A/N: Hey guys. Another chap from lil ol' me. Hope you like it and plz review. I really would appreciate your feedback and any ideas you might have for this fic. 5 reviews to get me to update!

Max and Zack lay together in bed, snuggled up in the sheets. Zack was absentmindedly toying with Max's hair and she had her face pressed up against the crook of his neck with her eyes closed. They didn't say anything, just lay in a comfortable silence until Max looked at him with a teasing smile on her face.

"I thought you wanted to take things slow?" she said, her eyes glinting mischievously.

Zack shrugged and grinned at her. "Yeah well, I guess ordinaries and transgenics have a different definition of slow."

She laughed and kissed him. "You're telling me. Now we'll have to make a new dictionary for transgenic definitions on everything."

Zack smiled and pulled her closer. "Yeah," he said again, but he sounded a little out of space.

She wrapped her arms around his neck. "You okay?"

He nodded. "I'm fine. Better than fine actually. I've just waited for this for a long time and now that it's finally happening it's a little surreal."

"I know what you mean," Max said thoughtfully. "All our lives, every time we'd get something that makes us even remotely happy, it got taken away from us. I guess now we're just afraid that we're going to lose whatever makes us happy right after we get it. We're always thinking that we're running out of time."

He kissed her and looked her in the eye. "You're not going to lose me and I'll be damned if I let anyone take you away from me."

The possessive look in his eyes scared her a little but also on some level satisfied the primitive part of her. She liked being claimed as belonging to someone so she rubbed her cheek against his in a feral gesture.

"I know," she said simply.

There was a knock at the door but without waiting for a response Ruby, Emerald and Aqua barged in in true X5 style. They sort of gave a strangled laugh or choke when they saw who Max was laying in bed with and rushed out the door again when they saw the death glare Max threw at them.

"We need to talk to you whenever you're ready about some stuff. Oh, and happy belated New Years to you guys!" Ruby called over her shoulder, giggling as she slammed the door shut again.

Max groaned and cursed under her breath. "Don't I get some kind of privacy here?" she whined. "I seriously need to put up a death threat sign on my door."

Zack grinned at her and pulled her out of bed with a yelp.

"It's freezing Zack!" she shrieked.

He looked at her with an amused look as Max never shrieked. She yelled and screamed, sure, but hearing her whine and shriek was so unlike Max that he couldn't help laughing.

"Here, put some clothes on," he said as he tossed some towards her. She caught them with ease and pouted.

"You know, you're an ass when you're not in bed," she said.

He rolled his eyes and as soon as they finished dressing, he pulled her out the door to go to HQ.

Dawn and Zero walked through the streets of Seattle, holding hands and talking amicably. They stopped from time to time to go into a shop or something, but they mostly enjoyed one of Seattle's rare sunny days.

"It's so nice out," Dawn remarked as she looked up at the cloudless sky.

"For now," Zero said. "I wouldn't be surprised if it started raining soon."

She laughed and looked at him with a teasing grin. "Aren't you just the cynic?"

He shrugged. "Not really. Just being realistic. Back at Manticore there wasn't really anything to be optimistic about so I guess that's why all of us transgenics are sort of cynical and sarcastic. The day you find a bouncy, always cheerful transgenic will be the day I'm named mayor of this forlorn city."

Her smile faltered a bit in sympathy for all the transgenics when she was reminded of their horrible upbringing. She couldn't imagine herself lasting a second in their shoes, or in their case, military boots.

Zero noticed her silence and guessed what she was thinking but didn't say anything. They kept walking in a fairly comfortable silence when Dawn felt a weird prickle at the back of her neck. She looked at Zero and by the way his eyes were closed and had a concentrated look on his face, she figured he had felt it too.

"I feel something, but it's not the normal feeling of someone watching us," Zero murmured under his breath. "There's some kind of forceful pull."

"It's the same feeling I get when a vamp is nearby," Dawn whispered to him. "Look around for someone hideously ugly."

Zero chuckled despite the serious circumstances and looked around. "How 'bout there? Tall, dark, greasy and brooding at 5 o'clock."

Dawn shifted her eyes to the man he was talking about but shook her head. "No, that's just one of God's unfortunate mistakes. Keep looking."

Suddenly both Dawn and Zero whirled around, feeling someone behind them. The last thing they heard was, "One of the slayers has my friend," before sinking into unconsciousness.

Buffy shot up in bed, startling Spike. He wasn't sleeping since vampires didn't exactly need to sleep, but the sudden movement surprised him.

Buffy got out and started shuffling through her drawers, finally pulling some jeans and a pink tank top on quickly.

"Where's the fire, luv?" Spike asked.

"I need to find Dawn," she said hurriedly as she walked to the door and flung it open. "I just got this weird feeling that something's wrong with her."

Spike got up as well and dressed in a nanosecond, and then he and Buffy ran out the door.

Faith grunted as she punched the vampire tied to a wall repeatedly, making sure that she didn't hit him so hard that his head would fly off and he'd disappear into dust. After all, she wanted a lasting punching bag not one that disintegrated after a hit that was too forceful.

The vampire looked cross-eyed and his face was contorted in pain, but he made no sound. Out of courtesy before punching him, Faith had asked his name but he hadn't responded. So she shrugged and went ahead with her workout, not really caring about pleasantries.

After a few more minutes, she sighed with content and wiped the sweat off her forehead. She patted the vampire's cheek. "Thanks a lot," she said, and sat down for a moment on one of the tattered couches.

She looked up and saw Buffy and Spike run in. Buffy looked at the pained-looking vampire, at Faith, then back at the vampire. She looked at Faith weirdly and Faith shrugged. "I was bored," she said. "So what's up?"

"Have you seen Dawn?" Buffy asked. "I just got this strange feeling that she's in trouble."

Faith grinned. "No, I haven't seen her recently, but I've noticed that she's been spending a hell of a lot of time with one of the cute transgenic boys."

Spike rolled his eyes. "Great, now we're chasing after two hormonal teenagers."

Jondy, Zane, Coco, Crystal, Tawny, Willow, Emerald, Xander and Michael (Roswell) all sat around a table, staring intently at the cards in their hands. Crystal sighed and put down her cards.

"This is boring as hell guys," she said. "Besides, I'm folding."

"Me too," Zane echoed.

"Ditto here," Tawny said.

Jondy was silent a moment then her eyes sparkled with something that scared Zane.

"Dee, what are you thinking?" he asked hesitantly. Jondy had always been… creative when it came to livening things up a little.

"Well, poker like this sucks, so... I was thinking… who wants to play strip poker?" she asked, grinning.

Willow, Coco, Crystal and Emerald looked tentative but the guys were all for it.

"What the hell," Coco said. "I'm all for it."

"This should be interesting," Willow said.

"Count me in," Crystal said.

"I'd hate to be the party pooper," Emerald said.

They all looked at each other somewhat nervously, and then started handing out the cards again.

"Let the games begin," Jondy announced wickedly.

Mole smoked one of the many cigars that he had stolen from the warehouse raid a few days ago and walked around HQ, waiting for their leader's arrival.

Dix waved the smoke away. "Mole, do you, uh, mind?" he asked. "You're sort of fogging up my glasses."

Mole moved away but didn't apologize and a moment later Max and Zack entered HQ.

"Are any of my sisters here?" Max asked with a pissed off look on her face.

"Whoa. Someone's bitchier than usual," Mole mumbled. "Need to get laid, princess?"

"I already did," Max said with an innocent smile on her face. Mole was so surprised at what she said that that his jaw fell open and his cigar fell onto the ground. She grinned wickedly and stepped on it. She looked at him. "We don't need any fires."

She did a forceful pirouette and looked around when she heard giggling. She tapped her foot and Ruby stepped out from a corner.

"What did you want to talk to me about?" she asked impatiently.

Ruby suddenly became all serious. "Never mind what I wanted to say before; it's not as important as what I've got to say now. You know how we have a sign in and sign out list at T.C.'s front gates for everyone who leaves?"

Max nodded. "Yeah. But no transgenic is supposed to leave T.C.'s grounds. Only those going on missions or raids or something like that are allowed to leave."

Ruby nodded as well. "Yeah, I know. But Bullet, Ralph, and Zero were supposed to go on a weapons raid today. Except Zero's missing and his name isn't on the sign out list. 5 other transgenics are missing as well. They're all the ones who volunteered to keep watch on that secret door in the tunnel when we decided that we should have some sentries there as well as the cameras. We checked the cameras and they're working fine so no one tampered with them, but that doesn't explain how 5 transgenics could disappear into thin air with the cameras picking something up."

Max closed her eyes and put a hand to her forehead. "Shit," she cursed.

Her eyes snapped open when Buffy ran into T.C. with Spike hot on her heels.

"I've checked everywhere and I can't find her," Buffy said.

"Who?" Zack asked.

"Dawn. She's missing."

A/N: Sorry guys if this chapter wasn't too good. I think it could've been better but let me know what you think. Please review and give me feedback. I would also love to hear your ideas for this story if you have any. 5 reviews to get me to update!

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