"Why don't you ask me what it feels like to be a freak?" - Demon Speeding, Rob Zombie.

"We're in." A radio logged the voice of the leader over amongst several teams' comm. links. Men clothed in military camouflage and heavy masks stepped lightly through an infested apartment complex. Everywhere along the walls was evidence of the rapid growth characteristic of Redlight. It was disgusting, but these soldiers had grown long accustomed to it.

"What are your sights, Echo?"

"Obvious infestation, no signs of movement, yet." They kept up their slow and silent trek, heads craning around at all times in the attempts to see and hear everything all at once.

"Delta behind you, covering."

"Sounds up ahead." The leader of Echo team answered, informing the other teams within the building of any suspicious activity.

"Charlie's hot! Charlie's hot!" The team ahead of them lit up a room with the heavy fire of their rifles. The sound of rabid growling and roaring combated to rise above that of the weaponry.

"Move in! Covering fire! Go, go, go!" The leader of Echo motioned with his fist, pumping a fore finger toward where another team was currently under pressure. "Command, send in air!"

"We've got a score here, Delta, move in!" Delta, who was behind them, could be heard tromping up the stairs that Echo had already cleared. At least, so they'd thought.

"Delta? Delta! Delta, answer!"

"Fuck, how could they ambush us? They're fucking animals!" Echo's leader's voice was panicked, filled with disbelief, and cracked under the pressure. "What the fuck is going on?"

"This is Wise Men, we're dropping at ten, get your asses out of there." A well known voice stated over all of their comm. links. It was 1st Lt. Morris. The Lt. often served as a communication bridge between Blackwatch's Wise Men and the military.

"We're bogged!" Delta finally screamed out. That was the last two words they heard from team Delta, though. The stairs quieted. Both the growling and the guns had silenced.

"This is Specialist. ZEUS is in. Get your asses out of there." Cross's voice seemed like a godsend, even if the news wasn't good.

"Hold the rain." First Lt. Morris ordered to the air strike package that Echo had sent for roughly five minutes earlier.

"We're over, drop." The indifferent status came from the strike package.

"Hold it!"

"Drop in sequence." Orders had been delivered, and they were following through. Damn military. This was definitely another petty little fight between Blackwatch and the marines.

"Can't you listen to orders, you fucking morons! God damn!" The Echo leader heard Morris's yell of indignation before he spun to face the direction his team had come from. Delta had gone eerily quiet way too fast.

"Having trouble?" came the voice he never hoped to hear in his lifetime. Samuel Jameson wasn't a bad man. In fact, he'd been a teacher once. After a divorce with his wife and split custody with his kids, though, his life had been falling into ruin. It was with the hopes of bettering things that he joined up with some friends. For him, it would be a second time. It would also be his last.

"Please… don't." Samuel raised an empty hand, palm facing ZEUS as he lowered his rifle and shuffled back a few steps. Most of his men were up ahead upon his orders to cover Charlie team.

"Don't… what." It growled, stepping closer, the manifested sword that replaced his arm appearing far more menacing than each second before.

"Don't kill me. Please, don't." Samuel felt himself crouching, sinking to the ground. He held one hand up still, his body in trembles and his other arm sunken to the ground under the weight of a useless weapon.

"You're going to die anyway." ZEUS whispered. As if on cue, the building ruptured with light and fire. Samuel didn't even have the opportunity to hear the missiles detonate. He was simply consumed by the very weapon he'd ordered in. Seconds before impact, ZEUS had turned his face toward the whistling sound only he could hear. The boom of the missile echoed in his mind as everything became far too bright to bear. Instinctively, he raised a hand to his face, before the shock of the explosion flung him from the building. The air felt open as he plummeted towards the ground, landing with a thud that left a crater around him. Pieces of plaster, plumbing, infected bodies, and soldiers went flying everywhere like morbid confetti.

ZEUS laid on the cement, cells promptly pulling together what had been ripped and torn, as he watched. Blacklight infected tissues curled across his face, pulled in from his arms and legs, and finalized the stitching of his torso before replicating the final product once more.

He stood, looking down the alleyway almost lazily, to see Cross walking towards him. The man's permanent frown was epic today. Lt. Morris was right behind him, as seemed most natural these days.

"You agreed not to kill my men!" Cross's anger couldn't remain contained any longer. Robert Cross was a man who could probably play one hell of a game of poker. However, he had a temper that few lived to regale anyone else with.

"They weren't your men." ZEUS stated, his voice deep and hoarse. "They were military."

"They work for me!"

"Yes… I could tell, when the strike package fired the missiles anyway." ZEUS spat, dropping his ear to his shoulder real quick for a loud pop. Cross rubbed his face, and in that action, appeared to rub away his frustration with the matter. In mere seconds, he regained complete and utter control.

"Morris, report this to military command." Cross was referring to the disregard for orders against missile firing. Eric nodded in understanding, peeking around Cross's side to give an informal wave like salute to Alex before he took off to carry out the order. The virus' expression was humorless, and his only acknowledgement of the soldier was his line of sight.

"Take this." Cross said, tossing a cell phone to ZEUS. He caught it languidly, flipping open the screen experimentally before shutting it and turning his attention back to the Specialist. "Maybe next time it won't be so messy. The idea is to work with the military, ZEUS." Cross explained, turning as if to leave.

"You know, I realize you have a sick time tearing people apart, but, keep in mind that we're trying to clear the island of infected." Cross admonished. Deep to the his very core, Cross was both disappointed and angry when he'd had to hear Samuel Jameson beg for his life futilely. ZEUS was quiet for a moment, appearing to chew on his lower lip. Is that what it really looked like to Cross?

"They were infected, Cross." ZEUS said finally. Cross raised an eyebrow before a sheen of understanding flashed across his face.

"The military isn't aware that you had the ability to tell. I will inform them." He explained, even though he himself hadn't had this information until now either. "Has Ragland found a cure yet?"

"No." He said. "The virus' core ability is to replicate at an alarming rate. Nothing seems able to consume it faster than it can replicate. It's an extreme form of cancer, I guess." His explanation was almost word for word from Dr. Ragland's mouth. Hell, Alex wasn't the one who stared through a microscope all day (anymore). Cross nodded in understanding to ZEUS's regurgitation of information before he turned around to leave.

"Alright." He said over his shoulder. "I'll contact you if we need you." With that, Cross rounded the corner. The virus could hear him rounding up soldiers and returning order to the chaos that had ensued. ZEUS closed his eyes, folding his hands into his jean pockets, and zoning inward.

'Dead. She dead.'

'They hurts. They hurts.'

'She dead, they hurts.'

'Kill them, they hurts. They kill her, we kill them. Make them hurts.'

"Hmm… hasn't changed." He muttered to himself as he opened his eyes. When he'd hoped that the hive mind would grow chaotic and unified with the absence of Elizabeth Greene, he'd thought wrong. They weren't necessarily organized, but their thinking was unified. Still, they were weakened, he decided. Without organization, they wouldn't be able to surmount a sizeable attack, right? Greene had been the source of their adaptation, he knew. Now that Greene was gone, it was just a matter of clean up, right?


"Hello America, this is Joanne Foster with the five o'clock news. We bring you back to the tenuous situation in Manhattan. I'm here with refugees who aren't allowed to leave the island. Unrest has begun with the drawback in viral attacks. Many people would like to unite with their families on the mainland, but right now, the government has stated that borders will remain closed." Her voice, that of a reporter's, stated the verdict with an impeccable frankness. Her blue eyes, though, held a genuine concern.

"The military stated that they've been ordered to patrol the waters for any chancing a crossing. As a vaccine has not yet been formulated, they're not able to provide a time or date in which a release will be possible." Foster went on to say.

"Joanne, what about reports and sightings on the terrorist who released this virus?" The anchorman asked from the home base production set. Foster nodded as he spoke, already aware of the question.

"Well, Jim," she addressed him, "there have actually been less and less sightings of ZEUS, as the military has taken to calling him. He's evaded capture so far, but it appears he remains on the island."

"Thank you Joanne. Stay tuned and in an hour we'll give you a view of Manhattan as its condition stands today." With that, Jim flashed a well rehearsed smile, and televisions around the states switched to a commercial.

"Nothing different from what they've been spouting since last week." Ragland said, slowly standing from his chair and stretching. Several pops and cracks ensued. He looked across the morgue to see Alex hovering over a body, perched on a stool. He didn't offer a response to Ragland's statement. The pathologist shuffled across the lab and pulled up a similar stool.

"She doesn't show any signs of infection." Ragland whispered. It just seemed right to whisper, being that he might be intruding on the virus' thoughts. A virus that thought… Ragland rubbed his eyes beneath his glasses, still wrapping his mind around the wonder that was ZEUS.

"She's not." It stated. No… he. He stated, Ragland corrected himself. ZEUS had chosen to maintain the premise of Alex Mercer's appearance. Alex calmly planted the palm of his hand over his face and dragged it downward slowly, looking up toward the ceiling as his hand fell back into his lap. "I still don't get it."

"Don't get what?"

"What Greene said. She said 'she's with us now'. Why would she say that when Dana's not even infected?" His voice held a hint of despairing confusion, and a bit of hesitant relief. "I'd hoped I'd get the answer out of her, but right now I just wish she was here so I could beat it out of her." Alex slumped, closing his eyes.

"She was a strong adversary. I'm glad you got rid of her when you did." Ragland said, his expression wary. He glanced at Alex out of the corner of his eye before returning it to Dana.

"Ragland… when they were working on Blacklight…," Alex paused, digesting the way he spoke in third person as though in denial. "They were formulating a cure, while also a weapon. This was to fight cancer." He explained. Ragland followed the off roading train of thought with precision and practice. Alex rarely maintained a single focus, it seemed.

"From what I understand from the information that was given to me," Ragland offered. His dull expression quickly lit with a question. "How would they possibly be able to use such a violent virus as a cure?" Alex began nodding as the doctor voiced his own thoughts aloud, but slowed to a halt. Violent? He frowned, as if resolute with the fact that his violence was completely justified and by no means empty of purpose.

"I wonder if they have any information on this stored in their studies…," Ragland mused aloud, completely oblivious to the now significantly grumpier than usual virus.

"I doubt it. Gentek was destroyed, remember?" Alex said, getting over himself quickly. Both of them looked down to Dana, wishing she'd wake up and snap her fingers to a keyboard for them. "Hmm… and it seems like Blackwatch is following them." Alex said, rubbing his cheek absentmindedly. Ragland stared at him; not just because of yet another subject redirection, but because he'd never seen Alex behave so… so… what was the word.

"What are you doing?" Ragland asked as he watched Alex chew on his lower lip. Alex turned his unnaturally bright blue eyes toward Ragland, his expression open and confused. "Why are you chewing on your lip?" Alex let go of his lip as though he had no idea he'd been doing so. He glanced over his left shoulder as though someone were standing behind him, then back at Ragland.

"I don't know." He said frankly. Ragland's eyebrows furrowed before he shook his head.

"You can pass for a regular human more and more every day, you know. You're even picking up human habits." He said, looking down at his short nails.

"I still won't allow regular functions, thanks." Alex said, humor lighting up his eyes. Ragland looked up at the virus before his old face cracked with a smile at the sight.

"So, no looking to get yourself a girl, huh?" He asked jokingly. Alex looked down at his hands and shook his head, a smile actually turning up the corners of his mouth. Ragland wasn't a fool, and knew that with a smile like that, Alex could turn quite a few girls' heads. Then he remembered. This was Dr. Mercer's body… not Blacklight's. His smiled promptly faded. The more he learned about ZEUS, the more he pitied the creature's situation.

"Ragland?" The doctor looked up at Alex, who was staring at Dana's face. The doctor had known ZEUS long enough to know that his expression was a lost one. It quickly faded, as though the nakedness of such a weak feeling was more than the virus could bear.

"Why don't you take a sample of Blacklight and see if you can't find a way to restructure it into a cure." Redirection. Again.

"I was wondering when you would ask." Ragland said, standing to cross the lab and find a clean syringe. Alex returned his gaze to his hands, a silent sigh tumbling passed his lips as his brow furrowed. Ragland returned, and Alex pulled an entire sleeve away. It was replicated with DNA, so the sleeves of his left arm simply pulled back into himself so that Ragland could have clear access to skin.

"This might pinch a little." Ragland said with a joking smile.

"Oh… I'm so—OW!" His voice had begun with a sarcastic air before Ragland prodded him with the needle. "You didn't need to be so vengeful about it." Alex muttered, his expression furrowed. A light humor hovered around him, betraying any attempts at serious upset.

Ragland couldn't refuse the wry grin that tugged the corners of his own lips upward. He was glad to see the virus' personality beginning to emerge. When Blacklight had first stumbled in, he'd needed treatment for an attacking parasite that had been injected into his body by a blackwatch soldier. Since then, the two had been working together. Ragland knew that Alex kept a lot from him. There was a lot that Blacklight was dealing with that he didn't know the exact details over. However, he did know that the only people that the virus could trust and rely on were really the only people in this room. It made for a very scary existence for one so literally young, let alone in a tenuous and dangerous position. Not that they all weren't in a bad spot, but he certainly wouldn't want to be in Blacklight's seat. Under all of this pressure, he'd seen very little of Alex's personality. It was so easy to recognize that he was a virus in those days. Ragland wanted to help him. He found himself caring about the virus with each new human trait, human emotion, and complex thought pattern that emerged.

Blacklight was more than just a virus. Of this, Dr. Ragland was convinced. It warmed his heart when things occurred that verified his hypothesis.

Suddenly, Dr. Ragland's phone rang. Both looked at each other quizzically before the doctor answered. Some words were exchanged, and Alex listened in shamelessly.

"I guess Joanne Foster wants an interview with me." Ragland cringed as he hung up the phone. "I declined." He said, setting the sample somewhere safe. He knew Alex had heard the entire conversation, but was humoring the virus.

"Why?" Alex asked, his expression blank.

"We're both in a very tenuous position right now." Ragland explained. "Although… I've heard she's not a reporter to ever be strayed from a target." He said with a chuckle, thinking that he was joking.

Alex took him quite seriously.