Disclaimer: credit must be given were credit is due; the whole scene with Max and the pin (in the last chapter) needs to be credited to John Neufeld for his inspiration of a scene that stuck in my head forever.
AN: Yes I know Colonel Lydecker is being hard on the kids, but then again I don't think he was ever easy on them no matter how much he cared for them, final episode included. Also I am well aware that in the part which follows this one, Zack is a little too rough on Brin, but I think that he would act like this for two reasons: He'd always defend the family at any cost and at this point in his life Zack was aspiring to be a clone of Lydecker himself.
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Zack watched from his place next to his own cot as Max snapped to attention at exactly 0500 hours and quickly made her bed then stood at attention next to it waiting for the morning inspection. She stood at attention only with her arms behind her back to hide the bandages. Jondy signaled to everyone that the inspector was coming down the hallway. Zack's gaze snapped to the door the guard who walked in had never done the morning inspections before so he knew he could get away with it for now. Zack turned to all of them and bit off a command that might help protect Max.
"At ease." He barked. They all moved in unison into a position where their arms were clasped behind their backs their feet exactly one step apart from each other.
The unknown guard took a head count and then began to inspect all of the cots starting with Max's. "X-5452 what happened to your sheets?"
Max had no idea how to answer the man so she kept silent. Her siblings stepped in to save her.
"It happened to mine too, sir." Ben spoke up stepping forward.
"My sheets are also shredded, sir." Brin added reluctantly.
"We think it's a mouse, sir." Jondy spoke up.
Zack suppressed a grin, he never aloud himself the luxury, but he was very proud of them for sticking up for Max. Though from her reaction Zack could tell Brin was not involved in the deceiving of the officer by her own choice.
"We think it's nesting in the corner, sir." Ben explained pointing to the corner of the room closest to Max's cot.
The guard went and inspected X-5493 and X-5734's sheets which were actually shredded. Zack could see the strips now; they were stuffed into a hole one of them had no doubt kicked into the base of the wall. When he bent down to inspect the hole that's when Zane who was good with animals as well as impersonating them went to work. When to guard was close to the hole with his back to the children Zane squealed sounding exactly like a mouse and causing the man to jump.
"I'll report this." The guard stammered not wanting to let the children see his irrational fear. "You're cleared, report to the showers."
"Sir yes, sir!" They filled out of the room Jondy and Krit held back and fell in behind Max making sure to keep her bandages out of sight.
They showered quickly, in the allotted time. Zack looked down at the sudsy water running past his feet and noticed the rusty color of it, and was forced to remember Max's self-inflicted wounds. He was glad he had left the bandages by the sink where they wouldn't get wet, he'd definitely have to use them again. After they were dried off Zack wrapped up Max's wrists again pulling the sleeves of her fatigues down over the bandages and making sure the snaps held tight. In neat lines of two by two they hurried into the mess hall where they were given their share of rations, on busy days like today there was time for nothing else.
They were whisked away into one of the classrooms, which would become the briefing room for their exercise today. It was nothing new. They were going to be split into two teams and sent out into the forest. Zack and Max were to lead team one, Brin and Zane were in charge of team two. Two equal teams of ten. It was a challenge, no more then an elaborated game of capture the flag in reality. Team two was given a folder containing highly classified documents, which were actually no more then the rules of the game for the following day, which they were to hide and protect at all costs from team one. Team one's only objective was to capture the documents and return to base when they were sure the enemy was no longer a threat. Team two was given a head start, half an hour to hide the folder and devise a plan of defense. Half an hour that also gave Zack time to perfect his plan of attack.
Zack split the group into pairs and favored Max as his partner throughout the duration of the exercise, only to serve as her protector. He knew that in her current mental state she was, for the first time in their coexistence, she was a liability to him and not an asset. Max was venerable, both in her mindset and the injury to her arms. Out of the corner of his eye Zack saw one of the rubber bullets zooming towards one of Max's injured arms, he jumped into it's path without a moments thought taking it full on in the chest.
"Hit." Zack laid out on the ground simply playing dead as were the rules of the game.
Brin froze it had come down to Zane, Zack, Max and herself, which was not surprising. It always came down to the final four. Then there was Jondy, Max's shadow who had fallen just before Zack. Max had the plans now and Brin and Zane needed to get them back. Zack never went down in any of the field exercises and Brin and Zane stood in shock for a moment. Max noticed this and used it to her advantage and squeezed off two shots in rapid succession, one hitting Zane in the leg, the second in his chest as he moved to protect Brin.
"Hit." Zane dropped to the ground and closed his eyes playing dead.
Brin snapped out of her shock and brought up her gun leveling it so that Max was in her sights. Caught in a stalemate it was all a matter of who would pull the trigger first. Neither flinched or barely breathed until in a sudden burst of speed Brin pounced on Max. Brin saw for the first time that since Zack was out of the game she had a true chance at victory. Max squeezed off another shot that barely missed Brin's head and only served to increase the intensity at which Brin fought. Surging pain was all that registered in Max's mind as she feigned off Brin's attack. Brin had grabbed Max by her wrists pulling her to the ground. Pain was irrelevant and shouldn't interfere with the mission. Strength came from pain. The lessons screaming through Max's head weren't true this time. They rolled around until Brin gained the upper hand. Brin stood up pinning Max's wrists together with one hand, a booted foot on Max's chest to keep her still, the gun trained at Max's face.
"On you feet prisoner, surrender the plans." Brin commanded Max, leaning down over her knee to put pressure on Max's chest before she let her up.
Max struggled, but the pain got the best of her as she climbed to her feet. Brin seized the folder from under Max's shirt and held it up in the fading light of dusk.
"I win." Brin breathed out the words barely believing them herself. Sure she had won exercises before but it was always when she was on Zack's team. She'd never triumphed over the combined force of Max, Jondy and Zack.
Colonel Lydecker who had been monitoring the progress of the exercise appeared in front of the two soldiers. He noted both the brief look of pride on Brin's face and the brief look of pain on Max's face before the two snapped to attention. Brin turned and swiped Max's feet out from under her. "I didn't say you could get up." Brin trained her gun on Max again.
"You've been compromised soldier, a worthy defeat. Left alive to be used for information, a prisoner of war. This exercise is over." Colonel Lydecker scolded Max then reached down to help the defeated soldier to her feet. He clasped his hand around her wrist, the child grasping his wrist in the same manner to pull herself up. Despite herself Max winched.
When Colonel Lydecker had declared that the exercise was over all of the fallen that all played dead came back to life and gathered around their two commanding officers to be debriefed.
Colonel Lydecker was concerned with more then the customary debriefing. He was worried that his best soldier had sacrificed himself for the squirming on he know held. This was a weakness taken to the highest extreme, emotion personified, Zack should not care for his sibling that much. He was tormented by the look of pain in Max's eyes, the eyes he had loved so much in his wife. What bothered him more was that she had seemingly given up on the exercise all together and for no viable reason.
Colonel Lydecker grabbed Max by the end of her fatigue sleeves, holing her in position on her feet in front of him. He held her arms out straight in front of her and pulled downward ripping open the snaps at the end of her sleeves, revealing the bandages Zack had hidden there. Colonel Lydecker stared down at them for a moment before he ripped them off as well, rather unceremoniously. His eyes widened and then darkened as he looked at the injuries hidden beneath them. He grabbed Max's wrists forcefully and then shook her hard. "X-5452, what the hell is this?"
"Sir nothing, sir." Max winched, less then a winch it was simply a twitch at the corners of her mouth. The others looked on horrified and confused all growing very tense.
"Nothing," Colonel Lydecker spat out in contempt. "I think not. Explaine your actions soldier."
Max looked up defiantly into Colonel Lydecker's eyes, she didn't know why she'd done it, just that it had felt right at the time. "It was a moment of weakness, sir."
"I don't think it was. . ." Colonel Lydecker shook his head. "And if it was, two such moments in the same amount of days is just too much. I'm taking you in for observation."
Zack moved to rush forward but Zane grabbed his arm to stop him and swiftly shook his head. Zane would fight his own brother before he would let him challenge Colonel Lydecker. Zack stopped and stood his ground next to his brother, he refused to see any harm come to Max. Out of the corner of his eye Zack caught the beginnings of a smug smirk tugging at the corners of Brin's mouth. In her head her competition for second in command would be out of the way. Brin still believed that SIC was her birth right just as being CO was Zack's. Jondy saw the look too and her reserve broke down, she lost all control.
"You're happy about this! You probably did it on purpose you jerk!" Jondy hissed and pounced on Brin. Having the element of surprise on her side, Jondy brought the elder girl swiftly down to the ground. Jondy let loose with all she had, pummeling a stunned Brin who tried to refute her accusations. Jondy had busted Brin's nose; blood pouring down the startled girl's face before Zack and Zane pulled the two apart. Colonel Lydecker held Max by one wrist with one hand his other one held a tazer trained on where the two had been fighting.
"That's enough, back to the barracks now, all of you." Colonel Lydecker barked his warning.
"Sir, yes sir." Everyone moved off with the exception of Zane, Zack, Brin and Jondy. Jondy tried to tare away from Zack to get after Brin again. Zack held her tightly while Zane led Brin back to the compound.
"She'll be okay Jondy." Zack held her at bay by her shoulders. "I promise." Then softly so that only she could hear him, he made her another promise. "I'll take care of Brin myself."
Jondy nodded and pulled away from Zack. She stood straight and still, breathing hard as she watched Colonel Lydecker use the tazer to take Max down. Without a backward glance Colonel Lydecker slung Max over his shoulder and carried her off to the compound to take her to the psychologists. Zack touched Jondy's shoulder and the girl jumped falling into step with him, confident and calm knowing that her big brother was once again in control of the situation. ______________________________________________________________________________
AN: More to come. :-)