Disclaimer – I own nothing. (Do I still really need to keep saying this?)

AN – And I'm HOME! And the school year is OVER! So, updates might come a little earlier now that I have more time to write. To Jubs, you will find out the answer to your question not in this chapter, but the next two chapters after this. Again, thank you SO MUCH for your reviews, I hope you, and everyone else who reads this story enjoys this chapter. Please review, they make my day!

Enjoy!

Ben didn't even realize that his brother had disappeared. The skitters and Mechs demanded everyone's full attention. The Overlords, who stayed in the background, seemed to be doing nothing, though Ben knew they were probably commanding more skitters and Mechs to come and defend the building, which was not good.

Anthony and Deni stood beside him while Kadar stayed hidden behind one of the huge piles of rubble.

Kadar pressed his back against the rubble so he wouldn't see the fight. He hated guns, hated weapons, hated anything to do with violence. It was one of the main reasons why he preferred to stay underground in Charleston, so he didn't have to see of be part of the fighting. Yet he somehow let Tom Mason again, convince him to come out and into the cross-hairs of a fight.

As he held his head down and brought his knees up to his chest, trying to be as small as possible so he wouldn't be seen or get hit by any stray bullets, he saw movement out of the corner of his eye. He turned to get a better look, and saw Hal Mason running towards the entrance to the building. What on earth was he doing?

"I wanted to ask your opinion on something. It's about power sources." The conversation he had with Hal two weeks ago came to mind, but he didn't no why.

"Can you give power to a power source?"

Hal's question repeated over and over in his head, and Kadar remembered that it was the day after that when Tom came to him and pleaded with him to come on this mission because Hal couldn't get the answer from an Overlord they had apparently captured. Yet, if Hal didn't get an answer, why did he come to him asking that specific question, and why was he running into the building by himself.

Realization suddenly dawned, and horror covered the scientist's face. Oh no.

Kadar started to move to follow the President's son, but stopped when a Mech fired a shot right by him. He couldn't leave his spot, not until the others could defeat the skitters and Mechs. Hal was on his own.

FSFSFSFSFSFSFSFSFSFSFSFS

Ben didn't think they were going to get out of this mess. He wasn't kidding about the Overlords calling for reinforcements or about how well protected this power source would be. He just didn't realize that they would get here so fast, and that there would be so many of them.

Just as a Mech lifted its arm to fire at Ben, a shot rang out and the robot fell to the ground, revealing Tom and his group behind it. From there, it didn't take long to destroy the rest of the Espheni guards, though the two Overlords that were previously there disappeared. Probably ran for safety, Ben figured as he killed the last skitter.

"What happened to keeping this mission quiet?" Weaver asked as Tom headed over to his middle son.

"Kadar stepped on a branch." Ben explained as his Dad put his hand on his shoulder and checked him over, making sure that Ben wasn't injured.

"Where is he, and where's Hal?" Tom wondering, looking around for his oldest son and the scientist.

"They're right there." Ben turned his head to look behind him and saw Kadar come out of his hiding place slowly, but there was no sign of his brother.

"Well, he was right here." Ben told his Dad, looking around for Hal.

"He went inside. Went to destroy the power source." Kadar informed them as he made his way over to Tom.

"You figured out how to destroy it?" Maggie questioned as she and Matt came over to Tom and Ben.

"No, Hal already knew. He's known for a while." Kadar replied.

"What are you talking about?" Tom asked.

"The day before you asked me to come on this mission, Hal came to ask me something. He wanted to know if a power source can receive its own power." Kadar answered.

"Can it?" Weaver inquired.

"Depends on the power source, but I don't think this one can. Hal will just need to touch it, and it will destroy itself." Kadar responded.

"Well, then it should be easy. Why didn't he just tell us if he knew it was going to be that easy?" Tom wondered.

"Because it's not. Tom, in order to effectively destroy the power source, it will need to come into contact with something or someone that has received a lot of its power. It will then transfer out of whatever or whoever it's in, and back into the stone."

"Sounds pretty easy to me." Matt commented.

"It's not that. After the power transfers, it can cause a major reaction, which would destroy it. It's the reaction that's the problem."

"What kind of reaction?" Tom asked, beginning to get worried at the scientist's tone and look on his face. Kadar opened his mouth to answer, when a loud explosion filled the air and a harsh wind pushed against them. They looked up to see the building starting to collapse. In the sky above them, beamers and Eshpeni spaceships started to hurdle towards the ground.

"HAL!" Tom yelled and started running towards the building where his son still was. Ben, Matt, and Maggie made to follow the leader but Weaver reached out and grabbed Matt while Deni stuck her arm out to stop Ben. Anthony rushed forward to grab Maggie's elbow and pulled her back away from the building.

"Tom stop! The building's not stable! Tom!" Weaver called out, holding back a struggling Matt, but the father didn't listen and disappeared into the office building.

FSFSFSFSFSFSFSFSFSFSFSFS

"HAL!" Tom screamed his son's name as he pushed away the debris so he could get farther into the building. Tom continued making his way inside, despite still hearing Weaver yelling for him to stop, that the building wasn't stable. He didn't care about that, he had to find his son.

"HAL!" No matter how many times Tom called out for his son, or how loud his voice was, there was still no response. As the President kept moving through the building, he spotted a doorway, and saw ceiling tiles lying on top of something, because there was no way the ceiling tiles would've been positioned the way they were if there wasn't something under them. Tom headed for it, seeing pieces of dry wall and a wooden beam also covering whatever was on the door that had been broken down.

Pushing away all the wreckage, Tom quickly uncovered a boot, then the leg it was on, and finally the limp body lying flat on its back. Hal's limp body.

"Hal!" Tom cried out, pushing away any remaining debris, and moved to kneel beside his son. Besides a large cut on his forehead that was bleeding heavily and some blood trickling down the corner of his mouth, there wasn't any injury that Tom could see, though he knew that odds were there were more injuries than that.

"Hal?" Tom said, his voice quieter this time. He gently tapped Hal on his cheek, trying to rouse him, but his son didn't respond. The Mason father moved to shake the young man's shoulder, and that was when he finally got a response. Hal let out a small moan, and his eyes slowly opened.

"Dad?" Hal croaked, then immediately started coughing with all the dust in the air, which made him all too aware of the pain in his chest, ribs and left shoulder.

"Easy, easy. I'm here, it's going to be okay." Tom tried to comfort him, brushing Hal's hair away from his forehead.

"Did it work?" Hal asked once he managed to stop coughing.

"Yeah, it did. It worked. But we need to get you out of here. Can you stand?" Tom questioned. Hal thought for a moment, then tried to sit up, only to fall back down as the pain in his ribs intensified. Hal shook his head.

Tom knew the minute Hal tried to sit up that he wasn't walking out. Without thinking twice, the father slipped his son's arm over his shoulders and pulled him up into a sitting position. He grimaced when he heard Hal give a small gasp of pain, but kept going. When Hal was upright and leaning heavily against Tom, his head resting on his father's shoulder, Tom slipped his other arm under Hal's legs and lifted him up into his arms.

He hadn't carried his oldest like this since he was 9, after Hal had fallen asleep in the car and Tom carried him into the house. It was then that he realized that his boy was too big for him to carry anymore. Tom knew the only reason he was able to carry his fully-grown son now was because of the adrenaline that was running through his body.

Once he was standing with Hal in his arms, Tom made his way out of the building.

When his Dad lifted him up, Hal instinctively curled up slightly against his father's chest and gripped the older man's coat. He felt as though he was a little kid again, back when he naively believed his parents could solve every problem with a hug and kiss. Hal closed his eyes as Tom started moving, trying to keep in every grimace and gasp of pain as the movement caused the throbbing in his ribs to get worse.

The next thing Hal was aware of, was that he was being laid down on the ground, his head and shoulders being supported by something hard. He barely heard his Dad yell for someone to get Anne.

It was only when someone started shaking his sore shoulder that Hal opened his eyes and fought harder to become more aware of his surroundings.

Ben was on his knees beside Tom, who was sitting on Hal's right, while Maggie was kneeling on Hal's other side, fear completely exposed on her face and in her eyes. It was her who had been shaking his shoulder, trying to keep him awake. Matt then suddenly appeared beside Maggie.

"Hey." Hal whispered, and Maggie gave him a small smile despite how weak his voice sounded and how terrible he looked.

"Hi. You want to tell me what you were thinking?" Maggie asked, gently pushing his hair away from the cut on the side of his head.

"That it was, the only way to, destroy it." Hal answered slowly, then started to cough painfully. Maggie put her hand on his shoulder, as did Tom.

"Easy, easy Hal. Just breathe." Tom told him. The coughing stopped after a few seconds, then Hal reached for his Dad's hand.

The President grabbed the hand his son held out, and squeezed it tightly before looking back at Hal's face.

"You have to go." Hal whispered, and Tom instantly shook his head.

"No, I'm staying right here."

"You have to, you have to kill the Queen. You have to end this." Hal told him. Before Tom could again protest, Weaver, who had come over without anyone noticing, chimed in.

"Tom, he's right." Tom looked up at his friend, then back at his oldest.

The father looked beyond conflicted and was struggling to come up with a response, when he heard Anne's voice call out his name. She and Anthony, who had gone to get her with Dr. Kadar, came over to the group. Kadar had stayed behind with the Volm while Anthony and Anne returned.

Ben moved so Anne could take his place beside his older brother while Tom continued holding his son's hand tightly.

"Tom Mason, if we're going to do this, we need to do this now." Cochise said as he came to stand beside Weaver.

Tom pressed a kiss on Hal's forehead then got up and followed Weaver and Cochise over to where they had placed their weapons as Ben took his father's place beside his brother, also grabbing his brother's hand.

"You should go with Dad, watch his back." Hal told him.

"My spikes won't work anymore. Power source destroyed, remember?" Ben pointed out.

"It wasn't the spikes that made you a fighter, Ben." The blonde stared at his brother in shock. He couldn't remember the last time Hal had ever said anything like that to him.

"Well, I learned from my big brother." Ben replied, remembering how Hal taught him how to use a gun, how to shoot a moving target, where to aim when shooting skitter, how to be a soldier.

Hal gave him a small smile in response, then squeezed Ben's hand. After giving a squeeze in return, Ben got up and backed away from his brother, letting Anne move closer. He looked over at his Dad who, after grabbing his weapon, made his way back to his oldest son. Kneeling down, he ran his hand through Hal's hair.

"We'll be back as soon as we can. Everything's going to be okay. I promise." Tom told his son.

Hal nodded and whispered, "Go."

As much as Tom's instincts told him not to, the President got to his feet and headed towards the Lincoln Memorial with Weaver, Cochise, and Tector. Ben took one last look at his brother, then at Deni. She nodded, letting him know that she would stay and watch over Hal, and the rest of the group that was there. He then followed his father towards the Espheni Queen.

AN - I know, this chapter's a little short, but next chapter will be longer. Next chapter, will also be very, very, very emotional. Warning you all now.