James Cameron and Charles Eglee own Dark Angel. My use is in no way meant to challenge their copyrights. This piece is not intended for any profit on the part of the writer, nor is it meant to detract from the commercial viability of the aforementioned (or any other) copyright. Any similarity to any events or persons (either real or fictional) is unintended.

Author's Note: Well, I hadn't planned on continuing this story beyond one chapter (though I'd forgotten to include 'Fin' at the end when it was originally posted). Then last night I realized a crucial point that I had overlooked, so I decided to write a second chapter. So I may continue on after this, and I may not. Obviously, there's lots of story to be told along this path, but I'm still debating whether or not I would prefer to have Cameron and Eglee tell this story instead.

Chapter 2 - Logan

I've seen the way Max has been lately, completely preoccupied with the revelation that Manticore is more – much more – than she had ever thought. It's good to see her like this, though. First of all, it forces her to think about something else besides the damn virus that's been standing between us. Dwelling on that isn't any better for her than it is for me, and I've been going crazy trying to find just about anything else to occupy my thoughts. Maybe that's why I've started to become as preoccupied with Manticore as she ever was.

I know Max isn't too happy about my interest in all of this, but I know that she'll never be able to piece it all together on her own. While I care for Max deeply, I have to admit that she isn't exactly the most introspective and self-aware person in the world. She's bound to overlook some vital points that only someone on the outside of the program would be likely to pay attention to.

The first one of those is Tinga. Max's wayward sister displayed the one valuable trait that none of the other X-5's apparently did – the ability to pass on her trans-genetically engineered traits. Something in the X-5 genetic code actually caused the DNA to 'stabilize,' for lack of a better word, in later generations. I can only guess that with the rest of the X-5's, the non-human DNA likely became the junk DNA in their progeny. All except for Tinga, that is.

Now we know that Max has no junk DNA of her own. So does that mean she would also likely pass on these traits? She'd almost have to, since there are no areas in her gene sequence that could become dormant in her offspring. So if all that is true, then Max is obviously going to be a huge prize for whoever gets her; but does that mean she's in more danger, or less?

Tinga had this quality, and they killed her, carving her up like the goose that laid the golden egg, likely discovering too late that they had destroyed their great treasure. Of course, back when Renfro did that – and I do believe it was Renfro, and not Lydecker that made that call – there was still the Manticore lab with its DNA samples. If they found that they had inadvertently made a bad decision, they always could have just grown a new Tinga. That's probably not an option now with Max… unless there's yet another lab we don't know about. Chances are they'll need to take her alive. But who are 'they?'

Sandaman… he's the key. I know Max wants to find him because she believes he would be able to cure this damn virus they gave me. To be honest, I couldn't care less. I would love to hold Max again, but there are more important things in the world than physical contact, and I can still love Max from afar. Max just obviously hasn't thought this all through. There's great danger to be found in Sandaman, of that much I'm certain.

The man created the U.S. government's Manticore project, and he likely knew about the ages-old breeding program, too. That means he's either one of them, or a member of some group that's opposed to them. Either way, chances are Max's new enemy, White, is familiar in some way with Sandaman. My bet is that Sandaman is White's superior. Call it journalistic instinct, but that's my theory, even though it might not make much sense.

If I was Sandaman, and I had any control over White, I would never allow him to just destroy the transgenics that escaped the fire. Each of them presents an opportunity to add tremendous variety to the breeding program's overall gene pool. But then again, if the traits weren't going to be passed along to the next generation anyway, then the escapees would have to be destroyed as a potential threat. Yeah, that makes sense… I don't know why I didn't think of it earlier.

When Zack, Max, Krit, and Syl attacked Manticore, they demonstrated not only their superior abilities, but even more dangerously, the will to use them to frightening effect. Without Zack watching over them all like he used to, the newly escaped transgentics lack a leader, at least for now. If someone comes along, though… all bets are off. It would almost be poetic justice for it all to end like that.

Imagine it – the powers that be within the Manticore breeding program realize that they really can't take human DNA any farther, that their most recent generations haven't progressed at the rate the earlier ones had. Maybe they even started to experience a decline in their abilities. To remedy this situation, they used the developing science of genetic engineering to dramatically expand their potential gene pool. They find Tinga, who likely would have been able to mate with one of their males and come up with one hell of a specimen as a child, but they killed her to find out what made her so special, likely to duplicate tat success in later generations. Then they lost their lab, and their collection of subjects escaped.

A Pandora's Box of problems was unleashed on the world, and each of these problems is getting older, growing stronger every day. They were trained by the military, so they can use their superior traits more effectively than Sandaman and his cronies would probably like. There are now, quite obviously, two groups of super-humans roaming about – one created through millennia of selective breeding, and one created within a few short years, the result of genetic engineering.

I'm reminded of a phrase that I heard a while back, something about how each generation has to kill its parents, metaphorically speaking, of course, in order to carve out its own niche in the world. In the instant case, I fear that the phrase won't apply metaphorically. The members of the breeding program have obviously decided to wipe out the results of their experiments. Assuming Max and her ilk can get organized, get a leader, there can only be one result – war. And people like me, the 'normals,' will get caught in the middle. God, I can't wait until I try to get to sleep tonight…

Max is a target, there's no denying it, and as much as she likes to fly solo, there's no way she can win this war alone. I guess it's a good thing I've been keeping tabs on every one of the X-5's, X-6's, and X-8's that I helped across the border. I think she's gonna need their help. She's also going to need a CO. I know she's going to hate me for this if she ever finds out, but I have to find Lydecker. He's a smart guy… I can't imagine he hasn't already come to the same conclusions I have.

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To be continued?……………………………