Date: January 10, 2000 (Reminder to self: Don't write 19 before 2000 :)
Title: A World of Chaos
Author: Meghan/Ashleigh
Category: Very mild J/J HR, Future, Family, Angst, MLer (for this section)
Disclaimer: I don't own JQ, but I own this story and the characters I made
up for it.
Archivers permission: I'd like to know where it lands, but go for it.
Notes: Yes, Jonny is dead.  I can't explain the J/J HR, just read. Don't
worry, there's just hints of it.  MLer - there are MLers playing the parts
of people in here who don't have any lines, but they are there, and they
will continue to be there throughout the fic.  Also, this is the second
chapter but it says part three because there was also a prologue. ^_^
Questions? Comments? Enjoy (I hope)!

Jessie sat silently staring out the front window of the Quest Compound. It
 was late - three in the morning - and everyone else in the compound was
fast
 asleep, tired from the emotional havoc of the day.
Jessie stared desolately from the window seat, wanting to turn her back on
 the gray, drizzly scene outdoors. There were already people lining up at
 the front gate, even this early. All of them were there to pay their
 respects and leave flowers, notes, anything they considered appropriate in
 the memory of the deceased.
"It's hard losing a parent, isn't it?" Ruby asked quietly as she walked up
 behind her.
"Oh - Ruby! You startled me," Jessie gasped as she jumped up, her eyes
 wider than usual.
 "Sorry, Jessie," Ruby answered apologetically. Then, in a sympathetic
 tone, "Do you want to talk about it?" Ruby sat down next to Jessie and
 handed her a mug of hot chocolate. Jessie nodded, the long-suppressed tears
 slipping down her cheeks.
"I...oh, Ruby. It's not just Dad....I lost Ash, and Dr. Quest, and," she
 drew a shuddering breath. "And I lost Jonny."
Ruby smiled knowingly. "Whether you believe me or not, I know how you feel.
I've never gone through losing a best friend - never had one - but I did
lose my mom. We're very different people, Jessie, but I idolized my mother
just as much as you did your father. Losing Mom almost killed me. I guess in
that way, we're kind of alike." Ruby drew in a shuddering breath.  "She was
murdered, just like your dad was murdered. I was fourteen."
"Only fourteen?" Jessie whispered, trying to imagine what she would have
 done if she'd lost her mother when she was that age.
Ruby nodded. "Yes...four years ago."
"You're only 18, and you're already in I-1?!" Jessie cried, shocked.
"Yeah. The night my mom was murdered, I barely made it out alive. The Zins
did their best to murder me, and they almost succeeded. However, they were
interrupted by I-1 agents who had come to her shop looking for the
murderers, and instead of finding the killers they found me, hanging on by a
thread." She scowled. "They took me to the hospital and got me patched up,
and brought me to the States when I'd recovered enough. Then they started
 asking questions about that night."
"I told them what I knew about Mom's death, but it wasn't really enough to
help. Corven was the only one who was even somewhat sympathetic. Anyway, I
was alone with nowhere to go, no one to stay with. My life was virtually
over, so I offered them my services." Ruby laughed harshly. "My mom started
her work at age twelve so I saw no problem with me starting at fourteen.
When I volunteered, Corven - he'd known my mom - jumped at the chance to
have me in the agency. He knew about Mom's work and despite the fact that it
wasn't exactly legal, he knew how good she'd been. So, here I am, an I-1
agent," she finished. Then, grinning ruefully, Ruby added, "I don't think
Corven ever told his supervisors about me, even after all these years. I
wasn't exactly of legal age to start in my particular...field."
"But Ruby, I don't understand...who was your mother that people would want
to kill her? What kind of work did your mother do?" Jessie was absolutely
shocked by what Ruby had told her. She and her mother had been targets for
most of her life because of her father's line of work. Never once had she
considered the fact that it would be the same for those who had wives and
children on the other side of the law.  "And what about your father?
Couldn't you have stayed with him?" Jessie asked.
Ruby looked Jessie over, sizing her up before revealing more. "She was a
thief, but more than just that, Jessie. My mother dealt in bigger things
than petty crime - political secrets and the like. To me, though, she never
was a thief. She was my mother. I didn't care about the things she did, I
idolized her...I still do. That's enough for now, though, come on - we're
both tired and jet-lagged and should be getting some sleep. You especially;
we've got a lot of work ahead of us, and I'm the only one used to not
sleeping."
 _______________

The next morning, Jessie was all business. Ruby's talk certainly hadn't been
cheering, but Jessie took comfort in the fact that someone else understood
what she was going through, someone from outside the team. With the team, it
was obvious that they'd understand. It was important to Jessie that an
outsider understand as well.
Hurriedly, the QTE made breakfast together, as they had before splitting up.
However, in the 'old days' the air had been filled with chatter as well as
the smells of the pancakes and whatever the item-of-the-day happened to be.
The silence was unwonted, but none of the team knew how to break it until
they had sat down.
"So...what's our plan for the day?" Cate asked. The fury in her eyes was out
of place; she'd always been one to hide her feelings before. On the rare
occasions that she did reveal what she was thinking, it had never been
anger.
"Today, we're not going to move much. Find anything here that you want or
need that was left behind, or that you brought here. Check for bombs while
you're at it. The Zins won't take kindly to the fact that you're still
alive." Or that I'm still alive, Ruby added in her thoughts. "I'm going to
check in for instructions."
"Strange," Bryan muttered. There was something strangely familiar about the
whole setting, as though Jonny, Ashleigh, Dr. Quest, and Race weren't gone,
just away for the weekend, or sleeping in. He could almost feel their
presence.
When Ruby turned her cat-eyes on him and asked what was strange, Bryan shook
his head. "Nothing. Go ahead and call your boss, we'll take a look around."
Sam nodded and pushed away the untouched toast and eggs. "I'm not
hungry...I'm going to go look around," she mumbled as she practically ran
from the kitchen. Sam's only memories of the compound were with Dr. Quest,
Race, Jonny, and Ashleigh all there beside her. Being there knowing that
they would never come back was painful.
After all, Sam and Cate had first met the Quests when Jonny, Jessie, and
Ashleigh pulled a rescue stunt right in front of the Zins. Jonny and
Ashleigh had almost been blown up in the escape attempts, while Hadji had
 tracked them down.
"We almost lost them to the Zins in one explosion, and now they're really
gone," Sam whispered. "First, they kill Jade, now they kill Jonny, and Ash,
and Race, and Dr. Quest..." Her anger had been mounting the more she thought
about it. "IT'S NOT FAIR!" Sam finally screamed, pounding her fist into the
wall.
  Arik stopped short. He'd been following Sam, worried about her. As she hit
the wall, a picture fell, the glass in its frame shattering.  Arik bent down
and picked up the photograph. "Sam, are you all right?" he asked. All of
them had changed greatly in the past few years, he realized.  The Sam he'd
known had always maintained an aura of stability, an ice wall of aloofness
that no one could penetrate.
This Sam was different beyond his wildest dreams. She'd obviously been
practicing her skills, but she had been away from her friends too long, and
then what happened on Palm Key...she was almost an animal, now. Sam needed
comfort, she needed her friends back. It reminded him of when his sister had
been so hurt by what had happened to the children she used to
baby-sit...when they'd been killed.
"Sam?" Arik's voice finally snapped through her reverie. The dark-haired
girl looked at him, her pale eyes wide.
"I'm sorry," she mumbled. "I didn't mean to..."
"It's okay." Arik ran a hand through his short, dark blond hair and glanced
at the photograph. Faces swam out at him, faces he'd never see again unless
by some miracle they had beaten the odds once more and survived.
At the far left, a teenaged blond boy with green eyes stared out at him,
grinning. Next to him was a small brunette, her happiness also evident by
the smile that lit up her face. Next to that was a redhead with bright green
eyes, giving bunny ears to the blond boy next to her. His lopsided grin
showed he was happy, but it was painful to see. Next to him was a girl about
the same height. If you hadn't known them, you'd think they were twins. Next
was a solemn young man in a turban, but he, too, was obviously happy. The
next one was a boy with ruffled black hair and sapphire eyes, laughing at
something the girl with sandy-blond hair next to him had said. Behind the
two blond 'twins' were three adults. One looked like an older, more mature
version of the redhead, the man next to her in a red shirt and blue jeans,
his white hair obvious against the dark foresty background. Next to him was
a wizened man, streaks of gray gracing his temples. He would have looked out
of place had it not been for the leaves clinging to his rust-colored beard
and hair.
Sam peered over Arik's shoulder at the picture. "That's from when we went
camping!" she cried out. Arik nodded. After the team had recovered from it's
first 'mission', Race, Dr. Quest, and Estella had taken them camping. The
boys, of course, were Arik, Jonny, Hadji, and Bryan, the girls Sam, Jessie,
Ashleigh, and Cate. "We were so happy...why couldn't it last?! It's not
fair! Why did we have to split up, why did they have to be home!??!"
"If you will pardon my butting in, I once read that nothing happens without
a purpose, and that one must be patient and wait for the hidden meaning
behind it to reveal itself," Hadji's dignified voice carried up to where
they were. He looked very distraught, not the normal calm, cool, and
collected man they knew.
Sam barely registered the fact that Hadji was there, but Arik turned around.
"Oh...um, no problem, Hadji."
"Thank you, Arik. I came to warn you that there are two reporters outside,
so you might want to avoid the windows if you do not wish to grace the
tabloids with your faces. Also, Ruby informed me that she has not been able
to contact Agent Corven. She would like to try and contact either Agent
Corven or General Sawicki in London, where the two were reportedly headed.
Something involving the President."
Arik nodded. "Reporters? I thought they'd be a little kinder than that."
 "I always knew they were vultures," Sam muttered, not moving to look at the
boys.
Arik looked surprised for a moment, but he couldn't disagree. "Thanks,
Hadji, we'll keep it in mind."