Disclaimer: Everything except the briefly cameo-ing original characters of Amna, Omri, the nameless female X5 and (if you can call it a cameo) Danny belongs to Fox and James Cameron.
* * *
Many of X5 group stood looking helplessly at Max as she twitched on the floor. They were remembering Jack. How they wished they could get it to stop.
She was helpless too. She'd told them about glimpsing Jack on the autopsy table. An X5 sister nearby to the limp form of Max pictured her getting cut up and felt sick. It couldn't happen. Not again. Not to Max. She was so strong.
Jondy dropped to her knees beside Max, shaking her to try and get the seizure to stop. It was useless. Max was as good as dead.
It was so simple they couldn't believe that they hadn't simply done it years before... before Jack... before Danny, the boy Syl had accidentally shot. Zack and a few of the others took out the guards as they came into the room. They lay motionless. And the X5s watched as Eva stole a gun from one of the guards. She began to lead them out.
To anyone on the outside, Eva would have looked ridiculous toting the gun and leading her siblings down the hallway. She was only a child. Her blue eyes were focused, however. Every X5 following the determined Eva down the hallway knew exactly what their siblings were capable of.
Max sensed Jondy on her right, Zack on the left. She knew there was someone up ahead, leading them. But who? She couldn't get her eyes to focus properly.
Omri, a grey-eyed little boy who was one of the youngest of the group was walking up the back with an X5 sister who was never to make it outside the wire. Her name was Amna. She was bigger than him and so took responsibility for him.
He was scared to talk, so he used a few deft signs to communicate with Amna.
I'M SCARED, he signed. WE CAN'T LOSE MAX. I KNOW WE'RE GOING TO GET CAUGHT AND PUNISHED.
REMEMBER YOU'RE A SOLDIER, she replied. BE BRAVE. I PROMISE YOU WE WON'T LOSE A SISTER TONIGHT.
They all stopped. A flash of light blinded them, searing into their very minds, washing them of all emotion. They squinted through it to see Lydecker, also holding a gun.
Ben tensed. He was scared out of his wits. He felt Tinga freeze behind him as she bumped into his back.
Where was the bravery of a couple of minutes ago?
In front stood Eva. Her knuckles turned white on the gun as she clutched it. She wondered why she wasn't trembling. Her mouth a grim line, her eyes burning into Lydecker's, challenging him. Her brow was set in concentration.
It was surreal to Eva. There she stood, up against the man who had terrified the living daylights out of her since she had been old enough to understand. She was only nine.
Various Manticore classes screamed their words at her in her brain. TAKE HIM OUT. DECEPTION IS A WEAPON. TACTICAL ADVANTAGE. It was almost a sad version of her life flashing before her eyes.
What am I doing? she thought briefly.
A gunshot rang through the half-darkness.
Around the middle of the group, Brin ducked her head slightly to peer through a maze of bodies, most taller than she was, just in time to see Eva fall. It was so sudden.
With Jack, there had been suspense. They hadn't known what had happened until Max told them... they had mourned him. With Eva, she fell. There was a heartbreaking silence. And there was the realisation that one of their best was dead.
It was too much. Two siblings in a matter of days. Max was able to focus at that moment, to realise exactly which sibling it was.
It's Eva, she thought numbly.
It was too late. Eva was already gone.
And there was a rage and a fear in each X5 beyond anything they had ever felt before. More than anything, they were a family, and they had just watched a sister of theirs gunned down right in front of them. Different thoughts ran through each of their heads.
Tinga thought in a panic, Which one of us is he going to kill next? How many is it going to take to get out of here?
At that moment, Syl felt a stange closeness to Eva and also to Jack. It brought her back to the day she'd accidentally killed Danny. It was an accident, she thought suddenly. I didn't mean for Danny to die! She wondered why she was flashing back to her hapless X5 brother when it was inevitable that she was either going to die or get a very severe punishment.
She's a good soldier, thought Ben desperately. She tried to save us. Eva's with the Blue Lady now. She and Jack are together.
Jace was trying to convince herself. Of what, she couldn't say. Perhaps that it was truly happening. Perhaps that it hadn't. Maybe that Eva had deserved it and possibly that just a second ago, one of her X5 sisters had been protecting them, a living, breathing and very much alive human being.
Brin blinked through the bright lights of the hallway. It's all over, she thought miserably.
Krit decided he was going to go down fighting. If he could, he'd get as many as he could out. If not, they'd all go down fighting together.
Jondy clung to Max's arm. She sneaked a look at her best friend because it felt like she was going to collapse again. She had no idea what to do and looked to Zack.
Zack knew what he had to do. Once again, he had to be the leader. He forced himself to look at Eva for a moment.
She would not be the last to die that night. But whether the X5s were to die within the hour or the century, they would escape for the ones who would never see the outside.
They'd do it for her.
* * *
Many of X5 group stood looking helplessly at Max as she twitched on the floor. They were remembering Jack. How they wished they could get it to stop.
She was helpless too. She'd told them about glimpsing Jack on the autopsy table. An X5 sister nearby to the limp form of Max pictured her getting cut up and felt sick. It couldn't happen. Not again. Not to Max. She was so strong.
Jondy dropped to her knees beside Max, shaking her to try and get the seizure to stop. It was useless. Max was as good as dead.
It was so simple they couldn't believe that they hadn't simply done it years before... before Jack... before Danny, the boy Syl had accidentally shot. Zack and a few of the others took out the guards as they came into the room. They lay motionless. And the X5s watched as Eva stole a gun from one of the guards. She began to lead them out.
To anyone on the outside, Eva would have looked ridiculous toting the gun and leading her siblings down the hallway. She was only a child. Her blue eyes were focused, however. Every X5 following the determined Eva down the hallway knew exactly what their siblings were capable of.
Max sensed Jondy on her right, Zack on the left. She knew there was someone up ahead, leading them. But who? She couldn't get her eyes to focus properly.
Omri, a grey-eyed little boy who was one of the youngest of the group was walking up the back with an X5 sister who was never to make it outside the wire. Her name was Amna. She was bigger than him and so took responsibility for him.
He was scared to talk, so he used a few deft signs to communicate with Amna.
I'M SCARED, he signed. WE CAN'T LOSE MAX. I KNOW WE'RE GOING TO GET CAUGHT AND PUNISHED.
REMEMBER YOU'RE A SOLDIER, she replied. BE BRAVE. I PROMISE YOU WE WON'T LOSE A SISTER TONIGHT.
They all stopped. A flash of light blinded them, searing into their very minds, washing them of all emotion. They squinted through it to see Lydecker, also holding a gun.
Ben tensed. He was scared out of his wits. He felt Tinga freeze behind him as she bumped into his back.
Where was the bravery of a couple of minutes ago?
In front stood Eva. Her knuckles turned white on the gun as she clutched it. She wondered why she wasn't trembling. Her mouth a grim line, her eyes burning into Lydecker's, challenging him. Her brow was set in concentration.
It was surreal to Eva. There she stood, up against the man who had terrified the living daylights out of her since she had been old enough to understand. She was only nine.
Various Manticore classes screamed their words at her in her brain. TAKE HIM OUT. DECEPTION IS A WEAPON. TACTICAL ADVANTAGE. It was almost a sad version of her life flashing before her eyes.
What am I doing? she thought briefly.
A gunshot rang through the half-darkness.
Around the middle of the group, Brin ducked her head slightly to peer through a maze of bodies, most taller than she was, just in time to see Eva fall. It was so sudden.
With Jack, there had been suspense. They hadn't known what had happened until Max told them... they had mourned him. With Eva, she fell. There was a heartbreaking silence. And there was the realisation that one of their best was dead.
It was too much. Two siblings in a matter of days. Max was able to focus at that moment, to realise exactly which sibling it was.
It's Eva, she thought numbly.
It was too late. Eva was already gone.
And there was a rage and a fear in each X5 beyond anything they had ever felt before. More than anything, they were a family, and they had just watched a sister of theirs gunned down right in front of them. Different thoughts ran through each of their heads.
Tinga thought in a panic, Which one of us is he going to kill next? How many is it going to take to get out of here?
At that moment, Syl felt a stange closeness to Eva and also to Jack. It brought her back to the day she'd accidentally killed Danny. It was an accident, she thought suddenly. I didn't mean for Danny to die! She wondered why she was flashing back to her hapless X5 brother when it was inevitable that she was either going to die or get a very severe punishment.
She's a good soldier, thought Ben desperately. She tried to save us. Eva's with the Blue Lady now. She and Jack are together.
Jace was trying to convince herself. Of what, she couldn't say. Perhaps that it was truly happening. Perhaps that it hadn't. Maybe that Eva had deserved it and possibly that just a second ago, one of her X5 sisters had been protecting them, a living, breathing and very much alive human being.
Brin blinked through the bright lights of the hallway. It's all over, she thought miserably.
Krit decided he was going to go down fighting. If he could, he'd get as many as he could out. If not, they'd all go down fighting together.
Jondy clung to Max's arm. She sneaked a look at her best friend because it felt like she was going to collapse again. She had no idea what to do and looked to Zack.
Zack knew what he had to do. Once again, he had to be the leader. He forced himself to look at Eva for a moment.
She would not be the last to die that night. But whether the X5s were to die within the hour or the century, they would escape for the ones who would never see the outside.
They'd do it for her.
