Series: Kitty327
Episode: 1
Title: Miracles Lost
Disclaimer: I don't own Dark Angel. I'd love to, but I don't.
Author: Big Sister
Rating: PG-13
Description: Zack has an unexpected encounter with an old friend and a mysterious couple pay a visit to Logan.
Timeline: First part happens between '411 on the DL' and '… and Jesus Brought a Casserole'. Second is anytime after 'Some Assembly Required', but before 'Freak Nation'.
Author's Note: To those who read this prior to the re-write, will probably want to start reading around Ch 4. That's where the new stuff starts. Unless of course you where planning on reading it all again to refresh your memory. In which case don't let me stop you.
Author's Note 2: I'm not a shipper or a Logan-basher, so in my stories Logan gets humane treatment (as in accordance with the international bill of human rights) and I still haven't made my mind up as to who gets the girl (Max) in this one yet. Hum … what do you think … Normal? Maybe not, but somebody's gonna get our Maxie by the end of this series, because it would be boring otherwise. So let me know whom you want.
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Chapter 1Max came out of the doorway of the Crash with Original Cindy and Sketchy in tow, completely oblivious to the fact that she was being watched. They were talking and laughing at something Sketchy had just said. Not a joke exactly, more laughing at him.
He seemed to sulk for a few moments, until Cindy hit him hard on the back. The blow sent him reeling forwards. Original Cindy was not a transgenic, but she didn't have to be to send Sketchy flying.
By the time he had picked himself back off the floor Max was already perched on top of her motorcycle and, with a wave farewell to the Original Cindy, she shot off into the cloudy night leaving her friends to make their own way home.
The woman, who had been observing her from the shadowy shelter of a nearby alleyway, drew back disappointed. She didn't have a motorcycle or even a car at her disposal, but even if she had she couldn't have followed the pretty dark-haired girl for long and still expect to remain inconspicuous. Not at this hour in a post-Pulse city where both means of transport were expensive luxuries that few people could easily afford and which both entailed far too many stops at sector guards, at which the pursued would have time to turn around and take note of what little traffic there was and where any normal person (let alone a transgenic) would have been bound to notice the repeated presence of any vehicle. No, she would have to call it a day for tonight.
She smiled at her joke and then frowned at herself for being amused by her own poor humour. Not that she didn't like a good joke, but then her jokes were rarely good.
The woman was about ten to fifteen years older than Max and shabbily dressed in old clothes that didn't really suit her, but in which she felt comfortable. Her light brown hair, once her pride and joy, now needed washing, but had been pulled back into a long plait that reached right the way down her back, for the sake of keeping it tidy. She looked tired and very skinny, a state that was emphasised by the fact that she was rather tall for a woman, although she was used to working with far taller men, and then there was the rather mismatched dark brown scarf around her neck that she wore to conceal her barcode. Had Max seen her she would not have recognised the woman, although she most certainly would have done so seventeen years ago.
Her finely tuned senses (Developed at Manticore, where else?) had told Max's observer hours ago that she being watched herself, so she wasn't at all surprised when someone aimed a blow to her head. Aimed was the key word - he missed. She had ducked well in time to avoid the punch.
Checking behind her to make sure that Original Cindy and Sketchy still hadn't noticed anything, she grabbed her assailant's arm and pulled him further down the alley holding a finger to her lips. Having expected a countering attack, he was rather taken aback by the action, so he didn't struggle. That was a mercy for her, as she was far too weak to have controlled him if he had.
As soon as she was out of earshot of anyone leaving Crash, she spoke in a horse, but urgent whisper, "It's all right, Zack. I don't work for Lydecker. I've spent half my life protecting you two from him, I'm hardly going to betray you now."
His jaw dropped. Rather mutely for him he murmured, "How … how the hell do you …"
"Know your name?" she smiled, "I knew you at Manticore, and your sister too, though you were both a little too young when we were separated to remember me now. Shame though, I had hoped you might have some vague recollection of me, you weren't quite as little as her, but obviously not."
"How little exactly?" he asked slowly, gathering his wits again.
"You were about six. Maxie was nearly three."
"Maxie!" The use of his nickname for his baby sister took him off guard again. He frowned and shifted his weight edgily on his feet. He was beginning to feel very uneasy around this woman. At first he had simply mistrusted her because she had been following Max, but now there was something more …
She saw his reaction and smiled ruefully. "I'm sorry," she sighed, "That just slipped out. I always used to call her that at Manticore."
"How do I know I can trust you," he snapped, "For all I know you could be a spy for Lydecker! You could be bugged! He could be listening to this right now!" he added, disgusted with himself for not thinking of that possibility sooner.
Her eyes flashed! Anger and something he could only describe as pain shown out at him. The rest of her face however set itself back into a well-worn cool hardened expression. Her lips slowly parted and she gave him a complete and accurate list of every single place he had stayed since his last escape from Manticore.
She left nothing out. Each account included not only the address, but the amount of time he had spent there; contacts he had in the area; places he had visited; siblings he had met (mentioned by name, not number); everything. The rendition took nearly twenty minutes and by the end of it Zack was speechless … and horrified. How the hell did she know! Not even his siblings knew where he was when he wasn't with them.
"As you can see, Zack," she nearly smirked as she told him, "If I had any intention of betraying you, Lydecker would have already had you surrounded by a Tac team ages ago."
"How … ?" he stuttered to halt, too stunned to go on.
She nodded simply, understandingly, "I gathered most that by stopping Lydecker from finding it out. Destroying files, silencing informants that kind of thing. The rest, well, I do check up on you regularly, I'll have to admit to that."
I gathered most that by stopping Lydecker from finding it out.
It stung. It hurt. The words ripped into him like hungry tiger with a sack full of fresh meat. She knew most of the places he had been supposedly hiding in through the very people he had hiding from. One of the things he was most proud of about himself and his siblings was the way they had avoided detection for over ten years – and that had just been ridiculed and reduced to nothing more than a pathetic amateur's attempt at 'hide and seek', a mess that someone else had had to clean up for them. He could've killed her. Could've. Probably should've, but he didn't. There was something about her eyes. The way she looked at him …
She, for her own part, had sensed the effect her words had on him. A totally unintentional effect. She had been careless with her choice of words and the pained look in his sharp eyes punished her worse for that than any amount of physical pain could ever have done. Even if she had been able to feel it.
Tentatively she reached out and laid her hand on his shoulder. He looked as if he was going to jerk it off, so she interrupted quickly, "Look Zack. I've been meaning to say this for a long time. Eleven years almost. I'm proud of you." Zack stared at her, confused. "Very, very proud of all of you," she went on, "Escaping from Manticore; keeping your heads and staying hidden despite all the odds – Heck - that took more downright courage than anything I have ever heard or seen before or since. And ... I'm especially proud of you, Zack. The courage you showed protecting your brothers and sisters. It's …" she paused, searching for a suitable word, "It's glorious."
Zack would rather have gone skipping into Manticore and kissed Lydecker smack bang on the lips than admitted it, but her words did have the intended effect this time. Not only had his anger vanished, but he also felt pleased and even grateful for them. It was something he had been wishing somebody would say for a long time. His sibling were always too busy either complaining about his interference or begging for his help to do so themselves and there was no one else. Not even a kind of parent figure like most kids would've had.
He blinked at the thought. Where had that come from? He recovered himself quickly and was going to tell her to mind her own business and where she could stick her pride in his 'glorious' actions, when something else crossed his mind.
"Your from Manticore? Transgenic?" he growled. It wasn't really a question. She could see that, but it annoyed her all the same.
"Yes," she sighed with all the sarcasm she could muster, "Forgive me, I thought we had covered that. You know, back when I said 'I knew you at Manticore'. Remember that? "
"Then where's your barcode?"
"Where do you think? Back of my neck, maybe? Just because I'm ten years older than you doesn't mean Manticore had to tattoo it on my forehead instead." But she understood what he was asking. Grumbling, she pulled of her scarf and turned around, lifting the plaid of hair out of the way so that he could see the series of black lines that ran across the nape of her neck.
He gasped in surprise. "Kitty!" His face had suddenly started glowing like a child's in a sweet store, she noticed as turned back around to face him.
She grinned. "Yeah, my boy, it's me all right."