Disclaimer: Still the same

For to know, these characters are not based on real people, though I did ask some of my friends to help me name and come up with my characters. They have also helped me co-write which I have given credit to them, please don't delete me, for I will seriously cry.

I had a 3 a.m. rewrite last night on all three remaining chapters. Some major, some not, hope I made the decision.

Chapter 29: Dakota and Mission

Max drove his car through the entrance to the Seattle National Airport and parked his car. He happened to catch his brother Dakota the night before, just before he was to board a plane to Australia.

When Dakota heard about the fight his brother was in, he turned in his ticket and boarded a plane to Seattle.

Every since Max ended the call, he had regretted the call 'What was I thinking? He is 16 years old! Ok so he's a mutant, but he's a kid. A kid! I promised our parents that I would take care of him, and now her going to fight in a war he didn't create, and he might die.'

Max walked through the front sliding doors, and headed for lobby to wait for Dakota to get there, 'I'll just tell him to go back and go ahead to Australia. He'll go if I tell him to...Yeah right! He hasn't listen to me in two years.'

"Hey bro!"

Max turned to see his kid brother heading toward him with two friends behind him.

"Hey Dax!" he said as he hugged his brother close.

Dakota rolled his eyes at the nickname, though he had come to love it the last few years. "Thanks for calling me, about time you realize I can help you out."

"You're my little brother, I worry, sue me."

"I would, but your broke, oh wait no your not." joked Dax. "I miss grandpa."

"Me too, so who are your friends?"

"Of sorry, this is Nick," a young man with brown hair and matching eyes stepped forth to shake Max's hand. "And this is Chris," another young man stepped forth. This one had blonde spiky hair with blue eyes. 'Looks like a boy band reject.' thought Max as he shook Chris' hand.

"Nice to meet you both, let's get you all home, so we can talk about stuff."

"You mean about what we are?" asked Chris.

"Yeah, like that," said Dax as he popped his friend in the back of his head.

"Hey!"

"Shut up and walk!" said Dax.

Max cracked a smile, 'If I didn't know better, I would swear he was a feral.'

Melodie and Emma walked into the situation room to find Rosalie in front of the computer. Melodie said, "Hey, what you doing?"

"Trying to help Shal, she is going crazy. She's been in the dojo for the last 3 hours with our new and improved hologram GSA agent program, she's tiring them out." laughed Rosalie. "We have to find Brennan and Mari."

"Gotcha! Ok so how can we help?"

"Help me go through these castles, Shal got another clue last week, something about Bavarian castles. With everything going on we put this clue on the backburner. Max narrowed the search last night to 3."

"And we have to figure out which of the three is the correct one? That should be easy, we'll each take one," said Melodie.

"Ok, but I'm not sure what we're looking for. Max was with the Dominion for awhile, he might recognize the castle. We wouldn't."

"Ok what did the clue say exactly?" asked Emma.

"Bavarian Castle."

"That's it? That's the clue!" she asked, amazed at such a small clue.

"Yes."

"But there's more, I can feel it," said Melodie.

"There was a video attachment with the clue. It showed Mari being tortured."

"Oh my gosh." gasped Emma. "Ok so where's Max?"

"At the airport picking up his kid brother Dakota. He's joining our team."

"What kind of mutant is he?"

"Fire-elemental."

"Something you feral's hate. Fire!" Mel said with a groan. "But at least he's on our side."

"True, but if Max can figure out which castle to go after, Dakota will be our best bet to go on the mission with us." said Rosalie.

"And who else will be going?" asked Melodie, who was hoping she was on the list to go. She needed to kick real butt, not the simulation idiots she was used to.

"Lexa made the list, so if you want to complain, go to her, but let's see, " she said pulling a screen up on the projection. You guys are going, along with Gage, if we can pry her away from the twins long enough, Skylar, who complained that she hasn't gone on a mission yet, Dakota of course and me. And maybe Dakota's friends if he brought any."

"No Lexa? Thought for sure she would put herself on that list," asked Emma suspiciously.

"No, she's staying behind for some reason that I can't disclose at this time."

"You sound like Adam."

"Gee, Thanks."

"Hey Em?" asked Mel, "You alright, you seem off lately."

"Yeah, I'm fine, just not getting very much sleep."

"Mike keeping you up?" asked Rosalie.

"No, nightmares, weird ones too."

"What about?"

"I can't talk about it, my nerves are shot!"

"Alright, well I'm here if you need to talk," said Mel.

"You've got enough to worry about Miss I got hit in the head three times in two days!"

"Funny!"

"No! My kid brother is not going!"

"Max we need him, he has to!" said Lexa.

"No, you don't. Send me."

"No we need you here, Dakota is going, and that is final!"

"And who says you're the boss?"

"I do! Now quit being a jerk, and go tell your brother and his friends to get ready."

"Ok, so which castle are they going to hit, huh?" asked Max, still obviously pissed.

"All three, they're all Dominion castles."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes, I ran through the database."

"Ok, so they're to sneak in and try to find Mari and Brennan and get out of there alive right?"

"Yes."

"And how do you propose a bunch of kids to do that?"

"I have a plan."

"Oh great, love to hear it," he said sarcastically.

"Good, then listen up..."

3 Hours later, two castles destroyed, one to go.

"Are we there yet?" asked Gage, who was getting tired. That last fight had taken a lot out of all of them.

"Gage, we're 5 minutes away from the last destination." said Dakota who was sitting in the cockpit next to Rosalie, who was flying the Double Helix II.

"You ok?" asked Rosalie as she glanced at Dakota, who was still breathing heavy from their last fight.

"Yeah, just realized my brother might have been right to keep me away from this. He explained Mutant X to me, though in the underground we already knew about it," he chuckled. "Anyway, I felt being a mutant, I owed Mutant X a favor of sorts."

"Yeah same here." she smiled. "Nice way to look at it."

Dakota smiled back. He was taken back by how beautiful Rosalie was. Her brown hair when just right with her skin-tone, and her eyes, 'Man I could get lost in those eyes.' he thought, trying to refocus on helping to fly the Helix. "Ok I am curious, how certain are we that Mari and Brennan weren't in the castles we just blew up?"

"100, we figured their com-rings are still on, and there was no signal from the other castles."

"That good, cause I remember Mari from when I was a kid, I mean a younger kid," he smiled, "And I would hate to think I helped to kill her and Brennan, even if it was an accident."

"Too bad we had to get the crap beat out of us before we figured they weren't there," said Skylar, "hey Melodie, how about this time you make sure the sensor is on before we go in." she sneered at her best friend.

"Oh no problem, is there anything else I get for you madam?"

"Yeah, a new best friend." she said seriously, then starting laughing at herself.

"Sorry Skye, I was just cranky."

"No problem. And the good news is, this next castle will probably finish us off."

"How do you figure?" asked Chris.

"Cause they know we're coming."

The explosion rocked the castle as the team ran down the halls. They were all on guard for more guards. Between each of them had already killed or seriously injured 20 something Dominion soldiers, "This way!" yelled Gage.

"Are you sure?" yelled Nick.

"Yeah, I'm sure."

They ran through two double doors and down some stairs, but froze when they realized where they were. It was dungeon, "Hey guys, this looks like the dungeon from the video." said Rosalie, as her eyes flashed Feral, "And I smell blood, fresh blood."

"Spread out, let's find Brennan and Mari, and get the hell out of here." said Gage.

They each spread out, but after wasting 10 minutes, they realized Brennan and Mari weren't there.

Rosalie spoke into her com-ring, "Emma, do you still have their signals?"

"Yeah, they're just above you... in fact, they're right on top of you Dakota."

Dakota looked above him and saw nothing." They must be on the floor above us. Let's go."

"Wait, we don't have time to run back up there," said Gage.

"This is Brennan and Mari we are talking about, we have to get them," said Melodie.

"Maybe I can help here," said Chris as he stepped forth. "I'm molecular, like Jesse, I can phase through walls. Nick if you and Dakota will give me a boost, I'll go through the ceiling."

"Ok, let's do it then," said Dakota. He took the position to catch Chris; Nick took the position in front of him, facing Dax.

"Wait, what does Nick do?" asked Rosalie.

"You'll see pretty lady," said Dakota.

Chris walked to the edge of the dungeon and ran as fast as he could toward Dakota and Nick. Dakota braced himself as Chris leapt up into the air using Dakota's hands as a starting place. Nick reached out his hand and with what appeared to be wind, blew his friend straight up through the ceiling just to the left of where Dakota had been standing where Melodie said Brennan and Mari were above his head.

"What the?" said Rosalie, "How did you do that?"

"I am one of the few elemental's, who can control air."

"Whoa, never knew there was such a mutant," said Gage.

"Guys," said Dakota. "We can talk about that later, right now we need to keep our heads straight about why we're here."

"Your right Dakota."

"You can call me Dax, all my friends do."

"So it's like Max and Dax," said Skylar. "That is so cool."

"Yeah, most of the time," he laughed. He spoke into his new com-ring, "Chris? What's going on?"

"There's nothing here. Nobody's up here."

"Keep looking."

"OK."

"I don't feel them," said Skylar. "I'm not getting them. Ever since we got here, I've tried to sense them. They aren't here."

"I don't know... Emma, you feel them?" asked Rosalie.

"Sorry, I haven't been trying to sense them."

"Well it would help if you would quit staring at Nick," said Melodie.

"What?"

"Stop looking at Nick!"

"I'm not!" said Emma angrily, mostly cause Mel was right, she had been looking at Nick. He was very handsome, hot even. Nevertheless, Mel was right, Emma was married, and she shouldn't be looking at another man. But she was looking at him for reasons she didn't understand yet.

"Whatever."

"Girls!" yelled Rosalie, "Shut up!"

"Yeah, grow up," said Dakota. "Nick isn't impressed by either of you right now."

"Hey guys!" yelled Nick, there's someone over here."

They all ran to where Nick was, there was a woman inside one of the cells. She was awake and seemed freaked by the intruders.

"Who are you?"

"We're Mutant X, we're here to get you out of here. What is your name?"

"Sabrina."

"What kind of mutant are you?"

"Feral."

Dakota took the keys off the wall beside the cage, and opened the door. He walked over to the girl. "Come on I'll help you stand up."

"Thanks."

The conversation was cut short when Chris came back through the ceiling landing on his feet. "We have a problem, two actually. First things first though, we have to get out of here, there is like 50 soldiers of some sort coming this way as we speak."

"Let's go." said Nick.

"Wait!" yelled Skylar just as an explosion ripped through the room sending them flying. As they each got back to their feet, they realized soldiers with guns surrounded them.

"Don't move!" yelled the soldier in the front.

"Ok we won't." said Skylar as she looked at Emma. At the same time, they both sent a Psionic blast toward the soldiers, throwing them off enough for the others to get the drop on them.

Skylar was lost in the struggle as the fight began. While she had a few fighting skills and Psionic blast, the others had terrific fighting skills; they also had the powers of water, fire, air and electricity.

The fight seemed to last forever and finally the soldiers started to thin out.

Dakota yelled in pain as a knife was shoved into his shoulder. At the sound as his scream, Sabrina was by his side, and fighting the soldier who had stabbed him. She kicked him into the wall, and he fell dead.

"Are you ok?" she asked Dax.

"Yeah, thanks."

"No problem, just repaying a favor."

"Let's get out of here!" yelled Melodie, as she was slammed against the wall hard. Skylar reached down to help her up, "You ok?"

"Yeah, just a little banged up."

As Melodie looked up, she saw a soldier grab Skylar and put a gun to her head, "Everyone freeze!"

Mutant X looked at the soldier and saw they had no choice but to stop.

"Mutant X you have two choices."

"What?" asked Rosalie.

"This building is set to blow up in 5 minutes, you can either run or die." with that all but one soldier, the one holding Skylar hostage, disappeared.

"It was a hologram!" yelled Gage in anger and exhaustion.

"They were, I'm not!" said the soldier as he let go of Skylar only to turn her back to the wall, "Say goodbye." he said he fired his gun and struck Skylar through the heart.

He then in flash of light he was gone, they all ran to Skylar, but there was nothing any of them could do, she was gone.

"Guys, we have to go," said Dakota. "He said we had 5 minutes before this place blew up."

"But what about her?" asked Mel.

"I'll carry her out, we'll bury her when we get home. Nick take Sabrina, make sure you get her to the Helix."

They all took of running, and just as they made it to the Helix the castle blew up. The sheer force of the blast threw them to the ground hard. They got up and got into the Helix. Emma sat down in the front seat, " Hey guys, I'll fly us out of here, you all belt yourselves in and rest."

"Rest! Sky is dead!" yelled Melodie.

"And I will cry when I get home!" said Emma angrily. She was feeling all the emotion from everyone and trying not to drown in it. "Get off my case!"

"Sorry, it's not you, it's just...I'm so tired of this!" she says as she starts to cry. Nick reaches over and hugs her close.

"Fly Emma, we have to get out of here," said Chris. "But fly slow, I hate giving bad news."

10 minutes into the flight...

"Oh no!" yelled Melodie.

"What?" said Sabrina as she jumped awake with the others.

"Where are Rosalie and Dakota?"

"They looked around and Melodie voiced what everyone else was thinking, "Oh no, not again."

"They must have died in the blast," said Gage sadly.

"Or maybe they were taken, like Brennan and Mari were." said Emma, hoping she was right.

"I hope not, considering..." Chris paused. "I didn't get to tell you guys this before, and not sure how to tell you guys now." he said taking out two com-rings from his jeans pocket, "I pulled these off from two bodies, they were dead."

"Oh my," said Melodie, as she choked back tears. "Are you sure it's them?"

"Well no, let's see the guy was about 30 years old, black hair, medium build, muscular, looked tall, wearing a black leather jacket. The girl was lightly tanned or Latino, with curly black hair with blonde highlights, cute face."

"Shal is going to die when we tell her," said Emma.

"So is Max," said Chris. "When we tell him we lost Dax, and of course it will hurt Shal to know we lost Rosalie as well.

"Skylar and Mari too, they will be greatly missed," said Gage.

"Yeah they will." said Mel, as she remembered her roommate and friend and Rosalie. "Lexa will die when she finds out about Mari. We lost three teammates in one mission! No we lost three friends."

"Were five minutes from Haven guys," said Gage. "We need to figure out who's going to tell Shal, Max, and the others, the bad news."

"I think we all should," said Mel.

"I agree," said Nick. "We're a team, we should be a team when we tell them."

"Agreed." said Emma and Melodie, as the others nodded their agreement.

The double helix landed safely inside Haven. Shal and the others waited patiently for the team to depart from the Helix and brief them on the mission. Shal really hoped it had gone well, and according to plan, but most of all she wanted Brennan and Mari to get off the Helix alive.

They heard the footsteps coming down the hall. Shal, Lexa, Max, Jesse, Michael, Adam, Lulu and Josh, who was suffering from the flu, sat there waiting for them.

Chris was the first through the door, followed by Melodie and Emma. Shal felt something was wrong with the team, by the way the hung their heads, so she glanced at Emma for reassurance, but got none, if anything it confirmed her fear.

Finally, they were all in the same room. Shal couldn't take it anymore, "What happened?"

"We went to all three castles," said Gage. "We blew up two, the other had been set to explode shortly after we arrived and..."

"Who's she?" asked Josh.

"I'm Sabrina, they rescued me."

"Welcome to Haven," said Adam. "I'll set you up with a room in a minute."

"Thanks."

"Wait! Where's Sky, Rosalie and my brother Dax?" asked Max.

"Skylar was shot and killed," said Gage almost choking on the emotion she had been holding in.

"Oh God, please give me strength," said Melodie, just loud enough for Max and Shal to hear it. "We lost Dax and Rosalie, we don't know is they were in the castle when it exploded or not."

"What?" said Max not believing his ears. He felt a rush of pain from deep inside of him." Not my little brother."

"Max, I am so sorry," said Lexa, as she put her hand on his shoulder.

"Yeah, you should be!" he snapped. "Thanks to you I've lost my parents and now my kid brother to the Dominion!" he said as he stormed off to another room.

"Shal?" said Chris. "I have something I have to tell you."

"What?"

"Brennan and Mari are..." he couldn't tell her. He reached into his pocket once again and pulled out the com-rings." I found these."

"Oh no, NO!" she screamed as she stood up to take the rings from him. "There dead?"

"Yes, Shal, I am so sorry."

Everything she thought she knew was now gone. In the last year she had lost and regained both Adam and Emma. She finally admitted to herself and Brennan that she loved him, only to lose him, and this time, there was no way he was alive.

Her head was spinning too fast and she lost her footing and fell. Jesse reached out in time to catch her. Nick helped him lift her in the air and carry her to the chair by the couch. "What happened?" she groaned.

"You fainted, but you'll be all right." said Jesse.

"I will never be all right!" she said angrily. "Are you guys sure?"

"Yeah," said Emma. "Chris described them to us, and it was them, I'm so sorry Shal."

"So in one year I lost Emma and Adam, then in one night I lose both Rosalie and Brennan. I need some fresh air," she said standing up and walking out the room toward the roof. Emma quickly followed her friend, afraid of what she might do.

"This war was more than I bargained for," said Gage.

"For once Gage, we agree on something," said Melodie.

Mel knocked on Jesse's bedroom door, "Jess?"

"Yeah Mel?"

"I just wanted to check to see if you're alright."

"Yeah, I'm fine."

"No you're not, I can tell. It must be hard on you losing Brennan."

Jesse looked up, Mel saw the tears, and her heart broke, "Oh Jesse…."

She walked over to his bed, and sat down and hugged him. He leaned into her. "Mel?"

"Yeah."

"You know how you said I never trusted you?"

"Yeah."

"Your wrong, you're the only girl I've ever trusted enough to let me see me cry."

Ok, kind of long, but not as long as the last one. The next chapter isn't this long, but it is important to my story line.

So how is Shal going to feel knowing Sabrina was saved, and Brennan was killed? And is Dax and Rosalie dead or alive? Think there's about to a cat fight...

See you people next chapter, and don't forget to review!