Disclaimer: I don't own any of these characters. Some are own by shygirl1, some by other fan fiction writers and most by Charles Eglee and James Cameron.
Timeline - Pre-series
A/N You guys reading this? REVIEW! This is the prequel to 'Whose Love' so read that too plz. Also read 'Reunion' By the way, Fayth3, for some of the parts in this chapter I used some of your ideas from 'Left Behind' I hope you don't mind it's just that there's a part in this chapter that needs to show that Max is one of the best for something that will happen later on. If you do mind, let me know, and I'll remove it, but what I wrote isn't really like yours, just the idea. Anyways, if you do mind, tell me please. Thanks!
The next day Max was feeling incredibly sore, but she stood up straight during roll call and didn't let the pain show in her face. If there was anything the colonel hated, it was weakness. Zack as C.O., was the one numbering them off while the colonel watched.
He walked in front of them, saying their designation in turn. "X5-210" 'Jondy,' he thought. "X5-205" 'Zane' "X5-701" 'Syl' "X5-471" 'Krit' "X5-656" 'Tinga' "X5-734" 'Brin' "X5-766" 'Eva' "X5-493" 'Ben' "X5-417" 'Jack' "X5-823" 'Tawny' "X5-573" 'Michael' "X5-375" 'Bobby' "X5-742" 'Evan' "X5-562" 'Jordan' "X5-120" 'Rena' "X5-369" 'Wayne' "X5-798" 'Jace'
And finally Zack stopped in front of the last one. "X5-452" 'Maxie' he thought. He was worried about her. He knew she was still in a lot of pain. He hadn't made her go back to her own bed last night. Instead, he had carried her there in the morning right before the guard came to wake them up. He was worried because when he had carried her back to her bed, she had still been sound asleep, and she never slept this long. 'They did a lot of experiments on her,' he reasoned. Zack snapped out of his thoughts and asked her with his eyes if she was alright. They always had a special connection where they could understand each other with just a look or a nod. She smiled slightly to reassure him. 'I'm fine' her eyes said.
Zack smiled back quickly at her but stopped when he saw the colonel looking at them. So he stood in line with the rest of them.
Colonel Lydecker stepped forward, still looking deep in thought. "Well, soldiers, this is inspection week. There will be a series of events: obstacle course, sparring, recon and strategy, weaponry recognition, target range, survival mission, and escape and evade. I want to see your best, soldiers. Now, go eat a good breakfast because this will be a very tiring day. Dismissed."
They separated in two lines of nine and marched to the mess hall. However, once they sat down, they started chattering about what would happen later on.
"I hope I do well today," Jace said. "I wasn't so good at sparring last time. I left my right side open too much."
"I wish we could fake it," Tawny said. "I don't want to hurt anybody but they'd notice if I was faking it."
Jack spoke up. "I can't wait 'till target practice. I think I got a whole lot better than last time." He looked down. "I just hope I won't get a seizure and mess things up."
Everyone at the table looked around worriedly. Jack's seizures were getting worse and worse and they were afraid their little brother would get taken away.
"It'll be okay, Jack," Tawny said. Out of their family, Tawny and Ben were the most protective of their little brother. For some reason, Jack was weaker than the rest of them, never up to par with everything they could do.
They continued talking amongst themselves but Zack was the only one who noticed that Max wasn't sharing her opinion with them.
"Maxie? What's wrong?" he asked her.
She looked up. "It's nothing. It's just…" She sighed. "I'm afraid that I won't do well, Zack and they'll take me away."
Zack knew why she was worried. She just came out of surgery and even though she healed fast, she still would need time to recover. She might not do as well. He also knew that if you did really bad, sometimes they took you away for a couple of days as punishment. The colonel expected all of them to do very well.
"Don't worry Maxie. They won't take you away. I won't let them. Okay?"
She smiled up at him. "I know."
Trainer McGee sat at the head of the table for recon and strategy. "Alright, soldiers. Now, I want to know what your ideas are for infiltrating a hotel that doubles as a secret base and has high security, dogs, alarms basically everywhere, security guards, and motion sensors. The objective is to get a microchip hidden in a vault in this base. You are already given the mission specs in the pamphlet in front of you. What do you do?
Jace spoke up. "Sir?"
"Yes, 798? What do you think?"
"Well, sir, I think it would be good to infiltrate the base at night, bring something to keep the dogs occupied, like meat or something, and to plan out an escape route should we be detected. We could get the microchip during the guards' rotations."
"That's a good idea, 798. Anyone else?"
Max raised her hand. "Sir?"
"Yes, 452?"
"I've found a slight flaw in 798's plan"
The trainer raised his eyebrows. "Oh? Explain, 452."
Zack looked at her. 'What is she saying?' he thought.
"Well sir, I think we should have a full day's recon first before we do anything."
The trainer snickered. "452, do you not see the mission specs in front of you?"
"I do Sir," she replied. "But a good commander should never rely on intel from any source that is not his or her own. Forgive me Sir, but maybe the there is a mistake in the mission specs which could lead to our discovery."
The trainer blinked. "You're right 452. A good commander never does that. But say that this information is reliable. What would you do?"
Max continued. "I still would want to take a full day's recon Sir. At hotels there are things like parties and such, which could change some of the information. The guards' rotations could change and then we might be discovered Sir. I agree with 798 about coming in at night though because it would provide us the cover we would need.
The trainer and all the others were impressed. "I must say, 452, you are very good at thinking outside the box." A bell rang. "On to your next class soldiers."
While walking to their next class, Zack caught up to her. "Wow, Maxie that was great. You even stumped me!"
Max laughed. Zack loved to hear her laugh, she didn't do it often enough. "It was nothing Zack." She laughed again when all the others joined them and praised their baby sister.
Next up was the target range. Zack was the best at that, with Max sometimes doing better than him. They both stunned Trainer Garth when they both hit the target every time dead on.
Brin, Max, Zack and Jondy were the best at sparring. Max, though injured, still managed to finish off all her opponents rather quickly.
It was as they were walking to the weapons class that Zack overheard something he couldn't quite understand.
"How is 452 doing in her classes?" a voice said.
Zack recognized it as the Colonel's. 'Why would he single Maxie out?' he asked himself.
"Very well," another voice said. "The experiments we were doing on her didn't seem to slow her down very much. She's doing better than most even though she's injured."
"Could she be what we're looking for?" the Colonel asked.
'What is he looking for?' Zack wondered.
"I'm not sure," the voice said. "She's doing exceptionally well and recovering quickly but it could be that she's just a good soldier. Her and 599 are the top of the X5 series."
"The perfect soldier split in two. Her and 599. Whatever one lacks the other makes up for." The Colonel laughed. "I think that 599's got a little soft spot for her as well. This morning I caught him smiling at her during roll call."
Zack flushed even though he was hiding and they couldn't see him.
"Is that so?" the voice said. "Hmm. Interesting. Am I wrong or does he seem a little overprotective of her whenever you come to pick her up for experiments?"
"No, I think you're right," the Colonel said.
"Let's just hope this kid doesn't turn on you, Deck. They all seem to have a lot of free will."
"Yes, well. Back on task. Did you do a DNA workup of 452?"
"Yes, Colonel. She has nothing unusual about her."
"That doesn't mean it won't happen when she's older. Sandman may have made it so that we wouldn't be able to detect The One until he or she was older and something inside of them changes."
"Maybe. Until then, we'll keep searching for The One."
"Good. Goodbye."
"Bye Deck."
Zack continued his way to class. 'What do they want with Maxie?' He thought hard. 'Who's The One? Oh well, the Colonel's not going to lay a finger on my Maxie.'
"I'm so tired," Krit complained as they made their way to their barracks.
"Tired?" Jondy said. "At least you don't have shark DNA that keeps you up all night. Besides, you're always snoring right after lights out."
"I don't snore!" Krit exclaimed.
Jondy snorted. "Sure you don't."
"Cut it out guys and go to sleep," Zack commanded.
They were all exhausted. It had been a rough day. Tomorrow they had the survival mission and nobody was looking forward to that. The day after that was escape and evade and after that it was the obstacle course then they were done.
He looked around. "Guys, where Maxie?"
Syl bit her lip. "I dunno. I didn't see her come in to take a shower so I just assumed she was walking slowly."
Rena spoke up and her voice was choked up from trying not to cry. "It's my fault."
The rest of her family stopped what they were doing and walked over to her.
"What is Rena?" Zack asked, trying not to sound impatient.
"Maxie. She's being whipped," she said quietly.
"What!" Zack yelled, furious. "Why?"
"When we were leaving class I tripped and knocked the trainer down accidentally. He moved to hit me but Maxie didn't let him and grabbed his wrist. So he let me go and whipped her instead."
"No," Zack whispered. 'She can't endure this much pain. She's still recovering.' There was a hollow feeling in his heart. Every time she got hurt he felt like it was his fault, like he should have done something to prevent it. He was about to leave to find her, consequences be damned, when she walked in.
They were all silent, until Rena burst into tears and ran up and hugged her. "I'm so sorry baby sister. It's all my fault. If I wasn't such a klutz…"
Max sucked in a breath sharply when Rena hugged her. It hurt because she was squeezing too much. "Rena," she said gently. Rena realized what she was doing and let go. "I'm so sorry," she said.
Max tried to smile at her but it hurt. "It's okay Rena. I'm fine."
They stopped talking when they heard the guards coming. "Everybody, get in bed," Zack ordered.
They all ran to their bunks and Zack hurriedly helped Max into her own, which was across from his since she was second in command. Then he jumped in bed and slid under his covers. A guard popped his head in and Max was barely able to stifle a moan. Zack heard it though and he cringed, once more remembering that it was his fault. They left and Zack motioned for them to be quiet and to go to sleep. They had a big day tomorrow. They did so knowing that their baby sister was in good hands.
Zack wet a cloth and went over to Max's bunk. "Oh, Maxie. They hurt you bad?"
Max was in so much pain that all she could do was moan. He gently washed away all the blood with the cloth, getting angrier every time he saw another lash on her back. "How many times did he whip you Maxie?"
She muttered something. "20 times."
'20 times. 20 times. 20 times.' This kept repeating over and over in his head as he tried to process this information. '20 times! Are they crazy! I'm going to kill him, trainer or not.' After her cuts were cleaned, Zack washed the cloth and returned it. "How are ya feeling Maxie?"
Hot tears sprung to her eyes. "It hurts," she moaned. She broke down in sobs, trying to be a good soldier and not cry but she couldn't stop. "My back's on fire."
All around the room her brothers and sisters were pained to hear her cry. Their baby sister was strong, but it hurt to hear her in pain. It seemed she was always the one getting hurt when she had done nothing wrong. Rena tried not to cry because she felt guilty for what happened.
Zack's heart was hurting. It seemed every time she was hurting, so was he although he didn't understand it. He lay down beside her and gently rubbed her back, willing her to go to sleep so she could get better. He pulled her small body against his, and she leaned into him. "Sleep," he whispered. She closed her eyes and shut down her mind so she could get some rest, comforted in the arms of who held her.
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Thanks to-
shygirl1 – Your reviews are always appreciated. Love 'All of Us' Keep up the great work
ZombieGurl98 – Thanks for reviewing all my stories. Hope ya like!