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, a few more chapters. Stick with me. Thanks for the reviews.
Chapter 10
Moonlight Magic
Randy and Alec carried Dali into the common room. There were only a few soldiers there. Most everybody had cleared out except for the night detail. Max, who had been going over some papers in a corner, rushed over to them.
"Alec, what happened? Wait, I don't even want to know. Knowing you, it was probably something that could have been avoided." She took one look at Dali's hand, and then glanced up at Alec again. "How could you let this happen? What were you thinking?" She took his make-shift bandage off, and began to apply a clean one of her own. Dali groaned and shifted a bit.
"Look, it's not like we planned this. White showed up—"
"White showed up?!" she interrupted him.
"Yeah, he gave her some sedative. Said something about her being Manticore's perfect creation or something. And then this guy just came out of nowhere…" But Max wasn't paying attention to Alec; she was looking instead at their other visitor.
"Randy?! Why is it that you only show up when Dali's in trouble?"
"Well it's a good thing I do," he replied, "Otherwise she would be fuel for the fire of the cult. I didn't see you saving anyone." Max narrowed her eyes.
"I'm responsible for everyone here."
"Yeah, well everyone here would be dead within hours if I hadn't intervened."
"I don't know what you're talking about." Max stated coldly.
"You will soon enough." With that, he turned and left. Max sighed and turned to look at Alec.
"I don't—"
"Don't even bother." She turned her attention to the sleeping girl, who looked as though she was beginning to come out of the fog. Her eyes fluttered open and she slowly pulled herself to a sitting position.
"What happened?" she asked, then wondered why her friends looked at her as though they didn't know what to say.
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The next night, Dali stood outside Alec's door. She pressed her ear to the splintering wood, hoping to hear something from inside, but heard nothing. Hesitantly, she knocked. She waited a few seconds and heard no response.
"Alec?" No one answered. "I know you're in there…I can hear you breathing." She crossed her fingers and hoped he wouldn't call her bluff. But the door opened, and she walked into darkness, closing the door behind her. She saw that he wasn't wearing a shirt, and clearly made out each and every one of his abdominal muscles. She couldn't help but stare. Somebody's been spending time at the gym.
"Can I help you?"
Dali's eyes traveled until they landed on his face, eyebrow cocked, looking pretty annoyed. "Alec, scientists have made a recent discovery of this wonderful thing called light, most people use it. Not all transgenics can see in the dark you know."
She could easily make out his shrug as he sat on the bed. "The ones that are important enough to come in can…and I'm not 'most people'. What do you want?"
Dali sighed as she sat next to him. "I never got the chance to thank you," she mumbled while looking at the floor.
"What did you say?"
She looked into his eyes. "I said I never got the chance to thank you…you know, for not telling Max that it was my idea to go to the hospital. I know she must've chewed you out."
"Yeah she did."
"What'd she say?"
"Ah, the usual. Something about me being immature and reckless, you know denying my responsibility and never listening to her…I don't know, I wasn't really listening."
Dali giggled. "Sounds like something she would say. So, um, why didn't you tell her?"
Alec scoffed. "And miss the chance to hear the dreaded 'I'm a leader, I'm in charge' speech? I'd have to be insane."
Dali smiled at him. "She means well, I know she does."
"Anyway, is that why you came down here?"
"Yeah, to say thanks for everything. Not just for taking me and keeping me out of trouble…but for saving my life."
"Well, actually…" he began, and then Max's voice rang clear in his head. The words spoken to him just hours before. 'Whatever you do, don't tell her about Randy.'
"Yeah?"
"…actually, it was no big deal. White's a loser."
"Yeah," she looked at him closely for a moment, and was surprised to see his eyes meet hers. "Well, I better go; I got some stuff to do."
"Ok," he whispered.
She walked towards the door, but stalled upon reaching it, and turned to face him again. "Hey, you wanna give me a hand?"
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A few moments later, they were in a basement room, a wooden table standing before them, holding various contents, and the moonlight shining through a nearby window. Dali clicked on a lantern she had brought with her and sat it on the windowsill.
"Why don't you put it on the table?" Alec asked her.
"Because if anything happens, and something is spilled, we're all going kaboom. Now the first thing we have to do is take my blood sample." She looked down at her hand. I so do not want to do this…not again. Alec seemed to read her mind, and he held up the old bandage that Max had changed.
"Voila," he smiled.
"Ok, first let me say, gross, I can't believe you actually kept that, and second, thank you. I would really rather not slice open any more vastly important circulatory tubes. Water." He handed her the water, and she placed the wrap in the miniature battery powered blender Alec stole from somewhere, and poured the water over it. She waited until the blood had run from the wrap to the water, and wrung it out. "Sodium Chloride." He handed her the salt, and she added a pinch. "Ok, phase one: Blend on high for 15 seconds." Which she did. "30 ml. detergent." He handed her a cup with a blue liquid in it, which she also added. "Phase two: swirl and let stand for 3 minutes, and then add two drops of the contact lens solution." She let Alec's watch keep time, and prepared for the next step. "Phase three: add the alcohol." She added the alcohol, and they watched as skinny, barely visible strands transferred from the blood/water mixture to the alcohol. Dali used a syringe to remove the alcohol and put it in its own vial. "And there you have it ladies and germs," she told Alec as she held up the vial for him to inspect.
"Wow, a homemade DNA extraction…remarkable." He seemed impressed, and she smiled at him. "Where'd you learn to do that?"
"Bio 213: Genetics. I took a few courses at the University of Washington a few years back. They wouldn't let me graduate though, said I was too young. I was 14, I think I was perfectly old enough."
Alec laughed. "Right. So how's this gonna help again?"
"Well, these strands are my DNA, which has parasitic characteristics. I could never catch a virus, because viruses work by taking over cells, killing the DNA, and replicating their own. My DNA could never be killed off. Instead, it would take over the virus, and do the very thing to it, that it was trying to do to me…"
Alec looked at her as though she had grown a third head. "Come again?"
She sighed. "It's complicated. All you have to know is that when Max has this in her system, the DNA will attack the virus, killing it off within a matter of minutes."
"And it won't like miraculously come back or anything?"
"Nope, viruses mutate, that's why the last cure didn't work. But my DNA will attack any virus. So even if it does come back, Max will already be carrying the antibodies."
"So this is it then, the virus is finally going down?"
"Well, I have a few more changes to make, and some tests to run. But the essence of it all is right here in this tube."
"So when are you going to tell Max?"
"When I think she's ready."
"What? Haven't you seen how she's been lately? You think she's not ready? She won't even come out of her room unless it's an emergency. That's dangerous. Not just for her, but with the president's daughter speaking against us, and White and the rest of the peanut gallery hunting us down to kill us, it's dangerous for everyone."
"And what, you think this cure is all of a sudden just going to make her come out?"
"She wants to be with Logan." Dali saw a hint of something in Alec's eye when he said this. She couldn't quite put her finger on what it was, and it was gone as quickly as it appeared. "If this can help her, then I think you should give it to her now. Holding out is just plain torture. If she knew you had this, she would hunt you down."
"That's just it. I don't want her to be selfish about it. This is supposed to be something to help make a good relationship stronger. Not a cure-all for something that wouldn't work in the first place. If Max and Logan can't make it work without this, then what makes you think it would work with it?"
Alec stared at her for a few moments, and then gave a little smile. "When did you get so smart?"
Dali smiled back. "I had good parents." He looked her in the eye, and his hand came up to tuck a piece of hair behind her ear, lingering for a moment on her cheek. He leaned forward. Instinctively, Dali closed her eyes. Hey, this reminds me of the time Justin and I—Justin! All of her thoughts came to a screeching halt as a vision of his smiling face danced in her head. Her eyes flew open and she turned her head away. Alec stopped and looked at her.
"What's the matter?" he whispered. She turned to look at him.
"I'm sorry, Alec. I can't," she whispered back. He sighed and nodded. Then he headed for the door, opening and closing it softly, leaving Dali in the light of the lantern and the moon, on her own.
Post: Ok, thanks again guys. Next chapter'll be up shortly.
Angie731
