Disclaimer: I do not own Dark Angel or anything related to it. Dark Angel is owned by other people and they're stupid because they didn't give us more than two seasons. Of course they at least gave us those, which is good.

Disclaimer Part Two: I do however own Blaze, Heresy, Leo, Anubis, Blaze's pack/unit and other things that might seem unfamiliar.

Heire is short for Heresy – it's the only way I can write it without it actually meaning something else

Pack Instinct

2

"How did Zack die?" I asked slowly while looking over the papers. Max had placed a piece of abstract art in front of me and then pointed at some paper towards the middle. Apparently Alec and Joshua had messed up her way of finding the antidote. I heard Max gulp.

"He… he was shot in the chest but he was fine," she began and I closed my eyes. I opened them again and stared at the papers not taking in a number, word or symbol. "I had gotten shot in the heart and he… killed himself so I could have his heart. They kept him alive and eventually gave him electronic features to make up for what he'd lost. He was regaining his memory slowly but I had to shock him to save Logan. When he came to, his memory was wiped clean and we sent him away." I looked up with tears streaming down my eyes. Max sat down next to me. She was older than I was and since I had lost my brothers and sisters, she was the closest I had to a relative. I leaned my head on her shoulder.

"We didn't want anything to happen. He lives on a farm now and thinks he's someone he's not," she said and stroked my hair. "He's happy now." We sat there in silence and I heard Joshua come in behind us. He felt my waves of grief and left the room, hanging his head in respect for me. "Why?" Max asked me after a long while.

"I was inspired by Zack and his unit's escape. I wanted mine to leave to, but they stayed behind. I know they're trained to kill me and I feel alone now. I have no pack, so my status of alpha is lost. I admired Zack so much in the way he handled situations with you. I wanted to be like him, but it's different with wolves," I said slowly. I sat up and sniffed. "We fought a lot, me and my brothers and sisters. They tried to gain dominance and although I was better than them in strength, they had their qualities and I loved them dearly. But they're gone now." I wiped the tears from my face feeling very sad for myself.

"It's alright," Max said and stroked my hair again. "And as for that pack you need, Terminal City is one big pack just looking for someone to join the gang."

"You're the alpha," I said slowly and hoped she realized what my wolf instincts might do when worst came to worst, despite her being a cat. She caught on.

"Oh, don't mind. Any time you wanna wrangle, I'm happy to kick your ass for you," she said with a smile across her face. I smiled in response. I was glad Max would be my alpha.

"Joshua," I asked the dog-man. He was standing in front of a painting giving it a few red streaks. He turned and smiled at me.

"Blaze," he said and pointed at the picture. "Blaze."

"I… I don't understand," I said slowly and tilted my head. My pack never learnt the fine arts, we were assassination only.

"See black," he said pointing to the big black blob in the middle. "For fear. I smell fear in Blaze. And pain." I sunk my head. He noticed but carried on. "Red for hair. Blaze has nice hair. For feelings coming out. For love. For belonging. Like Joshua."

"Belonging?" I wasn't sure what he meant by that. I didn't belong anywhere, I was cast out of my pack and Two was sure to kill me when he saw me.

"Blaze belong to Max. To Heresy. To Alec. To Logan. To Joshua," he said and looked at me when mentioning his name. I smiled.

"Belong to Joshua," I repeated. I could see that the two of us were going to get along well enough. "And the yellow?" I asked and pointed.

"Smile. Blaze smile when happy." I smiled at him and he grabbed a tube of yellow and squirted it onto the picture. I giggled, something I never thought I'd do.

"Belong to Joshua," I said and gave him a hug. "Run free, Joshua," I muttered to myself, but I knew he heard it, although I doubt he understood it.

"Do you think she can help us?" Logan asked. "With the virus?"

"She noticed it well enough, don't you think?" Max said sounding a little to vicious. "Sorry."

"She's interesting. Heresy says she had wolf DNA, which is why you, Alec and her tense up when she's around," Logan said. Max nodded slowly.

"I guess that's it. But…" she paused and shifted in her seat. "We just had a really nice moment there."

"A moment?" Logan asked confused because he hadn't been there.

"She feels so lost, but I told her she has us and… I guess we bonded," Max said with a shrug and a smile. Logan smiled back at her. "I'm kinda confidant she can do it."

"I really don't want to sound pessimistic, but…"

"Don't say it then, Logan," Max said and got up. "I trust her. Blaze is like Zack. She'd never let her pack down." Logan watched Max leave the room and although he didn't understand much of what she'd said, he got the basic gist and that was good enough for him.

"White's heard about you being here," said a young man dryly. He had short dirty blonde hair, the cat genes in his DNA and the calm mellow that I remembered from Zack. He was one of Zack's X5s I knew more about than the others. He was directly related to my blonde hero, he was his twin brother, Leo. I didn't need to know his designation or get a glimpse of his barcode for that.

"Who?" I asked. Leo raised his eyebrow very slightly probably confused that I didn't ask his name.

"Ames White. He kinda hates us transgenics because he has his own little breeding cult in which we're not included," Leo explained. I heard Alec and Heresy come up from behind me. "White knows she's here."

"And?" Alec asked. "He sends some goons, we kill 'em. No worries there."

"I think he's showing a special interest in Blaze," Leo said and I titled my head in confusion. The others had the same expression on their faces. "I suspect you don't know then?" I shook my head. "I'll see if Logan and I can find something then," he said.

"He looks like Zack, doesn't he?" I asked slowly as I turned to the other two.

"Eh, Zack has a bit more of a muscular figure," Alec said. "And a bigger jaw." I nodded.

"Just as good-looking though, can't deny," Heresy said and nudged me. "Can see why you like him?"

"Who?" Alec and I asked at the same time. I thought I heard a hint of some kind of emotion in Alec's voice, but I must have been making it up because he didn't look it.

"Zack," Heresy said with a look that indicated she thought us both idiots and walked off swaying her hips. She could have been a model, had it not been for the people hating her.

"Zack?" Alec asked as the two of us walked off.

"He… he's like my idol," I said slowly. Somehow, I didn't want to tell Alec how exactly I had felt for Zack over all these years. "He inspired me to run and rename my pack."

"Quite a sparking guy too. A bit of a temper at times, but he ain't that bad," Alec said but I knew he didn't mean it. Something told me, he didn't want to tell me how exactly he felt about Zack either. Why not?

"Alec. Blaze. Come," we heard Joshua's voice and I smiled when seeing my friend again. Alec and I walked over to Joshua and looked over to his newest painting. He seemed to be doing these in a wild fire.

"What does it mean?" Alec and I asked simultaneously. Joshua ignored out ignorance and pointed to the colours.

"Terminal City," he said. "Colours, people, us, everybody." He pointed at a small brownish-yellow blob. "Joshua." A pure red blob turned out to be Max and a blue one was Logan. The bright green one was for Heresy and Joshua had speckled black over it. "Heresy bites," he explained. A black blob slightly outside of the big mass with a few red streaks was myself, but Joshua pointed to the black blob that was Alec. Next to it was another equal to my blob and Joshua said it was me as well. I tilted my head, confused about my double appearance.

"It's cause you feel like an outsider, but you're not really," Alec explained to me and I tilted my head towards him to see if I could get his point of view. I felt him gulp and a wash of warmth came from him. I hoped I was holding the warmth I had better than he was.

"Alec understand," Joshua said and slapped down hard onto Alec's shoulder. He cringed in pain. "Blaze like?" I nodded.

"I'll always like what you draw, Joshua. I might not understand it, but whatever makes you happy, makes the pack happy," I said. I cursed. I had no pack anymore, I was not the pack. I was a single person.

I was going through the notes again and had moved on to Logan's computers which held information on the actual virus.

"It's targeted specifically to me," Logan explained. "Manticore isn't one of the biggest fans of my work and they decided to use the person I lo… to use Max to kill me."

"Anything that goes against what Manticore does, I'll help all the way," I told him.

"I heard," he said. He watched me working for a while and then spoke again: "So, a pack?"

"We were six in the unit, all with wolf DNA. It made us arrange ourselves like a real pack of wolves and the excessive hunting genes make us violent at times," I said and noticed what I'd said. I ran my mental calendar.

"Violent?" Logan asked slowly and watched me carefully.

"Two days," I said. "I'll be fine for the next two days and then I should be locked up for a week. Maybe just five days, but seven would be better."

"You sure?"

"It's always on time," I informed him and turned back the notes. I needed no paper keeping all the calculations stored in my head.

"How often does his happen?" While running some numbers through my head and called up my calendar in a second part of my mind.

"277, 128, once every two months, 16," I said trying not to loose track. The calendar was gone and I was working again. Logan nodded and left. He was going to let the others know, but that was fine. I only hoped, for the sake of my new alpha, I would be able to work out the antidote soon.

I jumped at the idea running through my head and fell back of my chair. Logan came back and helped me up.

"I have to finish this before… tell Leo it's because of my antibodies," I said and quickly returned to the computer. Confused Logan left the room.

"Antibodies, huh?" Leo said looking slightly confused. "She says it's in her blood?"

"She didn't really say it but I expect that's where they are," Logan explained. "I think she might have certain antibodies in her blood that you guys don't have."

"Like, for example, the ones to kick my viruses ass?" Max asked carefully. Alec slapped a hand down on her shoulder.

"Knowing the wonder scientists at Manticore, that's most probably the deal. I bet they planted all the anti-viruses they could find in her blood and then sent of her off not knowing it would mess up their plans," he said with a grin. "Those guys sure know how to mess things up a lot."

"That's awesome, huh, Maxie?" Heresy said. "Now my big sister can get it on with Logan all she wants."

"See, this is why I don't want you discussing sex while I'm around," Max said. "It makes a lot of people very uncomfortable."

"I don't feel uncomfortable," Alec said raising his hand. "Maybe disgusted, but not uncomfortable. Leo?"

"I don't care. Just as long as White keeps his ass of my territory," he said sounding calm as he always did. "My siblings are okay, I'm okay."

"See. I don't even have to ask Logan because he's probably already in the mood and all," Alec said with a wide grin towards the guy in the wheelchair.

"Very amusing, Alec," Logan said rolling his eyes at the X5's immaturity and turned back to Leo's computers. "I think we should maybe take some blood and have a look?"

"She's going fine on her own," Alec said. "Sitting there cramming, like she's writing an university entry exam."

"Not like she has to. Our superminds just work that way already," Heresy explained. "I'm going to sleep. Kitty needs her nap."

"Find a room for Blaze as well, she's been working since she's gotten here and I don't think she slept on the way from Portland," Max said. "Poor kid."

"Okay, if you're all going to bed, cept for Miss I-don't-sleep and Leo, the head of security, I might as well join the club," Alec said and emphasised with a big yawn. "See everyone bright and early then."