Divine Fighter: As I said earlier already, thanks for your review. You'll get more about unit one in the next chapter.

Taeniaea: Well, sorry, I had to choose one of them. Still thank you for the review!

452max: As I said, sorry about Nitro, but it had to happen. Thanks.

JOUNOUCHI sama: There are just some of you who wants to see unit one getting their ***** kicked hm *gg* we'll see about that later. Thank you.

roseyangel: Yeah, who were those people? You're gonna find out soon, don't worry. About what you said concerning Max: You're only two chapters too early. Hm, probably I have to get faster? No, seriously, she will have contact with Logan and her siblings from unit one soon and there I will try to give some explanations and show Max's POV. Hope you'll stay with me until then. Thanks to you, too!

Okay, here we go again. Read and enjoy!

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char list

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. Has no shark DNA.

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. Has no shark but snake DNA.

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.

X5-258 aka Nitro Member of unit two. The young blond man adores every sort of vehicle. He's one of the more unsettled X5. KIA after the first encounter of his unit with the breeding cult.

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.

X5-367 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. Has no shark DNA.

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.

X5-451 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.

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. Has no shark DNA.

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. Has no shark DNA.

X5-734 aka Brin After her return to Manticore she underwent a very brutal reindoctrination which left her brainwashed and only partly able to make independent decisions. She has been under Director Renfro's command until Renfro had to leave the Wyoming facility. Currently Brin's not part of a unit but assigned to where she's needed.

X5-798 aka Jace She was the only one staying behind during the '09 escape out of her free will. She's currently a member of unit five.

Max was looking at her hands while sitting on a chair outside the intensive care unit where they had brought Jace and her unconscious teammate about two hours ago. All around her was her team except for Havoc and Nova who guarded the morgue and Wolf. Manticore couldn't risk losing an X5, even if it was only his body so after all of them had gotten a minimal treatment they had gathered here. Most of her friends were quiet except for Kyla and Blade who had her shoulder in a bandage but otherwise looked okay. The two women kept talking to Artemis but the sniper didn't seem to listen and kept looking down on the floor. She blamed herself for not having seen the other sniper earlier and thought Nitro's death was her fault. Of course it wasn't but convincing the female X5 of that fact proved to be a difficult task.

Max just kept looking at her hands. They were perfectly clean; she'd been washing and rubbing them under the hot water until the skin had been red. Still she felt dirty somehow; until this evening she hadn't known blood could be so sticky.

She knew she wasn't acting like the soldier she was supposed to be but she didn't care and neither did the others. If those men in suits would have attacked at that moment she doubted they would have been able to fight them off but that wasn't important at the moment. They had lost Nitro, a friend and a brother. They were grieving and none of them wanted anything to disturb them at the moment.

Even the people around them could feel it. The hospital staff, the nurses and doctors kept their distance from them if possible and were as quiet as possible. It wasn't for the fact those strange young soldiers kept standing there with their arms and equipment still on, it was the coldness of their grief and anger radiating from them that kept the ordinaries away.

When somebody sat down on the chair next to her she looked up. Alec eyed her for a few moments with the same dull sadness in his eyes she felt inside herself.

"How are you feeling?" he finally asked quietly.

She made a choking sound biting back a bitter laugh but didn't answer. He only sighed and nodded. A stupid question, they all felt the same. After some seconds of silence he continued.

"Something wrong with your hands?"

"Huh?"

"You keep looking at them all the time" he explained. "Something wrong?"

Max shrugged. She didn't know if she wanted to talk about it. It was childish and she was a soldier, dammit!

"Come on, talk to me" he flashed her his trademark grin but with the sadness in his eyes it wasn't really authentic. Nevertheless she felt grateful that he seemed to care.

"I can't forget how it felt" she finally admitted not looking at him. "I just can't get rid of the feeling of his blood, it was so warm and…"

She stopped and sighed frustrated but looked up again surprised when he took her hands in his. His touch felt good and she almost relaxed a little bit.

"I can't see anything" he said after some seconds.

They sat together for some time in comfortable silence thinking about the night that had taken their brother from them. Max knew he tried to comfort her and was grateful for it although she wouldn't have thought Alec would do such a thing.

"Alec?"

"Yeah?"

"I would like to ask you something but I need you to be honest."

"Sure, what is it?"

"Did I…" she began reluctantly taking a deep breath before voicing the doubts that had been nagging at her the whole time. "Did I make a mistake tonight? Did I slow the others down? Was it…was it my fault Nitro died?"

He looked at her surprised at first but then he narrowed his eyes.

"Listen to me, Max!" he said insistently. "What happened to Nitro was nobody's fault, last of all yours. You kept up as well as anybody else. You did what you were trained to do and so he did. None of the things that happened tonight happened because you made a mistake. We got attacked and defended ourselves. Don't you even think for one second any of this is your fault, do you understand me?"

She looked at him for some seconds. He had spoken like somebody who had made the same experience. Finally she nodded.

"Good." He relaxed a little bit and sudden snorted quietly. "What is with you women always trying to take the blame for things that are not your fault? Look at Artemis, she still thinks she's responsible for not having seen that sniper earlier. She was trying to cover our retreat, dammit! That sniper was two buildings away from the one we were in and we're not the only ones knowing how to use cover. If it hadn't been for the muzzle flash she wouldn't have seen him at all. It wasn't her fault and it wasn't your fault, no one here's to blame. Nitro died because he got shot by a sniper who knew what he was doing; if at all blame that one."

Max nodded. She knew Alec was right but to hear it from him made her feel a little bit better. She wanted to thank him just when Wolf rounded the corner. Everybody got up and looked at their CO expectantly. His face showed no emotion but she could see the terrible sadness in his eyes as well.

"I just talked to the Colonel" he informed them trying to sound formal. "The extraction team will be here in four hours and bring us back to Gilette. Nitro…Nitro and the others, too. The debriefing is tomorrow at 0900."

"Does all of this mean nothing to you?" It was Bear who said that. The tall transgenic hadn't spoken a word since they had left the scene their latest battle. He'd always had a special friendship with the smaller Nitro and Max wasn't sure if seeing his friend die hadn't been too much for him. "Is this just business as usual for you? We lost Nitro tonight, goddammit, does this mean nothing to you? Do we mean nothing to you?"

Max could hear several of her teammates gasp for air. Nobody had ever talked to their CO like that. They all looked from Bear to Wolf but instead of seeing anger at his soldier's outburst Max saw her brother flinch and he suddenly looked hurt.

"You have no idea" Wolf said very slowly after a few seconds looking first at Bear and then at the rest of them, his voice hoarse and but a whisper, "You have no idea what you – every single one of you – mean to me!"

Had they been surprised at Bear's outburst the whole team looked now at Wolf in complete shock. This wasn't the CO they knew. The male X5 looked hurt, guilty. Broken.

Out of instinct Max took a step towards him. "Wolf…"

She stopped abruptly when he took his hands up like in defense. He wasn't looking at any of them anymore but on the floor. Without a word he took a few steps back before turning away and disappearing around the corner.

"You idiot!" Kyla hissed angrily realizing first what just had happened and shoved Bear against the wall before running after her partner. Bear didn't move seemingly as astonished at his CO's behavior as the rest of them.

When Kyla rounded the corner Wolf had already disappeared. Where the hell did he go? Sometimes this guy was just too fast. Suddenly she felt a soft breeze of cold air. She turned around only to see the door to the fire escape wasn't fully closed. Of course! She should have thought of that one first.

She rushed up the stairs taking several steps at a time until she reached the rooftop. She didn't have to look out for him; there was no place to hide on the flat roof. He was standing several feet away from the door near the balustrade looking down onto the streets below him. He must have heard her but he didn't turn around. She frowned and approached him until she stood at his side.

"You shouldn't be standing up here" she said after a few moments. "You're a perfect target."

"So are you." His voice was flat and he didn't look at her.

"You know he didn't mean it, don't you?" she asked after some seconds.

"Do I really appear like that, Kyla?" he wanted to know not answering her question but finally looking at her and she cringed at the sight of sadness and self-doubt in his eyes. "Like I don't care about you and the others?"

She breathed deeply, choosing her words carefully.

"Yes, sometimes you do. But" she added quickly when she saw the pained look on his face, "we all know it's only a mask. You're the CO and sometimes you have to act like that. Sometimes it's necessary to hide our feelings if we want to stay sharp and do our job."

She looked at him almost softly and rested her hand on his shoulder.

"Wolf, you are a great leader and a good friend. The whole unit should be glad to have you as their CO and they know it, all of them. Bear is angry and frustrated and he just needed someone to vent his wrath on. He knows you care, we all do."

"It still hurts" he mumbled looking away from her again. "Somehow I just can't stop thinking that I lost my focus out there."

"What do you mean?"

"After I heard the shot and ducked behind my cover…" he began hesitantly, "when I got up again I should have looked after Nitro first, but I didn't."

He stopped and remained silent for the next ten seconds.

"What are you trying to tell me?" she pressed softly.

"I…when I got up I looked…" she could see it was difficult for him to talk about it, "I looked first if you were okay. I shouldn't have. I knew Nitro was hit but still my first thoughts were about you, if you were wounded and I turned towards you first, only thinking about Nitro again after I was sure you were okay."

Kyla held her breath when he said that and she immediately felt guilty because of the feelings she felt at his words.

"I'm your 2IC" she tried to reason as calmly as possible. "It's only natural that you check on your second in command from time to time."

"Not like that!" he disagreed shaking his head sounding frustrated, almost desperate. "Losing Nitro is the hardest thing I've ever experienced but losing you…I can't…I can't even think about it. I don't know what I would do and I can't stop thinking about how I…"

He was cut off when Kyla suddenly embraced him in a tight hug.

"Stop it" she whispered into his ear holding him close. She knew him; he didn't know what to do and that scared him. He blamed himself and wasn't able to mourn like the rest of the team. They had each other to rely on but he was the CO; he couldn't show weakness in front of his soldiers. But it was different with her; she was his 2IC, it was her duty to help him whenever she could. "Wolf, stop. It was not your fault. Not your fault!"

They stood like that like for hours and she kept whispering soothing words into his ear all the time. She could almost feel the fears that tormented him. He breathed heavily and from time to time he trembled slightly.

After several minutes he finally calmed down a little bit and looked at her their faces only inches apart. She still could see sadness in his eyes but there was also a kindness she hadn't seen since they'd been children.

Suddenly he bent forward and kissed her. She tensed up in surprise but quickly relaxed and returned the kiss with her eyes closed. There was nothing passionate about it but she moaned softly, not in excitement but in relief. How she had longed for this moment, not believing it would ever happen!

They were not lovers yet. They were two people scared to death of losing each other. They had seen tonight how fast it could happen and they needed each other to feel safe again and to overcome their grief. They were confused by their own actions and emotions as none of them had ever experienced something like that before but they felt it was right and knew they belonged together.

When they finally broke the kiss they just kept looking at each other, feeling relieved and a little bit unconfident at the same time.

"I'm sorry" he whispered quietly.

"Don't be", she smiled trying to reassure him. They stood like that for several minutes until she said: "Wolf?"

"Hm?"

"I'm tired."

He chuckled and she grinned, too. It was the truth, despite her shark DNA she felt tired.

"Down?" he asked but she shook her head.

"No, I'd like to stay up here."

"Okay.

Without letting go of each other they sat down with their backs against the balustrade and she snuggled up against him until her head rested on his shoulder and his arm around hers. The cold didn't bother them. They remained like that in silence and she soon felt how she started to doze off.

"Kyla" Wolf suddenly said sounding tired as well.

"Hm?"

"Thank you."

She smiled and after that none of them spoke a word again and they drifted off into the most peaceful sleep they'd ever had in their entire life.

"Okay, I hope you guys are ready" Zack said into his hidden micro.

"As always" Syl answered.

"Everything's ready, don't worry" Logan assured. He was sitting in the old van they used as their mobile command center.

"Let's start the show then" Zack said more to himself. He started his Ninja and sped towards the checkpoint. It took him about five minutes to get there and when he saw the small sentry post and the four soldiers standing around it he couldn't help but grin. It wouldn't be much of a payback it was a start. Great! There even was a security camera.

One of the guards signaled him to slow down and the transgenic stopped a few feet before the checkpoint.

"Sir", the soldier began, "I must ask you to turn around and leave. This is a restricted area."

"Too bad" Zack said grinning broadly, "I just wanted to visit good old Manticore again."

Before any of the soldiers could recover from their surprise Zack leaped at the first of them knocking him out cold. The second guard joined his unconscious comrade before he'd even managed to draw his gun. The third actually managed to aim at the transgenic but before he could pull the trigger Zack grabbed his rifle slamming the butt in his face. The last soldier still standing shot at him two times but it was no problem for the X5 to dodge the bullets as his adversary didn't have enough time to aim properly and in the blink of an eye the last guard was disabled as well.

With his job done Zack looked around for a few seconds and smirked. "Well, that was fun!"

He tried to gain access of the checkpoints computer but failed of course. They'd known from the start it wouldn't work but it was a nice excuse for his attack.

"Zack!" That was Logan again. "The base has been alarmed, get out of there!"

"With pleasure! This place gives me the creeps!" He mounted his bike again and sped off again, disappearing into Wyoming's woods before anyone inside Manticore even had a chance to get him.

"Sir, X5-451 reporting, sir!"

"At ease, soldier" Lydecker ordered looking at the X5 standing in his office once again. It had been two days since the funeral of X5-258 – Nitro – and he was asking himself how his kids were coping with their loss.

"How are you feeling, son?"

"Good, sir."

"You sure?"

"Positive."

"I'm glad to hear that. I'm sorry for the loss your team has sustained but soldiers die sometimes, you know that."

"Yes, sir."

"Do you think your team is operational again?"

"We still need some training but yes, we are." They hadn't fully recovered yet but if needed they would be ready.

"Very good, but you still have some time. You…"

Suddenly the alarm went off and the two men looked up. Two seconds later Lydecker's phone started ringing.

"Lydecker! What? Where? Got it!" He hung up. "Defensive positions, 451, now!"

Without a word Wolf left the office sprinting towards the armory. After a few seconds the Colonel's voice could be heard throughout the whole base.

"Attention! All X5 units to their defensive positions! All guard personal to their posts! This is not a drill! I repeat…"

When arriving at the armory he could already see most of his team there.

"451!" Sergeant Major Donohue who was in charge of the armory tossed him a P90 and his radio equipment. Wolf caught it with ease.

"Everybody here?" he asked looking at his team. When he was sure nobody was missing he nodded. "Let's go!"

With inhuman speed they made their way towards the perimeter fence until they reached their position. They quickly spread out to cover a larger ground. When everybody had found his cover and Wolf was sure they were ready he cowered behind a fir tree.

And then they waited. Not moving, not making a sound they waited and observed their sector. It had been long since they'd had to do this but from what he had seen in the Colonel's office the man had been quite upset.

After four hours his radio suddenly came to life.

"All units, all units, this is Colonel Lydecker. Report back to your barracks! I repeat: All units report back to your barracks!"

"Unit two, understood!" Wolf replied and stood up looking at his team. "We're going back!"

On the other side of the base X5-734 formerly known as Brin suddenly stopped dead in her tracks and looked around suspiciously. She could have sworn she'd felt something, something she hadn't felt since…she shook her head. No, that was not possible; he would never come here out of his free will.

She shrugged almost as if to convince herself and made her way back to the base.

She wasn't aware of a pair of dark brown eyes following every one of her movements.

Okay, until now Logan's plan seems to work.

You know now in which direction I'll go with Wolf and Kyla, where I'll go with M/A or M/L you'll find out in the next two chapters.

Give me reviews and I give you updates (is that blackmailing? Possible. Don't tell anybody *g*)