Here we go again.

First of all a little warning: I do absolutely not agree with everything Lydecker is doing. But I have to admit that he is a great military leader and from his military point of view he's right about what he's doing. And I also think he really cares about the X-series - not only about Max but also about all the others - but as their superior he cannot show it. Once again: I do not agree with everything but als the tactical head of Manticore he's doing his job. Sorry if that offends you, but that's the officer in me speaking. I will give him a chance to change his mind during this ff but you'll have to give him a little bit of time ;)

tylee17: Thank you for your inputs (no offense taken!) I know the second chapter was not that good but I had to move on. And of course I'll do about the mistakes what I can.

About OC firing two shots: If I just shot somebody in the back and he's turning around looking at me and not going down I think I would fire a second one too. Don't know exactly but hey, somehow I had to knock him out ;)

Hope you're still out there :)

throwerpro: Welcome back and thank you! Well, about what's gonna happen: read and find out ;)

Max watched the unknown woman run away. It was the same woman she had met earlier this evening and she had no doubt she and her partner had been looking for her from the beginning. She knew that being an X5 on the run meant constant danger but she hated Manticore for even endangering her friends. That brought her back to reality. She turned around and went to Original Cindy who still had Bling's gun in her hand and stared down at the unmoving body of her attacker.

"OC" Max addressed her softly, "It's ok, OC, give me the gun."

Although her friend didn't seem to like the idea of handing over her only weapon she nodded silently and Max took the gun, switching its safety on and putting it on the kitchen table. Original Cindy stood up and brought some space between her and the young man – Max was already sure he was an X5 – before she went to Bling and knelt down at his side. Apparently she wasn't quite as shocked as Max had feared which was a very big relief for her but it also reminded her of something.

"Logan!" she called out and ran towards the door but not without a last glance to her unmoving enemy to be sure he wasn't a threat at the moment.

"Ouch" was the groaned answer she got when she arrived at Logan's side. He was awake but had a pained expression on his face. "What the hell happened?"

"X5's", she answered in a low voice while helping him back in his wheelchair. She didn't want OC to find out about her true nature; to be honest she was scared what would happen if her friend would ever find out. Logan could see that fear in her eyes and just nodded reassuringly. He was already thinking of a way to explain this more than frightening incident to Max's co-worker. They went back to the living room where Bling was sitting on the floor massaging his forehead with Original Cindy still at his side. At their entrance the two looked up.

"What the hell was that about?" OC asked. She had been quiet and controlled during the last minutes but she was still more than nervous; after all she just shot at somebody.

"I don't know" was Max's only answer before she left Logan's side and went over to the fallen X5. Logan was quick to give OC some much needed answers, even if he usually hated lying.

"They were perhaps sent by someone I know" he offered. At OC's questioning look he added: "Not everybody likes the way I'm handling things."

It wasn't the answer OC had been hoping for and she was far from being satisfied but it seemed to be enough to calm her down for the moment.

Meanwhile Max had knelt down at the unknown X5's side. She knew something the other one, the woman, had shouted was familiar to her but she couldn't remember what exactly it had been. The first bullet had hit him in the back. Blood was dripping out of the wound and she could hear that his breathing while very low was unsteady; one of his lungs was possibly hurt. The second bullet had been a grazing shot to his right temple. Half of his face was covered in blood but he had been extremely lucky; a little bit more to the left and they wouldn't have to worry about a wounded but about a dead X5 in Logan's living room. She slightly turned his head and looked at the barcode on his neck. That was when everything made sense. She gasped in surprise and shock. X5-451. Her biological brother, the one that…

A pained moan interrupted her thoughts. 451 opened his eyes but he didn't seem to recognize his environment; perhaps he had a concussion.

"Why are you here?" Max demanded to know while surprised by the harshness in her own voice. She knew there was not much place for speculations: They were either here because somebody at Manticore had learned about Logan's Eyes Only activities – which was highly implausible – or good old Lydecker sent them to capture her and bring her back. When the wounded X5 didn't answer she grabbed him by she shoulders. "Why are you here?!"

451 gasped in pain and tried to get out of her grip but was too weak. Still Max let him go. OC didn't hit him in the shoulder, did she? No, she didn't, which meant he had already been hurt before their little encounter. Before she could ask him again 451 closed his eyes and fell back into unconsciousness. She let go of him and stood up. There was still an X5 out there and to get rid of her she needed her partner alive.

"OC, could you bring Bling to the bathroom?" Logan asked sensing Max's need to talk to him freely without her unsuspecting friend around. "There should be some painkillers and maybe you'll find some ice in the kitchen."

"Ok. Come on, big guy!" Original Cindy agreed and helped Bling back to his feet. He was still kind of wobbly but with OC's help they made it out of the room.

"Max, what are you up to?" Logan wanted to know as soon as they were alone.

"We must move. I told the other one not to call for reinforcements but if she's following her training – and she will follow her training – she is talking to Lydecker right now even though I told her we would kill him."

"Max!"

"Relax. He's more useful to us alive anyway."

"How did they find you?"

"I don't know. Until now they've never sent X5's after us but apparently Deck has grown tired of being outrun all the time." She removed 451's jacket and shirt and inspected the wound before she muttered something that didn't sound very ladylike. "Listen, I need you to call Sam."

"Sam? But…"

"He's losing a lot of blood, the bullet's still stuck in his body and it seems one of his lungs just collapsed. Even an X5 can't survive that without proper medical treatment and we need him alive." After a few seconds of hesitation she added: "I won't let him die."

"Sam won't like that." Logan chose to ignore her last comment.

"I know, but we can't bring him to a hospital. Most of the police are stupid and ignorant but a guy with a gunshot wound will certainly raise their suspicions and apart from that we would lose our advantage; we couldn't control him there."

"Where are we going?"

"One of Eyes Only's safe houses. Tell Sam to bring along what he needs for an emergency operation. And to come alone." She tried her best to stop the blood loss.

"What about Bling and Original Cindy?"

"They must go home as quickly as they can. That attack wasn't planned, they improvised it. Which means they most certainly do not know where we live, except for you, sorry about that. The other one is alone and standard procedure would be that she has to contact command before she does anything else which gives us perhaps about an hour."

Logan listened to her with an odd mixture of admiration and reservation. This was one of the rare moments he could see the Max Manticore wanted to raise: A soldier, a leader in combat. She had an answer to every question and knew the actions that had to be taken without hesitation. Finally he nodded and dialed a number on his cell phone. He didn't have to wait long until he heard a tired voice on the other end.

"Sam? It's Logan. Listen, I know it's late but I need you to do me a favor."

Donald Lydecker didn't like paperwork. In fact the highly decorated colonel hated it. But being one of the most senior officers in one of the governments most secret military programs meant doing a lot of it. He sighed and signed another report – the last for the evening – and stood up. He'd had a strange feeling during the whole day, one he couldn't explain but knew very well. He'd felt it before. One of his operations wasn't going well. In his mindd he quickly went through all the missions running at the moment and decided that it was most likely the one X5-451 was in charge of. His target, 452 – Max – had proven to be a worthy adversary. He should be proud of that, by the way, after all it had been him who trained that girl.

He picked up the phone and dialed a number. He had told 451 only to call him if absolutely necessary but that was one of the bright sides of being a superior officer: You didn't have to explain your actions to your subordinates. To his surprise 451's phone was turned off. He frowned and immediately dialed the number of 301. She on the other side was very quick to answer.

"X5-301 reporting, sir."

"This is Lydecker. Why does 451 not answer his phone?"

"He's on observation, sir. Maybe he turned it off to avoid detection."

"When do you expect him back?"

"In fifteen hours, sir. We split up to cover a larger ground." That was unlikely.

"Is everything okay, soldier?"

"Yes, sir. We have not been able to locate the target, yet, but it's only a matter of time."

She sounded normal but there still was the odd feeling.

"State verification code Golf!" he ordered. It was a standard procedure for every soldier. If she'd been taken hostage or was under any kind of pressure 301 could give him a false code and he would be able to send out a rescue team without any possible enemy being aware of her warning.

"Verification code Golf is: Delta Sierra 5 Tango Echo."

The code was correct. "Very well, soldier. Carry on."

He hung up and exhaled sharply. The feeling was still there but everything seemed to be okay. Sometimes he felt that he had a tendency to care too much about his children. Or perhaps he was just getting old. He smiled at that thought and made his way to the mess. A hot coffee would do him good.

In Seattle X5-301 was still looking at her cell phone in shock. What had she done? Not only had she not followed standard procedure and called the colonel immediately after she'd reached a safe distance from their target, she had also lied to a superior officer about her mission status and had abused an official verification code. She couldn't rationally explain her behavior. She'd been alone on missions before, had even seen one of her fellow X5 die in battle on one occasion but never before she had felt so lost and so frustrated like now after she had to leave 451 behind. She would never admit it to him or even her superior officers but she liked 451 in a way that she knew Manticore would never allow. They had been close to each other since they were children – closer than to the other members of her unit – and most of their missions they had been paired up together. She had never thought of the possibility of losing him until now and the mere idea of never seeing him again, being close to him or hearing his sometimes sarcastic but yet gentle voice scared her in a way she didn't understand.

She wished the colonel was there at the moment. He would know what to do. He would call her 'soldier' and made her do right. But she knew she couldn't call him now. First he would have to order her to abort her mission for her failure earlier and then a rescue team would be sent which would most certainly mean death for 451. No X5 – even an operator as experienced as her partner – was valuable enough to risk losing him or his corpse to the enemy. The rescue team would attack X5-452 and her allies with one brutal strike, wiping them out and the chance for 451 to survive such an attack were less than just small. It was what had to be done and even the colonel who she knew was caring deeply about his X5 would not be able to prevent it.

She stared up at the penthouse of the Foggle Towers and anger – hate – filled her eyes. There was no way in hell she would leave her post now. If there was a way to rescue Wolf – No! X5-451 – she would find it even if it meant that she had to kill her target.

She tried to decide what to do next when suddenly a SUV left the building's garage and drove towards sector three. She could see that Logan Cale was driving while the passenger seat was empty. In the back seat was X5-452 bent over somebody she couldn't see but hoped it was 451. She started her motorbike and followed the car at a safe distance. She may have lost a battle, but war was far from being over.

What do you think? Please let me know and review!