Max's eyes slowly opened. She wondered if she was still sleeping, still in the swift-moving dream in which she had been wrapped so long since the mission began. The dark world was rushing by, and the voices sang loudly in her ears. She could see nothing but the bright lights above her, and away to her right vast shadows against the wall were Manticore special ops. Sleepily she tried to remember the times and stages if he mission, but her memory was drowsy and uncertain.

She had visions of what had happened and began to shake. But Brin had spoken soft words to her, and she had slept in a corner, tired but uneasy, dimly aware of comings and goings and of men talking and Brin giving orders. And then again lights, lights lighting the room into the night. This was the second, no, the third night since she had seen the faces of her companions. And with that hideous memory she woke fully, and shivered, and the noise of machines became filled with menacing voices. She stirred and spoke.

"Where am I, Brin?" she asked wearily.

"Manticore" Brin replied, sounding remorseful. "You are the center of attention to Manticore at the moment."

Max's eyes gazed the room, and she asked almost in a whisper, "Why?"

Brin let out a gasp for air, and max turned to see Brin crying. "You... You are the mother of the X5 up. And Zack is our father." Just then Madame X walks through the door seeing Brin emotional, she dismisses her, and pulls up a chair next to max. "So there you have it. Now you can see why you are so valuable to Manticore."

Max sat up and looked at Madame X. Max was confused on how that was significant enough to keep her alive. "Why am I alive? Isn't that something you would want to keep from the X's?" Madame X let out a brief laugh. "Foolish child. Don't you see what that means? Sooner or later the X's will find out. It is encoded in their minds. One of the flaws we are currently unable to remove. At a certain maturity point they will come for you, to rescue you." Max was getting interested, as she quickly responded, "You have the X7. Aren't they powerful enough to take on the X5's?" Madame X knew she was telling her prisoner Classified Information, but she proceeded. "How would you feel if your mother was captured and experiments were performed on her daily? The love of a child towerds their mother will strengthen anyone. A man could kill any technology Manticore produced if their emotions got the best of them. Hence forth, the X5's will unite someday, and bring down Manticore. They will only stop at your acknowledgement."

Max was emotionless on the outside, but on the inside she was screaming at the top of her lungs. "What if I refuse to stop them?" "You wont have that option. You are going to be reprogrammed, and you will listen to commands given to you. You will become what you were created for. To kill or be killed." said Madame X.

Max had enough. She quickly sprang to her feet, and kicked the legs of the chair Madame X was sitting in. Madame X fell to the ground as Max was sprinting out the door of her room. Madame X called into a cb radio "X5-452 has breeched the Outside perimeter. Stop her, I want her alive and kicking." Max was nearly to the fence when she saw soldiers, and the X7 in front of her. She stopped in her tracks and scanned the area. There were 5 barracks behind her, a forest to the left and right of her, and Manticore soldiers and X7 in front of a river in front of her. Max quickly started running towards the woods to her left. An X7 that resembled Ben was right behind her. The X7 leaped towards max, tackling her. They both quickly leapt to their feet, and Max kicked the X7 in the jaw. The X7 wiped his lip and saw the blood. "Your good, but I'm better." He responded with a kick to Max's ribs. Max fell to the ground in pain. "Your not as tough as you look." replied Max as she swept the X7 off of his feet. He came crashing into the ground, and Max swiftly punched him in the face. "Your not as tough as you were made to be either." she said quickly.

Max got up and started running. Running for what, she didn't know. She was certainly going to be caught, but she had to make a run for it. Bullets started flying her way. She dodged them as best as she could, but they seemed to keep flying inches from her skull.

The X7 that resembles Ben was running unaware of what was under him. He stumbled over a body covered in blood. He got up and stared at the body. Moments passed when another X7 resembling Zack came across Ben and the body. Zack saw Ben staring at the body, and Zack rolled the body over revealing Max without a heartbeat, and multiple gunshot wounds. Zack called on his CB radio "Base, this is minion #1, over." "Minion #1, this is base, over" called Madame X's voice. "X5-452 has been shot and killed. Mission failure, over." "Damnit! Bring her back to base so we can prepare her burial." Replied Madame X.

Logan had been monitoring the transmission the whole time. Logan became furious and flipped his computer desk. He sat there in the middle of broken glass, and bent metal from the contents on his desk. Mixed emotions were flowing through his head.