Ah. . . another update. . . sure it's short as hell, and took me over two weeks to do it, but hey, beggars can't be choosers. Anywho. . . read, and enjoy

* * *

Jet opened the door. Jet closed the door. Jet opened the door. Jet closed the door.

He'd gone up, and searched the second floor, and the third. . . all without any luck. Well, he supposed, he did have some luck. At least the stairwells weren't under surveillance, and he had yet to run into any security. . . but truth be told, the complete absence of life, aside from the various plant specimens he found he found in the labs on the upper floors, was a little disconcerting. Wasn't Vanhausen supposed to be building and army here? Where the hell was it?

And then he'd found it.

As he'd ascended the stairs from the third floor, he could hear a faint humming which grew louder as he made his way up. He found himself tensing involuntarily as he reached the door to the fourth floor, and was bitterly amused by the fact that the hand he extended the turn the handle was trembling. Perfect.

He turned the nob, and pushed the door open. The humming got instantly louder, but the source was still not visible.

Jet stepped through, cautiously, and stole a glance in down the hallway that stretched in either direction and seemed to curve away from him.

Jet now stole a glance at the map, punching a few buttons until it showed him the proper floor. As he'd thought, the hallway stretched around in a big circle, and there was only one door to the room contained on the other side. Jet stepped forward, and pressed an ear onto the wall.

Yes, the hum was coming from in there.

He sighed, chided himself for his trepidation, and began moving toward the entrance to the room.

And now here he was. Opening the door, and closing it again. Over and over. In complete shock, and only half able to believe what he was seeing.

***

Faye was beginning to curse her instincts. After much trial and error, she'd managed to find herself down to the first basement, and that's where her luck had run out.

She was now totally lost, unable to find her way either forward or backward, and starting to get pretty stressed. It was only a matter of time, she knew, before she started making mistakes in her frustration. And then she'd be caught.

Faye stopped where she was on this thought and closed her eyes. She willed her anger and panic away, and was shocked to find it actually working. She felt the tension begin to leave her shoulders, and was at once much more centered and composed. She was ready to move forward, ready to go on.

She felt again for that pull, that intangible thread that had lead her on initially. And then she felt it.

Not the tug of her instincts. The barrel of a gun, pressed behind her ear.

"Oh, fuck," she muttered.

The amused chuckle behind her could have belonged to no one but Eve.

"We meet again. . . it seems like you're always getting in my way."

Before she could send Eve a snappy reply, Faye felt the gun lifted away, and returned a moment later with force. The next thing she felt was herself floating, and then slipping into darkness.

***

Jet stood just inside the circular room, having just convinced himself that no, his eyes were not deceiving him, and, yes, he was going to have to take care of this ASAP.

Jet had just discovered why they had yet to run into the army VanHausen was growing. Because each and every one of the troops had been placed in stasis, and the, what must be thousands of stasis pods that lined the walls of the room ,and were suspended from racks that ran to the ceiling, were what had been causing that eerie humming as he'd traversed the stairs.

"Too bad Faye was so God damned stingy with that C4," he muttered, as he sat himself down at the computer terminal in the corner, and proceeded to see if he could find any way to disable these pods.

***

Corbin eyed the complex in front of him with a barely suppressed shiver. On the surface, it was nothing like Lansing-Medcalf, but underneath. . . somehow, it still felt like the lab.

It probably didn't do wonders for his state of mind that he was appraising this scene with the woman he'd spent a month running from. Eve. And he wondered, not for the first time, what exactly had driven him to seek out his shadow, and follow her here. He also wondered if maybe that drugging he'd gotten in the jazz bar had caused some permanent damage. . . or maybe it was just the natural psychological disturbance that occurred when one shared living quarters with a Ms. Faye Valentine.

Corbin winced at the thought of her, and what she'd say about his irresponsibility if she were here. She'd probably call him a lunkhead. Lunkhead? Where the hell had that come from? He didn't think Faye'd ever called him that before.

Oh, right. Spike.

Corbin shook his head, scattering all thoughts of Faye to the winds, and focused instead on Eve. She was talking to him, telling him about the garden, and how each of the plants had been specially grown in the labs located inside the building, and implying a lot about what else was being grown there. Corbin was surprised at how much of the information she gave him he processed, seeing as how he'd only been half-listening.

"Now, follow me," Eve said, and she began walking up the path.

Corbin followed a little reluctantly. Jesus, but he was a stupid jerk. He wondered again what the hell he was doing there.

And how the hell were they supposed to get in, he thought, there was no door that he could see, and he found himself more apprehensive with each step he took. Of course, no sooner did the thought enter his head, than a blank panel of wall slid open to reveal the hidden doorway.

Eve stepped aside, motioning him in, and then followed. He didn't see the wolfish grin on her face.

Corbin blinked several times, as his eyes adjusted to the low light, before he shot Eve a glance. She simply shrugged her pale shoulders,

"You get used to it," she dropped casually, then her manner changed. From relaxed to alert, from nonchalant to focused, "now come, and be quick, Father has been waiting for you."

And with that she began the long, winding descent to the belly of the beast. To Father.

It was difficult. Mind bogglingly difficult. But Corbin managed to remember every twist, every turn, ever long dark hallway they passed through as she lead him forward. And there where a lot of all three. Obviously she was trying to get him lost, he mused, as they took four right turns, and ended up in the same hallway they'd just left.

And that nagging suspicion was back. That annoying tickle at the back of his mind that he was being sought out. He'd become accustomed to it, with Eve breathing over his shoulder, but this was different. With Eve after him, it had been with him always, an unacknowledgeable fear, a heightened paranoia. Now his fear wasn't for himself, it was for the shadow that was following him, the non-existent shadow. He felt a genuine terror for the fate of the one who pursued him. She was in terrible danger.

She?

He pulled to a stop. Faye? No. she couldn't possibly, and even if she had, how would he know?

He shook himself as Eve shot him a quizzical look, before stepping over and roughly shoving him in front of her, and into the lead where she could keep an eye on him. He didn't see her glance thoughtfully over her shoulder, her fine brows knitting together, so he couldn't be shocked by the murderous intent in her eyes.

* * * alright, finally back to Corbin. I suspect that the next chapter will be mostly from his point of view. sorry it's short, but. well, I'm running out of excuses.