Chapter 14

As my screams rang out amongst the smoldering ruins, I felt my legs begin to slowly melt beneath me. The weight of this final burden on my soul had taken the last of my reserved strength. I could feel the wetness of my tears as they tried to cool my doleful face. Even the cold of the snow was at a loss to the pain that burned through my very being. As I contemplated yet another death, an amiable face appeared beside my frazzled body. Princess then wrapped her arms around me, and placed her head upon my shoulder blades in an effort to calm my grief.

I took a deep breath, and attempted to voice some of the questions that demanded to be heard. Slowly, I found the strength to do so.

As I turned to face Princess, I searched her eyes for the answers to the questions that I now voiced. "Why? Why, Prin?"

She seemed to search for the answer inside of herself. Momentarily, she began. "She knew that she had to complete her mission…"

"No." I interrupted her, a little more harshly then I had wanted to. "I mean you."

Her eyes seemed to take on a look of bewilderment, so I continued on in a humble tone. "Why couldn't it have been you who wanted me? All I ever wanted was to be with you, but you never wanted me… it's always been Mark… Is it because he's the Commander, and I'm just 'Number 2?"

When she fell into an utter silence the tears began to cascade down my face. Still I needed to know the answer. "Why, Prin?" I demanded.

Her only reply was a mumbled one before Mark shouted out a warning.

I turned my attention to the cause of his alert, and in an instant I was on my feet and running.

The ground was still smoldering near the area that had once been the Spectran base. Still, the slight movement that I had seen, made me feel as if their would be a possibility of a survivor. Finding myself at the location of said movement, I began to dig through the searing hot debris. Suddenly I spotted the familiar white of the Swans uniform. Shouting, I quickly helped my Swan rise up like a Phoenix from the ashes.

Without a seconds thought, I grabbed her, and pulled her into my embrace. Relishing the feel of her body close to mine, I couldn't help but to run my hands over her painfully burned body. When she flinched just a little as I reached a bare spot on her arm, I stopped abruptly not wanting to cause her any pain. Instead I buried my face into the crevice of her neck and whispered to her how much I loved her. I barely heard my companions when they mentioned heading back to the lodge.

The sun was close to setting before we made it back to the lodge, and the skiers had all seemed to have retired to their cozy rooms. This made for an easy de-transmutation at the crest of the skiing area. With the cloned Swan not having the ability, Mark and I kept watch as Princess returned to her room to acquire a change of clothes for her.

When Princess returned, she apologized for the striped jeans, and number three shirt that she handed her. "I don't have a lot of extra clothes."

"That's okay." my Swan smiled. "I'm used to these. And what else were you going to bring out: the slipdress?"

I shot Mark a quick look when that comment was made, but he seemed to be totally unaware of my thought process.

Next thing I knew, my Swan was asking Princess assistance in our departure.

With little more then a wink Princess replied. "Sure thing..."

Mark seemed to chuckle as he elbowed me, "I think that's our cue to leave…"

"Aw, man, Things were just about to get interesting!" I quipped as I reluctantly turned to follow. It wasn't long before the two of us were entering the lobby area. With the fireplace burning brightly, I gladly took a place on the couch.

Arms propped behind my head, I spoke as quietly as I could, so the other patrons could not hear. "Well, Skip, another case solved by G Force…"

"Yeah," he readily agreed. "And another Swan enters the picture. How are we gonna tell them apart?"

"Oh, I can tell the difference." I snickered as I saw Marks eyebrow raise at my comment. "My Swan is much cuter, and way more outgoing."

"Yeah, right. You're just saying that because she happens to have the hots for you." he chuckled as he leaned back into the soft cushion on the couch.

He paused for a moment before continuing "I've just been relying on the way Princess reacts to me…" he admitted. "It's a little scary, having two of them now. Know what I mean?"

I couldn't help but to smile at the way that Mark seemed to be confused. I for one, knew that I could tell the difference from this day on. "We'll manage…" I knowingly winked at him.

Quickly Mark replied. "Oh, by the way, I made a report to the Chief earlier. He said we could stay here a little longer, since we didn't have much of a vacation. You know? He doesn't know there are two Swans now. I better let him know."

I couldn't believe my ears, there was no way I was going to let anyone ruin my chances of being with the Swan. So as he raised his communicator to his lips I stopped him momentarily. "What's the big emergency? Besides, it could be fun playing tricks on the old guy. We could really yank his chain!" I had to crack up at the thought of a thoroughly befuddled Anderson.

Even though Mark seemed to be amused at the fun we could have, the Eagle in him took over. "No, I need to tell him. This is really important."

He left the couch to relay the message to our superior and returned a few moments later. "He says he wants to see…Princess…uh…the clone…tomorrow. He needs to run some tests."

Somehow I knew that the return message would be bad. "You mean MY SWAN…" I retorted rather loudly. "This sucks! Well, I'm going with her. No way is the Chief going to treat her like some guinea pig with me there. So now we only have one night together? Better make it count…" I began to smirk.

Shortly after I had spoke the girls entered the lobby. Quietly, I whispered to Mark. "I know what I'm going to be doing for the rest of this trip."

I leapt up from the couch, and grabbed my Swan by the hand. Practically flying down the hallway towards the room I savored the thoughts of what was to come.