Disclaimer: I do NOT own Dark Angel. I DO own the Reapers and all other new characters featured in this story.

Chapter One

Inside an abandoned warehouse. Several of the strip lights above them were still working. Two X4's stood back to back. One of them was badly injured. They were surrounded by a heavily armed gang of bikers. The leader of the gang caught sight of one of the X4's barcode and shouted the news to his men.

The fight began. Chains, bats, fists and boots flew into various bodies. The bikers were being beaten back despite the X4's injuries. Suddenly there was a loud crashing noise on the roof and a window above the fighting shattered. The lights went out and in the darkness, a loud, high pitch screech was heard.

The lights came back on within minutes. The bikers were picking themselves up off the floor. The door exiting the building had been burst open. The X4's were pinned, crucified on a nearby wall. They were both dead. The bikers panicked and fled the scene.

***

A few blocks away. At Jam Pony. Alec was busy boasting about the speed of his last delivery to Max and Original Cindy. Suddenly, Max and Alec shuddered and covered their ears. They shared a look of shock and concern. They made their excuses and left.

***

Moving through the city streets. Alec scanned the crowds warily. Max was doing exactly the same but was totally unsure of what was going on.

"What the hell was that?" asked Alec. The concern in his voice was only too clear.

Max shrugged. "I'm not sure but what ever it was, it was one of ours and it wasn't good."

Alec laughed slightly "You can say that again!"

***

They finally found and entered the warehouse. Seeing the X4's pinned to the wall like that made them both stop in their tracks.

Max gasped in horror "Oh my God! Who did this?"

Alec's face had drained of all colour. His eyes were locked on the X4's. "Oh Shit!"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, Oh Shit! This ain't good!"

Max looked closer at the bodies. "They're X4's! There's only minor defensive wounds. That doesn't make any sense! This means they were killed before they could put up a real fight. Who can do that?"

Alec moved back toward the doorway. "We should get out of here! Now!"

"Why?" asked Max clearly worried by his tone.

"Not here! Later! We have to leave! NOW!" said Alec continuing his retreat.

Alec quickly left the warehouse, closely followed by a curious Max. They sped toward a heavily crowded market.

Alec grabbed Max's arm and looked her directly in the eyes.

"We need to split up! Make sure you go through water. It's the only way to be safe! I'll find you later!"

Max nodded, still unsure of what was happening. Alec backed away from her slowly. Just before he turned to run, he called back to her. "Max! Do not go home! Go to TC!"

Before Max could answer, Alec disappeared into the crowd and vanished from view. Max realised that something was seriously wrong and as Alec advised, she ran through a shallow river on her zigzag route to safety.

***

Max waited for a of couple hours on a high rooftop before heading for Terminal City.

Original Cindy and Logan were there already. They seemed very relived to see Max.

Logan grabbed her and hugged her tightly. "Thank God you're okay!"

OC smiled and nodded in agreement. "We were so worried about you!"

Max was even more confused now. "Why?"

"We got a call from Alec." said Logan. " He told us to keep you out of sight till he gets here and to burn the clothes your wearing."

"What?" queried Max "Why?"

"I don't know. That's all he told us. He sounded real serious though."

"And worried!" added OC "I ain't heard him like that before."

Logan stood back but kept a hold of Max's arms. "What happened today? Why would you be in this kind of serious danger?!"

Max frowned. She honestly had no idea. "I don't know!" Suddenly, her memory flashed back and she remembered the look on Alec's face in the warehouse.

"Oh my God! It's got something to do with those X4's we found."

Logan let go of Max's arms. "What X4's?"

"Just as we were finishing at work earlier. Alec and I heard a transgenic panic scream! It's too high for normal people to hear."

"That's why you covered your ears?!" added OC seeming to now understand.

Max nodded. "Yes. It hurts to hear a panic scream. Anyway, We followed the scent of the scream to it's source. It was a run down warehouse just off the main market. Inside, there was signs of a minor fight, a few chains and bats were laying on the floor. That's when we saw them. Two X4's were pinned to one of the walls. Like that."

Max pointed at crucifix that Original Cindy was wearing. "They had been killed without putting up a fight!"

Logan gasped with shock. "Two X4's were crucified?! Before they could fight back?!"

OC was equally surprised "How is that possible?"

Max shrugged her shoulders.

"It shouldn't be! Something was seriously wrong about it all. Alec knows more about what's going on. He freaked when he saw the X4's. He made us leave the scene quickly, split up and hit water. Add in the stay out of sight and burning clothes thing and we've got an extremely serious problem!"

Logan had to ask. "Why would you normally have to do that?"

Max shivered obviously, not that she was cold. "That's where it gets creepy. It's standard behaviour for hunter avoidance!"

OC gasped with shock and her eyes shot open wider than even she though possible.

"You're being hunted?! Holy Shit!

Logan grabbed both of them now. "Right! That's it! OC, get a fire going! Max, get those clothes burnt NOW!"

Max quickly changed her clothes while Logan took her clothes outside and burned them in a barrel fire OC had found outside. OC made them all coffee while they waited impatiently for Alec to show up. No-one was sure what to say or whether it is even safe to speak.

***

Alec arrived just after nightfall.

He moved quickly over toward them. "Is everyone alright?"

Max appeared behind him. She gripped his arms and spun him round to face her

"Yes. Now spill! What the hell's going on?"

Alec took a step back and cleared his throat. "We need to call a meeting. Now!"

The look of fear in Alec's eyes was more than enough to convince her. Max grabbed the tanoy in the control room and immediately summoned everyone in TC to meet in what they called the grand hall.

***

Within half an hour, the entire population of TC was gathered. Even those still living outside TC had attended. Shouts of being cramped and complaints about others standing too close or on their feet echoed around the caverness room. Max, Alec and Joshua stood on the raised platform at the end of the room. OC and Logan stood to the side.

Mole and Dix stood at the base of the platform. Mole looked seriously cheesed off at being called away from his ammo count. "What's this all about, Max?"

"Yeah! We got important stuff to do, you know!" came a call from further back.

Max looked at Alec. She felt that she should speak to the restless crowd but didn't have a clue what to say. Fortunately, Alec stepped forward and raised his hands slightly. The crowd before them grew quiet and Max felt thousands of eyes suddenly on her.

Mole and Dix had fixed their eyes directly on Max, waiting for her to speak. Max had never felt so uncomfortable in her life. She stepped forward and was about to open her mouth to speak when she felt Alec take her hand in his and draw her back. He looked deep into her eyes and smiled.

"Let me handle this!" he said softly.

Max felt strangely comforted by Alec taking the lead. He obviously knew what was going on. Good thing too. Thought Max. I haven't got a clue!

***

Alec stepped forward and cleared his throat. Max felt the eyes of the room finally shift from her to Alec. She watched in awe and respect as he took it all in his stride.

"My friends! I need you to stay quiet and listen carefully!"

"Why should we?" came a voice.

"Yeah! You ain't the boss!" said another.

Max feared Alec couldn't get them to listen but as she watched him move further toward the crowd she knew she didn't have anything to worry about.

Alec cleared his throat, loudly. "Attention!" he shouted, his tone demanding respect and leaving no room for argument.

Suddenly, there was a wave through the ranks of transgenics, transhumans and anomalies as one by one they took the commanded position.

Alec glared into the crowd. "When I speak, you?"

"Listen!" came the unanimous call from the assembled group.

"That's right you grunts! Now let's not forget that!" commanded Alec. He began pacing the front of the platform. "We've got ourselves a visitor! One I prayed would leave us alone, but, we ain't been that lucky!"

Eyes started to widen throughout the crowd. A few loud gulps were heard from various places in the room.

Alec stopped dead in the middle of the platform. Lowered his head as if unsure he wanted to tell them but soon raised his head again and scanned the room, fixing as many as he could with his serious glare.

"We got ourselves a code red! I want twenty-four hour guards at all access points. Nobody goes outside the gates alone and I want everyone armed! Is that understood?!"

Mole moved up on to the lower step of the platform. His eyes locked with Alec's. Concern and a slight look of worry flashing across his face. "Who we expecting?"

Alec looked at Mole then back out into the crowd. "We got ourselves a Reaper!"

Mole's eyes widened with a look of such terror. Max had never seen him so frightened. Mole turned to the crowd. "You heard the man! Arm yourselves!"

Mole clapped his hands together loudly. There were startled gasps from the crowd and suddenly they were rushing, no, running to grab any weapon they could get their hands on.

The grand hall emptied faster than it had filled and soon only Max, Alec, OC, Logan and Mole remained.

Mole walked slowly up to Alec. "Are you sure it was a Reaper?"

Alec looked him dead in the eye. "Afraid so!"

Mole just shook his head sadly and slowly. Then, without another word, he turned and left. He suddenly looked like the weight of the world was on his shoulders.

Max could almost feel the despair sweeping through Terminal City. Her mind raced through her memories for any trace of what a Reaper might be but came up empty. Logan and OC shared her concern. They were seeing panic sweep through super soldiers and they were helpless to do anything about it.

***

"What's a Reaper?" asked OC, putting voice to the question she, Max and Logan desperately needed answered. Alec stayed silent as he sat on the top step of the platform, his head now cradled in his hands.

Joshua whimpered like an injured puppy. "This bad, Little Fella! This very, very bad!"

Joshua grabbed Max and hugged her against his chest. Max knew that what ever this Reaper was, it was something that scared even the strongest of her kind.

Max pulled away from Joshua and joined Alec on the step. His face was whiter than any of the others she had seen during the meeting. Max motioned for OC, Logan and Joshua to go back to the control room.

Joshua wrapped his arms around OC and Logan. "Joshua keep you safe!" he said as he led them away.

***

"You've seen one before? Haven't you?" Max asked once she was sure they were alone.

Finally, Alec raised his head. Max felt her heart go out to him when she saw his tear streaked cheeks. "Once." he said quietly.

"My unit was on a mission in Spain. We were all wounded from a gunfight and during the night three of my squad went a.w.o.l. They just couldn't take it anymore. Just after midnight, I felt this figure moving around outside the tents. I couldn't help it, I looked."

"This dark figure was dragging the three runaways with one hand. They were all dead. General Hews told it to display them as a warning to the rest of us. It just dragged them back over to the flag pole and strung them up it, like those X4's we found today. When they were half way up the flag pole, it jumped. Didn't look like it did anything else but as it's feet touched the ground, the guts of all three runaways splashed down around it!"

"I cried out! It heard me! It moved so fast! Much faster than we can! Before I knew what was happening, it was staring into my eyes. I don't remember it's face, just it's eyes! That look of rage in it's ice blue eyes! That's not something you can forget!"

Alec paused to wipe some fresh tears away. "If it comes after us, Max, there's nothing we can do to stop it."

Max gulped loudly and wrapped her arms around Alec. He buried his head in her hair and sobbed quietly.

***

Mole was in the corner of the control room when a very worried looking OC and Logan where ushered in by Joshua. Mole, cigar in the corner of his mouth, smiled over at them. Seeing his smile hadn't worked, he walked over to them and slapped them both gently on the back.

"Lighten up you two! You're the safest people in here!"

Logan and OC shared, yet another, look of confusion.

"What do you mean?" asked Logan.

"Reaper's only hunt us! They ain't even allowed to bump into you 'ordinaries'! No offence!"

"What is a Reaper?" asked OC, determined to get an answer.

Mole almost choked. "What?" he spat out the stub of his cigar. "You don't know?"

OC shook her head. Mole was clearly surprised.

"A Reaper is a 'Rogue Element Elimination Unit! Basically, if any of us stop playing the good little soldier, they track us down and do whatever their handler told them to do to us! Usually something real nasty too!"

"So…" asked OC. "If one of those nasty's finds my girl, it can't touch her if I stay between them?"

Mole just laughed. "They can move faster than your heart can beat! Even faster than the X's. If you could stay between them, then yeah, it wouldn't be allowed to touch her. But, you ain't got a hope of making that happen. A Reaper can attack from any angle, any distance and it moves so fast, you wouldn't know it had attacked until it was already too late."

"That's great!" added Logan sarcastically. "Just great! First, Lydecker trying to round you all up for his 'Secret Army', then Ames White and his Familiars trying to kill you all off and now this! A psycho killer who likes crucifying anyone non-human!"

Mole's smile fell off his face. The others in the control room were stunned into silence by Logan's words. "Crucify?"

"Yeah. Max and Alec found a couple of X4's crucified earlier today. That's how Alec knew what was going on."

"I'm gonna need a bigger gun!" said Mole, halfway out the control room door.

Dix came over from the security screens. "Were they definitely crucified?"

"That's what Max and Alec told us." said OC

Dix hung his head and sighed deeply. "Then we're in deeper shit than we thought!"

"Why?" asked OC and Logan in unison.

"Each Reaper has it's own way of displaying." said Alec as he and Max entered the control room.

Max opened the door to the briefing room and motioned for the others to join her. Alec, OC, Logan, Joshua, Dix and the newly returned Mole followed her through.

To be continued…