Next chapter! Can I get a "Whoot whoot?"

*cricket* *cricket*

Haha. Just kidding. Feel free to skip this incredibly dull author's note and get straight to the meat of this chapter.

Thanks to all of you who reviewed the last chapter. I'm really bad at responding to them, and I apologize, but I want you guys to know that they mean a lot to me. I'm honestly so surprised by the interest and following this story has gotten. I never expected that the V fandom was still this strong (which just means the fact that they canceled the show on you guys is criminal) and it's just a little bit awesome.

As for future updates, I have six more chapters written after this, which just need editing (a lot of editing. Anybody know a good beta who does V stuff?), and as for after that, well, I need to rewatch season 2 at least for me to write more, but I just don't have time right now. I'll try to space out the other chapters so that by the time I'm done with those, I'll have something else written for you guys.

Additionally, over the past couple of days, I've been doing a lot of thinking about where I'm going with the plot, and I've got some major stuff planned. I promise you won't be disappointed... but that won't come for a while. Cause the stuff I'm going to do is like Season Cliffhanger stuff. *cackles evilly*

But for now, I hope this chapter is pleasing, and if I'm ever getting way off track with my writing, just let me know. No one's perfect after all.

Enjoy!

Anna

Mother Ship

...

There was a slight tremble to Anna's hands as she watched the screen in her chambers, and she quickly curled them into fists to hide the sign of weakness. It was the same video that had played earlier on WNT, when a replay of her interview had been scheduled. As soon as the Fifth Column symbol appeared, announcing the end of the video, she dispelled the screen with a wave of her hand and turned to face Marcus and Thomas. They both straightened almost imperceptibly as she gazed from one to the other.

"How could this have happened?" she asked them, a dangerous edge to her normally level voice. "How could Chad Decker escape from our grasps and then manage to go on the air and refute everything I have said to the humans?"

"My Queen," Marcus said evenly, "the humans are still supporting you even with Decker's brief appearance on the air."

A muscle jumped in Anna's jaw, and she stared at Marcus with fiery eyes. "Do you think me a fool? Chad Decker didn't go on the air to gain the support of all the humans in the world. He went on the air to gain the support of all the Fifth Column and to unite them. They will become even more aggressive against us now that they have heard what he has said."

Anna knew that her restrained emotions were coming dangerously close to surfacing on her face, and she turned away, towards the window, to keep her advisers from noticing. "He also did it to plant the seeds of doubt in the minds of the humans. We cannot allow this to go any further."

"What is our next move, my Queen?" asked Thomas.

Face blank, Anna turned back around. "We find the Fifth Column and destroy them. Until we have full access to ECHELON, we proceed with our other method. Bring Lisa to the holding room. It's time she saw what the price of her silence is."

Kyle Hobbes

Holding Room

...

Hobbes had to hand it to the Vs. They knew what they were doing. He had never felt so broken and oppressed in his life. It wasn't the physical torture; he could handle that in abundance—and that particular quality of his had certainly been put to the test the last few days. No, what truly crushed him, what twisted up his insides and constricted his throat to the point that he could barely breathe, was the constant torment of seeing his wife's last moments—the horrors that she had been put through at the hands of the Vs.

Hobbes could barely stand it.

Because they had over him a POW's worst nightmare. Information on his family. And they were using in, exploiting it, to cut into his mind and scramble him up as much as possible, knowing that sooner or later he would reach his limit and break, spewing out all the information he knew like an shattered water pipe.

But he hadn't broken yet, and he didn't plan on it. He had been trained for this, and though he had never wanted to be in a position to have to use it, he knew it was the only thing keeping him sane. Because instead of breaking him, their psychological torment had only added fuel to the proverbial fire in Hobbes' gut; and more than ever, he was determined to end the Vs reign of terror once and for all.

Even if he died in the process.

But that would have to wait. At the moment, Hobbes had been given a reprieve from the conditioning that had become his entire existence. He was cuffed to an ordinary steel chair and told, with no small amount of threats, that he was to wait, that Anna had business with him.

Anna didn't come to see him just because she missed his company. Whatever she wanted, it was part of her grand scheme to subjugate the human race.

He didn't have to wait long to find out. The door opened and Anna entered with long, determined strides along with Joshua, Marcus, Thomas, and several guards that were frog-marching Lisa into the chamber. The poor girl looked like she'd been through the ringer. Normally perfect hair and makeup were in disarray, and from the black streaks running down her cheeks, Hobbes figured that she had been crying.

Well, he didn't need to wonder anymore. It was now painfully obvious why he had been roughed up the way he had. Emotions were a powerful thing, and empathy was one of the most powerful.

He didn't know how much it would affect the girl, though.

Lisa's eyes flitted up from the ground once she was past the doorway, and when they locked on Hobbes, she stared in open-mouthed horror.

Hobbes looked away from Lisa, his eyes landing on Anna instead. He quirked an eyebrow in surprise. He had never seen her look so angry. Her eyes were blazing, and her mouth was set into a firm line. For the most part though, she managed to keep it in check. He smiled at whatever could have affected her like that.

Anna grabbed Lisa's arm and, yanking her out of the grasp of the guards, shoved her further into the room. "Do you see what your silence has brought on, Lisa?" she asked. "Do you see the futility? We will find the other Fifth Column just as we have him, with or without your help. But it is up to you what we do with them."

Lisa gave her mother a horrified look.

"I'm sure you two have some catching up to do," said Anna with a small smirk. "We will give you a few minutes."

Anna, Marcus, Thomas, and Joshua all left the room again, Joshua giving the two of them a backward glance as he left, but the guards remained.

Lisa turned to Hobbes when they were gone. He saw the sorrow in her eyes.

"You're probably wondering why my mother's still alive," she said morosely.

Hobbes shook his head, suppressing a doleful sigh. "Not really. I figured that she found out what you were trying to do and either locked you up or killed you."

"Something like that," said Lisa evasively. And then quietly, "How long have you been here?"

Hobbes lifted his good shoulder an inch. "Don't really know. They haven't exactly given me a calendar to mark off. I couldn't have been here that long though."

Lisa collapsed to her knees in front of him. "What have they done to you?"

Hobbes hesitated a moment. "Nothing that bad." Only a half-truth. "It's not as bad as it looks." He leaned forward, dropping his voice to a near-whisper. "They've done this on purpose. They want you to see me like this so that you will give in to them. But you can't."

He shook his head, bitter thoughts surfacing despite all he had done to keep them suppressed. "I deserve much worse than anything they've done to me."

Lisa's eyes dropped to the floor, but not before Hobbes spied fresh tears shining in her eyes. It never ceased to amaze him how different she was from her mother. "No one deserves what my mother has done."

Hobbes cocked his head a fraction, eyes narrowing in scrutiny. "How are you holding up?"

Lisa looked up. "Not so good. Tyler's dead."

Hobbes froze. "What?"

Lisa nodded, and the tears finally overflowed, carving rivers down her cheeks. "He was… killed. By someone who looked just like me." She gave him a watery smile devoid of any happiness and laughed bitterly. "I've been replaced. And my replacement killed the boy I loved while I was forced to watch."

Despite his somewhat hostile and standoffish nature, Hobbes would have hugged her if he could have. "Listen to me," he said, firmly but not unkindly. "I know that you've been through a lot, and I know it's probably going to get worse from here, but you must promise me something. No matter what they do to me or what they do to you, you cannot give them what they want. You understand? You can't give in. Because once you do, they will kill you, they will kill me, and they will kill everyone that has ever come into contact with you, V and human alike. So stay strong. Promise me."

Lisa stared at him, wide-eyed and apprehensive. She opened her mouth but never got the chance to reply, for the door opened once again, and Anna reentered. "Times up," said Anna. The small smile that played at the corners of her lips held just a hint of triumph. She looked at Hobbes, eyes cold and hard. "I think it's time to see your wife again."

Hobbes saw Lisa's momentarily confused expression turn to one of abject horror.

"Take her back to her cell," Anna ordered.

Lisa was seized by the guards and pulled to her feet. As they started dragging her away, Hobbes called out, "If you tell them anything, they will have died for nothing."

His last sight of Lisa was her fearful, tear-stained face.

Anna smiled at Hobbes with all the warmth of an Antarctic winter. "I hope you had a nice little chat," she said. "But now it's time for other activities." Marcus and Thomas both followed Lisa and the guards out of the room.

Anna made to follow them.

"You don't think I know what your game is?" Hobbes called to her back.

Anna froze.

"I can see what you're doing," he said.

Anna turned back around, all semblance of a smile completely gone. "And what exactly is my game, Mr. Hobbes?"

Hobbes smirked at her, even though it pulled at his split lips. "I know why you keep your daughter locked up, even after she tried to kill you. I know why you don't simply skin her and acquire the information you want. I know why you've set up this little game to get her to talk."

He leaned forward and whispered so that only she could hear. "It's because you love her. You've been infected by that disgusting human emotion, and from what I can see, that infection has spread so deep, that you don't ever have a hope of going back to the way you once were."

He saw with satisfaction that he had penetrated Anna's shell. Her jaw clenched and her eyes blazed once again.

"Now answer me this," he said. "Why take Sarah? Why record her voice and why kill her?"

Anna smiled maliciously, and Hobbes knew that he was going to get a truthful answer.

"As Marcus showed you, you have been working for us for years. And your work was very helpful to us. I felt that we should continue using you." She leaned in towards him. "We took her because you were going to quit."

She straightened up and smiled. "And just so you know, Mr. Hobbes, contrary to your narrow-minded belief, I fully accept that I have acquired human emotion. Anger, vengeance, rage—I will use these things to make myself stronger, so that I can destroy your peaceful little world. You and everyone on earth will bow to my will; they will serve me for their entire, miserable existence, and no one, yourself included, will be able to stop it."

Hobbes glowered. "You think anger makes you stronger? You're deluded. All it's going to do is cloud your judgment, and when it does, I will kill you."

Anna tilted her head, smile broadening. "Who is the deluded one now? Have fun with your memories, Mr. Hobbes."

She left without another word, leaving Hobbes angrier than he had ever felt before.

Joshua hung back, seemingly making sure that Anna was indeed gone. He hesitated a moment, then briefly spoke to the guards that had remained behind. Hobbes saw them hesitate before nodding curtly and leaving.

Joshua walked up to him and uncuffed him. "We don't have much time. I've sent the guards on an errand, but it shouldn't take more than five minutes."

"Fantastic," said Hobbes, rubbing at his chafed wrists. Joshua missed the sarcasm.

"I can help get you out of here," said Joshua with a note of urgency. "But I need you to do something for me."

"What's that?" Hobbes asked cautiously. It wasn't that he didn't trust Joshua. He just didn't trust anyone.

"Get Lisa off this ship and protect her when you get back down to earth."

While this would have been a condition that Hobbes would have been hesitant to accept a year ago ("hesitant" equaling "not a snowball's chance in hell"), he didn't have any difficulty making up his mind now. He didn't voice his answer right away though, because the burning fire in his gut had only grown stronger. The hellfire scorched his very core, and his mind whirred with sudden thoughts of opportunities. This was his chance, and it would be a shame to waste it.

"I will help her," he said after a minute, "but I need your help with something else."

Joshua blinked. "What is it?"

Hobbes gave him a strong look, not quite able to suppress the grin that twitched at his lips. "Help me hit Anna, and hit her hard."

Kyle Hobbes and Joshua

Holding room

...

Joshua looked at Hobbes. Human jokes tended to fly over his head on most occasions, but he got the feeling that the man was completely serious. "What are you thinking?" he asked.

Hobbes unsteadily pushed himself to his feet, wincing as the motion pulled at injuries. Joshua didn't have time to treat him, and guilt welled up inside him.

"Anna used me for her own purposes, destroyed my family, and now she wants to do the same to every human being on earth," Hobbes said, glaring coldly at the far wall beyond Joshua's left ear. "We are going to stop her no matter what.

"We can't do it alone," said Joshua, wondering how stable the man's mental state was. Of course, from what he knew of Hobbes, it hadn't been all that stable to begin with.

"No," agreed Hobbes, "but we can put a major setback in her plan. Tell me about these Intellicrop thingies."

"They do everything she says they do. And they are exactly what she says they are," said Joshua grimacing. "Except for one major difference. It's not actually the crops that are special but the fertilizer. It took decades to develop."

"And it makes normal crops into super-crops?"

"Yes. But what Anna didn't mention was that the fertilizer also acts like a narcotic. Basically, you could say that the crops become addicted. Any crops that are sprayed with the fertilizer cease to grow anymore if they don't receive the fertilizer. And beyond that, crops grown from the seeds of crops treated with the fertilizer will also need the fertilizer in order to grow."

"So in a nutshell," said Hobbes, "you're telling me that if Anna could potentially control the entire world's food supply?"

"Yes," said Joshua.

Hobbes blew out a breath. "Is there any way that we can sabotage these Intelicrops?"

"Maybe," said Joshua, frowning in consideration. "If the fertilizer is contaminated, it will kill anything it comes into contact with instead of assisting it."

"That will work. What can we use to contaminate it?" asked Hobbes.

"There is a virus. It would be undetectable once it is in the fertilizer. But it's risky," he said. "There are safety measures guarding the fertilizer. Only a V will be able to gain access to the fertilizer to taint it. Unfortunately, if I do it, my position here could be jeopardized."

"Well then," said Hobbes with a smirk, "I think we should bring a certain lizard princess in on this."

Lisa

Secret prison

...

The guards had thrown Lisa unceremoniously back into her prison and then left. Lisa paced and wrung her hands. She didn't know what to do. She was alone and lost, trapped in place where she was powerless. Weak. That was what she was: weak, because she could do nothing more than sit by and watch as her mother manipulated and cajoled from the shadows.

Hobbes had practically ordered her not to say anything, but Lisa couldn't bear the thought of him being tortured because of her own willfulness. She needed to do something without jeopardizing the Fifth Column. She needed to get out.

Eventually, Lisa heard the sound of the lift, and she stiffened, knowing only one person that would be visiting her. When footsteps approached, Lisa straightened her back and turned around to face her mother and two V guards.

Anna had a smug smile on her face, and Lisa wanted nothing more than to wipe it right off… with her fist.

"So, my daughter," said Anna. "You see what your silence has caused. Your fellow Fifth Column member has suffered greatly because you refuse to tell me the names I asked for."

Lisa clenched her teeth and took a deep breath, making her decision—the only decision. "Mr. Hobbes has also made the choice to keep silent. If I were to talk, then not only would it mean that all our sufferings have been in vain, but it would also bring about the sufferings of others." She glared at her mother. "I will not betray the Fifth Column."

"And yet you would betray your own species," said Anna with a mad glint in her eye. "You would betray your own mother."

"If it means that millions of lives can be saved, then yes," replied Lisa. "I would, and I have."

Anna didn't speak for a moment, and Lisa wondered if she was going to strike her. But Anna didn't. Her hand only twitched.

"I will give you a few hours to think on what you have seen," said her mother. "If you still refuse to tell me what I wish to know, then I shall have Mr. Hobbes killed, as slowly and painfully as possible, and you will be present to witness it. We'll see how noble you feel once you're responsible for the death of your only ally on this ship."

Anna gave Lisa one last look of deepest loathing, before turning around and leaving her daughter alone in her prison.

And once more, Lisa was unable to stop her tears.