AN: Yay! Yes I know its about time I got this posted. I soon have a 5-day vacation from college so the 2 more chapters that I have written up should be typed up and posted around or after Thanksgiving. (Time and work pending) Thank you for being patient with me. I hope some of you are still looking forward to this and I get some nice reviews. I just need to know that people are still reading and interested in this fic. I'll try and post faster but with 2 jobs and going to school full time it's tough. I apologize that this took so long, but here it is.
Zack woke up a bit groggily. The drinking had made him lazy. The emotional strain had had made him tired. It was well into the night before Zack woke up and Max was still out cold. Zack's head was pounding and his mouth was dry. It was intolerable for Zack to let himself get into such a state. He was very angry with himself now and still a tad drunk even after his nap. Zack pulled himself up off of the floor and stumbled into the computer room to talk to Logan. All the way down the hallway he scolded himself for being careless and lazy. He knew he needed to pull himself together for Max's sake. There was only one way for a soldier to pull himself together to simply suck up whatever was bothering him and push on. As children they had always been told, 'suck it up soldier be tough' whenever anything went wrong. Sickness, pain, disappointment, failure, death, everything. Once he reached the computer room Zack knew what he had to do. Suck it up, ignore his problems and get himself back into shape.
Bling was in the kitchen and Logan was on some sort of video conferencing call on the computer so neither of them noticed Zack. It didn't bother him in the least right now. Zack was focused on his mission and for the moment it consisted simply of a combination of self-induced punishment and the necessary conditioning needed to pull himself back into shape. Pushups had always been his favorite exercise they were easy to do and always helped to clear his mind. At his peak Zack had been able to do three hundred at one clip. Now he was determined to challenge himself. Zack hit the ground and started doing pushups and for the moment nothing else mattered except counting up one, up two and so on. Zack was determined to break his previous record.
Logan squinted at the information in front of him it had taken hours but he'd finally managed to locate where Hannah had relocated to. It was mildly ironic. He found Hannah in Mexico actually supervising and looking over Jace during her pregnancy. Logan was connected to Hannah via a secure encrypted line over the informant net's video imaging system. It was the same way he had used to contact Lydecker a few times only there was no anonymousness about who either of them were this time. Bling went into the kitchen to make himself and Logan a meal to refuel for what lied ahead of them. Logan barely noticed when Zack stumbled into the room and dropped to the ground doing pushups. The only thing he was sure about the X-5's was that they always had strange ways of dealing with their problems. Zack's way of dealing with his problems always seemed to deal with physical punishment which he forced upon himself.
"Come on Hannah bring Jace with you if you feel more comfortable that way but I still think you'd be compromising her safety." Logan pleaded with the woman on the other end. "I've got a very sick X-5 on my hands."
On her side of the video screen Hannah stood up so that she could see past Logan. "He doesn't look very sick to me."
Logan shook his head. "No not that one." He paused he didn't want to give away Max's identity even though he knew the line was secure. To say Max's name just felt wrong somehow. "A female. The one that you helped the night of the escape."
"Max is sick?" Hannah bit her bottom lip and Logan winched slightly. "You know she saved my life once."
"Yes I do." Logan nodded.
"You're harboring two of them." Hannah shook her head. "God help you."
"It's only for the time being until she's up on her feet again." Logan explained.
"She's really that bad?" Hannah looked truly troubled. "Well I can't bring Jace into that kind of an environment it's too risky. I'll get someone to watch over her while I'm gone but it might take a few days for me to get everything in order and then to reach you."
"As soon as you can would be great." Logan nodded in agreement.
Zack heard scattered pieces of the conversation only the important things. Hannah, Jace, baby, Max and a few scattered other terms. Though nothing had made him stop doing his pushups yet. Not yet.
Hannah beamed for the moment. "I'd love to see two more of my children. It's been such a joy getting to know Jace again. Look at me." It was an order directed at Zack who didn't comply.
Zack saw Hannah but couldn't look up to face her. He saw her through the memories her voice invoked as he did his pushups. He was already seeing Lydecker in his face drill sergeant style. 'Up thirty-eight. Up thirty-nine. What are you made of soldier? Faster, up forty,' and so on. Slowly Lydecker faded away to visions of Hannah. The watcher in the nursery. The gentile doctor who did no harm. A kind reassuring smile when you came to for the brief first moment you opened your eyes. A strong comforting hand on a shoulder when one was writhing and whimpering in pain. Always the healer and never the inflictor of pain.
"Snap out of that horror soldier and look at me. Come on. Oh this will be fun, you want me to guess, huh? This should be easy. Jack and Ash were terminated. Alex, Shane and Blake were recaptured and reprogrammed after the escape. Luca and Jake were K.I.A. during the escape. That leaves me with exactly six boys to deal with. You're too big to be Krit or Locke. There's too harsh of a look in your eye to be Ben or Jessie. That means you have to be either the leader they look to for extreme guidance or the leader they came to with all their fears and troubles. Zack or Zane." She stopped when she noticed she had finally gotten through to him on some level.
Zack had stopped doing his set of pushups and began to pace the length of the room taking in all of this new information. "Stop!" He screamed out. "I don't like guessing games."
"What is your designation soldier? Lets see if I remember them all." Hannah challenged him.
Zack remained silent.
"Come on it's not a hard question. It's not a hard answer either son, only twelve numbers. Don't tell me you've forgotten. That's impossible X-5's are like elephants they never forget. It's not in your genetic make up what with that photographic memory of yours. Come on spin around so that I can see the back of your neck." Hannah coaxed him.
Belligerently Zack continued to pace the room as Logan watched him and waited.
Hannah took a deep breath and suddenly the kind face Logan had seen faded and hardened. Something in her eyes changed, she squared her shoulders and put on her game face. She responded in a stern voice that reminded Logan of the tone Lydecker used. "Stand at attention and address me soldier. I repeat, state your designation."
Zack stopped and turned to face the computer screen. He stood at attention with his arms at his side and his heals touching. "Ma'am my designation is 330417291599, Ma'am." Zack barked his reply.
Hannah smiled. "X5-599. Zack. You haven't changed much son."
"I am not nor will I ever be your son Hannah." Zack snapped.
"Cornel Lydecker would be pleased with you as well." She grinned dropping the stern act.
"None of us were ever his children." Zack spat out with contempt.
"You were in his eyes." She insisted.
"His eyes see the world in a very convoluted light." Zack rebutted.
Logan smiled Zack was much more intelligent then he had given the boy credit for and he was nothing if not persistent.
"I need to speak with Jace." Zack sounded like he was the one issuing the orders now.
"She's sleeping right now." Hannah answered.
"Wake her."
"I can't. There's her health and the baby to think of. She needs her rest."
"I need to talk to her." Zack insisted.
"Logan has her number now and I have his. She'll get it touch with you or you can get in touch with her, but I will not compromise her health to respond to your whim. Logan I'll get there as soon as I can. Zack I'll talk to you then." Then Hannah cut off the communication and the screen went blank.
Zack swore and pounded the desk in front of him. Logan was a bit taken aback.
"Are you hungry Zack?" Logan turned to him.
Zack simply shrugged.
"Let's not start this again. Come on I'll make us dinner."
Zack followed Logan into the kitchen where they found Bling still making his snack.
"Forget it Bling." Logan smiled at his friend. "I'm just going to start dinner."
Bling and Zack sat at the table while Logan went to work making dinner. Max stumbled into the room and slumped down into the chair next to Bling.
"I'm hungry." She ignored both men explicitly. "Can you make me something Bling?"
Bling nodded. "Sure Max." He got up and finished making the sandwich he had started to make for himself earlier and placed it down in front of Max.
"Thanks Bling." Max sat down and devoured the sandwich.
"Max Logan found Hannah with Jace so we can get you the help you need." Zack said to her, he was just used to briefing people on what went on in their absence.
It was like he didn't exist. Max didn't even bat an eyelash. She chose the sandwich over the wonderful concoction that Logan was whipping up. It was as if neither man existed to her.
Zack grew extremely angry extremely fast and jumped up from the table getting right up in Max's face. "Acknowledge and address me soldier. This is insubordination."
Max didn't even flinch her sandwich finished now. She yawned. "Can I have a glass of milk?"
Logan got one for Max who simply ignored it. Bling got up shaking his head and hiding a smile to get her another one, one she would accept. It happened as Bling opened the refrigerator. Zack could smell it coming on a subtle chemical change in the air. Zack stood up and put a hand on Max's shoulder.
"Drink it." Zack ordered her pulling out his own bottle of Typtophan out of his pocket. "Drink it down with four of these Max if anything do it to help yourself." Max pulled away from the hand on her shoulder. "No. I don't need your help. You're part of the problem." The familiar twinge was at the base of skull and her hands started to twitch.
"Just do it soldier!" Zack barked.
Max ignored him. Max tried to ignore him but she was just too scared. She took the glass of milk in shaky hands spilling some of it down the front of the shirt she wore. Too little, too late. Max flew into a full-blown seizure completely spilling the glass of milk that shattered on the floor. She jumped out of the chair and curled up into a ball on the floor under the table hugging her knees to her chest. She was crying again.
"Logan, Bling get in here." Zack commanded as he joined Max under the table wrapping himself around her for security forcing a handful of the pills into her mouth. "Swallow them Max."
Logan and Bling froze in the doorway. Bling tried to lighten the moment and blurted out the first thing that came to his mind.
"Hey Max there's no reason to cry over spilt milk."
Logan shot his friend a dirty look. Max who was completely unresponsive to Zack or anyone at this time let the pills drop from her mouth on to the floor. She snapped at his hand biting him and trying to pull away from him. Zack's bottle of typtophan had fallen to the floor when he moved to cradle Max and this is what she went for now as he snarled and looked down at his injured hand. Two semi-circles of small red welts covered it Max had broken through his skin. She swallowed a handful of pills on her own and then passed out landing in Zack's lap. Zack cradle her in his arms and brought her back into the guest bedroom. He then stormed back out into the main room to confront Logan.
"This is ridiculous. She's hotter then normal. Normal body temperature is 102.5 for us. When we're in heat our body temperatures rises to around 105 degrees. A normal person starts to develop brain damage between 107-108 degrees. We might begin to experience brain damage at around 111-112 degrees and Max has got to steadily be climbing to that now. We can't wait these two or three days for Hannah to get here Logan we need to do something about this now." Zack said sternly.
Logan was impressed with what he knew and he didn't think Zack had been listening that closely when he was speaking with Hannah.
"He's right about the temperature thing." Bling spoke up.
Logan yawned. He was too tired to deal with this right now. "We'll deal with this in the morning, unlike you I do need to sleep."
"I'm going to go home then." Bling said.
"Stay on the couch incase Max needs you I'm not going to be able to sleep tonight." Zack insisted.
Bling looked to Logan for permission. "It's fine with me." Logan yawned again. "I'm going to bed you two do what you want." Logan went into his own bedroom.
Bling took his place on the couch and Zack passed the room. Soon Bling was out cold. Zack went into the guest room to check on Max. She seemed to be sleeping comfortably. Her temperature was definitely still high. There was a small red bump at the back of her neck just above her barcode but there seemed to be nothing else physically wrong with her. He was tempted to wake her just to talk but most likely she wouldn't talk to him anyway and would be angry with him so he left her to sleep. He walked past a lightly snoring Bling back into the computer room.
Zack had to do something he couldn't just sit ideally by and do nothing knowing that Max was suffering. The space needle was a great spot to spend a night leave it to Max to find it but Zack had done too much thinking already and it was time to take action. To take matters into his own hands. He sat down in front of Logan's computer and after cracking a few simple codes he had free range of the machine. He did a file search for Red's and probe and waited for the machine to respond. It was times like this he missed his siblings most. Syl was much better with computers then he was and this would have gone much quicker with her help. A few files were returned from the search. One was a document of Logan's notes on Max's account of the incident. Another was a schematic of the mechanism itself. There was yet another document on the Reds who they were and details on their mission and why they thought they needed and X-5 or had thought they did. The final file was the most intriguing and turned out to be the most helpful.
It was a document file with a name address and a phone number. The information was on a man named Sebastian. A very intelligent man according to the information in the file. This man was Zack's only hope for the moment. Zack threw caution to the wind and hooked up a cable hacked conference call hoping that he didn't wake the man.
"Logan?" The man who answered the call appeared on the screen. It was obvious that he recognized the secure FTP as belonging to Logan.
"No this is an." Zack paused, "An acquaintance of Logan's. My name is Zack and I was wondering-"
"Zack. Commander of the X-5's. Coordinator of the escape. I know about you."
"Maybe that's good for me. Max is sick. I need to know what you do about the Reds and the probe in her head."
The probe was deactivated. I supervised it myself."
Zack continued to fill Sebastian in on what had been happening to Max. How Logan thought Hannah could fix it all and how serious he thought the situation was. At first Sebastian told Zack more or less only the information that he had gotten from Logan's files. Then he became more open telling Zack that he had supervised the removal of a few probes but that all the subjects had been dead or were by the time the procedure was over. He went on to tell Zack that the probe tied in to the possessor's central nervous stem it was almost certainly suicide to remove it. There had only been one successful removal done by the probe's designer himself and still the subject retained a significant amount of brain damage.
Zack perked up as much as Zack could. "X5's can suffer a considerable amount of brain damage and regenerate the damaged calls but it does take about two weeks."
"Logan would be against it."
"Logan doesn't have a say. We're talking about Max's life."
"Zack I understand and that's what worries me. It's not an advisable course of action."
"I think her body is trying to reject it." Zack said offhandedly almost to himself.
"What?"
Zack explained about the bump on the back of Max's neck just above her barcode. "Is that possible?"
"With a normal person no with an X5 who knows. She'll be fine until Hannah gets there unless her eyes start to bleed."
"What would that mean?"
"Bad news. It would mean that the probe has been reactivated."
"So then who made the probe? I need to know on the off chance that we need to contact him."
Sebastian gave Zack the information he had on the probe's creator. Zack thanked him and committed it all to memory. When he ended the communication her felt eyes on his back. Zack spun and for a second saw a young version of Max then he blinked and she was gone. No one was watching him and he was left alone helpless again with an empty night ahead of him. He decided to cruse through some of Eyes Only's files to kill time. For a brief moment he entertained finding another bottle of wine but quickly dismissed the idea. If Jace had been asleep earlier chances were that she was awake now so Zack poked around in the files determined to talk to her searching for Hannah's number. Then Zack heard someone clear his or her throat behind him apparently someone had been watching him.
"Just what do you think you're doing?" Zack didn't have to turn around to know that the voice belonged to Logan.
"Couldn't sleep could you Eyes Only? Well welcome to the nocturnal insomniacs club." Zack smirked.
"I'm worried about Max but you didn't answer my question."
"I was looking for something to help Max."
"By breaking into my personal files?" Logan sounded very irate.
"You thought a few simple algorithms and easy words could keep a trained person out?"
"You're not just a trained person Zack. You're and X5, quicker, more agile, more intelligent. No hacker has ever been able to break into my system. For the record I don't appreciate this."
"Dually noted." Zack nodded and smirked.
"Find anything useful?" Logan asked.
"Well I read everything you had on the Red series and the probe and I talked to Sebastian."
"You called Sebastian?"
"Yes."
"What did he have to say?"
"Nothing your files didn't say at first. Then he told me who made the probe because he was the only person to ever successfully remove the probe from a person who survived the procedure. Just now I decided that I was going to find Hannah's number because I felt like talking and most likely Jace is awake. She might know about the situation through Hannah and I didn't want to bring anyone new in on it. This is already a precarious situation. I wanted to keep people on a need to know basis and since she most likely already knows." Zack shrugged.
Logan nodded. He understood Zack to a point but he did not like the invasion in to his privacy. He wasn't even sure he could be mad at the confused X5 right now. "Next time you want something out of my files just ask. To get Hannah you have to dial the international access code 011 then put in the country code of 52 then dial 114-2-11-00 She lives in San Jose. I wouldn't call her if I were you. It might make her progress here slow down and if you make her mad at you I wouldn't want to be you once she gets here."
"Hannah never got very angry at least not violent angry not like Lydecker. Never like him. I could handle her angry." Zack said softly remembering suddenly that Bling was in the room. "Don't wake Bling."
Logan was dumbfounded by the X5's complete 180-degree turnaround from militaristic hard-minded soldier to a worried person and a caring brother.
"What did you need to know about Josenhas for?" Logan asked still half-awake.
"Incase Hannah doesn't make it in time or if she finds out she can't do anything." Zack turned to Logan with the gleam of a true soldier in his eyes. "Always have a backup plan."
Logan nodded softly her had failed to do that, leave it to the CO of the X5's to point that out to him.
"I'm not about to sit idly by and watch Max die." Zack said bluntly.
"Neither am I that's why I brought Hannah in."
Zack shook his head. "That was your first mistake. Hannah has tired to turn Max in to Manticore before. Even worse she tired to give her up to Lydecker."
"She's helping out Jace; I'd like to think she's changed."
"Soldiers never change."
"Hannah wasn't a soldier she was a doctor."
"She was a military doctor. She had the heart of a soldier; doctor or not she still answered to Manticore." Zack insisted.
"Just hold off on calling Jace until the morning." Logan urged Zack.
"All right I'll concede. Family reunions can wait. Max comes first as always."
"You've been a good big brother to her." Logan said emphasis on the big brother part.
If Zack caught his meaning he chose to ignore it. "I try for all of them. We can only hope that Hannah gets here soon."
"Amen to that."
Soon after that Logan went back to bed. They had never bothered the sleeping Bling, which left Zack alone with the darkness of the night and the darkness of his own rampant thoughts.
In the morning Max continued to sleep only not as soundly. Zack's superior hearing tore him away from the breakfast Logan had prepared numerous times due to the fitfulness he sleeping patterns had taken on. Max wasn't seizing and she clearly wasn't in any real distress but she definitely wasn't very comfortable. Zack sat by her side holding her hand through a particularly bad spell. Max tossed and turned throwing her head this way and that her body writhing in pain. It was her painful whimpering that had drawn Zack to her side. Eventually whatever daemons were chasing her for the moment backed off and she returned to a calm light sleep. Zack felt confident enough to be able to leave her for the time being and returned to Bling and Logan.
"How is she?" Bling asked.
"No change really but she's resting comfortably for now." Zack answered his mind on other things and completely gone from breakfast now. "Hey Cale can you connect me to Hannah's number now? I really need to speak with Jace. I just wasn't to see that she's okay for myself and if anyone can restore my faith in Hannah it would be her."
"I guess it would. It's that whole stick with your own kind, stay with your own kind type of thing."
"Not exactly. Jace was a good soldier when I knew her. If anyone could tell that a person was deceitful around her it would be Jace. She was very good with telling what people were like from their personalities and body language. If Hannah's rotten Jace will know." Zack nodded. Hannah's lack of letting him talk with Jace was making him suspicious.
"Alright let me set it up for you." Logan abandoned his own breakfast and manned the computer in order to get a secure like with Hannah so that Zack could talk with Jace.
"Jace is sleeping." Hannah answered Logan. "I'm going to head out to your place as soon as I have someone to stay with Jace."
"This is ridiculous Hannah put Jace on the line or else I'll be forced to believe that she's not really with you." Zack stepped up behind Logan putting it all on the line for Hannah.
Hannah sighed. "All right Zack hold on."
A few moments later a woman clad in all black, her stomach protruding slightly at the waistline with a slightly oriental completion and looks to her face and long pins straight black hair took the seat previously occupied by Hannah. She was beautiful.
"Jace is it really you?" Zack asked his voice cracking a bit.
The woman twisted around in her seat and exposed the barcode on the back of her neck. The numbers confirming what Zack had asked.
"You look great little sister."
"It's good to see you too big brother." She said with tears brimming in her eyes.
Zack was momentarily gone. Wide trusting eyes set far back in a face topped by a shaved head stared back at him. Falling back into the hallway frozen against a wall as he gave the order to continue onward. Frozen by fear. Fear of the unknown. Fear of breaking orders. Fear of chaos and the outside world. "Jace." Zack allowed himself to smile.
"Yes Zack?"
Are you alone?"
"In the room, yes." Jace nodded her confirmation and allowed the camera to pan across the room behind her.
"What do you think?" Was all Zack needed to ask.
Jace understood completely. "I trust her Zack. She's shown me no deception only nurturing. She's the watcher we used to know."
"No contact with the enemy?"
"None and I've been watching."
Zack nodded. "That's good. How are you doing Jace?"
"I miss Hector." Jace frowned slightly her hands coming to rest on her stomach.
"Understood." Zack frowned slightly but nodded. He really did understand from what Max had put him through lately. "Other then that?"
"I'm sick almost every day and more tired then I've ever been. I know what true exhaustion is now. This holds nothing up against what basic training made you feel like."
Zack stared and smiled. Happy to see her happy and free. He had regretted leaving her in the hallway the night of the escape. "I missed you little sister."
"I've." Jace paused. "Missed you as well big brother."
"You're doing well?"
"Yes."
"And our niece or nephew?"
I'm not sure what it is but Hannah assures me it's happy and healthy. I'm going to call it Max either way. She made sure that I chose to liberate myself from Manticore. I owe her my life and my child's as well." Jace shook her head. "I went AWOL, I'm the enemy now, the deserter."
Zack shook his head."No Jace you did the right thing. You're exactly where you belong. You're free and with your family now."
"You left me." Jace looked as if she were going to cry.
"You choose to be left." Zack fired back.
"I was scared. Weak."
"You grew stronger." Zack smiled he'd been doing a lot of growing up lately as well.
"How's Max?"
"Stable." Zack shrugged. "She's been better."
"I understand so have I." Jace smirked.
Zack nodded. "I'm hoping Hannah cane help."
"She's a good person and an even better doctor."
Zack was somewhat reassured by Jace's feelings.
"And the others?"
"I have constant contact with them all."
"That is all you're going to tell me?"
"That is all I can tell you."
"Forget security Zack. Just as bad as you wanted to talk to me I need to know a few things. Names, numbers, well being. It was the worst torture ever not to know anything after the escape and Manticore sure, as hell wasn't telling us anything. I was under the assumption you were all dead until Manticore started in on training us to take you down as the enemy."
Zack sighed he knew when he was beaten. "Twelve made it out."
"Who?"
"Myself. Max. Jondy. Ben. Brin. Zane. Krit. Syl. Tinga. Locke. Braden, and Lila."
"And you're all alright?"
Zack sighed. "I don't want to upset you."
"I need to know Zack."
"Most of them only know as much as you do now. It's a matter of security."
"I told you to forget that. My situation is different."
Zack nodded. "Alright. Brin turned herself over to Manticore. She had succumbed to Welners disease and wanted a chance to live. Tinga has a family. Ben was K.I.A."
Jace was silent absorbing the information and responding with the typical adherence to display rules. Her face was a blank slate. "The rest are okay?"
"Yes." Zack nodded.
"That's good." Jace allowed a hint of a smile to play on her lips. "It's reassuring." Jace yawned and absentmindedly rubbed her stomach. "I need to get some rest Zack." She really needed time to absorb all this new information emotionally without her brother looking on.
"Take care of yourself Jace." Zack smiled.
"I will Zack. Take care of yourself and Maxie now."
Zack nodded.
Jace and Zack moved away from the cameras so that Hannah and Logan could go over some last minuet details so that Hannah could get there as soon as possible.