Jacen stepped onto the metal grating and listened as the other footsteps of his brothers and sisters followed him down the corridor. They were six feet underground and the irony did not escape him as he carried the front straps to the stretcher on which Thomas's now cold body lay. It was at times like this that someone would examine the path they had taken and question their motives. Jacen's hatred now ran deeper and colder to the point that his only release from it was to swim stronger and faster to the bottom.

The lights inside the control room flashed in front of his eyes as the doors slid open and they walked through. Sitting at the console were Caine and Freedon who stood up as a sign of respect between two soldiers. Jacen looked back at Jared who took the straps of the stretcher and carried the body with Steph off and down to the small morgue three feet deeper into the complex. Both Freedon and Caine watched the two, three including Thomas, leave and instantly knew what had happened. Their eyes quickly landed on Max who was feeling a deep sense of fear that she was now more out of control than ever before.

Jacen looked back at her and his eyes seemed to be more cold and despondent since they first had met. Like they had never spoken or shared any connection. It was obvious to her that she was once again another roadblock to breaking Zack down. Wren nudged her towards the cell door and Max glanced over seeing two other figures in the darkness of the second cell in the room. Before she could get a good look Wren shoved her hard into the cell and against the back wall.

"X-5 452 is now in custody. Please make a note of it and include it with your next report to Lydecker," Jacen stated before turning around and motioning for the others to head back upstairs where they could stay at the old guard barracks.

After all the others had left Jacen went to ascend with them when a voice behind him sounded, "Lydecker is on his way."

Jacen stopped dead in his tracks and quickly, instinctively, masked his face of all emotion before turning around, "What?"

"Lydecker will be here in less than thirty minutes. He called on his way here," Caine stated as his dark brown eyes searched Jacen for emotion. Jacen could sense Freedon's sky blue eyes doing the same.

"Good. Then he will be able to take the X-5's back himself," Jacen blankly stated before turning around and stepping up the stairs. Freedon scratched his head through his short blonde hair and sat back down.

Caine waited until Jacen had completely gone before looking over his shoulder at Max who was sitting on the cot in her cell, "Looks like you're going home." Caine smiled, brushing his black hair from his eyes before turning back to the security cameras.

Upstairs Jacen sat next to Jared and Wren at the very end of the long table where they were all eating. Jacen started consuming his rations almost instinctively knowing he had to keep his energy up as he thought how he would tell them that Lydecker was coming. "Lydecker is on his way," Jacen suddenly stated. Cunning vocal tactics, he thought to himself.

Seth looked up surprised but the others were far from shocked and kept on eating, barely nodding in acknowledgment. Jacen noticed Seth staring at him through his gray eyes and nodded for him to follow him up to the tower. Jared finished the last of his food and made his way up the ladder to the very top of the guard tower as the others tried to get some rest on the cots.

He looked down at the abandoned buildings and his mind began digesting his surroundings just as they had done three days earlier when he had first staked out this position. He looked down at an old building that he assumed was used for repairing the buses that carried the convicts to their fate. There was an old gas station right next to it with tanks for propane and natural gas off to the side. He sighed into the night air and watched his breath rise as the first drops of rain started to hit the aluminum roof. He began scanning the ground and counting the feet and he smiled noticing that the control room and under ground cells were below the gas station. Ingenious design, he thought to himself but was cut short as he felt Seth's presence in the very small tower.

Seth hadn't made a single sound ascending the ladder but as he leaned against the corner and looked out over the ground that was starting to dampen from rain he sighed. "It's all coming down tonight isn't it?" Seth suddenly asked almost catching Jacen off guard.

Jacen leaned out over the side and voiced his thoughts, "Lydecker won't make this easy on us. Zack will be hear soon too. It's all coming together at the same time. Not the way I like to deal with things but we can work through this."

Seth nodded and leaned over the side next to his brother, "You should let the others know of your plans to leave Manticore."

He knew that he should be shocked but Jacen wasn't even remotely surprised that Seth knew what was on his mind. "You're right of course. We'll have to let them know before Lydecker gets here."

"Caine and Freedon...." Seth trailed off.

Jacen sighed and sat up on the railing, tottering precariously on the edge knowing that even he would at least be severely injured from the fall, "I don't want them hurt. They're not one of us but they are one of us."

Nodding almost to himself Seth spoke up, "I know what you mean. They took Thomas down to the morgue and put him in one of those lockers. They're supposed to keep the body well preserved and I guess it works cause Jared said there were four other bodies that had been left in there. Anyway, I figure when this is over you'll want to give him a proper burial."

"Yeah. We might have to leave him here for now when we escape but we'll come back for him. I swear it."

"What about the other X-5?" Seth asked cautiously.

It took a few moments of Jacen thinking before responding, "We'll let them go when the time is right. It'll add to the confusion but it'll be in our favor. Might just be enough for Lydecker to go chasing after them leaving us time to leave. We'll still have caught them and we'll still be able to escape. Our primary goals will stay intact and they'll get to leave too."

Seth smiled thankfully knowing that they wouldn't get hurt. The last thing he wanted was for them to get hurt when they had never done any harm to any of them.

"The problem is with Zack," Jacen stated coldly. "If they protect him then I'll do what it takes."

"I understand," Seth replied unemotionally. Inside he was seething at the thought of Zack. It was weird, even though it was Jacen who had ultimately been betrayed by Zack, every single one of the X-6 held a special place of contempt for Zack and what he had done. For Seth he only held it inside because he knew he would need to draw off that hatred in order to carry out the mission.

The two of them finally climbed down the ladder which brought them back inside the warehouse so they could talk to the others. The rain was starting to curb and stay at just a light drizzle but the gathering clouds would bring heavier rains. The tower distorted and became out of focus as Brin zoomed out and scanned the area one more time.