Dima pulled the black garment over his head and pushed his arms through the sleeves. After adjusting the jacket, he turned to Maisie, who sat in the driver's seat. "Look good?"

"Perfect. They'll never see you coming."

I wanted to laugh, but that didn't seem quite right in light of what we were about to do. Dima turned his head and looked at me in the back seat. "You alright?"

"Fine." I replied, wiping my sweating palms across the knees of my jeans. I was glad I had changed into a decent outfit before leaving the house. If I was going to help in this grim deed, I wasn't going to do so in holey jeans and an old t-shirt. "I'm just fine."

Dima turned back to the front. We passed under a street lamp, and the car was illuminated just long enough for me to see the wooden crate in Dima's lap and the word 'danger' written in large black letters on the side. I relaxed against the seat and practiced deep breathing to calm my shaking hands.

Dima and Maisie chatted quietly for a while as the car drove through the sleeping city. I breathed on the cold window, which instantly fogged up, and drew little faces in the fog. Then I smudged the fog away with my hand and sat in silence as the car drove on. Eventually the conversation faded. Dima reached forward and pressed his fingers against the dash panel. Classical music drifted through the speakers, strangely calm in the tense atmosphere. I watched Dima rest against the back of his seat and stare at the stars showing through the skylight. A shooting star passed over in a swift arc, then vanished into the abysmal night sky.

Within a few minutes, the car eased to a quiet stop two blocks from the Protonet headquarters. "We're here." Maisie murmured. We left the safety of the vehicle, walking in silence under the line of dim street lamps which lit the vacant streets. Only the soft tapping of our shoes against the concrete cut the eerie quiet. When we reached the street across from the Protonet headquarters, Dima and Maisie ducked into the shadows. I followed suit.

"You here?" Dima whispered into the darkness. Another superhuman?

"I'm here." Came an all too familiar voice. Surprise, confusion and anger surged through me all at once as the voice's owner stepped into the dim glow. The tiny lights on his implants blinked slowly, with no particular rhythm. Cy stared at me, just as surprised to see me as I was to see him. "Oh. Xander. You...you brought him into this?"

"We need a lookout. And he deserves to be here." Dima set the crate on the ground and patted Cy on the back. "We're ready."

Maisie relayed the details of the plan. Dima would walk, invisible and wearing C.L.O.A.K., into the building with the explosives hidden on his person, and position them within the building. Meanwhile (this is how I learned how Maisie and Dima had bypassed the triple firewall and entered my house), Cy would hack the system and wipe all data from it. Every trace of research would be destroyed, even if the building wasn't. Maisie would wait for Dima to exit the building, whereupon he would uncloak and she would melt the metal over the doorway, thus trapping every person inside until the building crashed in on itself. I would stand watch to alert Maisie the second Dima uncloaked.

"But that's not much time for you to get out of the way." I pointed out. "That building will fall on you within seconds."

The catch in Dima's eyes told me he wasn't planning on getting out of the way. "This is the last trace of Protonet, Xander. After this, what is left? You think I'll walk into the FBI's hands and give myself up? You think I can hide forever? Think I would want to?" He smiled reassuringly and rested his hands on my shoulders. "Don't worry. You're immortal. And your best friend will be out of harm's way."

He turned away, and Maisie followed him to another part of the alleyway to discuss the extra details of the plan. Once they were out of hearing range, I turned on my heel and glared at Cy. He couldn't see my face in the shadows, and greeted me like old times.

"Hey, man. How've ya been? Kinda strange meeting each other again like this, but -"

I grabbed his coat collar and shoved him against the wall. "You lied to me," I hissed. "Why didn't you tell me?"

"Wh-what?"

"You know what! You and Lund. You got me into this...this superhuman thing. Why didn't you tell me the truth?"

"You...you know about that?" Cy croaked.

"Yeah, I know about that."

"I was gonna tell you. I tried to. Lots of times, but I always froze up." He sighed, "I didn't want you to think bad of me just because I -"

"You cheated the system!" I let go of his jacket with a shove. "I didn't think you'd cheat our way to the top."

"You're my best friend. I couldn't just leave you behind."

"So you lied to me?"

"Look, after this I'll tell you anything you want to know. But I have a job to do, and I need a clear mind to do it."

"Try a clear conscience." I muttered, turning away. I walked to the other wall and sat against it, pressing my head against the cold brick. I counted to ten once, then twice, trying to calm my frustration. A chilly breeze drifted through the alley, and I pulled my coat tighter around me. What time was it? After three, I knew that much. I was exhausted. I took a quick look around me, then closed my eyes for a moment. When I looked up, Cy was gone and Dima was packing explosives into his jacket.

"Dima?" I whispered, shakily rising to my feet. I must have fallen asleep. Dima turned his head, smiled wearily at me, and continued arranging the explosives. "You're really going through with this..."

"This is the last stop, the end of the line." He said plainly. He straightened, the last of the explosives tucked neatly inside his coat pockets. Zipping up his jacket, he turned around and studied me for a moment. "I have dreamed of this for a long, long time."

"What if you're caught?" I asked, finally voicing the anxious thought that had swirled inside my mind for weeks. "Or...or killed?"

He shrugged. "The odds are in my favor. And I am not afraid to die."

I had to smile at his optimism. Here he was, ready to walk to his almost certain death, and he couldn't care less about his outcome. When Protonet and its people went up in flames, his mission would end. He planned to die right along with the people he had so despised.

"Too bad we didn't get much of a chance to live a good life, huh?" I tried to grin, and probably failed miserably, but Dima smiled. I had not seen him smile so genuinely since the last day I had watched him talk to Aegis.

"Yeah. Too bad. But your life is what you make of it. You have all the time in the world to live a great life." He stepped closer, into the dim light. His eyes had a strange gleam to them.

He took the cowl around his neck and covered his lower face before looking up to the starry sky. He remained silent for a long time, and when he finally spoke again, his voice was quiet and honest. He clasped my hand and gave it a brotherly squeeze. "Take care of yourself."

He turned his back to me, facing the Protonet headquarters. I heard him inhale a deep breath, and as he took a step forward, I reached my hand out to him.

"Can't this be enough?"

Dima sighed. "It will never be enough."

He stepped into the road, pulled his jacket hood over his head, then vanished into the night. Within seconds, he appeared at the door of the building, opened it, then disappeared again as the door shut silently behind him. I wondered why he would risk being seen. He had been the invisible terror for so long. Maybe he wanted them to see, at the very end, the face of the person who had caused the destruction of their powerful regime.

I breathed a low, anxious sigh; my breath left a temporary wisp of fog hanging in the cold air. I moved to stand beside Maisie, watching the building. My hands sweated, and my mouth was dry. I hated waiting. There is so much uncertainty in waiting. But everything else had been done. The only thing left to do was wait.