Disclaimer: No I still don't own Dark Angel!

Notes: I know you all must loathe me for taking so dreadfully long on this chapter. Heck, I loathe me! :p Please forgive me! I'm sorry! IMPORTANT! I've dicided to dedicate this whole entire chapter to Logan's Stalker, my faithful reviewer whose praise is always so well placed. I had thought I was going to give up this entire story, but I didn't thanks to a nice little reminder that at least one person really likes this story. So I sat down and banged this bad boy out in two days. So Logan's Stalker, this chapter is yours. It is officially your chapter. Thanks!

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...The Unspoken...
...by Plastic Female Plaything...
...plasticteenprototype@earthlink.net...
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She was quick to discover that her good place was not as she had pictured it to be.

"Goodbye, Alec."

It was the only farewell that she knew, so she supposed it would have to be enough for this particular parting. She wished for the knowledge of a spoken farewell that better conveyed a hope to see this person again, but her wishes came to no sudden and miraculous avail. So, with this name learned and her farewell given voice she was ready to take her leave of him. Her desire to see and explore this newly discovered good place was rising swift within her. Swift and hard with a force even the best self-control must succumb to.  So she turned and began to walk away.

Yet, Alec had paid her a great service and she couldn't leave him with his mind-noise so in such a state of agitation. She thought rather amusedly that her farewell could not have been so ill said as to cause such distress. No, she discovered upon concentrating more closely the root of his distress, that it was not her lack of an eloquent farewell. A part of him did not want to get involved with her life. More trouble, he thought and she knew with a sudden pang insider her that he was all to right. She was trouble. She was danger. The two males had known the truth before their deaths and she had killed them for it. Yet, the other part of him was opposed to letting her wander this city without any means of support. No. She had come to her good place to escape her isolation. To make mouth-noise with others. But she must make sure that her past mistakes always prevent her from relying fully on another. And this is what he wanted. For her to rely on him. Part of him anyway. She prayed that the part that despised trouble would win over. She knew she would discover this world on her own. She knew that she must assess the customs of and speech patterns of the inhabitants of this city before she threw herself into the role of one of them. She might find then that she was in need of assistance, but she would not accept the risk of the kind of dependency that he wanted of her ever again. Why must all lessons come so hard for me, she though.

She sighed. She could not refuse him until he offered his help. She began to slow her pace slightly.

Any moment now.

"Hey!"

Ah, here we go.

"Yes?"

"Listen," he stopped and sighed his frustration. Was this question really so difficult for him?

 "I know this girl… she can hook you up with a job, a place to stay, sector passes. I-"

She had never broken the speech of another in her life, but the call of her new world was overwhelming. Pushing at her. To resist would be useless. "I thank you," she paused, searching for the right words, "but I cannot accept your offer."

This flustered him she could tell, but she wished to indulge her own interests now. Again she turned to walk down this dark street, marveling at all that she had never seen before. Her hearing caught the vaguest of murmurs of mouth-noise as she made her path away from him; all she could make out was the word "ungrateful". She did not turn, nor did she lessen her pace… but oh how she smiled.

Oh how she smiled.

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She was quick to discover that this society was greatly different than all she had known before.

One, even when looking at the world with fresh eyes, could not gape at streetlights and wonder at buildings for the whole of the night. It was the structure of the society that she was interested, not the construction of their dwellings. So she found a small niche in a dirty ally to curl up in and wait until first light. She slept again, a true rarity, but a needed one because she knew that she wanted as much energy for the coming day as could be gained. Soon, she thought as she closed her eyes. Soon I will place all that has transpired before this time behind me and new memories shall be molded. Soon.

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"You ain't got a pass, you ain't goin' through. Now move away unless you lookin' for trouble."

She stared with wide, uncomprehending eyes at this stupid man, yet she did as she was told, moving away from the line of impatient people looking to go through the gates guarded by men in uniform. How had it come to this? She wished now that she had never been so foolish as to leave the forest.

 She had not awoken softly this morning. It was an impossible feat; nothing was soft about this place.  She should have known that the large buildings she had so admired before would be full of people with large mind-noise. When she had first stepped onto the street, the noise hit her mind so roughly that her body stumbled backwards with the shock of it. Never in her life had she heard so many mind voices at once. Manitcore was silent for her. The forest was silent too. But this! So intense was it that she clapped her hands over her ears; a foolish attempt to make the noise stop. She couldn't take it.  Why had she ever left her forest for this evil place? She even cursed Alec. Why had he brought her here? But she did not curse him for long; somehow the remembrance of his face when she refused his help prevented her from thinking ill on him. She would remember him well.

She knew, however well remembered Alec was, that she must leave this place called Seattle. She was not one of them. How could she have ever thought she could be?

An easy task it was not. She had pleaded with the uniformed men guarding the passages out of section of city she was in, but all was hopeless with out something called a "sector pass". Alec had offered her access to one and she had refused his offer of help. She could not help but berate herself for her stupidity concerning her interactions with Alec. How foolish she had been!

The thought had not even occurred to her to attack the uniformed men in an attempt to force her way through the barriers.  It was something just not-to-be-done after her bouts of rage in the cell days. She despaired of ever finding her way out of this evil place. She thought of her forest. She thought of the tree she slept in. She thought of her stream she had bathed in. She though of the two males, laying death beneath the dirt of that forest.

And she wept with the want to return.

She had no choice now. She must learn the ways of this place in hopes of acquiring a "sector pass" in time. There were no other options for her.

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She was quick to discover that desperation was the best of teachers.

When life offers you only one direction in which to travel, it becomes almost surprisingly easy to acquire the skills with which to make the journey. It was no different for her. She forced disappointment down within herself and did what she knew was necessary to learn to survive her own journey.

She opened her eyes to better see and mimic the actions of the people around her.

She opened her ears to better hear and mimic the tones and inflictions in mouth speech. 

She opened her mind to catalogue the common phrases and opinions she heard in mind-noise.

She stayed as hidden as possible during her self inflicted education. Sometimes she ventured into plain sight to observe financial transactions but for the most part she watched. The people in this city seemed to care greatly about her cleanliness; after about a week of her inhabitance and she knew she could not afford anything that would draw any attention to herself. And being that everyone that passed by her on the street made negative mind-noise regarding her odor, she knew she must discover some way to bathe.

So she waited one older woman that she had been observing over the past few days left her home. She snuck in through an unlocked window and made use of her bathing area. She of course wondered at the texture of carpet under her feet and the friendliness that the wall's pastel flower print seemed to radiate.  Once in the bathroom, and after the time she had trying to get the shower to work, she became confused by bottles proclaiming that they would give her hair "elasticity and shine" and promote "manageability" but quickly caught on to their use. Hair soap. It came in odd colors, but the smell was pleasing. The water was cold in the shower.  Even so, time in the shower was something to be enjoyed.

She made use of the brightly colored towels in the bathing area to dry her body then she searched until she found a chest of drawers containing the woman's clothing. She choose the most practical items possible and changed into them, thinking that the nest time she did this she must choose a someone with a body type more similar to her own. She left the clothes she had been wearing previously, for she had no use for them and it would be foolish for her to carry them around with her. She resolved to make a habit of this every fourth day, as she slipped out through the window. Always a different home and always different clothes. Preferably ones that fit better, she held up the loose folds of fabric in disgust.

She would have liked a more reliable source of food that she could get by slipping it unnoticed from a stall in the large outdoor market she often frequented. And the product of her watching in the aforementioned market was the knowledge that the driving force of this society was money. Money was most certainly a more reliable source of food. But where was one to get a reliable source of money? Judging from her forays into the mind-noise of those around her something very unpleasant called a "job" must be possessed in order to produce money. She was hesitant to seek out a "job" because not one mind-voice that she had encountered seemed to think very highly of them. It seemed that there was no other way to come about money, besides forcibly taking it from those that possessed it, which she did on occasion from those whose contempt for her dirty appearance was blatantly present in both mind and face. Never outright, of course, but with swift hands slipped into pockets and purses. Money for this and that. It never lasted long though and more things were taken than things paid for.

She slipped into a routine. She slept in her corner of a dirty ally. She bathed in the houses of strangers. She took what was need from the market. Once in rained so hard the market wasn't held, so instead she went to a small store and took what she could before the man that stood behind a tall counter and thick glass became suspicious. She never went to the store again. She felt as though taking from that indoor store was something not-to-have-been-done. She couldn't say exactly whey she felt that way.

But she was very soon to discover what she had risked by taking a loaf of bread and a bag of chips from a corner store.

Even more, she would discover what she had gained.

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To be continued…. 

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And it's not like Logan's Stalker gets all the credit! As always, my heartfelt thanks goes out to IzzyB, Angelbebe, JoJo, cait, motorcycle_angel, and Mija. You guys are awesome! Super nice days and chocolate-chip cookies to all! J Also, this eventually will have a tiny bit of romance in it. But I'll never tell you who! So there! ;p It's not really going to be the main focus of the story, so never fear. I won't let this get mushy. *pictures this getting mushy* Ewwww!