Sorry I have to make this short, because it's quite late in Berlin and I actually need to go to bed. I just thought that I will for sure not have enough time to post the next chapter tomorrow, so I do it now. Hugs and kisses for your comments again and I wish you all a wonderful Christmas! Yours, Jenna

Translated by Jenna

Beta read by Sg6169


Connections


"The closer you stand together, the easier you can brave a storm."

Karl Miziolek


I could feel them behind the door, could hear their quick steps, the excited shouts, even the loading of their weapons. But I also felt something else: uncertainty, confusion and hesitancy.

"Ten to twelve men," I heard Max say beside me and looked at him, noticed that he had closed his eyes to concentrate on what was happening behind the steel door we stood in front of. "Weapons similar to the others."

I glanced back over my shoulder in the hallway that was paved with the six dead bodies of our reception committee. They had had machine guns with normal silver ammunition, but hadn't inflicted serious damage, even though they had opened fire as soon as the elevator doors were opened. Enrique, Guillermo and William had taken a few grazing shots, but the bulletproof vests we wore had saved us from serious injury and with a solid unit like ours, six human soldiers was no real obstacle. Unfortunately, the door to the main entrance of the station, as expected, had immediately closed as we reached it and we now stood there in front of it and could do nothing but wait. There were only two possibilities left to gain access to the laboratory: Either the soldiers gathering on the other side decided to take us on and opened the door or Gabriel's team actually succeeded, as planned, in gaining access to the control center of the station.

"Do you think they'll open the door again?" Guillermo addressed Max and like many times before wiped the blood from his cheek that ran continuously, from the bullet that had grazed his temple, down into the collar of his dark shirt. Damn silver bullets - it was really a disgusting sight. But it would soon stop at some point.

Max raised his eyelids again, not looking at him, but inspected the door and the control panel connected to it. "I don't think so. It feels as though they're waiting for a command from someone."

I focused a little more and quickly got the same feeling. There was such a palpable tension, such an expectant hesitation… but then even more steps were heard. It was slowly becoming apparent that more and more of our enemies were gathering there and that thought wasn't comforting at all. Apparently Max felt the same, because his fingers now slid impatiently over the control panel where a code was needed, while his cheek muscles twitched treacherously.

"What we need is an engineer or computer specialist," said William, scratching thoughtfully at his temple with the barrel of his gun. "Why didn't Kurt come with us?"

Max was still caressing the console, pecking around a bit on the keyboard and then finally looked up. "Gabriel assigned him to Elizabeth's team and we have Logan. Besides, I don't think this would be that easy to decode – not even for Kurt or Logan."

He was probably right, but I too had been wondering why Gabriel split up such a good team as Max'. And there was something else I was even more curious about. "Do you know what the plan was for the other laboratory and who else was on that team?" I asked straight out and couldn't prevent my steady heart beat from upping its pace. I had a certain presumption that made me feel slightly uncomfortable.

"Well, from what I heard, Elizabeth, Tony and this Alejandro lead the mission and it was anything but a diversion."

My eyebrows wandered towards each other and I tried with all my might to suppress my burgeoning concern for Simone. She was on Alejandro's team right now and I didn't like the fact that she too must have been involved in the combat there. "What do you mean?" I immediately probed.

Max paused a moment, because there were voices approaching and someone barked a sharp "Get away from there! We don't have approval yet!", then he turned to me again.

"The orders were to storm the station ruthlessly and with a vengeance, to take no prisoners. Like here, they were to gain access to the control center and send a false emergency call to this station and then later set fire to the lab."

I breathed deeply in and out. 'Stay calm,' I told myself inwardly. 'Nothing has happened to her. Surely Alejandro would have kept an eye on her and would not have assigned her to the fighting.

"How is it that you're so well informed about all this?" I asked to cover my still-growing concerns. 'Think of something else!' was the clear command of my mind.

"Because I planned these operations with Gabriel and Malik even before our big meeting," Max replied lightly, and I shook my head in disbelief. This was indeed information that instantly diverted my focus.

"Gabriel seems to trust you immensely," I noted and Max shrugged his shoulders, in such a way that made it very clear that to trust him actually went without saying.

"I've got pretty good references," he added to his gesture with a self-confidence that was just amazing. "And a top notch team. I think he familiarized himself with my recent missions and found that my experiences as a mercenary would come in quite handy in our fight against the Legion."

"That would also mean he's excluded you as a traitor," I remarked wisely.

Max wrinkled his forehead in mocked confusion, and then raised an eyebrow. "Honestly – does this look like the face of a traitor?"

I had to smile because I was fully aware that Max hadn't meant for his remark to be taken seriously. But I could hardly imagine Max as a traitor, not with his history concerning the Legion. Still, I cocked my head a bit and looked at him critically.

"I don't know. I have no comparison at hand," I countered and Max lips twisted into a wide grin.

"Here… take Guillermo. He's at least betrayed his country," William grinned and pushed the Mexican towards me, who immediately cast an angry glance at him.

"I didn't realize naturalization was a crime," he growled angrily and Enrique nodded agreeing.

"If that's the case then you can definitely put me right there next to him," Enrique added indignantly. "Or Kurt. He even betrayed an entire continent."

"He's from Europe?" I asked curiously, and was then aware that I too could be accused of betrayal to my continent. How fast this could happen…

Max nodded, but looked somewhat distracted at the door. Something was happening behind it and after a few tense seconds of eavesdropping, it was clear the troops were withdrawing. I looked back at Max who seemed to be just as surprised as I was. Who was giving such strange instructions within the Legion? Or had Gabriel actually succeeded in gaining control of the whole station? If this were true, I was ready to build an altar to him for this action.

A pleasant tingling wandered through my temples and I reacted immediately, opened my senses to the one who was trying to contact me. It was strange, although I hadn't previously had such strong mental powers and had never practiced this kind of communication before, I immediately knew what I had to do. A little voice in my subconscious was giving me the necessary instructions. My body relaxed and I tried to breathe as calmly and steady as possible. It wasn't long before I was able to assign the probing energy to Gabriel. Basically, what he was sending me was a sequence of pictures that my mind instantly formed into instructions. Malik and a few others had entered the control center and would be opening the door for us at any moment. We should be ready for anything and use all our force against the attacking troops. The more soldiers we could subdue in the battle the better. And I should try to intensify this contact with Malik to better synchronize with him.

At first I was a bit overwhelmed, because I was really very inexperienced in these matters, but the old vampires who were somewhere in the laboratory made it easy for me. As soon as Gabriel had retreated a little from my mind, I immediately felt Malik's energy, felt him mentally reach out to me to help me connect to him. I closed my eyes because the whole thing strained me more and more, but gritted my teeth and focused. Again, there were pictures, not the instructing kind this time, but real pictures showing me what was going on there in the control center. I saw Thomas, Grigori, John and… Ritchcroft and a room full of monitors, control panels and other technological paraphernalia - a true paradise for guys like Logan and Seth - a horror for me. On the ground, lying side by side were four lifeless bodies, probably the team that had originally worked there. Thomas was settling into a chair in front of one of the main computers and Malik pushed Ritchcroft towards him, told him to type in the sequence of numbers that would provide us access to all devices and files. Ritchcroft hesitated a moment, but then bent over the keyboard with his cheek muscles twitching with tension and in fact typed in the code.

'We're in!' Thomas sent out mentally and I knew he was mainly wanting to inform Gabriel. But strangely, the old vampire was barely noticeable to me right now. I only felt his energy at the outer edge of my consciousness and something else… restlessness, anxiety, tension… unbridled rage and despair, but it wasn't coming from Gabriel but from someone else. Something was happening within Gabriel's team and it was making me extremely nervous that I wasn't able to get closer on my own to these feelings to see what was happening there.

'I'm opening the door now,' and with Thomas' additional distraction, I opened my eyes, and stared at the door above which a hum and then a mechanical click was heard. Only half a second later the door opened, revealing a brightly painted wall in the distance. Max and the rest of his team were able to switch within seconds from a relatively relaxed state to combat readiness and had instantly raised their weapons. For Guillermo and I this was a little more difficult however, and that was the only reason we were the last ones to step out into the hall, finally raising weapons as well. The long corridor extending to the right and left was suspiciously empty. Not one soldier had stayed behind should it be necessary to try and stop us and I didn't like the look of it at all. There was something shady about it. As we moved forward, I tried to feel for Malik and Gabriel again, found with delight that the connection to the two had not completely broken off. As long as they maintained it, the connection was still open to me - even though Gabriel's energy seemed to be frighteningly far away because he was still having to deal with serious problems. A hollow feeling inside told me this was somehow all related to Mick. He wasn't doing well at all… My heartbeat quickened at the thought and I moved a little faster, catching up with Max, who together with William formed the vanguard, securing each junction and doorway leading into the hall.

I almost winced when all at once from a different direction another energy overwhelmed me, not vampire, but human… Beth… I stopped abruptly, couldn't believe she was so close to the laboratory. Of course she had not stayed with Logan! You just couldn't entrust the boy with anything except a lifeless machine!

I was even more surprised when Gabriel reached, clearly obvious even for me, mentally for Beth, establishing a connection between Mick and her and it was only now that I felt how unstable, how critical Mick's condition really was. I hardly recognized him. This hatred, this anger, this madness… and yet he immediately responded to Beth, acknowledged her, held on to her and indeed came back to his senses.

"Josef?" Max had stopped and stepped towards me with slight concern in his eyes, and touched my shoulder. "Are you all right?"

I nodded silently. Yes, slowly peace and order was returning to Gabriel's team and I too now tried to send, with my pitiful resources, the same calmness to Mick, to show him I was with him as well, that he wasn't alone in this fight, didn't need to fight against everything and everyone. And I felt him continue to stabilize. I breathed deeply in and out. "Yes… It's…"

I was taken aback. Horror, worry… this time from Malik's team. 'What are you doing there?' I heard a voice, closed my eyes and saw just in time as Thomas, with eyes wide, took a step towards Ritchcroft and knocked something out of his hand. A small device crashed against the nearest wall and fell to the floor, shattering into several pieces. Malik grabbed Ritchcroft by the neck and now slammed him against the wall and my eyes widened. Not because I didn't want to witness what the Assassin was going to do to him, but because now, all around me, strange mechanical noises could be heard and I suspected the worst. Max spun around, sprinted off, but whatever he had planned to do, he wasn't fast enough. Before and not far behind us, two steel doors rushed down from the ceiling to the ground, locking us in the section of the hall where we had been standing and I caught my breath while my insides knotted painfully. Trapped - we were trapped! It didn't help that Max threw himself against the door and burst out in loud swearing. We wouldn't be getting out here so soon again.

'What happened?' at once, Gabriel's voice resounded in my head and I felt Malik catch the question and the energetic connection to the old vampire increased allowing him better participation in what was happening there in the control center. It was really mind boggling, what these two ancient vampires could achieve mentally - but if I wasn't mistaken, they were both being supported by other strong energies.

'What did you do?' I heard Malik now hiss in the back of my mind and I forced myself, with my heart racing, to again close my eyes and focus on the all-important conversation going on in the control center. If something were to happen around me, my team would warn me in time.

'You… you won't be getting out of here anymore!' Ritchcroft croaked under the pressure of Malik's strong fingers and still managing to achieve a smug smile. 'None of you will be leaving now!'

A muffled roar slipped from Malik's lips and for a moment he lost control and slung his hostage away with all his might, so that the man crashed hard into the nearest wall, then bounced off and fell to the ground. Malik pursued him, and as he did he picked up the pieces of the broken device that Ritchcroft had used to lock us in, and then grabbed the groaning man by his neck to set him rudely on his feet again. He bent threateningly towards him, holding the pieces close to Ritchcroft's face.

'Reverse this!' he hissed angrily and I felt Gabriel reach out to him, trying to calm him down from a distance.

'That… that's impossible,' Ritchcroft gasped. 'It can only be used once.'

'And what exactly is it doing?'

'It… it transfers the technical authority for this station to a control center outside this building. And it's only from there that you can undo it.'

I felt sick, but at the same time had to marvel at the ingenuity of this emergency installation. Although Ritchcroft had risked his own life, his actions had at least ensured that a large number of very old and therefore very dangerous vampires were now locked in this station with a superior number of enemies and we would not be getting out of here again so soon. Even if he died, the other leaders of the Legion could calmly send in reinforcements and there would be no chance of our escaping.

I felt Malik thinking the same thing. He was having great difficulty controlling his anger and hatred. His hand automatically closed tighter around the neck of his hostage. Ritchcroft eyes widened horrified; he grabbed at his hand frantically, desperately trying to detach the strong fingers from his throat in vain.

'Enough!' echoed Gabriel's warning voice in my head and I flinched a little, watched as Malik indeed let go of Ritchcroft and felt him breathe in and out deeply. Ritchcroft sank to the floor coughing and gasping and I tore my eyes open again, because I now heard noises from outside, which did not bode well.

Max, William and Guillermo stared at the steel door in front of us, while Enrique turned around to the other door behind us. For good reason, because the fast approaching sounds of heavy boots on hard ground, the shouts and the loading of weapons were heard from two different directions. The enemy advanced again.

"What the hell is going on here?" it burst out of Guillermo upset and he sought my gaze with clear panic in his eyes.

"They now control everything from the outside," I responded tense and lifted my gun. "They'll be opening the doors any moment now and will then attack."

"What do you mean from outside?" Enrique repeated.

I nodded. "We've lost control of the technology here."

My gaze wandered over to Max and he nodded, putting on a markedly determined expression. "Then let us greet them…"

He was right - all that was left for us to do was to throw ourselves into battle and take advantage of our super-human powers, until some ingenious plan to get us all out here alive occurred to Gabriel. Perhaps he already had one formulated. Yes, I clung to that hope, as the mechanical noises above started up again, and the door in front of us began move.


It felt incredible, strange, intense, and overwhelming. As if a door had been opened inside her allowing the world around her become one with her, as if a new sense had developed inside her, a new kind of feeling and perception, somehow more liberated, lighter. Inside her head it tingled and tickled and she breathed deeply and heavily and yet she felt so complete, so satisfied… supported. And she was. There were so many energies helping her, bringing her so close to Mick that she had the feeling she was standing right next to him, walking with him through this narrow hallway. But she wasn't alone with him, had with the help of others, such strength as never before in her life and was therefore able to convey much of it to him, was able to fix the damage that the short time down in the lab had caused in him. If she stayed with him he would not run amok again, he would remain relatively calm and would be able to fight - this she knew. But she had to stay with him, had to continue to support him.

'You're not alone,' she tried to calm him further. 'You will get out of the lab. Why couldn't everything work out just this once? Why shouldn't their plan succeed at least this one time?'

"Beth?" It was Seth's voice from far away again. He had tried a couple of times to gain her attention and seemed to be worried about her. Of course, her behavior had to be making a strange impression on the young vampire, but at the moment she couldn't explain what was wrong with her, why she was acting so strange. Instead, she narrowed her eyes even more and raised a hand in a deprecating way.

"Not now…" she uttered tensely. She concentrated even more, for from somewhere else unfortunately a sense of unease emerged, of horror and only a bit later she heard a muffled voice: "What are you doing there?"

Her interior cramped and her heart stopped, like Mick, who had heard a strange noise from somewhere. And when the steel door came down in front of him and the others, she gasped for air, and ripped open her eyes in horror. The images disappeared immediately and Beth stared, in shock, into Seth's surprised face, who had turned around to her in his chair and leaned forward, worried.

"Oh, God!" she uttered breathlessly, now not only struggling with her own panic but also with Mick's, which despite the loss of the visual transmission, she still could still blatantly feel … Locked up… trapped…

"What?" immediately the excited demand came, but Beth didn't look at Seth, but looked past him, staring at the monitors that until recently showed pictures from inside the station and now one after the other were taken over by parasitic images. Seth turned around abruptly.

"Oh, no… no, no, no!" he uttered shocked, hastily typing commands into the PC and then tore at his hair. "Oh, God! What's going on?"

He picked up his headset, adjusted it and then chose one of the fields on the screen of his laptop. "Logan!"

Beth heard a voice from Seth's headphones but didn't dare focus on it for fear of losing contact with Mick completely. She almost felt it herself when the vampire in Mick burst forth again, only this time he was much more focused and controlled, was even able to bring more calmness to Mick's upset interior and push back the panic. And his willingness to fight wasn't directed at his friends but to the slowly advancing enemy. This time, the warrior in him had woken up and not the psychopath and this calmed Beth down at least a bit.

"Yes, it's the same with me," Seth uttered now excited. "They all went out and… Well, just a second…"

Seth's fingers quickly flew over the keyboard and then he eagerly looked up at the monitors around him again.

'What happened?'

Beth almost winced when she perceived not only Mick's feelings now but also Gabriel's voice. She knew immediately this question wasn't directed towards her, but to one of the other old vampires, but she also felt that Gabriel was exerting himself to allow her to also hear this conversation. She closed her eyes, focused more strongly on these energies that felt like waves, sometimes stronger, sometimes weaker coming to her.

'What did you do?' Beth heard a voice asking in a low tone, while from outside Seth's voice still penetrated her ear.

"Nothing's happening. I can't do anything else! I am blind and deaf… Okay… I'll try that…"

'You… you won't be getting out of here anymore! None of you will be leaving here now!"

Beth didn't know who this was, but his words frightened her, increased her pulse rate and caused her stomach to knot. The energetic tingling became very uncomfortable for a moment, because of so many frightening feelings, so much anger, aggression and anxiety washed over her and then there was a voice again.

"Reverse this!"

"That… that's impossible. It can only be used once."

"And what exactly is it doing?"

"It… it transfers the technical authority over this station to a control center that's outside this building. And it's only from there that you can undo it."

Beth ripped her eyes open in horror, gasping for air, and the connection to the other vampires decreased significantly.

"That's not working either!" she heard Seth stammer desperately and once again the young vampire tore at his tousled hair. "I can't access it again!"

"They…" Beth had to swallow hard to get rid of the lump in her throat, but Seth still heard her and turned to her. "They… somehow... they've transferred control of the technology in there over to another control center outside the building."

Seth blinked, confused, but Logan seemed to have heard her as well, for she could now hear his voice through Seth's headphones.

"Fuck! That explains all of this …"

Beth tried to breathe calmly, to get her anxiety under enough control so she have a stronger connection to the old vampires, or at least to Mick. Currently, she could only feel his constant tension and that his vampiric side still retained control, could suppress his emotions enough for him to remain alert and combat ready. Maybe, in this case, it would be better if her connection to Mick wasn't so strong, so he could fully concentrate on the approaching superiority of enemies. Approaching superiority… Good God!

"Okay… this other control center can't be that far away," Logan thought aloud. "You can't control such a large facility over vast distances. That means the transmitter is probably located somewhere in the closest housing development. Seth, you have to take a small unit and drive the OB van back to the inhabited area and look for strong radio signals there. I'm sure they'll try to use the technical equipment in the station in someway to overwhelm our teams there. This means that the new control center will be sending some signals. You have to hurry because in the meantime, they'll be running our teams quite hard!"

Beth felt sick and got up a little dazed, walked over to the van door before Seth could do anything and looked out. Ben wasn't far away, standing together with this unpleasant Chief, but he immediately picked up that she wanted something from him and in a few steps was by her side.

"We… we're in trouble," it burst out of her immediately.

"In what way?" Ben asked, frowning.

Beth cast a hesitant glance at Chief Harris who was also approaching her now with a suspicious frown, followed by Carl. "The Legion has locked up our teams and controls the station from somewhere outside."

One could immediately tell how shocked Ben was with this information, but she left him no time to verbalize his feelings and just continued on. "Logan said the new control center must be located somewhere in the settlement not far from here. We just need to drive the OB van around there and look for suspicious signals, then we could…"

"Wait, wait!" the Chief intervened and a strange, slightly vexed smile played about his lips, which she didn't like at all. "This van goes nowhere!"

"But…"

Harris blocked her again, this time with a rigorous lifting of his hand. "My instructions were clear. My team was only to intervene after we were convinced that there were things going on down there that broke the law…"

"But that's happening there now!" it burst out of Beth immediately. "My friends are being held against their will!"

"Says who?"

Beth took a deep breath, but then let the air escape unused because she was suddenly aware that she had no proof. Their normal technical connection to the teams had collapsed. All that was left was her own ever weakening spiritual connection to Mick and the other vampires.

"I say… but you're right - I can't prove it right now because the connection to our teams has been broken."

"You say the people now controlling the station from the outside are located in the inhabited area?" Ben probed tense and Beth could tell he was trying hard to find a solution to this enormous problem. She nodded quickly.

"And you think you can find out where these people are with the help of the OB van?"

Again she nodded and Ben looked at the Chief. "The way I see it, this is not about committing your team before you have proof, but about borrowing this van to bring you the evidence you need for your team to intervene. This shouldn't be a problem."

Beth already knew Harris wasn't going to give in, when he just smiled provocatively at her and her intestines cramped.

"The van belongs to the team," this terrible man replied now almost lavishly and Beth would love to have jumped right into his face. "I won't be handing you anything until I'm convinced it's a criminal gang I'm dealing with here."

Ben let out an incredulous laugh. "You can't be serious!"

That was enough. Beth had no patience left. They were running out of time and she now felt something was happening down in the station, that the butchering had begun. She moved away from the door of the van, left the men, who were now fiercely arguing behind and with a wildly beating heart approached the still very desperate looking Seth.

"Your portable devices, will they alone be enough to locate the transmitting station?"

Seth thought for a moment and then nodded.

"Fine, then let's pack them up and then you come with me."

Seth didn't hesitate a moment. He knew how critical the situation was and that there was no time to sit and think about a new plan. So things were packed up in a flash and Beth walked with one of the cases to the door, got out and pushed past the somewhat confused looking lawyer.

"Where… where are you going?" she heard Harris' voice and noticed from the corner of her eye that he had taken a step after her. But Ben grabbed his arm and pulled him back, and in doing so allowed Seth to pass the three men unmolested.

"This is my team," she heard him say sternly. "And you are not allowed to interfere!"

Sometimes, this man was simply incredible and at some point she would pay him back, but for now Beth had no time. She was almost relieved when they reached, under the astonished faces of the other policemen, the car in which she and Seth had been approaching. Putting the suitcases in the back seat and getting into the car had felt so good, because at least they were doing something, instead of helplessly sitting around, waiting for their friends down in the lab to free themselves from their unpleasant situation all on their own. And Beth was sure this was exactly what Gabriel would have wanted. He hadn't allowed her to participate in the conversation with Malik for nothing, had shown her what the problem was and that they urgently needed help from outside. Well, it might not have been her exactly that he wanted to carry this out, but she couldn't change this now. Currently there was no one else that could do anything and they should be thankful they even got away from here at all.

So she thought, at least for a moment, because just as Beth started to switch the engine on, the driver's door opened and Carl stuck his head in.

"What exactly are you doing?" he asked with deep lines of worry on his forehead.

"Carl, please!" Beth uttered desperately and put on her most imploring look. "We must find this control station! Otherwise they'll all be killed down there… and no one will even see this!"

Carl looked at her for a long, much too long moment and Beth feared he would grab her and pull her out of the car, but her old friend surprised her by nodding, then closing the door. Only a second later, the back door of the car opened and the Lieutenant climbed nimbly into the back seat still in full operational gear. Beth turned to him stunned.

"Well, do you really think I'd let you go alone to look for these people, without any protection?" he immediately answered her unspoken question and she even saw a small smile twitching around his lips. "Well, come on, let move it!"

Beth turned around, took a deep breath and started the engine. She knew Mick wouldn't like this but she had no option. Currently, they were the only ones to do anything. And she wasn't going to let anyone harm Mick again. She needed him. Now more than ever before. They both needed him.