Title: M.I.A

Author: Lexie Jayne

Rating: PG

Characters: Jondy/Zane; Max/Alec; Syl/Krit; Logan, Zack.

Summary: Jondy vanishes, risking the lives of her loved ones, Max is faced with a new future and Terminal City faces it's biggest challenge yet the return of old enemies and allies. WIP. JZ, SK, MA

Feedback: Would be lovely if you feel inclined.
Notes: I hope you're all enjoying this! Thank you for the lovely reviews.

Warnings: Language

Disclaimer: All recognizable characters belong to James Cameron. I make no profit from this fan based venture.


Max left Zane and Tanner in the hotel room cum apartment and went to the High Place. Not the Space Needle; it wasn't safe for transgenics to leave Terminal City at any time. Supplies were smuggled in via the 'Underworld'; transgenics dealing on the black market and delivering things via the sewer systems that ran all over the city.

No, the Terminal City High Place was the top of the building dubbed X6 Hall; it was where the remaining X6s camped out. The roof was one of the only ones in Terminal City still intact, and it was one of the tallest buildings. From the roof, Max could see all of Terminal City and a bit of Seattle.

Reaching into her pocket, Max pulled out the small silver cell phone Logan had pressed into her hands just before Bling arrived in his car; Logan had been seen at Terminal City, his penthouse in shambles and most likely under constant surveillance, he couldn't stay in Terminal City because of the toxins. He couldn't stay in Seattle because there was most likely a price on his head now. So Bling was accompanying Logan to his Uncle's cabin, the safest place for him to be.

But that didn't make anything less awkward. Logan's parting words to Max were, 'we need to talk soon.' And Max knew that having that talk over the phone was probably safer than actually in person.

Max took a deep breath and hit speed dial '1'.

"You have reached the number you dialled…" Max had gotten Logan's voice mail. So much for that deep conversation about the future of their relationship. Max almost threw the cell phone off the roof; this was the third time she'd called him since he'd left. First time, it was accidental, she was trying to work out how to set up speed dial. The second time… a moment of weakness. She'd gotten voice mail that time as well.

"Logan, it's me again. I need you to run a search on a girl who was living in Chicago. Jondy De Luca. She went missing about two weeks ago, went to work and never came home. She's an X5 too. Anyway, I've got her boyfriend and daughter here, pretty worried. So, anyway, hit me back when you get this message, you never know, third time might be lucky."

Max slammed the cell phone shut and jammed it into her pocket and sat back on the roof, staring out over Terminal City…

"Not answering his phone, huh, Max?" Alec appeared beside her, sitting down, his gaze focused off into the distance.

"Eavesdropping on my calls? That's even beneath Renfro, let alone you, Alec," Max retorted, pushing her hair out of face.

"Hey, I'm just looking out for you, Max," Alec held up his hands in defence.

"Go. Away. From. Me - make yourself useful or something," Max turned and walked away.

"Useful? Huh, sorry Max, I don't have a dictionary on me," Alec called after her.

"Then take up knitting or something. Go away," Max shouted back, not turning around, smiling at the completely predictable banter between her and Alec. 'Even when I think I've hit rock bottom, at least I can rely on Alec to be annoying.'

Alec watched Max climb off the roof. 'Logan is insane if he spent a whole year dancing around her.' He stared off into space for awhile longer before climbing off the roof. No one stayed up on the rooves long since the snipers starting picking them off. The snipers started about now, just before dawn.

"Alec, right?"

"Yeah. Zane?" Alec turned around to face Zane. "Where's the kid?"

Zane fell into step with Alec. "Some cat Nomalie offered to watch her for awhile. Tanner loves cats, so she should be okay there for awhile. Listen, I was wondering if you knew about the rest of my sibs."

"The rest?" Alec looked at Zane curiously.

"Syl, Krit, Tawny, Sway and Micah," Zane supplied. "They aren't already here are they?"

Alec thought for a second and shook his head. "Nope - actually, we only have 10 X5s here - including you, me and Max - and they're all from my squad."

Zane nodded, looking disappointed. "So, do you have any way to contact them? Without them getting tracked down or something."

"Talk to Max. She's tight with Eyes Only and the S1W," Alec shrugged and they continued walking in silence for a few seconds. "You care to share about you and Max and the others?"

"You mean the other '09 escapees?" Zane asked.

"Yeah. I mean, Max won't talk about any of you; all I know is the live action I got when 599 fell in with the Steelheads and all that."

Zane stopped walking and gave Alec a hard look. "599? I thought you got out with Max when Manticore burnt down?"

"Yeah. Why?"

"Zack - 599 - died three months before that fire." The tone of Zane's voice warned Alec to refer to Zack with his name. Not his designation.

"Manticore had this whole experiment going with synthetic organs and crap. 599 - Zack - is alive. He's out on some farm in Iowa, now," Alec shrugged and kept walking. Before realising Zane hadn't followed him. "What?"

Zane looked up at Alec. "Tell me everything you know about Zack," he said in a quiet, blank voice.

Alec looked thoughtful for a second. "If you tell me everything you know about the '09 escapees."

Zane's expression was unreadable. "Done."

"Okay. Max and I ran into 599 on a run for Jam Pony. And he had this partial amnesia. Manticore had recreated with synthetic organs and steel plates. Like some warped version of that movie; 'Terminator.' 599 blamed Max's boy on him and Max going back to Manticore and tries to kill good old Logan. Of course, Max, being the knight in shining armour in that relationship, wipes 599's memory and sends him out to the cornfields until he learns to heel," Alec finished. "Last I heard he was Adam Thompson."

Zane nodded slowly, his expression still blank. "So, Zack's out there but he doesn't remember Manticore, he doesn't remember who he is and he doesn't know how much danger he's in?"

"In a nutshell, yeah."

Zane sighed, looking irritated. "Look, I need to find Maxie and get someone to go out and get Zack out of there. I'll give you the 411 on the others later."

Alec nodded. "Okay. But don't tell Max I told you."

Zane gave Alec a funny look. Alec shrugged and with a grin. "She might beat me."

Zane visibly shuddered before jogging off in search of Max.

Max was looking through some abandoned buildings in the back of Terminal City, trying to find out which were safe enough to inhabit and which needed repairs when Zane tracked her down.

"Zane, what's up? I thought you and Tanner were sleeping?" Max asked, jumping down from the roof of one building.

"Max, I've lived with Jondy for the best part of two years; I've got my sleeping patterns down," Zane said wryly. "Look, I was talking to… to some of the transgenics around here and they told me what happened with Zack."

Max looked at the ground. "Zane, it was the only thing I could do at the time. He was going to kill Logan."

Zane shook his head. "It was the wrong thing to do and you know. I can imagine what Syl – and Jondy – are going to do and say to you when they find out and it isn't pretty."

Max bit her lip. "You don't understand what it was like. He didn't remember anything. I gave him that normal life he wanted so badly."

"Max," Zane interrupted. "We're never going to be normal, and I know the rest of us accept that and try to live as normal a life as possible. Zack knows this. But Zack's the sort of guy who lusts after the things he can't have – a normal life, you, Lydecker's head on a platter…"

"I did what I thought was right," Max snapped. "You can't tell me what I should've done when you were off playing house with Jondy."

"Playing house?" Zane retorted. "Jondy and Syl were the ones running after the transgenics that ended up in Chicago. They were the two that set up refuges the public didn't know about, the ones who bailed the Nomalies out of public executions. And most of this was done while Jondy was pregnant. No matter how much I love Tanner, she definitely wasn't planned, Max."

Max took a deep breath. "Okay. Look, I'm sorry I gave Zack a normal life and saved the life of my… of Logan."

"I'm not mad at you, Max," Zane said slowly. "I'm annoyed that you didn't have Zack's best interests in mind when you sent him to Iowa, but your own. I'm annoyed you think Jondy and I had it easy in Chicago but I'm not mad."

"What do you want to do about Zack?" Max said, sitting down on a crate.

"I want to send Syl and Krit in with another X5 Syl knows. Syl's the best at that psych stuff and this X5 she knows is from a special branch of psy-ops," Zane said.

"Is her name Mia?" Max asked out of the blue.

"Yeah," Zane said with a grin. "She was teaching Tawny and Syl and Jondy all these psych tricks. Krit and I were going insane with all the crap they were pulling. Wait.. how do you know Mia?"

"Long story," Max shrugged. "How do you know her?"

"Those refuges in Chicago. I think Tawny took it upon himself to turn Mia into his idea of a perfect woman and it backfired on him," Zane said with a grin. "Moron."

"Tawny?" Max's face lit up at the mention of another brother. "He got out?"

"Yeah. Him and Micah and Sway," Zane said, with a reminiscent grin. "Sway's off in New York City, trying to make it as a Broadway actress and failing miserably. Micah was up in New Orleans with Mia and Tawny was going up to see Jace last time we spoke."

Max shook her head. "I never thought I'd know who those other three were. I can't believe Tawny and Micah split from Manticore."

Zane shrugged. "After we lost Jack and Eva, they had no reason to stay."

"I thought Tawny would've stuck around for Jace," Max said. "Sway was Eva's best friend."

"She's doing okay, now," Zane said slowly, nodding. "She's happy being the worst actress to ever walk the face of the planet, I think."

Max laughed. "An actress? What did Zack say?"

Zane leant against some railing. "Zack went off, of course. How irresponsible she was being and how she was endangering everyone's lives. Don't know why he bothered, really. Sway changes her look so often, Lydecker never would've caught up with her."

Max smiled. "What do the others do?"

Zane looked up. "Well, Micah and Mia were running some scam psychic operation to the rich and famous of Beverly Hills. Tawny just drives up and down the West Coast, doing odd jobs and visiting us all. Jondy, Syl, Tawny and Micah ran the transgenic refuges for awhile but they've handed that over to some other trans humans now. Syl was writing a book about her life that Krit said was very long winded and Krit was a bike messenger in San Fran last I heard. Jace is living off the earnings of everyone now." A sad look fluttered over Zane's face for a second.

"What happened?" Max said, looking concerned.

"Victor turned up dead. Jace's son, Max, is fine… except for some killer seizures," Zane said quietly. "Tawny and I have told Jace we don't think he'll make it past his fifth birthday and that she should spend as much with him as possible. So, we all pitch in and send Jace some of our pay check each week."

Max looked upset. "I didn't know. This year has been so hard with White and the virus and everything I didn't get to talk to her as much as I wanted to."

"It's okay, Max, we had Jace's back," Zane said. "We've got your back as well."

"Thanks."

"No prob."

"Zane," Max said, after a moment of silence as they both mulled over what had been said.

"Yeah?"

"Tell me about Jondy."

Zane looked at Max, his little sister. The little sister who'd fallen through the ice eleven years ago and whom Jondy had mourned for every day since then. Max looked at her boots, remembering Jondy as a child.

"She's got dark hair," Zane started slowly. "It used to be long, now it's shorter. She cut it to just past her shoulders. About the same height as you, I think. She's still got those blue eyes. Jon's wonderful with Tanner. She really loves her. You should see Jondy and Syl together; Krit used to call them the Chaos Twins. Krit's not so keen on Jondy now that Syl's trying to convince Krit to start a family; Krit blames Jon for planting the idea in Syl's head."

"What?" Max interrupted. "Freeze frame and rewind. Syl AND Krit? Since when?"

"Since '18. Geez, Zack really did leave you out in the cold. Before '18, Krit and I travelled together and Syl travelled with Tawny. I know Jondy spent a lot of time with Zack as a kid."

Max's shoulders slumped. "You guys are all so close. I feel like I've lost a lifetime."

"Don't," Zane sat down next to her. "We were scattered all over America, at one point. I don't think any of the escapee pairs actually managed to stay together that night. We all got split up. We're all hooking up again."

Max nodded slowly. "Guess we better go and get Syl and Krit and Mia on Zack's case, huh?"

"Probably a good idea," Zane nodded. "Let me check on Tanner first."

They started back towards Main Hall and the apartment block.

"So, guess this is the family reunion we've been working towards," Max said. "We just need to bail Jondy out and it'll be like old times."

Zane nodded, looking away at the mention of Jondy.

"We'll get her back," Max promised. "I'm not letting my niece grow up without a Mama." Max's thoughts flicked back to Case, who'd never see his own mother again. Silently, Max vowed to get Jondy back. 'I'm not letting another X5 leave a baby behind,' she thought. 'The world owes us Jondy.'