A/N: Only 4 or 5 more chapters to go (can't decide whether I want to break up 27 or not), HUZZAH! And in this chapter...enter Alec! Except not called Alec, because obviously that's Max's name for him...
One more thing. Sorry about the confusion the whole "3 1/2 hours earlier" thing might cause, but I made a slight organizational error and that's my way of remedying it. Just know that the next two chapters take place like right after the shoot-out...
*******
----3 1/2 hours earlier----
She stood by the hummer, absently turning the cell phone over in her hands as she watched her team load and prepare, pondering her next move with increasing anxiety. Renfro almost hadn't assigned her on this mission, as she was understandably angry and disappointed with the way in which Brin had handled X5-452. But Brin was their very best, so punishment was to be held off until this particular objective was accomplished. She feared that punishment, and her pulse quickened with the thought of what it might be, but she knew that she deserved it. She deserved it even more after what she had just done, and she felt guilty and like the traitor she knew she was. But at the moment she couldn't bring herself to dial the number and report the incident, to earn back the trust of the one person who really mattered anymore in her life. She wondered (with some small, nearly forgotten part of her wishing it were so) if it might even be too late to report it...
~~~FLASHBACK~~~
~ 'X5-734, report to my office immediately.'
She stood and waited patiently in front of the door of her cell, straight and still until the guard pulled it open and allowed her passage. Trepidation working its way through her; she was certain the director had decided on a form of reprisal for Max's escape and dreaded her sentencing, though her features were hard and emotionless as she'd been taught they must be.
She entered Renfro's office and snapped smartly to attention, outwardly paying little mind to the three other X-5s in the room but inwardly begging that they hadn't anything to do with the hardship she was sure she would soon endure.
'At ease,' Renfro commanded, and the soldier dropped her legs shoulder-width apart and crossed her palms in the small of her back. The director came around to stand before her, looking thoughtfully up into her face as if deciding whether the right decision was being made. At least she spoke, explaining to Brin that only one of the soldiers assigned to capture Eyes Only was alive at the moment, that this particular soldier had lost his target but rendered the getaway vehicle eventually undrivable by taking out the tires, and that something needed to be done.
'Never send a norm to do an X-5's job,' she said with a chuckle. Norms would be sent along, naturally, as a clean-up crew; but Brin would be leading a small team of X-5s to recapture Eyes Only and she swelled with pride and relief. Then there was a more detailed briefing, and soon she was being introduced to the three other X-5s in the room, who would reportedly be the very best if it weren't for her. Two females, X5-332 and X5-871, and a male, X5-494, who reminded her greatly of Ben. She shrugged and assumed that the two of them had been twinned, this one's genetics altered slighty after birth so that his barcode would be one number greater and they could thus tell the two of them apart. She recalled the upheavel over Ben's odd ritual of sacrifice and felt deeply sympathetic toward the man before her, imagining how severe his psych evaluation must have been.
Moments later she was making her way through the corridors of Manticore, barking orders and navigating through the disarray and only feeling more and more like this was what she was meant to be. She loved times like this, when it felt wonderful to be a soldier and to be in charge and when she couldn't remember why she had ever been so happy on the outside. At others she would fall into despair and come dangerously close to attempting escape but then the reprogramming would kick in and everything would be okay. Life here was hard, yes; but it was safe, and she was understood, and she would never ever have to hide who she really was in front of anyone here. She was free to be an X-5 and she didn't have to worry about covering up her barcode or laying low. That was far more than she could say for the crumbling world outside Manticore's walls.
As she passed one of the less secure prisoners' cells, a hand reached out to her and she grabbed it reflexively, everything focusing and steeling and preparing for the event of an attack. She relaxed, though, she she realized that it was only Lydecker; he had been moved up here from his more confined cell after giving in to the interrogation efforts because he wouldn't be needed much longer and space needed to be made for the incoming and far more valuable prisoner. She released him and sighed heavily, forgetting to encase her exterior and appearing visibly annoyed.
'What do you want, traitor?' she questioned acidly.
'I am NOT the enemy,' he insisted. His right eye was surrounded by puffy red folds from the ministrations of the laser and his other was painfully wide while his expression pleaded with desperation, giving him a wild, manic appearance. She backed up slowly and allowed herself to fall into amused sarcasm.
'Oh, and I suppose the director IS?'
Lydecker pursed his lips together angrily, wanting briefly to wrap his fingers around her neck and scream until his voice gave out, but he stifled it and somehow managed to remain calm; he was in a cell anyway, so there was no real headway to be made by doing something like that at the moment. 'You know what was done to Tinga,' he began. 'You know how she died, and I know that Renfro would do the same to you in a heartbeat.'
Brin rolled her eyes; this was rich. 'X5-656 was a traitor, and what the director did in her case was something that absolutely needed to be done. It was for the...'
'...for the good of Manticore, blah blah, yes, I know what she's been telling you,' he interrupted, his anger nearly erupting from him, 'and they are lies, Brin. They are all lies.'
She simply stared at him for a moment, unable to comprehend the import of his words. That small, insignificant part deep down that they had never seemed able to eradicate was trying to tell her that she should listen to him, but the rest only detected the hissing of snakes and she shook her head and began to walk away. He had lost it somewhere along, she didn't know where, but he was far gone now and it bordered on pathetic.
'NO!' he cried after her. She continued moving, but slower, curiosity getting the best of her. 'You listen to me, Brin. I created you. I raised you. I taught you EVERYTHING you know. I saved you from the progeria. Now who are you going to trust?'
She stopped and turned, facing his outstretched hand and the small bit of his head that could be pushed through the bars, those pesky emotions of hers driving her wild with confusion and rage. He was right on some levels, so right, but he had betrayed them. He had betrayed HER. Now he was asking that he be the one she trusted and he couldn't possibly be serious... 'You tried to destroy Manticore,' she stated softly, almost at a whisper. It was then that a few guards stopped to listen in and she dismissed them; this was a private matter.
Lydecker, meanwhile, took both the tone of her voice and the dismissal of the eavesdroppers as a sign that she was beginning to waver. He grasped the bars and pulled himself up closer to them, as close as he possibly could, his skin pulling taught and his nose poking through and out into the open. 'Yes, I did. I did it for YOU. I did it for your brothers and sisters. I did it for the entire X-5 line, in order to save you.' She moved back into position directly in front of his cell and he derived from this the strength to continue. 'I told Max and Zack that I would do ANYTHING to protect you and that is what I have done. Do you honestly think I would have gone to such extremes if I didn't think there was something horribly wrong with what Renfro was doing?'
She opened her mouth to offer up some retort, but she could think of none so she closed it again. What was the matter with her? This was her home, her life. This was where she was born and where she belonged. It was unthinkable to go against it and to disobey the most important person in her life but suddenly she wanted to and she couldn't understand why. Everything was hazy; and he saw through to what she was feeling and she could tell, and she thought of iron and steel beams but didn't have the drive to put them to good use.
She was crumbling. She had been outside far too long to have a truly stable loyalty to Mantciore and he fixed his gaze intense and steady, aiming to penetrate and prod and apparently he was doing a very good job of it. He lowered his voice as he entered his plea. 'Let me out, Brin. You don't have to leave, you don't have to abort whatever mission you've just been sent on. I'm not going to ask you to give this up, or immediately betray all of this again. Just be forewarned that she is not what she seems. Watch her closely; if not for me or for yourself, then for your siblings.' He watched the erratic rise and fall of her chest, the way her features softened at the use of the word 'siblings,' and his heart leapt with hope. 'Please. Let me out.'
She hesitated and tried once again to be a pillar of strength, to be hard and strong and detached but that voice was begging, telling her that this was the right thing to do. //It's okay, Brin. You won't be caught. Just do it. He's done everything for you. You know you want to, come on. Remember the ocean? Remember how beautiful it was, and then they took you and you knew you'd never get to see it again? Remember how happy you used to be, even when you had to run? He's right, girl. Just let him go.// She hesitated further; no, no there was nothing out there. Manticore was everything...but they had made her leave the ocean...
'That is an ORDER, soldier,' Lydecker barded suddenly, having grown impatient and deciding to employ a different tactic.
She looked long and hard at him, and thought about the ocean, and hung her head. When she raised it, she leaned in close and with a heavy heart softly said, 'you won't get very far dressed like that. I'll be right back.' And then she was rushing off to the washroom to find him a uniform.~
~~~END FLASHBACK~~~
She sighed heavily and irritably, silently berating herself for having been so stupid and weak...for a second time. The best of the best, puh. She was nothing. She was a rotten traitor, and she had no right to be heading up this mission. At least not with the way things were at the moment. Perhaps if she remedied them, she could redeem herself and prove worthy again, to herself and to Renfro.
Indecision was lost and she forgot about the ocean, dialing the familiar number and feeling better already at the tone of the opposite line's ringer.
"Renfro," answered the gruff female voice at the other end.
"Ma'am, this is X5-734, requestion permission to deliver some rather bad news."
"What is it, 734?"
She sucked in a deep breath and smiled with the knowledge that she was making good, then continued. "I am afraid that I have just been informed that Colonel Lydecker has been released from captivity."
One more thing. Sorry about the confusion the whole "3 1/2 hours earlier" thing might cause, but I made a slight organizational error and that's my way of remedying it. Just know that the next two chapters take place like right after the shoot-out...
*******
----3 1/2 hours earlier----
She stood by the hummer, absently turning the cell phone over in her hands as she watched her team load and prepare, pondering her next move with increasing anxiety. Renfro almost hadn't assigned her on this mission, as she was understandably angry and disappointed with the way in which Brin had handled X5-452. But Brin was their very best, so punishment was to be held off until this particular objective was accomplished. She feared that punishment, and her pulse quickened with the thought of what it might be, but she knew that she deserved it. She deserved it even more after what she had just done, and she felt guilty and like the traitor she knew she was. But at the moment she couldn't bring herself to dial the number and report the incident, to earn back the trust of the one person who really mattered anymore in her life. She wondered (with some small, nearly forgotten part of her wishing it were so) if it might even be too late to report it...
~~~FLASHBACK~~~
~ 'X5-734, report to my office immediately.'
She stood and waited patiently in front of the door of her cell, straight and still until the guard pulled it open and allowed her passage. Trepidation working its way through her; she was certain the director had decided on a form of reprisal for Max's escape and dreaded her sentencing, though her features were hard and emotionless as she'd been taught they must be.
She entered Renfro's office and snapped smartly to attention, outwardly paying little mind to the three other X-5s in the room but inwardly begging that they hadn't anything to do with the hardship she was sure she would soon endure.
'At ease,' Renfro commanded, and the soldier dropped her legs shoulder-width apart and crossed her palms in the small of her back. The director came around to stand before her, looking thoughtfully up into her face as if deciding whether the right decision was being made. At least she spoke, explaining to Brin that only one of the soldiers assigned to capture Eyes Only was alive at the moment, that this particular soldier had lost his target but rendered the getaway vehicle eventually undrivable by taking out the tires, and that something needed to be done.
'Never send a norm to do an X-5's job,' she said with a chuckle. Norms would be sent along, naturally, as a clean-up crew; but Brin would be leading a small team of X-5s to recapture Eyes Only and she swelled with pride and relief. Then there was a more detailed briefing, and soon she was being introduced to the three other X-5s in the room, who would reportedly be the very best if it weren't for her. Two females, X5-332 and X5-871, and a male, X5-494, who reminded her greatly of Ben. She shrugged and assumed that the two of them had been twinned, this one's genetics altered slighty after birth so that his barcode would be one number greater and they could thus tell the two of them apart. She recalled the upheavel over Ben's odd ritual of sacrifice and felt deeply sympathetic toward the man before her, imagining how severe his psych evaluation must have been.
Moments later she was making her way through the corridors of Manticore, barking orders and navigating through the disarray and only feeling more and more like this was what she was meant to be. She loved times like this, when it felt wonderful to be a soldier and to be in charge and when she couldn't remember why she had ever been so happy on the outside. At others she would fall into despair and come dangerously close to attempting escape but then the reprogramming would kick in and everything would be okay. Life here was hard, yes; but it was safe, and she was understood, and she would never ever have to hide who she really was in front of anyone here. She was free to be an X-5 and she didn't have to worry about covering up her barcode or laying low. That was far more than she could say for the crumbling world outside Manticore's walls.
As she passed one of the less secure prisoners' cells, a hand reached out to her and she grabbed it reflexively, everything focusing and steeling and preparing for the event of an attack. She relaxed, though, she she realized that it was only Lydecker; he had been moved up here from his more confined cell after giving in to the interrogation efforts because he wouldn't be needed much longer and space needed to be made for the incoming and far more valuable prisoner. She released him and sighed heavily, forgetting to encase her exterior and appearing visibly annoyed.
'What do you want, traitor?' she questioned acidly.
'I am NOT the enemy,' he insisted. His right eye was surrounded by puffy red folds from the ministrations of the laser and his other was painfully wide while his expression pleaded with desperation, giving him a wild, manic appearance. She backed up slowly and allowed herself to fall into amused sarcasm.
'Oh, and I suppose the director IS?'
Lydecker pursed his lips together angrily, wanting briefly to wrap his fingers around her neck and scream until his voice gave out, but he stifled it and somehow managed to remain calm; he was in a cell anyway, so there was no real headway to be made by doing something like that at the moment. 'You know what was done to Tinga,' he began. 'You know how she died, and I know that Renfro would do the same to you in a heartbeat.'
Brin rolled her eyes; this was rich. 'X5-656 was a traitor, and what the director did in her case was something that absolutely needed to be done. It was for the...'
'...for the good of Manticore, blah blah, yes, I know what she's been telling you,' he interrupted, his anger nearly erupting from him, 'and they are lies, Brin. They are all lies.'
She simply stared at him for a moment, unable to comprehend the import of his words. That small, insignificant part deep down that they had never seemed able to eradicate was trying to tell her that she should listen to him, but the rest only detected the hissing of snakes and she shook her head and began to walk away. He had lost it somewhere along, she didn't know where, but he was far gone now and it bordered on pathetic.
'NO!' he cried after her. She continued moving, but slower, curiosity getting the best of her. 'You listen to me, Brin. I created you. I raised you. I taught you EVERYTHING you know. I saved you from the progeria. Now who are you going to trust?'
She stopped and turned, facing his outstretched hand and the small bit of his head that could be pushed through the bars, those pesky emotions of hers driving her wild with confusion and rage. He was right on some levels, so right, but he had betrayed them. He had betrayed HER. Now he was asking that he be the one she trusted and he couldn't possibly be serious... 'You tried to destroy Manticore,' she stated softly, almost at a whisper. It was then that a few guards stopped to listen in and she dismissed them; this was a private matter.
Lydecker, meanwhile, took both the tone of her voice and the dismissal of the eavesdroppers as a sign that she was beginning to waver. He grasped the bars and pulled himself up closer to them, as close as he possibly could, his skin pulling taught and his nose poking through and out into the open. 'Yes, I did. I did it for YOU. I did it for your brothers and sisters. I did it for the entire X-5 line, in order to save you.' She moved back into position directly in front of his cell and he derived from this the strength to continue. 'I told Max and Zack that I would do ANYTHING to protect you and that is what I have done. Do you honestly think I would have gone to such extremes if I didn't think there was something horribly wrong with what Renfro was doing?'
She opened her mouth to offer up some retort, but she could think of none so she closed it again. What was the matter with her? This was her home, her life. This was where she was born and where she belonged. It was unthinkable to go against it and to disobey the most important person in her life but suddenly she wanted to and she couldn't understand why. Everything was hazy; and he saw through to what she was feeling and she could tell, and she thought of iron and steel beams but didn't have the drive to put them to good use.
She was crumbling. She had been outside far too long to have a truly stable loyalty to Mantciore and he fixed his gaze intense and steady, aiming to penetrate and prod and apparently he was doing a very good job of it. He lowered his voice as he entered his plea. 'Let me out, Brin. You don't have to leave, you don't have to abort whatever mission you've just been sent on. I'm not going to ask you to give this up, or immediately betray all of this again. Just be forewarned that she is not what she seems. Watch her closely; if not for me or for yourself, then for your siblings.' He watched the erratic rise and fall of her chest, the way her features softened at the use of the word 'siblings,' and his heart leapt with hope. 'Please. Let me out.'
She hesitated and tried once again to be a pillar of strength, to be hard and strong and detached but that voice was begging, telling her that this was the right thing to do. //It's okay, Brin. You won't be caught. Just do it. He's done everything for you. You know you want to, come on. Remember the ocean? Remember how beautiful it was, and then they took you and you knew you'd never get to see it again? Remember how happy you used to be, even when you had to run? He's right, girl. Just let him go.// She hesitated further; no, no there was nothing out there. Manticore was everything...but they had made her leave the ocean...
'That is an ORDER, soldier,' Lydecker barded suddenly, having grown impatient and deciding to employ a different tactic.
She looked long and hard at him, and thought about the ocean, and hung her head. When she raised it, she leaned in close and with a heavy heart softly said, 'you won't get very far dressed like that. I'll be right back.' And then she was rushing off to the washroom to find him a uniform.~
~~~END FLASHBACK~~~
She sighed heavily and irritably, silently berating herself for having been so stupid and weak...for a second time. The best of the best, puh. She was nothing. She was a rotten traitor, and she had no right to be heading up this mission. At least not with the way things were at the moment. Perhaps if she remedied them, she could redeem herself and prove worthy again, to herself and to Renfro.
Indecision was lost and she forgot about the ocean, dialing the familiar number and feeling better already at the tone of the opposite line's ringer.
"Renfro," answered the gruff female voice at the other end.
"Ma'am, this is X5-734, requestion permission to deliver some rather bad news."
"What is it, 734?"
She sucked in a deep breath and smiled with the knowledge that she was making good, then continued. "I am afraid that I have just been informed that Colonel Lydecker has been released from captivity."