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: A great big hug to all of you who had reviewed – you made my day! Thank you so much! This chapter is a bit shorter, I'm having trouble writing in amidst all the pre-Christmas parties I have to attend!

Rules Can Be Broken - Chapter 12

(by elle6778)

Zack was struggling to keep his annoyance in check as they walked up the stairs to the room he had secured them for the night. He did not know if he was more annoyed at himself for getting them a room to share or his reaction to those sleazy men flocking all over Max everywhere they went.

But he knew that he had to talk to Max about her recent behaviour. It was not even tactical exposure this time, it was much more basic than that. It was just common sense. The girl was putting herself in danger without realising it, he thought with a frown.

Yeah, Zack, nothing to do with your jealousy and possessiveness at all, his inner voice mocked disbelievingly.

Zack's annoyance rose another notch.

When they had reached the two doors on the second floor, Zack turned to the left door and inserted the key given to him by the barkeeper. A twist and a push later, the door opened, giving them access to a sparsely furnished, but surprisingly clean room. The only furnishings were a double bed, a cupboard, two chairs and a small table.

Dumping his rucksack on a chair beside the bed, Zack turned to face Max, wondering how he should start.

Max looked back at him with a questioning gaze. "So, what do you need to talk about?" she asked.

Zack took a deep breath, knowing that however he started the conversation, it would not end pretty. "Max, I know that you don't appreciate my intrusion into what you choose to do in your life. But what I saw in the last few days made me wonder where all your training had gone," he said quietly.

"What do you mean, Zack? I don't remember landing us into any trouble," Max said, looking offended.

"That's not what I see, Max. You could have easily gotten into a messy situation with the biker guy downstairs," Zack snapped out before he could stop himself.

"Is that what all this is about? The biker guy?" she asked, an incredulous look on her face.

"I can't tell you who you can and cannot get close to, but even you could see what sort of guy he is. Come on, Max. He probably picks up different girls every night," Zack said.

"You're right, Zack. You can't tell me how to run my life that way. And for the record, I was just talking to the guy. It's not like I was going to jump into bed with him anytime soon. What kind of girl do you think I am?" Max said defensively.

"What if he decides to force you?"

Max snorted. "Zack, I can throw him across the room with one hand if I'd wanted to. I think I can handle those sorts of situations. Genetic engineering does wonders for a girl," she said with a grin.

"It's not funny, Max. It could have gotten ugly. He's not alone, Max. He has a gang of friends waiting to take their turns," Zack said harshly, trying to knock some sense into her.

Max rolled her eyes. "Zack, you know as well as I do that we're more than able to deal with more than one Ordinary at a time. So what is this really all about, huh?" she shot back.

It's about those guys who seem to surround you at all time, his inner voice yelled. Zack scowled. "I'm just trying to watch out for you, Max. You need to be more careful. Is that so hard to understand?"

"Watching out for me?" Max repeated disbelievingly. Then raising an eyebrow, she continued, "Or jealous?"

Zack froze. His mind whirred with the implication of her words. Had he been that obvious? Outwardly he said in an admirably level tone, "What are you talking about, Max? I don't have anything to be jealous of."

"Exactly, because you don't do these sorts of phoney emotional stuff, right?" Max said with a smirk.

Zack narrowed his eyes. What was that supposed to mean? He knew that he had told her something along those lines, but what was she trying to tell him now? That he was cold and unemotional?

Yeah, Zack, that's what you normally lead them all to believe, isn't it?

Zack scowled. But that did not mean he could not feel. He knew exactly how much he felt for Max and that scared the hell out of him. She had slowly wormed her way past his barriers without his consent or comprehension, and the next thing he knew, he was in too deep. He did not even know when it had started.

He had to give it to her; she was obviously skilled in stealth.

How did they arrive at this conversation anyway? All he had wanted to do was to talk to her about the way she dealt with the men, not to talk about both of them. Definitely not to talk about his supposed jealousy. So what if he was jealous? That did not mean that he was not right about her carelessness.

"Zack?" Max's voice interrupted his internal debate.

Zack studied her face, noting the stubborn set of her chin. "You're missing the point. This is not about me, it's about you."

"I said I can deal with those sorts of things myself, Zack. I don't need you to baby-sit or to screen the men I see. After all, I've taken care of myself all these years, haven't I?" Max proclaimed.

What the hell could he say to that? Zack thought irritably, finding it harder and harder to keep his face impassive. She did not sound as if she cared what he thought one way or another. The girl was just going to continue doing what she was doing. Well, he would not just stand back and watch her get into trouble again.

Before he could say anything, Max continued, "Now I'm going to go back down to see if I could grab us something to eat. After that, I think I'll stay in the bar for a while to chill out a little."

Zack's arms shot out of their own volition and grasped Max's forearm, startling her but effectively halting her journey to the door. He barely registered what he was doing. All he could see at the back of his mind was the biker guy downstairs with his stinky paws all over Max. Zack stifled a growl. He was not about to let Max return down there by herself.

"Hey, what's with you?" Max exclaimed as she tried to shake his hand off her. "Zack, this is stupid. Let me go," she stared indignantly at him, her eyes flashing in warning.

"Have you not heard a single word I said just now?" he snapped, his patience completely gone by now. Why was she trying to be so difficult?

"I heard you loud and clear, Zack. It's you who're not listening. I told you I can take care of myself, so what I decide to do is none of your business. Especially when it comes to these sorts of things. Especially after you made it clear that anything between you and me is 'not right'," Max snapped back, her eyes daring him to contradict her.

Zack felt like strangling her. Yeah, he knew that he had said that to her, but that did not mean he had any intention of seeing her throwing herself at any available male. Especially not when he was there to stop it. The idea of her doing it was enough to drive him to violence.

"Let go, Zack!" Max gritted out, trying to pull herself from his grasp.

Zack wanted to let go, but somehow his brain had disconnected itself from the rest of his body. Instead of letting her go, he yanked her closer to him until she was just standing a fraction of an inch from him. Zack looked down at her rounded eyes and felt himself getting sucked in deeper into her gaze.

The next thing his mind registered was the feel of her lips crushed roughly beneath his. It was better than he remembered. Her lips were soft and lush, driving him to distraction. After an initial startled gasp, Max began to respond to his kisses. Zack sucked and nipped, seemingly trying to punish her for all his frustrations and annoyance of the entire situation. Max in turn moaned passionately against his lips. Groaning helplessly at the sound, he wrapped his arms around her and pulled her closer.

Zack did not know how it happened. One second they were standing and the next, he was lying on top of her on the clean sheets covering the double bed. His mind was fuzzy with arousal, his blood pumping hotly in reaction and all he could do was to feel, not think. To just move, for once without control. Without having to process and analyse the situation to death before doing something he wanted to do.

His hand wandered from her sides to her front to brush against the curve of her breast, eliciting another moan from her. Zack felt himself flush as a wave of desire washed over him as he continued to kiss her, his body pressed tight against her.

"Zack…" she hissed his name softly, pulling him out of his haze.

Zack blinked, the sudden comprehension of what he was doing making him feel as if he was just doused by a bucket of cold water. He tensed for a moment when she spoke his name again. Almost tripping in his haste to remove himself from the bed, Zack stumbled out of the bed and reached a hand out to balance himself against the wall.

Way to go, Zack, his inner voice mocked. So much for not letting her know how you feel.

Without looking at Max, he said tightly, "Sorry, I didn't mean for that to happen."

Max stared at him wordlessly for a moment before saying, "Well, I'm not sorry it happened. You're pretty good at those kisses."

"I'm not joking, Max. It can't happen again. We talked about this," Zack snapped, running a hand through his hair in a show of discomfort.

"Talking didn't seem to have worked. Face it, Zack, we're both adults. You want it as much as I do," Max pointed out.

"I told you it's a mistake," Zack growled insistently as he hit his palm against the wall, making Max jump.

Max swung her legs off the bed, staring at Zack, this time with an angry expression on her face. "I can't do this, Zack, watching you lie to yourself and to me. You've got to be blind not to see what's happening here and you reactions basically told me that you feel at least a little of what I feel. So why don't you just admit it? Is it so hard? It doesn't make you weak, you know that?"

Without waiting for him to answer, she stepped past him and shut herself behind the bathroom door.

Feeling suddenly very tired, Zack sank back onto the bed.

Hell! What has just happened there? Why did you kiss her, you moron? Zack groaned as he buried his face in his hands. It was not just a kiss, it was much more than a kiss. Great, now he had lost control over his body as well as his mind. He could not help himself, and his lack of control was beginning to worry him.

A few more episodes like this and he would check himself into psy-ops willingly.

Sky had thought long and hard on his plan. It had a chance of succeeding, but it depended on how well he could fool them. He needed to convince them, to make them believe him. It should not be too hard considering that they have no reason to doubt him that way.

All it took was preparation. And that was what he had been doing even since he had come to terms with who he was.

As he remembered more and more, he began to understand what exactly had happened to him. The tracer Lydecker had inserted into him contains a memory suppressant which kept his memory from returning as long as the tracer remained embedded in him. But the minute Zack ripped it out, combined with the assault, Sky realised that he must have gone into a withdrawal shock from the sudden loss of the memory suppressant. That probably explained why he was down for so long.

When he had woken up, he had been confused. Memories of Manticore interspersed with his memories of the time he had spent with Max and Zack. It had been as if he was watching two different people. The Manticore version of him was hard, tough and relentless in the way he operated, but what he called the 'sibling' version of him was jovial, easygoing and even had a sense of humour. The Manticore version had wanted to wrap his hands around the necks of the two traitors which had caused him so much pain in psy-ops, but the sibling version of him wanted to reach out and hug the two transgenics who had taken care of him, believing that he was Zane.

But which one was the real him? Was he X5-206 or Sky?

The soldier or the sibling?

Sky knew that no matter what he did, there was always going to be a part of him which was pure Manticore. There was no way someone could erase two decades of conditioning and training. It was just not possible. However, he also knew that he could not forget the person he had been when he was unaware of his status as a genetically engineered killing machine.

His decision made, Sky stepped out of the motel room and went to the nearest phone-box. Slipping in a few coins, he proceeded to dial a number from memory.

After a few seconds, a voice came from the receiver, "Lydecker here."

"Sir, X5-206 reporting, sir!"

Sky could hear Lydecker inhaling a deep breath. "X5-206, report your position and your status," the older man said.

"Sir, my location is Silver Lake, Oregon. I woke up today to find myself strapped to a chair in a motel. The last thing I remembered before that was a fight between myself and two transgenics which I suspect could be the '09-ers," Sky explained.

Lydecker was silent for a moment before he replied, "X5-206, where are the '09-ers now?"

"Their position are unknown, sir. When I woke up, there was no sign of them," Sky said.

"Did they leave anything behind? Anything we could trace?" Lydecker asked in a hopeful tone.

"Negative, sir. The room was clean. I searched it and also spoke to the motel reception. They did not leave anything, sir."

"What about vehicular trails?"

"I have some information, however I could not verify the accuracy," Sky replied.

"What is it?"

"A civilian noted that on the day I was brought into the motel, two bikes which matched the description of the ones belonging to the '09-er were sighted. They were headed North, I was told," Sky said.

The line was silent for a moment, and then Lydecker instructed, "X5-206, proceed to track them. Report back to base every two hours."

"Yes, sir," Sky said and then hung up. So far so good, he thought.

Now all he had to do was to find Max and Zack.

Max stood under the hot shower, feeling much better than she had been when she left the room.

Zack's insistence on pushing her away was beginning to wear her down. She had thought that she had managed to make some progress considering his reaction when she flirted with the other guys, but she now realise that it was all useless.

Zack might realise that what he was feeling was jealousy, but from what Max could see, he had no intention of breaking down his barriers anytime soon. He was definitely not going to admit it to her. Talk about denial, she sighed, shaking her head.

Talking to him obviously was not going to help. So what else could she do?

Time. That was what she needed.

She needed time to wear down his barriers.

And she had no intention of giving up until he admitted his feelings.

t.b.c.

A/N: I think I'll keep my mouth shut about finishing this story this time, (smiles sheepishly!). Please review and let me know what you think!