Hey, sorry that this took so long, but you guys would not believe the week I've had. This past two weeks I've had more car trouble than I would have thought possible. Last Sunday my roommate and I were in a wreck, and on Tuesday I had a flat tire. That wouldn't be a huge deal, but it turns out that nobody in town has the size of tire that I need. Plus I've had all these tests to study for and all this homework to get done.

Well, last time in the intro I said that I was going to have Jondy explain why she got so mad at Chris, and then I didn't because I got so caught up in the whole Jondy-Chris interaction. Well, this chapter will be from her point of view.

Just so you know, if this were Dark Angel and Jondy were Max then she would be up on the space needle for this scene. But given the shortage of space needles in San Francisco, a rooftop is just going to have to do.

Karone Evertree: Well, Chris thinks he's unbelievably annoying, but no, he's not evil.

Disclaimer: I STILL don't own them, but I am the proud owner of a migraine thanks to constantly having to do these things.

Chapter 7:

The High Place

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Jondy lied. It was really getting to be a bad habit of hers.

She hadn't been lying when she had said she was hungry. Her revved up metabolism made hunger a part of life. Add in the fact that she got so little food at "home", and hunger was understandably something Jondy had grown completely accustomed to.

But she had lied when she said she was going "home". Whatever that meant. The Altman's house was the very last place she wanted to be. Well, with the understandable exception of Manticore.

Jondy usually avoided going back to the Altman's as long as she possibly could. Instead she chose to have some time alone. Preferably in a place where she didn't have to hide who she was, somewhere where she could take some time to process things.

After spending most of the afternoon at Chris' house, Jondy needed to do some serious processing. So, she headed to her usual spot.

Her thinking spot was the top of an old building. The company who had owned it had gone out of business, undoubtedly in the chaos following the pulse. From her building, Jondy had an excellent view of the golden gate bridge. She didn't know whether it was due to her feline DNA or the memories that high places held, but they had always had a relaxing effect on her.

Jondy crept through the alley before noiselessly opening the building's side door. She had broken the lock on this particular door long before to avoid the hassle of having to pick it every time she came. She hurriedly climbed the stairs, and went through yet another door to reach the building's roof. She calmly stood by the edge and peered down towards the street below.

Being up high like she was here always made her remember Manticore. Faces flashed through her mind's eye at lightning speed. Tinga, Brin, Zack, Zane, Krit, Syl, Ben...Max. She saw them all with astounding clarity. She loved every single one of them, even though she hadn't seen them in nearly a decade. They were her unit, her friends, but most of all they were her family. They had known her so well that they knew exactly how she felt without a word, (which was good because Manticore wasn't really big on verbal expression). No one here could understand her no matter what she said.

Of course that thought brought her around to the reason she had come here tonight. Chris had wrecked enough havoc on her mind before she had even known him. And now that she had actually talked to him, it was hard to stop thinking about him. He was just so different than the boys at school. He was different than any man she had ever met. They all saw her as a hot body and a pretty face. He knew that there was more to her than that. Not to mention that he was the first guy that she had ever been attracted to. Excluding, of course, the two to three times a year when she had her heat cycles.

'Stop thinking like that, Jondy! Attraction is bad, very, very bad.' Jondy berated herself. She simply couldn't afford to get too close to anyone. She had managed to slip off the radar, but she knew they were still looking for her. Lydecker simply wasn't the type to just drop something, no matter how unlikely that he would succeed.

Sometimes, though, she almost forgot who she was and where she had come from. She had lived on the outside for so long that it was almost like she was just like anyone else. It was the part that she had to play if she wanted to survive to survive, and she was good at it, almost too good.

There was a constant war inside her between the part of her that was the perfect Manticore soldier and the part that was (mostly at least) human. Her heart wanted to embrace life, to be able to love and be loved. But the part of her that was still 210 wouldn't allow it. There was an animal inside of her, one that Jondy couldn't always suppress. The part of her that was human, hadn't wanted to be yell at Chris like that, but when he mentioned her house, she panicked. She had felt like she was backed into a corner. The animalistic part of her had seen it as a fight or flight situation, and reacted accordingly.

Jondy was just glad she hadn't kicked his ass, physically at least. It might have been kind of hard to explain if she had "accidentally" snapped his neck or something.

But as much easier as life were be if she weren't a transgenic, if she had had a choice she wouldn't have changed things. It was an integral part of her. 'Besides,' she thought with a grin, 'what's normal anyways.'

Even though the escape had let her experience things that she would have never thought possible, it had come at a high price. Her brothers and sisters had been the best thing she'd ever had in her life before the escape. Now it had been ten years and she hadn't seen any of them since. During the first few months, she had expected to see them at any moment. She thought that she might turn the corner and run into Max, or go down the orphanage stairs to come face to face with Zack.

It was so different here than it had been in Manticore. Having all the appearance of freedom meant nothing to Jondy if she always had to be in hiding. Hiding who she was, what she was, there were days that Jondy found herself wishing she could be in back in Manticore.

But then, she came to her senses. No matter how bad it was here, it was nothing compared to how bad it was back there.

Not to mention that the one good thing that Manticore had had going for it, had escaped along with her. Somehow, deep down, she knew that she would see her brothers and sisters again. It was only a matter of time.

Jondy took one last look at the people walking down the street below the building, and turned around with a sign. It was, once again, time for her to join them.

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A/N: Please click on the pretty blue button! I'll type faster if you do.