Author's Note: Yay, I got this chapter out quick. It was fun and easy to write.

As for Zeke's barcode, I always thought readers would assume his hair covers it. That's how I thought Alec got away with it in Season II. When Josh and Mole picked up Gem and Dalton, they never asked to see their barcodes. So yeah, it wasn't a big deal to me.

M/L shipper stuff is kept to a minimum for now; I'm focused more on plot progression. Thanks to the people at FOX, to my knowledge, there's no way to work around the virus. But at the end of the story, that evil evil virus will burn. To the reviewer who asked if I would become a M/A writer and "come to the dark side," my answer is … maybe, heh heh. I love your comment, made me smile. =)

The Gift of Daylight

Chapter 7: Man of Conviction

Location: Terminal City, Washington. Warehouse 5.

Time: 6:35 AM PST

Zeke took in the room in a glance as he stepped through the doorway. It was long and narrow, stretching perhaps fifty meters back from the door but no more than five meters wide. Near the far wall was a solid-looking chair, facing away from her. Five meters beyond that, right at the room's back wall, were six more of the identical X7's he saw outside, with rifles held to their chests in an attentive position.

But even as his glance took in those details, his main attention was caught by the woman in the center of the group, seated in a duplicate of the empty chair facing him a few meters away. She looked pissed off, understandably.

"Hi, Max," he said weakly.

"Sit down," she demanded, eyeing him cautiously.

"Gotcha." He made it the rest of the way to the chair and sank carefully into it. "You don't need to look so worried, I don't have any intention to hurt anyone."

"Of course not," Max said, hearing the bitterness in her voice. "Just like you had no intention of hurting me and mine at warehouse fifteen."

Zeke's lip twitched. "Just following orders. I was being a good soldier, you of all people should understand."

"That makes me feel so much better," Max growled.

"Now what?" Zeke questioned, hurrying past that unpleasant memory.

Through her irritation, Max seemed mildly surprised. "We talk of course. Actually, I'm going to ask the questions. And you're going to give me straight answers."

"Can't help you there," he replied, too quickly.

"Excuse me?" she of course expected resistance; it was just a matter of handling it correctly.

"The Conclave swears everyone to secrecy, breaking that rule results in some horrifyingly painful death, I bet. Besides, I'm a junior soldier, I don't know anything."

"Zeke, you do realize that if you don't tell me what I need to know, you're going to die a painful death anyway?" she countered. It was a bluff … or was it?

On cue, two of the X7's shifted in place, as if to make their presence known.

Zeke eyed them tiredly then looked back to Max. "How's your brother doing?" he asked suddenly, catching Max off guard.

Max flinched in the slightest bit, then recovered. "The one who almost had his body snapped in half or the one who was going to be beheaded by that pale friend of yours?"

"The one who lost his memory for the umpteenth time," Zeke replied, without any of the sarcasm she threw at him.

"He's still alive," she said through gritted teeth, reminded of Zack's chaotic situation. "Tell me about the Prophecy."

"Your friends killed my brother, you know," he snarled, ignoring her and letting a repressed anger bubble up.

Max swallowed— now that, she hadn't expected at all. "Yeah? More than one person died today," she retorted, the words sounding distant and mechanical through the pounding of blood in her ears. But despite everything, sympathy nagged at her. "… Which one was he?" Max knew there were two people— the shooter Brin handled, or the big guy Joshua and Zane killed.

"Davis was a nice guy, you know," he continued, as if she hadn't said anything at all. "Really gentle, had a big heart. He liked mountains and snow a lot even though I can't stand the cold. They train us to the ground, you know. They keep us at this god-forsaken factory and make us kill a few losers they pick off the streets," there was no denying the resentment in his tone, "but they promised we would get to go on a trip after we finished our mission. They promised us a lot, actually."

The one Joshua and Zane took down, Max noted. "Your mission?" Max questioned, easing him to continue.

"To kill you," Zeke replied bleakly.

Max foresaw that response. "You two don't look related," she pointed out, purposely ignoring more important topics. If she could keep this going, she could probably extract the information she needed without beating anyone up. It was surely the better way to go— albeit slower— but Logan did say not to break any of Zeke's bones …

"Yeah? Well I wouldn't be talking, just look at you and your siblings," he retorted.

"Fair enough."

"Anyway, Davis and I had different mothers," he answered. "We're in a special breeding line, Rianne too. Do you have a lighter I can borrow?"

"I didn't know you smoked," she calmly replied. "What do you need it for?

"To show you something," he said vaguely.

Max paused to observe him for a few heartbeats, then looked at the closest X7 to her and nodded to him. The X7 nodded in return, and without saying a word, exited the room. "It's coming. Keep talking."

"The Conclave can enhance certain traits of a person and create completely new ones by breeding people with certain genes together."

"Tell me about the Prophecy," Max insisted, sounding a little hurried.

"Prophecy?" He paused to think, then grinned. "What, you mean that weird worded graffiti Sandeman scribbled all over your skin? That guy always loved riddles."

"That's the one," she confirmed smoothly. Max realized by now that Zeke didn't intend to be offensive half the time, that's just the way he talked. Max swiveled around to face one of the X7's. One of them dropped a manila folder into her outstretched hand. She opened the folder and pulled out a few photographs of the runes, they were extended forward to Zeke. "What does it mean?"

Zeke didn't move a muscle. "A lot of people are going to croak."

"I don't have time for your smart ass comments," she retorted.

"Who said I was being a smart ass?" he countered coldly.

"Zeke," she started again, gathering as much patience as she could muster, "we're talking about the lives of billions of people here. This isn't some game. Now I'm going to ask you again … and this time, you're going to give me answer," her voice had an edge of a real threat to it.

"What does it say again? Read me the whole thing."

Max didn't need to bother shuffling through the papers, she knew it by heart, "When the shroud of death covers the face of the earth, the one whose power is hidden will deliver the helpless. The guardian of life's betrayal will return the meek to their mother. From dust they came, to dust they will return. And … that's all it says."

Zeke listened in to every word, then nodded when she finished. "I got it," he snapped his fingers. "Water," he piped up enthusiastically. "That's the method the Conclave's choosing to bring the Coming. Hm, that would explain the dam—"

Max heard it, but she didn't believe it. "—Run that by me again, and add a few adjectives and nouns while you're at it."

"Wa … ter," he repeated, a little slower. "'Guardian of life' is water, 'mother' is God and 'dust' is earth. Wow, that's pretty smart. I'd have never thought of that," he said brightly, as if massive genocide was something to applaud. "I'm normally really bad with riddles."

She felt her blood freeze and her mouth go dry. Water? Max struggled to sort her thoughts and emotions, various things assailing her all at once. It was so simple that she wondered how she missed it in the first place. Guardian of life? Water, of course, how had they missed that? Poison the world's water supply? That was impossible … wasn't it? She gripped the side of her chair and stared straight at Zeke. "How are they doing it, Zeke?" she demanded.

"Probably through Attila XXIII," he said, tapping his chin in thought.

"Stop speaking in code," she said with annoyance. "Who's Attila?"

"Attila XXIII's an anaconda, she makes the longest snake in the world look like a pencil, heh heh," Zeke observed Max's glare and continued, "we breed special anacondas for their blood and venom, together, they have nasty special effects you know …" Zeke shivered as he thought back to his initiation, when the ceremonial dagger pierced his skin and injected the venom into his bloodstream. He had recovered much quicker than other kids, and for that, he was grateful. He had heard of those who were less fortunate, stories of children who screamed to their death within the first hour.

"Snakes are sacred to us, especially the ones we breed. Their venom has this awesome effect on people if it gets into blood. I think water's a catalyst. Regulars are the most vulnerable. Their temperature burns up and their body decays and shuts down in a few hours, instant death," despite the morbid subject he was speaking about, Zeke seemed wide-eyed fascinated. At another time, it would've been considered amusing. But not right now. "Every generation we breed produces a larger snake. It's really cool actually, I've never seen Attila XIII but I heard Attila XXII was forty …"

Max tuned out to Zeke's voice when he began rambling about the length of snakes. Instead, she thought back to the time where she found Ray in the middle of some ritual. She remembered the snake, the dagger, the blood, everything. Then a flashback hit her of a conversation she had with CJ— White's brother:

"They locked me up because of my dad. He was part of it all until he got out. Turned his back on the whole damn thing."

"Why'd he leave the breeding cult, CJ?"

"Because... he knew I wouldn't survive, and he didn't want me to die."

"You mean the whole initiation thing with the snake blood?"

"How did you know about that?"

"Never mind. How did he know you wouldn't survive?"

"He was a scientist. This place was his. He tested my DNA. That's not allowed, see. 'Everyone has to be initiated,' they said. 'Thousands of years of tradition,' they said. But he said 'Screw tradition,' and sent me away."

"They've poisoned the water …" she muttered, dread swelling up in the pit of her stomach.

"… and I heard Attila II was—what?" Zeke cut off mid-sentence. "Yeah, it only takes a few drops of Attila's blood to pollute the water. The Conclave breaks down into five Hives— representing North America, South America, Asia, Africa, and Europe. Australia's a part of the Asian Hive. Then it breaks down into various sectors within those continents, so it makes targeting the source difficult. Pretty smart, those Familiars. The bacteria works like cancer, it spreads and pollutes anything it touches. Just a matter of time now before everyone in the world goes kaput. I'm not going to die of course, we're all immune. But … I feel really bad for everyone else; it must really suck for them. People can't live without water, and now … they can't live with it. Sorta ironic isn't it?"

"Yeah," she replied flatly. Max saw the irony, but she wasn't in the mood to be entertained by something like that. "How do we stop it? Do you know?" it was a long shot, but it was worth a try.

"Nope. That's top secret stuff. This is exactly why they don't tell us," Zeke threw a quick glance around his surroundings. "If any one of us got caught, we wouldn't compromise thousands of years of planning. Only high ranking members are told, I mean, the Conclave's not stupid—"

"—We're wasting time. Sandeman will know what to do, Joshua says he's one of the good guys," Max cut in hurriedly. "Where is he? Do you know? We need to talk to him, no one else knows about this better than him."

"Um, yeah, I know where he is …" Zeke said, his voice hinting of something more.

"Where is he, Zeke? We've got to talk to him," she snapped to attention, staring directly at him.

"Yeah, uh, see, that's going to be a problem." He was stalling. And she knew it.

"Tell me," she urged.

"Well which part of him do you want to find, Max?" he shot back defensively. As far as he was concerned, he hadn't done anything wrong here, the Conclave had. He was just talking. "He's sort of in … pieces," seeing her expression, he kept talking, "if it helps, he was defiant to the end. And a lot of us thought he had the right idea," Zeke added quickly. "But he was too liberal, he was too dangerous to our ideals."

Max felt nauseated but hid it well. She sunk into her chair, fighting despair.

"Um … it's been thousands of years in the making, Max. It's okay. For what it's worth, at least you're not going to die too, right? So yeah, at least you tried," he piped up enthusiastically, giving her a light nudge in the ankle with his shoe. "Well, that's that. I'm hungry … what's for breakfast?" he glanced around, coming to a slow stand.

"Are you kidding me?" she asked incredulously. She hadn't heard anyone say anything that stupid since … er, the last time Alec said something stupid. "Thousands of years of plotting by some crazy cult doesn't justify slaughtering the entire world. And what about Logan, OC and the rest of my friends? What about them, Zeke?" she hadn't given up at all; she was just trying to make him see the light. Max hadn't heard that kind of faulty logic in a while.

Zeke shrugged. "They're not crazy, just … misguided. Besides, it's not my problem. I told you what I know, at my expense I might add. We can't do anything, might as well let nature take its course. All bodies of water are connected, like veins, so it'll be quick. It'll only take a month or two, people won't suffer. Much."

"At your expense? People are going to die and it's at your expense? I seriously doubt answering a few questions qualifies as that. You sound like you don't agree with some of the things they do."

"I don't. In fact, I hate what they're doing, but I can't do anything about it. I'm just a soldier. I take orders and that's that. You know, if you think about it, we're sorta related."

Max ignored Zeke again, she pondered all sorts of things. What to do next, for one. How to do it, secondly. And so on and so forth … All bodies of water are connected. Like. Veins. Something struck her. Veins. Blood. "Where's the heart, Zeke?" she spoke up suddenly, startling him.

He stopped rising and plopped back down in the chair, ignoring the grumbling in his stomach. "Right … here, Max," he placed his hand on his chest, right over his heart. He eyed her tediously, wondering where she was going with this.

"Of the Conclave," she rephrased the question.

"Oh, you mean the North American Hive? Dunno, they keep that information buried. Only Priestesses know where it is."

"Then where can I find a Priestess?"

"Oh no, now that, I can't tell you," he stated. "That's like … the maximum crime. I mean, telling you about something you can't change is way different than helping you stop them."

All right, she had enough of this. Patience never was one her virtues. "ZEKE," she thundered, leaning forward and grabbing the arm rests of his chair. She leaned forward and locked eyes with him, despite his efforts to avoid it. "Tell. Me. Where. I. Can. Find. A. Priestess. Now," surely they had relocated since Max last found them. "They're not at Brookridge anymore, are they?"

"Nope," he let out a snicker just thinking about it. "Man, they're pissed off. You drove them all to this crappy, stuffy factory in—" he paused. "Oh no, you're not gonna sucker me into talking. I told you I couldn't."

"… Don't make me hurt you, little boy. Because I will." Max studied his face, some of the indifference left him and was replaced with gloom. Zeke's various mood changes throughout this conversation hinted to Max that there was a lot more than what was on the surface.

"I. Can't," he replied ruefully, emphasizing each word that came out. "I wish I could, but I … can't, Max," he admitted. His gaze traveled to settle on his dusty boots. He kicked lightly at the ground.

She exhaled. "Why … can't you tell me, Zeke?" she asked gently, like a mother speaking to her guilt-ridden child.

He murmured something so unintelligible; her advance hearing only picked up the word 'her'.

"Who's 'her'?" Max tilted her head to the side, genuinely curious. There was something more to this scenario than a stubborn teenager.

Zeke twitched noticeably, still kicking at the ground nervously as he contemplated whether to tell Max or not. For a few seconds Zeke just stared at her, a glare developed and homed and fine-tuned by years of hardened training and probably, tragedy. "Not that it's any of your business," he bit out slowly, "but Elena."

"Keep going," she urged, annoyed that he often spoke in fragments. Max paused to glance at the X7 who just entered the room. He had with him the lighter they had requested. Max nodded to Zeke, and the X7 handed it to the boy before resuming his post.

"First, watch." Zeke tested the lighter by flicking it on and off. The little flame was hardly threatening to Max and she didn't know what exactly it was that he could do. Lighters were rare in Terminal City, lighters with a sufficient amount of lighter fluid was rarer. But a small flame was all he needed. Zeke tensed his fingers a bit, and flicked them outwards towards the flame. In response, the previously small flame erupted into a five-inch pillar and shot upwards toward the ceiling. The X7's drew their rifles and aimed, but Max lifted a hand to signal them to ease off. She watched. Zeke made the pillar of fire bend into different shapes; figures, faces, landscapes, and so on and so forth. He then pulled the fire into a vertical flat sheet and leaned forward to ease his face into it. "Hey look, I'm on fire," he stated jokingly with a smirk, then pulled his face back out. When the flame died down, the lighter was smoke and charred from top to bottom. But Zeke's skin appeared flawless.

Max found this slightly disturbing and leaned hard against the back of her chair. "Cute trick, must be a hit at parties. How do you do it?"

"Magnets can push and pull metal. I can push and pull fire, it has to do with body chemistry and atoms. I think I can withstand six hundred degrees before keeling. Or was it four hundred? I forget, it's not like I regularly cook myself to see how much heat I can withstand."

"… Interesting," Max was impressed but wouldn't even hint what she thought or felt. "You were saying."

"Right. Um, where was I? Oh yeah. The Elements have always consisted of four people, we were bred to represent the four elements. Wind, earth, fire, and … water. Rianne's wind, Davis is … no, was," Zeke's throat tightened, "earth. Elena's water." He paused for a second to let his finger hover over the fire. "Davis, Rianne, Elena, and I didn't want to do this mission to be honest. None of us condone murder in cold blood … if you believe that. But before the mission Elena fell sick. They didn't tell us what she had, only that it was bad and it was killing her fast. And they said the only way to save her was if we, er, killed you," he felt his cheeks warm in embarssment.

"They put Seth to stand in for her on this mission. He's not one of us, but he's good enough. A little crazy if you ask me, but that's because he's had a traumatizing childhood. Has the tendency to rip people's heads—"

Max looked skeptical of that. Furthermore, he didn't want to hear about some messed up kid's life story. She had a rough childhood too, tough luck. "—No offense to your parents and whatever they told you, but I don't think killing me is going to make your sister better. And Seth is the mute kid, isn't he?"

"He's not mute," Zeke corrected. "People think he's mute but he just chooses not to talk. The only person he talks to is Rianne, they have this thing going on. It's really odd, he doesn't even talk to his mom. Rianne says he 'hates that bitch', if you'll excuse my French.

"And I don't talk to my parents. I told you I'm in a special breeding line, we're separated from our parents," he sounded apathetic to that, and he was. It was probably customary in his religion, or … cult. Whichever. "And … ew, Elena's not my sister," he sounded disgusted at that suggestion.

"I agree with what you're saying, how could someone's death make someone else better? That's exactly what we thought too, that's why we argued our orders. We put up one hell of a fight with the Conclave, we all didn't want to go on this stupid mission. But ever since Whitey landed the Phalanx in jail, they couldn't scrap a decent team together in time. Elena got sicker and sicker as days went by. In the end, we gave in. They told us it was the only way … so we had to try.

"I told you what I know, what I don't know, and what I can't tell you and why. They'll pull the plug on her if they think we helped you. I don't care what you all do to me, but I can't tell you anything more. Besides, I … made myself forget so you're wasting your time."

And that was that. Max sighed a heavy sigh, she and everyone else would need to find a different way to approach this. It would take more time, time that would be paid in lives, but that's the way the ball rolled. "Until this is all over, you're going to be held in warehouse 5. If you try to leave, the X7's have orders to shoot you," she said sternly. Max came to a stand and stretched her muscles. She had had a rough night— no, rough day, week, month, year, and life come to think of it. Plus, she hadn't completely healed from the bullet wounds that were still fresh in her body. But that's the way things were for her and had always been. One way or another, she would deal.

"I understand. And I won't try to escape. Even if I could," he added. "The Conclave's better off thinking we died, so they can keep treating Elena. And … don't look so discouraged, Max. Besides, if what I predict happens, the Conclave's going to come to you."

Max yawned, stroking the skin near her bullet wound lightly. She choked down that yawn and looked down at the seated Zeke. "What?"

"Your death is everyone's highest priority. They'll never stop coming for you," he confessed, with a hint of an apology in his tone. "Besides," he yawned loudly, stretching his arms and cracking his back, "the Priestess has a bone to pick with you. No doubt Familiars will be coming at you from all sides. Now it's personal to her."

"I doubt that it's personal. I've never even met her," Max pointed out.

"No … but you have her son," Zeke retorted.

Zeke felt the ripple of shock run through her, but didn't flinch in the least. He knew that one would catch her off guard and wasn't surprised at all of her reaction.

"You're telling me … I have the Priestess's son in custody now?" she spat, annoyed and pleased all at the same time.

"Well, you never asked," he shrugged, smiling widely. "I dunno. But hey, I'm hungry; can I get some food or what? And maybe a bag of ice too, Alec nailed me good in the head with my rifle when we were fighting," Zeke absently rubbed his sore forehead.

"After all we've talked about, why didn't you tell me you were the Priestess's son sooner?!" she said expasteredly. Honestly, Zeke could be worst than Alec. But now she had something concrete to work with, after all this time, it was the break they needed. Now Max could call up a meeting and they could all finally construct a solid plan. Or they could make it up as they went along. Regardless, now they had something tangible.

Now there was hope. For everyone.

"Oh no, you've got it all mixed up," Zeke interrupted her train of thought, cracking his neck a bit. He yawned again. "I told you,I never knew my parents. I'm not the Priestess's son."

She froze. "What?"

"I'm not the Priestess's son," he repeated, his voice trailing a bit, then picking up at the end. "Er, I thought you knew."

Max waited for him to finish.

"Seth is."

------------------------------------

Location: Somewhere in Seattle, Washington.

Time: 7:30 AM PST

The council member turned his glass around in his hand, his eyes on the remains of his drink as it swirled partway up the side in response to the movement. "You're sure about all this," he said.

"I'm sure," The Priestess said positively. "Before we lost Reeve Tanner, he reported to Ames White that the Elements had the upper hand. That leads me to believe Seth and the rest might still be alive in detainment."

The dim-litted, royal council room seated six people, but currently, only one bodily figure was present. A thick, crescent desk of oak curved into a long smile. Behind the desk and empty seats of rich mahogany were large, individual plasma screens projecting the faces of the four other council members around the world. They were all being transmitted this emergency meeting.

"452 is our highest priority, Scarlet. She has deflected everything we've thrown at her, it is my advice to put this to rest for now. After the Coming cleanses the earth, 452 and her friends will be the only ones left aside from us. In that situation, we will have strength in numbers and no governments to hold us back. As of now, we do not have the resources to waste on a useless rescue mission. Anything else we try will surely compromise our mission and identity. I trust you haven't lost sight of our true goal," the same council member reminded her.

The other council members murmured in agreement.

Scarlet nodded, gritting her teeth lightly to form an unconvincing smile. "I understand that High Councilor Grayson. But with all due respect, with Seth and the others alive, 452 could force them to divulge crucial Conclave secrets. We know that 452's lack of action denotes she's unaware of her power, but who's to say she will not decipher it later?"

This time another council member mumbled something. "If I may," one of the councilors spoke up.

"High Councilor Camdis of Europe," Grayson declared.

"Thank you," Camdis nodded to Grayson. "I think Priestess Scarlet strikes a very valid point. It would be foolish to assume 452's inability to find a cure within a month. She's known to be very resourceful from the reports we've received. This could be catastrophic. I speak for the European Hive."

Another council member stirred.

"High Councilor Tanaka of Asia," Grayson called.

"Thank you, Councilor," Tanaka narrowed his eyes in thought. "I believe a vote is in order."

The others murmured their agreements.

"Fine," Grayson bit out, hiding his agitation and doing it well.

Scarlet suppressed a smirk.

"On the subject of pursuing 452's execution," he declared. "Those who agree, state your consent. From the right," he gestured to the plasma screen on the very right.

A dark skinned man furrowed his brows in thought, then eased up. "The African Hive gives its full support."

Next. The asian man stirred in his seat. "The Asian Hive consents this course of action."

And the South American, and the European too. Despite what Grayson thought, the Council had overwhelmed him by votes. "Very well," he stated coldly, looking down on the Priestess with a hint of anger. "You have the Council's approval to terminate 452. Double the security at the dam. Do what you will and report to me directly. This meeting is adjourned."

The council members bowed out one by one, their plasma screens fading to black. After Grayson shot a dirty look at her and left through the back door, Scarlet was left alone in the meeting chamber.

The door behind her creaked opened and another man entered from the back, he was a scientist by the appearance of his lab coat. "How'd it go?"

"We've been given the okay to get Seth," she replied, satisfied. "Oh, and kill 452."

The two of them turned to leave the room, walking in stride down a quiet hallway.

"What's the girl's condition?" Scarlet questioned.

"Elena? She's healing quickly," the scientist replied, nudging his glasses up. "In two days, she'll be to full health."

"I see. I was afraid of that," Scarlet frowned. "Keep dosing her with the virus, just in case any of the Elements are still alive. We need the girl sick to keep them loyal."

"Yes ma'am," the scientist nodded his head in agreement. Things had gotten so out of hand, it was amazing how one person could cause so much trouble for so many people. After some silence, he finally spoke up. "You really think this is our best hope, don't you, Priestess?"

Scarlet broke her stride and considered the question sincerely. "No, Professor," she said, lowering her tone as they passed by two Familiars, "I believe it's our only hope."

Author's Note: I can't wait to use all the X5's in the upcoming chapters. They're awesome when they work together.