "Nothing much, but I do have a favour to ask you, from Nikita."
Birkhoff slid his chair towards Alex and dragged her by the arm. Pulling her in closer he whispered, "Nikki?"
Alex nodded and faced her back to the security cameras so they couldn't pick up on their conversation. No conversation was ever safe in Division because the walls, the ceilings and even the doors had eyes and ears, but it lulled her into a false sense of security.
Birkhoff's face was a picture when he realised everything, "You're the other person in cahoots with Nikita, Owen and Michael aren't you?"
"Yeah. You going to help me or not then?"
Birkhoff laughed and spun his chair back to his work, "I dunno. I'd rather not get cancelled."
Alex found it everything but funny. She spun his chair back around so fast he almost threw up. She grabbed him by his checkered shirt and hissed into his ear, "Yeah well if we don't help Michael that's what will happen to him! And I love him. I don't know about you, you may not love him but I know he's sort of your friend and you wouldn't want him to die would you?"
Birkhoff gulped and looked into Alex's eyes, she meant business.
"Okay, okay. Get off my shirt. What do you need?"
Alex let get of his shirt and he straightened it out giving her a dirty look, which she returned with dagger eyes.
Alex said, "I'm going up to see if Michael's okay. In about 8 minutes, I want you to set off the sprinklers through your computer, so Nikita and Owen can get inside without being noticed. Can you do that?"
"I can try," Birkhoff replied.
Alex kissed Birkhoff on his stubbly cheek and ran off to go and help Michael.
Birkhoff reached up to his cheek where Alex had kissed him, to see if he had been dreaming and shouted, "Awesome!" He spun around in his chair and carried on tapping away.
7 hours 3 minutes.
Alex pressed level 5 and jolted as the elevator took her up to the level where Percy's office was situated.
Alex ran straight past Percy's office, she didn't bother trying to be quiet, she had to see Michael's face and hear his voice as soon as possible. Her footsteps echoed through the rooms and people came out of their offices to see what was happening but Alex didn't stop until she reached the next elevator.
She jabbed the button for level 10 multiple times in a hopeless attempt for it to go up quicker, as she tried to slow her breathing down. People were watching her and some of the recognised her but the only thing Alex cared about was saving Michael's life.
Alex stepped out of the elevator with caution, there were three never ending hallways to choose from and the whole of the top floor was cloaked in darkness and masked by silence. It gave Alex chills to think how many people had died on the top floor since Division started.
Alex picked right and tiptoed down the hallways, side stepping to minimise her shadows that would eventually peek around the corner in front of her.
A faint voice of someone speaking bounced off the walls and rung in Alex's ears. She remembered what Nikita had said about a guard, and sure enough, there he was speaking into his radio.
Think, think, think, Alex thought.
She couldn't shoot him from where she was because the sound would travel all through Division, she had to get close enough to kill him point blank, which would muffle the sound.
She pulled the bullets out one of her guns and slung them across the floor, they skidded until they smashed into the wall at the other side of the guard.
He walked over to pick them up and Alex sprinted down the hallway, pulling her gun that still had bullets out of her pocket, in the process.
She held the gun to his head and said, "Bye."
Alex would have usually had regrets about killing someone but like Owen had said, anyone in the way would have to be killed for the sake of them and Michael.
So she pulled the trigger.
6 hours 56 minutes.
Michael heard the gunshot and stood up, banging as hard as possible on the door to whoever was there.
He turned around and rubbed his face in his hands.
Alex opened the slot and banged on the glass for Michael, he was so close yet she couldn't reach out to him or hold him and it tore her apart inside.
Michael spun around and saw Alex's face framed by the window, her head resting against the glass and her doe eyes staring back at him.
Michael limped over to the door and rested his head against Alex's and closed his eyes, grateful to even see her again. Alex kissed the palm of her hand and rested it on Michael's face on the other side of the steel door.
Alex whispered, smiling at Michael, "Nikita and Owen are on their way. We're going to get you out of here okay?"
Michael gulped and opened his eyes to the sound of her voice, "Yeah. Alex, I just want you to know that I love you and please, never forget me, okay?"
Tears fell from Alex's eyes but she never looked away from Michael to wipe them. He smiled sadly, "You have some great friends and they'll be there for you if I'm not."
Alex said desperately, "No. No, Michael, please. You're not going anywhere. We're going to rescue you, just keep strong."
The sprinkles imitated Alex's tears as they showered her with cold water. She looked up to the ceiling and mouthed, Birkhoff thank you, to the camera. The security camera's red light flickered back three times.
An explosion shook the whole of Division and threw Alex into the wall, slamming her back.
"What the hell was that?" Percy said and the lights in his office flickered.
Amanda said as excitedly as ever, "They're coming to get Michael. Alert security and guard all of the exits."
"What about the breach that Nikita escaped through? She might try it again."
Amanda sighed as she watched Percy nervously twiddle his thumbs, "I doubt it, Percy. But if you're so worried, put Jayden on it."
"I thought you believed she wasn't fully capable or reliable," Percy questioned.
Amanda narrowed her eyes at Percy, why did he have to be so incompetent? "I don't but she can prove herself."
6 hours 50 minutes.
Nikita and Owen coughed at the amount of smoke they had caused by blowing up a metal grate. They climbed down the ladder that led into Division's weak spot and Owen pulled out a screwdriver and unscrewed the bottom two screws of the vent guard.
Owen held it up for Nikita to crawl through, then he climbed in backwards and screwed it shut behind him. They navigated their way through the hot vents until they came to their usual escape point.
Jayden was stood directly in front of the vent guard, with a gun and what Nikita guessed was a knife in her sock.
Owen propped himself up on his elbows and asked, "What do we do?"
Nikita looked at Owen. Their faces were so close together and his eyes melted her heart a tiny bit and she could have sworn he was leaning towards her. She watched Owen fixated on what he would do next but he just watched her waiting to see what she would do. Nikita bit her lip and turned away.
She said, "It's for Michael, we do whatever we can."
Owen smiled at Nikita's stubbornness but he would break her yet. He carefully took out the screwdriver from his back pocket and unscrewed the vent guard almost silently.
He whispered to Nikita, "Okay. I'm going to knock this down. That'll buckle her knees so she falls. Then you can finish her off."
Nikita whispered loudly back, "Whoa, hold on. I'm not just going to kill her. Besides the noise would be too loud."
Owen sighed, he never knew Nikita to choose a nicer option before, "What do you suggest?"
Nikita pulled out a tranquilizer gun and said, "This sweet baby."
Owen whispered, "One, two, three."
He rammed his shoulder into the vent guard and Nikita shot Jayden in the back of the leg with the tranquilizer gun.
Jayden dropped to the floor like a fly and she saw Nikita and Owen's faces looking over her as her vision faded to blackness.
"What now?" Nikita asked, her voice returning to its normal volume
Owen looked around and pointed to a supply closet and said, "Shove her in there."
Owen took Jayden's legs and Nikita took her arms and they carried her into the supply closet, they gagged her mouth with a towel so she wouldn't scream when she woke up in a daze, then they tied her to the back of a mop with some string they found in a box on the top shelf.
6 hours 40 minutes.
Nikita and Owen ran up the back set of stairs in Division, so they wouldn't be noticed in the sometimes busy elevators.
They appeared at the top floor and Nikita said, "Alright. I'll go right, you go left. Call me if you see anything.
"What about the middle?" Owen asked pointing to the only hallway Nikita hadn't mentioned.
Nikita said, "There's nothing down the middle. They just put it there to add to the confusion."
"That's stupid," Owen muttered as they went their separate ways.
Nikita followed the sound of Alex's voice comforting Michael.
"Alex!" Nikita shouted out. Alex ran down the hallway and almost knocked Nikita over with a hug.
"Am I glad to see you. You were right about this place, it's like hell, and just as scary." Alex mumbled into Nikita shoulder.
Alex released her and Nikita called out for Owen, "Owen. Down here I've got them."
Alex led Nikita to the room where Michael was being held and she looked into the room at Michael who smiled his amazing smile at her. She smiled back.
"Damn, Michael," Nikita said looking over his injuries.
Michael started to cough and he clutched his chest.
"What's wrong?" Alex asked Michael banging at the glass.
But it was Nikita who replied, "He's running out of oxygen. Owen!"
Alex aimed her gun at the glass but Nikita put her arm down and said, "Don't bother it's the strongest bullet proof stuff you can get."
Owen appeared around the corner, out of breath and sweaty.
"You get lost?" Nikita teased as Owen walked towards them.
She handed him her laptop out of her backpack and said, "Here start running through all of the possible codes for this keypad with the USB I gave you. Hook it up to my computer."
Alex started to pace around nervously with nothing to do, "How long until we get Michael out?"
Owen looked at Alex's desperate expression and said, "Well this thing runs through every possible combination. So when it finds one, then we can get him out."
Nikita said, "Alex. Division know we're up here. It's only a matter of time before they send someone to find us, it won't just be one agent either. Percy will send his own personal army."
Alex said, "I'll stay here with Owen and Michael. You go and hide down the middle corridor. Get them when they least expect it."
Nikita ran off and Alex went over to look at the computer.
The first letter to the code is, B.
"Is the code just numbers?" Alex asked pointing to the screen.
Owen said, "Numbers, letters and maybe symbols."
Alex was getting even more anxious by the second and every time she glanced at Michael through the window she felt like she was going to be sick with worry.
"God, please just hurry up," Alex said, her foot tapping on the floor.
She went up to the door again and watched Michael through the glass, he was sat on the floor with his head in his knees and the veins on his pale crimson head were starting to stand out as he struggled to breathe.
6 hours 32 minutes.
The familiar sound of the elevators opening made Alex and Owen stop what they were doing.
Nikita was waiting in the shadows of the middle hallway, ready to pounce, but instead of an army, two agents stepped out and behind them hidden away was Percy.
Nikita decided to let Alex handle them and she moved further down the middle hallway to wait for the rest of them.
Alex heard footsteps run down the hallways in front of her and then straight down the hallway they were in, as the agents ran in a zigzag pattern, heading straight for them.
Alex shot them both dead with ease but she stopped when it came to Percy.
Her eyes widened and she started to get sweaty hands as they struggled to hold the gun straight.
Percy said, "Alex. So you are the mystery person. I should have known. You are so much like Nikita, that you would betray Division too. Oh, and the fact that your relationship with Michael was never that much of a secret. Did you know, he had a similar thing with Nikita? That's probably really the only reason why he likes you at all…"
Alex shouted, "Shut up! Michael loves me for me. You killed my family, you bastard, now I'm going to kill you."
Alex closed her eyes and the gun clicked in a ready position to fire.
Bang.
Alex opened her eyes to see Percy on the floor with a bullet through his chest. She looked down at her gun. She hadn't even fired it.
Amanda stood behind him with a gun in her hand, which was now pointed at Alex and Owen.
6 hours 29 minutes.
