Freedom on the inside
Disclaimer: Unfortunately I don't own anything to do with Dark Angel. They apparently belong to some guy who is most definitely in need of a brain check. What was he thinking when he decided to axe the show? Oh well, I guess when I'm rich enough I'll just have to buy the rights to the programme and then we'll finally get a third season. I wouldn't count on it though.
Rating: PG-13
Pairing: M/A (eventually!)
Summary: What if Max never escaped Manticore in 'Designate This' and didn't get the chance to infect Logan? Logan and everyone else in Seattle thinks she's dead and Renfro's still alive?
Author's Note: I know there's been a lot of 'what if she never escaped stories?' but this is my shot at what could have happened. Please read and review!
Chapter Five
Hiding
"Are you sure?" Renfro said into her phone. Tapping impatiently on the table, she waited for her reply. Sighing, she uttered the single word, "Understood," before putting it back down. Leaning up against her black chair, she talked to the darkly dressed man in front of her.
"We need him alive."
The man nodded, "494 and 452?"
"I'll see to them. Your job is to get him here alive."
The man nodded again before turning around and leaving.
Renfro turned the pages of the file in front of her; this was getting very interesting.
Max and the rest of Unit 9 sat around the forest fire. This was supposedly survival training but to Max it just seemed like some Boys Scout or Girls Guide camping trip. She hadn't particularly learnt anything new – it was all plain common sense really.
"Anyone have any marshmallows?" 701 called out.
"This isn't a Boys Scout camping trip!" Alec snapped.
Max felt her cheeks flush with annoyance of actually being on the same wavelength as him. Over the next few days after their argument, Alec had reverted back to his usual cocky ways and carried on as if nothing had happened between them. But Max wasn't one to forget that easily.
"It may as well be," Max said bitterly with boredom.
"Yeah, I agree," nodded Ginger who lay on her stomach on the ground beside Max.
Alec looked around at the bored and miserable faces of his unit. What was he supposed to do? His orders were to carry out some basic survival training with his unit, he couldn't disobey Manticore again, could he? Actually, he could and he would.
"Okay, fine," Alec said getting up, "Why don't we make things a little bit more interesting then?"
Five pairs of eager eyes, well make that four, looked up at him. Max was still finding the ground far more fascinating. Alec decided to ignore her. She was still pissed off at him, but that was her problem. He hadn't done anything wrong. In fact he could have reported her for 'failure to co- operate with a higher ranking officer', but he hadn't. 0f course Max never saw anything like that.
"Let's have a game of Hide and Seek in the midnight moonlight."
"That's lame!" 441 yelled out.
"Did I mention whoever wins gets everyone else to do their smelly washing for the whole of next week?"
"That's still lame," yelled 441 again, "but I'm up for it; if it gets me to stay away from Mrs Laundry-witch-woman for a week!"
The rest of the unit sighed and got up lazily as they realised they had nothing else better to do.
Max, however, remained firmly seated on her butt.
"Max, care to join us?" Alec called out.
Max scowled at him for using her name so freely in front of the others as she now had three pairs of eyes on her, the three male, and still numbered, transgenics.
"It's my name!" Max yelled at them, "Get over it!" The transgenics quite obviously alarmed at her temper, quickly whipped their heads around, looking anywhere but at Max.
"No I don't!" Max said, turning back to look at Alec.
"Well I'm afraid you don't have much of a choice there Max," he grinned at her, "I mean I am your-"
"CO, please don't remind me," Max said getting up, "Fine let's play this lame game then."
Alec turned his face to look at the others, "I say we do this in pairs."
Max groaned; she knew exactly what was coming up.
"651 and 269"
"Ginger," 269 interrupted.
"What?" Alec asked frowning.
"The name's Ginger!"
Max couldn't help but smile. She really liked this girl. She was gutsy, intolerant to the same level of bullshit as herself and was the second friend she had made in this dump.
"Ok, fine, 651 and Ginger," Alec said emphasising every syllable of the word 'Ginger'.
701 was the next to voice his opinions, "don't we get names?"
Alec groaned, "For the love of-"
Max interrupted him, "Sure you do, just make them up."
701 nodded.
"Okay can we get on with this now?" Alec asked staring at Max.
"You're the commanding officer," Max shrugged.
"Right, right, ok, 441 and 701 and," turning to look at her, "guess what Max?"
Max rolled her eyes at him, closed them and started counting VERY loudly. Alec muffled his laugh before joining in with the monotonous counting as the rest of the unit dispersed into the forest to hide.
". . . Ready or not here we come," Max yelled not so enthusiastically as they finished the monumental count to fifty. Alec turned out the fire and headed into the dark forest, followed closely by Max.
"You know you'd be much prettier if you smiled now and then," Alec said conversationally.
"Why thank you Alec, I'm sorry I can't say the same about you," Max replied with not so well hidden sarcasm.
"Ouch. Was that supposed to hurt?" Alec countered with a smirk.
Max stopped completely. "Ok, what the hell is your deal?" Max barked out, finally not being able to take his flippant attitude any longer, "You're like a bloomin' schizo!"
Alec laughed, "Excuse me?"
"One minute you're cold, the next you're cracking bad jokes and trying to be friendly. Will you make your freakin' mind up!"
"We're supposed to be looking for the others," Alec said, really not in the mood for this argument.
"They can wait," Max said obstinately, "I have been to hell and back over these last ten years, and then I get re-captured, re-tortured and get a brand new moronic CO!"
"Oh you think that's hard do you?" Alec roared back, "Look Miss-stuck-on- her-high-horse; life isn't perfect. You think life outside's perfect? Well let me tell you that I know it isn't! Life inside isn't perfect either but it'll do. Outside you're not really free and we never may be free inside, but at least it's home."
"You still believe that do you?" God, you are so far gone that it's-"
"What's that noise?"
Max stopped her ramblings at Alec's interruption. "What noise?" she asked clearly irritated.
"That noise," Alec pointed out. Max listened carefully. From somewhere around them came a low almost guttural noise. Heightening her hearing, she realised it was in fact a low animalistic groan; someone, or more likely, something, had been injured.
"Where's it coming from?" Max whispered.
Alec didn't answer; he had already started walking towards an overgrown shrub and bush layer in front of them. Max hurried along side, helping to move the plants and leaves to the side. The noise continued to get louder as they moved closer. Alec surged in front of her, and Max, after just a couple of steps, found herself walking straight into his back. He had stopped. "What is that?"
Max pushed her way past him to see what it was that he had seen. As the moonlight filtered through the clearing, Max's eyes adjusted to the sight in front of her. Recognition finally hit her, when she ran her eyes over the stark, familiar canine features of the creature lying on the ground.
"Oh God, Joshua!"
A/N 2- Ok so I'm evil! I'm sorry but my weird writing senses told me that was a perfect place to leave it! I needed to bring back Joshua coz Max did mention him in the first chapter and I prefer not to leave any loose threads hanging. Anyways I hope you liked it and once again thank you to my reviewers!
Lynsi- Um you're probably actually right, they probably wouldn't mix the X- series in an unit but I didn't think it'd matter too much. Thanks for your review and I don't mind questions although I'm sometimes useless at answering them!
Roonblah- Max isn't going to do much for a while I'm afraid. The path to understanding will be a long one! Thanks for reviewing and please update Ascendant soon!
Sassycanuck- I hope that was at least slightly longer than last time! Thanks for the review!
Aotearoa Hiphop Grl- Thank you for your review and I hope I didn't cause too much emotional stress for taking too long to update! :-)
Ting- Hello! Thank you very much for the review and yes Alec will work it out in the end but there's a long way to go!
SmilinStar xxx
P.S. Please please please continue reviewing, I am now a review junkie and I will suffer extreme withdrawal symptoms without them! So please, anything you have to say, good, bad, ideas or improvements, let me know!