A/N: Hey everyone! I hope you guys are enjoying this! Please review and give me feedback.

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BTW, I won't be able to thank you guys at the end because there has recently been a new rule that you are not allowed to reply to your reviewers, and if you do you may get punished. Many of us authors do not like this rule, so we have been e-mailing around this list where you can sign by putting your pen name on ffnet and your e-mail. Once we reach 200 signatures, we might be able to win that privilege back. So if you are an author on ffnet and want to partake in this to win back the ability to reply to reviewers, please state in your review that you would like a copy of this e-mail and I will send it to you. Full details are inside the e-mail. Thanks everyone!

Also, to anyone who's already part of this, will we be notified when we can start replying to our reviewers again?

A half hour had gone by and Max still shook but not as violently as before. Blood ran from her eyes but she paid no attention to it. The effects of the implant were starting to kick in; the pain was slowly leaving her body. She knew she only had a few hours before the implant would eventually burn out her nervous system, but a plan was formulating in her mind. If she was going to die in a few hours anyway, she might as well go down fighting. On the off chance that her plan could work and save all her friends, she was ready to try at least.

I guess there are only so many times I can escape my fate. Even if I die, I might be able to save my friends.

There were two rules that Manticore had taught them that Max had always believed in. That you should never abandon your unit and that if you're going to die, you might as well die fighting with honour.

Max pushed herself up slowly from her position on Alec's lap and he looked a little startled that she was trying to get up.

"Rest," he admonished gently. "You need to save your strength so that you'll last until Manticore gets here."

She gave him a sad smile. She could see right through him; he was worried that she wouldn't make it, and he was right. She wouldn't.

"You know as well as I do that resting isn't going to help anything," she said. She coughed and covered her mouth with her hand. When she pulled it away, she saw that it was bloody. She saw the others cringe at the sight. She was coughing up blood; it wouldn't be long now. She looked over at the door where several Reds stood; not really paying attention to her, figuring that she would die soon enough.

Watch your backs, she thought.

"Max, come on," Alec said. "Your one tough-ass chick. You just kick this implant's butt."

"I do plan on kicking ass, but not the implant's. There's nothing I can do about that," she said. He followed her gaze in the Reds' direction and shook his head.

"Max, you'll be alright," Mina said. Despite her words, the normally unfazed blonde's eyes were a second away from spilling over with tears.

"No," she said, still with the same sad smile. "I won't."

The rest of her unit had nothing to say to that. During the short time they had known her, the fiery brunette they had once considered a traitor had wormed her way into their hearts and befriended them. To know that she probably wouldn't last to see the next sunrise hurt them.

Max looked at Alec, finally making a decision. She knew that she cared for him as more than a friend, and before she died, she intended to let him know that. She moved her head forward and kissed him slowly, taking him completely by surprise, but after a moment he weaved his hands with her hair and kissed her back. The others respectfully turned their heads away from the scene until they had finished.

"Now I gotta make sure that yourfavouritefeaturestays intact," she said with a cheeky grin.

She stood up, shaking a little but managing to stay upright. She wiped the blood from her cheeks and even made her stance a little defiant which caught the attention of the Reds who had stopped talking upon seeing her rise.

"I'm not dead yet," she called out. "And before I am, I intend to kick some serious ass."

Throughout the whole plane ride, the two teams had been wary of each other. Some small arguments had broken out when some of Unit 4 insisted that one or two of the Psy Ops team had been searching around in their heads.

"That's not true!" XP-097 shouted. "I did no such thing!"

"Yes you did!" X5-916 argued back. "You so did! I felt like someone was crawling around in my brain and when I looked at you, you had a funny look on your face!"

"916, that funny look was his face," XP-111 said with a bored look on her face. 097 glared at her and she shrugged half-assedly.

"I'm just saying," she said.

The COs of both units were trying to calm everyone down, but if anything it only seemed to make it worse.

"I'm sure it was just a misunderstanding," X5-617 said, trying to keep his voice steady without letting irritation seep in. If they kept it up, he was sure one of the pilots would come back there and give them an earful.

"Exactly," XP-801 agreed, trying to get the riled up transgenics to keep quiet.

"Misunderstanding my ass!" 916 argued. "097 was doing it on purpose!"

"Fine then!" 097 said, throwing his hands up. "You want to believe I did something that I didn't? Go ahead. On second thought, if you're going to be mad at me, at least have a reason for it." He stared at 916 and tilted his head slightly.

Pick your nose, 097 said in 916's head. 916 started and seemed to go into a trance-like state. A moment later he was picking his nose like there was no tomorrow and almost everyone, even some of Unit 4, erupted into a fit of giggles.

"097!" 801 reprimanded. "Stop that right now!"

097 obeyed reluctantly and when 916 came out of it, he was more furious than before and the argument started all over again. The rest of the flight passed in much the same fashion; the Psy Ops soldiers made Unit 4 do funny things and by the end, although many of them were a little ticked off, they all managed to have a laugh about it and even started retelling the high points of the journey.

Little did they know they would soon be joining in in a massacre.

Max snapped one neck with ease and quickly moved on to the next without pause. The blood was running down her face faster now and it was much darker than it had been an hour ago. She knew time was quickly running out when her legs shook and she started to feel the pain that was non-existent a little while ago. It was only a dull sting in the back of her mind, but she knew that as time wore on it would become worse.

She blurred around the room, throwing punches and kicks everywhere as her friends watched in awe, fascination, and a little fear. She could hear the thundering footsteps coming up the stairs as she crushed the skull of yet another Red. They littered the floor now and the smell in the room was putrid.

She tensed and then dropped into a fighting stance once again, every nerve tingling in her body as the door flung open and dozens of soldiers rushed in at her. She flew into action without hesitation, killing 3 soldiers in the blink of an eye.

The others finally came to their senses. Sure, now Max was equal to the Reds and could fight many at a time, but she was also growing weaker and she wouldn't be able to fight off even that many at a time. They launched into action, each going in a different direction to fight another Red. It was a fight for life now; theirs or the Reds.

Alec punched a Red in the face and then aimed at kick to his groin. He went down immediately but Alec barely could give himself time for satisfaction as another Red aimed a punch to his head. He repeated the actions he had done to the first Red and grinned.

There are just some things you can't quite rid a guy of.

He quickly surveyed the room. The rest of his unit mates were holding their own, but he could see that many of them were pretty wounded. He spotted Rodriguez, dead in a corner, and Lila unconscious in another. It seemed like Max was faring the best out of them all, but then again, considering the blood that was running even faster from her eyes, she was in the worst shape. He could see her biting her lip; she was getting worse he knew.

He spun around just as a Red raised a knife above his head and quickly kicked it from his hand and resumed fighting.

Max swept the legs out from under a Red and knocked him out by pressing his pressure points. She saw another one head for her but her head was getting woozy and the room was spinning around her. She felt her knees buckle and she fell to the ground, looking up helplessly toward the Red who stood triumphantly over her, a gun pointed straight at her heart.

This is it.

Pain was rushing through her body and there was so much bloody in her eyes that all she could see was red. She heard a loud bang and then she surrendered to the realms of darkness that had come forth to claim her.

XP-801 and X5-617 looked up as X5-076, X5-149 and XP-467 returned to camp. They had been sent to gather some recon almost two hours before and the COs' nervousness had been put to rest when they arrived.

"Report," 617 barked.

"The base's perimeter will be fairly easy to breach as there weren't many soldiers on guard outside. It seems that they're more preoccupied with guarding whatever's inside, which is probably Unit 8. There are guards at every entrance of the building but we'll be able to slip in unnoticed during their shift change. They rotate every 15 minutes. Night should fall in about half an hour and that's when we should make our move. The darkness will give us the extra cover we need."

"Good work," XP-801 said. He talked to 617 for a moment and then made a motion to the rest of the soldiers and they formed a line in front of him and 617.

"Gather the weapons and prepare to move out once night falls. You will all be split into teams accordingly with at least 2 from the Psy Ops unit and 3 from Unit 4. We'll be giving you instructions on where you will enter and remember you must do it as discretely as you can. Don't underestimate the Reds; the director said that they are equal to us in combat and that they feel no pain. 801 will split you up now," 617 said.

617 turned his head to see one of the Psy Ops soldiers, XP-018, staring at the Reds' base with a frown on her face. Once 801 was done splitting the soldiers into teams, he pointed her out to him.

"What's with 018?" 617 asked.

801 stared at his soldier and held up his hand to 617 to silence him. He waited quietly until 018 blinked and shook her head slightly before he said anything.

"What's wrong 018?" he asked.

"We need to move out now," she said. "We don't have time to wait for nightfall. It's now or never."

617 raised an eyebrow. "I don't think that's such a good idea."

"I think we should listen to her," 801 said. "Tell the others we're moving out now."

Once she had left 617 turned to him. "You're not the only CO on this mission. You need to discuss things with me before you make any decisions."

"018 is a special kind of Psy Ops soldier. She's very sensitive to her surroundings and she can tell if the atmosphere is friendly or not. If she senses that something's wrong and that we need to move out now, then we should take her word for it."

617 huffed. "Fine."

The two units stood on top of the hill, staring at the base they were about to infiltrate. They all assessed the building on their own, their training and instincts making them look immediately for ways out. Then, as silent as mice and without speaking a word, they crept forward and spread out.

018 had a bad feeling in her stomach. This was not going to be pleasant.

Renfro put her ear against Sergeant Johnson's door and after listening for a second, creaked it open and stuck her head inside.

It was empty.

She snuck inside and shut the door, then quickly went over to his desk and shuffled through his papers. She knew that the Sergeant had wanted to head up Manticore for quite some time now. Ever since Lydecker had been in charge, she remembered. Now she was wondering how far the Sergeant would go to get that position. Renfro already had a few strikes against her: the DNA lab, her loss of Unit 8, and her inability to find out who Eyes Only was had cost her a lot. It would probably only take one more strike for the Committee to think that she was not fit to be the director. But Elizabeth Renfro was not a woman to play games with. She would turn the tables with only a moment's notice.

She finally held up a paper that had caught her interest.

Unit 8. Mission in Seattle. Staying at the Sheraton hotel for a genetics conference. Call Rodriguez.

She kept on reading until she found more notes on the other side.

Find out what Renfro's plan is to retrieve Unit 8. Warn Rodriguez. Make sure the Committee doesn't suspect anything.

"Sergeant, you're quite an idiot to leave things like this lying around," she murmured. She stuffed the paper in a pocket and picked up the phone.

"This is Renfro. Please find X6-294 and tell him to put Operation Johnson in process."

She quietly left the room just as she spied Johnson turning the corner.

You should have learned your lesson when your ex-wife put poison in your drink after you cheated on her. Never mess with a woman.

They stealthily moved up the stairs in the building, strangely not hearing a sound. They heard no movement until they reached the last flight. They heard grunts and moans of pain, obvious signs of a fight.

X5-583 kicked the door hard and it flew open with a loud bang. They rushed in in time to see the bloodied soldiers, X5s and Reds alike, beating the crap out of each other. Right in front of the door they saw a Hispanic-looking woman collapse onto the ground in front of a Red. X5-703 rushed forward and snapped his neck before he could shoot the soldier then she took in the X5's appearance. Something was different about her. There wasn't much blood on her actual body, but her face was a different story. It was as if her skin was tinged red and she saw blood seep out from the woman's eyes. She shuddered.

The other soldiers joined in the fights and with the help of the Psy Ops soldiers, who were doing their thing rather than actually fighting, the Reds' numbers decreased and it seemed like the transgenics were winning. By the end, most of the Reds were dead or else doing some pretty spectacular things.

One was doing cartwheels around the room while another was singing in the middle of the room. In another corner, a Red was telling jokes with a furious look on his face from not being able to stop, and in the opposite corner one sat on the floor sucking his thumb like a baby.

"Thought it would lighten the atmosphere," XP-206 said weakly.

Alec looked around the room and his breath caught. Lila was still unconscious in a corner, Mina unconscious across the room, and an X5 from Unit 4 lying spread eagled near the door, his neck at a strange angle, obviously dead. He watched as Unit 4 surrounded their unit mate and hung their heads in respect, but his eyes moved a little to the side where he saw Max covered in blood, her eyes closed, her body still. He rushed over, ignoring the pain in his limbs, and the rest of their unit did the same.

"Is she dead?" Hunter asked, his voice a mere whisper.

"No. She'ds still dere, but ter pulse id faint," Miles said, trying to speak with a bloody nose and a busted lip. "We godda get der do Mantico."

The Psy Ops unit had already started to exit the room and Unit 4 slowly followed, 291 holding their dead unit mate, 916 holding Lila. 617 picked Max up since Alec was too weak to carry her and XP-998 had Mina's arm around his neck, supporting most of her since she was starting to come to. When she did however, no one understood the reaction they got from her.

Her eyes slowly fluttered open and she shook her head to focus. She tried to stabilize herself and then she turned her head to see who was holding her up. As soon as their eyes made contact her knees turned to jelly, her eyes filled with tears and her mouth dropped open.

"I thought I'd never see you again," she whispered before she flung herself at him.

A/N: So, did you guys like this? Poor Max, she's going to regret living when she remembers she kissed Alec just because she thought she was going to die. LOL Then we're back to the square one. And Mina, whoa. She's just one surprise after another huh? Next chapter you get to find out more about her past.

Thank you to everyone who reviewed and I'm very sorry that I won't be able to reply. (See A/N at the top.) I hope I will be able to soon, though, so please keep reviewing! It encourages me to write more and it gives me inspiration.

Thanks! Please review and check out my other fics. Kisses, aod78