A/N: I meant to upload this earlier but I've been uber sick and haven't been on the computer much. I didn't realize this chapter was so short until like 5 minutes ago so sorry about that. But it's almost done *sniff* and it's been fun. Thanks for the reviews so far, they make my day. Anyway, enough with that, hope you guys enjoy!

~~~ Chapter 7 ~~~

"What's happening?" Artie asked, somewhat frantically. The last time he saw the warehouse alarms go off, MacPherson was escaping.

"Hang on," Claudia said, not taking her eyes off of the computer monitor in front of her.

As soon as the alarms went off, Artie and Claudia ran back to the office to see what was wrong.

"Crap," Claudia said under her breath. She pressed a button on the desk and began to speak through a microphone, "Warren! Trent!"

Half a second later, the twin's voices could be heard over the speaker, "Yea, Ms. D. What's going on?"

"Code Black. Meet us where you found Artie." Claudia released the button and turned to a stunned Artie. "We need to get you back to your time, now!"

She grabbed Artie by the arm and began to drag him toward the door and down the stairs.

Pete was waiting for them to come down, "What's going on?"

"Code black," Claudia repeated. Pete's face grew stern and he nodded. "We need to get Artie back to the present."

"What is a code black!?" Artie yelled as he followed the two into the maze of warehouse shelves.

"We are under attack." Pete answered.

"What?! By whom?"

"Leena." Claudia said with venom in her voice. "She and her thugs have been trying to get in and destroy the warehouse for years."

"Yea, but she has never gotten this far before," Pete said, slightly nervous.

"Something's changed," Claudia said simply. Artie couldn't help but feel like he was the reason Leena was here.

The rest of the run to where Artie had appeared only a few hours before, was silent, not counting the pants of two out of shape agents.

Once they finally reached their destination, Artie noticed they were in front of the same big room where all of the personal effects and living quarters of every agent who dies mysteriously is stored and preserved. Which is why, Artie realized, when he woke up, he was in his room and when he left his room, he was in the warehouse.

"Where are Warren and Trent?" Pete asked worriedly, pulling Artie from his thoughts.

"Pete," Claudia said, somewhat forcibly, "don't worry, they are coming."

"No, they should have been here by now." Pete was frantically looking around the shelves for his sons. "I'm going to go looking for them." He turned his chair and began to leave.

"Pete!" Artie started to go after him but was stopped by Claudia. "What are you doing Claudia?"

"We can't worry about him now," Claudia said without emotion, "we need to get you back."

When Artie didn't move one way or the other, Claudia stared into his eyes, "look, if we get you back, you can fix everything. None of this will happen. I promise."

Artie opened his mouth to argue but quickly closed it. He nodded, "okay. Let's go."

Claudia gave a small smile and jogged to the combination lock. She put in the numbers and stood back to wait for Artie's room to come.

A few minutes passed and Artie and Claudia could start to hear a commotion. Warren came running around a corner and toward the two agents just as Artie's room appeared.

"Claudia!" Warren yelled. He was being chased by a man dressed in a suit, one of Leena's cohorts.

Claudia saw Warren but turned her back on him and walked toward the bedroom instead.

Artie grabbed Claudia's arm before she could enter the room. "What are you doing?"

Claudia turned toward her former mentor and saw the confusion in his eyes. "Dammit Artie. You are more important right now."

Artie was taken aback, "Claudia, I couldn't live with myself if we just left him there."

"You aren't going to remember anyway!" Claudia shrugged off Artie's grasp on her arm.

"Claudia!" Artie yelled and stared at Claudia. She kept his gaze for a few moments and then rolled her eyes.

She shoved the memory wipe into Artie's arms, "you are going to have to do it yourself then." Then she pushed Artie into the room and took off to help Warren.

Artie stumbled a little bit when Claudia pushed him but he soon regained his balance and watched as Claudia helped Warren. By the time Claudia reached Warren, both he and his attacker had their weapons knocked out of their hands and were fist fighting.

Warren was losing.

He was on the ground about to be kicked when Claudia picked up Warren's lost Tesla. She aimed and fired. The man was hit directly in the chest and fell unconscious to the ground.

Claudia kneeled beside Warren. He was pretty banged up but he'd survive. She then glanced back at Artie and saw him still standing at the doorway. "Artie!" she yelled. Artie smiled despite himself thinking she was just mad that he hadn't left yet. What he didn't see was another of Leena's 'friends' a few feet off to the right of him. He had snuck up on Artie while he was distracted.

Claudia got up and ran toward him, forgetting the Tesla. The man jumped at Artie causing him to drop the flashlight. Artie grabbed the man's arms, keeping him from throwing any punches. They gripped each other and began moving around the room, knocking into tables and trying to get the upper hand. This fight reminded Artie too much of his recent scuffle with MacPherson in the warehouse.

After a minute of thrashing around, the man was torn off of Artie by Claudia. Artie fell to the ground with a thud but looked up at his former protégé. She had one of the man's arms in a vice hold behind his back.

"Artie! Use the butterfly! Think of the past!" Claudia ordered right before the man escaped her hold. Claudia pushed the man out of the room as Artie reached into his pocket.

He grasped the now familiar cold metal and closed his eyes. He thought of Claudia at 19. Pete and Myka were in Akron, Ohio looking for the Santa's hat. It was Christmas 2009. He began to feel a strange pull but kept his eyes shut, hoping this nightmarish future would soon be over.

Claudia saw Artie close his eyes and glanced at the bad guy, who was quickly getting up with the help of another. She turned back to Artie.

"Crap!" Claudia noticed the flashlight on the floor and reached it just as the men grabbed for her. She swung the light in an arch behind her and it connected with one guy's skull. She heard him hit the floor but was too focused on a fading Artie to care where the other was.

With every ounce of strength she had left, she dove at Artie just as everything went dark.