There were only vague thoughts before she was spit out on the other side. She landed on her hands and knees, skidding across the hot, course sand. He hit with a soft thud behind her as she was spitting out grains of silicone.

"Oh my God," she heard him exclaim softly behind her.

She looked up at the world they had landed in.

It was a wasteland. Red sand stretched out before them for miles. The sky nearly matched the color of the ground. Haze hung above them and the sky she expected to be blue was mostly just a dirty red cloud. She coughed deeply feeling the thick smog pull into her lungs. Holding back the feeling of dread, she rose from her spot in the sand and brushed herself off calmly. When she was done she steadied herself and took in what she could see.

The decaying remains of what might have been a city was to their left. Skeletons of buildings and other structures reached wearily towards the sky. Straight ahead was more sand. To the right was what once must have been mountains of some kind. The rock either worn away or destroyed into small formations. Dark spots in the face suggested caves.

"I've been here before," Cade told her in an uneasy tone. "Xevallah brought me here. Showed me this place."

"What is it?" she asked, turning a tight circle. There was only more sand behind them.

"Earth," he replied quietly. "After the Gua decimate it. After we've been wiped out."

"Christ," she exclaimed under her breath. "Did they leave anything behind?"

"No."

Hysteria threatened deep inside of her. This wasn't Earth. It couldn't be Earth. Earth was lush and green and cool and dead. A cough covered the sob that ripped itself from her throat. He must have felt it too because he reached out to her. Held her hand in his. She offered him a wavering smile then nodded. She was in control.

Letting his hand slid from hers she took a deep breath. Her eyes fell closed and she opened herself up. Instead of being bombarded with the voices, feelings and thoughts of the dead she got nothing. A vacuum filled void that threatened to suck her in whole. Frantically her mind searched for those souls who were always within her reach. Those who had always been around since she knew what she could do.

She found nothing.

A cry of alarm rode the tide of panic. What should have been blessed silence in her head was instead a sucking hole in her mind. Fear whirled around her like a tornado. This world was dead in more ways than one.

The fear and horror were on her face. They warred with the control she normally held so tightly against her. Cade watched as the emotions fought with one another. A whimper spilled from her lips as violet eyes twitched open. They were sightless, seeing nothing that was there, as little as that was. He waited until he thought the panic would win. Then he placed his hands on either side of her face.

"Raine," he said gently. "Come on now. You've got to concentrate."

"They're not there," she whimpered pitifully. "It's empty. A black hole. The Gua destroyed them too."

He frowned in confusion. "Who's not there?" he prodded.

"All of them." Her eyes searched his face but he didn't think she was actually seeing him. "It's a void."

Cade shook her once. Hard. "Get it together. Remember what we're here for."

Steely bars of will and control slowly snapped into place as he watched. When she looked at him he could still see the fear but knew it was no longer in control.

"You ok?" he asked gently.

"Scared shitless," she answered with a self-depreciating laugh.

A small smile couldn't be stopped as he looked at her. "Fair enough," he assured her calmly. She locked onto his voice, letting it soothe her as it had in the past. "You still with me?"

"I'm with you." Her voice was small and scared. Like a child. It made him want to scoop her up and carry her out of this place. Take her someplace safe and warm where he could kiss away her fears.

Instead he placed his forehead against hers. "Tell me who isn't here."

"All of them," she told him again. "All the voices. The souls."

"You mean the ghosts you hear?"

She nodded as well as she could without breaking the contact between them. "I feel like they've been ripped out of me. They've always been there" Her soft voice was stronger now but not by much.

"Maybe they just don't exist here," Foster suggested carefully. "Maybe something happened to them when the Gua destroyed everything." Her soft moan made him grip her face again. "They aren't why we're here. The kids. We came here to track them. Can you still do that?"

"I don't know," she confessed.

He forced her to look at him. Violet eyes seemed lighter than usual and he felt worry begin to take root inside of him. "You're the only one who can. And we need to move fast. Try again."

Just when he thought he would fall into the depths of those purple orbs she closed them. Placing a gentle kiss against her forehead he waited. Stillness radiated from her, slowly at first then with an almost physical force. The sand that had been blowing around them fell to the ground. He laid his cheek against hers and the contact sent a rush of peace inside of him. With his mind he held onto that feeling. Let it consume him. Closed himself around it until nothing could move him. He was anchored. Her anchor.

Her whole being felt it when he latched onto her and held fast. Recalling what the blonde haired boy's aura had looked and felt like, she summoned an image of him in her head. Letting her mind become a wind of its own, she felt herself drift out in all directions. She sensed other living things, plants, small animals, but nothing that was human.

Her mind floated further out stretching the thread it shared with her body dangerously thin. He felt that thread vibrate with the strain and tried to strengthen it with himself. Letting himself feel her against him he imagined a new thread spiraling around the old, holding on tightly.

It worked.

With a gasp she looked at him. "I felt him."

"Where?"

A hand slipped down his arm in stages until it met his. Allowing his fingers to link with hers he felt that calm again before she flung her mind outward once more. This time she wasn't trying to cover in all directions. The contact was strong and fast.

"Over there," she said pointing towards the rock with her free hand.

Settling the backpack with a shake he nodded once. "All right then."

Without another word they headed for the once magnificent mountain.

*******

"Damn thing has to be around here somewhere," Eddie grumbled as he ran a hand along the wall he and Jordan had been closest to when the meter went haywire. He carefully avoided the spider guts still smeared on the rough surface. Even after searching the full length of the brick he had found nothing. Even after the third pass. "We're running out of time."

Expecting some kind of answer, he looked at her when she didn't reply. Instead she was looking at the floor, frowning.

"Does this patch of cement look different than the stuff around it?" she asked curiously, scraping a booted toe across it.

Passing his light along the area she indicated, he looked at it closely. At first it looked like plain old everyday cement to him. Then he realized there was a difference. Jordan was standing in the middle of an area that was probably no more than two feet by three feet of concrete that was a few shades darker. Dropping to his knees he carefully sought out the edge of the color change. Taking a deep breath, he blew along the edge. No cracks emerged.

"Damn," he muttered as he sat back on his feet. Taking a moment to study the seam he finally shook his head. "If this is it, there's no way in. They sealed it when they left."

"We could blow it," Jordan offered.

"Risky," Eddie answered. "The vibrations might make the generator more unstable than it already is." He considered the patch another minute. "Look around. Are there any random switches or levers?"

Spinning on a heel, she didn't get more than a foot away when she stumbled over something in the floor. Concern hit him and he started to ask her if she was ok but stopped when the slab of cement moved.

The heavy mortar dropped down then slid to the side. Dust drifted through the light beam.

"That would be it," he muttered under his breath. Looking up from the hole he watched Jordan scowl at whatever she had stumbled over. "You ok?"

"Looks like a rock on the floor," she said with irritation. "Guess it's not." Kicking it for good measure she didn't look at him until he yelped.

The slab slid back into place quickly with a thump.

"Hey!" he protested yanking his hand back from the hole that was there only a few seconds ago, "Those could have been my fingers!"

"Sorry," the red head grumbled. "Stand clear," she warned before kicking the switch again. Once more the darkened concrete moved away.

Moving to stand behind him, she shone the beam of her flashlight into the hole. Metal rebar had been bent to form small steps and handholds. What appeared to be natural rock walls pushed back into the darkness further than their light would reach.

Jordan looked at the back of his head. "Ready?"

"Not really," Eddie answered. Just the thought of all the creepy crawlies that might be down there made him shudder. "But I guess that's where we need to be huh?"

"Most likely," she agreed with a slight smile.

"All right then," he grumbled as he handed her his flashlight and reached a foot to the crude steps. "If I didn't like kids so much"

She grinned until he hit the bottom then handed the light down to him. "What's down there?"

Playing the light along the rock walls he answered, "Hallway it looks like. I don't see any doors from here. No end. Looks like there might be some writing up ahead." He looked up at her. "You coming?"

"Wouldn't miss it."

*******

They trudged through the sand without comment. Both were very glad they had decided on sturdy hiking boots for the trip. It was bad enough the wind was whipping the sand around them like deadly weapons, but having to cover any distance with sand in their shoes would have been intolerable. Occasionally he felt her reach out with her mind. For him it felt like a hand lightly touching the back of his head.

Her nose had bled once so far and she looked tired. Briefly he wondered if she were killing herself slowly by using the gifts she had. Would she burn out faster than if she didn't have them? Watching her plod along beside him made him wonder and worry. Once again the thought of her gifts rose to the forefront his mind. How had she gotten them? She said she thought she always had some but that they seemed stronger in this lifetime. He still wasn't sure he believed in lifetimes and reincarnation. But he did believe that she was special. Maybe this was some innate ability that rested in her. In her soul maybe. In her genes. Did something happen that caused her to be so different? A trauma her mother endured. An injury she sustained as a baby. The questions kept racing around in his head. He was so intent on them that he jumped when she spoke.

"You've got that deep thought look on your face," she said, gritting her teeth against the wind and sand.

"Sorry," he offered a slight smile. "Just lost in thought."

"Must be something terribly interesting."

Usually Raine could read what she called surface thoughts. The kinds of thoughts that passed through a person's mind nearly all the time. Not deep thoughts or those of deep concentration, just the ones that were every day type thoughts. He wasn't sure his thinking counted as the same thing, but it surprised him that she hadn't heard some of it.

"You can't hear them?" he asked carefully.

Seeming to think about the question, she tilted her head thoughtfully a moment, slowing slightly. Shaking her head, she answered, "No. Not like I normally can. If I try then I hear faint words. This place must muddy up my head." She shot him a sly grin. "Why, thinking evil thoughts about me that you don't want me to hear?"

Her words jolted him, but he didn't confess his line of thought. Instead he shook his head and kept moving forward.

"Just curious is all."

She might have responded but he stopped and that conversation ended. They both looked ahead thoughtfully. The rock was only a hundred yards ahead now. The dark spots they had thought to be caves appeared to be just that. From here they could see natural ledges and outcroppings from the rock. Most likely created by the blowing sand. A fleeting thought to what this jumble of rocks might have been before passed through her mind. She shook off the fear it created and closed her eyes.

Probing each of the caves quickly it only took a few seconds for her to look at Cade and point. "That one," she told him, pointing to one that was higher up than some of the others.

While not terribly high, it was higher than he wanted to climb in the wind. "How do we get up there?" he asked hoping against hope she might tell him there were stairs.

"Looks like we climb," she replied lightly.

"I was afraid you were going to say that," Cade muttered under his breath. But she didn't hear him. She was already studying the rock face.

*******

"More numbers," Jordan muttered with disgust. They had finally gotten a look at the writing that had been on the wall when they came in. It had been a letter-number sequence. Now in every other hall they found more of the same.

Eddie studied it a moment with a small scowl. The paint that had been used seemed to have reflective properties and it shone brightly in the beam from the flashlight.

"You know what it makes me think of?" he asked absently not really expecting an answer from her. "One of those military movies where the government has a secret underground installation where they're experimenting on aliens."

His flashlight whipped up to her face as hers snapped to his. Both wore nearly identical looks of uneasiness.

"You don't really think it's possible," she started, her voice full of disbelief. But at the very edges were undertones of worry.

"What, that the government knows about the Gua and they've been trying to use the alien technology themselves? That they've hung Foster out to dry even though they know he's right because aliens would cause a public panic?" He shrugged a shoulder casually. "I'm paranoid remember? Every good Paranoid has at least one pet government conspiracy theory they live by."

She looked at him steadily and asked seriously, "So do you buy this one?"

"I'm not sure yet," he replied solemnly. "I've had a lot of government theories in the past, but this" He blinked. "It blows my mind."

She shook her head without saying anything. After another half dozen halls with doors that led to vast empty rooms she grew frustrated.

"How the hell are we supposed to find the damn thing in this maze?" she grumbled hotly.

He cast a glance at her but said nothing. Instead he focused on the meter he held in his hand and the needle that hovered just near the red zone. When they came to yet another intersection of halls he stood in both directions a moment while Jordan continued to grumble.

"Come on," he told her after standing in the middle of all of them for half a minute. Still watching the meter, he took the left hall.

They heard the noise after fifty feet or so. A loud hum that sent vibrations through them. After another twenty feet they found the door.

Someone had pried it open, or at least tried. The gray steel door was dented and mangled. The crowbar that had presumably been used was on the floor only inches away.

"Someone wanted in there bad," Jordan noted mildly.

"Looks that way," he agreed. Licking his lips nervously he glanced once at Jordan who nodded at him and held her gun at the ready. With only a few more seconds of hesitation he reached out and grasped the knob. Wrenching it right then left he shook his head and looked back at her. "Either they never got in or they locked the door behind them."

Leveling the gun at the door she jerked her head to the right. Waiting until he had stepped clear she took solid aim and fired two rounds into the doorknob. Stainless steel fell in mangled pieces to the floor. Ignoring Eddie's comments about hoping no one was in there, she kicked the door open.

The room was dark but gave the impression of being large like all the others. The hum was even louder now and she could feel it in her teeth. One hand held the gun out while the other groped along the wall for a light switch. She heard Eddie mumble something beside her but ignored him.

Fluorescent lights flickered on over head and the hacker let out a low whistle. "Man, if only the Airstream could have held this kind of power."

Unlike the other rooms before it, this one was filled to capacity. Large metal boxes with blinking lights were in rows from floor to ceiling. All the electronic equipment made the room several degrees hotter than the rest of the place had been. Down the rows they could see an opening.

"These look like the supercomputers form the 70's and 80's," Jordan said uneasily and he nodded in agreement.

Cautiously they proceeded down the rows to the open area.

Jordan let out a gasp.

"Guess we know what happened to the Harker woman," he said softly