Disclaimer: I do not own Dark Angel, this story is written for my own and others enjoyment, I only claim copyright for any poetry/prose/characters in it that I have made up myself. Point is majority of belongs to a load of people the full list of names I really can't remember or know but it belongs to them and they know who they are.

Anyway, this is designed as a sequel to the third official Dark Angel "After the Dark"

To understand anything here you really need to have read the trilogy by Max Allan Collins, of prequel to the first series "Before the Dawn", sequel to freak nation (the last ever made episode) "Skin Game "and its sequel "After the Dark".

My reason for writing this is that I just want more of Dark Angel and thought that there was plenty of room left after the third book for some good fanfic. I know the end of it was happy and any fanfic inevitably isn't but I it will be eventually, I just want to play with them all first.

Feedback, be it positive or negative is appreciated as long as it is constructive. I also apologize in advance for spelling or grammar mistakes, I'm particularly bad at seeing where I've gone wrong on grammar but don't yet have a beta reader. Anyone who's interested in being a beta reader/springboard please email me or leave details in a review.

Here goes.

Max pulled her arms around the soft pillow and smelt the musty aroma of the motel room as she woke up. The sheets were rough to the touch but it was luxury compared to terminal city and more than worth it for the privacy they had in the backwater buildings of "Jed's Bed's".

She turned over, moving closer to Logan's sleeping form, reassured by the sound of his steadily beating heart. She squeezed up next to him gently before finally detaching herself and making her way to the bathroom. As she turned on the shower, she reflected on how things had turned out. She'd uncovered the mystery of the Familiars in one night and saved Logan and numerous others from their grasp. That said she was still confused by the funky tattoos that covered her body even now.

As she took her well deserved and well needed wash she traced her hands over the mystical looking symbols. Sandeman had believed the prophecy, that was why they were there, but they hadn't disappeared after the comet had passed.

Their presence made her nervous, like the knew her purpose hadn't been fulfilled even though the Familiars had been wrong. She'd watched the screens in the observatory herself along with the leader Matthias. All they'd seen was hundreds of happy faces, looking up in awe at the comet, instead of the worldwide release of a deadly biotoxin.

It had turned out the prophecy the Familiars had relied upon was nothing more than the result of a couple thousand years of Chinese whispers on their part. They'd never know, she thought as she stepped out of the cubicle, what it had probably been at the start, what the comet had meant to them.

Max was simply glad that things had turned out okay for once, that life seemed to be normal. The real normal with Manticore gone, the Familiars defeated and the virus eliminated from her system...

That was what she thought until she glimpsed the pale complexion and rashes on Logan's face. As she rushed over to him he slipped out of consciousness, barely able to say anything.

Her mind spun. Dr Carr had been sure it was gone, that the oh so specific genetic virus she'd had had transfered to Kelpy. Yet looking over Logan now she wasn't nearly so convinced.

They'd spent the night together and he'd been alright but then maybe it had been in remission, hibernating until now and Logan had built some immunity that meant it hadn't done anything until this morning, maybe it even transferred itself a different way now...

She scrambled to get dressed, flinging their small amount of possessions into a bag and scooping Logan up in the sheets. She kicked out the door, carrying Logan to the car parked on the other side of the lot. She settled him down gently, kissing his forehead, an intimate expression that she'd never been able to do before.

She jumped in ready to start up the engine before she thought to call ahead, they'd need Carr and a medical team. However the cellphone was flat, so she ran over to the reception to bug the guy, who she'd supposed was Jed, into giving up his own phone. She didn't doubt the mean git wouldn't do it unless she threatened some kind of action upon him.

Except when she reached the desk she realized Jed wouldn't be doing anything mean or otherwise for quite some time, or more like ever.

One leg poked out from behind the desk, his body sprawled across the reception floor behind the counter. There wasn't a mark on his body, no broken bones or strangulation marks.

It could have been easy to assume there were some renegade Familiars after her but this wasn't their style and she doubted the ones left were either brave or stupid enough to continue on where the rest, and rather dead, companions had left it.

It was more like the unfortunate Jed had dropped dead, heart attack maybe except that Jed was only about twenty. She was about to leave it there and get what she'd come for, to use the phone, when she heard a muffled sobbing from the back room.

She entered find a young blond woman sitting under the desk, with an old fashioned handkerchief in her hand. The woman, who's name tag identified her a Kelly, just looked up and sobbed even more violently behind her piece of cloth.

She crouched down beside her and asked "Kelly, what happened here?"

Kelly shook her head, removing the handkerchief to reply. "I don't know, he just keeled over. Literally. I didn't know what to do. And, and.. the guy in room 5, I went for help but..."

She bit her lip, shaking her head once more, eyes cast down gloomily, "...but he was dead too. They were all dead. I thought I was the only one left."

But Max wasn't listening to her, instead she was looking at the womans face, blotchy with a rash all over the left side, a rash identical to the one Logan had all over his face.

Sometimes a thousand years doesn't change a thing, let alone a syllable.