Corbin led the way through the labyrinth, navigating underground passages that he'd never before set eyes on like it was second nature. He knew where to go without any prompting from the figure behind him, and that was more than a little disturbing.

He recognized this feeling, this unconscious knowing without knowing. It was like this when he was first in the cockpit of the swordfish II. It was like this when he fought, hands and feet moving of their own accord, remembering moves that he'd never taught them. It was like this when he bickered with Faye, as though it were just the natural order of things. It was like all of these things, and subtly different. Those were all reactions based on residual memories of Spike, they had a personal feel, an emotion behind them. When he committed these acts, he felt the intrusion of a foreign mind, a mind that intruded so often now that it hardly seemed foreign at all. Another extension of himself. . . with it's very own bad attitude.

No, this was more like. . . instinct. Instinct in the most basic sense of the word. Like the way a freshly hatched Monarch butterfly takes its thousand mile journey for the first time, and never once gets lost. Such simple creatures, Monarch butterflies, beautiful, and simple. Not enough nerve cells in their entire bodies to fit on the head of a pen, yet they never have to be told where to go for the family reunion.

That was him. Onward to his family reunion, navigating by information placed in his subconscious by his 'father.'

He was contemplating this, and didn't notice at first when they came to a stop.

"What are you waiting for," Eve had come up beside him, and out of the corner of his eye, he could see her looking at him expectantly, and motioning forward.

He realized that they had come to a large door, and he wasn't sure exactly when it had happened, but the hall through which they had been passing had opened up to accommodate it. Ceilings at least twenty-five feet high, and arching down into the walls.

"Go on, Subject 26, give it a knock. It's not every day you meet your maker. And its even rarer that you'd live to tell about it."

Despite the whole mess, his only coherent thought was 'how can a genetically modified superior being have such a corny sense of humor?' A part of him realized that he must be in shock.

"Go on," she repeated, impatiently. And so he reached up his hand, and brought his knuckles into sharp contact with the metal. Once. Twice. As his hand descended for the third time, the whole room gave a shudder, and the door slid up into that magnificent arching ceiling.

The door opened onto a narrow catwalk, and far out, he could see an island of stone rising up out of the pit. It vaguely reminded him of his first dream of Eve, and he shuddered. No, don't think of that. Back to what was immediate. What was pressing. The catwalk. Corbin had to wonder why anyone would make such a huge door to open to such a small space. . . but only for a moment, because a second later, Eve had shoved him forward roughly.

"Go, and meet Daddy, I have some business to take care of."

He didn't relax as he heard the door slide shut again, and he knew Eve had left him. If anything, it just made him more nervous. Eve was his enemy, to be sure, but at least she was an enemy he knew, one he'd seen. What lay before him, that was a different story.

He started forward. . . not like he had much choice, after all. Easy measured steps on what basically boiled down to a two-foot wide slab of steel extending fifty feet over a bottomless drop. Nothing to be worried about.

Step by step, he approached the platform and the closer he got, the harder it was to breath. With a mild amount of shock he realized he was going into a panic. Oh, come on, he'd just been led into the bowels of hell by his own personal demon to meet Satan himself. . . no need to panic.

He paused a moment, and doubled over. No! He was not going to let this overcome him. He was going to confront Dr VanHausen, and he was going to walk away from this with his freedom. Or not at all, he added bitterly. Oddly enough, it was this though that spurred him on.

All he'd ever wanted was freedom.

Was it too much to ask?

He reached the platform after what seemed like an eternity. It was empty, barren. For a moment, he wasn't sure what to do, but then that same tugging that had enabled him to find this place took over again, and he approached a slightly discolored semicircle of stone. He stepped forward, and knelt on it, brushing dust from a hand shaped indentation.

The front door, he thought, and placed his palm in the center of the indentation. The whole cavern seemed to shudder, and the platform began to descend.

*

*

*

Jet bit his lip in concentration.

He'd have to find Faye. . . fifteen minutes? They'd have to retrieve Corbin. . . Twenty? Then they'd have to fight their way out. . . twenty eight? That was sixty three minutes. . .

"Too long," he muttered. "Ah, hell," his fingers flew on the terminal keys, and he jumped up, hitting the enter key.

"Twenty minutes to systems failure," came a feminine voice.

"I suppose that's just going to have to do. . . let's hope Corbin's got half of Spike's luck as well."

*

*

*

Faye was really getting tired of this whole 'knocked unconscious' thing. She'd been out cold no less than three times since her path had crossed Corbin's, and she was beginning to think that fellow was bad luck.

"oh. . ." she sat up with a groan, to find herself staring down the barrel of her own gun. Sweet fucking Christ, but those Automags were impressive. She'd had no idea.

"Welcome back to the world of the living, for the time being."

Faye's eyes shot from the gun to the woman behind it, and she bristled. Eve.

"You bitch, once I kill you, I'm going to have to scrub that handle to get your filth off of it."

"You really don't know when to shut up, do you?" It riled Faye that Eve sounded so God damned amused. And it crossed her mind that the flame-haired woman was only toying with her. Faye hated the feeling of being toyed with. It was how Spike made her feel, though honestly, he'd never meant to.

Her heart constricted painfully. Spike. The Jericho. Where was it?

She looked around frantically, and Eve held up her other hand, "looking for this?" she asked, waving the gun tauntingly in front of the other woman.

Normally, Faye's not a stupid woman. Normally, Faye knows better than to pick fights she can't win, but normally Faye wasn't seeing red. She launched herself at Eve, and got a bullet in the gut for her trouble. Doubled over at Eve's feet, clutching the slow bleeding wound in her stomach, she rasped out, through the pain, anger, and anguish, "Give it back!"

Eve's reply was a cruel laugh. "I suppose I should finish you off. . ." she seemed to ponder this. "No, wait, I have a better idea."

She shoved the Jericho into her belt, and pulled Faye up sharply with her freed hand, and dragged her down the hall.

Faye watched the blood ooze from her wound, and down her leg, to the heel of her shoe, where it left a thin line of crimson on the stone. For some reason, she was reminded of Hansel and Gretel. A trail of bread crumbs. Too bad she wasn't going to live to follow it home.

*

*

*

"Come in, my child, I have been waiting for you for quite some time."

And Corbin followed the voice to its source.

The platform had descended all the way to the floor of the great pit. Corbin couldn't be sure, exactly, but, he had to say it was a good. . . thousand feet, maybe? Or maybe it had just seemed like it. He'd felt like he was descending forever. Now he was stepping up onto a platform, where a what looked like a throne was placed.

The voice was coming from somewhere beyond that.

"Sit," the voice said, as he drew even with the throne, and Crobin did as he was bid. . .from somewhere off in the shadows, he heard a low chuckle reach his ears.

"Look my son, this is your castle. This is your throne. Now that you are by my side, I can awaken the rest of my children, your brothers and sisters, and together, we can rule the solar system."

"You're insane, no one can rule the solar system. . . not even the syndicates have that kind of power, and certainly not the government.'

"We can rule it, once we kill all the inferiors. . ."

Corbin's throat went dry, "You're talking wholesale genocide!"

"Yes, I am." And a shuffling of feet, he was coming closer, and finally stepping into the light, and Corbin laid eyes on the man responsible for his existence for the first time.

He was shocked. He wasn't sure what he was expecting, but not this. Dr. VanHausen was a completely ordinary looking man. Thirty-eight, maybe a little older, balding, with a slight paunch. Corbin had half expected him to step forward covered in black scales, leathery pinions rising from his shoulder blades, and horns jutting from his head.

He was normal, perhaps, if one disregarded the crazy look in his eye.

"And we're starting with this one."

Oh no, oh God. He knew it was even before she was tossed into the light, curling up in pain that Corbin felt he almost shared. Her plum head pitched forward so far her forehead almost touched the ground. Her hands, soaked in blood, and clutched around her shivering body.

Eve stepped forward behind her, and raised a gun. A familiar looking gun. . . where had he seen that gun before?

"I wanted you to see this," she hissed seductively at him, and Father let out a barking laugh.

*

*

*

Ed was going crazy. . . well, crazier, anyway. This was killing her. Normally she could at least get some idea of a missions progress, but now. . . She hadn't heard so much as a peep from any of her wayward team members, and she was getting anxious. It was sheer willpower that kept her from charging in there after them.

What was going on?

*

*

*

I had no idea it had been a month since I updated this. . . sorry guys. . . uh, guys. . . put down the clubs. . . and the tar. . . please?

Anyway, we are really close to the end here, and I know I'm such a jerk for writing such short chapters.