Title of Series- Moving ahead.

Sequel to Left Behind

Author-Fayth

Pairings- Various.

Disclaimer- Who actually owns them now anyway? Well it isn't me…except the ones that I do…and I refuse to be responsible for their behaviour.

Summary- Max moves on.

A/N it would help if you had read Left Behind although it's not necessary. What you need to know is that Max got left behind in 09 and has finally been accepted into the elite fighting corps at the Seattle base known as Special Ops.

Foundations and friends.

The rumble of the van was soothing to Max as she sat with her back to the cool metal walls; to her it was the sound of freedom driving home the fact that she was finally leaving her own personal hell, she had survived, beaten unquestionable odds and was still alive and sane to tell the tale. She had survived the last fifteen years at Manticore.

The first nine years of her life hadn't been so very bad, she'd had her adopted brothers and sisters to keep her company and to help with the endless drills and punishments that they had to deal with on a daily basis and there were enough of those to go around. Even with the punishments, they hadn't been so bad.

But the last six years had been an exercise in survival in hellish circumstances.

You see Manticore wasn't some posh but regimented boarding school or orphanage. It was a facility that housed the most advanced scientific projects ever dreamed up- genetically advanced soldiers, primed to perfection with animal DNA to give them superhuman strength and stamina, grace and intelligence.

The results were children devised in test tubes, born to surrogates and harvested at an early age to be trained to be Soldiers. Endless drills and manoeuvres and for those not up to scratch- discipline, ranging from extra duties to the worst possible tortures; isolation, indoctrination or death.

They were assigned no names to individualise them; to make them feel like actual people, they were just given numbers- a designation and a barcode genetically imprinted on the back of their neck to allow the government to keep a track of them.

Then in 2009, fifteen of these genetically enhanced killing machines tried to escape. They had fashioned themselves as brothers and sisters and had given each other names even though this was against all policy and they wanted a freedom that they had only dreamed about. Twelve made it; two died in the attempt and one was recaptured.

She was 452, also called Max by her "family". She was sent to Psychological Operations- Psy-Ops, for a year where she was mentally, emotionally and physically dissected and evaluated before she was allowed to rejoin the other soldiers.

However the escapees had been dubbed 09'ers and were seen as traitors, the lowest of the low and the remaining 09'er was ostracised, outcast and alone; beaten and berated by both staff and soldiers until at her breaking point.

At her lowest ebb, she fought for control of herself and then she started to fight back against those that wanted to hold her down and eventually won her place among the elite of the Manticore regiment and was allowed to leave the facility at Gillette, Wyoming and move to bigger and better things- Special Operatives at Seattle.

Max let out a sigh of relief as the gates of Manticore closed behind them. She was finally on the road and heading away from the prejudice and purgatory of Wyoming and off to sunnier climates. There would be no Bulli and his cronies to make her life hell or try to make her crazy. He had been the bane of her existence in there, getting her sent to punishment so many times she knew every corner of every discipline block.

There would be no more trainers with their disdainful looks or dismissive glances, she was free.

"452?"

Well, as free as she could be with four other alumni of Gillette, Wyoming coming along with her. Four other fifteen year olds who had grown up in the same facility but who were worlds apart.

"Yeah?" she opened an eye and looked at the girl who had spoken.

She was a contrast to Max in every way possible. Whereas Max had dark, exotic features with caramel hued skin, this girl had bouncy blonde curls and bright blue eyes, freckles showing on her pale face.

"Uh, I'm 521."

"I know." And she did, she had spent a lot of time learning the designations of everyone in Gillette. That way she knew who the threats were and who to avoid.

"Right." The girl looked down and Max felt like she'd kicked a puppy.

"You got 100% in the rifle range." She added and the girl looked back up with a grin.

"Yes, I excelled in target and arsenal. You did too."

"I had lot of time to practice." Max said dryly and the girl winced. It was true, she had had a lot of time to practice, she had been so good at everything because she used her discipline time to push herself and advance in all her studies. She was in punishment a lot.

The girl glanced at the other three members of the elite in the truck, all male and they motioned back to her encouragingly. Max frowned, what the hell was going on?

"Our C.O.'s refused to let us talk to you." Her eyebrow rose at this statement "If we tried we were thrown into the pit, or reindoc or Psych detail. So most didn't even try but we all saw what Unit 6 did."

Max pushed away the unwelcome memories of Unit 6 and their methods of dealing with a 09'er. She knocked back the images of being beaten to the ground with a pool cue, choking on her own blood, and stared at the girl.

"I know a lot of the squad thought that what they were doing was wrong, but it was sanctioned by the trainers and we were barred from having an opinion. You had a lot of support 452, we just weren't allowed to show it. We all rooted for you to get into the elite."

"Really?" her scepticism was understandable after what she had endured. In five years no one had had a kind word for her or even a friendly glance and no one had lifted a finger to help her against what she had to endure from her unit.

"Our second in command always picked fights with 261." A dark haired boy added "He tried to challenge him directly but 261 wouldn't let him."

Sounds like Bulli, Max thought, thinking of the name that she had given 261, her commanding officer or C.O. he was a bully- hence the name.

"We all did." The redheaded boy said "I was 2IC in my squad."

"Unit 2." Max said showing that she recognised the boy. He had been a good second in command- 2IC.

"We understood that you wanted to escape, we all did." 521 finished "We just wanted to say sorry for not saying anything before or helping you out."

Max shrugged, she had got by. "Soldiers do or die, if you helped you would have gotten into trouble. I dealt and I'm done. No big dealio."

They looked confused at her use of slang. The units weren't cleared to learn slang until they were at least 18. But Max had an ally in a lab technician called Bill who had taught her many slang words and spent many nights talking to him about the world outside Manticore and its music and culture.

One of the guys leant forward "Is it true that you assigned each other names instead of designations?"

Max nodded again. Her original unit had given her a name, it was one that she was proud of and had kept a secret from the rest of Manticore. If they didn't know it then they couldn't take it away from her. But they were finally away from there so maybe it would be alright to finally let them know it.

"My name's Max." she said and they looked impressed.

"Max." 521 sounded out the word in her mouth and nodded "It's you."

"You have names too." Max offered.

"We do?"

"Yeah, I gave you all names while I was in Wyoming. It helped me out not to have to call you things that Manticore would." She gestured to 521 "You're Sunny, because you always looked so bright and cheery."

"Sunny." She tested and grinned "I like it! I'm Sunny."

Max pointed the boys red hair "You I called Carrot, sorry."

"No that's fair." Carrot said with a smile.

"What about me?" the boy who had been silent up to now asked, he was tall and blonde.

"Well you always reminded me of my brothers Zack and Zane so I called you Zan."

Zan nodded approvingly at his new name and Max turned to the last boy with dark hair and mischievous eyes.

"I called you Pix because you reminded me of a picture of a Pixie that I saw once; a mischievous sprite."

Pix laughed "So Max, Zan, Sunny, Pix and Carrot, don't we sound nice?"

"I think we sound great!" Sunny said defiantly at his laughing tone.

"Me too." Carrot agreed.

Max shook her head at their exuberant looks. How anyone could go through Manticore and still be that peppy and cheerful she couldn't understand…of course they hadn't exactly gone through what she had -but still.

"Well I liked them although it was my C.O who chose mine." She admitted.

"I always liked 599." Carrot said approvingly "He was great, so fair but you knew where you stood with him."

"Zack, his name was Zack."

"I remind you of 59-Zack?" Zan's eyes were wide "He was a brilliant tactician and the first choice for squad C.O." he seemed more impressed with his own name now he was aware of who he had been named after.

"Tell us about them Max." Carrot asked.

"Tell us a story Ben."

The echo of her own words long ago to her brother somehow unnerved her for a second before she was able to reply.

"Well first there was Zack; he was our C.O and my big brother…"

The journey from Wyoming to Seattle passed faster than Max had originally thought possible. It was due to the fact that the five of them sat sharing stories with each other the whole way.

Max learnt that her original unit was something of an anomaly within Manticore; none of the others had that sense of family that she had enjoyed.

Sunny's Commander had made her downplay her abilities so as not to make him look bad in front of the trainers, it was only during the tests for elite that she, like Max, had been able to show them what she was capable of and had been assigned away from her C.O.

Carrot had been replaced as C.O after the heat episode where he attacked a trainer to get to a female in heat. He had been demoted to 2IC, much to his shame.

Pix had, much like his namesake, been so mischievous that his jokes were legendary, such as putting blue dye in trainer McCarthy's shaving cream so he had a blue chin for days. Other than Max he had been in punishment detail the most.

Zan had to be put in isolation three times a year because the females in his unit would neglect to regulate their heat cycles and tried to mate with him, often chasing him all over Manticore.

"It's not funny." he said as they laughed "I think our unit got all of the hippo DNA because some of our girls were really big!"

By the time they reached Seattle they had become friends, a concept as foreign to Max as names were to them. Other than Bill she had had only herself to keep company with for six years.

They were reminiscing about one of the trainers when Zan stopped them with his hushed

"We're here."

They turned quickly to look out of the small window in the side of the van and peer over the trees to the Seattle facility. They were on a hill which overlooked a valley where the base lay.

Like the Gillette facility it had a ten foot wire fence surrounding it to keep interlopers out and the transgenics in. This was guarded heavily by men with machines guns and probably was electrified for good measure. The ugly stone building was surrounded by pristine metal and wires making it look more like a penal station than a science lab.

In the yards were hundreds of soldiers, X4, X5, X6 and X7's, even some transhumans doing drills, fighting or under inspection.

It was twice as big as the base in Gillette and bustled with life and activity; even from up here they could hear the drill calls of the trainers and the yells of the transgenics.

The van rounded the corner and trundled down the hill into the valley and up to the 11 foot iron gates.

"I'm excited." Sunny announced in her perky voice and Max exchanged glances with Zan. She was named well.

The driver, who had been silent the entire trip, leaned over and spoke to the armed guards showing an I.D pass and was waved through the iron gates as they opened with surgical precision and not at all with an ominous creek which Max thought of as a good sign.

She took a deep breath. Here they were.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Yes he will be making an appearance just be patient!!! As for everyone who reviewed the end of Left Behind- Thank you sooo much.

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