All of Us -- Chapter 25

Disclaimer: The TV show Dark Angel, all of the characters that appeared in it (Max, Zack, Alec, etc.), and everything else that has to do with the show belong to their respective owners, not to me. No money is being made off of this fic. I only own the original characters (Becky/X6-405, etc.).

Notes: Slight spoiler-ish stuff for “Love Among the Runes.”

“Can you hand me that part?” Becky asked Dalton as they were fixing weapons in the armory a month later.

“Yeah, sure,” Dalton said. He passed Becky the part that she had asked for. “Here you go.”

“Thanks,” Becky said. She screwed the part onto the gun that she’d been working on and sighted with it. “Yep, that looks good to me.” She set the gun down and turned to Dalton. “Look, Dalton, I’ve been watching you when you’re around Karen and I want to talk to you about it.”

“Becky, I get along fine with Karen. I always have.” Dalton looked slightly annoyed.

“Dalton…” Becky paused. How do I say this without sounding like a complete nag? I guess I can’t. “I—“

“Great, you guys can save me from the lecture that Becky was about to give me,” Dalton said as Kevin, Brent, and Liesel entered the room. “Either that or you can join in or get it too.”

“Calm down,” Becky said.

“What lecture?” Brent asked.

“Sit down, please,” Becky said. “I’ve seen how you guys are acting when you’re around Karen and it’s only gotten worse. I know how Karen still feels about Manticore and I know how you guys feel about it but you can’t let it come between you guys. We’re family. We need to stick together.”

“What, are you on Karen’s side now?” Liesel asked. “Are you going to be all ‘I love Manticore?’”

“No,” Becky said. “You guys know how much I’ve always hated Manticore and how I still hate the fucking place, even though it’s been just over a year since it burned to the ground. What I’m saying is that I know how close we all were and since we’ve all been reunited here in Terminal City and Karen made her opinion about Manticore known to us, I’ve seen us slowly start to splinter apart from her. I’ve seen Maggie give Karen dirty looks behind her back, I’ve seen you two guys try to stay as far away from Karen as you can, even when you’re in the same room having a conversation with her, and Liesel, I’ve seen how you try to pick a fight with her whenever you get the opportunity to. I’ve seen Karen refuse to acknowledge Felicia’s existence and I’ve seen her blow off Kyle and Xavier when they mention something anti-Manticore when they’re talking to her. It’s driving me crazy. I can’t stand it when we’re fighting like this.”

“I didn’t know you felt this way about it,” Kevin said honestly. “I didn’t even realize that I was reacting that way around Karen.”

“Look, all I’m asking is that—“ Becky was cut off by her cell phone ringing. She took it out of her pocket and answered it. “Dix, what is it?”

“I’m sending Frick and Dane over to relieve you and Dalton immediately,” Dix informed her. “They should get there at any moment. Ralph and Layla just came back from the heist that they pulled. Something apparently went wrong and they came back without Karen.”

“We’re on our way,” Becky said immediately. After disconnecting with Dix, she, Kevin, Dalton, Brent, and Liesel immediately left the armory, passing the two anomalies that Dix had sent to replace Becky and Dalton on the way out. They quickly reached the main building and went into the control room. Ralph and Layla stood by Dix and Luke and they looked worse for the wear. Jeff stood with them, trying to calm them down. Becky waited a moment for Kyle, Maggie, Felicia, Matt, and Xavier to get there. “What happened?”

“I don’t know,” Ralph confessed. “Our recon and intel were good. The three of us got to the jewelry store and entered it as we had planned. I don’t know, it’s like somebody was lying in wait for us. It must have been a trap, Becky. It had to have been.”

“I should have known it was too good to be true,” Layla said angrily. “That shipment of rare diamond pieces suddenly coming in? Damnit, I should have known!”

“Calm down, it’s okay,” Becky said. “Those Familiar bastards obviously aren’t completely clueless. I’ve found that out the hard way myself. What happened to Karen? When and how did she get separated from the two of you?”

“They started to fire on us and we turned around and ran,” Layla recalled. “We’d almost gotten back to the car that we’d taken to the site when two other men jumped out and tried to fight us. I fought one off solo and Ralph and Karen teamed up on the other. Then more jumped at us and we somehow, I don’t know how, managed to fight them off as well and when the dust had settled, so to speak, Ralph and I looked around to make sure that there weren’t any more of them out there. There weren’t, but Karen was missing. Then we heard a car door slam and a car speed off and we realized that she must have been knocked out or incapacitated somehow during that last fight and was captured by them. I’m so sorry, Becky.”

“You did the best that you could, Layla. You too, Ralph,” Becky assured them. “I don’t blame either of you in the slightest. The only person to blame here is Ames White and his fucked up friends.”

“Good news,” Luke spoke up. “Remember the tracking transmitters that I put together that I had to twist everybody’s arm to get them to use when they went out to do recon or to pull heists of some kind? I finally got a solid signal on Karen’s.”

“Where is she?” Becky asked.

“Heading east-southeast of Seattle,” Luke said. He was focused intently on his computer monitor. “I can’t be sure of her status, though.”

Becky nodded and turned to her remaining brothers and sisters, her grey eyes as cold and hard as steel. “Get your gear. We’re moving out.” She turned back to Dix and Luke. “Sent the data from Karen’s transmitter to comm. and surveillance van A. We’re going to take that one.”

“Will do and you know where the keys are,” Dix said.

“Can we go?” Ralph asked hopefully.

“No,” Jeff said immediately. He looked at Becky, who nodded in understanding, before he turned back to his sisters. “You two just got the hell beaten out of you. You’re not 100 percent and I don’t want to risk your lives by going out on a rescue mission of this caliber when you’re not at full strength.”

“Call us if you need anything,” Layla said.

“We will,” Becky promised. She turned back to her siblings. “When you’ve got everything, meet me in the garage by comm. and surveillance van A. We’ll move out when everybody’s assembled.” She blurred back to her apartment and got in and went inside her bedroom and grabbed her pistol and her favorite automatic weapon and her black jacket. She heard Maggie enter while she was getting her things together and waited until Maggie had gotten her own gear. The two of them left the apartment together and headed straight to the van. Becky put her jacket on and zipped it up while she waited for the others. They showed up quickly and they got into the van and left Terminal City.

Felicia and Xavier took their seats at the communications and surveillance equipment while Kyle drove. They put the headsets that were next to their keyboards on and got to work. “I’ve got the feed,” Felicia reported to Dix and Luke. She turned to her siblings. “They’re still heading east-southeast.”

“I’ve got the tracking and pursuit program running,” Xavier said. “It’s being sent to your console now, Kyle.”

“Got it,” Kyle confirmed. They drove in silence for close to an hour until Karen’s signal finally stopped in one place. They continued on for another hour until they pulled up a half a mile short of an abandoned factory. Kyle drove the van to a hard-to-detect spot and parked it and undid his seatbelt and turned around and joined the others. “What’s the plan, Becky?”

“I’ll know in two minutes,” Becky said as she watched Felicia and Xavier work at their equipment to get a visual on the building and the surrounding area. She sighed as she grabbed the earpieces that were in the van and passed them around before she took one for herself and put it in. “I hate rush jobs. I hope that we don’t have to pull one off. I don’t want to risk Karen’s life.”

“I don’t think that we have much of a choice about it,” Xavier said as he tapped into the security cameras that were inside the building. “There’s our Number One Bad Guy and he’s using Karen as a punching bag. Audio’s coming up.”

They listened intently as the audio feed started running. “…what, an X6 can’t take punishment? I guess not all of you are quite as sickeningly resilient as that stupid bitch 405.” Becky’s eyes narrowed at the insult, but she didn’t say anything. Karen didn’t say anything either. She just glared at White through the eye that wasn’t swelling shut. “Oh, I guess you really don’t like to talk.” He punched Karen in the stomach. “Does that hurt, you filthy little animal? Huh, you disgusting little bitch?” He sighed in disgust. “You’re no fun.”

“You’re right, Xavier, we don’t have a choice,” Becky said grimly. “Okay, here’s the plan. Felicia and Xavier continue on comm. and surveillance duty. Maggie, stay behind in the van in case we need to make a hot exit. Kevin, find a tree and set up for sniper duty. How many people, if any, in the building with Karen and White?”

“We’re lucky. I’m counting only two other people,” Xavier observed. “That’s in the entire building. I’m tapped into every single camera that’s set up in there.”

“Excellent,” Becky said. “Kyle and Matt are going in with me. Brent, Dalton, Liesel, stay outside and spread out and give us cover if we need it. Stay sharp and alert at all times. So far, the ones that we’ve encountered have had X5-level strength and speed and in some cases, reflexes as well and they do not feel any pain, but their hearing and sight range is down at normal. That is your advantage, so use it if you need to. We don’t know if there are other Familiars with other talents here, but so far the ones that we’ve encountered in these situations are ones like White. Everybody got it?”

“We got it,” they all said.

Becky nodded. “Good. Let’s move out.”

Everybody except for Maggie and Felicia and Xavier left the van. They quietly snuck closer to the building. Kevin gestured to Becky, who looked up and nodded before he climbed up a thick tree and began to put together his sniper rifle. The others moved on until they got even closer to the building. Becky made a few other gestures and Liesel, Brent, and Dalton fanned out and surrounded the building while she, Kyle, and Matt continued on. When the three of them reached the building, she made a few other gestures and Kyle and Matt separated from her, both of them moving to enter the building from different points. Becky took a deep breath and walked up to the front door of the building. She stood there with one ear against the door, listening carefully for noises before she quietly opened the door and went inside, holding her automatic in front of her.

“Look who showed up,” White said, holding is own gun in front of him. He was genuinely surprised. “I didn’t expect to see you here, 405. I didn’t know that you knew 367 here. She didn’t mention it but then again, she hasn’t been a model chatterbox since she got here, has she?”

“My name is Becky,” she reminded him. “Her name is Karen and you are going to let her go right now. Do I have to remind you of what happened the last time I went along on a rescue mission?”

White’s expression darkened. “I’m quite aware of it, 405. What I’m wondering is are you aware of how close I am to you and how I don’t think that even you could dodge a bullet at this range?”

Becky laughed mirthlessly. “My reflexes are faster than Karen’s and they’re faster than those of an X5 and most likely yours as well. Do you really want to test that fact out? Like I said, remember what happened the last time we got up close and personal?”

“I do remember,” White recalled. Before Becky could say or do anything else, he fired a shot directly at Becky’s heart. Becky threw herself to the ground, but wasn’t quite quick enough to be unscathed and she hissed in pain as the bullet hit her in the right shoulder. But before White could do anything, she kicked out and swept his legs out from underneath him, knocking him to the ground and stunning him. She grabbed Karen and pulled her towards the door.

“Everybody, package is wrapped and we’re heading out. Evac, now! Is everybody okay?” She sighed in relief as everybody checked in and reported that they were fine. She and Karen reached the van and got inside. Kevin had gotten to the van first and had switched places with Maggie, who went back to check on Karen and Becky. “Take a look at Karen first.”

Maggie nodded and reached into her bag and pulled out a lighter, a knife, and a pair of tweezers and tossed all three items to Kyle. “Get that bullet out of Becky’s shoulder while I check Karen over.”

“Gotcha,” Kyle said. He leaned over Becky’s shoulder and got to work. “Let me know if it hurts badly.”

“I will,” Becky promised. She winced as Kyle got the bullet out and cauterized the wound and looked over at Maggie and Karen. She noticed their demeanors towards each other and how worried the others looked. Even Kevin snuck occasional concerned glances at them in the rearview mirror. She smiled faintly.

Kyle noticed the look on Becky’s face as he bandaged her shoulder. “What is it?”

“I think things might be getting better,” Becky said. “Maybe.”

White picked himself up off the floor and groaned. That fucking bitch got me again! He looked at the small puddle of Becky’s blood on the floor in front of him that had resulted from the gunshot would he had inflicted on her and smirked. At least this time I got her! It’s good to know that at least she didn’t get away unscathed. He started to turn around to ask one of his men to clean up the mess when his cell phone rang. He took it out of his pocket, looked at the number, and answered it. “Fenos’tol. What is it, Stephen? It better be big considering how late it is.”

“It’s potentially huge,” Stephen told him. “You’re either going to get a good laugh out of it, hate it, or both. My other contacts were finally able to get through to General Murphy and Colonel Robinson’s full records and according to them, they both made a donation of their respective reproductive cells to Manticore on November 27th, 1993.”

“They’re connected to Manticore?” White asked.

“Not in the sense that Colonel Lydecker was,” Stephen said. “As a matter of fact, their service records indicate that they were assigned to places far from any of the three Manticore facilities and their field assignments had nothing to do with Manticore. Didn’t utilize any transgenics, nothing.”

“Pardon me for being slow right now. That bitch 405 just barged in on me, snatched the X6 that some of our brothers captured, and knocked me for a loop,” White said. “Though I did shoot her in the shoulder. Anyway, so they weren’t administratively connected to Manticore after their donation so their only connection was the donations so…Manticore successfully used what General Murphy and Colonel Robinson gave them?”

“Absolutely. Not only once, but twice as a matter of fact.” White knew his friend well enough to almost hear the grin Stephen had to have on his face at that moment. “This is the either funny or bad part. And considering what you just told me, very coincidental.”

White was silent for a moment before it dawned on him what Stephen was going to tell him. “405’s biological parents.”

“And 599’s as well,” Stephen added. “They’re full brother-and-sister.”

In spite of his anger towards Becky, White laughed. “That is funny.” He sighed. “We should confirm this before we take any steps to acting on it in some way. I want to wait a little bit before we act on this information, anyway. Lull them into a false sense of security, etc.”

“That makes sense,” Stephen said. “How do you want to confirm this?”

White looked down at the puddle of Becky’s blood and grinned nastily. “How else?”

Becky and the others went straight to the control room in Terminal City so they could fill Dix, Luke, Jeff, Ralph, and Layla in on what had happened. When she got there, she saw that not only were they there, but also Max and Zack and their family, plus Alec and Biggs and Sasha. She saw the look on Zack’s face and couldn’t help wincing.

“Are you okay?” he asked calmly. Should I hug her because I’m relieved that she’s fine other than the shoulder, or should I try to strangle her because she went out and did get hurt?

“I’m fine,” Becky assured him. “We all got away. Karen and I were the only ones who were injured. It went as well as—okay, maybe not quite as well as it could have, but better than it could have.”

“I know,” Zack said. “You’re all alive and that’s what matters.”

“White still his usual pissy self?” Alec asked.

“Of course,” Becky said. “Would he be anything else?”

“I don’t know,” Max said. “I’d personally doubt it.” She shrugged and then something caught her eye and she abruptly lifted her right hand up so she could see it better. She blinked in surprise at the dark, odd-shaped marks that had suddenly appeared on her skin. “What the hell?”

TBC