DISCLAIMER: Characters and situations borrowed from Dark Angel and NCIS. No profits made.

A/N: Please see chapter 1 for story and character information. As always, thanks for coming back to read. Any and all comments, reviews or thoughts appreciated.

Designation? What Designation?

XVII.

At 3:33 a.m., Tony found himself waiting with one of the four FBI teams tasked for the take-down, realizing that even this much access was more than he should expect. This has got to be McGee's doing, he realized, and stifled a small grin at the thought. I need to remember to thank him – again.

His earpiece crackled to life with a soft double tap, the signal the two X-5s had planned to communicate that they'd crossed the outer perimeter – one tap – and made it inside – second tap – still together and without incident. With that, the swat team started moving toward the property perimeter.

DiNozzo glanced at the sky. Maybe the rest of Seattle isn't crazy about putting up with a rainy climate but I bet the cops love the cloud cover, he mused, especially during a full moon – like tonight. Shaking off the errant thoughts to focus on the job ahead, he fell in behind the third man in his unit, fully focused, as they moved in closer. He'd waited two decades to see Manticore get their just desserts for what they'd done to Max and the others, and was not about to let anything distract him from whatever lay ahead...

XVIII

Logan sighed again, finally opening his eyes and staring at the ceiling, feeling exhausted but unable to sleep. He could hear that Tony had tried to be quiet as he'd gotten up and gotten ready to leave, but between Logan's clandestine activities and living alone, he usually heard anything out of the ordinary, no matter how deeply he slept – and knowing where his cousin was at the moment, no way could he go back to sleep now.

So he finally sat up. Maybe if he could get into some files, the morning would pass a little more quickly until Tony got back and filled him in on what they'd found. Knowing it wasn't too likely, he glanced at his bedside clock – 4:20.

He groaned, but kept moving. In just a few hours, he might have some more news on Manticore. Until then, he'd do what he could to add to whatever Tony was finding...

XIX

As she had the night before, Max settled in to work on the weakest bar at the window, methodically chipping away at the steel framing and mortar surrounding it. As he had before, Joshua sat slightly apart from her, watching her, maybe even standing guard, as he asked her about "out there." He peppered her with questions and offered his own speculation about the world beyond the bars, seeking confirmation from her as to how close he'd come in his guesses. Poor guy would never be able to blend in, even if he could get away from here, Max realized, but he's still dyin' to try...

She hadn't been working too long when Joshua suddenly stiffened, standing and moving silently down the corridor a way. Max looked back toward him briefly, but kept at her task. Dogs' noses are better than cats' are – hearing too? she wondered, distractedly. Of course, it looks as if Joshua is more dog DNA than I am cat, so either way...

She heard what she suspected was an involuntary growl from his direction.

She froze at that, listening. "Joshua?" she tried, low enough that few others would hear.

Nothing.

She slipped back to the floor and edged along the hall to where she saw Joshua poised, listening, only marginally trying to be inconspicuous as he stood in a shadow, near a wall, but not otherwise hiding. Max silently moved closer to him, listening hard – until she too heard something 'wrong.' Something – quiet but moving; something that wasn't normal 4 AM Manticore...

"What's wrong?" she tried, low. "Joshua?"

"Guards are down," Joshua reported, still listening closely. "But cells all still locked – electric current in system not broken. So no one allowed out of their cell." Joshua looked confused, and turned to Max for her thoughts. "Someone here to take down guards?"

"Good question, Joshua – you're sure they're down?"

Joshua paused and listened, but before starting his reply he growled again suddenly – but this time, in anger and resentment, from deep in his throat.

"What?" Max urged.

"Lydecker," he snarled.

XX.

"In..."

Tony heard Syl's one syllable that spoke volumes. "In," for her part of the mission, was to get into the central security office and find a way to freeze the electronic locks securing the transgenics into their cells. They had discussed several options with Lydecker which, frankly, had left Tony behind, but had come upon a couple ideas which they believed would allow, at best, only manual over-ride on individual cells, which required a specific, coded key, accessible only to the senior security guard on duty at the time. Lydecker, Tony decided, was right about this 'Renfro's' decisions regarding her highly developed super-soldiers – her fear of them led her to make some stupid decisions, trading the safety of the project from outside forces for her own little paranoia that they'd turn on her someday.

Kinda nice how that worked out, he mused to himself.

"Alpha moving," he heard, the SWAT team's report that it was moving around from its original role for forced entry, if needed, to its fall back position as back up, once the X-5s made it onto the command center. That was Team One's cue. Seeing the signal from the unit's commander, DiNozzo was immediately on his feet, falling into step with the others, as he heard the FBI agent breathe into his mike, "One moving."

Finally – Manticore, DiNozzo thought as they moved inside the facility. You bastards. Letting the last errant thought recede, the special agent focused fully on the plan, on the sounds and sights around him, as he and the FBI agents moved stealthily into the belly of the beast, where he might finally learn just what had happened to Max .

XXI

"Lydecker's here? Inside?" Max whispered, an uncertain hope rising – she'd never really trusted him, but he'd led their last assault on the place...

An unsuccessful one, Max... she reminded herself...

But from everything she remembered, and all she'd heard since then, it wasn't his fault. She'd even begun to think, from those strange, occasional rants from the Director, that not only was he was on their 'Most Wanted' list, but that Renfro has even tried to 'eliminate' him a time or two.

So what's this – Round Two, Lydecker vs. Manticore?

"Who else is with him, Joshua, can you tell?"

The tall man stood rooted, listening – sniffing. He shook his head ... paused ... and listened again, closely. He finally drew a breath and said, slowly, "Lydecker – and two more near him – but many more on radio with them ... I can hear their signals in many more radios outside."

"Are you sure?" Max pressed. Picking up radio transmissions that far? Hard to believe, but then, that's what they said about her sometimes, too. Damn, she conceded.

He nodded quickly. "Happened maybe two other times, at old place. Many soldiers come and move out Manticore project, bring it here. Before that – sometimes soldiers come and join training." He suddenly paused, as if remembering, and looked at Max in concern. "Not all leave."

Refusing to start imagining all that could mean, Max pressed, "any idea how many?"

Joshua listened again, then pointed above and away from them. "Maybe four out there... four more there, and ... there." He pointed in opposing directions. "And..." He turned, listening. "More – moving. One group now spreading out and coming inside – maybe six." He paused, and said, "wait-- more now. Group, there," he pointed, "now moving too..."

Definitely an assault on Manticore, then... but if Lydecker was there, who were the others? Wasn't Manticore still a government project? If so ... who could he get in such numbers to join his assault?

...or was it his assault? Was Lydecker compromised, and used as a pawn to get someone else inside? The South Africans, maybe? Or ... did he finally sell out?

"Joshua, what can you tell me about them, anything else? Are they noisy, or quiet? Do they know what they're doing?" she whispered, her mind darting back to the room where she'd been trying to dig the bar out of the window frame, mentally searching it for anything usable as a weapon.

He spoke immediately. "Move like soldiers, not scientists. Some move like better soldiers, some like new recruits." he paused, then looked at Max, quizzically. "Some smell like you..." At Max's startled look, Joshua noted that Max honestly didn't know about them being there too, so added, confirming for her, "smell like cat."

"X-5s?"

"Two more, not in cages here. Two more Joshua smell only one other time" he offered, understanding what it would mean to her. "Same time Max first come back to Manticore."

Max gulped. Krit and Syl? With Lydecker?

But then ... who were all the troops?

"..and guns. Many guns." Max wasn't sure if Joshua had seen anything in her reaction, but his warning about firearms was definitely cautionary. "Machine oil for cleaning guns, smell is all around us here. Not here when you came down tonight."

She nodded. "Joshua, I have to see what's going on. Lydecker might be trying to help us..."

"Lydecker help Lydecker. No one else."

Even in the circumstances, Max blinked at that, then nodded,"never truer words, Big Fellah ... but for whatever reason, he may think helping us will help him. I think he and Renfro had a falling out..."

"Renfro wants Lydecker 'contained,'" Joshua quoted from a conversation he remembered now.

"I bet..." Max nodded. "Look, Joshua – what's my best chance of getting up to where they are, without being seen?"

"Out window..." he started moving back where she'd been working earlier.

"No, I haven't gotten the bar out yet; it's gonna take..." Her words died as she watched Joshua calmly and cleanly pull the bars – imbedded framework and all– out of the mortar and rock around the window in one smooth tug. "Hey, you coulda told a girl last night..." she griped.

"Little Fella never ask," he shrugged, an amused smile there.

Max shook her head, rolling her eyes, but got back to business quickly. Looking out the window, she turned back to ask, "it might be harder to get back inside if I go out here. What about from the inside – can you tell where Lydecker is now?"

Joshua listened, then said "still in security office, where locks and controls are. Where new X-5s are – Max's friends," he tried.

"Yeah, Joshua, I think they are. Best way to get there?"

He seemed to waver for a moment, but then said "you follow me." Joshua led her toward another corridor but not far into the passageway, stopped and turned to her. "Regular soldiers still there too – and guns outside. Max and Joshua, out the window – better plan."

She shook her head. "I gotta go look, Joshua – if it is my friends, there's a chance that they may be looking for me – I hope so, anyway. And they may be looking to take down Manticore and Renfro, stop them from treating everyone in here like lab rats."

Joshua reacted, but not as Max expected. While at first his eyes took on the hope he'd shown before about getting out, away from his prison, he then looked back to her, a new sadness there. "And who will come in? Manticore full of people who don't look like you – like upstairs people," he nodded toward the ceiling. "Max tell Joshua not to go outside, people get scared, Joshua must hide in basement there, too. Not enough basements out there for all of us, Little Fella."

Struck suddenly by the ugly truth, moved by the wisdom behind Joshua's words, Max knew at that moment Joshua had been the only one to have considered what would happen after Manticore was conquered. Swallowing hard, knowing full well the weight of what she promised, Max vowed, "Joshua, I swear right now – if we get out of here, if we close down Manticore once and for all – then everyone here will have a safe place in this world to call home. I have no idea how – but we will. I promise. Deal?"

She stuck out her hand to him, looking him straight in the eye, and Joshua took it, shook it once, firmly, and grinned. "Deal," he agreed.

XXII

Max and Joshua jogged silently down the passage where they'd come earlier, but it was no longer as still and as empty as it had seemed before – the long, underground corridor now carried sounds of those trapped in their cells, both those of the earlier series, pacing and moaning their worry, each reacting to what they could sense of the disruption taking place upstairs, and of those of the later series, more 'eloquent' in their oaths and complaints, voicing their anger at being captive or their promises of help for whatever battle was brewing.

Max recognized the voices of several of her 'classmates' from her training; a couple even saw that she was out in the hall and appealed to her.

"452! Let me out! What the hell is going on?"

"452, get us out of here! Do you want the place to be taken over? Unlock the cells!"

"452 – Max!"

She had been able to run past the others without stopping, but this last – a now-too-familiar voice – slowed her, her steps faltering.

He must have seen it because Alec urged again "Max, wait! What's happening up there?"

She wavered. She was so certain she didn't owe any one of them any more than the next, only what all of them deserved, a way out of here ... but Alec ...

Alec, she owed, at least for not immediately turning her in for trying to escape. For not pressing her into sex when he easily could have ... for lying to Renfro at report. She came to a halt, irritated at the debt, then quickly turned to stalk back to his cage.

"Hey – good," he grinned, "lemme out."

"I don't think I would if I could, but since that's not an option right now I don't have to agonize with myself," she snapped at him, but frowned a little, looking up & down the corridor. "Everyone's locked in?"

"You're the one with the apparent access, not me," he snorted, "but given the recent rules about night time lock down and what I hear out there, then yeah, I suspect everyone's in – other than you and your boyfriend, there. Uh – does he know about the cat DNA thing?" At Joshua's quick growl in response, Alec snorted, "yeah, guess so."

Shaking off his pointless cracks, Max snorted dismissively and muttered, "I'm going to check it out.." Alec spoke up to stop her again.

"Max – wait!" When she turned for one last, sour look, he tried, "just – see if you can't find the switch up there, huh? Let us out?"

"I'll see what I can do – after I know things will be better with you out than in."

As she took off again, Alec called heartily, "that's my girl!" to her disappearing form. Once she'd disappeared from view, Alec's grin faded a bit and he muttered, "sure hope you decide it's 'out.'" As he stood at the impassable, bolted door for another few moments, he heard the sounds of all the others like him, created by those upstairs who had him caged, and heard the mingled anger, fear, and confusion among them. Damn, he swore, aiming a fast kick at the door, then grunted and crossed his small cell, dropping onto his cot, trying for patience. It's all on the renegade and her faithful canine companion? Gimme a break, he moaned to himself. Just what Renfro has been afraid of, all this time. Hope she's happy she was right...

XXIII

As they crossed into the facility, more chatter was finding its way into Tony's earpiece as the reports started coming in: Syl had taken the control room and had turned it over to Lydecker to guard, returning to Krit, not long behind, and with him had easily incapacitated the few guards along the area of the control room. Without clear threat, the SEAL team set up a perimeter to allow the others coverage as they came and went. Team One, and behind them Team Two, had been now tasked to sweep the facility to determine if other guards or employees were nearby, and the several pockets of non-transgenic, military guards on site were overtaken easily by the insertion teams, a few of the troops even surrendering when they saw that their attackers were FBI.

"Lydecker was right," one of the agents muttered to no one in particular. "Leaving the place to the run of the mill soldiers, none of their specially-trained soldiers on hand – and what do you bet these Army troops didn't choose to be assigned here?"

The reports came more quickly, the apparent success of the mission warming the teams' comfort level with even more chatter and ever-decreasing levels of alert. Still professional, all continued to keep their guard up until the whole place was cleared, but they were more comfortable fanning out, covering more ground without back up so close at their elbows.

As did the others, Tony took a part of a corridor, walking carefully down one long, dark hall to peer into empty rooms, finding training facilities, more labs than made him comfortable, and further, ominous-looking rooms with observation glass walls, patient chairs that bore straps and metal clamps where a human's limbs would be, and gleaming, silent machinery...

Without warning, DiNozzo was grabbed from behind by someone at least a foot taller than he, and a hand clamped over his mouth. He was pinned so completely and suddenly he couldn't move at all – and was so stunned, he was silent.

A voice rumbled in his ear, from behind, clearly the giant who held him. "You stay quiet..."

A demand or a question, DiNozzo wasn't sure, but he nodded and the hand slowly lifted off his mouth. Breathing again, his mind scrambled for an out. "Look, I was just trying to find my way back," he invented, conversationally, his sometimes-charming wits the only thing he could manipulate at the moment. "I got turned around from the others..."

But at that moment, he heard it, from in front of him – a small gasp of relief, almost a laugh – decidedly feminine. "Tony..." she whispered.

Suddenly DiNozzo forgot all about the huge form behind him, still holding him captive. "Max?" he dared.

And at that, from the shadows in front of him stepped the woman he knew from his cousin's love for her - thinner, paler, alive - a gaunt warrior face with intense brown eyes that softened in recognition as she quickly moved close to wrap her arms around him...

"...Tony," she choked.

...to be continued.