Disclaimer: Dark Angel and it's associated themes and characters, sadly, do not belong to me. I created Roma, Les and Aban, but they're X5s, so aren't really mine at all.

A Little Sister's World – Jondy

Zack saw freedom before any of us, but Max was only half a step behind. She was like that, always ready and willing to try something new. Something that expanded her mental and physical abilities.

Our little adventurer, always on the go. If she'd been born in a normal family to normal parents, she would have been called a terror. You know, one of those kids who doesn't stop from the time they get up until the time the collapse into bed at night. Like Roma's girl – just started crawling and she's everywhere all at once. Zane thinks we should show ourselves to Max, just so we can leave her to baby-sit. Justice at last.

Of course, it's probably a little hard to play a doting aunt when you're trying to build a new world. I guess you have to make some concessions when you're fighting for freedom.

Freedom. A word. A concept. An impossibility. Zack saw it first. Max saw it second. Ben took it and turned it fantastical. Eva saw its possibility. Ben was a storyteller, but like all good storytellers he needed somewhere to start. Eva was our planner, she may have been limited in imagination, but there wasn't a detail she missed. Zack's the visionary, but needed to find the potholes in his plans. Max was the devotee, the second in command, and the focus that Zack and Eva ran their plans through. She was the doer, and back then she would have done anything for Zack.

Perhaps when they gave her his heart, they gave her a piece of him, because when she speaks now, I hear him behind every word. She speaks with Zack's vision, turned into her own, and then into everyone's ideal. As second-in-command she has shown her worth, shown her ability to step up into the position of leader when ours had fallen.

Not that she notices I listen.

I'm not Jondy here. I'm Shade, an X5 who's spent most of the last few years on deep cover. Shade was on a mission when Manticore went down. The word about Terminal City blew through the country, via satellite, so she arrived as quickly as she could. Shade keeps a low profile here, and doesn't like company. I find her to be very lonely, but she does the job.

Shade is ironic, and it doesn't take much to see why. Shade, shadow, spy. What I am. A shade, a shadow, a copy: the darker, incomplete clone of an X5. A spy. A spy among spies. Yet they don't notice me, because they don't expect me. The only people who would spy here are either Familiars, or stupid. Familiars could survive here, but humans wouldn't, not for long. A Familiar would stick out. An X5 doesn't: we aren't particularly loyal to anyone other than ourselves, and general consensus is that we're one of the more independent, therefore inexplicable, series.

Still, one glance would tell Max who I am, and I'm not ready for that, not yet. We agreed that we would check out the place first. Check out what's going on. A decade of loneliness and hiding doesn't exactly prepare you for communal living. Everyone else took to it like a duck to water, but they're used to it; us rogues would find it a little more difficult.

I did point out that I would be particularly noticeable to Max, as we were so close when we were young. The others, though, had better reasons for not being there. A casual glance and Max might not pick who I am, but both Krit and Syl would stand out like sore thumbs. Roma refused on account of her baby; there's plenty of those here, but she wouldn't hear a word of it, and the rest of really weren't sure if we wanted to risk exposing the kid to the toxins here. No one knows where Aban is, and Les is trying to hunt him down. That left me and Zane. Zane said if Roma wasn't taking her baby, then he wasn't taking his damn dog. Wuss.

Watching is what I do now. Or what Shade does. Max, whatever else she is, is entertaining. She comes and goes, is involved in everything, knows everyone she spends her day with, and regularly bites the head of anyone who gets in her way.

Alec, the one with Ben's face, seems to cross her path most regularly. In a way, I think he's her second-in-command, informally lent the title, as she is the one 'leader'. He gets the brunt of her tongue, and isn't afraid to give as good as he gets. I don't know how she can stand having another man stare out of Ben's eyes all day, but they make it work. They make Terminal City work, with its crazy mix of transgenics going every which way.

Zack, I think, would be both proud and frustrated. She's done a bang up job of making this place into something real, and something liveable, something with a lifespan beyond tomorrow. But she's broken every rule in every book to do it. So very Max. She's taken Zack's dream, pushed it into something more and given it life.

Even Shade, in all her isolation, can't bring herself to disapprove.

Shade is dissolving, though. Undercover never was my strong point, and I can feel her slipping. Yesterday Max brushed right past me, spitting insults at Alec, who was returning them with fervour. I nearly spoke. All it would take one word and Shade would cease to exist, leaving Jondy as she stepped up, embracing her sister. Such an act would annoy my siblings, certainly, but gain me a best friend.

I want my little sister back. I want to tell her I'm proud, that I love her, and that I'm alive. I want to be part of Terminal City; no matter how much all these…people…bother me. I want Zack back, and Tinga and Brin and Ben. I want us to live in this city, this world.

Right now though, it is my duty to stay silent. The rest of us – the traitors, the rogues, the runaways – need to feel safe. And we can't do that, can't be that, yet. This isn't a world we're used to: we need time. But we're getting there.

Count down the days, Little Sister – we'll be here soon. You've built us a world and we want to see it.

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I'm thinking about writing a few more of these from other people in the series. This is the first time I've been bitten by a DA plot bunny in a long time and I'm thoroughly enjoying it! :-D

There's a lot of sentence fragments in this. I hope it doesn't make it too confusing. Drop me a line if it does. I appreciate any and all comments on work. Thank you.

Please review.