Disclaimer: Dark Angel and its characters do not belong to me, but the plot is mine. This fan-fiction had been written purely for entertainment purposes. No infringement was intended and no profit had been made out of this.

A/N: Thanks for the reviews, people! Loved it as always.

For those of you who have read Breeding Partners Or Not, hopefully by now you've found it in your kind heart to forgive me for that ending (grins). Personally, I still think it was the right ending for that particular story. Anyway, my arms got twisted by some really persistent people out there…So much that I think it's dislocated now…But I've finally caved and decided to write a sequel.

Now back to this story…

Irresistible Rivals - Chapter 4

(by elle6778)

The second her feet landed on the grass, Max sprinted towards the east wall of the compound. Behind her, she heard a pair of boots land where she had been just a moment ago. Damn it, the guy was not about to let her go easily, she thought. She hated to admit it, but she was a little alarmed by his tenacity.

"Zane, where are you?" she hissed into her comms without slowing down her race towards the perimeter wall. She could not afford to be captured by whoever the guy was. But hell, her shoulder was killing her. Every time her feet hit the ground, she had to fight to keep from groaning at the jarring impact. She did not think that it was dislocated, but she definitely pulled something.

Zane's voice came over the comms. He sounded breathless. "Give me a second. This guy-" A loud thud and then Max heard him swear. She did not have to ask to know that he was fighting with the guy's partner.

"Forget it! We've got to go," she yelled impatiently, glancing quickly over her shoulders. Damn, he was gaining on her. To make things worse, she could hear sirens in the distance. The silent alarm must be linked to the police.

Zane spoke again. "Just a second. I-"

"No! NOW!" Max insisted sharply. "The police is heading this way!"

The footsteps behind her grew louder, telling her that he was gaining on her. Max sped up, at this point uncaring that the guy might find her speed strangely inhuman. He was awfully fast himself for an Ordinary.

The next thing she knew, she was thrown to the ground by a large impact against her back.

"Get off me, you jackass!" she snarled, struggling furiously against the pair of arms clamped tight around her.

He flipped her around to face him. "Not till you tell me who you're working for. And while you're at it, what's in that room behind the painting," he demanded roughly, his breath hot against her cheeks.

Max felt a prick of unease at their proximity. He was lying on top of her, their legs tangled together. His hazel eyes were boring into hers relentlessly.

"We have no time for this, dickhead! The police are arriving any moment now," she snapped. She had to find a way to escape his hold.

He shook her. "Then give me a name."

"Bite me," she gritted out through clenched teeth.

"I'm tempted to. Perhaps some other time," he replied, chuckling. He seemed to find the entire situation amusing.

"What's so funny?" she snarled.

He sobered up. "Nothing." Then abruptly, he shifted and flipped her around, pushing her face down against the ground.

"Hey, what do you think you're doing?" she protested indignantly as he yanked her backpack off her. Damn it! He can't have that! I'm going to kill him!

"What do you think I'm doing? Gathering information, of course," he replied in a matter-of-fact tone as he released her and stood up with her backpack in his hand.

She bounced to her feet immediately. "Oh, no, you don't," she warned, stepping towards him. "Go get your own information, dickhead."

He smirked and raised the bag triumphantly. "That's what I'm doing."

"I call that stealing," Max shot back.

"I call that smart," he retorted, raising her level of irritation.

"What? A common thief now, huh? Not capable of getting it yourself so you have to steal?"

"You challenged me, remember? I'm just proving to you and I'm not too late after all. See? The information is right in my hands now," he mocked.

Her eyes narrowed. "Okay, I guess I won't be playing nice then, smartass."

He glared at her. "Enough already with the name calling."

"You can always tell me. But whatever your name is, 'smartass' or 'dickhead' will always sound much better," she declared.

She rushed forwards, but he was prepared. Before she could score a hit, he sidestepped. She immediately changed her tactics and spun around in a back-kick. He caught her foot, but she was prepared for it. Her other foot came up high and nailed him on his left ribs. Her backpack flew out of his hand to land just a few feet away.

They fell down in a heap and instantly jumped back onto their feet. Both of them eyed the backpack, obviously deliberating whether or not to rush for it, but then turned back to continue their fight.

She could see the wariness in his eyes as they circled each other. A frown was beginning to make its way to her forehead. The guy was ridiculously good. It was just her stupid luck that she ended up fighting with a martial art expert. If she had not been a transgenic, she would have been flattened in seconds.

A sudden punch came at her. She twisted to the side immediately and tried to land a backhand. Her plan backfired as he grabbed her arm and smashed his elbow into the side of her face.

The sudden explosion of pain made her gasp involuntarily. Staggering back, Max touched her jaw gingerly, sure that it was going to leave an ugly bruise.

Much to her annoyance, he just smirked at her smugly.

"What's so funny?" she snarled, wishing that she could get near enough to wipe the smirk off his face with her boots.

He shook his head, smirk still intact. "You know, you can just walk away. I promise I won't tell your boss."

"And make it easy for you?" she said with a disbelieving snort. "Why the hell should I do that?"

"What? You want more damage?"

"You'll be feeling more pain than me at the end of this," she promised vehemently, deciding to go all out this time. The guy's attitude was really beginning to bug her.

He raised his eyebrows. In a taunting tone, he said, "Oh? Another challenge then?"

Max did not reply. Dashing forward, she aimed for his chest, knowing instinctively that he was either going to bend to cover himself or sidestep. Just when she was about to reach him, he moved out of the way, just to one side. Grinning inwardly, she launched herself off the ground and back-flipped.

In a split second, she had him on the ground with her booted foot firmly planted on his chest.

"Anything else you'd like to say, smartass?" she asked, noting the stunned expression on his face with satisfaction.

He continued to watch her thoughtfully for a while, making her feel more uncomfortable by the second. Oh hell, maybe she had overdone it. She could almost hear Zack now, telling her sternly, 'You've got to tone it down. We can't expose ourselves.' Damn!

Then he spoke. "Give me a hand up?" he asked with a smirk.

She took her foot off him and stepped back, scowling. "Are you actually trying hard, or are you naturally this annoying?"

He shrugged carelessly. "What can I say? I was born with many useful talents."

Max gritted her teeth. "Oh, shut up!"

A mock innocent expression came over his face. "What? You were the one who asked," he pointed out.

Max could not help it. She groaned and looked away.

That was her only mistake.

The next thing she knew, she was back on the ground with him straddling her.

Lowering his face such that it was just inches from hers, he said, "I guess this round goes to me."

She wanted to scream in frustration. This was the second time he had her pinned to the ground. "Get off me, damn it!" she snarled, glowering at him. "When I get up, I'll kick your ass so hard you won't be able to sit for weeks," she threatened, trying to buck him off to no avail.

"Tsk, tsk, you really have to watch that mouth," he admonished with a taunting smile. Then his smile evaporated. "Now, tell me who you work for."

She rolled her eyes. "The circus. That's where I learnt my moves," she replied with a bored expression. She needed to think of a way to get him off her.

His eyes hardened. "I guess I'll just have to bring you back with me then."

Unperturbed, she replied, "Oh? And how are you going to do that? Throw me over your shoulders and carry me all the way there?" Taking the opportunity to act while he was distracted trying to question her, Max shifted until her legs were free. He did not seem to notice.

"What makes you think it's so difficult?" he tossed back.

She raised a questioning brow. "Hmm?"

"I said, what-"

He did not get to finish his sentence. Instead, he jerked and rolled to his side, gasping in pain.

Max quickly scrambled to her knees and ran for her backpack. Strapping the backpack securely across her chest, she turned to present him with a grin. Now that was definitely satisfying, she thought.

From his position on the ground, he shot an accusing look at her. "You kneed me!" he yelled, his hands cupped protectively against his groin.

"Oh? Hazards of the job, I guess. Didn't your boss tell you when you signed the contract?" she said mercilessly. Still grinning, she went on, "Say, I'd love to stay and talk, but I'm kind of busy now. Got places to go and information to analyse."

He shot her murderous glare. "Don't worry too much about me. Just remember that I won't go easy on you next time."

"Next time?" she snorted. "No such chance."

Giving him a flippant wave, she sped to the wall and climbed over it.

When she landed on the other side, she found Zane already waiting for her by their bikes. He looked grumpy, unlike his usual jovial self.

"What the hell do you think you're doing, Max?" he snapped at her as they got on their bikes. "You told me to get out of there and you stayed behind to flirt with the opposition. I heard everything."

Max rolled her eyes. "I was trying to distract him. He got me pinned down. And what about you? You were happy enough to stay and duke it out with his partner."

They started their bikes and roared off.

"Hmmph! That was different. The guy has got some skills. I was just trying to take him down," he justified to her impatiently.

"You're out of shape if you can't take on a simple Ordinary, Zane," she teased. She realised that if they guy's partner was anything like him, Zane must have had a hard time. This would explain his grouchiness. Zane did not like to lose.

"He was armed, alright! And I'm not even going to go into what started all this. You put yourself in danger, Max," Zane said over the wind in their faces.

"What are you going on about?" she pretended ignorance. She knew fully well what he meant.

"I saw them coming in and told you to stay put. I have it under control and I was coming to get you. But no! You've got to come out of that room and expose yourself," Zane pointed out.

Max scowled. "I wanted to know who they are."

"The bugs got that, Max," he said flatly.

She winced. "Can we drop the subject?" she muttered. She hated it when Zane got this way. In a way it was really sweet, but it was also irritating as hell sometimes. She guessed he was just worried about her, but honestly, did he really think that she could not take care of herself?

"I need to know that you're not going to do something stupid like that again," Zane said in an uncharacteristically hard tone.

Max did not say anything.

"Max, I need to hear it," he repeated, softer this time. "We're not just mission buddies, Max. We're family. I'm worried about you."

"Fine," she muttered grudgingly. "Won't do it again."

494 got to his feet gingerly just as 511 came into view.

"Are you alright? I heard what happened over our comms," 511 said with a small frown on his face.

"Never better," 494 said with a wince.

With a disapproving look, 511 went on, "You should have just pointed your gun at her. That'll stop her in a second."

494 shook his head. "What, and miss all the fun of hand-to-hand?" Yeah, why didn't he just take out his gun? That would have solved a lot of problems. He scowled. Too late for that now.

Hearing the advancing sound of sirens, 511 nodded to the rear wall. "We'll talk as we leave. We don't want to leave them a trail."

"She just won't tell me who they work for," 494 muttered irritably as they jogged towards the rear wall.

"Her partner, the guy I was fighting against? He's really good. Almost as good as us if not more," 511 said, his tone betraying his bewilderment.

"Yeah, the girl too," 494 replied with a puzzled frown. "I don't get it."

"Maybe they're Manticore as well. Maybe Renfro sent in a second team."

"I think we would have known if they are Manticore. The girl fought well, but her technique is completely different from what we were taught. And anyway, I don't remember seeing a barcode on her neck."

511 frowned. "Come to think of it, the guy didn't have one too."

"We need to report this to Renfro. She'd want to know that someone else is interested in Davies' work,"494 said, his voice betraying his reluctance.

Understanding 494's hesitation, 511 nodded slowly. "Yeah. I just don't know how we're going to explain their escape. Renfro's going to be raving mad. Probably send us both for re-evaluation just to make sure we're not degenerating or something," 511 said, a disgusted look on his face.

"Hell, I can't afford to piss Renfro off," 494 groaned.

511 gave him a worried look. "You know, they'll probably throw you back in psy-ops. Renfro probably will think that the same happened here as what happened in that mission last month."

494 frowned. 511 has a point. "Or maybe we'll just leave it out for now. We've got the files and the hard-drive, so maybe the information we need is already in there somewhere," he said thoughtfully.

A mock horror expression came across 511's face. "494, you're not suggesting that we keep this from Renfro?"

494 smirked at the look on his partner's face. "Remember Lola? Did you put that in your report?"

511 grinned. "Good thing this is only a two way comms, or Manticore will fry our asses for this."

Max was turning off the tap over the white bathtub when she heard a knock on the apartment door. She glanced at her watch. It was 2am.

Who could it be at this time of the night? She wondered as she walked out of the bathroom to bump into a sleep-tousled Zane in the living room. He was in the middle of zipping his jeans up with one hand. Max raised her eyebrows at the gun in his other hand.

"What? Better safe than sorry," Zane whispered defensively.

"It's probably just one of your girlfriends," Max hissed to him. She has told him over and over again not to bring his girls back to the flat they shared with Eva. Especially as some of them never seem to get the idea that he was not the long-lasting type.

He scowled. "It had better not be," he muttered as he made his way to the door, shoving his gun to the back of his jeans.

Max rolled her eyes and went to the kitchen. She needed an ice pack for that rapidly discolouring bruise on her jaw.

"Yeah?" she heard Zane yell through the door. She straightened from the freezer and listened intently.

"It's me," a familiar voice filtered through.

Both she and Zane let of the breath they did not realise they were holding.

Zane unlocked the door and yanked it open. He tilted his head in greeting as Seth stepped in. "Hey, man. How is it going? The mission went well?"

"No complications. It went fairly smoothly," Seth replied noncommittally as he took off his leather jacket to reveal a form fitting dark grey t-shirt and black jeans. "Is Max in?" he asked, running his hand over his cropped brownish blonde hair.

"I'm here," she said, walking out of the kitchen.

Zane let out a huge yawn. "Okay, I'll talk to you tomorrow or something. Need to go back to bed now."

Max went up to Seth. They hugged briefly before she said, "Hey, nice to have you back. You're early. Jack said that you'll be back tomorrow."

He smiled at her. "The bike was faster than I'd expected," he said. Cupping her chin, he leaned down and brushed his lips across hers lightly.

Max could feel a tingling in her lips where he had touched her.

His intense bottle green eyes went to the bruise on her left jaw. Touching it softly with his fingertips, he asked, "What's this? Got into a fight on your new mission? Was that the one Jack was telling me about when I reported in?"

Max nodded.

"What's the spec?" he asked as he led her to the couch.

"At first it was sort of a retrieval and remote surveillance mission. I went in with Zane as guests in a party. Eva operated from base."

Seth raised a questioning brow. "Disguised?" he asked, surprised. When she nodded, he continued, "Eva had to drag you kicking and screaming to be all made up, I take it."

Max wrinkled her nose. "I won't say that I like it. But it didn't go so bad. Well, at least not until we returned."

"What happened?"

"Some fool shot the guy we wanted to spy on, and we had to go back in to get whatever leads we could from Davies's place. Our source told us about this hidden room in there, so I checked it out. Found some interesting stuff actually," Max explained, but decided not to tell him more about their mission rival. "That's the one we've just got back from."

"Well, since you're here and all, I guess it went alright. Anyway, that's the sort of thing you're used to. Breaking and Entering shouldn't be a problem for you," Seth declared as he dropped onto the couch.

Max frowned as she sat beside him. "You know, that's not the only thing I can do. The way you and Zane say it, it sounds like I do nothing but B&E."

Flinging an arm around her, he said with a grin. "But that's the only thing you'll happily do without complaining. I just don't understand why you can't do the job without whining about it first."

She gasped and straightened. "I don't whine!" she exclaimed, indignant.

"Fine. You don't," he said, his tone made it clear that he thought otherwise.

Max crossed her arms around her chest and slumped back onto the seat. "Anyway, how's your mission?" she asked, deciding that it was better to change the topic. She could never win an argument against Seth anyway. He never let her. He might just step back, but never actually let her win.

"There were no complications. Everything went as planned," he replied disinterestedly.

Max rolled her eyes. It was always like this when she asked him about his missions. "You said that before. I mean, what did you do this time?"

He sighed wearily. "Max, we've been through this. You know I can't talk about my missions."

"I still don't get it. Why are you always sent on these restricted-clearance missions? The rest of us could talk about ours," she grumbled. The curiosity was killing her, not knowing what he did. Sometimes, it even made her feel uncomfortable for some reason.

Seth shrugged. "The less people know, the smaller the chance of a leak. I guess that's why I always work solo."

"Not always," Max muttered. Occasionally, Seth went with some of them on missions, breaking his pattern of working alone. One of those times had been the time when she went into heat.

"And look what happened," he teased, obviously recalling the same thing.

"Oh? Are you complaining?" she demanded to know.

He gave her a look. One which told her very clearly what was on in his mind. "No. Are you?" he returned the question softly, his hand coming up to cup her chin.

Before she could reply, his lips descended on hers.

She guessed that her bath was going to have to wait.

t.b.c.

A/N: Like it? Hate it? Your comments will be much appreciated!