A/N - BIG THANKS to all who have reviewed! :D

Chapter Sixteen

"Please...don't do this, Grace..." Danny pleaded as he stared at the gun in her hands, never moving from his place in front of Flack. He could hear his friend coughing and whimpering behind him and knew he had to get him out of there.

"You know, my name isn't even Grace," Grace replied her eyes cold and staring at Danny.

Danny shifted nervously. He had no idea what to say, how to act. He'd known Grace for five years, not as well as Flack had but they'd still been friends and he had never once believed she could be anyone than who she said she was.

"Who are you then?" Danny asked.

"My name is Margit. My father gave me that name," she replied.

"Who's your father?" Danny frowned.

"The most powerful and intellectual man the world has ever known, a man before his time..."

"Emerson?" Danny interrupted before she had finished.

"I was his first ever patient here. His protégée."

"How?" Danny gasped.

"I was only five. He took me from my orphanage along with others. They all died, they were weak and pathetic. But I watched what he did to them and I was fascinated. I wanted to be like him. I wanted to learn," she said, a slight manic tone to her voice.

"But your real parents..." Danny started.

"I had none. They didn't want me. Left me to the care of the state," she said bitterly. "But Oscar saw something in me and with him I grew and I learnt. I am the only thing he's ever loved."

"I bet he loved his parents?" Danny retorted.

Margit laughed erratically. "He never even had a father. But yes, he did care a great deal for his mother. He gave me her name after her death."

"But I still don't understand...you're a cop...you're on our side!" Danny spluttered.

"You're just as thick as I always thought you were," Margit smiled. "Though not quite as dense as that fool you're trying to protect," she added, nodding her gun in the direction of Flack.

"He was your friend, how could you let this happen to him?" Danny raged.

"He got in the way. Sacrifices had to be made. To love no-one is to be strong, is to be powerful. So it was really quite easy to pretend to like your dear friend Flack, to be in love with Benito while all the time never caring for either," she laughed.

"You're a monster!" Danny growled.

"I am a God," she laughed. "It was so easy for my father to fake a background for me so I could enter the academy under his guidance. He always knew that he would need someone in the police force, someone to keep an eye out should anything go wrong."

"And it did. John Doe escaped!" Danny said smugly.

"He wasn't the first who had tried, most end up throwing themselves over the waterfall, but he was the first who succeeded. Fortunately my father knew he wouldn't last the night. I tried to be the first detective on scene but that idiot Flack got in the way. So I helped where I could. I never even filed the paperwork to get that warrant for the institution. And I used the fact I spoke to Sue on the phone to try and get her out of the woodwork... she had been a thorn in our side for so long."

"You conniving bitch!" Danny growled.

"We knew Sue was living in the old abandoned part of the Thorn Everidge Institution, the part you and Flack broke into. That's how she managed to answer the phone. She was a clever girl, noticed the patients disappearing. Chastaine tortured her as a warning but she got away. So after she contacted Mac, Kyle and Logan managed to find her and use her to lure Flack," Margit explained, still never losing focus on the gun she had pointed at Danny.

"Why did you take Mac though?"

"Kyle had been watching Mac from the moment he first turned up at the crimescene. He knew Mac was the type to not go away, so we had to make him go away. He would have dug to deep," Grace smirked.

"And Flack? What did he ever do to you?" Danny spat.

"My father needed a bargaining chip to keep Mac under control. I knew he would do anything to keep his pet detective safe," she laughed.

"You're a real deluded bitch you know that?!" Danny shouted.

"No, I am perfection," she smiled and it was that of a maniac. Danny couldn't believe that he'd never seen it before.

"But you just killed, Benny...you were going to marry him," Danny said, desperately trying to connect to any human side she might have.

"My father advised I should connect with another officer to blend in. He was simply a means to an end. I almost chose Flack, be glad I didn't otherwise it would be him dead on the floor there instead of Benito," she giggled. "Not that he will last much longer himself," she added.

"So all this time...you were just pandering to a crazy man's whims?" Danny sneered.

"Don't you dare speak of my father that way," she suddenly said coldly, a maniacal gleam in her eye.

Behind him, Danny could feel the tips of Flack's fingers brushing against the back of his jeans. The detective was trying to tell him something, or maybe he was just trying to urge him on, either way, Danny would now protect Flack in every way he could.

"So what happens now?" Danny asked, swallowing nervously.

"Now?" Margit grinned. "Now you both die, as do all your friends and colleagues."

"But you can't win," Danny murmured. "There are others back in New York who know about this place now."

"As long as my father and I escape we can start again anywhere in the world. He has money, power and influence that you could only dream of," she smiled.

"You won't get away with this, you sick bitch!" Danny shouted as he finally realised what Flack was trying to do. His poor friend was using every ounce of his strength to try and pull the gun from Danny's belt while he was distracting her. It was a good plan, or would have been if Flack even had the strength to hold a gun, but Danny severely doubted he did. Slowly he edged his hand round and grabbed hold of Flack's fingers, stilling them. Then he gently threaded them through with his own and held Flack's hand tightly in his.

"Look, then why don't you leave Flack? He's dying anyway, you don't need to kill him," Danny stated as reasonably as he could.

"No loose ends, Messer," she laughed and then steadied the gun, ready to pull the trigger.

Suddenly a figure burst through the doors behind her and rammed into her, knocking her to the floor. All at once Danny had his gun out and was pointing it at the two figures brawling on the ground, unsure of whether to just shoot them both.

"No...Danno..." Flack croaked and Danny turned to look at him.

Flack had blood dribbling down his chin and his skin looked more like the cover of a jazzy patterned armchair it was so colourful. However Flack's eyes were focused and sharp and Danny nodded understandingly at him. He turned back to the two figures when the sound of a gun went off between them and they both fell limp.

"Aarghh!" screeched Margit as she tried to shove the huge lump of a man off her.

"Don't move," Danny snarled as he pointed his gun at her.

They locked eyes for a moment and then in an instant he saw her bring up her gun wielding hand with the small metallic instrument in it that could do so much damage in the world. He didn't wait. He pulled his trigger and his bullet made it mark right in her head.

"Winston..." Flack coughed as he tried to point to his friend.

Danny looked confused between Flack and the huge black man that lay on top of Margit. He bent down and checked for a pulse on his neck.

"I'm sorry, Flack. He's gone," Danny murmured as he straightened up.

As he turned back to Flack he noticed that his friend had collapsed back onto the table and was convulsing in a fit. He seemed to be struggling for breath over the blood bubbling up from his mouth.

"Shit," Danny swore as he ran over and gathered Flack up in his arms.

"Stay with me, Flack," he murmured as he ran from the room, getting Flack out of there and to safety now his number one priority.

Hawkes pulled the car into the clearing and Sid was almost out and running before he had even swerved to a stop. Hawkes followed suit, running after Sid towards the few other vehicles that were stopped in the clearing. Up ahead the huge foreboding building loomed ominously over them as though waiting to swallow them up.

"Lindsay!" Sid shouted as he saw her standing and talking with two ESU guys. A huge man was glaring angrily out of an armoured transport truck at them.

"Sid, Hawkes!" she replied as she turned and saw them.

"What's going on?" Sid asked as he looked past her at the building.

"We found Mac!" she said in relief. "Jo's still with him inside, they're should be just coming out now."

"Thank God," Sid murmured in relief.

"And this guy?" Hawkes asked.

"He tried to attack us. Said his name is Thomas," she replied.

"Where's Mac, I need to see him," Sid asked anxiously as he looked back at the building.

"He should have come back with Jo now," Lindsay muttered, glancing at her watch and then starting to feel slightly uncomfortable.

"Is Emerson in there?" Sid asked angrily.

"I don't know," Lindsay replied swapping a worried look with Hawkes. "I didn't see him but I guess so."

"I'm going to find that bastard!" Sid growled and then started making his way towards the building's entrance.

"Sid...wait!" Hawkes and Lindsay shouted together but he didn't stop.

"I'll go with him," Lindsay told Hawkes. "You stay out here, I have a feeling there may well be a lot of people who'll need your help."

"Good luck," Hawkes shouted as he watched Lindsay hurry off after Sid and then he returned back to the cars. The ESU guys were yelling angrily with the prisoner and Hawkes went back to his car to get some medical supplies. He hoped someone had called for some ambulances to arrive. Suddenly something ran into him hard, knocking him to the ground.

"What the..." Hawkes spluttered as he shook his head and then looked up.

"Please...please...you gotta help...you gotta help them..." a stammering, panic-stricken voice cried.

Hawkes looked up to see a painfully thin, dirty young boy standing before him, nervously pacing on his feet and wringing his hands. His eyes were wild and he was looking about the entire time.

"Who are you? Who needs help?" Hawkes asked as he stood.

"M..M...Mac...D...D..Don..." the boy said as he wavered slightly.

"Whoa..." Hawkes shouted as he ran forward and caught the kid before he collapsed on the ground.

His doctor's eyes scanned over the boy and noted the cuts and bruises covering his skin before his gaze slowly drifted its way over to the building. And he prayed. He prayed for the safety of all his friends.

Adam sat nervously in his van fingers racing over the keyboard as he attempted to hack into the abandoned hotel's systems. He'd not been outside yet to see what was going on, so concentrated on his work as he was. He knew they were relying on him for this information. If he could just hack in then he might be able to spot Mac or Flack and find out if they were still alive and get them to safety.

"Yes!" he cheered as he finally accessed the system and pictures flooded his screen.

"What up..." he looked around with his hand raised in the air for a five high before remembering he was alone.

He shook his head and then went back to the monitors, scanning them for activity.

"Oh my God..." he choked as he watched.

There were so many of them. So many figures milling around with shaved heads and dressed in white. So many lost souls in this place.

"We'll get you all out of here," Adam murmured quietly as he stared in horror. Then he shook himself out of his stupor. "Come on, Adam. Gotta find Mac and Flack."

Suddenly the doors to the van were pulled open and a huge, rather nasty looking man was stood there. Evil shone from his eyes and he snarled as he saw Adam sat in the van all by himself.

"Oh my gosh," Adam squeaked as he looked the man up and down. "You're a big guy, aren't you?!"

"Let me introduce myself," the man said. "I'm Kyle Black. And you...you're dead!"

"Argh!" Adam squeaked as he pushed himself on his wheelie chair as far to the other end of the van as it he could and then stopped as he hit the wall. He was trapped.

Adam quickly looked round for anything to defend himself with as the man started to climb into the van. His eyes settled on something and he groaned.

"I'm so sorry," he whispered to the item as he picked it up and then turned to the man.

"AAARGGHHH!" screamed Adam as he ran at full pelt into Kyle and whacked the item into his head.

There was a nasty buzzing sound, a flash of light and the two men fell out of the van onto the ground. Adam groaned as he rolled over and opened his eyes. The world was on its side.

"W...w...what..." he muttered as he sat up, his head spinning from where he'd fallen to the ground.

His gaze turned to the figure beside him and he stared in shock. Kyle Black lay unconscious on the ground, possibly dead, his head caved in by the huge computer Adam had smashed into it.

Adam grinned.

"Yeah!" he shouted and punched the air.

Then his face fell as he looked around and saw he was alone.

"Why did no-one see that?" he sighed.

"Please," Mac choked as he saw Emerson tighten his grip around Jo. "I can't. If they know I'm here they'll never leave."

"I only need time to escape this place. If you go out there then they will be distracted enough for me to slip past," Emerson stated.

"What about Jo?" Mac asked.

"She comes with me. I need to make sure you obey me," Emerson smiled.

"That's never going to happen. I'd rather both of us die here, now, than you ever get your hands on her," Mac said, sounding far braver than he felt. His worst nightmare was coming true. He was about to lose Jo.

"Fine," Emerson cackled.

"No!" Mac cried.

Emerson paused and then grinned back at Mac. "See now, I knew you were lying, 567. You can't possibly want this pretty little creature to die."

"Mac, I'll be fine. You survived..." Jo said, eyes staring solemnly at Mac.

Mac was suddenly reminded of another situation not so long ago when another person he loved dearly had asked him to go. To escape from a dangerous situation leaving them helpless and alone. He hadn't done it then and there was no way he would do it now. And then as he thought of Flack he stumbled back. Oh God! Flack! He needed to hurry up and find him, before Hartmann performed the lobotomy on him. Hopefully Winston had maybe come across him.

"Emerson!"

Mac's thoughts were broken into by a loud, clear-cut voice and he looked up to see Sid Hammerback approaching from the other end of the corridor, Lindsay following a few paces behind with her gun out. The doctor swung around with Jo and Mac saw him almost jump in shock.

"Why? Sidney...little Sidney Hammerback...is that you?" Emerson asked.

"I'm not so little anymore in case you haven't noticed..." Sid said coldly as he continued to walk forward.

"So I see," Emerson replied, suddenly cottoning onto the fact that Sid wasn't there to make friends. "Why are you here, Sidney?"

"To stop you," Sid simply replied. He stopped a few feet away from Emerson, his eyes never leaving the doctor's face, not even to check on Jo or Mac.

"To stop me from healing the world?" Emerson frowned. "But why would you want to do that?"

"Because this...what you are doing is not healing," Sid replied. "Why do you think I left your club back at Harvard?"

"I regretted your leaving so much," Emerson said sadly. "You were always the greatest of my students. You could have been so powerful, you could have been like me!"

"You think I want to be you?" Sid said, outraged at the very idea. "You go against everything I believe in and stand for. The Hippocratic Oath? Remember that?"

"The Oath is a joke, thought up by a man alive centuries ago," Emerson snorted.

Gradually, as Sid talked with Emerson, Jo felt his grip on her loosen and she begun edging slowly away from him.

"That Oath is a part of medical history. It is still relevant even today," Sid returned fire.

"I have no need for another man's work or rules. I make my own rules here, in my kingdom. If you'd just let me show you, Sidney..." Emerson suggested.

"I want nothing to do with your kingdom. With the sick torture that you perform on helpless individuals," Sid said in vehemence.

A look of rage flashed across Emerson's face and he stared coldly out at Sid. Behind him, Mac was creeping forward down the hallway.

"I see society has influenced you to a point of no return," Emerson said bitterly. "Such a shame."

He stepped slightly forward almost forgetting the prisoner in his arms and Jo slid even further away from him.

"I still remember the look in your eyes as a boy, Sidney. Carving up those animals, dissecting those organs. Always so unassuming and innocent. But you had a talent, I saw that clearly. Just as my predecessor saw my talent and taught me of the world too," Emerson said.

"Predecessor?" Sid asked, shaking his head in disgust.

"Why yes..." Emerson laughed. "You don't think I learnt how to be a God alone? No, I had the best master there was. The one true God to teach me, as I will teach my children; my daughter Margit, your old friend Fremont, the wonderful Hartmann and the others. You could have taken any one of their places, you know?"

"I would never have wanted to," Sid spat. "Your father was clearly a fool!"

"He was a God amongst men, as I am now!" Emerson screeched.

"Who was he?" Sid asked unsure if he even wanted to know.

"Todesengel," Emerson smiled sickeningly. "That is what they called him. All those grubby little faces. They made me sick!"

"What faces?" Sid murmured, but he had a funny feeling he already knew. Todesengel, the Angel of Death... of course he knew.

"The faces of those who are sinners, just like the subjects I keep here in my kingdom for experimentation. They all need to be cured, I can do that, as my father before me did," Emerson said, grinning like a wolf.

"Who are you?" Sid choked, knowing all too well that Emerson was so much more than the son of an oil tycoon.

"My name is Oskar Stachler," Emerson replied, grinning. "Born 1935 of mother Margit in Tychy, Poland."

"You're Polish?" Sid asked in shock.

"Yes," Emerson nodded.

"You were in the camps, weren't you?" Sid asked as his brain sped ahead of him to work it out.

"Auschwitz was not far from my hometown. My mother, brother and I were taken there at the start of the war. That was where I met my father," Emerson replied.

"Mengele..." Sid whispered and heard all three of his friends choke at his utterance.

"Josef Mengele, the greatest man who ever lived," Emerson grinned wildly. "He took an interest in me and my brother from the start. We were twins."

"So he experimented on you?" Sid asked, shaking his head in disgust and confusion.

"No. He experimented on my brother. He was fascinated by how, unlike many of the other twins there, I seemed to have no emotional connection to my brother. I enjoyed to see him be tortured, I even asked if I could help," Emerson laughed.

Sid stepped back in shock and swallowed. He wanted to look away but didn't dare move his eyes from Emerson's. Jo was nearly away from him and Mac had come down the corridor and was stood ready, just behind them both.

"I gained great pleasure in seeing what he did to the people there," Emerson said, smiling as he recalled it. "I was fascinated by the experimentation and Josef let me watch, let me learn. He taught me how to be a God."

"How did you get out?" Sid choked.

"I was ten by the time the war ended. My mother and I came to America and changed our names. Oscar and Margaret Stacker, not so different. She married Emerson...he was a good man. He took care of my mother and I repaid him by letting him die a natural death," Emerson mused.

"But you were so affected by what you had seen as a child you became a monster?" Sid spat.

"No, Sidney. I simply realised, when I worked in the sanatoriums in the 1950s, that men will always torture men. There will always be a cause for war, for fighting, and there will always be the man who would be God. Those sanatoriums were no better than the death camps. After I inherited Emerson's millions I knew I could easily set up a place of my own, my Kingdom, and cure man of this sickness. Teach him to be like me, to be like my father," Emerson explained.

"Your father was the Devil incarnate and he is burning in hell right now," Sid spat, rage surging through him. "And you will meet the same fate the day you die!"

"You will not speak of my father like this!" Emerson shrieked, coming forward at Sid, so furious with his old acquaintance that he wanted to rip him limb from limb.

"No!" Mac shouted as he leapt forward, pushing Jo aside.

Lindsay ran forward and pushed Sid behind her as Mac tackled Emerson to the ground from behind.

"Get off me!" Emerson shrieked, his seventy-six years of age working against him.

"Lindsay, your cuffs!" Mac shouted as he pulled the doctor's arms behind his back. "You're under arrest! Now you'll see the true meaning of justice," he snarled at him.

Lindsay ran forward and cuffed his arms before pulling him up. "I'll get him out to the van," she replied.

Mac nodded, breathing heavily before he looked up and caught Sid's eye. Sid swallowed before turning and going out with Lindsay and Emerson.

"Mac!" Jo cried as she rushed forward and wrapped her arms around him.

"Jo, oh God!" Mac cried as he turned and held her close. Then slowly he looked up and their eyes met, faces inches apart, and then Mac leant forward and kissed her. "God I love you, Jo. I love you..."

"Come on, Mac," Jo murmured as she helped him up. "You're getting out of here now."

Mac nodded weakly and then stood, suddenly feeling exhausted and leant on Jo for support.

"Oh my God... Don!" he suddenly shouted as he stopped walking and pulled on her arm.

"No, Mac. The others will find Don. I'm taking you out of here," Jo replied. "Because I love you too, and I'm not losing you again."

Mac hesitated and then nodded weakly, leaning against her once more.

"Fine. But I'm not leaving the grounds until I know he's safe."

"Agreed," Jo smiled as she held Mac close to her.

Danny sprinted as fast as he could down the steps of the building and across the grounds to where he could see the chopper had landed. All around him were units of armed police and even Sinclair had turned up. Danny ignored them all, running towards the chopper, the man he carried in his arms lolling about almost lifelessly. He was so light. So painfully light that a shiver ran though Danny when he thought about it.

"You need to get him to a hospital," he yelled as he arrived at the chopper. "He's a detective."

"I'm a medic, what's happened?" a man asked as he helped Danny get Flack on board.

"I don't know. He's just...he's dying I think," Danny stammered in a panic.

"Are you coming?" the medic asked as he started intubating Flack with a colleague.

Danny turned back to the huge building behind him and then looked at Flack.

"Yes!" he shouted decisively as he jumped on board.

Immediately the chopper started to shake as it lifted off the ground. The medics were working furiously on Flack, cutting open his clothes and Danny saw that some of the dark patches that had formed on his skin were now bleeding.

Danny choked on a breath and then grabbed hold of Flack's hand, holding it tightly in both his hands.

"Hang on in there, buddy," he whispered.