Authors Note: Hi, everyone! This is my first story ever and I'm both proud and embarrassed by it! I really hope you'll like it but if you don't, constructive criticism will be very much obliged. Also, it's been a very, very, VERY long time since I saw Dark Angel (I was only 10 years old the last time I saw it. I'm 18 years old now) so pardon me for any inconsistencies. You can even help me build the story. Just tell me how you want it to go and I'll make sure to listen to all of your suggestions.

This is a Max/Alec/Rachel fic by the way!

~ Snow White Queen

_o0o_

CHAPTER 1

"Nothing Else Mattered"

X5-494's finger hovered lightly on the small tool that would detonate the bomb planted under Robert Berrisford's car. If there was a perfect time to press the button, it was now that Rachel was busily turning her room upside down to find some badly-needed notebook. After all, wasn't that the exact thing that had kept him awake all night – Rachel getting caught in the crossfire?

Setting his sight back to the mission at hand, X5-494 breathed methodically, counted mentally from 1 to 3, and then half-pressed the tiny button that would undoubtedly cement his reputation as the best covert operative of Manticore. Somehow the thought wasn't as mollifying as he thought it would be. Beads of sweat started to form on his upper lip.

That's when he heard footfalls behind him – footfalls of the girl who'd shown him what it was like to love and be loved in return; of a harried student who wanted nothing more than to get in the school-bound vehicle with her daddy, unaware of the infernal device underneath ticking the remaining seconds of her father's life.

"Simon, what are you doing here?" Rachel Berrisford chirped happily, momentarily relieved of her thoughts about grumpy school instructors at the sight of Simon Lehane in black turtleneck and jeans. She nearly let go of the precious notebook she'd devastated her room for at the sight of his gorgeously unkempt hair.

X5-494's heart, which thundered dangerously in his ribcage at the mere sound of Rachel bounding down the steps, almost came to a stuttering stop at the honey-sweet sound of her voice. She's admiring how I look. Admiring me. A split-second before I could kill her father!

The truth was in his mouth, waiting to erupt like lava inside a volcano. He knew the truth would kill her. But she had to know, she had to know! It was the only way to keep her from meeting the same demise that Manticore had designed for Robert Berrisford.

"Rachel, you – You were my job," the moment the words escaped his lips, he knew there was no going back. He closed his eyes briefly at the onslaught of how many ways this plan could go wrong.

"What?" Even marred with confusion, Rachel's innocent face was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen. It was the faintest glow of purity in his cold, cruel life. It spurred X5-494 on as much as it scared him.

"I'm not a piano teacher. I-I'm one of –" he stuttered for a second, wracking his brain hastily for a name that would serve his purpose best. "Eyes Only's operatives. He sent me on a mission to protect you at all costs from people in the government who want your father dead and his company up in smoke."

It wasn't the biggest lie (but certainly one of the most well-crafted given the extremely limited time) he had ever made. But considering the lie – transforming the wretched assassin that he truly was into some kind of hero – and the person he was lying to, X5-494 wished that the ground would just swallow him whole then and there. Still, he'd rather die a violent death again and again until the end of time than break her poor heart – than give her the idea that she was a complete fool for being the kind person that she was; that the love she thought she had made with him was little more than a requisite for some sick duty he needed to fulfill.

"I don't understand! Simon, how, why – " Rachel barely had time to finish her question as Simon fished out a handcuff from his jeans pocket and deftly fastened it to her right wrist. It took him all of five seconds to secure the other end to one of the staircase's iron bars.

"What are you doing!" she shrieked furiously as she tugged on her bonds, fear gripping her heart like a vice as Simon stood in full height and looked down on her. What the hell is going on?

"I'm so sorry, Rachel. I promise I'll come back. I have to save your dad." He ran so quickly towards the exit she imagined he had blurred, but not before looking her briefly in the eyes with such tenderness and sincerity.

_o0o_

Robert Berrisford was a dead man. He knew it as surely as he knew how important the man's daughter was to him. He was already 10 minutes behind schedule and he was doubtless that Manticore was already outside the Berrisfords' gates, some heartless bastard fingering a duplicate control mercilessly. But he just couldn't bring himself to give up. He'd die first before he could condemn Rachel to the life he had had growing up – utterly miserable and alone.

He nearly crumpled to his knees at the sight of the still-intact vehicle, but there was no time for even a fraction of weakness. "GET AWAY FROM THE CAR!"

"Mr. Lehane, what are you doing here?"

"GET AWAY!" He was running behind Robert Berrisford like a madman, wrapping the older man's body with his own as much as his lanky frame would allow. He had an insane couple of seconds to ponder on one of his unit mate's ominous remarks about never hearing the bullet that goes through your own body and surmising that it could very well apply to bombs about to explode a few steps behind you as well.

The smell of singed hair and skin, blood oozing from his left cheek and one too many debris shredding his practically bare back was more than enough confirmation, however, that the device did its job and did it well.

Now I'm the dead man. The transgenic had never been so sure of anything in his life. He'd seen enough injuries in his short life to know that he was in serious trouble. He could feel Robert Berrisford trying to slip from underneath him. The poor man was sandwiched between the debris-covered floor and his body as he had been unable to break their fall.

When only seconds ago he had been sure of his death, X5-494 could now barely feel a thing. Abnormal amounts of adrenaline singed his veins just as the fire from the explosion ravaged his back, his equally anomalous pain threshold kicked in next, blocking out every single sensation his body could possibly feel until he felt as if he was made of stone. He was standing on his feet before the miraculously unscathed Berrisford was.

"Get Rachel," he knew his mouth was moving as he made his way back to the mansion, but he couldn't hear a single thing. His brain seemed capable of doing only two things: formulating ways to get the Berrisfords to safety as quickly as possible and numbing the extreme agony.

"My God! Simon, you're bleeding all over!" If X5-494 was in tune to any sound at all, he would have scoffed at the worry and sympathy that made Robert Berrisford's voice all shaky. Who was he anyway for this man to care whether he lived or died? Instead, he took the man roughly by the elbow and propelled him hastily where Rachel was.

_o0o_

Rachel was exactly where he had left her, significantly paler and shaking slightly as if from the cold but otherwise unscathed. The sound of her voice calling out her father's name and that of a bespectacled man the transgenic had killed with his bare hands only a few weeks ago ratcheted the adrenaline and he was fumbling with her handcuffs before he even thought of doing it.

It took X5-494 longer than he liked to slip the key into the keyhole as his hands were quivering so much. Suddenly the distraught Rachel gasped violently at the sight of his back, and it seemed as if this sign of distress was all that was needed for the gravely wounded soldier to come back to his senses. All at once he became aware of every ache and puncture and burn. Summoning every ounce of energy he wasn't aware still existed, X5-494 slung Rachel unceremoniously on his left shoulder. No more than a second later Robert Berrisford found himself in the same position his daughter was in on Simon Lehane's right side.

This time, he had to make a conscious effort to tune out the thousands of questions they kept shouting over the din of whatever commotion was commencing behind them. He caught clipped sentences like "put us down" and "bleeding more heavily" and "going to kill yourself" and "stop, stop, STOP" as he ran as far away from the Berrisfords' mansion as his genetically-enhanced feet would allow without blurring and announcing to all the world that there was a freak on the loose. He clenched his jaw as Rachel and her father's combined weights tore at his already severely mutilated back. He knew that he had to make the most of the now dwindling adrenaline coursing through his body lest he wanted all of this to be for naught.

He ignored how his vision clouded and reddened at the edges simultaneously as he ran farther away from the place where he'd created his first and undoubtedly last love. He ignored the fact that his breaths were coming shorter and farther in between. He ignored the possibility that his heartmight give out as soon as his feet stopped moving.

He ignored it all. He had to get the Berrisfords as far away from Manticore's clutches as possible. Nothing else mattered.

I don't want to sound desperate but your reviews will be very, very much appreciated! It'll also let me know whether I should continue this story or not. So please, press that 'Review' button on the bottom of the story and make my day!

~ Snow White Queen