The noises of the engine whirred in Kara's ears as the traffic blurred past them. She had neither eaten nor drank in days. She'd barely slept. She supposed this couldn't be good for her baby. But all she wanted was to get to Seattle. To Terminal City.

To where Dylan wanted to be.

It was insane to think of trying to get through a sector checkpoint. Barda, the monkey anomaly driving, spoke over her shoulder. "We should be there any minute."

"Well, hurry up," answered her brother, a darker anomaly named Dexter.

Barda had cleared a place for the group to part ways and head into the city. Once they got there, Kara would be on her own.

One X6 slept almost continually, the other, for some odd reason, frequently dangled her head out of the window. She seemed to get a real kick out of that, and every now and again she'd yell into the traffic.

The X6 girls were by far the most cheerful people there. As well as Barda and Dexter there was a Jungle Ops. Her breath reeked of raw meat, and she'd only spoken to Kara or indeed, anyone in the first moments of the trip. "What's your name?" Kara had asked guardedly.

"Lio."

"And why're ya going to Seattle?"

"Why is anyone?" asked Lio cryptically, speaking awkwardly around her protruding teeth but with a morbidity to her voice. When Kara had raised her eyebrows Lio said without a trace of embarrassment. "My family are there."

After Lio came a reptilian man, Ozzy and what looked like a botched X8 with a deep, gravelly voice named Butcher.

Nobody had had anything much to say to each other and Kara wanted nothing more than to climb out of the car. But that was out of the question. They only stopped occasionally, to fill up.

So. Ozzy, Dexter, Lio, Butcher, Kara, Barda and the X6s. What a group.

"Are we nearly there yet?" asked the X6 with her arm in a sling, the one who liked dangling her head through the window. Kara hadn't caught her name.

"Yeah, nearly."

"Good, because my skull is moments away from implosion," wisecracked the one with the bandaged head. Kara started because she'd thought that one was asleep. Her friend snickered softly and leaned against her.

"Suck it up, for God's sakes. I'm eight years old and I'm still awake," sneered Butcher, propping his round face in his hands.

"Barely," Ozzy observed. Butcher glared at him.

They pulled up on a grassy knoll outside the city and Kara felt the engine halt. She hauled open her window and stuck out her head. "Are we here?" she croaked. "Is this it?"

"Yup," said Barda triumphantly.

A few moments were spent in unloading various boxes of medical supplies, clothes and food. Lio spoke.

"My family are here."

"Who are they?" puffed Kara, sweeping her hair onto her other shoulder.

"Three of my kind, the Jungle Ops. We had codenames. Derrick, Ciara and Moses are theirs."

They did not talk any more, but concentrated on emptying the minivan. Kara paused momentarily to stare at the lights of Seattle below them. She tried to figure out where Terminal City must be.

Would the others be there? She knew she would not be able to count on Dylan or Matt any more. Perhaps they would. 600 and 657 would be together, surely. They were never apart.

Even after all this time, she couldn't imagine the Outside without her group in it.

Provisions were shared among the travellers, each person taking what they could carry. Kara shook hands with each of them, even Ozzy, Dexter, Butcher and Barda- whom she felt insantly wary of because of their being anomalies. The anomalies were the stuff of her nightmares.

For some reason, waiting behind as the others moved off, Kara thought about her heat cycles. She knew she'd missed at least one, being pregnant, and felt infinitely glad- but dear God, what would happen out in the Outside, when she... she...

657 had got her first heat cycle at twelve. She was the oldest of all the girls. It was natural for her to be the first. The geneticists and doctors been anticipating something of the sort- what with her feline DNA- but had no idea it would be so strong in her. All Kara really remembered of her big sister's first heat cycle was X5-657 complaining of being too hot for a day, tugging at the neckline of her t-shirt. The boys had had odd looks on their faces and kept sneaking glances at her, and she, for a yet unexplained reason, had kept finding ways to touch them or brush against them.

Her skin had glowed with sweat and 453 had cattily remarked that 657 smelled weird, which was cause for great mirth among all the X5 females except for herself (because she loved 657 too much to laugh at her when she felt 'ill') and 799 (who wouldn't have dreamed of making her angry).

They'd still slept in dormitories then- their cells were still being built for them. 657, who tossed and turned like she'd drunk eleven cups of coffee, had finally sat bolt upright and said loudly, into the silence, that she felt terrible and had to go to the infirmary NOW, right NOW and she didn't care what happened to her because it was imperative that she went NOW.

For two days she disappeared and finally appeared in the hall for martial arts drills looking guilty and ashamed. 600 had immediately paired off with her to spar and they'd been talking out of the sides of their mouths the whole time. 657 seemed angry and threw 600 on his back.

She had NEVER intentionally hurt him before. 600 insisted on bringing out the best in his unit. When you sparred with him, you had to be on your toes. But with 657, they just went through the motions.

He responded by kicking her in the stomach. She'd launched herself at him, beating him around the head until with some of the others' help (namely Matt, 702 and 206) he managed to pin her to the ground. Some officers frog-marched her straight out of the room again.

That night they had a training mission which 657 did not attend, so it was not until the night after that that a group of X5 females were able to pluck up the courage to accost X5-657 in the females' bathrooms and ask her about her recent 'illness'.

"Apparently it's my cat DNA," she'd said shortly, drying her hair roughly (she was being allowed to grow it- she'd be out in the field in a matter of years). "Female cats go through stages of searching for a mate for the purposes of procreation."

"Procreation?" asked 211, who like Kara had only been eleven, and naive.

"Producing babies," explained X5-348 shortly.

"Yes, that's the primary intention for females of the suitable age. Apart from being soldiers." This was 735, who was youngest out of the ones born in 1999. Kara, the oldest of the 2000 block, was right below her in age.

"Oh," said the naive eleven-year-olds as a group, although they didn't really understand.

"The strange smell was pheromones," continued 657 (this merited yet another, "Oh." from all the ones who didn't really understand but didn't want to be left out either). "Ordinaries can sense them too, 'cept they don't know what they are. Basically they tell others that I'm... um..."

Silence.

"... ready to mate," she muttered, very quietly. Kara had never seen her sister so sheepish.

799 shrieked with laughter. "Don't be stupid! You're far too young for that!"

"I know," said X5-657 quietly. She looked up with her purposeful glare. "And don't think it's just me. Sooner or later, you'll all go through the same thing. All of you."

Thinking about it, Kara supposed she remembered her X5 sister's own first heat better than her own. It was the sense of dread... 657 had never specified where she'd been put or what would happen to her exactly during her heat, and it had worried Kara intensely.

The others had ditched their minivan. Kara sat in its shadow, psyching herself to move off and discover the way to the City.

Headlights sliced the grassy knoll and she jumped, gazing after them in fear. Shaking her head, she managed to haul herself to her feet and start walking.

KEEP MOVING IN ENEMY TERRITORY. KEEP MOVING IN ENEMY TERRITORY.

The sun slid up in the sky, and cars began to snail and then race down the streets, which became crowded with people.

Kara walked and rested, walked and rested. She could not afford to draw attention to herself... not when she was so close.

She didn't know what to think of. Kara had to keep her head in the game or die.

Seattle felt dangerous. The air was heavy with rain. Like in her dreams about the smoking battlefield... it was usually raining in the dreams, and yet she saw fire in the distance.

...

There it was. Terminal City, and Kara felt so angry and happy she wanted to hit something.

Protestors were everywhere. They choked the pavement- some people had even set up stalls. Their chanting rang in the air, but Kara could barely hear them.

It seemed, though, that everything would finally be all right.

She'd thought too soon. Her eyesight blurred and panic gripped her throat as she realised a seizure was coming on.

Kara had gone without her meds- ones doled out to X5s as though feeding ducks, ones which controlled their seizures- since the burning of Manticore, and had spent mornings just shaking and unable to see... blind to anything but the noise of her teeth rattling in her head. Her seizures were not as bad as what some of the others- Dylan, for example- had gone through, but they came faster now, without her meds.

Feeling the air stirred by people turning to look at her, Kara took a determined step forward only to be halted.

"A freak!" The gasp rang through the crowd. Someone had broken through and, grabbing her hair roughly, tried to reveal her barcode more obviously.

Kara pushed their hand away. She didn't know who it was and she didn't care. Three words were clear in her mind and she hissed them into the air. It smelled like rain, which she liked, and she imagined her words releasing some kind of toxic fume into the air.

"I'm no freak," she spat, stepping away slowly.

The yells continued. Nobody seemed to want to go near her, or touch her- even her assailant had backed down.

Kara looked around like an animal cornered. Quaking, she stared at the pressing faces and then into the grey sky.

You tried, Kara, said her sarcastic voice cruelly. And hey, ain't that always the most important thing?

She braced herself and shut her eyes.

Yells. They were a different kind, though, and she stared around in confusion. Someone wearing a hooded sweatshirt was fighting their way through the crowd. Instinctively she dilated her pupils to focus on them.

It was a woman, a young one most likely and she beat people to the sides with trained hands.

"Come on!" barked her rescuer and steered her toward the fence, which loomed up ahead of her most frighteningly.

Kara felt faint. Her legs bowed and shook and, with one final fleeting glance of the Outside, she felt the crash of a door opened and quickly closed.

"Hey, there ya go, honey," said the woman tenderly, lowering Kara gently to the ground. "Take deep breaths. You're safe now."

Safe? What was that? Kara's shakes would not subside.

"No, 767, you've got to BREATHE. You've got no air getting to your brain and shit if you breathe like that- and how long is it since you took any treatments for seizures?"

"I 'unno," blurted Kara, choking on the words.

"Don't talk, BREATHE. Shit- HEY!" she yelled suddenly. "Here's another. Crap, this is what, the second today? I think a new company of us arrived in the night. Look after her while I run and find Our Lady of the Sacred Smartass," the woman with the hood yelled over a short distance. Kara knelt in the gravel, feeling herself shake.

"You know, Sophie," said a male voice, "I really don't like it when you call my sister that."

The woman's voice was amused. "I call 'em like I see 'em. Go on, she looks like she'll die or somethin'."

"You're not serious?"

"Am I ever? You've known me a week and a half, you oughta know THAT." The rescuer hurried off, muttering. "Good thing I was there..."

She heard someone hurrying over to her. "Are you OK?"

"Do I look OK?" she snapped, shaking her head to try and get rid of the spinning. That was- that was better. Yeah. Nearly there.

All she saw was the feet of the obvious moron who was coming to her rescue before she was pulled to her feet and held up. Swaying, she looked up and gaped.

Splint.

He was there. Her fingers dug rather painfully into his arm, and he flinched, but stared at her as if he couldn't believe she was real.

He was alive, and standing, and breathing there with her. He was wearing civilian clothes, blue jeans and a dark grey sweatshirt. His hair- which she remembered vaguely from their brief meeting during the fire at Manticore- was thicker now, and messier. He didn't look any the worse for having been out in the world all this time, although the area under his eyes had become shadowed.

He'd- he'd been out in the world. Alive, all this time.

It was so unreal.

He seemed equally shocked to see her. "767?" he spluttered.

She nodded mutely.

"Whoa, you look so... so..."

"Pregnant?" she quipped, giving him a sarcastic smile and gesturing to her swollen stomach. "But still a knockout, huh?" He seemed to be having a great deal of trouble forming coherent words.

"Yeah," he managed finally. "Absolutely."

Kara blushed and wondered why. She began to breathe in and out slowly to try and rid herself of this insight into her emotions. Yeah, that was better. Although her body felt limp as a blade of grass.

"Are you OK?" she heard him ask.

She smiled bravely at him. "Absolutely," she teased.

He didn't seem to get the joke. "Come on," he said. "You have to get registered." He began to pull her along.

She stopped short. "Registered? With who?"

"X5s are keeping tabs on all the transgenics to enter the City. Give them your name and number and you'll be guaranteed help."

"All- right," she said doubtfully.

"How far along are you?" asked Splint, attempting conversation. He frowned.

She rolled her eyes.

"Eight months, same as all the others in the programme," both said in unison.

"I can't-" she stuttered suddenly, her shaking returned. Kara dropped to the ground- this felt like it took hours. The sky whirled, and Kara slumped to the dirt.

The first thing Kara heard was laughter through the window. Childish laughter, and voices calling to one another.

"Kick it to me, kick it to me!"

"Watch out!"

Kara smiled. Such a nice noise. She had grown more or less accustomed to hearing children laugh. It was a very pleasing noise.

Hang on.

Window?

She sat up abruptly, ignoring how this small action was wreaking havoc on her head and stared around. Kara lay on a low cot in a tiny room with peeling striped wallpaper. She spotted her backpack, jacket, shoes and socks lying in a tidy cluster on the floor. A sheet had been tucked around her.

Kara knelt up and peered through a window right above the pillow. A gang of X8s was kicking a soccer ball up and down the street. Their heads were fuzzed with an all-over covering of spiky hair and they were laughing, jumping into the air...

"Wow," she whispered.

Slowly she climbed out of the cot and padded barefoot along creaky floorboards. Opening the door, she discovered a biggish, cluttered room with an ancient sofa covered in clothing and random possessions. There were two more doors on the far side of the room, both closed. She didn't go to open them.

Outside what seemed to be the front door of the little apartment there was a hallway with a great many doors and a ladder leading to a giant hole in the ceiling.

At the other end of the corridor was a flight of stairs. She raised her eyebrows when she saw that a great many of the stairs had been ripped out and replaced with a flimsy ramp. Scrawled onto the wall in marker pen were the words HOLD ONTO THE RAILING AND STEP LIGHTLY.

Step lightly? Riiiight. Would it support her weight?

Kara clung onto the railing and cautiously stepped onto the ramp, bouncing lightly. She let out a sigh.

Suddenly, a loud cracking, scraping noise filled the air and the ramp crashed down the stairs- or what was left of them. She found herself sprawled on the floor.

From what looked like the kitchen came two sets of boots. "767!" gasped Splint, kneeling down beside her. "You OK?"

"Absolutely peachy," she grunted.

"Are you sure?" came a woman's doubtful voice.

"Really. I'm fine. Ow! Shit, ow!" Kara had managed to catch a splinter in her hand as she stood up. Wincing, she dusted herself off.

"Baby OK?" asked Splint nervously.

"Stop being an ass. My baby's tough, just like his mommy."

Kara got a good look at the woman. She was about five foot seven, with long, dark hair, full lips and pretty eyes. An X5. 453's clone. It had to be the clone, she held herself differently and didn't smell the same...

The X5 was carrying a notebook and a pencil in gloved hands. Waving awkwardly, she stepped forward. "I'm Max, X5-452. Max Guevara- oh my God."

"What? What is it?" asked Kara nervously.

Max moved closer, studying Kara's face. "She really does look like Eva. The eyes, the hair... everything."

"Who's Eva?"

"Yeah," said Splint over Max's shoulder. "But you do tend to resemble someone if you're their clone, Maxie."

"Would someone please tell me who the hell Eva is?"

Max's face clouded and she backed off. "Eva was an X5 in our group."

"And I take it from the past tense that there's no longer any such girl?"

"No." Max sighed. She looked very pained and sad for a moment, but made her face again cool, collected. "So. Name?"

"Kara Kirk."

"Age?"

"Twenty-one."

"OK. Full barcode?"

"331065661767."

"Do the authorities have any information on you? Mugshots, criminal record, past addresses?"

"I had to move around a lot. People got suspicious. And I nearly got caught one time, in Des Moines. It was at the Widdows Medical Centre there. There was a commotion outside just now, I got my barcode spotted."

"I'll ask a friend to hack into the records. But don't sweat it, Kara. You're home now."

Kara wanted to believe that. She really did. But she couldn't.

Max cleared her throat. "So where are you at, Kara? Like, what's the new address?"

Kara hesitated. "Uh-"

"She can crash here. I'll take the couch, she can have my bed."

Both women stared at Splint. Max raised an eyebrow.

He stuttered, "I-I mean, if that's all right with her."

"Yeah," agreed Kara. She gave him a rare sincere smile. "Yeah, that's OK."

* * *

DISCLAIMER: 'Dark Angel' belongs to Fox and James Cameron. All the songs on the soundtrack belong to their respective owners. Not me. So don't sue.

NOTES: I got into X2 underage on Mother's Day. I've seen it before, but that was with a friend. I had to get in all on my own this time. I was ridiculously nervous despite the fact I'm, shall we say, sufficiently blessed with the ability to look (at the most) seventeen. Isn't that cool? I probably won't think it's so cool when I'm thirty-two and look around forty, but right now, when I'm in my teens, it's swell.

*GRINS SARCASTICALLY*

Anyone spot James Kirk in that movie? Jesus Christ, that was the first time I'd seen him since 'Pollo Loco' and holy crap, does he look older. How old is he now?

And no, I'm not trying to find out if he's legal. Really.

*PAUSES*

REALLY. It's just a matter of simple curiosity.

Shall we move on?

Sorry about the whole thing with the heat cycles and that. It's just that I LOVE flashbacks, and writing a bunch of eleven and twelve-year-olds who use words like 'procreation' and 'intention' in ordinary conversation is terribly amusing. I'm just weird like that.

I'm also sorry if this chapter seems rushed. I'll fix it tomorrow, I promise. The thing is, it's two-thirty on a Friday night and I am DESPERATE to get this new chapter up, because a certain excerpt of this chapter has been floating around on my computer since last year or something.

No comment on Kara's newest surname (when I made her up I was on Dark Cherubs and was having trouble with a last name, so I named her after one of my favourite flashback kids. For a real challenge, try and spot all sorts of different references to actors and actresses who played child X-series on DA that are gunna be in this fic. There were at least two in this chapter. *SMIRK*)

For Brin's benefit, the Jessica Alba quote in Chapter Five is, "I'm good at being sarcastic with guys. They don't want the quiet, prissy little things."

(It can be found on her IMDb profile, I think. And the quote you mentioned is very interesting indeed. I think I'm actually more popular than she was. I sit with people. On a BENCH. You can all start applauding now. *DOES TEENYBOPPER IMPERSONATION. EVERYONE IS APPALLED BECAUSE SHE SOUNDS FRIGHTENINGLY ACCURATE*)

Please disregard what I just said. I'm a bit hyper right now.

Apologies for Max's cameo- very few canon X5s will be making appearances, I should reckon (at this early stage). Max and Zane are probably going to appear every now and again.

Kind of a filler chapter, I think. The point is, she's in Terminal City now and this is where things start to get interesting. Well, probably not all that interesting. Interesting by my standards. Which is like, taking all the fic so far and making it doubly interesting.

Am I making any sense?

*UNANIMOUS BELLOW OF "No!" FROM READERS*

Thank you to anyone who's reading so far!

SONGS FOR CHAPTER SIX:

First Heat Flashbacks and Entering the City- 'Somewhere I Belong' by Linkin Park