The next day, we got a phone call from Jace; yes, me, the oh-so-brilliant sister hadn't even noticed Jace had gone home to pick up Maxine. So, yeah, she called to check in, that everything was going okay and she's see us in a few days.

Max's morning sickness got the best of her today, and since poor Maxie never gets sick, everyone has found else where to live. Well, except Zane, Tinga and I - Syl and Krit are crashing with Original Cindy and when Jace and Maxine came back to Seattle, they were staying with Alec. And Zack has a place here; he decided to go and reclaim it.

Actually, Jace and Alec.hmm, well, I might work on that one after all this shit with Evie and Max and Logan goes down.

Oh, and that relatively minor detail of the fact Zack is being way too possessive, even if I still do have feelings for him. I'll deal with that, too.

And I need to organize my socks.

Anyway, so Rain and Evie were at school, Max was at work (normal life and stuff goes on) and Logan was tapping away at his computer, while I tapped away at mine, tying up the other phone line.

This is hell. I've spent almost two days on it and it doesn't even resemble a DNA code at all.

"Having fun, baby sister?" Zane appears.

"Oh, tons," I snapped, glaring at him.

"Whoa! Breathe, Jon. I was only asking," Zane began.

"Sorry. Do you wanna have a go at this?" I asked, only half jokes.

"Jon, I deal with the electronics side of life, you deal with the computing side of life and Syl deals with explosives - the rest are just leeches," Zane said, raiding the fridge. "If you can't make anything of that disk, get Syl to wire her a little nitrate. Cause no one else; not even the great Eyes Only, is better at 'puters than you."

"Oh, you flatter me," I smile prettily.

"Anything, baby sister, to keep you working on that code. Hungry?"

"Starving," I said, returning to my work. "You know, I could be at home, working as a doctor in some small and expensive practice."

".Still holding grudges from the past," Zane finished for me.

I stuck my tongue out at him. "And you people still wouldn't have realized that 5452 stood for Max. Incompetent freak show," I said in a teasing voice.

Zane rolled his eyes, remembering the reference I made.

We were only young. I'm the youngest girl, and Zack said I'd been to three winter check ups, so I was about four or five - and Lydecker had some VIPs there. Now I really think about it, I'm pretty sure that they were from the committee.

They walked around and watched us train. Tea and Jack were sparring on the mats, while the rest of us stood, waiting for our turn. Jack had really bad shakes that day and, well, Tea and Jack were never close - Tea was scared of Jack, absolutely petrified of him and his shakes. She used to hurt him more in sparring; she was smaller than he was, if that was physically possible.

She bet him up; gave him a broken arm, a broken leg, a concussion and some internal injuries in the space of 3 minutes.

When Lydecker called the match two of the VIPs were thrilled; we were exactly what they wanted. But one, an older man, was horrified.

He requested a small group of us in a room with no survelience. He talked to us about Manticore and asked a lot of questions. I was frightened and gripped Zane's hand tightly.

He patted Zane on the shoulder and told him to look after 'his baby sister.' And left. We then assembled with the rest of the squadron, where we heard the man yell about how we were some sort of freak show, incompetent in Ordinary life.

. I think that's when Eva began to question Manticore, Zack after Jack went.

Stupid memories of that hell. I don't have to worry about being taken back, now. Now they are after Evie and Maxine and this X8 girl.

"Sandwich, baby sister," Zane places a plate in front of me. "Whatcha thinking about?"

"Tea and Jack that time with the VIPs," I said, poking at the sandwich.

"Never saw any VIPs again," Zane said.

"Shame. Do you know what I want to do once we've solved this problem?" I said, turning my attention back to the screen.

"What's that?"

"Go to Europe," I grinned at him. "Christmas in Paris, summer in Rome, spring in Athens."

"Sounds like an absolute dream, Jay, but where would you get the cash for Europe?"

"I'll dig it up from somewhere," I shrugged.

"Dig?" Logan walked in.

"Money," Zane said, staring into his sandwich. "Jondy wants to go to Europe."

"LA is getting old," I shrugged.

Logan nodded. "Europe would be wonderful in the next two years or so."

I smiled inwardly. Max and the new baby or babies. Any international holidays for them would be out of the question for awhile.

"Anyway, how are you going, Jondy?" Logan leant over and gazed at the screen. "It looks like you've gotten somewhere."

"There's nothing DNA-y about it," I sigh, my fingers flying across the keys, "At least, nothing I recognize."

"Maybe it isn't a DNA code, Jay," Zane says, chewing thoughtfully on his sandwich. "Think outside the square."

I glared at him. "You wanna be the one who sits here for hours trying to work out what this thing is?" I demanded.

"We've been over this, Jonny, and the short answer is no."

"Call me Jonny again and I will have to kill you," I said, smiling at him for a brief moment. My laptop beeped at me and I turned to face it.

"What do you press?" Logan asked softly.

"Nothing," I said, focusing on the screen in front of me.

What we had once thought was Evie's DNA had turned into Evie, Case's and Maxine's DNA workouts, complete with photos and locations.

"Scroll down," Logan ordered. "Any information about who and where?"

"Seattle," I said, pointing out an address. "Some warehouse on the wharf outside the city."

"We've got what we need," Zane said. "Logan, we need plans of that warehouse. Jondy, run a trace for Charlie and Case's phone number - we need them here and now. I'm going to call everyone and scope out that warehouse." Zane abandoned his sandwich.

I nodded, focusing once again on the screen. "We also need to know where that X8 is."

"Don't worry about the X8 now; I'm sure someone has it's back," Zane said over his shoulder.

*~*~*~*~*~*

We were all crowded into Logan and Max's living room. Evie and Rain were playing Monopoly.

"We need to get out of this apartment," Max said.

"Max, we have the master disc," Zack said.

"What if there are copies?" Tinga demanded.

"I've tried to hack their mainframe," I shrugged. "There's only so much I can do. Anything that looked like a file on Maxine, Case or Evie, I damaged. But most of the damage is reversible - we've got about 48 hours before they realise we're onto them."

Everyone glared at me.

"What?" I demanded. "They're probably tailing Jace and Maxine, got Charlie and Case under house arrest - and don't think they won't have here under survelliance."

"I checked for phone taps and bugs," Syl spoke up. "Nada. I'd say the only access they might have here is via security cams - and all the ones in this place don't include sound."

Alec sighed. "Then send the kids out to somewhere else - Joshua's?"

"I don't want to put him in anymore danger," Max said firmly.

"He'll hardly be in danger Max; in fact, he'd be like protection. The nomalies are pretty much left alone now," Krit pointed out.

Awkward silence much.

"Fine," Max sighed. "Tomorrow morning, we set up Joshua's for the three kids, Jace, Tinga and I."

"And me," Zane said. "You guys have your kids. It'd be practical to have more adults than kids."

"What about the X8?" Syl asked, from the all around nice-ness of Krit's lap. "Any luck on tracing the kid?"

"None," Logan said.

"Look, Jace gets here tomorrow night, and Charlie and Case should be here by lunchtime." Zack said and everyone froze, avoiding looking at Tinga.

"Case?" she said softly. "You found them?"

"Exact locations, big sister," Zane said. "We need them here."

Silence.

"Um, yeah, anyway, we can do some recon tomorrow night," I said. "If we all crash at Joshua's tomorrow and then work out something in a couple of days - we need to know who we're going up against."

I sit here, next to Krit and Syl, looking at Max and Tinga's scared faces. Their children are being threatened; maybe the threat is so much worse for Max, I don't know. Max is pregnant again, and if we don't manage to take these assholes down, her next baby is not going to be safe. Tinga hasn't seen Case in years, and she could lose him without hardly being with him.

I look at Evie, the cutie she is. She's been protected her whole life by doting parents, aunts and uncles and her cousin Rain; streetwise, smart alec Rain.

"I'm gonna go see Joshua," Max sighs. "Better talk to him about his before we move in."

"Can I come, Mommy?" Evie asks.

"'Course, baby."

We've got to bring this plan down; there's no way I'm letting my nieces or nephew be brainwashed and tortured; this is the future, Max's future kids, Syl's future kids, maybe even my future kids.

Zack's watching me carefully. "I'm gonna start dinner; help me, Jondy?"

I smile. "Sure."

***~~~***

Muahaha. Cool, I'm really into this now. Aiming for 65+ reviews for this chapter - I mean, is it so very hard to click a button and type in 'great chapter' or whatever.

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Awww, Lemel, you shouldn't have. Its good to know you like my fic even when you don't know bout the fandom.