Disclaimer: Believe you and me, if I owned anything Dark Angel related, I would NOTbe wasting my time writing a FanFic about what might've been, and it would still be on the air.

AN:This is set... sometime between Max getting fixed up, assigned a breeding partner (X5 494, aka Alec), and escaping. I'm gonna pretend for my own use that she had been planning to escape for a longer period of time than she was, so Renfro didn't show her what was left of Zack and didn't shoot her full of the virus, for the story's sake. And, because a story too crowded full of characters is always hard to keep track of, I'm gonna say that Joshua decided to stay behind because someone had to take care of all the basement dwellers he called his friends.

Max had finally broken free. Again. Plans hadn't gone quite as well as planned. The X7s, the many of one, as Joshua put it, that roamed around day and night, silent as a rock, beeping at each other. Yes, Max could hear them beeping as they walked by, barely audible but there. After days of trying to escape with the help of Joshua, and Alec not making this any easier. Days of planning and watching said the X7s weren't supposed to be right now, there should have been a 7 minute window between shifts of them, but these ones had yet to leave.

This posed a little problem, which meant Max couldn't move, they were everywhere, the many of one. She was stuck, underneath a bunch of branches, hidden from view, in a dip that made her perfectly out of sight. It would work, for now, until the shift change, but to make matters worse: it was raining. The dip she curled herself in was filling up with muddy water, fast.

She wasn't free yet, she knew this. Not until she made it over the fence and out of sight was she free. That moment should have come almost 35 minutes prior. Max was huddled there, running over the details of the planned escape in her mind, over and over again, until a pair of boots stopped directly in front of her. They were larger than an X7s boots, seeing as how they were only young children, must've been only 9 or 10, but still scary in numbers.

It took her a moment for this image to register, but this person was crouching, hiding behind the safety of the tree she was perched under. This person was using the tree as a way to block themselves from view of Manticore and the X7s on patrol. They obviously knew Max was there, somehow, although she was indeed out of view.

"452, didn't expect to see you here. I see you finally put your little plan into action. Wait... are... are you hiding in a mud puddle, Max?" Max thought she had it bad before. Now it was bad. The obnoxious vibes riddled off of every inch of his being, down to the very hole in which she hid. He was loud, arrogant, and the voice of the one person she didn't want to see right now. Alec.

"No, I was hiding in a hole underneath a tree, but it started raining. What the hell are you doing here?" She hissed, looking up at him, who was not dressed in his Manticore attire, but had somehow acquired a set of black cloths to help him blend in with the darkness.

"I could ask you the same question. But hey, you saw me and the guard, we're on good trading detail with each other. You don't think I get all that from inside Manticore, do you?" he asked, not bothering to try and keep his voice low.

"Shh!! Be quiet, for pete's sake!!" she hissed at him, her hand flying up and grabbing onto his shirt, pulling him a bit closer, "Want to get us both thrown back in there!?" she asked him in a very quiet but very angry voice.

"Oh come on Maxie, do you really think the guard is gonna throw me in solitary when he sees the cigar's I swiped for him? It's Alan on duty right now, unless something drastic, like say... missing X Series, popped up, and he's seen me before out here. I just don't want the cameras to pick up one me. Those are something he can't be lenient on." He said, shrugging and pulling himself away from her grasp.

Max's breathing had gotten a little faster, she didn't trust him. She didn't trust him not to be a spy, not so be secretly signalling someone of her escape. "Move!" she hissed, "I'm leaving, if there are no X7s in the area, which obviously they aren't or they'd have been on to you by now with how loud you are, then there's nothing stopping me from getting out." she said, starting to drag her mud covered soggy body from out of her hole.

"Whoa, there girly. You think I'm just going to let you leave here, without pretending like I didn't see you? Where's that big furry friend of yours, anyway? I would've thought he'd want to come to." he said, moving to get in her way again.

"Joshua..." her voice trailed off, full of concern for her furry friend, "How do you know about him!?" she hissed, now crouched, dripping, in front of him. "Have you been trailing me, 494?" this was probably the only time you'd ever hear here calling someone by their Manticore-given designation, and it was only because he was severely annoying her.

"Let's just say... the other night, when were supposed to be breeding, you weren't there, and I just happened to notice a hole in the wall under your bed. You should be more careful on the hours you pick to leave." He said, still sitting on his heels in attempt to stay dry.

"Whatever, that's over with, behind us. Now move it so I can go, Joshua can take care of himself, he always has, he always will." she hissed, pushing him over backwards into the mud and standing up.

Alec, lying flat on his back in the increasingly sticky mud, began to laugh, loudly, and hysterically. His eyes were fixed on her, and she knew exactly why he was laughing. It was because, from her head to her toes, was brown, the rain was only smearing it and her clothes were drenched in dirty brown water. She did not look very pleasant, and stuck on her face was the meanest glare she could muster. "Can it, whack-job." she said and moved to step closer to the fence. His arm caught onto her leg and brought her down next to him. Back in the mud for her. His hand moved swiftly up to her arm and grabbed onto it tightly, his grip getting more vice-like with each movement she made to try to struggle free.

"What is the matter with you!? So what, go tell Renfro that 452 ran off again, I don't care. By the time they get out here, I'll be long gone. I can move faster in this shit than they can. Especial if they don't know where I'm going." she stated, knowing very well she would assume Max to go back to Seattle. Well she would, of course, for Logan, but maybe not right off the bat. If it saved her butt, what would it hurt Logan to wait another day or two to see her? It had been 3 months since her 'death.'

"You kidding me? I wouldn't do that. I know what they'd do to someone like you, ran away twice and all. High security measure, you are. I couldn't just let you go and leave me here to do my trade business without a breeding partner, could I?" he smirked at her, which usually causes any normal girl to melt at the sight. Good thing Max wasn't a normal girl.

"So what, do I have to knock you out to get out this time? The X7s can't be gone for long, Alec, they're bound to get back on patrol any minute now, if I just knock you out now, they'll take you to Renfro and report you for trying to escape." she hissed, realizing how much time they were wasting here, laying in the mud, Alec still having a firm grip on her arm.

The clone to Max's dead brother simply grinned at her, and looked down at her arm and his hand, connected tightly. "I could take you back myself, and get a good reward out of it... or, and I might add that I like this idea much better, I could come with you. What's the fun of being at Manticore if your breeding partner is gone?" he said, with a sly smirk on his face, knowing what was coming.

And here it came: Max's fist collided with the side of his face. "Come if you want but don't expect me to wait up for you, and don't think you're coming with me to the city. I go alone, I work alone, that's how I like it." she told him, just wishing he'd leave her alone. "Not like it was any fun with your breeding partner there either, was it?" she stated matter-of-factly. He didn't get any then, he wasn't getting any now, and that's how she was going to keep things. Alec was never getting any from her.

"Aww Maxie, that hurt," he said, feigning pain, and grinning at her. He stood up from the mud, dragging her up to a standing position by the arm. "Come on, the X7s are due back here any minute now." he said, and with one jump, the pair made it over to the other side of the 10 foot fence.

Max could have died right then. Did she not just get done telling him, less than 2 minutes before, that the X7s were bound to be back soon? But did he listen? NOOO. Of course not, Hot-head pretty boy didn't want to listen to her, just because she'd had experience running from these things. And now here she was, being dragged off into the darkness of the forest by the one person she would rather be as far away from as possible... except for maybe Renfro, but that was another story. He still hadn't let go, and he had taken off running as fast as possible as soon as they landed on the other side of the fence.


Yup, my first attempt at Dark Angel fiction, lol. I just spent my weeklong spring break watching the entire series, and got inspiration. Read, review, comment, criticize, flame, do what you will. Any comments will help me improve. I have more waiting to get posted, but I'm not going to post it if I think people won't like it.