Disclaimer: HB owns the JQ lot, not me.   I'm making no money off this,
so
don't sue me, unless you wanna waste a bit of time on lil' ol' me.
It's
created out of (a lot) of love and respect for the series.  Barone,
Catherine, Claire Taylor, and David are my own.  You're welcome to use
any
of them in fics, but please ask.

Archivers: Suze and Aspen are welcome to it, of course.  Everyone else
ask
and it's yours.

Categories: Angst, mature language, violence.  (I'm swearing in this
one,
too.)

Summary:  Here come major plotlines flinging themselves at you...
***********************************************************************
Barone smiled.  Sometimes, life just fell into place so perfectely.  He
hit
Benton again.  Benton grunted, blood running down his face.

"Go to Hell!"

The raven haired girl behind him grinned.

"You first."
***********************************************************************
Jonny made his way to the living room.  Hadji followed, a few steps
behind.
He was haunted by Race's face.  Race was furious with Jonny, and Hadji
doubted anything Jonny could say or do would even slow him down.

They turned the corner, and found Race standing in the hallway, fists
clenched.

Hadji barely had time to register his presence.  Race grabbed Jonny and
bodily lifted him,  shoving him against the wall.  One arm pinned him
to the
wall while the other was laid across his throat.

"What the Hell did you do?"  He leaned against Jonny's throat.  Jonny
gasped
and tried to avoid his eyes.

Hadji tried to get a hold of Race's arm, but was shoved aside.

"This is not Jonny's fault."  Race ignored him.

"What did you do, you little shit?"  Jonny went limp.  He felt drained.

Hadji made another grab at Race.  He was suddenly joined by Taylor, and
they
managed to drag Race off.

"Race, for God's sake..."  He twisted round to face them, freeing
himself
from both their holds.

"You keep out of this!"  He turned to face Jonny again.  He hadn't
moved,
and was still avoiding everyone's eyes.

Race looked at him.  The fury seemed to drain out of him when he saw
Jonny,
again on the verge of tears.

"Aw, Hell.  Just keep him away from Jess."  He stormed past Taylor and
Hadji.

Hadji turned to Taylor.  "Thank you, Ms. Taylor.  I doubt I could have
stopped him on my own."

She smiled at him.  "Don't worry about it.  And please, call me
Claire."
She looked up at Jonny, who sunk to the ground and curled into a ball.

She lowered her voice, but Jonny didn't even seem to have noticed her
presence.  "Geez, I knew that he musta been going through Hell, but..."
She
recalled something.  "What's the story with that girl?  She looked
heartbroken."

Hadji sighed.  He didn't get the impression that Jonny would want him
telling anyone else, but his brother needed all the friends he could
get.
Helping his brother up, he told Claire about the situation.  Jonny made
no
attempt to hold his weight, and sank to the ground again.

Claire clicked her tongue.  *Wow.*

Hadji indicated to Claire that he wanted to carry Jonny.  She grabbed
his
legs and they carried him back upstairs.

About halfway up, Jonny snapped out of it.  "Wha-"  He struggled for a
moment.

"Jonny?"  He stopped and relaxed.

"Let me down.  I'll be fine."  He sounded tired more than anything
else.
Hadji looked at Claire, who shrugged.  They let him down onto his feet.

He felt grief begin to overwhelm him.  He leaned against the wall,
running
his hand through his hair.

"Hey, kid."  He looked bleary eyed at the I-1 operative.

"What?"

She placed a hand on his shoulder.  "I'm not entirely sure what's going
on,
but it's obvious that you two care about each other.  A lot."  Her
voice was
soothing, and Jonny couldn't help but listen.  "Talk to her."

He nodded dumbly, then made his way back down the stairs groggily.

Hadji turned to the agent.  "I thought I-1's job was to keep Dr. Quest
safe."

She shrugged.  "Screw I-1.  I joined 'cos I wanted to help people."

Hadji frowned.  "But that is the same reason Race quit."
***********************************************************************
Jonny entered the room to find a group of I-1 agents circled around the
coffee table.  One of them sat a little further away, leaning over a
microscope and some apparatus Jonny couldn't see.  A couple of them
looked
up, but most of them stayed hunched over whatever was on the table.

"Hello."  *Where's Jessie?*

One of them finally decided he was worth looking up at.

"You the Quest kid?"

"Last time I checked."

The man grunted.  "Come over here.  Do you know what this is about?"
He
handed him a sheet of paper.

Jonny took it.

GIVE US PROJECT RACHEL OR QUEST DIES

An address and something else was written below it, but Jonny's eyes
wouldn't focus.

*Project Rachel?*  He could vaguely remember...his mother?

He didn't notice Hadji's entrance with Claire.

"What is that, Jonny?"   He had noticed Jonny's shaken stare, and the
distinct lack of Jessie in the room.

He handed him the paper.
***********************************************************************
Jessie looked up at her father.  She was upset, but this?

"Dad, we can't abandon them like this.  Not now."

He continued to load the car's boot.

"Jess, whatever he did to you...he's not Jonny anymore.  The Jonny I
knew
would never hurt you."

"But..."

"For God's sake!  Listen to me!"  He rounded on her, shouting it inches
from
her face.

She stopped, stunned.  Her father had never reacted angrily to her.

He suddenly realised what he was doing.

"Jesus, what the Hell's happening to me?"  He slumped against the car.
***********************************************************************
Hadji stared at the piece of paper.  He was about to say something, but
noticed the I-1 agents staring at him intentely.  He cleared his
throat.

"I am sorry, but we have no idea what this means."

One of the agents stood angrily.  "Then what the Hell was the Quest
kid's
reaction all about?"

Hadji calmly faced the man, who stood several inches taller than him.
"Rachel was Jonny's mother, but we have no idea what..."  He looked at
the
piece of paper again.  "...Project Rachel is."

"Fine.  Then there's nothing we can do to help your father."  They
left.
The one a little further away abandoned his equipment after some
coercion
from another agent.

Hadji shook his head.  They obviously expected him to tell them
everything
in return for their help.

With some surprise, he realised Claire was still standing behind him.
He
turned to her, confused.

She shrugged again.

*She doesn't want to talk about why she is staying.*  He respected her
wishes and didn't ask.  He looked back at Jonny, who shook his head.

"Project Rachel?  The time machine?"  Hadji nodded.

"And what the heck was the guy over here doing?"  He took the petri
dish
from under the microscope and looked at it, as if he could see what was
going on.

With an exasperated noise Hadji took the dish off Jonny and put it back
under the microscope.

"I asked them to check the compound's water for unusual substances."
Hadji
didn't want to explain, but Jonny wasn't one to be put off.

"Huh?  Why?  What good would that do?"  Jonny was having trouble
handling
all the new information; he just couldn't concentrate on anything.

"I'll tell you if the tests turn up positive for anything."  Hadji was
fairly certain he could do them himself.

Jonny nodded, his attention already held by something else.  "So how'd
they
get in?  The first warning we got was when a bunch of them guys..."  he
waved an arm in the direction of table, despite having seen them
leaving,
"...legged it towards the compound 'stead of Race."  He swayed, his
legs
just weren't paying attention anymore.

Claire hadn't noticed.  "We think that when Race left the compound to
search
for you and his daughter he must have forgotten to reset security."

"Hm.  Race screwing up again, huh?"  He giggled.  Then collapsed.
***********************************************************************
Jessie helped her father up.  He was dizzy, and his eyes wouldn't
focus.

"Dad?  I'll get you back inside the mansion."  He struggled in a weak
attempt to stop her.

She dragged him inside.
***********************************************************************
Jonny awoke in pitch blackness.  He seemed to be doing that an awful
lot
lately.  At least he was in his own room this time.

He got up.  Somehow, he felt lighthearted, almost bouncy.  The
depression
that had threatened to overwhelm him over the past fortnight had
disappeared.  He  could hear voices downstairs.  Mentally shrugging, he
decided to follow them.
***********************************************************************
Hadji and Claire were talking animatedly about something Jonny didn't
in the
least understand.  He saw Jessie asleep on Benton's seat.  He stared at
her
for a moment.  She looked so peaceful, her face in complete serenity.
She
had pulled her knees into her chest and laid her head on her hands; she
was
almost child-like.  He walked softly so as not to wake her.  Kneeling,
he
brushed a red bang out of her eyes.  She smiled.  He stroked her cheek,
fingers sliding over her skin.

"Jonny?"  Hadji had only just noticed him, despite his normally
preternatural skills.

"Yeah, Hadj?"  He spoke in a near whisper.

"You are not supposed to be awake.  Please, return to your bed."

Jonny smiled.  "I've been sleeping way too much lately.  Now, I
remember
that you were testing the compound's water supply for something
earlier.
What did you find?"  He was still caressing Jessie's cheek.

Hadji faltered for a moment.  Jonny was thinking with incredible
clarity
compared to the past few days.  "We are not sure, but there appears to
be
testosterone mixed with some sort of catalyst.  There is also..."

Jonny nodded, cutting him off.

"Would it explain everyone's violent moodswings?"

"Yes."

"Of course it would.  And let me guess, some kind of  downer drug was
included that completely screwed up Race?"  He considered this for a
moment.
  "And everyone else?"

"Yes."  Hadji's mind was racing.  Jonny seemed to have snapped out of
it.
The problem was, he could get unpredictable enough without the aid of
mind
bending drugs.

"So when both Jessie and I both suggested that we shouldn't stay here,
we
were right?"

Hadji grimaced.  "Yes."

"We fell right into his hands, Hadj.  Race himself said that the two
men
first sent were to spook us.  We stayed here, and suddenly we were all
drinking from the same water supply.  It was so simple..."  He shook
his
head.

Hadji knew what was coming.

"Would it explain what happened between me and Jess?  The good and bad
parts?"

"Yes.  But-"

"Darn."  Jonny grinned.

Claire cleared her throat.  "It had a greater affect on the men because
of
the level of testosterone already present in your bodies.  Bannon's
kid..."

"Her name's Jessie.  And it still had an effect on her."  He stood up.
"And
I will not, under any circumstances, take advantage of her."  His smile
had
gone, but his tone was still light.  "And it had no effect on Hadji,
because
he's Hadji."

"Do you not remember when I lost my temper?  We were in Jessie's
bedroom
and..."

"Ah, yeah.  I suppose that was kinda losing it in your case."

Hadji rolled his eyes.

Jonny suddenly turned serious.  "So what else was on that note?"

"Just a time and place where to bring Project Rachel.  Just the usual
"come
alone" yadda yadda business."  Claire sighed.  "They really should try
something original."

"Can't we track dad with his watch?"

"The range is only a couple of hundred feet."  Hadji looked at him
curiously.  "Didn't you know that?"

"I guess this is the first time I've been the one actually using it to
find
someone rather than the other way around."  He shrugged.

"We're gonna have to give them Project Rachel."

"But, Jonny, he could change the world with Rachel.  He could kill all
of us
and we would not be alive to know it."

"Ow."  Jonny struggled to comprehend this for a moment.  "Are you
saying he
could kill our parents, therefore killing us 'cause we weren't born?"

"Yes."

"Then stoppit."  He frowned in irritation.  Rubbing his chin with his
hand,
he was shocked to find stubble.  He hadn't realised he was old enough.

Jessie groaned and rolled over, still asleep.  Jonny gazed at her, and
Hadji
caught the expression on his face.

"You love her, don't you."  He smiled.  It was rhetorical, but Jonny
answered anyway.

"That word gets thrown around an awful lot.  Let's just call it a mild
obsession for now."  He pulled off his lopsided grin.

"What do you propose we do?"  Claire suddenly snapped out of the
reverie
caused by the sheer emotion flying arouind the room.

"Give 'em Project Rachel.  It won't run without Questworld, and it'll
take
them a couple of years to change its programme enough for it to run on
any
other system."

"But they could still kill father.  We have no way to stop them doing
that,
and we still don't know where they are."

"Place a tracker bug inside the Rachel programme.  Dad's equipment is
pretty
advanced, and even if they do find it, they won't know if it's part of
Rachel or not."

"Jonny?  You are behaving remarkably...clear headed.  Especially after
everything that has happened."

"I've been moping around here for the past couple of weeks.  I'm bored,
Hadj."

Hadji understood.  "No knife is as sharp or dangerous as an imprisoned
mind
set free."

"Er...yeah."  Jonny had long ago learned to stop trying to figure out
what
Hadji meant.

"But that doesn't change the fact that there's no guarantee that your
father
will be safe."  Claire was getting impatient.

"We'll worry about that later.  They'll probably keep dad alive until
they
get Rachel functioning."

"Are you willing to take that chance?"

"Better to die on your feet than  on your knees."

"Err...yeah."  Claire was learning as fast as Jonny had.

"He means that doing this at least gives dad a chance.  Not doing it
would
get dad killed for sure."

"Ah."
***********************************************************************

Comments?  Suggestions?  Flames?  Praise?  Send 'em all to
SchmittVanDean@hotmail.com

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!  (Rough translation-these little bits at the bottom
get
more attention then the Fic itself.)  :)

Tip For The Day: Never watch a loved one eat Pot Noodle.

-Schmitt

********************************
There is nobody so irritating as
somebody with less intelligence
and more sense than we have.
-Don Herold
********************************