One

When Jondy entered the operations chamber the hubbub of low-level chatter fell to a hush almost instantly. Attempting to ignore Alec's presence at her side, she made sure to keep her head held high as she walked quickly ahead avoiding eye contact with those present. No matter what Alec said when they were getting along, she knew each one of Lydecker's core troop of X5s nurtured Manticore's brainwashing about the 09 traitors- their concealed hatred buzzed like an undercurrent through camp to electrify her every last nerve. Never in her life had she been most aware of her animal DNA.

The fact that Alec didn't miss a trick irritated her to no end. She knew his smirk would be self-satisfied and his eyes keen as he took in the dynamics between the other ones- a horizontal hierarchy was a new concept to most of those present. When in fact all Jondy wanted was to find somewhere to have her own space to think, somewhere that she could push aside the unease that prickled up her spine in the presence of the other ones and hung around for hours afterwards, rather than partake in juvenile games.

Jondy scanned the crowd. Relief filled her chest momentarily when she locked eyes with Logan Cale. Tearing her gaze away from his small nod of concerned acknowledgement, and in effort to still her mounting nervousness, Jondy turned her mind to Zane and what she imagined he would be doing at this present moment. Knowing Zane, he was most likely keeping an eye out for items he could sell back in post-pulse America to make their lives very comfortable. She knew for a fact that unlike his wife, Zane's reality would not involve getting his ass chewed out by one Donald Lydecker, who presently made a beeline for her striding across the concrete floor, his expression thunderous.

"You two! My quarters. Now."

"Don't even try it," Jondy muttered rolling her eyes and catching Alec's arm before he went to make a break for it. "'We're in this together'. Remember?"

She took some satisfaction from the glare he shot her at having his own words thrown back in his face, before a devil-may-care-smirk lit across his face.

"Nah-uh, not my problem. I don't report to him-"

Jondy's stomach did a panicked flip in response to his words.

"Move it!"

"C'mon!" Clutching his wrist Jondy followed the Colonel into the antechamber on their left, dragging Alec along with her knowing that he was as much to blame for this situation as she was.

Once they were assembled in the brightly lit room Lydecker didn't waste a moment before he rounded on the pair.

"Explain yourselves."

Hesitating, Jondy's eyes slid to Alec who stood in Lydecker's presence with deliberately relaxed posture. All the hazel-eyed X5 did was shoot her a pointed look, irritation radiating from his core. Her eyebrow rose of its own accord in response, so he wanted to handball this to her did he?

"Mind if I sit?" Jondy sarcastically enquired with Lydecker as she one-handedly pulled a chair out from behind the desk, the other pinching the bridge of her nose. "Got a massive headache, probably from the stress of dealing with this idiot for the past seventy-two hours."

There was no damn way she was going to take one for the team.

"You little bitch. Nice try deflecting all responsibility for your actions!" Alec unexpectedly exploded in genuine anger next to her. Jondy could almost felt his eyes boring into the side of her head while she pointedly avoided his gaze as she seethed silently. "Your parents raised you real fucking well, you know that? Why don't you tell-?"

Frustration coursing through her, the younger X5 was back on her feet before she could stop herself, the chair toppling to the floor with a clatter as she rounded on her teammate.

"If you had just-"

"It would have been tactical suicide!" Alec hissed his eyes alight with an equal measure of annoyance. "Did you learn nothing those few years you spent in Wyoming? We-"

"What the hell is your problem?" Jondy growled with narrowed eyes cutting across him. To which, Alec folded his arms across his chest and raised an arch eyebrow unimpressed.

"You smug bastard!" It was Jondy's turn to explode in righteous anger. "You have done every-fucking-thing you can to sabotage this mission! I-"

"I-don't-have-all-evening-kids."

Jondy's head swiveled and any further retort died a sudden death on her lips when she took in her Colonel's glacial expression before she immediately fixed her gaze squarely on the concrete floor, forcibly gulping down the metallic taste of bloodlust and adrenaline in her mouth.

"Sorry." Witnessing Jondy's shameful reaction forced Alec to come to his senses. One look at the expression on the older man's face led him to determine that there might be some truth to the rumors swirling about Lydecker's past at Wyoming, including the Colonel's rumored mile-wide sadistic streak.

Lydecker cleared his throat examining the two disheveled X5s before him. He knew he had taken a risk relying on Jondy's independence and agile thinking in favor of Alec's training and operational experience, and now he wanted to know why it hadn't paid off.

"I don't care what… problems you have with each other." He lectured measuredly. "They are not to be brought into command. Understood?"

When Alec nodded in the affirmative Lydecker's eyes gleamed with satisfaction before he cast his gaze to the blonde X5. Scowling with obvious displeasure, their commander reached out and tilted Jondy's chin upwards in one sharp move. The blush that crept over her cheeks as she was made to stare Lydecker's fury full in the face ignited a profound sense of discomfort in Alec- a feeling he had thought he could consign to his past. While he feigned relaxation and observed Lydecker's preferential relationship with the 09er the whispers that had reached his ears about the brutal culture of Wyoming fuelled his imagination. Alec watched impressed how, when the Colonel stepped half an inch from her face, Jondy stood unflinchingly while his narrowed glare took in her every bruise and scratch.

"I will deal with your incompetence later." Lydecker announced decisively. Jondy kept her eyes forward when he pointed to the fallen chair in front of his desk. "Sit-down-and-keep-your-damned-mouth-shut."

Alec was all too aware he could hear Jondy's elevated heart rate while he watched Lydecker take in her every twitch to ensure she followed his directive; the Colonel wore an expression Alec knew in his bones would have spelt out time in solitary or worse back at Manticore.

"And Alec," when Lydecker turned back to the younger man he did not fail to miss the glimmer of speculation in the X5's gaze, "we may not be home at Manticore, but you will watch your language in front of me."

"Yessir."

Alec knew the best policy in the face of cold fury from command was always to be polite, unlike Jondy who now sat sullenly glaring in the direction of Lydecker's filing cabinet with a tightly clenched jaw that gave him cause to wonder what secrets it kept locked away.

Lydecker nodded, appeased. "This is a time sensitive and urgent situation, son. What the hell happened?"

"Our infiltration was textbook. Hiked over forty clicks under the cover of darkness and the site looked just like the picture: a high tech security set up in the middle of the desert and a skeleton crew of security personnel. Nothing we couldn't handle." He confirmed confidently. "We got past security fine- the Familiar's are obviously happy putting regular people in the crossfire; there was minimal collateral damage and we commandeered central control easily enough."

"Then why haven't you kids brought me back the target?"

"A silent alarm got triggered." Alec admitted. "We think it occurred when we were overwriting the command controls - unknown to us." Clearing his throat, he continued tone professional. "So we followed our initial plan. Made our five-mile descent in ten minutes. It took two minutes longer than anticipated to work our way through the opening of the rock bed, but we got down into the underground river eventually. Things were going fine, until we made our approach to the cave entrance down stream. Obviously they were waiting for us and their show of resistance was heavy-"

"- well, that answers why you're both looking worse for wear."

"Yessir." Alec said ruefully, rubbing his bruised cheek. "Problem is they recognized-"

"Me." Jondy spoke up in a dark tone, not bothering to look at the pair of them. "A quarter of them were in and out of that hellhole those six months."

"With Jondy there we managed to overpower them, but-"

"It didn't work." She retorted bitterly and when she turned her head to look at them Alec was inwardly surprised to see her eyes were glittering with rage. "Lydecker- not one-single-fucking-part-of-the-plan-worked."

Alec clenched his jaw at her interruption and cleared his throat, "She's right. Our intel was faulty."

"It wasn't our intel." Jondy bit out harshly, her foot jigging under the chair as excess adrenaline coursed through her system. "It was our assumptions."

"I know you find it difficult to control your temper- but I gave you an order."

Alec watched inwardly astonished as Jondy rolled her eyes at their superior.

"So what? You need me "alive and contributing". You said it yourself-"

"What I need Jondy is for the intel that you provide me to be sound-" Lydecker retorted coldly. "For the assumptions my team make to be sound. I taught you to think clearly and objectively." He paused watching her mull that fact over with pursed lips. "At present, you are doing a disservice not only to yourself- but to Zane- to Eva - your brothers and sisters who took on the responsibility of shaping your development-"

Outrange flashed across her features. "Don't you dare-"

"White has gained ground due to your incompetence soldier."

"You think I don't know that?" The teenager exclaimed in dismay.

It was Jondy who broke eye contact first, crossing her arms tightly over her chest to still her trembling limbs as her adrenaline levels rapidly decreased and nausea set in. She hadn't felt this poorly from a mission since she was a child mistakenly hunting a prisoner in the forest of Manticore.

Lydecker sighed and looked to Alec.

"Take a seat, son. We will be here a while." He picked up his radio. "Cameron, I want you in meeting room one A.S.A.P."

A heavy silence fell over the room and Lydecker took to pacing in order to gather his thoughts. Alec continued to watch Jondy intently, irritation still burning in his gut.

"I understand you excelled in 'Assumed Identity Training' back at home?" Lydecker directed his question to Alec. He never had been privy to the goings-on in the Seattle facility after the initial stages of Manticore's inception.

"Yes." Alec nodded, feeling a small well of pride in his chest. "Top of my class."

"Please." Jondy muttered in disgust under her breath at their interaction and its implications. Not matter how much time Alec spent in Max's company there would always be a part of him that identified Manticore as his home.

"Good. There are some aspects of this mess that might be salvageable."

Alec nodded, before casting a concerned glance to the young woman beside him. The room was not warm, but Jondy was visibly sweating.

"Are you ok? Here." He handed her his water bottle.

Jondy shook her head. "I just need-"

"This?" Lydecker said expertly, passing her a ration pack of beef jerky from his desk drawer.

"It'll help." She commented grudgingly, taking it from him.

Alec's brow furrowed.

"What? Never felt the physical agony of missing a mark before?" Jondy sassed defensively to Alec as she bit into the opened ration pack.

"Can't say that I have…" Alec replied incredulously, rubbing his neck.

"Manticore was obviously a learning organisation then," Jondy commented sarcastically to Lydecker chewing away.

"Some of the X5 prototypes have a heightened adrenaline response to close range combat that if not satiated adequately has side effects of irritability, anxiety and sometimes physical symptoms like muscle tremors due to priming," Lydecker lectured authoritatively to the pair. "We worked to eliminate these undesirable responses on subsequent X5 units."

"So that's why I never got the crazy gene, huh?"

"They didn't give you a common sense gene either"

Alec glared at her running a hand through his hair in frustration and shrugged. "Just trying to help here Jonds."

"Yeah? Well, don't."

The door opened and Cameron popped his head around the door, his normally affable expression schooled to a state of focus. "Sir?"

"Take a seat son." Lydecker gestured to the space in front of him and Cameron entered, closing the door behind himself abruptly. "You're input is required on this. We have a situation. Alec, you as well."

A silence fell as the three men all took their seats, minds racing. Jondy sat irritable, crossing and uncrossing her legs, mostly itching to get out of their company.

"So, Cameron to bring you up to speed; Operation Phoenix was a loose-loose- not only did we allow the enemy to gain insight into our strategic goals, we also failed to meet our objective in retrieving the intelligence target."

Cameron's lips pursed as he glanced to the two X5s. "I see, sir."

Lydecker looked over his glasses to Jondy and directed his next question to her speculatively, "so in your expert opinion Jondy, where did we go wrong in our assumptions?"

"Thought I was meant to keep my mouth shut Deck?" Jondy smirked sarcastically, her inner rage with his thinly veiled disappointment barely concealed.

"I've-got-no-time-for-your-attitude-tonight. Answer!"

Taken aback at the vehemence with which he spoke to her, Jondy hesitated a sudden anxiety clenching her chest.

"I just stepped in the room thirty seconds ago and even I can tell you're on thin ice sweetheart," Cameron commented seriously observing the interplay. Alec sat between them and ensured his expression remained stoic.

"Yeah well," Jondy's voice shook slightly despite her false bravado as she looked across at Cameron, "he doesn't have a brig to throw me in anymore, does he?"

He shook his head slightly, disapproving of her blatant rudeness.

"I see why you were kept away from Max." Alec commented dryly, feeling a sense of begrudging admiration towards the younger X5. "The two of you together would be unmanageable."

"Jondy and Max are working in separate cells to minimize risk to operational security." Lydecker asserted calmly to the room. "You of all people understand the importance of that Alec. Now," he turned back to the blonde haired X5 his expression deathly serious, "do I have to get anymore X5s involved in this situation you've created?"

"Nosir." Jondy quickly snapped, short of breath. She had few friends here; the other ones would not be quite so forgiving as Alec.

"Good. I thought not." Lydecker inclined his head watching her closely. "I want a clear explanation as to where we went wrong."

Jondy sucked in a shaky breath.

"I… I take full responsibility, sir. It's my fault- things got messed up..."

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