Disclaimer: I don't own Dark Angel so don't sue me. Thanks. :-)
A/N: Thank you, thank you, thank you to DancerInTheDark101, shywr1ter, nattylovesu, 452max, sango, Alexa and Sandra for the lovely reviews! You have no idea how much they are appreciated and how much they spark my muse! :-)
Ex Multus Familia
Chapter 19
"How much stuff are they going to buy?" Robin asked. She and Seth were sitting on the patio of a bistro café on the corner of a Cape Town street. Taylor was sleeping in her baby seat in a chair between the two of them, a thin blanket thrown over her to keep her out of the sun.
Seth sighed and poked the salt shaker in the middle of the wrought iron table. "Who knows? I gave Krit most of the money we collected from selling off that car we stole last night."
That had been an adventure. With Cape Town's advanced technology in mind, they had had to be very careful in selecting a vehicle to steal that would still bring them some income. Krit had spent the day finding a buyer while Syl babysat Taylor; Seth and Robin found the car, an older model Mustang that didn't have an alarm. It was a 1980s antique, and haggling with the parts dealer had gotten them enough money for whatever Krit needed surveillance wise.
"Watch Syl convince him to buy that new game system she's always talking about," Robin said, shaking her head. "That'd be really useful right now."
"I don't think they'd be that frivolous," Seth said, "Hopefully."
"They won't be," Robin said, "I'm just…bored." She picked up a fat, bright strawberry from the platter of fruit Seth had bought for their lunch. They had picked up a couple sandwiches and then two more for Syl and Krit for whenever they came back. They were down the street right now, bartering with some guy in an electronics shop while pretending to be Canadians or something.
Seth smiled at her. "You aren't enjoying a beautiful day in Cape Town?"
"No, that's not it, I like it here," Robin said. She actually liked it a lot here. It was gorgeous, blossoming with life, and the sun shone every day, or so it seemed. It was nothing like dirty, cloudy Seattle with its transgenic-hating citizens who shoot her as soon as look at her if they knew what she really was. She ate another strawberry. "I just don't like waiting."
"There's no way around that," Seth said. "It wouldn't do us any good to bust in there, guns drawn, and not know what we're getting into."
"I know, I know," Robin laughed. "I'm just so used to always going right in. I wasn't usually there for the preliminaries of a mission."
"Why not?" Seth asked. Usually a team went in together and came out together, if they could.
"Well, normally I was on guard duty." Robin played with one of the smaller strawberries, "I was basically a professional body guard. If a team found out that they had a prisoner or someone who was going to be tough to get out, they'd send for me. They knew I would protect the target with my life and would do everything humanely possibly to make sure they got out safely."
"They couldn't know that for sure," Seth said. He grinned at her. "We're not infallible, even though Manticore liked to pretend we were."
"Yeah, but Manticore had a better bet with me than the others. They built some sort of need-to-protect complex into me. I can get very protective on a mission, and if I fail…" Robin looked away and her nails dug into the strawberry a bit. "It doesn't feel good," she whispered.
Seth stared at her hunched shoulders for a moment. Robin looked up and her eyes widened at the hard planes his face had become, and the way his eyes had gone cold.
"What's wrong?" she asked, looking around. She half-expected to see a panicked Syl or Krit.
"Nothing. Everything." Seth took a deliberate sigh, and his face relaxed somewhat. "The things Manticore made us do…sometimes it really angers me. And how idiotically brainwashed we were." Seth gave a slightly bitter laugh, something Robin had never heard from him before. "I was so proud, I was such a good soldier, doing everything they told me to. Now I feel like I was one of the weakest of us, not strong enough to stand up to Manticore or to want to."
Robin moved her chair so that it was right next to his and then curled into Seth's arm. He reflexively pulled her closer.
"Manticore messed us all up." She looked up at Seth. "None of us thought to rebel after the '09ers. It would've been stupid, and we would have lost any semblance of independent thought that we had after that. The best way to earn independence was to be a good soldier."
"Well, I didn't even think about that though."
Robin grinned up at him. "Your subconscious did." She brushed her hand once through Seth's hair. "You're too good of a man; you wanted to please everyone." She tugged on the tips of his hair playfully. "I bet you always avoided killing, didn't you?"
"I usually tried to justify it," Seth admitted. He pulled Robin's hand away from his hair and caressed it a moment. "If I couldn't, well… that didn't happen very often. Those were harder." He frowned at her, "Hey, how did this get to be about me? We were talking about you and the bastards at Manticore."
"I'm very adept at changing the conversation," Robin said with a smirk. She moved away from him to grab another piece of fruit. "And yes, they were bastards, but I prefer not think about them now rather than dwell on how much I hate them. I'm used to being me, so it doesn't really bother me."
"Well, it bothers me," Seth said darkly, "All I needed to know was that your deepest desire is to protect anyone near you who's getting shot at."
"You're welcome."
"I'd rather not be."
"Hey." Robin sat up. "They're coming. And Krit looks happy, so I'm guessing he got what he wanted."
"We can hope so," Seth said.
Syl and Krit walked up to the little bistro, heading up the concrete steps and toward the corner where Seth and Robin were sitting. Seth had chosen this particular corner because it was strategic; from the vantage point, they could see in almost all directions yet their backs were protected by the building.
Krit pulled out a chair Taylor's baby seat was in and picked the whole thing up. He sat down in the chair and put the baby seat in his lap, acting as if he did this all the time. Syl took the chair beside Robin and began to pick at the strawberries and blueberries on the plate of fruit.
"Did you get what we need?" Seth asked, trying to hide the grin that was on his face. It was funny to see Krit holding the baby seat like that, as if he had somehow become Taylor's godfather over the course of the trip.
Krit smirked back at him, obviously smug. "Yeah, we got it. Some of it isn't worth shit, but I can make it work."
"He's good with paper clips and bubble gum," Syl said as she popped a third strawberry into his mouth.
Krit glanced at Syl. "That's not all I'm good with."
"Oh, Krit, don't," Robin said though a half-grin came to her face. Dirty jokes had always been strictly out of bounds at Manticore, but a few cleverly disguised ones had slipped by the higher ups. And it had taken them a while to figure out why everyone kept saying "gun" in that suggestive way…from then on they had to refer to everything as firearms, which hadn't been much better.
"Don't be disgusting when you're holding the baby," Syl said, making a face at him.
"I'm not being disgusting, I'm being suggestive. She doesn't understand."
"I don't care," Seth said, glancing at the X5 escapee, "I'd rather you not be "suggestive" around the baby."
"Sorry, Dad," Krit said. He rolled his eyes and peeked under the blanket to look at Taylor. "She's sleeping."
"Yeah, but she'll probably pick up on it in her sleep," Syl said. She waggled a strawberry at him. "Then Seth and Robin will blame you for ruining their child."
Krit glared at Syl but decided not to respond. Sometimes it was just best to lay low and let the enemy exhaust themselves, especially when it was a three to one battle.
"How long do you think it'll take you to get everything set up?" Seth asked as Krit grabbed an orange.
"I don't know, man, some of this stuff is pretty busted," Krit said, "I was working on a budget."
Seth was not deterred. "Could you be ready tonight?"
Krit stopped peeling the orange and stared at Seth. "You're kidding, right? You can't expect me to set up thousands of dollars worth of equipment, half of it busted, in just an afternoon. No, not even that much. You're giving me part of an afternoon."
"I thought you were the technology guru," Robin said, smirking at him.
Krit held up his hands, balancing the baby seat in his lap. "Yeah, guru, not a miracle worker."
"When's the soonest you can get it running, then?" Seth asked, "Are you sure it can't be tonight?"
"I'll see what I can do, Seth, but I can't promise anything," Krit said.
"Are we sure that Sandy's there?" Syl asked, glancing from Seth to Krit and back. "I mean, Logan said last night that she was, but…"
"Logan said there was a woman registered in the system that might be Sandy," Seth said, looking at Syl. "Caucasian, in her sixties, no military clearance beside in the science labs and then it's the highest level they have."
"Which is, haha, Red," Robin said. She rolled her eyes. They thought they were so clever…yeah right.
"But that could be anyone," Syl said, "That could be a janitor that cleans the science labs."
"Highly doubtful," Seth said, "It's more likely that she has the clearance because she has legitimate reasons for going into those areas."
"I think cleaning up is pretty legit," Syl said. She picked up a slice of kiwi and popped it into her mouth.
"She also just got housing there a couple weeks ago," Robin said as she put down her glass of ice water. "Right around the time her husband showed up in Seattle."
"And was promptly murdered," Syl said, "After which we came to South Africa, yadayada, blah blah."
"Exactly," Seth said, smiling at her, "Which means we should move as if we know this is her for certain." He looked back at Krit. "Are you certain you can't get something running?"
"Dude, I'll try, but I can't promise anything," Krit said, shaking his head.
"Maybe if they'd have given you more beaver," Syl said, cocking her head to the side. "Of course, I don't really like buck teeth, but if it'd make you more useful…"
Krit glared at Syl, and Robin laughed. "I'll help you, Krit," she said, "I used to work with technology every now and then back when we had to know such things."
"Okay," Krit said, "But it's not going to be fun."
"I like challenges," Robin said with a smile. "Besides, while we're setting up, Seth and Syl and get the low down on Sandy's location from Logan."
"Gotta love long distance mission planning," Syl said. She picked up a napkin and swiped it across her mouth.
"Yeah…not so much," Robin said, smirking at Seth. He gave a long-suffering sigh before nodding, glancing toward her for a moment.
"Let's get to it."
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There had been a good, long fight over sleeping arrangements at the hotel the first night the Italian Team stayed in Venice. At first, Dalton, who had eventually come back from sulking, had been banished to the servant bedroom where he had grumbled about how mistreated he was. It seemed that Manticore kids became very possessive of their autonomy once they got out of their enforced military service.
After Dalton had been dealt with, Sidda made a play for the master bedroom, slipping past Alec while he was lecturing Dalton on the fine points of being a worthless go-fer grunt. By the time Alec had realized where she was going, she had already locked the door and shoved a dresser in front of it. Alec had been left standing outside the engraved door with Dalton, who found the entire situation hilarious.
While Dalton was ordered back to his room, Alec found out that he was missing his bag; he had put it in the master bedroom earlier, assuming that was where he was sleeping. After quite a long bit of coaxing and begging and saying how much it seemed like she wanted him to sleep naked, Alec got Sidda to open the door. She had attempted to chunk his pajamas at his head, but he had caught them and barged in, determined to tell her his view of how the sleeping arrangements would work out.
When Sidda found out that his game plan was for both of them to share the master bed, platonically of course, she had utilized the silk pillows and launched them at Alec, aiming for the gut and the head although only one of the shots, a fast pitch to the head, made contact. While Alec was fending off pillow missiles, Sidda made it very clear that her intentions for the master bedroom were that it be used by one person, and that person would be her since she was the only female on the trip and there were two beds in Dalton's little room, exactly equaling the numbers of male members on the team. Alec, perturbed that Sidda didn't want to share the massive bed even after he promised to make a pillow barricade between the two of them, demanded that he, as the tallest of them all, deserved to sleep in the master bedroom. And she could stay with him, if she wanted to, since she wouldn't take up all that much space anyway.
A verbal sparring match ensued in which both parties hurled numerous threats and insults at each other, deprecating various body parts and abilities that the other thought they possessed in excellence and abundance. In exasperation, Sidda finally declared that she would take the comforter from the bed and sleep on the couch in the sitting room. The turnover caught Alec off guard, but, suspicious as always, he continued to lay claim on the master bedroom.
After Sidda grabbed her pajamas, snatched the comforter from the bed and double-timed it into the sitting room, Alec decided he wanted to sleep on the couch. He accused Sidda of being self-sacrificing to make him feel bad, a dirty trick on her part. Sidda retorted that he just wanted to sleep on the couch because she had decided to, but Alec insisted that he had come up with this whole plan on his own, and he really wanted to take the couch while Sidda took the bedroom.
The second round of embattled bickering roared out of the two of them. In an interesting half-time event, Dalton made an appearance to say that if they couldn't come to a decision over who had the master bedroom, he would be glad to take it off their hands. A foul was called, and Dalton was ordered back to his small bedroom to sleep of his grumpiness.
In the end, Sidda won the uncomfortable sitting room couch, and Alec was banished to the massive, lonely master bed. However, the next morning, Sidda woke up in the master bed, still curled up in the comforter, while Alec slept on the chaise lounge at the foot of the bed in a small, cattish ball. Neither of them mentioned the final sleeping arrangements to each other, and they were both out of the master bedroom before Dalton woke up demanding sugar cereals and milk in order to make it through the morning in a coherent manner.
They checked out of the hotel, charging the price to Alec's "aunt's" bank thanks to Logan's Internet hacking. The previous night, they had located an international cell phone at a dealership after finding a house to live in for the remainder of the mission. It was a nice little townhouse on a row of vacation houses that were rented out by the week, so no one would notice them coming or going. According to Logan's hasty research, the place they had found hadn't been rented out that summer, and the owners lived in Portugal and never came to visit. To the neighbors, it would seem like they were just another family visiting for a little while before going home.
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They had stayed a week in the vacation house so far and were having trouble finding leads. They'd gone to a few outdoor concerts, several restaurants and toured almost every single museum in walking distance. So far, they hadn't heard a whisper of rumor. If something didn't turn up soon about this guy, they were going to have to lean on Logan more.
"I thought missions were supposed to be fun and exciting," Dalton grumbled. He was lounged on the living room couch, idly flipping through a book Sidda had lent him.
"Well, now you know better." Sidda didn't even look up from her own book; she'd found a book called Metamorphoses in a second-hand book shop down the street. It was written a long time ago, but Sidda found the tales fascinating. So far, Dalton didn't seem to appreciate much Sidda's taste for the classics. She'd told him that he could go pick out his own books, but he didn't seem very interested in that either.
"At least when Alec's here we get to watch TV," Dalton said, propping his chin on his hands.
"Yes, and slowly turn into uneducated vegetables. How fun." She finally got to the end of a paragraph and looked up from her book. "Look Dalton, I'm not keeping you prisoner. If you want to go do something, do it."
Dalton stood up and started pacing, "I want to do something but not vacation stuff." He gave Sidda a pleading look. "Please, let me something to do that matters."
"If I had something for you, I wouldn't be here myself," Sidda said. She glanced at the clock on the wall; Alec had left a few hours ago with vague mutterings about something to do. She was half-hopeful that he'd found a lead, but she hadn't wanted to ask. Better not to be disappointed when he got back.
"Honeykins, I'm hooooome." Sidda rolled her eyes as Dalton bounded up like a puppy dog.
"Alec, tell me you've come to save me from the Hunchback of Notre Dame!"
"It's good for you," Sidda said, scowling at him.
"Better listen to mamma." Alec winked at Sidda, and only the fact that the book was in poor condition kept Sidda from throwing Metamorphoses at him. "I've got a surprise," he said, holding up two bulging garment bags.
"Are there bodies in there?" Dalton asked with disturbing eagerness. That kid wasn't joking, he really did need to see some action. Sidda made a mental note to take him to a gym or something tomorrow. Anything to help him burn off that insane amount of energy.
"Sorry to disappoint, but they're just clothes." He handed one to Sidda. "That one's for you."
"What is it for?" Sidda asked suspiciously.
"A ball." Alec's whole face lit up with a massive grin.
Sidda looked at him, wondering if she'd heard correctly. "A…ball?" What the heck did he mean by that? He couldn't seriously mean the old-fashioned dancing sort of ball. Could he?
"You know, a ball. Only a masquerade one. I got us costumes."
"I obviously missed out on something here," Sidda said. "Why are we going to a ball?"
"And how come I don't get a costume?" Dalton said. He flopped onto the couch and gave Alec an accusing stare.
"'Cause it's for grown-ups, small fry," Alec retorted.
"Hey!"
Alec ignored Dalton and looked at Sidda. "I just decided. It seemed like something you would like, and from everything the old shop lady said, it's what all the fashionable people around here do. Maybe there will be some genetic research sponsors there or something." He shrugged. "It can't hurt to go."
Sidda tried to decide if there might be another motive that Alec was hiding. But if there was, he was doing a good job of covering it up. And Sidda had to admit, the idea of going to a masquerade ball in Italy sounded amazing.
"Well, it all depends," Sidda said, unzipping the garment bag.
"On what?" both Alec and Dalton asked.
"Well, on what the costumes are of course. I can't go in something ridiculous. And it better be clever. It's no fun if your disguise isn't something clever."
"Have you ever been to one of these before?" Alec asked, amused at her requirements.
"No, but I've read about them."
"Apparently you can learn everything from reading," Dalton said, glaring at Sidda.
"You can," Sidda said with a shrug. The garment bag spilled open to reveal pools of black leather and lacing, along with some large pieces of weaponry and armor sitting at the bottom of the bag.
"Um?"
"Athena." Alec sat down next to Sidda and leaned back with a smirk. He obviously thought his choice of costume was clever. "Greek goddess of war. I'm sure you can see the irony there on several levels."
"Hmm. And I suppose you're going to be Ares?"
Alec looked disappointed. "How'd you guess?"
"Well, if either of you two would read books, the choice would be obvious."
"I read enough," Alec protested. "I knew what I was looking for."
"I bet the old shop lady helped you out." Sidda chuckled as she pulled out all the costume pieces and laid them out. Oh boy, it looked like Alec had definitely had 'sexy' on his mind when he was getting the costume.
"Only a bit." Alec came up behind Sidda and caressed her waist lightly. "Between you and me, I bet we'll be able to get anyone we want to in the room talking."
Sidda adroitly twisted and slipped out of Alec's hands. "I suppose you're barely wearing anything then?"
"Basically just pants." Alec sat on the arm of the couch. "Shop lady insisted. She said my muscles were too nice to hide away."
Sidda rolled her eyes. "If only she knew that she was adding to your conceit."
"She said I was nicest young man she's seen in a long time," Alec said, grinning. "From a good Venetian family."
"I guess your Italian's better than I thought," Sidda said, thumping him on the head before she started to investigate the clothing. Alec grinned at her, knowing by the slight quirk in the left corner of her lips that he had made a good choice both for her and himself.
"Why can't I come?" Dalton said. "It's a masquerade, right?"
"Yeah, but—" Alec started, but Dalton cut him off, standing up and taking on a defensive stance.
"But what? I could be in costume, no one would be able to tell I'm a kid," he said, "Hell, I'll even go as Death so I can wear a full cloak, okay?" He flung his arms out and stared at both of them, trying to figure out who would be more sympathetic to his plight. "I just want to do something useful!"
"You'd be the shortest Death ever. And they'd still be able to tell you were a kid," Alec said, shrugging.
"No, they wouldn't! " Dalton retorted, "You just want to take Sidda and go by yourselves because you're trying to seduce her or something!" He glared accusingly at Alec. "That's wrong."
"Hey, look, Sidda," Alec said, glancing over at the young woman who was riffling through the black leather cloth. "Since you made him start reading, he can use words like 'seduce.'"
Dalton scowled at Alec, arms crossed over his chest, while Sidda rolled her eyes.
"Alec, stop it," she said before turning to Dalton. She put her hands on her hips, and Dalton recognized the no-nonsense stance that all X5 females seemed to share. "Dalton, if you think you're completely competent and able to take Alec's place, please, feel free to take his costume for yourself."
"Really?" Dalton asked, watching her cautiously.
"Hey, no, I don't like that plan," Alec said, flicking his eyes toward Sidda.
"Yeah, Dalton, you can come," Sidda said, "You just have to fight Alec first." She nodded to the tall, muscular Alpha male X5.
"Huh?" Dalton said. He took an involuntary step back as the X5 stood up, grinning and rubbing his knuckles.
"See, I knew I gave her the Athena costume for a reason," Alec said.
"Yeah, and wait til you see what I do in this outfit," Sidda said, smirking over at him.
Alec looked at her and the way she was standing, her hip jutted out to the side, a dangerous grin on her face. Turning back toward Dalton, he raised his fists, determination on his face. "Hope you don't think you're going to win."
After hesitating for a moment, Dalton lifted his fists. "Can't be too hard," he said, grabbing at bravado, "Max beat you."
In three moves, Alec had Dalton on the floor, his arms behind his back and one leg twisted awkwardly to the side. Alec patted Dalton's head, effectively bouncing it against the soft rug. "Yeah, but I let Max win." He stood up and glanced over at Sidda, the look in his eyes leaving no room for discussion. "We're going to that ball."
"Okay," she said, for once unable to point-blank refuse him. She covered the blush on her cheeks by grabbing her costume and excusing herself to run up the stairs to her room beside the library.