Disclaimer: I own absolutely nothing. I'm too poor to own anything.

Zack's Penny

By Be Boring

Chapter 12: Sibling Rivalry

*~* Zane

"What do you want us to do?" Krit asked, finally voicing the golden question of the day. Penny had told us to knock out the electricity, but how did she expect us to do that? I didn't remember where the computer room was that managed the power, and even if I did, surely they had to have backup generators.

"We have about two hours before sunset. We may as well go scope out Manticore and see if they have any generators that we could get to easily. Once we're sure we've found them all, it'll be your guys' job to destroy them after I've turned off the power."

Syl wasn't too happy about this. "Are you trying to tell us that you're going in there alone? Oh hell no, there's no way I'm letting you do that. I'm going in there with you. Krit can handle the generators."

"No, it'll only be harder if there's more than one of us going in, especially seeing as how there's hopefully going to be two of us coming back out. If we add one more to the group, things will only get more difficult."

Krit stepped forward to put a hand on Syl's shoulder, then turned to me. "Zane, I see where you're coming from, but this is a suicide mission. We won't even know if you're in trouble. Don't you see how dangerous it would be for me and Syl to be sitting out here while you're getting your ass thrown in a cell? We'd be caught too."

"Not if you leave right after you've destroyed the generators. Listen, as soon as your job is done, I want you guys to get the hell out of here. Get to the truck and drive past Manticore at," I glanced at my watch, "2100 hours. If we come up onto the road, then pick us up. If you don't see anything, just drive past again about ten minutes later. If you still don't see us, then you'll know we failed and I want you to leave. If you're set on another rescue mission, then get Zack. He's on his way anyway."

I could tell Syl still didn't like my plan, but she could also see that I was set on doing this. I saw her shoulders slump slightly in defeat. "Fine, but I might just do that second rescue mission myself. Then if I get caught, I can chew your ass out for being so stupid." She offered a tiny smile, and my heart lightened up right then. It felt good to have support.

I glanced up at the sky. "We don't have much time, let's go."

*~* Penny

I wasn't really sure what to do, laugh or cry. My emotions were going haywire as the sun was setting. The X5 on the floor was starting to move around more, he would be waking up soon. I was trying to save myself for running, but if I fought with him then I might wind up being spent. I had only told Zane to shut off the electricity, but how was I supposed to get out? I'd have to get out before the sun set, that way I could meet Zane faster.

Walking over to the door of my cell, I started pounding against it like mad. "There's something really wrong with this guy, he's coughing blood! He's making a mess!" I figured that last part would make it sound like I wasn't really worried about him, just my living space, but I wasn't sure if it sounded stupid. After a moment, it apparently worked.

Another female X5 walked around the corner in the hallway and came up to my door. "What's going on in there?"

I pretended to look disgusted as I glanced back over my shoulder. "He was hacking up blood, didn't you hear? You must not have heard very well, you took so damn long in getting here that he passed out."

I know my attitude was starting to get under her skin, and it took quite a bit of willpower to keep from grinning when she threw open my door, keeping her gun trained on me at all times. She slowly made her way over to the fallen X5 and rolled him onto his back. "There's no blood."

I strode over to my bed and pointed at the wall behind it. "There's a huge spot right over here. You have to get close to see it over the edge of the bed, but it's pretty big."

Still aiming her weapon at me, she walked over to the bed and kneeled on it, looking over to the wall. "I don't see an-" Her words were cut off quickly when I brought my elbow down sharply on the back of her head. She wasn't quite unconscious, so I grabbed her gun and slammed it down on her skull, as close to where I had hit her before as I could. Once I was sure she wouldn't wake up, I studied the gun with distaste. Did I really want to use this? It's not that I'm completely against guns, I'm just not a major fan of them either. Oh, what the hell. It might come in handy. I had no sooner thought that as I was turning around than I was thrown against the wall. I kept my hands tightly locked onto the gun, it seemed that it actually would come in handy.

"Did you think you were pretty smart earlier? I underestimated you once, I don't plan on making that mistake again." I'd never heard that voice before, but when I looked up and saw his face, I felt suddenly all too weak. How had he woken up in the past few minutes? The cold hazel eyes of the X5 I had knocked out just glared at me as he crouched down. "You may not be in heat anymore, but I can still finish the job they sent me to do."

Usually I would rather forget that I had ever trained with Zack after the escape, but other times I'm glad of it. This turned out to be one of those times. My first reaction when he leaned over me and reached for my legs was to send a foot straight into his groin. I guess he wasn't expecting that one, his eyes grew as wide as saucers as he lunged backwards. Thank you, Zack, I thought with relief as I leapt to my feet. The X5 didn't even have time to react, I simply shot him point blank through the head. I felt myself shudder automatically, I wasn't used to working with guns, but I forced it from my mind. It was almost dark out now, I had other things to worry about. Taking a cautious look around, I ran out the door and headed for the main hall.

*~* Zane

We had found four backup generators during our search, and we already had them divvied up between Syl and Krit. We'd decided that I'd basically go in through the front door and take off for the power room, which I guessed to be somewhere near the middle of the building. Only the tip of the sun was peeking over the horizon now through a haze of thick clouds, so by the time I cut off the power, it would be pitch black out. I was near the front door on the north end of the building, Krit was still on the south, and Syl was on the west side. Once the power was out, Syl would take out the generator on her side, then run up to the north where I was at the moment to knock out the one up here. Krit would handle the south and east.

Everything felt horribly unreal as I darted forward from my position and threw my full weight against the doors. They gave way under the force of my momentum, but they made a devastating crashing noise. I'd have soldiers on top of me any second now. Taking a quick look around, I took off down a side corridor. Hopefully I could reach the control room from a different direction.

The sound of running feet behind me let me know that they had reached the doors. From the sound of the heavy footfalls, they were just normal humans, not X5s. Trying to make as little noise as possible, I followed my corridor to its next intersection and turned left, towards the center of the building. As I passed rooms that looked familiar, I felt an onslaught of memories wash over me. I could feel my legs trembling as I ran, but I forced myself to clear the memories from my head. As soon as my mind was clear, the shaking stopped.

After about ten minutes, I felt completely lost. I had taken a couple of turns, and now I wasn't even sure which direction I was facing in. I finally felt a little desperation take over, and I started opening the doors of every room I came to. Not the wisest move, I know, but I was getting scared. As I threw open my third door, I noticed something strange about the room. It was practically empty, somewhat resembling a storage room, but there was a large file cabinet in the back. I slid into the room, taking in the bare walls and floors, and made my way over to the cabinet. I grabbed one of the handles and pulled, only to find that the drawer wouldn't open. I tried the next one, same thing. I went back and forth, pulling on every handle until one slid out. It turned out to be empty, but as I reached my hand inside my fingers came across what felt like a ring. I slid my finger into it and pulled, trying to pry it out of the back of the drawer. Instead, I wound up very easily pulling the cabinet away from the wall, revealing the door behind it.

"Not bad," I muttered to myself. "Giant filing cabinets hiding secret doorways; I feel like I've stepped into a spy movie."

The door refused to open, so I simply did what I did best, I kicked it in. What I saw around me was a mess of computer equipment; some I recognized, some I didn't. My larger problem however was the stunned people that were sitting in their chairs, unable to do anything more than gape at me. I didn't give any of them time to react, I just ran forward and started throwing punches. Every last one of them was a normal person, so my fist ended up knocking them out. I could have laughed at the meek fight they put up, I knew ordinary people with a lot less money that could fight better than them. As soon as I was positive that I was in the clear, I started wandering around looking at the equipment. I'm good with cars, but not computers. I had no clue what to look for.

"You're unwanted here," a cold but familiar voice stated from behind me. I barely had time to see Brin's fierce eyes before I found myself on the floor, sporting a new bruise on my cheek.

"Then I'll just be going now," I quipped, climbing to my feet slowly with my eyes on her at all times. Her smirk told me what she thought of that. I barely had time to jump as she charged at me, then I had to keep from banging my head on the ceiling. As soon as my feet touched the ground, I spun on my heel and sent a powerful kick into her ribs. She went flying backward and crashed into one of the computers, then probably the luckiest thing I'd ever experienced happened. Something red flashed up on all the other computer screens. EMERGENCY SHUTDOWN. ENTER PASSWORD TO CANCEL. I couldn't help but grin slightly. The computers were set up in a network, if any one of them was disconnected from the network without a password being given, the computers were set to shut down to keep prying eyes from sifting through their files. Even better, the power would be handed over to the backup generators. That was where Syl and Krit came in, and I could go to get Penny.

Brin's wide eyes landed on the message as well, then she threw herself towards the nearest computer. She knows the password! I realized with horror. I tackled her from behind, wincing at the elbows I could feel being driven into my sides. I rolled so we were laying side by side, instead of one on top of the other. I didn't want her to be able to use any kind of momentum against me. I squeezed my eyes shut, trying to block out the pain as I distinctly felt one of my ribs crack. As soon as the room went completely black, I let go of her and took off for the door. I came damn close to running into a wall, but the lights turned back on as the generators took over and I managed to avoid it. I hurried back into the hall and turned right, I was almost positive now that this would take me to the main hall. I'd even end up where I was supposed to meet Penny. Maybe things were going my way after all. That was when something hit me from behind.

*~* Penny

I wasn't too far away from my cell when the lights went out. Even though they turned back on only moments later, I felt my heart leap with excitement. I felt so much more at home in the dark, and much more confident about my chances of getting out of this prison. I flattened myself against a doorway until the lights went out again. They came on a few more times, but went out shortly after again. After nearly a full minute of standing in the dark, I was sure that they were out for good and continued on my way.

It wasn't until I reached the main hall that I heard something. It sounded like a fight of some sort, and someone was losing badly. I made sure there was no possible way I could be heard, and I slid forward until I was practically on top of the struggle. I heard a grunt of pain that was distinctly male, but I couldn't tell who the other person was. There was absolutely no light here, so I couldn't see anything. That's when someone came flying into me. I managed to get out of the way before we hit the wall, but whoever it was now knew that someone else was there.

"Who was that?" came Brin's highly stressed voice. She sounded tired, she must have been fighting for a while. I just held my breath and moved away from her footsteps.

"Has Manticore turned you completely insane? There's no one here, I would hear them if there was." I felt a rush of relief, it was Zane. The problem was that he sounded like he was in pain. How long had he and Brin been fighting?

"There was someone here, I felt them. They must be standing still and holding their breath." Well, the second idea was true, but the first one couldn't have been more wrong. I was moving nearly nonstop, making sure to avoid her groping arms. After a short time, she finally decided to turn her attention back to Zane. As soon as I knew she was nearly on top of him, I attacked.

It wasn't much of an attack, more like a literal hit and run, but I could tell it had a huge impact on her. Her ear had to be ringing from where I had hit her on the side of the head, not to mention how angry she had to be that I was out of reach and she had no clue where I was. I heard her whirl around, trying to hit me with her arms, then I moved forward again. A swift uppercut to her chin was enough to make her scramble backwards in shock, and a well aimed kick to her knee was more than enough to break it. I had to jump to avoid the kick I could hear coming at me with her good leg, then I kicked her broken leg again. Her yelp of pain let me know that I definitely had the upper hand.

"Zane, get out of here!" I snapped, avoiding yet another kick from Brin. She was having a difficult time staying on her feet, and I couldn't blame her. Standing on a broken leg had to be tough. Once I was sure that Zane had gone to the end of the hallway, I punched Brin directly in the nose. The only thing I wasn't expecting was for her to grab my arm as she fell, dragging me down with her. This changed things. I couldn't get out of her reach anymore.

"Not bad, little sister," she snarled. "But let me see if I can do better." Then she took my arm in both of her hands and started to bend my elbow backward. My other hand shot instinctively to her throat and held on for dear life.

"I swear to God, if you break my arm I will claw your jugular out with my fingernails." I felt her hesitate at that, and I noticed her pulse quicken under my fingers. "Let go of my arm," I growled menacingly. Her grip remained steady for a moment, then she slowly released me. I gathered my legs beneath me, then let go of her throat and ran for the end of the hall. I could sense someone getting ready to attack from ahead of me, but they were obviously hurt. Zane.

"Couldn't you wait outside?" I snapped breathlessly. He reached out and found my arm in the dark, then nearly collapsed against me. I wrapped one arm around his waist and struggled to hold his weight up, keeping an ear focused behind me to make sure Brin didn't make her way over to us, broken leg or no broken leg.

As Zane and I made it outside, he pointed towards the woods to our right. It seemed that breathing was becoming increasingly difficult for him. Taking a deep breath, I started helping him move as fast as possible towards the woods. He seemed to keep trying to push himself forward, so I guessed that he had some place in mind that he wanted to go. I felt horrible by the time we'd gone two miles through the rough terrain. Why was he pushing himself so hard? He needed to rest somewhere, not keep plowing on like this.

We finally entered a clearing that you could see a highway from. I was ready to let him sit down somewhere so I could see what was wrong, but he feebly pointed his finger towards the highway. "Road," he croaked wearily, pulling his hand back to clutch his chest as he spoke.

"Zane, I'm not sure you can go that far. Why do you want to get there so badly?"

"Krit, Syl," he whispered painfully, still clutching his chest. Realization hit me as he looked slowly at his watch. Krit and Syl were our ride, and there must have been a set time to get to them. At the moment it was 8:50, and I had no clue what time he wanted them to pick us up by. Nevertheless, I forced myself to help him along. It was another quarter of a mile to the road, and it seemed to go slower than anything before. It appeared that the short break we had taken in the clearing had made him more tired.

I finally had to drop Zane into the ditch and crawl up towards the edge of the road, keeping a close eye on the drivers that went past. It had to be nearly quarter after nine when I spotted Krit and Syl coming in Zane's truck from the right. Making sure I wouldn't get hit by any cars, I stepped out onto the road. I could see the relief in Syl's face when she saw me, but the look of worry returned when I gestured toward the ditch. Krit pulled the truck up to the side of the road, then crossed over to me.

"Where's Zane?"

I turned and pointed into the ditch. "He's hurt, it took us forever to get here."

Krit made his way down the steep side of the ditch. "We were worried that you guys had been caught, we'd already come by here once. We must have just missed you."

"Actually, we nearly missed you this time. We probably haven't even been here a minute." I slid down to help him lift Zane up, then we both supported him as we made our way back up to the road. Zane looked blearily around, and Krit forced a joking smile.

"I thought you were supposed to go in there and save her. It looks like you got the directions mixed up." Zane forced a weak smile, but it faded off his face almost as soon as it had appeared.

As we pulled Zane into the extended cab of the truck, Syl twisted around in her seat. "What happened to him?"

"He fought with Brin," I replied, positioning myself so Zane could lay down on the seat with his head in my lap. I needed to be able to keep checking his pulse.

"Is she completely part of them now?" Krit asked sadly as he climbed back into the driver's seat.

I nodded distractedly, staring down at Zane. He looked strange. "She did a lot of damage to him." I ran my fingers gently over a deep cut on his left temple, then traced down to his swollen cheek. It wasn't until my hand passed over his lips that I realized something was really wrong. My hand shot to his throat. "Krit, you'd better get us to a hospital as soon as you can. I can't feel a pulse."

_________________________________________________________________________

Author's Note: Ok, I figured I'd answer two questions I noticed while I have some time.

Black Rose: Zack was still with Tinga back at the hotel near LA, but now he's on his way to Manticore.

me452: Sorry, I don't plan on having Max show up in this story. It's completely separate from her, and I'd like to keep it that way.

Ok, now that that's over with, I'm gonna apologize for taking so damn long while I was writing this chapter. I'm finally driving with my driver's ed teacher, and he's springing different times to drive with me after school, so I'm not home nearly as much. This will be happening a lot for a while, so it's gonna take some time between chapters. Anyways, like always, please review! Just leave me a word, anything!