Chapter 6: If You Want Me To
A/N: Thanks, as always, to my beta, Laura. She's suffered through a lot with this story. *g* One more chapter, and then the epilogue. And then this thing will be done, thank god... Sorry for the massive amount of time between chapter five and six. The action scene gave me issues...
To recap, Max, Logan, and some X-5s learned that Manticore was after Jace and her son Max. Before they leave for Mexico to warn Jace, Max learns she's pregnant, but neglects to tell Logan. Once they reach Mexico, there's an ambush, and Logan, Krit, Zane, and Jace's old love Victor the lab tech are captured. Max has to turn over herself and her unborn child in order to save them...
The pathway is broken
The signs are unclear
I can't find the reason why you brought me here
But just because you love me the way that you do
I will go through the valley
If you want me to
Now I'm not who I was
When I took my first step
And I'm clinging to the promise
You're not through with me yet
And if all of these trials bring me closer to you
I will go through the fire
If you want me to
It may not be the way I would have chosen
'Cause it leads me through a world that's not my home
But you never said it would be easy
Only that I'll never go alone
When the whole world turns against me
And I'm all by myself
And I can't hear you answer my cries for help
I'll remember the suffering your love put you through
And I will go through the valley
If you want me to
--If You Want Me To, Ginny Owens
"You can't go alone, Maxie." Jondy stood in front of her, arms crossed. Tawny and Syl stood behind her, mimicking her stance. "You know what they'll do to you."
Maybe that was the problem. She knew what Manticore would do to her. Small, dark places still scared the shit out of her. But this was Logan's life, and her brothers' lives, and Victor... "You heard what that bitch said she'd do to them. I've gotta get them out." Max wrapped her arms around her waist, feeling very small and very young. Tinga had to make this choice--her baby's life, or her own. And they all knew what happened to Tinga. "It's not my life this time, Jondy. If it was Zack--"
Before Max knew it, Jondy had her pinned against the side of the Aztek, her sister's hands at her throat. There was no love in Jondy's blue eyes, only years and years of hurt. "It was Zack. And he did it to save your ass." Jondy's strong hands began to close around her throat, cutting off her intake of air. It didn't matter. Max could hold her breath forever. She did it under the ice for almost seven minutes after the escape. Her field of vision narrowed until all she could see were her big sister's eyes, inches from her own. "That's the reason why he never answered the contact number. He was at Manticore when I miscarried, because he couldn't let the woman he loved go back to that hellhole." Jondy's blue eyes darkened in anger. "Just cause someone got careless let Lydecker see enough of her face to put up wanted posters for her."
Out of the corner of her eye, Max could see Syl lunging forward. Tawny stepped in front of her, motioning to let them play it out. Maybe this was shit that had to be said before they could go forward. She didn't ask Zack to love her. It would have been a lot less complicated if he didn't. And there were choices that Max never wanted to make when it came to Zack--to Adam. "I just wanted a big brother," she choked out, her eyes searching Jondy's. "You could've left me at Manticore. I didn't give Eva the gun." But Ben... Ben was her fault. And Logan's virus. Was this how Zack felt about Brin? They promised to get her out. No X-5 was good at keeping his promises.
Jondy shook her head, face crumpling. "I couldn't leave you. You're my baby sister, not a nomalie. Blood brothers. We promised." Another promise broken. "Dammit, Maxie, I saw you fall through the ice every night for the past eleven years. And then when Zack finally got around to telling me you were alive, he wouldn't let me go to you, and then he--" She swallowed what sounded like a sob. "Fuck, Maxie. Everything we try they mess up. We're not gonna let them win. They can't win this time." Her grip on Max's throat loosened. "I'm not losing you again. I'm not gonna let them kill us off one by one just because they wanna play God." Jondy chuckled through her tears. "Zack's ghost would kick my ass if I let anything happen to his baby sister."
"I think he'd try to kick Logan's first." Max attempted a smile as she wiped Jondy's face with a blood-stained sleeve. "And then Victor's, for knocking up Jace. And then Krit's, for putting the moves on Syl..."
"Jordan's, cause he knows what kind of underwear Jondy wears," Tawny added. His golden eyes looked suspiciously bright, but Max knew that none of her brothers would ever admit to crying. Soldiers didn't cry. Emotion was a weakness that only let your Enemies know exactly how to break you.
"Robert hit on me too." Jondy's hands relaxed and her arms fell back to her sides. Max caught at her sister's small hands, squeezing them as Jondy turned to glare at Jordan. "You Cales shouldn't be allowed out in public, trying to take advantage of women in their weak moments."
Jordan choked. Max couldn't tell if he was scared shitless, or just stunned. Jondy had a good effect on Logan's youngest cousin. Maybe it was something she should pursue after all...
"Back to the mission guys. We can't forget the mission. We need to disable their tracking system." Syl's eyes almost gleamed in anticipation. "If we take it out..." She pulled out a sheet of paper, sketching a plan for a decoy set-up using Max as bait. Max nodded. It was a sound plan that had the best chance of working, if they could hack into the surveillance system and find out where Manticore was hiding the men.
"Shoulda gotten those comm links. Maybe Krit..." she heard Tawny mutter as he started rummaging through a bag in the back of the Jeep. "Why couldn't they give us useful animal DNA with longer-range communication capabilities? Found 'em!"
Her older brother held up six transistor headsets in triumph.
"Or we need a few of the X-7s. Lydecker said they were hive-minded." Max would never forget meeting her X-7 self. X-7452's eyes were completely soulless and dead. She had vague memories of someone telling her once that X-5s weren't supposed to know how to love, but somehow she thought Manticore took the lack of human emotion too far with the X-7s. "Or some bat in our cocktails. They could've at least given us telepathy or something useful." She rubbed at the back of her neck. Lydecker found her easily enough that one time, thanks to the fried implant in her neck. "Don't we have tracking devices? I thought you or Zane always carried that crack, Syl."
"What's wrong, little sister?" Syl dragged Max forward, pushing her hair off her neck. Max could feel her sister's fingers rub up against her barcode as Syl found the puckered scar just below it. "What the hell's in your neck, Maxie? Tawny, you were best at field med. Think you could pull this thing out?"
Max could feel her brother's breath as he bent over her neck. "What is it?" There was a pause as he leaned in for a closer look. "Shit, Maxie! Where the hell did you get a neural implant?" She felt a slight probe at the pucker of the scar and then a rush of pain lanced through her body. Max gritted her teeth. "Lemme see the first aid kit."
"It's an implant for the Red series--ups their adrenaline and crap. Had to use it to fight against them." Max found herself facing four incredulous looks from her brothers and sisters. "They had my girl! I couldn't let 'em kill her. Their asses had to be kicked." She shook her hair down again, covering the scar. "Manticore used some trace program to find me because the little bitch is made of some weird-ass metal alloy." She could almost see the moment of realization in her brothers' and sisters' faces. "That's how Manticore found me this time, isn't it?"
Syl pulled Max forward again, pushing aside her hair to examine Max's neck. "We gotta get it out Maxie. Tawny, you were the best at field med...you do it."
Five minutes later, Max found herself on her stomach on the picnic table, her face buried in Jondy's thigh. Her arms were wrapped around Jondy's waist. Max hoped that she didn't squeeze her sister in half. Jondy's fingers wound themselves through Max's curls, twisting her hair up out of the way. It felt weird to have her neck exposed to the world. It didn't help that she'd seen the scalpel that Tawny was going to use to cut the implant out...
"This is probably gonna hurt, Maxie," Tawny warned. No shit. It wasn't like she forgot what it felt like to have 10,000 volts of electricity zapped into the back of her neck. Hopefully it wouldn't be as bad as getting her barcode removed... Max breathed deep, trying to find that place of Zen that Zane always talked about when he was hurt. The Colonel taught them how to go into a trance-like state when they were being tortured. For the first time in her life, Max was at least partially thankful for her fucked up childhood.
She breathed in and out deeply and controlled. Max could feel Jondy slow her breathing so that their lungs worked in tandem. In and out. In and out. The trance was easy to fall into. Max used to use it to trick herself into sleeping at night sometimes, when she was bored. It was a familiar gray place that she knew far too well from childhood.
"Easy, Tawn." Voices echoed oddly in the gray place. It was almost like what happened when she drank three bottles of wine, and got tunnel-hearing. "If you cut above--"
Pain. Sharp pain shot through her spine as something touched the neural implant in her neck. Max felt hands rubbing her shoulders, trying to relax her tensing muscles. "Easy, Maxie. It'll be over soon."
The gray place was fading until all Max was aware of was the pain. Pain that hurt worse than a laser aimed at her iris for four hours straight. Pain that hurt worse than her legs after being cramped into a two-foot tall space for a week at Manticore. Pain that hurt almost as bad as recovery from a bullet through the heart.
"Ease up, soldier. It's almost over." The phrase was Zack's, even if the voice wasn't. Soldiers didn't cry. Soldiers didn't show weakness. She was a brave soldier who would make her CO proud of her, and someday, she'd even make the Colonel smile--
"Got it!" Something stung against the back of her neck as one of her brothers doused the incision with disinfectant. Max felt a hand hold a bandage against the cut. "You can come up for air now, Maxie." Looking up, she saw the little metal bitch lying in Tawny's hand. Small as it was, the metal neural implant still looked evil. If it hadn't been for Logan frying the shit out of it...
"That's what the South Africans were working on?" Syl picked it up, examining it closely. "Can I keep it, Tawny?" Max noticed Jordan gag at that.
"All set, baby sister." Jondy finished taping up the bandage and then looked at the sun. "It's been at least half an hour, Maxie. You should call them back." Looking around at her brothers and sisters, they all nodded a quick affirmative.
Jordan handed her the cell phone, his face pale. "If you'll excuse me..." he muttered, stalking over to the bushes. Max's siblings turned their backs to him to give him some privacy. The whole situation reminded Max of an X-6 who'd once picked the name Ralph because she had the same kind of weak stomach.
Settling herself back on the picnic table, she dialed the number with shaking hands.
" 452." The chill in the woman's voice made shivers run up Max's spine.
Drawing on years of training, Max tried to close off her mind and her heart. "Where are we making the trade?"
~*~*~*~*~*~
"Mr. Eyes." Logan snapped back to reality only to find himself face to face with Erica. "452 is on her way. Apparently she values your life higher than hers and your child." The woman's face creased in a smile. Logan lunged out against the bars again, only to find a rifle butt shoved against his chest. Krit and Zane each grabbed him by an elbow, dragging him further back into the cell. The woman chuckled. "Do you really think we believe 452 would give you up without a fight? We're prepared, Mr. Eyes. If things go according to plan, we'll have an entire squadron of X-5s to send to our buyer, instead of just one and her unborn child."
"Do you really think that you'll get away with this?" Years of being a cable hack took over. If Logan pretended that this was just another broadcast, he could hide behind Eyes Only and avoid thinking about the mess. "You haven't managed to keep an X-5 since Tinga, and that's only because you turned her own sister against her. You won't win."
"Admit that you fucked up when you trained us." Zane's voice was quiet, but it carried even in the small room. "Lydecker knew. You made us unbreakable. You taught us the only thing that saved us." The blond X-5 moved forward til he towered over Erica. Though his hair fell into his eyes, his face was cold. It was a soldier's face--the face of a man who was created to perform, act, and kill.
Erica was silent. Her face lost a bit of its composure, and Logan heard the soft sound of Krit's chuckle behind him. "Take that, bitch," Max's little brother muttered as he came to flank Logan and Zane. "You'll pay for all the shit you put us through."
~*~*~*~*~*~*~
"I'm not staying here!" Jondy tried not to laugh as Jordan actually stomped his foot against the dirt. "They've got my cousin, and there's no way in hell I'm playing babysitter here while you go and get him out."
"You'll die. This isn't some stupid video game. It's war." Max crossed her arms and did a really good impression of a Zack glare. If Jondy hadn't known what the original looked like, she would've been impressed. Her baby sister was still an impressive figure in her own right. "We've been playing this shit since before we can remember, Jordan. Stop being a macho man and get in the real. You. Can't. Go."
Jordan opened his mouth as Tawny snickered. "Not bad, baby sister. Not bad at all." Tawny slung an arm around Jordan's shoulders, an apologetic look on his face. "She's right, Jor. This is what we were made for."
"I'll stay," Lex spoke up from where he sat with little Max in his lap. Jondy looked at her brother in surprise. "It makes more sense to have one of us here. I'm not as crack as Zane is at getting into a security system, but I didn't fail telecom like some people." Jondy laughed as Lex shot a look at Tawny.
"The bitch wants Maxie there in an hour. If we ditch the Jeep about a mile off, we could probably break in..." Jondy looked at where Syl sat with Logan's laptop. "Got anything on the facility yet?"
"Almost..." Syl pounded a few keys. "Got it!" Jondy peered over her sister's shoulder. The laptop's screen showed a satellite visual of a long, low building. It looked typically nondescript and abandoned--the perfect hideout for a para-military organization. With a few more keystrokes, the picture magnified, zooming in on an almost hidden entrance. "If we go in here..."
"We don't know how many soldiers she has though," Lex pointed out. "I know you kick ass, baby sister, but four X-5s can't take on an entire squadron."
Jondy laughed. "Wanna bet?" Maybe this wouldn't be so hard after all. She could feel the old sense of exhilaration thrilling through her veins. The adrenaline was definitely starting to kick in. As much as she hated to admit it, Jondy would always love preparing for battle. It was what she was made for. And from the looks on her brothers' and sisters' faces, Jondy knew that the others felt the same way. It felt right somehow. And somehow, Jondy knew that they would've made Lydecker proud.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Max drove alone in Zane's Jeep. The others followed behind in Krit's, taking an alternate route. If Manticore remembered any of the lessons they taught the X-5s, Erica the scumbitch would realize that Max would never hand over her baby without a fight. No true soldier would. At least she could wear her black cat suit again. It didn't seem right to sneak in and kick Manticore ass without the spandex. It was just another heist for a slightly more valuable object--one that she wouldn't fence for any amount of money.
It was easy enough to find the installation. Scanning the area around the low building, Max could see evidence of her siblings hiding out. Tawny never did learn to pull up his legs when he was hiding in a tree. Luckily, the others were all in full camouflage.
There were no soldiers at the gate. That wasn't too surprising. Manticore didn't exactly want to upset the local government, and a secure military installation was a little suspicious. From the looks of the place, the building seemed like a temporary holding facility. Manticore usually separated itself from the outside world with acres of fence and barb-wire. At least she didn't have to jump anything this time.
Pretending to consult her watch, Max used the glass face to reflect three brief beams into the trees on the outskirts of the property. The others were linked by radios. If any of the guards caught her wired for cable TV, that would arouse immediate suspicion. Rule number one was to always keep your cover. Rule number too was to never forget your cool.
"X-5452." A guard stepped out from the building, waving her over with his rifle. Two of his thug brothers flanked him. All three wore Kevlar, but they moved with the speed and agility of tanks. At least Manticore hadn't gotten over its love for thick-headed, thicker-bodied meatheads as guards. They looked sturdy, but Max knew she could kick their asses before they even realized they were being attacked.
"X-5452 reporting in, sir!" She snapped a salute. At least it was second nature now to give anyone in uniform her soldier face. She made a kick-ass poker player. And the only one better at lying was Jondy.
"This way." Head Honcho Guard made his first mistake, turning his back so that she could follow him into the installation. At least Manticore taught the guards to automatically flank the prisoner. The two remaining bozos gave her a quick pat-down, but one let his hands wander a little further south than she liked.
"That's gonna cost you, GI Joe. I don't let just anyone feel me up." Max resisted the urge to kick him in the nuts.
Once the guards were convinced she wasn't packing, they led her down a maze of corridors. From the inside, it looked even more like a temporary base. Manticore didn't even have a visible security system set up. At least it would be that much easier for her brothers and sisters. Hopefully Jordan wouldn't cause too many problems...
Keeping a careful count of the turns they took, Max wasn't surprised when she was finally led into a windowless office deep inside the building. This place might have been a base once, or even an old police station when the law actually had a say out here. It was shoddy work though. They didn't even use steel beams to reinforce the cinderblock walls. It wouldn't take that long to bust out.
"X-5452." A dark-haired woman sat behind a laptop in the center of the room. The woman had the same non-descriptness that Manticore seemed to like in its villains. This one actually made Ames White seem personable and engaging.
"Manticore bitch." Max saluted the woman, smiling slightly. Being a pain in the ass usually threw the baddies. They didn't have much imagination, especially if they were the result of a three-millennia breeding program.
The woman actually chuckled. "Renfro mentioned that you have a sense of humor. She said you have a fondness for daring her to kiss your transgenic ass..."
Max smirked at the woman. "So I'm here. Where are my boys?" She watched the woman carefully, noting that the Manticore bitch was careful to keep her hands visible at all times.
The woman's eyes narrowed. She looked to one of the guards that still flanked Max, and when the guard nodded, she began to smile. "So you actually came alone, unbugged, and unarmed? I'm astonished. I thought Lydecker taught you better than that."
"I've gotten by pretty well ignoring everything the Colonel said so far." Max shrugged. "Your turn to keep your end of the bargain. I want my men."
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
"She's in." Tawny's voice was soft over the comm. link. "They gave her a pat-down. I think one of the guards grabbed Maxie's ass."
Jondy snorted. "She shoulda kicked him in the nuts. So where's this magical entrance that we can use?" She looked over the low wall she and Jordan were crouched behind on the south perimeter of the property.
Lex exhaled deeply. "Check at nine o'clock, little sister. It isn't marked, but you can see the outline. Syl might have to jury-rig it open."
Syl's chuckle echoed through the earpiece. "Too bad Zane isn't here to help. He's better at jimmying open locks than I am. Whatcha wanna bet he's already got the cell door open?"
"With his toes. Brother-man's got mad skills." Jondy motioned over her shoulder for Jordan to follow her. "Going silent until it's a 911. Everybody remember the plan?" She could almost see the silent nods that her siblings gave from their hideouts around the perimeter. After three affirmative grunts and Jordan nodding from behind her, Jondy took a deep breath. "Fall out, troops."
Looking over the wall again, Jondy saw that the empty stretch in front of the building was clear. With another wave at Jordan, she took off at a lope, keeping low to the ground. Syl didn't pick up much radio static, and she hadn't been able to hack into a security network, so the technology out here was either beyond her sister's skill, or lacking by far. Jondy preferred to think it was the second scenario, but you couldn't be too careful. It wasn't like this was a game, not when her brothers' lives were at stake.
Keeping a constant watch, Jondy reached the door easily, Jordan so close behind her that he stepped on her heels a few times. The boy could keep up pretty well, even if he wasn't genetically engineered. There was something kinda vulnerable and cuddly about him too, even though Jondy didn't usually go for that sort of thing. He was a pretty boy, but there was nothing wrong with that either. It just made it a little difficult to concentrate with a blue-eyed pretty boy breathing down her neck.
"Back off," she muttered at him as she assessed the entry. It was an old grate lying across the ground, leading to a sewer system or basement, probably. From the smell, it seemed clean. It was easy enough to finagle the latch open. Jondy flipped down and landed. The concrete was solid and dry beneath her feet. "Okay?"
Jordan grunted as he landed beside her. He might be fast, but Grace wasn't his middle name. He barely moved out of the way in time before Tawny landed beside him. Syl followed, as silently as Tawny.
Ready? Jondy motioned. Her brother and sister nodded. With a quick scan, Jondy noticed that a tunnel ran perpendicular to the corridor they were in. One short branch led out towards where the main entrance was, and the other ran deeper into the building. Tawny pointed to the southern corridor, heading further into the complex. Pointing to himself and Syl, and then to Jondy and Jordan, he motioned for them to split two and two and head down the corridor. Syl looked to Jondy and nodded. Her sister patted the ammo belt she wore across her chest, a slight smile on her face. Jondy couldn't help feeling sorry for the bastards that took Krit. No one messed with an X-5 and survived, especially not where it concerned family.
Syl and Tawny moved down the corridor first at a quick run. When they reached the first bend in the corridor, Jondy tugged at Jordan's sleeve, pulling him along behind her. They had the radio if they needed to contact each other. She only hoped that if her brother and sister reached Logan and everyone else first, they left a piece of that Manticore bitch for Jondy.
Out of the corner of her eyes, Jondy noticed Jordan looking about with a scared look on his face as they moved down the corridor. She wondered if he could see anything at all, since he didn't have night vision like the rest of them. She reached out and grabbed his hand, giving it a quick squeeze. He gave her a slight smile in return, but didn't let go of her hand. She didn't mind too much. Jordan Cale was pretty brave to come this far as it was.
They reached another crossroads. From the chalk mark on the right branch of the tunnel, Jondy knew that Tawny and Syl took that tunnel. That left the other to her and Jordan. This way, she motioned, tugging at his hand. He gave her a blank look, but followed anyway. His free hand clutched the gun strapped to his hip. It was too early to tell if Jordan would be more of a liability than a help, but it was still nice not to be alone. She spent far too much time pulling solo missions.
There was a light ahead. Jondy pulled Jordan with her as she edged under the grate in the ceiling, keeping as close to the wall as possible. Zooming in, she couldn't see many signs of traffic in the hallway above. Pushing Jordan to his knees, she put one foot into his outstretched hand for a leg up. Jordan lifted her easily. Maybe there was actual muscle on that pretty-boy frame of his. Logan was built the same way, and he wasn't exactly a weakling. There were no sounds of traffic from the hallway above. The hallway itself looked dark and unused. This might be the perfect way to sneak in.
"Found a way in. Moving up to stage two." Jondy kept her voice low, knowing a whisper would carry farther in the quiet hallway.
"Affirmative," came Tawny's voice. Then the comm. link was silent again.
Fumbling at her belt, she extracted a screwdriver and made quick work of the bolts that held the grate to the ceiling. Grasping the edge of the grate with one hand, she motioned for Jordan to drop her with the other. The grate swung open without a sound, buffered from hitting the wall with her hand. Jordan's blue eyes widened, but he didn't say anything but offer her a hand for another leg up.
"You're going first, buddy." With a quick grin, she bent and grabbed Jordan around the waist, lifting him up to where he could grab the edge of the hole. With a boost, he was able to scramble through. Jondy ignored the hand he held down to her, jumping up lightly to grab at the lip of the hole and swing her way up. Again, Jordan had a stunned look of admiration on his face. He wasn't such a bad guy when he was quiet.
They kept to the edges of the walls as they crept down the hallway. Jondy could hear some noise further in, but nothing came from nearby. With a wave, she motioned for Jordan to move a little faster.
The compound had the usual military layout. The cinderblock walls and fluorescent lights gave Jondy a weird sense of deja-vu. Jordan's presence so close on her heels did nothing to break the illusion that this was the night of the escape again. This time, Lydecker wasn't here. This time, one of them wouldn't die.
"Jondy?" Syl's voice echoed in her ear. "Stage two."
"Be careful, little sisters." Lex's quiet voice sounded calm, but Jondy could still hear the slight tremble in it. Lex had always been one of the calm ones, like Zane. Maybe it was that whole faith thing.
"Jondy?" Jordan tugged at her hand. "What are we--"
But before she could answer, footsteps started down the hallway. "Shit." Before she could turn to run, Jordan tugged at her hand again.
"Wait, I think we can--"
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
"Shit." Logan looked up as Zane muttered under his breath. He couldn't blame Zane's choice of words. Jondy walked in, hands in chains, a guard moving her along with a cattle prod.
"I found this one in the hallway, sir." The new guard's hat was pulled low over his eyes, but there was something familiar about his voice. "452 didn't come alone. She brought 210 with her."
The first guard, sitting on a chair facing the cell, nodded. "Good work, soldier. Put her in with the others."
"Do you really think that's a good idea, sir?" The second guard took the keys his comrade tossed him and pushed Jondy none too gently towards the cell. There was a bruise on her cheek, and it looked like her lip was split. Her face didn't look too happy either. "The X-5s aren't even chained to the wall. Keeping two of them together in the cell like that, loose, is asking for trouble."
The first soldier stood and paced around the new one, peering closely at him. "Which squadron are you from, soldier? I want your name and rank."
There was a moment of tense silence. "Some call me...Tim?" Before Logan could blink, Jondy broke out of the chains and knocked the first guard over the back of the head. He dropped to the floor with a thump. Grabbing the keys from the second soldier, she quickly unlocked the door.
"Thanks, Private Cale." Jondy gave the second soldier a grin as he tugged off his hat. Logan stifled a groan as his youngest cousin grinned at Jondy.
"Private? I'd be at least a sergeant."
Jondy snorted. "Not in my squadron. My nephew could kick your ass, and he's only eight." She unlocked the door with flourish, holding it open. "Tawny bet you'd have this place already busted up, Zane. You're losing your touch, big brother."
"I was just waiting to show off for you, little sister." Zane leaned in to kiss her lightly as he reached for the unconscious guard's gun. "Maxie in?"
"Syl and Tawny went looking for her." Jondy grabbed Krit as he walked by, giving him the same light kiss to the lips. "That's from Syl."
Krit grinned. Logan couldn't help noticing the relieved look on his cousin's face. Jordan and Jondy would certainly make an interesting combination... But then the meaning of Jondy's words sunk in. "That woman has Max?" Max, and their child. His child.
Each X-5 paused. Logan noticed the looks they exchanged, from blue eyes to gray to brown. "If anyone can take care of herself, it's Maxie," Krit said finally as he strapped on the guard's spare pistol. With a quick gesture, he exchanged his camo shirt for that of the unconscious guard, being careful to bind the man's wrists together again when he was done. "She's gotten out of Manticore twice and managed to burn the place down. She'll make it." But in his voice, Logan heard the same doubt from earlier in the afternoon.
"Lex? Got the worm. Moving out." Jondy motioned for her brothers to gather around. Jordan hung back on the outside until Jondy actually waved him forward. This time, her hands moved slower, and she actually leaned over to whisper in his ear. "Got the plan?" The three men nodded, while Victor just hung back at Logan's shoulder. Logan was glad that he wasn't the only one who felt lost and confused. X-5s always managed to remind him of how vulnerable and human he really was. At least the exoskeleton still worked. Moving forward a step, Logan was comforted by the slight whirring noise the suit made.
Without warning, the three X-5s moved towards him and Victor, chaining their wrists. "Trust me, Logan. We'll get you out." Jondy's blue eyes were worried as she fastened the chains about his wrists. "Just...trust me." Standing beside him, Krit and Jordan chained her, and then Zane, being careful to leave Zane with enough chain to reach the gun hidden in the waistband of his pants.
"Move out, troops." Krit's voice was solemn as he jammed the unconscious guard's cap over his eyes. "We got a bitch to take down."
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Max watched the woman warily as she moved to press a button on the computer. "Bring the men in, Johnson." A man's voice echoed over the computer speaker in an affirmative. As they waited, the Manticore bitch waved to the free chair, nodding to the guard beside her. "Take a seat, 452. I won't bite, even though according to the files some of your brothers do."
Max smirked. "The Colonel tried to break Zane of the habit, but it never worked." Keeping a careful eye on the guard, she leaned up against the wall. "So why all this shit? Didn't you guys learn your lesson the last time? I thought White's little freak brigade took the rest of you out for defiling the natural order of breeding programs or some shit."
"When your Eyes Only broadcast the address of the Seattle facility, it hit the Council hard, but Manticore still has a few powerful investors." Erica settled back in her chair, scanning whatever was on her laptop monitor. "One investor showed an interest in training his own...squadron... to protect his interests. His local government has lost some stability over the past four years, and he doesn't want to be caught in a bind. He got in contact with what remained of the Council, and since we knew that 798 and 656 had progeny, we figured that that would be the easiest way to alleviate our problem, and aid our investor." The woman's smile widened. "The possibility of your pregnancy never factored into the equation. Our investor will be more than pleased. He'd expressed special interest in you, from what Dr. Sandeman mentioned in his early reports."
"Sandeman?" Even after three years, Max still hadn't unraveled the mystery of Father. Her one memory of him was dim, and Joshua wasn't much help. But if she never learned the real 411 on Father, it wasn't that big a dealio. The virus bitch was kicked, and White's freak brigade was pretty well vanquished, from what they could tell. This Manticore investor had to go down though. It wasn't safe if he knew she was alive, or that her baby existed.
But before the Manticore bitch could say anything further, a guard came running into the room. "The X-5s escaped, Ms. Harrison. Maxwell's passed out on the floor, and his guns are missing. One of the other men said that another woman joined the men, probably 210."
Erica turned, a deadly look in her cold eyes. "Your years since the escape have softened you, 452. I told you to come alone." At her slight nod, the guard to her left advanced on Max. Before he could reach for his gun, she dodged towards him, grabbing his gun arm and pulling it behind his back until it snapped.
"I'll kill him. You know how fast you created us to be." But as she spoke, Max felt cold metal press to the back of her neck. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the second guard standing next to her, gun drawn. "You won't win. While any X-5 lives, we'll still kick your ass."
"Only if you survive this, 452. You still have to make it out of this alive, and if I'm not mistaken, we already got one of your sisters."
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
They moved quickly down the hallway. The hallways were deserted, and the silence was getting to Jondy. It was all she could do not to break into a run. She had to get to Maxie. Apparently Logan had the same feeling, since it was all her brothers could do to keep him from charging ahead.
"J?" Tawny's voice echoed over the comm. link. "Management knows the brothers are loose. We're heading towards the water tower from the munitions shed."
That meant north from the southwest quadrant back at Manticore. She doubted she could've thought to use old Manticore landmarks to keep from giving away their position. "We're coming up on the X-6 barracks. No resistance so far." It sounded like they weren't too far away.
"Maxie's in the genetics lab. How's Krit?" Syl spoke in her usual composed voice. It took a lot to ruffle her little sister. Jondy couldn't help feeling a little bit of pride.
As they moved around the corner, Jondy grinned slightly at her littlest brother. "Baby brother's fine, little sister."
She could hear the echoes of footsteps coming from around the next corner. Her brothers immediately froze, falling into a ready position. The footsteps were light, but that didn't mean that they were X-5s. Manticore trained its guards to step lightly. They learned their lesson the hard way after '09. Two figures stealthed around the corner, but it was easy enough to recognize the long blond braid of the woman, and the bleached out tips of the dark-haired man.
"Syl." Krit's low voice carried across the hallway. Her little sister looked up, a smile on her face. She didn't rush forward into Krit's arms, but Syl did reach out to grab their brother's hand. Jondy thought she saw her sister's fingers flash the numbers 3, 4, and 1. It was the same thing that Krit had said to Syl on the phone earlier. Looking back, Jondy could actually remember them saying it occasionally at Manticore--before bed, when Syl had a nightmare... 3 4 1. Probably their secret code or something.
"Where's Jace?" Victor pushed forward. "I thought she was with Syl and Tawny."
Jondy noticed that her brothers and sister all averted their eyes. The news could wait. "She's back at camp with Max and Lex," she said. It was the truth, but it still took all of Jondy's strength not to flinch as she said it. Victor looked like he bought the news, but she didn't want to be the one who told him the truth after they all got out of here.
Tawny motioned quickly for them to move on. Jordan actually nodded as if he got what the gesture meant. Granted, it wasn't that hard. The past twenty-four hours had actually done wonders on Jordan Cale--not that Jondy could even make a fair assessment of his personality without further evaluation. Not that she'd mind making that further evaluation... She groaned as Syl and Tawny fell in beside them. All she needed was for her heat to kick in again.
Since the guards already knew they were coming, Jondy and Zane quickly rid themselves of the shackles. She gave Logan a slight smile as his chains fell free from his hands. "Toldja," was all she whispered before moving back to the head of the column. Her brothers and sisters spread out, keeping Logan and Victor in the middle. Syl and Tawny had somehow been conned into handing the two men spare guns. Jondy'd only shook her head when Syl offered her one. She wasn't as phobic as Maxie, but that still didn't mean she felt comfortable holding a firearm. Memories of live ordinance drill still haunted her at night. They all had one memory or another from Manticore that was like that.
It wasn't long before they came to a single door at the end of a hallway. This door was actually steel, and the walls reinforced with thick steel girders. Maybe this sect of Manticore wasn't as composed of dumbasses as they'd originally thought. Zane and Syl automatically moved to the door, quickly checking the frame for any hint of a power source. From the grin on her sister's face, Jondy knew Syl found something. Syl's nimble fingers pried the face plate off the wall, giving Zane access to the wiring within. Zane stared at the wires forever before he took out his knife and began cutting. Her brother was slow, but he knew what he was doing. They all still remembered what happened when Zane hurried and made mistakes. Syl had a burn inside her left elbow from the last time Zane fumbled on disarming wires. Jondy rubbed her fingers against the burn scar on her palm. It was almost fifteen years old, but it still hadn't faded. At least she and Syl hadn't needed skin grafts like
Jen...
After a lifetime of waiting, Jondy heard the soft whirring of motors within the walls. Her brothers and sisters immediately flattened against both sides of the hallway as the door slid open. Jondy positioned herself so that she could jump in front of Logan if she had to. There was no telling how many guards were in there. Or what state Maxie was in...
~*~*~*~*~*~
Max heard the door before the guard and Erica did. Training taught her to stay focused on the gun at her neck, and on watching the Manticore Bitch's hands. The first guard was incapacitated, but that still didn't mean that she didn't have to watch him too. But if Erica didn't notice the door opening... Just as long as whoever was beyond the door was the cavalry arriving.
"If you kill me, you lose. You don't know where Case is, and by now, Max is already 100 miles away." She didn't mean to say anything significant or even earth-shattering, but it was enough to occupy the Manticore Bitch's mind.
"There are others. We know that most of the released transgenics settled around the Seattle and Vancouver areas. I'm sure some of the X-6s have reproduced by now. Several of the older ones were already being used in the breeding program before the escape." A slow smile crossed the older woman's face. "Ames White's notes will also come in handy. I'm sure we could work out a deal with the South Africans. Their first series of transgenics are still toddlers, but that might serve just as well. There are always other options, 452." Erica nodded to the guard behind Max. "Kill her. We can still harvest the--"
There was a crunch as the door was shoved open. Apparently whoever was on the other side hadn't thought it was moving fast enough. Before she could see who it was, Max dropped to the ground, bringing the second guard with her. Flipping on top of him, she hit his head against the cement floor. His skull made a slight squishing sound, but that didn't bother Max at all.
With a quick scan of the room, she grabbed the second guard's gun, smashing the barrel with her foot. One more weapon that couldn't be used. As she looked for the other one, she heard a shot behind her. "Maxie!" A body slammed into her, and her head hit the wall. Then, she knew nothing.
~*~*~*~*~
"Max!" Logan shoved Jondy and Jordan out of the way as the other woman drew a gun to fire on Max. As he pushed past Jondy, he could hear her scream the same thing.
"Maxie!"
A shot rang out, and all Logan could see was Max, dying in his arms at Manticore. He couldn't get to her fast enough. There were people in the way, and Max was turning towards them, and the shot...
"Victor!" The lab tech's body slammed into Max's, knocking her to the ground. Logan wasn't sure how Victor got through the door, but his body was lying beside Max's. A pool of blood began to well up between the two of them, but Logan couldn't tell where it was coming from. "Max?"
Time seemed to stand still. Only one person could fit through the doorway at a time, but somehow, they all made it through. Jondy broke through the tangle of arms and legs and was the first in the room. The other X-5s followed at her heels, immediately tackling the two guards. Logan couldn't help grinning as Jondy dove at the dark-haired woman.
The Manticore woman's arm pointed the gun at Jondy, and another shot was fired. And another. Jondy tumbled to the ground, landing at the other woman's feet. Logan felt his body hit the cement floor, but instead of stopping, he kept tumbling through the doorway as Jondy had. He crawled towards Max, knowing the others could take care of whatever guards came. Max's body lay on its side, facing away from him. Reaching out to touch her hair, Logan's hand came away sticky with blood. He picked her body up gently, cradling her close. His nightmares usually ended like this, holding Max's dying body in his arms, and then black as the X-7s took her away. But this time it wasn't just Max, it was the baby too...
Shots fired, and someone screamed, but he didn't care. He rocked slowly back and forth, holding Max close. At least this time she knew he loved her. At least this time, there was nothing left unsaid.
"Logan?" Arms reached out to take Max, but he wouldn't let go. He let go once, and he wasn't doing that again. "Logan, she's okay. It was Victor, not Max. She's okay." Strong arms wrapped around his shoulders, and a light, feminine voice whispered in his ear. "It's okay, big brother. Maxie's okay. We'll get out of this." Something wet fell down his cheek, but he didn't think it was blood.
"Syl?" The blond X-5 knelt beside him, reaching out to touch Max's face.
"It was Victor," Syl repeated, pointing to the dark red stain that was spreading across the lab tech's light green shirt. "Victor took the bullet. Maxie just hit her head." She cracked a slight smile, tears shining in her eyes. "Her head's almost as hard as Zack's. She'll be fine." Syl's arms slipped under his, lifting his weight and Max's easily. "Get up, big brother. We need to get out of here."
"But Manticore..."
Jondy appeared at his other elbow, stabilizing Max's slight weight in his arms. "It's going down again. We're making sure this time." Her face was grim and blood-streaked. Zane, Tawny, and Krit joined the girls, faces stained red with blood and dirt. Looking at the X-5s standing together, Logan could see for the first time what they were bred for. There was something almost feral about their beauty, dangerous as it was.
"Cuz?" Jordan's hand slid under his elbow. "They're gonna blow this place. We gotta go." Logan could feel himself being propelled towards the door, the exoskeleton automatically moving his legs forward. "The guards'll be coming soon, and we need to get out."
"Victor?" Looking down at Max's face, Logan noticed color returning to her pale features. Her body shuddered once, and then a second time. "Shit. Jondy, Max's seizing!"
Jondy's face paled. "Get her out, now!" She grabbed Logan's other arm, steadying Max in his arms. "If we head down this corridor..." The steel-girded walls changed to concrete block. Logan had the strangest sense of deja-vu, as if he'd run down these hallways before, Max's shaking body in his arms. Jondy and the other X-5s had the same haunted look on their faces as they ran at his heels.
The corridor got lighter and lighter until they came to a set of double doors. Zane and Tawny each hit one with their shoulders, bursting them open. As they ran out into the sunlight, Logan could hear the sound of explosions behind them.
He was surprised to see the Aztek waiting for them about five hundred yards from the compound, a little ways off from Krit's Jeep. The back door opened, and Jace's son slid to the ground, a grim look on his small face. Logan dove into the back seat, cushioning Max as best he could as he thumped against the upholstery. Little Max crawled into the trunk portion of the Aztek and crouched down, hazel eyes peering over the seat at him. Jace was nowhere to be seen. Logan didn't say anything as Jondy and Jordan crowded into the back seat with him, Zane taking shotgun next to Lex. Looking out the window, he noticed Tawny, Syl and Krit piling into the Jeep.
The compound erupted in flames as the two vehicles drove away. Logan shifted Max's body to a more comfortable position and watched as Jondy forced a handful of Tryptophan down her sister's throat. The seizure stopped, but Max's body still had that boneless, unconscious feel to it.
"Papa?" His nephew's voice sounded small and alone.
"Papa's with Mama now, Maxie." Jondy held her arms open to her nephew, who crawled over the back seat to sit in her lap. Jordan shifted an arm around Jondy until he cradled them both against his chest. "We'll be your family now. Aunt Maxie, Uncle Logan, Uncle Lex, Uncle Tawny, Aunt Syl, Uncle Krit, Uncle Zane..."
"Uncle Jor," Jordan added. Logan was surprised when his cousin leaned down to kiss the top of Jondy's head. "You'll be safe now, kiddo. We promise." The youngest Cale's eyes looked older now, almost as old as Logan felt. But at least they were finally going home... He rested his hand on Max's stomach, feeling the slight bulge there. Hopefully the baby was okay. This time, they were all going home...together.
A/N: Thanks, as always, to my beta, Laura. She's suffered through a lot with this story. *g* One more chapter, and then the epilogue. And then this thing will be done, thank god... Sorry for the massive amount of time between chapter five and six. The action scene gave me issues...
To recap, Max, Logan, and some X-5s learned that Manticore was after Jace and her son Max. Before they leave for Mexico to warn Jace, Max learns she's pregnant, but neglects to tell Logan. Once they reach Mexico, there's an ambush, and Logan, Krit, Zane, and Jace's old love Victor the lab tech are captured. Max has to turn over herself and her unborn child in order to save them...
The pathway is broken
The signs are unclear
I can't find the reason why you brought me here
But just because you love me the way that you do
I will go through the valley
If you want me to
Now I'm not who I was
When I took my first step
And I'm clinging to the promise
You're not through with me yet
And if all of these trials bring me closer to you
I will go through the fire
If you want me to
It may not be the way I would have chosen
'Cause it leads me through a world that's not my home
But you never said it would be easy
Only that I'll never go alone
When the whole world turns against me
And I'm all by myself
And I can't hear you answer my cries for help
I'll remember the suffering your love put you through
And I will go through the valley
If you want me to
--If You Want Me To, Ginny Owens
"You can't go alone, Maxie." Jondy stood in front of her, arms crossed. Tawny and Syl stood behind her, mimicking her stance. "You know what they'll do to you."
Maybe that was the problem. She knew what Manticore would do to her. Small, dark places still scared the shit out of her. But this was Logan's life, and her brothers' lives, and Victor... "You heard what that bitch said she'd do to them. I've gotta get them out." Max wrapped her arms around her waist, feeling very small and very young. Tinga had to make this choice--her baby's life, or her own. And they all knew what happened to Tinga. "It's not my life this time, Jondy. If it was Zack--"
Before Max knew it, Jondy had her pinned against the side of the Aztek, her sister's hands at her throat. There was no love in Jondy's blue eyes, only years and years of hurt. "It was Zack. And he did it to save your ass." Jondy's strong hands began to close around her throat, cutting off her intake of air. It didn't matter. Max could hold her breath forever. She did it under the ice for almost seven minutes after the escape. Her field of vision narrowed until all she could see were her big sister's eyes, inches from her own. "That's the reason why he never answered the contact number. He was at Manticore when I miscarried, because he couldn't let the woman he loved go back to that hellhole." Jondy's blue eyes darkened in anger. "Just cause someone got careless let Lydecker see enough of her face to put up wanted posters for her."
Out of the corner of her eye, Max could see Syl lunging forward. Tawny stepped in front of her, motioning to let them play it out. Maybe this was shit that had to be said before they could go forward. She didn't ask Zack to love her. It would have been a lot less complicated if he didn't. And there were choices that Max never wanted to make when it came to Zack--to Adam. "I just wanted a big brother," she choked out, her eyes searching Jondy's. "You could've left me at Manticore. I didn't give Eva the gun." But Ben... Ben was her fault. And Logan's virus. Was this how Zack felt about Brin? They promised to get her out. No X-5 was good at keeping his promises.
Jondy shook her head, face crumpling. "I couldn't leave you. You're my baby sister, not a nomalie. Blood brothers. We promised." Another promise broken. "Dammit, Maxie, I saw you fall through the ice every night for the past eleven years. And then when Zack finally got around to telling me you were alive, he wouldn't let me go to you, and then he--" She swallowed what sounded like a sob. "Fuck, Maxie. Everything we try they mess up. We're not gonna let them win. They can't win this time." Her grip on Max's throat loosened. "I'm not losing you again. I'm not gonna let them kill us off one by one just because they wanna play God." Jondy chuckled through her tears. "Zack's ghost would kick my ass if I let anything happen to his baby sister."
"I think he'd try to kick Logan's first." Max attempted a smile as she wiped Jondy's face with a blood-stained sleeve. "And then Victor's, for knocking up Jace. And then Krit's, for putting the moves on Syl..."
"Jordan's, cause he knows what kind of underwear Jondy wears," Tawny added. His golden eyes looked suspiciously bright, but Max knew that none of her brothers would ever admit to crying. Soldiers didn't cry. Emotion was a weakness that only let your Enemies know exactly how to break you.
"Robert hit on me too." Jondy's hands relaxed and her arms fell back to her sides. Max caught at her sister's small hands, squeezing them as Jondy turned to glare at Jordan. "You Cales shouldn't be allowed out in public, trying to take advantage of women in their weak moments."
Jordan choked. Max couldn't tell if he was scared shitless, or just stunned. Jondy had a good effect on Logan's youngest cousin. Maybe it was something she should pursue after all...
"Back to the mission guys. We can't forget the mission. We need to disable their tracking system." Syl's eyes almost gleamed in anticipation. "If we take it out..." She pulled out a sheet of paper, sketching a plan for a decoy set-up using Max as bait. Max nodded. It was a sound plan that had the best chance of working, if they could hack into the surveillance system and find out where Manticore was hiding the men.
"Shoulda gotten those comm links. Maybe Krit..." she heard Tawny mutter as he started rummaging through a bag in the back of the Jeep. "Why couldn't they give us useful animal DNA with longer-range communication capabilities? Found 'em!"
Her older brother held up six transistor headsets in triumph.
"Or we need a few of the X-7s. Lydecker said they were hive-minded." Max would never forget meeting her X-7 self. X-7452's eyes were completely soulless and dead. She had vague memories of someone telling her once that X-5s weren't supposed to know how to love, but somehow she thought Manticore took the lack of human emotion too far with the X-7s. "Or some bat in our cocktails. They could've at least given us telepathy or something useful." She rubbed at the back of her neck. Lydecker found her easily enough that one time, thanks to the fried implant in her neck. "Don't we have tracking devices? I thought you or Zane always carried that crack, Syl."
"What's wrong, little sister?" Syl dragged Max forward, pushing her hair off her neck. Max could feel her sister's fingers rub up against her barcode as Syl found the puckered scar just below it. "What the hell's in your neck, Maxie? Tawny, you were best at field med. Think you could pull this thing out?"
Max could feel her brother's breath as he bent over her neck. "What is it?" There was a pause as he leaned in for a closer look. "Shit, Maxie! Where the hell did you get a neural implant?" She felt a slight probe at the pucker of the scar and then a rush of pain lanced through her body. Max gritted her teeth. "Lemme see the first aid kit."
"It's an implant for the Red series--ups their adrenaline and crap. Had to use it to fight against them." Max found herself facing four incredulous looks from her brothers and sisters. "They had my girl! I couldn't let 'em kill her. Their asses had to be kicked." She shook her hair down again, covering the scar. "Manticore used some trace program to find me because the little bitch is made of some weird-ass metal alloy." She could almost see the moment of realization in her brothers' and sisters' faces. "That's how Manticore found me this time, isn't it?"
Syl pulled Max forward again, pushing aside her hair to examine Max's neck. "We gotta get it out Maxie. Tawny, you were the best at field med...you do it."
Five minutes later, Max found herself on her stomach on the picnic table, her face buried in Jondy's thigh. Her arms were wrapped around Jondy's waist. Max hoped that she didn't squeeze her sister in half. Jondy's fingers wound themselves through Max's curls, twisting her hair up out of the way. It felt weird to have her neck exposed to the world. It didn't help that she'd seen the scalpel that Tawny was going to use to cut the implant out...
"This is probably gonna hurt, Maxie," Tawny warned. No shit. It wasn't like she forgot what it felt like to have 10,000 volts of electricity zapped into the back of her neck. Hopefully it wouldn't be as bad as getting her barcode removed... Max breathed deep, trying to find that place of Zen that Zane always talked about when he was hurt. The Colonel taught them how to go into a trance-like state when they were being tortured. For the first time in her life, Max was at least partially thankful for her fucked up childhood.
She breathed in and out deeply and controlled. Max could feel Jondy slow her breathing so that their lungs worked in tandem. In and out. In and out. The trance was easy to fall into. Max used to use it to trick herself into sleeping at night sometimes, when she was bored. It was a familiar gray place that she knew far too well from childhood.
"Easy, Tawn." Voices echoed oddly in the gray place. It was almost like what happened when she drank three bottles of wine, and got tunnel-hearing. "If you cut above--"
Pain. Sharp pain shot through her spine as something touched the neural implant in her neck. Max felt hands rubbing her shoulders, trying to relax her tensing muscles. "Easy, Maxie. It'll be over soon."
The gray place was fading until all Max was aware of was the pain. Pain that hurt worse than a laser aimed at her iris for four hours straight. Pain that hurt worse than her legs after being cramped into a two-foot tall space for a week at Manticore. Pain that hurt almost as bad as recovery from a bullet through the heart.
"Ease up, soldier. It's almost over." The phrase was Zack's, even if the voice wasn't. Soldiers didn't cry. Soldiers didn't show weakness. She was a brave soldier who would make her CO proud of her, and someday, she'd even make the Colonel smile--
"Got it!" Something stung against the back of her neck as one of her brothers doused the incision with disinfectant. Max felt a hand hold a bandage against the cut. "You can come up for air now, Maxie." Looking up, she saw the little metal bitch lying in Tawny's hand. Small as it was, the metal neural implant still looked evil. If it hadn't been for Logan frying the shit out of it...
"That's what the South Africans were working on?" Syl picked it up, examining it closely. "Can I keep it, Tawny?" Max noticed Jordan gag at that.
"All set, baby sister." Jondy finished taping up the bandage and then looked at the sun. "It's been at least half an hour, Maxie. You should call them back." Looking around at her brothers and sisters, they all nodded a quick affirmative.
Jordan handed her the cell phone, his face pale. "If you'll excuse me..." he muttered, stalking over to the bushes. Max's siblings turned their backs to him to give him some privacy. The whole situation reminded Max of an X-6 who'd once picked the name Ralph because she had the same kind of weak stomach.
Settling herself back on the picnic table, she dialed the number with shaking hands.
" 452." The chill in the woman's voice made shivers run up Max's spine.
Drawing on years of training, Max tried to close off her mind and her heart. "Where are we making the trade?"
~*~*~*~*~*~
"Mr. Eyes." Logan snapped back to reality only to find himself face to face with Erica. "452 is on her way. Apparently she values your life higher than hers and your child." The woman's face creased in a smile. Logan lunged out against the bars again, only to find a rifle butt shoved against his chest. Krit and Zane each grabbed him by an elbow, dragging him further back into the cell. The woman chuckled. "Do you really think we believe 452 would give you up without a fight? We're prepared, Mr. Eyes. If things go according to plan, we'll have an entire squadron of X-5s to send to our buyer, instead of just one and her unborn child."
"Do you really think that you'll get away with this?" Years of being a cable hack took over. If Logan pretended that this was just another broadcast, he could hide behind Eyes Only and avoid thinking about the mess. "You haven't managed to keep an X-5 since Tinga, and that's only because you turned her own sister against her. You won't win."
"Admit that you fucked up when you trained us." Zane's voice was quiet, but it carried even in the small room. "Lydecker knew. You made us unbreakable. You taught us the only thing that saved us." The blond X-5 moved forward til he towered over Erica. Though his hair fell into his eyes, his face was cold. It was a soldier's face--the face of a man who was created to perform, act, and kill.
Erica was silent. Her face lost a bit of its composure, and Logan heard the soft sound of Krit's chuckle behind him. "Take that, bitch," Max's little brother muttered as he came to flank Logan and Zane. "You'll pay for all the shit you put us through."
~*~*~*~*~*~*~
"I'm not staying here!" Jondy tried not to laugh as Jordan actually stomped his foot against the dirt. "They've got my cousin, and there's no way in hell I'm playing babysitter here while you go and get him out."
"You'll die. This isn't some stupid video game. It's war." Max crossed her arms and did a really good impression of a Zack glare. If Jondy hadn't known what the original looked like, she would've been impressed. Her baby sister was still an impressive figure in her own right. "We've been playing this shit since before we can remember, Jordan. Stop being a macho man and get in the real. You. Can't. Go."
Jordan opened his mouth as Tawny snickered. "Not bad, baby sister. Not bad at all." Tawny slung an arm around Jordan's shoulders, an apologetic look on his face. "She's right, Jor. This is what we were made for."
"I'll stay," Lex spoke up from where he sat with little Max in his lap. Jondy looked at her brother in surprise. "It makes more sense to have one of us here. I'm not as crack as Zane is at getting into a security system, but I didn't fail telecom like some people." Jondy laughed as Lex shot a look at Tawny.
"The bitch wants Maxie there in an hour. If we ditch the Jeep about a mile off, we could probably break in..." Jondy looked at where Syl sat with Logan's laptop. "Got anything on the facility yet?"
"Almost..." Syl pounded a few keys. "Got it!" Jondy peered over her sister's shoulder. The laptop's screen showed a satellite visual of a long, low building. It looked typically nondescript and abandoned--the perfect hideout for a para-military organization. With a few more keystrokes, the picture magnified, zooming in on an almost hidden entrance. "If we go in here..."
"We don't know how many soldiers she has though," Lex pointed out. "I know you kick ass, baby sister, but four X-5s can't take on an entire squadron."
Jondy laughed. "Wanna bet?" Maybe this wouldn't be so hard after all. She could feel the old sense of exhilaration thrilling through her veins. The adrenaline was definitely starting to kick in. As much as she hated to admit it, Jondy would always love preparing for battle. It was what she was made for. And from the looks on her brothers' and sisters' faces, Jondy knew that the others felt the same way. It felt right somehow. And somehow, Jondy knew that they would've made Lydecker proud.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Max drove alone in Zane's Jeep. The others followed behind in Krit's, taking an alternate route. If Manticore remembered any of the lessons they taught the X-5s, Erica the scumbitch would realize that Max would never hand over her baby without a fight. No true soldier would. At least she could wear her black cat suit again. It didn't seem right to sneak in and kick Manticore ass without the spandex. It was just another heist for a slightly more valuable object--one that she wouldn't fence for any amount of money.
It was easy enough to find the installation. Scanning the area around the low building, Max could see evidence of her siblings hiding out. Tawny never did learn to pull up his legs when he was hiding in a tree. Luckily, the others were all in full camouflage.
There were no soldiers at the gate. That wasn't too surprising. Manticore didn't exactly want to upset the local government, and a secure military installation was a little suspicious. From the looks of the place, the building seemed like a temporary holding facility. Manticore usually separated itself from the outside world with acres of fence and barb-wire. At least she didn't have to jump anything this time.
Pretending to consult her watch, Max used the glass face to reflect three brief beams into the trees on the outskirts of the property. The others were linked by radios. If any of the guards caught her wired for cable TV, that would arouse immediate suspicion. Rule number one was to always keep your cover. Rule number too was to never forget your cool.
"X-5452." A guard stepped out from the building, waving her over with his rifle. Two of his thug brothers flanked him. All three wore Kevlar, but they moved with the speed and agility of tanks. At least Manticore hadn't gotten over its love for thick-headed, thicker-bodied meatheads as guards. They looked sturdy, but Max knew she could kick their asses before they even realized they were being attacked.
"X-5452 reporting in, sir!" She snapped a salute. At least it was second nature now to give anyone in uniform her soldier face. She made a kick-ass poker player. And the only one better at lying was Jondy.
"This way." Head Honcho Guard made his first mistake, turning his back so that she could follow him into the installation. At least Manticore taught the guards to automatically flank the prisoner. The two remaining bozos gave her a quick pat-down, but one let his hands wander a little further south than she liked.
"That's gonna cost you, GI Joe. I don't let just anyone feel me up." Max resisted the urge to kick him in the nuts.
Once the guards were convinced she wasn't packing, they led her down a maze of corridors. From the inside, it looked even more like a temporary base. Manticore didn't even have a visible security system set up. At least it would be that much easier for her brothers and sisters. Hopefully Jordan wouldn't cause too many problems...
Keeping a careful count of the turns they took, Max wasn't surprised when she was finally led into a windowless office deep inside the building. This place might have been a base once, or even an old police station when the law actually had a say out here. It was shoddy work though. They didn't even use steel beams to reinforce the cinderblock walls. It wouldn't take that long to bust out.
"X-5452." A dark-haired woman sat behind a laptop in the center of the room. The woman had the same non-descriptness that Manticore seemed to like in its villains. This one actually made Ames White seem personable and engaging.
"Manticore bitch." Max saluted the woman, smiling slightly. Being a pain in the ass usually threw the baddies. They didn't have much imagination, especially if they were the result of a three-millennia breeding program.
The woman actually chuckled. "Renfro mentioned that you have a sense of humor. She said you have a fondness for daring her to kiss your transgenic ass..."
Max smirked at the woman. "So I'm here. Where are my boys?" She watched the woman carefully, noting that the Manticore bitch was careful to keep her hands visible at all times.
The woman's eyes narrowed. She looked to one of the guards that still flanked Max, and when the guard nodded, she began to smile. "So you actually came alone, unbugged, and unarmed? I'm astonished. I thought Lydecker taught you better than that."
"I've gotten by pretty well ignoring everything the Colonel said so far." Max shrugged. "Your turn to keep your end of the bargain. I want my men."
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
"She's in." Tawny's voice was soft over the comm. link. "They gave her a pat-down. I think one of the guards grabbed Maxie's ass."
Jondy snorted. "She shoulda kicked him in the nuts. So where's this magical entrance that we can use?" She looked over the low wall she and Jordan were crouched behind on the south perimeter of the property.
Lex exhaled deeply. "Check at nine o'clock, little sister. It isn't marked, but you can see the outline. Syl might have to jury-rig it open."
Syl's chuckle echoed through the earpiece. "Too bad Zane isn't here to help. He's better at jimmying open locks than I am. Whatcha wanna bet he's already got the cell door open?"
"With his toes. Brother-man's got mad skills." Jondy motioned over her shoulder for Jordan to follow her. "Going silent until it's a 911. Everybody remember the plan?" She could almost see the silent nods that her siblings gave from their hideouts around the perimeter. After three affirmative grunts and Jordan nodding from behind her, Jondy took a deep breath. "Fall out, troops."
Looking over the wall again, Jondy saw that the empty stretch in front of the building was clear. With another wave at Jordan, she took off at a lope, keeping low to the ground. Syl didn't pick up much radio static, and she hadn't been able to hack into a security network, so the technology out here was either beyond her sister's skill, or lacking by far. Jondy preferred to think it was the second scenario, but you couldn't be too careful. It wasn't like this was a game, not when her brothers' lives were at stake.
Keeping a constant watch, Jondy reached the door easily, Jordan so close behind her that he stepped on her heels a few times. The boy could keep up pretty well, even if he wasn't genetically engineered. There was something kinda vulnerable and cuddly about him too, even though Jondy didn't usually go for that sort of thing. He was a pretty boy, but there was nothing wrong with that either. It just made it a little difficult to concentrate with a blue-eyed pretty boy breathing down her neck.
"Back off," she muttered at him as she assessed the entry. It was an old grate lying across the ground, leading to a sewer system or basement, probably. From the smell, it seemed clean. It was easy enough to finagle the latch open. Jondy flipped down and landed. The concrete was solid and dry beneath her feet. "Okay?"
Jordan grunted as he landed beside her. He might be fast, but Grace wasn't his middle name. He barely moved out of the way in time before Tawny landed beside him. Syl followed, as silently as Tawny.
Ready? Jondy motioned. Her brother and sister nodded. With a quick scan, Jondy noticed that a tunnel ran perpendicular to the corridor they were in. One short branch led out towards where the main entrance was, and the other ran deeper into the building. Tawny pointed to the southern corridor, heading further into the complex. Pointing to himself and Syl, and then to Jondy and Jordan, he motioned for them to split two and two and head down the corridor. Syl looked to Jondy and nodded. Her sister patted the ammo belt she wore across her chest, a slight smile on her face. Jondy couldn't help feeling sorry for the bastards that took Krit. No one messed with an X-5 and survived, especially not where it concerned family.
Syl and Tawny moved down the corridor first at a quick run. When they reached the first bend in the corridor, Jondy tugged at Jordan's sleeve, pulling him along behind her. They had the radio if they needed to contact each other. She only hoped that if her brother and sister reached Logan and everyone else first, they left a piece of that Manticore bitch for Jondy.
Out of the corner of her eyes, Jondy noticed Jordan looking about with a scared look on his face as they moved down the corridor. She wondered if he could see anything at all, since he didn't have night vision like the rest of them. She reached out and grabbed his hand, giving it a quick squeeze. He gave her a slight smile in return, but didn't let go of her hand. She didn't mind too much. Jordan Cale was pretty brave to come this far as it was.
They reached another crossroads. From the chalk mark on the right branch of the tunnel, Jondy knew that Tawny and Syl took that tunnel. That left the other to her and Jordan. This way, she motioned, tugging at his hand. He gave her a blank look, but followed anyway. His free hand clutched the gun strapped to his hip. It was too early to tell if Jordan would be more of a liability than a help, but it was still nice not to be alone. She spent far too much time pulling solo missions.
There was a light ahead. Jondy pulled Jordan with her as she edged under the grate in the ceiling, keeping as close to the wall as possible. Zooming in, she couldn't see many signs of traffic in the hallway above. Pushing Jordan to his knees, she put one foot into his outstretched hand for a leg up. Jordan lifted her easily. Maybe there was actual muscle on that pretty-boy frame of his. Logan was built the same way, and he wasn't exactly a weakling. There were no sounds of traffic from the hallway above. The hallway itself looked dark and unused. This might be the perfect way to sneak in.
"Found a way in. Moving up to stage two." Jondy kept her voice low, knowing a whisper would carry farther in the quiet hallway.
"Affirmative," came Tawny's voice. Then the comm. link was silent again.
Fumbling at her belt, she extracted a screwdriver and made quick work of the bolts that held the grate to the ceiling. Grasping the edge of the grate with one hand, she motioned for Jordan to drop her with the other. The grate swung open without a sound, buffered from hitting the wall with her hand. Jordan's blue eyes widened, but he didn't say anything but offer her a hand for another leg up.
"You're going first, buddy." With a quick grin, she bent and grabbed Jordan around the waist, lifting him up to where he could grab the edge of the hole. With a boost, he was able to scramble through. Jondy ignored the hand he held down to her, jumping up lightly to grab at the lip of the hole and swing her way up. Again, Jordan had a stunned look of admiration on his face. He wasn't such a bad guy when he was quiet.
They kept to the edges of the walls as they crept down the hallway. Jondy could hear some noise further in, but nothing came from nearby. With a wave, she motioned for Jordan to move a little faster.
The compound had the usual military layout. The cinderblock walls and fluorescent lights gave Jondy a weird sense of deja-vu. Jordan's presence so close on her heels did nothing to break the illusion that this was the night of the escape again. This time, Lydecker wasn't here. This time, one of them wouldn't die.
"Jondy?" Syl's voice echoed in her ear. "Stage two."
"Be careful, little sisters." Lex's quiet voice sounded calm, but Jondy could still hear the slight tremble in it. Lex had always been one of the calm ones, like Zane. Maybe it was that whole faith thing.
"Jondy?" Jordan tugged at her hand. "What are we--"
But before she could answer, footsteps started down the hallway. "Shit." Before she could turn to run, Jordan tugged at her hand again.
"Wait, I think we can--"
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
"Shit." Logan looked up as Zane muttered under his breath. He couldn't blame Zane's choice of words. Jondy walked in, hands in chains, a guard moving her along with a cattle prod.
"I found this one in the hallway, sir." The new guard's hat was pulled low over his eyes, but there was something familiar about his voice. "452 didn't come alone. She brought 210 with her."
The first guard, sitting on a chair facing the cell, nodded. "Good work, soldier. Put her in with the others."
"Do you really think that's a good idea, sir?" The second guard took the keys his comrade tossed him and pushed Jondy none too gently towards the cell. There was a bruise on her cheek, and it looked like her lip was split. Her face didn't look too happy either. "The X-5s aren't even chained to the wall. Keeping two of them together in the cell like that, loose, is asking for trouble."
The first soldier stood and paced around the new one, peering closely at him. "Which squadron are you from, soldier? I want your name and rank."
There was a moment of tense silence. "Some call me...Tim?" Before Logan could blink, Jondy broke out of the chains and knocked the first guard over the back of the head. He dropped to the floor with a thump. Grabbing the keys from the second soldier, she quickly unlocked the door.
"Thanks, Private Cale." Jondy gave the second soldier a grin as he tugged off his hat. Logan stifled a groan as his youngest cousin grinned at Jondy.
"Private? I'd be at least a sergeant."
Jondy snorted. "Not in my squadron. My nephew could kick your ass, and he's only eight." She unlocked the door with flourish, holding it open. "Tawny bet you'd have this place already busted up, Zane. You're losing your touch, big brother."
"I was just waiting to show off for you, little sister." Zane leaned in to kiss her lightly as he reached for the unconscious guard's gun. "Maxie in?"
"Syl and Tawny went looking for her." Jondy grabbed Krit as he walked by, giving him the same light kiss to the lips. "That's from Syl."
Krit grinned. Logan couldn't help noticing the relieved look on his cousin's face. Jordan and Jondy would certainly make an interesting combination... But then the meaning of Jondy's words sunk in. "That woman has Max?" Max, and their child. His child.
Each X-5 paused. Logan noticed the looks they exchanged, from blue eyes to gray to brown. "If anyone can take care of herself, it's Maxie," Krit said finally as he strapped on the guard's spare pistol. With a quick gesture, he exchanged his camo shirt for that of the unconscious guard, being careful to bind the man's wrists together again when he was done. "She's gotten out of Manticore twice and managed to burn the place down. She'll make it." But in his voice, Logan heard the same doubt from earlier in the afternoon.
"Lex? Got the worm. Moving out." Jondy motioned for her brothers to gather around. Jordan hung back on the outside until Jondy actually waved him forward. This time, her hands moved slower, and she actually leaned over to whisper in his ear. "Got the plan?" The three men nodded, while Victor just hung back at Logan's shoulder. Logan was glad that he wasn't the only one who felt lost and confused. X-5s always managed to remind him of how vulnerable and human he really was. At least the exoskeleton still worked. Moving forward a step, Logan was comforted by the slight whirring noise the suit made.
Without warning, the three X-5s moved towards him and Victor, chaining their wrists. "Trust me, Logan. We'll get you out." Jondy's blue eyes were worried as she fastened the chains about his wrists. "Just...trust me." Standing beside him, Krit and Jordan chained her, and then Zane, being careful to leave Zane with enough chain to reach the gun hidden in the waistband of his pants.
"Move out, troops." Krit's voice was solemn as he jammed the unconscious guard's cap over his eyes. "We got a bitch to take down."
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Max watched the woman warily as she moved to press a button on the computer. "Bring the men in, Johnson." A man's voice echoed over the computer speaker in an affirmative. As they waited, the Manticore bitch waved to the free chair, nodding to the guard beside her. "Take a seat, 452. I won't bite, even though according to the files some of your brothers do."
Max smirked. "The Colonel tried to break Zane of the habit, but it never worked." Keeping a careful eye on the guard, she leaned up against the wall. "So why all this shit? Didn't you guys learn your lesson the last time? I thought White's little freak brigade took the rest of you out for defiling the natural order of breeding programs or some shit."
"When your Eyes Only broadcast the address of the Seattle facility, it hit the Council hard, but Manticore still has a few powerful investors." Erica settled back in her chair, scanning whatever was on her laptop monitor. "One investor showed an interest in training his own...squadron... to protect his interests. His local government has lost some stability over the past four years, and he doesn't want to be caught in a bind. He got in contact with what remained of the Council, and since we knew that 798 and 656 had progeny, we figured that that would be the easiest way to alleviate our problem, and aid our investor." The woman's smile widened. "The possibility of your pregnancy never factored into the equation. Our investor will be more than pleased. He'd expressed special interest in you, from what Dr. Sandeman mentioned in his early reports."
"Sandeman?" Even after three years, Max still hadn't unraveled the mystery of Father. Her one memory of him was dim, and Joshua wasn't much help. But if she never learned the real 411 on Father, it wasn't that big a dealio. The virus bitch was kicked, and White's freak brigade was pretty well vanquished, from what they could tell. This Manticore investor had to go down though. It wasn't safe if he knew she was alive, or that her baby existed.
But before the Manticore bitch could say anything further, a guard came running into the room. "The X-5s escaped, Ms. Harrison. Maxwell's passed out on the floor, and his guns are missing. One of the other men said that another woman joined the men, probably 210."
Erica turned, a deadly look in her cold eyes. "Your years since the escape have softened you, 452. I told you to come alone." At her slight nod, the guard to her left advanced on Max. Before he could reach for his gun, she dodged towards him, grabbing his gun arm and pulling it behind his back until it snapped.
"I'll kill him. You know how fast you created us to be." But as she spoke, Max felt cold metal press to the back of her neck. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the second guard standing next to her, gun drawn. "You won't win. While any X-5 lives, we'll still kick your ass."
"Only if you survive this, 452. You still have to make it out of this alive, and if I'm not mistaken, we already got one of your sisters."
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
They moved quickly down the hallway. The hallways were deserted, and the silence was getting to Jondy. It was all she could do not to break into a run. She had to get to Maxie. Apparently Logan had the same feeling, since it was all her brothers could do to keep him from charging ahead.
"J?" Tawny's voice echoed over the comm. link. "Management knows the brothers are loose. We're heading towards the water tower from the munitions shed."
That meant north from the southwest quadrant back at Manticore. She doubted she could've thought to use old Manticore landmarks to keep from giving away their position. "We're coming up on the X-6 barracks. No resistance so far." It sounded like they weren't too far away.
"Maxie's in the genetics lab. How's Krit?" Syl spoke in her usual composed voice. It took a lot to ruffle her little sister. Jondy couldn't help feeling a little bit of pride.
As they moved around the corner, Jondy grinned slightly at her littlest brother. "Baby brother's fine, little sister."
She could hear the echoes of footsteps coming from around the next corner. Her brothers immediately froze, falling into a ready position. The footsteps were light, but that didn't mean that they were X-5s. Manticore trained its guards to step lightly. They learned their lesson the hard way after '09. Two figures stealthed around the corner, but it was easy enough to recognize the long blond braid of the woman, and the bleached out tips of the dark-haired man.
"Syl." Krit's low voice carried across the hallway. Her little sister looked up, a smile on her face. She didn't rush forward into Krit's arms, but Syl did reach out to grab their brother's hand. Jondy thought she saw her sister's fingers flash the numbers 3, 4, and 1. It was the same thing that Krit had said to Syl on the phone earlier. Looking back, Jondy could actually remember them saying it occasionally at Manticore--before bed, when Syl had a nightmare... 3 4 1. Probably their secret code or something.
"Where's Jace?" Victor pushed forward. "I thought she was with Syl and Tawny."
Jondy noticed that her brothers and sister all averted their eyes. The news could wait. "She's back at camp with Max and Lex," she said. It was the truth, but it still took all of Jondy's strength not to flinch as she said it. Victor looked like he bought the news, but she didn't want to be the one who told him the truth after they all got out of here.
Tawny motioned quickly for them to move on. Jordan actually nodded as if he got what the gesture meant. Granted, it wasn't that hard. The past twenty-four hours had actually done wonders on Jordan Cale--not that Jondy could even make a fair assessment of his personality without further evaluation. Not that she'd mind making that further evaluation... She groaned as Syl and Tawny fell in beside them. All she needed was for her heat to kick in again.
Since the guards already knew they were coming, Jondy and Zane quickly rid themselves of the shackles. She gave Logan a slight smile as his chains fell free from his hands. "Toldja," was all she whispered before moving back to the head of the column. Her brothers and sisters spread out, keeping Logan and Victor in the middle. Syl and Tawny had somehow been conned into handing the two men spare guns. Jondy'd only shook her head when Syl offered her one. She wasn't as phobic as Maxie, but that still didn't mean she felt comfortable holding a firearm. Memories of live ordinance drill still haunted her at night. They all had one memory or another from Manticore that was like that.
It wasn't long before they came to a single door at the end of a hallway. This door was actually steel, and the walls reinforced with thick steel girders. Maybe this sect of Manticore wasn't as composed of dumbasses as they'd originally thought. Zane and Syl automatically moved to the door, quickly checking the frame for any hint of a power source. From the grin on her sister's face, Jondy knew Syl found something. Syl's nimble fingers pried the face plate off the wall, giving Zane access to the wiring within. Zane stared at the wires forever before he took out his knife and began cutting. Her brother was slow, but he knew what he was doing. They all still remembered what happened when Zane hurried and made mistakes. Syl had a burn inside her left elbow from the last time Zane fumbled on disarming wires. Jondy rubbed her fingers against the burn scar on her palm. It was almost fifteen years old, but it still hadn't faded. At least she and Syl hadn't needed skin grafts like
Jen...
After a lifetime of waiting, Jondy heard the soft whirring of motors within the walls. Her brothers and sisters immediately flattened against both sides of the hallway as the door slid open. Jondy positioned herself so that she could jump in front of Logan if she had to. There was no telling how many guards were in there. Or what state Maxie was in...
~*~*~*~*~*~
Max heard the door before the guard and Erica did. Training taught her to stay focused on the gun at her neck, and on watching the Manticore Bitch's hands. The first guard was incapacitated, but that still didn't mean that she didn't have to watch him too. But if Erica didn't notice the door opening... Just as long as whoever was beyond the door was the cavalry arriving.
"If you kill me, you lose. You don't know where Case is, and by now, Max is already 100 miles away." She didn't mean to say anything significant or even earth-shattering, but it was enough to occupy the Manticore Bitch's mind.
"There are others. We know that most of the released transgenics settled around the Seattle and Vancouver areas. I'm sure some of the X-6s have reproduced by now. Several of the older ones were already being used in the breeding program before the escape." A slow smile crossed the older woman's face. "Ames White's notes will also come in handy. I'm sure we could work out a deal with the South Africans. Their first series of transgenics are still toddlers, but that might serve just as well. There are always other options, 452." Erica nodded to the guard behind Max. "Kill her. We can still harvest the--"
There was a crunch as the door was shoved open. Apparently whoever was on the other side hadn't thought it was moving fast enough. Before she could see who it was, Max dropped to the ground, bringing the second guard with her. Flipping on top of him, she hit his head against the cement floor. His skull made a slight squishing sound, but that didn't bother Max at all.
With a quick scan of the room, she grabbed the second guard's gun, smashing the barrel with her foot. One more weapon that couldn't be used. As she looked for the other one, she heard a shot behind her. "Maxie!" A body slammed into her, and her head hit the wall. Then, she knew nothing.
~*~*~*~*~
"Max!" Logan shoved Jondy and Jordan out of the way as the other woman drew a gun to fire on Max. As he pushed past Jondy, he could hear her scream the same thing.
"Maxie!"
A shot rang out, and all Logan could see was Max, dying in his arms at Manticore. He couldn't get to her fast enough. There were people in the way, and Max was turning towards them, and the shot...
"Victor!" The lab tech's body slammed into Max's, knocking her to the ground. Logan wasn't sure how Victor got through the door, but his body was lying beside Max's. A pool of blood began to well up between the two of them, but Logan couldn't tell where it was coming from. "Max?"
Time seemed to stand still. Only one person could fit through the doorway at a time, but somehow, they all made it through. Jondy broke through the tangle of arms and legs and was the first in the room. The other X-5s followed at her heels, immediately tackling the two guards. Logan couldn't help grinning as Jondy dove at the dark-haired woman.
The Manticore woman's arm pointed the gun at Jondy, and another shot was fired. And another. Jondy tumbled to the ground, landing at the other woman's feet. Logan felt his body hit the cement floor, but instead of stopping, he kept tumbling through the doorway as Jondy had. He crawled towards Max, knowing the others could take care of whatever guards came. Max's body lay on its side, facing away from him. Reaching out to touch her hair, Logan's hand came away sticky with blood. He picked her body up gently, cradling her close. His nightmares usually ended like this, holding Max's dying body in his arms, and then black as the X-7s took her away. But this time it wasn't just Max, it was the baby too...
Shots fired, and someone screamed, but he didn't care. He rocked slowly back and forth, holding Max close. At least this time she knew he loved her. At least this time, there was nothing left unsaid.
"Logan?" Arms reached out to take Max, but he wouldn't let go. He let go once, and he wasn't doing that again. "Logan, she's okay. It was Victor, not Max. She's okay." Strong arms wrapped around his shoulders, and a light, feminine voice whispered in his ear. "It's okay, big brother. Maxie's okay. We'll get out of this." Something wet fell down his cheek, but he didn't think it was blood.
"Syl?" The blond X-5 knelt beside him, reaching out to touch Max's face.
"It was Victor," Syl repeated, pointing to the dark red stain that was spreading across the lab tech's light green shirt. "Victor took the bullet. Maxie just hit her head." She cracked a slight smile, tears shining in her eyes. "Her head's almost as hard as Zack's. She'll be fine." Syl's arms slipped under his, lifting his weight and Max's easily. "Get up, big brother. We need to get out of here."
"But Manticore..."
Jondy appeared at his other elbow, stabilizing Max's slight weight in his arms. "It's going down again. We're making sure this time." Her face was grim and blood-streaked. Zane, Tawny, and Krit joined the girls, faces stained red with blood and dirt. Looking at the X-5s standing together, Logan could see for the first time what they were bred for. There was something almost feral about their beauty, dangerous as it was.
"Cuz?" Jordan's hand slid under his elbow. "They're gonna blow this place. We gotta go." Logan could feel himself being propelled towards the door, the exoskeleton automatically moving his legs forward. "The guards'll be coming soon, and we need to get out."
"Victor?" Looking down at Max's face, Logan noticed color returning to her pale features. Her body shuddered once, and then a second time. "Shit. Jondy, Max's seizing!"
Jondy's face paled. "Get her out, now!" She grabbed Logan's other arm, steadying Max in his arms. "If we head down this corridor..." The steel-girded walls changed to concrete block. Logan had the strangest sense of deja-vu, as if he'd run down these hallways before, Max's shaking body in his arms. Jondy and the other X-5s had the same haunted look on their faces as they ran at his heels.
The corridor got lighter and lighter until they came to a set of double doors. Zane and Tawny each hit one with their shoulders, bursting them open. As they ran out into the sunlight, Logan could hear the sound of explosions behind them.
He was surprised to see the Aztek waiting for them about five hundred yards from the compound, a little ways off from Krit's Jeep. The back door opened, and Jace's son slid to the ground, a grim look on his small face. Logan dove into the back seat, cushioning Max as best he could as he thumped against the upholstery. Little Max crawled into the trunk portion of the Aztek and crouched down, hazel eyes peering over the seat at him. Jace was nowhere to be seen. Logan didn't say anything as Jondy and Jordan crowded into the back seat with him, Zane taking shotgun next to Lex. Looking out the window, he noticed Tawny, Syl and Krit piling into the Jeep.
The compound erupted in flames as the two vehicles drove away. Logan shifted Max's body to a more comfortable position and watched as Jondy forced a handful of Tryptophan down her sister's throat. The seizure stopped, but Max's body still had that boneless, unconscious feel to it.
"Papa?" His nephew's voice sounded small and alone.
"Papa's with Mama now, Maxie." Jondy held her arms open to her nephew, who crawled over the back seat to sit in her lap. Jordan shifted an arm around Jondy until he cradled them both against his chest. "We'll be your family now. Aunt Maxie, Uncle Logan, Uncle Lex, Uncle Tawny, Aunt Syl, Uncle Krit, Uncle Zane..."
"Uncle Jor," Jordan added. Logan was surprised when his cousin leaned down to kiss the top of Jondy's head. "You'll be safe now, kiddo. We promise." The youngest Cale's eyes looked older now, almost as old as Logan felt. But at least they were finally going home... He rested his hand on Max's stomach, feeling the slight bulge there. Hopefully the baby was okay. This time, they were all going home...together.