A/N: Sorry for the delay folks, and thank you for sticking with it so far. This is the last part of episode 1. When I start writing episode 2 it will be as a normal prose piece, not script, so hopefully the chapters will flow better and the characters show through more.

Special thanks to nexus432 and 452max for reviewing every chapter, and to those anonymous reviewers, such as !!!, to whom I cannot send individual thank you messages.

Act 4

Scene 1 - Manticore Combat Training Areas

Time passed as it always did in a Manticore barracks: training, scrutiny, more training, more scrutiny. Hand to hand combat, drills, gym, manoeuvres and, just to keep things interesting, the occasional psych or med. exam. There was the usual regularity of the routines, but the faces kept changing. Max found herself never able to talk with any of the other X5's, never left alone with any of them, except 226. Every day she was drilled on hand to hand combat. Every day she faced a different combatant. All except one. The hair was new. The stone cold concentration was new. The tattoo encircling his right bicep was new. Even some of his moves were new. No matter how many new things she counted about him, though, Max saw no-one in front of her on those days other than the same old Alec she had fought with tooth and nail for the past six years. At least, she would have called it tooth and nail at the time. Now it was abundantly clear he had been going easy on her from the start.

Every week without fail, she was faced with the cold, apathetic drone that had once been Alec. The first time she had tried to talk to him, get through to the Alec she hoped was inside, but that idea had been beaten out of her by the drill sergeant. Every time she fought him. Every time she lost. As soon as she thought she'd learned his new moves, another faster, newer, more powerful one would come out of nowhere and land her flat on her back. What was Manticore's plan? It wasn't like she was going to suddenly turn round and overpower her friend. Was it Manticore's idea of a new, sick form of torture? Or did they still not have a clue what all the genetic scribbles appearing periodically on her body meant? Perhaps they really did expect her to develop some new superpower. Or maybe they just wanted to reinforce the reminder of what they could do to her, given the chance by their bosses.

Weeks passed. Slowly but surely, Max found herself growing stronger. Opponents became easier to beat. Alec was finding it tougher to win. Her fights with him were lasting longer and longer. It took six weeks in all to beat him, the last two fights being stopped by the drill sergeant after a marathon six hours in the ring. As the weeks passed, Max found it easier and easier to beat Alec, or 494 as she was beginning to think of him. After ten weeks, she was called to the CO's office.

~XXXX~

Scene 2 - Manticore Barracks and CO's Office

Perhaps her shark DNA was being amplified along with everything else, but Max hadn't been able to, or felt the need to, sleep in three days. As a consequence, when, early in the morning, just after sunrise in fact, X5-226 arrived at her cell door with two obvious guards, Max was wide awake and staring at the ceiling. All 226 would say was that she had been ordered to accompany Max to the CO's office. Max followed dutifully down the drab and dreary corridors to the CO's door. It stood out. Where every other door was unremarkable and identical to the one before it, this one was different. It bore a wooden plaque into which the words Commanding Officer were inscribed with a fine chisel and painted standard black. Above the title, a slot stood vacant for a name plate. Whoever this CO was, Max would be getting no clues until she walked in the room, if she was able to pick them up then.

226 knocked sharply at the door and opened it, entering the room and holding the door open for Max to follow. The ever present guards behind her reminded Max that there were limited options, and she followed 226 into the office.

The man sitting behind the solid, practical desk that took up most of one side of the room was a standard, stereotypical army male. Tall, even sitting down, and broad, his stationary neatly lined up in front of him, an inbox on one side of the desk, outbox on the other and open file right in front of him. Max reflected on how like his desk he was: solid, practical and taking up most of the space allotted to him. He finished reading the report, or at least appearing to read it, closed the file and looked up.

"X5-226 reporting, sir!" 226 stood to attention and saluted her CO.

"X5-452 reporting, sir!" Max did likewise, but noted that the two guards behind her remained silent.

"At ease," said the CO, his dark eyes studying the rogue enigma that Manticore, in its wisdom, had designated X5-452.

Both female X5's relaxed into the familiar "at ease" stance, but Max was still aware of the unmoving guards behind her. She focussed on the CO in front of her. He must be what? Mid forties? Dark hair going grey at the temples. Cut short like an old army buzz cut. Dark eyes, at least as dark as her own, but unemotional. Blank. Scar, down the left side of his face from temple to cheek. Old. Permanent. Hands large and weathered. Battle hardened? Or what, though? A movement from one of those hands made Max focus her attention back on the CO's face.

"X5-452," he began, watching her face with those fathomless eyes. "I have here a report that tells me you were successful in a training session of hand to hand combat recently."

"Sir, yes, sir!" Max replied, with the military precision they had spent so long trying to instil in her at Manticore.

"Do you know the X5 who was your opponent?"

"I believe it was X5-494, sir!"

"Indeed," the CO nodded and shifted in his chair, leaning his weight on one elbow. "Tell me, 452: have you ever met 494 in the outside world?"

"I believe I knew his twin, X5-493, sir!" Max answered, truthfully.

The CO glanced over to 226, then got up and walked slowly round to the other side of the desk, keeping his eyes fixed on Max all the while. He stopped and leant back against the side of the desk.

"X5-493 died over six years ago, 452. I know you were there at the time," he intoned solemnly. Max could feel his stare burning on her face as he scrutinised her for any trace of emotional response. When he spoke again, he leant forward, caught her gaze and held it. "I will ask you again, 452: have you ever met 494 outside of Manticore?"

Silence reigned as Max considered her options. True, she had told 266 part of the story of her and Alec, but she had never identified him as 494 or even as Manticore. On the other hand, she didn't know what Manticore itself already knew of her life. They had certainly known where to find Alec.

"Yes, sir," Max replied, more slowly this time.

"Now we're getting somewhere," said the CO, leaning back again. "Now I want you to tell me what you know about X5-494, 452. I want to know how you met, how you knew each other in the civilian world, and how you last parted company. Be warned," he added, with a glance over at 226, "I will know if you are lying to me."

"I first met X5-494 six years ago, when I was brought back to Manticore," Max began, mentally shrugging. She didn't know what they knew and nothing she told them now could hurt her that much. "He was assigned to me as a breeding partner. We met again after the barracks were destroyed and he helped other X-series soldiers to survive in the civilian world. He took on a job as a courier at Jam Pony, where I worked with him for about a year. He helped in the setting up of the Mutant Sector in Seattle and I saw him fairly frequently up until about 18 months ago. After that I saw less of him. The last time I saw him was nearly four months ago, until I returned here.

"Tell me, 452," the CO began, folding his arms, "how did you actually manage to return "here"? These barracks are over 400 miles from both the previous Manticore holdings and Seattle. Our missions over the past five years have only very rarely extended beyond the limits of our own grounds, and almost never into any large cities. We have learned from our previous mistakes and covered out tracks excellently. There should have been nothing to guide you to us. This is, at least partly, deliberate: you have a track record of expensive repairs attached to your file."

That question at least wasn't a surprise: Max had been waiting on someone asking how she had found them since the day she arrived!

"I don't know, sir," she dared a physical shrug. "I was following a hunch. I guess I just got lucky."

The CO snorted and made his way back around the desk.

"How aware are you of your abilities, 452?"

"Always discovering new ones, sir," Max replied, doing her best to sound please about it.

That line of question did surprise her slightly. Not by it's presence, though, but by the fact it had come up quite so early in conversation. Most of the Manticore staff she had met so far had been remarkably longwinded when it came to getting to the point. That was two pointed questions in a row. Now all she had to do was work out where they were pointing. Whether he noticed her surprise or not, the CO nodded and carried on.

"Were you aware, for example," he said, "that an X5 female is able to postpone a pregnancy, from the day of implantation, for up to 6 months?"

"No, sir," Max stilled. That one was news to her, and she didn't like where those questions now seemed to be pointing.

"We gave you a full medical exam when you came in here, 452," the CO carried on, regardless, sitting back down in his leather chair and clasping his hands in front of him. "That exam indicated that you were not pregnant, however, it would have indicated the same had you been suppressing a pregnancy. Being aware of this, and of the circumstances of X5-494's return to us, we took the liberty of adding to your food a certain hormone. This hormone inhibits your ability to hold a pregnancy in stasis."

"Are you saying I'm pregnant, sir?" The question in Max's voice was both real and obvious. Was she pregnant? Could that be possible? But surely she would know?

"It's a funny thing, 452," said the CO, leaning back in his chair and folding his arms, looking almost triumphant at her state of confusion. "Perhaps your creators meant to do it, perhaps it's just a side effect. Unlike many of your more recently developed abilities, however, this one is effective across all female X5s. As an X5 pregnancy enters its fourth week, or third after reactivation from stasis, the mother experiences a number of subtle physiological changes. She gets stronger, faster and her healing ability is vastly accelerated. These improvements are apparently intended to protect the foetus during the most vulnerable stage of pregnancy. The changes, however, only last for the first two trimesters: once the pregnancy reaches its third trimester, should the mother be placed under any undue stress, she will simply go into immediate labour."

"As fascinating as this is, sir," said Max, pulling herself together under the sting of the man's smug explanations. Explanations that were sounding all too familiar. "I don't see how it answers my question."

"Do you know why X5-494 was chosen as your breeding partner, 452?"

Great, thought Max: now he decides to talk his way round the houses, just like all the rest. Just another mind game. Just another day in the madhouse.

"No, sir," Max replied patiently.

"It was because he is the strongest, fastest and most intelligent of the male X5s, as you are of the females. No X5 should be able to beat him in hand to hand combat," the CO leaned forward in his chair again. "Not even you," he said. "Not without a little extra help..."

(Fade out.)

(End of Episode 1.)