Phoenix Rising

When Adam, Logan, Janet, Joe, Will, Billy, Jory, Runt and Khan appeared, they were standing there facing a rather pale faced Chang. Before Adam could ask anything, he heard several gasps behind him. By the time Adam had spun around, he saw ten boys all kneeling on the floor, with their heads pressed to the floor. Adam started to have a very bad feeling about this, as he looked over at Logan, who stood there with a vacant look on his face. Almost unheard even to Adam's advanced hearing, Logan muttered softly, "Oh my fucking God... It's them."

Adam spoke softly one word, "Chang..." hoping that his brother could shed some light on what the hell was happening.

Chang stepped forward and spoke softly. "Children... please rise and greet General Adam Casey."

Immediately, the children jumped to their feet, and raised their eyes, so that everyone there could see their faces, but they would not raise their eyes past Adam's chest. No one spoke for a moment as they just stared at the ten eight year old boys in absolute shock.

Janet was the first to move. With a muttered obscenity, she quickly moved around her own boys, and rushed up to the closest boy that was standing there. The boy barely flinched as Janet wrapped her arms around him. Quickly, she backed off and pulled out her medical tricorder. In full doctor mode, she started to scan the boy for injuries.

Adam looked over at Logan as he heard his love start to mutter under his breath over and over again. "I'm sorry... oh God I'm so sorry."

Not knowing why, but knowing Logan wouldn't be able to help him, Adam turned to Chang. With a single tear rolling down his face, Chang spoke the words that Adam never imagined he would hear. "They were created for Bartnev... to be proper body slaves."

"Slaves?" Adam asking with incredulity.

"Yes..." Chang spoke with dead seriousness. "...They belonged to Bartnev... Now... They belong to you."

"There is no fucking way...." Adam started, but was cut off by Logan's hand on his shoulder, 'Wait! You must know this before you say anything! Logan's voice in Adam's head was full of despair and pain. Adam didn't even have time to nod in agreement as his lover dumped everything he knew about these ten slave boys into Adam's head.

There is no way to describe what Adam did next, other then to say that he withered under the weight of the knowledge. "It's all my fault, please forgive me." Logan said softly as Adam's gray eyes pierced his lovers.

"We will deal with that later. For now..." Adam said as he turned to the boys. "… We deal with them."

Adam moved forward and knelt down in front of one of the boys. The boy didn't make any perceptive move, other then to follow Adam with very perceptive eyes. Eyes that Adam knew all to well. "What is your name?" Adam spoke very softly.

"Two." Was the soft reply, making Adam wonder for a moment.

He looked over to another boy and asked, "and yours?"

"Seven." The familiar boy said very softly.

Sensing a very disturbing pattern, Adam looked over to another boy, who immediately answered, "Six." And then to another, "Three." And so on, until each boy said their name... or number; one through ten.

Adam shook his head in disgust. He thought to himself, and also to Logan, 'I can NOT call these kids by a number."

Logan locked eyes with Adam and shook his head to clear it. 'I... You could do two things. You could give them names, or you could... order... them to pick names that they like. It would start them on the road to recovery. Whatever recovery would mean to someone who has been through what they have.'

All this time Janet had been going over each boy with her tricorder. With barely an order to just breath normally, Janet was scanning. What she found made her stomach turn. It was only her years of training that kept her from totally loosing it.

Adam turned back to the ten boys, he was feeling VERY sick to his stomach over what he was about to do. Now he knew just how bad Logan had it back on the day the first of the Genesis kids came and found them. "Okay guys. It would really make me feel better if you would pick names that you would like to be called. You do not have to tell me now, so please think on it. It can be what ever you want, so don't rush it. Okay?"

Adam cringed as ten young boys all said at the exact same time, "Yes Master."

Before Adam could say anything, Janet spoke up, having finished her scan of all ten boys. "Adam, I need to take them back to get them looked after. They have been... mistreated." The steel in her voice told Adam all he needed to know, but what was more telling was the soft whimper that came from Logan.

Adam nodded then looked at the boys again. "This is my mother Janet. She's a good doctor, and won't hurt you. I want you all to go with her and do exactly what she tells you to. Okay?"

Even though Adam could read the fear in their eyes and in their words, as they all immediately said "Yes Master," they all then turned as one, and looked at Janet. With a sigh she called Daileass for transport, and a moment later they were gone.

As soon as they were gone, it was only Adam's quick reactions that caught Logan and he fell to the floor, wailing in anguish. All Adam could make out was Logan saying over and over again. "It's all my fault... I could have saved them!"

"It's not your fault Logan, you couldn't possibly have known." Joe stated as he took a few steps toward the crumpled boy in Adam's arms. A quick glare from Adam stopped him in his tracks, as the fierceness in his eyes very easily communicated that he needed to back off.

"I could have.... I could have...." Logan continued to mutter as tears began to fill his eyes.

"It's okay babe, I'm right here." Adam soothed as he tried to calm Logan to no avail as Logan's whimpers and cries continued to get more intense to the point that Adam could feel his lover's arms trembling slightly. As much as it hurt him to see the love of his life like this, knowing everything that Logan had sent him in the mental dump about the slaves a few short minutes ago, Adam was smart enough to know that there was little he could say or do at this point to calm him down.

Feeling a little off-balance himself, he carefully lowered himself and Logan so they were sitting on the ground. At first, Adam thought this was due to the flood of emotions he was picking up from Logan. However, a quick glance toward his other brothers in the the room showed him that all of them seemed to be effected in a similar way.

"Daileass?" Adam called out.

"Adam..." Daileass replied in a surprisingly unsteady voice. "Adam... I think there's..."

Adam's concern quickly turned to alarm as Daileaas stopped talking and remained silent for several seconds. Adam already had a strong feeling he knew what the problem was, as the off-balance feeling in his own head was getting progressively worse.

If Adam was slightly alarmed now, what happened next concerned him even more, as Daileass's voice came back over not just his own comm badge, but the comm badges of all his brothers. "Protocol 3 Alert! Fracture Imminent. Anyone receiving this alert, prepare for emergency teleport to Logan's location."

"What the fuck?" Adam managed to get out of his mouth moments before the three youngest of Logan's clones, Alvin, Simon, and Theodore, appeared a few feet away from him.

"Logan... Logan... Please calm down." Daileass's unsteady voice called back out from Logan's Comm Badge. "Your... it's destabilizing... I'm trying to compensate."

"It's okay Logan, we're here." Simon called out as all three chipmunks ran to stand next to Adam.

Adam wordlessly sat there on the ground holding the one he loved, who was now in a ball whimpering almost incoherently as he heard something that literally scared the crap out of him. For the first time ever, he was pretty sure that he heard fear in Daileass's voice.

"Leave me ALONE. You don't UNDERSTAND," Logan called out from his whimpering as one of his hands made a motion as if trying to push someone away. At the same time Gabe and Tyce appeared a few feet away near where the chipmunks first appeared, followed by Zed a few moments later.

As soon as Zed appeared and managed to get his bearings, he looked toward Adam and Logan and quickly knelt down next to them. "Adam! Adam! You need to do calm Logan down, the entire link, it's starting to break apart.

"I'm trying, he won't listen to me." Adam said as he tried hugging Logan tighter, only to be pushed away by Logan.

Over the course of the next several seconds, one by one, the other Logan clones appeared. Then, just as he thought everyone was there, two people who Adam did not really expect to see appeared near them as well, 9-year-old Haden, from the new Las Vegas division, and his older brother Evan.

Adam assumed that Haden must have been eating, since he had spaghetti sauce around his lips. He knew how important Haden was to Daileass, and as a result, to the rest of his brothers. He knew that less than 2 days ago, Haden had been added to the clone link, but he was not sure why he would be showing up here in Russia.

As soon as they were all there, all the Logan clones began to form a circle where Adam and Logan were at, while being careful to also keep their distance from them.

"We'll need you too, Haden," Alvin called out and motioned toward Haden to join them, which caused Haden to reluctantly stand between Alvin and Simon.

"NO!" Logan nearly shouted. He tried to lash out, only to be held tight by Adam. "Back off! You don't understand. None of you do. None of you can!" As he did this, everyone there winced as they each felt a sharp pinging sensation in their heads.

Rubbing his forehead, Kaden weakly stated, "It's getting worse."

"I'm... Stability.... Can't keep up..." Daileass's fractured voice came out from random comm badges.

"Guys, we need to pull him into the mental scape, and fast," Theodore called out.

"Agreed," Simon affirmed.

"Who's?" Rainer replied. "I don't know about you guys, but I can't get close to getting a lock on him."

"Everyone..." Daileass's voice became slightly more forceful and determined, "Mine... Now!"

Before he knew it, Adam found himself inside a rather large mental-scape along with Logan, the physical form of Daileass, Haden, Evan, and all of Logan's other clone brothers. Adam knew at once that it had to be Daileass's mental-scape, since besides Logan's, this was the only one that seemed so vast.

"Don't you guys get it? Can't you take a hint?" Logan, who was now several feet away from Adam, spoke loudly as his face was a mix between hurt and anger.

"Babe, they are just trying to help you." Adam soothed as he walked toward his love and reached out to embrace him, only to be stopped by some type of invisible barrier that was between them.

"This doesn't look right." Haden commented as he looked up. Everyone else looked up as well to see parts of the mental-scape blinking or phasing in and out of existence.

"The entire link that binds every single person in the UNIT together is beginning to fall apart." Daileass answered. "It's taking every ounce of my processing power to augment Logan enough try to keep it stable, but it's a loosing battle."

"What's that mean?" Evan asked cautiously.

"It means that if we don't come up with a solution fast, our older brother is going to really lose it, and when that happens the entire link goes poof!" Gabe answered.

"What happens if the link breaks?" Evan replied.

Simon shook his head. "Let's not even think about that, and just leave it at bad, okay? Really, really bad."

Evan nodded.

"I bought us a little time by bringing us here, but with me being as taxed as I am right now, trying to keep Logan stable, I'm having problems keeping this place stable as well. It would be helpful for us to come up with a solution quickly." Daileass replied as his face had a distant expression on it.

"Bro, please calm down. Don't you see what you're doing?" Gabe asked as he walked next to Adam.

"I said, back off!" Logan shouted, causing enough force to send both Adam and Gabe to the ground, and the others to lose their footing slightly.

Bringing everyone's attention to a large crack that was beginning to form on the floor, Zed huffed, "Uh guys? That looks bad! Really, really bad!"

Haden walked a bit closer to where Daileass was standing. "Come on, Daileass, I believe in you. I know you can hold things together."

"I'm trying Haden, I really am," Daileass answered, "most of my core processors are already running at 110% over normal, with a few way beyond that."

"Bro, what about your new systems? Maybe you should switch over to those?" Richard asked.

Daileass shook his head. "I'm already on the new systems. I had to bring all the remaining one's online about 3 minutes ago. There is no way the older systems would have come close to keeping up with this.

"Okay, we need solutions, people," Alvin stated, bringing everyone back to the problem at hand.

"Can't we force Logan to calm down?" Peter thought out loud.

"Maybe," Simon replied, "but that would surely cause the link to drop."

"Right, so someone else would need to serve as a proxy to help hold the link, so we can get Logan calmed down enough to deal with things." Theodore stated.

"Sadly, it's not that simple," Daileass replied. The link is just as much a part of Logan as Logan is a part of the link. It would not be possible for anyone else to take the entire link. The best that could be hoped for is for someone to be able to augment and support the link long enough for the rest of us to give Logan the help he needs."

"Who can do that?" Zed jumped in. "Huh? Huh? None of us I tell you, none of us can come close to doing what Logan does!"

"Why can't you do it? I've seen how vast your systems are." Haden hesitantly asked.

Daileass sighed. "With as powerful as our brains are Haden, we still have yet to surpass the power of a human biological brain. Who ever is going to support the link, they will have to be biological. As we speak, the weight of trying to augment the link is pushing my systems well beyond what they were designed to handle. It's only a matter of time before they start wearing out."

As soon as Daileass finished speaking, the entire world trembled, and everything dimmed out for a few moments.

"What was that?" Evan asked with concern.

"Damn it." Daileass replied, "As I feared, I just lost a core server, apparently trying to over-clock to 195% is a bit far."

"Holy crap, D. That's going to make a nice explosion." Todd grinned.

"What else do you want me to do?" Daileass shot back sharply.

"Guys," Alvin jumped in, "This isn't helping. We need a solution."

"You're right, Sorry." Daileass answered.

Nathen, who had been silent up to now, spoke up. "What about Haden? His brain is biological, like Logan's."

"No!" Daileass instantly hollered, a bit more forceful than he had intended, which caused everyone to look toward him. "His brain is still getting use to the link. It's not even fully open to it yet. Trying to push all this and the larger link onto him now would most likely kill him."

"Then what do we do? Who else is there?" Zed asked as he became more nervous and jittery.

"I'll do it." Adam spoke up as he looked toward his love who was still in tears. "I'll support the link. Being N-Gen has to be worth something, just let me know what I have to do."

"No go." Alvin replied, "Adam, no offense, but trying to proxy the link would burn your brain out as well, N-Gen or otherwise."

Adam nodded. "If it means saving everyone else's life. That's a risk I'm willing to take."

There was another, slightly stronger tremor, followed by a more visible momentary fade of the world, signaling that another of Daileass's servers had been lost.

"Bro, you need to throttle back on those servers a bit." Tyce suggested with concern.

Daileass shook his head, "If I throttle any of them back now, I'll lose it... the link."

"How do we do this, Alvin?" Adam asked, moving the conversation back to where it was.

Alvin shook his head. "It's not a question of 'how', Adam. It will burn your brain out so fast, there won't even be time to start talking to Logan, and your death will have been meaningless. I'm sorry bro."

Adam nodded and deflated. Among everything else, he hated being powerless the most.

"What about one of the telepaths?" Kaden asked.

"Who? If an N-Gen like Adam wouldn't be strong enough, which telepath would?" Simon asked.

"How about a group of them, working together?" Richard offered.

Theodore shook his head, "If we had enough time to work out a method for them to work together, and train their minds to be able to handle the link, that would be a huge long shot. But at the rate that D is burning up servers, I don't think we have the time for that."

As if to emphasize the point, there was yet another slightly larger tremor and fade, signifying that a third server had been lost.

"As I continue to lose servers, that will slowly further increase the load on my others." Daileass stated with a sigh, and a pained expression on his face.

"What other options are there, then?" Peter asked.

There was silence for several moments, as no one seemed to have an answer. The silence was soon broken by yet another tremor, which this time was so strong that several people were knocked to the ground, followed by a pained scream from Logan.

"That was two servers that time." Daileass sighed.

"There has to be another option. Things can't end like this." Theodor stated coldly.

"Perhaps I might be of assistance." A young voice confidently stated which caused everyone else to turn toward the sound.

 

---

 

There was stunned silence in the room after Adam, Logan, and all the kids in the clone link were transported out. Chang was the first one to recover, so he softly called to Daileass. "Will you please take us back to the palace, we need to talk... away from others."

It took Daileass almost a full second before they all suddenly disappeared, and reappeared in the newly refitted command center inside Alexei's palace. Daileass never even said a word.

Billy was the one who broke the silence after they appeared. "Okay, Chang. What the fuck was that?"

Chang had his eyes closed as he tried to center himself, and get his self control back. When he opened his eyes, everyone could see that while he was back in control, it was just barely. "From what I was able to figure out before I called for you all, those ten clones were all ordered by Bartnev, shortly after all of us were created, just over six years ago. He paid General Adams a large sum of money to create boys that would not only be able to withstand the kind of physical abuse he would do to them, but also to recover very quickly from what he would do. Apparently they used DNA from myself, Adam, Logan, Will, and Jory to make them. Two each. They were then genetically aged to four-year-olds, where they were then delivered to Bartnev, four years ago."

Chang closed his eyes, and used his hand to rub the bridge of his ridged nose as he continued speaking. "When myself and Private Dixon entered the room, all ten boys were kneeling on the floor with their heads pressed to the floor. Just as I was about to tell them to stand, Specialist Crego was asking about what to do with all the items in the house. Daileass responded that Tsar Romanov had given all of Bartnev's property to General Adam Casey. As soon as the young boys heard that, they jumped up and one of them asked if I was their new master. Thankfully, I was able to say no. However, the damage was done. As far as they are concerned, they are nothing more than property... Adam's property now."

"Okay..." Jory said quietly. "...but does anyone have a fucking clue what was going on with Logan?" Everyone stood there silently as they shook their heads.

 

---

 

Alexei looked over at his new friends as soon as Adam and most of the leadership of the UNIT teleported out. None of the people still at the table had any idea what had just happened, but they could all sense something was going on. They also all knew that they would not be able to figure anything out until Adam and his crew got back.

Things had just settled back into somewhat normal, when suddenly the attack alarms started to blare. Instantly, all the security in the room formed a circle around Alexei. Before he even knew what was happening, Logan, the head of his personal security, had Alexei on his feet, and moving quickly out of the room. The young Tsar was glad to see his new friends were right there with him, even though they seemed to be on alert as well. He did hear one of them say quietly to Logan, "No one in the building has bad thoughts towards Alexei." Logan simply grunted his acknowledgment, but kept them moving till they were all in Alexei's underground 'situation room.'

As soon as they walked in the room, Logan called out an order to the UNIT members who were staffing the control center. "REPORT!"

"Sir," One of the techs called out, "we have a large group of military vehicles that have just crossed the bridge out of Saint Petersburg, and are heading this way."

"On screen," Logan ordered. Seconds later, a picture appeared on the screen of a large convey of bot vehicles and what looked like helicopters coming out of the city. The problem was that the pictures were taken by a satellite, and it was taking them longer than normal to magnify the pictures.

As they were zooming in, Logan was able to pick up many military armored vehicles, tank, armored personnel carriers, Hum-Vee's, heavy and light attack vehicles, and a few others that he wasn't really sure what they were. On top of all them flew a steady line of both transport and attack helicopters.

Logan was just about to order the entire base to alert when Alexei cried out from next to him. "WAIT! It can't be!"

Logan turned to him as Alexei moved closer to the screen. He had a huge smile on his face as he turned to Sergei and spoke excitedly while pointing at the screen. "Is that what I think it is?"

Sergei looked confused as he stared at the screen, but then he also took a few steps towards the screen, his look of confusion slowly turning into one of understanding then to one of cautioned excitement. "I do believe so, my liege."

When both Alexei and Sergei had been silent for a few seconds, both staring at the screen, Logan couldn't wait any longer. "What is it?!"

Alexei spun towards Logan with a huge grin on his face. "That marking there!" he said as he ran up to the screen and pointed to a hastily painted symbol that was on the lead tank. "That's the Crest of the Imperial Guard. Those who were loyal ONLY to my Great Grand Father. They take their orders directly from the Tzar. Bartnev had them disbanded when he took control, saying that the KGB would be able to provide better security then the regular military."

Alexei was showing signs now of being simply a very excited twelve year old boy. Secretly, Logan was smiling. The boy ran over to Sergei, talking the whole time. "Do you think General Krolikov is still in command?"

Before Sergei could respond, Logan spoke up. "I am about to find out." Logan stalked over to one of the stations and picked up a mic, while nodding to the person at the station. When the tech nodded to Logan that he had the right frequency pulled up, Logan keyed the mic and started to speak into it. The thing that shocked the hell out of both Alexei and Sergei was that, although his voice was a bit rough, Logan was speaking in perfect, non-accented Russian.

"Unidentified Military convoy heading west out of Saint Petersburg coming towards the Tzar's Palace. This is Major Logan Casey, of the Clan Short Special Forces Division. Please identify yourselves." The 'or else' was left unsaid, but the message was very clear in Logan's tone.

He repeated the message once more then paused to wait for an answer. He didn't have to wait long before an old gruff voice came across the speakers in the command room. "Clan Short Special Forces Division, this is General Krolikov, Commanding officer of the newly reformed Imperial Guard. I am in command of those loyal only to the Tzar. It is our intention to help safeguard the Tzar during these times. We have stopped and are awaiting the Tzars orders."

Logan grunted at the man's words, and handed the microphone to Alexei. Secretly, he was well pleased with the man's words. If they held up against a telepathic scan, this man would be a great help. However, Logan would take a 'wait-and-see' approach. However, one thing was clear; no one would get close to Alexei until the telepaths had had a chance to scan them.

"General Krolikov, it's Alexei. It's so good to hear your voice!" Alexei spoke excitedly over the radio.

"It's good to hear yours as well, my young Lord. What are you orders?" Krolikov's voice was kind, but held an edge that let Logan know this man was a warrior through-and-through. Alexei looked up at Logan with a question in his eyes, and Logan held his hand out for the mic.

Alexei keyed the mic one more time and spoke quickly. "General, I am going to give you back to Major Casey. Unless you hear differently directly from me, his orders are to be treated as if they came from me. Is that understood?"

"Perfectly, my Lord." Was the only response the man had until Logan came back over the radio.

"General, if you and your men would please take station on the road leading from the main road to the front gate of the palace, you and your men will have the honor of being the first line of defense for our Liege Lord. You will have complete command of everything on the outside of the walls. We will deal with everything inside the wall. Once you have your men in place, please let us know and we will have a strategy session. That is when you will understand why the orders I gave are as they are. Our Tzar trusts you with his life, and that is good enough for me, however, understand that it is my job to make sure that no harm comes to him, no matter what. Please do not feel offended that your men do not have full access to the palace." Logan's tone was not at all apologetic, nor should it have been. The General understood completely. Logan had a job to do, and so did he.

"Understood, Major. We should be completely deployed in less then three hours. Perhaps we could have a slightly early lunch, where we can discuss all that needs to be."

"That would be more then acceptable. Please feel free to bring as many men as you need, just let us know before hand how many it will be." Logan instructed, his mind already running through all the different measures he would put in place to ensure Alexei's safety.

 

---

 

Standing a few feet away from Haden was a second Haden. This Haden looked exactly the same as the first Haden, with a few minor differences. The most obvious difference was the fact that this Haden seemed to be younger than the first Haden, looking to be about 6 years old. Second, instead of being dressed in the jeans and t-shirt that the first Haden was dressed in, the second Haden was dressed in a white robe. Finally, the new Haden did not have the offensive GEAR armband device on his arm as the first Haden did.

"Who are you?" Alvin immediately asked as everyone else became alarmed.

"That's not important." The smaller Haden replied, "You need my help, and I'm offering it."

"Dude," Simon stepped up next to Alvin, "You shouldn't even be here. We're not doing anything until we know who the hell you are, and how you got here."

The smaller Haden sighed and walked toward Daileass. Before anyone could do anything, he reached his small hand up, and placed it on Daileass's back. Immediately, the low rumbling stopped and the mental-scape became completely solid.

"Whoa? How did you do that?" Daileass asked with surprise.

"What did you do?" Simon asked with concern.

The small Haden turned toward them with a serious look on his face. "I am helping Daileass in his attempt to augment the link, as you call it. It is not a fix, but it should help long enough for me to answer enough of your questions so that you will allow me to provide real help."

Daileass nodded, "I don't know what he did, but it did remove a lot of the pressure. I'm able to lower most of my processors down below 105%."

"Fine," Alvin spoke with a voice still filled with mistrust, "Now who are you, and how did you get in here."

The small Haden turned to look directly toward Alvin. "I will gladly share more of who and what I am, once the link has been stabilized and I can push the information to all of you. However, for now I will simply say that in your language, my name would be Ordathulonixorizivar. I am a Nyzerian. The last Nyzerian."

"Ordathillama..." Theodore began, and then shook his head. "That's a bit too long. Would you mind if we called you something shorter, maybe like Ordath?"

The small Haden nodded, "Ordath will be acceptable."

"Okay... Ordath," Alvin continued, "How did you get into Daileass's mental-scape, and why do you look like Haden?" Several of the boys looked over toward the real Haden and saw that he was still completely stunned and watching every move the smaller version of himself made.

"The answer is simple," Ordath began. "I look like Haden because I am a part of Haden. Likewise, I am in here, because Haden was brought in here."

"What do you mean?" Daileass spoke up to take over from Alvin. "How can you be a part of Haden. He's been in our link for the last two days. Either myself or one of my brothers would have felt you."

The small Haden grinned, "No offense, my friend, but your understanding of the human mind, and how the body and soul interact within the mind's nexus, and the multitude of mechanics that surround that is still very limited. You did not sense or feel me because I did not wish to be sensed or felt, and my essence can easily hide in places you haven't even considered that might exist, let alone access them. Besides that, I have been a part of Haden since he was born, which makes me just as much a part of him as it does him a part of me."

Simon looked between Alvin and Theodore, "Does that make any sense to either of you? That just went way over my head."

Alvin and Theodore both shook their heads.

"I don't know about everything he said, but what he has done to help me with keeping things stabilized is no small feat." Daileass added.

Ordath turned his attention toward Daileass. "You. You are one of the stronger ones here. And you have a close affinity toward the boy. I shall make myself more visible within him. Open your mind up now, and look deep within him."

Daileass looked like he was about to reply, but stopped short as he tilted his head, looking toward the real Haden. Haden got a concerned look on his face and took a step back. Daileass, for his part, started out with a curious expression which soon turned to a surprised expression.

"Damn." Daileass stated, which caused all eyes to turn toward him. "I don't completely understand it. But there is definitely something there. Something big and vast. Something that... that words don't really... what ARE you?"

"Um guys," Adam got everyone's attention as he sat a few feet away from Logan, who was now laying on the ground. Logan was visibly shaking as the small area directly around him was beginning to warp and distort the visible objects near him.

"He's beginning to fade." Ordath stated, "There is not much time. I told you that I will share more about myself later, but now you must choose whether you will accept my help or not."

Theodore shared a glance with Alvin and Simon, and then looked out at the expressions on the rest of his brother's faces. "I don't really think there is any other choice. So do whatever it is that you can do to take the link."

"Thank you," the small Haden nodded, "But I can not take the link directly."

"But you just said..." Todd stated before he was cut off by Ordath raising his hand.

"Haden is the one who must take the link," Ordath continued, "I can simply make it possible so that he may do so without any significant harm coming to him."

"Me?" Haden squeaked out in surprise.

"Wait! No way!" Daileass immediately jumped in with his voice full of concern. "We've already considered that option. I'm not willing to expose Haden to that much danger with his mind still getting use to a small fraction of the link."

Ordath looked directly toward Daileass. "You of all people should know that Haden is much more than he seems. The way his mind has developed over the years is unlike most other humans."

Daileass nodded. "I know, but still, I know how much power runs through the link, and how much of a burden just trying to augment it can be. And... well... I just want to make sure he will be safe."

"For a short time, yes." Ordath nodded. "He would not be able to support it long term, mind you. But he should be fine supporting it long enough for the rest of you to give Logan the help he needs."

"What..." Haden began to say with hesitation, "What do I need to do?"

The smaller Haden looked up into the air, "You must feel the link inside of Logan and allow yourself to become one with..." Seeing that he had already completely lost Haden, he stopped and thought for a few moments. "Actually, let's try this another way."

After waiting a few more moments, Ordath walked a few steps forward and looked toward the ground. "Since we are already in a mental-scape, I think I know what will work better." A few moments later, two golden metallic spheres about 4 inches in diameter appeared about 2 feet apart from each other, and about 3 feet above the ground. They were connected to the ground with transparent tubular conduits that had what looked like red plasma energy quickly moving around in them. The conduits each connected to a large thick transparent cable. They each also had the fast moving red plasma energy in them, and they each ran off in opposite directions as far as the eye could see.

Before anyone had a chance to ask, Ordath answered everyone's question. "This is a physical manifestation of the Link. The energy that you see within the conduits and cables is red because of the discord and fracturing that currently exists within it. It will continue to get darker and darker until the link fails completely. What Haden must do is to place a hand on each of the two golden orbs. If he is successful in augmenting the link, the color of the energy will change from red to white."

"So... I just have to touch Logan's balls to help support the link?" Haden asked carefully.

Had the situation been any less grave, some of the kids might have burst out in fits of laughter. Although, since Haden had made his comment without realizing it's alternative meaning, everyone managed to hold any thoughts of laughter within them.

Ordath nodded. "The orbs... yes."

Haden nodded and took a few steps closer to the golden orbs.

"Just so you know," Ordath continued, which caused Haden freeze in his tracks, "When you touch the orbs, you might feel a strange tingling sensation. But I assure you, no harm will come to you."

Haden nodded, and looked first toward Evan, and then toward Daileass. After getting nods of encouragement from each of them, moved to stand directly in front of them.

"Are you sure *I* can do it? Maybe someone like Daileass or Tyce will do better?" Haden asked with concern.

Ordath shook his head. "If anyone else here other than you or Logan were to touch both orbs, their minds would be reduced to cinders in a matter of seconds."

"What about you?" Haden asked nervously, "Your me, right? So can't you do it?"

"I would if I could, Haden. But, even in the mental-scape, I have no physical substance. The only true support that I can ever really give you is the knowledge that I possess." To emphasize this, Ordath walked toward one of the orbs and reached out his hand toward it, but his hand went right through the orb. "It must be you, Haden. You need to believe in yourself. You can do this, I've been a part of you since the day you were born, watching as you've grown and developed. I know that you can do this. Now you must believe in yourself to know that you can do it as well."

"Come on, Haden, we believe in you." Daileass gave Haden a vote of confidence, followed by everyone else giving their support as well.

Haden nodded and took in a deep breath. With a determined look on his face, he slowly raised his hands and placed them a few inches above the orbs. A few moments later, he closed his eyes tight, and allowed his hands to fall on the orbs. Almost immediately, Haden let out a small yelp of surprise as his entire body began to glow.

"Haden!" Evan called out as he began to run toward his little brother, in case something was wrong. He quickly slowed down, however, as Haden gave no other sign of distress.

"It feels... weird... different..." Haden commented in voice that was unusually lower, and more hoarse than normal for him as the link began to flow through him, "But... I think I'm okay."

"Why is it still red?" Tyce asked. "Didn't you say it would turn white?"

Ordath nodded. "Haden, you need to concentrate on making the energy white."

"I don't know how." Haden replied.

Ordath walked around Haden so he could look at his face, "Imagine it in your mind. Imagine seeing the red energy in your mind, and imagine it turning white. Just use your imagination, Haden, and it will work."

Haden sat there for several seconds. "Nothing's happening..." Haden began to say as the red energy began to take more of an orange color.

"Your doing it, Haden!" Daileass cheered.

Haden nodded, and with a look of sheer concentration and focus on his face as he sucked on his lower lip, the color of the energy continued to change from orange, soon becoming yellow, and finally a brilliant, bright white.

"You did it, Haden! I knew you could!" Evan jumped up and cheered as he went to give his younger brother a hug. In the blink of an eye, Ordath was no longer standing in front of Haden, but was now standing behind him, and blocking Evan from being able to touch his little brother.

"Don't touch him." Ordath shook his head, "The results would be very bad for you."

Evan realized what he nearly did and immediately backed down. "Sorry."

"No harm was done. All is fine." Ordath replied.

"This is really strange," Haden commented, "It's like I can hear things... voices... or something, there a little distant, but hear them."

Ordath nodded, "You are hearing the thoughts of everyone that is a part of the link. But right now, you need to ignore them, and focus on keeping the link white."

Haden looked at the wires and saw the energy was turning yellow again. A few moments later, after Haden went back to concentrating on it, the color changed back to white.

"Now." Ordath said turning to the others. "Now is the time for you to help Logan. Haden is supporting the link, and I shall continue to guide Haden in his efforts to the best of my abilities. But as I said, this will not be a long-term thing, so do what you must to aid your friend."

 

---

 

Will looked over at Billy as the two of them walked over towards the group of Eryradain fighter pilots. Will could tell Billy was nervous, but Will couldn't feel anything other then excitement. All night long the two of them, as well as ten star fleet techs and twenty Eryradain techs, had retrofitted two of the hummingbird fighters with shielding and, something that Will couldn't believe they didn't already have, inertial dampers.

When they got to the group of pilots, they all feel silent waiting to see what one of the uncles for the gods wanted. "Hey guys..." Will said loud enough for all of them to hear him. "First off, in case any of you did not know, my name is Will, and this is my mate Billy. We are the commanders of the UNIT's Air Force."

Seeing almost all of the 50 members of the flight team nodding in understanding, Will continued. "We've spent all night equipping two of the hummingbird fighters with some tech that we have access to on this side of the galaxy and want to test them out. However, the best test we can think of is to do some live fire training. So.. what I want to know is, are any of you up to loosing to a couple kids?" Will said the last part with his patented cocky grin.

Immediately, almost all of the pilots started loudly complaining about Will's challenge, then almost as one, they all took him up on it. He raised his hand to get them all to quiet down, and slowly they all did. "Okay, here's how we're going to do it then. All of the fighters are equipped with training modules that will only fire off a very light energy beam that won't do more then burn the paint, but the computer will register it as if it were a hit, right?"

All the pilots agreed with Will, some of them rather surprised that this kid knew so much about their fighters. "Okay, so here is what we're going to do. The two ships that Billy and I will use will be firing under the training protocols, and all your ships will will registering them as hits, while your energy weapons, and here is the fun part, will be firing at full."

Near pandemonium broke out at Will's announcement before the head of the fighter group raised his hand to quiet everyone down. "With all do respect sir.... that would be suicide for you guys!"

Will's cocky grin faded letting everyone know he was now deadly serious. "Normally that would be accurate. However, there is no way to really test the new shields out unless you guys hit us at full power. Now here's a few things that you guys all need to know. The inertial dampeners that we will be using will allow us to actually push the hummingbirds to their limits. Something that's never been done before, because they can maneuver so well that the pilots can't handle it physically. So that's one thing. The other is that we have the ability to transport ourselves out if it looks like we're going to take a hit that causes our shields to fail. The biggest problem with the hummingbirds is that one good shot will destroy them. Well, not anymore. I'm not saying that you guys could go toe-to-toe with a capital ship, but you'll be able to take a hit or two from some of the bigger ships before the shields fail."

He saw that he had their attention, so he pressed it for all he could. "What's going to happen today is that you guys are going to see what the new upgrades can really do. When your ship gets a hit and your computer calls you dead, you will pilot your ship back down to the surface here, where you can watch the rest of the fight on the screens that will be set up. In ten minutes, Will and I will leave the area and go approximately 250 miles away, then when we get the signal that you are all ready, we'll come in. Our target is the palace where your gods live. Keep that in mind and don't let us get to it. Other then that, there are no rules. This is life and death, and even more importantly, this is the lives of your gods that you are protecting."

Will knew by the steel in the looks of all the fighters that he'd hit a nerve. With out saying anything else, he turned and walked away, Billy right on his heals. It was time to put up or shut up, and Will would have a big problem trying to shut up.

 

---

 

"Alright Billy, you ready for this?" Will asked as he hovered his fighter only eight feet above the ground.

"You really think you and I can take out fifty? I mean, those guys are ace pilots, and we've only done a few tests flights in these things." Billy was scared, not that he would loose, but even though he trusted Daileass, this was a bit much. If they got through his shields, Daileass wouldn't even have a split second to get him out.

"Billy, do you know how many shots these shields can handle, especially from the lower output energy cannons that these fighters carry? ALOT! Don't worry about it. Don't get stupid and remember, these things are the most agile things I have ever even dreamed about. Just be careful not to over fly these things." Will knew that Billy would do fine, he just needed to get his lover's mind into the game.

After a few moments of silence, Billy sighed. "Okay Will... lets do this before I loose my nerve."

Will didn't reply to Billy directly, he just keyed his mic and sent out, "Okay Daileass... Let them know we're coming."

Draco sang, "We're sorry, the sexy AI you were calling is unavailable at this time. I'll take over until his processors cool off."

With that, Will pushed the throttle control as far forward as he could. The fighter immediately jumped forward and, within 4 seconds, Will and Billy were passing the 2500mph mark. Once again, Will was amazed at how simplistic the controls for the fighter were, he was laying on his stomach, the throttle control in his left hand, and in his right the movement control. On both sticks there was a simple trigger, either one able to be used to fire the only weapon the hummingbird had, it's energy cannons, fixed on the wings. Everything else was voice controlled. To the ship he whispered "Set protocol, verbal alert when shields fall to 75%, 50%, and 25%. Set protocol, verbal alert if inertial dampeners start to fail. Set protocol, verbal alert when main energy levels fall to 50%, 25%, 15%, and 5%."

After 5 seconds of no more verbal orders, the computer responded, "Protocols set." Of course, the down side of being able to travel at over 6000 miles per hour is that quickly Will and Billy found themselves closing in on their target. Both of them had to throttle back quickly and take evasive actions to avoid the large number of 'enemy' fighters that were suddenly coming at them. He banked hard to the left, and was able to miss all the fire that was coming at him.

With a gentle flick of his wrist, Will brought the front of his fighter around, and while depressing the trigger fully, he managed to take down five fighters in a single sweep. Even knowing what they'd done to these fighters, Will was still impressed as hell at the responsiveness of the small craft.

The next few minutes had Will maneuvering in ways that he had only dreamed about in the past. The others were only able to hit him with glancing blows that the shields easily absorbed and disbursed.

Four minutes into the fight, he finally heard the computer tell him that his shields were down to 75%, and Billys were at 50%. But they had already managed to take out 35 of the 50 'enemy' fighters. "Okay Billy, time to end this. Cover me, I'm going for the palace!"

With that, Will threw his throttle all the way forward as fast as he could. In a normal fighter, the computer would have overridden what he just did and increase his speed more gradually to make it so that he didn't become a pile of goo at the back of the pilots compartment, but with the inertial dampeners engaged, he went from 300 mph to 5000 mph in under one second. Even with the modifications that were made, he still felt that, and knew that with the dampeners in full effect, the hummingbird was so responsive that he needed to be careful about doing that again.

Quickly, he pulled the throttle back, and dropped the nose of the fighter so he was heading straight for the palace. He had to duck and weave his way through the fighters that were kept as a rear guard, taking out 5 of them as he went, until he was with in range of the palace, where he started a strafing run. Almost immediately Draco's voice came over the radio. "Attention all fighters. Scenario is over, please land your fighters as soon as possible, and assemble in the command center for debriefing. This war game is officially over." Will could not wipe the huge grin off his face.

 

---

 

When Billy and Will landed, they were immediately swarmed by over two hundred Eryradain pilots. Before they could get out of their fighters, the pilots where shouting questions at them so fast that neither boy could understand what was being asked. Will was ready to have Draco transport them out when suddenly the crowd of pilots got quiet. The crowd parted as Master Quel and three other men in robes came walking up to the two fighters. Quel stopped a short distance away and waited for the two boys to climb down before he said anything, however the grin on his face said so much.

When the two boys were on the ground, Quel reached into his pocket and pulled out a rock that was easily the size of the man's fist. He tossed it to Will saying with a laugh, "Remind me never to bet against you again!"

Will caught it then almost dropped it. The rock that Quel tossed him was a absolutely beautiful sapphire. With his jaw on the floor, Will looked at Quel in astonishment. "I realize that the rock is worth something on Earth, but on our world those rocks are as common as grass. Now, would you mind telling me what you did to your fighters, and how we can get the rest upgraded?"

For the next 20 minutes Will and Billy explained to Quell and all the others there what they did, and what it meant for the ships. Thankfully, Will was expecting the next part, as Quel and all the pilots immediately started asking to have the rest of the fighters upgraded. He already had the Starfleet techs on standby and ready to come in to help update all the 200 fighters that were on assignment to Russia.

 

---

 

Janet's heart broke over and over as she dealt with the slave boys that had been kept at the Russian house. She had never had such 'helpful' patients before. No matter what she asked them to do, they literally jumped to do it. The problem was that she could see the fear in each and every one of their eyes when ever she spoke to one of them.

Once she was sure they were up to the full healthy state that she could get them to, she got them all one of Doctor McCoy's milkshakes, but had to actually tell them that it was okay for them to drink them. After that, she took all of them down to the rec room, and got them to the swimming area, hoping that they would be able to do something 'normal'. That turned out to be a disaster.

First off, as soon as they saw the other kids, they all got really scared, not that they would really show it, but being a mom, Janet could tell how afraid they were and her heart broke even more. She had to tell them to go swimming, and although she knew they didn't really want to, they all went into the pool, and they started to swim laps. They wouldn’t get into any of the games going on, even when asked. Although, when someone did ask, all they would say is that their 'master would not approve.'

She finally went up to them and asked, "What would you boys like to do?"

With out hesitation, one of them, a clone of Jory, spoke very slowly and clearly, "Whatever it is you would like us to do."

Knowing this was getting them no where, Janet decided the best thing to do would be getting them clothes and other things they would need to live here. As she showed them different shirts, each would respond, "If our master approves." She got the same result each time she showed them more articles of clothing. Janet finally just picked out clothes and helped each boy dress. Putting each piece of clothing on each boy, who stood stock still with fear in their eyes, touched her deeply. She swallowed tears, refusing to let them fall, when she discovered that they had never been allowed to wear clothing before, so they didn't even know what she was talking about.

She was starting to worry that she might not be able to keep it together when she got a mental message from Adam that he and the rest of the Core, save Logan, were in the base, and coming to help her out. Logan was fine, but sleeping. She wasn't sure exactly what happened to Logan, but knew he was taking things very hard right now. It was probably good that he was getting some sleep.