Disclaimer: Any names you don't remember hearing on the show are mine.

Black Ice

By Be Boring

Chapter 15: Following the Leader

Alistair sat in perfect silence behind his desk, continuously folding and unfolding his fingers as he waited for Sate to arrive. Jacob had called only thirty seconds ago with the news that Sate was on his way, but that he had nearly killed 358. Apparently she was a tattered mess. He sighed in frustration and cracked his knuckles as he waited. That young man had shown such potential as a child, but he should have seen this coming. Sate's family was the only one with telekinetic ability, as his breeding line was the only successful attempt, and it meant that Sate and his brother Sam were singled out. They were incredibly useful, but they had a difficult time working harmoniously with other familiars. He should have known that sooner or later that would result in an outburst of repressed anger from one of them. Alistair had learned his lesson after Sate; instead of keeping Sam with the students at all times, he pulled the boy away from them from time to time to use him as a bodyguard. He didn't even plan on leaving Sam with them in high school. The boy would be tutored instead while he remained in his full employ. Sate, on the other hand, had spent his teenage years with the other familiars his age, none of whom had treated him very well. He was constantly taking the brunt of everyone's jokes and his personal property always managed to find its way into a toilet, down the laundry chute, or into the school pond. As he had thought before, Alistair knew he should have seen this coming a long time ago. Everything that the young man had bottled up inside him was bound to come bursting out at one point or another. He just couldn't believe it had gone to the point of not even caring when half of his colleagues were killed in front of him.

When Sate finally came in, he didn't look nervous in the least. If anything, the light bounce in his step indicated that he was very happy, although he wasn't letting it show on his face. "You wanted to see me, sir?" he asked in his most obedient voice, seating himself in the chair across the desk that the High Priest gestured to.

Alistair leaned forward, settling with leaving his fingers folded together as he spoke. "Yes, Sate, I think we need to talk. I'm disappointed in your behavior today. I would have expected you to remove the bodies of our unfortunately departed friends. After all, you're the most suited for it, you wouldn't even have to get your hands dirty. Instead you chose to nearly mutilate our most important hostage when you knew that I would handle that myself after the bodies of our people had been taken care of. I'm afraid that it's probably a better idea if you are no longer in contact with our guest. I'll be looking for someplace to redeploy you, but for the time being I would like for you to return to your Minneapolis hideout. I will let you know when we have another mission for you."

Sate's eyes widened in surprise, and anger soon flared in them, but he refused to lose his temper around the High Priest. "Forgive my asking, sir, but am I not to be given a chance to defend myself? Perhaps the story you were given was not completely accurate. For one thing, I was not the only one attempting to mutilate 358. Did anyone mention that?"

"Sate, I have no reason not to trust either Michael or Jacob. I know both of them very well, and I do not believe they would lie to me. I think it's best if you begin packing right now and I'll arrange for some kind of transport so you can leave this evening. As for the others, it appears that 358 dealt with them already."

Even with his insides writhing in anger, Sate merely gave a polite nod. "Of course, sir, whatever you think is for the best. Fen'os tol."

"Fen'os tol."

As he headed back out the door, Sate rolled his eyes at the naivety of the older man. Did he really think he was just going to give up and go home now? That was the very last thing he planned to do.

Kay felt like she'd been run over by a semi at least five times. Her entire body throbbed and pulsed like one giant heart, but her head was the worst, especially her eyes. She absolutely hated not being able to see, but she knew her body would fix that in its own time, provided it had the time to try. For the first time in an entire week, she was completely alone. No one was outside her door, more than likely because she didn't require a guard at the moment, but also because her guards were in no shape to be looking over her. For a while she had heard Jacob moving the bodies out of the garage, but it never sounded like he came back in.

So slowly that it felt like she was never going to make any progress, Kay pushed herself to her feet, leaning heavily against the wall for support. She kept her hands firmly braced against it as she gradually made her way towards the door. She didn't know why she was bothering, it was always locked, but she knew she would always kick herself for not trying. When her fingers finally came into contact with the doorknob, she grasped it weakly and twisted, but as she had expected, it didn't budge. She sighed in defeat and slumped against the wall, just barely managing to stay standing. Why was she bothering? If Jacob's words were anything to go on, she might not survive her encounter with that Alistair guy. Just before her legs could give way and leave her crumpled on the ground again, she heard Sate's very familiar long stride moving through the garage. He wasn't coming in her direction though. She heard one of the large garage doors open, then his footsteps faded as he walked down the wide driveway. In her curiosity, her legs somehow managed to support her as she strained her ears for anything else. No matter what Sate was up to, she knew it didn't bode well for her.

The next thing she heard was a vehicle pulling up the driveway and into the garage. When its door opened, she didn't even have to listen to know it was Sate that climbed out. Her door swung open mere inches from her head and she immediately felt his hot breath wash over her face as he realized that she was right there. He didn't say anything, he just grabbed her and swung her over his shoulder as he exited her tiny cell. For some reason, she felt a very distinct tingle run down her spine, but it was soon forced out of her mind as the bruises on her stomach protested at his shoulder digging into them. The next thing she knew, she was being deposited into the back seat of a rather spacious car. She desperately wanted to lash out at him, but she was too tired to do anything but relax against the softness of the seat. He slammed the door by her feet and climbed back into the driver's seat. Moments later, the car performed a small U-turn in the garage and headed back out into the driveway. She could feel the heat of the sun radiating through the window above her head and gleaming on her arm, adding to the already stuffy atmosphere in the car. Couldn't he at least roll down a window? It's boiling in here! Still, it was a pleasant change from her cold cell.

"You know, you always manage to cause trouble for me," Sate growled in frustration from in front of her. "Everything goes wrong whenever you're around, and I always seem to get the brunt of it."

Excuse me? she thought incredulously. Who's the one all bruised and bleeding laying in the back seat going God-knows-where? Count your blessings, buddy. She swallowed hard, working her tongue in her mouth to try and work up some moisture. Her mouth was amazingly dry at the moment. "Where are we going?" she murmured, wishing her voice didn't sound so quiet and weak.

"Somewhere where no one's going to think to look for us," he replied quickly, although she noticed that he didn't sound extremely happy.

Ben glanced around watchfully, making sure no one was around. Max and Alec had gone to work with the difficult task of covering for three of their coworkers, and Logan had gone to meet a contact for one of his other projects. Paige was sound asleep at the moment, so the coast was clear. Every day this week Ben had been making trips down to the basement to talk to White. Despite his anger, his curiosity had overwhelmed him about the time that White and Kay had lived together. He didn't just want to hear about how Kay had been suicidal, he wanted to know details.

White eyed him suspiciously as he came down the stairs, as though sizing him up. When his eyes wandered to Ben's hair, he commented, "You aren't 494, are you?" He thought he knew the answer to that already.

Ben shook his head as his feet connected with the solid, icy cement of the basement floor. "No, I'm not. But I'm sure you know who I am anyway." It occurred to him as he approached White that this was the first time he had ever actually spoken to the man. With how much he hated him, it was really hard to believe that they'd never exchanged words. White had spoken to him very briefly over a year ago, when he'd captured him in Canada along with Mole and believed that he was 494, but only to inform him that he would soon be taken apart in a lab. Ben never actually had the opportunity to reply.

"Yes, I know who you are. I wonder what you want to talk about?" he pondered sarcastically. "I'll bet I don't even need three guesses."

Ben's foot shot out and connected powerfully with his jaw, quickly wiping the sarcastic sneer off his face. "I'm not down here to find out how many snide remarks you can make in one conversation, I'm down here to talk about Kay. I want to know everything, from the moment she learned she was pregnant to the day that I took Paige."

"Do you realize how long that's going to take?"

"I've got plenty of time, and it looks like you do too. Start talking."

"Why don't you be more specific? You can't expect me to recall everything she's had for breakfast for the past eight months."

Ben rolled his eyes in disgust and kicked him again. "There you go with that sarcasm thing again. That's not the way I like to talk, I like to stick to the facts. If you do that, this won't take nearly as long. If you want me to be specific, fine, I will be. How did Kay react to finding out she was pregnant?"

"Well, she didn't look thrilled. As soon as I found out, I knew I would have to take her into hiding with me. I already was planning on running away because I'd made myself an enemy to my people, and this was the last thing I ever wanted them to find out. I didn't give her any options, I simply told her that she was going to come with me. There's not much to tell after that. She never talked to me; if she said anything out loud at all, it was to Ray, and even then she didn't say much. She spent every day being miserable and self-pitying. I don't know how you put up with her before. I was ready to take her apart."

Ben studied his face curiously as he asked his next question. "Why didn't you?"

White shrugged as much as his bonds would allow. "I don't know, maybe I liked the thought that I was going to have another kid." The look on his face as he said this didn't quite convince Ben. He knew that White hadn't wanted a child with a transgenic, so did it have something specifically to do with Kay? Did White have feelings for Kay, or had he just felt sorry for her? Even feeling pity was beyond his usual restricted realm of emotion. The thing that really bugged him was that if White had feelings for Kay, did she return them?

He had spent the entire week trying to answer that, but White was talented at making everything he said sound cold and emotionless. Outside of his sarcasm, he knew how to relay just the facts and nothing about the sentiments. Ben had never asked anything about emotions straight out because he knew the reply would be a lie, but he had something different on his mind today. It was also something that he hadn't asked about during the week, but he couldn't hold it back anymore. No matter how awkward it was to ask, he needed to know.

"Why do you keep coming down here?" White asked irritably. "I've told you everything I can, there's nothing more to know."

"Of course there is," Ben snapped. "There's always something more to know. When we first brought you here, you said that things were miserable, especially for the first few months. Why were those worse than the last few?"

Ames had known that eventually it would come down to this, but he hadn't known it would take so long. They had been dancing around this for an entire week, but instead they spent their time rehashing everything else a million times, far past the point where Ames was sick of discussing it. At least this was something new, but he had no desire to talk about it. He hated to admit it to himself, but Ben scared him slightly, and the last thing he wanted to tell him was that he had started sleeping with Kay again. That would most certainly earn him a broken bone, or possibly even a castration. He cringed internally at the thought. "Because Kay loosened up during the last few months," he replied evasively. "She finally accepted that things weren't going to change, so she made the best of what she had."

"How so?"

"Well, she started to become more conversational. She asked a lot about my childhood, particularly anything I could tell her about my father, and she liked to talk about Wendy. That wasn't always the best topic of discussion, considering the circumstances, but it usually managed to cheer her up."

That sounded reasonable enough, but Ben wanted to know for sure. Just as he opened his mouth to ask directly, he heard the front door open upstairs. He dashed back up the stairs as fast as he could and closed the basement door silently behind him. He managed to make it look as though he was coming from the guest room just as Jondy turned the corner. Her face was so pale that at first he had no idea what to say. "What's going on?" he finally asked anxiously. That look on her face was definitely not positive.

"Where is everyone?"

"Max and Alec went to work to cover for everybody, and Logan had a contact to meet. We weren't expecting you guys to be back for a while. What happened? Did something go wrong?"

Jondy rubbed her hands together in an attempt to make them stop shaking. She'd seen violence before, so why was this bothering her so much? Maybe with all the hormones running through my body right now, things will affect me more. "Ben, we've really got to get Kay out of there. When Zack and I showed up, all of her guards drugged her and started beating her up when she couldn't defend herself. Well, I really shouldn't say that, she managed to kill three of them, but one of the two that was still alive was telekinetic. I don't know if that Red guy who took care of you ever told you about Sate, but he was the familiar that was pretending to be the leader of the psy-ops."

"Wasn't he supposed to be dead?"

"That's what we thought, but apparently not. Max was the last one to see him, and he was being ripped apart by the X2s at the time. But think about it, if he's still alive, he must have one hell of a grudge against Kay. Max said he looked bad before the X2s got to him, and we all know that Kay and the other escapees took him hostage before the fight. That probably explains why he was crashing Kay into every solid object in sight, particularly the walls. She really looked bad when we left, but we figured it was safe to leave for the time being because one of the other familiars came out and put a stop to it. She's back in her cell right now. Then there's the fact that Zack said he could smell that she was in heat. At least she shouldn't be thinking about that with the pain she's in. I don't know if we should call Max and Alec, we really need to get going on this."

Zack came in through the door behind Brin, throwing cautious glances in her direction. She had been shaken up pretty badly when she heard what was happening in that garage. Her coldness towards Kay at Crash was really coming back to haunt her at the moment. Zack knew she wasn't going to be very talkative for a while, which he usually viewed as a good thing, but right now it worried him. If she didn't talk to him, he wouldn't know what was going on inside her head. He had heard the last part of Jondy's discussion with Ben as he walked into the house, so he took the opportunity to cut her off before she actually called anyone. "Jondy, I don't think we need to call anyone. We can take care of this ourselves. That college is practically empty, if that one guard hadn't still been out there when we left, we probably would've grabbed her right then and there."

Ben raised his eyebrows in surprise. "One guard? You couldn't have taken care of that?"

"There were dead bodies there, we had to expect that others would be along soon to take care of that. Just because the students are gone doesn't mean that the teachers are. Naturally I would have preferred to have Max and Alec along, but I think between the four of us we can get it done. The main reason I wanted to come back was because we need to be packing if we're going to go in there. I didn't know we would be rushed like this or I would have loaded the car with everything we need. How long will that baby sleep?"

"Probably until Logan gets back. I'll have to leave a note on his desk to let him know."

Zack nodded and headed for the small, never used bathroom that was hidden in the corner of what used to be Sandeman's office, but was too cluttered for Logan to even attempt using. Joshua had never taken his cleaning efforts there when he moved in, probably because it wasn't a room he was planning on being in. He had never even used the bedroom. It was in the tiny, adjoining bathroom of the office, however, where Zack had snuck in a stockpile of weapons over the past week. The weapons had been anything he could get his hands on, so they had an interesting array of choices to select from. When the pile was laid out for everyone to see, they all started picking what they wanted. It was during this time that Brin finally snapped out of her quiet daze for a few moments.

"Is that a machete? Where did you get that?"

"Stole it off someone's wall when they went into the house to find money to give me a tip. I didn't think we'd be able to use it, I just wanted it." He felt a rush of relief at the brief smile that flickered on her face, but it drained away when the smile left. He didn't like seeing her like this. Whenever she was feeling guilty, there was simply no means of consoling her. It was just something she had to work through on her own. "Jondy and Brin, you guys will have to be the ones to actually get Kay out of there, because Ben and I can't be around her right now. We'll hold off any familiars while you three get away. Any problems with that?"

Ben nodded. "What if they already took eggs from her? Even if we take her, they'll still have them, which defeats the entire purpose of going there in the first place."

Zack hated hearing Ben talk like that. It was as though Kay was of no importance at all. How is it that she was such a huge part of his life, but I'm the one who's the most concerned for her right now? Am I the only one who thinks that is screwed up? If it were Brin being trapped right now, he would be knocking down buildings in his attempts to get to her, so how could Ben act so distant about all of this? Their lives on the farm weren't so long ago, it was impossible to think that anything he had felt then was gone so quickly. "We'll deal with that later. I don't know if they've taken care of the implantation of the eggs yet, which is part of the worst scenario. Some of the surrogates will be perfectly innocent women, we can't just kill them to stop the baby from being born. If things go smoothly enough, maybe we'll take care of it today, but I really think that's a mission for another time."

The mood was extremely subdued as everyone headed for the car. They all knew what they had to do, but they had slightly different opinions about it. Zack had absolutely no setbacks about the rescue, Jondy held a very strong fear of what Sate could do if he caught them, Brin was wracked with guilt about how she had treated Kay, and Ben was wishing he could have finished his conversation with White. The man didn't have much reason to lie to him about his relationship with Kay, but she had plenty of reasons. He knew that if he confronted her, she would probably lie straight out to him. That just seemed to be the kind of person she had become during their time apart.

When the college finally loomed up in front of them, Jondy was the first to notice the difference. "None of those big doors were open when we were here before."

"Dammit," Zack muttered under his breath. Had they moved her again? He couldn't see why they would, all of their equipment was here and they had no idea about this rescue mission. As he pulled over to the side of the road, the sunlight moved to the right angle for them to see right into the garage, and it became quite apparent that something was wrong. A few familiars were striding around the garage, two of them looking around on the floor as if searching for something and the other repeatedly trying to call someone on his cell phone. The thing that really made his stomach drop was when he spotted the door to Kay's cell. It was wide open and clearly empty. "She's not here, but I don't think it was planned."

"Do you think she got away?" Brin asked hopefully.

Jondy shook her head. "You didn't see her before, Brin. There's no way she walked out of here on her own steam. Besides, with the shape she was in, we'd see a blood trail. I think someone drove off with her."

Zack nodded, he had been thinking along the same lines. "The only thing I don't understand is who would take her? Only we and the familiars knew she was here, there's no one left."

Ben rolled down his window halfway and focused in on the voice of the man who was attempting to make a phone call. Every now and then he heard the man mutter, "Dammit, Sate, turn on your cell phone." They all heard it at the same time, and it was clear they all knew what had happened. Ben leaned back against his seat and gazed absently at his knees while the others spoke.

"Where would Sate have taken her?" Brin asked nervously as Zack pulled away from the side of the road and continued on his way. "He's a recognizable guy, it's just not feasible for him to hide anywhere."

"I don't know," Zack replied honestly, "but I think we're going to have to split up. We need to accomplish both of our objectives, and it's best to take care of it while the familiars are distracted with searching for Kay. Two of us are going to have to go into the college and find the eggs. Hopefully they haven't been implanted into surrogates yet, but if they are, we'll need to find a creative way to terminate the pregnancies."

"I'm sure this place has medications on hand that might disrupt a pregnancy," Jondy mused, feeling a twinge of guilt at the thought of aborting another woman's baby when her own was still growing inside of her. "With any luck, we won't have to worry about that."

Zack pulled over again out of sight of the college so they could talk safely. "Okay, I think Ben and I should take care of the eggs. You two work well together, and I don't want any fumes that might be in there to harm your baby. I don't know what means we'll have to go to so that we can get rid of the eggs, and I don't want any possibility of you also being affected."

Ben finally spoke up for the first time since they had entered the car. "Actually, Zack, I think you should take Brin with you. I agree with you about Jondy, but I can go with her."

Zack glanced at him suspiciously. "Why do you want to go with Jondy?"

"Because I can smell Kay. Can't you smell the heat cycle?" Now that he had mentioned it, Zack realized that the scent was hanging lightly in the air. It was incredibly weak, but present nevertheless. "The girls won't be able to track that, but we can. As long as I can smell her, we'll stand a better chance of finding her."

Zack hesitated for a moment, and then finally nodded. "Okay, Brin will come with me. I want you two to be careful, though, got it? Especially you," he said sharply, pointing at Ben. "Jondy has seen what Sate can do, but you haven't. You don't know how strong he is. You be careful, too," he added, nodding at Jondy. She offered him a tight, strained smile along with her nod, but he could tell how scared she was. He didn't blame her, he wouldn't be too keen to take Sate on again either. "I've got my phone on me, so call me if anything comes up that you'll need us for. Hopefully our part won't take long and you can call us as soon as you've found her."

Ben and Jondy both nodded as Zack and Brin climbed out of the car. Jondy climbed up into the driver's seat, but Ben remained in the back as she pulled away from the curb. "What are you doing back there?" she asked curiously as Ben opened both of the back windows. "Couldn't you have done that up here?"

"Sure, but I've got a lot more personal space back here to smell. It will help me focus if I'm equally far away from both windows." Even as he spoke, he was positioning himself in the very center of the back seat. "Stop, you'll have to back up and take a turn. The smell is fading."

As she performed a quick U-turn, she commented, "You know, Sate's car could have masked her scent, so it could fade away in any direction. How can you be sure it's Kay you smell, anyway? There are plenty of other female X5s that could be around here. If you catch one of their trails, we could get way off course."

"Listen, I've smelled both Brin and Kay in heat, and I could tell them apart. I'm sure we're following Kay. Okay, take a left," he added as she approached the intersection where Kay's scent had started to fade. He was sure it was stronger to his left, which was confirmed as Jondy followed his instructions. As they drove, he started to become much more adept at predicting when they would have to turn, almost to the point where they didn't drive past the intersections and have to turn around anymore. Nearly fifteen minutes into their drive, Ben's eyes widened in realization as he recognized the roads they were driving on. "You don't even need me to direct you anymore."

"What makes you say that?"

He poked his head out of the window as a tall wire fence loomed in the distance. "Because he took her to Terminal City."

Author's Note: Please review!