AUTHOR'S NOTE: Hi everyone, I'm really sorry that I haven't updated in months and months, but it's been really hard for me. College has been taking up all of my time, and so I can't devote as much continuous time onto a chapter as I would like. This story is my baby though, and I have not abandoned it. It's coming to a close - I just have to figure out how to end it exactly. After building up so much, I think I need a stupendous ending that I don't think I can give it justice right now. But that doesn't mean that I won't finish. Summer is coming up and I will have more time to devote to it. I think about this story all the time (especially in lecture when it's boring) and hopefully will finish soon. Thanks for everyone who has reviewed this story and liked it and supported me. I wholeheartedly appreciate it. I don't have the next chapter written, but when I do, it will go up immediately. Sorry about the delays, I just want the story to come out how I feel it should. Thanks everyone!

Logan knocked on Hayden's door two days later. He was amazed that Hayden had found out information about the Familiars and Senator McKinley already. It was still uncomfortable that Hayden knew he was Eyes Only. Where had he not covered his tracks? He had, that was the thing. Hayden was just that good. It was comforting and a little disconcerting to be working with someone with that much ability.

Hayden opened the door, looking scruffy and worn. "Mr. Cale, hello," he said tiredly, allowing Logan to come into his apartment.

"I was surprised to hear your message about finding information already. You've exhausted all possible areas regarding the Familiars and Senator McKinley?" Logan asked.

Hayden smirked. "You'd be surprised how fast I work if my ass is possibly in jeopardy," he replied, a hint of paranoia in his voice.

"Excuse me?" Logan asked. He didn't understand what Hayden had to do with any of this.

"Well, first, you'd be interested to know that Senator McKinley is a Familiar," Hayden started.

Of course, Logan thought. That cleared up everything, almost. "That is interesting," Logan commented, still waiting for Hayden to explain his comment about his own ass.

Hayden sat down at his computer and inserted a CD. Files and files of data appeared on the screen. Hayden clicked on a few and began speaking.

"Secondly, the Familiars are a cult of super-human people, but probably you knew this. But what I doubt you knew was that they are in trouble. By trying to perfect their race, they have evolved so much that it is very difficult to procreate with a regular human being. They are almost a separate species from us lowly humans because their DNA is becoming too different. Therefore it is harder for them to make matches to women or men that will successfully make these super babies. Trying to procreate with each other doesn't turn out successful, similar to how incest produces babies with health issues like anemia." Pictures of deformed, underweight babies came onto the screen.

Logan grimaced and listened attentively as Hayden continued.

"So basically, they can't screw regular humans and they can't screw themselves to make babies. They thought about the transgenetics, but transgenetics stand for everything they don't want. So basically they'd rather die out than screw a transgenetic. So they're still trying to find something in the long run, but they need a quick fix for now. And that quick fix is her," Hayden said.

Picture after picture of Kris came onto the screen. Pictures of her while she worked, while she was grocery shopping, while she was petting a dog on the street. There were pictures of her with Alec riding bikes during work together, her with Max and O.C. and Sketchy at The Crash, her with Logan along the street, and there was one of her leaving The Crash with Hayden. The file on her explained her relationship with Sean, her arrival in Seattle, her job at Jam Pony, and her relationship with X5-494 that was believed to be romantic.

"As you can see, I'm a little concerned about this," Hayden said, pointing his mouse's cursor to the picture of him and Kris. "She said her name was Tammy when I met her, and obviously you know that's not true since you know her."

Logan nodded absently as he tried to process all this information. "I still don't understand," he said.

"Well, she's their...how do I put it? She's their universal mate. According to her DNA, she could mate with any one of the male Familiars and create another Familiar. She's had the two miscarriages that are customary to have for ritualistic purposes, and now she is ready to make their babies if they have it their way," Hayden explained.

Logan shook his head. "The Elders put her with Sean."

Hayden knew what Logan was talking about. "Well yes, but upon another review of the DNA of all the people they match up with because they are so desperate, they found that she matched up with anyone. Sorta like Type O blood. If you look at the pictures and dates on the files they have of her, they are rather recent. Most of this information appeared only a few months ago, suggesting that they didn't know until just now how vital she is to their preservation."

"No wonder they haven't tried to kill her," Logan mumbled. This was why White and the Familiars hadn't tried to take revenge after she killed Sean. What was one dead Familiar if she could save them by making baby after baby? Logan cringed at the sickness of this whole thing. Kris was just a girl trying to live her life...

"Anyway, there's a shitload of info that I found. But I don't want any part in this. If something goes down, I don't exist. It's bad enough that they have a picture of me, it's just a good thing they don't know what I really do for a living," Hayden said, handing the CD to Logan.

"Thanks Hayden," Logan said appreciatively, anxious to get back to his apartment to view all of the CD.

"You're welcome, Mr. Cale. It's been a real honor working for you, but be careful, these Familiars are everywhere," Hayden replied as Logan walked towards the door.

Logan nodded and left.

Logan entered his apartment quietly. When he left, Max was asleep. She rarely slept and he was glad that she was finally getting some rest. No matter what she said, she was getting worn from all this work and hiding.

He took off his jacket and thought of how Kris must not know any of the information Hayden had found. He had thought her involvement with the Familiars was over once Sean died, but it was just beginning. If they were to get her...she would become nothing more than a breeding machine. He owed too much to Kris to let that happen to her.

He walked over to his bedroom and watched Max sleep from the doorway. He thought about what would happen if she were captured by the Familiars. They would study her, test her, experiment with her like they would a lab rat to try and find the transgenetics' weaknesses. Logan gritted his teeth. He lost her once to that, he wouldn't lose her again. He refused.

"Are you just going to stand there?" Max asked sleepily.

Logan smiled. "I didn't want to wake you up. You need the rest," he said softly, coming to the bed and lying down next to her. She hadn't slept in days and contrary to what she said, it had been taking its toll on her body.

She shifted in the sheets so that she was facing Logan fully. He stroked her bare back soothingly, enjoying the brief moment until he had to tell her all he had learned.

Max frowned. "What is it?" she asked, noticing his sad eyes as he was lost in his thoughts.

"There's a lot of work we have to do, right now."

Alec woke up on a hard cement floor completely sore. He had a terrible headache and tried to stand up, but his head hit the top of something only to make his headache worse. He returned to a kneeling position and looked around.

He was in a cage. He was in a cage. Again. Only this time, he wasn't hanging in the air like he had been before when White had caught him. It looked about four feet high and was really cramped. He was going to kill Cece when he found her. What the hell is going on? He tried to loosen the bars, but the steel they were made of wouldn't budge. He pounded against the bars furiously knowing that it wouldn't help.

He looked around seeing a few folding chairs, a low table, a television, and numerous crates around the warehouse. A door opened and he turned to look at who entered. It was Cece with Agent White.

"Ah, 494, good to see you awake. Who knew you'd be out for an entire afternoon because of a few stun guns?" Agent White said, an evil smile gracing his lips.

"To what do I owe this pleasure?" Alec asked, his voice dripping with sarcasm. He tried to look as menacingly as he could, but he was in a cage after all.

White only laughed. "473 was kind enough to lead us to you. The X-series have been a very hard crowd to catch lately," he said, giving an appreciative glance at Cece.

"What do you want with me?" Alec asked.

White laughed harder this time. "My, aren't we chauvinistic. You think you have something I desire? You are just one of the many freaks we need to destroy. Our past history, however, makes this catch all the more…satisfying.

"So kill me already," Alec dared. He'd rather die than be stuck in a cage like an animal.

"No, we're going to transport you to our facility where we can study you," White replied, a smile on his face once again. "Hope you enjoy your stay." He left then through the same door, leaving Cece to guard the cage. She sat down and turned on the small television.

A shiver ran down Alec's spine at the thought of being probed and dissected... again. He thought all of that was in his past. "Cece, why are you doing this?" he asked. She had to understand what this whole thing was doing to him. She had gone through the tests and probing just like he had.

"White caught me, Alec. This is just survival now," she replied coldly, still watching the television.

"Survival? You honestly think this prick is gonna let you go after you do whatever dirty work he makes you do?" Alec asked angrily.

Cece tore her eyes away from the television and looked at him. "I don't have a choice," she replied.

"There's always a choice," he insisted, gripping the bars in front of him with anger. Suddenly he remembered Kris and how she had said when she was yelling at him for sleeping with the woman in front of him. Kris was dominating his psyche so much that he was even using her phrases.

"I'm doing what you did when you got caught by White," she retorted. "So don't go taking the moral high-ground and pull all this guilt shit. You didn't do any better."

Alec sat back in the cage, a pained but furious expression on his face. "I'm not that person anymore," he said gravely.

Cece looked at him and began laughing hysterically. "Alec, don't kid yourself. You think that falling in love with some uptight bitch and all that fluffy shit will honestly change who you are on the inside…deep inside? I mean, you showed me just a month ago that you have…baser instincts than that," Cece said, giving him the once over as she licked her lower lip.

Alec didn't reply. He didn't look at her.

White came back into the large warehouse-like room. "We're transporting tomorrow night. Are you excited, 494?" he teased maliciously, bending down so he could be eye-level with Alec.

Alec didn't reply again.

"What's wrong? Nothing to say? No sarcastic remarks? How odd. 494, I expected you to put up more of a fight than this," White said, mildly disappointed.

Alec evened his breathing, trying to calm the rage that was boiling within him. All he needed was one weakness on White's part and he could try to get out of this mess. He just had to be patient. They wouldn't take him to some lab. He would gladly die instead.

"Hm, well, we can try to get a reaction out of you," White mused. He motioned over two of his men who had makeshift electric paddles made from hairbrushes. Every time they rubbed them together, sparks from the brushes would fall onto the ground. Alec could tell from the readings on the machine that it was on a high voltage. He unconsciously gulped. Yes, he was trained to deal with torture from sadistic pricks like White, but that didn't mean it didn't affect him. That didn't mean he didn't feel the pain.

Cece looked a bit alarmed. "Is that really necessary?" she commented, trying to sound as casual as possible. She really didn't want to see Alec cooked, she liked the guy after all.

White looked annoyed and turned around to face Cece who was sitting in the chair still. "I didn't ask for you to speak. In fact, why are you still here?"

Cece's eyebrows raised slightly with surprise. "Are you saying I can leave?"

White paused before saying, "No." Two other Familiars pulled Cece from her chair and was going to escort her to the car to take her to the laboratory for dissection, but as soon as she realized what was happening she screamed and fought. She managed to fight them off for a while, punching and kicking furiously. White watched with an amused, sick smile on his face. Finally he took out a gun and shot Cece. Alec gripped the bars of his cage as he saw Cece's body jerk back and then fall to the ground, dead. He looked up at White furious and shocked. Sure he hated Cece with a firry passion, but he didn't want White to kill her.

"She was getting on my nerves," White said flippantly as the two Familiars who were fighting Cece dragged her body away.

Before Alec could even process what had just happened he felt volts of electricity surge painfully through his body. He screamed with agony and then suddenly it was over. He collapsed onto the warehouse floor, twitching uncontrollably in the aftermath of the pain.

A cell phone rang. Alec realized that he didn't have his cell phone anymore and looked up from his prone state at White who was holding it in his hand.

"Ah, look at this. Kris is calling you," White said, amused, as he looked at the Caller ID.

Alec's heart stopped beating for a second, he swore it did. Through the pain and confusion, a single question came forth. Why was she calling him? And then he got furious.

"Don't you dare talk to her," Alec warned as he still twitched.

White had a hard time keeping a straight face as he looked at the jerking animal in the cage giving him a warning. "You forget who's the one in the cage," White teased. He pressed the "talk" button on the cell phone.

Kris sat on the couch and watched a movie. She wasn't really watching the movie though. Her eyes shifted to the phone for the fiftieth time that day and the thousandth time that month. She wanted to hear his voice. God, she was being pathetic. But she really wanted to hear the smirk in his voice and how his voice cracked every so slightly as he said 'I love you' to her. A soft smile spread across her lips. She missed him.

And a phone call wasn't a really big deal. The conversation could probably be light and maybe a bit flirty. It would just open the doors again, get them talking. Maybe they could start over. No, Kris didn't want to start over, she just wanted to talk to him.

She stared at the phone again and quickly grabbed it, dialing the number before her resolve failed her.

"Hello, Kris," the voice on the other end said. It was a cold, arrogant voice.

"This isn't Alec," she replied, not knowing what to say. Where was Alec?

"Very observant."

"Who the hell are you?" Kris asked angrily.

"Aw, Kris, you don't remember me?"

Kris' mind raced as she thought about who the person could be. And then it hit her. Memories flooded her, and she could barely breath.

"White," she croaked out.

She could almost hear him smile that evil smile. "Very good."

"Where's Alec?" she asked angrily, unable to keep the fear from seeping into her voice.

"He's a bit…preoccupied at the moment," White replied.

"Damn it, White! What are you doing?" Kris cried out over the phone.

Alec could hear the tinny sound of her voice over the phone as she shouted at White. She sounded so scared. He hated White for making her so scared.

"Now, now, you don't want to say anything that might jeopardize 494's well-being, do you?" White teased, looking at Alec with an amused expression on his face. He was enjoying torturing Kris.

"For all I know, Alec could be dead," she spat back over the phone. As soon as she said those words, she regretted it. The image of a bloody, beaten, and dead Alec flashed into her mind and she almost dropped the phone with fear. It was too much like that dream she had so many months ago.

"Well, I guess I'll just have to convince you otherwise," White replied, looking at Alec. "Say something to her, 494," he commanded, holding the phone away from his ear. If Alec said something loudly, Kris could have heard him faintly.

But instead, he said nothing.

"C'mon, I'm being generous here. You'll never see her again, might as well say something," White reasoned.

Alec remained silent. He didn't want Kris to know he was there, in pain. It would be too upsetting for the both of them.

"You liar, I don't know how the hell you got Alec's cell phone, but you are a pathetic son of a bitch," Kris said angrily as she continued to pace her apartment furiously.

All of the sudden she heard a scream from across the phone line. A pained, groaning scream. She gasped and almost dropped the phone. It was unmistakable. It was Alec.

"Stop it! Please!" she screamed over Alec's scream.

White smirked and waved his goons with the makeshift electroshock paddles off Alec's stunned body for the second time. He felt so numb and cold.

"So, you can see, I wasn't lying," White replied.

"What do you want?" Kris asked desperately.

"Well, you were the one who called. I should be asking you that," White said, looking at the shivering Alec.

"Just wanted to talk to him," Kris said softly as she leaned against the back of her couch thinking about what was happening. "So answer my question now. What the hell do you want?" she added, growing angry again.

"Why don't you come by the warehouse on 558 Mayfield? We'll talk face to face about this whole thing. Don't come with anyone, be here in an hour," White suggested. White had difficulty suppressing how exciting it was to talk to Kris on the phone. This situation was just getting better and better.

Kris scoffed. "Like hell I will. What guarantee do I have you won't hurt Alec? Or kill him? Or that you won't kill me since I killed Sean?"

"None."

The phone line went dead. Kris tried calling back and got Alec's voicemail.

She cried out to no one in particular and threw the phone against the wall, shattering it. She fleetingly thought that she would have to buy another phone. Perhaps she would invest in a cell phone...what the hell was she thinking?

She felt goosebumps raise on her arms and legs as she shivered from the cold inside of her. She couldn't feel her fingertips, they were numb with cold. She just stared at the broken phone for a few moments before snapping out of her comatose-like state and heading to the door. She stopped as she reached for the handle. She should be thinking about this more. She was heading into enemy territory, into an obvious trap, something Alec worked so hard to keep her away from. She was knowingly entering some version of hell on earth. Alec's scream reverberated in her mind. No, she was already in a hell on earth.

What other choice did she have but to go to the warehouse and see White? She had no leverage, she had to play by his rules. She had no clue why White wanted to see her after she killed a Familiar. Perhaps he wanted to have the pleasure of torturing her or seeing her horrified face as he killed Alec. She didn't know, she didn't understand. She hated the fact that White knew she would come even though she didn't understand why.

Somewhere along her internal reverie in front of the door, the door burst open showing an out-of-breath Logan and an overly-alert Max.

"Kris, we have to talk to you," Logan said urgently.

Kris snapped out of her thoughts and looked at the pair. They were together again. That was good. She doubted she and Alec would ever be together again.

"I have to go see White, he has Alec. He said for me to come see him. I have to go now," Kris said distantly, distracted.
Neither one looked really surprised by this news.

"Not before you hear what we have to say," Max said firmly.