Disclaimer: I do not own The Incredibles, Syndrome, Buddy Pine, Mirage, Nomanisan Island, Municiberg, Metroville, the NSA, or any of the Supers and I sadly and unfortunately do not make any money from these writings.

K R O N O S K R O N O S K R O N O S K R O N O S K R O N O S K R O N O S

Chapter Twelve: Not According To Plan

Mirage had arrived back just after they had breakfast. Syndrome was surprised when Lex told him that she wanted Mirage to handle Incredible when he arrived. Him and Avian spent the day testing the Omni-Droid and Lex and Travis were in charge of enforcing extra security measures throughout the entire island. Lex and Syndrome barely had a moment to themselves. Lex was glad it was almost time for his plan to finally be carried out, but Syndrome was worried about not being able to have as much time for her as he used to once he did get rid of Incredible.

The next afternoon Incredible arrived and destroyed the Omni-Droid. Syndrome invited him to dinner and skipped out on it to keep his identity a secret from Incredible and stayed locked up in his computer room. He made plans to invite him back and put him through different training sessions and obstacle courses to measure just how strong he really was. Lex and Avian worked on improved designs and intelligence for the next Omni-Droid. All seemed to be going well. At least he thought.

Lex had been keeping a close eye on Mirage still unable to trust her. So far Mirage had been keeping busy entertaining Incredible whenever he was at the island for training sessions showing him to his room and treating him to dinner. Then a month after Incredible had first came to the island Lex got a call from Travis that Mirage was up to something with Incredible and that she needed to come to the security room right away. Luckily for her Syndrome had already gone to bed exhausted from working on the Omni-Droid all day.

When she got there what she saw Mirage doing was so wretched she just looked at the screen and quickly headed to where Mirage and Incredible were 'enjoying' each other's company a bit too much. Incredible had gotten drunk off of drinking too many mimosas with Mirage who hadn't had a single drink. Lex was furious. She knew that if Syndrome ever found out he'd snap and possibly ruin his plans, but she wasn't going to let that happen. She waited outside of Incredible's room just down the hall and only ten minutes later Mirage emerged looking rather disheveled with her hair a mess with a smug look on her face. She walked right past Lex and she quietly followed her down the corridor and around the corner before being unable to contain herself anymore.

"What the hell are you doing with him?" Lex demanded shoving Mirage into the wall with her hand to her throat.

"What does it matter. It's not like Syndrome and I will ever be together again. I'm just enjoying myself." She said sounding rather proud of herself.

"You stupid little slut!" Lex slammed her into the wall again wiping the smug look off of her face.

"I can't help it if I'm beautiful and everyone wants me." She said coldly eyeing Lex up and down. "I mean it's obvious no one ever wanted you. I wouldn't be surprised if Syndrome was the only man you've ever been with. You're a brainy little freak, no one…" She was cut off when Lex's grip tightened so hard around her throat that she couldn't breathe. Lex was trying so hard not to kill her but she couldn't stop herself Mirage had pushed her over the edge. She put her other hand around Mirage's neck and squeezed as hard as she could. All of a sudden something hard poked her in the chest and heard a metal click. Lex looked down to see that Mirage had a gun pointed at her chest with a silencer on it making Lex laugh maniacally.

"Do it. I dare you." Lex threatened still laughing and Mirage pulled the trigger. Lex instantly dropped her and continued to laugh as she held her chest from the pain and pulled the flattened bullet off of her protective under armor and threw it in Mirage's direction where she sat in a heap on the floor gasping for breath rubbing her sore throat. She stared at the flattened bullet with a look of pure fear in her eyes.

Lex was sure that she had some bruised ribs where the bullet had hit her, but she really didn't care she was enjoying watching Mirage scramble to her feet as she shakily held the gun pointed at her again. She shot her again this time hitting her in the stomach. Lex fell to the floor clutching her stomach still laughing when Avian came running down the hall behind Mirage and hit her over the head with an electric bat knocking her unconscious.

"I really don't like her…" Avian said kicking the gun out of her hand staring down at her pulling his arm back ready to hit her again just for the sake of hitting her when Lex yelled at him to come and help her. "Oh right. Sorry. Are you ok?" He asked rushing over to her and attempted to help her to her feet and she screamed out in pain.

"Just leave me. Have any more of your handy dandy tranquilizer on you?" Lex asked hopeful.

"Of course." He said pulling a filled syringe out the inside of his lab coat. "But why…" He didn't get to finish as Lex yanked it from his hand and uncapped the needle.

"Have someone put Mirage back in her room and get rid of her gun and have her room searched for anything else. Call Travis and have him come and get me." She explained as she stabbed the needle into her leg emptying the contents into herself welcoming the numbing blackness.

When she woke up she could feel the soreness of her ribs and her stomach. She lifted her shirt to find her ribs wrapped and there was an ice pack on her stomach. Lifting the ice pack revealed a large swollen bruise.

"You're awake." Travis said relieved. "They didn't find anything else in Mirage's room. Avian and I made copies of the feeds for you and deleted them replacing them with looped footage so Syndrome won't even notice if he looks into them."

"Thank you." She said wincing as she got out of bed removing the icepack.

"What are you doing? You need stay in bed. Your ribs are bruised and you're lucky you didn't have any internal bleeding from her getting you in the stomach." Travis explained getting ready to force her back in bed.

"No I'm packing. I can't stay here. If I do the next time I see her I will kill her, and I'm not going to mess things up. The sooner Syndrome gets rid of Incredible and carries out his plan the better for all of us." She said setting the icepack on her nightstand as she pulled her shirt back down and held her throbbing ribs.

"I wouldn't be so sure of that." Travis said quietly as if he was hiding something.

"What do you mean?" Lex demanded becoming suspicious.

"You should just check your email. I'm sure he sent one out to you too." He said holding her laptop out to her. She snatched it from him and sat on the couch ignoring the pain as she quickly navigated to her email to find a large file labeled 'Final Plan' from Syndrome. As she read through it, it all looked as he had already told her it would be until she got to the part after Incredible was eliminated along with his hometown.

"What the hell is this! He's going to pose as the good guy! It'll never work!" She slammed the computer shut and quickly got to her feet before buckling over in pain from standing up too fast and held her chest. Travis quickly got to his feet to help her and she waved him away. "I'm fine!" She screamed and sat on the edge of her bed with her face in her hands staring at the floor.

Now not just was he going to attack Incredible's hometown, but he was planning on saving it from his own creation and becoming their new super hero and defend them from his own inventions while he eliminates the rest of the supers on the side. Not only would that mean he would barely have time for her, but his plan would go on for years. It had already taken years, six years they had been at Nomanisan now and she couldn't even begin to think about helping his carry out his plan any longer. His plans were originally short and to the point, find Incredible and destroy him, but now things just seemed to get more complicated and drawn out. She was sure that Mirage had some influence on his new plan and she couldn't just sit there and watch him ruin everything, but she knew that were was no talking him out if it, once he made up his mind there was no changing it.

"Pack my bag for me please and then get the jet ready. I'm going to tell him we're leaving and I'll meet you in the hangar." She explained holding her stomach as she stood on her feet.

"Lex you shouldn't be walking around. You need to stay in bed. Please we'll leave in a few days if you still want to once you've healed up some more." Travis pleaded.

"No we're leaving tonight. I'll be fine. Please just pack my bags for me. I won't take too long." She said firmly and left her room and headed down the hall. She stood outside of Syndrome's door collecting herself before placing her hand on the large 'S' shaped handle making the door unlock. When she entered Syndrome wasn't in bed. Before she had time to go any further into the room he came out of the bathroom dressed in his suit ready to get to work. He stopped in his tracks when he caught sight of her.

Syndrome knew that this was coming but wasn't expecting it so soon in the day hoping that she would be asleep when he woke. He knew she might be angry with his new plan, but he wasn't prepared for what she was about to say.

"What is wrong with you? You didn't have the guts to tell me in person so you just send a mass email out to everyone!" She yelled throwing her arms about doing her best to ignore the pain in her chest and stomach.

"Lex I didn't know how to tell you. I knew you'd be mad at me, but it's not that bad is it? I'll still have time for us, I promise." He said closing the distance between them making her take a few steps back from him.

"No you won't, I know how you are. You'll be completely wrapped up in your inventions and hunting down the rest of the supers! Why can't you just stick to your original plan?" She asked resisting the urge to hold her chest not wanting him to know about her injuries.

"We'll work together to find the other supers. Lex I can't do this without you. Please I'll make time for us." He pleaded reaching a hand out to her and she turned away from him making his heart sink.

"Does your plan still include Mirage?" She asked coldly.

"She's still useful with her source in the NSA to help find the rest of the supers, and she's been extremely cooperative lately." He answered without fully thinking about his answer and he could see the anger in her eyes.

"Fine, then as long as she's here, I won't be." Lex said harshly hoping it'd get something better out of him.

"I don't really need her help. We can just use the stuff she's already given us. Once Incredible is gone you can get rid of her. I promise." He pleaded and now had Lex trapped against his door and he was less than a foot away from her now and reached gloved hand to her face and she turned away from him before pulling his hand from her.

"Even then it doesn't matter. I can't stay here as long as she's here. If I see her again I will kill her." She threatened and Syndrome stared into her sad eyes.

"What did she do now?" He asked a bit afraid to know the answer.

"Nothing." She lied. "I just can't be around her. It's too complicated to explain. I'm leaving tonight and I won't be back until she's gone and that's my final decision." She explained firmly and he took her face in his hands.

"Please don't do this. Not now. I need you here…" He rested his forehead on hers and they both closed their eyes. Lex held back her tears as he kissed her gently on the lips. He knew there was no point in trying to talk her out if it. It was obvious that she had already made up her mind and it hurt that she was leaving when he needed her the most.

"I know… but I can't stay here. When Incredible is dead, I might come back…" She pulled him into another kiss and he leaned into her putting pressure on her chest. She stifled a cry of pain against his lips and he didn't even notice. "I love you…" She whispered looking up into his eyes.

"I love you…" He whispered back and kissed her one last time as she pushed the door open behind her and he slowly let go of her and she backed out of his room and into the large corridor shutting the door behind her. Once the door clicked shut Syndrome sat on his bed with his face in his gloved hands and Lex clutched her chest in pain. Not just physical pain, emotional as well. A pair of hands grabbed her by the shoulders and turned her around.

"You're stupid." Avian said bluntly and she looked up at him with her face contorted in pain. "You shouldn't be walking around. I don't care how stubborn you are. Are you trying to hurt yourself more? Not only are you putting yourself in extra physical pain but now you add emotional pain on top of that? You must really hate yourself." He shook his head with a smile and pulled a syringe out of his pocket and injected it into her neck. "Don't worry it's just morphine." He said and picked her up and began carrying her bridal style towards the hangar.

Lex's chest and stomach were throbbing so bad she didn't protest at all and the morphine kicked in just a moment later. Avian set her on the bed in the jet and gave Travis the ok to take off.

"Please at least attempt to relax while you're away." Avian pleaded as he left the jet. "See you soon." He smiled and waved before disappearing. Once they were in the air Lex let herself fall asleep numb from the morphine.

Syndrome was determined to finish his final touches on the Omni-Droid and put it through its tests as soon as he could in the hope that he'd see Lex again that much sooner. Avian noticed and had no problem losing sleep in order to help him. A week had gone by and the droid was finally ready he was just waiting for Incredible to arrive.

Lex had spent most of her time in bed and in the lab. Her ribs weren't as sore and the bruises were now faded to an ugly green and yellow color. She had a bad feeling about Syndrome's plan to be the hero and just knew something would go wrong. Travis was helping her work on upgrades for her jet just in case something went really wrong. There was now a fully stocked medical area and Travis was working on installing a weapon defense system as Lex was determined to make a shield or some sort of invisibility cloak with little luck.

She had her laptop screen open to the security feeds at Nomanisan almost all the time. Lex had to convince Avian to stay over there just in case Mirage attempted to mess anything up. Syndrome still had no idea about the incident that her and Mirage had the night before she left and was planning on keeping it that way. She kept the original footage of it all in a hidden file on her computer. From what Avian had told her Incredible would be there within the hour.

Syndrome was pacing anxiously on the small rock that over looked the edge of a water fall as he waited for two o'clock to come around when he knew Incredible would be in the meeting room waiting for him. The last five minutes went by so slow it felt like an hour to him. Then finally he was alerted that Incredible was where he was supposed to be.

Everyone in the base was trying to find the feeds to watch Syndrome but Lex was the only with access to them. Her and Travis watched intently. Once he had Incredible it was like he was a different person, darker. He was getting carried away and even caught himself monologing. Lex knew then that there was no way he could pose as a super hero. He was too much of a villain, but not just any villain, one with a real purpose of revenge. Incredible almost got away, but luckily Syndrome's I bombs were made to go off even under water. Once Syndrome had taken the Omni-Droid to the hangar to be put into the rocket he called Lex.

"I know you were watching, he's gone now. Please come back just for now. I'm leaving the day after tomorrow." He begged wanting to see her again knowing he wouldn't get to see her much once he left. Lex wanted to say no but she just couldn't bring herself to do it. She wanted to be wrong and have his plan actually work even though she knew she'd barely get to see him if he succeeded.

"Ok I'm on my way." She promised and closed her laptop turning to Travis and they both headed for the jet and flew the four hour trip. Syndrome was waiting for them in the hangar when they landed. The sun had just set and Syndrome smiled when he saw Lex wearing her eye mask. She smiled back at him and he rushed to her. As much as she wanted to still be mad at him for changing his original plan she couldn't. It didn't matter she just wanted to enjoy all the time she could get with him.

"Don't bother us unless it's an absolute emergency." He laughed picking Lex up bridal style and carried her off to his room.

Lex was overwhelmed by him as he quickly shed his boots and gloves and crawled on top of her. Whatever reasons she had to be mad at him instantly melted away when his lips met with hers. They never wanted the night to end and Buddy started to dread leaving the next day. Unfortunately he saw the faded bruises that Lex had and she made up some stupid excuse of how she got them. Luckily he believed her when she said it was from an invention exploding. After wearing each other out they laid in each other's arms for the longest time. Both of them had things they wanted to say but neither of them said a thing.

They both finally fell asleep and the intercom rang waking them up the next day. They both groaned and noticed it was only eleven in the afternoon.

"Sir we need you in the containment unit. Incredible… he's still alive." The scared voice announced.

"He what!" Syndrome yelled back quickly getting out of bed.

"He also accessed your main computer. Travis has sent you all the details." The voice reported before the intercom shut off.

"Come on. I want you to come with me." He said holding his hand out to her. She stared at his hand and didn't move.

"No, I can't." She said firmly.

"What? What do you mean?" He asked confused as he slipped into his suit.

"I can't go with you. I can't promise I won't kill him for you. You deserve to kill him. Not me. I know how much you hate him but I might actually hate him more than you do. He took a lot of things from you, but he took you from me and he still is." She explained. Buddy stared back at her and slowly started to realize that in a way she was right. If it wasn't for Incredible they could have been together all these years.

"If you won't go with me will you still stay? I don't leave until tomorrow. Please?" He asked with sad eyes and she nodded in response. Once he had done his hair and had his boots and gauntlets on they quickly read over what had happened. It seemed Incredible had successfully hid from his scanner and broke back into the base and found out about project Kronos and on top of all that a Government plane was trying to land on the island. Buddy kissed Lex before leaving and headed to the special containment unit where they were holding Incredible.

Lex got dressed and sat in the kitchen watching everything that was happening. Travis was in charge of the containment unit and was the only guard in there along with Syndrome and Mirage. As she watched Mirage she began to wonder why she was still here if he had thought Incredible was dead less than twenty four hours ago then remember that once Incredible was thought to be dead Buddy instantly turned his attention to Lex. She'd have to ask him about her next time she saw him. He launched missiles at the government plane after Incredible made it clearly obvious he knew who the people were and shot them down. Incredible seemed deeply affected by it. Did the pilot say that there were children aboard?

Her thoughts on it were interrupted when Mirage pushed Syndrome out of the way of Incredible and he grabbed ahold of Mirage instead and threatened to kill her. Syndrome urged him on. Lex knew he wouldn't kill her but she still hoped that he was angry enough to hurt her. He let her drop to the floor unharmed and Mirage looked betrayed. What was even better about the situation was he probably didn't even remember than night he shared with her. As they all left the containment unit Incredible was actually crying and Lex saw the look of sadness that Mirage gave him.

Syndrome returned to his room to find Lex sitting on his couch going through all the files that they had on the supers on her laptop.

"What're you up to?"He asked sitting next to her on the bed.

"Wondering why Mirage is still here." She said turning to him.

"She hasn't given me all the supers' secret identities yet. Once I have them I won't need her anymore. I promise." He explained making Lex glare back at him.

"But you have almost all of them. I'll help you find the rest." Lex pleaded.

"But she can give me all of them. It'll make finding them a lot faster. The sooner we have them all the sooner I can get rid of them and have more time for us." He explained hoping she'd understand. She knew it would be faster and sadly couldn't argue with him about it.

"I know. So what are you going to do with Incredible?" She asked.

"Make him watch me destroy his hometown." He said evilly.

"What? Why not just kill him and so he doesn't have the chance to ruin your plans?" Lex asked angrily.

"How is he going to ruin my plans? There is no way he can get out of there." He said confidently.

"What about Mirage?" She asked setting her laptop aside.

"What do you mean? You think she's going to help him?" He was confused. Why would she help Incredible? She had been so helpful lately.

"Yes I do! I don't trust her and neither should you! She tried to kill you and she even tried to kill me!" Lex blurted out.

"What do you mean she tried to kill you?" He demanded.

"It doesn't matter now. So long as she's here and Incredible is still alive I won't be around." She said firmly grabbing her laptop and heading for the door. Syndrome's heart sank. She was leaving again when he needed her the most. He grabbed her by the wrist and she yanked herself free.

"Lex please don't go. I need you right now. I can't do this without you." He pleaded blocking the door.

"Well then maybe you should have thought about that before you decided to change your plan. I love you but I can't stay here and watch you ruin everything." She explained shoving past him.

"Lex please don't go! I love you!" He shouted after her as she made her way to the hangar. She called Travis to meet her in the jet and not long after they were on their way back to Kamalu Island. When they arrived Lex began working on different formula's and testing them out to create an invisibility cloak or a shield to use on the jet or other things. The rest of the day went by rather fast and Travis practically forced her to bed.

Syndrome had launched the Omni-Droid just before he retired to bed. He had attempted to be extra nice to Mirage in hope that she'd get the names he needed that much faster. She was angry at him about Incredible almost killing her.

"Lex would've understood." He mumbled to himself before he drifted off to sleep. The next morning he was woken up by an alarm. There were other supers on the island and Incredible had been let free. "Mirage…" He said angrily knowing it had to be her who had helped him. He was tempted to call Lex to let her know that she was right about Mirage and ask her to come back when a haunting question popped into his head, who were the other supers?

K R O N O S K R O N O S K R O N O S K R O N O S K R O N O S K R O N O S