Disclaimer: Dark Angel and its characters do not belong to me. This fan-fiction had been written purely for entertainment purposes. No infringement intended and no profit had been made out of this.
A/N: (Grins) Thanks you all for your support with my very first MZ fic!
X5898 – Hey, you're the first reviewer! Thanks! Hmm…How come I felt like the first paragraph of your review was more like a threat? Lol! Yeah, about Max. I'm going to make sure that she doesn't forget to notice his skills (most of the time!). Glad you found the characters believable and in character (phew!), but I still insist that you played a part in it!
Roxyroo – I'm glad that you've decided to check this out. Hehe! Zack had to do something different, so why not go back for his bike?
Sarah – Thanks! Glad you think that it has potential. Read on and let me know what you think!
Nikki – Thanks for your kind words. I hope that you'll enjoy this chapter as well.
Astra – Max and Zack teaming up would be…interesting! Lol! Many things could happen!
Angelofdarkness78 – The person responsible for the birth of this fic! Yes, YOU! This must be the most difficult one I had ever started. But I'm glad you think well of it so far. I agree with you about the '411 on the DL'. I just can't believe that Max let him walk away there. Hope this chapter would give you a break from your homework! Hehe!
BlueAngel137 – I feel apprehensive because this is my first MZ fic! But your review made me feel better about it. I'm glad you find that they're not OoC.
Rules Can be Broken - Chapter 2
(by elle6778)
She tried to not to think of the fact that her fingertips were the only thing that stopped her from plunging three storeys down.
Great, now Zack have yet another thing to reprimand her about, she thought grumpily.
When she tried to pull herself up, a pair of strong hands reached down and wrapped around her wrists, yanking her through the window. Max tumbled onto the cold floor, landing just inches from Zack's boot.
She instantly bounced to her feet to face him. "Thanks," she whispered, arranging her face into a nonchalant mask as to not reveal how ruffled she was at her near fall. She did not need to give Zack another reason to think that she could not take care of herself.
Zack scowled at her. "Try to be a little more focused the next time. I'm beginning to think that have you forgotten everything they had thought us," he hissed softly.
Max rolled her eyes. This had been the second time in that night that he had said that same thing. "Oh, come off it, Zack. It's not like I fell or anything."
"You almost damned well did!" he exclaimed heatedly.
"I'm perfectly capable of dragging myself back up, Zack," she defended herself, her irritation rising. Zack should know that she could take care of herself. Especially as earlier that same night, she had helped him to take down several of Lydecker's men.
"Fine, if you say so. I would love to knock some sense into you, but right now I have something else to do," he snapped, turning to walk down the hallway, not looking back to see if Max was following him.
Soundlessly, Max fell into step behind him after deciding to hold her tongue against telling him that he might need her help. That stubborn CO of hers would definitely not appreciate her offer. But she had no intention of leaving him alone to face the enemy.
They did not make it very far before they spotted two soldiers standing just outside his apartment door. Zack instantly halted and signaled to her in a series of rapid hand gestures. Understanding his orders, Max gave him a small nod, inwardly smiling as she realized that he had decided to accept her presence.
They waited until the soldiers were facing away from them, then together, they blurred forward silently. Max took the one on the left, her arms going around the surprised man's neck. She tightened her grip until he slumped unconscious against her. Lowering him to the floor, Max looked around to see that Zack's victim was sprawled against the wall with his neck twisted at an unnatural angle.
He killed him, she thought in shock. Frowning, she gestured to the dead soldier and mouthed silently to Zack, "Do you have to do that?"
Zack just gave her an uncompromising look just before he bent down to detach the communication device from the unconscious soldier.
Not satisfied at the response she had gotten from Zack, Max decided that she would talk to Zack about it after he had got what he came for.
Zack decided that he needed to talk to Max about her way of thinking. Killing the soldier had been necessary. That's one less enemy to worry about in the future. But from the look she had given him, she had obviously disagreed. Tough, he thought. Who said he needed her approval anyway?
Knowing that this was not a good time to do any sort of talking, he shelved that topic into a corner of his mind for future reference. They would discuss it at a more appropriate setting.
The comms device crackled softly. Strapping it over his ears and mouth, Zack listened.
"Gamma-team, report status, over," a voice said from the earpiece.
Careful to keep his voice low to disguise his identity, Zack replied, "Negative visuals on subjects. Over."
"Keep us posted, Gamma-team. Over and out."
Zack put away the device. It was not likely that they would check again anytime soon, which gave him and Max a window of opportunity to retrieve his bike.
His bike.
A small frown marred his brow as doubts began to assail him. His mind suddenly flashed back to one cold morning when he and the rest of his unit had been gathered for one of their daily lessons. Sitting ramrod straight, his eyes had been focused to the front of the classroom as a military officer spoke, pointing to the words projected on the white wall.
"Rule A.43: Attachment. Formation of attachment to any living being or object increases vulnerability and weakness, clouds judgment, and therefore is prohibited. Soldiers who find themselves in this position are to report to Command for evaluation."
Zack quickly shook his head to clear the image. He did not need to remember what it had felt like; the mindless zombie look all of them had sported now gave him the shudders. Get a grip, Zack. You have a retrieval mission to complete and you need to focus, he told himself harshly. The flashback reminded him that he was breaking that rule, but he had made his decision and he intended to stick to it. Taking a deep breath, he let his eyes scan the surrounding.
Certain that there would be more soldiers posted inside the apartment, Zack signaled Max to enter only after he did. That way, they should keep the soldiers from raising the alarm too soon.
At the count of three, Zack shoved open the door and blurred inside. Almost immediately, he spotted two more soldiers.
He rushed to the one who was preparing to raise the alarm through his comms device, clamping his hand over the soldier's mouth before he could speak. Out of the corner of his eyes, he saw Max doing the same. Zack held on until he was sure that the soldier had passed out before he released his hold. Belatedly, he realized that he had refrained from killing the soldier.
It's all Max's fault that I'm growing soft, he thought irritably. He shot an accusing look at Max just to see hergrinning at him in approval.
Rapidly, Zack went around the room grabbing some papers which might be incriminating, including Max's photos, the ad with Max's barcode and his bottle of Tryptophan. He shoved them all into a rucksack and then he went to his bike.
Putting on his helmet, Zack gestured for Max to follow as he pushed his bike out of the apartment.
"My bike's downstairs," she whispered as she walked alongside.
Zack peered at her over his shoulders. That damned rule number A.43, he thought irritably as he saw the hopeful look in her eyes. He wanted to tell he to leave it but understanding how she felt about leaving her bike behind, he said, "We'll be storming out through the front. There're five of them out there. Be ready to jump on your bike when we pass it, alright?"
They made their way down the platform lift without any further mishap. When they reached the ground floor, he straddled his bike and signaled for Max to do the same.
A second later, they roared out of the front door into the chilly night. Almost instantly, shouts rang out as the soldiers came out of hiding, all rushing towards the bike. Over the sound of the engine, he could hear one of them radioing for back-up. He knew that they needed to get out of there before Lydecker's troops arrived.
Spotting Max's bike as he swerved around a lamppost, Zack slowed down only a fraction to allow Max to get to it. He instantly felt the loss of the warmth of her body against his back as she jumped off.
A second later, he picked up the sound of her bike revving up a moment later.
Just as Max rode up next to him, the soldiers started shooting. Determined to evade them, Zack sped up, knowing that Max would have no problem following. He had seen her on her bike before and was confident that she could ride as well as he did.
He could hear the bullets whizzing past his ears as they moved further away from his apartment.
Then suddenly he heard a soft thud over the rumble of the bikes, followed by a sharp cry of pain.
His heart sped up as unwanted visions of what might have happened to Max flashed in front of him. "Max!" he called out in alarm as he darted his eyes to the other bike further back to one side of his.
"I'm okay," she yelled back.
Relief coursed through him as he noted that although she had been hit, Max still remained in control of her bike. He could see the determined expression on her face as she gritted her teeth against the pain.
He hoped that she could hang on for a while more until they got themselves out of the city.
"Damn it!" Max cursed under her breath as she forced herself to ignore the throbbing in her leg.
She had cried out with the shock of the impact when the bullet had hit the fleshy part of her thigh, passing clean though. And now she could feel the dampness around the area and the trickle of blood down her legs. Maneuvering the bike was not a problem. Keeping herself from fainting as a result of the loss of blood was.
The sound of the gun-shots had finally faded in the distance, she was glad to note. Dodging bullets when riding a bike was no easy feat, even for a transgenic.
After awhile, clusters of trees slowly replaced the buildings on either side of the road as they moved further away from civilization.
She turned to find Zack. Since they had been riding abreast all this time, she was puzzled to find him suddenly absent from her side. Then Max realized that Zack had slowed down. Reducing her speed, she came to a stop as Zack did so.
Wincing at the pain in her thighs, she gingerly propped her bike so that most of the weight ended up on her uninjured leg.
"Are you alright?" he asked, pulling his helmet off. His eyes traveled up and down her body until he spotted the damp patch on her trousers. "Is the bullet still in?" he asked, his expression unreadable.
Wondering if it would kill him to outwardly show that he was concerned, Max shook her head. "I'm surviving. Bullet passed through, but it hurts like hell."
"It needs to be cauterized," he said firmly.
Max rolled her eyes. "Well, yeah. But just in case you haven't noticed, we're in the middle of nowhere here. Nothing but trees, and I'm not about to step out of my pants right here," she pointed out as she gestured around them.
Giving her a look of annoyance, he said, "I know. We have to go a bit further. There's a place I always stop by which is about an hours ride from here. Then we'll decide what to do with you. I still think that you should go to San Francisco. Seattle is not safe anymore. Lydecker's combing the city right now. You need to keep on the move."
Max glared at him. "We have gone through this, Zack. I'm not going anywhere especially if it means that we have to split. So why do you keep bringing it up?"
"I'm trying to keep you alive and away from Manticore. So stop being so stubborn, Max!"
"Look who's talking," she retorted, rolling her eyes. She knew that Zack was definitely the most stubborn of all of them.
Obviously exasperated with her attitude, he said tightly, "Fine, let's just get you cleaned up and we'll decide after that." With that, he reached into his rucksack and withdrew a shirt. Tossing it at her, he ordered, "Wrap this tight around the wound. It'll slow down the bleeding for a while."
She caught the shirt and quickly wrapped it around her thigh, wincing as she tied the two ends into a knot.
She could feel Zack watching her as she did so. Then seemingly satisfied that it would do until they arrived at their destination, Zack said briskly, "Good. Now let's go."
Max nodded quietly, watching him as he revved up his bike and started to move. She followed suit, rumbling behind him at first and then speeding up.
She had not really thought of a plan when she had decided to follow Zack tonight. All that she had wanted to do was to keep him from disappearing on her, or at least find out where he was based. Now that she had time to think on it during the ride, things began to seem a bit clearer to her. Leaving Seattle, and hence Original Cindy, Logan, Kendra and her friends from Jam Pony was not something she wanted to do, unless it meant that she would be reunited with her siblings. However, she also knew that the chances of persuading Zack to remain in Seattle would be close to nil and she had no intention of letting him leave without her. So, that basically left her with one last option.
She supposed that she had to persuade Zack to let her meet the rest of her siblings.
Her head began to throb from her thoughts. She needed to come up with a plan soon, but maybe she should leave it until she was in somewhere safe and comfortable, and somewhere where her frozen fingers could be thawed out. She wished that she had kept her bike gloves on.
They had been riding north for an hour when Max started to shiver a little. She was not surprised. The wind which had been whipping her hair back from her face had been icy cold.
A few minutes later, the shivers turned into spasmodic jerks. Max's eyes widened in realization.
Oh, no. Not now! She thought desperately as her teeth clattered against each other. She recognized the fact that the shaking and shivering were a symptom of the onset of a seizure. Her system must be protesting against the loss of blood. That damned Manticore can't even get something like the serotonin levels right, she grouched irritably.
Max forced herself to keep her bike steady. It shouldn't be long more, she tried to reassure herself. A sudden violent shake made her swerve almost into Zack.
"What's going on Max?" she heard him shout at her over the wind.
Clenching her teeth, she gritted out shortly, "Seizure."
"Turn right now, the cabin is not far in," he said briskly, his helmet preventing Max from seeing any emotion he might have.
Max blinked against the blurriness in her eyes as she guided her bike to the right, entering a dirt road. Her body shook, but it was not because of the bumpy dirt road they were traveling on. Almost there. Hang on, Max, she told herself as she spotted a small log cabin not far ahead.
When they finally arrived, Max released a sigh of relief which was interrupted by another round of shivers. She quickly dismounted before she could fall off. Hazily, she saw Zack rushing towards her.
She had barely taken a step before she fell into his arms, her body shaking uncontrollably.
t.b.c.
A/N: Hey there, I'm craving your reviews here! Please let me know what you think of this so far.