Author's Note: You like the last chapter? Leo is the mole, and he poisoned Chase, who has pneumonia too. And to top it off...I have funsies! Bad for you, good for me! But yes, funsies! And if you took care to look at this chapter title -bless you-, then someone of you might recognize it was the title of one of the most painful SPN episodes. That episodes plot plays in a bit, but sadly no hellhounds are in this fic.

SHOUTOUT TO: AllAmericanSlurp, daphrose, dreamer4evera, and Snooptastic. Though I'm sure you know most, if not all of them.

To the best Donald could figure, it was around nighttime. Strider hadn't reappeared -whether that was a good or bad thing, Donald didn't know, but he assumed good, given what happened the last time- but Leo hadn't either. Tasha was still raring to go with Strider, and much as Douglas warned her against it, Donald knew Tasha had earned some of Douglas' respect. Well, we're finally at the point where my brother likes his sister-in-law. How long does that take for most families? Better late than never, I guess.

"Donald, we haven't seen Adam or Chase this whole time. I'm 99% sure he doesn't have them, so why haven't they rescued us? They can easily take down humans, so...what if something happened to them?" Donald was beginning to consider that possibility for himself, but he could outright admit that and take away more of his family's dwindling hope. So, he found himself playing a role he'd once thought was gone forever: big brother.

"I bet you Chase is forcing Adam to memorize the plan, or maybe something's come up. Who knows? There are as many good possibilities as bad." Yeah, though the negative ones are more numerous with logic. If they could come for us, they would have by now. Not that I can voice that. A loud crash broke him out of his depressing thoughts, and he allowed himself to hope it was his bionic children. All I can say is Strider won't be sleeping well tonight.

...

Adam was seriously loving his new abilities, despite them being on loan. He wasn't even awkward with them. If he so much as thought of using one of them, it happened. It was nice not to have to hone new abilities for once. So, he decided to ruin his element of surprise by molecularkinetically destroying the outer wall of the room where he always met Marcus. Unsurprisingly, Marcus was in the room at the time. He turned, and a knowing smile spread itself on his lips.

"Ah, Adam, I've been missing you, buddy. Want to get beaten up again? Don't older brothers do that to their younger brothers? Finally, some brotherly bonding time!" Marcus's heat vision was deflected by Adam's force field. The look of surprise on Marcus' face was priceless. Adam tried to slam him into the wall with his molecularkinesis, but Marcus remained unaffected. "I may be dying, but I'm not that weak." In a second, too fast for Adam to react, Marcus' electricity generation struck, and Adam was blown back a few feet, and was dazed by the attack.

Marcus cackled. "That can't be too good for your chip. But I'm going to take it nice and slow-" Adam kicked Marcus in the chest, backed by all the super-strength his chip possessed. Marcus went flying through a wall. Adam wanted to go after him, but his new super-smarts told him to wait, and be ready for the next attack. Marcus staggered out of the whole in his wall. "Well done, Adam, that had a little more kick in it than your normal attacks." Adam didn't even acknowledge the pun, though in his opinion it was rather good.

Quick as a cheetah -or viper, him being more like a snake- Marcus jammed his hand into Adam's chest, backed by his super-strength, and the additional force of his super-speed. Adam was slammed again into a wall, but this time he couldn't make himself move. Marcus was in front of him, and began viciously kicking him, until he was super-sped into, knocking him away.

"No one hurts my brother!" Bree yelled, her eyes glowing with rage.

...

The truth was, she'd only come here because someone hacked into her chip and made her bionics take her to this location, but when she saw some freak beating her brother, and that freak had kidnapped her earlier, well...she decided to stick around. And beat up the freak. Strider, is it? She knew he was weakened, and for a second she saw sparks -sparks?!- leap out of his eye. He cackled again, and she swore it sounded like he was dying.

"Oh, you Davenports have more fight than you think. But don't forget, I'm one of you!" Strider advanced toward her, but she landed a kick to his chest, glad for all the self-defense moves her dad had taught her. She helped Adam up, and he fought off a wave of nausea. But this distracted her from Marcus, and she didn't see him speeding toward them. Adam tried to summon the force field, but it stayed for a minute, then flickered and died. Marcus grinned. Adam frowned, suddenly he felt a sense of loss, and realized his borrowed bionics must've gone back to their owner. I guess my chip couldn't support all those bionics.

"Adam, what was-"

"Long story, I'll tell you later! Bree, go try to free our family! Don't be worried about Leo, he's at the house!" His sister flashed him a you-better-explain-this-later look, then sped off. Adam circled Marcus, unsure of how to proceed with the battle. He just ran at Marcus and began whaling on him, and Marcus weakly tried to defend himself, but couldn't from the number and ferocity of the attacks. Marcus fell to the ground, and Adam was very sure he wouldn't get up.

Marcus began to cough, but still he sneered at Adam. "You may have won this battle, and gotten the rest of your family back, but you aren't done suffering yet. The dead always haunt you, don't they?" Marcus spluttered out another cough, then, with the sound of an electronic shutting down, he shut down for good. But his last words haunted Adam. 'The dead always haunt you, don't they?' Somehow, I don't think he's talking about himself... Adam had a feeling Marcus had one final blow to deliver, and it would hit hard.

...

Chase had used up almost all his strength in convincing his chip to send Bree to Adam's aid. Once he felt his bionics rush back...he didn't feel any better physically, and he certainly didn't feel any better about the fight with Marcus. Or his situation, really. It had been about an hour since Adam left, and Chase could tell his pulse had slowed dramatically. He doubted he could make it past and hour and a half. So much for six hours, or even twelve. He could care less about himself dying, but he at least wanted to know his family was safe. I have a dream that my family will be safe. Unfortunately, I doubt I'll live to see it happen. And his pulse slowed even more.