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

Chapter 3

Escape and Evade

Suddenly, there was a knock at the door, and a man in a white lab coat appeared.

"Fe'nos tol," he said.

"Fe'nos tol," White answered straightening up and putting the gun away.  "What can I do for you?"

"We just thought it might be of importance to you 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."

"That's impossible," White interjected.  "If they created the perfect soldier, how come they kept creating generations of X-series soldiers?"

"Well apparently, it, like many scientific discoveries, was a mistake.  They tried manipulating the genes to include everything they had previously been successful with, feline, canine, shark, and even bat…and they expected the soldier to come out looking worse than several of their other anomalies.  Fortunately, for some reason, the genes mutated spontaneously at the last minute, and completely masked the physical expression of all of the animal traits."

"You mean it looks human?" White asked.

"Just like you or me."

"Uh-huh."

"Only the charred remains of the picture were found, so we're not sure what he looks like, but it is most certain that he's completely human."

"Right…" White said distractedly.  "Thanks for the update, why don't you give me a few more minutes, and uh, you can leave these with me."  He folded up a paper from the file and put it in his inner pocket.

"Yes sir," he answered, and quickly turned to leave.  The door echoed loudly as it swung shut behind him.  White turned back to Dali, who had been watching closely with interest.

"You, my dear, have been touched by the proverbial angel.  Duty calls.  But don't even begin to think that we're done here.  I will get information from you, even if it kills you." 

Dali promptly spit blood in his face.  "Well you can just take a long walk off a short pier pal," she said calmly but fiercely, "cause I ain't telling you nothing."

Pulling a small white hankie from his pocket, he wiped his face clean.  "We'll see about that."  He patted her lightly on the face, and left out the iron door.  Dali lowered her head.

"You can come out now," she said to the empty room.

Max kicked the grate in, and it landed on the floor with a clang.  She and Logan cautiously approached the young girl.

"Are you okay?" Max asked.

"What were you guys waiting for, the next millennia?"

"How did you-" Max began.

Logan finished for her. "-know we were here?"

"That's cute," Dali said. "Do you guys always finish each others sentences?"  Logan and Max glanced at each other briefly, and he began to work at the monstrous knots in the ropes containing her.  Dali cocked her head to the side and gazed warily at Max, then her eyes widened.

"I'm sorry," Max said distractedly, "I'm-"

"X5-452." Dali breathed cutting her off.

"-Max."  Max interposed, raising an eyebrow. "This is Logan.  Do you have a name?"

"X6-927."

"No, not a designation, a name. A real name."

Dali looked away, and when she finally answered, her voice was barely a whisper.  "My parents named me Dalianna, but everyone calls me Dali."

"Dali…," Max repeated, "like the Spanish painter Salvador.  That's pretty, I like it."

"Uh Max," Logan interrupted them, "these knots aren't budging."

" 'Course not," Dali said, "standard issue double barreled military square knots.  Harry Houdini couldn't get out of these."

"Who's Harry Houdini?" Max and Logan inquired simultaneously.

"Just reach in my left coat pocket, there should be a pocket knife inside."

"Ames didn't take it off you?"

"Who's Ames?" Neither one answered, but Max reached inside Dali's pocket, and pulled out a small blue knife.  Silently, Logan went back to work, cutting away the ropes.  After a few moments, Dali was free.  She ripped her shirt, and tied it around her arm to stop the cuts from bleeding.

They crept out, and back down the dark hall in the direction they had come from.

"Someone's coming," Dali whispered.

"I don't hear anyone." Max said.

"I do.  Hurry, hide."  The ducked quickly into another even darker side hall, as the figure rounded the corner.  He was moving to slowly to be patrolling; in fact, he almost seemed to be slinking.  He crept by their hiding place, and Dali leapt out and snatched him by the jacket.  The figure shrank back in obvious surprise.

"Joshua?" Max and Logan questioned.

"Hey little fella," he answered.

"Hey," Dali said releasing him, "you're Manticore."

"Yeah, was it the fur that gave me away?"

"Actually, yeah. I'm Dali." She stuck out her hand. "What's up?"

"What's up?" he repeated, unsteadily shaking her outstretched palm.

"Can we save this for later?  This place is giving me the creeps.  Let's bounce."  Max instructed.

"We blaze?" Joshua asked.

"That's the plan." Max answered.  The four of them crept back to the window they had entered from without further interruption.  Dix stood there waiting apprehensively.

"Jeez!  I thought you guys weren't gonna make it.  Half an hour's up in like 2 minutes!"  The five of them exited the building, and made their way towards the perimeter fence.  When they got there, Dali looked up at it, and backed up a few steps, preparing to leap and clear it.

"Before you even bother," Max stopped her, and walked up to the lock to let them out.  The gate gave a loud groan as it slowly opened.  Loud enough for a guard to hear.

"Hey!" he shouted.  Dali's head sprung around to look at him.  Before he could level his gun for a quick shot, she blurred over to him, snatched the gun from his hands, whirled around and landed a solid kick to his chest, knocking him out.  The five of them dashed to the Aztec and climbed in.  Then there was only the sound of screeching tires as it pealed off into the night.

They rode in silence for awhile, heading toward Terminal City.  No one really had anything to say.  Then, Max couldn't restrain herself any longer.  "I know I know you from somewhere, I mean, more than just seeing you around Manticore."

Dali smiled deliberately to herself.  "You really don't remember do you?"  Max stared at her curiously.  "The night of the escape.  I was hiding in the trees, I saw you escaping.  You were running with someone.  Another soldier, X5-210."

"Jondie," Max whispered lethargically.  She could see the entire scene unfolding before her eyes; hear the soldiers communicating with each other, hot on her tail; feel the ice cold splash of the water as she fell through the ice. Dali's voice intercepted her thoughts.

"Then you fell through the ice.  The soldier's didn't see you.  You were safe for the moment, but when they left, you couldn't get out."

Max could see herself pounding on the ice, swimming, looking for any release from the dark, icy grave.

"You started panicking, but then-"

"-you saved me." Max disrupted her.  "You broke through the ice, and pulled me out.  I wanted to thank you, but you left."

"I had to lead the soldiers in the other direction.  I wanted you to get away, which you obviously did.  I thought maybe if you did, you would go get help and come back for the rest of us."

"I wanted to," Max said quickly, her eyes glistening slightly, "I wanted to everyday, but the world was slightly more different than I thought it would be.  And you see what a circus it is out there right now, can you imagine if I had tried to go to the police and tell them about Manticore?"  Dali nodded solemnly.

"That's what I figured.  That's why a few weeks later, a few of my brothers and sisters and Zack and I escaped."

"You escaped with Zack?"

"Yeah," Dali said staring off into space nostalgically.  "He kind of put himself in charge of us when he was placed in our unit after they tried reprogramming him.  If they knew it hadn't worked, he probably would be dead right now.  Where is my old buddy?"  It was Max's turn to look away.  Before she could answer, Logan spoke up.

"We're here."

They parked the car outside the perimeter fence, and headed off to Max's secret opening.  Silently sneaking through, they started back towards headquarters.  Inside, there was a bustle of happenings.  Everywhere you looked were transgenics and transhumans, going about one task or another.  A few kids seemed to be enthralled with cartoons on the television, mole and the artic nomlie were going at it again, and Luke was working on a bike.  Dali walked around taking everything in, and stopped to talk to Luke about the bike.  Logan went off to discuss something with Joshua, and Max spotted her homegirl talking with another transgenic girl about opening a beauty shop.  Max approached them.

"In Terminal City?  You wanna open a beauty shop in Terminal City?" she asked.

"And why not?  Girl, some of these girls' nails are screaming for a manicure," Cindy joked.

"Yeah aiight," she answered.  That's my girl.

"Boo, is that your sister over there?" she asked nodding towards Dali.  Max nodded.

"She's X-6, I caught her stealing from the grocery store, and she ended up getting caught by White.  So you know me, I had to bust her outta there."

"Damn, she fine."

Max laughed at that. "I think she's straight, so don't get too close."  She left to go over to Dali, and asked her if she wanted something to eat.  Upon her agreement, they left to find food.  In a small room off to the side, Dali saw empty box after empty box of Little Debbie cakes.  Somebody likes sweets, she thought.  As they rummaged through the boxes, Alec approached.

"Hey Max, I thought you might want to take a ride with me down to the store, you know, since you obviously didn't get anything."

"No thanks," she answered with an annoyed look.

He finally noticed Dali, kneeling by a box in the corner, and moved toward her.  "Hey, what's your name?"

She looked up at him with a cocked eyebrow and said "I don't have one."

He gave her a lopsided grin and promptly answered, "No offense, but I don't believe that one.  Anyone who's known Max for longer than 5 minutes and doesn't have a name, is probably dead.

"Is that a fact?  Well what's yours?"

He extended his hand and she shook it. "Alec, X-5."

"Well Alec, X-5, maybe I do have a name, and I just don't want to tell you what it is, did you ever consider that?"  Max couldn't help laughing to herself.  Alec turned away from her just as a young girl, probably around 8 or 9, sauntered into the room.

"Hi Alec," she said, completely oblivious of both Max and Dali, while admiring Alec with big bright eyes.

"Hello Susie," he responded with a look that clearly said 'Here we go again'.

"Mansie wants to know if she can borrow some money."

"For what?"

"So she can play pool against Richard."  Alec sighed, pulling out a wad of bills, knowing that the only way he was going to get rid of her was if he gave her the money.  He thrust a 20 into her outstretched palm.

"Here, scram."  She smiled at him before running out of the room.  Dali smiled and shook her head.  "What?" he asked with interest.

"That girl's got the hots for you."

"You don't say," he answered, then turned his attention back to Max.  "So you comin with or what?"  But she was looking at him with an odd look on her face.

"Where did you get all that cash?" she asked.  He better not be doing what I think he's doing.  Of course, the guilty look on his face gave him clearly away.

"I won it playing darts down at the local tavern."  Dali looked over at him.  Her eyes seemed to bore holes through him.

"Oh what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive."

Alec turned to look at her.  "I'm sorry?"

"You're lying," she responded finally pulling out a full box of snacks, "and we both know it." Max looked over at her with a surprised look on her face.  "You've been slinging the herb."  Alec's eyes were the size of quarters.

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"Yes you do." She pulled out one of the cakes and opened the wrapper. "Every week, you go collect from the drug dealers down on 4th street…no, 5th street.  And they pay you double for all the business you get."

Alec was so stunned; he completely forgot that he had been denying it.  "How do you know all this?"

"I did 18 months in Psy-ops. Psychopathy."

"You were crazy?" Alec asked confused.

"Not psychopath," she said exasperatedly, "Psychopathy-"

"-the ability to read minds," came a voice from the door.  They all looked up as Logan came in.  "Psychopathy is different from telepathy because you don't always need to be looking at the person, sometimes you can pick up thoughts just by being in the same room, or even just by thinking about them.  But the last I heard, it was completely experimental…"

"Yeah well, Manticore is about as experimental as they come," Dali rolled her eyes.

"You're a mind-reader?"  Max finally jumped in.

"How do you think I knew about the whole prison thing," she winked at her.

"I don't get it," Alec said, "If there's one thing about Manticore, it's that they've always been about purpose.  What was the reason for putting an X-series in with a psychic abilities unit?"

"Beats the hell outta me," Dali retorted.

"So wait a minute," Max interceded. "You've been reading our minds this entire time?"

"No way!" Dali exclaimed.  "Reading minds isn't like reading a book.  First of all, it hurts!  Right now, I have a headache bigger than the San Andreas Fault.  It can kill you if you're not trained for it.  Second of all, not everyone can be read.  The human mind…or the transgenic mind for that matter is very complex.  It takes a lot to understand even a little, and even more to read it," she explained finally biting into the cake.  "Ooh, this is good." She walked out of the room, leaving Logan, Alec and Max all staring after her.

Ok, I know this chapter was really long, but I wrote it and rewrote it and rewrote it.  I'm trying to improve my action-writing, it's easy for me to do dialogue, but I have to be able to fully explain what's going around everyone too.  And so the saga continues (dun-dun-dun) Chapter 4 soon.