Disclaimer: If, in a perfect world, I owned Dark Angel, I would be writing episodes for cash, not fanfic for fun…So no, if you're still wondering, I don't own Dark Angel, but I do own Justin, Dalianna, her family and all her X-siblings, but I'm more than willing to share. If you'd like to use them, please just ask. Thank you.
Timeframe: After "Freak Nation", end of Season 2
Note from author: Hey guys, thanks for the reviews! It's nice to know that my far-out imagination is bringing happiness to other peeps. Ok, I'm gonna keep it goin. Enjoy!
Chapter 2
Captured, Contained and Questioned
Sitting silently on a branch not far from him, Max watched Ames walk off after the soldiers. Damn him, damn him to hell! she thought with narrowed eyes. What could he want with her? That girl…I know I've seen her somewhere before…maybe back at Manticore? It doesn't matter. There's no telling what White will put her through if I don't get her out of there. I need backup. She leapt from the tree landing with a soft thud into the murky grass below, and took off through the trees.
A few minutes later, she reached the store, there were only a few soldiers standing in back, talking with the hysterical store owner. With lightning speed, she dashed by them and hopped on her bike.
"Hey," one of them called. "It's 452! After her!"
Max couldn't get her bike started. Of all the times…Come on, come on. A few seconds later, she could feel the razor sharp burn that accompanied the shock coming from several tazers landing on her back. It was then that her bike roared to life, and she took off.
One of the soldiers reported into his walkie. "Sir, we've sighted 452, she's moving west on I-94 towards Terminal City. Should we pursue?" He waited for a reply. A few moments later it came.
"That's a negative team Charlie, I have a feeling we'll be seeing her soon enough. Return to base."
"Roger," he answered, and called for his soldiers to move out.
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Max blazed off down the road towards Terminal City. Rearing up on her back wheel, she broke through the boundary into the place she had recently named home.
"Damn it," she heard a guard behind her call. "That's the third time this week!" She smiled to herself, and pulled into the garage. Shutting her bike off, she ran through the back door and up the steps into the common room.
"Hey guys!" she called. "I got a transgenic girl caught by White; I need a rescue team ASAP!"
Dix stepped forward. "I'm with you Max."
"Me too," Joshua answered.
"I'll come," Logan responded, "I need to test out these comms anyway. Do you know where he's keeping her?"
"I'm not sure. But I've been hearing rumors that White's cult is using a building not far from where Manticore used to be."
"That close huh?"
"Always set up camp where your enemies would least expect it."
"Ok, well, no better place to start. We need a plan."
"I've got one," she declared, "we move out at 2200 hours."
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Dali awoke to find that she'd been blindfolded and tied to a pole. She stood up slowly, trying to ignore the blinding white pain that shot through her head. I must have hit something on the way down. My head is killing me! Then she heard a voice; it was a male voice that she didn't recognize.
"Hey! Welcome back to the land of the living." He tore the blindfold off. She blinked slowly, allowing her eyes to adjust, and then looked at him carefully.
"Who the hell are you?"
"Oh, that my dear is irrelevant," he answered with a smile. "Now you don't want to be here, and honestly, I don't want you here. So let's make this as quick and painless, well for me, as possible. Tell me where 452 is."
"I don't know what you're talking about." He closed in on her, and clasped her hair in his fist, causing bolts of pain to shoot through her temples.
"The transgenic scum you were running with earlier. Where is she?"
"How would I know? I don't even know who she is!"
"Well, let's see if we can't help you to know." He pulled out a knife. "Welcome to my world…"
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Later on that night, Logan's Aztec pulled up outside what appeared to be a seriously dilapidated building.
"Ok," Max instructed them, "Dix, you take the west side, Joshua, you take the east. Logan, you and I will come around through the back. Everybody know what they're doing?" They nodded. "Then let's move out." They each took a comm from Logan and placed it in their ear. The doors to the Aztec opened, and they filed out. "Ok, we're meeting back here in 30. If any of us don't show up, the rest of us have to leave, and that's an order. Got it?" They nodded again. "Ok, let's get this girl out of here." The four of them approached the perimeter fence. Max backed up a few steps, took a running start and leapt over the fence. Logan walked up to the gate, turned the lock and pushed it open. He raised his eyebrow at Max. "Oh," she said, "I knew that." They headed around the back of the building and hid behind some bushes. Looking out towards what used to be a parking lot, they could see several hooded figures dancing around a fire.
"Guess this is the place." Logan piped up. He looked up and saw an open window. "We can get inside through there." They climbed through the open window and landed in a small dark room that was full of crumpling boxes and rusty metal. Being careful not to upset anything, they made their way towards the door. Opening it led them out into a three way hallway. Max signaled for Dix to go to the left and he headed off. She signaled for Joshua to go to the right, and he headed off. Then she and Logan moved down the middle. She held out her hand to stop him. A beam from a flashlight bounced on the wall not far ahead of them. They ducked into a side hall just as a soldier rounded the corner. He patrolled past them, and turned down a hall in the direction Joshua had left in. They continued down the hallway and turned right when they reached the end. They passed a few doors, and then once again, Max's arm shot out to stop Logan in his tracks.
"White," she murmured.
"Where?" he inquired.
"I hear him." She walked by a few more doors, and then stopped in front of one with a faded glass window. They could see White's figure moving back and forth, and hear the low hum of his voice. Logan walked over to a grate near the door and pulled it out of the wall. They both crawled in and followed it to the end. When they reached the end, they peeked through the slits in the vent. They could see him pacing in front of the girl, who was tied to a pole, head drooped. Blood dripped from a gash in the side of her head, and from the corner of her lip. Max could also see that she had several slices on her arm, each progressively deeper as they advanced up her arm. White dismissed the guards who left the room.
"What's your name you waste of skin?" he asked her seething.
"I don't have one," Dali answered quickly. Distance yourself, distance yourself. The sooner he figures out that you really don't know anything, the sooner you can get out of here.
"No of course not. All of you X-series transgenic mutants are the same aren't you?" She didn't answer, but her gaze followed him as he paced in front of her. "It's ok, you don't have to answer, silence denotes consent." He continued pacing. "Well, you're too young to be an X-5."
"I'm not an X-5," she retorted quickly.
"It doesn't matter!" he shouted, "All you freaks are the same to me."
"We're not freaks." The sound of White's hand hitting her face rang throughout the room and echoed off the walls. Max winced in her hiding place and turned away.
"It's ok, Max," Logan comforts. "We're going to get her out. We just have to wait."
"He's hurting her. That bastard's hurting her. She's just a kid," she whispered.
"No, she's a soldier. Don't worry, just a few more minutes."
Dali picked her head up to look Ames in the eyes, defiance written all over her face.
"Is that insolence I see? You've got guts kid." He paused. "State your designation." She just stared at him. "State your designation!" he screamed in her face.
"X6-927!" she finally answered.
"927," he repeated with disgust. "It makes no matter, I hate all of you. I hated you yesterday, I hate you today, and I will hate you tomorrow. Ever since the day my father made you freaks he signed your death warrant. For I swear that I will not rest until each and every one of you mistakes is erased."
"She will save us."
"452?" he said with a laugh. "You must be joking. I thought so too, but when all this is over, and she realizes how many have died by her hand, maybe she'll kill herself…save us the job." Logan stopped Max, who was getting good and ready to blow their cover. "Oh, is that fear I see in your eyes? When those incompetent idiots at Manticore made you, did they even put the fear gene in your DNA?"
Dali looked away. "Every animal displays symptoms of apprehension." White snatched her head back up to look at him.
"Is that a fact?" he pulled out a gun and held it to her temple. "Well, you're made up of a cocktail of animals." He peered at her face. "So tell me, X6-927, you feeling apprehension right now?" Dali squeezed her eyes shut, trying to disregard the feeling of the cold metal against her feverish head. White peered at her, and cocked the pistol. Suddenly, there was a knock at the door, and a man in a white lab coat appeared.
"Fe'nos tal," he said.
"Fe'nos tal," White answered straightening up and putting the gun away. "What can I do for you?"
"We just thought you might want to know that soldiers found another file while going through the rubble over in Manticore. The information it holds is particularly interesting." He opened the folder and showed it to White. "It seems that after all of their experimentation and gene manipulation, Manticore finally created the perfect soldier."
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Thanks again! Chapter 3 coming soon to a web page near you…
