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

A/N: Hey guys, here's chapter 6; the name's a little more appropriate this week; so enjoy!

Chapter 6

Utterly Delusional

White sat at a desk watching the phone.  He finally took his eyes off of it after a few moments, and reached inside his inner pocket.  He pulled out a sheet of paper and read it for the tenth time that day.  Suddenly the phone rang.  He pressed the speakerphone.

"For my father before me, for my sons," he answered.

"For my mother before me, for my daughters," came a female voice.

"I've been awaiting your call."

"I've just sent someone over with the new information."

"Excellent," White replied.  "I'll send my response."

"Thank you sir," the woman responded.

"Fe'nos tol."

"Fe'nos tol."

No sooner had he pressed the off button on the receiver, then there was a knock on the door.

"Come in," he said.  The door opened, and a man in a white lab coat entered.

"Here it is sir, a picture of the barcode."  He held out a picture for White, who took it with enthusiasm.

"Perfect.  And this is the designation at the bottom?"

"Yes, sir," the man responded. "It took our scientists awhile, but we finally deciphered it exactly."

"Funny…" White said abstractedly.

"What's that sir?"

"Is there anything different about this barcode?" he asked slowly.

"As a matter of the fact, we suspected that there might be.  Being as how the expressions of all of the animal traits of this particular transgenic were masked, we expected that the expression of the barcode would be mutated also."

"But not masked?" White asked with interest.

"No sir.  The barcode is built into the genome as a specific expression.  The only way it could be masked would be if it were tampered with by hand."

"I see.  And did you find any changes in the expression of the barcode."

"No sir.  We examined it extensively, and could find nothing strange about it."

"Competency is such a difficult trait to find these days," he muttered.  Then in a louder voice, "You know, sometimes the hardest objects to see are those that are staring us straight in the face."

"I beg your pardon sir?"

"Manticore barcodes are only supposed to have twelve digits."

"Pardon my bluntness sir, but what does that have to do with this?"

White raised an eyebrow.  "This one has 13."

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Max paced back and forth in front of the bed slowly, every once in a while, stealing glances at the unconscious young girl lying in it.  She had been in and out of it for going on four days now, and the situation seemed bleaker and bleaker with each passing hour. Come on Dali, wake up…please…Her mind pleaded with her, to no avail.

"Max," came a voice.

"Dali?" she turned toward her.  The girl looked up at her, as she began to shiver.

"I-it's c-c-cold in here.  Can y-you t-turn on the h-heat?"

"Dali, you can't be serious.  It's 84°, it's boiling in here!"  She walked over to the bed.

"P-p-please turn the heat on.  T-t-that ice w-water is so cold!  Ask Justin, he'll t-tell y-you."  Dali's teeth were chattering.

"What ice water?  What are you talking about?"

"She's delusional." Logan walked in with a thermometer in hand.  He placed it in Dali's mouth.  "She probably thinks she's either still on the run with Justin…or saving you…probably a mixture of the two."

Max turned back to the sick girl.  "What's wrong with her?"

"We haven't figured that out yet.  It can't be any type of human illness, transgenics are immune.  But it's not contagious either.  The bloodwork that we've done proved that.  It's not anything that we've ever seen before."  The thermometer beeped and Max pulled it out and looked at it.  A confused look crossed her face for a second, and then she placed the back of her hand on Dali's forehead.  A few seconds later, she snatched it back.

"Oh my god, she's burning up!  Quick, get some ice bags or something!"

"What?  What did the thermometer say?"

"It says 106.4!  That's dangerously high, even for a transgenic.  She could die."  Logan immediately left the room in search of something to help bring the fever down.

"Max," Dali whispered.  "It's really hot in here…turn the heat down."  Max simply looked at her sympathetically.  Dali held her hand up in front of her face.  Ever so slightly, it began to shake.  "Oh no…please no…not here…not now…"  Apparently her body was on its own schedule.  The quivers in her hand intensified, crept up her arm, and spread through her torso and to her extremities until it seemed as though every muscle in her entire body was shaking uncontrollably.

"Oh, crap. Logan, she's seizing!  Bring tryptophan!"  Max called to him in the other room.  He burst in a few seconds later, holding a bag of ice, and a cup of milk.  He took a few pieces of ice from the bag, placed them in a towel and rolled it up.

"Here, put this on her head, most of the body heat is lost through the head, if we can draw the heat out with the ice, maybe we can get her temperature to lower."

Max held the cool towel against the girl's shaking forehead.  "What about the tryptophan?"

"We were running low earlier…now we're out.  This was the best I could do," he replied, producing the cup of milk.  Max took it from him, and held it to Dali's lips.

"Come on, Dali, take a sip."  Dali's eyes opened a little, but she wouldn't drink from the cup, and her body continued to seize.  "Take a drink," Max coaxed, "you're not gonna get better if you don't."  Dali turned her head away.

"I'll help," Logan offered.

"What are you gonna do?" Max wondered aloud.

"Pinch her.  When she opens her mouth, pour it in."

"You're going to pinch her?!" Max asked incredulously.

"Yeah, it's just a little technique I picked up back when my sister and I would get into fights." When he saw that she didn't smile, "Max, if she doesn't take this, she could die.  She's very sick, and right now, the seizures are the only thing that we know how to control.  Now, I'm going to count to three, and when her mouth opens, just pour it in.  Got it?"  Max sighed and nodded uncertainly.  "Ok, one… two… thr—" He was cut off before he could finish by the door swinging open.

"Don't!" said a strong male voice, and the glass was snatched from Max's hand.

"What do you think you're doing?" she seethed, looking up at a boy about Dali's age, with chocolate brown eyes and golden hair.

"You can't give this to her, if you do, then she'll really be sick…she's lactose intolerant."  Now that the immediate threat was over, he handed the glass back to Max.

Max and Logan looked at each other.

"You know her?" Logan asked surprised.  The boy didn't answer, but instead went to the other side of the bed and sat down, taking Dali's hand in his.

"Lacey, Lacey, it's ok.  Wake up."  It seemed as though her seizures stopped almost immediately.

"Lacey?" Max mouthed to Logan, who shrugged his shoulders in response.

Dali's eyes opened slowly.  "Randy?" she whispered.

"On your feet soldier," he said with a smile, and stood.  Dali slowly threw the covers off and stood next to the bed.

"Dali, I really don't think you should—"  Logan began, and for the second time in five minutes was cut off by Randy, this time with a wave of his hand.

"Soldier, state your designation," he ordered.

"X—X—X6-927," she managed.

"What's your status?"

"Sir…," she breathed. "Permission to—" she never got to finish, as the irrepressible twitching in her nerves began again, darkness surrounded her, and the ground rushed up to her.

***********************************************************************

Max, Logan and Randy all left the room, closing the door softly behind them.  Max fixed her eyes on Randy.

"So how do you know Dali?" she asked.

"Lacey," he insisted, "was in my unit.  I was the CO, and she was one of my best soldiers.  I've kept an eye on her over the years, but I lost touch about a year back.  Heard she was sick, and came to see about her."

Just like Zach…Max thought to herself.

"Yeah, you keep calling her that," Logan interrupted, "we thought her name was Dali…"

"She must have changed it after the escape.  Lacey was the name that Dorin gave her."  He smiled at the memory.  "Said everything that she said was 'laced with sarcasm'." His face turned stony again.  "Anyway, here." He produced a vial of clear liquid.  "Here's some more liquid tryptophan.  It's a pretty strong dosage, our unit always did need the strongest Manticore had to offer.  Lacey's seizures were always the worst.  She would be fine for a long time, and then all of a sudden, she would just get real sick, and her tremors wouldn't stop for days without the meds.  Docs said the level of serotonin in her brain would break down and kick in, then she wouldn't sleep for days; she would be bouncing off the walls…but soon after, the level would rise again, dangerously high, and that's when she would get sick." He shook his head.  "Gave us a real scare sometimes…but I think she'll be okay now.  The dosage I gave her was even more concentrated than this is.  But if they do start back up, give her this. NOT MILK."  He handed the vial to Max.  "Listen, when she wakes up…she might not remember I was here.  If she doesn't…do me a favor, don't tell her.  She really doesn't need anymore stress than she's already had.  If she does remember, tell her it was just a delusion, and you don't know who I am.  Take care of her…please.  She had the biggest heart of any of us, and she never let Manticore drive it out of her."  With that, he turned and left.  Neither Max, nor Logan, made a move to stop him.  They merely watched as he disappeared down the hall and out the window.

"You think he's for real?" Max asked Logan, never taking her eyes off the window.

"Well, he had the barcode…but I do still wonder.  I mean, whoever heard of a transgenic that's lactose intolerant?"

*********************************************************************

Max stood pacing again, this time in the dark.  She stopped and gazed at the girl in the bed.  Logan was also there, sitting in the chair next to her.  There was a knock on the door.

"Come in," Max whispered, just loud enough for them to hear, and the door opened.

"Sup Boo?" Original Cindy greeted her.  "I just brought you some warm milk, thought it might help you sleep.  How's she doin?"  Max just gave her a little smile.

"Well, Randy gave us some tryptophan for her, so her seizures have stopped, and her temperature's returning to normal, but she's not awake yet."

"You worried about her?"

"I know I shouldn't be," she began, "but…I don't know…for some reason, I feel like this is partly my fault.  Like something I did triggered it."

"Now, Max, you know that's not true."

"Hey, you don't know that."

"Neither do you, stop beatin yourself up.  You said yourself she's doing better.  She's from Manticore, and if she survived that, I pretty much have faith that she can survive anything."  Max nodded, but didn't say anything.  Cindy went over to Logan, and leaned over to speak in his ear.

"Keep an eye on her," she whispered.

"Which one?" he whispered back.

"Both of them."

"You got it."  Cindy left then, and a few minutes later, Logan announced that he was going to bed.  "You should try to get some sleep Max." he insisted.  "Dali's going to be fine; you're the one I'm worried about."

"I don't sleep, Logan.  You know that," she replied simply but clearly.

"Well, you should try to get some rest," he walked over to her, kissed his gloved fingertips, and pressed them to her lips.  "Good night," he whispered.

"Night," she answered, and watched him leave before continuing to pace again.  Another hour passed.

"You're gonna wear a trench in the floor," came a low voice.

"You're awake!" Max said surprised turning toward her.

"Have you been here all night?" Dali asked equally surprised.

"No," Max said quickly.

"Uh huh," Dali answered in a voice that clearly said she didn't believe her friend. 

"How you feelin?"

"Like I've just been run over by a 36 wheeler cruising down I-94 at break-neck speed…twice."

Max smiled as she sat next to her.  "I know what you mean, but I guess that's to be expected huh?"

"How long have I been out of it?"

"A couple days," Max replied coolly.  "…maybe a week…week and a half…"

"A week and a half?! What'd I miss?"

"Not much…you know, the usual."

"Right."

"So um, I meant to tell you, your hearing is pretty good if you can hear a dog whistle from two miles away.  Better than mine, that's for sure."

Dali smiled a little.  "Yeah, your senses tend to be heightened when you have a migraine.  Every little sound can be heard; every little light can be seen."

"Does it happen often?"

"Not really.  Usually only after extended periods of intense physical and/or emotional stress," she replied rolling her eyes.  "Still, it's a fairly painful experience."

"So I've heard.  Well, I guess I'll leave you to get some rest."

"No way," Dali interjected, pulling herself to a sitting position.  "I've been asleep for 10 days, and I know you're not tired.  Besides, I had this weird dream that my brother was here…"  Max's head snapped toward her.  "But that's ridiculous.  Right?  I mean, he wasn't here…was he?"

Post-note: Ok, end of Chapter 6.  Chapter 7 within a week!  Thanks for reading J and Happy Holidays everyone!