This is set after Kidz and before Pollo Loco.



Zack shouldn't worry about her. She was perfectly capable of looking after herself, especially these days; she wouldn't go near Max or Tinga, because of their precarious positions. But she never checked in after the Eyes Only bulletin – it had slipped his mind with Tinga getting in trouble and him and Max having to bail her out. Then, he had to get Tinga over into Canada with him…

Zack dialed the voicemail again.

"You have four new messages."

"Friday 12th, 3:04 am… Zack, it's Syl. Krit and I are heading to Neveda. We'll call you with new contacts then."

"Saturday 13th, 5:09 pm…Zack, it's Zane. Just making sure you're okay. I mean, you don't usually get Eyes Only to contact us. And you don't have to worry about Millie anymore…I, I uh left her in LA. Anyway, just checking in, big brother."

"Saturday 13th, 5:11 pm…Zack, it's me. I'm heading to Oregon. I'll call again next week."

"Sunday 14th, I:30 am…Zack, it's Krit. Change of plans. Syl and I got passes to Baja. We'll be there for a couple of weeks."

Nothing. Not a word from her and he'd been at Manticore for almost three months.

"Zack," Tinga appeared, rubbing her eyes. "Is everything okay? You've dialed the same number seven times."

Zack looked up. Tinga always had excellent hearing and he had called his voicemail a lot of times.

"Jondy hasn't checked in in almost four months. I'm worried about her."

Tinga sat on the end of his bed. "Jondy? Four months…but I thought we all checked in when Eyes Only sent out that message?"

Zack shook his head. "Jondy never checked in. It slipped my mind when Max and I went to get you."

Tinga looked apologetic. "I'm sor…"

"Don't apologise," Zack snapped. "If it wasn't you it would've been Max or Zane. In fact, I'm glad it wasn't Zane, because there would've been no way to get to him in time."

Tinga nodded. "Where would Jondy be?" Tinga's voice was carefully trained to hide any emotion, but her eyes gave away the fear she felt.

"Anywhere. I wouldn't know where to start looking – California, Mexico, New York, Hawaii…"

"Max is in Seattle, right?" Tinga said gently. "Would Jondy somehow know that and go there?"

"She knows where all of you are. She knows where Max is. There is no way Jondy would go to Seattle," Zack said.

"But if she knows Max is there…" Tinga trailed off. "Explain it slowly Zack."

"Jondy has this …fear that Max will hate who she is now. She won't go near her under any circumstances," Zack shook his head. "She was probably captured. She probably didn't make it out of San Francisco…"

"Zack, stop." Tinga stood up. "Think about it. Remember the time that both you and Max spent three weeks in the infirmary after that shrapnel went off nearby? Who took over? Jondy. And Eva was annoyed for weeks, because she wanted to be CO."

"Lydecker liked Jondy because she was close to Max."

"And Jondy was more qualified than Eva. Eva's temper always got her into trouble. Jondy has been CO and I know I consider her SIC. Stop worrying like a little old woman and get some sleep," Tinga said, turning and leaving the room. Just as she turned around, a pillow hit her in the face.

"What was that for?"

"I do not worry like an old woman."

Tinga smirked. "As long as you believe that, big brother."

*~*~*~*~*~*

Jondy walked along the streets in New York City, watching out. A cigarette dangled from her right hand; more for show than anything else. Jondy didn't smoke; none of the X5s did. Well, except Chi, but she always was exception to the rule. Cigarettes didn't harm X5s.

Night in post-Pulse New York City was fascinating – the hookers, the dealers, the people. Her long brown hair had been cut several inches and held in place by some pins. Tight black paints and red tank top. Civilian clothes.

Zack had vanished from the face of the Earth. Jondy knew when he didn't call her back, something was up. So, as far as Jondy was concerned, she was playing CO, like a little girl played dress ups in her mother's clothes.

"The cat has come out to play," came a hiss. Jondy looked up. It had been too quiet for anyone else to hear...one of her siblings. And Jondy knew exactly who it was.

She slipped into the alley, throwing her untouched cigarette to the ground, stepping on it.

"Haven't spoken in a while, Ben," she said, turning around to see her brother standing there.

"Zack cut me off. Thought you of all people would've heard that," Ben shrugged.

He was good looking, Jondy admitted. Gorgeous eyes. Black shirt, jeans and a silver cross on a chain.

"The Blue Lady," Jondy whispered, stepping closer to him and reaching for the necklace.

"You still believe, Jondy?"

"Zack's scared of what'll happen if he believes in her. Mem believed in her and she's been dead ten years. And Jack. And Eva. And Mira and Del. They all believed in her, Ben."

"They weren't worthy, Jay. Come on – let me buy you dinner."

They had dinner in a Chinese restaurant and Jondy had a great time, managing to push Zack to the back of her mind.

Then Ben suggested she crash at his place. Jondy agreed to this plan.

Ben pounced on her like she was in heat.

"Get off me!" she yelled, half-throwing him against the wall. Ben crouched there, blood on his face, watching her with smoldering eyes.

"When was the last time you went into heat, Jondy? Four months ago?" he asked, growling slightly. Jondy regretted throwing him near the door; she had no escape route.

"And you think raping me is the way to go?" Jondy demanded. "Wonderful. Damnit, Ben, I know why Zack cut you off."

She moved towards the doorway, but Ben moved so suddenly…his hand cracked against her skull and she collapsed against him.

She woke up several hours later, lying on a cot, in a dark room. Not the apartment. Jondy sat up, touching her clothes, thankfully realizing Ben hadn't tried anything.

"Good morning little sister," Ben appeared, carrying a paper bag. "Quite a knock on the head. You had a concussion. In the bag are some clean clothes, some personal items you might need, some aspirin and rations. You have one hour."

Jondy was bewildered. He had her in a tiny room, with a cot, a sink and a dingy mirror, and a lamp.

The clothes he had left were very simple – black pants, white tank top, black coat, combat boots and clean underwear. A hair brush and hair bands, a toothbrush and toothpaste. A packet of aspirin. A bottle of water and an apple.

Jondy stared at the items. Her own clothes were dirty, blood stained and torn.

She stood up, shaking, and took two aspirin. She changed her cloths slowly and pulled her hair off her face.

'There's no reason I should be scared. This is my brother Ben,' Jondy convinced herself. 'He won't hurt me.' But there was this terrible sense of fear in her mind. That she had had a choice and she'd made the wrong one. She had no idea where Zack was. She was alone with someone Zack had given up on…who had tried to rape her.

She slipped out of the room, and saw Ben tying three people to a chairs – a man, a little girl about nine and a young woman.

"Ben, what are you doing?" Jondy asked, grabbing his shoulder.

He span around, slapping her hard. "Don't pull rank on me, baby sister." Jondy brought a knee up, his stomach making a crunch noise.

"Let them go, Ben," Jondy demanded. "They are innocent." The little girl looked a little like Max. The man looked similar to Ben himself.

"You want to play?" Ben grinned. "I knew you'd understand, Jay. Help me untie them."

She was too trusting. The minute she leant over the child, Ben jabbed something in her throat. She went sprawling, her vision blurring…

She awoke on a dock, a gun beside her, soaked in blood. It was pouring rain. She leapt to her feet, her hands shaking.

"Ben?" she screamed, over the rain. Nothing. She grabbed the gun and began running. Adrenaline pumping and her heart rate was up a lot. Thunder and lightening crashed as she tried to find somewhere dry.

"Ben, help me!" she screamed again, knowing it was Ben's 'game'.

Someone was behind her. Ben. Shoot to wound, the leg, Jondy though, spinning and shooting.

It wasn't Ben, it was a girl, and Jondy's shaking cause her to miss, hitting the girl near the heart. She screamed and collapsed onto the pavement.

Jondy was at the child's side in an instant, trying to examine the wound in the rain.

"You'll be okay," Jondy promised, the tears on her cheeks mixing with rain.

"I want mama," she said faintly.

Jondy peeled off her coat and pushed it under the girl's head. When she brushed the girl's neck, the child screamed and tried to wriggle away from Jondy.

"Leave me…" the girl's eyes lolled shut. "Mama."

Jondy sat there in the rain, gazing at the child. Holding her tight as her breathing slowed and she died. Blood pooling on the concrete.

Jondy rolled the girl over; remembering the pain she'd been in when Jondy touched her neck.

A barcode. 332960073452. Max's barcode.

Jondy leapt to her feet, willing herself to calm down. Something was not right. This seemed more like a horrific nightmare than anything remotely real.

A figure appeared at the corner of the building, dressed in army fatiques. Ben, Jondy made out faint details from where she was.

She picked up her gun and shot Ben in the head, watching his body drop to the cold pavement.

//Good, now I can go and find somewhere to spend the night.// Jondy tucked the gun in her waistband and stood up, calmer now that she knew Ben was out of action. He was a freaky lunatic.

Jondy stood up and began walking, barely being able to see through the rain. She shivered slightly and then moved towards a warehouse.

Suddenly, the dark haired woman appeared, screaming and crying. Gun in hand.

"You murdered my daughter!" she screamed at Jondy. "You murdered her!" The woman fumbled with her gun, aiming it at Jondy.

The bullet grazed Jondy's side and in a fit of emotion, Jondy shot at the woman. She was dead before she hit the ground…

Jondy stumbled into the warehouse, sinking to the concrete floor, tears running down her face.

"What the hell is going on, Ben?" she screamed, almost forgetting she had killed him just minutes ago. Not that she believed that was him she actually killed.

"Don't you understand, Jondy?" Ben asked, appearing, completely dry. "You're showing your true instincts."

"What?" Jondy asked.

Ben laughed to himself and walked out into the rain, stepping over the woman's body.



The next morning, Jondy went and stole some clean, dry clothes and went to buy breakfast – a five dollar coffee and a newspaper.

It was the headline of the paper that made her feel ill. 'Family Brutally Murdered'. A child and her parents. All three were found shot point blank with barcode tattoos on their necks. What was confusing the authorities was that all three barcodes were different and no one could work out what each stood for…the child had Max's barcode, she knew that. But the man's barcode had been 331845739493…Ben's barcode. Then whose barcode did the woman have…

332340090210.

The woman's barcode was 332340090210. Jondy almost screamed. The horror of the last 24 hours was still with her and …

Ben was murdering people. She understood why Zack cut him off. Jondy closed her eyes. But in this case, Jondy had murdered an entire family. A massacre.

It took a few seconds, but her common sense won over. Lydecker would come to New York City now, he would recognize Max's barcode anywhere.

Jondy needed to get out of the city ASAP. She threw down money for her coffee and walked away from the café in search of her bike.

Where the hell was Zack?



AN: I know this chapter probably seems out of place at the moment, but it makes sense soon enough. If you are interested in me continuing this, please review.

And check out 'Strange Fruit' by Ashantai. That story is what inspired me to start writing again, I had a near to permanent writer's block there for a while.