"We'll kill him if you don't tell us. We'll kill you. All of them." She never heard the voice; it was always disembodied, coming from the walls, the floor, everywhere, with no emotion to it, every syllable pronounced exactly the same.

"Where is he?" she demanded, her hands shaking, her wrists sliced open where she'd been struggling against her restraints for days. Ben had once gone to psy-ops, after Jack died and they took the Blue Lady away. He didn't come back the same.

There was no answer to her question; the voice only answered when it wanted to. Sometimes she even wondered if it was really there at all. And how long had she been here? A week? A month? Her whole life?

The threats were repeated every day: "We'll kill him. All of them." She tried to ignore it, to tell herself that was ridiculous, they wouldn't execute them, they were worth so much to Lydecker... but after many days, how long she didn't really know, Syl broke down and cried.

"Don't hurt him," she called. "Krit hasn't done anything. None of them have. I did it!"

"Yes," it said. "You killed X5-376."

"It was an accident." Her voice shook.

"Was it?"

"Yes!"

"But you weren't designed to miss. You weren't trained to miss."

"I... the bird. It scared me. I didn't-"

"Or maybe you wanted him dead?" The voice was sickly pleasant.

"No!"

"Maybe he was a better soldier than you, maybe you were jealous?"

"No! It was an accident! It was the bird!"

"What bird?"

"The bird! The black one I was trying to shoot! I've told you!"

"There wasn't any bird. Your other unit members testified that there wasn't."

"What? No... it was there, I saw it. We all saw it."

"There was no bird."

"Yes there was!"

"There was no bird."

"Yes! I know, I saw it..." Confused tears clouded her vision, slipped down her cheeks. She pulled against the restraints. Her hair was limp and stuck to her clammy forehead like straw. The lights went off, casting her in darkness, then shot on again three seconds later, so bright they scalded her eyes. This would go on all night, never giving her eyes time to adjust properly so they were always in pain, and she was always blind. It took hours to get to sleep, and whenever she was about to drift off she thought she saw a raven flying in the corner of the room, just out of her line of vision, and she couldn't sleep. She was bathed in sweat, soaked in her own filth, terrified, anxious, her hands shaking with so many seizures she didn't know why she hadn't died yet.


Syl sat bolt upright, breathing hard, the sheets clenched tightly in her fists. She waited for her eyes to adjust to the darkness and brought a hand up to wipe the sweat from her forehead. Glancing down, she smiled weakly into Krit's dark eyes.

"Sorry I woke you," she said. He reached for her, pulled her down close against him, rocking her a little as though she were a small child. After living with her for so long, he was used to these nightmares by now.

"What was it this time?" he asked gently. She squeezed her eyes shut tightly and let her breath out in a shuddering sigh, allowing herself to relax into his embrace.

"I was just remembering that day... the raven..." She watched Krit's eyes cloud over and knew he recalled it as plainly as she did. Another memory rose unbidden; before the awful events of her dream. After the raven... before psy-ops...


"What happened out there, 701?" Lydecker barked.

"It was an accident, sir!" Syl said loudly, staring straight ahead, the nine others who had been out on the mission doing the same from their places in line. "An accident?" Lydecker growled.

"Yes sir! I was shooting at a bird. I missed."

"Why were you shooting at a bird?"

"I thought it was the enemy, sir."

"This exercise had no enemy forces."

"'Always assume there are enemy forces,' sir," she said, quoting from one of their classes. Lydecker gave an approving dip of his head, then became stern again.

"I've lost an X5 because of your mistake," he said. Syl swallowed the lump in her throat.

"Lost, sir?"

"He's dead, soldier," Lydecker barked.

"It was an accident," she said again, her voice shaking slightly. A tear slipped down her cheek and beside her she felt Krit stiffen slightly with fear.

"Why are you crying, soldier?" he asked. She glanced over at Zack, panicked; he looked at her fearful eyes and took a step forward.

"Sir-"

"Back in line, 599!" Lydecker roared. "No one told you to speak." He looked at her again, repeated icily, "Why are you crying?"

"Because I killed-" she broke off, frightened.

"Go on, soldier!" he yelled right next to her face, causing her to jump. She said nothing, more tears rolling down her cheeks. "If you don't tell me, 701, I'll send you to psy-ops. They can get anything out of you down there, is that what you want?" Psy-ops. Where the nomlies will drink my blood until-

"No, sir!"

"Then tell me why you're crying or I'll send you there right now." After another pause, she stiffened, spoke in a shaky voice.

"Because I killed my brother, sir!" she answered; the other nine children tensed and there was a long, frightening silence.

"Who taught you that word?" Lydecker finally asked, his voice surprisingly soft.

"I don't remember, sir," she said. It was true, but he wasn't buying it. He marched over to Zack, stopped in front of him.

"599, have you heard that word before?"

"Yes, sir."

"Do you consider yourself 701's brother?" he asked; Zack hesitated.

"Yes, sir," he said finally, sounding defeated.

"And the others, you're their brother too?"

"Yes, sir," Zack said again. Lydecker stared at him for a long time, and Zack stared straight ahead. Then Lydecker motioned for one of the guards in the room to step forward.

"Take her to psy-ops," he said; the guard clamped his hand around Syl's small arm and she struggled against him.

"But I told you, sir!" she yelled, terrified. "I told you why I was crying!"

"You killed one of my soldiers, 701!" Lydecker answered. "You need to be punished." Syl struggled against the man again and another one came over, grabbed her other arm. They dragged her toward the door, tears streaming down her face, fighting them at every inch, terrified. Zack stepped forward, his eyes as fearful as the others' were; Max started to reach out a hand to pull him back, then stopped herself.

"Back in line, 599!" Lydecker yelled.

"Zack, help me!" Syl screamed, trying still to pull away as they reached the door and the guards started unlocking it, still holding her.

"Hold on," Lydecker ordered the men; they stopped but one kept his grip on her arm. Lydecker marched over to her. "What did you say?" Syl realized what she'd done and panicked, her eyes darting to the others, who had all tensed with fear at her words. "Eyes front, 701!" Lydecker barked. "What did you say? Answer me!"

"Zack, sir," she said, defeated.

"Zack," Lydecker echoed her. "Who were you talking to?"

"599, sir."

"Why did you call him that?" he asked. Syl hesitated, tried to think of something, failed.

"It's his name, sir."

"His name?"

"Yes, sir."

"Do you have a name, 701?"

"Yes, sir," she said, shaking with fear now. There was a short silence.

"What is it?"

"Syl, sir."

"Syl," he repeated, his voice low with anger and something else she couldn't read. He reached beside him, grabbed Krit's shoulder, hauled him over to stand at attention beside her. "And 471, what's his name?"

"Krit, sir."

"And 205?" he asked, pointing.

"Zane, sir." She was close to tears again. Lydecker stared at her.

"Who's responsible for these names, 701?" he asked. Syl could smell the fear emanating from every one of her brothers and sisters; names were secret, and how they had come about was certainly secret as well. "Who's responsible, soldier?" Lydecker yelled when she didn't answer. Then she did the smartest thing she'd ever done in her life.

"Bram," she said, naming her brother now dead. "X5-376." She saw in Zack's eyes how proud he was as Lydecker stared at her, disgusted, then jerked his head at the men near her.

"Take her," he said. She panicked again, fought them as they unlocked the door.

"Zack!" she screamed again.

"X5-599!" Lydecker yelled back.

"Zack, Krit, help me!"

"Their designations are 599 and 471!" Lydecker roared.

"Zack!" she screamed; he stepped out of line, started toward her. Lydecker whirled on him, glared. He hesitated before the imposing man they all feared. "Zack," Syl whispered pitifully. "I don't want to disappear." His features hardened and he tried once more to shoulder past Lydecker.

"Get back, soldier," he growled. Confusion, fear, and determination were written in Zack's features. Lydecker jerked his head at one of the guards. "Get them out of here. All of them." The guard opened the door and the children turned and started filing out. Only Max, Krit, and Zack hung back.

"Syl-" Krit called, uncertain, afraid.

"Get him out of here!" Lydecker barked; the guard roughly grabbed Krit's shoulder and shoved him out of the room. Max was thrown out next but Zack resisted, kicking and yelling. Syl's hands shook.

"Syl!" he called. "They won't keep you down there forever! Don't forget who you are!" Then he told her a secret: "The nomlies aren't real." Syl managed a smile. Lydecker looked about ready to smack him. He said again, "Just don't forget who you are. You're not 701!"

"I won't forget," she promised though she was still terrified. "I'm Syl." Beside her Lydecker was fuming and the guard managed to haul Zack from the room then, but it didn't matter. He'd said what she'd needed to hear. She turned toward the man next to her and followed him quietly to psy-ops, where they did horrible things to her. But she was Syl and she was loved and they couldn't change that no matter what they wanted to believe.


"Severely lowered night vision capabilities," Syl murmured as she shook the painful memory away. She could only recall a fragment of what had been done to her in psy-ops, a tiny piece of it. The rest was clouded in pain and dreams. She glanced at Krit. "That's what I got from psy-ops. And the nightmares." He nodded, kissed her cheek.

"I know."

"I almost believed there wasn't a bird," she said quietly.

Again he said, "I know. They did things to you there. Like Ben. He was never the same and neither were you." Pain crossed her features.

"I almost forgot who I was... for a moment I really was 701, they made nothing but that number..."

"It's okay," he whispered into her hair, trying to soothe her pain away. "It's over, you never have to go back there." She sighed a little, kissed him; he thought that all the nightmares she woke up with almost every night came from psy-ops? He didn't know the half of it. She met his dark eyes, opened her mouth to say more. But the phone rang before she could speak. Syl frowned; who would be calling at this hour? The clock on Zane's bedside table said 3:06am. She reached over Krit with a chill in her heart and picked up the receiver.

"Hello?"

"Syl."

"Zack. What is it?"

"Max," he said.

"What about her?"

"She's going to get herself killed." He sounded both angry, afraid, and almost excited. Syl realized what had happened.

"You finally talked to her?"

"She's just like I remember her. She doesn't listen," he said. Syl smiled a little into the phone, put her hand over the receiver.

"Zack's complaining about Max," she told Krit. He smiled.

"Is that Krit?" Zack asked.

"Yeah."

"Am I interrupting?" At that Syl laughed.

"If you were I never would have answered the phone." She threaded her fingers through Krit's and smiled at him. "We were actually going to come out of seclusion tomorrow. But I guess we missed the whole party, huh?"

"Zane's still with Brin, but yet, pretty much. Tinga went home."

"Damn," Syl sighed. "I get all the bad luck."

"You're in a good mood," he remarked. She smiled a little, raised the backs of Krit's fingers to her lips.

"I guess." She leaned back in bed and his soft arm crept around her waist. "Tell me about Max. What does she look like?"

"The same. You all look the same as you did before." At this Syl rolled her eyes; Zack had always placed no value on appearances. Neither did she, in a way, seeing how they were all designed to be beautiful.

"So what did she do that's got you so annoyed?"

"Lydecker's in Seattle where she is."

"Seattle?"

"Don't even think about it," he warned. Syl laughed. "I mean it," he said. "I said that to you in confidence."

"Zack," she said. "Everything you say to me is in confidence." She smiled again, then sobered. "Why would she want to stay if he's there?"

"I don't know. She's been looking for us, too. She tracked me down."

"Why don't you tell her where we are, Zack?" Syl asked softly. "She and Ben-"

"Are kept cut off for a reason," was his harsh reply. She let her breath out slowly.

"Okay."

"I'm going to be here for a while, try to figure out why she won't leave, make sure she doesn't get into any more trouble."

"Was she happy to see you, Zack?"

"Yeah."

"Tell her where we are."

"No, Syl," he said firmly. She let it go.

"When will you be back?"

"In a while. Listen, I'm going to be doing some reconnaissance here, so don't call me unless it's an emergency, okay?"

"Sure."

"Pass that on to the others, too."

"I will."

"Does Krit want to talk to me?" Zack asked. Syl turned to ask him, but he was peacefully asleep beside her. She smiled.

"No, it's okay."

"Alright. I'll talk to you later."

"Say hi to Maxie for me."

"Bye, Syl."

"Bye." She sighed, put the phone down, turned into Krit's arms so she was facing him. She reached up and ran a hand through his dark hair, kissed him. In sleep he responded a little to her lips, but she stopped before it would wake him up, knowing they were both exhausted. In his arms she felt safe, so she fell back asleep with no fear of any more terrifying dreams or memories. At least not tonight.