"Hello?" Nikita answered her phone.

"Nikita!" Percy bellowed into her ear, "I need you on site. Roan's dead and Kasim has fled the scene. Be a dear and find him." Nikita swallowed. Roan was dead?

"Sir, do we have a location on Kasim?"

"No, Birkhoff is tracking him down now. I have a team cleaning up Roan's mess. I want you on standby to move as soon as we get Kasim's location."

"Yes, sir." Nikita realised she needed to get in and rescue Michael before Birkhoff located Kasim, and Percy put two and two together. She clicked the safety off on her gun, and silently slipped into the building.

- FIFTEEN MINUTES EARLIER -

Michael awoke gasping for air. He felt as if an elephant had sat on him. His hands instinctively went to his chest, and he gasped out in pain. Broken ribs, no doubt the result from the three slugs he took to the chest. Instantly, he remembered everything; Nikita saying something in his ear piece, the ambush, and then being shot by… Roan? Division had known about the mission. Had he been played by Nikita? His mind raced for a moment, until he refocused on his current situation. He could put the pieces of the puzzle together later. Right now, he felt dizzy and extremely uncomfortable. He realized after a moment that he was in the trunk of a car, and assumed that he was being carted back to Division. He frowned slightly, thinking that Nikita must have been the one to tip off Division. Her supposed betrayal stung him nearly as bad as his chest did.

The car started to slow down… How long have I been unconscious? He thought to himself. The car came to a full stop, and he heard the doors slam. He quickly formed a plan in his head, and braced himself for whoever was unlucky enough to open the trunk. He went limp and closed his eyes just enough so that they looked closed, but just enough so that he could see. The trunk door opened and he saw two of Kasim's men. This surprised him, but he remained still. Michael spotted one of the lackey's guns, neatly tucked into his waistband. He waited until the men went to grab him, and he made his move. In one smooth motion, his hand swooped out and grabbed the gun from the thug's waist and promptly shot him in the chest. Without flinching he flicked the gun to the side and shot the other man. He heard footsteps and his heart skipped a beat. Damn! I forgot about the driver!Michael had barely enough time to react before another man appeared before him, wielding a gun. Michael shot him square in the chest. Confident that there were no more men waiting to shoot him, Michael painfully got up and out of the trunk. He surveyed his surroundings – he appeared to be in a warehouse district. He remembered seeing it on a map, when he and Nikita had been scouting the area.

He knew exactly where he was. Michael knew he was injured, in shock, and in no shape to fight off anyone. His mind started filling in the blanks, 'If Division didn't ambush us, then that means Kasim's men did…. Nikita!' Michael barely had enough time to register what had really happened when he saw Kasim's car pulling up. He immediately ducked and ran for cover. He watched as Kasim and two other men got out of the car and spotted the men Michael had killed. Kasim shouted out directions to his men, and pulled out his cell phone to make a call. Michael strained to hear what he was saying.

"As you suspected, Percy tried to double-cross me. Yes, it seems Michael has escaped again. Everything seems to have gone according to your plan. I hope this concludes our business together, Amanda."

I should have known! Michael mentally kicked himself for not figuring it out sooner. He watched as Kasim grinned to himself as he radioed his men to clean up the bodies, and went inside the warehouse. Michael watched the men drag the bodies inside, and began planning his next move.

I can't stop now. Not when I'm so close. I can take Kasim out now, and be gone before anyone even knows what happened. Michael thought dangerously to himself. He gathered up his strength, and surveyed the warehouse. Infiltrate, take out guards, find Kasim, kill him, and get out. Simple enough, right?

Michael entered the building just as Nikita pulled up to "rescue" him.

Back in Division, Birkhoff was beginning to feel the wrath of Percy, as he struggled to find a location on Kasim.

"I've hacked into the infrared satellite to track his body heat, but he could literally be any one of these people. I've narrowed it down to three locations, given the location of the exchange, and the distance it would take to travel. I can send all thee to Nikki…"

Percy gritted his teeth at this news. Birkhoff was supposed to be the best, and all he could do was narrow it down to three locations? He nodded to the techie to send Nikita the locations. He sent her a text: Incoming data from Birkhoff. 3 possible locations. Locate and cancel target. Backup Team on standby if needed. Extraction in 30.

Thom had been listening in on all the commotion. Shit, the Boss is in trouble! He was worried, and didn't know what to do or how to help him. He was trying to formulate a plan in his head when Alex came up to him.

"Hey…" she said. He looked startled.

"If you've been avoiding me because of what happened the other day," she started to say, "well, I just wanted you to know that it's not what you think, Thom. They watch us all the time. You have to be more careful. I don't want anything to happen to you."

He nodded.

"I understand," he said, "and I'm sorry. I don't' know what came over me. It won't happen again."

She smiled at him, grabbed his hand and gave it a gentle squeeze. She left him feeling even more confused and slightly flustered. Deciding that there was nothing to do except wait, and have faith that Michael could take care of himself, Thom returned to his recruit room and flopped onto his bed, deep in thought.

BzzzBzzz. Nikita's phone buzzed just as she was entering the warehouse. She ducked into the shadows under cover, and read the message from Percy, then the subsequent message from Birkhoff. She replied with a quick "will do" and stuffed her phone back into her trouser pocket. Okay, this is it, I have to exfil Michael right now or it'll be too late!

She methodically searched every room, but found nothing. Finally, she heard muffled gunshots and shouting. She ran towards it, fighting the urge to call out Michael's name.

Nikita rushed into a large shipping room, and found Michael and Kasim. Her former mentor was kicking the terrorist, who was rolling around on the floor.

"Tell me, Kasim, how does it feel? Do you feel as much pain as I felt when you MURDERED my family?"

"Michael!" Nikita called out. He looked up at her as he was about to deliver another blow to Kasim. She saw so much pain in his eyes, it ripped right through her, and she suddenly felt so sad for him. She nodded to him in understanding, and he blinked at her, and looked back down at Kasim. Michael squatted down, kneeling over the man responsible for his wife and daughter's deaths.

"Just tell me why. Why me? Why my family?" Michael whispered to him so softly that Nikita almost couldn't even hear.

Kasim laughed and spat out blood. He looked up at Michael, and his expression changed abruptly.

"Do not ask questions that you don't want to know the answer to," he said. Michael slapped him, and grabbed him by his shirt collar.

"Tell me! I was your friend. We were working together, but you betrayed me. Tell me why!" Michael shook him violently as he spat out his question.

Kasim said something but neither Michael nor Nikita could understand it.

"What did you say?"

"PERCY!" Kasim shouted with the last of his strength. Michael dropped him onto the floor and Kasim slumped down into a ball. A horrified expression ran across Michael's face, and made its way over to Nikita's. They glanced at each other, and their eyes said it all: No, this can't be! Kasim is lying. He must be. Percy would never…. Or would he?

Michael once again squatted over Kasim, this time, pulling out his gun. He pressed it into Kasim's skull and demanded to be told what he meant by "Percy".

"You know what I mean. Percy actually assigned me to kill you. But when I killed your family by mistake, he saw it as a perfect opportunity to use you. You were a pawn all along, Michael." As Kasim told the story, Michael's disbelief slowly quelled and he came to grips with what he was learning.

Kasim said that he had been a Division agent, once upon a time. He was planted as a double agent to infiltrate the terrorist organization. However, he soon realised that Division was the enemy, and joined his comrades, fully switching sides. Percy had not been too pleased with that, but there wasn't much he could do.

When he finished his story, Michael stood up, dropped his gun, and staggered away. He breezed past Nikita without looking at her. I should have known. He killed Dani, why is it such a stretch that he had my family killed all those years ago. How could I have worked for him all those years? He's a dead man.

Kasim was painfully crawling over to Michael's dropped gun. He looked over at Nikita, and smirked. This absolutely outraged her, and she grabbed her gun and shot him right between the eyes. She turned on her heel and left the warehouse without looking back.

Outside, she found Michael staring off into the distance. She came up beside him and touched his shoulder.

"I'm sorry," she said softly. He turned to look at her.

"I know."

"Division extraction team will be here soon. You need to get out of here, Michael." He nodded and stood rooted to the spot for another minute, before turning to leave.

He stopped at the last minute and turned to her.

"I hope you've finally opened your eyes to Division, Nikita. Percy needs to be stopped. You know that I will kill him. I'm going to find each and every single one of those black boxes, and then put a bullet in his brain."

"I… I don't know what to say, Michael." Nikita admitted.

"Well, when you figure it out, you know where to find me." And with that, he turned and left.

AN: I KNOW! I haven't updated in forever, and I'm sorry! I hope it was worth the wait. I had some crazy stuff going on and wasn't able to write, but now it's all good. So, please review! If you guys like it, then I will update regularly.

Thanks for sticking with me this long! Thanks to everyone who reviewed the last chapters. You all rock! Enjoy the holidays everyone.