A/N: to answer everyone's questions, NEXT chapter will be the last one :) i'm planning an epic ending so be excited ;)

Michael sat on the edge of his bed in the hotel room, his head in his hands. The truth was, he had no idea how he was going to do this. Although he hadn't let on to Alex, he was more than a little suspicious of this mission.

Why would Kasim bother showing his face at a Peace Conference in Russia? Why would Percy send Alex, still a recruit, along on this mission? And thirdly, why had Percy sent—

"Yo, did you check out this minibar?" Birkhoff asked excitedly as he barged into Michael's room. He held out fistfuls of Twizzlers, "This is the life, man."

"Birkhoff, I did not give you permission to…oh, forget it," Michael muttered under his breath. "Did you hack into any of the security feeds for tomorrow's events?"

"Working on it," Bikhoff answered promptly. "A bunch of people from the conference are staying at this hotel, though. Do you want to see who?"

"No, because Kasim isn't one of them. Just be sure you make the security feeds for the hotel inaccessible to the outside. We don't need Kasim finding out I'm here before we find him."

"Yeah, I was in the middle of doing that, but then the feeds cut off themselves," Birkhoff shrugged as he walked out the door, "I guess luck is on our side."

Michael nodded absentmindedly, and reopened the folder that Percy had given him. Sure enough, there was a photo of Kasim boarding a plane to Russia. It seemed almost too good to be true, too lucky. He frowned to himself, what had Birkhoff said? Luck was on their side?

Faster than the eye could blink, Michael suddenly leapt out of the way. A knife whizzed by him, missing him by a mere two inches. It embedded itself into the headboard of the bed, and Michael stared at the person who walked into his room in disbelief. "You could have killed me!"

"I knew you could handle it," Nikita smiled back at him innocently as she strode across the room to get the knife back. "I see you didn't pull a gun on me this time. Should I take that as a good sign?"

Michael seriously considered getting his gun at that point, just to prove her wrong. Instead, he settled for staring her down. "So, you're following me now?"

"Don't flatter yourself, Michael. Us being in Russia has nothing to do with you."

"Us?"

Nikita hesitated, "Owen and myself. He found out that one of the Black Boxes is being kept here. By someone in this hotel, to be precise." She smiled at him and tilted her head, "You being here is just an added bonus."

"Owen?" Michael raised an eyebrow, "That's...interesting."

"Why? Because he's on the run from Division?"

"No...because you don't usually play nice with others," Michael grinned at her offended expression. "What? You know it's true..."

"Hey, I'm the one that's making this mission a four-man OP," she said defensively, crossing her arms.

"You mean five," Michael corrected. "I mean, I know Birkhoff doesn't do much, but—"

"I did include him," Nikita interrupted, "You, me, Owen, and Birkhoff."

"And Alex," he pointed out.

"Oh...I didn't know she was here," Nikita frowned, looking confused. "Is she staying at a different hotel?"

"No, she's right next door..." Michael said slowly, "Why?"

"She didn't show up on the monitors when Owen and I were taking down the security feeds." Nikita grabbed a gun and tossed it to Michael before pulling out her own, "Should we check on her?"

Michael nodded and they cautiously walked into the hallway. He put his ear to Alex's door, but there were no sounds coming from it. "Alex?" he called loudly, knocking on the door, "Are you in there? Alex?"

No response.

"What's all the racket?" Birkhoff complained, coming out into the hallway. He stopped short in awe, "Nikita? Man, they weren't lying about your nine thousand lives! How the hell did you get here?"

"A plane, Birkhoff," Nikita answered pleasantly, "What about you?"

He gaped at her, "They let you through security? Percy's got everyone looking for you..."

She smirked at him, "I meant Owen's plane."

Michael stopped pounding on the door long enough to throw her an incredulous look, "The guy has a plane?"

"I do," a different voice answered, and everyone turned around to see Owen himself walking towards them, "Let me know if you want to borrow it sometime."

Nikita glared at him, her voice raised in exasperation. "I told you to stay in the car!"

"Yeah," he drawled out, "See, the thing is, I'm not really a stay-in-the-car kind of guy so..."

"Shut up."

Owen grinned and held his hand out to Michael, "Division, I presume?"

Michael only shot Nikita an irritated look before turning his attention back to Alex's door. "Hey," Niktia caught his arm as he raised it to knock again. "I have a better idea." Without further ado, she got on her knees and slid a card out of her purse. In moments, they all heard a satisfying click.

"You are eerily good at that," Owen commented. Brushing by Michael, he pushed the door open and peered inside. "Hello? Is anyone here?" He turned to look at Nikita, "Who are we looking for again?"

"Christ," Michael muttered under his breath. He hurried into the room and flipped on the light switch. His gaze flicked around the room in concern when he noticed Alex was definitely not there.

"Look at this," Nikita remarked, crouching on the floor near the door. She pointed, "See how there's scuff marks?"

"Signs of a struggle," Owen noted, looking around the room for more clues. "Michael, aren't you in the next room over? And you didn't hear anything?"

Michael narrowed his eyes at him but didn't respond. "Birkhoff, pull the security feeds back up. We need to see what happened..." He broke off when he saw Owen shaking his head at him, "What?"

"I don't think so," Owen said vehemently. "I need to destroy this black box, and I can't have freakin' security breathing down our backs—"

"Yeah, well I didn't ask for your opinion," Michael snapped, "My recruit is missing and I intend to find her, with or without your help!" He strode out of the room angrily, but paused on the threshold when he saw that his door was ajar. He could've sworn that Nikita had shut it when they left...

He gestured to her silently, and she immediately hurried to his side, raising her eyebrows questioningly. He pointed at his door, and she nodded to show that she had gotten the message. "Stay here," she mouthed to Owen, and then she followed Michael quietly into the hallway.

Michael held his gun to his chest, and crept closer to his door. He felt Nikita at his shoulder, and she breathed into his ear, "Look at the lighting."

He focused on the sliver of light coming through the doorway, and frowned when he saw a shadow flit across it. Someone was definitely in there. With a leap, he swiftly kicked the door open and drew his gun in one move. Behind him, Nikita did the same.

They both froze when they saw the woman standing there. "You!" Michael exclaimed, "But...you're dead!"

Nathalia laughed, "That's what you—" Suddenly there was a gunshot and her eyes bulged open in surprise as she looked down at the blood seeping out of her dress. Michael stared in shock as she took a halting step towards him before collapsing onto the ground.

He turned to look at Nikita furiously, "You killed her? But she was going to talk!"

"No, that was me," Owen said easily as he walked into the room. "She's the one who's guarding the black box."