Between the Lines – Chapter 6

Disclaimer – Team Katims, Metz, and WB own Roswell and the Team Cameron, Eglee, and Fox own Dark Angel. Get it, got it, good.


X5-732 ran as fast as she could. She was good at that, running. There was never any more freedom to her than to feel the wind whipping against her as she ran, stretching her legs and body and muscles to the limit, glorying in all the aches and pains that came after a good run.

Tonight however was different, and never had there been a greater need for her running, for tonight wasn't for fun, but for her very survival. The sounds of dogs baying behind her, spurred her on, instinct screaming that the letting the canines reach her would be a bad thing.

Her 'sibling' X5-734, who might very well have been a sibling in truth, paced her, easily matching her sister's desperate strides. Their commanding officer and 'big brother' X5-599 had paired the two together and then ordered them to split up upon reaching the safety of a town or city.

The two close shaven fugitives leapt the fence with an ease and grace that would have any Olympic high jumper positively green in envy and fascination. Glancing over at her sister to make sure she was okay, they were sprinting almost before their feet had regained ground, strides long and even tearing up ground while reserving energy.

The intense cold, already well below zero on the thermostat, was just another enemy to be beat, and was doing its best to hinder the pair's progress. Feet crunched the snow underneath, and their breath fogged in the night air and clung to the inside of their lungs.

X5-732, called 'Vada' by her fellow unit mates and siblings, broke through a snow bank and discovered the road, hardly feeling the cold of the asphalt through already numbed bare feet. 'Brin' her sister X5-734, came to a standstill beside her, eyes roving in every direction and all around them, waiting patiently.

'Waiting for me to make a decision,' Vada thought idly, mind already forming a plan even as her body started moving without conscious leading. Brin followed her elder sister with complete trust and no hesitation, never doubting for a moment that Vada wouldn't be there for her if need be.

Vada was one of the Eldest, right after big brother Zack –X5-599, Seth, X5-353, Tinga, X5-656, and Eva-X5-766…Eva, the second in command, the Eldest sister, who died. She was shot right in front of them by the Colonel as they tried to escape before the trainers could take Max for her shakes to the Nomilies and Bad Place like they did to Jack, and Kane, and Marko, Nala, and Lark.

So Vada being one of the Eldest automatically gave Brin a safe feeling, dangerous for a soldier, but a real emotion despite it being what the Colonel said was 'phony sentimentality'. Vada would take care of her until Zack could, of this Brin knew without a doubt.


Vada was alone and she didn't like it. She and Brin had been forced to split up in Southern California to avoid detection by the Manticore guards and TAC officers following. Vada had headed further south while Brin headed north in the opposite way. She really missed her sister, she missed all her sisters and brothers, heck she even missed Ben's stories about the Nomilies that gave her and the others nightmares.

She was walking down a road, exhausted, cold, alone, and miserable. She was beyond the exhaustion point to a deep, abiding weariness that had sunk in. She had lost her gown somewhere between California and…wherever she was at. She was in a desert of some kind, the same desert or similar to the one she'd been crossing for days and nights.

She had stopped at a watering hole earlier, having discovered it almost by accident, but her sharp nose had scented the water on the wind from miles away and she'd had a renewed burst of energy in order to get to it. That night, in the little bluff with the puddle of dirty water she'd thankfully taken water from, there came a sudden storm that was frightening in its intensity even as it amazed her.

Vada couldn't imagine anything more majestic or awesome as how quickly the storm came, drove its fury home, and shortly after the sky was cleared almost as if it had never been. She had been fortunate enough not to get caught in the flash flood, forewarned by the storm and the clues of previous floods to move to a safer spot. The roaring flood waters coming down the hills was almost as wonderful as the storm that birthed them, but nothing compared to the stunning panorama of the nighttime desert sky.

For the first time Vada stopped to just look and she was awed by how large the sky seemed, with stars strewn about, twinkling and winking merrily throughout the dark. The air was cool as usual and the air seemed fresher after the rain, and Vada was struck dumb just watching the sky. She fell asleep and had slept the day away, getting up only when she was too cold to sleep comfortably and her keen ears heard the nightlife stirring. There were coyotes and razorbacks, foxes and snakes, rats and other rodents moving about, and Vada decided she didn't want to be considered a meal so she forced herself up and about, trying to warm herself enough to get going.

She chased away a scavenging coyote from the fruit of a cacti, baring her own teeth and growling in response to his warning yips, and had the satisfaction of seeing the cowardly canine run away in fear, her inner feline pleased at the accomplishment. So it wasn't breaking the record of disassembling, cleaning, and reassembling a loaded weapon, but it pleased her at having established her dominance. She was the predator, but she would be careful, for it was a thin line the predator walked between hunter and prey.

So here she was, hours later, in the darkest and coldest hours of the night, naked, walking down a road to who knew where. She was dirty, she could smell herself, and she was growing hungrier by the moment. The fruit of the cactus and its surrounding brethren hadn't satisfied her stomach, which was protesting. But at least she was free. Even if she died, she would die free.

Surprising herself, she started to hum cadence, gradually singing louder, marching in time and thanking her military upbringing for at least that. It was doing a good job helping to keep her warm enough to continue moving, and the steady rhythm was oddly soothing with its familiarity. She imagined she could hear the trainer call out the first stanza of the cadence, and her and her siblings echo the refrain, feet marching in tempo to keep time.

Feeling a little better, her sharp ears picked up a change in the air, and her bare feet, though rubbed raw and bleeding and blistered, felt a change in ground beneath. It was vibrating slightly, and Vada lifted nose to sniff the air, catching the scent of machine and petroleum coming at her over the older scent of asphalt, oil, and broken tire bits. Up ahead, the first piercing of light appeared as the headlights caught her in the middle of the road.


Nineteen-year-old Vada ignored the searing pain that flashed through her as the first bullet pierced her body. She put the pain in the back of her mind as inconsequential, and continued on with the mission goal: kill Lydecker. The second hit one of her legs but she still pressed on, until the third finally hit her in the upper left shoulder and spun her around.

This is what happens when you try to avoid your heat cycle at home and crave a good Jack Daniels, was the random thought that crossed her mind as she hit the dirt, body wracking in pain and bleeding out.

Surprise and shock kept her rigid in place, and automatically she shut her body's systems down to keep the damage to a minimum, if you call three bullet wounds a minimum. 'Playing dead' had never been a more accurate euphemism. The last thing she saw before she shut down was the feared and despised Colonel looking at her with something akin to regret in his gaze.


Vada 'came alive' out of her healing trance and completely scared the retrieval team who was carting her 'corpse' back to Manticore. Vada didn't want to go back to Manticore. Number one: it's Manticore, hello! She didn't risk her life all those years ago to escape the place just because she felt the urge to do so. Number two: Mom and Dad were going to flip if she was gone too long, and she'd promised Maria she'd help tutor her in science, Max Evans had finally started to look her way without blushing, and by golly, she didn't want to go back.

It wasn't anything to her to snap the team's necks, purloin the vehicle, take whatever cash and weaponry, clothing, and saleable items she could before wiping down the van and ditching it and the bodies into a convenient ravine.

She winced as her three bullet wounds throbbed in pain and she gritted her teeth as she glared toward the distance. Lydecker would pay for that, she knew, but somehow, she didn't think it would be her to collect.

Mentally shrugging, Vada turned around, noticing they were still in Nevada and she wasn't too far from home. But she knew she'd stay away from Amargosa, Nevada for a long, long time. Just a couple days hump and she'd be back in Roswell in no time.

Oh well. Back to the desert for this transgenic. Heat after effects and consequences sucked major.


Liz Parker sat upright with a gasp, heart beating in a steady staccato rhythm, hand reaching to caress various parts of her body as if to reassure herself she was whole. She didn't know why she was having flashbacks from her past, didn't know, and didn't know if it boded well. Her fingers brushed over three faint scars on her leg, arm, and just a few millimeters away from her heart, feeling the comforting smoothness of the healed scars.

She shook her head to clear her mind. It had been a couple years since her brush in with Lydecker in 2017, back when she had been 19, and had been working off the lingering daze of a completed heat cycle and therefore more susceptible to error and capture.

Of course, her family and friends, Max and Isabel and Michael, didn't know her true age. They thought she was only sixteen since she looked so much younger and innocent and she wasn't going to disabuse them of the notion, though it rankled sometimes. Especially those times she craved a beer or something stronger, or even a cigarette, not that she liked to smoke often.

Doesn't matter, it's not like I'm going to tell them about it or being transgenic anyway, Liz, who used to be Vada, X5-732, thought with a weary shrug. She ran a hand through her hair; idly brushing her neck where her lasered off barcode would appear in a couple weeks, and mentally calculated how long it was going to be until her next heat. She'd been feeling a little…hotter, than usual. Waking up sweating, having the most pleasant dreams about Max Evans…the boy who was an alien who was at least three or four years younger than she, that she was absolutely nuts over. It didn't help that tonight's dinner had opened furthered the possibilities. She could still feel his touch as he had brushed against her in the kitchen, still make out his scent in the home, and recall the looks he shot at her when he thought she couldn't see. Figured a messed up Chimera like me would have a messed up idea of whom to have a crush on, she winced, expression dry, wry, and rueful.

"So what if you're twenty one and he's not?" she scolded herself, getting up and pacing softly so as not to wake her parents.

"I mean, it's not like I'm planning on having sex with him anytime soon…though granted I've thought about it lots of times. I've been hiding my heat from him and everyone else in this tiny town, and he's so cute and his eyes can suck you in and he works out so he's got that toned stomach thingy going on. Not washboard flat or six pack, but still decent."

Liz, as she'd come to think of herself, sighed and paused in her pacing and musings. Her body automatically shifted to walk toward the window, and her eyes turned to the night sky, as if pulled by some mysterious calling. She closed her eyes, facing the breeze, and took a deep breath of the cleansing desert air.

Since the escape so long ago, she had developed a love for the desert and the night air, sometimes leaving her parents and the little town to rove the surrounding desert and just pay attention to the stillness, watching the stars play and rotate until she was as familiar with the desert as she was the streets of Roswell. She knew every crevice, nook, cranny, hidey-hole, cave, and water hole, sink hole, cactus, and coyote den in a thirty-mile radius.

She knew all the backroads, mainroads, highways, byways, trails, footpaths, bike trail, and airstrips all around. She even dabbled some on the reservation but she had too much respect for the Native's privacy to really snoop around.

She also had stashes of food, clothing, medication, first aid supplies, weaponry, ammunition, and camping gear placed in and out of town, in the desert, and around. She was well and truly entrenched but prepared in the event she had to make a quick getaway. Even then, she knew she could survive in the desert for a good long while, longer than anyone including Manticore could imagine, having trained herself to the environment.

Always be aware of your environment in addition to the placements of enemies, allies, civilians, and buildings, she recalled with a smirk one of the lessons drilled into them since she was old enough to remember.

"I miss my family," Liz admitted quietly to the night, the absolute silence almost waiting, anticipatory.

She had another flashback then, since family seemed to be the trigger word for all the memories all of a sudden.


The unit was all gathered around the bunk of a freckle faced boy, his hazel eyes gleaming with pride and excitement as his words held the attention of the whole group, even Biggest Brother Zack. A tiny moppet of a soldier, little more than a four-year-old girl, stared up at him with unmistakable love and affection, furthering his pride.

'What's happens if you're not a good soldier, Ben?' little Maxie asked, wide-eyed and attentive.

'If you aren't a good soldier or follow the Blue Lady, they'll send you to the Nomilies and you'll end up in the Bad Place instead of the Good Place.'

Gasps of horror were heard from the surrounding child soldiers, and fearful looks were cast and caught, each one determined they would not go to the Nomilies. They would be good soldiers.

'I'm not going to the Bad Place,' little Maxie shuddered and Ben smiled with obvious tenderness at his little shadow.

'You could never go to the Bad Place, Maxie. You're a Good Soldier, and we'll go there one day, after our missions are complete. Then we'll be together all the time.'

'All the time? Forever and ever?'

'Forever and ever and ever.'

'What if you go to the Good Place before me?'

'I'll wait for you, Maxie. Always.'


'Vada,' the man-child in front of her spoke firmly.

The newly christened Vada looked up at her adored older unit mate and smiled, pleased but shy, into his large brown eyes.

'I like it, Seth. Vada,' she repeated softly, eyes wide. Seth grinned back and reached a hand over to affectionately rub the soft, downy stubble on her shaven head.

'It suits you, you little minx,' he laughed softly, hand leaving her head to rest on her shoulders and pull her closer to him in a hug.

Vada leaned eagerly in his embrace, inhaling his scent, one that calmed her more than Ben's or Tinga's stories, and let her sleep better at night. It felt good to have her third in command hold her close, for it was rare indeed that X5-353, Seth, opened up to anyone. He was as emotionally tight and reserved as Big Brother and C.O. Zack, and was second only to Zack for military precision.

'Vada, name me next!' another adored brother tried her new name out, and Vada loved the way her name rolled out on her families tongues.

'Kane,' Vada decided and contained a yip as Kane snatched her from Seth's grasp and nuzzled her neck. He was always an affectionate one, more apt to show how he felt than any of the others, and he made no bones about Vada being one of his favorites. She giggled at her brother's antics.

'Kane, stop it!' but she nuzzled him back anyway, rubbing noses, and caressing each other's backs.


She felt a sudden urge to get out of her room, out of her city, to the desert where she knew she'd be able to find solace. The urge was so strong, as if her inner kitty had woken up and was now raring to go, her claws unsheathed and ready to hunt. A quick glance at the stars above told her more accurately what time of night it was, and she was almost disappointed she had to be up in a couple hours.

"I could go now, and be back before anyone knew, but…Sheriff Valenti is already suspicious because of what happened in the diner," the one now called Liz mused, twirling a strand of her long, lusciously dark hair with her fingers.

She winced as she recalled that day in her father's café just a little over a week ago. She'd been off her game that day, she knew that, and regretted it immensely. A combination of having to hide a recent bout of seizures just moments before meeting Maria for work, trying to concentrate on not shaking with the aftershocks, dealing with the customers and their orders, and having Max Evans come in and glance her way had taken up too much of her attention.

She had recognized the scent of cleaning oil and gunpowder, a combination she was all too familiar with, but she hadn't figured that things would have got so far out of hand. If Liz were honest with herself, she would admit that that day's seizures had taken a worse toll than she'd analyzed, and therefore, her reflexes were off and human slow, and she ended up shot.

Liz probably could have pulled something off, like say she fainted or something to that effect, once she got over the shock of being shot-again- but suddenly Max had been there and she couldn't very well have just got up like it was no big deal. That and she was curious, pleased even, that he would come on over to her.

She could smell the change in his heart beat, the picking up of his pulse and breathing, almost taste as his body suddenly thrummed with…. something. Some alien thingy, he had never smelled so…other. The hair on her neck, arms, and shoulders had stood at attention, and not just because Max was touching her. Not just that. There was power in his hands, those wonderful, and large, healing hands, and it thrilled her on more than one level that they were in contact with her skin.

She'd always been a sap for flesh on flesh contact and for it to have been Max…well, let's just say that was one fantasy come true. And she hadn't even been in heat, so the experience wasn't tainted with that feral, all consuming need haze that fell over her heat.

Then he had sent that power through her, and the rush of warmth and goodness and Maxness it sent were heady indeed. But then he was in her mind, trying to pull up memories, to get inside her, and she couldn't stop the automatic reflex. Someone was in her mind, STOP! She'd been on one too many receiving ends of encounters with the X4 psionics utilized by the Manticore Psychological Operations scientists to ever be comfortable with anyone but her unit inside her head.

Her mind defended itself, creating false memories, and throwing him out almost as soon as he entered. She knew that he knew that she was censoring, but she didn't let that stop her from literally getting him out of her mind before he discovered her secret.

The second time they touched and made a mental connection she'd been more prepared, and so it was easier to feed him bits that didn't really mean anything but were just enough of her and her life now that he wouldn't get suspicious, or more so than he already was. She hated having to keep this from him, but she also knew deep down, that the people who might be hunting Max and his sister and friend Michael were nothing compared to those who still hunted her.

If she were exposed and captured, with Max, Michael, and Isabel's secret ousted because of her, then Manticore would not be discriminate and jump at the chance to poke and prod and torture and maim the alien trio. Liz should know. As Vada, X5-732, she had been through all that and more, often on just a whim with no logical backing at all. She would never be able to forgive herself if that were happen.

Groaning at the direction her thoughts were taking, Liz left her spot at the window, and returned to the edge of her bed, staring down at the sweat soaked covers, contemplating whether she really wanted or needed to get back to sleep bad enough to crawl back in. The dreams about her family disturbed her enough without having to deal with any fall out of this newly acquired emotional and partly physical intimacy with Max Evans.

Dreams of Manticore, whether about her family or some torture or exercise she had been forced to participate in, set her on her guard. She could just hear Lydecker's voice in her mind, lecturing: "A dream is the way of subconsciously notifying you of important data your conscious mind did not immediately pick up and inform you of at the time of observation."

Well, if that were true, then she better be wary. Because if she were dreaming of Manticore that meant that something from Manticore was headed her way and she better be prepared. That could mean a lot of things: perhaps one of her siblings was coming and was in trouble.

Or, and this was most likely, she was exposed and Manticore would be on her tail soon. Lydecker would probably be deployed and Liz wasn't looking forward to that confrontation anytime this lifetime. That last time in Amargosa was enough for her, thank you very much.

"Blue Lady, I'm in trouble, and I so need a drink," Liz rolled her eyes upward in a Max – her baby sister Maxie- way and then reluctantly crawled into bed.

She closed her eyes and wished she could just fall back asleep as quickly and as deeply as before she'd awakened. For several moments, she concentrated on breathing, and gradually her limbs and muscles started to relax one at a time. Five minutes after crawling back into bed, the transgenic once known as Vada was back asleep.


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