Choices

by Mystic25

UPDATE CHAPTER 28 SUMMARY: Jessie finally asks Max about her past

24. Training Day Part Two

Choices 24- "Training Day"

Part 2

Note: All disclaimers, author identification and ratings from the first chapter are still effective here.

Another Note: This is the first time I've had a story so huge that I had to divide it into two parts…Kinda exciting isn't it? What will happen…will the Famulair's be defeated? Will Alec ever tell anyone about his Secret Marriage to Original Cindy? (no, haha, that's not real..)

But for the answers to the other stuff read on…

XXXXXXX

FOGLE TOWERS-10: 40 PM

"But mommy why do we have to go?" Jess's voice was pleading as he watched Max pack his clothes in a duffel bag. It was a late hour for him but the effects of sleepiness had vanished the moment Max had shaken him awake from his dreams.

Max hunted around for a warm jacket in his closet, avoiding him; she didn't want to see the look in his eyes. "It's not safe for you guys here tonight." Max threw the wool jacket over Jess's body, pulling his hands through the sleeves.

"But why?" Jessie asked as Max was zipping up his jacket. "Where are we going?" He was confused, scared. His mother had never before forced him out of his room in the dead of night.

"Someplace where you will be safe," Max said, smoothing out his jacket. She stood back up to see if he looked like he was dressed warm enough.

"But we're safe here mommy," Jessie insisted, pleaded. "Why can't we stay here?"

"I told you Jess!" Max lost her temper with her son, something she wouldn't normally do but her emotions were running high. She regretted her harsh tone a second later when she looked down and saw Jess's eyes grow large with tears brimming at the corner.

"I don't wanna go away," Lexi cried first. She sat on the edge of her bed and grabbed onto her stuffed rabbit Mr. Whiskers shedding tears into his fur. Her crying was so broken and lonely, a little girl who didn't understand.

Max bit her lip, sheer will power keeping her tears at bay. She couldn't stand seeing her children like this. She walked the small distance over to Lexi and knelt down to her, enveloping her in a big hug. "It's okay baby."

Lexi cried freely now that she had someone to comfort her. "I don't wanna go away momma, please let me stay here." She clung tightly to Max and this time Max's tears escaped into Lexi's hair. "Please mommy let me stay here."

"It's only for a while," Max kissed her daughter on the forehead and then on her tearstained eyes.

"I love you baby. You and Jessie and Lucy, you're my whole world. And I won't let anything happen to you guys, you understand?" She held her face in her hands and kissed her small nose.

Jessie came over to them, a torn expression on his face. He hugged Lexi's small body and Max wrapped an arm around him to pull him close.

The bedroom door creaked open and Logan stood there looking as solemn faced as Max. "They're here."

Max turned to him with a silent nod and without another word she picked up Lexi and grabbed the duffel bag with her free hand. The walk out of the bedroom went too fast for Max's taste. She came out of the long hallway like a prisoner facing the gallows. The tiny footfalls of Jessie beside her echoed off the floor as the two visitors inside the penthouse stood up.

"I know it's late," Logan started to explain but a man's voice cut him off.

"Logan stop. If it was important enough for you to call us over her at ten at night then late isn't an issue." Bennett Cale's voice was gently insisting on his cousin. He had no idea why Logan had called him to pick up his kids but he knew it must be something big because Logan was a solitary individual.

Beside Bennett, Maryanne stepped away from her husband to take the bag from Max. She was seven months pregnant now so Bennett claimed the bag before she could lift it. She looked up at Max, seeing how tightly she was holding Lexi, and sensing that this wasn't just a social call. "Don't worry Max. The kids will have fun with us, right hun?" Maryanne tried to get Lexi's attention but she didn't raise her head from Max's shoulder.

"You didn't have to fork over Uncle Rob's cabin," Bennett complained to Logan, slinging the duffle bag strap over his shoulder.

"Just think of it as a free vacation before you have kids of your own," Logan returned with a forced smile. He handed Bennett the keys. After he took them he held out a scrambled black cell phone. "Don't use the phones up there, the lines short out too much."

"It's alright Logan, I've got my own," Bennett insisted waving his silver Alltel wireless.

"The reception's bad out there," Logan lied. "I had this one wired so it comes in clear." He pushed the phone closer.

Bennett stared at the black phone and finally took it with a sigh. "With the way you're handling things you'd think you and Max are going on some secret mission."

Max didn't laugh but she faked a smile. "You should get going." Lexi was holding onto her so tightly that she had to pry her away from her body.

"Okay," Maryanne said softly and took Lexi in her arms, settling her against her hip. "Say goodbye to mommy."

Lexi remained silent so Max stepped over to her and kissed her forehead. "Bye baby. I'll come back for you soon. I promise." She pulled away, a tight feeling forming in her chest. But she kept her emotions off her face to hide it from Maryanne.

Lexi wrapped both arms around Logan's neck when Maryanne brought her to him. "Bye daddy," her words were small, sounding like a squeaking mouse.

Logan kissed the top of her head and out of the corner of his eyes saw Jace stepping out of the hallway with Max.

Bennett turned to the other woman, observing the beauty of her features and also the wary reluctant look in her eyes as she stepped over to him.

Jace held onto her son and critically eyed the two strangers: a very pregnant woman and a tall brunette man who had the same eyes as Logan. She felt her soldier training kick in, warning her of the threats of a new situation. But Max was there beside her and gave her a silent nod to let her know it was okay.

With slow movements Jace handed off her son to Bennett. "His name's Max."

Bennett gently held the child, observing the fierce glare in Jace's eyes. It was a warning that Jace would inflict unimaginable pain on Bennett should anything happen to her son.

Bennett almost shrank at such a harsh stare, but he knew that Jace had every right to act this way. "We'll take good care of him."

Jace stood silent, making a mental note that she would hold Bennett to his word under the harshest punishment. She kissed Max all over his face and hurried out of the living room not wanting to see him being taken away.

One by one the children vanished through the doorway none of them talking, but the sounds of tears were plainly heard. When Jessie was about to go through he stopped and turned back to Logan. "I love you," he said it to both his parents. He hadn't said it yet and he felt like he had to before he went out the door.

"We love you too baby," Max called out to him seconds before Bennett got him out the door.

After they left Max and Logan stood alone in their living room, neither daring to meet the others eye. But when Max finally ventured a look at her husband she could see her pain reflected in his eyes. She wanted to go to him, but there was still too much to do to break down now. She went off in search of Jace. The hallway was quiet for the first ten feet but then a quiet whining came from the end.

Jace was leaned up against one wall; her head down, leaning against the surface like it alone was supporting her. Kaja was sitting on her haunches pressing her black nose into Jace's jeans.

Jace was silent as Max approached her but after hearing her sister's footfalls she lifted her head and dozens of tear tracks marred her brown cheeks

Max could think of nothing to say to Jace that would take an edge off – she was making one of the toughest decisions of her life and sugar coating words wouldn't make it any better.

Jace had ripped her heart out of her chest a few minutes ago, and Max could feel that same mind numbing pain ache in inside her own body.

XXXXXXX

FENTAL AVE

Asha rolled over in her bed, her mind still heavily laden with sleep. But her alert level suddenly came back to full consciousness when she hit a protrusion that hadn't been in her mattress when she went to sleep. She reached to flip on the light.

"Zack?" Confusion entered her eyes when she saw him sitting on the edge of her bed watching her. She sat up. "How long have you been staring at me?"

"A lifetime."

Zack's words were so unusually cryptic – even for him – that a cloud of confusion crossed over Asha's features. "Really? You look good for your age."

"Looks are only pleasing to people who lack any sense." There was Zack's usual wit.

"Fine," Asha gave in. "Then you're the ugliest bastard I've ever had the privilege of hooking up with." Asha was trying to play with him, to get a reaction out of him. But after it didn't work she sensed he was in a brooding mood and would only start talking when he felt like it.

She didn't have to wait long. "What difference does it make if I was watching you for five minutes or five hours? If you didn't like it then there wouldn't be any leeway." He paused for such a long time that Asha thought he was just going to continue to stare at her like she was on display in a museum.

But when he finally did speak his words were so unusual that Asha wished he had continued to keep silent.

"If I died tomorrow would you care?"

Asha didn't know what to make of this. Is he joking? "Is this just metaphorical or do you have something in mind already?"

"Death is all the same," Zack insisted in a voice too quiet and calm for what he was saying. "It doesn't matter how you do it, you'll still wind up six feet under."

"You're being very morbid tonight Zack even for you," Asha complained. She leaned against the headboard trying to make sense of his words.

He followed her movements with his eyes. "You still didn't give me an answer." His voice was commanding; it wasn't a request.

"The question is: 'would I care if you died tomorrow?' No I would just get over the wasted years of my life any move onto another conquest. Did you snort something before you came here? Why the hell wouldn't I care if something happened to you?" Asha's temper was beginning to come out. This was a hell of a conversation to have in the middle of the night when she was supposed to be sleeping. "And why the hell are we even having this conversation, you're not going to die tomorrow."

She shut up when Zack began speaking again, not believing the words coming out of his mouth. He didn't tell her everything because there were things that only could be discussed between soldiers and though he had grown incredibly fond of her she wasn't a soldier.

Asha remained silent after Zack finished talking but her eyes were teaming with a quiet rage. "So you came here tonight for a mercy screw? Is that it? The soldier goes off into battle tomorrow so it's little woman's duty to fuck his brains out the night before?" Asha was pissed off, her eyes were now on fire, as she started hard faced at the man who had wormed his way into her life and had earned a rightful place there.

"Well let's get started then soldier cause we're running out of night before," Asha grabbed a hold of Zack's jacket and yanked him down on top of her before he could offer any verbal counter attack.

Their sex wasn't neat or even sensual but they were too wired give a damn about aesthetics. It was achingly raw, and that's what they both wanted.

XXXXX

FOGLE TOWERS

"I have a 911 pick up for Jam Pony," Cindy tried to insert a little humor into things but all Logan could offer her was a half hearted smile. So she didn't try again and stepped silently into the apartment.

Max was standing a few feet from the door holding Lucy and Cindy could see that her girl's eyes were infinitely sad, and she wished beyond anything she ever wished for, that she could take that pain away.

Logan handed Cindy Lucy's snuggly and she slipped it on her body, stepping over the short distance to Max. A look passed between them that held more meaning than hours of conversation.

Max held onto Lucy for a long time, sighing so deeply that she might have broken under the pressure. The baby was given to Cindy who laid her down gently in the snuggly.

Logan came up from behind Original Cindy carrying a black pea coat and a brown paper bag. "These are the best I have to offer." With his help Cindy slid into the coat. From the paper bag she pulled out a long platinum blonde wig. Her savvy attitude got the better of her and she raised an eyebrow at it. "Guess you like white chocolate huh?"

Logan laughed a dry laugh that dissolved into a small smile. "I like transformations to be through." He held out a set of keys just as Cindy was affixing the wig to her head.

"Car's on the third level, a green Saturn, nothing too fancy. Given where you live I know Sector Cops will give you heat for anything richer."

Cindy took the keys from him "Original Cindy doesn't even have a car so this is rich to her." The blond wig went down to the small of her back and it made her face look completely different. She tied a purple handkerchief around the wig to make herself look like she was still from her old neighborhood. Sector Cops looked for any chance to find "rich heiresses" alone. She left chunk of hair down in front of her eyes to cover up her face.

Logan offered her a pair of sunglasses but Cindy declined. "This thing is supposed to look normal boo. And no sista from my neighborhood wears shades unless she's tryin' to hide somthin'"

There were several beats of silence after Cindy's disguise had been completed. "You'll beat this bitch suga," Cindy broke the silence, placing a hand on Max's shoulder. "That's on the real."

Max hugged her friend feeling her rubbing her back from behind. She pulled back and gazed at her sleeping daughter. "Tell her about me," her words to Cindy were pleading. "If I don't make it out. I don't want her to forget."

Cindy felt a rush of tears prick her eyes but only one escaped. "You can tell her yourself boo, cause you'll be comin' back." She watched Max lean down to kiss Lucy and saw her one tear echo itself on Max's face.

"I love you," Max's words were so soft it was almost like she hadn't said them at all.

Logan kissed his baby next, a gentle, but lingering one on top of her head. "I love you too honey."

Cindy waited for a few more seconds before closing the coat ends around the baby. The way the snuggly was positioned on her body and the draping of the coat over it gave off a carefully planned illusion – that Cindy was pregnant. She kept the sash loose around her body to give Lucy enough air to breathe. Luckily the baby was solidly asleep because Max would have not been able to take sedating her to keep her from crying.

Cindy moved to the front door and then turned back to face Max right before she stepped out into the hallway. She wanted to say something but words were hard to form on her lips, so she left, the door shutting quietly behind her.

Max didn't move after Cindy had left, or for sixty-seconds afterwards. She resembled a beautifully carved statue. Only after she slowly turned her head to face Logan did she transform from a statue back to a living breathing person.

"I think I found my heart," Max's words were quiet, as if she didn't really want to say them at all because it was too painful.

Her eyes on Logan's were two depths of sorrow and his heart was crushed because he knew he couldn't take her pain away; he could only share it. "Max-" he had no idea what the hell to say, her name was the only thing he could think off.

She sighed, low and quiet. "Bedroom."

Her words surprised Logan more then anything. "Are you sure you're in the mood for something like that?"

"You're the only one left here that makes me feel alive." She was being painstakingly honest and her brown eyes mirrored her passionate emotions.

They were finally alone together, but everything else was wrong. They had gone from simple desire to a desperate need to be with each other before a frontline war was to be fought. It wasn't ideal, or even romantic.

Logan picked her up without a word and walked them to their bedroom. No it wasn't romantic

But it wasn't always about romance; it was about emotion.

XXXXXXXXX

STEEL POLL SALOON-EIGHTH AND PENDER

12: 30 AM

Lydecker sat finishing the last hit of his watered down whiskey. The scantily clad hooker beside him still tried to attract his attention despite having been ignored by him all night.

"We're closing up soon old timer," the barkeep's voice mirrored his youthful looks. He took the empty whiskey shot glass from Deck's hand and Lydecker was too moody to complain. "Don't forget to pay the tab buddy."

Deck's glare on the barkeep was deathly cold. He held out the money for the kid to take, but when he reached for it Deck grabbed a hold of his shirt. "I'm not your buddy you drunk pushing punk."

"Okay man, sorry." Deck's grip on the barkeep wasn't that strong so he managed to free himself from the older man's grip. "I didn't know you were so against stuff like that."

"You don't know anything son," Lydecker pushed himself off the stool, still glaring at the barkeep. "You think you have a good grasp of things because you serve up tequila night after night and listen to sloshed out losers tell you their sob stories?" The barkeep didn't say a word, feeling like a boy being reprimanded by a stranger. "You're nothing but a trick to a bunch of drunken pimps serving out a quid pro quo until the day you die." Deck pushed past the hooker who watched him go with a frustrated grunt that she didn't get to make any cash off him.

The outside air was cool but there was very little wind to hide the rancid smell of heaped up garbage in alleyways and the overpowering odor of dried blood spilt from previous gang wars. Deck's black Hummer was parked next to the row of black cruiser motorcycles and sports bikes. He climbed into the Hummer's vast front seat and turned on the radio that was located below the encrypted short wave.

The frequency was set to a talk radio station and an extremely upbeat radio announcer's voice that soon filled the cabin.

"Welcome to All Access Military Radio ladies and losers. If you're just joining us it's almost one AM; and the Man who runs our station is piss drunk in a gutter so we're still broadcasting live for all those soljas who like to get things done in the dark."(muffled laughter)

XXXXXXXXXX

A loud beeping pierced through the darkness and a hand quickly shot out to shut it up. A pair of brown eyes opened into the blackness and stared at the glowing numbers on the clock's digital face. 2:15

Tinga wanted to sigh and roll back over to fall asleep as fast as she had awakened. Beside her Charlie was snoring softly with his head leaning up against the headboard. Tinga could see his features even in the dark and sleep didn't mar his handsomeness one bit. That same handsomeness was reflected in the smaller features of Case who had his head pillowed against his father's lap and his legs stretched out across Tinga's.

She stared at them with eyes that could see in the dark – her boys. The alarm kicked on again for a 'two-minute past' warning and once again Tinga switched it off. But she knew that she couldn't stay there anymore.

"Charlie," she hovered the words over his ear, shaking him with one hand. "Baby, I gotta go."

Her husband came awake a few seconds later and sat up on their bed just as Tinga gently placed the lower half of Case's body into his lap. "Let him sleep for a little longer." She slipped out of bed with a sad reluctance.

xxxxxxxxxx

I am so high,
I can hear heaven.
I am so high,
I can hear heaven

Oh but heaven,
No heaven, don't hear me.

xxxxxxxxxx

Charlie watched her round up her black leather boots, her body already tucked into the black leather that she had slept in to be prepared for the morning

Case woke up at the noises and groggily looked at Tinga in confusion. "Mommy where are you going?"

Charlie leaned down close to his son "Mommy's going to work Case," his words were a muted whisper and watched his wife loading a clip into black Beretta.

Tinga gave a downcast look at her husband and son as she placed the gun into an inner pocket of her jacket.

xxxxxxxxxxx

Someone told me,
Love would all save us.
But how can that be?

xxxxxxxxxxx

FENTAL AVE

Asha's bed was a mess of tangled sheets and she slept naked on them with the comforter over her bare form.

Zack's forest green backpack was thrown beneath the only window in the room and its owner silently slid it on one shoulder. Inside, the cross bow and the Sig Sauer P230 rattled against each other. Nothing else made a sound, even the air outside was quiet.

There was no light on Asha but Zack could see her because of his Manticore genetics. He used this ability to walk back to the bed without bumping or crashing into anything.

She was laying on her back with one arm thrown out across the vacant spot he had been at hours before. He pushed away strands hair that that had been stuck to her face with sweat.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Look what love gave us.
A world full of killing,
And blood spilling.
That world never came.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

He traced the side of her face with his first two fingers and kissed her quietly on her mouth. A dangling chain fell forward from around his neck, one with a gold band looped through it. Zack tucked it into his jacket as he stood up walking out of the room without a sound.

xxxxxxxxx

It isn't the love of the hero,
And that's why I fear it won't do.

xxxxxxxxx

XXXXXXX

FOGLE TOWERS

Max strapped a black utility belt around her waist and lowered the ends of her black down vest to cover it up. She had slid out bed an hour ago to get dressed in Lucy's nursery. Logan had still been asleep so she didn't want to wake him. And she wanted to be in here to stare at Lucy's empty crib, something that cut her with a mind numbing pain. But it was a pain that she needed to feel, to remember why she was doing this.

She left the darkened nursery and stepped down the long hallway towards the living room. The floor lamp beside the couch had been turned on and Max could see Logan standing by the end of the leather couch.

He had managed to come out without her noticing and watched her every move as she stepped towards him like a prisoner who had been released for one day to see the outside world.

Max's steps were determined but not as light as they usually were. "I'm set," she didn't know what else to say.

There was a beat of silence before Logan spoke. "Not quite," he held out his black pistol to her.

Max didn't make a move to take it. "I'm not usin' it."

"Being the only one who isn't using one of these in this kind of situation will only get you killed Max," Logan's voice was insistent.

"No," Max's return was forceful. She pushed the gun away. "What I'll do out there is going to be all me."

Logan knew they didn't have time to argue, and he didn't want to argue with Max about something she had known how to do since birth. In reality he just wanted to see her get angry, so that her livid passion would give him strength. "Be careful okay?"

His words were so typical Logan, something he had said to her a hundred times before they were married when they were in a limbo about their relationship. But now Max knew what it was like to be with him completely and his words made her painfully aware of how much more was at stake. She kissed him, because she knew that he knew too.

There was a second when she wanted to stay there forever, just be a normal wife. But she pulled away from him because she was never a normal anything. She felt his eyes on her the entire time she walked out of their apartment.

Down in the parking garage she found Jace sitting on the roof of her Spider staring at a small picture of Max. She turned up when she heard her sister coming and tucked the photo into the cup of her bra under her black turtleneck and leather jacket.

Max mounted her Ninja and Jace slid in behind her on the seat. She left her car because even a Mitsubishi racer would be harder to maneuver than a motorcycle. The Ninja's DOHC motor cranked to life and carried them out of the parking garage and away from Fogle Towers.

xxxxxxxxxxxx

And they say that
A hero can save us,
I'm not gonna stand here
And wait.

xxxxxxxxxxx

There was still a lot of traffic even for how early it was. But Max didn't notice the traffic because she took all the back alley roads. Only a few lone crack dealers paid the Ninja any attention because they saw the beauty of the women riding it.

Twenty minutes later the Ninja pulled into a large garage that was offset from the back road by a few feet of gravel and sand that made up a crudely fashioned drive with potholes full of rancid smelling water. Beside the sliding grate entrance doors a lone man sat tied up in a corner. He was either knocked out or drugged out of his mind because he paid no notice to Max and Jace as they dismounted the bike and walked inside.

Three guns went off simultaneously inside the garage because someone inside did notice the new arrivals.

"Guess this is the place," Max's words were dry as she watched Zack, Zane and Tinga lower their weapons when the saw who it was.

xxxxxxxxx

I'll hold onto the wings
Of the eagles.
Watchin' as they all fly away.

xxxxxxxxx

Ten feet behind the armed X5's Lydecker stood watching them. "We need to get on with the briefing soldiers so I suggest that you stop wasting time." He didn't move from his position as he said this but his voice was intimidating enough.

XXXXXXXXXXXXX

FOGLE TOWERS

Logan had gotten online the minute Max had left the apartment. Actually it was more like five minutes after Max left because the scent of her was so powerful that he couldn't help but be overcome by it, remembering their night together. He had never pictured that their first time after Lucy was born would be under such stressful circumstances. They went on for hours, stopping only from sheer exhaustion. It wasn't nearly as romantic as Logan wanted it to be but the thrill of finally being able to touch his wife sexually made him forget any aspects of romanticism.

Now he was sitting at his secured system uploading a collection of satellite photos and DOD defense files. He could do nothing about the rest of his database. All the files contained highly secret information and loading them onto a removable media disk was very dangerous. All it took was for someone to steal them off him and his entire Informant Net would be emptied of all its secrets. Bling had all the codes and passwords to the network as well as a computer that was linked to his system. He was under orders to destroy the files if he didn't hear back from Logan or Max.

The penthouse seemed unnervingly empty without Max and their kids there. Logan had appreciated living alone for years, but now counter years of married life had made him appreciate the chaotic noises of a family more. Only Kaja, the beautiful dark coated German Shepard remained. Her coal black eyes stared at Logan as he packed away his surveillance gear and his iMAC laptop into a black leather messenger bag.

Kaja whined in the back of her throat, sensing something wrong with the way things smelled.

Logan tucked his loaded pistol into the pocket of his leather jacket. He turned to the soft whining sounds coming from the dog. "Daddy's got business to attend to." He slung the bag's strap across his shoulder. On his way out he stopped to pet Kaja's ears, speaking to her in a low but clear voice. Words that weren't English but the bits of German he knew. She had been an attack dog before they adopted her. A cherished Snouser – a dog trained to attack by only German commands so that another person couldn't override her orders. His enunciation of the vowels were terrible, but in the end he got them to sound right and knew his message was received correctly by the pricking up of the dog's ears. His words were simple, but direct:

"Attack anyone who hasn't been here before"

"Daddy's not the only one."

Logan snapped his attention away from Kaja at the sound of a distinctly female voice sounding off a few feet in front of him. Asha was leaning inside the opened front doorway.

"Why are you here?" Logan didn't have time to be polite.

"I thought I'd join up," Asha replied pulling back her jacket to reveal her 22 caliber silver Colt in a shoulder holster.

"You have no idea what the hell you're up against," Logan insisted.

"Neither do any of them," Asha insisted.

Her words stuck something in Logan. He knew he wasn't going to convince her not to come and another set of eyes watching the X5s' back would prove useful. And Logan knew of one X5s' back in particular that Asha would be watching.

He didn't offer her a response but he stepped past her without any further complaints so she took it as a 'yes' and followed him out the door.

XXXXXXX

"Forget your useless trace," Ames breathed down the SAC's neck.

The man turned – startled – in his computer chair to face White. He thought he could detect traces of belladonna wafting off White's body but he didn't comment on it. "Sir we only need one more hour to break the last code before the electromagnetic pulse is reset." The SAC said this like it would only take five more minutes before Manticore was officially theirs.

"Screw your fucking codes, agent!" Ames hissed, spraying the SAC with drops of warm saliva. "Colonel Lydecker's coming here."

The SAC's pewter gray eyes clouded over in confusion, but the clouds quickly cleared because he was a man who didn't just believe instantaneously. "Sir, Lydecker doesn't even know where the hell we are. He didn't get a good look at the location when he escaped."

"Lydecker is a smart man, sir." Ames retorted calling the SAC 'sir' with lowercase emphasis to remind him of his lower position. "He was the CO of Manticore for over twenty fucking years, don't you think he knows how to do recon?" Ames pulled back from the SAC but still glared at him like something he wanted to step on. "No he'll come back here. These transgenics are his babies; he won't hand them over to new management without a fight."

"Even if that were true Sir we'll have no prep time to plan for his arrival, but it's not like we'll need any anyway. One man – even one that's a Special Ops Army Ranger – doesn't pose a threat to us Sir." "Especially not with the strength of your people." The SAC said 'your people' the same way a white southerner talked about an African-American in the 1950's- an insult masquerading itself as mere classification. "And our goal is to get our hands on the hybrid DNA, Lydecker alone is of no immediate value to us Sir."

"A Special Ops Army Ranger never comes back alone Agent," Ames' voice was deadly without any raise in pitch. His eyes looked ready to burn right out of his head with silent rage. "It would be in your best interest to remember that." He stormed away from the SAC and walked to meet the Priestess, who was waiting for him on the outskirts of the SAC's cubicle. She had shed her chegosam for a shapeless dark crimson dress that fell below her feet. Over top she wore the dark brown, velvet-lined robe that was traditional of all Priestesses of her race.

"U'sta k'st hi'sa l'asa he's inte'ah'ika t'a un'sta'ik'ma." ("You toy with him like he's smart enough to understand.") The Priestess talked without lowering her voice; there was no chance that her words could be understood by anyone except Ames. But she did it more to prove her dominance. She would have said her comment just as loud in English.

A smile actually covered Ames' face. "Us'ta g'nu h'sta fu'ns." ("You need to have a little fun")

"T'js o'sta ru'aha. I'jkas m'iks t'as p'as h'usa 'stks I'ks s'tas du'sa"("Tell the others to come up. I want more then pathetic human strength on sentry duty.")

"E'nosta 'sa g'oah f'jks s'nos'ika." ("Ames is good for something.") The Priestess smile on colorless lips was a hideous sight which only added to the sarcastic sting of her words. "I'ksa b'a d'nsa," ("It will be done.")

XXXXXXXX

"What kind of resistance will we be meeting up with?" Zane was speaking via his short wave radio from the driver's seat of his Hummer.

The frequency that he was tuned into went staticky for a few seconds before the response finally came.

"I'm not sure, but I guarantee there'll be a hell of a lot of them," Zack's voice radioed back from the other Hummer that was in the lead; one that belonged to Lydecker. He was sitting in the second row of seats keeping his eye on Lydecker the whole time. He had chosen to ride in Deck's Class Two Armored Hummer to keep him from pulling any surprises. Tinga was with him to make sure Deck knew how impossible it would be to try and escape under the watch of two X5's.

"That's an understatement." Alec's voice was heard in the background from Zane's Hummer. "But I always wanted to get my Familiar Maiming Medal."

His quip was met with silence on the other end. Tinga sat in the long black bench seat across from Zack. With slow reluctance she slid her wedding ring off her finger and attached it to a ring on her belt loop, covering the ring up with the hem of her jacket to keep it out of sight.

Tinga looked up from her task with a glare when she caught Deck watching her from the rearview mirror. He said nothing to her but reached for his radio again. "You are all about to enter enemy territory and, as your training taught you, they will not fail to exploit you in anyway possible. That being said, any personal items on you that identify you as anything other then a soldier need to disappear. We cannot afford losing the objective over something so mundane."

From the other Hummer Max made no move to remove her rings and instead defiantly slipped her leather glove over her left hand, adding it's mate to her other hand a second later. "Diamonds are a girl's best friend remember?"

"That won't be a problem Deck," Zane spoke into the radio.

Tinga noticed a glint of metal around Zack's neck. She recognized it to be chain and saw the small distinct outlining of something circular attached to it. "Wanna explain what the hell is up with that?"

"None of your damn business," Zack responded tersely doing a weapon check on his gun.

Tinga handed him two extra clips of Pelican bullets. "I stole them off Logan, we need all the free candy we can get."

The bullets were crude to the armor plated, cyanide-tipped ones he usually carried, but he wasn't going to complain about free ammunition. He slid them into the pocket of his leather jacket.

Tinga watched Zack cock and re-cock his gun to check the springs on the barrel. "You think we'll win?"

Zack cocked the gun for the last time, turning stare at her. "We don't have a choice."

XXXXXX

The guard on sentry duty at the hydraulics complex whistled to himself to keep from going insane at the solitude. White had specifically dictated that only one guard would appear visible at the front of the building in order to give the illusion that the complex was weakly guarded. It was a sneak attack; more then a dozen men would converge on the spot if any threats were sighted.

The middle-aged man thanked his luck that the night was particularly cool because the fatigues and body armor he was wearing was suffocatingly heavy. He kept his eyes out into the night, wanting to break protocol and smoke a cigarette. He knew that it was blatantly stupid to give off any light so an adversary could spot his location. But he hadn't had one all day and the effects of withdrawal made his brain feel like it was itching from a million ant bites.

He tried to ignore the craving but his mind couldn't concentrate on anything else. He'd either have to light up or risk letting his senses be clouded by lack of nicotine. It sounded perfectly plausible to him so he dug out a pack of Morley Lights he had tucked away in the ammunition pocket of his flack jacket. Placing one of the white sticks to his lips he covered the flame of his Bic lighter to keep the flame from being noticed. The nicotine laden smoke entering his lungs calmed him and he took several satisfying drags from the cigarette, blowing out the excess smoke into the night air. He finally decided to stop after the next hit because his hand on the stick prevented him from properly grasping the AK-47 strapped across his back.

He dropped the still-lit cigarette end on the concrete drive under his feet and snuffed it out with the toe of his combat boots. This action took his attention away from the perimeter for only a few seconds – time that the guard felt was inadequate for anything to happen. But as he turned back to his scanning his line of sight he felt something hard strike him in the neck. He reeled from a stinging pain and, in surprise, he grasped the feathered end of a small black arrow sticking out of his skin. The pain was acute, and the guard found it hard to catch his breath. The arrow had pierced the side of his larynx before slicing through his jugular vein, filling what was left of the former with blood.

The injury had left him voiceless and he reached for his weapon, desperate to return the fire. But he only had his right hand on the butt of the rifle before a powerful blow knocked him in the head. He was instantly dizzy but all aspects of pain soon vanished after the bone crushing snap of his own neck being broken echoed in his ears.

Zack turned the guard over, taking his weapon and the rounds he found in his uniform pockets.

Zane – who had fired the arrow from his crossbow – helped Zack pat down the dead man. "That cyanide tipping would've done its job."

"It was taking too long," Zack returned, leaving the guard's body where it lay. There was no time to conceal it, and the guard being absent from his post would raise suspicion of its own.

Zane pressed his hand to the side of his head to speak into the receiver mic unit around his ear. "Is anyone on the pick up?" Like any good soldiers the X5s had split up into smaller groups to cover more ground.

"Zane this is Syl; we're set up thirty feet in front of what looks like a side janitorial entrance." Syl's voice came through the receiver in Zane's ear.

"What's the situation like there, Syl?" Zack asked, knowing that giving away their names was a security risk, but then again, just being at the complex was a security risk.

"Dead, no sign of sentry," Syl responded looking ahead of her into the night at the gray door in the side of the silo shaped building. The door itself was painted the same shade as the building in order to conceal it from view. But Syl noticed it because plain walls didn't have latches on them. "But I'm betting my transgenic genetics that's not the case past the threshold. Did you run into any resistance on your end?"

"Just one lone punk trying to get his smoke on," Zane relayed. "But you're probably right little sister. White's too smart to leave the place so poorly guarded."

"Which means we get an early birthday present the minute we walk through those doors." Krit returned. He was crouched beside Syl near a low hedge of overgrown Hyssop bushes.

"Speak for yourself Krit my birthday present's gonna be naked and dancing." Jondy's voice entered the mix. She was still in sight of Lydecker's Hummer and was watching the old man do nothing but sit on his ass and oversee the operation. Twenty yards in front of her were two large steel audiiorium style doors. There were no guards posted at them but Jondy could see why – laser sensors had been set up all around the door and five feet in front of it. "I think I found the main entrance but it's sewed up tight with laser trip line."

A few feet ahead of her Alec was standing on the very edge of the sensor's perimeter. The lasers ran in dozens of zigzag patterns with spaces so small that no part of the human body could get through undetected.

"Then try to find a way around the ball of yarn Jondy," Lydecker's voice was quiet but authoritative. He was in his Hummer listening to each of his kids' frequencies. Parked a couple of feet beside him was Zane's matching Hummer and through the front windshield he could see Logan Cale's form inside working on his computer.

XXXXXXXXX

"This isn't a ball of yarn Deck, it's a fuckin' tangle." Jondy hissed.

"Hold on a second Jondy," Logan had his radio unit around his ears and his open laptop glowed from his lap. He had hooked his computer up to Zane's monitoring equipment so that the images from his system were projected on three 19-inch TV screens in front of him. "There might be a way to bypass the lasers if I upload a virus into its microprocessor. But if this system is connected to the entire mainframe it could black out everything inside and you'll be forced to go in blind."

"We can see in the dark Logan; we're special like that." The voice was so hostile that it could've come from Zack but it was Alec who had said it.

"The cloak's not permanent Alec," Logan informed while typing furiously on his computer to download the virus. "A system as big as this will have dozens of failsafe programs. After the virus is uploaded you'll only have a two minute window to get inside before it's back online."

"Then you better get that bitch started," Max's tone was as every bit as cocky as Alec's but Logan had grown accustomed to her wit and was actually just glad to hear her voice. "These guys are gonna be wise to us soon and I'd rather it be after we got inside the place."

"The virus is uploading now," Logan informed all who were listening in on his frequency, watching the bar on the computer fill up. "You've got fifteen seconds before it implants."

"Move into position," Deck ordered his soldiers. "Take down as many as you can before the lights come back on." Exploiting tactical advantage over the enemy was the first rule he had learned in Ranger training. Fair fighting was for the days when all a soldier had to fight off was a sword blade not a bazooka.

"Ten seconds guys," Logan watched the file complete its last few seconds of uploading. Beside him Asha watched the same thing.

XXXXXXXX

Ten short seconds later the lasers around the door disappeared as if they were never there. Jondy stood inches away from it with Alec. "System is down here."

"Here too," Zack's voice reported. He and Zane had found another laser tripped door hidden in a thick growth of overgrown ferns. Like the door Syl had found it was also painted the same color as the building in order to hide it from view. "Get ready to emerge – five,"

Syl pulled out a gun from her pocket and Krit did the same.

"Four," Zack's voice continued his count down.

Jondy pressed herself flat against the wall giving Alec a signal to kick the door down on 'one'

"Three."

"Two."

Max had no weapon so she stood behind Syl and Krit, but still readied herself to fight. Tinga and Jace were a few steps behind her since this was the last door they had managed to find.

Syl cocked her weapon and raised it in the air, preparing herself to kick the door in.

"One."

XXXXXXXX

The SAC grinned in triumph at the message that was displayed across his computer screen:

"Electro Pulse Trace complete. Press any key for readout."

His finger hovered above the 'H' key – the pad of his pointer touched it's gray surface – but suddenly his computer screen went blank and the lights flickered off leaving him in total darkness.

Around him his fellow agents started cursing and the sounds of computer chair wheels squeaked across the tiled floor.

"What the fuck is going on?"

"Maybe a transformer blew."

"Our transformers can't blow idiot, they have triple back up sources-" the nameless person never completed his sentence because a noise– not unlike that of an explosion –echoed off in the building and the noise of gunfire from somewhere sent all of the techs scrambling in the dark.

The SAC heard one of his agents scream in pain and the sickening sound of bone snapping sounded off only a foot away from him. Air rushed by him as one of his workers dropped to the ground obviously dead. The SAC was a gruffy, dangerous, hard as nails man, but in that instant panic took a hold of his sense because he had no idea what the hell was going on.

xxxxxxxxxxx

Syl searched the tech's still form for any weapons but all she found was a lighter and a pack of gum. These technicians were definitely civilians because soldiers always carried at least a handgun on them at all times. Her night vision allowed her to clearly see the tech's face, but she didn't pay any attention to what he looked like because somewhere in the darkness someone was starting to return the gunfire.

Bullets ricocheted off the aluminum workstations sending sprays of sparks through the air that lit up the darkness like miniature fireworks. The shots were being fired blindly from a high vantage point and the spray of bullets barely missed Syl as she ducked behind one of the workstations.

She aimed her gun and shot in the direction of the gunfire. Being able to see in the dark gave her an advantage but whoever was firing the rounds stayed obscured from her vision. Another round of gunfire – not from her – sprayed out over the complex.

A curse echoed near Syl, and she immediately recognized the voice. "Did you get hit?" she had to practically shout above all the gunfire that wasn't coming from a single round piece but from an automatic rifle.

"I'm fine; it just brushed my shoulder!" Max's reply showed no traces of pain because the adrenaline she was running on masked it.

Seconds after her words ended the lights – as Logan had warned about – suddenly flickered on and revealed the chaos of over turned chairs from the techs that had fled during the fighting. The bodies of several technicians littered the ground. None were bleeding because they had been stunned or killed when their necks were snapped.

In the now lighted building Max emerged from behind the desk next to Syl. A single trail of blood oozed from her shoulder but she had no time to reflect on her injury because the gunfire –temporarily stopped by the suddenness of the lights coming back on – started up again at full force.

This time a dozen men could be seen from the catwalk showering a spray of bullets down below.

Max ducked back down behind the desk, shielding herself with her arms to protect her face.

Twenty feet from Max and Syl Jondy emerged from behind the huge hydraulic engine embedded in the ground. She pulled the pin of a grenade and hurled it at the catwalk. A thundering explosion rocked the structure and the catwalk's thin metal cables broke like string.

None of the twelve soldiers on the catwalk had time to jump onto the stairs before the mass of metal fell to the concrete twenty feet below. The impact tossed them to the ground like toys. It was obvious some had broken several bones from the fall, but those who hadn't been knocked unconscious began to hunt for their weapons.

Zack shot two of them down before they could even get a hand on the strap of their rifles. One of the other two crawled on his belly to reach his gun that had gotten flung only few feet from him. He had his hand on it but then screamed a second later when Krit stepped on his hand. Krit retrieved the gun while the soldier was still writhing. He aimed the soldier's own weapon at his heart.

"Where are the others?" Max's command was directed at the soldier. Her face was a lot of things to men, sultry, sexy, beautiful. But now her eyes were narrowed and her lips were pulled into a snarl so that the only thing that she was to the soldier was intimidating.

"What others?" a soldiers first response when captured was to deny everything and the downed man stuck to that rule.

"We don't have time to listen to your crap! "The people who hired you out, I wanna know where they are!" Max was shouting louder then any drill sergeant.

But the soldier wasn't intimidated by it. He knew if he didn't give her the information he would be killed; but he would make that sacrifice to keep the agenda of his employers a secret.

Max was a soldier too though; she could practically read the man's thoughts. If she killed him he would die with all his secrets. Death wasn't torture; pain was torture. She grabbed the arm of the soldier and started to slowly bend it backwards. "Tell me where they are," her words were as low and as slow as her actions.

The soldier face contoured in agony both at Max grabbing his injured hand and at the excruciating force she was applying to his arm. He could feel the long bone's resistance at first but then it started to give like a stick. The pain was blinding and he couldn't hold in the screams anymore.

"Where are they?" Max was shouting at him now, only moments away from bending his arm back a complete ninety degrees.

"They're not here!" the soldier's resolve had finally broken. "We were the first wave."

"Where'd they go?" Max pressed her face right to the soldier's

"Max? Max! What the hell is going on?" Logan shouted at her through her earpiece. He had heard all the gunfire and Max's indication that she had been hit, but after that she had stopped talking.

Max didn't respond to Logan's call. With methodical movements that she hated herself for, but had years of training in, she bent the soldier's arm back in a complete wrong angle. The snap of bone was a loud as a popgun going off and the man muffled a scream and tried to pull away from Max to cradle his injured arm.

"There's a cave system twenty feet below the complex. It's accessed by a sealed entrance in the back," the soldier's words were barely audible through his moans.

Max released his hand and stood back up.

"Damnit Max; answer me!" Logan cut in through her earpiece.

"There's a cave under the ground," Max finally spoke to Logan. "That's where White and the other Familiars are hiding. They're the force of this project. If we get rid of them it'll die."

"They have lab files on X's in their system; someone has to delete all the copies or this thing's just gonna keep coming back." Logan told her. He still had no idea how bad she was injured but he forced himself to keep working or she could be injured even more.

"I'll get 'em," Max replied. She turned to Krit. "Get down to that cave before Ames has a chance to retaliate."

Krit nodded and reloaded his Cobra. "Watch your back little sister, they're coming out of the woodwork."

Max watched him hurry away for a brief moment "Okay Logan where the hell is this file supposed to be?"

"All these hard drives are connected to a mainframe so you should be able to access them from any computer." Logan replied, wanting desperately to ask if she was okay. But even if she was hurting he knew that now was not the time to ask her because she would deny any pain until after her objective was accomplished.

Max kept a vigilant look out around the room; now having time to fully process how large it was. There were dozens of long tables with numerous computers and there were three-foot aisles in between these stations; to say the room was large was an understatement.

The gunfire had sent the technicians scrambling for cover so Max had no problem finding an empty computer. The outage had cut off all the systems but they obviously ran on backup programs because the monitor she was staring at displayed the main log in page. There was a command box with an empty field prompting a password.

"I need a password to access the system," Max relayed to her husband who was listening in.

"Is there a set number of spaces?" he asked.

"No, it's infinite."

"Damn," Logan's soft curse was not missed by Max or by Asha who was sitting beside him in the van. He knew that were limitless possibilities on what the password could be but unfortunately they didn't have limitless time.

"It's gotta be numeric," Asha felt Logan's eyes turn to her in confusion as she spoke. "It's the only kind of code with no restrictions on order."

She was right. If the password had used letters it would have to form words, no matter how many it could use, because random gibberish would be too easy to guess. But he still shot her a look because there were thousands of combinations of numbers that could be used.

"101011001," Asha suddenly blurted out a combination of numbers. "Binary; standard language of all computers. Even it's not right it will override any new password with the failsafe program."

"I'm in," Max said. She had heard Asha's suggestion and now was online to the mainframe. "You been holding out on us?"

"I was a grad student at MIT. I wrote security programs," Asha returned." But I dropped out to do hacking against the Man, no money, no limelight, constant arrests; every tech head's dream."

"Girl's got a right to be a fugitive," Max's banter was no different than had she been hanging out at Crash, but there was an underlying tone of urgency that kept her remarks short. She searched the encrypted files, unraveling their codes in a few seconds. It was a code system used only in Manticore and, luckily for Max, all X5 officers had been trained on the ins and outs of this system. The purpose was to protect the files from outside knowledge by storing them inside the minds of soldiers who could erase it from their memories. But Manticore had never planned for one of its own to use that knowledge against the program.

Max was now staring at the document in front of her, a listing on three X5 Female live births, one of which was her. The births were divided into categories and contained detailed height and weight at birth, and much more disturbing, chromosomal mapping of the babies' genetics along with the same barcode images she had seen in the photos. There were no names; the babies had all been assigned a number at birth, the same code sequence of the barcode. And Max came to a startling realization that she now knew what her mother went through 23 years ago.

"Max, what is it? What do you see?" Logan hadn't heard her talk in five minutes.

"They have everything; PCR genetic mapping on every single kid."

Logan had only heard his wife sound scared on a few occasions and this was one of those times.

"I'm going to give you commands to upload a virus Max. It should fry only the computers so they won't suspect anything."

"If they have hard copies it won't do any good," Max argued. She unvelcroed a strap from her utility belt and removed a long glass cylinder The cylinder was filled to the top with a milky syrupy liquid and was sealed at the top and bottom ends with a copper disc-like cover where a multitude of green and red wires connected to both ends like a purse strap.

"Give me the virus code."

"Max-" Logan had heard a shuffling noise from her end, like she was digging around for something. She didn't have any weapons on her so what she was looking for was something else – and Logan suspected it was worse than a gun.

"Give me the codes," Max repeated. "After I uploaded your virus I'll set the timer on mine."

"What virus?" Logan was now past confused and moved into bewildered.

"Six ounces of Nitroglycerin."

"An interface bomb!" Logan shouted. The P2-200 Interface or the "Non-Hacker's Virus" had been invented by a genius grad student of Bill Gates turned angry Navy Seal in 2011. It had acquired its name because it could only be activated by a three-signaled code from a computer keyboard; and since organizations had a tendency to group their computers in one area; it was guaranteed to destroy every system. The major drawback was that it wasn't an internal computer virus; it was a bomb with a leveling radius of up to a quarter of a mile.

"Yeah, but cross your fingers; Jondy couldn't get a very readable set of blueprints off the Black Market site."

"You're insane! Interface timers can only be set as high as ten minutes."

"Which means we gotta haul ass as soon as I get this puppy lit, so no holding out anymore baby I need that code."

"Max-"

"Tick tick Logan," Max cut in. "I don't wanna die where White takes his coffee."

xxxxxxxxxxx

The winding set of narrow spiral stairs creaked with each movement Zack took descending it and noise echoed into the vast cavern the staircase lead into. The earthen cave was bathed in a tint of red light that made the atmosphere very eerie. The lighting was sickish in color but it illuminated the cave well enough for Zack to see where he was going without forcing him to rely on his night vision. His hands were grasped around a black handheld automatic that he kept poised in front of him. Ten paces behind him Zane scanned the cave He had switched from his crossbow to a Glock 9 millimeter and aimed it into the recesses where the red light couldn't penetrate. His pupils dialated and he started into the darkness, his night vision going into effect.

There was no noise except for the droning of the hydraulic machine above them. The cave reeked of a pungent herbal smell and was heavily humid from any lack of outside air. A huge metal tub sitting on a painted rock floor stood a few feet in front of Zack. He stepped cautiously towards it but it was empty save for a small bit of water at the bottom. The other four identical tubs surrounding it were completely empty.

Zane's footsteps approached the ceremonial area. He too scanned the tub. "There's nothing down here guys," Zane spoke into his radio unit. "A whole lot of hygiene fixtures but no signs of anything alive."

"Great," Alec's annoyance was evident in his voice. "He probably used some back door and now we're left with an empty house."

"Not necessarily."

xxxxxxxxxxxxx

All the X5s were tuned into the same frequency so everyone heard the unfamiliar voice come in on the radio.

Max was the closest to the person the voice belong to so she turned from the computer, but not before typing in the code for the Interface Bomb.

In front of her the Priestess' red eyes locked ontto hers with a deathly glare. "I believe you were taught better then to mess with things that don't belong to you." Her long robes hung off her skinny body like extra skin still left after massive weight loss.

The timer on the bomb locked and readout started its ten-minute countdown. "I was taught no such thing." Max faced the small female form, backing away slowly from the computer.

"I'm not surprised." The Priestess's voice was filled with poisonous venom. "You are completely undeserving of the genetics you've been given." In her hand she held a fully loaded silver Beretta.

"That's a strange remark coming from someone who's wanting to make off with Manticore technology." Max could hear Logan yelling in her ear as to what the hell was going on but she ignored it.

"Don't flatter yourself," the Priestess insisted with a low growl. "You're only providing a product we need, much as a cow provides milk to people."

"If I'm a cow then you're the freak getting a rile out of squeezing the utters." Max stopped backing up, eyeing the gun in the Priestess's hands. She could overtake her; but her small size seemed to carry a much deeper strength then its appearance suggested.

"Transgenic filth!" Max's words enraged the Priestess. "You have no idea what the hell you've gotten yourself into. Manticore was nothing but a playground, teaching you nothing but hotheaded insolence. Which is why we must eradicate past mistakes and start over." She aimed the gun, at Max's upper chest. "Don't worry; this isn't a kill shot. Female ova is only viable for a short time after death, and I want all the time I need to savor every last extraction."

Max saw the Priestess raise her gun but before she could squeeze off Max kicked it out of her hand. "Sorry I'm kinda attached to my eggs."

The Priestess hissed like a King Cobra and pulled out silver handled dagger with a blade that was curled liked a charmed snake.

Max blocked her movements before the blade could slice her. The Priestess seized Max's upper arms and slammed her to the floor. Max struggled to free herself from the Priestess's grip. She punched the green leathery face above her. The Priestess reeled from the attack and Max was able to slide out from under her body. She was unaware of the sound of a cocking rifle with the red laser sight being aimed at her back.

Zack had seen the laser pinpoint. There was no time to figure out where the shot was being fired from. In a rush of speed he slammed his full force into her, throwing her to the floor.

The sounds of automatic rifle rounds resounded in Max's ears as she struggled to get up, soon realizing that she was being crushed by Zack's weight.

"Zack!" the gunfire became louder as more men – robed figures with semi automatics – took fire on them. Max crawled up from under him. The bullet had torn through his Cartoid Artery and a huge puddle of blood was oozing out of his neck. Max put her hand on the hole to try and stop the flow but more bullets made her duck her body down to avoid the rounds.

"Zack!" Max shouted at him above all the noise. "We gotta move! The timer's only got seven minutes left!"

Though Zack was shot he was still conscious and aware. He had only kept silent this long because Max's screaming kept him from saying anything. "Get out of here!"

"Damnit Zack!" Max screamed at him. "You're not about to be a martyr on my watch!" She got to her feet, pulling Zack along with her. "Move your ass soldier!"

There was a scream of agony from up above and both Max and Zack looked up in time to see Jondy snapping the neck of one of the robed men on a catwalk. He limply plunged to the floor like a rag doll, but another robed figure advanced on Jondy, kicking her hard in the chest. The force knocked her flat on her back on the catwalk's metal floor.

The figure in front of her glared at her with narrow eyes that peaked out of the hood of his robe. He pulled a dagger – with a waving blade like the Priestess's - from the inner folds of his robe and plunged it downward at her chest.

Jondy kicked the Priest's feet out from under him but her action did not unbalance him. He had a training level that was equal to hers and wouldn't fall for such tricks.

He emitted a loud cry, much like a hiss from a cobra the minute before it strikes, and lunged at Jondy again. She rolled away from him but the blade managed to slice a long cut across her shoulder. The catwalk was narrow so there was no place for her to go but off it. But before she fell she grabbed onto the metal support beams beneath the catwalk and was left hanging from it thirty feet above solid concrete.

The Priest picked up his discarded knife but before he could attack again Alec grabbed him from behind and fired four rounds into his back. The Priest choked on his blood before he dropped to the catwalk floor, his head and arms dangling loosely over the edge.

Alec peered over the edge at Jondy dangling by from the beam. "Need a hand?"

Jondy did her best to glare at him from her vantage point. "I got it," she pulled out an anchor launcher from the pack strapped to her body and shot out the line towards the roof. It hooked onto a beam and Jondy descended down from the rope to the ground. Alec freebied off of her rope line and dropped down after her.

The gunfire had suddenly ceased; and the room was eerily quiet. Jondy wasn't about to question it; but she wasn't so naive in thinking the stillness would last.

"You could use a Band-Aid," Jondy quipped dryly to Zack when she saw all the blood from where he had been shot.

"We need to take a five minute rain check on that Jondy," Zack gave her his best sarcasm not allowing his injury to weaken his wit.

"Then let's get the hell outta here!" Max started running out of the building, only glancing back once to see that the others were following her. She relayed a message into her radio unit: "Five minutes to clear the premises."

"Did you get the files?" Lydecker's question was low, but demanding.

"We took care of our end Donald," Max spat. "In another four minutes you'll have to take our word on it."

They made it out a side door when the gunfire that had ceased moments ago started up again at full force. The bullets ricocheted off the metal door, the shrapnel showering the X5s who were trying to escape.

Zack dropped his hand from the pulsating wound in his neck and shot off a clip from his gun behind him, hitting several of the priests.

"Max!" Logan heard the explosion of gunfire.

"Almost there!" Max returned in her radio.

They made it outside and through the four-foot area of lawn where the two Hummer doors stood open.

Logan stood in the doorway of one of the Hummer watching the X5's jump into the vehicles. Tinga and Krit kept turning around to return fire that followed them out the door.

"Is everyone out?" Logan called out to Max when he finally spotted her among her siblings.

"It's clear!" Max shouted back jumping into the Hummer with Zack practically throwing himself in next to her.

From out the window she saw a figure staring at her from the lawn; and she recognized it to be Ames White. "Get this thing moving now!" She shouted the order to Zane who climbed in to the driver's seat. He gunned the engine drove out so fast that the tires squelched from the speed.

A rumble started emerging from the building behind them before the explosion sent a shockwave of fire that almost engulfed the two Hummers. But Zane pulled the Hummer out of the fire and onto a single lane road just as the road he had just left was swallowed up by the flames.

"Car One to Car Two you guys okay back there?"

"If you stop that Car One, Car Two bullshit we'll be fine," Alec retorted from the other Hummer.

"You being fine is strictly a matter of ignorance Alec," Jondy returned. Now that they had completed the mission she was feeling loose enough to kid.

"To those who deny baby," Alec stated matter-of-factly.

"Yeah uh huh," Jondy returned.

Even Max managed a small smile. Beside her Zack had his head thrown back against the seatback, eyes closed but Max knew he wasn't sleeping. "We did it Commander."

Zack opened one eye and stared at her with it. "Guess all that Mengele torture was good for something."

"Speak for yourself," Max growled, but there was slight mirth in her voice.

Zack didn't respond and Max turned back to see he had closed his eyes again. "No slacking off yet solider we still need to debrief." There was no response from him. "Zack?" His sweater was saunched in blood from the bullet hole. On instinct Max reached around for the pulse on the uninjured side of his neck. It was incredibly faint and beating slower with each second and Zack still didn't say anything, a first for him.

"Damnit!" Max cursed.

Tinga heard her from the back seat "What is it?"

"Zack's down, I can only get a faint pulse!"

Tinga immediately climbed over the bench seats and made her way to the front. What Max said was very true; blood was leaking out from the hole in his neck with each slow beat of his heart.

"Is he breathing?" Tinga pressed her ear to Zack's nose without waiting for a response. "Barely."

Asha had been radioing a command to Lydecker's Hummer with headphones on so she hadn't heard anything. When she turned back to relay Deck's returning message the words never escaped her mouth.

"What the hell happened?" Asha was between Tinga and Max in less then three seconds.

Tinga ripped off a section of her sweater and pressed the scrap down on Zack's neck. "He got hit in a major artery, blood loss is too substantial to keep his heart pumping."

"He needs medical attention." Asha stated the obvious, staring at Zack who was bleeding out in front of her. His words from last night echoed in her mind. "If I died tomorrow would you care?"

"He's X5!" Tinga growled with a protectiveness that could only come from a sister. "Going to a hospital would compromise him and he would never agree to that."

"He'll bleed out if something isn't done soon Tinga!" Asha yelled back.

"We can't!" Tinga growled placing both hands on Zack's neck to try and better stop the bleeding. "What kind of doctor wouldn't question how he got shot tonight?"

"Tinga, what's wrong?" Jace's voice came from the other Hummer.

"Zack's hit," Max responded. She pushed Tinga's hands down further with her own to add more pressure to the wound. "We got to get him somewhere."

"What kind of care do you think a hospital will give him Max?" Lydecker came through the unit. She had forgotten that all their communicators were wired into the same frequency and hearing Lydecker's mantra was something she didn't need. "They won't know what they're seeing; Zack will be fine. You kids have resilience."

"I'm not in the mood to test that theory tonight Donald!" Max barked back at Lydecker. She stared at her brother whose blood was all over her hands. He had taken a bullet that was meant for her. "Alec?"

"What is it Maxie?" Alec's voice returned over the radio unit.

"Make sure Donald keeps up, we gotta make a stop."

"You got it," Alec returned. He didn't hold any warm feelings towards Zack but he still didn't want him to bleed out. He was one seat behind the driver's where Lydecker was. He pressed the maw of a silver Colt into Deck's neck. "You heard the lady Donald, keep following those tail lights."

XXXXXXXXXXX

METRO MEDICAL-3: 45 AM

The hospital ER reception area was dimly lit and the few shift nurses on duty carried flashlights around to be able to see where they were going. A minute later though a rumbling growl sounded through the air as the ancient auxiliary power came to life.

The charge nurse clicked off her Maglight. "You must have a magic touch to get that piece of junk going."

"These are special fingers," the person the nurse was talking too returned. He was dressed in jeans and a dark blue hooded sweatshirt so it was clear that he wasn't a maintenance man. But the nurses weren't complaining.

"Then you should save them for human females Eric," the nurse insisted with a smile going back around to the reception desk where she had been filing papers before the blackout.

Eric gave his infamous lopsided grin. "That'll have to wait until tomorrow Estelle, my uncle needs a ride home."

The nurse Eric had called 'Estelle' raised her eyebrows even further. "You must be a devoted nephew if you're willing to come during grave yard hours."

"I do what I can," Eric returned, a bit over dramatic but he got that way around all the nurses when their shift was almost over. It was a tactical maneuver in trying to pick them up.

"Eric," the voice of Eric's uncle sounded off a few feet behind him.

Sam watched Eric turn to face him – grateful that his nephew had actually found the place. He had been very confused about the directions over the phone when Sam called him. At 21 Eric wasn't the brightest offspring of Sam's sister Macey but he had offered Eric a place to crash while his nephew searched for work in Seattle, as a favor to his sister. But so far the search had only gotten him as far as the bars and strip joints. He wasn't a bad kid; he was just amazingly good at doing nothing of value.

"Hey Uncle Sam!" Eric waved Sam over. "Estelle and I were just talking about you."

Sam sighed under his breath. Only his nephew would hit on a 42 year old twice divorced.

"Let's get going, my next shift starts in eight hours and I'd like to use that time to sleep-" the remainder of his sentence never came out as a loud crash emitted from the entrance of the ER from the doors being kicked in. Sam watched in shock turned to terror as two women dressed in all black entered the hospital, one of them carrying an AK-47.

Jace kept a firm hand on the trigger of her gun and glared at Sam "You a surgeon?"

Sam kept his eyes on the weapon in the woman's hand and glanced briefly at her companion who was young and blonde.

"Hey aren't you-" Eric's pointed at Jace remembering her from the other night at Crash.

"Shut up!" Jace yelled at Eric. She fixed the sights of her gun on Sam. "Answer the question!"

"Yes," Sam said dumfounded, eyeing the gun. Estella was frozen in terror. "But what is it you want me to do?"

"I said shut up!" Jace shouted again. She didn't have time to listen to this doctor ramble. She turned to Syl. "Get a suture kit, and extractors and whatever the hell else you can find." She turned to Eric and Sam. "You let's go." She grabbed a hold of Sam's arm and forced him at gunpoint out the door. Syl, carrying out the medical supplies, ran out after Jace. As soon as they were out the doors she could hear the charge nurse calling for hospital security.

Zane's Hummer roared into the Ambulance bay and the doors flew open.

Sam's terror turned to sudden confusion as he recognized a face in the Hummer interior. "Max?"

Max turned up in surprise at the sound of Sam's voice, but didn't say anything.

"Reunions later Doc," Jace growled pressing the maw of the gun into Sam's back. "Get in,"

She pushed Sam inside the Hummer and slammed the door shut. Eric was of no use to her, so she left him in the ambulance bay, knowing that he couldn't rat them out because he didn't really know anything.

"Get moving!" Syl ordered beating on Zane's side door. The Hummer squealed out of the ambulance bay and Syl ran back to Deck's Hummer climbing inside.

Alec cocked the gun at Lydecker's neck. "Follow that Hummer, Colonel."

Deck was complacent, but silently fuming at being made to play the part of a driver. "Get that gun out of my neck, son. I would have never been allowed to train you kids if I was a coward."

"Max what-?" Sam was no longer being held at gunpoint and had a better time to assess the situation. On the floor of the Hummer he saw the still form of a blonde man he didn't know. But there was blood oozing from between Max's fingers pressed to his neck.

"I don't have time to give explanations Sam!" Max retorted, not looking up from her brother. "We need your help or he's going to die."

Her words were pleading. Sam didn't know who the man was, but he was obviously someone very close to Max. "Where was he shot?" He kneeled beside the downed man, trying to get a better view.

"In the neck, he's already lost a lot of blood," Max relayed the information to Sam.

"How's his airway?" Sam asked.

"He's still breathing but it sounds shallow."

"Blood probably is flooding his trachea, starving air from his lungs." Sam moved Max's hand aside so he could see the hole. It was jagged and after feeling around the back of Zack's neck he felt a large entry wound. "How big a slug was it?"

"Titanium .35 millimeter," Tinga answered gravely. "Those damn things blow in and out of you like wind."

"It would've been better if the bullet remained lodged, the exit hole did the more damage." Sam ripped open one of the packs of gauze from the pile of medical supplies Syl had brought and pressed five pieces of gauze down on top of Zack neck.

"He's crashing," Sam felt the pulse in Zack's neck which was beating sluggishly only once every four seconds. Sam pressed his hands down on Zack's neck so hard that he could've broken it. "This is insane! His Carotid Artery has two gaping holes they need to be repaired or he's going to bleed out."

"Then do it!" Tinga screamed at him.

"It's a surgical procedure," Sam insisted. "I can't perform it in a moving vehicle. If I make a bad cut I could kill him. We need to stop somewhere."

"We can't go back to the garage," Tinga looked at Max while she said this. "If White staked out any locations he'd be on us in a minute, we need another spot, someplace large enough to conceal Hummers."

Max reassured Tinga with a glance, thought it wasn't as confident as she wanted it to be. "I know a place."

XXXXXXX

The hydraulics plant was now nothing but a huge ball of flame. Minutes after the blast technicians began pouring out of every available door and window coughing and choking on the suffocating smoke. Half an hour later there were only a few stray people wandering out. Their hair was singed off and their skin was burnt so badly that huge chunks were torn from their charred bodies like paper, making them resemble survivors of a nuclear holocaust. Those few didn't make it out more then a few feet from the blast zone and fell, weakened, to the ground gasping on blood as much as air.

Ames watched the chaotic destruction from a Hummer nearby . The bomb had been unexpected, but not unprepared for. He had been in one of the cave's sub chambers listening to the gun battle above when he heard a timer being set. He had escaped completely unscratched by a tunnel that lead out of the cave and into a wooded clearing twenty yards away.

"Human insolence can never be trusted," The Priestess was seated in the Hummer beside Ames. Her robe was singed only slightly around the bottom edge, the only evidence she had even been in a fire at all. She was the only one out of all the Familiar Priests there that night to survive the blast. Sitting in the Hummer were the last two nobles of their ancient race. But neither of them appeared very anguished about it.

Ames turned his head away from the inferno and moved it slowly towards her. "No," he agreed quietly. "But human weakness can be." He had been the one who had prepared to shoot the loathsome female X5 who called herself "Max" but he had shot the man instead because the latter had pushed her out of the way and taken the bullet. And Ames knew that his injuries were grave, and that, if he waited, his targets would soon reveal themselves.

XXXXXXX

The Hummers parked next to a courtyard flanked with stone mason buildings. A huge structure towered above the smaller buildings casting a dark shadow over the courtyard that concealed the military vehicles from any outside view.

The first Hummer door opened and with silent and hurried movements Jondy, Max, Tinga and Zane held onto four corners of a tarp where the still form of Zack lay inside it.

Lydecker got out of his Hummer and stared up at the looming building before him. "This is your idea of an unsuspecting place?"

"There's a taboo about places like this that keeps even the military out," Max quickly returned, but then added in sarcastic wit. "But if you're afraid you'll burn, Donald, you can wait outside."

The stained glass windows of the cathedral were dull but ominous in the night, but none of them paid attention to them. Jondy picked the lock to one of the side entrances. The room had a musty, but clean smell and after flipping on a light it was revealed to them that they were in one of the offices of the church.

The small amount of light that emitted from the tiny desk lamp wasn't enough to arouse suspicion that anyone was in there. But a few seconds later the doorknob to the office twisted open.

Krit and Jace aimed their guns at the door, surprising the lone man who had used the key to unlock the door.

Before any exchange could come from the man, Max interrupted the tense silence. "Father Destry," She hadn't expected the Priest to be at Sacred Heart so early.

Destry's eyes immediately showed startled confusion after he recognized the face of the woman.

"Mrs. Cale-" His words stilled out when he saw the blood that was covering her hands, and his face grew even more disturbed at the sight of a man's body lying across a makeshift gurney.

"He needs surgery Father," every word Max said was deadly serious.

Destry looked at Zack's still form, and back to the haggard, but fierce looking men and women glaring at him. Something about the whole situation was deadly wrong. "Why haven't you taken him to a hospital?"

"It's too dangerous," Max's words did nothing to lessen Destry's confusion, but she didn't have time to waste trying to coax the Priest to her side. So she told him the truth. "Something very bad went down tonight, all we need is space; we won't do anything to the church-"

"If the Sector Police caught you in here you all would be arrested for criminal trespass and he would be thrown in jail with you, without any regard to his injuries." Destry insisted in a quiet, demanding voice, but in reality he was terrified. All the people around him looked ready to break his neck if he didn't comply.

"Please Father," Max pleaded with a look in her eyes equal to her words, a stare that was territorial, desperate. "He's my brother, if he doesn't have surgery he'll die."

Whether it was the words 'brother' or 'die' or the combination of the two that swayed the Father Max would never know, but Destry affixed her with a look that told her he would help her.

"My office has minimal light," Destry grabbed a set of keys off his desk. "Follow me,"

He led them down a small hallway of mahogany doors and inserted a key into the one that was situated at the end of the hall. The deadbolt slid out of its place and the door opened.

Destry flipped on a panel of four light switches and the room they were in was bathed in overhead light.

Max recognized it immediately to be the vast and airy sanctuary of the church. The huge stained glass windows rose above the dark wooden pews. Behind her a scraping sounded emitted and she turned her head to see Destry remove a rectangular candleholder filled with the sacred candles down from a wooden table.

"Take the statue down from its brace," Destry stated. The large marble carving of the Virgin hung over the altar table like the maid at the bow of a ship and She would be in the way for anyone wanting to get behind the altar table.

His instructions were to no one in particular so Jondy performed the task of removing the huge statute of the Blessed Mary from her mounting on the wall. The image of the statue struck her memory for an instant as she laid it down on the ground.

"The Blessed Lady will forgive us for removing her from her post if it will save this man's life," Destry reassured in only the voice a priest could provide.

In the midst of all this conversation Zack had been laid across the mahogany table. His wound had continued to leak blood, and the amount of bloodloss had turned his normally white complexion a ghastly shade lighter now completely soaked through the collar of his sweater.

His features glistened with sweat, a sign of impending infection that Sam worried about more than the blood loss. The doctor listened to Zack's chest with the stethoscope that had still been around his neck when he had been taken from Metro. He wasn't listening to a heartbeat but rather lung noises. There was a faint rushing of air going in and out of the aveoli tissue but no wet sounds, which would be an indication that blood had gotten into his lungs.

"Lungs sound weak but clear, all the escaping blood that isn't leaking out of the external bullet holes is pooling into his windpipe but thankfully none has gone down it yet. I can suction out the excess volume and close the holes."

"Then what's wrong?" Krit asked sensing hesitation in Sam's words.

"His blood loss is too substantial to survive the operation. He needs a transfusion-"

"So transfuse him," Max retorted, what needed to be done sounded basic enough to her. "He needs X5 blood and you're surrounded by them."

"It's not that simple," Sam said with the grave tone of a doctor trying to tell a family member what the stakes were. "He's lost half his volume already he'd need two liters in order to even have a chance, taking one liter out of someone is risky enough, and he needs one more if he's gonna make it."

"Take them both from me," Max concluded causing Sam to look at her like she was crazy.

"No Max," Sam insisted sternly. "Taking out half the body's blood volume causes cardiac failure, coma-"

"We were designed with revved up bodies Sam," Max insisted. "My system could remanufacture the blood in a few hours."

"I can't let you do this," Sam cut in. "Even with your genetics you can't be certain that your body won't experience the same kind of shut down, it could kill you."

"I'll supply the other liter," Jace offered.

"No," Max answered, turning to her sister. "Lack of blood makes you weak. If I'm the only one that does the transfusion it keeps only two of us indisposed."

"Max no," this time it was Logan who tried to stop her. "I know you want to help him, but there has to be another way." His wife had just admitted she was willing to die for her brother, and that didn't sit well with him, no matter how much raw emotion was in it.

"There is no other way!" Max shouted, her eyes were on fire but it didn't come close in equaling the feeling of guilt inside her. Zack had taken the bullet that was meant for her. She owed him. "He's my brother Logan, he'd do the same for me." Before her husband could respond she turned back to Sam. "Do it."

Sam looked to Zack's still form, then back to Max with a look of silent defeat. "There's an IV bag and catheter mixed in those supplies, you can transfuse yourself but I want someone watching you the whole time. I don't want anybody dying on my watch."

Logan had chosen himself as the obvious person to sit with Max during the transfusion but before he could get the words out he was beaten to them.

"I'll do it," Father Destry stepped down from the pulpit and walked with determined steps over to Max. All that had transpired tonight had both stunned and shocked him, but the fierce loyalty Max had for her brother was obvious. And he had to admire her strength because Max Guevara Cale was a very special kind of woman indeed.

"I'll need some extra hands to assist," Sam spoke up after Max had unearthed the cathater from the pile of medical supplies.

"You've got sixteen of them," Zane returned.

Max situated herself in the first pew and removed her down jacket revealing her black muscle tank top. She flexed her right bicep and slid the catheter needle into her skin. The catheter was a kind with a pump at the head of the tubing that could be twisted on causing a small vacuum suction of air to pull the blood out of the body and into the IV bag.

Father Destry slid next to the empty spot right beside Max. With very deeply emotional movements he made a sign of the cross above her forehead. "God protect you."

XXXXXXX

Cindy carefully peeked out of the corner bit of curtain covering her apartment window. The lights across the alley had been extinguished during a brown out that morning and, being so old, they hadn't come back on with the rest of the power. The almost total darkness of the streets below made the soft glow from the lamplight behind her shine noticeably. She had only been looking for three seconds but she quickly closed the curtain, not wanting to take any chances about someone seeing her light.

Her apartment was quiet, no radio going on as she usually had it. Only her nickel-plated alarm clock – a piece given to her by her grandmother Stefana – ticked quietly in the corner.

Cindy turned away from the window and walked the length of her small living room floor. Tucked against her shoulder Lucy made very faint cooing noises. She had refused to go to sleep for the past two hours so Cindy had been walking her up and down.

A knock on her door made her jolt in surprise. It was too early in the morning for anyone to be there.

"Shh," Cindy rubbed Lucy's head to try and quiet her noises and crept to her front door. There was no noise from the other end. She leaned over to grab a baseball bat she kept in the corner.

"Cindy? I'm suppose to ask if you're coming into work today."

Cindy released the bat at the sound of Sketchy's voice. "Fool it's too early in the morning to be askin' me that." She kept her voice low in case Sketchy wasn't the only one out there. "I'm sick I already told Normal that."

"Sorry but he made me ask," Sketchy insisted from the other side of the door. "Cindy?"

"Go to work Sketch," Cindy returned shifting the baby higher on her shoulder. "And tell Normal to find himself a better lackey."

There were no sounds for several minutes so Cindy concluded that Sketchy had left. She let out a sigh she had been holding and looked down at the baby who still hadn't gone to sleep. "I know baby girl, I'm worried about your momma too."

XXXXXXX

"Put a clamp on that," Sam was holding the sections of Zack's torn neck together with forceps. His neck had been cut open with a single incision to minimize suturing. All the blood had to be removed from his airway via a suction catheter before Sam could even begin to make any repairs in the artery.

Syl placed the metal surgical clamp on her brother's neck and Sam removed the forceps, holding his breath until he saw the clamp holding. "Open the suture kit and we'll sew up the hole."

"Blood's ready," Alec hand delivered the two liters of blood in a large Foley drainage bag.

"Hang it there," Sam nodded to the wooden podium that had been moved close to the altar table to serve as an IV tree. "Someone tell me how Max is doing," Sam ordered not looking up from his work.

"She hasn't said anything in the last fifteen minutes," Logan was sitting on the side of his wife not occupied by Father Destry. Forty minutes into the transfusion Max had gone pale and lagarthic so Logan took on her weight, letting her lie out across his chest.

"Is her skin clammy?" Sam still kept his eyes his work but his words held urgency.

Logan had already noted the ash tint to her complexion with silent worry. "Yes," the words were a struggle to get out.

"Fill one of the empty IV bags with a solution of 80 percent water and 20 percent salt and start a drip line on her, and cover her up so she doesn't lose any more body heat."

Destry immediately went to the wooden bin that against the corner of the last confessional, pulling out a gray knitted afghan donated to the poor by a member of his congregation. He returned to the pew and covered Max with the blanket.

Jondy found a carton of salt that had been sitting in a corner of the sanctuary. It was rock salt used in the garden but Jondy knew the right amount to put in to make the mixture. There was no water in the taps because just yesterday the church's water main had been hit by a stray bullet from a Sector Cop putting down a group of young rioters. The line wasn't supposed to be fixed for another week. It was for that reason that the church had been closed for services and why Destry had come in early to get some paperwork done.

Jondy had managed to find ample water though, in a large ceramic jug dispenser with ornate images of Mary and Jesus carved all over its porcelain finish. She wasn't Catholic but she knew immediately that it was Holy Water. But this wasn't the time to worry about offending someone. She filled the IV bag and shook the mixture to get it to combine.

Kneeling down next to Max's still form she pushed aside the blanket on her body and inserted the IV in the same spot the catheter needle had been in.

Destry had seen where Jondy had gotten the water from, but there was no blame on his face, she was only doing what had to be done. He laid a hand on Max's forehead, not as a Priest, but as a human being offering strength to another.

He cast his eyes over to the doctor working feverishly to save the life of the young man. The scene was so profound to Destry, watching a doctor perform surgery on his altar. The blood of the man had dripped down on the table with a few drops sliding down the altar leg and onto the head of the statue of the Virgin.

During all these rapid-fire events Lydecker had made no move to intervene or interfere. He stood stone still in the center aisle between the rows of pews eyes locked on his kids, from Zack who lay cut open at the hands of a civilian doctor to Max who lay so listlessly still against her civilian husband.

Tinga felt Lydecker's gaze and turned her head, staring back at him with the same intensity.

Deck watched her for a few brief moments before he slid along a pew and disappeared behind a partition wall.

XXXXXXXXXX

The fire had not gone unnoticed, but by the time fire officials arrived they could only put out the charred remains of the building. Nothing could be saved and CSI police units had been called in to gather the bodies.

Since no one knew if the plant contained any chemicals all the officials were clad in Level Three yellow Hazmat suits.

The bodies the unit found were particularly gruesome, organs protruding out of hanging flaps of bright red burned flesh, or charred so badly they weren't even recognizable as human. The agents worked quickly to collect all the dead before the media helicopters caught wind and swarmed in for their piece. But before any of them could touch a single one of the dead a line of Black Hummers appeared on the single dirt road that led up to the ruins. All the vehicles parked in a semi circle around the perimeter of the plant. Dozens of men got out, soldiers dressed in black Kevlar uniforms carrying M-20 automatic rifles.

One of them stopped right in front of a CSI agent, waving a thin paper in his face. "We're taking over this operation. You and your men are hereby ordered to step down. This site is now under military control."

The agent came out of his trance, and became angry at having his operation cut in on. "Under whose authority?"

"I am not under obligation to tell you that Sir," the soldier responded then turned back to the other soldiers awaiting his command. "Delta Team, gather up all the bodies and establish a two mile perimeter around the area. Alpha Unit, engage a point to point search, collect any contraband that survived the fire."

"Yes Sir," the first two soldiers in the line agreed and the mass of men broke down to perform their duties.

The CSI agents were stupefied watching the soldiers carrying green army stretchers through the site, placing the remains into body bags.

"Who the hell are you!" The lead CSI agent shouted into the air but no soldier stopped in his task to answer him.

Frustrated as hell, the agent ripped open the sealed envelope the soldier had given him. He suspected it to be a military warrant; even if the soldiers were ordered to keep their superior's identity a secret they still needed official papers to take over a scene. But when he folded open the paper his face contoured in complete confusion. The letter was typed, giving nothing away in the form of handwriting. The paper contained a single line:

You have no idea what you've walked into.

XXXXXX

SACRED HEART

Sam pressed the end of his stethoscope against Zack's chest. The operation had only taken an hour but Sam felt like it had taken ten years because he was operating with minimal supplies in a church. The X5's heartbeats were still weak but unlike before they were stabilized. Twenty minutes through his suturing Zack's heart rate shot up to a rapid level. Sam had to reopen the sutures and discovered he had thrown an embolism, a blood clot. He had to cut down two inches deeper in the artery to remove the large clot that had formed and was blocking blood flow to his heart. And it took another twenty minutes to ensure his blood wasn't thickening again, with the artery being left cut open the entire time, before he was finally able to reclose the wound.

Sam also noted with relief that there was minimal oozing from the sterile bandages that he had wrapped around Zack's neck. The small tinges of blood that did peek through the bandages were normal phenomena after a major operation. Satisfied that his patient wasn't about to suffer an arrest Sam intended to make his way to the first row of pews to check on the female member of his two patients. But he had no sooner taken one step than he caught sight of a blonde woman.

She was approaching the front of the church slowly enough for Sam to observe her every movement. She was young, pretty enough to be one of the X5 sisters– because it was no secret that Manticore had made its female soldiers exceptionally beautiful to use as tactical advantage over their enemy. But when she finally stopped in front of Zack she didn't look at him like a sister, but rather like a girlfriend, lover, someone who had become a part of his life by choice.

"How is he?" the woman's voice gave away only a subtle hint of how concerned she was but her eyes gave away her emotions completely.

She was definitely not an X5, but Sam could tell that she was still a person that only appreciated the truth. "He survived the surgery, but the next few hours are still critical. I'll have to monitor him closely, make sure he doesn't develop another clot." Sam was telling her the truth but he could also sense that she needed something more human. "But he's young, stronger than most, I don't see any reason why he shouldn't pull out of this."

At the doctor's words Asha's lips almost pulled into a smile, but it quickly faded away because she didn't really feel like smiling.

Sam touched her shoulder in reassurance. "Why don't you sit with him?" He didn't wait for Asha to answer his question and walked down to the first row of pews.

His shadow cast itself over Logan who looked like he was asleep but his eyes immediately shot up at Sam. He hadn't been sleeping, not even a little bit.

Sam had to maneuver around Logan's grip on his wife in order to feel the pulse in Max's neck. It was still beating slowly like her brother's, but growing stronger. The saline solution had been completely emptied so Sam made a move to remove the needle from her arm, speaking to Logan at the same time.

"She should be coming around soon, just continue to keep her warm." At the contact of the needle being removed Max suddenly jerked.

"Hey, can't girl even get some beauty sleep?" Max's complaint was laden with grogginess but it was still strong. Her eyes opened a second after her words were finished and she stared at Sam with a teasing glare that would have been full force had she been strong enough.

"Maxie, if you get any more beauty sleep guys' crotches everywhere are going to explode," Zane had his feet up on the back of the pew where Max was laying. He had been looking at a weapons pricing catalog, but he had been on the same page of Bazookas for the last ten minutes. He was worried about his siblings; but if Zack's way of avoiding emotion was to act angry all the time Zane's way was to pretend he wasn't interested.

Max was still feeling shaky from the effects of blood loss, but she still pulled her head out from Logan's chest to shoot Zane the best glare she could muster.

"Welcome back," Sam's declaration made Max turn to face him. "You gave us a scare for a while."

Max didn't say anything, her eyes shifting up to where Zack was. "Did it work?"

Sam nodded silently. "He still isn't awake yet but, judging by your ability to recover he should be coming back pretty soon." He paused; weighing his next words. "You saved his life."

Max stood up, but the blood loss still made her weak and she immediately became dizzy.

"Easy," Logan caught her before she fell, supporting her with an arm across her shoulders. He caressed the nape of her neck, right over her barcode.

Max regained her bearings ten seconds later. "I'm fine." She didn't want to appear ungrateful for Logan looking out for her, but her thoughts was elsewhere and she was determined to let her body go where her mind wanted.

She slowly made her way up the aisle to the front of the church. For a moment her mind flashed her back to the time when she had walked down this same aisle in search of Ben. She could almost hear his voice as she approached the altar.

"Max?"

The memory vanished at the sound of Zack's voice. Sam had been right about Zack waking up soon, as Max already knew.

Zack only moved enough to lift his head a centimeter or two from where it lay on the table but his piercing gaze had no trouble reaching her.

"Hey," her words were simple, but almost overwhelmed with relief to see him awake. "How you feelin'?"

"About the same as you look," Zack returned quietly but with all his usual sarcasm.

"You're not exactly pretty right now either Zack," Max came back. "Crimson's not exactly your color."

At her words Zack could smell more fully the scent of fresh and drying blood from his wounds.

Words from Asha had never come because she had sat there only a few seconds before going in search of a bathroom. And since neither Max nor Zack knew of her being there in the first place neither of them noticed.

"It's not yours either." Zack saw the faint traces of dried blood matted under Max's shirt from where she had been shot earlier. She hadn't even noticed the wound because of all the adrenaline.

"Sorry," Sam's voice broke through Zack and Max's conversation. "I had to take this off of you during surgery." He dangled a thin chain looped through a gold band. "But I only undid the clasp so it can still be worn." He handed it to Max figuring she knew what it was and that Zack wouldn't have a problem with her seeing it. Sam was wrong, but how could he have known?

Max examined the item in her hand. "Since when do X5 guys wear jewelry?"

"Since when is wearing some a war crime?" Zack answered her question with a question.

Max managed a dry smile. "Why'd you do it?" The ring in her hand was forgotten as she asked Zack for a reason for taking a bullet intended for her.

"I was owning up to who I was." Zack's words were faint; as much as he didn't want to admit it he was still weak. But there was still determination in everything he said.

"By taking a hit for me? I don't think the Big Brother Society would disown you had you not gotten shrapnel up your neck."

"It's not something you think about Maxie," Zack insisted, cutting down her sarcasm. "I wasn't about to watch you die because of some bullshit fear about not being a martyr." His words were harsh, but there was nothing but unyielding protection behind them. He had done what he had to do, regardless of the consequences.

Max sensed someone behind her and she slowly turned around to see that Asha had reemerged from the wings of the church.

Asha shared the same pale complexion as Max and Zack, though not from blood loss. She had made it through the door of a small two-stall bathroom before throwing up in the sink. The sight of blood alone wasn't what had made her sick, she had seen enough bloodshed in her life; it was because the blood belonged to Zack.

Max walked the short distance over to Zack, laying the chain in his palm. She caressed locks of his blonde hair "If you ever pull something like that again I'll kick your ass." She leaned over and kissed the side of his face and when she pulled back a single wet track was evident on her face.

XXXXXXXX

"Everything's set Sir," the voice was crackly through the scrambler, only faintly recognizable as male. The person on the frequency seemed to expect some words of gratitude from the other end. "Sir?"

"Just make things go accordingly." Ames wasn't about to glorify a messenger boy for doing what he was supposed to do.

There was a beat of silence as the other man dealt with the sting of Ames's words. "Yes Sir."

XXXXXXXX

The chain was still in Zack's hand and Asha stared briefly at the jewelry she hadn't known had gone missing from her apartment, before looking up into the face of the man who had taken it.

"What happened to you not bending that way?"

"It was the heat of the moment," Zack returned, completely non-romantic, but Zack had never been a romantic guy.

It was an excuse, a cheap one. "Then I'd like it back." Asha held out her hand expectantly, but silently praying she would come up empty handed.

Zack fixed her with a gaze that hovered between a hard ass soldier and a flesh and blood feeling man. "You obviously have no respect for the heat of the moment." He sat up and clasped the chain around his neck.

"We need to move," Deck's low command cut through the air of the church. He watched all the eyes of the X5s shift to him at the sound of his voice. "Daylight's in another half hour, and our position will be compromised after it hits."

"No," Sam insisted with a voice equal in issuing ordering as Lydecker's. "They just underwent major medical procedures." By 'they' Sam was referring to Max and Zack.

"My kids are strong," Lydecker all but growled at Sam. "They don't need extra time to recuperate."

"They're both weak," Sam continued to insist, he was foremost a doctor. "If you move them too early it could kill them."

"You don't have a choice in this matter Doctor," Deck returned cutting him down with a piercing glare. "Just because you saved their lives doesn't mean you know how this system operates."

Sam wasn't about to back down. "What do you care about the system Sir, if you're so into going above it?"

The rest of their conversation was never known because Father Destry came running out of from the hallway that lead to the church offices.

"The building's on fire!" Destry had part of his black suit jacket over his nose. The hallway that he had just vacated was slowly filling up with a thick smoke, but no traces of flames preceded it.

A faint scraping echoed above in one of the large air vents of the cathedral ceiling. Syl looked up to the source of the noise and Max also turned her head upwards. The scraping noise soon gave way to a gushing pumping sound and both sister's soon came to the realization that the smoke was only a diversion to get them all in one room, and that what was pumping through the vents was Nitrogen Oxide, a highly toxic gas. The ventilation system had been shut off making the effects of the gas instantly smothering.

"We need to get out of here!" Max's voice was muffled by her hand and from the coughing that was emitting from her mouth. The gas burned her mouth and nose, making her coughing wet with mucus.

Through her haze she could see her siblings make their way towards the front of the door. Syl kicked in the double wooden doors and cold Seattle air instantly pierced through the gas.

Max doubled over from her coughing, feeling the wooden back of a pew gut her in the stomach.

She felt herself sliding but a second later she felt someone grab her before she fell.

"Let's go people!" Zack grabbed a hold of Max, hooking his arms under her legs. With his hands occupied he had to resort to holding his breath. Some of the gas entered into his lungs when he did so but he didn't allow himself to succumb to the resulting burning that would force him to breathe again.

He carried Max out through the door, feeling the wet drops of rain hit him. A hot blast of gunfire cut through the raindrops, sending bullets flying around the entrance of the church.

Max dropped out of Zack's arms as he pulled out a Beretta to return the fire.

Ahead of them were dozens of soldiers in Kevlar body armor armed to the teeth and firing rapidly with their M-20 automatic rifles.

Zack's clips were soon spent, not being able to cut through the thick body armor well enough to hinder the soldiers' attack.

There was a horrible cry from the first line of soldiers as Syl and Zane dropped from the roof and landed right on top of them. Syl threw the first two soldiers down on the ground and back flipped over Zane to nail the next two with a double kick that sent them reeling into the chain link fence that surrounded the church.

The second line of soldiers fought back hard but Tinga, Jace, and Krit emerged from the rain, each shooting the soldiers or breaking their necks with their bare hands.

Max had crept from the church's entrance and swiped her foot across the foot of a firing soldier, throwing him off his feet and onto his back. Before he could recover she disarmed him and knocked him right in between his forehead with his rifle butt.

A soldier lunged at her, kicking her in the back but she did not fall and retaliated on the attack, throwing him against the side of the church. Max tore through the wet strands of her hair that was plastered to her face and blocking her vision. No sooner did she did that than two soldiers jumped on her back, throwing her to the ground.

The muzzles of their guns were aimed right behind her neck. Gunfire echoed behind her and she felt the dead weight of the two men fall on top of her. A hand helped her slide out from under the two bodies.

Logan had fired two kill shots, but he looked ready to throw up because he hadn't been taught glorification of taking human life.

Max recognized that horrified look on his face all too well but she didn't have time to console him about what he had just done. The soldiers' bodies littered the churchyard, creating an above ground cemetery that reeked of spilt blood and bodily fluids. Out of the corner of her vision she could see Lydecker popping off shots from his Beretta, it was a full-scale modern war where even he was an asset.

Taking down the three soldiers had left her feeling incredibly nauseous but she wasn't willing to succumb to it. "Let's go!" Max grabbed Logan's hand and the two ran from the churchyard, stepping over the bodies of soldier's as gunfire from Max's siblings sounded behind them.

Jondy spent the last clip in her black .45 caliber Vector. Having no other weapons on her she launched the gun at the remaining soldiers like a Chinese Throwing Star, taking out several with her aim.

Several of the soldiers were stunned but still standing. But they didn't have time to retaliate on her before Zane jumped on them from behind and snapped their necks before they knew what was going on.

One of the soldier's had escaped from Zane's attack and took aim at the Jondy with his gun, but his attack was cut short with a gasping cry as Tinga threw a steel bladed hunter's knife into his back. He lost his hold on his weapon and fell backwards into the muddy dirt, screaming as the hilt of the knife connected with the ground and plunged the blade deeper into his body.

"You okay?" Tinga had to shout at Jondy through the rain.

"All the firing lines are down!" Jondy yelled back. "Let's get the hell out of here before they send another wave!"

Tinga didn't need to be told twice; she followed Jondy through the long outside corridor that lead to the courtyard where the two Hummers were parked.

The doors had been flung open and most of the X5s were already inside but Jondy stopped short before she climbed in. On the underside of Zane's Hummer she noticed an elongated black box with several crisscross red wires running from it. Jondy had been trained in Manticore as Interface Debugger, which was just Manticore's fancy term for a bomb dismantler. She had no doubt that inside the black box secured to the underside of the SUV was several pounds of Claymore set to go off through a trip line wired to the ignition.

She removed a pair of needle nosed pliers from a place she had concealed them on her body, yelling instantaneously at Zane not to start the engine. She cursed under her breath because all the plastic wire covers were red – leaving no indication as to which wire would dismantle the bomb or detonate it if she removed it. There was also no timer on the bomb that meant that it would go off the second she screwed up. Time was something she didn't have; so, going purely on her skill and more on luck, she pulled the middle wire.

"Hit it!" Jondy yelled to Zane. The Hummer engine roared to life and the claymore remained undetonated. Jondy ripped the bomb from the bottom of the Hummer and jumped into the vehicle as Zane was driving away.

"Lydecker, you didn't happen to find a little extra juice in your ride?" Jondy talked to Deck via her radio unit. She was asking this for the sole reason that half of her siblings were riding with their old Manticore CO. Even with all that had gone down that day she wasn't about to forgive years of torture and abuse because of Deck's few moments of humanity.

"Negative," Deck was forever an Army Colonel. "Vehicle's clean."

"As clean as you can get riding with something like Colonel Lydecker." The remark came from Alec who was stretched out across the last bench seat. His leather jacket was caked in mud and the brown goo was also clumped in his hair and drying to his hands. This description repeated itself throughout all the siblings who wore looks of weariness only soldiers leaving battle could understand.

The interior of both Hummers reeked with the smell of mud, sweat and drying blood. In Zane's SUV there was a marked silence. Zane kept watch in his rearview mirror to make sure Deck wasn't trying to play anything, and also to keep watch for an ambush. Directly behind him on the next bench seat Zack was leaned up against one window, while on the opposite side Max was imitating his position except that she was resting her head against Logan's shoulder instead of the windowpane. Her legs were stretched out across half the length of the bench seat, leaving little room for Zack's larger frame. But her brother looked too lost in thought, or rather too exhausted to care.

Asha sat with her knees drawn up in the small floor space in front of the bench seats on Zack's side. But she didn't complain about the cramped arrangements and placed a single hand on Zack's leg to get his attention. Her hand never made any contact with anything that would arouse him, but his eyes still lowered to her face.

"You have no idea how proud I am of you kids," Deck's declaration came through the radio's frequency.

"Geez, thanks, dad," Jondy hissed, his words making her cringe. "That makes all those years of torture totally worth it."

"I was trying to build something, create soldiers that were as deadly as they were flawless."

"Did you succeed?"

"You tell me."

Jondy ripped off her headset and pitched it at the opposite window.

"Guys we've got company." This time Alec's voice came through the radio unit.

"What is it?" Tinga responded.

"Three black SUV's convoying, could be gangsters, but then they wouldn't be tailing."

"How far back?" Jondy asked

"A quarter mile."

Jondy could see through the front windshield that they were nearing the Sector Two checkpoint. The sector they had just come out of consisted of almost nothing but forest and operating plants for the wealthy corporations. Sector Two was the beginning of the main inhabited city of Seattle. There were constant attempts from illegals and criminals to flee into the city from this gateway, and as such the checkpoint was heavily guarded all the time.

"Zane!" Jondy yelled up in the front seat to her brother. "Drop your speed down to fifteen!"

Zane took his foot off the accelerator and lowered the Hummer's speed down from seventy miles to a practical crawl.

"Krit I'm gonna need you for something in a few minutes." Jondy spoke into her radio unit.

"Forget Krit I'll fulfill your every wish," Alec returned.

"Later boy when you have time to fantasize better." Jondy said.

"What are you going to do?" Zane yelled back from the driver's seat.

"What I always do, improvise," Jondy answered pulling apart the casing from the bomb in her lap.

Once the black plastic was removed a system of interlacing red wires was revealed snaking around the outside edges of the box. The wiring all converged at a single point and ran into a separate cloudy Kevlar coated plastic box that held one pound of Claymore. The box itself was coated in Kevlar to keep any stray bullets from making impact on the Claymore and detonating it. Jondy couldn't penetrate the box without some form of tipped bullet that she didn't have, but that was exactly what she was counting on.

"Hey Maxie," Jondy shook her sister's shoulder. Max lifted her head from Logan's shoulder, still looking weary, but fully attentive to Jondy's words. "You feel up to delivering a package?"

xxxxxxxx

The wind whipped in Max's face even at the slow speed Zane was driving at. Jondy stood a few feet behind her on the roof of the Hummer. She backed up, and then hurled forward onto Lydecker's Hummer.

Max followed her, careful not to drop the bomb she was holding. She landed on her feet a few inches away from Jondy.

The three SUV's were now only less then a quarter mile behind them and closing in fast. The checkpoint of Sector Two came into view almost the same distance as the SUV's. What was about to happen had to be timed exactly.

"Krit take the hit!" Jondy shouted into her radio unit.

There was a smashing sound as Krit broke through the back windo of Deck's Hummer with the barrel of an M-5. He opened fire on the SUV's. The lead car swerved to avoid the bullets, but soon soldiers began emerging out of the windows to return the rounds.

Jondy dodged all the bullets, keeping one eye on the approaching checkpoint. Already the gunfire had caught the attention of the guards. Four of them came pouring out with M-20's. The bullets were the same issue as the soldier's were firing behind them – with one exception that was key, a tipping with the same Kevlar penetration ability as Cop Killers.

Jondy could see the MP's at the checkpoint take aim with their guns; several rounds began popping off around the two women.

"Now Maxie!"

Max threw the bomb onto the top of the first SUV in the convoy and then she and Jondy crashed through the windows of Deck's SUV.

Max glared at Lydecker from the passenger seat she had landed into. "Floor it Donald!" She stepped on the accelerator herself without waiting for Lydecker's response.

The Sector Cops continued to fire on the SUV's but as the rounds of bullets flew past the unknown vehicle one of them tore through the casing of the Claymore on the roof of the SUV and the bomb exploded. The rocketing aftershock engulfed all three SUV's in a wall of fire and smoke.

The Sector Cops all leapt away from their checkpoint as the SUV's came hurtling towards them because of the momentum of the blast.

The push from the bomb slammed Deck's SUV into Zane's and the first Hummer practically dragged the second through the checkpoint seconds before the other trucks had the chance to collided with it.

"I'm getting fucking tired of my ride almost getting smoked!" Zane cried out after getting the Hummer righted on the road. "Next mission we're taking someone else's car."

XXXXXXXXX

7: 15 AM

"Max? God you look awful."

Max turned her gaze up to Bennett but didn't respond. She pushed her way past Logan's cousin and into the cabin.

The space was well lit from the numerous lamps spread out across the room but Max was glad to see that the dark blue roman shades were all pulled down and didn't allow anyone outside to see that light.

She stepped slowly over the hardwood floor and the noise created by her shoes caused Maryanne's head to turn from the fireplace. She acknowledged Max silently but then a second later leaned over to shake the small forms of the two children lying next to where she was sitting on the couch.

"There she is." Maryanne's words caused Jessie's head to turn and the minute he locked eyes with his mother he bolted off the couch followed closely by his sister.

"Mommy!" Jess was the first one to reach Max and threw himself in her arms while Lexi –who had spotted Logan first – bounded up to her father.

Her son embraced her in a death grip and Max didn't want to loosen it. He burrowed into her shoulder and Max put her hand on his neck to keep him there.

Lexi, for her part, was at a loss for words and simply cried on Logan who was more than willing to let her cry, and be content with holding her.

Max shared a look with her husband and in the lamplight tear tracks were streaked across her face.

The 19-inch Sanyo television on its black Bose Acoustic pedestal was turned to KBXL newsbreak where a lone white female anchorwoman was giving a report:

"We are in the middle of covering a early breaking news story about a deadly explosion. It happened just twenty minutes ago at the Sector Two Checkpoint. Three vehicles were engulfed in the flames, but our sources tell us there were two other vehicles at the checkpoint that somehow managed to escape the blast-"

xxxxxx

The door slid open on the Hummer and a dark pair of brown eyes stared into it's interior.

"Max-" upon hearing his mother speak his name the boy Max climbed up over the metal landing step of the Hummer and tackled Jace with the force of his embrace.

"My baby," Jace hugged her son with the same intensity that Max and Logan had done inside the cabin with their children. She couldn't help the tears that sprang to her eyes as she embraced her only child.

XXXXXX

"…The area is still too dangerous to get a body count but it believed that there will be few, if any survivors. The cause of the blast is highly suspicious to Law Enforcement, as it comes on the heels of an explosion that happened just hours ago around 5:15 at a local Aeronautical Hydraulics plant in Sector One. Dozens of bodies are rumored to have been pulled from the flames."

"The perimeter is secure Sir," the soldier stated watching Lydecker's eyes give him a quiet form of approval. "Recon uncovered numerous burned out computer CPU's but nothing stable enough to reinitiate."

"Were the bodies of Agent White and this Priestess of his recovered among the ruins?" Deck asked hearing the rustle of plastic from the large tents that had been erected to cover the remains. Dozens of guards stood on patrol around yellow police tape on the charred remains of the Hydraulic plant yard. The sun had started to come up so the soldiers were now under strict orders to conceal their findings.

"All the remains we found were charred beyond recognition Sir," the soldier responded. "It will take weeks to cross examine the bodies with dental records, and it's also a fair assumption that many of these corpses have no records on file so the only way to identify them is through DNA analysis. With all these complications Sir if Agent White and this woman are among the dead it will be months before we can identify them."

Lydecker's jaw became rigid as he digested this information. The soldier was telling him the hard truth and he was forced to respect the honesty. But as man with his line of experience he already knew what the results of all the tests would be.

XXXXXXXX

"Analysists are calling this attack too well orchestrated to have been conducted by amateurs and in the days ahead more concrete proof that these were, indeed, professional attacks is expected to reveal itself."

The black SUV drove around the charred remains of the Hydraulics pant observing the activity of the soldiers. All the bodies had been removed and the task force units were now sifting through the twisted metal and concrete in order to find anything that they may have missed before. The men were so absorbed in their tasks, and so secure in believing that they had sealed off the area from outsiders that no one noticed the SUV roll down its window and a pair of blood red eyes stare out at them.

"T'jkas n'ts th's en's. I's n'jks a'ha' si'tnik'ah," ("This isn't the end, it's only a setback.") The Priestess rolled up the tinted window.

"It's more then a setback," Ames insisted from the driver's seat. His voice held nowhere near the confidence of the small woman beside him. "With all our power we can't snap our damn fingers and recreate everything like the son of the Christian God. What was destroyed will take years to rebuild, maybe more."

"You are as insolent as you are handsome Ames," the Priestess returned in her accented English. Her dark red eyes were now directed upon him. "What are a few years compared to centuries?" She was practically spiting with venomous anger. "We will rebuild as we have done before, but not on a mere training day."

"We shall see M'jaka (My Lady)." Ames addressed her as royalty though she was only a lowly Priestess, but his words were so sarcastic in tone that the Priestess fixed him with a glare.

"You shall see Ames, I already know."

XXXXXXXXX

MAX (VOICE OVER): "We escaped eleven years ago with only our closed Manticore training into a world we didn't even know. But through our years of freedom we acquired things that Manticore would have never given us."

"I'm here to pick up a package."

"Shut up and get in here boo," Cindy embraced Max the second she got through the door of her old apartment. Max returned the hug, staying in her friend's arms for countless seconds.

When Cindy finally did pull back her eyes locked on Max's with all the concern she could give. "You aiight suga?"

Max nodded, "It takes more then that to bring me down." Cooing noises emitted behind her and she turned to their source.

MAX (VOICE OVER): "We fell hard into the sentimental lie that Lydecker warned us constantly about avoiding."

"Miss me?" Max's words were dampened with deep emotions as she watched the pair of smaller brown eyes find hers. She lifted Lucy out of the baby car seat that Cindy had placed on the kitchen countertop and cradled her infant daughter. "Hey baby girl." She kissed her by her ear, caressing her back and neck with her free hand; two tear drops sliding down her face and hitting Lucy baby's soft skin.

"Told ya you could tell her all that yourself, boo," Cindy stated, reminding Max of the promise she wanted Cindy to keep.

MAX (VOICE OVER): "Love and family were all the enemy by the standards of Manticore. They made you weak and forget your true objective. But after we got out we figured that Manticore had it all backwards."

xxxxxxxx

8:15 PM

"This is a most unusual way to do this," Father Destry's voice was tight inside the small confessional.

The city of Seattle was slow in everything they did, but through an anonymous source the Police Department had been sent that very afternoon to detoxify the church. But the Cathedral had sustained numerous damages from the gunfire and the Nitrogen gas would take days to pump out. Sacred Heart was officially closed for two weeks. But the neighboring Catholic Church fifteen miles away had allowed Destry to conduct his services in their sanctuary. The small church had nowhere near the grandeur of the Sacred Heart, but it was comfortable and beautiful in its simplicity. The small staff of clergy were honest and kind hearted and gave Destry and his staff full access to their facilities. One of these facilities were the tiny wooden confessionals which matched the small size of the church.

But it wasn't the smallness of the confessional that brought about Destry's declaration, it was for the reason he had come.

"We're not exactly usual people Father." The female voice reached Destry's ears from the other side of the confessional wall.

From his vantage point Destry could make out the lightly curled blonde hair of the young woman and see her dark eyes stare back at his. "I assume that because of all your precautions you're choosing to do this anonymously?"

Asha's silence was Destry's answer.

"Then let's not waste any time." Destry had his small prayer book resting in his lap but he didn't open it, already knowing the words he would say.

"Father in Heaven I embark upon you tonight to bless all that will reveal itself upon your eyes-"

"Where'd you steal this?"

"I know a few dead grandfathers of my own," Zack's remark was cryptic, but witty, telling Asha that he was joking.

While Destry talked Asha held a gold band in her palm and felt it taken from there a moment later. She saw the flash of gold in the darkness before the cool metal of the band was slid on to the correct finger of her left hand. In the dim lighting that came through the confessional walls she could make out the gold chain with her grandfather's ring. It hung around the flesh of Zack's neck that was hidden by the sterile white bandage.

MAX (VOICE OVER): "It's because of these so-called weaknesses, not in spite of them, that we have become stronger."

"I bestow my blessing on what has been sanctified here tonight Father by my position as a Priest of Your Church and granted by the Martial Law of Seattle."

Zack kissed Asha's left hand right above the wedding band he had just given her.

MAX (VOICE OVER): "Because a soldier who has nothing to fight for will die for nothing."

(FADE OUT)

XXXXXX

All this time later perfection. So sorry for the long wait, but I had to wait this long too because it took me this long to write this. So many plot turns and twists. Maybe some of you might not appreciate the last bit with Asha and Zack getting married But from what I see of Zack's character he is hot headed and lone wolfish yes, but I think if he were to fall in love with someone that love would be hardcore. They Zack and Asha have been together for years and just keeping them dating wasn't pointing out the significance of their relationship. There's just something different between Zack having to protect his girlfriend and Zack having to protect his wife.

That aside this fic contained a lot of shooting and blood scenes but I still tried to keep it deeply laden with emotion because otherwise it's just a video game in story form. The significance of the church was done to symbolize the raw essence of humanity, of blood and struggle and a desire to find sanctity. It wasn't to insult the Catholic Church so don't flame me on that, it was SYMBOLISM at it's most bare boned.

The song used in this part was "Hero" by: Chad Kroger from the Spiderman soundtrack

Please review since I'm sure you've been waiting long enough for it.

p.s. Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you Sammie for dealing with this mother of all fanfics, my public thanks you too, heh. Otherwise my fics would be nothing but well structured pieces riddled with typos and gramatical erros.

Peace,

Mystic