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

A/N: Dude, so many of y'all reviewed the first day the last chapter. I was so incredibly excited to see all those reviews, y'all make me want to constantly write. Darn school, taking up all my time!

Ex Multus Familia

Chapter 11

"But why can't I go in?"

Seth sighed. This was the third meeting that Dalton had been shut out of, and the kid was starting to get pissed about it. Of course, Seth thought Dalton should just be glad that he knew what was going on; most of T.C. didn't know about the meetings at all. They were always held in Max's office, all of the participants crammed around the computer while Logan explained what he had found so far.

"Sorry, Dalton, but Max wants to keep these meetings as private as possible," Seth said as he walked up the stairs, heading for Max's office.

"But you told Rhiannon! And Trey!" Dalton exclaimed, keeping up Seth's heels like a spurned puppy dog biting at its owner's heels. "I was there, I should get to go, not them."

"They've been on missions before," Seth said. The headache that was gathering at his temple intensified, and he rubbed his fingers against the insistent pain. "Successful missions where they gained lots of experience."

"But how am I going to gain experience if you won't even let me out of the city?" Dalton demanded, glaring at Seth with his dark brown, hurt eyes. "It's not like I'd screw up the mission or anything, I was getting training for this."

"I know, Dalton, but these are sensitive, high risk missions," said Seth. "I swear you can go on a mission soon, just not this one. Besides, there are things that need to be done here."

"There's lots of people here," Dalton said, his voice straining as he tried to keep his exasperation under control. "They won't need me, and I was always good at mock missions back at Manticore."

Seth stopped in the hall and looked at Dalton. The kid's lower jaw was jutted out, half angry and half pout. He knew that Dalton just wanted to be helpful and to be treated like an adult, but the problem was that Dalton wasn't an adult. He was still an untried soldier, and even though he hadn't had a childhood, he still looked like a kid. It wasn't fair to lie to him.

"Dude, just give me a chance," Dalton said, looking up at him with those big brown eyes that made it impossible to send him on this mission. "I'll prove that I'm good, I know I will."

"Dalton," Seth said, unconsciously crossing his arms over his chest. It was a trait that any of his old unit members would have recognized; he always did it when he was about to deliver an unhappy truth. "I don't doubt your enthusiasm or your potential ability, and I certainly know you're willing to go." A smile tugged at the corner of his lips. "You've made that quite clear."

Dalton shifted from foot to foot. "So I can go?" he asked, barely concealed hopefulness drenching each word.

As he shook his head, Seth could see the defeat and anger growing in Dalton's dark eyes. "No, you can't."

"But why not?!" Dalton demanded. "You just said I was good!"

Seth sighed. "Yeah, but how old are you?"

"I dunno, fifteen," Dalton said. He rubbed at his nose and scowled up at Seth. "What's that got to do with anything?"

"You don't look that old," Seth said, "You look like you could be about thirteen, if that."

Dalton shoulders arched back, and he stared up at Seth. "So?" he hissed, "I look young, so what."

"So people in Europe won't be as likely to ignore a kid traveling alone," Seth said, "They haven't spent the last decade in a degraded, junk society with more slang words than cash." He pinned Dalton with a stare when the kid gave an uncontrollable huff of laughter. "Whether you like it or not, you'll look like a lost little kid. They'll stop you and ask you questions, and questions are what we'll need to avoid."

"I can get an I.D.," Dalton rebutted, but he knew he had lost. They were never going to let him go when he looked twelve instead of fifteen. They would only think of him as a liability…this sucked. He glared up at Seth, but he was angrier at himself and his childish features than anything Seth had said to him.

"It's going to be hard enough to get I.D.'s for everyone that's already going," Seth said. He thought about reaching out and touching Dalton's shoulder, but it was too patronizing. "You'll have to do what you can here and wait for a different mission. Help Gem, and give Max and Logan a hand."

"Yeah, whatever," Dalton said, taking a step back, his head held high. Shrugging his shoulders, he looked at Seth with a confusing expression, one that Seth couldn't read. It seemed like masked determination, and Seth hoped that determination was to take up his new assignment…but he doubted it. He would have to keep a close eye on the boy. "I've got guard duty or something."

Dalton stalked off, his rigid movements reminding Seth of the Manticore parade grounds. Taking a deep breath, Seth continued on to Max's office, knowing he was going to be late. Dealing with mission specs had to be easier than dealing with upset X6s.

When he got there, Rhiannon was standing leaning against the wall outside of Max's office, a cigarette dangling from her fingertips. Seth didn't know why she had gone herself addicted to smoking, but he was sure that the redhead smoked at least a pack and a half a day. Her dark red hair, almost unnatural in color, fell in tight ringlets across his shoulder as she turned to look at him, pale blue eyes piercing in her angular face. One thing was for sure, Manticore hadn't built Rhiannon to be subtle.

"Everyone's waiting," she said, nodding her head toward the door. An expert tracker, Rhiannon had been a perfect choice when Logan had found that one of the Manticore geneticists had gone deep into the Amazon jungle to escape persecution.

"All right guys, I've got everything this time," Logan said. He was having trouble hiding a grin, and his eyes were practically glowing with excitement. And why shouldn't he be happy? He'd been waiting just as long as Max for a cure to her virus.

"Awesome, where are we headed to?" Sidda asked, perching on the edge of the desk. She picked up a pencil from Logan's desk and began to play with it. Logan stared at her for a moment before turning his attention back to the others. He was starting to get used to Sidda's need to play with random objects.

"You and Alec are still going to Italy, as I mentioned before," Logan said, "but you'll be happy to know that the location I pinpointed is in the northern part of Italy, on the coast. You shouldn't burn up there."

"Even better news," Alec said. He'd heard horror stories from Sidda about warm weather in the convent.

Sidda had been an unexpected addition to the group. Well, not truly unexpected since she had been in on the lunch conversation about the missions. But she hadn't had to go. Still, as she pointed out, there was no reason for her to stay. She didn't have any useful connections outside Terminal City, and she wasn't depended on for any particular job. Plus, once Logan found out that one of the geneticists was in Italy, it had been a done deal. No one else knew Italian yet so Sidda could teach it to Alec on their way over.

"I'm going to ask one thing of you two," Logan said, "There may be a geneticist in South Dakota; I'm not sure if he's still there. But instead of flying to the Philadelphia airport, would you mind driving and stopping there to check it out?"

Alec looked at Sidda and she shrugged and smirked at him. "I guess I could survive several days in the car with Alec."

"I'm sure I could make it up to you at night," Alec said, winking at her. Sidda rolled her eyes. Max had warned her that he could be a handful sometimes.

"Rhiannon, Trey, you two are all set; you've got tickets out of Portland to Phoenix, and from there you'll fly down to Brazil." He handed Rhiannon a couple of tickets, and she studied them briefly before handing them over to Trey. Apparently he was going to be the keeper of the tickets.

Robin was practically bouncing on her toes with eagerness to find out where her group was going. Their information had taken the longest for Logan to track down. But he had just told them a few hours ago that he had finally traced the route. And then had erased it, of course. They didn't need the Familiars getting there first.

Max laughed. "Logan, you better tell Robin where they're going. She might kill you if you make her wait any longer."

Robin nodded, too tense to speak.

"I don't know," Sidda interrupted with a sly, sideways glance at Robin, "I think I actually want to hear more details about this car trip with Alec. I mean, it's a pretty big deal, driving all the way out to South Dakota and…"

"Sidda!" Robin burst out. Taylor let out a short squawk of protest as Robin accidently squeezed her. "Oh, sorry, hun," Robin said gently. Then she looked up again and glared at Sidda. "You better let him tell me Sidda! I'll…I'll…"

"What, shoot me?" Sidda asked, amused, "'Cause you know you won't win in hand-to-hand combat."

"Hey, hey, whoa," Logan said, holding up his hands, "No need to start fighting or shooting."

"Aww, Logan, it would've been fun to beat Robin up again," Sidda said, smirking.

Robin tried to hand Taylor off at Seth so she could fight Sidda, but Seth wrapped a firm arm around her, "If you fight, you'll have to wait even longer before we hear where we're going," Seth reasoned quietly.

Robin stayed tense a moment, then she sighed. "I hate you," she muttered to Sidda. But they were both smiling; play-fighting was one of their favorite activities. It was a good way to get rid of stress.

"Africa," Logan said abruptly. He smiled as everyone turned to look at him.

"Africa?" Syl asked in disbelief. She and Krit were joining Seth, Robin, and Taylor on the quest for Sandeman's home.

"Losing your hearing?" Krit asked.

Syl ignored his comment, except to punch him in the arm for it. "Why Africa?" she asked.

"Well, Sandeman's wife actually seems to be living in South Africa," Logan said, "I have a feeling she'll be the best place to start."

"Wow, I never even thought about him having a wife," Alec said.

Sidda laughed. "Amazing, isn't it? Some people actually want to settle down."

"Not me," he said, but a smile was on his face.

"Me neither," she said, smirking at him as she turned her attention back to the others.

"South Africa…" Max said softly. She met Logan's eyes, "Wonder why he was there?" It seemed like a general question, but Logan knew what Max was specifically talking about. Those super-soldiers had been from South Africa. It didn't seem like a project Sandeman would be involved in, but it also seemed like more than coincidence. Maybe Sandeman hadn't had a choice. And maybe all the problems the soldiers had were actually purposeful on Sandeman's part. Who knew? Hopefully a lot of those questions would be answered on this trip.

"I've always wanted to see South Africa," Robin said happily.

"You would," Sidda said. Robin had been extremely happy since she found out she'd be able to do something for Max. The woman seemed to thrive off of being able to do things for other people. It was so odd.

"I haaave." Robin grinned at Sidda, not letting the shorter blonde squash her enjoyment. Being able to help Max and the community would help her get over some the lingering guilty feelings. No matter how many times Max and Seth told her that she wasn't to blame, Robin could bring up other reasons as to why she was. She turned to Logan, still beaming. "So, when are we going?"

Logan bent over his computer to glance at the files. "You'll be leaving from the Portland Airport in a couple days. It was the best I could do with the short amount of time."

"That'll give us a few days to prepare," Krit said, playing absently with Syl's hair. She kept poking him in the side, but he kept at it. "We can get some supplies together and find out more information."

"I think I'll be reading up on South Africa, since we can't all be experts like Robin," said Syl, giving the other woman a teasing smile.

"Hey, I'm not an expert," Robin protested, "I just thought it'd be cool to go there since it's grown up technology wise and everything."

"She read a lot about it while she was pregnant," Sidda said, "Regular women crave food. Robin craved random books about foreign countries." She slid her playfully narrowed gaze toward Robin. "So weird."

Seth laughed and looked at Logan. "If we could pick up a few of the native dialects and customs from the Internet, it could helpful." Seth was always thinking about the details. And he really liked the detail where his arm was still around Robin's waist.

Logan nodded. "The computer's all yours, at least when I'm not on it. I can print you out some fact sheets, too." He smiled at Max. This was going to work, he knew it would. Transgenics got things done.

"All right," Max said, uncrossing her arms and stepping forward. "Since this thing's going to start going down tonight, I just wanted to tell you that you can back out now." Her gaze locked on each of theirs. "You can stop this at any time. This is my problem, not yours, so don't feel obligated to do it or anything." She kept her gaze on Robin, hoping the other woman would see the sincerity in her eyes. "I don't want you to do anything out of guilt."

"Don't mean to bust your bubble or anything, Maxie," Alec said, shoving away from the wall he had been leaning against, "But this isn't just your problem."

"It's our, too," Trey said, speaking up for the first time. Both he and Rhiannon were quiet people, rarely speaking but always observing. "Everyone needs to know what your code means. We need to know why he made us, what we're for."

"We're honored to go," Rhiannon said, her redhead bobbing in a curt nod, "This is the first real mission we've been able to go on in a long time. It'll feel good to use our skills."

Max ran her fingers along the desk. This was another problem they had come across. Most transgenics in T.C. were glad to be out from under Manticore, but they were going insane from the sheer lack of ways to use their expertise. Snipers, combat, assassins, bodyguards, marine insurgency, retrieval: T.C. was stocked with enough of a variety of soldiers to have their own military or at least a militia. Maybe the next time she talked to the government, she would mention their wasted skills.

"So, when do you want us to leave?" Alec asked, motioning to himself and Sidda.

Logan gave them an apologetic smile. "It'd be best if you left tonight. You could be in South Dakota in about two days, and then it'll take another three days before you reach Philadelphia. I'll give you a couple credit cards to get you across the country and over to Italy. Then you can pick up a phone, and I'll direct you from there."

Alec looked at Sidda. "I'm confused. Does he think we're going the speed limit?"

"I dunno," she said, eyeing Logan. She shrugged. "I think we could do it in four days, not including when we stop to check about the guy. Especially if we get a good truck with decent gas mileage."

"Three days," Alec said, "And if I win, our story in Italy is that we're newlyweds." He smirked at her. "Very intimate newlyweds."

She crossed her arms over her chest. "If it takes four days, you have to shave your head." She looked him over, her eyes traveling from his feet to his head. Grinning, she tilted her head. "Yep, it'll work too."

"As long as you still think I'm hot," he leered, not letting her get the better of him.

Max rolled her eyes. "All right, save it for the car."

"Why do I have this odd feeling that they'll kill each other?" Seth asked, looking over Robin's head at Krit.

The dark-haired X5 snickered. "Because they probably will?"

Logan shook his head. "It's a good thing I prepared briefing packets for each of you. Otherwise we'd never wrap up this meeting."

"Aww, Logan, you don't want to keep us around?" Sidda asked, sticking out her lower lip in a pout.

Logan just looked at her, then handed her a packet. "Here. Read up in the car or something."

"I can't believe you guys are already leaving." Robin was sitting at the table, watching as Sidda hurried around the apartment and tried to gather all her things together. She hadn't been expecting to leave tonight.

"I know," Sidda said distractedly, turning around as she tried to figure out where in the world she'd set down her damn hairbrush. She never found it in the same place! Alec was supposed to be there in half an hour, hopefully she'd be packed before he arrived.

"So you and Alec, hmmm?" Robin smiled slyly as Sidda paused long enough to glare at her.

"It's not like that," Sidda said stiffly.

"Oh, sure," Robin replied, "You were just oh-so-desperate to get out of Terminal City and go back to Italy of all places." Robin knew Sidda's story and knew that returning to Italy was going to bring back some bad memories. Sidda was just going to try and focus on the good ones.

"I want to be useful," Sidda said with a shrug, "And the apartment would have been pretty empty with you and Taylor gone."

"Mhmm," Robin replied, still unconvinced. Alec seemed exactly the sort of guy Sidda liked. And just the very fact that Sidda wasn't obviously going after him seemed important. Sidda normally loved taunting and teasing hot guys.

"You're awful, saying stuff like that right when I'm about to go."

Robin laughed. "Well, if I'd known you were leaving tonight I would have made sure to schedule it earlier."

"You should've. Then I'd time to beat you up or taunt you mercilessly about the fact that you desperately want to go on a mission with Seth," Sidda replied.

Robin sat up straighter. "I didn't want to go because he was going! I wanted to go for Max!"

"Sure you did."

"Sidda! It has…" She growled. "Sidda, we weren't talking about me."

"But it's so much more fun when we do." Sidda grinned at her friend, "You always get so upset."

Robin narrowed her eyes. "You know what? Maybe I won't miss you."

"Oh, you will," Sidda assured her. She chuckled at Robin's infuriated expression, then turned toward the door as a knock sounded. "I haven't found my hairbrush yet," she moaned.

"Oh, is that what you were looking for?" Robin asked as she stood up to get the door. "It's on the bookcase in your room."

"You're kind of creepy sometimes," Sidda said, heading into her room. She retrieved the hairbrush, then paused in the room for a second as she heard Alec's voice. She smiled slightly; Robin was sort of right, though Sidda would never tell her that. Sidda didn't think she was going to mind the company on this trip at all, as much as she picked at Alec about being a horrible traveling partner. She had a feeling that he would keep the trip interesting. She headed back into the living area.

"Ready?" he asked as she entered the room, "Or are you like most females and never done with packing?"

Sidda glared at Alec and swung her book bag over her shoulder. "I'm ready."

Alec stared at her. "Where's your luggage?"

Sidda turned around and indicated her book bag, then lifted up her knapsack. "Here. I figured I could steal some stuff if I needed it."

Alec continued to stared at her, and Robin started laughing.

Sidda looked at Alec's luggage and the corner of her mouth tugged into a smirk. "I gather you've never needed to travel quickly?" she asked, fighting for a serious tone.

Alec folded his arms. "I've always had high-profile missions. I had to look my best."

"I can see that," Sidda said, bursting into laughter. It wasn't really that bad, she knew that. But the fact that Alec had a suitcase while she just had a couple of bags…it was totally funny.

"Well, obviously you don't need help," Alec said, lifting his suitcase, "So I'm going down to start up the truck."

"Ok." Sidda shifted her bags so they were a bit more comfortable then went over to Robin and kissed Taylor's forehead. Taylor stirred but she seemed determined to stay asleep. She was going to be a lot bigger the next time Sidda saw her.

Robin threw her free arm around Sidda in a hug. "It's gone be a while before we see each other again."

Sidda nodded. "I'll call you as soon as we get to Italy and buy a phone. I'll leave our number with Logan."

"We'll do the same," Robin said. She moved to stand in the doorway as Sidda left. "Good luck!"

Sidda turned and smiled at her before heading down the stairs. "You too. Oh, and don't die."

"I'll try not to," Robin replied, rolling her eyes. Sidda chuckled and started down the steps. That was the nice thing about having transgenics for friends; even though everyone hated them and a lot of people were out to hurt them, at least Sidda knew that her friends were well-equipped to protect themselves.

She hurried down the stairs, not wanting to hold up the trip any longer. Outside, the crisp May night air frosted her lungs as she took in a deep breath. Fog hung above T.C. but didn't drop into the streets, threatening rain but never delivering. As much as returning to Italy was going to be a pain, she was going to be glad to get back to sunny days and starry nights.

Alec was putting an extra container of gas into the bed of the rumbling, dark red truck, lifting the thirty gallon container as if it was a bag of marshmallows. He tossed a smirk at her as he turned around.

"So, did you pack any extra underwear in that little bag?" he asked as she walked toward him. "Or do you go commando?"

She hurled the knapsack at him, but he caught it easily. She rolled her eyes but they danced with amusement. Word play was her favorite game. "Why don't you just check?"

"The bag or you?" he asked as he put the knapsack into the back of the truck.

"I get to decide?" She raised her eyebrows as she walked over to the passenger door and opened it. "If that's another attempt at twisted chivalry, I'm calling that a fail."

"Trust me, I'd never try to be chivalrous," Alec said as he climbed into the driver's seat. As she got in, he turned to look at her. "So, you ready for this?"

She shoved her backpack between her feet and smiled at him. "Seeing how I was trained to be constantly ready for crap like this, I think I'll say yes."

"Then let's get the hell out of Dodge."