Disclaimer: Dark Angel and its characters obviously do not belong to me. I am writing this purely for non-profit entertainment. Yada, yada! No infringement intended, so don't sue me!
A/N: Thanks so much for your reviews! And oh, expect to see a bit more of Jondy and Gab from now on!
Bryn – Hehe! They are quite cuddly aren't they! Nah, Max's not resisting that much! (Who could!) Thanks for your review.
Mel11 – Thanks for reviewing. Hmm…I see that you don't like Zack very much, lol! I suppose if I decide to write a MZ story, you won't be interested?
Toniboo – Didn't end it after all! But you'll see that this chapter is a bit of a transition, so don't expect too much! Thanks for reviewing!
Kungfuchick – Glad you liked the chapter. :Sighs: Was Zack really that bad? LOL! Thanks for reviewing!
Ro – Thanks for your review! Lydecker didn't punish Max because he don't need to, you'll see why soon.
Calistra – X7s won't feature much in this story. They're a bit young still. Thanks for reviewing!
Alana84 – Thanks for reviewing! Yeah, the MA scenes were meant to be fluffy after all that angst they went through in the first 20 chapters, LOL!
L80bug – Nope, story not ending yet (Sighs). Thanks for reviewing!
Tarzo – Thanks for your review. Glad you liked the story. And you're right. Considering that they're not even late teens yet, lots more could happen.
Sarah – Maybe he will, who knows? But remember that in here, they're still quite young. Max is still short of 17 years old (grins). Thanks for reviewing
GuestTypePerson – Thanks for your review. Yeah, Alec is really sneaky, but he likes to be with Max!
Dory Shotgun – Yep, Gab's spying on Logan now. Hehe! Manticore should have a lot of inside information to work on soon. Thanks for reviewing. (p/s: I didn't get what you mean by the 'flame ulities')
Darkangelgirl – Thanks for reviewing. You'll see soon why Lydecker was so easy on them (grins). As for the ages…Max is 16.75 years old and Alec's a year older.
Lotamoxie – I don't think this story will make it to the Berrisford mission. That's like two years more, isn't it? Alec's not even 18 yet at the moment, hehe! Thanks for your review.
Pixie Wildfire – Yes! Haha, convenient for them to have adjoining cells, right (winks). Thanks for reviewing!
Eva – Yep, Gab's back and there's more of him in this chapter! Thanks for reviewing!
Alec'sAngel494 – Thanks for reviewing! Let me know what you think of this one!
Lakergirl08 – Glad you like the way it's going. Yes, they'll soon find out loads from Gab's spying. Thanks for reviewing!
Sirena1 – Hmm…Hope your internet is working today! I haven't had a chance to read you fics yet, but I'm sure your grammar is better than mine, LOL! Thanks for the offer to beta. Do you want to help me with future chapters of this fic? Are you sure? Since it's going to take up a lot of your time!
Angelofdarkness78 – Hehe! Of course you'll say that, you ship MZ as well after all, hehe! I'm currently trying to arrange Logan's demise as creatively as possible (grins wickedly) Ah, the fun of writing fanfic! Thanks for reviewing!
Supernateral – Thanks for reviewing! Surely it's not that long a wait. I'd just updated this last week, lol!
Angel Of Darkness231 – Yep, you got it. Gab and Jondy infiltrates S1W, gets to Logan and kill him off….Mwahahaha! Ahem…Just kidding! Hehe! Thanks for reviewing!
Lex2u – Max's mindset is a bit different from his and from hers in the original show (grins). She had actually spent most of her impressionable teenage years in Manticore, and believed that they were better off in there. That's why she tried to stop Zack, before it occurred to her that he was utterly miserable in there. Thanks for reviewing!
Sakura – Thanks for your review! Nah, I decided to write a bit more, LOL! Glad you thought that it was good all the way. Personally, I'm not sure I like the first few chapters.
W1cked angel – LOL! Good luck finding that chapter with the first kiss. I don't even remember which one it was. Thanks for reviewing.
Spanishwon2123 –Glad you liked the fight scene! Yep, Zack's out again, and you have to read on to see what happens next. Thanks for reviewing!
Chapter 26 - Retrieval
(by elle6778)
The three-bedroom apartment was small and cluttered; newspapers, food containers, bottles and various items of clothing littered the floor. The television, perched precariously on a small stool, was screening a music video from some pre-pulse group.
Jondy made her way gingerly across the living room, her face twisted in disgust as she surveyed the mess. When she had left the place three weeks ago to join one of S1W's missions, it had been spotless. She frowned when she spotted Biggs on the couch, munching happily as he shoved another handful of popcorn into his mouth.
"Biggs!" she yelled loudly over the music.
Biggs turned around with a grin when he realised who was there. "Hey, Jondy! You're back!" he greeted as he stood up, brushing the popcorn bits off his front. Looking around, he asked, "Where's Gab?"
"I see that you have been doing a good job with the house-keeping while I'm away," she remarked sarcastically, ignoring his question about Gab. Gab was the last person she wanted to talk about right now, especially after what she had seen yesterday.
"Aw, Jondy-baby…I missed you too," Biggs said cheekily.
Jondy rolled her eyes. "You missed my cleaning up, you mean. I don't care how you do it, but fix the mess now or I'll kick your ass!" she snapped irritably and proceeded to stomp into her room.
Biggs watched her departure with a look of surprise on his face, wondering why she had such a huge reaction to the mess.
The front door opened again a second later, and a sullen-looking Gab entered.
Noticing the look on his friend's face, Biggs shook his head wearily, suddenly realising why Jondy was in such a bad mood. "I see that the trip went well," he drawled.
Gab snorted. "It would have gone a bit better if she wasn't there," he replied tightly. Jondy had been such an unbelievable bitch to him on the trip. Not that she had actually said anything to him, but every time he looked at her, she had given him this weird hostile glare.
"What's wrong this time?" Biggs asked with a sigh.
"What could be wrong? We're stuck here on this stupid mission and I have to put up with her everyday. Everything is absolutely fine!" Gab spat as he dived into the couch.
"Man, you two got to sort out whatever that's bothering you. We've been living here almost two months now and you're still at each other's throats," Biggs pointed out. He could not understand what was wrong with the two of them. They barely spoke to each other since they had left Manticore. And whenever they were forced to, they would literally tear each other apart. Biggs was sick of being the mediator between them. He was beginning to wish that they had picked someone else to go on this mission.
"Forget it. That would be what I call a complete waste of time," Gab replied tightly.
Deciding to leave it there for the moment, Biggs changed the subject. "So, any progress?"
"Yeah, I met Cale again. I actually found him quite strange. He has this save-the-world complex about him and he thinks he's doing good by exposing stuff. The girl from S1W, Asha, brought me to meet him one day when she was giving him a report. And guess what? They raided the Wyoming facility a couple of weeks ago."
Biggs smirked. "I guess they had a bit of a shock when it turned out to be empty, huh?"
Gab nodded, grinning. Then as something occurred to him, he sobered up and said, "That's one problem solved. But Cale is persistent. He's very sure that Manticore exists so for the last few weeks, we had been running all over the place, checking out warehouses and any large facilities. Everything turned out to be a dead end, though. The stuff Renfro had must have been quite old."
"If Cale finds anything, we'll be the first to know. Well, sort of. At least something good is coming out of us having to live in this dump," Biggs grumbled as he began to step towards the kitchen for more popcorn.
"Wait, there's another thing. There was this strange guy who had been in Cale's place the first time I met him. I think he's the one pulling the strings on this one. Name's White. And I have a really bad feeling about him. Asha told he was the one who gave Cale the information. You know, those on Renfro's disks?"
Biggs nodded thoughtfully. "I wonder who this White is," he said. Getting up abruptly, he went to a shelf and grabbed the secure phone they had been given by Manticore and handed it to Gab. "I think we should tell Lydecker. I have a feeling this might be important."
Jondy sat by the window in her room, brooding. My first mission since I've been hauled back to Manticore and it sucks! And it's all because of that idiot Gab, she ranted silently.
Their interactions had been a little uncomfortable since that night she let slip that she liked him. When he had literally dashed away from her, it had occurred to her that Gab might not be ready for this sort of 'friendship'. Fine, she could live with that. All she had planned to do after that was to slowly introduce him to it. She had thought that this mission would be the perfect place to put her plans in action. It would be a bit hard for Gab to run away considering that they were sharing accommodation.
That had been her plan.
Reality, however, turned out to be different. Not only Gab refused to speak to her unless absolutely necessary, he had the cheek to flirt with practically all the female members of the S1W. With the way he looked, dark hair, green eyes and features with a hint of Mediterranean descent, he did not even need to flirt to attract their attention.
And now, Asha the blonde bimbo, was a permanent fixture at Gab's side. Jondy fumed as she recalled what happened yesterday. She wished she had not seen Gab giving Asha a hug and kissing her cheek.
When they had first joined S1W and got to know Cale, they had detected a spark of interest between Cale and Asha. Biggs had the great idea to distract those two from each other so that Gab and herself had a better chance of obtaining information. So Gab was assigned to Asha, and her to Cale.
Jondy grimaced as she thought of the older man. Something about him just bugged her. She suspected that he was not really a bad person, just sadly misguided sometimes. And he was definitely incredibly nosy. The worst thing was, she had no clue how she was meant to gain his affection. He was at least ten years older than her. And her being short of seventeen years old did not help matters. She had this feeling that Cale viewed her as a little sister.
She hoped that he was the type who would confide in family members.
Max was moving alongside two X6s who was lagging behind the rest of them, egging them on towards the end of the assault course. At the moment, they were trying to cross a large expanse of mud pit. The thick, dense mud was pulling them down, making it difficult for them to move fast. The mud reached Max's thighs but it was almost at waist level for the kids. These two X6s were having a particularly hard time as they were the two youngest ones.
"Come on, soldiers. You can do it. Just focus on getting there, don't think of anything else," Max urged them in an encouraging tone.
The two X6s struggled on, and eventually they managed to reach the end and hoist themselves up to the bank.
"Good work, soldiers," Max congratulated them as they ran to the end of the course to join the rest of the X6s, who were standing in formation, waiting.
Max surveyed the mud-encrusted X6s in front of her, checking to see if any of them sustained any injuries. Satisfied that they were all in good condition, she gave the order for them to head to the showers to make themselves presentable.
As she turned to leave, a guard came up to her.
"X5-452? The director wants to see you in his office," he said.
Looking down at herself, she made a face and said, "Like this?"
The guard shrugged. "He said for you go immediately."
Max sighed in resignation. It seemed that she had to put up the state she was in for a while more. "Fine," she replied.
Lydecker looked up from the file in front of him as Max entered, raising his eyebrows as he noticed her mud-encrusted attire.
"Sir! You called for me?" Max said, snapping to attention. At the sharp movement, a few lumps of dried mud crumbled off her. She could hear the pieces hit the floor but she ignored it, keeping her face straight when she actually wanted to snicker.
"At ease. Did it occur to you to clean up first?" Lydecker asked, his eyes following the descent of the mud from her combats to his floor.
"Yes, sir! But the guard told me that you wanted me here 'immediately'," she said.
Lydecker's lips twitched. "Well, next time, I would appreciate it if you make yourself presentable before turning up," he said.
"Yes, sir," she said with a small smile.
"Well, now that that's clear, let's get to the reason I called you here," he said. "It's with regards to 599's escape."
Max forced herself to remain calm. This was the last thing she wanted to hear from Lydecker. Did Lydecker suspect her of letting him go?
Lydecker studied Max. By now, he knew her well enough to know that she would not be too happy with what he was about to say. In a softer tone, he said, "Max, I know that you probably don't want to hear this, but we need him back here."
Surprised at the use of her name, Max just gaped at him. It must be really bad if he had to resort to calling her name to soften her up.
"I've explained to you before that it's not safe for transgenics out there, especially now with someone trying to expose us. Not to mention the rest who want to capture you for their own benefits. Here at least, you have strength in numbers and so long as we work together, we have a better chance to prevent things from happening," Lydecker explained.
"Permission to speak freely, sir?"
Lydecker nodded. "Go ahead,"
"It's not going to be easy to track down 599. He is, after all, the best of our old unit. And we have no idea how far he had gone since the escape. Even if we get him back, I'm guessing that he would try to escape again," Max said, hoping that she would not get tossed into punishment for speaking so frankly.
"I'm sure that's not the only reason to not bring him back. Did you think that I have not noticed how badly he was integrating back into the Manticore routine? You and 210 integrated back in with minimal problems, but not 599. Why? Because 599 is stubborn beyond reason and that might get him killed or captured out there," Lydecker insisted, "He needs to see that Manticore does not mean him any harm. In the past, perhaps, but we are fixing that now, as you probably noticed."
Max took a moment to digest what he had said. "Sir? He wouldn't understand that, I've spoken to him about it. And the fact is, many of us died in the hands of Manticore and that's enough of a reason to hate it."
Lydecker sighed as he pinched the bridge of his nose. "We can't change the past, but most of the people who made the decisions back then are no longer with Manticore."
Max frowned. "Why?"
"Let's just say that Sandeman had his ways of making them leave," Lydecker replied cryptically.
Max did not even want to guess how Sandeman did it. Suddenly it occurred to her to ask him something, "What about the progress of his four bodyguards?"
Lydecker smiled. "The two X6s are doing fine. I was told that he enrolled them in a school, just to keep up appearances. Kelpy and Cammy usually remains with Sandeman wherever he goes. So far, there had been no attacks on them."
He stood up and went to pick up a small case. Returning to his desk, he said, "Back to the issue of 599."
Max's heart sank.
"Finding him wouldn't be a problem. The problem is to convince him to remain," he said, unlocking the case.
Max frowned. "But we do not know where he is," she pointed out, wondering what Lydecker had up his sleeves. He seemed pretty confident.
"Yes, we do," he said, lifting a small panel out of the case.
Max could see a few of the panels in the case, all about half the size of a clipboard. "Sir? I don't understand."
Lydecker pressed a button on the panel and showed it to her. It looked like a map, but there's a red blinking dot on it.
"This is a tracker. 599 had been implanted during a routine examination because he was considered a flight risk," Lydecker explained.
Max's eyes widened in shock. It had been almost a month since Zack escaped. And all this time, Lydecker could have just gone out and grabbed Zack, but he did not. What was Lydecker up to? Then something else occurred to her.
"Sir, about the flight risk issue? Does that mean I have an implant as well?" she asked, suddenly feeling sick.
"Do you consider yourself a flight risk, Max?" he questioned, his eyes piercing hers.
Max tensed. She had, of course considered escaping when she had been captured, but in time, the urge to do so simply disappeared as she got into the routine. It helped that her unit had treated her well even when they had known that she and her old unit had been the cause of many unpleasant testing. Max did not know how to answer Lydecker's question, so she just shook her head.
He gave her a small smile. "Then you have nothing to worry about, right?"
"But do I have an implant?" Max asked again, seeing that Lydecker did not actually answered her question.
"You were evaluated on a weekly basis since your reintegration back to the regular training. The results show a consistent drop in flight risk as the weeks went by. So, no. You don't have one," Lydecker said.
That brought a measure of relief to Max. It was not as if she would want to escape, but the thought that she might be monitored really unsettled her.
"We are sidetracking," Lydecker noted, "So, basically, with this tracker, it should not take long for us to find 599. Like I said earlier, the problem is that you need to convince him to come back and remain."
"With all due respect, sir, I think that the chance of that happening is pretty low," Max pointed out.
"I'm sure you'll find a way," Lydecker said with more confidence than she felt. Then he said with a twinkle in his eyes, "Oh, and you'll be accompanied by X5-494, you'll be pleased to hear. His records in retrieval operations are exemplary, as you know."
Max barely stopped herself from making a face. Lydecker was obviously referring to the fact that it was Alec who had brought her back four years ago. And then she noticed the knowing look on Lydecker's face. A feeling of suspicion rose in her. Did he know about her relationship with Alec?
"Yes, it is," Max mumbled.
"You'll be deployed in the day after tomorrow. I'll leave it to you to brief him on the operation," Lydecker said, and then dismissed her.
When Max walked out of the room, it suddenly occurred to her that Lydecker had not call her by her designation even once in the whole meeting.
Alec sat cross-legged on Max's bunk, studying her as she continued to grumble about the new mission. He had just crawled through the hole a minute ago and since then she had started on a rant about Zack.
"Max, you've completely lost me. Can you just tell me what's this all about from the start?" he asked, slightly exasperated.
Max scowled as she continued to pace the length of the cell. "Didn't you hear a word I said? Lydecker wants us to go out there and talk Zack into coming back. What are the chances of that?"
"Pretty bad," he said thoughtfully, and then grinned, "Hey, I don't mind dragging him back here kicking and screaming," he said jokingly, but he knew that he would do it for real if needed.
"Alec! That's not funny," she snapped irritably, sitting down next to him.
"Come on, Max. It's not that bad. We'll just go find him, and then you sweet-talk him into coming back…"
"Stop joking! I swear, you don't know when to be serious. How am I supposed to get him to agree to come back? It's impossible," she went on.
Alec wrapped an arm around her shoulders, pulling her closer, "Look on the bright side, at least we get to go together. It'll be like a break for us, all expenses on Manticore. How good is that?"
His words reminded her of something. Max replied with a worried frown, "You know, I think Lydecker knows about us."
"What? How?" Alec exclaimed, his eyes wide.
"I'm not sure, but he had this look on his face when he told me that you'll be coming along. It's weird," she said, confused.
Alec looked thoughtful. "Hmm…It does sound weird. Maybe it's nothing. And anyway, there's nothing we could do about it."
"Alec, what are we going to do about Zack?" she asked, still worried.
His lips compressed. He knew Max felt torn about the mission, but there was really nothing they could do about it right now. "Can we stop talking about Zack for a while? I'm beginning to feel neglected."
Max rolled her eyes. "Alec, you know that Zack's important to me too. And how can you even feel neglected? You come in here every night!" she exclaimed.
"What? You don't like me here? You wound me, Max," He raised his hands to his chest and his face twisted into an obviously fake look of hurt.
Grinning, Max smacked him arm lightly. "Oh, stop it! You're really the pits sometimes."
Alec grinned back at her. "But you love me anyway."
"Who said that?"
"You don't?" his eyes wide with exaggerated sorrow.
"I give up," Max said, burying her face in her hands.
Alec just laughed.
t.b.c.
A/N: Nothing much happening, I know, but there'll be more next chapter onwards. Please review and let me know what you think!