There's a whole universe out there.

AUTHOR'S NOTES: This is a seriously AU story. It's set in the future and is a crossover between the Tribe and Dark Angel with elements of Roswell.

I'd like to thank Ian, Annastasia, KatnotKath, Zandera and tr1belova01 for all their reviews and feedback from where I'm posting this on the official tribe website. You guys are the best!

DISCLAIMER: I forgot to do a disclaimer in part one. My bad. Anything you recognise from one of the three shows is not mine and belongs to the creators of the respective programmes. All I can take credit for is the original characters and places.

DEDICATION: I want to dedicate this to Kaveena who has supported me in everything over the past year. Chances are you'll never even see this mate but I want you to know that you're my best friend and I'm grateful for all your help.

For almost ten years things seemed to be going really great. Manticore was easy to avoid on Solar, there's no police or law enforcement agency and the computer systems there are a joke so Lydecker had no real way of tracking us down. Then they got lucky. Jamie and I had decided to go ice-skating and Manticore agents were waiting for us when we left. We ran for it and would have made it but a stray shot caught me in the back of one leg, just above the knee. Jamie took me to a deserted warehouse and I used my powers to heal myself but that left me too tired to run much further.
Jamie gave himself up. He let them catch him so they wouldn't bother searching the surrounding buildings for me.
After that Zack decided that it was too dangerous for us all to stay on the same planet as Manticore. He ordered us all to split up again into different groups and scatter throughout the universe. The older X5's all agreed, paired up and left, at least that's what Zack told us. I can think of a few of my siblings who would have argued with him about it. I didn't want to leave, I had friends there, and I knew the place like the back of my hand. I sure as hell didn't want to go back to Manticore though so I did as I was told.
In the end Michael, Isabel, Max and I were sent to Grayta. There was never any real chance of Anet coming with us. If the three of us were in one place for too long there was more chance of Manticore guessing who we were. Ziggy wasn't allowed to come either. I tried to talk Zack into changing his mind but he pointed out that since I'm white and Ziggy's black people might find it a little hard to believe that we're related. Anet and Ziggy saw us off at the space port then Zack sent them in different directions.
Zack had rented us a small house on the edges of Grayta's main city and left us enough credits to get by on until he had the chance to come and see us again.
The problems started about a week after we arrived here. Max met this girl -Liz- at school. Zack wanted us to go so we wouldn't stand out. It was love at first sight for my dear brother. So when Liz got hit by a transport speeder Max used his powers to heal her. After that he had to tell her that he was a mutant. But he didn't leave it at that. Oh no, he told her everything. Liz had to tell her best friends Maria and Alex the truth because they had seen her get hit by the speeder. Michael and Isabel wanted to run for it or kill them before they told anyone else. Kyle's dad was head of city police and he knew there was something weird about us so he started to poke about in our backgrounds to find out where we came from.
From our perspective then, the Virus hitting was a good thing. No one knows where it came from or if they did know they kept it quiet. It sped up the ageing process so that even people in their early twenties died of the effects of 'old age.' There was panic in the city because, without knowing what caused the Virus, there was no way for the scientists to find a cure. They appealed for help from other planets but once it became obvious that the Virus was fatal no- one was allowed on or off the planet.
It got worse and worse then they realised that people my age and younger weren't affected by it so they sent us off to different camps far away from each other out in the countryside. Teachers from country schools were sent to look after us on the basis that people from isolated areas were less likely to have come into contact with people affected with the Virus.
That was six months ago now. The camp's been all right although having everyone crammed into the small buildings has been a bit too much like Manticore for my liking. The teachers are all dead. The Virus must be getting stronger to get into the atmosphere and kill people overnight. People miles away from other adults.
"Do you think that all the adults on the planet are dead?" Maria asks suddenly.
"I'm guessing so." Max answers her gently.
"Where do we go now? We can't stay here." Isabel speaks up, still staring down at the ruins of the camp.
"We could go back to the city. The government buildings are all there. Maybe the adults in them survived." Kyle suggests.
Max nods and with that we leave. All of our things are down in the camp but none of us make any move to go back for them. My siblings and I were always taught the benefits of travelling light and the others are too scared of the other kids.