Disclaimer: The TV show Dark Angel, all of the characters that appeared on it (Max, Zack, Alec, etc.), and everything else that has to do with the show belong to their respective owners, not to me. No money is being made off of this fic. I only own the original characters (Becky/X6-405, etc.).

"I hate my cousin Cooper," Jenny said to Max the next afternoon at the safehouse. "He's a year younger than I am but he's always making fun of me and bothering me whenever I see him. I tell Mom every time, but she says that it's just a stage that he's going through and I should just ignore him and he'll stop eventually."

"Boys do go through those stages," Max agreed. I think almost all of my brothers went through that stage, well they went through that stage at night when we weren't around trainers or guards or Lydecker! I think the only one who never went through a bratty stage was Zack. Even Jack went through a period when he was a little bit of a pain-in-the-ass. "My brother Krit was a big brat when he was about seven or eight years old. When we weren't training, he'd be bothering me and the rest of our family like there was no tomorrow."

Jenny shook her head. "I don't get boys sometimes."

"I don't think that you're supposed to understand boys at your age, Jenny," Max said. "It took me forever to begin to understand them. I still don't completely understand them and I'm a lot older than you are."

"Oh," Jenny said. She shrugged and looked at Max's right arm. "When did you get those weird tattoo things?"

"What tattoo things?" Max asked. She looked at her arm and mentally groaned. Here we go again! I hate these stupid runes. The others have faded, but what the hell, let's get some more because I just can't go without these things! "It's a long story. I don't think that I'll keep these for very long."

"Oh, okay," Jenny said.

Max smiled and turned when she heard footsteps come up the stairs and then the door opened and Syl stuck her head in. "What is it, sis?"

"Our replacements are here," Syl said. "It's time to get back to Terminal City."

"Okay," Max said. "I've got to go, Jenny. I'll see you later."

"Okay," Jenny said. "You're really cool, Max." She grinned. "Will you teach me how to ride your motorcycle?"

"You'd have to ask your mother about that, but I've got a feeling that she'd say no," Max said.

"I know that," Jenny said. "I asked her a few months ago if she could teach me how to ride her bike and she told me that I had to wait until I was older."

Max laughed. "I'll see you later." She and Syl left the safehouse and walked through the connecting tunnel and into Terminal City. She rubbed her arms. "I need to go to the control room A.S.A.P. Do you want to come with?"

"Sure," Syl said. She followed Max as Max walked quickly towards the main building. "Slow down, Maxie. What's the rush?"

"This is," Max said. She held out her right arm in front of Syl. "Jenny noticed these new runes on my arm just before we left the safehouse."

"Yikes," Syl said. "Well, the prophecy did mention something about things happening after you and Zack 'uniting.' Maybe this is it."

"I hope so," Max said. They arrived at the building and went straight into the control room. "Dix, I need this translated A.S.A.P."

Dix blinked in surprise but nodded. "Yeah, no problem." He took his digital camera off of the computer desk and took pictures of the new runes. "When did these pop up on you?"

"Not long at all," Max said. "Colonel Robinson's daughter noticed them right before those X4s came by to replace us on guard duty at the safehouse." She sighed irritably. "Why don't they just come up and tattoo a whole fucking novel on my body? It'd probably be a best seller, too."

Jeff got up from the chair that he'd been sitting in and slowly made his way over to Max and looked at the runes. "What chapter would this make these things?"

"You've been hanging around us too long," Max teased. "You've been much more sarcastic lately."

"Ooops," Jeff said. He grinned. "So sue me."

"I'll wait until you're off those crutches," Max teased. "I tend to take pity on the sick and injured."

"Gee, thanks," Jeff remarked. He and Max both laughed.

"What's so funny?" Zack asked as he entered the control room.

"Hey, baby," Max said. She gave him a kiss. "We're just joking around while Dix translates the new runes."

"New runes?" Zack repeated.

Max nodded. "Yeah, they're right here." She held out her arm to show the runes to Zack. "They only showed up a little while ago while I was still at the safehouse. I wanted to get them translated as soon as possible."

"I don't blame you," Zack said. He abruptly turned around and glared at Syl. "I did hear that. If you weren't a woman, I'd be very tempted to punch you right now."

"I know," Syl said. She smirked triumphantly. "Why do you think I said that under my breath in the first place? I wasn't engineered with an ordinary's I.Q."

"I got them translated," Dix said.

"Spill it," Max said.

"Will do," Dix said. He began to read the translation off of his monitor. "'The time has now come for The One, with The Guardian by her side, to confront The Dark One. The Dark One will be identified by a mark. This mark will be located midway between the elbow and the shoulder on The Dark One's right arm and will be somewhat irregular in shape, almost like a puddle of water. Do not fear, for soon the world will be safe and the ones whom The Dark One belongs to will no longer be able to harm everybody.'"

"Well, that's great," Max said sarcastically. "Who wants to go with me to ask random Familiars to roll up their right shirt sleeves so that we could see if they have some birthmark like the one my runes described?"

"Yeah, I'll go. It'll be fun to see…" Jeff's voice suddenly trailed off as a memory came back to him. His eyes widened. "Holy shit! The whole fucking time, it was right there in front of us! The whole fucking time!"

"What are you talking about?" Zack asked.

"I know who The Dark One is," Jeff said.

"You do?" Max asked. "You mean you actually saw a Familiar with the birthmark that my runes were talking about? When was this?"

Jeff looked at Max grimly. "A few days ago right before he gave me something to knock me out so that I'd be nice and quiet when he and his friend would take me to what they had hoped would be my death."

Max's jaw dropped. "You've got to be shitting me!"

"What?" Zack said. "Max, what is Jeff saying?"

"It's White."

TBC

Notes: Thank you so much again for the review and for your support, angelofdarkness78! There will be some more Max/Zack coming up and I will deal with the issue of whether or not Max is pregnant fairly early on in the sequel to this fic. I will probably not update very often if at all within the next week or so because I have a project due and then my final exam for my class. Thank you so much again!