Ok this may get a bit confusing as time supposedly has passed for one of the crossovers. Well, imagine it hasn't.

Updates may or may not increase in frequency, I seem to be on a roll but I don't want to post everything at once.

Max bid Alex goodbye later that day. She'd done what she had to do and so she needed to go back to D.C. Alex had decided to stay with Jack, his ex-guardian while the woman recovered.

She never got to the airport. She'd stopped to get a drink on the way when her phone had rung. Unknown number.

"Rho here," she said, sticking to English for the moment. No one had called her in Japanese for a while.

"This is Mrs Jones, MI6." Max took the phone away from her ear and ended the call. She was not in the mood for a bitch trying to one up her. Her phone rang again. This time Alex's number.

"What?"

"I know you wanted to get back to your friends but please listen, Mrs Jones really needs your help. A branch of MI5 are about to send a bunch of kids undercover into a religious cult. MI6 don't like this idea, these kids don't have the training that we've had."

"So why me?"

"Your reputation precedes you, and you do kinda owe me for keeping quiet back in Atlantis."

"So this means that much to you that you're calling in that favour."

"I get a favour for MI6 and we're square, it's all good."

"I suppose they can live without me for a little while longer, where do I need to go?"

"Royal and General on Liverpool Street."

"Whatever," Max sighed ending the call. She bought her drink and took a swig as she walked back to her bike. Religious cult, that could be interesting, but the undercover part ruined any fun Max was looking for.

It was pretty late when Max turned up. While she was in England and old enough she was stocking up on alcohol amongst other things. She'd also wanted a decent meal before going off to who knows where.

Someone was stood outside the bank looking around every so often. Max grinned and snuck up behind the man taking of her helmet as she walked, she had been over looked because of the bike.

"I don't suppose you work for the Royal and General?" Max asked cheekily.

"That's none of your business."

"I was called here so yes it is my business."

"You're Rho?"

"No, I-" Max started to say sarcastically. "… you know what forget it, I'm not dignifying that with a response any more." Max said, tired of people asking that, she held up her ID anyway.

"Mrs Jones is expecting you."

"She better be."

"Do you always have something to say?"

"Yes." The man didn't look impressed at her response. "You asked."

Gaara was woken up by his phone receiving a text. He read it, his mind taking a while to adjust to the English characters.

Got caught up in a mission, very important. Heading to Australia, keep an eye on 'The Survivors' cult. Be back later.

Max

Gaara couldn't bring himself to be surprised. He would ask Abby if she knew who the Survivors were, or what cult was for that matter.

Max didn't stay long at the Royal and General, just enough to be briefed on CHREUB and the mission. Mrs Jones was obviously displeased with the whole idea of the mission but she couldn't call a stop to it, only send in her own agent.

That's where Rho came in, apparently higher ups had been trading stories about her, leading to some infamy within agencies. Max was a bit sceptical of that idea, she'd hoped to stay anonymous but she supposed it was a side effect of the work she did. So much for no pimping.

After hearing the absolute bare bones of the plan Max only had one though. 'This is going to go down like Waco.' Unfortunately she didn't know if the Waco siege had happened in this universe so couldn't use it as an example of how this could go wrong.

She couldn't take her bike where she was going so it was stored in an underground carpark. The same man who had met with her outside the bank was ready to drive her to the CHREUB campus.

The drive itself was in uncomfortable silence, the windows were tinted on the inside and there was a screen between her and the front seats. They really didn't want people to find this place. Unfortunately Max would inevitably cheat and find out anyway, they didn't need to know that though.

She was met just outside a building, they had left normal traffic about five minutes back so Max assumed she was on the campus. A man stepped forward to greet her.

"You must be Rho. I'm Dr McAfferty, chairman of CHERUB. I'll make this short so you can get some sleep. Briefing will be at 9 am tomorrow morning. Anything you see here is classified. There will be a white t-shirt in your room, you need to wear that around campus. Chloe here will show you to your room and escort you tomorrow."

"Whatever." If they thought she was going to fall neatly in line then they were mistaken. Max almost made it her goal to get around at least one of the guidelines she'd just been given, except the secrecy, that she understood.

The next morning Max woke up early, she'd given up any pretence of a regular sleep cycle long ago. She got dressed in her own stuff ignoring the clothes laid out for her, she would let them puzzle over how later as she appeared to have no bag. Then she took a look at the white t-shirt on the dresser thinking up how she should wear it. From the size of it they had expected someone taller than her, and definitely not as skinny. Max knew she needed to eat regularly but time always seemed to be lacking.

She finally decided to tie the t-shirt around her waist letting the majority of it hang like part of a skirt including the part with the logo. She was not there to be a good influence.

The woman who had shown her to her room, Chloe, knocked on her door at 8 am sharp. She was a bit taken aback by Max's appearance but didn't feel like she could say anything. Max did look intimidating even early in the morning.

Chloe escorted her to the canteen area, kids were already there eating breakfast looking half asleep.

"I half expected you to be like them this morning," Chloe admitted, trying to make small talk.

"I may be a teenager but I'll never be normal, even compared to these kids."

"How so?"

"That probably isn't something to discuss at breakfast. Or ever." Max doubted that any of the kids had killed as many as her or even trained as long.

There was some silence as they ate, Max tried to show some decorum but was failing.

"Mac wanted me to show you the Dojo before the briefing. Apparently you don't believe these kids are well trained."

"I don't. That's why I'm here."

"The next session should have started, we can watch that."

"Go for it." The two women cleaned up their breakfast and headed out to the Japanese style building down a small road. Chloe had decided to take one of the golf buggies while Max enjoyed the jog next to her. It kept her warm in the chilly weather.

Miss Takada, the dojo instructor acknowledged then with a slight nod without slipping up in her talk. Max knelt at the side of the mats respectfully, both having removed their footwear at the entrance, while Chloe remained standing.

As she watched, Max analysed their moves, she couldn't help but figure out how to counter them, it was her nature. It did take some degree of restraint not to get up and show them.

There was a pause after the kids had been practicing a move where Miss Takada motioned Max forward.

"Discipline?"

"Eclectic style." Max said, smirking at the confused looks on the kids faces. Miss Takada understood what Max meant and nodded, there was no point asking what grade as eclectic was a personal thing.

"Demonstration?" Max looked to Chloe who nodded, they had a bit of time. Max got up and stepped onto the mats, facing Miss Takada. They both bowed then took up their own opening stances.

With this spar Max only showed enough to keep the upper hand without making it look too easy. She didn't use any chakra and deliberately underpowered her moves, she didn't want to put their teacher out of action or they would never learn.

The spar came to an end and they both bowed again, neither of then showing any fatigue. Max felt the kids were suitably awed of her from the gapping faces.

"Good mix." Miss Takada said approvingly.

"Thank you. My teacher didn't believe I could effectively use only one style." Yuri had tried, but Max would bastardise it to suit her, so Yuri had given up and taught her several different ones to mix up. Max had taken all the best bits to form her own unique adaptive style.

"We need to get going or we'll be late for the briefing," Chloe informed her from the side lines. Max followed her slipping her boots back on at the door, Chloe had been surprised at her mobility in the chunky boots on the way to the dojo. When Max had been sparing she had picked them up only to find they weighed more than she had assumed. Max was just full of surprises.

There were already people in the briefing room when Max and Chloe turned up. Two girls and a boy were sat in chairs in front of a desk. Max recognised the boy as James from a while back in London. Both girls looked like they could be related to him. Chloe left Max there, she had her own things to deal with for this mission.

Max chuckled when she heard what the kids were talking about. James had apparently been hammered last night and irritated one of the girls who then poured salsa over him when he passed out.

"And that's why you need a good alcohol tolerance," Max said, alerting them to her presence. The reaction was a bit funny, the half-hearted karate stances while still remaining seated.

"Who are you and how did you get in?" one of the girls demanded. James took a while but he recognised her.

"Calm down Lauren, she's a good guy, she even has the white shirt." Lauren noticed what was tied around Max's waist and went red.

"I'm so sorry-"

"Don't worry. I'm surprised you remember me James."

"John was talking about you for weeks after you and your friends took down those assassins." The girls perked up at the last word.

"When were you on a mission that involved assassins?" the other girl asked.

"That is absolutely none of your business kid. It was only chance that he was in the building when they turned up." The still unnamed girl frowned at the reprimand and being called kid.

"Still doesn't answer the question of who you are though," the girl said haughtily.

"Try asking politely and I'll consider answering," Max replied, she heard the door open behind her and the kids shuffled around in their seats a bit

"Or you could all stop behaving like kids." A male voice said. Max turned to face him, noting the woman next to him.

"John Jones. Fancy seeing you here."

"I wasn't expecting you. I believe you had a different name back then Rho." Max pouted she'd wanted to wind the kids up for a bit longer.

"Just one of many, I have to stick to Rho for now, it's what my ID says."

They got on with the briefing, the woman with John was an Aussie by the name of Abigail Sanders who would be posing as the kids mother. Each of them were handed a small file to read over. It had some background on the Survivors and the mission objectives.

Max would be there to follow them to the Ark if they got in, the Ark being a huge compound in the Australian outback that was the base of the Survivors cult. Her job there would be to look out for the kids seeing as they would be isolated from the rest of civilisation with no back up.

Max had hated the idea of this mission, it seemed even worse on paper. There was no way to get this cancelled so going along was probably for the best.

At least she wasn't actually undercover so she could screw with people when she got to the Ark. She'd been dying to creep people out with her death god form and this seemed perfect. Though if they were religious nuts that probably wasn't the best course of action.

The NCIS team were worried with what they had dug up on the Survivors. While there was nothing too bad on paper, some of it seemed too out of whack. A report told them of the brainwashing that happened, then the forced dependency making it difficult to leave. There was precious little other than that which wasn't propaganda.

DiNozzo's phone rung while they were writing up reports for their latest case, he recognised Max's number and picked up immediately, putting it on speaker phone.

"Rho?"

"'Sup? I don't have much time, I'm in Singapore waiting for my next flight. You may know I'm heading to Australia?"

"Gaara did mention that, didn't seem too happy about it though."

"I'll make it up to him. Anyway I just wanted to let you know I'm not trying to avoid you or anything, I was needed to help with a few issues. Look up Piers Pomfrey and you'll find out why." DiNozzo was tapping away it his keyboard with the search putting it up on the plasma screen.

The latest link was a news site, two videos. DiNozzo clicked the first one to play it, his eyes widening at the mass of girls in the frame.

"Don't spend too much time ogling the girls," Max chided much to the teams amusement. There was silence as the video played and once it was finished DiNozzo clicked the next one. It was only when Max heard the shot she remembered exactly what had happened.

"You got shot. Again."

"Occupational hazard, I'm fine, I was wearing body amour. Just got roped into another job."

"I don't like the look of the Survivors."

"Neither do I but I don't want the undercover agents to screw this up so it ends up like Waco. I need to go now, I'm not supposed to be contacting anyone. I'll contact you once it's safe to talk again." There was a dial tone telling them that Max had hung up. DiNozzo ran a hand through his hair in frustration.

"At least she told us about getting shot instead of leaving us to find out and draw our own conclusions," McGee said.

"It just feels a bit weird. What would you be like if you had a sister and she did some of the stuff that Rho does?"

"Sarah wouldn't-" McGee cut of his own sentence realising what he'd just said.

"Sarah? You have a sister?" DiNozzo grinned at this new bit of information.

I was watching a video on the Waco, Texas siege in psychology a while back when I realised I'd read something similar before, CHERUB: divine madness. I had to put it in.

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