Disclaimer: I do not own DA and we are up to the forth chapter so if you have missed the first three disclaimers, I recommend an optometrist, I do own the storyline, plot, scenarios and characters you don't recognize. Use anything from this without my permission and you will die a slow painful death. Mentions scene from Before the Dawn by Max Collins and the fanfiction Fallen by me. Timing, during Out, (the night where Max has to save Logan, again).
Chapter Four- Those Left BehindNow this just is not fair, and I am not talking about the rules. I have not felt this scared since the night of the escape or when Lydecker killed Eva. And it's worse because I am not scared for me.
Lydecker has Jaye and Piper and nothing is okay. I can't even pretend.
In her mind, Piper had imagined when she met Lydecker there would be thunder and lightning-just for an instant. There was, but it was ongoing, just a vicious storm outside.
The man in front of her was to fail to find a better word- scary. Rae's description had been right on; light blond hair, hard sharp features and the usual things. What Rae had not mentioned was how his icy steel blue eyes seemed to drain the heat from the room. Jaye had been knocked out as soon as they had figured out that Piper was not a transgenic, in specific-Rae. They had waited in that sewer for five long minutes before working that out.
Not that they didn't take precautions- Piper was being very closely watched for threatening behavior by the two guards was by the spartan office's door. The only other remarkable feature about the room was a board behind Lydecker's desk that seemed to be covering something up. Lydecker was staring at her with no emotion is his face and Piper fought the urge to shiver.
"Who are you?" Lydecker's voice was quiet but there was an undertone of steel in there. Piper bit her lip, smiling and pretended to think hard. There were times Scott's constant sci-fi obsession came in handy- and this was one of those times.
"You got me, I'm Vala, Vala Malduran "Piper looked around the office, exaggerating her disinterest and then glanced at the younger of two guards and winked quickly. "Is he single?"
Lydecker did not give a sign that he was not amused but he gave her a long drawn out look. The kind of look that seems to go right through you.
"We can play these games Ms 'Malduran' but I want you to know what exactly I am willing to do here"
Lydecker moved from behind the desk and pressed a button and the board slowly began to come up from what it was covering.
The other emotion Piper was fighting apart from fear was hate. This man symbolized all the hell her best friend, Jaye and even Alec had gone through.
The board came completely up and Piper saw twelve photos in two rows. Each photo had a child with cropped hair in a military buzz cut and from the top half of them a hospital gown on. On the right hand bottom corner of each photo was a barcode and a series of numbers.
"I have spent over ten years tracking my kids down and it never fails to impress me how well they have performed, how far they will go to avoid capture. And I would do anything to make sure they come home, even if it meant dissecting you while you were still awake… watching your heart stop if it would bring me just an inch closer to them".
Piper swallowed her fear and focused on instead how much she disliked the man in front of her, how happy she would be if he dropped dead. "Well," she started. "If it meant you would never find her, I'd take that for the rest of forever" Piper smiled up at Lydecker. "Because you'd have the rip my heart out and even then I'd never tell you how to find her".
Lydecker's face was impassive, but Piper felt better. It was much better to go down fighting, than to scream the whole way and taking the people you loved with you. He took a file from the desk and opened it, taking out a picture and held it out to Piper who took it hesitantly.
The famillar light green eyes told her who the girl was before she had even looked the picture over properly. Rae, but the face was unlike the young woman Piper knew. The girl's face was ramrod straight and there was no familiar light in the eyes. The eyes were way too mature for Rae's young face; it was like someone who had seen too much to still be considered a child. The numbers under the barcode on the picture read X5 332786273478.
"When you see that" asked Lydecker, "what do you see?"
"I see a little girl that you tortured, stole a childhood from" Piper spoke quickly, trying to hide the raw emotion in her voice. Lydecker didn't seem to be interested, he picked up the file and turned to a certain page and read.
"X5 478 shows no hesitation or emotion when eliminating a subject. She will eliminate the target quickly and efficiently with as little deviation from orders as possible". Target, subject, eliminate, they were talking about a person, people they had Rae kill for mere practice.
"I have done things I will not, can not forget- or even forgive in myself" Piper was silent now.Lydecker looked at the guards; he had completed what he had wanted to communicate. The guards took Piper out of the room. From a hidden door in the room, Elizabeth Renfro walked out.
"I don't know about this one Deck" Renfro said, folding her arms. "That girl looks like she will keep quiet until she dies so regardless of what you tell 'Vala', I don't think she will help us".
"That," Lydecker said quietly. "Gives us the information we need. Think about it, for her to be protecting Rae so willingly at all costs, that tells us they must be close".
Renfro raised an eyebrow." You think that '478' will try to come for her and 600?" There was slight change of tone when she mentioned the designation, a barb directed to Lydecker for his attachment towards the rogue X5s. "And the fact that it's a trap so obvious that the homeless fools out there could pick it out let alone a transgenic".
Lydecker looked at Renfro, his neutral expression not changing despite his thoughts. " 478 will know this is a trap, but will use her abilities and the resources available to her such as X5 494 to her advantage".
Renfro bristled at the insult internally. 494's failed mission and then had been cleared from psy ops under the orders of Renfro. Though she had not had the primary contact to the mission, that had been Agent Sandoval, Renfro had been the one to call the shots and decide that the psy op department was right to release 494. Add that to the debacle with 600, who had been under Lydecker's command, his unit on loan from Renfro's smaller facility and it made her look even worse.
But at the moment Lydecker in the Committee's eyes seemed to do no wrong. The recent capture of 599 straight after 734 did not help either. The chances that Renfro would get control of Manticore seemed slimmer every day. When the time was right, Renfro would 'remove' Lydecker from the equation. Permanently.
---
In her apartment, Rae sat on the bed lacing her boots up. She was focusing on preparing for the task at hand, rather than at what was at stake. It was the only way the transgenic could keep sane.
The weather outside was getting worse by the minute but from the look of it and predictions from Canada the full storm would not hit for another two hours. Most of Miami's weather warnings and forecasts came from another country now, the pulse having destroyed most of the systems in place.
Rae jumped off the bed and opened the small cupboard jammed into the corner of her. A gun lay on top of a crumpled blanket, and Rae picked it up and checked inside the cartridge. Just like she remembered, empty. She had used up the last bullets in target practice. The idea of using it was distasteful, the revulsion coming from what had happened to Eva and Rae the doctor. But just because she didn't like it, didn't mean it was not going to be used. On a mission, emotions could not be allowed to cloud your judgement. Rae winced, that was one lesson she wanted to forget.
Lydecker strode in front of the class of X5s."On a mission, nothing can matter but the objective; nothing can be allowed interfere with the objective. Particularly pointless emotions and attachments" He seemed stared straight at Rae and then looked over the others.
"599, 210, to the front". Zack and Jondy quickly got to the front of the room with Lydecker and saluted.
"599, break 210's wrist at the joint".
Zack's face didn't seem to change but it was clear to the unit he was shocked. Jondy was apprehensive. Rae glanced quickly at Brin and her older sister's eyes mirrored her worry.
"Sir?" Zack asked. Lydecker's face hardened.
'That was an order soldier, carry it out!" Zack looked at Jondy and hesitated. Then he broke her wrist, as gently as he could manage it but Jondy still gave a look of pain.
"You hesitated. When command gives an order you never hesitate. Your thoughts should be on only your orders. NOTHING else matters, 478 front!"
Rae quickly joined Jondy and Zack, saluting briefly to Lydecker.
"Repeat the orders, to 599". Rae's mind froze, she could not do that. Zack seemed to forget his caution and was sending her looks to just do what she was told.
"478!"
"Rae" Alec spoke as he opened the door slightly and poking his head in. The 0'Niner was putting bullets into a revolver, and didn't seem to be 'with it' When her head snapped up, her eyes were the inhuman solider that every transgenic was. Then her eyes seemed to clear. Rae hated it when she had a flashback like that. That had been almost a year before the escape. She had never ended up following the order, Rae had been sent to isolation for an entire week for disobeying Lydecker.
"Alec" Rae said, slipping the gun on to her belt. "I think our safest route to Manticore's base of operations here is alternating public transport until we are about a quarter of a click away and then proceeding using the weather and existing infrastructure as cover. Agreed?"
"Yes, you sound really weird" Alec chuckled. "You sound like one of Renfro's lap- loyal transgenics". Rae was slightly annoyed by the insult and then paused.
"Who is Renfro?"
"Ahh" Alec started. "You wouldn't know huh. Well, you would have to use a nuclear bomb to extract Renfro's personality… okay, okay" he said at the bored look on Rae's face." She runs a small Manticore facility, where I came from and your friend Jaye. Supposed to be Colonel Lydecker's superior although he does have more power. Makes everyone's life a misery cause of it, complete opposite of Piper-".
He broke off. Rae's face looked determined and she opened the door and went out into the main room. "You ready?" she asked a stubborn note to her voice Alec had not heard there before. He nodded as Scott came out and Alec burst out laughing. The idiot was wearing a black zip up jacket and black jeans. There was a pair of black sunglasses covering his eyes as well as dark navy blue woolen gloves.
"What are you meant to be?" Alec said, trying to stop laughing but failing miserably. Scott's eyebrows knitted and he gave a confused look from behind his sunglasses.
"I know about being stealthy so, I thought I should do it properly". Alec continued laughing until Rae kicked him in the knee, hard enough to hurt but not hard enough to injure him.
"Scott…" Rae said weakly, "you can not come. I know you want to help, but I can not put you in that kind of danger".
Scott crossed his arms. "You can't, I can. What if those Manticore people have some knock out stuff like we used for Alec that works on transgenics only". Alec looked thoughtful.
"It would be a good back up idea, sides," Alec said holding a hand up at Rae's dark expression, " we want to sneak in the building right? Well I got an idea there".
---
The last time that Jaye had been strapped down in a chair had been in 2009 straight after the escape of Zack's unit. Then he had been put through six months of torture with no reason but the fact he was Zack's clone.
This time it was solely because of himself, because he was the rogue, the traitor to Manticore.
Jaye supposed that they were making him wait to make him nervous, put him off balance thinking about what they would do to him. Instead since regaining consciousness he was dwelling on the fact that, if they were going to do something why didn't they go ahead.
As if to answer his wish or rather nightmare, Lydecker strode into the room. There was something about the commanding officer of Manticore that had always unsettled him. It had been why Jaye had always been glad that Lydecker was obsessed with Zack's unit rather than them. Still Lydecker had been around much more than Jaye would have liked.
It did not help to think of their last encounter, which had left his sisters dead, 215 had been sweet and quiet- an ever ready ear to listen to what was on your mind. 728 had been the opposite, outgoing and refused to listen to most others… it didn't matter anymore. They were dead and it was the Colonel's fault.
"I thought that you were a better soldier than what you demonstrated today. I was obviously wrong". Jaye gave a wry smile.
"Well I did learn from the best Deck". No more rank and proper respect would be accorded. Never again would he be that soldier again. Jaye was worried about Piper but had no intention of bringing it up.
Lydecker did not look annoyed at the display of insubordination but seemed to be paying closer attention to him now. Interested. " That's why you came here 600, for Rae's help, isn't it?"
Jaye feigned an expression of ignorance, "I have no idea what you are talking about. And it's Jaye, my name is JAYE- I can spell it if you like". A few months ago such a remark would have been unthinkable. It felt like a lifetime ago.
Now Lydecker resisted the urge to smile. A name, the clone of Zack had given himself a name. 600/Jaye were also demonstrating an independence that he had never seen the solider demonstrate before. The X5 had been a decent soldier and 2IC but nothing more than that. The few clones of the unit that had escaped, Lydecker had really not bothered with them. For the most part they were just copies, simple replicas. But Jaye seemed to be something more than just another clone, all that potential and he wasted it on trying to be something he was not, tried to live in a world he didn't belong in. None of his kids belonged out there.
"Jaye then", Lydecker noticed the discomfort that Jaye tried to hide at the use of his name. "The young woman you were with, she is a civilian and she knows Rae. I know you have been in contact with her".
Even though Rae had been in the outside world longer than he had been, Jaye felt he had to protect her from Lydecker. But hell, he felt the same desire to shield Alec from the Colonel as well.
" Cliché this, cliché that," Jaye said dryly rolling his eyes, a substitute to shaking his head which was too tightly restrained to do even that. It was one thing to crack jokes around your patients- if he got out of this he was going to try to be more understanding to the patients. "I'm not going to tell you, end of story". Lydecker leaned in closer.
"You are how I am going to get her back, she will come for you and I will be waiting".
---
The train zoomed along the tunnel and Scott was sitting opposite Rae who was just staring out the window. Alec was standing near the exit door. At this time and weather, there was hardly anyone else on the train and the only person apart from them was an old man half asleep in the next compartment.
The last few weeks had been a rush for Scott. His grandfather's death, finding out one of the people closest to him was a genetically enhanced supersolider and then all of a sudden being part of this like one of the stories he read. But it was real, and people were in real danger.
In a story, the characters seemed to get breaks once in a while and eventually the good guys won. Not in reality. Rae had tried to explain why Lydecker was putting all this pressure here, to draw Jaye, her and now Alec out. Unlike villains from make believe, Lydecker was not about to give anyone a chance to recover. He looked in surprise as a slight tremor went through Rae's body. "Are you okay?"
Rae nodded and dug into her jacket's pocket and pulled out a small plain tube and shook out four small pills. She took them quickly.
Alec looked at her and groaned as he went over to them.
"You are okay for this aren't you?"
"Of course I am" Rae said, with a hint of exasperation in her voice, the tremors stopped. "My seizures are always like this, then the tryptophan fixes them. I have learnt to live with them".
Alec frowned. "Have you ever considered returning, because from what happened, my bad and all- they seem to be more than just a minor glitch".
"I would be lying to say if they could fix them I would not be tempted" Rae said frankly, "But they can't and even if they could it would not ever be worth it". The seizures were a constant chain to Manticore, a way they hurt her even though they couldn't touch her.
"What made you escape that night? All Manticore ever told us were you were traitors who abandoned the mission, and I was more than willing to believe that, things gotta lot harder after you all bailed". For a moment Alec didn't think Rae was going to answer him. When she spoke, her voice was quiet and distant.
"Eva, was one reason. Seeing Lydecker shoot her in cold blood" A bitterness entered her voice and Rae's eyes were focused on a spot outside." Eva froze, she couldn't even end up pulling the trigger, and he still killed her for defiance more than anything else.
We did it save Max from being dissected alive by the scientists like Jack… to end everything that happened to us everyday, for a lot of reasons".
Alec smirked. 'And to think a lot of us were jealous because your unit was the Colonel's favorites". The train began to halt to a stop, bring the conversation to an end. Rae was glad, it never made her comfortable how special she and her brothers and sisters were to Lydecker. It scared her, if Rae was honest about it.
Rae, Alec and Scott stepped onto the platform. The ground was wet and a small stream of water seemed to be coming from up the stone stairs up to street level. The sound of the storm was loud, it was a constant roar and Alec turned to Scott.
"Ready?"
---
There was only one thing in TAC member Vince Terrazzo's mind that was worse then chasing a transgenic which often lead to getting knocked out and if you were very unlucky a snapped neck. Being stuck on sentry duty outside in the middle of a damned hurricane. He was under a small amount of undercover where the back door opened into a back street, but not very much.
His regular sentry partner had been sick so because Command couldn't get a replacement Vince was doing it alone. He swore as his cigarette went out for what seemed like the hundredth time.
Vince's hand flew to his sidearm when a man appeared from the street, soaked, his black shirt covered with a red substance. Blood.
"Help" The man, said stopping halfway toward Vince, his light brown eyes wide with fear at the sight of the gun. "My wife, she slipped and she's hurt real bad, you have to help me".
He ran up to meet the man. Vince went to ask where the man's wife was but a hard blow to the side of his head took all the thoughts out of his head and he fell to the ground, unconscious.
Alec shook his head, water droplets running down his body further soaking his clothes.
"Pathetic".
Scott looked at his top; the red paint he used for his replica figurines had done its job. Rae strode up to them, her hair was partially plastered to her face, but strands were blowing in all directions and passed Scott his jacket, which he put on quickly.
She bent down and went through the man's pockets, pulling out a plastic card. Alec looked across the empty yard, at the small power generator and grinned.
The light outside went out for a moment and then came back on dimly. Without the primary source of power, secondary systems like the camera system would be now offline while the primary security systems Manticore had in place would remain online. Rae used the card on the slot near the door; it flashed green and a click sounded as the door opened.
A quick scan of the corridor revealed a man at a desk but apart from than that vacant. He looked up at the sound of the opened door and Rae ran, blurring and knocked him out with a blow from her elbow. The man went down, and she picked up his radio, undamaged unlike the radio of the man outside. Rae's shoes squelched from the moisture.
Alec came in and was followed by Scott. She looked back and glanced at them and then at the knocked out man. The weather also apart from helping had soaked their clothes and made it really hard to go in stealth mode. A change of clothes was in order.
---
"This is risky Deck" Renfro said with folded arms. She was sitting in the chair in the office, and Lydecker was sitting behind the desk. The dim lights made her dark brown eyes look black and the noise of the storm was loud even this deep inside the building. "We know they are in the building now, why not take them all".
"We run the risk of tipping 478 and 494, and then they will escape. You underestimate the kids".
Renfro stood then, all her patience out of the window.
"You sound so damned proud of them Deck," Renfro said, shaking her head. "Now how is them getting away and continuing to stay away a good thing?" The scorn in her voice was apparent. Lydecker gave her a look of patience and a slight look of pride, of purpose.
"From only being trained as children, they have shown again and again how much potential they have. Once they are back where they belong just imagine what they can accomplish". An argument the Committee had heard, and had kept Manticore alive after the escape in 2009. And with every year the Committee did not regret its decision. Renfro was interrupted from responding when a solider entered the room.
"Colonel Lydecker, we just got a signal from where the female civilian and 600 are being held, 494 is definitely rogue and there is another person with them. The signal was cut off before a description of this person could be sent".
Lydecker stood in one fluidic motion from behind the desk and started for the door. Before he left with the solider he looked at Renfro.
"McNeill, ensure that a team is sent to protect Director Renfro, we would not want anything to befall her". McNeill pulled out his radio and began to speak into it as they left. Renfro watched thoughtfully as the door closed and the only sound was of the ever-worsening storm.
The bond between Donald Lydecker and the unit once commanded by X5 599 was stronger than most. Even if the rogue transgenics fought it the fact that 599 and 452 had not killed Lydecker immediately as their training would dictate was an example. 789's attack of Lydecker in the Nevada desert had been emotional, her reindoctrination long and hard- her feelings of betrayal from Lydecker impeding the process. 789 had been the only one to try to kill Lydecker out of the twelve that had escaped, and more out of rage than premeditation.
581, the youngest of the unit had escaped, had been turned quickly by Psy Ops after capture, a testament to his youth that he was willing to let go so quickly, to trust Lydecker without doubts again. It was why the standing mandate were that between catching one of the younger ones or the older it was the younger ones that were a priority.
Lydecker had only hurt the transgenics from the runaway unit when it was absolutely necessary; a weakness Renfro did not have and thought Lydecker was a fool to have.
The only dead X5 from the 2009 escape had been Seth/245, a mystery thirteenth Manticore had believed to be dead. And now was. The X5 had been injured and had from reports let himself fall off the Space Needle in Seattle.
Any capture of the X5s had been by Lydecker's hand or involvement; the only one the Committee believed could track them down. And the recapture of 600 by Lydecker today would only further his standing.
Renfro suddenly smiled unseen by anyone else.
---
Hitting her hand on the wall, Rae said a few of the forbidden words that she had not picked up from the guards as a child at Manticore. Her changed outfit was from one of the guards, slightly too big but the least of her problems. Scott was looking apprehensively down the hall as if expecting to be attacked from behind any second.
"Calm down and breath" Alec said, lightly. "This is not a huge problem". Rae shot him a look and turned to the scanner. The panel beside it had been unscrewed and several wires were now intersecting the others.
It was not making any difference.
"We can't go save them if we can not get past this point, and it requires a retina scan of someone with level three or higher" and she sighed. "And there does not seem to be a way around it".
"Just keep trying" Alec said darkly, looking down the hallway expecting to hear footsteps any moment. Rae looked at the device again. Maybe if she tried changing the direction of the two copper wires towards the outside- the steel enforced door slid open just before she touched wires.
"You scared me for a moment" Scott said glancing at the now open door in obvious relief.
"I didn't do that".
---
At the desk Renfro sat at the computer smiling. There was more than one way to get what she wanted.
---
"Who cares, let's go" Alec said and Rae nodded. As the trio passed the door Rae looked at the other side of the handle and smashed the locking mechanism. Not taking any chances. "Duck!" Alec yelled at Scott as four armed special ops men came around a corner and the doctor obliged.
Alec ran to them, dodging the bullets and ran on the side of the wall for a second and hit two of them down at once. He incapacitated the other soldiers just as quickly. "Rae, do whatever you are going to do now, I'll stand look out ".
Rae beckoned to Scott and they went down a short narrow passage with five cells. The cells were more designed for ordinary people than transgenics and Rae really did not wish to know what Manticore used them for normally.
She glanced in the cells they passed, the majority of them were empty but the fourth one along Rae kicked the lock hard breaking it. Scott passed her and entered.
Piper looked up as Scott came in. "'Bout time Skywalker". The quip was more habit than actual teasing. She hugged him tightly winding him and then let go when he started to complain.
"We have to get out of here so save it" Rae looked quickly in and Piper looked at her for signs of the killer that Lydecker spoke of. There was rigidness in her features and a certain discipline but there was something else. Fear, just as strong as hers just well hidden. Rae regarded Piper strangely. "Come on!"
Piper left the cell just before Scott did and then held her friend just as tightly as she had Scott. Rae swallowed tightly, as part of this caught up with her. She had almost lost the people closest to her and the thought was unbearable. She pulled away. "Come on, we have to go save Jaye".
The cell passageway gave way to a laboratory with a chair set up in the middle with Jaye tied down on it. It was some twisted version of a dentist's chair and a look of revulsion on Rae's face told Scott that it was something really bad.
Piper shivered slightly, she hated dentists.
A scientist looked up as they entered and Rae grabbed a metal tray which instruments fell off loudly. The transgenic hit the tray into the scientist's face and he seemed to bounce off it and fell to the ground. Piper ran forward to check the scientist as Rae dropped the tray and went to the chair. The man was still breathing, but his nose was in rough shape and was clearly broken. "He's okay, just a broken nose" Piper said looking up at Scott.
Rae pulled out the plastic gag from Jaye's mouth as she heard Piper speak.
"He is lucky that is all I gave him".
Jaye worked his jaw and Rae began to undo the restraints. "Rae, it's a trap".
She raised an eyebrow.
"Yes, so we have it covered". A noise came from a door at the other side of the room as someone unlocked it and Rae's eyes widened. From the sound of it an entire Calvary was behind door number two. She abandoned what she was doing and grabbed a metal chair, sticking it under the handle, then leaning her weight on the door." Piper, get Jaye out of there".
Piper got up from the scientist and began to quickly undo the restraints and fast as she could.
"No taking any chances, huh?" Piper asked rhetorically after she got his arms undone. Jaye began to undo the other restraints he could now reach and she did his legs.
"He's out!" yelled Piper, as Jaye got off the chair and Rae smiled. A hissing sounded under the door, and Rae's eyes drooped slightly. She pushed herself away from the door and looked at the others.
"Some form of gas, come on!"
Alec looked up as Rae closed the door on the lab loudly as Scott, Jaye and Piper joined him. "And Manticore underestimates you guys", he said shaking his head.
"We need to split up" Jaye spoke as he looked back at the door. " We are too easy to track right now". Rae shook her head violently.
"That's what Lydecker wants, to split us up into manageable numbers. We stick together and we may all get out of here, we don't and we might as well save ourselves a lot of running now"
Jaye nodded reluctantly and Rae pulled a radio off one of the fallen men that Alec had knocked out, passing it to Piper.
"Go throughout the frequencies, its similar to the ones at work for emergencies- and find out what channel Lydecker is using". They began to walk fast, and they passed the door that.
'What if Lydecker thought of that?" Alec said sarcastically. "He's not that stupid" Rae smiled slightly and walked ahead slightly and looked around a corner. All clear.
"I don't want to listen to his false movements, I want to talk to him".
---
Lydecker clipped his radio back to his belt and walked over to where one of the soldiers, the TAC commander was pouring over a map. The solider saluted him.
"What is our plan of attack sir?"
"We should ambush them here-" He was cut of as his radio buzzed with static and he pulled out the radio.
"Do you think you could at least make your traps less hidden, because I am kind of bored already"
The voice was female, but not the civilian's. It was precise and with none of the characteristic wit he had heard from Max. He just knew it was Rae's, the way she spoke was a remnant from how the kids had been trained to speak at Manticore was laced through her voice.
"Rae, I presume?'
"You have gone to a lot of trouble to catch me. It is almost a shame to have to say good bye so quickly"
Lydecker almost smiled. They both knew that it was not the case here, her tone unchanged. "You will not get out of here. Now would be a tactically mature time to surrender".
" Lydecker, I would have to be mentally unstable and no longer in possession of my faculties to even consider that request. And even then I doubt it".
"Do you really think, even if you do, get out of here tonight that you will be able to stay away from Manticore forever. It's who you are".
There was a slight pause before there was a response." I am not the little girl who would follow your every order without even hesitating anymore. And if I have to run for the rest of my life to stay free of that place and you I will".
"What about the people you care about who are right now next to you planning the next move?" Lydecker spoke quietly. "Do you want them to get taken as well?"
"Don't you even think about it. You are not getting anyone tonight, and I am definitely not going to be your hat trick".
"What if I let them walk out of this building, I won't pursue them" Lydecker gave a pause. "If you hand yourself in".
---
Jaye shook his head as Rae looked at the radio in her hand. "No way, don't even think about it, he will never let us go and you know it".
Piper gave a nod. "And even if he would let us", she continued quickly as Jaye began to glare at her. "I could never live with knowing the price my freedom came at". Scott nodded in agreement.
Looking at them, Rae crossed her arms. "Then how do you think I felt when Lydecker got his hand on you and Jaye. This won't be the last time he tries something like this and I am not going to exchange your lives or anyone else's for my own freedom". Alec took the radio from Rae's hand and simply smashed it against the wall.
"Discussion all over" Alec said happily. "Damn those things are more delicate than glass".
"Then let's get out of here" said Scott, "Because no one is going to let you pull a Spock off the Wrath of Kahn". Piper just looked at him.
"You are so pathetic".
Rae shook her head, she just gave up. "Shut up and stay here, you can just stick to fighting at home about celery shoes, Alec, Jaye we have the guards who think we are heading in another direction to take out. I am sure Lydecker is thinking that I will do what he wants".
Jaye hid his look of victory at what Rae was implying.
---
Rae approached the guards with her hands up.
The guards looked up in obvious shock, the unit had been posted there near the east exit to ensure the intruders could not just leave.
"I surrender" Rae spoke as though defeated. "You can tell Lydecker to let my friends go"
---
"Sir, unit 5 reporting in, we have X5 478 here, who has just surrendered to us".
Lydecker picked up his radio. "Acknowledged, we will head too your position now".
"Yes, Colonel, over and out"
He turned to the men.
"Reinforce the protection on the other exits, I want to make sure nobody leaves- you and you come with me".
---
"Lay down on the floor 478".
Rae slowly got to her knees and looked up at the solider. From the other side of the unit, Jaye and Alec were emerging from the vents.
The slight noises were being blocked by the storm.
"I think you should join me". The solider that gave the order looked confused for a second, and Rae swung her legs under the man and he fell to the ground. The soldiers aimed their tazers at her and Jaye and Alec hit them from behind.
Rae picked up a tazer and shot it at the nearest person and the solider fell to the ground convulsing. "See how you like it!"
Jaye punched a solider in the head and swung his arm around back to hit another one behind him that had his gun aimed at Alec's head. Alec gave a grunt and kicked one of the soldiers into two other ones and they fell to the ground. Then Rae spun her legs and hit several men in mid air and then kicked behind her catching a solider in a place that made Alec and Jaye wince. Ouch.
Piper bit her nails and leaned against the hallway corner. Scott was standing opposite her when Rae came round the corner ahead. "Hey, let's go" Piper stood up properly and turned without glancing down the hallway where Lydecker and his two soldiers were coming down.
Lydecker raised his gun and Scott looked at the scene with horror. "Piper!" Rae stared surprised, and Piper turned her head to see the raised gun and froze in her tracks.
The gun fired. Scott fell on top of Piper sending them both to the ground. Rae ran over in horror. Lydecker vanished from sight with his men.
Rae pulled Scott off Piper. Piper was winded and lay there in shock, while Scott had a red patch on the upper side of his torso.
"Hey" Rae said as his light brown eyes closed. "Come on, please!" She fought panic as she laid him on his back. There was blood on the edge of his mouth and Scott coughed up more blood, then stopped moving. Rae breathed rapidly, and felt his pulse. Nothing, no pulse he was gone.
Piper looked over and began to cry. "You idiot, why did you save me?"
'Who tried to kill you" Rae asked, her voice unsteady. Piper sat up and crawled over, putting a hand on Scott's face.
"Lydecker". Rae stood and looked down the hallway, taking off, blurring as she disappeared.
"Rae!" Alec and Jaye came over. Alec looked uncharactericly serious and Jaye looked as if he was about to go into shock. That had been how 728 had looked after she had-
"Where did she go". Piper looked up at Alec.
"After Lydecker".
---
His soldiers flew into the wall and Lydecker turned aiming his gun. It was ripped out if his hands and an arm reached out and held him to the wall.
"Ironic".
The voice from the radio, Lydecker looked at Rae. There was a look in her eyes that reminded him of how they had all looked at him after he had been forced to kill Eva for her defiance. The look of pain and hatred that seemed to be of those two emotions fighting for dominance.
Rae's angular features, no longer very child like were hardened. She released him suddenly and he fell to the ground. Lydecker looked up to see his gun pointed at his head. Her hands were shaking slightly, but her grip was tight.
"Look familiar?" she asked. "This is how I remember watching my sister die, looking up and seeing you come into the light and now it is your turn for Eva and Scott".
Rae's hands shook harder as she willed herself to pull the trigger. Lydecker looked at her yes, the hesitation. An inability to pull that trigger.
"You can not kill me because no matter how much you pretend, you are a soldier and your loyalty runs to Manticore-" A backhanded hit stopped him from speaking for a moment.
Alec put his hands on Rae's and took the gun off her. "No" he said looking at Lydecker. "She just can't kill you because she is better than that- you failed".
He took out the cartridge and threw the gun pieces on the floor.
---
"I can't go in there, with you to, to the morgue…" Rae said quietly, the first words she had said for an hour. When Alec and Rae had reemerged from there, Jaye had carried Scott's body out of there.
They had stolen a car and driven it to the hospital, to deliver Scott's body. Piper was already in there with Alec filling out paperwork, writing that a gang shot had taken Scott Winter's life. Nothing about his sacrifice, his real killer.
"It's okay" Jaye said, and Rae just shook her head. The light rain after the storm was the only water on her face. Unable to cry.
"It's not okay, and it's not going to be ever again". She climbed off the step she was sitting on and walked into the hospital.
The lights in there seemed too bright, it just seemed surreal. Over by the main area was where they had first met, and the first time Piper had called Scott a geek for his Farscape T-shirt.
A nurse was in the room with Chris Ogilvy when she entered both the nurse and the cancer patient looking up.
"Dr Larter" the nurse said gently. In a hospital, news traveled like wildfire, true or not. "I am so sorry, I was just telling-"
"Can you leave the patient and I alone for a second". The nurse nodded looking solemn and walked out quickly. Rae closed the door, not noticing the slightly funny look the nurse had given her stolen outfit.
"You are so selfish" Rae said, looking Chris in the eyes. Chris looked shocked but she did not give him a chance to answer, drawing up a chair and sitting down.
"You think it's hard being the one whose dying? Sure you will die, slowly fading away everyday- compared to you Scott got off easy". Her words seemed foreign to her, Rae felt as if she was not in control at all. Chris looked slightly guiltily, he had been Scott's patient for a while.
"How about the people you leave behind". Chris looked up.
"What do you mean?"
"Your family, everyone who loves you has to watch you die, has to live afterwards. It's those left behind that feel the real pain because they don't just turn off, they keep on living, dying everyday". Rae stood sharply.
"Nurse Madlee?" The nurse stepped into the room, pretending she had not overheard the conversation. "I am declaring Christopher Ogilvy mentally unable thus can not make decisions regarding his own life. Begin the treatments his family wanted". Chris spluttered incoherently.
"She can't do that!" Madlee watched Rae depart.
'Yes, she can".
I am not doing it for that patient. He deserves what he seems to want so badly, death. But his family don't deserve to go through that.
Right now it hurts so badly, I can't see straight. I wish Lydecker was dead, wish that Scott was not, wish I had the strength to kill Lydecker.
But I am not like him. But right now I could not care. I do not want this to hurt so badly, if this is the price of being human… it is not worth it.
T.B.C
Oh yes, I know okay I had trouble writing that. I so wanted to not do it. But no matter how many alternate endings I wrote…
I feel so horrible for writing that btw.
Anyway faces;
Jonathan Togo/Vince Terrazzo, Tim Russ/TAC Commander and Fakme Janssen/ Nurse Madlee. Just remember all those faceless poor soldier idiots.
This was not finished yesterday, because of 9/11.
Chapter Completed 12/9/2006 or 9/12/2006