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A/N: first attenpt. sorry for spelling mistakes.
A/N: I'm so sorry it took me so long to update, school homework and testsare so massive, and I have tons of things to do. plus my computer decided not to open my chapters I wrote in Micrisoftso I had to write them all over again... anyway, I hope you like it! and please leave reviews! it really helps!
A/N: since we can't leave thanks in the story, I will email you, so unless you're registered, leave an email and I'll answer all your questions/thoughts...!
Chapter 13 - Understanding
Jess and 345 were on their way to the yard when David passed by them. 345 noticed that Jess was avoiding him, an act which she considered out of the normal, because Jess and David never missed time, when they had, to talk. 345 wondered about it, and when she got to a dead end, because she really didn't know what could cause such behavior, she decided to ask Jess what's going on.
"666? (A/N: Jess's designation for those who forgot) Are you trying to avoid 687 (David)?" asked 345 not moving her stare from Jess so she would have to answer her.
"Who, me? No, why would I do that?" said Jess as convincing as she could
"Well, 687 just passed and you were clearly trying to avoid him. Is everything o.k. with you two, because I noticed at breakfast that you haven't talk either" said 345 in concern
"No, we are fine…" said Jess
"If you think that you convince me, you're wrong. I can tell something happened, and I won't leave you alone until I find out just what!" said 345 in a tone that matched her determined words
"I guess if I tell you it won't cause any harm…" said Jess and then added "it all began when we named ourselves" she started to say, although it began sooner, when she and Ben met Joshua, Alec and Max, but she couldn't tell 345 that, it wasn't just about her, so she couldn't tell.
"Name yourselves?" asked 345, she thought about it sometimes, but she only consider it as dreams, not as something that will really come true.
"Yeah, I'm Jess" said Jess and smiled," and 687 is David, 249 is Ben, 999 is Jet and 986 is Kelly." Said Jess, waiting anxiously to see what her friend's response will be.
"Cool. So, can I have a name too?" asked 345 excited that she will have a name soon
"Sure, do you have something on your mind?" asked Jess, happy to see her friend was approving with the whole thing
"Well, in one of my mission I was called Elizabeth, but I liked the short Liz" said 345 in hesitation, not sure if it sounded good
"Liz is really nice! So from now on your name will be Liz!" said Jess excited "in this rate all our unit will have names before the end of the day!" said Jess amused
"Who knows" 345, now named Liz, said and laughed. They had to stop laughing, and talking though because they finally got to the training section. They set up in two lines, according to their designations, from first to last, except David and Ben that were first because they were CO and SIC.
They waited there for their trainer to come. After about a minute their trainer arrived.
"X6-687! All unit present?" trainer John asked
"Yes sir!" was David's response
"Good. Now, I will pair you up and you all will practice what we started yesterday, you have 15 minutes and then you will line here again for a match in front of the whole unit. Understood!" said trainer John more then asked
"Yes sir!" unit 7 shouted
"I will now pair you up. X6-687 with X6-986." As soon as David and Kelly heard their designations they went to one of the mattresses and waited until all the unit will be ready to begin. "X6-999 with X6-666" Jet and Jess did the same as David and Kelly, so did all the other pairs when they were paired up. "X6-249 with X6-345. X6-546 with X6-793…." Trainer John finished pairing the entire unit. "When I whistle you will start training. You have exactly 15 minutes." He said and whistle.
At the sound of his whistle all the pairs started to train.
Kelly and David circled each other, trying to find a weak defense.
"So, how's the love life Dave?" asked Kelly
"Not so good actually" he responded rather glumly. He lowered his defense though, distracted a bit from Kelly's question. Kelly took advantage of that and gave him a low kick. He stumbled and fell.
"Hey! That's not fair!" David said, a bit annoyed at himself for letting his guards off.
"Sure it is!" said Kelly joking
"Whatever…" David said and Kelly helped him get up. "Thanks"
Kelly and David continued o fight, while Jess and Jet along side them talked more rather then fight.
"So Jess, what are you going to do about David?" asked Jet, blocking a punch
"Well, I really don't know." She answered now blocking his punch
"I think you should talk with him, it could make things better, believe me" he said and ducked from Kelly's high kick
"How come you're so sure?" she asked him skeptical. She was so eager to hear the answer she lowered her defense a bit and he managed to punch her. It wasn't hard, but still…" hey! I thought we were pretending!"
"We are, but we have to show some progress" Jet said grinning.
"Progress hah, I'll show you progress!" she said and for the rest 10 minutes they fought hard, and she never got her answer…
Meanwhile, Liz was telling Ben about her new name.
"…and that's how I got my name, Liz!" Liz finished, and tried to punch Ben
Ben blocked her punch. They were a few inches from each others face, and he said softly to her "it's a really nice name, glad you have it!" and then released her arm.
"Thanks" was all Liz said, and then tried to kick him, but he caught her leg, twisted her and Liz fell face down on the mattress.
Liz turned face up. Ben offered her his hand to help her get up, and she took it. When she caught his arm, she made him fall next to her.
"Hey! I was just being nice…." He said rather offended
"Oh come on, I was just joking!" said Liz, she didn't mean to hurt him
"Me too! You girls believe everything!" he said grinning and got up. He offered his hand again to Liz. She looked at him making sure he will just help him and took his hand and got up.
"Nice of you to help me again, shows you trust me" she said smiling
"I can't help it" he said. They both noticed that trainer John was coming so started to fight.
When the time was up trainer John whistled his whistle. At the sound of his whistle all the pairs stopped their fighting and lined up like they were before. "Nice job everyone! Now, let's see. I will call a pair up here and I want to see what you learned and improved." He walked back and forth the line, thinking which pair he should take for the demonstration. "X6-546 and X6-249 come here!"
"Yes sir!" they both replied and walked forward to the mattress.
"At my whistle begin to fight. You don't stop until I tell you so. Understood!" trainer John said rather then asked
"Yes sir!" they both said and at the sound of the whistle started to fight.
After 10 minutes of intense fighting, Ben finally found a loose in 546's defense and managed to pin her to the mattress. It was then that Liz felt a weird feeling inside her at the sight of Ben on top of another female, but she couldn't put her finger on it yet.
"Stop!" said trainer John and Ben got up and helped 546 up too. "Good job 249. I hope you all learned from this and noticed the reason why 249 managed to win this fight. Now go take a shower and to your next lesson!"
"Yes sir!" they all replied and headed to the showers.
&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&
Max was really annoyed. She didn't know what to do. Then she remembered that she wasn't alone, and that Joshua was here too!
"Joshua! Can you hear me? "Max shouted
"Yes! Is something wrong?" asked a worried dogman
"No, everything is fine. It wasn't guards coming, but some friends of Alec…" Max told him
"Alec has many friends. Always come when he is here. I see them" said Joshua a bit sad
"Hey, what's wrong? Why are you sad? I mean this situation is really fucked up, but don't be sad" said Max gently
"I'mnot sad because of situation now. Sad for Alec!" said Joshua looking into Alec's cell, making sure he was really asleep.
"For Alec? Why?" asked Max
"Always down here, more then other upstairespeople …." Said Joshua
"Well, that's because he gets himself into those situations. You shouldn't be sad. It's his fault, not yours!" said Max, annoyed that Alec could make Joshua feel that way
"Don't talk like that! Not Alec's fault!" said Joshua, angry at Max for thinking that it's always Alec's fault.
"How do you know?" she asked him
"Because I can hear him, all of them, they mumble and scream, and that's how I know what they did, or didn't do" said Joshua. "Alec was here many times. Sometimes his fault, and sometimes not his fault."
"Oh..." was all Max could say. she didn't know that Joshua felt that way. heck, she didn't even know he knew all that. "so you talked with him when he was down here?" Max asked, curious to know.
"No. He wasn't in good condition. This time he is better..." said Joshua
"Well, maybe that's 'cause I'm here with him" Max said a bit laughing. When thinking about it, she didn't make his life any easier then they could have been. "What's that?" Max asked worried, when she heard a small noice, a mumble. "maybe it's the guards that are supposed to come? you should go, just incase" said Max worried
"No. It's not the guards, its just Alec."said Joshua looking into Alec's cell.
"What do mean Alec? Is he having nightmares?" asked Max. still surprised that Joshua understood him that well.
"Yes. Always have, that's what the reindoctrination does. Now is the worse part."
"It's notthat bad . I mean, it's bad, but not worse." said Max
"Thats just because you don't sleep. Better for you, worse for the else."
"What do mean?"
"You see, when you are awake, you think about all the things they did to you, but you can stop thinking about it, and think about something else. When you sleep, its all about your subconsciousand usually you can't stop it untl you wake up. " Joshua explained
"So? its just a dream" said Max, still not quit getting it
"It's not just a dream, its things that really happened, or suposudely happened" Joshua began, when he saw Max's puzzeled look he explained " I mean when Manticore makes you believe you did things you didn't really do. When you sleep, they keep going on and on until you wake up. Think about it likea psyops treatment of your own kind-which is the worse kind, in your dreams.You relive the treatments, like flashbacks. it's not pleasent. especially not if you were here a few times, then it all comes back. in Alec's case-thats what's happening." said Joshua
"So you're saying I'm lucky to have shark DNA" said Max, finally understanding
"In this case, yes." said Joshua
"So, how does he stay so o.k... I mean, all the smart ass talk and that?"
"Well, I guess its his way of handling it." said Joshua.
"Right. but he should talk about it, it would do good, you know, get it out of his system." said Max after hearing more of Alec's mumbles.
"To who?" Joshua said almost in laugh "he can't talk about it, or he will be consider as weak."
"Yeah, but he can tell his friends, they won't laugh at him" said Max
"Well, I guess that's his decision."said Joshua, and looked at Alec's expression on his face, he was dreaming something bad, that was sure.
"I guess so" said Max, although she wasn't so happy to find out Alec had to keep it all in. she thought those who came to visit himwere his friends, his family. she would have shared everything with hers if she had the chance.
"Hey Joshua, do you hear something?" Max asked
"Its Alec, he's-"Joshua began but she cut him off
"No, its coming from the stairs" said Max
Joshua went still and listen. "you're right, I think its the guards, I should go."
"yeah, o.k. be careful" Max said and heard him leave. she heard the guard coming closer and closer. 'it must be the guard, there is just one set of footsteps, and besides, his friends already paied him a visit...' Max thought.
The guard was coming toward Max's cell since it was the closest between hers and Alec's. the guards never liked going down to the basment. All the tranganics that didn't go well were down here, and they were frightning. Even the Xs that turnd out finedidn't like them. The guard quickly went over to Max's cell and looked through the hatch. When he noticed she was awake, he spoke to her.
"So, 452, are you enjoying your stay?" he said. This guard had a bad experience with an X5, and was glad to see them locked up.
"Great. how's your's?" she replied sarcasticaly.
The guard didn't even reply, he just moved on to Alec's cell.
"Hey! thats just rude!" Max shouted at him when he leaved with no answer, altough she didn't really expected one.
When the guard got to Alec's cell, he noticed he was sleeping, and mumbling from his sleep, "hey, you know your friend is sleeping, you shouldn't yell, you'll wake him up, and that's notnice now is it?" the guard told Max. He couldn't see Alec's face since he was with his back to the hatch, so when Alec turned over and the guard saw which X5 was locked there a grin spred over his face. "hey, 452, is that 494?" he asked Max
"Don't you know?" she asked him coldly. she wasn't going to make his life easy, and besides, she wanted to know why the interest in Alec.
The guard was safe, but her cold tone still make him wonder if he really was safe from her. "just making sure" he answered with a twinkle in his eyes.
Max couldn't see him, but she knew that this guy was up for no good. " I think so, I don't know, he's not a chatty person ya know"
"Are you sure, because from what I know, he's rather chatty. look, even from he's sleep he's talking" he said laughing
"Hey! you got a problem, at least do it when he's awake!" Max was getting really angry from this guy and the way he's insulting Alec!
"Maybe" was all the guard said. Then he walked back to the stairs, with another glance at Max "hope you have fun" he said in a cruel tone, and left the basment
Max was shocked from what just happened. what did Alec do that he deserved such treatment. 'I guess I have a lot to ask him don't I? when he'll wake up I'll ask him about this guard. hopefully he'll answer. And I wonder what is he dreaming about... maybe it's the same thing that made him cry in the treatment. It seems like he had a rough time here.' Max thought, she really wanted to know whats in his mind. and that was really strange, because she didn't know him so well, and she wanted to know him, and make him feel better. That thought scared her, she decided to try and sleep, and hoped that she won't have nightmares like he has.
A/N: Please leave me a review! I see there are a lot of hits, but still only few reviews... it really does help!