Her eyes flashed, a beacon in the darkness and she looked around her, immediately locating the man in the far corner. He had backed away from her, knowing exactly what she was capable of. Her eyes narrowed, becoming thin slits of light against the murky background. She knew without even needing to ask who the man was. He was the man that she had an appointment with.

'I know who you are and I know what you're doing here.' The mans deep voice rang out in the room, its low falsetto tones vibrating in her ears.

'Then you know what I'm prepared to do,' she replied, her tone lacking the usual humour of banter that she usually engaged in with the enemy.

She recoiled as the overhead lights were abruptly switched on and she blinked quickly, not wanting to close her eyes for too long, not willing to take them off him for longer than a millisecond. There had been the tiniest amount of information on the bosses of the Dominion complexes. They were enigmas, mysteries and no matter how hard the CIA had searched they could find out nothing but their locations in the specific buildings. As a result nothing was known about their capabilities. Shalimar wasn't expecting a guy with superhuman strength or anything but he had to be able to hold his own or else he would never have dragged a fairly pissed off feral into an office with no kind of back up.

The room was bigger than she had expected. It was long with windows making up one of the four walls, the lights of the city blinking at her through the spotless glass. There was a desk at the far end of the room and a couple of well placed chairs between it and the door. Her eyes scanned the area for anything she could potentially use to beat the guys head in.

'So, do you expect me to give up everything in the face of your unwavering courage?' the man asked.

She looked him straight in the eye before bursting into laughter. A smile filled her face and loud giggles erupted from her throat. 'I get it,' she said between breaths, 'you're making fun of me. You know that's a great sense of humour you've got there,' she said before swiftly swinging her right hand across his face. The punch sounded throughout the empty room and the laughter stopped sharply, Shalimar's demeanour suddenly deadly serious.

'Little tip: don't make fun of someone who could and would kill you. Its not altogether smart.' Her whispered threat sounded as loudly in his ears as if she had been yelling.

'Well,' he replied, his breath coming iout in short gasps, 'if you get pissed off by that you probably shouldn't be told that it was me who came up with the plan to kidnap your daughter.'

Daveigh's eyes darted from one side of the room to the other, her pupils contracting and widening as she looked from the windows to the agents. She knew what the plan had been but improvisation had always been something that was encouraged in her line of work and the strategy formed by the CIA had been concocted by heroes, people who constantly put their lives on the line to save others. She was not a hero. She was, if she was being perfectly honest with herself a mercenary. The money had always been an issue. New mutants may have had super powers but they still needed to eat. And after the initial glow of the Dominion had worn off she had become a victim, trapped by circumstance, her own stupidity and the people who ran the group. She wasn't proud of her actions but she had become a hostage. And she did not intend to get caught again. Going up against the Dominion was fine but she was not ready for the fight they were asking her to take part in.

'We're done with the transference of files,' one of the agents said, breaking the silence causing Daveigh to jump slightly. She had been uncomfortable in her own skin ever since she had entered the building.

'How long will it take to delete everything?' she asked, her voice quieter than usual, any strength and confidence stripped from her.

'It shouldn't take too long but if they know we're here they will try and stop us.'

'How?' she asked. It was a stupid question and she regretted it as soon as it had left the safety of her mouth. The Dominion would do anything to protect what was theirs.

'You had better be ready.'

'Lexa Pierce.'

Lexa eyebrows raised subconsciously. She hadn't wanted to even acknowledge the presence of Dominique. She had, regardless of how silly and childish it was wanted to remain cool and calm. There was some part of her that really wanted to impress Dominique and, much as she would have loved to have squashed it flat, she couldn't. There was too much past between Lexa and Dominique, in spite of whether or not they had ever met before.

'Don't be too hostile, Lexa,' Dominique continued, her tone hinting at a condescension that made Lexa's blood simmer lightly in her veins.

'And here I was thinking that you were the one being hostile. Do I really need the entourage?'

'I prefer welcoming party.'

'Good for you,' Lexa bit back sarcastically.

Dominique walked forward, out of her office, her heels clicking on the floor, the sound ripping through the tense silence. Lexa felt herself subconsciously rise to her full height, her back straightening, her shoulders roilling slowly back in her sockets.

'Lexa, I believe that we can handle this in a civilised fashion, there's no need for any undue hostility, no reason to draw any attention to ourselves,' Dominique said as she stopped directly in front of the brunette.

'I know what you mean,' Lexa replied, a polite smile on her face, masking any real emotions. Dominique smiled back but it was swiftly wiped away as Lexa wrapped her arm around the woman's neck and moved until she was standing behind Dominique. There was now nothing between her and the office and she raised her free arm, directing her two fingers at the older womans temple, light glowing, reflecting from Dominque's terrified eyes. She squirmed slightly but Lexa gently increased the pressure being applied to her throat.

Her eyes scanned across the men in suits, all of whom now had their weapons raised, ready to fearlessly protect their leader. 'In the interests of me not killing her how about you guys lower those,' Lexa said with a flash of her teeth. She could see annoyance in some of them, the others demonstrating typical signs of fear. Chances were that some of them had never even encountered a new mutant, they had merely heard stories. She almost felt sorry for them. They had been thrown into a world that they didn't belong to and now there was very little chance that they would ever be allowed to leave. They were trapped, just like her.

'Here's the deal,' she continued as they reluctantly lowered their tasers (guns clearly proving too conspicuous), 'I am going to go into this office with my guests and the wonderful host of todays show, Dominique and we are going to lock the door. If any of you try to enter the room by breaking down the door or unpicking the lock I will slowly and with great precision fire a laser beam from one side of her throat to the other. If I see any of you so much as walk past the window I will do the same. And if any alarms go off while we're in that room I will take her apart and you will all win a lifetime out of work.' As Lexa finished she nodded to the agents and they slipped past her into the room beyond. She slowly stepped back, pulling Dominique with her and when they were both safely inside the confines of the office she reached out her foot and slammed the door shut.

'Lock it,' she demanded, releasing Dominique from her choke hold.

The glare Lexa received would have been enough to kill any one of a lesser constitution but she returned the favour. She was enjoying her role as bitch/game show host. Dominique stepped forward, placed her hand onto one of the wood panels and Lexa watched as a beam of green light slid across the wood, reading Dominique's fingerprints as it went. After a while the woman removed her hand and Lexa frog marched her towards a chair. As Dominique sat down Lexa stood in front of her, her hands on her hips, willing to wait for however long it took. She knew Dominique well enough to know that the woman would make some kind of move eventually, pushing her luck. And when she did Lexa was going to be happy to kick her ass.

The world was spinning on an entirely new axis, things that had once been the right way up were now upside down, colours merged and lines began to blur. Taylor's kidnapping had never left her mind for a second, she was still beyond furious about the whole ordeal but she hadn't ever considered that it would be one persons baby, one persons project presented to the rest of the Dominion council, having to gain their approval. And she had never given one thought to who it was that had masterminded the whole scheme, let alone believed herself to be meeting them in person. Her eyes met his and she smirked. She could see the fear grow in his expression. She was unpredictable and he knew it, she had the upper hand regardless of what kind of powers he had, if he even had any.

'Thank you,' she said, refusing to blink.

'What for?' he replied haltingly.

'You just made this so much easier.'

She raised her left hand, preparing herself to deliver the backhand of a lifetime. She swung her hand down but before it could make contact with his face she felt something grip her wrist. It stopped her short and she blinked in surprise. As the grip tightened she flashed her eyes at him.

'So, not that much easier then?' he asked.

'I guess not,' she replied before she felt herself flying through the air, a breeze brushing past her skin. Time seemed to stand still momentarily, at least until the table met her back. She smashed through the wood, squeezing her eyes shut as splinters crashed around her head. She gasped for breath as the floor slammed into her, smashing her joints together. A groan escaped from her lips as she lay there before she rolled herself over, pain slashing through her chest. She pushed herself up onto her knees before finally getting together the strength to get to her feet.

'You had to be one of the people who fight back, didn't you?' she said, her breath coming out in short gusts as she attempted to fill her lungs.

'Well, it is in the contract,' he replied.

Shalimar turned and frowned at the man.

'What?' he asked, curiosity getting the better of him.

'You know, if you ignore the fact that you're evil and possibly mentally unstable you would almost be okay, what with the sarcasm and all.'

'Are we just gonna stand around and talk about my sense of humour or are we gonna get this thing done today?'

'Sure. But I think I should warn you, I'm going to kick your ass. I have rage on my side.'

'Because of Taylor?' he asked, a hint of repentance sneaking into his tone.

'Well, yeah, but also because I now have wood stuck in my hair.'

Shalimar smiled politely. The banter had been fun, it had lightened the moment, something she had needed after all the dark things that had come before. With the news that this had been the man who had organised the abduction of Taylor she had needed to joke about something. If she didn't she had the feeling she would break down in tears.

But now she knew exactly what she needed to do. She knew what the man was capable of. He had super strength abilities but they were limited. When he had thrown her across the room he had been trying really hard to get her that far and from the look of him he wouldn't be too fast. She could beat him with speed, with a few very quick punches and kicks. He had given her the opportunity to size him up, and she wasn't going to take the fight quite as lightly as she had the banter that preceeded it.