YEAH! 100 reviews. I never believed I would actually get as much when I started this story, thanks to all of you, you're awesome!
Taeniaea: Thank you, fast as usual!
RoseRed: Well, I'm sorry to lose you but I just had to make my decision. Good luck and perhaps until another time.
Divine Fighter: I think we all knew deep in his heart Lydecker favors his kid, but we also know he's loyal to his mission and so has to maintain discipline among them. You'll see something about it in this chapter. AND you'll finally hear about Brin in the next chapter. Thanks to you, too.
c00kieMonster: Glad you liked it! I really think after having bonded with her unit and having been in battle with them Max would not betray them. I just wanted to make clear she will also try and not go against her old unit if possible. And for the pairing: Give me a little bit of time ;)
JOUNOUCHI sama: Thanks for your offer, I'll think about it.
roseyangel: I agree with you; that's exactly why Wolf is in PsyOps. No soldier likes everything you order him to do but being a soldier includes that whole shut-up-and-obey-thing. For Manticore having changed: I always thought the biggest mistake Manticore did in the series was to isolate their kids from the outside, not giving them information how the world out there is and preparing them for it and explaining why the children had to do all the training, drills and exercises. In one of the previous chapters it has been mentioned that the instructors started to do so after the '09 escape, so yes, I think Manticore has changed a little bit. And for the rest; they're soldiers and so not everything they're gonna have to do will be pleasant, that's just the way it is.
452max: Thanks again! This chapter is gonna be a little bit more quiet but don't worry, the action will start again soon. Hope you like it.
nattylovesu: Welcome on board! Thanks for your compliment, I hope I can keep up. And of course I hope you'll stay with me.
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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 mission in Joliet.
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.
Logan sat in the living room of his penthouse suite looking out of the windows. The weather seemed to be a mirror to his soul; it was raining again. Bling had tried to talk him out of coming back here but Logan didn't listen. He knew his bodyguard who was presently in the kitchen was rather nervous, expecting an attack any second. Logan, on the other hand, felt rather calm.
After he had returned from Wyoming the previous day Zack and the other transgenics had disappeared just as fast as they'd made contact with him some weeks ago. He couldn't blame them, they still feared Lydecker would come after them any second and to be honest he was a little bit surprised himself that no TAC team had appeared at his door already. Perhaps the old soldier really hadn't lied when he had said Logan was not on Manticore's blacklist anymore. It appeared to be true although Logan wasn't fully convinced yet and had made preparations for a quick escape but somehow he felt he didn't have to worry about Lydecker and his myrmidons although he was sure he had angered Manticore's CO beyond words when trying again to free Max. It wasn't that he suddenly started to trust the old sadist but he began to understand his way of thinking. Lydecker was a soldier and as such he didn't just give orders, he also received them and had to follow them.
Logan allowed himself a tiny smile when thinking about the older man probably sitting in his office right now forging plans how he could finally get rid of that unnerving Eyes Only. Logan could only hope Lydecker's superiors still didn't want to see him dead or he would really be in trouble this time. But somehow he just knew he didn't have to worry at the moment.
Somebody knocked on the door and when Bling opened carefully OC and Asha entered.
"Hey" Logan said trying to smile and stood up.
"Hey suga!" OC greeted back and hugged him. "Sorry we couldn't make it earlier. Normal's been just his bright and shiny self again."
"It's okay" Logan assured her. "Hello Asha."
"Logan" the blond replied kindly. The blond S1W member had forgiven Logan about his past mistakes when she'd seen he was back to his old self again.
"What did you want to tell us?" OC wanted to know.
"We better sit down." The two women followed him to the living room sitting down and looking at him expectantly. Logan cringed invisibly. He knew they wouldn't take well what he was gonna tell them but he also knew he couldn't hide the truth – or what he and Max siblings had finally come to believe to be the truth – from them forever. Slowly he began choosing each of his words very carefully. "I asked you to come here because I'd like to tell you what happened during the last days. You will not like what you're gonna hear, especially you, Cindy, but please let me finish before you start asking questions."
Asha only made a curious face but Max's former co-worker looked at him suspiciously but finally nodded.
Logan nodded again trying to find the right words.
"As you know a few days ago I went to Wyoming. What you don't know is that Zack and some of the X5 who escaped with Max in '09 were with me. We had a plan to free her…"
For the next thirty minutes he explained to the two women exactly what he had done during the past week and what had happened. Asha looked at him with attentive curiousness but Cindy shot him dark looks from time to time; Max was her friend, her boo. She knew Logan would never have allowed her to come with him; he was the knight in shining armor and wanted to protect everybody and everything, even if they didn't want his protection. She knew and understood but she still was a little bit angry with him.
When he told them about how Max and Jondy had come to them out of their free will OC's face lit up and she wanted to shout out her joy but she quickly let go of that thought when Logan told her how that morning had finished.
"You can't be serious." She could only look at him not believing what he'd just told her. "She would never do that."
"Brainwashing?" Asha came straight to the point. It wasn't the most tactful thing to do but the blond woman had never really cared too much about being diplomatic; she usually cut straight to the case.
Logan shook his head. He had been discussing this with Max brothers and sisters during the whole journey from Wyoming to Seattle. He turned his laptop on and placed it on the small table between them so the two women would see what one of his cameras in that hotel room had captured.
The monitor showed Max and a woman in OC didn't know. They both wore some sort of black uniform. Logan and other men and women were standing around them. OC recognized Zack but the others she didn't know. They all looked at her boo like in shock.
"I remember everything, Logan" Even when only hearing it from the speaker of the laptop OC could hear the sadness in her best friend's voice. "Everything. Why I escaped from Manticore the first time and Lydecker chasing me around for the last ten years, how I met OC, my time in Seattle, meeting you and all the time we spent together. They didn't make me forget."
Upon hearing Max saying her name Cindy smiled. Perhaps all was not lost.
The scene changed and Max was talking to one of the other women in the room.
"No, Tinga. You don't understand. I know you think we've been brainwashed and all but that's not true. We will stay here no matter what you're gonna say. Not because some scientist in PsyOps told us to but because we want to."
Her almost happy expression turned into a worried frown. Again the scene changed and she got to see Max talking to everybody present in the small room.
"It's not as simple as you'd like it to be. Manticore has changed, we have changed. We're not children anymore, we're soldiers. It's what we've been designed to be, it's what we are. I know you don't understand and I also know you never want to come back again, but you have to accept that Jondy and I will not leave with you. We will not betray our unit and we won't leave Manticore."
Hearing her best friend, the girl that was as close to her as a sister, say something like that was too much for her. OC felt like somebody had just punched her. She couldn't take her eyes from the now black screen and she felt like she couldn't breathe anymore. Even Asha who knew almost nothing about Max glanced at Logan in disbelief.
"They must have brainwashed her" the blonde finally said. "No way she would say those things out of her free will!"
"No" Logan shook his head. At first he had refused to let go of that last tiny hope himself but Zane and Tinga had made it clear neither Max nor Jondy had showed any sign of somebody who had been brainwashed. Reluctantly and angrily the others – in the end even Zack – had agreed. "I talked about this with her siblings. They know about the techniques Manticore is using and they're sure Max told us the truth. Nobody is forcing her to stay there. She does so out of her free will."
"Why should she?" OC was beginning to feel frustrated and angry. "She hates it!"
"Not anymore." Logan shook his head in sadness. He'd had a lot of time to think about what had been said and done in that hotel. "She hated it when she'd been a child. But you heard it, she says it herself: She's not a child anymore, she considers herself as a soldier. You have been in the military, Cindy?"
It wasn't a question, more like stating a fact but OC nodded.
"How was basic training?" Logan asked in a neutral tone. Both women looked at him in surprise not understanding his sudden change of the topic. Nevertheless Cindy shrugged.
"Pretty rough. I certainly won't do that again."
"I can imagine." Logan nodded. "But I can only guess how it really was, because I never was in the army. I had a hard time understanding it myself but you see: All we know about Manticore is what Max has told us. And all Max knew was what she had experienced in her childhood. We don't know if Manticore has changed or not but you heard it yourself: For whatever reason she wants to stay."
Suddenly OC became very quiet.
"This can't be true!" Asha on the other hand objected. "Come on, Logan, you know there are many possibilities to make any person belief whatever you tell them."
"It's not like that. A brainwashed person gets nervous when confronted with the truth. They stumble over their own words, they are self-contradictory, their facial expression is blank" Logan recited everything Max's siblings had told him and he had found exact the same information on the internet. "You have seen and heard her; she did none of those things. She was vivid and stern and it was just…"
He seemed lost for words.
"Just Max" Cindy said quietly looking up at Logan smiling sadly but genuinely. He nodded.
"Yeah, it was Max."
For a few minutes nobody said anything, they all were lost in their own thoughts.
"You really think she wants to stay there?" It was not like Asha knew Max as well as the other two but the knowledge alone something like Manticore existed was repulsive.
"Yes, I do" Logan admitted and although he knew it was the truth he felt an almost physical pain in his heart. "She has changed, I think she really cares about her new unit and I don't think we can change that."
"I could never look at myself again if we just leave her there!" Cindy objected.
"Cindy, I know exactly how you feel" Logan said and looked at her with compassion. "But you saw the video; nobody is forcing her to stay, she does so out of her free will. I know you love her but we all have to accept her will. If we love her, we must let her decide for herself. It is her choice."
Asha nodded slowly but OC shook her head and looked past him at the wall but Logan could see although she didn't agree the younger woman started to accept the truth.
He sighed and returned his gaze to the rainy weather outside the window. While he still grieved to have lost his friend to Manticore he also knew there was a very tiny hope. He knew Lydecker would never have allowed her and Jondy to come to him and their transgenic siblings alone. They had done so on their own initiative and while he had never served Logan knew very well that had been an act of insubordination. The Max he knew hadn't disappeared completely and he hoped that perhaps one day she would decide not to be a soldier anymore and come back.
He wouldn't forget about her. He would watch Manticore closely but he wouldn't do anything for the moment. And perhaps she was right and he finally had to move on. After his absence there were certainly enough villains around by now worthy of Eyes Only's attention.
Two weeks later
"X5-452 reporting, sir!" Max announced her eyes straight and focused on the grey wall of Lydecker's office.
The older man looked at her for a few seconds taking in all the details of her composure. She looked much more like the soldier she actually was. Her eyes, while not blank, were focused and attentive and the way she was standing before him at attention clearly showed him she had improved.
"At ease, soldier! What do you want?"
"Sir, if possible I would like to ask you when X5-451 is going to be released from PsyOps, sir."
Not much of a surprise. Lydecker knew the last two weeks had been a difficult time for Max and Jondy. Not because their unit treated them harshly after he had to put Wolf in PsyOps because of their actions; it almost seemed to him they all understood why the two female transgenics had to do what they did. No, the unit was definitely not the problem but the two young women blamed themselves and for Max who felt even closer to Wolf due to them being almost the same on a genetic level it was even worse. Nevertheless he wanted to be sure he really knew what was on her mind.
"You know this is information I usually don't share with my subordinates. Why do you want to know that?"
"Sir, I understand you had to punish us for what 210 and I did" Max began and her voice sounded a little bit less concentrated, "But with due all your respect I don't think 451 should be in PsyOps. It should be us."
"451 decided to accept all responsibility for your and 210's actions." Lydecker looked at her pensively. "It was his decision as the commanding officer of your unit. You and your sister have to accept another sort of punishment; you will have to work under his command again after he will be released from PsyOps, always knowing that it was your decisions and your actions that put him there in the first place."
Max face remained stoic but he could see the guilt his words provoked in her eyes. He sighed.
"I didn't want to send him to reindoctrination either but this is a military unit. You know that our missions demand the highest sort of concentration and discipline or people die. I cannot and will not allow any of you to start taking your liberties whenever you want to. There are reasons for a chain of command and whoever does not accept that has to face the consequences. Soldiers do not have all the freedom the common population has and I'm not only talking about transgenic soldiers but of every man and every woman who is wears a uniform. You finally have to understand that, Max!"
She briefly looked at him when she heard him saying her name but returned her gaze to wall behind him immediately and nodded. "I understand, sir!"
"Good." He was sure she was loyal to Manticore and her unit. After all she could have left with Zack and the others and he would be chasing her again already but she had come back. Still he couldn't allow her to make exceptions in her usually class A behavior for her old unit. He hoped she really did understand that now. "X5-451 will be released from PsyOps in two weeks. Dismissed!"
"Sir!" She saluted and turned on her heel. Before she left the room she glanced back him. He didn't have to tell her that and while it meant her brother had to spend two more weeks in that hell she felt some gratitude towards the Colonel for at least she knew now he would be back soon. "Thank you."
Two weeks later
Kyla marched through the grey basement corridor towards the PsyOps section. Neither her body language nor her facial expression showed any of the worry she felt. Wolf would be released today and Lydecker had ordered her to take care of him. She wasn't sure what to think of that; usually an X5 who came from PsyOps got checked by the medical staff and returned to his unit. Perhaps the Old Man knew something.
She entered the reindoctrination room without hesitation.
"X5-301. I'm here to take care of X5-451" she informed the only scientist in the room.
"Yeah, I've been informed already" the blond woman replied and pointed towards the closed curtain. "He's not injured but moving will be a little bit painful for him. And you have to make sure he gets to drink enough. Any questions?"
"No, ma'am" Kyla answered briskly. Sure, the new PsyOps operators were not as brutal or even sadistic as the old ones but the transgenic still despised them.
"Good, I'll let you alone then." The woman took her papers and left.
Kyla slowly approached the closed curtain. She had flashbacks of when she had been here the last time when they had rescued Max and she still remembered how her teammate had looked back then. Almost hesitantly she opened the curtain.
He was lying on the table asleep or unconscious. He didn't look too bad. She could see no bruises, cuts or new scars on him, only on his wrists and ankles she could see blood where the restraints had been before. His hair was still cropped short, something PsyOps almost always did with the transgenics that had to come here.
When she slowly approached him he suddenly stirred on opened his eyes looking at her and she breathed a sigh of relief; he'd made it. His gaze was not a blank stare and she could see he recognized her. Nevertheless she could also see he was exhausted and the signs of the four weeks of torture were very well visible in his eyes.
"Hey", she whispered trying to smile and carefully touched his arm. "You made it, it's over. I'm here to bring you back to the barracks."
It took him a few seconds to understand what she'd said but then he nodded and Kyla could see a faint smile on his lips. Slowly and carefully she helped him to stand up and cringed when she heard him wince in pain.
'A little bit painful!' she thought and scowled. 'A little bit my ass!'
When he finally stood on his own feet she could feel it took him all the strength he had not to let himself sink to the floor. After four weeks of lying on that damned table almost 24/7 his muscles were sore and not used to the work they had to do now.
Kyla held him close with her arm around his waist and he supported himself on her with his arm around her shoulders.
"Come on" she said, "let's get out of here."
He didn't say anything, just nodded. Slowly they started to move. Out of the room every transgenic feared, through the grey corridors and towards their barracks. Kyla knew if she hadn't been an X5 she would have been in trouble. She was more dragging her partner than he walked himself and for an ordinary woman his weight would have been too much long before they would've reached their destination.
And he was in pain. He tried not to show it but she could feel him flinch from time to time, his lips were firmly pressed together and when he made a sudden movement he winced quietly.
Luckily most of the other units were out in the woods but they still came past a few transgenics and they all looked at them, some with concern but most with curiosity. Kyla shot them warning glances and they turned away quickly, well aware of her reputation. When they finally reached their unit's quarters she directed her partner to the showers. The grey gown was gone in a matter of seconds and she still held him when the hot water started flowing for she knew he would never have been able to keep standing by himself.
Her uniform was drenched within seconds but she didn't mind, just let the hot water wash over them. She knew something like that would not have been possible on the outside. The nude body of another person was a big deal to ordinary humans but here at Manticore it had never been like that. Sure, if possible they tried to maintain some sort of privacy but after all their clothes were nothing but an add-on to the soldiers beneath them. She had seen many male X5 naked already and she knew Wolf better than anybody else, so usually it was nothing special to her seeing him without clothes. This time however she felt something else, standing so close to him with her hands on his wet skin and feeling his muscles move beneath it. She mentally shook her head and forced herself to focus on her task.
When they'd finished they left the showers and soon entered his cell. Carefully she helped him to lie down onto his bed and almost instantly felt how tired he was again. The short journey from PsyOps back here had exhausted him already, but he felt better than he had in weeks and with the familiar surroundings of his cell around him and the feeling of Kyla's presence he also felt safe. After a few seconds he had already drifted off into sleep.
Kyla carefully covered his body with the thin blanket and allowed herself to watch his sleeping form for a few seconds before she was sure she wasn't needed for the moment, then quietly left his cell and went to hers were she quickly changed into a dry uniform. While doing so she thought about what she had felt in the showers and a subconscious smile stole herself on her face when she thought about how it had felt to hold his body so close to hers.
Still smiling she left her cell and went to check on him again. As soon as she had entered his quarters the smile vanished. She swore under her breath and was at his side in the blink of an eye. Wolf's eyes were still closed and he didn't make a sound but his whole body was trembling. For a moment she thought he had seizures but quickly let go of that thought. She had seen seizures before many times and this was nothing you could cure with tryptophan.
It was nothing unusual. After having been released from PsyOps the mind had to deal with what had been inflicted to body and soul and almost every transgenic dealt with it differently. Kyla knew she had trembled, too, after she had been in PsyOps in '09.
Out of instinct she climbed into bed with him. His back was pressed against her chest and she wrapped her arms around his upper body, holding him close. There was nothing worse for a soldier than the feeling to have been abandoned and she knew Wolf subconsciously – even in his sleep – still felt a little bit like that. She hoped his mind would notice her presence and allow him to calm down.
She didn't know how long they lay like that until the trembling started to die away and eventually stopped. She listened to his now even breathing but still and was grateful he seemingly was much more at peace now. She knew she should get up and leave now but she didn't. She closed her eyes and enjoyed to be so close to him again until she finally drifted off into sleep herself.
Okay, not much Max this time, but I can promise you she will be back in the next chapter and start to kick some ass again. Unfortunately I have to warn you Renfro will be back, too.
For those of you who would like to see Brin or Jace: Next chapter.
And for those who would like to read the next chapter at all: Review please ;)