All of Us -- Chapter 50

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.).

Notes: Spoiler-ish stuff for the pilot.

Rena sat on the couch of Sasha and Biggs’ apartment, trying to concentrate on a magazine while Zane had his arm around her and tried to distract her. She finally rolled her eyes and elbowed Zane off of the couch and then winced and waited for either Jade or Julia or both of them to wake up. Neither of them did so Rena sighed in relief. “That was close.”

“Yeah, I don’t feel like dealing with two screaming six-month-olds right now,” Zane said.

“I guess it’s going to be awhile before we have kids,” Rena said dryly.

“Actually, I was thinking if they’re like you when they’ve been woken up early from a nap…” Zane teased. He ducked Rena’s right hook and laughed. “What? Are you or aren’t you the crankiest person on the face of the Earth when you’ve been woken up before you want to get up?”

“I refuse to dignify that question with an answer,” Rena said.

“Good call, sis,” Sasha said as she and Biggs entered the apartment. “How have the girls been tonight?”

“They’ve been angels,” Rena assured her.

“Great,” Sasha said. “Are they sleeping?”

Zane nodded. “Yeah, they’ve been asleep for the past half an hour.”

“Good. They should be sleeping for at least another few hours,” Sasha said. She sat down next to Rena on the couch and Biggs sat on the armrest next to Sasha.

“How was your ‘date’?” Rena teased.

“It was great,” Biggs remarked. “When we weren’t keeping watch on the roof of the building by the east gate, we were making out like crazy monkeys.”

“Have you guys heard anything more about tomorrow?” Sasha asked.

Rena and Zane both shook their heads. “No,” Zane said. “The plans are more or less set. We’ll tweak them a little tomorrow night before it goes down like usual, but other than that it’s a done deal. All we have to do now is wait for showtime.”

“This is insane,” Biggs said. “I never liked pre-battle tension. I could deal with it because they taught us to deal with it but I never liked it. I don’t know anybody who ever actually liked this crap.” He stood up for a moment and stretched before he sat back down on the armrest. “Can you believe how tense things are getting already? We were walking back here and it seems like even some of the X8s are starting to feel the pressure of what’s going to happen tomorrow and they aren’t going to be involved at all, at least during the actual op.”

“That does scare me a little bit,” Rena admitted. “Those X8s are usually pretty cheerful. I guess it’s a kid thing, but if even they are feeling this…damn, this is going to be big.”

“That’s for sure,” Sasha said. “I’ve never felt anything like this to this kind of a degree. Have either of you?”

Rena and Zane suddenly tensed up and exchanged a look before Zane quickly stood up and walked over to the window. Rena leaned over and rested her forehead in her hands, both of them overwhelmed by the memories.

“They took him to the infirmary. He was starting to come out of it and regain full consciousness. He was going to be okay and I thought that everything was going to be fine. Lydecker was there and I saw one of the guards that had brought Jack to the infirmary speak to him and then Lydecker spoke to the doctors and then he stood there in the operating room and they put Jack on the table and I thought they were going to give him some kind of treatment like maybe they actually found a way to fix the seizures now. They didn’t give him any kind of treatment. They cut him open. They didn’t cut him open like they were performing some kind of surgery to help him, they cut him open like they were performing an autopsy. Jack was still alive when they cut him open! They cut open his head and they started poking around in there and slicing his brain like it was the meat they serve to us in the cafeteria at lunch on Tuesdays. They killed our brother! The worst part was that Lydecker was just standing there watching them and he didn’t say a word. He must have given them the order to slice Jack up like he was nothing. He let them kill Jack for no reason at all. It was so horrible.”

“I never thought he would just kill us like that. He hurt us so badly, but actually kill one of us? I miss Jack. I miss him so much.”

“I miss him too, Rena. It’ll be okay. Remember what Zack said? Remember what we just talked about? A week or less. A week or less.”

“I don’t know if I can wait that long.”

“Gale, are you shaking again?”

“No, I’m not. I haven’t even had the littlest shakes since my last seizure.”

“You are! No, no…”

“Brin, calm down. Gale’s fine.”

“I know, Zane, but…”

“Listen to him, Brin, and stay calm. We all need to keep it calm. We can’t afford less.”

“Maxie? Are you sure that you’re okay?”

“Yeah, I’m fine. Don’t worry.”

“Zack, for the millionth time, I am fine. I am absolutely fine. A little shaky is all that I was and it went away. Do I look like I am shaking now?”

“Actually, you are starting to shake again.”

“What?! This isn’t good.”

“Get back to your bunk and try to sleep it off. Maybe you’ve just been working too hard lately.”

“Yeah, that’s probably it. Good night.”

“Do you need help getting back to your bunk?”

“It’s only a few more steps. I can make it.”

“Maxie!”

“We have,” Zane finally managed to say. “If there’s anybody who’s felt this much pre-battle tension before, it’s our family.” He took a deep breath and sat back down next to Rena on the couch.

Biggs and Sasha winced. “Shit, we forgot about the escape,” Biggs said.

“It’s okay,” Rena told them.

All four of them were silent for a few minutes. “It was horrible, that whole twenty-four hours, wasn’t it?” Sasha asked.

“Horrible is too light of a word to describe what our family went through,” Zane said. “It’s amazing how everything changed when we found out that Lydecker had ordered Jack to be killed so they could pick his brain apart so they could find out why he or any of us were having seizures. Before Jack collapsed when we were in line being debriefed after the training mission we’d just run, things felt so different. We still wanted to break loose from Manticore. We knew something was up, but some of us still weren’t sure of what to do. Then Jack passed out and we went back to our barracks and we waited for Max to get back from following Jack and the guards and when she came back, it was like someone had dropped a bomb on us. If there were any questions before, there weren’t then. We knew we had to get out and we also knew just how dangerous it would be and the twenty-four or so hours between when we made that final decision were the most tense in all of our lives. I felt like I was in some psychotic limbo during that time.”

“I had no clue,” Biggs confessed. He motioned to Sasha. “Neither of us, or Alec or I don’t think any other transgenic, had an idea of what was going on that day. The only thing that I knew was that one night, I was woken up and I opened my eyes and saw my best friends, along with my commanding officer at the time, being dragged away and told that it would be explained later and I didn’t see Sasha or Alec for six months after that.”

“You’re right, nobody knew exactly what we went through,” Rena agreed. “People have hated us for so long for betraying Manticore and even this past year even after they knew that Manticore themselves betrayed everybody by torching the facility, they still hated us for running. They’ve been so much better especially the past few months, but I got so many dirty looks the first couple of months here in Terminal City. If they had known…” She took a deep breath and calmed herself down. “That’s over with and maybe all of them will realize it, but we all have to move on. I have. We need to move on with this, too. We need to believe that this will turn out for the better. We need to know that this will turn out for the better. That’s exactly what we need to do with this tension. Just hang on tight and it will be better than good in the end.” She managed a smirk. “That’s just my personal experience.”

Zane and Biggs and Sasha laughed. “And that’s good enough for me,” Sasha said.

TBC