REUNION

- by Moonlight -

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Chapter 2

Cece had already made up her mind to tell Max exactly what she thought of her and had just opened her mouth when she saw Kaz shaking his head with a serious expression upon his face pointing towards Alec's errant form, his dark blue eyes held a troubled look.

As soon as she cast a glance into Alec's face Cece too knew that something was terribly wrong. Worse even than they both had thought earlier. What they could see in his face made them almost tremble

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Alec himself was feeling out of his depth. Million of thoughts kept racing through his head while he stared at the TV intently.

He had just reacted without even a conscious thought when he had pushed Logan up against the wall. He had been watching the back of the girl on the screen and only listening to Max and Logan with one ear when he suddenly snapped, just like that. Without having even a second to think about it .He had just thrown Logan against the wall after he heard the man talking about that skinny girl on the screen in such a snotty way. He had not been able to help himself.

Growling unconsciously at the thought of Logan again, Kaz looked at him inquiringly but Alec didn't see. He was lost in his own thoughts.

First there had been this weird tug on his heart and the next second he had been facing Logan. Not that he felt guilty or anything, he didn't particularly like the guy but it wasn't like him to just act without any reason. He shook his head uneasily, there still was a strange feeling inside him and he felt like he needed to know what that was about. It seemed to be vital.

His eyes were still fixed on the shabby clothes of the girl on TV when she got zoomed in even more and then started speaking.

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Her voice trembling with tears she was facing the crowd.

"What do you know ? What the hell do you know !"

Her raspy voice got louder by the second and no one could fail to hear her desperation.

"What do you know at all? You don't have a clue what you are talking about, not the smallest idea! You want them to go back to where they come from? Do you know where that is and what they made them do there, what they did to them? It was our government who created them, created them to HELP our country doing jobs nobody else could. Jobs that were saving YOUR lives!

They are different than you are, right, but do you think they asked to be different? Nobody cared to ask them, nobody gave them a chance! They were trained to do what the government wanted them to do. Can you blame them that they wanted to escape? Escape from a world that only hurt them in a way nobody of you will ever be able to imagine? Can you blame them for wanting a life of their own, one where they won't be hunted down?"

Sobs were wracking her fragile body hard now, but she didn't stop.

"They have the same rights as we have, even more after all OUR government did to them! There may be some of them, who don't look like we do but they have just the same feelings as we do. They feel pain and hurt, they can feel joy and happiness, anger and sadness!"

Angry shouts tried to stop her but she was determined and now her eyes were hot like fire again when she started to attack the man who wanted to interrupt her.

"Stop it! What do you want to tell us? They killed? They killed some of you? And what did you do! You are hunting them down, YOU are killers too! With the slight difference that they were trained to kill, it was their job that was put upon them to save YOU. So, they killed, yeah they did. They care for each other strongly, they are a family, and they are protecting each other, just as you are! Who can blame them for that? Not only did you kill members of their packs but people did the same where they come from, they had to watch each other die without being able to do anything against it, I never wanna feel like I did then, they left me alone..."

Her last words were almost not audible, carried by a tiny voice and only the people closest could make them out.

A deadly silence had descended as she climbed down from the barrel. They parted to open up a passage to let her passed; nobody was brave enough to hold her back. They were all too much taken aback by what they saw in her face. All life had left it; her eyes didn't look fierce anymore, but broken and shallow.

Soon, she was walking down the street, not knowing where she was going. The only thought left inside her was to finally join her family...She had done her part, no reason left for living anymore. In the distance she could see the welcoming heights of the Space Needle.

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The crowd got restless, looks were shared but nobody knew what to say. They looked up the fence and back after the girl.

A drunkard went on screaming and raging, fists punching into the air as if fighting invisible transgenics, too far gone to get what this little girl had wanted to tell them.

Maybe if he hadn't been as enthusiastic but more serious right now, others had followed his example but the loud, harsh way in which he was screaming out his hatred towards the transgenics in TC let most of the other bystanders wince. Looking at the bellowing human being made them feel disgusted with themselves.

They had been exactly like him only few minutes earlier and now it felt so wrong.

It hurt them having to listen to this wreck of a man shouting obscenities.

More and more people lowered their heads in shame and without making any eye contact turned around and started to walk away. Away from TC and the transgenics; away from their own hate and fear.

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Inside TC all hell had broken loose when the apparently young girl started to talk.

More and more transgenics had come to stand around the TV to listen but Alec didn't see any of them. Neither did Kaz or Cece. As soon as the first words had left the girl's mouth the three of them froze. Their muscles tensed so much that none of the others dared to touch them at all in fear that they would just break apart. Similar looks could be seen in all three pair of eyes that were wide open right now.

It caught Max's breath to look into Alec's face. She had never seen such a mixture of heavy desperation, sadness, disbelief, excitement and joy at once on anyone. Never. Not even when his memories about Rachel came back had he looked like that. Like everything he cared about in the whole world was this girl on TV.

Max felt anguish surging through her at that thought, her heart contracting painfully.

All Alec could do was stare. Stare at the TV, at the girl in the centre of it.

He couldn't move or talk; he was frozen to the spot. He was willing the reporter to show her from the front, he needed to see her face, he needed to. His life depended upon it. He was shaken to the bone. Yet he was terrified, he didn't want his hopes to be crushed all over again. He just knew he wouldn't be able to survive loosing her a second time. He wanted it to be her, it had to be her. Because if it wasn't... if he was wrong, his world would be in pieces and he wouldn't be able to pick them up this time.

Only when a heavy breath left his body, did he realize that he was holding it. His knuckles had turned white and blood was tripping down his hand. He didn't realize tears were trickling down his cheeks and over his handsome face that was full of desperation right now. But the other transgenics did and seeing their leader like that, seeing the cruel pain in his eyes, scared them. They were hurting for him but they knew they couldn't do anything besides keeping silent.

Cece and Kaz were pressing their hips unconsciously against him in search of comfort, Alec didn't need to see their faces to know that they were battling emotions similar to his own. He thought, they had lost her, they all did. Manticore might not have killed her, but they had taken away everything that once had been her. They had only left the shell of the girl they all loved deeply.

Or so they had thought.

When she had been brought out of Psy Ops, she didn't recognize him. She looked at him without any emotion, without the slightest hint of recognition in her empty eyes.

They had broken her. And with breaking her, they had broken him as well. Then he had given up.

She didn't recognize any of her family, not him, nor Jill. Not Cece, Biggs or Kaz...nobody. It almost killed them, the only thought that kept them going, was the one to be free of Manticore one day, find her and get back the warm-hearted and courageous girl, who had wriggled her way into everyone's heart to stay there forever.

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Preview:

All his senses were completely fixed on the girl beside him only few steps away. "San...Sanji?" He whispered shakily, his voice rough with restrained emotions.

Disclaimer: Unfortunately I do not own anything to do with Dark Angel. But I do own my original characters and nobody can make me
get rid of them:)

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A/N: Here you go ! The second chapter all for you! Thanks for all your reviews, I am really curious about your reactions to the new chapter. Let me know, ok?

Disclaimer: Unfortunately Dark Angel isn't mine! But at least the original characters are mine :)