Disclaimer: Own DA? Ha! As if!

A/N: Plz review everyone! Sorry for taking so long to update!

White looked up when he heard a knock on his office door. He was mildly surprised because it was very late at night and almost everyone had gone home. He stopped what he was doing and said, "Come in."

The person knocking entered and White saw that it was his friend Jackson.

"Brother Jackson," he greeted. "This is a pleasant surprise. To what do I owe this pleasure? Have you found information on the girl, 452?"

Jackson walked up to White's desk and sat down in the chair in front of it. "It's good to see you again, Brother White. Yes, I've found information on the girl. And what I've found is very interesting."

Jackson put a folder on White's desk and White picked it up and started to flip through it. There were pictures of 452's DNA, her description, her medical record, everything.

White put it down and Jackson started talking.

"This transgenic is one of the '09 escapees. She was in Unit 2, second in command to X5-599. It seemed that these filth actually understood that people in the real world didn't have numbers, but names, so they each picked one out for themselves. 452's chosen name is Max. When they escaped, they actually managed to evade Lydecker for ten years. Can you imagine that? Ten years. It shows how incompetent that fool was. Anyways, a year ago or so, 452, 599, 471 and 701 tried to take out the DNA lab at one of the Manticore bases. They succeeded but only 471 and 701 got away unharmed. 452 was shot straight through the heart and 599 was also shot but not as badly, and he was recaptured."

"So how is it that 452 is alive?" White asked.

"It seems that 599 or Zack as he calls himself shot himself to be her heart donor. See, these transgenics had thought of each other as brothers and sisters, so I guess 599 didn't want to see his youngest sister die. I don't know. Who knows what goes on in those twisted vermins' minds? Anyways, the heart transplant was successful and 452 lived. 599 did as well; they used all his organs for injured X5s, then grew cybernetic implants and gave them to him instead. They both were in Manticore and reindocrinated for about 3 months, but it seems that it didn't work, and when that Eyes Only creep gave away Manticore's location, Renfro locked down the cells and lit the match. However, 452 unlocked the cell doors and the majority escaped."

"What about her DNA? Why is it like that?" White asked.

"I'm not sure. It's remarkable. Not one molecule of junk DNA in her. Every base pair is coded to do something, everything for a specific purpose. No other transgenic has DNA like this, and not even we Familiars have it. Your father, do you think the rumor is true? That he created someone to stop The Coming?" Jackson pondered.

"First of all, I no longer consider him my father," White spat out. "He was an idiot, a weakling. He did not deserve to be so high up in status. He was not one of us. As for creating someone to stop The Coming, I would put my money on it. My father was stupid, and he probably created one of these freaks for that special purpose."

Jackson nodded. "It could be true. This girl, if she is the one who is destined to stop The Coming, then we need to stop her."

"We need to find her first. Then we'll analyze her. After that, we'll kill her," White said.

"A few weeks ago, the man who is rumored to be Eyes Only, Logan Cale, was found dead in his apartment. Since 452 obviously had relations with him, we're guessing she's in that city," Jackson said.

"Where?" White asked.

"Seattle."

Alec was having breakfast in his new apartment, relishing the fact that it was the week-end and Normal wasn't there to goggle at him, when something in the newspaper caught his eye.

It looks like this is it, the headline read. Rachel Berrisford, daughter of the wealthy Robert Berrisford, is almost at her end. Due to a freak explosion two years before, Mr. Berrisford's darling daughter had been knocked into a coma and hasn't woken up since. Her nurse says that unfortunately, it seems like the end of the road for Rachel is near, and she is expected to pass away in the next week or so. This article is for all who were close to Rachel; family and friends and anyone else who knew Berrisford's daughter. We hope that she passes on peacefully, and that Mr. Berrisford can recover from it. Robert Berrisford's wife had passed away a few years before, so Rachel was all he had left. Our condolences in advance.

Alec felt his eyes tear up. 'Rachel… Oh god, Rachel, no.'

Flashback

"Rachel!" Alec screamed. "There isn't much time! Get you and your father out of here! Go! I'll tell them you left during the night, just go!"

Rachel looked at him confused. "What's wrong Simon? What are you talking about?" She suddenly became afraid. "Who are you?"

Alec couldn't waste anymore time so he just told her the truth. "I'm a spy sent to assassinate your father. Please, I don't want to do this. Just go!"

The horrified look on her face was one that would stay with him forever.

"You were sent here to kill my father?" Rachel repeated. She looked out the window and saw her father get into the car. She looked at Alec, slapped him then ran towards her father.

"Daddy! Daddy wait!" she yelled.

"Rachel!" Alec screamed.

All of a sudden there was a flash of bright light, an explosion and everything blacked out.

Flashback

"You have failed your mission 494," Sandoval had said. He motioned to the guards standing nearby and they took him to Psy-Ops. Alec remembered screaming Rachel's name, over and over again, until he couldn't remember anything. He was 494.

End Flashback

"Rachel," Alec whispered. "No, no, no. Not Rachel. Oh god, please don't tell me she's dying. No."

He stood up but all of a sudden a bunch of images rushed through his mind. Most were Rachel's face, and they came so fast they all blurred together, spinning around in his mind. In the background, the music that Rachel used to love to play was haunting him, playing so faintly that he could barely register it in his head, but loud enough so that he heard it. Right before he blacked out, he saw Rachel's face one last time in his head, the look of horror in her expression still there.

Then he was falling and darkness consumed him.

Max was entering her second month of pregnancy, so thankfully for her the morning sickness was going away. Unfortunately for Zack, the cravings weren't lessening. The last time she had wanted something, he had had to break into the Italian Embassy, but hey. Anything for his pregnant girlfriend right?

Zack thanked the Blue Lady when Max hadn't woken up in the middle of the night to ask him to go and get something because he really needed to catch up on his sleep. Surprisingly, he slept in until eleven in the morning and even more so, so did Max. It seemed the baby was making Max more tired everyday, and she needed lots of sleep.

Max woke up when she felt a kiss pressed both to her lips, then to her stomach. She blinked tiredly then rolled over, nestling her head on Zack's chest.

"Morning baby," she mumbled.

"Morning Maxie. How you feeling?" he asked.

"Fine. Thank the Blue Lady that all the morning sickness is gone. I could never hold any food down."

"Any more runes?" he asked.

"I don't know. You check. I'm too tired to move."

He chuckled and looked her over, not minding her request at all. He saw that some of the lettering on her back was different.

"There are some new ones on your back, but otherwise everything's the same. The ones on your hand faded away. Good thing we took pictures of them before and gave them to Dix."

A few days before, Max and Zack had gone to T.C. – after once more being "greeted" by Mole – and dropped off the pictures of the runes. Dix had promised to work as fast as he could on them, so all they could do now was wait.

After moaning and groaning about not wanting to get up, Zack finally got Max out of bed and they took a shower then had breakfast. When they were done, Max suggested they go over to Alec's place.

"Maybe he wants to hang out. O.C. spent the night at her lickety boo's but she called and said she was going to meet us at Crash. Sketchy's in, so the only person we didn't ask yet was Alec."

"Okay," Zack said, and they cleared the table, got their jackets and left for Alec's.

"Alec?" Max asked. She knocked on the door for the third time. "You in there?" After no one answered, she looked worriedly at Zack.

"Maybe he's out," he reasoned.

"I get the feeling that something's wrong," she said. She picked the lock they walked in. They went into the living room and found Alec sprawled out on the floor, passed out.

"Holy shit," Max whispered.

A/N: Hey guys, I'm really sorry I took so long to update. For those of you reading my other fic, "Together We'll Fight", I'll update that soon as well.

Hoped you liked this. Max and White are gonna meet in a few chapters, but I have some other things planned first. Also, read the prequel to this fic. I haven't updated it in a while, but I'll try to. It's "The days before"

Thanks to –

Mae – Thanks for reviewing!

shygirl1 – Thanks for reviewing! Zack in the shower……. So many possibilities. What would be better is if I was in it too. LOL

Gabbie760 – Thanks for reviewing again, it's been a long time and great to hear from you again.

Thanks everyone! Keep reviewing! Read my other fic if you haven't already. "Together We'll Fight".