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

"Lights out in five minutes." A guard stated as he walked past Max and Manny.

The two X5's watched as he continued to walk down the hall. As soon as he disappeared Max shook her head and said, "I guess we should head back to our cells."

"Guess so." Manny said as the two headed towards their unit's barracks.

"I'm not looking forward to tomorrow." Max sighed.

"I know. You'd think they'd give us a week to settle in."

"You know no one at Manticore is that nice." Max commented.

"Only us X5s." Manny added as they go to their barracks. "Are we training with the other X5's tomorrow?"

"I dunno. We'll have to wait and see."

Nodding Manny said, "Night Maxie."

"Goodnight Manny." Max replied before disappearing down the female corridor.

As son as Max walked into the cell she shared with Jondy she collapsed on her bunk. Pulling her knees to her chest Max watched the door for Jondy. After a few minutes the door swung open and Jondy walked in with a smile on her face.

"Have fun?" Max questioned.

"A blast." Jondy replied sitting down on her own bunk. "The X5's here are awesome."

"Do you know how many are twins?"

"Well Sam's yours twin. Lane is Zack's. Jewel is Tinga's. Emma is Eva's. Erin is Jack's. Kade is Zane's. Luke is Seth's. Devon is Krit's. Keema is Brin's. And Alec is Ben's twin."

"You met all of them?" Max questioned sitting up.

"All of them. And then Biggs, CeCe, Gem, Kee, Stu, Zoey, and Biff." Jondy stated proudly. :"Everyone from our unit met them too, except you and Manny."

"We were walking around base talking." Max sighed lying back down on her bunk. As soon as she did so the lights flickered off. "Bedtime."

"Why does lights out have to be so early?" Jondy grumbled lying down on her bunk.

"Jondy 2200 is not that early." Max replied rolling her eyes.

"Well it feels that early."

"Only because we have shark DNA, and a lot of the time we're up all night."

"Good point." Jondy sighed. "You know what sucks?"

"Shark DNA?" Max guessed.

"Aside from that." Jondy sighed.

"I don't know."

"I don't have a twin." Jondy stated.

"And you're jealous?"

"No. Just curious why you got one and I didn't."

"Jondy there's another facility aside from this one and the one in Gillette. For all you know that's where your twin is."

"If I have one."

"If you have one." Max sighed.

"So you ready to talk yet?"

"Jondy if I'm not mistaken I'm talking right now."

"I mean are you ready to talk about what happened to Ben yet."

"Not yet Jondy." Max whispered, rolling onto her back and staring at the roof in the dark.

"Are you sure Maxie?"

"I'm positive."

"OK. But when you're ready I'm r-"

"Right here. I know Jondy, and I won't forget it." Max said, cutting off Jondy.

After a few minutes of silence Jondy asked, "Are you sure you don't' want to talk about it now Maxie?"

"I'm sure Jondy. Now, can you please drop the subject?" Max replied.

"Sorry Maxie. I just wanted to make sure." Jondy sighed.

Max didn't say anything in reply. She just stared at the ceiling, and let her thoughts consume her. Slowly her eyes closed and she drifted off to a dreamless, peaceful sleep.

Max woke up to the sound of movement in the cell. Opening her eyes she sat up and looked around in the dark for the source of the sound. Tilting her head to the side she looked at Jondy with a raised eyebrow. "Jondy. What are you doing?"

"What does it look like?" Jondy questioned.

"It looks like you're doing pushups, and have been for awhile."

"Well you fell asleep on me, so I had to find a way to keep myself busy."

"So you did pushups?"

Jondy stood up and stretched, "Well there was nothing else to do, and I didn't want to go crazy from boredom."

Max shook her head and asked, "So what time is it?"

"No clue." Jondy sighed. "But I have a feeling the day will be starting soon."

"And what's the logic behind that sis?"

"More guards seem to be wandering around." Jondy stated with a shrug.

"Nice logic." Max laughed.

As soon as the words had left Max's mouth the lights in the cell flickered back on, and Jondy grinned, "See my logic is great."

"Uh huh." Max grinned back. "Guess we should get ready and head to Mess Hall."

"Guess we should." Jondy sighed.

"Alec, man, get up."

Alec groaned, "Go away Biggs."

"You're the CO of this unit Alec, you should be setting an example for me and the others. Not sleeping." Biggs stated.

"I am setting a good example." Alec grumbled. "Sleep is good."

"Alec... five minutes."

"Yea, yea, yea. I'm getting up." Alec sighed sitting up.

Like most Manticore soldiers, or at least the X5's, Alec seemed to have a split personality. Around those he cared about he was his normal carefree self. Around his superiors he was an obedient soldier. A role model for others. It was all understandable though. None of them wanted to risk getting sent to Psy Ops, or reindoctrination. Those were things that could completely change a person.

"So what do you think of the Gillette group?" Biggs questioned as Alec got up to stand beside him.

"They're not really that different from us." Alec replied.

"Their unit's smaller then ours." Biggs mused.

"By four." Alec replied. "We aren't the only unit to have lost people before. I thought Jondy made that pretty clear last night."

"But still, the units here are huge. We were the smallest before. They use to shuffle transgenics around to make units of at least thirty. But they never touched ours."

"And we've always been the only X5 unit here. After they sent the other two to the other facility, anyway. Which could mean they'll put our units together." Alec stated.

"The question in that case would be, who would end up CO and SIC."

"That's a good question." Alec replied thoughtfully. "I guess we're just going to have to wait and see."

"The wonders of breakfast." Ash sighed, lifting up the spoon that sat in her bowl.

"Wonder is right." Zane stated. "I wonder what's in it."

"I don't want to know what's in it." Krit said before eating a spoonful of whatever was in the bowl before him. "It's food. Who cares what's in it." he added his mouthful. "When you know what's in it, you don't want to eat it, and then you starve."

"Krit, don't talk with your mouthful." Syl ordered, hitting him upside the head.

"Sorry?" Krit said after swallowing the food that was in his mouth.

"You better be." Syl muttered.

"So, Krit, how does the food taste?" Vada questioned.

"It's alright. Kind of lumpy though." Krit replied taking another spoonful.

"You know we're lucky we have a food tester here." Jace stated. "If Krit keels over we know the food they serve isn't edible."

"Who says I'm the food tester?" Krit questioned.

Tinga smiled and replied, "You're the only one brave enough to try the food they give us first. So we rely on you to tell us if it's good or not. Which makes you a very important person to all of us."

"OK..." Krit trailed off, lost in thought. "I guess I could live with that."

Changing the subject Jess asked, Does anyone know where we're suppose to go after breakfast?"

"Training field one." Zack stated. "We're joining the other X5 unit here."

"Is there only one other X5 unit here?" Manny questioned.

"Yea." Jondy replied.

"There use to be three. But when it was decided to open a new facility just outside of Phoenix, Arizona, they moved two of the X5 units." A new voice said from off to the side. "Two X5 units, one X6 unit, and one X7 unit were moved. Along with half of the Psy Ops and Specialty units. They didn't want to start the facility straight from scratch, so the took units from here."

"Hey Biggs." Jondy smiled up at him. "I guess that answers the question running through my head about why this place is huge, and there aren't that many transgenics."

Biggs shook his head and asked, "Mind if I join you guys for breakfast this morning?"

"Go right ahead." Jondy replied for all of them.

"Thank you." Biggs said taking the empty seat beside Max, across from Jondy. "Name's Biggs." he said facing Max.

"I kind of figured that out." Max replied.

"Thought I'd introduce myself, since we didn't get a chance to talk last night." Biggs stated.

"Uh huh." Max replied.

"Ignore Max. She tends to wake up on the wrong side of the bed sometimes." Manny spoke up from beside Jondy. "I'm Manny by the way. And I'm guessing you're from the other X5 unit here."

"You guessed right." Biggs replied.

"So why aren't you with your unit?" Max questioned, moving the spoon around in the bowl, of what she figured was last night's dinner blended together, ignoring Manny's comment.

"They decided that it was pick on Biggs day today." Biggs sighed.

"Aw, was poor Biggsy getting picked on?" Jondy laughed.

"You're as bad as them." Biggs complained.

"Sorry." Jondy grinned at him.

"Would the two of you quit flirting? It's making me sick to my stomach." Zane muttered.

"Jealous much?" Jondy questioned. "And who says we're flirting?"

"Come on Jondy. "You got your whole flirty, ditzy voice going on." Zane replied. "The one you use when you want something."

"Don not." Jondy shot back.

"Ignore them." Tinga sighed, looking at Biggs. "Their always like that."

AN: Sorry about the long wait for an update. Hope you liked the chapter, and don't forget to leave a review. I was thinking of putting up pictures of the characters on my website, so if you have ideas of what some of them should look like (the ones we didn't get to see on the show) tell me. And if you got ideas of who you want to end up with who in the end, aside from Max and Alec, do share. Ideas are always welcome.

calistra: There will be more of Max's usual hiding from Alec routine, well only for a while longer. With the past two weeks of school I've been quite busy, but I'm still reading your story.

Angel of Darkness231: Yes there's two of a lot of people, but the twins of the males make it oh so much better.

EminemIsCool: Hmm... Sam and Zane... I'll keep that in mind.

Dory Shotgun: Sorry to crush your hopes of being a trend setter for the next 3 years and 35 days. Sorry about the wait for this chapter, hope you liked it anyway.

AngelKougaeri: Got to love school. (Note sarcastic tone of typing) Thanks for the review!

angelofdarkness78: Yes, the twin thing is confusing, and it will be confusing for awhile. Especially for both the units. I can see all the chaos now.

Alec'sAngel494: Thank you for your reviews for chapters four, five, six, and seven. Good to see reviews from you again. Alec and Max will get together sooner or later... most likely sooner rather than later. About Max killing Ben, I'm still pondering the details of their sideways mission, so you'll have to wait and see.

meri24: Hmm, I don't know... you could be reading way to much into it. But you never know, right?

HoneyX5-452: Thanks for your reviews! I have been reading your stuff, but I always end up falling behind on my reading because of school, I don't have that much time to leave reviews, but I guess I should start leaving them.

L80bug: Thanks!

Alana84: I like writing the Jondy/Zane interactions, the always seem to write themselves. Max will hopefully come around soon.

Amelya: Thanks for the review in chapter six. Hope you like how it's going so far.