All of Us -- Chapter 3

Disclaimer: The TV show Dark Angel, all of the characters that appeared on 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.).

Zane stopped his bike near one of the Terminal City gates. He looked around to make sure that nobody in the area was paying any attention before he whistled a short and apparently random tune. A moment later, he could just hear the same tune being whistled back to him and the gates opened. He quickly rode his bike through and stopped his bike and got off and adjusted the backpack that he was wearing and looked around.

So this is Terminal City, he thought. It doesn’t look all that bad. I wonder where the others are.

“Hey there, stranger,” a female voice said. “You look like you’re a little lost. What are you looking for?”

Zane turned around to face the person who had spoken to him, one of the people on sentry duty. “I’m looking for my family. They’re mostly here in T.C.”

“Family?” she repeated. “Oh, do you mean your unit?”

“Yeah,” Zane said. He looked around but didn’t see them.

“So, handsome, you’re an X5?” the woman asked.

“I am,” Zane confirmed. “Are you?”

“I sure am,” she said. She blinked her almost violet eyes and smiled flirtatiously. “X5-786. Welcome to Terminal City.”

“Thanks,” Zane said. He looked around again. “Listen, I’ve got to get going and meet up with my family before they get worried. It was nice meeting you, 786.”

“Call me Diane,” she told him. “They can wait for a few minutes.”

“Not really,” Zane said. Especially if you knew Zack at all! “Besides, aren’t you supposed to be on sentry duty?”

“She always had a problem with sticking to her assignments when she spotted anything breathing and male,” a familiar voice remarked.

Zane looked up and his eyes widened in surprise. It’s Rena—wait a second. He took in her appearance. He’d know Rena anywhere, even with all of the years that they’d been separated, but something about her was different. That’s definitely Rena’s face and that’s definitely Rena’s smirk, but there’s something off here. If I didn’t know better, I’d say it wasn’t Rena at all.

Diane’s eyes narrowed. “Great, they let anybody in here.”

“I could say the same about you,” the other woman retorted. She looked over at Zane and saw the confusion on his face and smiled. “I’m Sasha, X5-121. I’m Rena’s twin.”

“Oh,” Zane said. He smiled back. “Zack mentioned you before. I’m Zane, X5-205.”

Diane’s jaw dropped. “You’re an ‘09er?”

“Get over it,” Sasha said. “I got over it, and I have a twin in that unit. Actually, I’m surprised that you’re giving yourself standards at all. You’ve only screwed about half of the male X-series back at the old home who was past puberty when Manticore was still standing.” She shrugged and turned her attention back to Zane. “I’m sorry that the first transgenic you had to meet had to be Ms. Cheap and Easy over here. Oh yeah, 786, that reminds me. Who is the father of your child?”

“Who’s the father of your twins?” Diane shot back.

“My breeding partner,” Sasha replied. “511 and I actually love each other and we didn’t want the other to get punished post-blown DNA lab for sneaking over to the other so we haven’t slept together since before the DNA lab in Wyoming blew. You, on the other hand, didn’t give a shit about any of the creeps that you slept with so it didn’t matter if he got caught sneaking over to you. Let me guess, you slept with your breeding partner and then snuck around to look for that night’s lay, huh?”

“Shut up,” Diane snapped. She brushed some of her short black hair out of her face. “If you’ll excuse me, I need to get back to sentry duty and then I’ve got to pick up my daughter from the nursery.” She turned around and kept her eyes on the outside.

Sasha sighed. “Sorry about that. Come on, your family is waiting for you over at Max and Zack’s place.” She headed off in that direction. Zane followed her, walking his bike alongside him.

“She’s got some problems,” he remarked.

“She had self-esteem issues as a child,” Sasha said. “Diane was one of the first people in my unit to speak up against Alec and myself after we got sprung from Psy Ops back in September of ’09. She was a bitch before then, too. I never liked her.”

“I can see why,” Zane said. “She needs some therapy.”

“I’ve only met a few Manticore soldiers who don’t need therapy,” Sasha agreed. “I could use a good turn on the couch and not the turn on the couch that 786—Diane—is used to taking.” She stopped in front of the building. “Well, here’s where Max and Zack live. Your siblings Krit and Syl live in this building also. Max and Zack’s place is on the fifth floor, apartment 5D. It was nice meeting you. I’ve got to go to the nursery and pick up my kids.”

“Thanks,” Zane said. “It was nice meeting you too.” He chained up his bike and untied the duffle bag from it and slung it over his shoulder. He turned to face the building and took a deep breath and walked inside and up the stairs to the fifth floor and down the hall until he got to the door. He paused and listened carefully. “Hey, dipshit and dumbass, you can get away from the door. I know you guys are there.”

There was a smack from the other side of the door. “Get behind the door and spring on him, he says,” Wayne grumbled.

“I told you guys that it wouldn’t work,” Zack said.

Zane grinned and opened the door. “Hey, you guys.”

“Hey, bro,” Krit greeted. He gave Zane a hug. “I missed you so much.”

“Missed you too, baby brother,” Zane said. He gave Wayne a hug. “Good to see you again, Wayne.”

“Same here,” Wayne said, grinning.

Zane walked into the living room and dropped his stuff on the floor and gave Max a hug. “Good to see you again, Maxie. I’m not surprised that you’re still in one piece.”

“What can I say? I can take a beating and then go dish it out ten times worse,” Max said, grinning.

“Hey, bro,” Zane said to Zack. He gave his older brother a quick hug. “How does it feel to be practically a celebrity?”

“Very funny,” Zack said. He shook his head. “I wish I wasn’t. Not much I can do about that now.”

“Yeah,” Zane agreed. He turned to Syl and gave her a hug. “I missed you Syl—what the hell happened to your head?” He pointed to the thin red line on Syl’s forehead that had been bandaged the night before. “Let me guess—you sparred with Rena again after you found more issues with her. Wow, some things never change.”

“How did you know?” Syl wondered. She shrugged. “I had about five stitches to close that gash and I had to get another five to close the gash on my back when she went to grab me from behind and I didn’t quite get out of the way in time.”

“Rena got the worst of it,” Max informed Zane. “They were going back-and-forth yesterday afternoon in the gym here and then Syl went for a flying kick and Rena tried to block it so that Syl wouldn’t connect with her head and knock her out. She sort of succeeded in blocking it. She got her right arm up in time and the kick connected with her right elbow but the force was great enough to dislocate it. That’s when she connected with her left hook and opened up that gash on Syl’s forehead. That was some nasty fighting. I’m just happy that you two made up.”

“That’s how it is with us,” Syl said, shrugging. “Rena should be back in a minute or two. She’s over at the med bay getting her elbow checked out.”

“Forget about me?” Brin teased.

“I could never forget about you,” Zane said. He walked over to Brin and hugged her. “It’s wonderful to see you again, Brin. Congratulations on the baby.”

“Thanks,” Brin said. “I still can’t believe that I’m a mother and it’s been a month since Anthony was born. I didn’t want to get pregnant, but I couldn’t be happier that I did and that I have my little boy.”

“Where is he now?” Zane asked.

“With Alec,” Brin said. “Alec’s such a great dad.”

“It surprised me,” Max said. “When I first met Alec, he was the biggest ass I’d ever met in my life. He still a pain-in-the-butt sometimes, but he grew up at least a little bit since he found out that Brin was alive and still pregnant about six or so months ago.”

“You’ll meet both Alec and Anthony later,” Brin told Zane. “Speaking of Alec, did Sasha find you and lead you over here or did you have to ask around?”

“I found Sasha,” Zane confirmed. “She rescued me when her unit mate Diane, a.k.a. 786, tried to come onto me.”

“786?” Wayne said, blinking. “She turned me down faster than a penny falling from the Space Needle after she found out that I was an ‘09er and she tried to get into your pants? Where’s the logic in that?”

“She didn’t know that I was your brother when she tried to get into my pants,” Zane said. “I wanted to get away from her so that I could find you guys and that’s when Sasha came by.” He smirked a little. “I think you got lucky when Diane turned you down. Sasha told me that Diane was a big slut. Actually, the exact words that she used to describe Diane were ‘Ms. Cheap And Easy.’”

Wayne sighed in relief. “That’s something off of my mind.”

Max looked at him as if he were nuts. “Am I hearing something right? Wayne actually relieved because he didn’t pick up a slut?”

“I prefer my sluts to not have as many issues as I think Diane does, thank you very much,” Wayne informed her.

“Men,” Syl said. She sounded slightly disgusted.

“You’re lucky,” Brin said. “You’ve gotten Krit housebroken.”

“Damn right she’s lucky—hey!” Krit protested. The others snickered.

“Nice,” Max said.

“Thanks,” Brin said. She started to say something else but was interrupted by someone knocking at the door. “That’s probably Rena.”

“Hey, Rena, is that you?” Max shouted.

“No, it’s the Queen of England,” Rena said sarcastically. She opened the door and stopped for a moment before throwing herself into Zane’s arms with a loud squeal. “Zane! It’s you!”

“Hey, Rena,” Zane greeted. He gave Rena a big hug and held on tight for a few moments before he let her go. “Crap, I didn’t hurt your elbow, did I?”

“Nah,” Rena assured him.

“Man, it is so good to see you again, Ree-Ree,” Zane said.

“Zane, I told you before how much I hate that nickname,” Rena pointed out. “If you call me Ree-Ree again, I will beat the shit out of you. If you don’t think that I can do it just because it’s my right hand that’s in the sling and I’m right-handed, ask Syl over there just how good my left hook is.” She grinned again and gave Zane another hug as best she could. “I’ve missed you so much.”

“Me too,” Zane said.

“Eight down, two to go,” Max said, grinning.

Zane grinned himself and looked around at his family. “It’s good to be home.”

TBC