Notes: I am sorry for the long wait, but these are hard chapters to write. Seeing as I'm writing this almost exclusively now, the updates should be fairly quick, no more than two weeks going by without a new chapter. There's about five more chapters to go and then, I'll be writing the sequel.

Chapter Thirty Six

Jamie took a deep breath, dragging the hot Australian air into her lungs and holding it there for a second before slowly releasing it. Her skin was itching, tingling, little invisible sparks of power dancing over her body as she summoned every iota of power she'd ever had and willed it into a small ball between her hands. She'd never attempted anything this big before, never tried to sustain a bubble for so long around anyone but herself. She could feel her team mates watching her, carefully, but tried to shut them out. She couldn't think about them, couldn't think of the responsibility being placed on her, couldn't think of the fact that the Agency was just a dozen miles away.

Rogue had decided that they should walk in normal time for as long as possible, to conserve Jamie's strength, but it meant that they had lost a day and a half and that knowledge ate at them all. They wanted to get there, now, to get this whole thing over with, to end it all, and to do that, they needed Jamie, needed for her to be better, stronger, tougher, than she'd ever been.

Jamie flicked her hands and felt the bubble fly outwards, spinning and shifting and morphing until it encompassed them all, cutting them off from real time. She let out the breath she'd been holding and looked at her friends, noting the concern in their faces. She smiled slightly and began walking, hoisting her bag higher onto her shoulder.

"So I'm still not sure how this is gonna work," Kar said after a moment of walking in silence. "I mean, I thought the rest of the world stopped while we're in here, so how…"

"You know you get a headache whenever I try to explain," Jamie said, and Kar scowled at her.

"Use little words."

Jamie chuckled. "Alright. Right now, it's not that the world is stopped, it's that we're not a part of the world, or at least not part of its timeline. When we get to the Agency, I'll put us into 'half-time' so that we will exist, but only in the second half of every second. We won't be visible and what we see will sort of look like… a flickering television screen, jerky and talking gibberish, but it'll be enough for us to see someone entering or leaving. When that happens, I'll put us back into real time and we'll attack. Of course, that is really simplifying it but you get the general idea."

"No," Kar sighed, "Not really. But if you say it'll work, I trust you."

Jamie looked up at him and smiled. "Thanks, Kar."

(0)

The Roses never really tried to keep track of how long it took them to reach the Agency. The sun hung motionless in the sky, beating down on the landscape around them but never giving any heat. They slept in fits, snatching a few 'hours' every now and then, but it was increasingly difficult to relax. They'd never spent so long inside a time bubble and they were finding that it was slightly creepy, to move through a motionless, silent world where nothing affected them and they affected nothing.

They paid a lot of attention to Jamie, noticing with frowns of concern how her feet dragged and her eyes began to flicker with honey brown flames. They'd never seen that before and she explained wearily that it was because she was using up more and more power, burning energy with every step. She assured them that once she shifted them into 'half-time' she would be able to get more rest and if she ate enough, she should be alright, but it didn't stop them from worrying, or Alistor from carrying her occasionally so that she could rest in his arms and save her energy.

By the time Jamie finally called a halt, they were all feeling the strain. They had fallen into a tense silence for the past couple of miles, barely looking at each other, much less talking. Rogue was walking ahead of them as much as the bubble would allow, barely more than a foot yet giving the distinct impression that she was in a completely different world. The Roses knew not to bother her, even if they wanted to, which they really didn't. Instead, they just let her walk, each working through their own thoughts and trying to comprehend what they were about to do.

They settled down, apparently in the middle of nowhere, and Jamie struggled to remain upright, staring at her hands as she raised them to chest level, cupped inwards. She licked her lips, focusing on her hands, channelling her power down her arms and out through her palms. Her fingertips tingled and a droplet of sweat rolled down her forehead. A faint whimper escaped her and she let out a ragged breath, flicking her fingers outwards in a quick, violent motion.

The air around them crackled and shifted for a split second before settling back down in a way that was only slightly different from before, yet decidedly weirder. There was a faint breeze in the air, barely enough to be stir the sparse patches of dry grass on the ground, only it wasn't always there, it kept flickering on and off, there one moment but gone before it could really be felt, only to reappear the next moment and repeat in an endless cycle.

Jamie collapsed backwards, staring up at the sky with tears of exhaustion sliding down her face. Selene was instantly at her side, stroking her hair and wiping away her tears, mumbling absolute nonsense in the way that everyone does when they're trying to be comforting.

Rogue sat down a little way away from the others, one elbow resting on her knee with the other leg stretched out before her. She had her head titled, looking at the clear expanse of blue sky with sad, unfocused eyes. Despite her relaxed position, every muscle in her body was thrumming with tension, and her mind was buzzing with the knowledge that this was so nearly finished. She was here, with her team, at the Agency, about to go in and slaughter everyone.

"You're a great team," she said, her voice hoarse and her accent thick. "It's been an honour and a privilege to know you and work with you. You're my family, and I love you all. I hope we all make it out of this alive, but if not…" She sighed, bowing her head so that her hair masked her face for a moment before she gave herself a little shake and looked sideways at her team, with a coy little smile curling her lips. "We're gonna kick their asses," she declared firmly, and the others laughed lightly before bowing their heads in acknowledgement.

Rogue nodded and looked up at the sky again, letting out a slight breath and feeling a small thread of tension uncoil itself from between her shoulder blades.