Disclaimer: I do not own Dark Angel or the character of Vada. Vada's character was taken from the Dark Angel book 'Before the Dawn' by Max Allan Collins. This is just my view of what she could've been like.

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A/N: Once upon a time, I was reading a book called 'Before the Dawn'. In it, an X5 named Vada was mentioned by Lydecker. I decided because little was known about her, I'd fill in the blanks with some possible answers. This is what I came up with. I hope you like it.

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Summary: Following orders was what she was meant to do. She was one of the best that escaped that night. She was the quiet one. The big sister after Eva. She had been the protector- the one the younger ones went to hide behind when Zack wasn't there. She was one of the last he found and the first he loved. This is Vada's story.

Rating: PG-13

Type: WIP

Genre: Action/Adventure, Angst, Romance.

Pairing: Vada/ Zack

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Dead Is Forever

By Yodes

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Prologue: About A Girl

'Catch me as I fall

Say you're here and it's all over now

Speaking to the atmosphere

No one's here and I fall into myself

This truth drives me into madness

I know I can stop the pain if I will it all away''

- Evanescence (Whisper)

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"Live fast, die young, right? That's what they say in the movies. Live fast, die young, leave a good lookin' corpse. Be remembered as a hero, a martyr, someone who fought to the end and never gave up. Yeah, right. In real life it doesn't quite work out that way."

X

She blurs through the snow, zigzagging and hiding behind trees and bushes when she hears the enemy move close. She sees the others moving as she was, through the trees at an impossible speed, the sound of their running feet barely audible over the sound of guns, snowmobiles and radios crackling.

Even though she was running for her life, Vada smiled. She was a trained soldier, trained from birth. A super soldier. Human, hawk, leopard and a few other animals mixed into her DNA. On foot, or on snowmobiles, humans didn't stand a chance. Of course, they also had guns, tazers, laser sights and night scopes. Vada's smile disappeared. They wouldn't have long to escape.

She makes it to the gathering point, slipping into the small clearing amongst the shadows to see that several of the others were already there.

She meet Zack's eyes for a second, giving him a small nod before turning to watch the way she had just entered

X

"The escape was Zack's idea. It was one of the best ideas he'd ever had. Those of us who had escaped all loved him for giving us that choice. I guess I loved him more than most."

X

The engine roared in her ears, a steady familiar sound that relaxed her, made her smile. The other bikes around her were like a distant dream, never managing to get into the forefront of her vision. Vada knew she was going to win. This was what it was all about. Money, freedom, living fast. The smile turned feral as she skidded around the corner. They stood no chance.

X

"He told me once that I was one of the last he found. Max was still missing at the time, but everyone else had been located. He'd told me that he was proud of the way I'd turned out, even if I did go around bike racing whenever I got the chance. He used to laugh and said it was an X5 trait- living fast. That night he told me so many things…"

X

The sound of the gun going off seemed to take an extra second to be registered by her brain. By then, she was already falling. Falling like the moment would last forever, giving her time to think, to see thinks clearly for what they were. Vada had been shot in the chest, she knew that now, as the pain began to make it's sudden way through her body, she could feel the dampness on her chest- her blood leaving her body.

She knew then that she would never see Zack again, never hear him laugh, never see him smile at her again. She knew now that this was the end. Dead was forever, there was no escaping that.

X

"He told me so many things, about his hopes, about his dreams. That boy always knew how to make me smile. He gave my life a new meaning. I just wish that I could've done the same for him…but then, this story isn't about him. It's about my life and what I did with it. It's about life and death, and all of the things that come between and after it. It's about a soldier trying to create a life for herself. It's about me."