Disclaimer: The TV show Dark Angel, all of the characters that appeared on it (Max, Zack, Jondy, etc.), and everything else that has to do with the show belong to their respective owners, not to me. No money is being made off of this fic. I only own the original characters (Elle/X5-164, etc.).

Chapter 12: Becky (X6-405)

"Pick it up," I said to 115 and 773 as we marched out of the cafeteria and towards our first lesson the next day. "If we're late for live ordinance, I swear that I won't cover for the two of you."

"Don't worry, 405," 115 assured me. "I was just reminding 773 of what's coming up later today in our Basic Infiltration class. Remember? The trainer promised a few days ago that today we'd--"

"Attention. All X5 and X6 series, your first classes of the day have been canceled or postponed. Report to Lecture Hall 3 immediately. Attention. All X5 and X6 series, your first classes of the day have been canceled or postponed. Report to Lecture Hall 3 immediately." The intercom shut off with a quick burst of static and we all looked at each other, confused.

"Before anybody asks, I had no idea about this," I said immediately as I led everybody back in the other direction.

887, who'd been released from the infirmary last night, frowned. "How the hell do you know what we're about to say? Are you sure you're not really a Psy Ops prototype?"

"If I am, they haven't told me about it," I deadpanned. We quickly reached Lecture Hall 3 and went inside. I found us some seats and we went over to them and sat down and waited for everybody else to arrive. "I haven't seen this many of us together for awhile."

"Me too," 115 said.

Everybody looked over to the door and stood at attention and saluted as Colonel Lydecker entered the lecture hell. He returned the salute and nodded to us and we sat back down in our seats. "There has been a minor change in our program. Most of you should be familiar with the concept of mentoring, but for those of you who aren't, I'll go over it briefly. There are two parties involved. The mentoring party helps with a problem or whatever it might be that the second party might need and hopefully, both parties will benefit from the situation."

"I know that," 956 said. I quickly shushed him and focused my attention back on Lydecker. I was getting pretty curious as to what he was saying.

"Effective immediately, we will begin a mentoring program between the X5s and the X6s," Lydecker said. "This program is unique to this facility. Each X5 unit will be paired up with an X6 unit. These paired units will be expected to share time together, such as at least some meal times and will also be paired up for certain group lessons such as martial arts and perhaps even some missions. The X5s will be expected to mentor the X6s along as they go through the same experiences as the X5s have and in the process, we expect the performances of both units in the pair to improve."

"Hey, this actually sounds pretty good," 392 said.

"Yeah, it does," I agreed.

"The following units will be paired together for this program," Lydecker said. "Following the conclusion of this assembly, I will be briefly seeing the commanding officers of each unit." He took out a piece of paper from his pocket and began to read off units. "X5 Unit 1 will be paired off with X6 Unit 7. X5 Unit 2 will be paired off with X6 Unit 1. X5 Unit 3..."

I don't know how I kept the smile off of my face. Yes! We'd been paired with Zack and his family. I saw 367 looking at me and I turned to her and we did exchange a quick smile. Talk about getting lucky. Lydecker finished reading off the pairings and I got up and walked over to where Zack and the other commanding officers were gathering around him.

"Instead of your regularly scheduled first lesson today, you will have a group lesson together," he told us. "You and your units are dismissed as soon as I give you your assignments. 476 and 932, your units will be reporting to the gym. 599 and 405, your units will be reporting to Yard B for live ordinance."

Zack and I nodded and we walked back over to our units. I motioned for them to follow me and we waited by the door for Zack and his family and then we all marched together to where we'd been ordered to go. "Um, I'm glad that we got paired up for this," I said.

"Me too," Zack said.

"What do you think that we're going to do?" 570 asked.

"In live ordinance, I don't know," I said.

"Hey, which one of you guys is hoping to be the explosives specialist?" Zane asked. 144 raised his hand and Zane grinned. "I've got some great stuff to show you. I've got this great trick to use in a pinch if you're ever out in an urban situation on a mission and you don't have anything conventional on hand. Have you ever heard of a Molotov cocktail? This blows it away..."

Live ordinance went by pretty much as it usually did, except I was actually having fun. Not that live ordinance was my least favorite subject to begin with. I love a good explosion now and then. I was disappointed when we had to split up and 115, 367, 773, and myself had to go to language. The rest of the morning went by, though, and finally it was time for lunch. I was pretty hungry. I got on the line with everybody and as I took my tray after getting my mystery meat and what I'm guessing is cornbread, I looked over and I saw that Zack and his family had shoved two tables together and were sitting scattered around them. They motioned for us to join them and we did. I sat down in between Zack and Max and I smiled. "Hi."

"Hi," Max said. "How was your morning?"

"The usual," 115 said. "The professor who's teaching language almost put me to sleep."

"What are you up to?" Tinga asked.

"We just started Greek," 115 replied.

"Remember when we were learning Greek, Reese?" Ben said. "I think you actually did fall asleep!"

"I did not," Reese said. "I had a rotten night's sleep the night before, but I didn't actually zonk out during class that day, bro."

"Bro?" 662 repeated.

The X5s exchanged a look. "Yeah, as in brother," Reese said cheerfully.

"We think of ourselves as brothers and sisters," Zack explained. "We feel closer to each other than simply unit mates. Do you guys feel the same way about each other?"

"I do," I said. One by one, the rest of my unit agreed.

"Then you really are a family," Syl said.

Wayne pointed to me and gave a cheeky grin. "Complete with a nagging mother!"

"Where the hell did your intelligence go?" Tinga groaned. "She might be younger than you are, but she can kick the living crap out of you."

"It's okay," I said. "I'll give him a free shot this time."

058 smiled. "I like the idea of family."

"Especially since you're the baby," 773 teased.

"Don't knock it," Max said. "Being the youngest in the family rocks."

"Ignore Max," Parker said. "She can technically boss most of us around."

"Technically? Even if I didn't rank ahead of your sorry ass, I'd still be bossing you around and you damn well know it," Max said. I giggled and so did most of my sisters.

"Max?" 144 said. "What or who is that?"

"That would be me," Max said. "Max is my name."

"Aren't names forbidden?" 367 asked.

Zack shrugged. "Colonel Lydecker is a soldier and he has a name and so do the guards and the trainers. Why shouldn't we have names? We only use them among ourselves anyway." He pointed to himself. "I'm Zack. You know Max's name." He pointed out the other members of his family and their names. "...and that's Jondy." He smiled. "Do you guys want names as well?"

"Sure," 691 said. The others agreed and then turned to me.

I couldn't help laughing a little. "Becky."

"Hmmm..." 115 said. He looked thoughtful and then he perked up. "Kyle."

"I like the name Karen," 367 said.

"I like the name Kevin," 773 said.

029 groaned. "I vote that the next person to give themselves a name doesn't take a name that starts with K."

Wayne smirked. "Now do you feel better if not finally believe me about my name?"

"Not really," Zane said.

"I've got an idea," 058 spoke up. "I like the name Xavier."

"That's an interesting name," Jack said. "Where did you come up with that?"

"I was getting blood taken in the infirmary one time and this tech left a graphic novel lying around," he replied. "It was about some group of mutants called the X-Men. I snatched it on my way out and I read it and I loved it. Xavier was the name of the leader, though for some reason in the graphic novel they pronounced the X in the name and normally with words that start with the letter X they don't. I never got it. Oh, well."

"Good choice," Kenny said. "That's cool."

"I like the name Matt," 144 said.

"Maggie," 691 said.

"Here we go again," 029 said.

"Why don't you pick the next name then and make sure that we don't have three in a row that start with M?" Kevin suggested.

"I know, but I can't think of one," 029 said.

"I've got an idea. How about Liesel?" Jondy said.

She thought about it for a few moments. "Hey, that's pretty cool. Is that a foreign name?"

"Yeah, it's German," Jondy said. "It was in our textbooks when we were learning that language a few years ago."

"It's really pretty," Liesel said. "Thank you, Jondy."

"You're welcome," Jondy said.

"I can't think of one, either," 662 said.

I looked at her and then I thought of something. "What do you think about Felicia?"

"I really like it," she said.

"I want the name Dalton," 887 said.

"Sandy," 956 said.

"Brent," 570 said.

"Suzanne," 392 said. "I think it sounds really pretty."

"It does," Gale said. "I think it's a beautiful name."

"Congratulations," Zack said.

I smiled. "Thank you, Zack."

"Now that everybody sitting at these tables has a name, what do you all think about the idea of teaming up and teaching the new trainer over there a lesson?" Rena asked. She pointed to where the trainer was sitting with some of the other ones. "That moron had the nerve to think that I couldn't handle that new sniper rifle model that I was working with. Actually, it wasn't so much that fact as how he went about letting me know his opinion and--" She seemed to catch herself. "--how he looked at me afterwards."

Zack looked really angry. "I'll kill him."

"Nothing actually happened, Zack," Rena said. "Besides, I did prove to him just how well I could use the new model." She shrugged and smiled. "I definitely think that he shouldn't go without some form of punishment. What do all of you think?"

"Including us?" Maggie squeaked.

"Yeah," Rena said. "You're part of our family now." They all smiled at us and I've never felt happier. I loved being a part of a family. It's the best feeling in the world.

TBC

Notes: Thank you so much to CrimsonReality, Shadow000, and angelofdarkness78 for your reviews and support! It means a lot to me. If anybody of you were wondering, Dalton/887 is the same Dalton from "Freak Nation." In my fic "All of Us," I decided to make him part of Becky's unit (also, his designation wasn't mentioned on the show so I made that up as well). Thank you all so much again!