Disclaimer: I don't own Dark Angel so don't sue me. Thanks. :-)

A/N: Thank you to Marcus Sylenus, nattylovesu, Dark girl, Stargate fan and Kate for reviewing!!

Ex Multus Familia: Part 2

Chapter 6

For about a week and a half, the inhabitants of Terminal City did not get a glimpse of Max and Logan. After Adenine administered the Cure to Max and it actually worked, the two had disappeared into Max's apartment for some well-deserved alone time. Of course, without Max's hard-ass, no-nonsense, get-business done attitude, the transgenics got a little lazy, letting some tasks go neglected while the cultural center became the focus of everyone's energy.

When they had finally come out of hiding, Max and Logan had resumed their jobs with grace, but everyone was nervous about going into the office and finding them "getting busy," as Joshua liked to call it. It was a well-founded fear, they discovered when Gem walked in on them making out when she was submitting her cafeteria requisition sheets. No one blamed them, but it was a little disconcerting to see them always having "hand-sex," Syl's term for how they always seemed be holding hands and caressing each other's fingers and palms.

Max had swiftly gotten Terminal City back in line and started preparing to leave for the farm. Robin and Seth's wedding was the next week, the last week in August, and a lot of the higher personnel in Terminal City would be leaving for the farm. Mole had volunteered to stay behind as C.O. while they were gone, saying that he didn't need to go to the wedding to see a couple cats get married, but he wished them luck, of course. They'd need it.

Robin was helping Max get organized by putting her papers and things into designated folders. While Max and Logan had been on their holiday, she had redecorated Max's office, making it more user-friendly and Max-like at the same time. Now it was painted dark red with tasteful decorations, and the little gold figurine of Bast that Max liked so much was sitting on a table all on its own.

"What do you think she's planning?" Max asked. The transgenic leader was half-buried in a filing cabinet, putting things away.

Robin shrugged and pushed her hair back from her face. "Your guess is as good as mine. She wouldn't tell me anything." She threw a stack of papers onto the trash pile and turned back toward Max. "I mean, it's my party, shouldn't I know these things?"

Sidda was throwing Robin a bachelorette party tonight since this was supposed to be their last night in Seattle before the wedding party and guests left for the farm. Robin had tried everything to get Sidda to tell her what the party was, but Sidda had been a grinning, laughing iron wall of "No, I'm not telling."

"I don't see why we can't have a simple party out in the country," Max replied. She pulled herself away from the filing cabinet and shut the drawer. "Then I wouldn't have to worry about what Sidda may be bringing in for this…party."

"What exactly is a bachelorette party supposed to be like?" Robin asked. She stood up from the chair she had been sitting in and grabbed the pile of trash papers. She chunked them into the trash bin.

"I don't really know, I've never been to one," Max said, shrugging, "It's supposed to be fun, though. Sidda knows that."

"Yeah, but Sidda's idea of fun might not exactly line up with mine," Robin said. She could feel a headache coming on as she thought of possible parties Sidda may throw. Male strippers, too much alcohol, a thieving expedition? Blowing something up? Running from sector cops? Crashing a super-expensive rich party? Oh, anything was possible, and it was starting to make Robin panic that she could not get any information from either Sidda or Alec.

Alec knew about Sidda's plans, Robin was certain that he did even though both he and Sidda said that he didn't. Robin had tried to get it out of him by feeding him all of his favorites and then declaring she would never cook for him again if he didn't tell her what was going on, but it seemed like his Manticore training had prepared him for any kind of torture. She had not gotten anything out of him, much to her annoyance.

There was a knock on the door, three sharp taps. "Hey, Max, are you hiding the bride in there?"

"Door's unlocked, Sidda," Max called.

The door swung open, revealing Sidda, her short hair pulled back in a spiky ponytail. She walked in and looked at both of them. "You guys need to go get dressed."

Robin sighed. "And how are we supposed to get dressed?"

"All black, cat suits preferred. You'll want your boots," she said, grinning cheekily. When they both stared at her, she put her hands on her hips. "You don't think that this is going to be fun, do you?"

"I just wish I knew what we were doing," Robin replied. She finished straightening the few papers she was holding and handed them to Max. "I know you wouldn't plan something not fun, Sidda, but you're brand of fun can be a little…scary."

"Is it going to have any repercussions on the transgenic image?" Max asked, "If we're going to go surf on a train or steal a boat to go on a midnight cruise, I want to know."

Sidda put her hand to her chest, mock-offended. "Come on, you guys, you know me! If we were going to do anything dangerous, we'd be stealing a private jet."

"Not funny, Sidda," Robin said, shaking her head. She walked over and locked her arm through Sidda's. "Can't you just tell us?"

Sidda wriggled away from Robin and shook her head. "No way, this is a surprise." She patted Robin's cheek, which made Robin bat at her, aggravated. "You're going to have fun, I swear." She darted toward the door and disappeared down the hallway. Her voice trailed back to them, playful and teasing. "Be at 106 Cedar Street in thirty minutes!"

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Robin wasn't sure what to think about the idea that she and three of her four bridesmaids were standing in one of the most run-down sections of Terminal City the night before leaving for the farm, all dressed in black sneak suits.

"So, are we robbing some random place to help pay for Robin's wedding?" Syl asked, picking at her suit.

"Doubt it," Max said. She was sitting on a rusted bench. "I'm pretty sure Sidda's trying to mislead us. If she'd wanted to go steal stuff, she probably would have stolen our sneak suits first and then brought them there."

"Yeah, you're probably right about that," Robins aid. She dug her toe against some of the loose asphalt that was on the ground. "Seth left at the same time I did, so I can't help but wonder if we are doing something with the guys." She looked up. "Did everyone else leave at the same time?"

"I haven't seen Dalton since lunch, so I don't know," Gem replied.

"Logan did," Max said.

Syl nodded. "I got a call from Krit letting me know that he was being dragged away by Alec, so he didn't know what time he'd get back." Syl shook her head. "That was all I got before Sidda grabbed the phone from me and hung up on him."

Robin laughed. "Poor Krit."

"Hey, there's Sidda," Gem said, moving away from the apartment they'd been hanging out next to. "She's carrying something big in a mysterious black bag."

"Hey, did you hear that Sidda?" Syl yelled down the street. "You hung up on poor Krit! He probably went and killed himself or something."

Sidda's laugh echoed back down the street. "As if you don't torture him daily with much worse, Syl." She blurred toward them and then dropped the cumbersome bag on the street. The other four women blinked as weapons spilled out of the bag, along with some sort of protective gear.

"Um, Sidda?" Robin asked. "I don't think Seth would be very happy if you got me shot before the wedding."

"Guys! Chill already. No one is getting hurt. We're not even leaving Terminal City, I swear." Everyone's shoulders visibly relaxed when Sidda said that. Sidda grabbed up one of the guns and tossed it to Robin. "Take a better look at that, gun expert." She started handing out the other equipment while Robin turned the gun over, taking Sidda's demand seriously.

"I don't get it," Robin said. "It obviously isn't meant to hold bullets, but… it's meant to hold something."

"Paintballs," Sidda said with satisfaction. "Which can be pretty painful as well, so I definitely suggest wearing the protective stuff."

"What's paintball?" Gem asked, slipping on a vest over her suit.

"It's amazing," Max said. Sidda looked at her, surprised that she knew anything about it. Max smiled as she buckled her helmet.

"I've been out here longer than you guys. I had fun every now and then."

"Well, I can certainly believe that now." Sidda winked at Max. Max blushed and busied herself with the rest of her gear.

"It's a game," Sidda explained. "Each team has different colored paintballs. You find a place to fight, and in the end you count up who got the most hits in to see who won… that is, if both teams have survivors. If you 'kill' all the members of the other team, well, there won't be a need to count points, will there?"

"How is someone killed?" Robin asked.

"Are the guys the other team?" Syl asked, a dark smile on her face. "'Cause I would so love that."

"Someone is killed if they get five minor shots, you know, limbs or something, or if they get a shot to the heart or stomach. No shooting heads in this game…those paintballs can actually do some damage. It'll cost us if you hit someone in the head." She tossed Syl an answering smirk. "And yes, we're fighting the guys."

"I knew you were conspiring with Alec!" Robin said. She looked down and surveyed her outfit. A little bulky but still easy to move in. She was starting to like the idea of battling it out with Seth and her other male friends…

"So, who is throwing an awesome bachelorette party?" Sidda swung an arm over Robin's shoulder and looked at Robin expectantly.

"All right, I give. You have pleasantly surprised me. I wasn't expecting to be this excited."

"Dork. I'm hurt you didn't trust me."

"Oh, hush." Robin moved away to grab her helmet as well. It was odd to wear one; transgenics hardly ever did since they were usually quick on their feet and rarely made fatal mistakes.

"It came with the guns," Sidda said with a shrug as if she was reading Robin's mind. "Alec didn't want to use them, but I told him we were going to because we weren't going to trust his team's aim." Sidda chuckled. "And of course, the best insult he could come up with in return was simply doing the same thing and wear helmets too."

"Men are so uncreative sometimes," Max said airily. She stretched out, enjoying the feel of her sneak suit against her skin. For her, it was like when Ordinaries wore a pair of particularly comfortable sweatpants. It fit her body just right, and in some ways was just as comfortable. And she knew Logan always found it sexy when she wore it.

Max winked at Sidda and finished her thought. "And they're so easy to manipulate at times."

"Seriously," Sidda said, tossing a grin back at Max. "So this game should be the easiest game we've ever won since we're up against an all male team."

"Let's not underestimate them," Gem said as she started loading her first round of paintballs into her gun, "They are supposed to be soldiers and everything."

"Well, technically Logan isn't," Robin said. "And Dalton's younger."

"And Krit's a complete nerd," Syl said. She ran her finger along the trigger of the gun and gave a positively vicious smile. "Which means he dies first."

"Maybe not," Sidda said, "I'm sort of putting my money on Dalton being the first one out."

Gem started to object then closed her mouth. "With his tendency to run into a situation without thinking, yeah, you may be right."

After the rest of the protective gear had been put on and everyone was familiar with their guns, Sidda flipped open her phone. Her fingers tapped quickly across the key pad. When the message was sent, she closed the phone and slid it into her back pocket. By now it was dark, almost pitch black in this unused part of Terminal City. She looked at the others, all of them now relying on night vision to see. "And so commences your bachelorette party, Robin. You're in charge."

Robin's grin was wide. "Let's split up, but stay in sight. They're probably expecting all to go off on our own. Max, you stick with me and Gem since you're not very practiced with guns. Syl and Sidda, go about six hundred feet to the right and follow our lead."

"Got it, boss," Syl said, mock-saluting Gem before she and Sidda took off into the darkness.

Robin's skin tingled with excitement as she, Max and Gem started moving, their guns at the ready, prepared to shoot any tall, muscular male body type that closed their paths. Her senses were on edge; she could every movement, how the old buildings creaked, the way the wind whistled through the rusting metal.

Her nose caught scents, but most of everything was covered by the overpowering, ever-present stench of biochemicals. Still, she tried to find the anomalies, the smell of transgenic males or even the rogue human scent that would be Logan.

She was so on edge, she was able to dodge the paintball that went whizzing towards her from an angle that led her to believe there was a sniper in the upper floors of one of these ruined buildings. Behind her, Gem let out a shout of anger as they raced for cover underneath one of the buildings.

"I'm hit," she grumbled. She held up her green paint-splattered fingers. There was a big green blob on her shoulder; not a shot that would take her out of the game, thankfully, but still a problem.

"You've still got four more shots to go through," Robin said.

She looked up at the window that she thought the shot had come from and saw moonlight glinting off something shiny. Logan's glasses. Robin gave Max an amused look. "I think your lover-boy is the sniper."

Max made a face. "Don't call him that." She leaned out to get a look at the window, and a paint ball almost hit her. It hit the ground instead and exploded, splashing their feet with specks of green paint. Max grinned. "Yep, that's him."

"How sweet," Gem said, "I love it when guys take shots at me."

"When you get a boyfriend, I'll let him know that," Sidda's voice said. She and Syl appeared out of the shadows and stepped into the group circle.

"What happened to separating?" Robin asked. Of course Sidda didn't follow her orders. Sidda never did, why did she even expect obedience?

"Better off as a strike force," Syl said, winking at them, "Besides, I can't let one of you take Krit out. That's my job."

Suddenly, Robin heard movement behind them, and as one, the group of women spun around. A pwhhpp noise, the sound of the paintball gun being fired, was heard, and Syl started cussing. The team broke apart, all jumping and rolling away from their collective clump, and they started firing in the direction the paintball had come from.

"YES!" a male voice roared, leaping from the shadows and completely covered in bright blue paint splotches. Three more shots hit Krit in the chest and stomach, but he only laughed and continued to do a victory dance. "Dude, keep shooting, I don't care, I got Syl!"

"Suicide revenge attacks are not a part of the game!" Sidda said, putting her hands on her hips.

"I think it's sick that you were gunning for me," Syl said, glaring at the shooter. There was a single green splatter on the front of her vest, right over her heart. A great shot, but now the women's team was down one member. Time to get this game on their side.

Krit pulled off his helmet and beamed at Syl, completely reveling in his conquest. "Let me see, what did you just say? Oh, yeah, something along the lines of taking out Krit is my job?" He rubbed his chin and grinned. "I was just returning the favor, sweetheart."

"You're ridiculous!" Syl screeched. She launched herself at her mate, taking him to the ground and getting covered in the sticky blue paint anyways.

Robin looked at her teammates as Syl and Krit continued their wrestling match, Krit still laughing while Syl tried to pound his face in. "All right, I think we need to step it up. Split up, everyone go different ways. Take out any guy you see, no matter who he is, understand?"

"Totally," Sidda said, drumming her fingers across the gun at her waist. "And we have to win this, okay?"

Max's eyebrows knit together as she glanced over at Sidda. "You're betting against Alec on this, aren't you?"

Sidda grinned. "Maybe. And maybe there's a month's worth of free gas riding on the line that I'm willing to share with my winning teammates…"

Max looked at Robin and raised her gun, a dead-serious expression on her face. "She's right. We have to win."

Robin smirked. "I wasn't planning on losing."

"Then let's go kick some unsuspecting male ass," Gem said.

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This time they split up completely, each going in a different direction. Max had decided that she didn't like the advantages having a sniper gave the other team, so she was going after Logan. She knew which building he was in now, so it wouldn't be hard to sneak up on him. She doubted anyone was guarding his back; that would be too boring of a job.

She crept up the stairs, giving up a limb shot at Dalton on the way in order to preserve secrecy. Plus, from the way the kid wasn't paying attention to his surroundings, he would get taken out anyway.

Max went to the top floor, careful to put pressure on the door in just the right way so that it didn't squeak when she opened it. Luckily, Logan didn't have super sensitive hearing so she didn't have to be as fast as she would with one of the others. Not that she would ever tell Logan that. She heard a few more shots as she crept into the room, and then some shouting from down below. Logan snickered, giving away his position.

"Hey sniper boy!" Max called. She ducked as a paintball came whizzing toward her and splattered on the wall where her heart would have been. Damn, but Logan was fast. Max had her gun up and ready to fire, then hesitated for a fraction of a second as a long-ago memory of guns came to her…

She closed down the memory and fired, but she had been still too long. Even as her paintball hit Logan, his hit her. They were both dead-on.

"Teach me to talk before shooting," Max said ruefully. She was actually sort of glad Logan had got her; it would make him happy. She moved over to him. "We keep this up though, and we're gonna have to call it a truce. Everyone keeps killing each off in pairs."

Logan chuckled. "We can have the bride and groom have a shoot-off as a tie-breaker."

Max rolled her eyes. "If they're willing to shoot each other."

Logan wrapped his arms around her and breathed in the scent of her hair. It was pure pleasure to be able to touch her whenever he wanted to and show the world that she was his. "Why wouldn't they be?" he murmured. "I think it sounds like a blast."

"Yes, well, Seth is probably more gentlemanly than you," Max said.

"Now I'm hurt," Logan replied. "I used to be a man of an upper-class family, and now I'm less than someone who's been trained to kill since birth. I guess I've really fallen in the world."

"Get used to it," Max said. "'Cause you're not going anywhere for a while." Logan grinned and kissed her, and they forgot about the game for quite a while.

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"Crap, two shots left," Gem said, examining her arm. She and Sidda had ended up together on a street corner. Gem had gotten fired on by Seth, but she'd managed to ditch him. She'd had the disadvantage in the fight; he'd been in the second floor of a building.

"Yeah, Alec got me a good one too," Sidda said. "But I think he had to re-load his gun because he ran off suddenly. I lost him in one of these buildings."

They were currently in a doorway with a trash bin they'd dragged over in front of them. They'd evaluated the angle to make sure there weren't any snipers that could get there, and then had checked their own supply of paintballs. Sidda's was a lot lower than Gem's, so Gem had lent her some.

"Hey, look," Gem said, suddenly sitting up. Sidda turned and grinned as Dalton came sliding around the corner. He'd obviously been watching too may spy and action movies with Alec. His back was pressed to the wall and kept freezing and then sliding again, his eyes darting everywhere suspiciously. Every now and then he would stop and suddenly swing his gun around.

"Mind if I take him?" Gem asked.

"No problem, as long as you let me watch," Sidda said. She kept one eye on the nearby buildings though, in case one of Dalton's team members decided to use Dalton's antics to his advantage. Two of the women sitting in one place could be easy kills if one of the other guys got in the right position.

Gem shifted her gun to her shoulder and sighted along its length. "I think I'll tease him a little bit," Gem said. She released the trigger, then went into rapid-fire mode, taking out both of Dalton's legs in an instant, then his trigger arm.

Dalton, forgetting that he was in a game and not in a real battle, went down to his knees and brought up his gun to present less of a target. Unfortunately for him, Gem had anticipated this. She had shot all the areas that he was now trying to block from her. Gem took one more shot, getting another arm.

"Hey Dalton," Gem called out. "Do I need to keep shooting or have you already gotten hit by someone else?"

Dalton froze, and then he shot at them, splattering the trashcan with paint.

"I guess that means I need to keep shooting," Gem said with a laugh.

"Oh crap!" They looked above the trashcan to find Dalton frantically checking his pockets for more ammo.

"I'm glad I didn't count on Dalton for any shooting back in Italy," Sidda said with a laugh.

"Gem, Sidda…" Dalton's voice was slightly panicked. "You wouldn't want to shoot a guy when he was out of ammo, would you? That wouldn't be very fun or sporting."

"On the contrary, I think it'd be quite fun," Sidda said, winking at Gem.

"Killing a fourteen year-old boy who's never played paintball in his life and who doesn't have any ammo and is now totally debasing himself by asking you to spare him…. That would be terrible of you guys. Just horrendous."

Dalton was slowly moving toward the corner, but quickly stopped when Sidda fired at the wall right next to him.

"You're right, Sidda. This is way too much fun," Gem said, her smile wide.

"Aw, come on, guys!" Dalton said, "This totally sucks! Unfair! At least give me some more ammo."

"That isn't how it works, you little whiner," Sidda yelled, grinning at Gem. "Did you ever properly punish him for the Italy mission?"

"Besides completely destroying him in the boxing match at the gym and threatening him with certain death if he ever did it again?" Gem asked. "No, not really."

"This is your chance, then." Sidda handed her gun to Gem. "Make it count."

Gem's smile was almost feral in the moonlight as she stood up and slipped over the trashcan, both guns aimed at Dalton. He stared at her wide-eyed, his hands up.

"Come on, Gem, you can't do that!" Dalton said, backing up along the wall. "Just kill me with one gun."

"No way," Gem said, "You deserve this."

"Hell yeah, you do," Sidda chimed in. It was way too much fun to watch Dalton squirm and try to figure out how to get out of the situation. If she had been caught like that, Sidda probably would have taken advantage of how Gem was reveling in sweet revenge and rushed her, catching her off guard. But that was Sidda and her training, not Dalton and his inexperience.

Dalton glanced at the guns in Gem's hands. "At least don't shoot me in the—"

Dalton's cry of embarrassed, awful pain and the thump as he hit the ground were sounds of satisfaction for Sidda. Yeah, perhaps Gem had been brutal in her aiming, but that was Dalton's final lesson. Don't mess with women. They always got the upper hand, and you would sorely regret it when they won.

Victorious, Gem turned back to Sidda, the guns resting easily in her hands. She grinned at Sidda. "Mission accomplished."

"Very professional, Gem," Sidda said, jumping up from their hiding place and running over to high-five Gem.

However, their triumph didn't last long. Three pwhhpps later, and Sidda was diving for cover again with one green splattered right arm and both guns in her hands while Gem's stomach was covered in green paint. Planting her hands on her hips, Gem swung around to face a very smug Alec who sauntered out of the shadows of one of the buildings.

Dalton glared up at him. "Took you long enough."

"Waiting for a window," Alec said, smirking and waving his gun toward Gem. "See? Maximum humiliation."

"Oh, shut up, Alec," Gem said, "Smug jerk."

"And proud of it," he said. "So, where did Sidda go?"

"Like I'd tell you."

"Behind that wall over there," Dalton said, pointing his empty gun in the direction Sidda had disappeared. Alec nodded while Gem walked over and popped Dalton in the back of the head.

"What was that for?" he asked, rubbing the place that was going to bruise.

Gem made a face at him. "For sucking up to him!"

"I wasn't!"

Alec left them fussing and went to track down Sidda. Well, this was going to be fun.

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Eventually, the last two people still alive in the game were the bride and groom. They had been stalking each other, taking shots that were meant to disable instead of kill. Robin was down four limbs now and so was Seth. The next shot would be the winning shot, no matter where it hit.

Seth and Robin had been running circles around each other the entire night, but Seth finally tracked Robin into one of the buildings and cornered her in one of the top level rooms. He trained his gun on her, prepared to shoot but suddenly her expression switched from game-face to let's-go-to-bed face.

"Robin, don't start that," he warned, not lowering the gun. He was determined to win now, he hated losing. Losing was not acceptable. Seth did not lose.

Robin kept her gun on him too, but she took a step forward, half-smiling at him. "But Seth, you don't want to shoot me now, do you?" She came right up to the barrel of his gun and reached out, her fingers sliding along his arm. Her eyes were brilliant as she looked at him. "You'd really shoot me?"

"It's just a game," he said, but he did not sound as certain as before. That moment of weakness was all Robin needed; a crack in Seth's wall of defense.

"Yeah, it is only a game," she said, moving forward so that Seth had to curve his arm to keep his gun trained on her. "So it's just for fun, right?"

"Right," Seth said, "So it doesn't matter who wins."

"But it'd mean a lot to me if I won," Robin said.

"I'd like to win, too," Seth replied, still not dropping his gun.

Robin sighed and ran her free hand down the front of his vest. "Then I guess you'll just have to shoot me." She rested her forehead on his chest, seeming to submit to him completely.

Seth started to pull the trigger then stopped, his gun aimed at Robin's side. He couldn't shoot her, not tonight or any other night. Damn it. There goes the game.

In his moment of hesitation, Robin pulled her gun back and shot him in the middle of the chest. A small huff of air escaped him; that was definitely going to bruise.

Before he could retaliate, she kissed him, her lips lingering on his. When she pulled away, smiling at him. "Thanks for letting me win."

"More like I fell for your tricks," he said, rolling his eyes. "But, like we agreed, it's just a game." He grabbed her by the arms and pulled her toward him, wrapping his arms around her. "And it puts us one step closer to the wedding."

"Three days away now," Robin said. She kissed him on the cheek and then the lips. "I really can't wait."

"I'm looking forward to it too," Seth said, smirking down at her.

"Good. Wouldn't want my sacrificial groom to be unwilling."

Seth laughed and squeezed her tighter. "Unwilling? Never."

A/N: There are now two videos for this story, one by me about Sidda and Alec and one by Stratagem about Robin and Seth. If you'd like to see them, the links are in my profile!!