Title: Sole Survivor.
Authors: Katana (rose_tat@hotmail.com) and Rae (gabby04@hotmail.com)
Disclaimer: We only own the ones we made up. (Duh.) We're just borrowing the rest, we'll put them back, we promise.
Rating: Pg-15? Bad words... some sexual references.
Spoilers: Up to and including "Pollo Loco." i.e. Ben's dead, sorry peeps.
Summery: Bree(X6-544) was the only member of X6 to leave Manticore, she was the only one that wanted to... Now she's in Seattle. But she's got big problems. Can Max keep her newly found baby sister from returning to science experiment status?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Bree stood on the corner, watching the group which slowly made their way along the side of the street, the guy kicking things as he stumbled along, freshly coming from the crash.
//A few too many drinks for the guy,// Bree thought, studying them. There were two other girls, both girls had dark curly hair. But the shorter one had shorter hair, and was probably a size four as opposed to her friend's size three.
Bree looked down at herself, dirty and ragged blonde hair falling below her shoulders, tangled, and her body hidden beneath a considerably large and dirty tee shirt and jeans that once fit right, but now h ung loosely on her thin body. She was probably down to a size two now, due to lack of food.
She thought back four weeks, to when she was squatting in an abandoned office building with a few others. She hadn't been there when the others had gotten themselves evicted, and hadn't been able to reclaim any of her possessions.
What she was wearing was what she owned under her name. She stole bits of food, here and there. What was left in some dumpsters usually, and if she was lucky food from the market when security patrol was down.
Bree vaguely remembered the face of the girl to the left of the guy. She struggled to remember where from. It clicked suddenly. The posters that had been all over the market a week ago had the girl's face on them. It satisfied her c uriosity, but somewhere in her mind she remembered her from a different place.
The male split away from the others, going to cross the road while the girls were deep into a conversation and not watching. Bree's stomach growled.
He stepped in to the middle of the road when out of the darkness came the glow of two headlights. Her eyes flew back to the girls, still in conversation. Bree urged him to notice, but the fool was too damn drunk. He stumbled and fell to his knees, letting out a small oomph Bree c ould hear from her position. The girls must have finally noticed his absence because they finally looked up to him, but only the familiar girl noticed the car.
Bree looked at the speeding car, whose driver didn't seem to see the guy in the middle of the road. The girls stood frozen for a second, in fear, then the one began to move.
But Bree was already flying across the pavement, pushing her legs to the limit she could with no food. And even so she was flying across the street, a result of her revved up genes from Manticore.
She shivered and pushed the guy out of the way simultaneously, but however quickly she'd moved Bree still ended up flying over the hood of the oncoming car.
She hit the pavement with a thud and drowsily yearned for food, when her seizures began and she passed out.
Max saw everything. The girl practically flying across the street, pushing Sketchy out of the way then getting hit herself. Original Cindy ran to Sketchy, making sure he was okay while Max ran towards the girl.
"Hey man, did I just get hit by a truck or something?" Sketchy asked Cindy.
"No you fool, you got hit by a girl."
"A.. What?" Sketchy asked, sitting up.
"A girl, who just pushed your drunken ass outta the way of a car, an'got hit herself." Cindy smacked him across the face.
"Hey, what was that for?" Sketchy felt his face.
"To sober you up, this is why I don't do guys." Cindy sighed, walking across the road to Max and the girl.
Original Cindy let out a breath when she saw the girl, laying on the pavement convulsing. "Max is she a'ight?"
"I dunno." Max sighed, folding up her jacket and sticking it under the girl's head to save it from cracking against the pavement any longer.
Cindy knelt down beside Max and looked in to the girl's eyes, which were open. She began to mouth something.
Bree must have only blacked out for a few seconds because she woke in the same spot with the two girls leaning over her, still convulsing. "I... I'm okay."
"Girl, you just got hit by a car," one said, "And you think you're okay? We gotta get you to a hospital..."
"N..no." Bree stuttered, "I'm fine, I'll be okay." The seizures began to slow and her stomach growled. She was so damn hungry.
"Max, don't you think we should get her to a hospital?" the shorter girl asked.
Max. Bree thought. Max. And the face. Somewhere in her mind her memory tried to work at it.
"I.. I dunno." Max said doubtfully, staring at Bree, who began to feel uncomfortable.
"I'll be fine." Bree said, the seizures letting up, she began to sit up, her tangled hair even more dirty and tangled than before.
A new rip in her shirt and a hole in the knee of her jeans let in the cool night air, she hugged her arms to herself, trying not to look directly at Max, instead she looked at the guy who she'd saved, "You alright?" she asked.
"I'm good, thanks to you, thank you, a lot, I think I had a little too much to drink."
"This is Sketchy by the way, and original Cindy, and I'm Max, by the way." Max made the intros, standing and helping the girl up.
"Yeah, uh, I'm Alaina." Bree lied.
Max faltered for a second.
"I should um, get going I think, time to head back to my place and grab some shut eye." Bree said, beginning to walk away, "Uh, nice to meet you all."
"Hey, wait up" Sketchy called, Bree turned, "I mean, maybe we should walk you home to make sure you don't pass out or something."
Original Cindy eyed Max, both of them grinning slightly. Sketchy was once again attempting, and failing, to pick up a girl.
"Uh, no I'm fine, really." Bree faltered, looking at the ground.
Original Cindy spoke up, "Girl, it looks to me like you ain't got no place to go, no offense or nuthin'but you look kinda scrappy. Times are tough and if you got no place to go you can crash with me an' Max here, we don't bite, and we got a shower waiting for ya."
"And uh, it's the least we could do, for saving Sketchy here and all," Max added.
Bree froze for a minute. Her stomach growled, her mind faltered.
"And food." Cindy pointed out, hitting her weak spot. "Looks like you ain't had none in a few weeks."
"I uh.."
"You can hit the road in the a.m. if you want, just stay a night, it's a little late to walk back anyway, thugs and all." Max said, for some reason wanting to know this girl a little better.
"I don't have any money to pay you for anything." she said simply. There, she'd said it.
"Girl, ain't no one who gots the cash 'cept Max's suga' daddy over here."
"He ain't my suga' daddy." Max spoke up.
"Uh huh," Cindy raised her brows. Cindy walked over to Bree, grabbed her arm and started walking her back the other way. "You come home with us for a night, we getcha all cleaned and ready to go, and then we bringin'ya in to see Normal."
"Normal?"
"Our boss," Sketchy put in, "Jam Pony Messenger Services." He gave an extremely fake smile.
Bree thought for a moment, "I'll be gone in the morning, up early, I don't sleep much and I'm quiet, I don't need to eat anything but uh, some milk would be great." she added, thinking of her seizures.
"We got alotta milk, now lets get goin' Original Cindy's dead tired."
They'd dropped off Sketchy five minutes before they'd arrived at Max and Cindy's apartment.
Bree followed them up the stairs grimacing slightly at her knee, which she was sure was scratched deep under her jeans.
The girls'apartment was fairly well furnished for a squatter's building, better than Bree'd ever gotten. A small pang of jealousy fired up inside her until she drowned it with thank-yous that she'd been able to escape Manticore at all.
"Alaina, you can scrub yourself up in the washroom over here." Cindy walked down the short hall and pointed. Bree wasn't paying attention, forgetting the alias she'd given. "Alaina?" Cindy asked, then repeated until Bree finally snapped out of it.
"Yeah, sorry." she said, following Cindy in to the w ashroom. She closed the door behind her, glancing in the small cracked mirror that hung crookedly over the sink. Her face was filthy, as were her clothes. Small scratches littered her cheeks, from when she'd gotten in few fights on the street last week. Stripping down to her underwear and bra Bree studied her knee, which was pretty scratched, dripping blood down her leg. She touched it, grimacing at the deep wound. She'd probably need stitches for it or something. However, her clothes were scrap. The blood had stained the right leg of her jeans and her shirt had so many holes in it she may as well have not been wearing one.
Someone knocked on the door, "You decent?" Max's voice came through the door.
"Uh, one sec," Bree slid her shirt back on. Max was just another girl. No big deal. The shirt hung almost to her knees anyway, longer than some of the skirts she'd seen people in. "Come on in." Bree spoke up, the door opened.
"Hey." Max smiled, "Uh, here's some clothes, I don't really wear them and uh, you could pro'lly use 'em better than me." she handed them to Bree, "A towel, to dry off and you can use whatever else you need in the bathroom."
"Uh, thanks." Bree said, smiling. It was the nicest thing anyone had done for her in quite awhile.
"No problem, Cindy's gettin'some food made up, we're starved and you're welcome to join."
Bree smiled, feeling somewhat sorry she had nothing to pay them back with.
The door closed behind Max and Bree sighed, stripping and taking to the shower.
She ran a brush through her now clean hair, enjoying the fact that it finally looked nice, even if it were only for a day. She dressed into the clothes Max had given her: new jeans and a red tank top. She also put on the zip-up black pullover, leaving it unzipped.
Cleaning up any stray drops of water and stepping from the bathroom Bree felt refreshed, like she was starting over. The smell of cooking food almost overwhelmed her stomach as she walked in to the kitchen. There were lots of leftovers, eggs and vegetables, a carton of milk. To her it was a feast. Max and Cindy had already begun eating out of plastic tupperware containers. They looked up as she came into the kitchen.
"Well, someone cleans up good." Cindy commented. Bree couldn't help but smile.
"Hope yer hungry 'Laina, Max here takes all Logan's leftovers, and the guy ain't a half bad cook." Cindy continued. Max shoved out a chair with her foot.
"Come. Sit. Feast." Max smiled.
And Bree smiled.
She'd gorged herself, stuffing herself and not caring for once what the two girls thought. Her stomach enjoyed. She'd had five glasses of milk, hoping it would help the seizures lay off a bit. Now she lay on the couch, almost asleep but not quite. She listened to Max and Cindy talking together in the kitchen. Whispering. About her.
"Did you see the girl eat?" Cindy commented.
"Yeah, I'm guessing she hadn't eaten in awhile, I mean she's got my frame but her skin was almost hanging 'cause lack of food." Max commented.
"Maybe we should try and convince her to stay here, We could hang it, she could get a gig at Jam Pony, I hear Normal's lookin'for a new face."
"I don't know if we could do anything to convince her, it was hard enough to get her to stay the night, and with that, the girl's up and gone by six I'm sure."
"How do you know that?"
"Just a feeling."
"Well then," Cindy paused, "What are we supposed to do, you know damn well the girl ain't got a place to go, you can see it in her eyes."
"I dunno," Max said.
A dish clattered in the sink.
"Oops," Max said.
"So you gonna see Logan tomorrow morning?"
"Maybe."
"Huh, I gotta get some sleep, unlike some people."
"I sleep."
"Yeah, right."
"I do! What's the time?"
"Two-thirty almost, no way Alaina's gonna be up and out by six."
"We'll see."
"Are all you people this stubborn?"
"Of course, we're soldiers."
"Night Max."
"Night."
Bree froze under the covers. 'We're soldiers'. A casual comment or really a soldier. She thought back to Manticore. The face came then, the recognition. Max, and X5. Bree was an X6, the gr oup after. The only escapee. The only one like herself. A couple years younger than the X5s. No wonder she'd recognized Max's face.
They'd spent hours drilling them at Manticore about the traitors. The runaways. They were probably doing that with her face right now.
Although she longed to stay, and probably could, she knew she should leave Max to her own. Move on and find another life. Another source. Get a job or something. She couldn't stay here.
Bree was up at five-thirty, or so said the kitchen cloc k. She was writing a note, a thank you and a promise of money. She signed it Bree, without thinking. She looked around for a piece of paper, but found none. As it was she was writing on a napkin. What was the difference, it wasn't like she'd ever see them again right.
Bree moved, lithe as a cat towards the front door, descending the stairs and heading out into the early morning, still dark out. She'd gone a few steps when she heard a voice.
"I guess we were both wrong." It said. Max.
//Dammit.// Bree almost swore. "Huh?" She asked, turning around looking at the girl.
"You're half an hour early. So Original Cindy and I were both wrong. Where you headed?"
"I uh, dunno yet."
"Okay. So we couldn't convince you to stay huh?"
"I really shouldn't."
"Why not?"
"You've done a lot already for me, I don't want to be a burden."
"You're not, I think Sketchy likes you."
Bree laughed.
"Serious. We could get you a job, we could all split rent, it doesn't have to be permanent Bree."
Bree froze.
"I read the note already, I came out after you. You were pretty quiet, but I'm a light sleeper, why did you lie?"
"I dunno, I just.. I dunno."
"I like the name, for what it's worth."
"Thanks, I guess."
"I'm headed to a friend's, wanna come?" Max asked on intuition. She knew she probably shouldn't invite a stranger over to Logan's, because of his Eyes Only routine, but something in her felt like.. like she was an older sister, and had to look out for the girl.
"I probably shouldn't."
"He could probably help find you your own place, and he makes good food."
"At five thirty in the morning?"
"He doesn't sleep much, call him a computer nerd."
"I don't know.."
"After we leave there we can head over to Jam Pony, get you settled in."
Bree gave up. "I don't think I'll go to your friend's, but mind if I crash for a few more hours on the couch?"
"Feel free, I'll drop by for you and Cindy before work."
"Okay."
"And, if you want, Bree, you can tear up the note, I'll call you Alaina if it helps you feel any better."
"I think I'll stick with Bree, I'm having some problems with my alias, like answering to it."
"Cool, see you in a few hours then."
"Yeah."
Max waited for Bree to go back upstairs until she hopped on her Ninja and took off down the block, flashing her Jam Pony tag at the security checkpoint. She showed up at Logan's just after six.
"Max." Logan greeted when she came through the door of his apartment.
"Hey, any news?"
"Yeah, actually."
"So what do I have to fight this time, the Russian Mafia... Oh wait, I did that already didn't I?"
"Funny." Logan said sarcastically, wheeling to his computer, "Actually, this is news for you," he paused dramatically. "It seems that just a couple days ago some internal Manticore documents were sold off from an inside source. The source was killed, by the way. Before they could delete them all I downloaded them, searching through for any information. Turns out there 's nothing on the X5s, but there is something on an X6. Seems like one, and one only, escaped a few years back, hasn't been found yet."
"You'd think they'd put transmitters in them, after us."
"They did, but it was surgically removed by a doctor who claims his client was sincerely convinced aliens put it there. The doctor was also killed 'under suspicious circumstances'. Or so say the papers."
"You think he was killed by Manticore soldiers," Max stated.
"That was my first guess, until I also found that Manticore wasn't the only one after this person. Seems like two other government officials were after her as well, for the technology. She's been given the black market price of three million dollars."
"Now that's some money," Max commented, approaching Logan from behind and checking out the screens over his broad shoulders.
"Yeah, well recently the search efforts have been doubled, due to a guy named Frank Victor, an overseas government official. They've even tracked her here to Seattle." He turned to see her eyes focus on a spot on the wall, her jaw clenched, face worried.
"So lemme guess, you want me to find Victor and his men, kick some ass and then find the girl, warn her and get her on her way?" she asked suddenly, taking a step back from him, meeting his gaze.
"Basically yes."
"Picture?"
"Few secs." Logan turned back to the screen and clicked a single button.
"So.. how old is this girl anyway?"
"About seventeen, but she looks about nineteen, twenty."
"Hmm."
"Max are you okay?"
"Yeah, just thinking."
"About?"
"Sketchy got drunk last night, walked in front of a car."
"Is he okay?" Logan asked quickly.
"He wasn't hit, a girl pushed him out of the way, got hit herself, Sketchy's head over heels with this girl now." Max almost rolled her eyes.
"Figures."
"Yeah."
"So where is she staying?"
"With me and Cindy for now, but I don't know for how long. Caught her trying to sneak out at five thirty this morning, I convinced her to grab a few more Z's, until I was done here, then I'd drag her over to Normal and beg on her behalf."
"Oh. Here's your picture." Logan said, holding out the picture to Max.
She took it , staring off for a bit, then finally looked at the picture. The girl was thin, her hair shaved off, but likely a light color. The telltale fuzz on her head told it so. She had blue green eyes and was about the same size and height as Max, maybe a little taller. It was Bree.
"Oh my god." Max said.
"What?"
"This is her."
"Yeah." Logan said, staring at her.
"No, I mean, this is her, this is Bree, the one staying with us."
"Oh..."
"Shit, I mean how much does that suck?" Max commented, setting down the picture on the desk.
"Well, actually it should make your mission a little easier, you've already got half of it done, you just have to send her on her way."
"Funny."
"I'm serious, Max. What if Lydecker trails her to your place, then he just gets both of you back?"
"Logan, I can't just get rid of her, she's a friend, and Original Cindy and I finally convinced her ass to stay here for a bit, if we overhaul to get rid of her, she gonna wonder."
"Why don't you tell her the truth."
Max stared at Logan blankly, as if he were instantly dumb.
"What?"
"Tell her the truth, you don't think she already knows people are after her, come on."
"Well, maybe she doesn't know that three different governments are after her."
"It doesn't matter how many are after her, the point is that there are people after her."
"I still think that you should sit down and talk to her."
"What's to keep her from running away right then, straight in to Lydecker?" Max snapped.
"What if you brought her here?"
Max stopped pacing and looked thoughtful for awhile. "Tonight, we'll stop by. I can't believe this, I should have noticed."
"What do you mean?" Logan asked.
"I mean that she's the one who saved Sketchy by practically flying across the street instead of me, and after that, she even had seizures. Original Cindy and I thought she'd hit her head or something but then they stopped, when she came to our place, she drank five glasses of milk, then she snuck out this morning - she almost got past me she was so quiet, and I wasn't even sleeping."
"There's still no way you could have known." Logan commented, attempting to make her feel better.
"Huh," Max grumped. "I gotta pick up Cindy and Bree, and get our asses to work or Normal's gonna be slaughtering us."
"Okay then, See you guys later right?" Logan turned around in his chair, but Max was already gone.
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