A/N: Thank you SnidgetHex for reviewing! I'm glad you enjoyed this AU. ^_^ Final chapter!

Chapter 43: Once More Unto the Breach

Rios stared in shock at the giant cracks splintering throughout the Warehouse, glowing red in the dimly lit underground storage.

"There," Jean-Luc said, pointing to the floor directly below the landing they were all on. The anarchy symbol and been painted or carved in the same fulvous red lines. "It's the Berlin Wall Spray Paint."

"What do we do?" Soji asked, eyes wide with shared horror.

"Neutralizing the can won't work; the only way to stop it is to paint the peace symbol over it."

"This is Soong," Rios growled.

The ceiling above creaked as a crack slowly forked its way up, releasing silt on top of them. They all ducked back into the office.

"There's no way to find Soong," Elnor pointed out.

"That's not true," one of the holos said as they all popped back on. Soji had gone to the computer terminal and must have reinitiated them. "We set up a new security feature after Dr. Soong's last incursion," Emil went on. "Anyone who disables us all again gets sprayed with an invisible radioactive compound that can be traced."

Everyone stared at the hologram in dismay for a long moment.

"You rigged radioactive poison?" Rios exclaimed.

"Is it still in the air?" Raffi asked in alarm.

"It's not at a dangerous level," Emil assured them. "Just a traceable one." He went to grab a small device from the table and passed it over.

"We'll talk about this gross violation of protocol later," Jean-Luc said sharply, then turned to Rios and Raffi. "Find Soong. I'll try to save as many artifacts as I can."

Raffi shot a reluctant look at Seven, who could barely keep herself upright.

"Go," Seven ground out. "The only way to stop this is to find Soong and the can."

Another crack resounded through the Warehouse, prompting them to get moving. Soji and Elnor hurried along with Rios and Raffi as they exited the crumbling Warehouse and piled into the SUV. Rios passed the tracker back to Soji to manage while he drove.

"Head for town," she instructed.

Rios jammed his foot on the gas pedal and tore down the back road through the woods.

"How far away is he?" Raffi asked.

Soji studied the tracker. "According to this…he's in town. And not moving."

"What?"

"Makes sense," Elnor said soberly. "After all the times you've thwarted him, he'll want to stay close and watch his final victory come to fruition."

"We're not going to let that happen," Rios said staunchly and revved the engine.

They peeled into town and stopped outside the coffee shop. There was no time for the element of surprise, and they charged inside. Rios and Raffi flashed their badges and ordered the customers and workers to evacuate. Soong was sitting at a table in the back, sipping from a large coffee cup.

He set it down calmly and looked up. "Nice to see you all again. I suspected you'd save yourselves from my…gifts. But that's no matter; I've won the final round."

"Hand over the spray paint can," Raffi demanded.

Soong merely smirked. "Not a chance."

"Fine." She pulled out her Tesla. "We'll take it off you." She fired, but the burst of electric discharge simply coursed over Soong without effect. Raffi, however, jerked as though she'd been struck and promptly collapsed, unconscious.

Soong continued to smirk as he stood up, dabbing at his mouth with a napkin and dropping it on the table. "You forget, I know all your tricks."

Elnor's nostrils flared with rage, and he drew his sword and charged, thrusting his blade into Soong's stomach. But the man didn't react. Instead, Elnor gasped and staggered backward in shock, blood seeping out from a stab wound in his torso.

"He's using an artifact," Soji said under her breath.

Yeah, and Rios knew which one too—the Corsican Vest. It caused injuries to be inflicted on the attacker instead of the wearer. Just like with Dorian Gray, anything they did to him would be thrown back at themselves.

Soong checked his watch and grinned. "The Warehouse is out of time."

Dahj and Picard scrambled through the Warehouse aisles, frantically trying to grab artifacts off the shelves and pile them onto a cart. Of course, there was no way they could save them all, and trying to prioritize which ones were more important than the others, especially under such duress, made the task haphazard and impossible. To add to the chaos of the Warehouse literally disintegrating around them, the artifacts' energies were going crazy in response and to being thrown together.

"Leave those," Seven ground out. She was trying to help but could barely walk, she was bowed over in so much pain.

"Heads up!" Ean yelled as parts of the ceiling rained down.

Dahj yelped and threw her arms up over her head to shield herself. This was madness.

A crack splintered into two branches, spreading further into the Warehouse, and Seven cried out in response.

"Dr. Jurati, get her out of here," Picard ordered.

Agnes nodded and gripped Seven's arm to drag her away.

"You should go too," he told Dahj.

She shook her head. If he was staying, so was she.

They continued their foray through the aisles, desperately making a run for the most vulnerable artifacts, or the ones that could get triggered and make everything worse, though Dahj didn't know how much worse this could literally get.

The ground shook and a crack emerged from beneath a shelf where Steward was standing. His foot got caught in it and he screamed and fell to the ground. The red paint crawled up his leg, turning it to ash right there. Ean and Enoch started toward him, but Emil yelled for them to stop, as another smaller crack was glittering across the floor.

"We can jump it," Ean proclaimed.

But it was already too late. Steward's other leg disintegrated into chaff, and the paint was still crawling up his torso. In the next moment, it had bisected his length and he was gone. Dahj and the other holos were left staring in horror.

"Dahj," Picard said, tugging on her arm. "Run!"

They both turned and made for the exit, abandoning the artifacts. Every aisle they went down, more destructive cracks were creeping in. Maybe they had stayed too long and wouldn't be able to get out…

A crack suddenly split the aisle and Dahj tried to stop herself but only upended her balance and started to pitch forward into the glowing paint. But Emmett was there and grabbed her arm, swinging her back around and into Ean, who caught her. The momentum, however, made Emmett lose his balance in turn. He threw an arm out to catch himself on the shelf—the shelf that was also covered in glowing red paint. The red instantly transferred to his hand and up his arm, disintegrating it. He howled as he staggered and fell to one knee.

"Emmett!" Dahj yelled.

"Ve!" he gritted out. "Go!"

Emil ushered them all the other direction.

They managed to reach the office where only a few minor cracks had rent the walls. Enoch rushed to grab his ferret from its cage, then turned and shoved the animal into Dahj's hands.

"Look after Mr. Quiggles," he beseeched.

Dahj's eyes widened as she realized the holos couldn't leave. They were trapped with the disintegrating Warehouse.

Emil gave her a grim look. "Go on, love. It was a pleasure."

Ean and Enoch nodded in solemn agreement.

Dahj was left dazed with devastation as Picard grabbed her and dragged her outside.

Seven was on the ground, sweating and writhing, with Agnes kneeling next to her unable to do anything. Dahj looked between them and back at the crumbling Warehouse.

"What happens to Seven if the Warehouse is destroyed?" she asked nervously.

Neither Agnes nor Picard responded, but the grim look they shared was answer enough.

"The Warehouse is out of time."

Rios's jaw tightened, and he reached into his pocket to pull out the Barometer from the USS Eldridge. "I can buy a little more," he said and opened the artifact.

Everything froze. Rios hurried over to Soong. He only had forty-seven seconds before time would resume. Rios yanked open Soong's suit jacket, revealing the Corsican Vest underneath. Muttering an apology to the Warehouse and the artifact, he whipped out his pocket knife and cut the vest down one side, then wrested it off. He then patted down Soong's pockets for the spray paint can. But he couldn't find it.

Time restarted, and Soong blinked in bewilderment to suddenly find Rios in his face. His eyes blew wide as he spotted the vest, and he lunged to grab it.

Rios leaped backwards. "Soji, shoot him!"

She drew her Tesla and fired. This time the electric discharge knocked the doctor out.

Soji gaped at Rios. "What just happened?"

"I froze time for forty-seven seconds," he replied as he fumbled with one hand to get his cuffs out. He then dropped down next to Soong and cuffed his hands together.

"Where's the spray paint?" Soji asked urgently.

Rios searched the man's person again, but he didn't have the can on him.

Elnor grunted from where he sat slumped against the dining counter, and Soji jumped up to rush over to him.

"Oh god," she said and grabbed a bunch of napkins to press against his stab wound.

"The- can-" he said haltingly. "Wouldn't it be- radioactive- as well?"

Soji's eyes widened and she grabbed the tracker again, then fiddled with the knobs in an effort to fine tune it. Rios watched tensely as she turned it this way and that.

"Over here, I think," she said.

She and Rios both went over to a booth and started looking behind the plants and under the table.

"Found it!" Rios proclaimed. He looked between an unconscious Raffi and a bleeding Elnor, then turned to Soji. "Take care of them."

She nodded sharply. "Go."

He ran out of the coffee shop, past the crowd of onlookers, and climbed into the SUV to gun it back to the Warehouse. The others were outside when he arrived.

"I have the can!" he yelled as he climbed out of the car.

"It's too late," Jean-Luc said grimly. "The Warehouse is collapsing."

Rios glanced at the door, his expression hardening. He refused to accept that. Gripping the spray paint can in one hand, he braved running back into the Warehouse.

"Cris!" Agnes yelled.

Rios stumbled over chunks of debris and overturned items as he barreled into the office and out to the landing. As he made his way down the stairs, the railing broke loose and fell, almost taking him with it. But he managed to cling to the wall at his back and continued his way down. At the base of the steps where the anarchy symbol had been painted, Rios uncapped the Berlin Wall Spray Paint and proceeded to paint the peace symbol over the first.

The fulvous red cracks began to turn blue, then spread out. The Warehouse groaned and creaked, then settled as the destructive cracks stopped spreading and fell still in a glittering icy blue. Rios held his breath and waited, but nothing moved. After a few moments, he chanced going back up the stairs and outside.

Seven was sitting up now, with Agnes bracing her.

"Did it work?" Dahj asked anxiously.

Rios nodded, then looked at Seven. "Did it?"

She nodded shakily, and he finally let himself exhale in relief.

"Where's Raffi?" Seven asked.

"Soong had been waiting for us," Rios explained. "Raffi's okay, but Elnor got stabbed. He'll need you," he said to Agnes.

"And Soong?" Picard asked.

"In custody."

Rios looked back at the Warehouse. It was still full of gaping cracks, but it seemed they had once again saved the day in the end.

Rios and Raffi escorted a handcuffed Soong through the Warehouse to the Bronzing section where Jean-Luc and Seven were waiting.

"What are you going to do?" Soong scoffed. "Lock me up in a dungeon? Pretty sure the Warehouse doesn't come equipped with one of those."

"You think the Warehouse doesn't have a way to deal with threats to its existence?" Seven replied, flicking a glance over her shoulder.

Soong faltered when he spotted several bronze statues that looked just like his former Qowat Milat goons.

Jean-Luc walked over to a vertical capsule and slid the door open. Soong struggled as Rios and Raffi manhandled him toward it and forced him inside, sealing him in. Then Seven went over to a control console that was hooked up to it and activated the Bronzer. Gushing vapor filled the capsule, momentarily fogging it up. When it cleared, Soong was nothing more than a bronze statue.

"Forgot to take the handcuffs off," Rios remarked.

"At least Soong will never cause us problems again," Jean-Luc replied.

"What about the mess?" Raffi asked, looking around at the blue-laden cracks.

"The Warehouse is structurally sound," Seven answered. "For the most part. Who knows, it might be time for Warehouse 14 to retire and move to Warehouse 15."

Rios and Raffi both exchanged alarmed looks at that. When a Warehouse moved continents, the agents of the previous one were always retired. Neither of them wanted to lose this place, this family.

But it wasn't up to them.

They headed back upstairs, somewhat glum now despite their victory. Soji was working at the computer with Emil, Enoch, and Ean hovering over her shoulder.

"I'm sorry," she said. "I can't repair Emmett's matrix. It's like the Berlin Wall Spray Paint actually erased whole segments of coding. I can't even rebuild the gaps." She cast a regretful look over at said hologram, who was missing an arm.

Emmett merely shrugged and started curiously poking at his amputated limb.

"What about Steward?" Ean asked. "So you cannae bring him back?"

Soji's expression pinched. "I'm sorry. I've searched the whole system. He's just…gone."

The holos bowed their heads in a moment of silence.

Rios rolled his eyes but didn't interrupt them.

The door opened as Dahj, Elnor, and Agnes arrived. Elnor was walking very slowly with Dahj lending him an arm.

"Hey, kiddo," Raffi greeted. "You doing okay?"

"I will mend," he replied.

"He will," Agnes confirmed. "As long as you don't pull those stitches."

"I'll make sure he takes it easy," Dahj promised. She guided him over to a chair and helped ease him into it.

Agnes came over to Rios, and he put his arms around her. Raffi and Seven were standing pretty close together too. Mr. Quiggles ran in his ball across the floor, Sirena prancing after him. The ferret bumped into Enoch's feet, and the holo bent down to swiftly pick him up.

Everyone was quiet. This had been a close one, and they'd almost lost everything. While the losses they had suffered weren't that severe, at least to Rios, there was still a solemn air about the whole ordeal. Not to mention the senior agents were now worried over the Warehouse's future…and theirs.

But then the computer pinged with a notification of suspected artifact activity.

Jean-Luc went over to the computer to read out the information. "We'd better get back to work," he said.

Rios and Raffi looked at each other, then the other members of their motley found family. Whatever the future held, that was later. Today, they still had work to do.

"Back to it, then."

THE END