"It's complicated, no?" Dejah asked. "Safe, yes, if you trust the ghost."

Raven, on Donna's other side, winked.

It was then that the road stopped. Just stopped. It seemed to fall off into the void, or more accurately, if you stepped off of it, you would fall. Dejah inclined her head to Raven, spoke a few quick phrases in another language. Raven responded and Dejah took Donna's hand. "Trust me?" she asked.

Donna nodded, really having no other recourse. She and Dejah stepped off the road.

And into a hotel room.

There was a young, sandy blonde man sitting at the desk in the room. He looked up when Dejah entered, Donna close behind. Dejah dropped Donna's hand and looked at her watch. "Ten seconds," she said with a grin. "Time is relative in the void," she told Donna. "Your trip lasts as long as you want it to. It just seemed to take a little while because we were talking. I'd like you to meet my partner and Anna's husband, Kenyon."

The man stood up and walked over. He was dressed down too, jeans and a dark blue polo shirt, his hair was out of place too. "Good to meet you," he said.

"It's nice to meet you, too, " Donna replied, still nervous. "like I said I'll help any way I can..." Though she still wasn't sure how. If only she knew *why* she hadn't been able to find Connor before.

"Well," Dejah mused. "You said you could do some searching. Why don't we try this..." She led Donna over to the TV where there was a rented VCR hooked up. Dejah popped in the tape and Donna watched it until Dejah paused it, freeze frame on two similar looking boys. It was right before Jacan killed the photographer. "This," Dejah said, pointing to the dark haired boy, "is Connor and this is his brother, Jacan." She pointed to the blonde. "Do you think you can search out either of them?"

"That's the same tape I saw back in Tampa. And NT had shown me some pictures of Connor, too." Donna paused, looked at the screen, then doing her best to fix the image in her mind, closed her eyes and reached out.

For what seemed forever that special...sense, gift, whatever you wanted to call it, hung there as she tried desperately to get some sense of where the brothers were.

But to no avail. All that appeared in her mind's eye was that same gray void, that nothingness, she'd felt before. The same blank wall NT had described.

She opened her eyes and looked at Dejah and Kenyon despairingly. "I don't *see* anything," she sighed. "And I should, that's what's not making sense. I should see right where they are, that's the way it's always worked since I first knew I could do this." She looked like she was about to cry. "I know, you probably think I'm making this up now, but I'm not! I can search out things! I don't know why it's not working this time!" She couldn't meet their eyes any longer and looked down at the floor, wishing it'd swallow her whole. But it remained solid.

Dejah sighed. She knew Donna wasn't making anything up, she could feel the energy around the girl. She knew Donna had the gift and while Donna was searching Dejah felt the magic energy rise. "I don't know either sweet..." she murmured, putting her arm around Donna's shoulders. "Sometimes... Sometimes magic does that. There might be other magic working against you. That would be my guess. As for making this up," she said, looking at Kenyon who had a doubtful look on his face. "I know you're not. I can sense your magic, I know you tried."

She stood up and started pacing, muttering to herself under her breath. Then she looked back at the tape. "What if..." she started, the spark returning to her eyes. "What if the Dawn brainwashed the twins into thinking they were other people? Maybe you couldn't find them because you were looking for Connor and Jacan, but they're not Connor and Jacan, they're somebody else now"

"If that's the case," Kenyon said. "How do we find out who they think they are now?"

Donna shook her head. "I don't know. If one of those kids in red shirts were here, I could look into their memories and find out. But they're not, and I don't know if I could find one of them either, without a name."

Dejah nodded. "We'll work on that."

Donna looked at her for a moment. "I think I'd like that. There's so much I don't know about this...and I'm so afraid I'll end up hurting somebody, that's the last thing I want. There's so much I don't know about a lot of things. My father was a mage, too. But I never knew him. His whole family were mages, they tell me, but I never got to know them either. All I know are names. I mean, Mom's told me some things, but I can't stop wondering. How much of what they were might I have?"

Dejah sat back. "Perhaps a lot. I've heard of magic being genetic. Those twins, Connor and Jacan, their magic is all genetic. I think we'll have to find out now won't we?" she asked, smiling. "Where is your father? How much has your mother told you?"

"She told me some things. Mostly about how they met and how it was while she was with him." she swallowed. "But then he died. When I was just a baby. Mom said that she couldn't stand staying in that house without him, it hurt her too much, so she took me and left. When I got older I remember asking if I had a father--and all she'd do was start crying. I didn't want to upset her, so I stopped asking. I didn't even know his name--whether Shelley was her name or his--until after Pippi and Ameh went to talk to Mom and that wasn't till after NT and the others had gotten me away from Tompkins." She sighed. "But now I do have that much--his name I mean. Alexander Shelley. And I wish I'd known him. Mom says there were his parents, he had uncles and cousins too. But she hadn't kept in touch, we didn't know until just before the trial that Tompkins had had them all killed."

Dejah sighed. Her mind was turning, but it would take some work and it might not work at all so she wasn't going to get Donna's hopes up just yet. "I know what it's like to lose someone you care about," she said. "And even though you never met your father, I can tell you still care about him." Dejah stopped, thinking for a few minutes. Then she got up and went to her pile of papers and files. Something had just dawned on her. "Did you say 'Shelley'?" she asked.

"Yes, that was his name, Alexander Shelley." Donna said.

Dejah finally stopped rummaging through her papers and turned back to Donna. "I thought so. It had been so long that... Alex." She smiled. "I knew him, briefly when I lived in Chicago. It was more I knew *of* him - I had only met him twice. I knew Brian Shelley much better. I know the two were related, but I'm not sure how... Cousins if I had to guess. So... it was Nathan who was behind Brian's death..." A cloud passed over her eyes.

"I'd have to ask Mom, the next time I talk to her, but I think she did mention a cousin of my father's named Brian." Donna replied. "And you're right...Tompkins had them all killed. Made it look like accidents, so no one realized what was happening. From what Pippi and Ameh dug up, apparently one of my father's uncles had helped Tompkins' wife when she ran away from him. Tompkins found out and made it look like he'd died in a car wreck. Then my f-father got suspicious of that and that's why he died. And then Tompkins decided to cover *that* by wiping out the whole family. One or two at a time." Donna sighed. "He just left me because he hoped to be able to use me later. And he did for a while there--but you know about that." she sighed again.

"Anyway...you said you wanted to get started finding the twins--and of course I'll help any way I can, like I said. But maybe...maybe later, you can tell me anything you do remember about Brian or any of the others?"

"Of course, sweetheart," Dejah said. She spent the remainder of the day following up and working through the information her colleagues had given her about the Dawn with Kenyon.

The next morning, Dejah took Donna to the loft the Eternals used, where she was to meet with Michael and try to release his memory again.

Donna watched as she set up the circle with chalk. Dejah had brought with her some tools, so, unlike the last time, she had more power to work with. She and Michael sat in the center and the runes started to glow. Dejah entered Michael's subconscious and worked on the wards that blocked his memory. She felt her power start to fade as she took down a ward. She studied her work for a moment before pulling out. Half the blocks gone. Good enough for now.

She opened her eyes. "Michael?" she asked. "What do you remember?"

The deep blue eyes held Dejah's for the longest time, as he struggled to make the new memories make sense. Then he spoke. "This one has remembered...some things. The Dark Ones I spoke of before--they are *not* alone...there are...there are those who stand with them."

* * * * *

A short while later, Kenyon and Dejah were discussing the situation.

Dejah was thoughtful for a moment. "Let Dan handle it. You and I are going in after your brothers."

Kenyon looked down at the floor. Dejah leaned in closer. "Can you do this?" she asked. "I mean, your brothers aren't the same any more. We'll have to reverse the damage somehow."

"Can you do that?" Kenyon asked.

Dejah sighed. "Honestly, I don't know."

Kenyon's eyes clouded over. "I can handle it," he said.

Dejah looked to Donna. "Do you want to come?" she asked. She held up her hand to Kenyon as he opened his mouth in protest. "It would be good training."

Donna nodded. "I said I'd help any way I could."

"Good," Dejah said. There was a shift in the air around the room and a portal opened up. Dejah stepped through, then Kenyon, then Donna.

At the end of the silver road, they found themselves in an empty room. Dejah acted quickly, bringing down the alarm systems so they had a chance to do this without too much hassle. Kenyon drew his gun and walked to the door, looking out, he saw no one.

"Where would they be?" he asked.

Donna shrugged. "I'd search if I knew who we were looking for...but we don't know who they are now." She sighed.

Dejah looked down at her. "They're here somewhere," she said. "They have to be. Let's try this way." And she walked off down the hall with her gun ready.

Both Kenyon and Donna followed, warily. They came to a corner and Dejah peeked around, no one was in the hall, but there was a door to a room and in the room, there were voices.

"Well," Dejah whispered. "Might as well go introduce ourselves."

"Wait," Kenyon said, gripping her arm. "They might not be them."

Dejah turned. "Probably not, but if we make enough of a ruckus, they'll send in the big guns, which - I'm hoping - include your little brothers." She sauntered down the hall and leaned against the door frame. She cocked her head and held up her gun in a 007-girl kinda way and said,"Hello boys."

The three men inside leapt to their feet almost at once. Two drew guns. The third leapt towards the back wall, where a small walkie talkie sat on a countertop.

"Naughty naughty," Dejah said, snapping her fingers. The walkie talkie went dead. "We don't want anyone crashing our party just yet."

Kenyon appeared at her side, just hidden behind the door frame, gun aimed at the closet man's head. Donna stood behind Dejah, against the wall, as yet unseen by the men in the room.

The men looked at each other and then rushed at Dejah. Kenyon pulled her out of the way and slammed the door shut in the face of one of the men. "Nice going," he said.

"Just doing my job," she returned with a smile. She took Donna and bolted down back around the corner, Kenyon right beside them, they took refuge behind the wall, both guns aimed at the door and the commotion behind it.

Dejah took one in the leg with her gun and Kenyon shot the other in the arm. The FBI had been ready. They both ducked behind the wall as bullets came flying close to their heads. "Damn," Kenyon muttered, then spun around and took another shot but missed. He came back around just as he heard another gun go off.

"Guess we'd better do something about those guns," Dejah said. She mumbled under her breath something arcane and heard the blessed clinking of guns hitting the floor. Kenyon and Dejah whipped back around, guns held up.

"Okay, assholes," Dejah snapped. "I wanna know where the Warriors of the Dawn are and I want to know NOW!" She took a warning shot that grazed one of the men's hair.

The man who'd been grazed ducked to the floor. The other man glowered at Dejah. "Do you wish to die, then? That can be arranged. If you want to meet *them*." He reached for his radio.

Dejah laughed. "Oh good, I was hoping we'd get to take them home."