Disclaimer: I do not own any of the Dark Angel characters. They belong to James Cameron, Charles Eglee, and Fox. But any characters you do not recognize are most likely mine, if you're not sure, just ask.
April 2011
Max closed her eyes, their unit, well family, was slowly falling apart, so many were dead. Levi shot in 2008. Adam drowned in 2009. Jack dragged away and cut up because of the 'shakes' in 2009. Eva shot by Lydecker in 2009. Kavi shot in 2010. Tony now dead. Max didn't want to know who was next out of her siblings. She was afraid of who was going to be next.
Opening her eyes Max got up to go to the bathroom, as she walked by her siblings bunks a smile came to her face, no matter what happened to her, they'd always be with her. Before Max made it to the bathroom she felt the 'shakes' hit her, bad. She fell to the ground, shaking uncontrollably, images of Jack falling out of line and getting dragged away came to her, their attempt to escape came back to her.
No one was awake to help her, they were all asleep, even Jondy was, once again. Max heard rustling, and knew someone was waking up, or at least it sounded like it. "B-Ben." Max said, hoping she had pinpointed the sound to the right person.
Max tried to sit up as she heard more rustling, but the 'shakes' were to intense and brought her back to the ground. She curled into a fetal position as she heard someone get out of their bed. "Maxie?"
Max looked up to see Ben. 'I was right.' She thought to herself. "They're b-b-bad to-tonight Ben."
She felt Ben pick her up, and carry her back to her bed. "Ssh Maxie it's going to be ok. The 'shakes' will be over soon, and I'm not going to let them take you away like they did Jack."
Max wasn't sure how long it had taken for the 'shakes' to subside, but when they were over she felt unbelievably tired. Closing her eyes she fell asleep, feeling Ben's strong arms wrapped around her, keeping her safe.
When Max woke up that morning she found herself lying there alone. Sitting up she saw Ben talking to Zack on the other side of the room. "You ok Maxie?" Max looked up and smiled at Brin.
"I'm good," she replied.
"Ben told us about what happened last night." Brin stated. "You sure you ok?"
"I'm doing much better. I just needed a good nights sleep for once I guess."
Brin nodded, "But you better hurry up and get ready. Breakfast is in fifteen minutes." she said before walking away.
Sighing Max got out of bed. It was going to be a very long day, that she wasn't willing to face. She didn't know how much longer she could take the endless hours of training and brainwashing. If only they had gotten out when they had tried to escape the first time maybe then life would have been different for them. Maybe their lives could of been better then this. Max shook her head, no, she couldn't dwell on this anymore, it wasn't good to dwell on the past. She needed to move on and hope one day her sibling and herself would get to know what it was like beyond the wall of Manticore.
August 2011
Another sleepless night spent wondering the base found Max near Lydecker's office. She was about to turn and head back to the barracks when she heard voices coming from the office.
"We want to move the X5's to the Seattle facility." Max heard a female voice say.
"I take it 'we' is you." she heard Lydecker reply.
"No Deck. The 'we' is the board."
"And why exactly do you want to move the X5's?"
"Oh, come on Deck. They tried to escape, and one of them made it."
"Do you really think they wouldn't try another escape at the Seattle facility?"
For a few minutes there was silence before Max heard the women reply, "We knew you wouldn't agree. That's why we're giving you three years to prove to us you have them under control."
"What exactly do you mean by that?"
"I mean if there's another attempt to escape or you fail to keep them in order, the X5's are being transferred to the Seattle facility."
Max bit her lip when she heard footsteps coming closer. 'Time to head back to the barracks.' she thought to herself, silently slipping down the halls unnoticed.
November 2011
"You waited until now to tell us what you heard?" Zane questioned Max as they sat in the Mess Hall eating.
"Well I didn't think it was that important." Max stated.
"Not important Maxie?" Jondy questioned. "How could us being moved to a different facility not be important?"
"But it's not a for sure thing." Max sighed. "It's more or less if we screw up, it will be looked at as Lydecker's fault, and we'll be shipped off to the Seattle facility."
"And that doesn't seem like a big deal to you?" Krit questioned from his seat across from Max.
"Not really." Max responded. "I really don't see what the big deal is about it."
"If we get moved to the Seattle facility we could be split into different units." Krit stated.
"I never thought about it like that before." Max said looking down at her food. "It never crossed my mind."
"We will all just have to be careful." Jondy sighed. "'Cause I don't think any of us want to be split up."
"J. I think you should rephrase that." Zane said eating some of the food that sat in front of him.
"What do you mean by that?" Jondy questioned with a raised eyebrow.
"You know better then to say 'think' when you 'know' something." Was Zane's response.
"And you know better then talking without thinking about what you're going to say." Jondy replied shaking her head.
"Hey I was just trying to say you should of said that you know none of us want to be split up instead." Zane clarified.
"You could of just said so." Jondy said.
Max smiled. Jondy and Zane were always bickering about something. From who had gotten a bigger portion of breakfast, lunch or dinner, to who did best in training. But then again her, Ben, and Krit were the same way at times. Maybe it was a sibling thing to do.
May 2012
Tinga grinned, "I can't believe they're letting us grow out our hair. I want mine has long as Raina's hair."
"Who exactly is Raina?" Brin questioned.
"One of the nurses that work night shift in the infirmary." Tinga replied.
"The one with the really long hair?" Jondy asked, as she sat down on Brin's bunk.
"Yea." Tinga smiled.
"But wouldn't that long of hair get in your way during training?" Jondy asked next.
"I can tie it back to keep it out of my way." Tinga pointed out.
"Why are you talking about hair?" Ben questioned. "We're going to get to go on missions soon. We'll be outside of the Manticore walls."
"But we aren't going to be free of Manticore." Zack stated. "We'll be working for them. They'll have tabs on us."
"But we'll still be outside the wall. Meaning while we're on these 'missions' we won't be training and we'll have some actual food." Ben argued.
"Ben's got a point there Zack." Syl mused. "Things will definitely be different on missions."
"We'll have some form of freedom." Krit added.
The group fell silent, only hours ago had Lydecker informed them that their were going to be changes to their training, classes added. He had told them that in the months to come they were going to be sent on 'missions' outside of Manticore. They couldn't help but be excited, it was going to be better then when they trained in the forests around Manticore.
"So what new classes are you guys looking forward to?" Jace questioned.
"Common Verbal Usage." Jondy and Zane said in unison.
Jondy glared at Zane. "You're only looking forward to it because I am."
"Whatever you say Jondy." Zane replied.
Shaking her head Tinga said, "I'm looking forwards to the cooking classes."
"I'm looking forward to arts and culture." Syl stated.
"How are they going to fit in all these new classes?" Max questioned. "I mean, don't we still have to do all our regular training?"
"They'll probably just switch things around a bit." Ben replied. "One new class a week, maybe. Guess we really can't say, because you never know with them.
"We're going to have to wait until next week to find out how they're going to do everything." Zane mused.
"Yea." Max agreed. "We're going to have to wait and see."
September 2012
"Maxie I'm bored." Jondy complained.
"Me too." Max agreed with a sigh.
"All of our practical jokes have gotten boring."
"Well that's because everyone has started to get use to them. And since they know what we're planning it's no fun anymore."
"Sometimes I wish our whole unit had Shark DNA."
Max snorted. "Lydecker would enjoy that to much. He'd have us training all day and all night. We'd never have a break."
"True." Jondy sighed. "Hey! Aren't Zack, Brin, Krit, and Ben going on a mission soon?"
"Yea one of the first missions. Their lucky."
"What exactly are they going to be doing?"
"Don't know." Max sighed. "Their not aloud to share information about the mission. It's confidential."
"That sucks."
"It's understandable."
"Would the two of you try to sleep?" They heard Ben groan. "Or at least talk a little quieter?"
"Can you make shadow puppets for us?" Jondy questioned, ignoring what Ben had said.
"Why? I haven't done those for years." Was Ben's response.
"But we miss them." Jondy complained. "Right Maxie?"
"Right Jondy." Max agreed. "Come on Ben make some shadow puppets."
"But I'm tired."
"Please." Max and Jondy pleaded in unison.
"If you'll do it, we'll be really quiet, so you can sleep." Max bargained with Ben.
"Fine." Ben sighed, getting out of bed, and walking over to where Jondy and Max were sitting. Sitting down himself, he used the small bit of moonlight coming threw the small window to make shadows on one of the walls in the barracks.
AN: Thanks for reading and leaving the reviews you guys.. Five reviews will get you an update in at least a week. More then five will get an update hopefully before seven days is up. And less then five will allow me to procrastinate with updating.
Angel Of Darkness231: Hope you liked this chapter!
calistra: Slowly but surely the story will open up. lol
angelofdarkness78: Yes Seth escaped, I had to let someone get out didn't I? And yes, typical Max, very typical Max. lol
meri24: Alec will be here soon, give me another chapter after this, and I promise he'll make an appearance.
Sarah: Only one more chapter of jumping to certain months, and then its just gonna play out like any other story.
Alana84: Yup Seth got out. And of course Alec's gonna be in the fic, just gotta wait a bit for him to make his appearance.
L80bug: Glad you love it!
GuestTypePerson: You're not messed up, I had this chapter posted a while back, but I decided to rewrite and repose it. Lol.