Disclaimer: I don't own Dark Angel so don't sue me. Thanks. :-)
A/N: Hey everyone, would've updated sooner, but there was a glitch. Thank you DancerInTheDark101, nattylovesu, 452max for awesome and well-loved reviews!
Ex Multus Familia
Chapter 21
Sidda was greatly enjoying herself in the second floor ball room. The peach-colored room had high, painted ceilings, enormous crystal chandeliers and an entire wall made out of windows that looked out onto a beautiful section of canal. At first, she contented herself with walking around the miscellaneous groups that traced the outline of the room, leaving space for the dancers.
While traveling around the groups, she was listening for any talk about genetics or the names "Barker" or "Carlina De Luca." The woman's name had been mentioned a few times, but it was only conversations about her, never an address directed at a person. Of course, with everyone pretending they were some god or classic hero, it was impossible to tell if you were talking to Ra or the prime minister of Italy. Every now and then, a man would approach her ask her dance, often mistakenly calling her by some love goddess or another. Every time they were sent away with the advice to gain more wisdom before they approached young goddesses with awful pick-up lines alluding to fruit or endowment.
After a little while, she grew bored of eavesdropping on dull conversations about Italian politics and the economy. Deciding she had declined enough proposals to dance, she approached a group of people who were about her own age that had gathered in a corner of the room around one of the antique tables. No doubt these were all heirs to fortunes, big estates or mafias, and if they knew what she really was, they would have gotten someone to dispose of her or done it themselves. But now, in this disguise, she was Athena, and they were an assorted collection of gods and goddesses from other pantheons that assumed she was one of them, part of the upper echelon of Venetian society.
"And who might you be, helmed and yet still heavenly?" asked one of the young men. He was handsome, mischievous dark brown eyes peering out from behind a black half-mask. Three day old scruff covered his chin, giving him a roguish appearance. He was dressed in a sleek black outfit with tall black boots and black leather gloves. Sidda could see subtle streaks of gold in the outfit, bits that wouldn't catch other people's eyes unless he was moving through the lights.
Sidda approached him, making sure to keep her movements as graceful as possible. The seat beside him was free and next to that free seat was another man, this one dressed completely in red and just as handsome as the first except that his hair was a brown instead of black.
"Since you didn't refer to my extreme beauty as a love goddess or prowess as a fertility goddess, I suppose you'll be worth talking to," Sidda said as she slipped into the free chair, "Though I'm not sure if a mere man in black is worth my time."
"How about red?" said the grinning young man to her right. "Cocidius, Celtic god of war, is always happy to be the companion to a beautiful woman with a bow and arrow."
"There's certainly an abundance of war gods tonight," Sidda said, smirking as she picked up a drink from the center of the table. "And you, inamorato?" she said, turning her head toward the man dressed in black.
"Commedia dell'arte doesn't apply to the Norse," he replied, "And I do believe I asked you first, Colombina royal."
Sidda sipped from the glass and then put it back down on the table. "Trickster god? Or Death? Please don't be Death, it's cliché."
He smiled at her and picked up her glass. Drinking the rest of it, he set it down on the table and grinned at her. "Loki, though none of these dolts appreciate it."
"That's because you're a complete cad," a girl across the table declared, a British accent coloring her Italian speech. She was dressed in two gauze wings and had an iridescent rainbow painted across her face.
"I'm not a cad," said Loki, smirking at Sidda, "I'm simply not civilized."
"Which makes you a cad," the girl dressed as Iris said, rolling her eyes.
Sidda looked at Loki and picked up his drink. "You'll have to try not to be so uncultured. You might end up in the Underworld having acid dripped onto your face."
Loki cocked an eyebrow at her. "Is that so?"
"Go ask a Fate," Sidda said, smirking at him. She downed his drink and put it back on the table. "They'll tell you no lies."
"I'd rather avoid the Fates," Loki said. He eyed his empty cup. "Unless they're willing to replenish the goblet that the thirsty Minerva has emptied."
"A Roman goddess, where would the fun be in that?" she queried.
"Ah," Cocidius kissed her hand, "It is a pleasure to meet a being who's every action and word encourages war. My dearest Athena. A much lovelier name than Minerva, if I may say so. Loki would definitely be a cad to think that you could be her."
Sidda looked at Cocidius and laughed, and as she did so she suddenly became aware of a very masculine presence standing at the door. She wasn't the only one whose head turned either.
"I heard Peitho snatched him up," the annoying Iris snickered.
"I wonder who could be behind her mask," another girl said dryly.
Loki obviously didn't care about the new god who entered the room, as he was still concentrating on Sidda. "Cocidius has read me all wrong, as any straightforward fellow would do. It is a love of provocation and war that cause me to call you by your despised counterpart, Athena."
"Is that so?" Sidda murmured. Her attention was only half on Loki now. Alec had been staring at her for several seconds, and even though it appeared as if she was thoroughly engrossed in her flirtations, she couldn't help but watch what he was doing as well. She couldn't suppress the small spurt of satisfaction she felt at the way his face seemed to grow darker and more stony the longer he watched her. It helped with the whole Greek god thing- he was taking on the appearance of a statue.
"Excuse me." Sidda heard a woman a few conversations away. "I believe my lover has arrived." The dark-haired woman broke away from the group and sauntered up to Alec. Sidda couldn't believe the audacity of that woman! What was it with Aphrodites being utterly clueless? Did she actually think a man like Alec wouldn't come with a date?
"Who shall you favor with a dance? My bumble-headed friend here or myself?"
Sidda looked at Loki again, suddenly tired of his fake cleverness. But she had a point to prove.
"Come on," she said abruptly, standing up at the same time. She arched her eyebrow as he just sat there for a second, surprised by the quickness of her decision. "Though if you don't want to dance anymore, I'm certain Cocidius will oblige."
Cocidius jumped to his feet, but Loki quickly cut him off.
"Forgive my rudeness, the strength of your presence has tied my tongue."
"Doubt it," Sidda muttered, too quietly for him to hear. But as he turned her onto the dance floor, she caught sight of Aphrodite wrapped thoroughly around Alec. Well. Sidda smiled her most dazzling, charming smile at Loki and had the pleasure of seeing him actually gape for a moment.
Luckily the man wasn't an idiot and quickly pulled himself together. He drew her closer for the dance and leaned forward to whisper into her ear. "Unless you really want to dance with Cocidius, what do you say to getting away from this party and going somewhere else more fun?"
"And where would that be?" Sidda said, drawing her fingertips caressingly against the back of Loki's neck. Loki's lips grazed the skin below her ear lightly, and she could feel his teeth draw across it without breaking skin. She couldn't decide if she liked his audacity or not. Perhaps since she was thinking about it with such detachment, it meant that she didn't really care for it. Or him.
"I don't know, my place?" Loki suggested huskily. Apparently he'd give up all pretense of bantering.
"She's already engaged at mine." Sidda smiled as she saw Alec's presence reflected in Loki's face. Her dancing partner went stiff with anger and embarrassment. Alec laid a possessive hand on Sidda's arm from behind, then moved closer so that most of his arm was wrapped around her, and she was disturbingly close to that naked chest.
"Don't you owe me a dance, tesoro mio?" Alec asked.
"I think you owe me an apology for interrupting mine," Sidda replied, rolling her eyes up at him even as her heart pounded. She glanced around, wondering where that ditzy Aphrodite had wandered off to. Ah, there she was, back with the Zeus-wannabe she had been with earlier. She looked pissed. Sidda grinned.
"You should be thanking me for saving you from Zorro here," Alec said, glancing at Loki, "Since he's far below an Olympian, or so I've heard."
"I'm Norse, not Mexican," Loki replied, glaring at Alec. Sidda bit her bottom lip and tried to glare at Alec, but the infuriated look on Loki's face was too funny.
"Ah. So instead of being a badass hero, you're a furry Viking throwback?" Alec raised an eyebrow before looking down at Sidda. "Come on. Being incestuous with me is so better than going home with the barbarian reject."
Loki wrapped his hand around Sidda's arm and pulled her back toward him. "She doesn't have to go anywhere she doesn't want to."
Sidda grabbed Loki's hand and squeezed his fingers, grinding the bones together. "That's right," she said as he winced in pain, his mouth open, "I don't have to go with you."
When Sidda let go of his fingers, Loki stepped back, glaring at her. "You'll regret that, you little bitch. My father—"
Alec stepped up to the shorter man and stared him down, his eyes as hard as cut diamonds. "You know what I think? I think you're going to walk back over to your group of little snob-ass friends and never talk to her again. Got it?" He smirked back over his shoulder at Sidda. "Or I'll let her do more than crush your fingers."
Loki looked from Alec to Sidda and then stalked off, heading for the door instead of the table his friends were sitting at. Alec turned to Sidda and took her hand before she could walk off the dance floor. "Now that you're free, care to dance?"
Sidda smirked up at him as she slipped her free hand into his. "You can't just scare off my dance partners like that. What if I had been getting information from him?"
"And what if you were just using him?" Alec said, starting a slow step that followed the song that was playing over the speakers.
"How could I be using him for anything besides information?" Sidda asked innocently as she laced her hands together behind Alec's neck. Damn, he was tall. She was careful not to smudge the multiple layers of foundation she had used to cover up his barcode.
"I don't know," Alec said, his hands traveling down her waist. "You could've been using him as a play toy."
"What if I was genuinely interested in him?" she asked.
"You weren't," Alec said with swift certainty.
"You don't know that," Sidda said. She looked up at his dark green-gold eyes. "You don't know what I like."
"Don't I?" he asked, giving her a feral grin as he squeezed her waist. She gasped and tried to pull away, but he held her still. "Do you always try to run away?"
"Reflex," she muttered, looking down at the floor. Feeling that the situation was becoming extremely unprofessional, she decided to bring the discussion to a more useful topic. "Did you find out anything about Carlina? Is she here?"
Alec sighed. Wasn't she ever going to just enjoy herself? "Yeah."
Sidda stopped dancing and stared up at him. "Yeah? Then why are we still here, we should be tailing her, not dancing."
"The party doesn't end until three in the morning," Alec said, making a face, "It's only twelve. Is it going to kill you to dance with me just this once, Sidda?"
Sidda pulled her hands away from him. "No, but Max and Logan are relying on us…"
"But they'd want us to have a good time too, if we can manage it," Alec said. "Just dance with me, and then we can run off and play at being the good little soldiers we are, okay?"
Sidda hesitated, her eyes flicking toward the door. Carlina could decide to leave at any minute, it may be weeks before they got another whiff of her or Logan scrounged up some useful information. But Alec was right, the party had a few more hours…She tentatively took a step closer to him. "Just one dance."
Alec smirked and toyed with a strand of her hair that had escaped her helm. "Fine. Just one."
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"Wow, I thought we were done with the days of crawling through nasty tunnels." Krit grimaced at all the dank air and the sludge underfoot.
"We never were, you just always got to sit up here in your comfy little van," Syl's voice crackled over the radio.
"They never stop, do they?" Robin said. She turned and grinned at Krit, who made a face at her.
"I heard that!" Syl's voice came across again.
"Better adjust the volume or else the soldiers will hear her," Krit muttered, fiddling with the mic. Robin and Seth had to both control an urge to laugh; poor Krit did seem to have problems with getting away from Syl. Even when she physically wasn't present, she liked to make herself known.
"Fine, if he doesn't want my help, he won't get it," Syl muttered into Seth's ear.
"Syl."
"Ok, got it, business. You've still got a ways before you come to where the first soldier should be stationed. He may like to patrol a bit, so just be careful. I'd give it around 500 feet with a few bends and turns."
Seth nodded and then signaled for the others to fall in with him. From now on it would be Manticore signals. For Krit's sake he would try and remember to use the older ones. Manticore had changed a lot of signals after the 09ers left, simply because they wanted their soldiers to be able to effectively take teams against the escapees. Sadly, it had worked a few times.
Seth stopped them at about one hundred feet out and then moved forward, this time more cautiously. Robin held back so that she was about thirty feet behind; it could either add an element of surprise or give her time to escape if it turned out to be an ambush. Not that she probably would, from what she'd told Seth about her need to play bodyguard.
The nice thing about these South African Red Series was that even though the dudes were freakishly strong, they weren't exactly the most creative sort. The guard that had been posted stood stock-still in the middle of the passage, head swiveling occasionally as he checked all sides. Following orders to a T, no initiative.
They stilled right at the end of the tunnel. As long as they didn't move, he wouldn't see them. Seth signaled again, and Krit nodded. They both blurred toward the soldier, and the soldier's head snapped toward them. He lifted a gun up with one arm while his other hand went for his mic. Krit was at the mic arm in a second, immediately disabling it before he could issue a warming. Seth chopped down on the guy's arm, causing the gun to clatter to the floor.
The element of surprise was over, and the soldier started fighting back. But that didn't matter; Robin was there now and though it was painful for a few seconds, the three of them soon overpowered him. It still took a lot longer than they were used to. He put up quite a determined fight.
"Crap, I'm gonna have a few bruises," Robin said, rubbing her jaw. The back of her head also ached where she'd been thrown against the wall once.
Seth rubbed his own left hand; chopping down on the guy's muscle had been like chopping into a cement block. "Well, hopefully we won't have to worry about getting any more of those," Seth said.
"Are you tying him up?" Robin asked Krit in disbelief. He was winding some security rope-tape around the soldier, binding hands, feet, and gagging him. "We sort of shot him several times, beat him up, and stabbed him a couple times." They had talked to Logan right before heading out, and they had decided they were right to bring several different types of weapons. Max had told him that the more wounds, the better.
"I'm not taking my chances," Krit said, finishing up. "From everything I've heard, it takes a lot to kill these guys."
"Hence the multiple choices of weapons," Robin said. But she didn't press the issue further. Whatever made Krit happy.
"Did you disarm him?" Seth asked, picking up the gun the soldier had dropped.
"Of course," Krit said, pocketing some gear. He held up the soldier's mic, "I've also got a way now for us to hear what's going on in there. It shouldn't be too hard to find the channel that security is broadcasting on."
Seth smiled and shook his head. "Glad you're here with us, Krit."
"Come on, guys, move." Syl's voice was urgent. "We've got limited time before someone figures out that muscle-man isn't reporting in anymore."
"Got it," Seth said. The three of them moved on down the tunnel system with Syl directing them through the turns that would take them as far under the warehouse as they could go. Sandeman's wife was supposed to be located fairly close to the heart of the building, which made sense. They wouldn't want someone as valuable as her on the perimeter of the building, where she could possibly make an easy escape. Not that making an escape from this place would be easy at all.
"How many more soldiers should we run up against?" Seth asked Syl.
"Well, there should be one in about a hundred feet, then one after that in about fifty feet. That'll be the hardest part. If you're not quiet, the other one will hear you and then you'll have to face two of the bastards at once. After that it's home clear until you get to where you're going to exit into the building. Then you get to have some fun again."
----------------------------
The team of three made their way down the hall, using a heavy combination of team-work and weaponry to take out the Red Series soldiers that they came across. Most of them were big, hulking Dutch dudes with blond hair and faces that looked like they could belong on Cro-Magnon men. By the time they reached the third Red soldier, they were all sporting numerous bruises, Krit had a cracked rib, Seth's lip was busted and Robin's left wrist was wrenched.
The last Red soldier they came up against was a thick-set short man with brown hair that stuck up in a buzz cut. He saw them coming, and like the others, moved for his mic, but, just like the others, the transgenics beat him to it. What the X5s had going for them was a whole lot of speed, agility, and just plain determination. What the Red soldier had was a whole lot of rage and a pain threshold of a bazillion.
"Just! Go! Down!" Robin growled as she repeatedly shot the man in the stomach while he kept his hands firmly wrapped around Krit's throat. Seth was trying to pry the soldier's sausage roll fingers away from the man's throat, but Krit's face was still turning blue.
Seth snatched up the gun that the soldier had been using and let off two shots into the big guy's forehead. The man fell backward, crashing to the ground like a falling tree. Krit stumbled backwards, rubbing his neck and glaring at body.
"Sorry," Seth said to Krit, "I ran out." He glanced over at Robin. "I'm guessing you don't like shooting people in the head?"
"I've never been a fan of excessive gore," she said. Her nose filled with the scent of gun powder and blood, an awfully familiar combination that got her blood pumping. She nodded to the door that the man had been guarding. "That should lead us into the building."
"I could've told you that, if you had let me," Syl said, sounding rather peeved. She was starting to make it obvious that she didn't like being left behind while they went off on the actual mission.
"I think we could have figured it out for ourselves." Seth was in the mission, and he didn't have time to assuage hurt feelings. He nodded to Krit. "Can you open it?"
"Yeah, I have the code," Krit replied. "Shouldn't we get changed first? I don't think they'll like it if we go in looking like…sewer people."
A slight smirk colored Seth's face. "Good idea."
The three of them threw on the scientists' clothing. They had chosen lab coats that were not too dirty or wrinkled, and Krit, with Logan's long-distance help, had designed I.D. badges for them.
When he was dressed in a lab coat and slacks, Krit walked up to the door and started punching numbers into the keypad. His fingers danced across the keypad, putting in a code that Seth and Robin memorized while they watched him. After a moment, the door opened, revealing a stark blue hallway.
Memories of Manticore popped into all of their heads. Blue hallways, people marching, kids shouting as they went through katas, gun firing, the smell of ammonia drifting from the labs. Robin shook her head, trying to get rid of the unwanted images.
"Scientists usually stay out of this part of the building, so you'll have to get out of there fast," Syl said, her voice quiet through the headsets. "I'm feeding film through the nearby cameras, but we don't have to equipment to cover the whole building."
"We'll move fast then," Seth confirmed. He looked at Robin and Krit, and they both made affirmative signals. Now they were getting to the hard part.
"I'm looking at the live feeds from the cameras," Syl said, "No one's in the halls where you are right now, so you should move now."
At her word, the trio blurred out of the tunnel, Seth slamming the door shut behind them. They shot down the hallway, Syl whispering directions to them. They eventually came to another door that had a keypad.
"Syl, are you scrambling these entries?" Krit asked as he typed in another stream of passwords and codes.
"No, I'm just letting them log so they can find you," Syl snapped back. "Of course I'm scrambling them."
"Just making sure," Krit said, "It'd suck for them to track us that way."
"Syl, is there anyone in the hallway?" Seth asked, breaking off any possible argument that was going to start between the two 09ers.
"Yes, a couple of officers, a colonel and a lieutenant," Syl said. "They're probably going to go check on why the Reds haven't replied to their calls. You should take them out."
"I think we can incapacitate them," Seth said, "We already took out the Reds. These men don't need to die."
"Whatever you say, Seth," Syl said, "But don't be surprised when they call someone on your asses."
"Just block the feed to the hall," Seth said, narrowing his eyes. He wasn't used to someone talking back to him while he was on a mission. No one at Manticore ever questioned his orders; it was disconcerting to know that Syl would disobey him if she felt for some reason that her reasoning was better than his.
When the door popped open, Krit and Robin sprang forward, both of them grabbing an officer. When they dragged them into the hallway, Krit slammed his palm down across the back of the colonel's head while Robin cut off the lieutenant's air supply until he fainted from the lack of oxygen.
Krit tied both of them up and left them on the inside of the hallway, beside the keypad. "They'll be awake soon. We should probably cut our time in half."
Seth sighed, and Robin gave him a half-smile. "Don't you just love difficult missions?"