A/N: I hope you like this chapter. I just want to tell you that I'm leaving in a few days for vacation but I'll only be gone about 3 days, so I won't be able to update after this for a week or so. Please review and give me feedback, a little surprise for me when I get back? LOL 6 reviews for me to update. For the long wait, I made this 12 pages long. (Not including the A/Ns)

The girl stood outside the Terminal City gates, looking for a way in. She whirled around when she heard a noise, but to her relief it was only a cat. She frowned as she saw more come out from an alley. Correction: about a dozen cats.

She waved her hands at them. "Go away. Shoo!"

The cats ignored her and proceeded to form a circle around her, some coming up to rub her legs. They meowed and she cracked a smile. She had always had this thing with cats; every time she was around them they would come up to her and be affectionate. Even her neighbour's cranky old cat Ms. Puss seemed less cranky around her. She had never understood it, but accepted it just like she accepted all the other strange things about her. She bent down and scratched behind a ginger cat's ears, and it purred happily. She had always known how to please cats, had always known what they wanted. Once, when her school had taken her to the zoo, a lion had been getting out of hand and the trainers had no idea what to do. She had instinctively reached out to calm the lion, which would have been an incredibly stupid thing to do had she not known that it would not harm her. Then she had stated calmly like it was the most natural thing in the world that the lion was restless because he was away from his mate, who was soon going to be having cubs.

The other cats sauntered up to her to be petted as well but she stood up, picking up the ginger cat as well. She looked at it straight into its cat eyes.

"Do you want to come with me?" she asked it, almost as if she was expecting an answer. "I could use a friend."

The cat purred in response and she turned back to the fence. She closed her eyes and just stood there, the cat in her arms. She needed to get over that fence to get to Terminal City where the transgenics were, but she didn't know how. So she did what she usually did at times like this. She relaxed and listened to her instincts, let them guide her, and then she acted without thought.

She backed up with her eyes still closed and rushed at the fence, the cat tucked protectively under her left arm, and jumped. She felt herself flying through the air and as she felt herself fall she placed the cat against her chest and somersaulted on the ground to come up to a standing position. She finally opened her eyes and blinked, looking back at the fence she had seemingly just jumped over.

She felt amazed at herself. She had no idea how she just jumped a 15 foot fence, but she felt proud. She had felt a rush of exhilaration when she had sailed through the air but looking down at her newly adopted cat, it didn't agree with her. Its claws were dug deep into her shirt, as if clinging on for dear life.

"You didn't like that did you, Ginger?" she said.

"Who are you talking to?" a voice said from behind her. She turned around and found a rifle pointed at her. She shrieked and backed up.

"Please don't hurt me," she said at the lizard-man. Two other men were with him, one that resembled a dog and the other one completely normal.

These must be transgenics, she thought.

The normal looking man pushed the lizard guy's rifle away.

"Don't scare the poor kid, Mole. You'll make her wet her pants," the man said.

At this her face took on a look of indignation. "I would not," she said crossly.

"Who are you?" the dog-man asked in a rather gentle voice.

"And tell the truth," the transgenic named Mole said and the human-looking man chuckled.

"Why wouldn't she tell the truth?" he asked Mole. "Who do you think she is, some undercover spy for the government? She's what, 10?"

"12 actually," she said, irritated. She lowered her voice. "I think."

"So who are you?" Mole asked again.

"The truth?" she said to him. "I have absolutely no idea."

The three transgenics looked at each other.

"Great. Not only do we have loony Familiars, vampires, and possibly aliens on our case, we also have a bunch of missing transgenics, a magical teenager who disappeared into thin air and now a 10 year old with an identity crisis on our hands," the normal-looking guy said. "The world's turning into a fricking circus."

Dawn and Zero walked up to a farmhouse at the side of the road and knocked on the door. They waited until a plump woman with a kind-looking face answered the door.

"May I help you two dears?" she asked them. "You look lost."

"We are ma'am," Zero said. "Could you please tell us where we are?"

The woman took on a bemused expression. "You two really are lost. Running away from home perhaps?"

Dawn and Zero looked at each other. "Not… exactly," Dawn answered. More like running away from a bunch of psychos.

"Come in," the woman said, gesturing for them to come inside. "My name's Anita."

"I'm Dawn," Dawn said, "and this is Zero."

Anita looked at Zero weirdly and he shrugged with an easy smile. "My folks are strange." Anita nodded in understanding and led them down a hall.

"Now, Charlie should be home in about an hour but I doubt he would mind if you youngsters stay for awhile," Anita said. "We love children." She looked at them sadly. "We've never been able to have any, you see."

"We're really not going to stay long – " Zero started but Dawn cut him off. "We'd love to stay, thank you," she said gratefully.

They walked up a winding staircase to the very top floor and she opened a door.

"You two can stay here," Anita said. "I'm sorry, but there's only one bed."

Dawn and Zero looked at each other uneasily before answering, "That's alright."

Anita smiled and said, "I'll see you two down in the kitchen after you get settled in." It was then that she noticed their lack of luggage. "No clothes?" she asked.

"We left in a hurry," Zero said.

"I'm sure that I could find some things for the both of you," Anita said, smiling brightly. "I'll let you rest and freshen up before dinner which should be in an hour."

She turned and headed back down the staircase and Zero turned to Dawn.

"Look, I know you probably feel bad for her because she can't have kids, but we can't stay. So just, open up a door thingy and get us out of here," Zero said.

"Sorry," Dawn said, looking apologetic. "It takes a lot of energy for me to open up a portal and my powers are sort of sapped from the first portal I opened up. It's kind of hard for me because I've only just started to be able to control my power properly. It'll be awhile before I'm able to open one up again."

Zero ran his fingers through his hair in a frustrated gesture.

"Okay, no problem. At least we're away from creepy White and his blood-sucking freaks," Zero said. He blew out a breath. "I'm a soldier. I can figure this out. Step number one, assess the problem." He looked around. ""Easy enough. We're stranded in God knows where. Step two, get all the facts." He looked at Dawn. "We need to figure out where we are first and how far from Seattle we really are. For all we know, we can just be on the outskirts or something."

"Here's hoping," Dawn said as they descended the stairs.

Anita looked up from her spot near the stove in the kitchen. "There you are," she said. "Would you mind helping me set the table?"

Dawn took four plates and Zero took all the eating utensils.

"So, where are we exactly?" Dawn asked.

"Why, we're in Oklahoma, darling," Anita said cheerfully.

Dawn heard a clatter and saw that Zero had dropped all the forks and spoons. She herself was having trouble holding the plates so she put them on the table before she shattered them.

We are so screwed.

"I can't believe I'm down in a dirty tunnel doing hard labour," Isabel complained. She groaned as a bunch of soot and ash fell from the ceiling and she waved her hand over her body, the dirt disappearing immediately.

"Believe it princess," Michael said. "It's not exactly my dream place either. Besides, you've done gritty things before. How about when you filled in for Liz as waitress at the Crashdown?"

She didn't get a chance to reply because Maxwell appeared behind them. "Stop whining," he said. Isabel rolled her eyes at him.

"Like you can talk, dear brother of mine," she said. "You're not doing anything."

"The concrete's drying before we can place it," a mule-looking transgenic said and Max walked up to the slabs of concrete and proceeded to melt them.

Isabel rolled her eyes again as Max walked back to them. "Ooh, so you melted something. Big deal. You know, I told Topolsky that I wanted to be a supermodel, not a construction worker."

"Deal with it," Michael said.

"Finished!" several of the transgenics cried out.

"Finally!" Isabel cried, intending to hightail it out of there as fast as she could, but Max stopped her.

"Did you call mom and dad to tell them that we were fine?" he asked.

"Yeah," Isabel said. "They said that it was really nice of our friends to invite us to stay here in Seattle and that one day they would like to meet them. I really hate lying to them Maxwell. If we could just tell – "

"We can't tell them Isabel!" Max said. "We just can't. We'll just put them in more danger if they know what we are."

She bowed her head and muttered, "Fine," before walking off.

"Did you guys find out anything?" Max asked Dix and Luke as soon as she walked through the door to HQ.

"Yeah," Dix said. "Look at this."

Max bent over his shoulder and stared intently at the computer screen. Before her were the sentries on duty outside the hidden door. Then in the blink of an eye, they disappeared.

"Okay," Max said. "That was weird."

"We talked to Max," Luke said. "He just left. He said he had never really seen anything like it but that maybe a certain type of alien would be able to cloak or disguise them or something, or maybe just make them disappear completely. He was just as surprised as you are, though."

"Maxie," Zack said walking into the room. "What's going on?"

She looked at him quizzically. "Aren't you supposed to be out with the others on raids?"

Zack shrugged. "Yeah, but Alec told me to come back because he said something about needing to talk to some of my contacts."

"Why would that be?" she said to herself and the door opened and the person in question walked in, squabbling with a girl on his right, Mole and Joshua trailing behind.

Max raised an eyebrow. "Isn't she a little young for you Alec?" she asked. "Besides, I thought you had a thing with my sister."

He shot her a dirty look. "We found this 10 year old inside the fence. No idea how she got over it though."

The girl looked at him angrily. "I told you I'm 12!"

Alec shrugged. "Same difference."

The girl scoffed and turned away from him, petting a ginger cat in her arms. Max felt an electric shock go through her body as she saw the girl's face.

She looks so familiar, she thought. But I know I've never seen her before. I would have remembered someone with such unique features. Not many people have dark brown hair with blue eyes.

The girl looked up and their eyes met.

She reminds me of someone, the girl thought. She felt a strange and irrational pull towards this woman, felt drawn to her as if she belonged.

"Do you know who I am?" the girl asked Max.

"Why would she?" Zack asked. The girl looked at him and felt another shock go through her. She was drawn to him too, just like she was drawn to the woman. She looked around the room. She felt drawn to all of them. She felt as if this was where she belonged, with all the transgenics.

But that's silly, she thought. I'm not a transgenic. I've been with my family for almost my whole life.

"This kid claims she doesn't know who she is," Alec said.

Max frowned at her. "What do you mean you don't know who you are?"

"Well, I was adopted when I was really small, so I don't know who I really am. My family named me Raven though," she said, tugging at her dark locks.

Max closed her eyes and massaged her temple. "I'm getting a headache," she moaned. She was silent for a second then she opened her eyes again.

"First things first," she said. "Alec, why did you tell Zack to come back?"

"We're going to need some of his contacts to help us search for Dawn and Zero. We saw them at the warehouse Logan told us to go to, and then we saw White and two vampires arguing. Want to know the freaky thing? Dawn did something and it opened up a door thing and they walked right through. We have absolutely no idea where they are now," Alec explained.

"Dawn did what?" Buffy said, walking in with Spike and Willow right behind her. "She's only just begun to control her power, who knows where they are! The portal could have taken them halfway around the world or to some unheard of land!"

"And I thought our lives were screwed up in Manticore," Dix murmured. "Now we have magical stuff happening too."

"Can't she just open up another portal and come back?" Max asked desperately.

Buffy shook her head. "It takes a lot of her energy to open one up in the first place. It'll be awhile before she can do it again. That's why I told her not to do it."

"She didn't have much choice," Alec said. "They had to get away from White. The million dollar question is what the hell is he doing with vampires?"

"Maybe they're friends," Raven pointed out.

Mole snorted. "Listen kid, White's only friends are guns and dead people. Catch my drift?"

"He's into necrophilia?" Raven asked, her eyebrows knit together.

Alec laughed. "I love this kid, she cracks me up."

"I could try to scry for them," Willow offered.

"Come again?" Mole asked.

"I'm a witch," Willow said. "There's a way for looking for people by using a pendant and hanging it over a map. It should drop at their location."

"Okay, why don't you go do that," Max said. "I want some of you to do some recon at that warehouse. Find out what White's doing there with vampires, how many Familiars there are or whatever he has there. Dix, Luke, can you guys give them some mini cameras and tape recorders for them to plant there. 450 meg would be great. The rest of you can relax for awhile."

Almost everyone left except for Alec, Joshua, Mole, Zack, Dix, Luke and Raven.

"How'd you get into Terminal City in the first place?" Max asked Raven, who was currently still petting her cat.

"Jumped," she said nonchalantly, stroking Ginger.

All the adults in the room shared a look. "Jumped where?" Max asked.

"Over the fence," Raven said. She noticed the surprised and confused looks on everyone's faces. "What?"

"Check her neck," Max told Alec, who strode forward and pulled down the collar of her turtleneck.

"Hey buddy, hands off!" Raven yelled and Alec let go with a shake of his head.

"No barcode," he said.

"Of course not," Raven said, rubbing her neck. "I'm not a transgenic." She screwed up her face in a thoughtful expression. "I don't think."

"What do you mean 'you don't think'" Max asked, exasperated. "You're an ordinary. Where are your parents?"

She watched Raven's face turn sad. "They're dead."

"How did they die?" she asked, her tone gentler now.

"Military people killed them," Raven said quietly, her eyes threatening to start tearing. "I came home from school one day, but I didn't go into the house."

"Why not?" Joshua asked.

"Had a feeling. Like something was wrong," Raven said. "I get those a lot. I can do things no one else can do. I'm strange."

"Got it in one, cupcake," Mole said and Max glared at him.

"I peeked in through the window," Raven continued, "and I saw my parents and my baby brother and sister lying in there, dead. I saw military people hiding inside. Well, I heard them first. I can hear from very far. Anyways, I ran. I jumped on the back of a truck and it brought me here to Seattle."

"Why did you come to Terminal City?" Zack asked. "Most ordinary kids are afraid of transgenics."

Raven shook her head. "I'm not. I understand. You guys just want to live your lives peacefully in this world. You want to be accepted, to have a place."

"That's deep coming from a 10 year old," Luke said.

She turned and glared at him, Ginger hissing as well. "I'M 12!"

He backed up a little. Her crystal blue eyes had turned to ice.

"Sorry kid," Luke said. "Sheesh."

"What I'm wondering," Mole said, "is how an ordinary kid can hear from really far away and can jump a 15 foot fence."

"I don't know," Raven said. "Can I just stay here, though? Please? I don't know where I can go."

"Sure sweetie," Max said. "We can find you a place to stay in here. And we'll try to figure out how a kid like you has such remarkable talents."

She started to walk towards her but Raven stopped her.

"Ginger's hungry," she said, pointing to her cat. "Can she have some food to eat?"

"How do you know if she's hungry?" Max asked. She had also got that impression from the cat. Her feline DNA put her more in tune with cats' emotions.

Raven shrugged. "I've always had this thing with cats," she said. "I can understand what they want."

Max observed her with an expression of wonder. "I'll take you to the mess hall in a minute. You must be hungry. Just stand over there for a second. I need to talk with my friends."

Raven obeyed and stood away from them, though with her hearing she could still hear every word they said easily. It was even amplified.

"She can't be a transgenic, can she?" Max asked the others. "I mean, she said she grew up with a family for her whole life and she doesn't have a barcode."

"Maybe not all the series have barcodes," Alec said.

"I think they do," Zack said. "Joshua's the only one who doesn't since he's the first. But the rest do."

"Joshua, special," Joshua said.

"I don't know how she can not be a transgenic," Dix said. "I mean, the military, the abilities she has… Why would the military be after her if she isn't a transgenic?"

"Beats me," Luke said.

"Well, the kid's weird, that's for sure," Mole said. "She's listening to us right now, you know."

They all looked over at her and saw that she was just stroking her cat, put they noticed that one ear was raised slightly.

Alec chuckled. "You can stop pretending not to listen you know. We know you can hear us."

Raven finally looked at them. "Then why did you bother to talk away from me in the first place?"

"The kid's got a point," Alec said.

The door to HQ burst open and Logan burst through.

"Would someone get Spike off my back?" he asked, but stopped short when he saw Raven and he paled. He pointed a shaky finger at her.

"What are you doing here?" he asked hoarsely.

A/N: I hope you liked that. Please review, I worked hard on this chapter. 12 pages! My fingers are sore. So plz plz plz review!

Thanks to –

morgan000 – Thanks!

MoonAngel23 – Thanks!

meri24 – Thanks! I made Dawn non-annoying because, well, it's annoying. LOL The only person that I want to be annoying for now is Logan.

shygirl1 – Thanks!

HoneyX5-452 – Thanks!

screaminheathen69 – Thanks for the info and for the review!

Thank you to everyone. Please keep reviewing and if you could, recommend this to your friends. I would love the feedback. Please check out my other stories, and if you like MA, then Love Can Be Found Anywhere, Even In Hell is the one for you. Thanks everyone. 6 reviews to update plz!