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: Thank you so much for your reviews. I have to apologise for the long wait I've put you through, but I had spent the entire January dealing with wedding arrangements, which left me with no time to even check my email, let alone write! But I somehow, in between everything, I finally managed to finish this chapter (phew!). It's probably a bit messed up because I don't have the time to go through it like I usually do, but I feel guilty for making you all wait so long. Now, all I've got to do is to plan for a honeymoon...(sighs…more planning)… Hopefully by the end of February, I'll be updating regularly again once everything is settled.

Rules Can Be Broken - Chapter 14

(by elle6778)

Sky took a deep breath. "Because I need your help for us to disappear for good, and I think have a plan which may work."

Zack gave him an assessing look. Sky appeared sincere enough. However, Zack knew that he had to keep his guards up, just in case he was wrong about Sky. There was no harm in listening, though. "So, what's this plan of yours?"

"It's simple really. We need to make Manticore believe that we're dead. That'll at least stop them from trying to track us down," Sky said.

Zack turned to Max just in time to see her shake her head. "Manticore will want to see our bodies. Then they'll carry out DNA tests to identify us. We can't fool them that easily. This is Manticore we're talking about," she pointed out.

Sky waved a dismissive hand in the air. "Yeah, well. Better that they look for our bodies than look for us, right?"

"He has a point, Max," Zack said thoughtfully. "Though it doesn't solve the problem of how we can achieve that," he said pointedly to Sky.

"We need to stage something realistic," Sky said.

"It has to be something which could fool even Manticore," Zack added.

The three of them fell into silence, each sporting a thoughtful expression.

A loud sigh from Max broke the silence. "Apart from drowning ourselves in the sea, or blowing ourselves to bits, I can't think of any other way of convincing Manticore that we're dead. Even that, how do we get the news to Manticore without making it sound suspicious?"

The furrow between his eyes suddenly clearing, Zack said with a grin, "I think you just gave us an idea."

Clad in shorts and a colourful printed t-shirt, the man on the boat wiped the sweat off his wrinkly forehead as he continued to carry out the task assigned to him by his employer, the owner of the boat. Perched on his head was a blue company cap which identified him as 'Pete'.

Pete was rolling a barrel of oil down the deck, a job he had to take ever since the Pulse had robbed him of his ten-year job as a computer technician, when the sound of footsteps in the distance reached his ears. He ignored it at first, until the sound became louder and louder.

Looking up, his eyes began to narrow as he watched the rapid approach of one blonde man and one dark-haired woman, who were making a beeline at what seemed to be the direction of his employer's boat. Not far behind them, another man, also blonde, was hot in pursuit, yelling for the pair to stop.

Before he knew it, Pete found the pair on his boat.

Pete waved his hands frantically at them. "Hey, what do you think you're doing? Get off the boat!" he yelled in surprise, staring incredulously at the blonde man and the dark-haired woman. Pete's eyes bulged when he swung around to find that the blonde chaser had gotten on the boat as well.

"This is a private property," Pete yelled again, looking desperately around him for help. Unfortunately, no one seemed to be in the vicinity.

The two blonde men and the woman ignored him. By this time, they were engaged in a furious fistfight. Pete gasped as the chaser delivered a punch to the woman's midsection, forcing her to double over in pain. He was about to step forward when the woman's companion tackled the other blonde man to the ground. For a second, Pete thought he caught a glimpse of something which appeared to look like a barcode tattoo behind the man's neck.

"Get your hands off her, 206!" the blonde man yelled as he rammed a fist into the other man's face.

The man who was lying on his back grabbed the other man's neck, forcing him back. Pete noted that this other man also sported a barcode tattoo at the back of his neck. "You and 452 are coming back with me," the intruder growled just before he flipped the other man off.

Pete frowned. What the hell were they talking about? If he had not known better, he would have thought that he was hallucinating. Those people were calling each other by what? Numbers? Swallowing, he said loudly, "I don't know what's your problem but I'm not telling you again. Get…off…the… boat!"

All three heads snapped around to face him wordlessly, their eyes hard.

Pete's eyes flickered back and forth between the three of them nervously. Who knew what sort of crazy people these were? Must be a gang or something, he thought worriedly. What with the barcode tattoo and all. Maybe he should just get off the boat himself. Yes, that seemed like a good idea to him.

Clearing his throat, Pete said, "Fine. Do what you want," he said, thinking to himself that the minute he got off the boat, he was going to call the police. They would know how to deal with these three.

Backing away from the intruders, Pete jumped off the boat onto the pier. He heard the fight starting up again but did not look back as he made a run for the nearest phone-box.

A sudden explosion rocked the air, sending clouds of smoke in Pete's way. Instinctively, he flattened himself to the ground, his heart pounding rapidly. He did not know how long he remained that way, but when he finally dared to look up, his eyes widened in shock.

The boat.

His employer's boat was a blackened mass, sinking rapidly into the water. Pieces of charred wood were drifting away from the main body, bobbing up and down with the choppy waves.

Pete slowly shook his head side to side as he continued to stare with his mouth gaping.

Renfro tightened her fingers around the gleaming silver pen held in her hand as she watched the recording of the news broadcast. The screen on the wall displayed a reporter interviewing a man wearing a blue cap embroidered with the word 'Pete'.

The man sported a shocked expression as he gestured behind him at a plume of dark smoke rising up into the sky.

"They were calling each other by numbers, and the two guys have barcode tattoos at the back of their necks," Pete said, pointing at the back of his own neck. "I'm telling you, they must be part of a gang or something." He shook his head, "Kids these days…No respect for property belonging to others."

The reporter brought the microphone closer to herself, "A gang fight then, which resulted in the boat blowing up? Did you see how it happened?"

Pete stared at the reporter. "No, are you kidding me? I got off the boat. It was getting dangerous, you see. Those kids were trying to kill each other. I think one of them was trying to get the other two to go back somewhere with him."

"You mentioned that they called each other by numbers. Do you remember what it was?" the reporter asked, watching the man avidly.

The man frowned, "Four five six? Four five something. And another is two zero six, I think."

Renfro's eyes narrowed further just before she tore her eyes away from the screen to pin them on Lydecker.

"What's the meaning of this?" she hissed angrily at him.

His lips pinched tightly together, Lydecker did not reply. Instead, he continued to watch as the man elaborated on his story. When the news broadcast ended, Lydecker pointed the remote control at it, turning it off.

Swivelling around to face Renfro, he said calmly, "206 was obviously trying to complete his mission. It would seem that he failed."

Eyes flashing coldly, Renfro said in a hard voice, "Considering how badly this operation was run, I can't say that I'm surprised. Now, we need people out there to sweep through the area for their bodies. We can't have parts of them floating about."

"No, that's not acceptable," Lydecker said slowly, an almost distracted look on his face.

Renfro studied him, looking suspicious. "Is there something else I should know?"

"Nothing I can think of at the moment," Lydecker replied and then stood up. "I'll arrange for a team to sweep the area. Hopefully we'll find something."

Renfro looked at him, unconvinced, but only said, "Do that."

Lydecker gave her a curt nod and made his way to the door. When he closed the door behind him, he allowed a small smile to curve his lips.

He knew his kids well. Much more than Renfro did. And he was almost certain that those three were far from dead. 452 and her fellow '09-er, most probably 599 from the description he had, must have somehow influenced 206 to escape.

Now, instead of twelve, he had thirteen of them to hunt down.

Lydecker sighed.

As if he needed another one.

Max tossed her head back, letting her hair whip wildly in the wind as she sneaked a sideways glance at Zack. He was on his bike, speeding along the highway with her to his left. A large blue sign which displayed 'Welcome to San Francisco' in white loomed closer before them with each passing second.

She frowned a little when she thought of the missing member of their trio. Sky had left them soon after the staged explosion. Max had tried to get him to remain with them but Sky had irritatingly told her that it was too dangerous for them to stay together. Higher risk of getting caught, he had said, almost echoing Zack word for word.

She supposed that it was not hard to understand Sky's decision. After all, the guy had not been out of Manticore that long. But Zack had been out for a decade. Max snorted inwardly. The whole thing just proved how little of Manticore Zack had left behind when it came to these sorts of things.

And also other things.

Max knew that she was running out of time. Tonight, they were in San Francisco, where Zack wanted to deposit her, and his barriers were still firmly intact. Well, maybe not fully intact, but she knew after all these time that Zack would not give in anytime soon. Her last attempt at seduction seemed to have made Zack even more determined to keep her at arm's length.

After the last episode, she was beginning to have doubts about what little feeling she had thought that he had for her. Maybe he was just responding to all her attempts purely because of the Y-chromosome in his genes. She supposed that any male would be hard-pressed to resist when a female threw herself at him like what she had done. And Zack was definitely a full-blooded male.

She supposed that her attempts at goading a reaction out of him by her outrageous flirtation with other men, although outwardly seemed successful, could also be explained away. What she had interpreted as jealous reactions could just purely be the result of his brotherly instincts; a sort of protective instinct he had adopted towards all his siblings. And not because he was really jealous at all.

Max sighed wearily.

Could she have misread his signals that badly? Or was she interpreting his reaction only in the way she wanted to? She was not in the habit of deceiving herself, but then again, this was the first time something like this had happened to her.

It was not as if she had deliberately made herself fall for him. It had just happened. All she had wanted to do at first was just to stop him from leaving. She had spent too much time, invested too much energy all these years searching for all her siblings to let one of them walk away when she had just found him. Tactical exposure? Heck, she would deal with it when it happened. But Zack had been adamant that they should not stay together. So she had done the only thing she could think of at that time; follow him with the intent of persuading him to remain in contact.

That was all she had intended to do.

Somehow or other, what she had succeeded in doing instead was to fall for him. Hard. Little things about him had sneakily managed to invade her mind without her consent. The way the tips of his blonde hair brushed against his brows, the way the corner of his blue eyes crinkled as he smile, the way he looked at her when he was exasperated with her and countless other things flashed through her mind at the stupidest of times. She had not even realised how real the attraction was before it was too late. Sure she had tried to talk herself out of it, but it was a futile exercise because the whole attraction thing had been so glaringly obvious that it was impossible, even for her, to deny.

Zack's voice snapped her out of her thoughts.

"Max, pull over at the next turn," he said through his open visor.

Bringing her bike closer to his, Max asked, "Are we stopping?"

"Yeah, for a small break, if you like," he replied cheerfully.

Max shrugged and pulled her bike into the empty spot next to Zack's after the turning. Well, she was not about to refuse a break when she was offered one. Her thoughts could wait.

Swinging her leg over the seat, she landed on both feet beside Zack. What she saw in front of her was not encouraging.

"I wouldn't have thought that this is your sort of hang out," Max said, her voice doubtful as she studied the flashing yellow neon sign next to the bar signage. The sign flashed a gaudy bright 'Casino Inside'.

His lips twitched as he turned to her. "No, it isn't. But I want to pay someone a surprise visit," Zack replied, and proceeded to walk into the bar.

Raising an eyebrow, Max fell into step behind him, wondering who Zack wanted to visit.

The bouncer at the entrance ran his beady eyes up and down the two of them before he opened the door, releasing a blare of pre-pulse pop music into the night air as he did so. Max scrunched up her face in distaste, but proceeded to follow Zack in, wondering what possessed him to bring her to such a place. Surely San Francisco housed better bars.

The interior was dimly lit by a series of neon lights mounted on the four walls on each side of the rectangular floor plan. A crowded bar was situated at the end closest to the entrance and the rest of the space was taken up by rows of table featuring various casino games. The air smelled of stale beer and cigars, but it did not seem to bother the other patrons.

Max was about to make her way to the bar when Zack halted her movements. Instead, he signalled for her to wait for him. Frowning in confusion, Max's mouth opened to ask Zack what's going on, but promptly shut it when she realised that he was already halfway to one particular gaming table.

Well, she was not about to risk losing him in the crowd, she thought. Lengthening her steps, she sped up, weaving between the gamblers to reach him, muttering under her breath.

She stopped when she spotted Zack's blonde head leaning close to a curvaceous brunette. The woman was dressed like one of the dealers in the casino and Zack was talking into her ear. He must be talking very softly, because even with her transgenic hearing, Max could not make out what he was saying.

Squeezing past between a thin man and a disgruntled looking woman, Max was about to call out to Zack when she suddenly froze.

Her eyes narrowed as she watched the attractive brunette fling both arms around Zack, laughing happily as she kissed him heartily on both his cheeks. But what made her heart stop was the indulgent look on Zack's face as the woman whispered excitedly to him. Zack replied just as softly, a smile on his face. Max's heart clenched painfully when Zack made no move to dislodge the woman when she hugged him again.

Zack's reluctance to further their relationship began to make sense, Max thought bitterly. It was not alright for them to be together because of their common past, but it was alright for him to be with someone else. Someone without the complication of Manticore hanging over her head. So much for not being emotionally involved. So much for the avoidance of all those phoney sentimentality.

The simple reason was the brunette hanging off Zack's neck, Max thought coldly. She should not have bothered making a fool out of herself. She should have just stayed in Seattle, Lydecker or not, and continued with her life instead of running all over the place in hope of getting Zack stay with her and to give in to their so-called attraction.

She suddenly felt sick.

Not wanting to see anymore of the display, she turned abruptly and shoved her way past the masses of gamblers. She continued that way until she exited the building, not bothered at all by the indignant looks she left in the wake of her path.

t.b.c.

A/N: That's it for now! Hope you all enjoyed this. Please review to let me know what you think, even if it's to tell me off for not updating sooner...lol