Heres the next chap. Its from Ha's POV, finally! But i'm really not sure how well i got his character. if you think he's way too OOC let me know please. I'd love any suggestions and/or criticism you may have.

Enjoy!

Yesterday I died, tomorrow's bleeding.

Fall into your sunlight.

The future's open wide, beyond believing.

To know why, hope dies.

Losing what was found, a world so hollow.

Suspended in a compromise.

The silence of this sound, is soon to follow.

Somehow, sundown.

-Shattered by Trading Yesterday

Chapter 4 Hal

Pain. That was the first thing he registered when he woke. His whole body was sore. Groaning, Hal tried to role over only to realize he was strapped onto a sort of metal table. He was freezing as well. Somehow he had managed to loose his jacket.

What had he been doing? The hospital, Maggie, Dai. He remembered running from a skitter and then, had the hospital collapsed? Hal drew in a sharp breath. No. He looked around as best he could. He was alone in a long, dark room.

"No. No, no, no." Hal struggled against his bonds. "No!" He shouted. He tried to move his arms but they were bound to his sides. Hal's mind was a storm of rage and fear, he didn't even notice the skitters until one of them tore the back of his shirt right down the middle. He froze more out of surprise than anything else.

The skitters, there were at least two of them, were communicating in a series of sounds that Hal couldn't even begin to describe. He had to clench his teeth to stop himself from yelling out as he felt a cold claw skim over his skin. As it was, he was so tense he was shaking.

Hal heard a mechanic sound above him mixed with the sound of something slightly wet coming down a slide. He began to fight again, knowing what was coming. He had seen what the harnesses did, before and after it had been removed. Mike had rescued his son Rick and of course, there was Karen. He wouldn't let himself be harnessed. He couldn't. Not only did he refuse to be turned into some mindless slave, but if the skitters got even a piece of the information he had the second mass would be in huge trouble.

Hal flinched as something cold landed on his back with a hard thump. He did his best to buck it off as a jabbing pain crept from his waist to his neck. "No!" He screamed but his voice was cut short as a numbing sense of calm over took him.

Hal could do nothing as a cloud covered his mind, separating him from his body. A new presence entered the space it used to occupy. The emotions and needs of hundreds of harnessed children and skitters over whelmed him.

The skitters removed the bindings and he stood, except, he was no longer an individual. He was part of a larger collective. They acted as one, they thought as one, they were one mind in the bodies of many.

Somewhere in the back of his mind Hal raged against the force suppressing him to no avail.

00000

They stood as one. Their work had begun. They lifted piece after piece of scrap metal. They didn't notice as their hands became covered in scratches and blisters that bled or as the hot sun beat down on their backs. They could feel the masters' instructions and desired nothing more than to please them.

Hal saw the world as if through eyes of someone else. His mind was drowning in the emotions of others. His body moved of its own accord, doing whatever it took to obey the masters. No, not masters, skitters.

Hal knew what was happening and tried to drop the piece of metal, to run, to fight, anything, but his body wouldn't respond. The minds around him picked up on his agitation and were trying to comfort him. Their soft caresses eased his confusion. Hal's body gave in to the peacefulness and stared blankly ahead as he worked.

00000

They had never felt as safe as when they slept beneath their protector. Distantly, Hal knew it was a skitter and that this whole situation was just plain wrong but he was having trouble separating his feelings from all of the others that enveloped him. It was comforting to know that he was no longer alone.

They knew time was passing but it had no meaning. They did not seem to age, they didn't feel pain, they didn't register death. They were in a constant state of limbo. There were not hundreds of individuals but One.

Hal could tell something strange was happening. The masters had been anxious. They demanded more of the children. Hal desperately wanted to know what was going on but had no control over his movements, and even his thoughts were not his own most of the time. He could feel the skitters sifting through his mind. They hadn't gotten any important information from him yet and he could only hope that if he avoided thinking… certain things, then the masters wouldn't be able to access them.

All of the children sat up from where they had been laying beneath their skitter. Pain and sorrow and anger entered their minds. Something was wrong. Something was very wrong and Hal knew the humans were behind it. They needed to be stopped. They deserved to die, they-

No. He couldn't afford to think like that. He couldn't start down that road, Hal didn't think he'd be able to come back. His body may have been taken but he refused to let Them have his mind as well.

The master placed a long fingered hand on Hal's head, sending comfort to him directly. Hal mentally flinched at the contact but could do nothing more. All of a sudden a storm of thoughts hit him. The masters were calling them. They were in danger. But they had a plan. Of course they did. The masters always had a plan.

00000

The children had been standing in the large room for hours. It was hot and stuffy and over crowded but none of them noticed. Hal was lost in the bliss of his siblings's feelings. It did not matter where he was or even who he was. He was safe and happy and he belonged.

Only two Masters were in the room with them but a stray thought caught his attention. It was soft and broken, but he understood fragments. "Humans… Second Mass… son… stronger than we thought… too soon… Mason… Keep them safe."

Hal froze, trying to reach the thoughts but they were swept away. Second mass, Mason, that meant something to him, didn't it? His name, what was it? Hal tried to clear his head but his memories were starting to get lost amongst all the others.

'No,' Hal whispered in his mind. 'I shouldn't be here. This is wrong.' Hal tried to think calm thoughts as one of the masters passed close behind him.

'Skitter.' The word popped unbidden into his mind. Hal would have sunk to the ground if he had been in control of his body. A flood of memories and emotions overpowered the foreign ones surrounding him.

'I am Hal Mason.' He thought. 'I was, am, a member of the second Massachusetts Militia Regiment. My father and brothers are, where were they?' Hal didn't know how much time had passed or what the masters had been up to. Masters. 'I have been harnessed. I have valuable information. I can't give it to them. My name is Hal Mason and I am a fighter.'

It was like living in a dream. No matter how hard he tried, reality just kept slipping away. Hal knew something was strange. He knew he was different from the other harnessed children. The masters had a special purpose for him and it filled him with joy. He was needed by the masters.

At the same time, he knew he was Hal Mason, and Hal was angered by the control the skitters had over him. He was also terrified, not for himself but for the people he had left behind in the second mass, the ones he couldn't quite remember anymore.

The days passed in a haze of working and waiting. The children would be working themselves to death, literally in some cases, one moment and then the masters would keep them penned in a room for days at a time. Nothing made sense and Hal was tired of it.

The masters gave him curious looks and the other children avoided him. They could sense his doubt and were scared he would ruin everything. Half of him agreed.

The other half of his mind was why he was in the situation he found himself in at the moment. He and the other five kids in his sibling group stood in a line, facing their master who stood with a mech on either side of him.

They had been instructed to bring six un-harnessed children to the harnessing facility. Hal had done his best to resist. Not that it had helped much. What was that show Ben, who was Ben? used to watch? Hal couldn't remember, but he did recall a specific line. 'Resistance it futile.' or something like that.

Resistance had most certainly been futile. All it had done was anger the master.

'You still fight us human child.' The master looked at Hal. 'We are most disappointed.'

He wanted to die, to fade out of sight. He had disappointed his master. He was engulfed in a wave of sorrow, his own feelings, and anger, from his siblings. He had let everyone down.

In the back of his mind he knew he was being irrational. It was the harness thinking this, not him, but he couldn't help it.

'This has gone on long enough. We wanted you to tell us what you knew of your own accord, but plans have changed. It is time for you to see that you belong to us now and failure is not an option.'

The two mechs pointed their lasers at him. Hal flinched knowing this was the end.

'No,' The master said and Hal thought he could sense regret and, love? coming from him.

Before Hal could probe any farther the mechs let out a round of shots. Hal watched all as of his sibling group fell to the ground. He felt no emotion, only a numbness that spread through his mind.

'You have yet to serve your purpose.' The master said. And the harnessed boy replied.

'Anything to help the collective.'

When the master patted his head, the boy was filled with ecstasy. He didn't notice the flicker of dissent hidden beneath the layers of harness emotion. No matter what they did to him, he would live. Hal would grow stronger. He refused to be silenced.

00000 Ben

It had been two, maybe three weeks since Hal's death. The rest of the Second Mass went about business as usual. His dad was out leading a patrol against the skitters. A large group of them had been found about fifteen minutes away and the fighters were slowly chipping away at their numbers.

Anne had taken to looking after Mat which left Ben alone for most of the time. Now he was sitting in their family's small living quarters at the school. On the table next to him rested Hal's favorite gun. He picked it up with a careful reverence. With Hal gone Ben was now the oldest child. It fell to him to protect his family.

Ben sighed at what his dad would think. He wouldn't understand. Ben had changed. He was no longer the innocent, happy go lucky kid he'd been when all of this started. He'd seen too much, done too much.

Ben had lost count of how many times he'd been mere moments away from death when someone had saved him. His dad, Hal, Weaver, countless others, even Jimmy had protected him.

No longer. Ben decided. If Hal had been able to protect the Second Mass, knowing the risks he was taking, then so could he. Ben would no longer be some helpless civi.