Arcanum:

Almost a Memory

by

Kel

Disclaimer: I don't presume to own Dark Angel or any of it's characters. I gain no profit from this fiction, other than pride and joy and hopefully reviews. Oh yeah, X5-213 is mine.

Chapter 3: Family

This couldn't be happening.

It hadn't even been a full hour since the two of them had been put together.

They had been trained to believe that emotion was a weakness, and programmed to believe that each other were the enemy.

He had spent hours filling both of their heads with false data! He had convinced the two of them that the other had gotten close to them only so that they could find an opening and terminate them.

The two of them had been furious. They had been programmed to be furious. By all rights, they should have ripped each other's throats out the second they came within range.

And instead, they were doing what? Talking? Bonding?

"I didn't want to believe it," X5-452's whisper echoed through the comm system. The observation room had been equipped with full audio surveillance, just in case something like this did happen.

They almost hadn't installed it. They had believed the likelihood of this taking place in the room had been about equal to the possibility of a mini-snowstorm in there.

"Me neither," X5-213 whispered back. "I trusted you . . . I do trust you."

"Separate them!" Doctor Marlowe hollered at Lieutenant Canning, his assistant. "Take them out of there, and get them down to Psy. Ops now!"

Canning hesitated. "What do we tell them, sir?"

Marlowe turned his gaze on the two unaware X5's. His icy glare could have frightened even them. "Eradicate this experiment from their memories. All of it."

Canning nodded, and turned to the door. He paused when the doctor spoke again. "Oh, and Canning?"

"Yes, sir?"

"For god's sake, take them one at a time.'

"Yes sir."

As the door closed behind the officer, Marlowe let out a furious roar, fisting his hands in his hair.

Trained to believe that emotion was a weakness.

Breaking the silence of the other room, 452 spoke. "I trust you too. We're a unit, right?"

Soldiers.

Weapons.

Automatons.

Damn fine job they had done.

"Where are you taking her?" 213 asked frantically, following on their heels.

Just a moment ago, four Manticore officers had entered their cell and had begun to remove 452.

They ignored him, and continued to lead her away.

"452!" 213 called out.

She stopped and turned toward him, forcing the officers to drag her a little. "452, you will go with us, now!" one of the officers ordered.

"Where are you taking her?" 213 repeated.

Again, they ignored him.

"Stop!" 213 yelled, and this surprised even him. He was the underling, here. They were his commanding officers. He never thought he would be giving an officer orders, but that was what he had done. "Let her go!"

He grabbed the nearest officer by the arm, trying to pull him away.

His grip was strong, and the human let go of 452. He swung and struck 213 in the face with a fist that was strong, for a human. It did the job, and 213 went down long enough for the four officers to shove 452 out the door and follow after her.

213 sprang up from the floor in a liquid fast motion, but he was too late. The door slammed as he reached it, and the automatic lock clicked into place.

At the same time, 452 threw off one of the officers and ran to the door. "213!" She rammed her shoulder into the steel, attempting to get to him.

One of the officers came up behind her and struck her with a tazer. "No!" 213 shouted, pounding his fists into the door's reinforced glass window.

There was nothing he could do.

They took her.

She walked stiffly down the corridor, two officers slightly ahead of her and two slightly behind.

Her memories had taken on a fragmented quality. There was something she was missing, she was sure of it. But that didn't really matter, did it? She had been taken away from her unit, and now she was going back.

Why should she care how she had gotten here? She remembered being locked in an isolation cell. She remembered being taken from her family. The rest was gone, and here she was. Marching down the sterile corridors of Manticore. Whatever had happened was over.

She was going home. The rest was trivial.

The five of them slipped past doorway after doorway, nothing breaking the silence other than the steady beat of their boots on the floor.

Until they passed a pair of doors that were close together. In between the two of them, a sign was posted on the wall. 'Behavioral Observation,' the sign read. The second door had a small window set into it. She could see that the walls inside the second room were white and bare, with a large mirror covering one of them.

As she studied the room, a face appeared in the window. A dark haired boy stared at her, wide-eyed. She couldn't see the lower half of his face, because he was too short for it to be fully framed in the glass. A look of horror mixed with relief filled his dark eyes, and she faintly heard him calling to her through the door.

"452!"

Her look of simple curiosity morphed into contempt. She turned her head away from the boy and continued to follow the officers back to her barracks; back to her family.

Her name was Max.

End Chapter 3