Not Quite Dead – Chapter Eight

Taya Guevera

BANG!

Falling backwards, Eva felt the fire from the bullet in her chest spread to the rest of her body. Hitting the cold floor, her eyes were stuck open, as she was forced to watch as her brothers and sisters were gunned down after her. Rolling to her side, the pain filled eyes of Max, her youngest sister, looked at her, her shaking hand reaching towards her, wanting help. As Eva watched, the light in those deep brown eyes, the eyes that lit up when Ben told his stories at nighttime, started to fade as her hand started to fall, the life leaving her.

Looking over Max's now lifeless body, Eva saw Zack attack two of the guards, snapping their necks in seconds of each other, but two shots from Lydecker's gun ended Zack's triumph. Falling forward, with nothing to stop the impact, the dead body of her CO, and oldest brother hit the floor, the sound echoeing through Eva's mind. Noticing that there was no one left alive, Eva rolled over and came face to face with Lydecker.

"Soldier, this is all your fault. You killed your family."

The pistol that had shot her once, leveled off at her head and struggling to take a deep breath, the blood filling her lungs, she screamed as the gun fired and everything went black.

Not being a deep sleeper, Alec heard Mischa scream next to him. Sitting up and pulling her next to him, he wrapped his arms around her and ran his hand up and down her back.

"Mischa! Mischa baby, wake up. It's just a dream."

Her eyes opened, but they saw nothing except what was in her mind. Still screaming, Mischa struggled against Alec's hold over her, and when she couldn't get free, she passed out. Holding her tightly, he started to move gently, backwards and forwards. He didn't know what she was dreaming about, but it was obviously something that held a tight grip on her mind. Her breathing slowed down after a few minutes, so Alec softly called her name.

"Mischa? Please wake up."

After a few seconds, her eyes opened and startled, she jerked straight. Letting her go, but staying were he was, Alec kept his hands in front of him and gave a small smile.

"Hey, it's just me."

Nodding, Mischa took a deep breath and looked around. Her gaze coming back to Alec, he saw that her eyes were full of unshed tears.

"Are you okay?"

Not saying a word, Mischa shook her head and closed her eyes, the tears slowly running down her face. Taking her into his arms again, he spoke quietly to her, trying to make her stop crying.

"It was just a dream Misch. Nothing more. It wasn't true."

"It felt so true."

Pulling back slightly, Alec put his hand on the side of her face, using his thumb to wipe away the tears.

"What happened?"

"I was back at Manticore, and I got everyone killed."

"Manticore doesn't exist anymore, so you don't need to worry about it."

"You don't understand."

"Then tell me."

"I was 10 again, and we were trying to escape, except, instead of everyone but me getting out, it turned into a bloodbath. Everyone was killed, and Lydecker told me that it was my fault, that I led my family to this. He left me alive until the end, so I would see what happened to the rest of them."

"Lydecker was a sick bastard Mischa. You know that. But it was just a dream."

"Then why does it feel like it was true? That all the problems that they came up against on the outside weren't my fault?"

"Because that's what they do, it's part of their brainwashing thing."

"When I escaped years later, it took me months to get rid of what they brainwashed me with."

They stopped talking, the silence strangely comfortable. Maybe it was because Mischa knew that Alec knew what she was talking about; where she was coming from. For the first time, Mischa had someone to talk to about what she went through back at Manticore, and that person wasn't judging her.

Glancing at his watch, he noticed that the time was a little after lunch. The reports from the night's surveillance had come up empty. According to the reports, there was no activity at the house all night. The lights went off around 11pm, one by one, not all at once, which made them eliminate the idea of a timing device and every phone call put through to the place had been picked up, and not by an answering machine.

Tugging at the knot in his tie, but leaving it still on, White sat down at the desk in his makeshift office. Because the Pulse had never happened here in Australia, it was easy for them to come in and claim juridiction over a case in the city through the local law enforcement. Also, it was a hell of a lot cheaper as the police in Australia weren't corrupt like their Seattle counterparts. Looking at the few phone messages that were left on his desk during the early morning, White decided that it was time to take another look at the problem at hand, and from a fresher, more reliable source.

"Otto!"

The latino looking agent walked up to the open door and stuckhis head inside.

"Yes sir?"

"Get me our informant on the phone. Seeing as we spent the night casing 391's house to no avail, maybe she'll be able to put us in the right direction this time."

"Yes sir."

"Oh, and Otto?"

"Sir?"

"Make sure you keep a trace on her phone at all times. I don't want our only lead on this Manticore brat to suddenly disappear on us."

"Yes sir."

Relaxing slightly, knowing that he had placed the job in the capable hands of his second in charge, White put his feet up on the desk and leaned back on his chair. For all purposes, White was just another guy doing his job, with no one in Australia being the wiser for it. Opening the top drawer, he pulled out the last photo he had of Ray, his son, still missing from when 452 and her sidekick had taken him from The School. He still didn't know if his son was alive, but knowing 452, she wouldn't have the heart to kill him.

"For a genetically engineered super soldier, she sure lacks that killer instinct" he muttered to himself as he set his mind to a more pleasant topic. The many ways in which he would torture 452 to get the location of his son.

Alec watched as Mischa busied herself around the kitchen. They had spent a few hours talking over things in their bedroom, and had eventually decided to come downstairs for something to eat. Letting Mischa take control of it, Alec had seated himself on a stool at the breakfast bar. He had only pulled his jeans on over his boxer shorts, being told by Mischa earlier that Andreas would be at work until later in the evening. Mischa had pulled her jeans on as well, but was wearing a tight singlet top, that didn't really leave much to Alec's imagination, but granted, his imagination was usually a lot more active than that of most guys in the world.

"There's some left over chicken, stuff I can use to make a salad if you want, some wine, which I'm definitely having, and some left over steamed rice."

Turning around from having her head buried in the fridge, she glanced at Alec, who'd caught himself staring at her. She was very different to Max physically, but at the same time, so much the same. He couldn't quite explain it, but there was something about her that he couldn't put his finger on, and whatever it was, it was drawing him in at a fast pace.

"Chicken sounds great. It's not exactly something that one comes by on a regular basis back in Seattle."

Turning around back into the fridge, Mischa felt her face heat up slightly at the look that Alec had been giving her earlier. Grabbing the chicken and the fixings for a salad, she closed the door with her hip and put everything on the counter in between herself and Alec.

"Really? How come?"

"One of the side effects of the Pulse I guess. Things that people took for granted, such as chicken, became a hot commodity on the black market. So unless you're happy to be paying up to 200 for a pound of chicken, then you're going to have to do without."

"Can't have everything I suppose."

Picking one of the carrots out of the salad stuff, Alec thoughtfully took a bite from it. Usually carrots weren't something that he would choose as something to munch on, but because he couldn't recall the last time he'd actually eaten one, he kept eating it.

"I'm sorry about earlier." He heard Mischa softly say.

"Hey, it's not a problem. Don't ever feel like you have to apologise about it to me. I understand what it was like. Hell, most of the X5's who were left behind after the 09 escape probably had the same dreams."

Nodding silently, Mischa looked at Alec thoughfully, then, with a sparkle in her eye, grabbed the half eaten carrot from Alec's hand and took a bite. Stunned, Alec didn't move a muscle to save his food, but raised an eyebrow when she handed it back to him, minus the two bites she had taken.

"Thanks for sharing." She said with a grin and she bent over and started rummaging through the shelves looking for the frying pan so she could cook the chicken.

Knowing that his mind was wandering to places he knew wasn't good for it, Alec stood up, carrot in one hand, the other in his jeans pocket, and walked into the next room. The house was about half as big as Rachel Barrisford's had been, but the design and decoration of the place made it feel bigger. On one side of the room sat the massive stereo system that he'd eyed off when they first arrived the night before. Walking over to it, he looked for the power button, only to hear Mischa yell from the kitchen.

"The remote is on the coffee table just near you."

Silently raising the nearly finished carrot in thanks, Alec grinned as his eyes landed on the 'remote' on the coffee table. It looked like a mini screen. Picking it up, he sat on the coffee table and gave it the quick once over before touching the screen. As soon as his finger came into contact with it, the screen lit up, revealing 8 different boxes/functions. Pressing stereo, he heard music softly come out of the speakers that were positioned around the room. From the sounds of it, it was a latin mix, definitely something worth dancing too, but Alec was man/X5 enough to admit that dancing wasn't exactly his forte.

Putting the remote back onto the table, he turned the volume up a little bit and walked back into the kitchen. Although he'd only been out of the room for not even 10 minutes, he could see that their 'lunch' was almost ready. The chicken was smelling fantastic, and the faint aroma of the now open wine bottle was enticing. Glancing around for Mischa, he didn't see her as he made his way to the frying pan on the stove and took a deeper smell. Quickly sticking his finger in the juices, he brought it to his lips and tasted the seasoning that Mischa had put on the chicken.

"Taste nice?"

Smiling, Alec turned around and leant against the bench next to the stove top. Raising an eyebrow, he shrugged.

"Tastes fine to me, but maybe you should check for yourself."

Walking towards him, she stood in front of him and brought her face close to his. Looking him straight in the eye, she raised her own eyebrow and smiled.

"If you insist." She said, slowly bringing his finger, with some of the sauce still on it, to her mouth. Moving away slightly, she took it into her mouth and nearly laughed at the shocked expression on his face as she slowly sucked the remains of the sauce off his finger. Licking her lips, she grinned at Alec.

"Always loved Cajun seasoning."

"Agent White?"

"What is it Otto?"

"We have the informant of the phone sir. Line 4."

"Good job Otto. I'll take it."

"Yes sir."

Making sure Otto had closed the door behind him, White sat up in his chair and leant forward, picking the phone up from it's cradle and pressed the button for Line 4.

"This is Special Agent White."

"I understand that you watched her house all night but nothing came up."

"That's right. Maybe you're doing this to give us the run around."

"That's not true, and you know it. I want you to get this thing away from me and my family as soon as you can."

Leaning forward, his elbows on the desk, he frowned into the phone.

"And why is that? I haven't been able to understand what it is that brought you to report her to us."

"Let's just say it's of a personal nature."

"Personal as in she stole your boyfriend, or she took your job and this is payback?"

"None of the above, and I don't think it's really any of your concern. I just want you to get her as soon as possible to get rid of her. She's caused enough problems as it is. Do you want my help or not?"

"So far your help has opened the case considerably, however I would be more at ease if I knew who you were and why this was such an important issue for you."

"Then I guess you're going to have to remain uncomfortable Agent White. I'll give you some addresses of some of her friends. Maybe she's staying with one of them now that she's disappeared."

Squeezing the phone in his hand, and wanting to smash it against the wall at the woman's stubbornness to reveal herself, he got a pen and paper from his side tray and took a deep breath.

"Fine, if that's the way you want it."

"It is."

"What are the addresses?"

10 minutes later, White walked out of his office and towards the Korean experts that they had brought with them from the States – the ones who had found him Eyes Only.

"Report."

"It looks like the phone call originated from an area called Applecross. It's south of the Swan River."

"Have we got an ID on the caller yet?"

"Still working on it sir. Should be ready in about 5 minutes."

"Good. I'll be in my office."

"Yes sir."

Walking back into his office, he called Otto in before closing the door. Walking around bhind his desk, he once again took his position in his comfortable office chair.

"Otto, she gave me a list of some people she thinks she may be staying with. I want you to get a team together and check them out. I just want a routine surveillance on the addresses, no TAC teams. Understood?"

"Yes sir."

As Otto turned to leave, the door opened with the same technician who worked with the Korean computer analyists.

"Sir, we have an identification."

"What's her name?"

Sorry it's been a long time coming. I've written and re written this chapter about 5 times. I was going to go with a more Mischa/Alec centric chapter talking about their lives in the real world (blah, blah, blah) but thought that White needed some attention as well. I'm playing Alec the way that I am because I think, in the show, both Max and Alec seem to bring out the worst in each other... attitude wise, so I'm picturing Alec to be a lot like he was in The Berrisford Agenda normally...

Sorry to leave it hanging like this though… well, no, not really :D I'd be interested to hear who y'all think it might be though.

As usual, thanks to everyone who reviewed! I really do appreciate them!

Black Rose9 – No, I don't watch the OC. I triedwatching one episode, and lost interest about 5 minutes in.

ZombieGurl98 – thanks for being such a great reviewer! You're great for the ego! lol