Disclaimer: I forgot to say that unfortunately Dark Angel and all its characters don't belong to me


When she woke, she held her breath as she waited for the shame, the self-hatred, the disgust to overwhelm her but nothing happened. For the first time ever, she wasn't going mental after what her friend Original Cindy called doing the nasty. She wasn't a complete mess, she didn't feel the need to get up and take a shower to wash away the shame. For once, she felt good about sex, and it had never happened before. So she snuggled closer to Ames and doodled on his chest as she thought about the meaning of this. She might me happy about this particular turn of events, but she was still a control freak.


"At least this time you're not crying, or trying to kill me, or trying to get me to kill you." muttered Ames when he had enough of her silence.

He had woken up from their night tryst, with his arms warped around her. He knew she was awake but, all she did was making circles on his chest with her index finger.

The last time they did the horizontal mambo, she had freaked out. This time, he didn't really know what to expect. He didn't think that her reaction last time was entirely due to her heat cycle. He was clever enough, and now knew her enough to understand that the disgust he'd heard in her voice, wasn't all directed at him but more at her.

She surprised him when snuggled closer. "Don't spoil this for me, I've never snuggled before." She felt as naked as she was, but she wanted him to know that this was important for her. "This is the first time that I've actually gotten off outside of heat!"

"Really?" he was honestly dumbfounded by her confession.

"Really. When your first sexual experience is at thirteen because of something in your genetic make up that you don't fully understand, you tend to feel shitty about yourself three days later." Especially when you weren't ready for any sort of relationship, let alone a sexual one. She didn't say that part aloud, but he heard it nonetheless.

She had said it like it didn' t matter, but he knew it did. It did matter that she had to figure things out by herself, not knowing what it was exactly that was happening to her. It mattered that as a child her playpen was a make-believe war zone, where you hunted your enemy. It mattered that at seven she knew more about war than hugs, more about torture than Saturday morning cartoons. Moreover, it mattered to him, because she mattered to him.

She breathed his scent, trying to remember everything.

"Let's make your first time memorable, shall we,?"


For the next hours, they'd forgotten who they were and where they were. Until Andrea banged on their door and informed them they were moving soon and if they wanted to go, they had to get their ass out of there.

They came down a few minutes later, and noticed immediately the flurry of activities and the nervousness permeating the air.

Max stopped the man that had drove them here the day before.

"What's happening?"

"We're under attack." the young man informed them.

"Where's Andrea?"

"With Mr Sandeman. In his office." he nodded the direction with his head.

Max rushed with Ames in tow to the room the rebel had indicated. When they entered there was no trace of the rubble she'd made of the room yesterday. The walls had been stripped, all that remained where was a desk, a computer. As they entered the room, a woman in black military fatigues rushed out with a take charge attitude. Andrea was in a screaming match with Sandeman.

"...we have to take preemptive measures!" she pounded her fist on the desk.

"Andrea? What's the snag around here?" the transgenic asked.

The red haired rebel turned toward them with fury in her eyes..

"You! You are the snag around here! You just had to bring him here! You just had to bring him to the Monastery in France!"

"Andrea! That's enough."

The rebel was completely red with anger and she needed a minute to get her composure back.

"I'm sorry. It seems even after all these years with me, Andrea doesn't understand that my son helped you find the monastery in France. She doesn't understand that you needed to meet one of my sons to get here. Although, I would have thought that your choice would have been a transgenic and not a familiar."

"What do you mean?" the question was from White.

Sandeman looked at his son and replied : "Why son, I used your DNA in most of the X male series."

Ames felt like throwing up, Andrea looked utterly lost, and Max was furious.

"What kind of sick bastard are you?" voiced Max.

The old man ignored her, and fixed his gaze on Ames.

"Did you ever wonder why they didn't just kill you when I left?" Sandeman wasn't waiting for any reply, "It's because they can't afford to lose our line. One of the purest and strongest they have." he let out a bitter laugh. "That's why I didn't bring you with me, because I knew they wouldn't kill you. I forgot they could do things worse than killing you."

"You manipulating bastard!" Ames glowered at his father, his breath short and accelerated. How could a father do this to this own son. He would never do that to Ray.

Sandeman dismissed his son's reaction with a shrug as he turned his hawk eyes on the transgenic.

"And you, I created to be a weapon. I chose your features to entice Lydecker to be protective of you." he smiled at her reaction. "I take it he told you after whose eyes, your own were fashioned." He took a step toward her, she took a step back. "I made sure you had a twin to create a decoy if necessary. I hope for your sake that 453 is still alive because you're going to need her in the coming days."

He was interrupted in his spiel by the sound of gunshots. Andrea moved away for the three of them to check on her security team.

"Alpha two, this is Alpha one, Radio check, over." she waited with baited breath for the static of the radio, to change into the voice of Cameron, her head of security.

"Alpha one, this Alpha two, Roger out."

That meant that they still had some time. She begged Sandeman in her head to see reason and agree to EVAC.

"Right now, all you are is raw data." Sandeman went on, he touched her cheek with care. She flicked away his hands in hatred. "But when you'll be properly set, you'll be magnificent!" she stepped away again, as she watched the crazy look in his eyes.

The static of the radio brought them back to the reality of the attack.


General Jansens was a man on a mission. He had been on board since day one when Doctor Van Houten brought them the RED implant project. Each of the still standing free countries had tried their hands at making the perfect super soldier. Each of them knew where the others stood in their progress: the Japanese's project was a complete failure, the EU had decided to turn toward artificial intelligence, South Africa had their implant. The Americans were the only ones so far to have managed splicing up human DNA with specific animalistic Genome to make a super soldier. And they were guarding their projects like hawks.

But after twenty years of almost no progress – they had just managed to lengthen the implantee's life expectancy to six months instead of two – he needed results, or his project would be terminated.

The reappearance of the lost implant in France, when they were precisely conducting an operation there as the same time, felt like an answer to his prayers. Although, they'd lost the trail of the prototype, they had monitored the airports, the railway stations and the road in the hope of picking up her companion. The manticore prototype was always cautious and never raised or angled her head in a way that would have allowed them to have a picture; but her companion wasn't as cautious, and they'd caught a clear picture of him at the airport.

They had followed him later to Seattle, and they'd managed to find out who he was : Special Agent Ames White. On probation. He had been in charge of the team hunting the transgenic.

When he read the files, General Jansens was so happy that they'd let the prototypes escape, he was already imagining bringing a whole truck load of them to South Africa to experiment on. The rumors had been true after all!

If he had been less desperate, the General would have wondered what was a government official – ordered to hunt the transgenics down – doing with one, thousand of miles away from US soil.

But he was excited and impatient, and he was in a rush to save his project, so he sent all his soldiers to follow the trail of Ames White.

His RED implantees had followed the federal agent for one day, and had bugged his place but then, they lost him. They succeeded in picking up his trail back at the airport and managed to find out which flight he had taken, and where he was headed.

Through satellite photos, they narrowed the whereabouts of Ames White in South Baltimore. They had noticed the extra security and they had observed the area for hours before reporting back to the General.

He thought they'd hit the jackpot, that it was there that the US government was hiding the projects that they had recaptured. He was going to swoop in and take what was his due.

The ten REDs managed to penetrate the outer defenses but were stopped at the second perimeter. General Jansens watched through his own men eyes, as they died: neck snapped, bullet through the skull.

He was finished.

"Sir?" his assistant tried as he saw the general rise and unholster his gun.

There was no reason for him to live anymore. His honor was lost. The General pointed the gun to his head and shot.


"Alpha one, this is Alpha two. Enemy annihilated."

Andrea's whole body relaxed at the transmission.

"Alpha two, this is Alpha one. Say Again."

"I repeat. Enemy annihilated."

"Copy that Alpha two. Please report to base. Over."

"WILCO, Alpha two, Out."


Cameron was first and foremost a soldier of the familiar rebellion, and he was loyal to Andrea. His parents had followed Sandeman when he left the cult, they had been his friend, but also his bodyguards. When he was old enough to pick up a gun and shoot he joined the rebellion like his parents and met Andrea. Both of them had fought side by side for decades before he was assigned to the security detail of their leader and she was ordered to go to France and lure some unsuspecting familiar, for what, neither of them knew what it was exactly that the lab geeks of Sandeman were doing.

He had never seen a transgenic up close and personal before. As Max observed him openly, he did the same thing in a more discreet way.

He was meeting the reason for his enrollment for the first time. If they all looked like her, he thought, it was worth it.

"Ah Cameron! Good job." complimented his leader.

"Thank you sir. Always glad to help."

"Happy to see you're still alive." teased Andrea.

"I aim to please." he retorted.


Max watched the man they called Cameron as he related the attack. His hair reminded her of Alec's hair. It wasn't the only thing in him that reminded her of the dark blond transgenic: it was there in his irreverence, in his posture. He was a few inch taller, and he didn't have the movie good looks of Alec but just like her friend, she recognized the Alpha male in him.

"Max, this is Cameron. He's my chief of security." declared Sandeman with pride.

She nodded her acknowledgment, he nodded back.

Two man in military fatigue brought a third man in. The third one was obviously dead.

"I thought this could interest you." he directed to Max. "They are not branded, but they had the strength of our kind. None of the training we have though. This was sloppy, rushed."

Max looked at the dead man and recognized him as one of the person stacking out White in Seattle. The buzz cut, the burly figures, how could she mistake them for familiars.

"Reds." she informed them. She put the dead man on his face and uncovered the point of entry of his implant.

The whole room looked on as she dug the implant with a pocket knife.

"This little thing," she explained as she held the device. "kills their pain receptor, it also shortens their life but as most of them are prisoners on death row, no one misses them." She turned him around again and felt his pockets. She found a picture of White in CDG, Paris.

"This was taken the day we left. They must have followed you back. I told you to keep your head down!" She was angry at Ames because, he could have been taken by the South Africans and no one would be the wiser.

She remembered his answer when she'd told him to be wary of the cameras once they got in France. The EU had gone totally Big brother after the pulse and they showed no signs of changing their ways. There were more cameras there than spots on cheetah.

In a sense it was a relief that the Council wasn't putting Ames on surveillance yet. He was still safe from them.

"I'm sorry," she went on. "This is all because of me."

"Of course not!" Sandeman contradicted. "It's not the first time that the South African operatives are trying to capture a manticore prototype. They probably heard the rumor of the escape like every other countries or militias interested in having their own super soldiers."

"Either way, I think it's safer that we move our base, sir." Andrea cut in.

"I guess you're right Andrea." he sighed and looked at Max and Ames. "I'm afraid, this is where we'll part. If I'm lucky I'll get to see you again, if not, we were not meant to be immortals." He handed her a disc. "It compiles all the work that I did on you. All the answers that you'll need are there. Good luck child. You're going to need it."

"Wait! You're not going to help me? Help us?" Max's tone was indignant.

"You don't understand, I already did: when I created you."

She didn't say thank you, because he didn't deserve those thanks. Nonetheless she nodded to Cameron and Andrea as they took the old man away.

"Well, time to go back to Seattle." Max stated. "At least you know that it wasn't the Conclave that was watching you."

"Doesn't change anything. They'll soon wonder why I am not making progress on the transgenic front." he picked up his bag. "They're going to send someone soon." he asserted.

"And what will happen when they do?"

"I don't know. Depends on what they'll find."

She looked at him with worry in her eyes. She cared about him, he realized suddenly. The knowledge had been there in the back of his mind, but he hadn't dared to look at it closely because, he too cared about her.

"And what will they find Ames?"

That was good question. A question he didn't have the answer to.


On the flight back, he'd thought long and hard about what he was going to do. Yes, he cared about her and he was pleasantly surprised when she had stood up for him to his father, when he expected her to take his sire's side. She was probably as angry toward his father as he was. But this was about survival. She had no idea what she was and her kind's success depended on her understanding how she worked. He'd decided that he wasn't going to help her.

When their plane touched the ground, he simply told her that they needed to talk and ushered her in the public bathrooms.

"I'm sorry about this Max." he handcuffed her.

The understanding in her eyes was killing him. She shouldn't understand why he was doing this, but he knew that both of them had come to empathize with each other.

There was also guilt that passed in her eyes.

"I can't let you do this Ames, I'm sorry." she hadn"t moved and she looked at him through the mirror.

"Unless you have some other leverage, I have to do this. I have to live for my son." He was sorry that it had come to this, but it was inevitable. Max turned to face him.

"I have Ray." she breathed out.

He slapped her with all his strength. Were she a mere human, she would have flown across the room. As it was, she had braced herself for his reaction, and had expected as much from him. She took the hit without qualm.

"I deserved that one. But there won't be another freebie."

It was as if she hadn't spoken.

"Where is my son 452?"

She tsktsked at his question.

"First, let me get out of those." she threw the cuffs back at him.

"WHERE IS MY SON?" he bellowed.

"Yelling won't get you anywhere." she commented. "You're upset right now, so let me make something really clear for you: take me in and I'll make sure that you'll never, ever, see your son again."

They were facing off, faces inches from each other, neither willing to back down.

"Let me be clear 452, if you don't give me back my son, I promise that your transgenic friends will find pieces of you all over Seattle till next year."

"That's original." another voice mocked.

Ames cursed himself. He had been so focused on his shouting match with her that he hadn't heard 494 enter the bathroom. He stilled as he felt the cold barrel of a gun at the base of his neck. Fast or not, at this distance, there was no dodging the bullet if 494 decided to pull the trigger.

"Remember this day," the animal whispered. "as the day that I could have killed you."

His face was set, his jaw clenched in anger, his lips thinned, he was itching to do some damage, but he couldn't.

"Took you long enough." 452 told the other transgenic.

"Traffic." shrugged 494.

"Are you going to kill me?" asked White as looked at 494 through the bathroom mirror.

"This one is not my show buddy." he gestured to the brunette who ignored the look Ames sent her.

"Did you find one?" she inquired.

Alec nodded, and the door opened on another person.


Ames noticed the feminine curve. He guessed that it was another transgenic. What did 452 had up her sleeve? The new comer was smaller, leaner even than 452. If it wasn't for her curves, he would have thought that she was a child. He couldn't see her face as her shoulder length blond hair shielded it from him. Maybe it was one of the anomalies, he pondered.

"You know what I figured out Ames?" he gazed back angrily at 452. "I realized that if Sandeman was intent on given the humans a fighting chance in creating us, he must have tried to give us the same talent that you have and more." 452 went on. "If one of you was a telepath, he must have created his own version among the transgenics."

"This is Peisinoe." 494 introduced the blond girl. "She's a mind-reader."

Ames remained silent and controlled his features. If he was dealing with humans, he would have talked his way out this interrogation. But transgenics – these one in particular – meant business.

"I'll give you back you son." 452 laced her announcement with compassion. As if he would believe her. "But first, you're going to give us every single name of the familiars that you know in Seattle P.D., in government agencies, in the government. That's a fair trade: a life for lives."

"You're not getting away with this 452. We're not that easy to kill."

"A bullet through your head would do the trick." 494 observed with mischief before adding. "He's all yours Peisi."

Ames glanced back at the one they called Peisinoe. She had put her long bangs behind her ears. He followed her movement as she took off her sunglasses and he finally got the full impact of her features. She looked like an angel, and something in her, was pulling him toward her, yet he hadn't moved a inch from his position. He was transfixed, hypnotized by her sight.

"Tell me..." her voice felt like a caress, "Tell me all your secrets." her eyes never left his as he advanced on him.


When he woke up, he was in his bed. He was alone, no transgenic, no 452. He remembered arriving in Seattle, ushering 452 in the bathroom, cuffing her. She had his son! Then 494 arrived with another transgenic. After that, things was a bit foggy.

Something had woken him. A ring? He searched for his phone, but there was no missed calls.

Then he heard the knock and the sound of the doorbell. He was still groggy, but he had the sense to take his gun, check that it was loaded and went to open the door.

As he looked through the peephole, he saw his son. He was so excited that he fumbled with the lock before successfully opening it. His breath caught as his son jumped in his arms.

"Daddy!" he was never going to let go of Ray. He breathed the long forgotten smell of his son, took in the changes in his son. He was safe, he had grown up.

Ray wriggled out of the arms and went back outside.

"Ray?"

"Meet my friend dad." he lead 452 in his house. "She found you for me." There is it was again: the smile of his son. The smile wasn't only directed toward him, but also toward his companion. Ray was totally at ease with 452, there was no trace of fear in his attitude. Furthermore, he trusted her.

To his horror, his son had become attached to the transgenic and he wondered since when exactly did she had his son.