AN/Thank you for the reviews guys, I really appreciate them and they keep me enthused in my fics. Well, this is a long chapter for me. So, I hope you enjoy it. Thanks again :)

'What do I want? Freedom'

They had stared at each other for a long, intensified moment. Neither willing to glance away first. Alec felt like her dark eyes were penetrating his secret thoughts. His secret thoughts about how damn sexy she was, in a very dangerous sort of way. His head was hazy, and he wasn't entirely sure if she really had kissed him.

Astrid smiled at Alec. She liked him. She felt like she knew him, from a past life- or maybe just from the countless hours she had stalked him, which she liked to think of as 'target surveillance'. Astrid didn't know why she didn't despise Alec, he was everything she normally hated. He played women like he ruled the world, he was self-involved, careless and most importantly a transgenic. Astrid had sworn to herself she would never trust a transgenic. Not after everything she had been through. But then, Alec was different, she was sure he wasn't loyal to 'them' anymore, she wasn't sure he ever had been. The people involved in her 'upbringing' were linked with Manticore, but were a separate organization. It was more than likely he had never been involved with them.

Astrid realised she was still standing so close to Alec's body that she could feel heat radiating off him. She stepped back, and glanced down at the destroyed phone under their feet. She offered him a half smile. 'Sorry about that'

Alec followed her gaze down to the phone 'I'm not really in the mood for pizza anyway' he said, with a casual shrug.

Astrid nodded, feeling the intimate tension they had just shared fade away.

Alec shoved his hands into his pockets. 'So, do you want to talk?' He sensed she did, and if he had to wait a second longer for some kind of explanation he would go crazy.

Astrid was unsure, her every instinct told her Alec could be trusted with her secret. He could be trusted to help her, to be loyal to her, as no other transgenic had. But her head told her what she needed to remember- He was a transgenic, he was not her kind, and he…had a connection with the Beast.

Alec sensed the girl's hesitation. In a way he understood it, he was never very forward about himself and his intensions either. He knew what it was like to always have to hide what you are, always running, always being weary of others. Alec couldn't trust anyone- Except Max, he knew he could trust her, and begrudgingly he knew he could trust Logan. But this girl puzzled him. Obviously she was a transgenic, some sort of super pumped up series. Alec wondered if the rest of her series were this attractive. But what he wasn't sure of, were her intensions. What were her motives in drugging him? Was she working for someone? Alec didn't get the feeling she was an 'enemy'.

Alec took her arm gently, intending to lead her over to the couch. The girl flinched and tore her arm away, shooting Alec a look of distrust. Alec held his hands up in defence. 'I'm not going to hurt you, I just want to talk. What's your name/' He sat down.

Astrid laughed out loud as she sat down opposite Alec. Hurt her? 'Well I'm glad that you're not going to hurt me' she said sarcastically. So he wanted her name? What could that hurt?

'My name is Astrid'

'Unusual name' said Alec, after a pause 'did you choose it?'

Astrid was confused for a second, before she realised what Alec meant. Typical transgenics were genetically engineered as infants. They never knew themselves as anything but their barcode, until they escaped into the real world.

'My parents did' said Astrid 'I actually had a life, before I became….this' She rubbed viciously at her barcode.

'Your parents' Alec echoed. Astrid mistook it as a question.

'Dead!'

Alec nodded. He felt little sympathy for her, the majority of parents of transgenics were either missing or dead, mostly they had just been people who hadn't really wanted children and who had enjoyed the large Manticore pay check. It was nothing out of the ordinary. But then, he didn't think she was seeking sympathy. She was beyond it. Alec wasn't sure what Astrid meant by her comment. She actually had a life? As in pre-Manticore? Alec had heard that tampering with DNA after, and especially during puberty was risky.. was that what she meant?

'You had a life?' Alec had learnt that if you repeated what someone had just told you, in the form of a question, they would usually elaborate without him having to come straight out and ask.

Astrid nodded. 'Yeah, for twelve years of my life, I was a normal girl. Well, I guess I have never been normal….' She trailed off, thinking to herself. 'But I was happy, I thought I was safe'

'You thought you were safe?' Alec questioned.

Astrid's eyes flashed, as she caught on to what Alec was doing. 'Yes, I just said that. What? Did they throw some retarded parrot genes into you?'

Alec knew he had been caught out, and he could sense her closing up again. He was about to try and smooth out the conversation when there was a banging at his door.

He looked from the door to Astrid.

'Expecting someone?' she asked with every bit of suspicion she could muster. She narrowed her eyes at him, in a vicious glare, which sent most men running. How had she been so stupid to think she could trust Alec? He had obviously contacted someone to come and help him 'handle' her.

Alec looked at her wide-eyed. 'No I wasn't, I swear-it's probably just someone selling something'

Just then Astrid and Alec heard a shout 'Alec, it's me, open up'

It's Max, though Alec.

It's the Beast, thought Astrid.