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: SO SORRY for updating so late but I've just came back from holidays yesterday! Anyway, as for the story, not much relationship-y stuff this time, but more action. Enjoy!

Thanks to Sirena for betaing and fixing all my grammatical mistakes!

Calistra – (Grins) Glad you liked the weepy ending. Hehe, yeah, White might try something. Thanks for reviewing.

Alana84 – Thanks for your review. Yeah, everyone kinda started sorting out their relationship issues but something else's going to happen to ad some spice to their lives (winks).

Darkangelgirl262 – Hehe! Glad you enjoyed the bits. The whole Max-Zack situation will be resolved by the next chapter. Everyone else will resolve their problems in the next few chapters (I hope!). Thanks for reviewing.

NoAngell – Aw, don't worry about Zack. Things may look bad, but it'll start to get better this chapter onwards. Thanks for reviewing.

Pixie Wildfire – Thanks for reviewing! Heh! Of course they made up! I don't think I can bear to separate Max and Alec for so long, do you? (grins)

Ro – Thanks for your review. Hmm…still not much Max and Alec this chapter, sorry. I need to move the plot along otherwise this will never end. Zack's just being Zack, what can I say? ;p

Kungfuchick – (grins) Err…I can't tell you if Alec's going to screw up again just yet, but something else is definitely going to happen to mess things up, not now but in the next new chappies. Thanks for reviewing.

Eva – I'm kinda flattered that you found it touching enough for tears (grins). Yeah, those two crazy couples need to sort something out, I thought! Thanks for reviewing!

LucreziaNoin86 – Hehe! You might regret giving me permission for a cliffie. I swear, they are addictive. Thanks for reviewing.

Mel11 – Thanks for reviewing. You know, about Zack, you might get your wish in a way. Jondy and Gab situation was still a bit sad, I thought. Things were just not going their way.

Spanishwon2123 – Yeah, I'm glad about Jondy and Gab too. As for Sandeman, things are going to heat up at that end soon! Thanks for reviewing.

Angel Of Darkness231 – Hehe! Yeah, Alec has reverted to his snarky, cunning self to deal with Zack and it seemed to be working. Thanks for reviewing.

Sakura (sakuraakira365) – Glad you liked Jondy and Gabs personality. (grins) And yeah, who wouldn't like for Alec to be jealous over them. Thanks for reviewing.

Roxyroo – Nah, Max missed Alec too much to really get mad at him. I mean, would you? (winks) Anyway, I needed to bring Dani into the picture because something needed to happen in this chapter. You'll see (grins). Thanks for reviewing.

W1cked angel – What? Of course I'm sad, I'm hooked on those cliffies, lol! Thanks for reviewing.

Dory Shotgun – Thanks for your review. Hehe! Yeah, Logan's definitely getting more and more nervous about White, but doesn't quite know how to get himself out of it.

Toniboo – Yup, the relationships seemed to be flowing smoother but something else is about to go wrong (grins). You'll see! Thanks for reviewing.

Ceel – (Blushes) Glad you liked the ending between Gab and Jondy. I have plans for Max to meet the real Dani, but it wouldn't happen anytime soon. I can't tell you too much just yet. Logan and Max meeting? I'm sure they will (grins). Thanks for reviewing.

Lotamoxie – Max and Alec had made up, yes. But for how long (grins wickedly)? They always happen to stumble upon some other issues. Thanks for reviewing.

Lakergirl08 – Heh! Sorry for missing the bips, lol! You might get your wish about White, but what will happen when he's confronted with transgenics for the first time. Logan's still a bit misguided, but I like him that way, hehe! Thanks for reviewing.

GuestTypePerson – Logan and White is going to come to blows at some point, I guess, hehe! That'll be fun! I can't tell you what I've got planned for Zack but you'll see soon. Thanks for reviewing!

Sakura (88hainesde) – Thanks for reviewing! Hope you'll like this chapter.

Angelofdarkness78 – Thanks for reviewing! Alec and Zack (sighs) two gorgeous hormone driven guys, hehe! Of course there's going to be some sparks flying (and not the good kind either!)

Victoria – Thanks for reviewing! Glad you liked Gab and Jondy. They're not in this chappie, though. But no fear, they'll make an appearance in the next one.

Freak1985 – Thanks for reviewing. Blonde? Hmm…don't think so. Hehe, don't worry about reviews, I'm really bad at it myself ;P

Retrieved - Chapter 31 – Realisation

(by elle6778)

Max had only intended to stay long enough for them to say hello and to grab some food. However, she had underestimated Sandeman and his little family's persuasive skills. And needless to say, Alec's. They had alternated between persuasion and threats to get Max and Zack to remain.

"At least stay until you've had some food," Cammy had said, looking at them beseechingly with her large dark eyes.

And Kelpy had grinned wickedly at them as he said, gesturing to Tom and Dani, "Max, you wouldn't want me to tell these two what you did to Alec's hair a few years ago, do you? I mean, it's bad for your CO reputation after all." At which Max had rolled her eyes dismissively.

But the residents of the cabin, and Alec, had continued to hassle them about it.

So finally they ended up staying the first night.

Although he would not speak to Alec unless he was forced to, Zack had been relatively civil to everyone else, particularly after the time he had spent with Sandeman. For some reason, Zack had taken to the old man and had been unable to refuse when Sandeman had wanted company for a walk that night. He had returned from the walk looking more subdued than she had ever seen him before. She wondered what the old man had told him to elicit that sort of reaction.

When she had woken up the next morning, she had fully expected Zack to have left. To her surprise, it had not happened. Instead, she found Zack sitting at the table with Dani and Tom, enjoying the breakfast Cammy had prepared.

"Morning, Max," Cammy greeted cheerfully as she pushed the coffeepot and a cup at Max.

Max grunted in reply. She needed her cup of coffee after the first good night's sleep she had had in days before she could even think of engaging in a conversation with anyone. Gratefully, she pulled the coffee over and poured herself a cup.

Alec strolled in after her, looking annoyingly fresh and upbeat. "Good morning," he greeted with a grin. Then noticing the grumpy expression on Max's face, he teased, "Hey, Max, I wasn't that bad last night, was I? I thought I was pretty good considering how tired I was."

"Alec!" Max exclaimed as she shot an embarrassed look at the rest of the people at the table. Everyone was looking down at their plates attentively except Tom, who sniggered. And Zack, who looked as if his face was chipped from ice. Max frowned at Alec as she gestured to Dan and Tom, bypassing Zack, "There're kids here, you know."

"I'm not a kid," Tom muttered under his breath.

Max straightened into her CO mode. "Would you care to repeat that, soldier?" she asked, teeth bared.

Tom raised his eyes to her, looking chastised, "Sorry, ma'am."

"It's Max!" she reminded in exasperation. She really did not need this first thing in the morning. Mornings were bad enough without her CO responsibilities.

"Yes, Max," Tom repeated dutifully as Dani grinned beside him. His chin jutted out as he glared at her.

"Oh, come on, Max. You've got to loosen up a bit," Alec cajoled. Then putting his head closer to her ear, he grinned and said, "You're beginning to sound like that uptight Zack over there."

Max stiffened the same time that Zack did.

"I'm not uptight," she bit out just as Zack stood up and left the table wordlessly. Giving Alec an accusing glare, she said, "I can't believe what an ass you can be sometimes. Now look what you've gone and done."

Feigning ignorance, Alec opened his eyes wide and said, "What?" Inwardly, he grinned, glad that Zack had left the table. He had no idea why Zack was hanging around instead of rushing off like everyone had thought he would. But Alec was not complaining if it meant that he got to stay at a nice comfortable cabin instead of running around tracking Zack.

Being there surrounded by everyone also meant that Zack would not dare to make a move on Max. Alec allowed himself a smug grin at that thought.

Grumbling about males in general, Max went back to her breakfast. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Sandeman enter the kitchen. Instantly, the question of his conversation with Zack popped up in her mind. Her eyes followed him as he walked across the room to the table.

After greeting the transgenics with a smile, Sandeman sat down in front of Max.

"I trust that you had a good night's sleep?" Sandeman asked them as he sipped his coffee.

Max nodded and laid her fork down. Eyeing him questioningly, she went straight to the point, "So what did you tell Zack last night? He's seemed different ever since he went out with you."

The older man raised an eyebrow, and then smiled enigmatically. "You'll find out when the time comes, I'm sure."

She frowned as she mulled over his words. "Why can't you tell me now?"

"You don't need to know yet. Trust me on this," he said simply as he pulled an empty cup towards himself and gestured to Tom for the coffeepot.

Intrigued, Alec asked, "What about me? Could you tell me?" He wondered what it could be that the old man had thought necessary to tell Zack but not Max.

Sandeman laughed as he paused in pouring his coffee. "If I tell you, it would be equivalent to telling Max. I have a good cause to believe that she's quite capable of persuading you to tell her anything I impart to you."

Max groaned in embarrassment as Cammy tried to hide her grin.

Alec had the grace to look sheepish. But undeterred, he pressed on, "Who else knows about…whatever this is?" He gestured in the air.

"Wouldn't you like to know," Sandeman said with a smile. And then he continued, "Lydecker knows. Feel free to ask him if you like, but I wouldn't recommend it. You might get yourself thrown in punishment," he said with twinkling eyes.

At that, Alec decided to drop it, much to Max's relief. Although she was curious as to what Sandeman had told Zack, she did not want to get Alec or herself into any trouble. Fleetingly, she wondered if Zack would tell her if she pestered him enough.

Where did Zack go, anyway?

His footsteps hardly made a sound as he walked across the clearing in front of the cabin towards the woods. As he walked, he tried to calm the feeling of jealousy in himself. It was obvious that there was something going on between Alec and Max. Even the blind could see it.

Zack knew what that meant. She would never be interested in him as long as Alec was around. Hell, Max had basically told him so herself. Although Zack knew that it was pointless to dwell on it, he just could not help himself. It was not as if he had not tried to talk himself out of it before. She was effectively his sister, and the whole concept of her being with him was just plain wrong.

What Sandeman had told him last night made things worse. He had remembered Sandeman from those days when they were kids in Manticore. Sandeman had been the only one who had shown them any measure of kindness at all. And just for that, Zack had been more willing to listen to him than to anyone else in Manticore.

He sighed as he stopped. Leaning against a tree, he told himself to forget the idea about Max. It was easier said than done, he thought, rolling his eyes. Things would be harder now that Alec knew about his feelings. There was no doubt that the jackass would taunt him about it and rub his face in it every opportunity he got.

Alec was just feeling possessive and jealous, a small voice within told him. Alec just wanted to assert his status as Max's mate. You would do the same too, the small voice continued.

Grudgingly, Zack acknowledged the voice. It did not make him feel any better, but he knew that he had to accept that Alec and Max were together and he should not come between them. Otherwise, he would probably end up alienating Max.

Maybe it was time to call a truce. Why make things even harder for himself? At least with the truce, Alec might decide to hold his tongue.

He shook his head, disgusted with himself. How could he let the words of an old man and the taunts of another X5 sway his mind? But somehow, deep inside, he knew that he was about to do the right thing. He closed his eyes, mentally preparing himself to face them all.

Pushing himself off the tree, he started to step towards the cabin.

A soft rustle in the distance made him halt. It sounded like footsteps on dry leaves. That itself would not alarm him, but it was the fact that the footsteps sounded deliberate and cautious, making him suspect that the owner of the footsteps was trying to hide their presence. This was not good news for them.

The hair on the back of his neck stood up as his ears picked up the sound of another pair of footsteps joining the first one.

Then another.

Zack cursed under his breath as his eyes darted towards the direction of the sound. Forcing his genetically enhanced eyes to focus, he zoomed in on the spot where he thought the noise came from.

What he saw made him pale.

The distance between him and the focus of his attention was too large even for his transgenic eyesight to get a clear picture, but he could make out a team of soldiers clad in black, moving swiftly closer to the cabin.

Moving too swiftly for them to be ordinary humans. His heart thumped as he realised what that implied. Get a grip, soldier, he told himself sharply as his mind whirred.

He needed to get back to the rest of them ahead of those soldiers. His eyes gauged the relative distances.

Who would make it to the cabin first?

Hunched over the table, Alec and Tom spoke to each other under their breath excitedly, until the sound of someone clearing their throat caught Alec's attention.

Alec looked up to see Max frowning at him.

"What do you think you're doing with that?" she asked, pointing to the black rectangular panel on the coffee table between Alec and Tom.

Uh, oh, she wouldn't like it if she found out what we have been up to, he thought. Giving her an innocent look as he looked back and forth between her and the object of attention, he said, "What? Zack's tracer?"

Max stared at him expectantly as she tapped her foot. She could not believe it that Alec actually sat there betting with Tom on Zack's next direction of movement.

Unperturbed by her silence, he continued blithely, "I'm just showing Tom how it works. You know, educating the X6s and all."

"I'm sure Tom knows what that is, Alec," she said dryly.

Alec exchanged a look with Tom, who blinked blankly in return. And then as Tom finally realised what Alec meant, he said quickly, "Yeah, Max. Alec was just showing me how it works. Never seen one like that before."

Max raised her eyebrows disbelievingly.

"I mean, I've never seen it this close before. Interesting how fast it can trace, huh?" Tom babbled on.

"Real time movement," Alec added in mock seriousness. "Look," he said, pointing to the blip on the display.

And then he frowned. "What's Zack up to?" he muttered as his eyes followed the rapid movement of the blip, his playful demeanour wiped off his face.

Moving to his side, Max asked with concern, "What? Zack?"

Alec nodded. "He seems to be blurring in an evasive pattern, heading towards us. That's odd."

As he suddenly realised what was happening, Tom jumped up. "It's them again. The S1W. They've found us again!" he said with a slightly frantic edge to his voice.

Alec only took a second to process the information before he ran to the kitchen, shouting for Sandeman, Cammy, Kelpy and Dani. Being the most senior transgenic present as far as experience was concerned, he automatically took charge.

"Cammy, Tom and Dani, get Sandeman out of here in one piece. Kelpy, you're coming with me and Max. We need to distract them before they spot Sandeman," he barked out as he blurred to the window and flattened himself next to it.

Using a series of hand movements, he signalled Kelpy to the door and Max to the other window. Max nodded and followed his lead, her hands pressed to the wall as she tried to peer out of the window unobtrusively. Kelpy stood next to the door and blended himself to match the wooden planks. No one would see him unless they looked very carefully for the outline of his body.

They tensed as they picked up the sound of approaching footsteps so soft that if they were not transgenics, they would never have heard it.

The door burst open as four black clad soldiers poured in.

Just as the soldier at the front spotted him, Alec snapped out a command to Kelpy.

Instantly, Kelpy lowered himself and swung his legs around in a roundhouse foot sweep. The snapping action of his kick yanked the last soldier's feet from under him, toppling the unsuspecting soldier over onto his team-mate in front.

Max and Alec jumped out of their positions to take on the other two soldiers, knocking their weapons out of their hands as they turned around in surprise. The weapons clattered across the floor, out of the reach of the soldiers. Then as they regained their composure, they began to circle Max and Alec.

Alec lashed out first with a hook punch to the head, but the soldier successfully dodged it and returned a swift kick to Alec's knees. Jumping to the side just in time to miss the large boot connecting with his shins, Alec frowned, raising his guards further. His opponent was much faster than he expected. Much too fast for an ordinary human.

The soldier struck again, this time hitting Alec on the arm, but he did not even wince though he could feel the superhuman strength behind the punch. Leaning into his opponent, Alec returned the punch with one of his own, their close proximity meaning that it found its target easily, knocking the wind out of the soldier.

It took the soldier little time to recover from the blow. In seconds, he was up again, and facing Alec. They lunged, hitting each other so swiftly that the individual moves could not be discerned by ordinary human eyes.

Max blurred to her opponent, jamming an elbow into his ribs before he could react. Staggering slightly, he straightened and came back at her with a jump kick. Max stepped out of its path just a fraction of a second before she was hit. Swivelling around to face him, she realised that the soldier was much quicker and stronger than she had originally thought. Steeling her resolve to pound him senseless, she charged again.

The sound of a gunshot distracted the four of them momentarily. Kelpy had shot one of the other soldiers with her own gun. Max cursed as she saw the look on his face. He was not used to this, she noted belatedly. Kelpy was blending rather erratically into his surrounding, which had the effect of confusing his opponents.

They fought on for a few more minutes before finally, Max, Alec and Kelpy managed to take the other three down. Just as the last soldier slumped to the floor, they heard shouts from the back of the cabin. Not wasting a second, they all blurred out of the back door instantly.

Alec skidded to a halt when he saw what greeted them out there.

Cammy and Dani was down on the ground, bleeding and unconscious. Max's eyes frantically searched them for any signs of life, but she could not tell from that distance. They were not moving at all.

There were four soldiers down, but another three was left standing. Tom had another one at gunpoint, but what made Alec and Max go cold was the last one, the one Zack was shouting at.

"Let him go!" Zack shouted, his eyes hard. "Or I'll slaughter this piece of junk," he threatened as he tightened the chokehold on the enemy soldier he held in his arm.

The pale-skinned soldier with a hard face was sneering at them with a maniacal gleam in his eyes, quite unperturbed by the scene in front of him or the fate of his comrades.

And he had the tip of a sharp hunting knife to the throat of an unconscious Sandeman.

t.b.c.

A/N: And the cliffies are back! Hehe! Sorry this chappie came so late, I was on holidays. So what do you think of this chapter? Please review and let me know (winks).