Disclaimer: The TV show Dark Angel, all of the characters that appeared on it (Max, Zack, Logan, 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.).
"Are you sure you can break out of these cuffs?" Sasha asked Becky as she fastened a different set of handcuffs around Becky's wrists five days later.
"Positive," Becky said. "These are the kind that they used on me whenever I had Escape and Evade back at Manticore. I can't count how many times I've broken out of them. It'll probably leave a bruise or two, but it won't be a problem."
"Good because I'm giving you the keys to them," Sasha said. She locked the cuffs and put the keys in the pocket of the leather jacket that Becky had borrowed from Syl. She reached back down into her bag and pulled out the small burlap sack. "Ready, Becky?"
"Go," Becky said. Sasha pulled the bag over Becky's head.
"Can you breathe all right?" Max asked.
"Yeah," Becky said. "Is my tattoo okay? Is there any smudging?"
Sasha went around to the back of Becky, moved Becky's braid aside and pulled down the neck of the black turtleneck that she was wearing. "The tattoo looks absolutely fine." She walked over to Max and moved her hair out of the way pulled down her own shirt collar. "How's mine?"
"Perfect," Max said. She squirmed around a little. She hated being cuffed even when she knew it was for a good cause. "There's no way they can mistake you for anybody other than Rena." She tilted her head a little when she heard the sound of a car approaching. "Looks like it's show time."
"Just a few hours at most," Sasha said to herself. She straightened up and put a cold smirk on her face as she saw a car pull up to them and White get out of the car. "Hello, Agent White."
"121, I have to admit that you have certainly done what I have asked of you," White said. "It's nice to deal with a reasonable transgenic. I tried working with your former commanding officer one time and he didn't come through for me. That's how I met 452 for the first time."
"How charming," Sasha said. "494 was a great commander, but he did have a tendency to get uncooperative when he was working under an officer he didn't care for." She nudged Becky. "Here's transgenic number two, X5-701. It was as easy as pie. Just like I did with 452, I pretended that I was my twin and bingo. Those '09ers really trust in their own."
"I guess we know who wins the nature vs. nurture debate," Max said sarcastically.
"I left 452 unmasked. I had a feeling considering how badly you seem to want her that you'd want to speak with her face to face," Sasha said. "Was I right or was I right?"
"Very good decision, 121," White agreed. He reached into the pocket of his coat and handed Sasha a piece of paper. "The directions to where I'm holding your offspring. It shouldn't take you more than thirty minutes to get there, but I'll be generous and give you some extra time. However, if you're not there by ninety minutes from now, I'll kill them."
"I'll be there in well under ninety minutes," Sasha said. "You can count on that."
"Very good," White said. "I'll be seeing you soon." He got back into the car and sped off.
Sasha looked around and made sure that they weren't being watched by any of White's people before she made an all clear gesture with her right hand. The others came out from their hiding places. "Here are the directions." She held the paper out to Alec, who'd be driving the van. He memorized them in a second and handed the paper back to Sasha.
"We'll wait for two minutes after you leave until we take off," Alec said. "Good luck."
"You too," Sasha said. She walked over to her car and opened the rear passenger door and helped Becky inside. She closed that door and opened the front passenger door and Max got in. She shut the door for Max and got in behind the wheel and took off. She managed a smile as she turned to Max. "Want some music?"
Both Max and Becky laughed. "No, thanks," Max said. "So…Sasha. What are you like?"
"You mean am I anything like Rena," Sasha said. "I understand. You're curious. You must have compared Alec to Ben a million times by now."
"Yeah," Max admitted. "So…when did you realize that you felt something more than friendly for 511?"
"Well, we'd been I guess what you would call dating for a couple of years by the time that you and some others of your family blew the DNA lab, but I first started to consciously feel something more than friendly for 511 when I was about eighteen or so," Sasha said. "I don't know. One day I just happened to look across the table at breakfast at 511 like I'd done a million times before and it felt different. It took me a little longer than that to realize exactly what the difference was. After that, it was about a year before we 'saw' each other for the first time."
"You're worried about how he's going to react when he sees your daughters, aren't you?" Max said sympathetically.
"I guess I am," Sasha said. "I know deep down that he's going to love them. There isn't a person alive who wouldn't love my little girls when they meet them. Just wait until you see them in person. They are just the sweetest babies. Jade is much noisier than Julia during the day when they're awake. Julia's a quiet baby except when it's time for a bottle or when she's tired. Then she's even louder than Jade."
"Those are beautiful names," Becky said. "Where did you get them from?"
"I came up with Jade's name from her eyes," Sasha said. "She has the most beautiful eyes that are exactly the color of this jade pendant that I'd gotten for myself about two months after Manticore burned down. Her father had those eyes. That was one of the few good things that I remember about 591, but I'm getting off track. I got Julia's name from a magazine that I was reading and I thought it was a really pretty name so I gave it to her."
"I'm going to take a really wild guess and say that you weren't too thrilled with your breeding partner," Max said.
"What could make you think that?" Sasha said sarcastically. "I'm sure there are some good traits in 591 and I'm praying that it was those traits that got passed onto the girls and he was very handsome, but so were all of the X-series males. 591 was a complete and total asshole. He liked me and I think he wanted to mate with me for real, but I told him that I was only doing this because I was under orders and he wasn't my choice for a mate. Lucky for me, he was also a good soldier and he accepted that answer pretty easily and we didn't say too much to each other. Also lucky for me, I got pregnant the third or fourth night that we slept together so I didn't have to put up with him in that close of quarters for that long."
"Were you in heat when you got pregnant?" Max asked.
"Worried, are we?" Sasha teased. "If it helps, you're not pregnant. Trust me. We can smell it on each other."
"That does help and I'm not worried," Max said. "I never slept with Zack when I was in heat. I kept the hell away from him whenever we were in the same city during that wonderful time."
"But you have slept with him?" Sasha said.
"Yeah, a few times," Max said.
"We get the point and can you move on before I get sick all over myself and the back seat of this car?" Becky said.
"Sure," Sasha said. "Actually, we can get pregnant when we're not in heat. Not as easily as we can when we're in heat, but it's still possible. You should be fine as long as you use protection."
"Thanks," Max said. "I—"
"Please stop this topic of discussion," Becky begged.
"I wasn't about to—" Max teased.
"Max, I'm serious," Becky said.
"After what I've heard about you and how I've seen you behave around Manticore those months you were in Seattle total, I'd never thought I'd see you act quite like this," Sasha said.
"Do you want to see if I can beat the hell out of you blindfolded with my hands cuffed behind my back?" Becky challenged.
"Nah, not in the mood today," Sasha said. She and Max laughed for a moment, but then they were silent and stayed that way for the rest of the drive. They finally reached the building and pulled up in front of it. Sasha got out and helped Max and Becky out of the car and led them to the front door. She knocked on it and someone opened it a moment later. "Agent White is expecting me."
"X5-121," the man said. "Come inside." He let the three of them in before he went off into a back room and a moment later, White joined them.
"You made very good time," White said. "I only got here myself two minutes ago."
"Thank you," Sasha said. "My daughters?"
"Just a minute," White said. "I just want to make sure of a few things before we make the exchange." He walked around to the back of them and moved Becky's braid aside and rolled down the neck of her turtleneck and nodded before rolling the neck back up. "It's definitely 701." He looked down at Becky's cuffed hands.
"Don't worry," Sasha said. "An X5 won't be able to get out of those cuffs without the key. Trust me. They tested that back at Manticore back before the '09er brats ran. 452's got a pair of them on her as well."
"Okay," White said. He circled around so that he was standing in front of Max. "Got any smart remark for me now, 452?"
"I figured I'd save them considering how much time we're going to be spending together in the near future. Why waste them all now?" Max said.
"I never thought I'd see the day when a reasonable idea would come out of 452's mouth," White said. "I am a man of my word and I'll give you your children back now." He spoke into a walkie-talkie and a moment later, a woman came in from another room carrying Jade and Julia. She handed them to Sasha, whose face absolutely lit up when her daughters were placed in her arms.
"Oh, my beautiful little girls," she said. "You look so good! Mommy missed you both so much." She gave Jade and Julia each a kiss on their heads. "I love you, my little angels. I love you so much."
"How sweet," White said sarcastically. He drew his gun and pointed it right at Sasha. "Now, did you really think that I would just let you go?"
"White, you don't need us," Sasha said.
"You're absolutely right, 121," White said. "I don't need you…alive."
Another gun cocked behind White. "Get away from my daughters right now you bitch," Rena said coldly.
"What the hell is going on?" White demanded.
"What's going on is that my beloved twin and her precious family caught on to our deal and decided that they were going to try to get a little rescue mission going." She laughed bitterly. Her gun remained pointed steadily at Sasha, who was carefully making sure that her twins couldn't see it. "Leave it to an '09er to screw things up."
"Check her barcode," White snapped at one of his assistants. He walked up to Sasha and lifted up her hair and saw the fake barcode and his face turned red with outrage. "What's this? 120!"
"This is 121, sir," the assistant said after looking at the fake barcode on Rena's neck.
"Perfect," White said sarcastically. A sadistic smile spread across his face. "Well, it's one more transgenic to get rid of today." He laughed when he saw Max squirm around in her restraints. "Weren't you listening, 452? 120 said that an X5 couldn't break out of those cuffs and I'm guessing that she has the key to them so I think that I'm going to kill her first."
"She was right," Max admitted. "An X5 can't break out of these cuffs…"
"…but I can," Becky finished. With a grunt, she snapped the cuffs off of her wrists and took off the burlap bag and blurred to White and grabbed his gun.
White swung at Becky, who ducked it. "You're supposed to be dead, 405."
"Hey, even you should know to check for a body to make sure it's dead," Becky said. She swung at White and connected, knocking him out cold. She grabbed the key out of the pocket and quickly unlocked Max from her cuffs. White's people stood around stunned for a minute but then started to come to life. Before any shots could be fired, windows broke and doors were kicked open and the rest of the group came rushing in.
"Everybody, on the floor now!" Zack snapped. One brave woman, the same one who'd handed the babies back to Sasha, pulled a gun and fired at Zack. Zack barely got out of the way in time and coolly fired a shot into her kneecap. "That was your warning. The next person who tries to kill one of us won't be that lucky. Are you all deaf? I said for you to get on the floor now!"
"Come on, you don't want to piss this guy off. Trust me," Alec said. He quickly moved his gun over to a man who looked like he was starting to reach for a drawer. "Whoops, not quick enough. If you really want to be ballsy and open the drawer and play show and tell, I could always play target practice. I'm a little bit more reasonable than my friend here, but not by that much."
"Stay on the ground right now," Zack ordered. He and Alec looked out of the corner of their eyes as the others got Sasha and her children out of there and to her car. He heard the sound of an engine starting and a car speeding away. "Who went with Sasha?"
"Becky. She's got White's gun on her," Max said. "We should get going before our favorite bad guy here decides to wake up."
"Right," Zack said. He made a gesture and the group started to back out of there. Once Zack had reached the door, he ran for the van and got inside and they zoomed off. "Tell me when we're being followed."
"Got it," Wayne, who was sitting in the front passenger seat, said.
"I gave Becky a headset," Krit said. "She'll be able to let us know if someone tries to ambush her and Sasha."
"Good," Zack said. He grabbed a headset and put it on. "Becky, how does it look up there?"
"All clear so far," Becky said.
"I can't see any problems from up ahead," Alec said. "Wait…I think we might be getting some company. I'm hearing a car coming up on us hot. Wayne, can you get a better look for me?"
"Sure," Wayne said. He rolled down his window and leaned out the window for a moment and zoomed in before he pulled himself back in. "Black sedan coming up on us. They should catch up to us in about thirty seconds or less at our current rate. Can you put any more speed on this thing?"
"The van's top speed is ninety and we're already doing that," Alec said. "Damnit."
"They're gonna catch us soon…Wayne can you climb up onto the roof?" Max asked.
Wayne grinned. "Yeah, I can."
"I'm going to have to be swerving while you're up there taking shots," Alec reminded him. "Have you done anything like this before?"
"No," Wayne admitted.
"Let me," Jeff said. "I have." He waited for Wayne to unbuckle his seat belt and move to the back of the van before he moved to Wayne's seat and rolled down the window and started to back himself out of it. He grabbed the edge of the van's roof and pulled himself out the rest of the way and swung himself onto the roof. He banged on the roof a few times to let Alec know that he was in position and ducked as they started to fire on him from the other car. He managed to keep his balance as Alec swerved the van to make him a harder target and drew his gun and fired a shot and hit the left front tire of the sedan dead on. It blew out and the driver lost control and spun and rolled the car. Jeff put his gun away and climbed back inside of the van. "Situation neutralized. We don't have to worry about those assholes. I don't know how many survived that accident, but right now the important thing is that they're not chasing and trying to kill us."
"Was White in the sedan that was chasing us?" Zack asked.
"No," Jeff said. "There were two men in the front counting the driver and another two men in the backseat but neither of them was White."
"Good work," Alec said.
Jeff grinned. "Thanks."
"You have to help me learn that trick," Wayne said.
"It's easy to learn," Jeff said. "You probably could have pulled it off now if you really wanted to."
"Great, yet another insane stunt to add to what's probably a huge repertoire by now," Zack grumbled.
"What he's done since we bailed in '09 can't be worse that going a hundred plus miles an hour in a snowstorm on a motorcycle through a town and up a windy mountain road while being chased with idiots that had shotguns and weren't afraid to use them and then throwing yourself off of said motorcycle onto the side of the road and letting the bike plunge 200 feet or so," Rena said.
"What!" Zack said.
"I didn't have a choice," Rena said. "It was either that or get ripped to shreds by those idiots who happened to see the news report that exposed our existence and then by a fluke see my barcode and for the record, I was in town to get that barcode removed so shut the hell up Zack."
Zack glared at her and then looked down at the floor of the van for a moment before he sighed and looked back up at his sister. "You're alive. That's what matters. I know that you wouldn't have done anything that you didn't have to do."
"Thanks," Rena said. She smiled.
Max sat down next to Zack and took his hand. "It's still not easy dealing with us, is it?"
"No," Zack admitted. "Some things never change." He kissed Max on the lips and stretched. "Let's head back to Seattle. I'm getting tired."
"You're getting old," Krit teased.
"It's one in the morning, Krit," Zack said.
"He's right. The night's still young for me." She grinned wickedly and whispered something in Zack's ear. Krit was sitting close enough to barely hear it and he paled. "Maxie, can you wait until I'm completely out of earshot before you tell Zack all the dirty things that you want to do with him when we get back into the city?"
"What is it with you and Becky?" Max said. "I mention that I slept with Zack to Sasha on the way over here and I know Becky's face had to have been green under the burlap sack and you overhear me, you little perv, and you're two seconds from hurling."
"As the youngest person in this van, I'm telling all of you to grow up," Jeff said.
Max shook her head as most of the others laughed and leaned against Zack. "I'm glad this rescue mission went better than the last one we pulled did."
"Me too," Zack said. "Me too."
TBC