There's a whole universe out there.

AUTHOR'S NOTES: This is a seriously AU story. It's set in the future and is a crossover between the Tribe and Dark Angel with elements of Roswell.

I'd like to thank Ian, Annastasia, KatnotKath and tr1belova01 for all their reviews and feedback from where I'm posting this on the tribe website. You guys are the best!

DEDICATION: I want to dedicate this to Kaveena who has supported me in everything over the past year. Chances are you'll never even see this mate but I want you to know that you're my best friend and I'm grateful for all your help.



I settle myself more comfortably on the grass and stare down the slight rise at the ruins of the evacuation camp. Everyone's running around screaming, not even thinking of trying to organise things. I feel kind of sorry for the little ones though, they probably don't even understand what's going on around them.
I have to admit that I'm glad I'm not alone here. My twin brother Max obviously senses my thoughts because he wraps one arm around me. Liz is sat on Max's other side and my older brother Michael is glaring down at the camp from where he's leaning against a tree while my big sister Isabel is doing the same sat a few meters to my left. Our friends Alex, Maria and Kyle are sat huddled together just behind me.
I wish Zack were here. He'd know what to do, after all he always has. We would have made him our leader no matter what we were told. Tinga was older than he was but even she always deferred to his judgement.
Anyone who looked at me today would see a sixteen-year-old girl. I'm slim but not all that tall, I only come up to Max's chin. I have blue eyes and shoulder length light brown hair. They wouldn't see a soldier. They would probably laugh at the idea. I am one though or at least I was.
I was born just an ordinary mutant or, to be scientific about it, I was born with mutated genes that give me the ability to do things that normal people can't. When Max and I, and our twin brothers Tobias and Anet, were still just babies a man called Colonel Lydecker took us to a place called Manticore. We don't know if our parents gave us up willingly or if we were stolen from them. After all these years I don't suppose it really matters either way.
Most mutants spend their childhood as "normal" children then their powers kick in when they hit puberty. I feel sorry for them, having an ordinary life for a little while and then having it snatched away. The four of us were born with our gifts though. It's rare but it does happen. It's why we were taken to Manticore.
They wanted to make us the perfect soldiers, us and the other children they took. They made us train everyday and they injected us full of chemicals to make us strong, to enhance our existing mutant abilities and even give us new ones. They injected us with animal DNA as well: cat to see in the dark and jump high: squirrel to climb well: wolf so we could work as a pack: fish so we could stay underwater for a long time and camel so we can go days without food or water.
It was hard, torture. No one should have to go through something like that especially not toddlers and young children.
We were supposed to be just a Unit: a group of soldiers working together, but we formed ourselves into a family and called each other brother and sister. When we first got to Manticore they tattooed a bar code on the back of our necks and we were only supposed to be known by the last three digits of our serial number. My number was 334697185641 so I was called X5-641.
Once we decided that we were brothers and sisters we decided that we needed names as well. The other three and I remembered the names our parents had given us so we kept them. Some of the others remember theirs and the rest made up new ones.
The boys were called: Frankie; Zack; Hunter; Jesse; Wallden; Tae; Cameroon; Brennan; Moran; Nicolas; Zane; Krit; Gabe; Kurt; Gerard; David; Connor; Jamie; Jack; Ska; Michael; Ziggy; Anet; Tobias and Max.
The girls were called: Tinga; Grace; Jace; Emma; Brin; Joanna; Eva; Syl; Cat; Jondy; Maxie; Velvet; Heather; Isabel; Hope; Rachel; Cailet; Satin and Rhiannon.
Manticore considered all shows of emotion, especially ones like love, to be a weakness. They were a flaw that we had to be trained to control. We have a physical flaw as well. A side effect of all the chemicals they pumped into us means that our brains now lack an amino acid so every so often we all suffer violent seizures. The convulsions get so bad that we could snap our spines. There's a medicine called Tryptophan, which stops the seizures from getting too bad, but the only cure is back at Manticore.
Just after I turned seven Jack had a seizure in front of Lydecker and some of his soldiers. They took him away. We thought it was to treat him but Maxie went for a wander that night and saw them dissecting his body. I'll never forget the look in her eyes when she told us what she had seen.
Maxie was the first to have a seizure after that. We were in our barracks but they must have been watching us because some soldiers came to take her away. Zack didn't want to lose anyone else so he fought back and killed the soldiers. Eva grabbed a gun from one of them and went first to make sure that the way was clear.
Lydecker and some soldiers were waiting in the corridor. Lydecker shot Eva. He didn't even acknowledge who it was, just took aim and fired.
We jumped through a window on the second floor and ran for it. We met up in a clearing in a forest about half a mile away and Zack divided us into pairs and sent us off in different directions so we could better avoid detection. He wouldn't let Anet; Max; Tobias and I go together because we share a telepathic link. That meant that if one twin in a pair got caught the other one would probably get grabbed trying to help them. Zack even made us all switch off the link so we wouldn't know where the other three were.
I was paired with Ziggy; Anet with Rachel; Max with Michael and Tobias with Jamie. Tobias got recaptured at the edge of the forest. Jamie tried to help him but there were too many guards and he had to run for it. He caught up with Ziggy and me as we cleared the last fence.
It was just the three of us for about six months although Zack kept an eye on us. Then Max tracked us down and he, Michael and Isabel turned up. Isabel had been paired with Cailet but they split up once they made it out and she ended up with the two boys. Once Max and I thought it was safe we re-opened our connection to Anet and he visited us as often as he could.
Back at Manticore I thought that everything would be perfect once I made it Outside. Shows how stupid I was back then.