Disclaimer: Still not mine.
A/N: Thanks again to Laura, especially for the three rewrites I put her through. My beta is a beautiful person. And this chapter would've sucked ass without her. Thank you!!
Chapter Five: Winds of Misfortune
The tattered, the torn
Seeking an answer
To why they were born
Winds of misfortune
Have blown them about
You made the outcasts
Don't cast them out
The poor and unlucky
The weak and the odd
I thought they all were
The children of God
--"God Help the Outcasts," Alan Menken, Stephen Schwartz
~*~*~*~*~*~
"Border check." Logan pulled the Aztek in line behind the Jeep. Up ahead, he could see Brianna's husband Johnny directing the Jeep to move forward.
Jondy shook Jordan. Either he was asleep, or he was trying to get a really good look down her shirt. With Logan's cousin, it was hard to tell. Because Jondy was the smallest, Tawny had volunteered her for sitting in the middle of the back seat. She hadn't thought that her brother had ulterior motives for using her as a pillow.
Jordan's head rolled off her shoulder and onto the back of the seat. "Go'way, Rob, I di'n't screw your girlfriend," he muttered, hand trying to bat something away from his face. Jondy looked up, stifling laughter, and caught Logan's eye in the rear-view mirror. Out of the four Cale men, Robert was undeniably the handsome one, but there was something about Logan... Maybe because there was an actual soul or something behind his blue eyes. Logan and Bennett got all the good Cale genes. Jordan...Jordan was nice to look at, if nothing else.
Tawny caught her hand, tugging at it to make her look at him. His golden eyes had the same night mischief in them that they used to in the barracks at Manticore. Reaching one long arm around her, her brother pinched Jordan's nostrils together. Jordan's blue eyes flew open as he gasped for breath. He sat up so fast that his head hit the top of the Aztek. "What the fuck?" He glared at her and Tawny. Jondy just gave him her best innocent smile.
"If you don't behave, I'll tie you to the top of the car again," Logan warned, laughing. It was the again part that caught Jondy's attention.
Jordan rubbed his nose, glaring at his cousin. "I'll tell Max about Jessie if you do."
Before Logan could answer, there was a tap at the window. As Logan rolled it down, Johnny stuck his head inside. "Country of citizenship?"
"United States," Logan answered, holding up his driver's license. The others followed his lead.
Johnny checked something off on a clipboard. "Business or pleasure?"
"Pleasure," Max answered, focusing the full force of her smile on Johnny and the supervisor that stood just beyond him. "Camping and fishing. My dad used to come down to Baja before the Pulse and--"
"Thank you, ma'am," Johnny interrupted. "How long will you be staying?"
"One week," was Logan's prompt reply.
The supervisor leaned over and whispered something in Johnny's ear. Jondy could see the other man flushing. "Would you pop the trunk please, sir? We need to check the back." Hopefully they wouldn't notice the explosives tucked in the tackle box...
Logan complied, and the two men began to rummage through the camping supplies in the back. Looking over her shoulder, Jondy could see Johnny reaching for the tackle box. She reminded herself to breathe. Altered breathing always gave away your position. Any physical change in your condition would only show the weakness of your defense.
"You got some nice lures here. Hand-made?" Johnny held a feathered hook up. "My dad used to know how to make these."
"That one would be ripped apart in the ocean, since we're after marlin if we can find them. That fly's handmade. My grandfather was a champion fly-fisherman up in the Rockies." Logan's voice was conversational. Being an underground cyberjournalist taught him some skill in calm.
There was another long moment as Johnny conferred with his supervisor. Finally, the two men shut the hatchback of the Aztek. "Have a good trip," the older man said. "I hope you catch some nice fish down in Baja."
Jordan buried his head back down into her shoulder as they drove across the border. "Remind me to stay at home next time, Logan."
~*~*~*~*~*~
South of the border didn't seem all that much different than north of it. They drove quickly through Tijuana and then onto the road that would take them down the coast. Jace's village was about 100 miles south of the border on the Baja peninsula. Instead of driving straight to the small village, they were headed to an old fishing resort, in case they needed to throw anyone off their tail.
"It seems too easy," Tawny muttered as they arrived at the campsite on the beach. "It doesn't make sense. Manticore's usual M.O. is to get in and get out. All this effort and intrigue for a little boy?"
"Lydecker went after Case himself." While Max was glad someone else decided to voice his doubts, it didn't make her feel any better about the plan. It didn't add up. Manticore let Victor escape with the knowledge that they were after Jace, but they didn't put a bug on him. They even set up shop in Gillette again, as if they didn't learn the first time that you never put the secret base in the same place after it was destroyed. At least the facility south of Seattle was still in ashes. She just wished she knew what the hell was going on. Nothing felt right. The objective was clear, but the mission was seriously whack.
"So this place wants your sister and her kid?" Jordan opened his door and hopped out, followed by Jondy and Tawny. "What's so special about her? I know you guys are like secret operative-trained or some shit, but--"
"All their data blew up in the fire a few years ago. Maybe Manticore has a few foreign buyers. If they can hawk a few babies with our genetic code, maybe it'll get them fundage to start over." Max shrugged. "The others that were left scattered after the witch hunts in Seattle. They knew Case and Jace's Max existed, and someone had to be Max's daddy. Maybe they just narrowed down the choices, planted the info, and are hoping we'll lead them to Jace." The bulge in her stomach rumbled in protest or hunger. If Manticore knew what she was growing in her belly... Maybe it was time to tell Logan too.
"Why don't they just come after one of us and harvest our eggs though? It's not like they don't have the capabilities to clone. Didn't you say the X-7s were mass-produced anyway?" Jondy pulled a duffle bag out of the back and shook out one of the tents.
"Lydecker thought there was something special about Case's genetic code. My sources said that previous breeding programs didn't work, and no one knows the results of the last one, since it ended rather abruptly." Logan grabbed some tent poles and began to feed them through the holes in the tent. "Maybe they want the human/X-5 cross to take care of some of your genetic weaknesses. Soldiers who have seizures don't do them much good in the field."
"They'll still get babies they have to train, though. It makes more sense to take one of us and try to reprogram us. It worked with Brin." Max shaded her eyes with her hand, staring out at the ocean. It seemed bigger here, bluer than the cold, murky waters of Seattle.
"I don't think they want you back, baby sister," Jondy said with a grin. "The shit you pulled cost them a lot of money." Max grinned back. It was something to be proud of. She didn't bring down Manticore, but she did kick them in the balls a few times.
As the Jeep pulled up beside the Aztek, Logan's cell phone rang.
"...Yeah? You found her?" Logan's eyes met hers and he gave her a reassuring smile. "I'll tell Max. We'll be there as soon as we can."
"Showtime, kids," Max called as Krit set the parking brake. "Don't get too comfy." She hauled herself up the roll-bar and waited for the others to get out.
"Who goes, who stays?" Lex asked, hopping to the ground. "We should leave someone here with the gear..." Max noticed her brother's eyes drifting towards Logan and Jordan. Logan was already pulling his laptop out of the bag and plugging it into the small radar array Sebastian rigged for him.
"Your telecom manager's all plugged in and ready to go." Logan grinned. "Jordan can stay with me. He had decent aim ten years ago when Uncle Jonas took us on safari."
Jordan groaned. "Just because I almost hit you in the ass, Logan--" His eyes widened as Syl began removing guns from the back of the Jeep. "Shit. You guys could start your own international war."
"It's what we were bred for," Syl quipped as she tossed some clips at his feet. "Logan?" She held up two rifles.
"The mini-14. The kick on the other one would make me drop the laptop." Max couldn't help feeling proud at how calm Logan's voice was. He wasn't an X-5, but he was close enough to be an honorary member of their Freedom Force.
Max stood on the back of the Jeep for a while, surveying their little group. For a moment, she was back at Manticore, the Colonel standing over her shoulder as she picked her team for the battle of the day. "Lex stays. Krit stays. You two have the best aim, and we might need Syl's explosive skills. Victor--" She turned to the former lab tech.
He nodded. "I'll crash here with the guys."
"Get in the Jeep. How good are you with a gun?"
The other man's eyes almost bugged out of his head. "Decent. They had all the base operatives trained in case of another escape."
Max nodded, satisfied. "Pick your weapon and get in." She signaled for and wasn't surprised when her brothers and sisters automatically fell into 'at ease' position. Some instincts never died. "Call this Operation Early Bird." Smiles creased the other X-5 faces briefly as her brothers and sisters remembered Jace's inability to wake up in the morning. She pointed to Syl and Jondy and motioned for a stealth decoy op, if necessary. Tawny was assigned to watch Victor. Jondy pointed to Max, a questioning look on her face. "My old game, big sister," Max answered with a half-assed grin. "E&E. Got the plan?"
Her five siblings nodded. She hopped down from the back of the Jeep, only to be caught up in Logan's arms. "Be careful," he said, kissing her fiercely. "If Manticore's out there, and they get their hands on you..."
"Seven of us are coming back. We're not leaving anyone behind this time. Cindy said she'd put a smackdown on my ass if I did." She smoothed the worry lines that furrowed his forehead. "This is cake, Logan. E&E. That was my favorite game when we were little."
He nodded, his blue eyes still worried. "Just...Come back."
As she climbed back into the Jeep, she noticed Syl and Krit standing off to the side, arms around each other. It was still weird to watch her brother and sister lean in to kiss each other, but in its own way, it made perfect sense in the world they lived in.
"Move out, soldiers!" Max barked in her best Zack voice as the others piled in beside her. Syl took the Jeep out of park, and Max tried not to look back at the Aztek as they drove down the road.
~*~*~*~*~*~
Logan noticed his cousin pale every time he looked at the selection of weapons lying discretely on the floor of the dome tent. Krit sat on the picnic table that folded out of the back of the Aztek, running line through a fishing rod. Lex knelt by the fire burning in the fire pit, roasting a hot dog on a stick over the flame. A skillet sat to his left, waiting for whatever fish they might catch. The weather was overcast, so it looked like they might actually have a chance at catching something in the surf. The other campsites along the beach were empty as far as they could see. After the Pulse, legal tourism south of the border had dropped.
"So what's up with him and the blonde?" Jordan nodded to Krit as he sat beside Logan. His cousin picked up a tangled ball of fishing line and began to fidget.
"Krit and Syl? They're banging each other." That was one of Max's more discrete ways of putting it.
"Isn't that incest?" His cousin looked over Logan's shoulder at the laptop screen. "You monitoring radio waves or something?"
"Trying to. This computer isn't powerful enough to pick up sat feeds." Luckily, all the local channels were clear. If Manticore was within a fifty-mile radius, they weren't using any frequency he could pick up. "Syl and Krit only share the X-5 specific DNA. Otherwise, their genetic code is completely different. Incest would be Krit and Max." It hadn't surprised him when Logan found out that Manticore recycled DNA. It was easy enough to twin an embryo. For some reason, Lydecker chose to use Max's genetic template to make a male clone.
"So they were like...mixed in a blender?" He could see Jordan trying to digest this. "Jondy's a genetic frappaccino, blended to be all she can be?"
"With a little cat in her cocktail." Logan smiled slightly, but Jordan didn't respond. Maybe his cousin didn't need to know about Manticore's little alterations to the human genome yet. "The X-5s were engineered to be officer class, so they were trained from the time they could walk."
"And twelve kids escaped from a high security military base when they were nine years old." Jordan shook his head in disbelief as he looked at Krit and Lex. "And those are two of them."
"It was winter. Winter in Wyoming. And twelve of them made it out alive." It was the first escape that made Logan wonder how Max managed a second one. The first time, she was nine years old, and had eleven of her brothers and sisters to watch her back. The second time, it was just her, a dog-man, and the transgenic twin of one of her less-adaptable brothers. She'd made it both times. A third time would be pushing their luck, if Manticore would even let her live that long...
"Shit. And I got myself involved in this?" Jordan's face was unhappy as he struggled to unknot some fishing line. "Why didn't you leave me on the other side of the border, Logan?"
"We warned you." Logan had his own personal vendetta. Even years later, he still wanted every hint of Manticore eradicated from the face of the earth. The desire didn't consume him, like it had while Max was still in there. He looked at the wedding band on his left hand and clenched his hand into a fist. He could almost see an end. Not a happy end, but an end to all this shit. And now, he wanted nothing more than to get on with his life with Max.
"Next time, hit me over the head and tie me to the top of the car. It worked the last time." Jordan threw down the fishing line in disgust and shuffled away.
"He knows the score now?" Krit came to sit beside Logan. "You tell him everything?"
"I skipped the feline DNA. He doesn't deserve warning if Jondy goes on the prowl." His cousin had grown up somewhere in the past few years. He still wasn't a responsible man yet, but Jordan showed signs that he might actually be one of the decent Cales someday. If they all survived that long.
"They'll come back." Krit's hand squeezed his shoulder. "We're stronger now. There's more of us. United we stand, big brother." Krit stared off at the ocean, his face looking more like Max's than ever. "They'll come back," he repeated, as if all he could see was a transgenic blond.
~*~*~*~*~*~
Crammed into the back seat with her sisters, Jondy could feel it when Max's pager went off. Her sister glanced down. "What's our location?"
Tawny rattled off the latitude and longitude from the map. Her sister looked down again, comparing the numbers to the display of her pager. "A few more miles. We should probably break here."
"Does that mean someone has to watch the Jeep?" Tawny grinned. "Krit would kick our collective asses if anything happened to it."
"Just like when you tried to beat the shit out of Zack for scratching your bike," Syl reminded him, shutting the engine off. "Big guns are in the back. If you hand me the duffle on the left, I'll take care of the charges."
As they began assembling for war, Jondy heard a rumbling sound in the distance. Her eyes met Max's. Her sister nodded, signaling that she heard it too. When Victor saw that the others froze, he shot Jondy a questioning look. Jondy shook her head and motioned for him to duck back into the Jeep. Victor complied as the rest of them fanned out in front and behind the Jeep. Without thinking, she grabbed one of the big guns that were lying in the back of the Jeep.
The sound grew louder until Jondy could identify it as the dying engine of some off-road vehicle. No military operation in the world would be caught dead with a piece of shit equipment like that. It would give away their position in half a second. Looking over the top of the Jeep, she focused on the cloud of dust that was just rising on the horizon. It was just outside the range of her telescopic vision, but she thought that she could make out an old Jeep and two figures inside. Neither was wearing black, which was always a good sign.
"Jace," Victor whispered from inside the Jeep. He looked up from his binoculars. "It's Jace and some blond guy."
"Zane." Then, a light flashed in a quick pattern from the center of the dust. Jondy knew the pattern like the back of her hand. It was another one of Ben's creations from their late nights in the barracks. Sister. And then another series of flashes that Jondy recognized as Jace's designation code.
"All clear." There was a note of doubt in Max's voice even as her sister signaled for them to break formation. Jondy noticed that none of them obeyed, but she didn't think Max would mind this time. It was too easy. Manticore taught them to always overestimate the enemy, which was hard when you were fighting against your own teacher.
The battered Jeep drew closer, belching a cloud of white smoke. Jace and Zane seemed alone in the vehicle, but that didn't mean that fifty grunts weren't stashed just over the hill. Jondy watched as Max slid out of their Jeep cautiously and went to greet their siblings.
"Hey, baby sister." Zane put the Jeep into park and hopped out. He held out his arms and Jace handed him down a blanket-wrapped bundle. The bundle struggled briefly, kicking at the cloth until two small arms and a head appeared, glaring darkly at Zane.
"Down!" the small voice demanded. Zane winced as the little boy kicked him in the gut. When Zane wouldn't comply, the boy opened his mouth to wail. One look from Jace caused him to shrink back into the blanket, limp again in Zane's arms.
Jace tumbled out of the Jeep with the grace only one of their siblings had and ran into Max's arms. The two stood for a long time, hugging each other. Finally, Max broke away and pulled her over to the rest of them. "Family reunion, Jace."
After all these years, her older sister was beautiful. Looking at her, Jondy could see a striking resemblance to Lex, another bit of evidence for Logan's twin theory. Even though she'd talked to Jace on the phone a few times over the past three years, it was still strange to see the sister they left behind. Jace was the only one who refused to go, and Jondy knew how much trouble their big sister still had, adjusting to the world Outside.
"Jacey." Syl went to her first, followed by Tawny. Jondy hung back, still not sure of what to say or do. She looked to Zane, who gave her an encouraging smile over their nephew's head. Zane handed their nephew off to Max and took Jondy by the hand.
"She won't bite, little sister." His voice was gentle. "Well, not like she used to when we were little." There was a smile in his gray eyes.
Jace stared at her. Her sister was tall, taller than Max, maybe as tall as Tinga had been. She had a look of Tinga about her. Maybe it was that motherhood thing. Jace's baby lived. Jace might get her happily ever after, if she ever let herself forget Manticore.
"Hey, little sister." Jace's dark eyes seemed to search hers for something as she held back. "I--" She stepped closer and tipped Jondy's face up with the same light touch Jondy remembered from Manticore. "I'm sorry."
"Mama?" Jondy looked down to see Jace's son at their feet, tugging on his mother's shirt. "Mama, qui est--?"
Jace leaned down, hoisting her son to her hip. "These are your aunts and uncles, Max. Say hi to your Auntie Jondy."
Jace's Max stared at her with his father's tawny hazel eyes. "Hi, Tia Jondy," the boy said shyly before burying his face in Jace's shoulder. He reminded her vaguely of Case when her oldest nephew was small. Case was about three the last time she saw him.
"Hi, Max." Jondy held out her hand. Her nephew stared at it for a moment before shaking it. His grip was strong for a toddler. Looking up at her sister, Jace nodded. Their second nephew had bred true to his X-5 genes too.
"Jace?" Jondy turned and saw Victor finally climbing out of the Jeep. He hung back behind Tawny, as if he wasn't sure what to do.
Jace trembled for a moment. Jondy could see the little girl her sister had been at Manticore, trying to decide between freedom and the only home they knew. Running was a hard habit to break, especially when it was burnt into your genetic code. "Victor." She turned their son to face his father. "This is your papa, Max. Remember, like I told you?"
Victor reached out a hand to his son, just as Jondy had done. The small boy took it and stared back up at his father. "Papa," he echoed in his little voice.
Max reached out, putting a hand on both Victor and Jace's shoulders. "We might wanna move the family reunion back to camp," she said gently. "Just in case some black helicopter boys try to crash the party."
Jace cracked a smile. She looked at the second Jeep with doubt. "I don't know if Zane's piece of crap will make it any further."
Zane studied the heap. "We can make it. We just can't go too fast. Or stop."
Max nodded. "Fall out then. Rendezvous back at camp." She shoved Victor towards the second Jeep. "Go get to know your kid."
Jondy tried to look away as Victor took Jace and his son in his arms. There was an awestruck look on the lab tech's face as his son wrapped his arms around Victor's neck. She would never know how Zack would have reacted to being a father. He swore up and down that families were just a liability, but he never let his guard down enough to really love anyone either. She shrugged it off, leaving that dark thought for her next lonely night. It wasn't good to worry about crap like that in the middle of a mission.
But, regardless, as Jace pulled Victor and little Max up into the Jeep, Jondy looked down at the scars on her wrists and wondered anyway.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~
"How you feeling, little sister?" Zane turned around from the front seat to peer back at Max. "I know you weren't feeling up to peak condition at New Year's." His nose wrinkled slightly. "Your color's off, Maxie." At least he didn't say that her pheromones were off, like Tawny or Zack would've. Max was less inclined to slug her big brother, knowing that he meant well. "When was your last heat?"
Max glared at Jondy, who was staring back at Syl driving the Jeep behind them. "First week of December."
"She still has another month, Zane. And Jondy and Syl are even further away. Don't worry." Tawny punched their brother on the arm. "It's not like Maxie's pregnant or anything."
That snapped Jondy out of whatever cloud she was living on. The look on Zane's face changed from concern to chagrin. "Logan doesn't know."
Max glared at her brother. "And if he finds out, I'll kick someone's ass."
"Shit. I don't know if you really want to go to a doctor in Seattle, in case Manticore's tapping the blood banks to see if any odd genetic patterns show up. Maybe if you get checked out down here in San Diego..." Zane ducked his head, light brown hair falling into his eyes. He turned to Jondy. "You knew. And you let her--"
"Let her do nothing! I'm her sister, not her keeper," Jondy snapped. "We'll be lucky if this baby turns out with two arms and no tail. It's not like Maxie doesn't know what the risks are." She slumped back in the seat, leaning against the roll-bar. "We know what the price is of getting pregnant. That's why we're careful. Ask Syl what she and Krit do whenever she goes into heat."
Zane reached back, touching Jondy's cheek. "I'm sorry, baby sister." His tone was gentler than Max usually heard it, and the way he touched Jondy didn't exactly seem brother-like. Maybe it was different for Jondy, seeing her brothers off and on in the years since Manticore. Or maybe Syl and Jondy couldn't love anyone who wasn't Manticore, the same way Max kept clinging to an imaginary dream of family.
Jondy moved her face, kissing the palm of Zane's hand. "I know, big brother."
"What're you gonna do about the baby, Maxie?" Tawny's voice was serious. "Are you gonna tell Logan?"
"Eventually." Max wrapped her arms around the small bulge in her stomach. It would probably be best to tell Logan soon. He was gonna notice sooner or later that her stomach was growing. She peaked back at Jace and Victor in the Jeep behind them, heads bent together. Maybe she'd tell Logan when they got back to camp... "It doesn't seem real. I can't be pregnant. I could just be getting fat."
Jondy's arms enfolded her. "I know the symptoms, baby sister. That little bulge isn't fat." Her sister patted her stomach. "That's two and a half months of Cale-Guevara growing in there."
"Mama Maxie. Make it a girl this time, baby sister. I want a niece that I can use to pick up chicks." Tawny turned back and gave her a quick grin. "I can see her already, all blue eyes and curls... She's gonna be Daddy's little girl, the same way you had the Colonel wrapped around your little finger."
" I did not!" She had vague memories of a night in the infirmary, Lydecker sitting at her side. He wasn't her father, but that night...that night she'd pretended he was. It was the first time she'd heard the word father, and for the longest time, Max thought it was someone kind of like a doctor or a Watcher who took care of you when you were sick. Her baby was going to have a father, just like her nephew wasn't going to grow up without his either.
Jondy's arm tightened around her shoulders once more. "Tell him, Maxie. Just in case." Her sister didn't need to continue the thought. Zack died without knowing his son. And Max would never forget the look on Victor's face when he learned that the child Manticore was chasing was his.
"I will." When they got back to camp, she would. She just needed to figure out the right way to say it...
The rest of the ride was silent. Max was relieved if not a little surprised when they pulled into camp unscathed. She hadn't heard one helicopter on their trail. It made her worry. No sign of resistance was a bad thing. And she knew Manticore had to be out there. You tend to develop a heightened internal radar system after years on the run. Her Manticore radar was screaming, but she just couldn't tell where the signal was coming from.
Logan looked up in surprise as the two Jeeps drove in. He was right there to catch Max as she jumped out, clinging to her as hard as he had that night she escaped from Manticore. She knew he worried. She knew that the worry ate at him until it almost consumed him whenever she was out on an objective for Eyes Only or the X-5s. But it was part of their life together, and always would be.
"We made it back," she whispered in his ear as he buried his face in her hair. Her arms wrapped around his neck, holding him just as close. "Logan, there's something I have to tell you..."
He pulled back, blue eyes searching hers. "What is it, Max?"
Max took his hand and placed it on her belly. There was no easy way to tell him, but she would do it the same way she did everything else in her life--her own way. She gave him her usual crooked grin. "Wanna kitten?"
Logan blinked at her for a moment, the same puzzled look on his face as when he'd first learned about her heat. He opened his mouth to say something when Max heard what sounded like the soft roar of an engine--an engine too powerful for a pleasure or civilian vehicle.
With a rush, she shoved Logan behind the Jeep and immediately began scanning the area. Gunshots echoed as Max caught sight of ten grunts in black running past two snipers, and another eight piling out of a transport vehicle about 500 feet to the south. They must have been lying in wait. Either that, or Manticore was getting a little more creative with their bugs.
Her siblings surrounded her, immediately falling into an arrowhead formation. Krit and Tawny tossed guns around, each taking out a sniper with a precise shot. Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed Victor, Logan and Jordan huddling with her nephew behind the Jeep. Lex and Jace stood in front of them, shotguns already cocked and ready to fire.
The men in black rushed the camp until everything was a blur of kicks and punches. Max dodged the blows as easily as she had as a child, letting her hatred for everything Manticore fuel her energy. Jondy and Syl fought at her side, just as they had when they were small.
"Maxie, behind!" Jondy fell to a crouch, kicking out as Max flipped over her back. She heard her nephew begin wailing behind her, and whirled around to see what threatened the men. Max heard Jace cry out from the other side of camp, but there was no time to see to her sister now. If someone got to the men...
"Shit!" Jondy fell to the ground, clutching her arm. An unusually quick soldier pulled back from her, blade in hand. He dropped the oddly-shaped knife into a pocket and drew another, advancing on Max. Max automatically began to circle around him, assessing his skills. The man was sharp. If he didn't move so slow, he could almost be Manticore. The back of his neck was bare.
The soldier slashed out. Max was careful to keep her eyes on his at all times. One of the Colonel's first lessons was to watch the Enemy's eyes to see where their next attack would land. She lunged out, aiming a kick at his wrist. The soldier plunged his knife into her calf muscle. She tried not to wince as the blade sank into her flesh. Fucking bastard. He was gonna haveta die.
"Max!"
The soldier dropped the blade into another pocket and immediately dove out of her threat range. She heard a rumbling behind her and dove out of the way just as the transport sped into camp. The soldier winked at her as he grabbed onto the back end, hauling himself inside. Another soldier threw out what looked like an envelope, one of the lamest tricks in the book.
Max looked around, trying to assess the situation before she decided to follow the transport. Syl sat breathing heavily, clutching her arm the same way Jondy did. Jordan was still huddled behind the Jeep, holding little Max in his arms. Tawny knelt in front of a body. Max prayed it wasn't one of theirs. Scanning the camp, she found the bodies of ten soldiers in black, but no sign of Logan and the others. A sick feeling spread through her stomach. She barely made it to the edge of camp in time to vomit up everything she'd eaten that day.
"Maxie?" Syl's hand held out a wet rag. Her sister still clutched her bloody arm with one hand, but the wound looked shallow. It only reminded Max of the pain in her calf. "They got Krit."
Jordan stood up cautiously. Her nephew's face was buried in Jordan's shoulder. "They took Logan too. And the blond guy. Some of the soldiers were coming towards us, and Logan and the others rushed forward..." Jordan trailed off, his face still shocked. "The guys just knocked Logan and Krit and the other guy out, like they totally knew what they were doing."
"But they left you and Max. Something's not right in Denmark. Manticore. Whatever." Tawny walked over, cradling a body in his arms. His face was solemn. "We took out ten of them, but they got one of us."
Max shook her head. There had only been twenty that she could see. With eight X-5s, that was more than enough to take out an entire squadron of soldiers. They'd done it before. She looked down at the body, smoothing her sister's dark hair back from her face. "Jacey." Ambushes always went bad, but never this bad, not for them. This just couldn't be happening.
Tawny laid the body on the ground. Max could see three blood stains across Jace's faded blue shirt, two in her stomach, and one through the heart. There was also a cut across her sister's right forearm, shaped similarly to the one that bastard with the odd knife left on Jondy, and Syl and herself. Maybe Jace accidentally got caught in the crossfire. Or maybe Manticore meant to get rid of her sister. All Max knew for sure was what getting shot in the heart felt like. She touched the long scar that still cut across the edge of her left breast. At least Jace had died a soldier's death, and a mother's death, protecting her son.
"Godspeed to the good place, little sister," Tawny said softly, leaning forward to kiss Jace.
"Mama?" As little Max looked up from Jordan's shoulder, Jordan immediately dumped her nephew in Max's arms. She found herself facing a pair of big hazel eyes. "Why's Mama on the ground?" the little boy demanded, lower lip puckered up in a pout.
"Mama's..." She was bad at making promises to her nephews. Well, she had no problems making the promises, it was the keeping them that was the issue. You'd think she'd learned that over the years. Max looked at the wedding band on her finger, wondering if that was another false promise. But sometimes you only had one day, and Logan already knew the price. "Mama's sleeping, Max."
"Sleeping?" Her nephew's thumb found its way to his mouth. The little boy didn't cry though. He just stared at Jace's body, a dazed look on his small face.
"I'll take him, Max." Jordan's arms gently scooped up her nephew. Max could feel her eyes burning as Jordan walked back towards the Aztek, her nephew cradled, absolutely silent, in his arms. Case clung to his father the same way when she delivered the news to Charlie three years ago. She'd never forget the look in Case's eyes when she had to admit that she broke her promise. Case was five years old. He had two more years of memories with Tinga, and he'd understood, to an extent, what his mother's past had been. But her namesake...
"We'll get them back, baby sister." Jondy's arms wrapped around her waist. "Let's take care of Jace first."
With the five of them, it only took a short while to dig a hole deep enough about a quarter mile from the campsite. Lex wrapped Jace's body in a sleeping bag. Before tying it shut, he took the cross from around his neck and fastened it around Jace's. "It might help with negotiations at the gate," her brother said with a slight smile.
Manticore buried its dead with little ceremony. This time, there was no X-8 to play Taps on his beloved bugle, but Max didn't think they needed anything. The sigh of the wind was enough, carrying towards them the soft sobs of their nephew.
"To the Good Place, Jace. Keep my baby company." Jondy stared into the hole, throwing a handful of dirt onto the sleeping bag.
Max didn't say anything as the others piled dirt into the hole. She had to focus on the fact that Manticore had Logan and her brothers, and losing another one wasn't an option. Another nephew was going to grow up without a mother. Her baby was going to have a father. Even if it wasn't the brightest idea to keep this child, it was all she might have of Logan, and damned if she was going to let Manticore kill everything she loved.
As her brothers and sisters finished burying their dead, Max signaled for their attention. Blood-smeared and dirty, the four X-5s fell into position in front of her, just as they had little over two hours ago. "We're gonna go back to camp and track these bastards down. And when we find out what they want, we're gonna kick their asses."
Jondy smiled slightly, but nodded with the rest. "Permission to speak, baby sister?"
Max nodded. Jondy was Biggest Sister now.
"Let's make Lydecker proud."
~*~*~*~*~*~
Jondy was surprised to see her nephew asleep in Jordan's lap when they got back to camp. The blond man actually had a tender look on his face. He looked older than he had yesterday, shell-shocked maybe. Now, she could see an even stronger resemblance to Logan.
"He cried himself to sleep." Jordan laid him down on the back seat of the Aztek. "Is it done?" He didn't have to specify what. It wasn't like anyone couldn't guess what he was asking about.
She nodded. "At least Jace got to see Victor one more time." If only her sister died knowing that her son would grow up free. Jondy wondered sometimes if her own mother knew that she escaped from that hellhole. Little Max might not have a mother, but he had plenty of aunts and uncles who loved him. And two cousins.
"Oh, I found this on the ground." As he fell into step beside her, Jordan handed her an envelope. "I think it's from them." He shook his head. "If I knew this was what Logan was doing in his free time..."
"How do you think your cousin got shot in the back?" Jondy opened the envelope, not too surprised to find a disk inside. "Hey, Syl, we got a present for you!"
Syl sat at the picnic table near the fire pit, Logan's laptop in front of her. "Maxie, do you know the password? If I can get in, I might be able to hack into the local satellite feed or something."
A pale Max sat on top of the picnic table and took the laptop from their sister. "DarkAngel5452. All one word." Jondy smiled slightly. "What?"
Jondy moved up behind her two sisters, so that she could see over their shoulders. "You were Zack's password to the contact number, baby sister." When her sister's face fell, she leaned over to hug Max from behind. "It's okay, Maxie, we will get him back." She made a promise three years before that Max would get every chance for a happily ever after. And though X-5s didn't have a great track record with promises, this was one Jondy was determined to keep.
Max's fingers flew over the keyboard. Sunlight flashed off the gold ring on her finger. Her engagement ring looked fatter than normal. Focusing in on Max's left hand, Jondy noticed the thick gold band under the diamond ring. She looked up at Lex, who nodded. Apparently God already knew about the union and was willing to forgo the formalities. One more reason to get Logan back. The two and a half months of baby in Max's belly was another.
"You've got skills, Maxie," Syl said with a laugh as their sister quickly broke into the border patrol security system. The name of Brianna's husband, Johnny Mahoney, appeared frequently in the log. "You're better at hacking than I am."
"No records of military transports crossing within the past few days. Either they came over unconventionally, or they were here waiting for us." Max rubbed the back of her neck. "They traced us to Jace somehow. But they only grabbed the men. Logan, Krit, Zane, Victor..."
"Four men, Maxie. If they've been watching us for a while, it wouldn't be hard to figure out who belonged to which female X-5," Tawny pointed out. "The fact that you're shacking up with Eyes Only has been Manticore gossip for the past three or four years."
"Wait, Logan's Eyes Only?" Jordan interrupted. "My cousin's like the Post-Pulse version of Batman?"
"He's got an entire legion of genetically-altered soldiers at his call. He might as well be." Jondy couldn't help snickering, picturing Logan in tights. That was a place that Maxie probably didn't want her to go.
"If you're thinking what I think you're thinking, I'm gonna put the smackdown on your ass," Max warned. "Logan's got a fine ass in a pair of leather pants..." She shook her head, focusing back on the task at hand. "But Manticore didn't know that Victor was the father of Jace's baby. Unless they just planted the information to see who took the bait."
"Try this." Syl slipped the disk into the drive of the laptop. "The grunts dropped it." Taking the laptop back, she ran a virus scan over the disk before opening the file. A young woman's face filled the screen. Jondy was relieved to see that it wasn't Renfro. "God, she even looks like she's one of the Enemy."
"You learned your lessons in loyalty well," the woman said with a slick smile. Jondy wondered who died and made the obviously evil woman head of the obviously evil organization. But Manticore had never been one for originality. "We know you have the child. We're willing to make a trade, since you have what we want. Feel free to get in touch." Before the screen faded to black, a barcode appeared. It had fourteen numbers, instead of the usual Manticore twelve.
"Like Case's. Phone number." Max rummaged around in the laptop case and pulled out a small cell phone. "Secured line."
"How does Logan fund all these toys? The family fortune dried up after my father died." Jordan peered into the laptop case and pulled out an identical phone.
"His collection in fine art had to come in handy for something. And some of us actually work for a living," Max retorted. "We should probably head out about ten miles and then make the call, in case they trace the signal."
"They already know where the camp is, Maxie." Jondy rubbed her arm. There was something odd about those blades the grunts stabbed them with. They were wider than normal, with an odd groove. A blood groove, like on the old claymores of Scotland. Damn Manticore. "And for some reason, they have our tissue samples too."
"DNA workup? Didn't Lydecker say something about Tinga's blood being special?" Syl handed Jondy a strip of bandage over her shoulder. "Case and Max bred true to Manticore. Maybe that's why they want us."
Unless they only wanted one of her sisters, and they weren't sure which one. Max was studying the cell phone as if she couldn't decide what to do with it. Four X-classes roamed the North American continent and God knows where else now, thanks to the last time Maxie took down Manticore. Every now and then Max said she saw one on her travels. They didn't have the contact number the way that her brothers and sisters did. Max wasn't Zack. Her baby sister felt no need to devote her life to keeping her siblings on track. The kids needed to learn to survive. And they'd done a pretty good job of blending into the shadows after the witch hunts three years ago.
"It's me," Max finally said, still staring at the phone. "They want me. Renfro knew something about my DNA. Apparently I'm the Chosen One or some shit--like I'm the ultimate product Manticore was trying to make. No junk DNA."
"If you mean that they planned us going into heat three times a year, I'm not buying that for a dollar." Jondy leaned up against the table next to her, slipping an arm around her little sister's shoulders. "It's not your fault, Maxie."
Max pulled away, hands clutching the cell phone. "The escape was. If I didn't get the shakes that night, Eva'd still be alive. Zack's death was. If I didn't come up with the great plan to bust into Manticore again, and got shot, he'd still be alive. Logan got shot up cause I didn't wanna risk my own ass for Lauren. I coulda said something when they took Jack away. I saw Lydecker and Renfro open up his body. I saw--"
"Stop it, Maxie!" Tawny smacked the phone out of their sister's hands and shook her. "It's not your fault. I let Jack down. And you knew after Zack read that book that we were gonna bust out of Manticore. He wouldn't let us become soldiers. It's Manticore's fault that we grew up the way we did. We were never meant to stay behind the walls. They were lucky we didn't break out before then."
He sat on the table and drew Max into his lap, the same way Jondy remembered him doing with her the night before. "We make our own destinies, Maxie. Because you got the shakes that night, the Colonel was gonna let them take you away. Eva knew that. That's why she grabbed the gun. Because she died, we got out. When you attacked Manticore, you took out the entire genetics lab. They can't make more like us anymore." Tawny smiled slightly, stroking back Max's dark curls. "No more kids tortured the way we were. I've seen a couple of the X-8s. We were that small once. We didn't know what the hell was going on after we broke out. Three more generations of our brothers and sisters are gonna live life free because of you. And Logan..." He kissed the top of her head. "Logan knew what the price was when he first saw you. He told me he thought it was worth it. And now we have to bust in to wherever they've got the guys, because my niece isn't growing up without a daddy. And that's an order, soldier."
Jondy felt arms wrap around her from behind. Lex brushed a kiss against her cheek before extending his other arm to Syl. They stood together in a huddle, clinging to each other the same way they were taught, the first time Manticore threw them all together.
"Sir, yessir," Max said softly, wiping her face. Jondy's baby sister didn't cry elegantly the way some women did. Her eyes were red, her face got blotchy, and Max kept wiping her nose on the sleeve of her shirt. But at least she was smiling now. "Hand over that cell, Jordan. I've got a call I need to make.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~
All Logan knew was that his head was pounding. It felt like someone was banging every pot and pan in his kitchen inside his head. He didn't want to open his eyes, just because he knew that as long as he kept them closed, there was a chance that he was still free. His arms and legs could move, but that didn't mean anything. The heavy weight on his chest meant that he wasn't in the back seat of the Aztek. Max didn't weigh that much. In fact, she seemed thinner than usual. Why didn't he notice it before? She looked a lot like she had those first few weeks after Manticore, when they still couldn't touch...
With a groan, he opened his eyes. As expected, bars blocked his vision of the outside world. The weight on his chest was Krit's head. Zane was sprawled over Krit's feet, his left temple bloody. Just beyond Zane's long body, he saw Victor's crumpled form shudder and sit up.
The floor was cold cement, the walls a crumbling cinderblock. That made him feel a little better, maybe Krit or Zane could kick their way out. There were two cots latched up against the wall and a bucket in the corner. There was no door, only a series of bars across the one open wall. There was nothing special about the room outside the cell. Table, chairs, a steel door that led outside. At least his butt wasn't sore from sitting on a cold floor for however long. There were times when paralysis was a blessing. "We all awake?"
Victor rolled over onto his back and stretched. He looked around at the cell. "Shit. They got us, didn't they?" He slammed a fist into the wall. "What about the girls?"
Krit sat up, rubbing his head. "The girls were kicking ass when I blacked out. I think they clubbed me at the base of my skull." His hand came away covered in dried blood. "Zane?"
Zane blinked his gray eyes slowly. His fingers felt along his skull the same way Krit's had. "Are my pupils dilated? I think I've got a concussion."
He groaned as Krit took his face in his hands and looked into Zane's eyes. "Completely, big brother. They got you good."
Zane's eyes widened as he looked around the cell. His eyes shifted to the door. It looked like he was scanning the hallway beyond the glass in the doorway, the same way Max did. "It's not Manticore. We might be in San Diego. They've got us below ground, though. I can't hear anything outside the walls."
The door to the outer room opened, and several soldiers filed in. A young woman followed behind. One soldier set up a laptop similar to Logan's, hooking it up to a nearby phone jack. "Good to see you awake, gentlemen." She was young, probably not much older than Max, but she still had a creepy Renfro-ish quality about her. "I expect to hear from your comrades in a few minutes. You were engineered to be prompt, and I don't expect that they'll fail me."
She settled into the chair, pushing her brown hair out of her brown eyes. She had the nondescript face that most federal agents tried to wear. "Apparently 452 is on the line. I thought you gentlemen might like to join in on it. 452 isn't known for her trust in the system, so you might serve as sufficient proof." A soldier leaned over and whispered something in her ear. She nodded and pointed to Logan. "I believe she'll want to talk to you..."
The female Lex Luthor wannabe rapidly typed a command, and the sound of Max's voice filled the room. "Make your deal and make it quick, you bastard. I'm not known for my patience."
Logan chuckled. It sounded like Max's voice. No one could quite clone attitude like that.
"It's simple, 452. We wanted X-5798 and the child. A trade, the men for your sister. But since circumstances have changed a little because some of my men can't seem to differentiate between stunning and deadly force, we'll have to compromise." The woman smiled. Logan almost expected her to take a piece of kryptonite out of her jacket. "I'm sure you're already tracking down the location. They trained you well in Search and Destroy. And I know for a fact that you excelled in Escape and Evade, 452."
There was silence. He could almost see Max huddled with her brothers and sisters, trying to plot out their plan of attack. If he knew the way an X-5 thought, Jace would follow Tinga's path and sacrifice herself for her son. And knowing Max, that wouldn't be an option. It was all for one. Logan just hoped that she could pull it off. "I want proof that they're alive. All of them." It wasn't an obvious stall, but it was a nice choice on Max's part. Manticore had trained her well.
The dark-haired woman nodded towards Logan. "That would be your cue, Mr. Eyes."
Logan swallowed, trying not to croak. "I'm here, Max. We all are." Manticore's sadistic bitch smirked when his voice cracked. "I l--"
"711?"
"X-5711, reporting for duty." Krit snapped off a sarcastic salute. "3-4-1, Syl."
Logan heard a soft chuckle. "Ditto," Syl's voice said through the computer speaker.
"205?"
Zane blinked at the woman for a moment. "Buddha will forgive you, baby sister. You know what to do." He closed his eyes again, one hand still rubbing at his temple.
"And Mr. Sanchez?"
Victor leaned forward, fists clutching the bars of the cell. "Here too, Jace." Jace didn't answer, but Logan swore he heard an odd sniffling sound. Something wasn't right at the camp. Something hadn't gone according to plan, and Manticore knew about it.
"Happy now, 452? Your men are alive and well, though whether or not they stay in that state remains to be seen." Before Max could answer, a soldier brought in a report and laid it on the table next to the dark-haired woman. As she opened the file, both Krit and Zane leaned forward against the bars with Logan, trying to get a glimpse of whatever the report said.
"There's been a change in plans, 452. Tests on your blood sample brought some...interesting results." She shuffled through what looked like a diagram of a human body. "Dr. Renfro told you about your unique genetic situation, did she not? We suspected that X-5798 carries the same essential DNA sequence that both you and 656 do. That's why 656 was able to pass on her X-5 specific DNA to her son, and theoretically why 798's boy would be of the same X-5 caliber. But apparently, your genetic code offers far more than that. Our buyer originally wanted your sister and her child to breed his own army, but you've made it far easier for me. Your sister and her child can remain free, and I'll let your men go. I'll even release X-5205 and X-5711 even though my client is quite interested in obtaining at least one of your male siblings." She turned and smiled at Logan with the same look that the snake must have worn in Eden.
There was a pause. "What's your price?" Max's voice was cautious. "Your friends haven't exactly honored their promises before." None of them forgot Renfro's attempt to grab Case and Tinga. Lydecker cursed her name with his dying breath, because Renfro's death hadn't been nearly the torture that the bitch deserved.
"Yourself, 452. You, and everything you carry within you. You still have several months to go, apparently, but I believe our buyer is willing to wait." Logan shuddered as the woman's smile widened. "I'll expect your answer within the hour, 452. With your tracking skill, you won't have problems finding us. And when you come, you will come alone, or else we shoot one of your men for every one of your sisters that you bring with you. And we start with Eyes Only."
"Fucking bitch," Max growled. "I'm gonna rip your fingers off and feed them to you, one by one."
"An hour, 452. And thank you for the suggestion. We might have to use that as retaliation on your brothers." With the click of one key, the woman hung up. She stood and made her way towards Logan, report still in hand. "She didn't tell you, did she? If she did, I doubt you would have let her come. Although it would explain the ring." The woman nodded towards Logan's left hand. "The old psych profiles done on the X-5s speculated on how they would adapt to outside life. Some of the doctors didn't think they would form bonds outside of those with their squadron. But most people underestimated the X-5 series. Especially the Gillette facility class." There were rumors of other Manticore facilities. At least Logan had proof now that these places once existed. "Victor can attest to that, can't you?"
Victor rejoined the three of them leaning against the bars. "So you were next in line after White kicked it. Who'd you sleep with, Erica? Unless Renfro planted you in with us to make sure we didn't get any information we weren't supposed to have."
"You know I didn't sleep with an X-5 like you did. Though apparently White was tempted." Erica turned her oily smile on Logan again. "She's a beautiful specimen, Mr. Eyes. Funding cutbacks after the '09 escape made Manticore a little less picky about the genetic material they had to work with. It shows in the later series. None of them were made with quite the perfection of the X-5s. Colonel Lydecker had an eye for beauty. Your child should be no exception."
And in the back of his mind, Logan heard Max's voice as she touched his hand to her stomach. Wanna kitten?
Logan lunged out against the bars, grabbing Erica by the neck. "I'll kill you," he warned. "If you touch her, I'll kill you. If you don't touch her, I'll try not to leave anything left for her brothers and sisters to play with."
One of the guards ran up, shoving the butt of his rifle into Logan's gut and pushing him away. He relaxed his grip on the woman's throat as he stumbled to the floor. Krit automatically crouched in a guard position in front of him, dark eyes glaring with an eerie similarity to Max. If Max's DNA was perfect, wouldn't that mean that Krit...?
Erica smiled. "Two hours, Mr. Eyes. Then we should have a nice little family reunion." And with an exit as slick as something Lex Luthor might have done, the head of Manticore left the room, his guards trailing behind him.
Logan slumped against the wall, one arm still cradling his gut. Shit. A baby. Max was pregnant. Max was pregnant, and getting ready to bust into a secured facility in order to rescue him and her brothers. Max was going to have his baby. A little girl, named Sara after his mother, or Tinga or Brin or Syl or Jondy... A baby that she was bringing to Manticore.
"Logan?"
He turned his face to the wall. Max knew and hadn't told him. She'd willingly gone into danger knowing that she carried his child. And now she had to make a choice between herself and her family. Logan remembered the last time she was faced with a choice like that. He didn't want to remember the look on her face when she told him how she chose Alec's life over finding a cure for their virus.
Valerie first started drinking when they found out they couldn't have a child. With his spinal injury, Logan never thought that it would ever be an issue, especially with Max only fertile a few times a year.
"A baby." Fucking Manticore. He could almost hear his chance at a family being flushed away.