Yes, my cliffhanger are getting meaner again. I now, I'm evil, can't help but somehow it feels gooooooood *gg*
Divine Fighter: I have already been thinking about letting Jace and/or Brin go after the other '09 escapees along with Max and the others, we will see. And about what Max is going to do to Zack...well, here you have the update. Thanks for your review.
c00kieMonster: There you are again! Thanks to you, too. Yes, there's some Alec in this chapter. Read and enjoy.
throwerpro: Thanks again. Just keeps going on ;)
roseyangel: I'm afraid Logan's gonna need some recovery time after this chapter but, well, you're right, he won't stop. Okay, I definitely wanted the last one to become an important but you'll see this one to be even more important (and to some of you perhaps even shocking. I hope I won't lose any reviewers here) but there are still plenty of possibilities floating around in my head. We'll see about it in the near future. Thanks for the review!
Taeniaea: Thanks again and no, they're not gonna be happy. Especially one transgenic we all know and love.
Okay, before I add the char list this time again I have two questions for you. It's up to you to decide (up to a certain level) in which direction this story will go (yeah, I know, I love democracy...most of the time)
1. M/L, M/A or neither one nor the other?
2. Do you want me:
A: to continue this story as it is?
B: to open a new story and writing the sequel there?
C: not to continue this story at all?
I'd like you to answer these questions so I have some sort of guideline where to go next. I can't promise I will do anything you request, tough. As I said, I like democrady most of the time *grins wickedly*
Okay, now I'm gonna add the char list and then: read and enjoy!
X5-494 aka Alec Member of unit two and third in the chain of command. He has become sort the unit's unofficial leader as Wolf and Kyla often are on outside missions. He can be sort of a smart ass sometimes but he usually knows when to stop.
X5-439 aka Artemis Member of unit two. She's the sniper of her unit. Her rather calm and controlled self helps the others from getting out of hand too much. Like Wolf and Kyla she keeps her brown hair very short as she thinks it would hinder her otherwise.
X5-526 aka Bear Member of unit two. He's the biggest and strongest X5 in the unit and prefers heavy weapons. Nevertheless he's very gentle and almost never gets angry.
X5-194 aka Blade Member of unit two. The Asian woman is one of the few that could actually beat her CO or her 2IC in a hand-to-hand combat. She is almost obsessed with any sort of blades and usually tries not to use firearms.
X5-367 aka Havoc Member of unit two. The black haired and tanned transgenic is the unit's expert when it comes to explosives. He is almost as calm as 439 and is known for his subtle sense of humor.
X5-210 aka Jondy As children Max and Jondy had been in unit one and escaped together in '09. Jondy got caught by Lydecker months before Max and has joined unit two. She is loyal to Manticore and her unit but this doesn't mean she likes everybody around the base. Eventually she even refers to Lydecker that he 'can be an asshole sometimes'. Nevertheless she chose to stay out of her free will and hopes Max will be in her unit for she deeply cares about her younger sister.
X5-301 aka Kyla 2IC of unit two. Usually paired with Wolf during their missions. The two of them have the most experience throughout the X-series when it comes to combat missions and search and destroy and both of them are very well trained in close quarter combat and hand-to-hand fights.
X5-258 aka Nitro Member of unit two. The young blond man adores every sort of vehicle. He's one of the more unsettled X5.
X5-154 aka Nova The blond transgenic is the medic of unit two. She's one of the smallest X5 but nevertheless can take care of herself just fine. Other than that she's one of the X5 with the most experience in missions outside Manticore.
X5-451 aka Wolf CO of unit two and Max's genetic brother. His intense grey eyes and very short black hair clearly let him look like the soldier he is. Calm and almost always controlled his self-discipline and his knowledge about almost every kind of combat make him a very dangerous enemy.
The three men looked at her in shock when they realized who was standing in front of them. Zack was the first to get over his surprise. A big smile appeared on his face and he took a step towards her. Almost mechanically her hand crept near the gun in her holster. She hadn't used it before because at first she hadn't wanted to hurt Wolf and then there hadn't been enough time. She mentally reminded herself not to draw it know; Zack and Logan might have made a mistake but they were not here to kill Eyes Only and Zack wasn't on their list either although she felt like jumping at him any moment.
"Stop right there" she hissed at her former CO and he stopped dead in his tracks.
"Max, what…?" Zack began but she cut him off.
"Shut up!" Her voice was harsh and she kept glaring at the three of them gimlet-eyed. "And don't even consider coming closer; our sniper would kill you before you would be able to reach me."
Had there been joy in their eyes when they had realized they'd finally found her all she could see now was incomprehension and confusion.
"Max, what's that supposed to mean?" Logan asked clearly not understanding why she was acting like that. "Come on, we have to go before they recover."
"They? THEY?" she all but screamed. "They are my unit, Logan! If it wasn't for them I wouldn't be alive anymore at all and you…you…!" She clenched her gloved hands into fists and closed her eyes for a brief moment until she felt like she would be able to control the boiling rage inside her for a few more minutes.
"Go!" she ordered them her body still slightly trembling in anger. "We just called for backup, they'll be here soon."
"I don't understand" Logan said sounding almost desperate looking from her to Zack and Bling. Bling just stood there seemingly very calm. He had holstered his gun again and looked at her with a sort of silent understanding. He already knew what she was talking about but his friend didn't. Logan called out for her again and took a step towards her like Zack had before. "Max, come on!"
"Don't!" Zack held him back. He had a grim expression on his face and stared at Max in a mixture of disbelief and anger. Logan stopped and looked at the younger man. Zack nodded towards Max and she could see sorrow beneath his other feelings. "She's Manticore now."
"I'm Manticore?" Max snorted derisively. "I'm Manticore, Zack? You allied with the Red Cell and don't think I don't know why you did it! You wanted to give them an X5 in exchange for their help. You are more Manticore than the X5s I'm serving with! How could you ever think I would agree with something like that?"
"We wanted to give you your freedom back, Maxie" Zack growled.
"Give me back…?" Max was close to exploding. "I'm not a puppet, Zack! You have no right to decide what is good for me and what is not, and neither do you, Logan! I can't believe you actually wanted to sell one of us to the reds."
"Max!" Wolf suddenly called out sounding anxious. She briefly looked back over her shoulder to where he still tried to help Kyla. The injured X5 didn't move anymore. "I'm losing her!"
"He's using your name?" Zack had his CO face back on. "Didn't think Manticore would allow such a thing."
"There's a lot you don't know about Manticore anymore" Max growled.
She glared at Logan and Zack when she heard the distant noise of a helicopter closing in.
"That's our backup" she informed the three men coldly "I suggest you go, now! You got the disc, Logan. Use it!"
She turned around not caring about what they would do now. Artemis covered her and there were more important things to do now. In a second she was at her brother's side.
"Max, wait!" Logan called after her but Zack held him back again.
"There's nothing we can do at the moment" he hissed and pulled the older man towards the car. Bling was quick to follow them and got onto the driver's seat starting the motor. Logan kept struggling. "No, no! We must help her! We must take her with us! Zack!"
The male transgenic didn't listen. He would have tried to take Max with them by force if it had been possible but with the sniper somewhere around there was no chance he would've been able to do so. He opened the door and almost threw Logan on the backseat before getting in the car himself.
"Go!" was the only thing he said and Bling didn't need any further encouragement; he could already see the helicopter's floodlight. He started driving deeper into the docks where he hoped nobody would be able to follow them and after a few seconds the car with the three men was gone.
Meanwhile Max and Kyla were frantically trying to help the motionless Kyla.
"When did she stop breathing?" she asked.
"About a minute ago!" His voice was hoarse his hands were trembling slightly.
The helicopter finally arrived and started to decline. Before it even touched the ground half a dozen of Manticore black ops soldiers jumped out and run towards them.
"Medic!" Max shouted waving for Corporal Hayden. The man was at their side in the blink of an eye while the other soldiers secured the perimeter.
"What happened to her?" the corpsman wanted to know kneeling down at Kyla's side but Wolf didn't seem to hear the question.
"She took a hit against the throat!" Max answered over the noise of the helicopter's engine when her brother didn't answer. "Stopped breathing two minutes ago."
Hayden nodded and started palpating Kyla's throat carefully. After a few seconds he swore.
"We have to intubate", he shouted. He took out several items from his bag and bent over Kyla. "Give me some room, 451!"
Wolf nodded and moved a little bit but still stayed as close as possible to the unconscious woman. Hayden worked very quickly and after about thirty seconds that seemed like hours Kyla's chest suddenly moved again.
"Okay, got it" Hayden smiled. "Get her on the stretcher, we have to get her to surgery as fast as possible!"
A few minutes later the helicopter took off again. Onboard were the Manticore black ops and the four X5. They had accomplished their mission but none of them felt like celebrating.
Max and Artemis sat beside each other looking at Kyla who lay on the stretcher and was still intubated. Wolf knelt at the side of his injured 2IC holding her hand. She had regained consciousness but her gaze was unfocused. Nevertheless her eyes never left his and he could feel her keeping his hand in a firm grasp like she was afraid he would leave.
"What was going on with her?" Logan finally wanted to know in a heavy voice. He was sitting on an old couch in the living room of his safe house. Bling sat on a chair near the door and Zack was looking out of the window. They had arrived several minutes ago and neither of them had spoken a word.
It had been Max! His Max! He had been overwhelmed with joy when he had seen her after all these months without even knowing if she was still alive. And then she refused to come with him, even accused him.
"She has been reprogrammed", Zack said his eyes not leaving the streets outside the house.
"And what does that mean?"
"Brainwashing."
"She didn't look brainwashed to me" Bling said. "More angry as hell."
"What do you know?" Zack snapped looking at the taller man.
"I know that she cared more about her friends than about us" Bling replied calmly.
"Her friends?" Zack spat out the word like it had a bad taste. Deep inside he hadn't liked the idea of handing over an X5 to the Red Cell but he was too angry and wanted Max out of Manticore too badly to admit it. "They are not her friends; they're just another bunch of brainwashed Manticore drones. They would kill her without hesitation if Lydecker would order them to do so."
"How can you be sure about that? From what she said they've saved her life."
"You don't know Manticore! They can make you believe anything they want."
"That is not the question at the moment" Logan finally spoke up without looking at the two men. "The question is: What are we going to do next? Apparently Max believes that she belongs to Manticore; she didn't come with us tonight and she certainly will not the next time. If there is a next time."
"I will contact the others" Zack said after some seconds. "I will not leave her behind and I'm sure neither do the others. It will take some time but after tonight every one of us has to lay low for a while anyway. You should leave the city, too."
Logan shook his head. "No, I'll stay. I have contacts here and places to hide. Bling?"
"I agree. We have better chances if we stay here."
"It's your decision" Zack sighed. "But I have to leave. I will contact you when I found the others."
He turned to leave. Before he left the room he said over his shoulder: "Good luck. You're gonna need it!"
After he had closed the door behind him Logan suddenly chuckled. "Charming, isn't he?"
"Indeed." Bling sighed. "What are we gonna do?"
"I don't know yet. I think I will call Asha, perhaps she can tell us where that helicopter came from." Logan stood up.
"Logan?" Bling's voice was suddenly even more serious.
"Yeah?"
"There is also another possibility you and Zack never thought about."
"Which would be?"
"I know you won't like it but have you ever considered that perhaps Max was telling us the truth? That she really sees the other X5 as her friends and chose to stay at Manticore out of her free will?
When Kyla awoke at first her head felt light, like she had breathed in too much teargas again. Her vision was blurry but quickly became better. She tried to look around but found it extremely difficult to move. She was in the infirmary. Her throat hurt and so did her right arm which was in a cast. Suddenly her memories came back. The mission, the contact with Logan Cale and the Red Cell attacking them.
'That son of a…" she thought grimly but didn't finish her thoughts when she suddenly got aware of another person in the room.
She slightly turned her head and got aware of the form of a sleeping X5 in the chair beside her bed. She couldn't hold back a tiny smile when she recognized him. Wolf.
She tried to say something but when trying so the pain in her throat increased and she winced. That woke him up and he immediately looked at her with tired but never the less alert eyes. When he saw that she was in pain he jumped up and wanted to call out for one of the nurses when he suddenly felt a hand on his wrist holding him back. He looked down at the female X5 slightly surprised and she let go of him.
'It's okay' she motioned to him in Manticore's sign language then pointed towards her throat. 'Hurts'
He relaxed a little bit and finally sat down again.
"Of course it hurts" he said trying not to show his worry. "You've been in surgery for nine hours."
'Injuries?'
"From what I heard you had a smashed windpipe. Corporal Hayden had to intubate you. They've managed to repair it but you shouldn't talk yet. And your right arm's broken but Cottle said you should make a full recovery."
'Good. How long?'
"We came home four days ago. The pilot first wanted to contact one of our local bases but Lydecker ordered us to come directly back here. Says he didn't want to risk another attack from the Red Cell." It had been a tactically correct decision but Wolf remembered how his temper had flared when he heard that it would take them a lot longer until Kyla could be treated. "When you were out of surgery the Doc decided that it would be best if he kept you sedated at least until you didn't need that plastic tube in your throat anymore. He has removed it this morning."
So this was why her throat felt so sore. Four days? A long time.
She couldn't help but grin when he suddenly had to stifle a yawn. He really had to be tired. 'Go. Sleep.'
He shook his head.
"No, I will stay. I'm still off duty for the next two days." At her asking glance he added: "Concussion and three broken rips."
'You. Need. Sleep!'
"I'll sleep here. That chair isn't as uncomfortable as it looks."
She smiled at him brightly; that smile he loved so much!
"A mute beautiful girl, every man's dream" he joked and she frowned and lashed out at him in mock anger. He chuckled silently. "Okay, enough playing. You need to sleep, too."
For a while they just kept looking at each other in comfortable silence but soon Kyla could see that Wolf had more and more trouble keeping his eyes open until his body finally gave in and he slowly slumped forward until he fell asleep with his head on the mattress of her hospital bed.
When she saw this Kyla had to stifle a laugh because she knew it would hurt even more than trying to speak but suddenly she calmed down and her expression softened as she looked at her partner; he had slightly shifted in his sleep and his head now touched her left arm. The unconscious touch made her suddenly feel better and much calmer than before. Without thinking about it she carefully stroked his cropped short black hair. He smiled in his sleep and Kyla just kept looking at him with a happy light in her eyes until she fell asleep, too.
"Max!" Alec called out when they entered the barracks. She didn't stop and but he quickly was at her side. "What's going on with you?"
"What do you mean?"
"Huh? Don't you tell me what I've just seen is really the best you have!"
"I was never really good at search and destroy."
"Oh come on!" He exclaimed and shot an intimidating glance at a few X6 passing by when they looked at the older soldiers. "You weren't even thinking about the mission. Where the hell have you been?"
"Outside on the training mission, just like you" she quipped. "Didn't you see me?"
"Listen" he said and his voice suddenly sounded much more annoyed. "I'm not Wolf and I'm not Kyla but while they are in the infirmary I'm the CO of this unit. Your actions put the whole team and the mission at risk and I want to know why you were not able to focus on your task."
"I don't want to talk about it." She regretted the words as soon as they had left her mouth but it was too late. Alec stopped and grabbed her by the shoulders. She hissed at him warningly. "Watch it, pretty boy!"
"No, you watch it! If this had been a real mission Nova and Blade would be dead and Havoc probably too. If we make mistakes in here we'll make mistakes out there and in our lives mistakes usually mean dead people! Now stop bitching around and tell me what the heck is wrong with you!" He glared at her clearly annoyed by her behavior and suddenly all her anger vanished and all she felt was frustration. He was right, she hadn't been focused on the mission at all and it had been her fault her unit had failed. She sighed.
"The man we were meeting in Seattle…I know him. From my time outside."
"What? The one that set the reds on you?" She nodded and he gave her a strange look. "You sure have interesting friends, Maxie!"
She hit him on the head, not forcefully enough to actually hurt him but he still flinched. Temporary CO or not, there were things she would not take from him.
"Ouch, what the…?"
"Don't call me that! And I don't know…I don't know…" 'Yeah, what was it she didn't know?' she kept asking herself. "I don't know if he's a friend anymore.
There, she had said it. The one thought that had been on her mind ever since they had returned four days ago. She understood why Zack and Logan had contacted the Red Cell but she also couldn't forgive them. They had tried to hand over her brother to the reds! She felt angry and confused and frustrated at the same time and most of all she couldn't stop thinking about it, her shark DNA not being useful this time at all.
Alec felt her incertitude and waited calmly for her to continue. Sure, he was a smartass and usually never missed an opportunity for one of his comments but he also knew when you had to be quiet. Well, most of the time.
"I'd have never imagined of him doing such a thing, you know" Max said in a low voice. "Allying with the Red Cell and trying to sell one of us to them. He had always been so moral and trustful and now he suddenly turns out to be…dammit I don't know what to believe anymore!"
"Desperate people will make desperate decisions, Max" Alec finally said. She looked at him surprised by his sudden seriousness. "Believe me I know what I'm talking about. It was not your mistake, stop thinking about it. The mission is over and you all made it back alive, that's all that counts."
His face suddenly lit up with his trademark grin again.
"But it's your fault that we got screwed today. Stop doing it or I'll have to think about some extra training lessons for you."
"Keep dreaming!" she answered still not feeling very good but already a little bit better. Yes, Alec could be annoying sometimes but he was also a good friend and apparently she really had needed somebody to talk about what had been bugging her since Seattle. "Okay, are we done?"
"I think so, but don't forget."
"I won't. Can I go?"
"Where are you going anyway?"
"Infirmary, I want to check on Wolf and Kyla."
"I'm coming with you. It's time for them to get their lazy butts out of those beds; I'm growing tired of always being in charge and all." Despite his words he kept grinning and Max rolled her eyes; everybody knew how much Alec liked to be in charge.
They went to Kyla's room first. When Max wanted to follow Alec into the room she almost bumped into him because he suddenly stopped like he was rooted to the spot.
"What the…!" she began but he signaled her to be quiet.
"Please, tell me you have a camera" he whispered with a big grin on his face. She pushed past him but stopped dead in her tracks when she saw what he was looking at.
There was Kyla lying in the hospital bed and asleep. On the chair beside her bed sat Wolf but his head was resting on the mattress. That alone would have been a sight to behold but it was even better. Kyla's hand was lying on Wolf's neck like she was trying to hold and protect him while she was asleep.
Both X5 were smiling and Max was sure she had never seen one of them looking so much at peace like that before.
Okay, this was definitely not my usual sort of ending a chapter but don't you dare calling me getting old again or I just might let Renfro become Lydecker's new love interest! (OMG somehow I definitely now THAT is nothing I ever want to see!)
No, kidding. Remember please to answer the questions I asked at the beginning and if possible push the review button as well, please ;)