Disclaimer: I don't own Dark Angel, or Manticore, or the X-series. And I don't own a car, which has noting to with this, but still sucks.

Summary: AU. Things are a little different. They are all still in Manticore. Ben is in Alec's unit and has never met Max or the others. M/A

A/N: Yay! An update. Please review and tell me what you think. And take a look in my authors page.

Always

Chapter #15

In to Deep

After a day of being pestered, Brin officially proclaimed her insane and threw her out of the computer lab telling her to 'go talk about it with the voices in your head'. Jondy decided that maybe it was time to annoy her other siblings for a change.

She found Zane easy enough. He was in the training room walking in between rows and rows of X7's, all throwing kicks in the air with exact precision. Every once in a while, when he was sure no one was looking, Zane would reach the end of the room and silently started hitting his head against the wall.

Jondy made a mental note to ask him about that later.

Her next stop was the mess hall since it was around meal time anyway. Syl, Tinga and Krit sat on the same side of a group table. She wasn't surprised to see just them; it seemed most other units thought they had some kind of deadly contagious disease.

But she was surprised to see Syl sitting on one end of the table and Krit on the other. Jondy took a place across Tinga in between them. Jondy gave her a questioning look but Tinga only shook her head.

Syl ate whatever her fork landed on while reading a book, although it seemed as if her eyes never left the top of the page. Krit was frowning down at his food not even pretending to be interested in it.

Jondy, cat DNA and all, was curious (some would say nosey, she wouldn't agree) and wanted desperately to ask what was going on but the warning glare coming from Tinga shut her up. The four sat there in silence for what felt, to Jondy, like hours until she couldn't take it anymore.

"Syl, watcha' reading?"

"Weapons manual." she answered without looking up.

"Oh come on!" said Jondy "I bet by now you can quote anything on that book, page, paragraph and backwards."

"Don't mess with the book Jon, it's like her bible." Tinga put in.

"That must be why she can't solve any problems that don't involve an MSG-90."

All three girls were taken back at the bitterness in Krit's voice.

"At least a semi automatic can get the job done." Syl bit back.

They were glaring daggers at each other. Krit was the first to react; he threw his fork on the table and stormed out.

Luckily only a few people from the nearest table noticed when Syl shoved her food tray in anger making it fall on to the floor. She stared at the fallen contents for a second before getting up and running after him.

Jondy blinked a few times as if to make sure that what she saw was true. She glanced towards Tinga who wore the same expression. "So. Watcha been doing lately?"

…

"You're one to talk about solving problems!" Syl followed him out to the courtyard and waited until they reached a more concealed spot behind a group of trees before continuing.

"Things start getting a little messy and you walk away."

"What was I supposed to do? Start a fist fight with you in the middle of the mess hall?"

She ran her hand through her hair trying to think straight. It had been only a day since the fight in her cell and she already missed him. Syl really didn't want to stay mad at him anymore, but he wasn't exactly making it easy.

"I can't believe this is such a huge problem for you. This is only until things cool down with the breeding thing. You'd think that it wouldn't be that hard to keep it in your pants for a-"

"Oh don't even!-" he interrupted a little to loudly. "Do not make this about sex Syl. You know its not that."

"No I don't! So would you please just explain what the fuck is wrong because I just don't get it."

"Would you stop! I cant take this anymore. I'm so tired of this shit!"

"Tired of what? Of us?" Her voice cracked without warning, the hurt evident in her eyes even though she tried to not show it. He always could read her well.

Krit looked at her and his expression softened, as did his voice.

"That's just it, there is no us. There's a you and there's a me, but every time we seem even close to crossing that line you push me away."

"So you're giving up? You're ending everything just like that."

"We've been at this for so long" He told her softly. "You take one step forward then three steps back, I just- I can't do this anymore." Without another word he turned around and walked away. Leaving Syl to stare at his retreating back while she fought the tears that threatened to fall down her face.

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While he scrutinized the pages in front of him the X7 group performed hand to hand combat with each other in the gym, he probably should have been supervising them better but Zane believed in putting their individual knowledge in to practice, hopefully when he was at a safe distance.

"Sir?"

"What?" He said not even bothering to look up from the magazine he had confiscated from one of his least favorite guards and one of the more obscene if the content was anything to go on.

"Permission to speak, sir."

Lifting his head he shot the X7 an annoyed look. "What?" Zane repeated.

"I was wondering if you could assist me sir. With one of my lessons."

Zane tried his best not to glare at him, the poor kid looked ready to pee on himself for just asking. He reminded Zane of a wounded puppy.

He raised is eyebrow carefully. "I'm only here to go through drills, kid. I ain't no mentor. So you can stop looking at me with your creepy dog eyes."

The X7, who Zane decided he would dub as Buddy the friendly non dog, didn't look ready to go yet. In fact, he looked very confused.

Confused is better then nothing he thought ironically. The X7's weren't divided in the same levels as the other X-series. There were only two levels and both unnerved Zane to no end. They were either hive minds or mini X5 clones. The former he could deal with, most of the minis he'd come in contact with weren't of his unit anyway. But the hive minds were down right frightening. He was happy with the group he got, only three units and no hives in sight.

"It means I can't help you."

He went back to his reading but a few seconds latter his head shot up again. Buddy hadn't moved an inch.

"If I help you will you go away?"

His face wore a front of indifference but Zane could practically see him smirking. "Yes sir. Thank you, Sir."

"Yeah, whatever. What do you need kid?"

"I have a special project do for Mechanical warfare sir. My unit was assigned a tank to repair but no matter what we do ours is still non functional plus the thermal jacket is all wrong and the short range defense could use some work "

"Wait a second." Zane interrupted before he could go on. "Are you telling me, that you want me to help you fix it?"

Buddy nodded with apprehension, then his face broke into a smile when he saw Zane grin at him.

"Awesome."

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TBC

Next time we find out what happened to Zack, among other things.