While Syl, Krit, and Max, headed for the cabin, Zane sat inside, watching an uncharacteristically nervous
Zack glance again and again out the window.
Zane sighed, shaking his head.
He wondered if he'd been wrong, all these years, listening to Zack chastise him on his weakness for the
ladies, wishing love and commitment and all that on his big brother. Zack had never fallen in love before.
But when he fell, damned but he fell hard.
It was almost painful to watch.
Even Zane's amusement over the situation, which was considerable, had started to wane.
Zack was nervous. And just being in the same cabin as him was starting to make Zane nervous, as well.
"Jeez, Zack. Chill out, already, before you sprain something," he muttered, pulling another doggy treat out
of the bag sitting beside the recliner in which he was slouched.
He and Zack were the perfect example of how two different people could be raised in the exact same
environment, and still turn out to be terribly, terribly different. Zack was clean cut and clean shaved, and
he was only wearing a pair of jeans with tennis shoes, a read pullover, and his ever-present leather jacket,
but he wore them with bearing. His posture was stern, even when he was supposed to be relaxing. Which
was now. He was blonde and blue-eyed, just like Zane, and they both had similar builds, but that was
where the similarities ended.
Zack's blue eyes were cool, calculating. Mysterious. Zane's blue eyes seemed to laugh all the time. And
he smiled just as often. Zack was aloof, while Zane was downright boisterous, by comparison to his X5
siblings. He wore his hair spiked, and it was usually in his eyes all the time, but he never bothered to get it
cut shorter than it already was. He wore a little goatee, and one of his ears were peirced. He'd gotten his
ear peirced. Zack had nearly shit a brick when he heard. What kind of soldier gets their ear peirced?
But then, Zane wasn't much for the soldier mentallity. He could kick ass with the best of them. In fact, it
was a part of his genetic make-up. He was part wolf, he'd heard – which was probably why he got along so
grandly with the pet he always kept by his side. And he'd been trained to be the explosives expert in their
group, a lifetime ago back at Manticore. Zane's tennis shoes always looked a day past their wear-out date,
and he didn't own a single pair of jeans that weren't frayed and/or ripped out at the knees. He had this
favorite blue sweater one of his girls had told him really set off his eyes, and he wore it religiously.
He was the antithesis to Zack.
Which, again, was probably why they got along so grandly. Zack told him what to do, in that unbearably
arrogant, I'm-the-CO attitude of his, and Zane dealt with it. Then Zane did the absolute opposite of what
he'd been told, in that annoyingly carefree attitude of his, and Zack dealt with it. They were a match made
in Manticore. And they loved each other, anyhow.
Zack didn't respond, so Zane just shrugged, holding the treat in his hand out to the german shephard lying
nearby, in front of the fireplace. The dog perked his head up, panting happily.
Zane made a little kissy noise he just knew would drive Zack nuts, and called out to his favorite pet.
"Come here, Fluffy! Come on, fella! Good boy!"
From his stance in front of the window, Zack shook his head, finally sinking into a chair with a sigh.
"I cannot believe you named your dog that."
Zane shrugged, grinning as "Fluffy" licked happily at his fingers.
"He doesn't seem to mind. Do you, Fluffy?"
He fed the german shephard another treat, his smile growing wistful as he did. Yeah, it was an odd name
for such a large, some would say "scary looking" animal. But Zane was fascinated by those kind of
contradictions. By the thought that one's personal nature could overcome one's natural inclinations. That
a dog that had been born to be large and scary looking could carry the name "Fluffy". That he, who had
been born to kill, to destroy, That he, X5, serial number 332680074205, could be more than just a killer or
a number.
But Zane didn't mention this to Zack. He figured, somewhere somehow, his brother already knew. So
Zane just went on feeding his dog. And Zack just went on teasing him about it.
"You are a sick man, brother," Zack said, looking to the animal who, he could admit it, hadn't placed very
highly on his list when they'd first met. "And you call yourself an animal lover."
"You should resent him, you know that don't you?" he asked Fluffy, who just stared back at him that way
he always did.
Zane had to smirk at the comical scene presented by his oh-so-logical brother Zack, sitting there talking to
his dog. So he threw a doggy treat in Zack's lap, having to force himself not to laugh at the look that
passed the man's face when Fluffy went to retrieve it.
Not that Zane considered talking to dogs as particularly funny. He talked to Fluffy all the time. Anyone
else would think it was crazy, but he really believed they could communicate to one another. Had to be all
those wolf genes.
Meanwhile, Zane contemplated the current situation with something quite close to glee. Everything was
working out exactly how he'd planned it. They'd contacted Jondy and had her pick up Brin – they'd sent
her a week ago, so she'd have plenty of time, not only to locate their troubled sister, but also to swing down
by Mexico and see if she could pick up Jace and her baby, as an extra added treat for the X5s meeting here
today. Krit, Syl, and not to mention Max, were on their way.
It was all going according to plan. And Zane, being Zane, was overcome by the sudden urge to laugh
maniacally and rub his hands together.
This temporary CO business wasn't turning out to be half bad.
Of course, it was all just in jest. But the fact that Zack would agree to play around with him, at all, was, in
and of itself, a pretty big miracle. Either that, or Zack was really worse off than Zane had thought.
Zane looked at his brother, who was staring out the window again.
Okay, so that wasn't an "or" question. The fact that Zack had agreed to let him call the X5s together for a
reunion was a pretty big miracle. *And* Zack was really worse off than Zane had thought.
When he'd shown up here, months before, Zane had known something was wrong. Zack never stayed
around for longer than a couple of days. And even then, he was very clear about why he was there, and
when he'd been leaving. But this time he'd been different. This time he'd showed up and hadn't said
anything about leaving again. In fact, he'd evaded the question whenever Zane had presented it. He'd
played with Fluffy – he'd actually played with Zane's pet.
It had been enough to have Zane fearing for his brother's life.
And he hadn't once asked Zane what he was doing this close to Washington.
That was what really worried him. After their cover had been blown, back when Zane was in LA, he was
supposed to have headed out to Austin. No problem. He'd developed quite a fondness for those Texan
girls that time three years ago when he'd been stationed in Fort Worth. But he'd heard that Max was living
in Seattle, Washington. Max, who seemed to have disappeared off of the face of the planet was living in
Washington.
Zane couldn't resist. He just had to come up here, even if he wouldn't actually be travelling all the way
into Seattle. At least, not yet. Even if it were only so that he could comfort himself with the thought that
they were living in the same time zone.
It had been a foolish thing to do, by Zack's usual standards of operation, but Zane couldn't resist. And
when Zack had showed up, he'd felt sure his brother would raise holy hell over it.
But he hadn't. He hadn't even mentioned it.
And it had taken three weeks for Zane to find out why.
Then, one night during that third week, Zane had come back from this local bar he stopped by every few
days or so, just to torment the fine looking waitresses that worked there, to find the truck Zack had driven
over to his place turned over in a ditch. The lights were still on and the wheels were still turning.
Zane had felt his heart leap into his thought when he'd seen it.
His first thought was Manticore. No, wait, Manticore was gone, right? But old habits die hard, and Zane
was sure his brother had been captured. Or that they were still there, Lydecker and his soldiers, filing out
through the woods, looking for him. Waiting for Zane, so they could capture him, too.
But Lydecker had defected, too, hadn't he?
Zane had been too keyed up to think straight. He'd just run out into the woods, calling Zack's name.
He'd found him crumpled beneath a tree, not really injured from the wreck any further than a cut on his
head, but held in the grip of seizures worse than Zane had ever seen before.
Zane had never had as many problems with seizures as some of his brothers and sisters did. But then, as far
as he knew, neither did Zack. So he always kept a small vial of triptophan in his pocket. And, at that
moment, he thanked God, or the Blue Lady, or whoever, that he did.
That had been probably the scariest moment of his adult life. He hadn't had too many brushes with
Manticore after the escape; he'd been lucky. Zack always managed to get the call through to him before
troops were ever sent in when his cover was blown, and Zack never spoke in great detail about what
happened with him or the other X5s that didn't pertain to Zane directly.
Until that moment.
Then, as the seizures slowly left him, Zack talked. He talked more than Zane had ever heard him talk
before. And he was simultaneously thrilled to have his brother open up to him, and horrified by what Zack
told him. He didn't want to hear it. But at the same time he did.
Zack told him everything. Everything about his life since the escape. Maybe he was afraid he was dying
and wanted to get it off his chest – Zane didn't know. But he told him about Max and how he loved her,
about giving himself in to Manticore.
Zane had always said they should leave their past in the past. He harbored no love for their former keepers,
but nor did he hate every single doctor or soldier that worked there, just because some of them had made
his childhood a living hell. But as he listened to Zack talk, his hatred grew. In that moment, he would hav
gladly taken on a whole unit of Manticore's best. He wouldn't have cared. He would have mowed them
down like they weren't even living beings to be considered or respected. In that moment, he was
everything Manticore had made him to be. A killer, if only in his mind.
Because the things Zack told him made him want to kill.
Even now, looking back on it, Zane felt a thickness in his throat as he remembered the conversation. How
Zack had told him, in that peculiarily toneless voice he'd used, about the torture he'd endured, the drugs
they'd given him and the games they'd played with his mind. They'd buried him alive. They'd fucking
buried him alive.
Those goddamned bastards buried his fucking brother alive.
But there had been no soldiers present in those woods to kill. No one to take out all his newfound hatred
upon.
And in the absence of that, Zane had felt like crying.
It wasn't the first time in his life. Unlike Zack, he didn't see any weakness in human emotion. He revelled
in it. But he didn't want to do so in front of his brother, who'd gone through all that he had and could talk
about it like this. And he wasn't crying, was he?
Oh, shit. He was.
Zack had cried.
Lying there in those woods, in the dark, as Zane sat nearby, helpless, Zack had talked and he had cried.
And Zane had cried with him.
It was one of those moments that strengthened the bond between two brothers even stronger than it had
been before. And it was one of those moments you never spoke about again.
So they'd never mentioned it.
But two weeks later, Zane had come up with this crazy scheme. And, amazingly enough, Zack had
decided, several days later, to go along with it.
Now Zane sat there, watching his brother watching the horizon for the woman that he loved. Watching the
horizon for Max, while all of the pieces of his brother's plan fell into place. Zane watched him, and he
silently repeated the vow he had made to himself that night in the woods. The vow he had secretly made to
Zack.
'You're going to get the happiness you deserve, brother,' Zane thought to himself, more serious than he'd
ever been about anything else in his life. 'If I have to bring all the X5s to Washington…hell, if I have to
pick up Washington and bring it to them, you're gonna be happy. I swear it.'
Then he started to watch the horizon, as well.
**** ****
Zack glance again and again out the window.
Zane sighed, shaking his head.
He wondered if he'd been wrong, all these years, listening to Zack chastise him on his weakness for the
ladies, wishing love and commitment and all that on his big brother. Zack had never fallen in love before.
But when he fell, damned but he fell hard.
It was almost painful to watch.
Even Zane's amusement over the situation, which was considerable, had started to wane.
Zack was nervous. And just being in the same cabin as him was starting to make Zane nervous, as well.
"Jeez, Zack. Chill out, already, before you sprain something," he muttered, pulling another doggy treat out
of the bag sitting beside the recliner in which he was slouched.
He and Zack were the perfect example of how two different people could be raised in the exact same
environment, and still turn out to be terribly, terribly different. Zack was clean cut and clean shaved, and
he was only wearing a pair of jeans with tennis shoes, a read pullover, and his ever-present leather jacket,
but he wore them with bearing. His posture was stern, even when he was supposed to be relaxing. Which
was now. He was blonde and blue-eyed, just like Zane, and they both had similar builds, but that was
where the similarities ended.
Zack's blue eyes were cool, calculating. Mysterious. Zane's blue eyes seemed to laugh all the time. And
he smiled just as often. Zack was aloof, while Zane was downright boisterous, by comparison to his X5
siblings. He wore his hair spiked, and it was usually in his eyes all the time, but he never bothered to get it
cut shorter than it already was. He wore a little goatee, and one of his ears were peirced. He'd gotten his
ear peirced. Zack had nearly shit a brick when he heard. What kind of soldier gets their ear peirced?
But then, Zane wasn't much for the soldier mentallity. He could kick ass with the best of them. In fact, it
was a part of his genetic make-up. He was part wolf, he'd heard – which was probably why he got along so
grandly with the pet he always kept by his side. And he'd been trained to be the explosives expert in their
group, a lifetime ago back at Manticore. Zane's tennis shoes always looked a day past their wear-out date,
and he didn't own a single pair of jeans that weren't frayed and/or ripped out at the knees. He had this
favorite blue sweater one of his girls had told him really set off his eyes, and he wore it religiously.
He was the antithesis to Zack.
Which, again, was probably why they got along so grandly. Zack told him what to do, in that unbearably
arrogant, I'm-the-CO attitude of his, and Zane dealt with it. Then Zane did the absolute opposite of what
he'd been told, in that annoyingly carefree attitude of his, and Zack dealt with it. They were a match made
in Manticore. And they loved each other, anyhow.
Zack didn't respond, so Zane just shrugged, holding the treat in his hand out to the german shephard lying
nearby, in front of the fireplace. The dog perked his head up, panting happily.
Zane made a little kissy noise he just knew would drive Zack nuts, and called out to his favorite pet.
"Come here, Fluffy! Come on, fella! Good boy!"
From his stance in front of the window, Zack shook his head, finally sinking into a chair with a sigh.
"I cannot believe you named your dog that."
Zane shrugged, grinning as "Fluffy" licked happily at his fingers.
"He doesn't seem to mind. Do you, Fluffy?"
He fed the german shephard another treat, his smile growing wistful as he did. Yeah, it was an odd name
for such a large, some would say "scary looking" animal. But Zane was fascinated by those kind of
contradictions. By the thought that one's personal nature could overcome one's natural inclinations. That
a dog that had been born to be large and scary looking could carry the name "Fluffy". That he, who had
been born to kill, to destroy, That he, X5, serial number 332680074205, could be more than just a killer or
a number.
But Zane didn't mention this to Zack. He figured, somewhere somehow, his brother already knew. So
Zane just went on feeding his dog. And Zack just went on teasing him about it.
"You are a sick man, brother," Zack said, looking to the animal who, he could admit it, hadn't placed very
highly on his list when they'd first met. "And you call yourself an animal lover."
"You should resent him, you know that don't you?" he asked Fluffy, who just stared back at him that way
he always did.
Zane had to smirk at the comical scene presented by his oh-so-logical brother Zack, sitting there talking to
his dog. So he threw a doggy treat in Zack's lap, having to force himself not to laugh at the look that
passed the man's face when Fluffy went to retrieve it.
Not that Zane considered talking to dogs as particularly funny. He talked to Fluffy all the time. Anyone
else would think it was crazy, but he really believed they could communicate to one another. Had to be all
those wolf genes.
Meanwhile, Zane contemplated the current situation with something quite close to glee. Everything was
working out exactly how he'd planned it. They'd contacted Jondy and had her pick up Brin – they'd sent
her a week ago, so she'd have plenty of time, not only to locate their troubled sister, but also to swing down
by Mexico and see if she could pick up Jace and her baby, as an extra added treat for the X5s meeting here
today. Krit, Syl, and not to mention Max, were on their way.
It was all going according to plan. And Zane, being Zane, was overcome by the sudden urge to laugh
maniacally and rub his hands together.
This temporary CO business wasn't turning out to be half bad.
Of course, it was all just in jest. But the fact that Zack would agree to play around with him, at all, was, in
and of itself, a pretty big miracle. Either that, or Zack was really worse off than Zane had thought.
Zane looked at his brother, who was staring out the window again.
Okay, so that wasn't an "or" question. The fact that Zack had agreed to let him call the X5s together for a
reunion was a pretty big miracle. *And* Zack was really worse off than Zane had thought.
When he'd shown up here, months before, Zane had known something was wrong. Zack never stayed
around for longer than a couple of days. And even then, he was very clear about why he was there, and
when he'd been leaving. But this time he'd been different. This time he'd showed up and hadn't said
anything about leaving again. In fact, he'd evaded the question whenever Zane had presented it. He'd
played with Fluffy – he'd actually played with Zane's pet.
It had been enough to have Zane fearing for his brother's life.
And he hadn't once asked Zane what he was doing this close to Washington.
That was what really worried him. After their cover had been blown, back when Zane was in LA, he was
supposed to have headed out to Austin. No problem. He'd developed quite a fondness for those Texan
girls that time three years ago when he'd been stationed in Fort Worth. But he'd heard that Max was living
in Seattle, Washington. Max, who seemed to have disappeared off of the face of the planet was living in
Washington.
Zane couldn't resist. He just had to come up here, even if he wouldn't actually be travelling all the way
into Seattle. At least, not yet. Even if it were only so that he could comfort himself with the thought that
they were living in the same time zone.
It had been a foolish thing to do, by Zack's usual standards of operation, but Zane couldn't resist. And
when Zack had showed up, he'd felt sure his brother would raise holy hell over it.
But he hadn't. He hadn't even mentioned it.
And it had taken three weeks for Zane to find out why.
Then, one night during that third week, Zane had come back from this local bar he stopped by every few
days or so, just to torment the fine looking waitresses that worked there, to find the truck Zack had driven
over to his place turned over in a ditch. The lights were still on and the wheels were still turning.
Zane had felt his heart leap into his thought when he'd seen it.
His first thought was Manticore. No, wait, Manticore was gone, right? But old habits die hard, and Zane
was sure his brother had been captured. Or that they were still there, Lydecker and his soldiers, filing out
through the woods, looking for him. Waiting for Zane, so they could capture him, too.
But Lydecker had defected, too, hadn't he?
Zane had been too keyed up to think straight. He'd just run out into the woods, calling Zack's name.
He'd found him crumpled beneath a tree, not really injured from the wreck any further than a cut on his
head, but held in the grip of seizures worse than Zane had ever seen before.
Zane had never had as many problems with seizures as some of his brothers and sisters did. But then, as far
as he knew, neither did Zack. So he always kept a small vial of triptophan in his pocket. And, at that
moment, he thanked God, or the Blue Lady, or whoever, that he did.
That had been probably the scariest moment of his adult life. He hadn't had too many brushes with
Manticore after the escape; he'd been lucky. Zack always managed to get the call through to him before
troops were ever sent in when his cover was blown, and Zack never spoke in great detail about what
happened with him or the other X5s that didn't pertain to Zane directly.
Until that moment.
Then, as the seizures slowly left him, Zack talked. He talked more than Zane had ever heard him talk
before. And he was simultaneously thrilled to have his brother open up to him, and horrified by what Zack
told him. He didn't want to hear it. But at the same time he did.
Zack told him everything. Everything about his life since the escape. Maybe he was afraid he was dying
and wanted to get it off his chest – Zane didn't know. But he told him about Max and how he loved her,
about giving himself in to Manticore.
Zane had always said they should leave their past in the past. He harbored no love for their former keepers,
but nor did he hate every single doctor or soldier that worked there, just because some of them had made
his childhood a living hell. But as he listened to Zack talk, his hatred grew. In that moment, he would hav
gladly taken on a whole unit of Manticore's best. He wouldn't have cared. He would have mowed them
down like they weren't even living beings to be considered or respected. In that moment, he was
everything Manticore had made him to be. A killer, if only in his mind.
Because the things Zack told him made him want to kill.
Even now, looking back on it, Zane felt a thickness in his throat as he remembered the conversation. How
Zack had told him, in that peculiarily toneless voice he'd used, about the torture he'd endured, the drugs
they'd given him and the games they'd played with his mind. They'd buried him alive. They'd fucking
buried him alive.
Those goddamned bastards buried his fucking brother alive.
But there had been no soldiers present in those woods to kill. No one to take out all his newfound hatred
upon.
And in the absence of that, Zane had felt like crying.
It wasn't the first time in his life. Unlike Zack, he didn't see any weakness in human emotion. He revelled
in it. But he didn't want to do so in front of his brother, who'd gone through all that he had and could talk
about it like this. And he wasn't crying, was he?
Oh, shit. He was.
Zack had cried.
Lying there in those woods, in the dark, as Zane sat nearby, helpless, Zack had talked and he had cried.
And Zane had cried with him.
It was one of those moments that strengthened the bond between two brothers even stronger than it had
been before. And it was one of those moments you never spoke about again.
So they'd never mentioned it.
But two weeks later, Zane had come up with this crazy scheme. And, amazingly enough, Zack had
decided, several days later, to go along with it.
Now Zane sat there, watching his brother watching the horizon for the woman that he loved. Watching the
horizon for Max, while all of the pieces of his brother's plan fell into place. Zane watched him, and he
silently repeated the vow he had made to himself that night in the woods. The vow he had secretly made to
Zack.
'You're going to get the happiness you deserve, brother,' Zane thought to himself, more serious than he'd
ever been about anything else in his life. 'If I have to bring all the X5s to Washington…hell, if I have to
pick up Washington and bring it to them, you're gonna be happy. I swear it.'
Then he started to watch the horizon, as well.
**** ****
