Title-X9
Author-Fearia
Summary-Fearia helps Max out. (hehehe, how vague can you be???)
Rating-PG-13
Disclaimer-I did not create dark angel, so leave me alone!
At 2300 hours, Cossette Lydecker found herself in her quarters. She held a framed picture of her family in her hands. She thought that the glass protecting the picture should be broken, just like her family. Her father, Col. Donald Lydecker, had his arm wrapped around her mother. His hair was still dark brown instead of the gray that had plagued it when he started to work for Project Manticore. Her mother, Eponine, the blonde of the family, had her head leaned up against Donald and had her hand on her sister's shoulder. Cossette felt a twinge of painful memories flood into her mind about her sisters. She was the only X9, even though her father wanted to train them, too. Her sisters, Maryellen, who would be 20, and Kora, who would be 18, looked nothing like her, but had a wonderful childhood. They never had to learn about discipline, following orders and how to snap someone's neck with one hand. She felt sort of superior to them when she remembered why they didn't look anything like her. She was a genetically engineered killing machine, capable of kicking a dent in five-inch-thick iron.
But the memories didn't soften the pain of the fact that her mother was killed by terrorists; her sisters had been missing for three years; and her father was dead to Manticore after he helped some of the prototypes destroy the lab and potentially destroyed Manticore.
She was the only Lydecker left in the building, her "castle on a cloud" as her mother used to put it. Her mother loved a musical called Les Miserables, and even her mother did. They were both named after the heroines of the story. Eponine, who was raised among thieves and was killed by her love's actions, and Cossette, the little girl who was borne to a woman who was very much in love with a man until he left her when she became pregnant. But Cossette was taken care of by a band of thieves as well and was taken away by a friend of her mother's. Ironically, both of them had lived up to their own names. Donald's enemies had killed Eponine, and Cossette was raised by a corrupt system that you could consider thieves.
Cossette fell out of her thoughts by a knock on her door. "Come in!" she called.
Madame X opened the unlocked door and walked in. "Good evening, ma'am!" Cossette greeted cheerfully. Even though she hated that woman, she still had to be a good hostess like her mother always said a woman should be. She gestured to a chair for Madame X to sit in it. Right when Cossette turned her back on her guest, she rolled her eyes because the contempt swelled up inside her.
Madame X knew very well why she was being so kind, and did as Cossette wanted. She closed the door and sat in the appointed chair. "Miss Lydecker, I would like to finish what I was saying at the ward."
Cossette sat in a chair opposite Madame X. "I am listening, ma'am."
"My advisors have convinced me to let you and X5/452 to lead a group of X7s to find the rest of the group X5."
"Ma'am, as Ma- I mean X5/452's nurse, I must suggest she not leave the grounds in her condition. She is recovered, yes, but not ready to resume combat! You must at least wait for a week for her to train! She will be training the X8s and me. That training is full force! I believe that she will be ready for another mission in a week, but not now!"
"Miss Lydecker, we need you and her to lead them NOW! This mission cannot wait! All the information they destroyed is irreplaceable! We need to strike and strike quickly."
"She is not ready and I highly doubt that she will willingly follow orders!"
"That is what I love about the training the X5s received. They follow orders, any and all. I just love the motto of the earliest soldiers, 'Orders are orders'. Ahhh, the good ol' days."
Cossette sighed, knowing that she was being forced. But something tripped a trigger in her mind. "And I thought that you would not grant me any orders! You know as well as I that someone is much more capable of this than me! You just have sympathy towards me losing my family! I will not accept this mission."
"Orders are orders, Fearia!" With that, she left the room, leaving Cossette dumbfounded.
Do not attempt to adjust your set this is a streaming freedom video bulletin. It cannot be traced, it cannot be stopped, and is the only free voice left in the city. A new group of terrorists, led by a small green-haired girl named Dreamer, has popped up in the city of Seattle. They attack any shop that sells any video games or "plushies" of cartoon characters or video game characters. If you are in possession of these so-called "plushies", be aware, they will hunt them down. This has been eyes only, over and out.
Cossette realized what Madame X had done. She had used the name that her father had given her to use over the comlinks. Now she had to follow the orders. "That bitch!" she thought. Cossette stood up and changed into some traveling clothes. She had to get out of this room to get some fresh air. She walked out of the door, locked it and headed to the garage. Her mind wandered and she found herself in front of the ward instead of garage. She opened the door and found Max getting dressed in camouflage hurriedly. "Max?! What are you doing?" Cossette whispered.
"Cossette?" Max asked. She jumped back into bed. "I…"
"…was trying to escape?" Cossette said matter-of-factly. She crossed her arms and looked at her sternly. "Get up!" she ordered. Max did as told. She was all dressed in her camouflage uniform and looked very nervous. Cossette merely smiled and said, "Come on! I'm not leaving you here!"
Max looked relieved, yet suspicious at the sudden turn of events. A nurse, well, not since Hannah, has never been this nice to her. But where was she going? Something had to be wrong!
"We're getting out of here once and for all."
OOOH! That made Max feel so much better.
"We just have to be on alert at all times. This place is crawling with guards ever since you guys broke in here, now come on!" Cossette gestured for Max to follow her.
Do not attempt to adjust your set this is a streaming freedom video bulletin. It cannot be traced, it cannot be stopped, and is the only free voice left in the city. The terrorist group led by Dreamer now has a new identification method for all civilians to use. These small people cal themselves "chibis" and do not pronounce their R's or L's. Please seek shelter if you hear these two give-away's. This has been eyes only, over and out.
Cossette led Max to a garage after passing easily through the building. They both saw no guards in site. They found a black vinyl-top Cadillac Seville halfway across the garage. "Something's up…" Cossette said to herself.
"Like what?" Max wondered. She looked around worriedly.
"I'm beginning to think that we are being let out. I've never seen the base so bare!" Cossette said worriedly. She climbed into her car and unlocked the doors so Max could get in. "Let's just get out of here so the trouble can't get to us quickly!"
Max did as told and buckled up. She couldn't help but ask, "Are you Donald's daughter?"
Cossette nodded as she revved up the engine. "And I never hear the end of it! Your father this, your father that…" She backed out of her parking space and slowly drove out of the garage.
"All the years that I have been here, I never once saw the garage!" Max thought.
The Seville made it to the gate and was let through without even getting a clearance. "Okay, something is definitely wrong here! Even on days where I had a clearance, I was stopped. Something is up!!!" They drove five miles away, back into civilization. Then it hit Cossette. "We're bugged! Either you are, or the car is, or both!"
Max just looked wide-eyed at Cossette and felt the back of her neck quickly. The implant was still in, but she couldn't feel anything else. She felt lower on her back and felt a computer chip just underneath the skin. "It's me!" She quickly and painfully took out the chip, rolled the window down and threw it out the window.
"But something is wrong with the car," Cossette said worriedly. She focused her hearing to something else, a beeping noise. "Max, on the count of three, jump out of the car."
"Right," Max nodded.
"One….Two….THREE!" Cossette and Max jumped out of the car right before the bomb went off. The Cadillac exploded before their very eyes. "No wonder we got out so easily! THEY WANT ME DEAD!!"
Madame X saw the Seville explode on the flat-screen TV in her office. "Orders are orders, Miss Lydecker, whether you like it or not! And now, there will be no more insubordination."
Her phone rang after she finished her little soliloquy. "Yes?"
It was the "replacement" for Lydecker. "How did things work out for the mission?"
"Our pawns have done well. Both dead by now."
"Excellent…" (A/N Did I make him sound like Mr. Burns or what?)
"Now to deploy the X7s," Madame X ordered.
"Yes ma'am."
"Why would they want YOU dead? I'm the X5! Madame X hates ME, not YOU!" Max replied.
"I'm the Lydecker, she hated my father! When he helped you out, I was so discriminated in Manticore because I was his daughter! It is not my fault that my whole family was torn apart!" Cossette practically screamed.
"Your family? Mine escaped from Manticore so we could have a chance at life and you are complaining about your dad being kicked out of Manticore for MY family's sake?" Max returned the blow.
"And the day that you left was the day that my mother was killed and my sisters went missing!"
"Sisters?"
"Yeah, I had two sisters. They were the meanest ones you could ever imagine, but they were still family! And whenever I went for training, they got to go shopping or to the movies with my mother, until the day they all left me and my dad!"
Max just stood dumbstruck. This girl had lived in Manticore her whole life and had to put up with that system killing off her family. But her name sounded so familiar…
"Come on, we gotta find a bus station. I got my money, so we can get to Seattle."
"Seattle? Why Seattle?" Max asked.
"That's where you live, isn't it?" Cossette started walking down the road. "Well, come on, Max!"
Ten minutes later, they were at a Greyhound bus station buying tickets. "You're coming with me?" Max asked.
"Well, I'm not staying here! There is a price on my head at Manticore, so might as well get out," Cossette answered. "Excuse me, sir, when does the bus depart for Seattle?" she asked politely.
"Three AM," the clerk answered.
Cossette looked at her watch. It was one o'clock. She turned to Max. "Let's get a seat. We have two hours to wait."
"I'll be right there, first, I got someone to call." Max started to walk over to the phone, but realized she had no money. "Umm, Cossette, could I bum some change off you?"
"Sure!" Cossette pulled out a little change pouch and threw it at Max, who caught it perfectly. "Enjoy."
Max walked over to the pay phone and dialed the all-too-familiar number.
That's all for now! I promise a catfight in the future, but not just yet. Also, this story is gonna prove "interesting"! R&R pwease!!!