Disclaimer: Dark Angel does not belong to me. It is a tool for my amusement!
A/N: Thanks to everyone that took the time to review my last chapter. I love reviews, and they make me want to write more to keep you happy! Looks like nobody wants the virus – thank goodness! I'm a total Max/Logan fan and will get there eventually. I'm trying to stay as faithful as I can to the second season, while bending it to accommodate Zane, and deleting the virus. I don't know how I'll go with that. On a different note, my uni semester is picking up, (I'm in the final six weeks of my degree,) so please forgive me if the chapters take their time coming. I'll try my hardest to update often! I'm a born procrastinator when it comes to my uni work, so your chances of new chapters are good!
Another A/N: Apologies for the delay in this chapter. I stalled for a while, then skipped ahead and wrote some of ch 5 & 6, before finding inspiration again. I apologise if this chapter suffers, I probably should have taken a little more time to get it right. I hope I haven't squashed it too much!
Chapter Four: The Enemy of my Enemy*** Fogle Towers, DAY ***
Logan sat frozen, the cool blade still pressed against his skin.
"Zane…" he began. The blade pressed harder still, and Logan closed his eyes. "Zane, I don't know."
"How did he get your number?" Zane's low voice sent a shiver through Logan.
"I don't know. Zane, I honestly don't know. What did he want?" Another shiver.
"He wants you to meet him. Tell me what I want to know!" Zane demanded, his tone icy. Logan felt himself shivering more violently, and looked around for a weapon he could use. The shivering was dangerous; Zane's knife was bouncing against his throat, cutting into him.
The knife moved away, and Logan exhaled, the shivering immediately stopping. He turned slowly to face Zane, realising as he took in the sight of the X5 on the ground that he hadn't been shivering at all.
Zane was having a seizure.
Logan stared at Zane, asleep on his couch. The shaking had almost completely stopped. He breathed a sigh of relief. The bottle of Tryptophan that Logan had kept in his medicine cabinet for Max was sitting on the coffee table. The knife that had been pressed against Logan's throat for the better part of half an hour was in Logan's hand. Logan looked from the knife back to Zane, briefly remembering that he'd once thought his life couldn't get any weirder. He struggled to remember exactly when he'd had that thought, thinking that it probably had something to do with Max.
*** Manticore facility, DAY***
Max paced around her cell, fuming. Breeding partners? If it was possible, this place got more twisted by the minute. Her eyes fell on 494, sleeping on her cot. She frowned, then her gaze softened. He looked so much like Ben…
Max fought the wave of emotions that threatened to surface at the thought of her brother, and the images that were flashing before her eyes; Ben as a child in Manticore, as an adult in the church, in her arms in the forest, talking about the good place… Suck it up, soldier. This was not Ben. This place was not Ben. Taking a shaky breath, she studied the sleeping 494, and as her eyes and mind drifted to the brick under her cot, she mentally cursed Manticore and X5-494 again.
Keep your head in the game. Mind on the mission. Max forced herself to focus. Focus on the goal. Escape. Reclaiming her life. Her friends. Logan.
*** Fogle towers, DAY***
Logan continued to watch Zane sleep, absently fiddling with the knife in his hands. It had been over two hours since the phone call, and almost as long since the seizure that had followed. He had been replaying the scene non-stop in his mind, and still had no idea how Lydecker had gotten his number, or what he wanted.
"That belongs to me." The voice broke into Logan's thoughts, and he jumped, startled by the sound of Zane's voice. Zane was smiling, something Logan didn't know whether to be happy or scared about.
"I think I'm going to hang on to it if you don't mind." Logan replied. He looked at Zane, who was looking at the bottle of Tryptophan on the table. Zane was pale and appeared sick, but Logan wasn't sure if it was an act, or if he was genuinely weakened by his seizure.
"Seizures always have the best timing." Zane observed dryly. Logan smiled slightly.
"Not going to argue with you there." He said softly, rubbing the spot on his neck where the knife had been. He had yet to wipe away the dried blood, something that didn't go unnoticed by Zane.
"I thought I'd be in a cage by now." Zane looked Logan up and down. The two men were cautiously watching each other, neither sure of what the other was thinking.
"I don't know what he wanted." Logan repeated his earlier comment. Zane studied him for a minute, and then nodded. With great effort, he pulled himself to a sitting position.
"He wanted a meeting. Said he had information about Manticore, and that he'd meet you in three hours." The X5 looked at his watch. "Actually, it's now an hour." He looked at Logan. "Thought you'd betrayed me." He said more quietly.
"Not like I wouldn't have anything to lose by doing that." Logan pointed out, and Zane nodded. "I told you, Lydecker's sort of an ally. Manticore wants him dead." Zane's expression was deadly.
"Wouldn't mind getting my hands on him myself." He snarled, voice low again. Logan studied him warily.
"He helped Max and Zack take out the DNA lab…" Logan began by way of explanation, still not entirely assured of his safety around the X5.
"Zack and Max are gone because of that. He's a traitor. He betrayed Manticore, he'll betray you." Zane replied. Watching his face, Logan finally saw the family resemblance between Zane and Zack, and wondered where the happy, joking X5 had disappeared to.
"What else did he say?" Logan asked quietly. He took a deep breath, still unsure of how Zane would react to questions about the phone call.
"Oh, my favourite part of the conversation" Zane began. "Come alone." The X5 laughed out loud, shaking his head. "Doesn't sound like he wants to betray you, does it?" he studied Logan for a minute, thoughtfully. "You think he's genuine?" He asked, seriously. "You think we can trust him?"
"We?" The word caught Logan by surprise.
"You and me. Do you think we can trust him?" Zane repeated. Loyalty to Logan for the broadcast was the deciding factor.
He'd trust Logan. If Logan were sure that Lydecker could be trusted, X5-205 would be there to back him up. He reminded
himself that Manticore was Lydecker's enemy as well. The enemy of my enemy is my friend.
"You were the one that talked to him. Or listened, anyway." Logan said, referring to Zane's silence while on the phone.
"You're not going alone. You might want to think about taking your personal genetically engineered super soldier with you." Zane gave him a wide grin, and Logan smiled back.
"You won't kill him?" Logan said, not quite teasing. From the look on Zane's face when Lydecker's name was mentioned, and his actions after the phone call, Logan was certain that Zane had it in him to kill Lydecker.
"Not until he's told you what you want to know." Zane joked. He noticed Logan's serious expression. The X5 sighed, and shook his head. "I won't kill him. Promise." He said, drawing a cross over his heart with his finger, slightly sarcastic. He's not the mission. "But if he even looks like he's thinking about betraying you, all promises go out the window. I'll kill him before he even knows I'm there." The look in Zane's eyes was cold, all traces of joking and sarcasm gone from his face. A true shiver went down Logan's spine as he saw the soldier emerge from the happy, laughing X5 that had stood in front of him only hours before. Not for the first time, he mentally cursed Manticore for creating lives for the purpose of killing, without any real care for those lives.
"You got more than one gun?" Zane asked, eyebrows raised. Logan wondered briefly if Max was the only X5 against using guns. He shook his head in answer to Zane's question. The younger man pulled a gun out of his boot, Logan's eyebrows immediately shooting up.
"You always carry a gun?" he asked, watching Zane check the gun's chamber.
"I prefer knives." His grin was teasing, and meant to remind Logan of the knife that had been used on him. "Not such a great fan of guns, but they're an essential tool in battle. Even rich cyber journalists have them these days." Logan shot him a glare, but couldn't hold it. He broke into a smile at Zane's joke.
"Are you sure you're okay with this?" He asked the X5 seriously. Zane thought for a minute. He took a deep breath and looked at Logan.
"He's a means to fulfilling the objective." He answered, in a mock soldier's voice. Then, wiping the smile off his face, he spoke again. "This isn't about me. It's about Manticore getting what they deserve." Logan considered this, and then nodded.
"Then we're ready." Zane nodded back, and the two of them left the penthouse together.
"He said come alone, so I'll stay out of sight." Zane was explaining the plan to Logan as they drove. "But I'll be watching him. And the second he even-"
"The second he even looks like betraying me, you'll get all G.I. Joe. I get it." Logan interrupted. They were driving the short distance to the rendezvous point, and Zane was starting to make Logan nervous. He was sitting in the back seat of the Aztek, checking and rechecking his gun.
"Just making sure you know how it's going down." He looked up, studying the streets they were passing. "How much longer?" he asked, shifting his gaze to the road ahead.
"Couple more minutes." Logan answered, and Zane felt an unexpected surge of excitement about the mission, which he immediately hated the soldier in him for having. Taking a deep breath, he focused his attention forward, watching the road, and counting down the 'couple more minutes' in his head. Then, remembering something Logan had said, Zane looked at him, frowning in confusion.
"Oh, and Logan? What's a G.I. Joe?"
*** Warehouse, DAY ***
Logan drove the Aztek into the warehouse, and slowly got out, flexing his knees briefly to ensure the exoskeleton was functioning properly. He looked around, trying not to remember the last time he'd been in this place, planning to take out the DNA lab with Max and her siblings.
He caught sight of Lydecker, watching him. Catching the older man's eye, Logan called out.
"You said you had some information for me?" Lydecker nodded.
"I did," he answered simply.
"I'm trying to find Manticore" Logan continued, feeling uneasy.
"Looks like Manticore found you" a third voice cut in. Logan's eyes darted toward a pillar, where the owner of the voice had just appeared. He swallowed, and silently willed Zane to make his move.
Zane felt it before it happened. It was a trap. It was a huge trap, and they'd walked right into it. Cursing himself for neglecting his training, he opened the back door of the Aztek, and sprung out, gun in hand, keeping himself hidden behind the vehicle. Assess the situation. Two of Lydecker's men were approaching Logan from behind. A man wearing sunglasses had emerged from behind a pillar, and was standing next to Lydecker.
"Sorry, son." Lydecker's voice, as it had on the phone, turned Zane's blood to ice. He took a deep breath and listened. He had to move. Now.
"So this is the great and powerful Oz. Hold on here--let me get a good look." A different voice, the voice of the man with the sunglasses. Zane counted the guns he thought were in the room, planning his move.
"I wouldn't do that, Jim." Zane moved slightly, frustrated by not being able to see what was happening.
Sure of nothing but Lydecker's betrayal, he blurred out from behind the car, so he was behind Logan, ready to attack Lydecker's men.
"Duck!" Lydecker shouted, and Zane, confused, turned to look at him.
It was the last noise the X5 heard before he hit the ground.