Chapter 30

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the Dark Angel or Supernatural characters. The characters of Lexi, Jake and Jackie are from a Supernatural AU Verse that I write. Thanks to everyone that has been reading this story and thanks for all the reviews. I never thought this fic would go on for so long. This is the final chapter for this story but I will continue the verse in one shots. I hope you like it!

June 2nd

Dean stared at the burning facility in front of him, the heat of the fire so intense he could feel it from where he stood. He was worrying his bottom lip between his teeth, his eyes darting around the enclosed area in search of Sam and Victor. His anxiousness made him want to run into the burning building before him to find his brother and Victor. Dean turned to look at Jackie, his green eyes filled with worry, "You saw them before you got out, right?"

"Yeah Dean, they were right behind me. Look," She said pointing over his shoulder, "I think that's them."

His eyes swept towards the west side of the building where two figures were making their way over to the van. He felt relief flood through his body at the sight of his younger brother but that was quickly replaced with anger. "SAMMY WHAT TOOK YOU SO DAMN LONG?"

"You set the fire too soon, Dean. Me and Victor decided to copy their files before we wiped the system."

"Sammy, are you saying you got their super solider recipe?"

"Yup."

Dean pulled a face and nodded before gesturing to the van. "Then I say it's time we got outta dodge."

He slid into the driver's seat, Lexi took shot gun while Sam and the others piled into the back of the van. Dean was quiet during the drive to the abandoned farm where they had stashed their vehicles. He stared straight ahead, his eyes on the empty road, while he listened to the others celebrating but he didn't share their victorious feelings. Dean had a feeling, he had a feeling he just couldn't shake. It wasn't sitting right with him. It was too easy. The whole thing went down too easy. When had any of his plans gone off without a hitch? Never. Not once. So why was this time different? He tried to shake the thought from his mind but one look at his wife told him Lexi was thinking the same thing. "Lex, do you...

She turned her gaze towards Dean meeting his eyes, "We'll talk about it later. Let's just get as far away from this place as we can."

After they dump the van and get back into the Impala, Dean gets off the interstate about half way to Big Horn. They have a choice of Motel 6 or Super 8. Dean pulls into the Super 8 hoping he wouldn't have to share a room with Sam and Jackie. He kills the Impala's engine and Sam heads towards the office. He comes back with only one key for a room with two queens. Dean shrugs and pops open the trunk to grab their bags. It's not like this is the first time the four of them have had to squeeze into one room. Once they're inside the room Dean pulls a glass vile from his pocket and hands it to Lexi. She turns the glass holding the bluish black liquid over in her hand then looks up at her husband, "I'm ready whenever you are."

She uncorks the bottle, raises it in a silent toast and downs the contents. Dean immediately begins the chant, 'Permissum suum vox haud diutius exsisto. Reverto lemma iam. Ex unde they venit , Abolesco lacuna , Abolesco vox.' Lexi collapses to her knees choking and shaking violently; her eyes rolling up into the back of her head. Dean shoves the ritual into Sam's hands before he kneels next to Lexi. Without missing a beat, Sam picks up where Dean left off chanting louder. 'Permissum suum vox haud diutius exsist!. Reverto lemma iam! Ex unde they venit , Abolesco lacuna , Abolesco vox!'

Lexi becomes eerily still her back arching as a rush of red smoke leaves her mouth. She sits up and immediately begins to cough. When the coughing fit slows, Dean pulls his wife into a hug rubbing her back and whispers in her ear, "You okay?"

She pulls back slightly blinking at him. When nothing happens she smiles, "Yeah. Yeah, I'm good. I'm more than good. I can't hear you guys in my head. They're gone."

Dean lets out a shaky breath he didn't realize he was holding as he pulls her back into his arms. He closes his eyes, breathes in her scent, and lets himself relax for the first time in months. Lexi nuzzles her face into his neck and tugs him closer. He wishes they could stay like this, on the floor all wrapped up in each others arms but knows they can't. They have to make sure whatever remains of Manticore doesn't find them. They need to go under deep, need to get back to their kids. He pulls away, kisses the top of Lexi's head and says, "C'mon you need to call your Uncle. We'll get a few hours of sleep and hit the road."

Three A.M.

Dean didn't get much sleep. He was still too wound up; tossing and turning for the past four hours. Dean stared up at the ceiling replaying the night's events in his head. The whole thing didn't sit right with him. It was too easy. It shouldn't have been that easy, unless. No. Dean didn't want to think about the unless. What he wanted was a cigarette, okay maybe a whole pack of cigarettes. Dean looked over at Lexi while he slowly untangled himself from her in his attempt to slip out of bed but Lexi caught his wrist whispering, "Where are you going?"

"Outside to smoke."

"I'll come with."

"No baby go back to sleep."

"Too late, I'm already up."

They sat together on the hood of the Impala. Dean had his arm casually around Lexi's waist as he smoked his first cigarette. Lexi snuggled deeper into his side wrapping her arms around him while resting her head on his shoulder. "So," She said trying to sound casual, "why are you so tied up in knots?"

Dean took a deep drag off his cigarette before replying, "It all went down a little too easy dontcha think?"

"Well, that was the point of me using my powers right? I mean of course it was easy to get in with the mind control..."

Dean nodded and continued to smoke his cigarette. He didn't speak again until he flicked the butt onto the asphalt. "Lex, I'm sorry I didn't protect you."

"What are you talking about?" Lexi asked before she pulled away slightly to search her husband's face for a clue of what he was talking about. "You always protect me."

"Yeah, well not good enough. If I did you wouldn't have gave into your powers when Sam went dark side and you wouldn't have had to use them tonight."

"Dean, that's not your fault. That was my fault. I let my anger and fear take over when Sam took Jake. The switch that Azazel and the other special kids talked about flipped. I let it flip, that's not on you. And I wanted to unbind my powers to help our family. I'm fine now. You made sure of that. Me deciding to use them is on me, not on you."

Dean ran a hand down his face in frustration. She didn't get it. It was his fault. His job was to protect his family and he failed more than once. He licked his bottom lip as he tried to find the right words to say to make her understand. When he did, he shifted on the Impala so he was now facing Lexi and said quietly, "It is. If something happens to you...I...Lex, I know I don't...I don't say it enough baby. I love you if anything ever happened to you...I don't know what I'd do."

Lexi reached up letting her fingers gently trail down Dean's face before saying, "I know what you'd do. You'd try to find a way to bring me back and along the way you'd kill as many evil sons of bitches that you could find."

"That sounds about right." Dean smirked.

"I know you love me Dean. I love you too. Yeah, it would be nice to hear you say it more but you say so much with your eyes." She sighed, reached for his hand and then began rubbing slow circles in his palm as she held his gaze. "I mean c'mon, the way you look at me. I see how much you love me every day. I know what's underneath all your bravado. You're a strong person, you're tough but you're so much more than that. You're an awesome dad and husband. Plus,you're generous and passionate, protective and sweet, funny and dorky...you love with everything you got. You love me for me, even the parts of me that aren't so warm and fuzzy. You might drive me crazy at times when you get all overprotective but you're exactly what I always wanted."

"Lex, you deserve..."

"Don't you say I deserve better than you because that's not true. I want YOU. I always wanted YOU. I knew you were the one the moment I saw you in Pete and Elda's Diner. Whatever happens after tonight we'll deal with it together."

"I have this feeling Lexi that it was all too easy, ya know? That wasn't the last we've seen of Manticore."

"You're probably right but we got rid of Lydecker, we got their files and we freed those kids. It's a win."

"Yeah but I think we still need to watch your backs, go under for a while."

"Then that's what we'll do." Lexi gave his knee a slight squeeze and then slid off the Impala's hood, "C'mon back inside. You can still get an hour or so of sleep in before we have to hit the road."

June 3rd

Alec and Ben had stationed themselves at the cabin's front window from the moment they had woke up that morning. They refused to eat breakfast and instead stood shoulder to shoulder staring out the window waiting for their parents to arrive. They were both nervous despite the fact that they had spoken to their parents the night before. Ben was chewing on his nails while Alec bounced on the balls of his feet. Neither boy would feel at ease until they saw their parents with their own eyes.

The moment they heard the rumble of the Impala in the distance, both boys left their post at the window and ran out the front door despite their Great Uncle Gavin telling them to stay put. Their mom was the first one out of the car. She rushed to them pulling both Ben and Alec into a tight hug before pressing kisses to the top of their heads. Lexi pulled back slightly as if checking the boys' over for injuries while asking, "Are you boys ok?"

"Yeah, Mom." Alec nodded, "All of us are good."

Ben shifted his weight from foot to foot anxiously. He wanted to ask about Lydecker. He needed to know what happened but wasn't sure how to ask. He glanced over at his father getting the courage he needed. He knew his father wouldn't be afraid to ask the question. He took a deep breath and blurted out, "Is Lydecker really dead mom?"

"Yes Ben. I checked myself. Lydecker's dead."

Dean walked over to join his wife and older sons before going inside the cabin. He knelt down so that he was eye level with both boys before pulling them in for a hug. He squeezed them tight while both Alec and Ben clutched at different parts his jacket. If anyone would've told him seven months ago that him and Lexi would take in two young boys that were his clones he'd have laughed in their face and assume they were insane. Now though, Dean couldn't picture his family without Ben and Alec. They were as much his and Lexi's children as Jake and Stella were. Nothing or no one were gonna take these boys from them.

"Is he really gone?" Ben mumbled into his father's neck not really believing that it was true.

Dean released the boys from his hug, his eyes meeting Ben's. "Yeah, Benny, he's gone. I killed him. You don't have to worry about those asshats anymore. You boys are safe now."

Alec smirked at his twin brother throwing a fist in the air, "I told ya Ben! Dad's freaking Batman!"

Later that night

Dean sat on the front steps of the cabin nursing a beer and smoking his third cigarette. He still couldn't shake the feeling that it wasn't over. He looked up when he heard footsteps behind him and arched his eyebrow when he saw that they belonged to Gavin Connors.

"Lexi told me you killed that bastard Lydecker."

"Yup, I did. I emptied a clip in him."

"Good. He deserved it. You're a good hunter Winchester."

Dean raised an eyebrow at him not bothering to hide his surprise. "Winchester? Uh. What happened with the Campbell bullshit?"

"I only did that to rile you up. Plus, Lexi is the last thing I have left of my baby sister. Had to make sure you were up to scratch to be with her."

"Megan was your younger sister..."

"Yeah. I was supposed to watch out for her, keep her safe. Bang up job I did."

"I know how that goes."

"Yeah I bet you do. You keep my niece safe and you make her happy, that makes you okay in my book, Winchester. But I'm still gonna bust your balls from time to time."

Dean laughed before digging into the cooler at his feet and handing a beer to Gavin. He could appreciate the older man's need to protect the last living link to his little sister. Hell, if it was Dean and he was watching out for Sammy's daughter he'd give the guy a hard time too. He finished the rest of his beer and cracked open another as he shook his head.

A lot had changed in the last twenty four hours that was for sure. Lydecker and Manticore were out of the picture for now, Gavin didn't hate his guts anymore and they had a home to go back to. He couldn't wait to get back to the farm in Connecticut and take his boys out to the lake to go fishing. Dean was going to teach them nail knots, fisherman's knots and clinch knots and how to use dry lures and wet lures. Maybe one day that summer he'd pile everyone into the Impala and take a drive out to the shore to go crabbing like his father did that one time with him and Sammy. 'Yeah,' Dean thought, 'that's something we gotta do.'

June 10th

Renfro sat at the conference room table going over the reports she had just received regarding the recent destruction of the Manticore facility. According to the reports, none of the bodies recovered were that of the recaptured soldiers. Colonel Lydecker and all staff that were station at the facility were dead with the exception of three guards. One was barely clinging to life and the other two claim to not have been at the facility of the night in question. She closed the folder and rubbed her temples. She knew this was not the work of Manticore soldiers. This attack was led by someone on the outside maybe the Familiars but the style of attack didn't fit their M.O..

Her eyes swept over to the box containing Lydecker's belongings that were found in his truck and home. Was he on to something? Was X5-493 and X5-494's donor still alive? 'No, he couldn't be.' She told herself, 'Lydecker was fool.'

Despite the fact that there was a body and DNA evidence to confirm X5-493 and X5-494's donor was indeed dead, Renfro started going through Lydecker's files. The donor in question did have a Military extremist for a father and also a younger brother, both of whom could've led the attack against Manticore and Lydecker. It didn't seem plausible to her though.

Renfro put aside the folders and opened up the only envelope that was among Lydecker's belongings. It contained two pieces of paper, a marriage license and a death certificate. She glanced at the marriage license briefly and tossed it on the table wondering why Lydecker would bother with these things. She then picked up the death certificate reading it over. 'No.' she thought, 'This is incorrect.' Renfro snatched up the marriage certificate examining it more closely. It read: 'You are hereby authorized to join Mr. Dean Michael Winchester and Miss Lexi Elizabeth Brennan in the Holy State of Matrimony according to the Constitution and Laws of this State, and for so doing this shall be your License. And you are hereby required to return this License to me, with your Certificate hereon of the fact and date of Marriage. Given under my hand and seal this nineteenth day of July two thousand and seven.' She snatched the death certificate comparing the dates, 'Date of death March 7, 2006. Lydecker was right.'

Renfro stares at the papers in front of her for a beat before she picks up her cell phone. "It's Renfro. I need to talk to the committee. The committee will be very interested in this. Lydecker was on to something. X5-493 and X5-494's donor faked his death."