Her hands were raw and scraped. Abrasions stung like crazy but she dug her fingers into another crevice and pulled herself up. Stones tumbled down the rock face when she moved her foot and he swore.

"Sorry," she offered without looking down. "We're almost there."

The sting increased as rock added another cut to her palm but she tried to block it out. Tried to think about the kids that were oh so close now. Hell, she tried to think about anything except being stuck here forever. Just the thought was enough to make her palms sweat, which was distinctly bad considering she was sprawled across a rock at a good height. She had no real desire to plummet to her death.

Another curse from below made her look down. He was hanging by one hand, the other obviously having gotten a hold of too much loose rock judging by the rain of stone falling in front of him. One booted foot appeared to have a precarious hold on a ledge that might be described as tiny. The other hung in mid air as well.

"Cade!" she yelled. Fear started tearing at her belly. She couldn't be in this place alone.

"I'm fine!" he yelled back as he searched for another handhold. The fingers clinging precariously to the former mountain began to cramp and he swore under his breath. Just when he thought he'd plunge to his death his other hand found a hold. He breathed a big sigh of relief.

Above him he heard her call out, "Watch out!"

More rock bits cascaded down over him once again. He hung on tightly, waiting for the storm of gravel to pass. Scraping and a grunt above him. The rockslide slowed to a stop and he looked up in time to see her pull herself into the cave above them. Quickly she was turned around and offering him a hand. He grasped it tightly and climbed with his feet as she helped haul him up.

They stood, brushing themselves off without a word. When they turned they were faced with two boys holding crude wooden spears.

Raine gasped slightly in surprise. Cade tried to push her behind him but she batted his hand away. Gathering herself she stepped forward with a shaky smile.

"Tim Noah and Johnny Firth I believe," she said smoothly.

The boys blinked at each other and lowered the weapons slowly.

"Who are you?" Tim demanded cautiously.

"Friends," Raine assured him. "I'm Raine and this is-" she stumbled over the name then finally managed. "Michael." She recovered well. "We're here to take you home."

"How'd you get here?" the other boy asked suspiciously.

"Same way you did," Cade replied easily. "Through one of those portals." He paused a moment. "We've seen them before."

The boys studied the both of them carefully. Seeming to accept their story, they both nodded.

"So you're not stuck here like us?" Tim asked with a mixture of curiosity and excitement in his voice.

"Not exactly," Raine told him. "But we don't have a lot of time. Are the others here too?"

Once again both boys nodded. Almost as one they turned and started down a tunnel. Tim paused once to look over his shoulder and motion them to follow. They looked at each other then followed the boys.

"How many of you are here?" she questioned as they walked. Footsteps echoed around them making their voices seem strange.

Johnny looked over his shoulder for a second then answered, "Sixteen of us all together."

She breathed a sigh of relief but it caught in her throat when she realized, "Sixteen?" she echoed tossing a glance to Foster. There were only fifteen missing by their count.

Before either could say any more the tunnel widened and they were entering another cave.

*******

Jordan knelt next to what was left of the body. She tried to breathe shallowly but the smell of decomposition still made her want to gag.

The body was on its back. The face of the other woman was frozen in a startled expression as it started blankly up at the ceiling. Decomposition was milder than it might have been thanks to the cooler underground air. But that wasn't enough to keep the missing parts of her from leaving hideous wounds behind. She was missing her right leg from just below the knee. Also missing was the right arm and most of the right shoulder.

"These wounds look cauterized," Jordan noted grimly. "You think someone killed her for getting too close?" She looked up at Eddie.

He was studying the body from a distance. After considering the question a moment he slowly shook his head. "No, she wasn't killed by anyone." The words were shaky.

"Something killed her," she pointed out with a note of sarcasm in her voice.

"Yeah, something not someone." He swallowed hard.

She frowned at him. "Eddie? What are you talking about?"

The fear in his eyes was obvious. "I think she found a portal," he told her haltingly. "But she didn't make it through before it closed."

"And nearly cut her in half," the red head finished for him. "Could that happen to Cade?"

A small shrug as eyes remained fixed on the body. "Possibly. If it started to close before they were all out" the words faded out.

"Any of them could end up like this," she surmised.

"Exactly," Eddie agreed. Then with a growing sense of urgency, "Come on. We've got to find the power source and see if we can stabilize it long enough for them to come through."

*******

The two boys turned around to face them and fifteen pairs of eyes were staring at them. Relief flooded Raine to see that most of them appeared to be ok. A few cuts and bruises, some dirt, but ok. She shrugged out of her backpack and set it down to the floor. Kneeling, she unzipped it and drug out the bag of water and a small collapsible cup. Handing them to Tim she told him softly to see who might need it. Cade had knelt as well and was dragging out a first aid kit.

Moving to the first scrape he saw, he sat next to a small girl and offered her a gentle smile. "Hey there," he said softly, "Can I take a look at that?" She contemplated him a full minute then nodded. Trying to keep emotion at bay he ripped open an alcohol pad and gingerly swabbed the abrasion.

Raine looked around the cave. Walls sloped up high leaving the room with an open feeling. Sand had been packed against one wall with a few blankets to create beds. If she listened carefully she could hear the trickle of water not too far off. Light came in from several small cracks in the domed ceiling. Banged and battered pots and pans sat against another wall full of what she assumed to be rainwater. She wondered if they had gone into the remnants of the city they had spotted to find the things that obviously didn't originate from the cave. Watching a moment as the older boy rationed out water and Cade tended to wounds she tried to decide how long to give them before they needed to go back to the portal. They really didn't have much time.

Tim approached her with the nearly empty water container and the cup. "It's almost gone," he told her as he handed the items back to her.

"It's ok. We've got more and we won't have to be here much longer." Silently she hoped her last words wouldn't be a lie. She looked around the room again then back at the boy. "You said there were sixteen. There's only fifteen here."

"Eric isn't well enough to come out," the boy replied. He touched her hand then turned away and moved towards the back of the cave. A small tunnel opened on the back side of the cave and she followed him as he slipped through. "He took care of us when we first came but he's been sick."

She had no time to ask questions before she was in another room, this one much smaller than the last. The boy was older, but no more than eighteen or nineteen. His dirty blonde hair was long, obviously not having been cut in quite a long time.. Features were gaunt with illness and she couldn't be sure what he had looked like before but something about him was familiar. His eyes were closed as if he were sleeping peacefully but his labored breathing told another story. A blanket was pulled up to his chest and one was under him covering the inches of sand he was laying on. Slowly his head turned and he opened his eyes to look at her. Soft green was dull with pain and she felt a sharp stab of guilt. What had she told Cade? If twelve hours made things different

Moving across the room in only a few steps she sat next to him. She smoothed hair away from his face and offered a smile. "Can I get you anything?" she asked gently. Her mind was already roaming his body looking for the cause of his illness, seeking it out. There had to be something they could do.

He shook his head weakly. It took more than a few tries before he was able to speak. When he did, his voice was raspy and worn. Pain tinged the words. "You're here to take them home?"

She nodded once. "I hope to."

"They don't belong here," he said. "They need to go home."

"What about you?" she asked.

"This is home," he told her slowly. At first she didn't understand, but as he spoke again it became clear. "Is it still green there?"

"Green?"

"You still have trees and grass?"

Raine swallowed hard. "Yeah, we still have those."

"They took them away from us." Pain shot through him and he tensed. "When we began to revolt they started destroying everything."

"The Gua?"

The nod he gave her sent more pain through him and he winced. "They tried to destroy us all, but they failed. He didn't let them kill us all."

A shiver of premonition ran down her spine. "He?"

"The Messiah," he told her with a faint smile. "He told us that even if we died at least we hadn't let them own us. He was right. Even those of us who lost loved ones knew he was right. The Twice Blessed Man was always right."

Just then Cade cleared the mouth of the cave and the young man's eyes grew wide. "It's you," he whispered.

He had heard their words as they echoed eerily down the tunnel. With a sad smile he sat next to Raine and touched the boy's shoulder. "I'm here."

Tears welled in green eyes. "I never thought I'd see you again. You died when I was young." He swallowed and licked dry lips. "Has it happened where you come from?"

The question was so full of hope that Cade might have lied to him even if their world has been as bleak as his. He silently thanked whatever powers that be were out there that he didn't have to. A real smile crossed his features.

"We stopped it." The words made Eric smile. "We killed Mabus and the Second Wave never came."

"I knew you could." The boy obviously believed in him more than he had believed in himself at times. "I wish I could see it. I was still very young when the invasion happened. I don't remember how it was before then."

Foster nearly protested but knew it would do no good. The boy knew he was dying and he knew there was nothing that could be done. Cade had learned that sometimes all you could do was accept the inevitable. It didn't matter how much you railed against it, it would happen anyway. Useless words rose in him but he didn't have a chance to say them. Instead Raine spoke.

"I can help you see it."

Eric turned hopeful eyes to her. "You can?"

A nod and then she closed her eyes. Fingers rested lightly against his forehead and the air in the room rippled. Within seconds it began to fill with small flashes of light, like fireflies all around them. Flashes of everything from deep eggplant purple to lilac surrounded them. The scene faded in slowly and within a few minutes they were all standing in the park Cade and Raine had been sitting in only hours before. Birds called from the trees and rushing water sounded steadily in the distance. A gentle breeze blew across them bringing scents from all around. Fresh cut grass, pine trees, flowers. The sun shone brightly above them, the light kissing their skin with gentle warmth. Vivid black and orange from a butterfly that darted around them stood out against the green of the grass.

They stood in the grass and Eric turned a circle, his face tilted towards the sun. A full smile filled his face and as Raine looked at him she suddenly knew why he was familiar. The illusion flickered slightly, but the boy didn't see it. Cade looked at her worriedly but she gave him a smile.

The sun began to set around them casting warm oranges, reds and yellows across them. The young man watched with wide eyes as it slowly sank behind the trees. When dark came the fantasy faded and they were back in the cave.

"Thank you," he whispered in awe. "It's the most beautiful thing I've ever seen."

"You're welcome," she told him softly. "I wish we could take you so you could see it for real."

His smile was warmer than the sun had been. "That was perfect."

Words escaped her as tears welled in her eyes. She brushed a strand of hair away from his face and kissed his forehead. "Call for me when you see the light," she whispered sadly. "I'll hear you."

"Thank you," he murmured.

Life was slipping away from the boy rapidly and she knew he had more to say. But it wasn't for her to hear. Rising, she wiped the trickle of blood from her nose and turned back towards the other cave.

Eric and Cade watched her go. The minutes ticked by but Cade wasn't sure what to say. He was never comfortable with the role he had obviously been meant to fulfill in the fate of humankind in their fight with the Gua. It was the boy who broke the silence.

"She is beautiful," he murmured. Death was creeping in. "I never got to see her as a child. She died giving birth to me."

The words startled Cade. He opened his mouth to speak, but shock stole the sound from him.

"You told me about her many times after that, but I never imagined." He trailed off for a few seconds as his breathing grew more labored. "Even pictures never made me understand." He smiled weakly at Foster. "Now I do. I understand why you wanted her to stay after she was shot." His hand reached out to grasp Cade's. Green eyes cleared suddenly. "I wish I could go back with you. Be the son I never got to be to the both of you." The hand of the Reaper was upon him. "I love you Dad."