Dysfunctional -- Chapter 29

Disclaimer: The TV show Dark Angel, all of the characters that appeared on it (Alec, Biggs, Renfro, 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 (X5-121, etc.).

Notes: Spoilers/spoiler-ish stuff for “The Berrisford Agenda.”

511 was smiling as he led a half unit of little X9s out of the woods and back to one of the yards a month later. “That was really good, all of you. You’re really showing some serious promise. One of these days, you’re all going to make great soldiers.” Seven little faces beamed in response. “Any questions before I dismiss you?”

“Sir, no, sir!” the children replied.

“Then you’re dismissed,” 511 told them. He grinned as the two, three, and four year olds saluted him and marched back off towards the building. He headed that way himself. That was something else. Those little ones really are full of spunk. They’re nice little boys and girls. It’s going to be interesting when they grow up, that’s for sure!

“Hey, you!”

511 grinned when he saw 121 running up to him. “Hey there, sexy. How was it leading those X8s through the exercise in the South woods?”

“I’ve never met any group of people that were so full of questions before in my life,” 121 said. “Those are some curious kids. How did it go with you leading those kids from X9 Unit 2 in the North woods?”

“They’re sweet kids,” 511 admitted. “They’ve got some life to them.”

“And then they’ll be growing into those little chatterboxes,” 121 said dryly. “Maybe not. I’d heard somewhere that they used wolverine DNA as the main animal DNA in the X9s as opposed to cat. Maybe that’ll calm them down.”

“I don’t know, I—“ 511 stopped when a guard approached them. “Yes, sir?”

“Director Renfro needs to see you and X5-121 in her office immediately,” the guard said. He motioned to them and after exchanging a confused and slightly nervous look, 511 and 121 followed him.

849 and 228 were sitting quietly in the library, just going over some information from an assignment that they’d returned from when the door opened suddenly. They both looked up and saw 511 and 121 enter the library and grew concerned when they saw the looks on their faces. 511 and 121 spotted the other two X5s and made their way over to them. After they’d looked around and had seen and heard no other transgenics in the library, they led 849 and 228 over to a corner.

“What’s going on?” 849 asked. “You look like someone’s about to die.”

“You might not be far off,” 121 replied. She took a deep breath to compose herself. “511 and I got called into Director Renfro’s office just a few minutes ago. She had some…news that she wanted to give us concerning 494 and the deep cover solo that he’d went on last month.”

“Something went wrong, didn’t it?” 228 guessed.

“Something apparently went very wrong,” 511 said. “Strap yourselves in, this is going to be a doozy.” He sighed. “I don’t want this to go beyond the four of us, at least not quite yet. The only reason that 121 and I were given access to this information at all is because we’re acting commanding officer and acting second-in-command of our unit and the platoon, so we need to keep tabs on all of our subordinates. I’m pretty sure some of this is going to get out and we all know that’s inevitable, but all of these details can’t leave this room.”

Both 849 and 228 nodded in understanding. “Don’t worry, sir, ma’am. We won’t say a word,” 849 promised.

“Good. Like 511 said, this is going to be one hell of a ride,” 121 said. “You both remember what 494 told us about what his mission involved when we met up on the roof two days before he left, right? It sounded pretty basic and it seemed to be going that way for the past month.”

“I can almost see the but,” 228 remarked dryly.

“494 recently came across the proof of Berrisford’s intentions,” 511 said. “He reported it to Control, of course, and they ordered him to take out not only Berrisford, but his daughter as well.”

849 frowned. “Tactically, that doesn’t make much sense unless the daughter somehow had any kind of access to her father’s files and somehow I would think, given the sensitive nature of that particular issue as well as his dealings with Manticore in general, that he would have his files both on a computer as well as password-protected so that the daughter wouldn’t be able to gain access. Do you know if she did?”

“She didn’t as far as we know,” 121 said. “Apparently, 494 had come across nothing that would support that theory and he reported that to Control as well, but they didn’t want to take a chance and they re-iterated their order to plant the bomb within a week’s time. 494 apparently agreed, but they must have thought that he was being too twitchy because they had another X5 with them in the other room, I guess as a just-in-case policy, and they had him follow 494 back to his accommodations and this second X5 must have picked up on something because Manticore ordered the boy to plant the bomb on Berrisford’s car early that morning before Berrisford and his daughter would be up for the day.”

“Who was it?” 228 asked.

“513 from Unit 7,” 511 told her. He rolled his eyes. “He’ll be bragging about it until the cows come home or at least until 786 sleeps with him.” He took a deep breath. “Anyway, 513 planted the bomb hours before 494 was scheduled to arrive at Berrisford’s home for the daughter’s piano lesson. 494 arrives as scheduled but when he gets here, Berrisford tells him that he’s taking his daughter out shopping and to wait for them until they return. 513 was on-site out of 494’s vision, but when he’d armed the bomb, 494 heard it and he warned the Berrisfords to get out of the car and run.”

849’s eyes widened. “What?”

“He warned them,” 121 repeated. “I don’t know what his reasons were, but that’s what he did. Berrisford himself actually managed to get far enough away from the vehicle to escape injury, but his daughter wasn’t nearly as lucky. She sustained severe head trauma and is currently in a deep coma in intensive care at Harbor Lights Hospital in Seattle. As for 494…” She shook her head. “When he noticed that the daughter had been severely injured, possibly even killed and there wasn’t a way for him to distinguish between the two at that point, he basically freaked out. Manticore had a team with 513 to back him up and when 494 started to scream out for the daughter, they moved in and took him back here and brought him straight to Psy Ops. He’s going to be there for a long time.”

“How long?” 228 asked.

“Six months at the maximum,” 511 said. He shook his head. “That sounds a little bit excessive, don’t you guys think? I know that this was the first mission that he’s botched, but why such a long stay? When 714 botched that solo mission down in L.A. a few years ago, she only got three days in Psy Ops and a few weeks in solitary confinement. When 669 from your unit blew his solo mission down in Texas last year, he got two weeks in Psy Ops.”

121 sighed. “As much as I hate to say this, I can almost understand the reasoning behind why 494 is getting an extended stay in Psy Ops for this disaster. This guy Berrisford was threatening to bring the roof down on us, thus making him a top-level threat and the mission of one of the highest priorities, which would mean that there would be a lot for 494 to potentially lose if he blew it, which he apparently did. I don’t think that the missions that 714 and 669 failed to complete were of nearly the level that 494’s mission was. What I really don’t understand is why 494 threw the assignment in the first place. This is completely out-of-character for him. He never throws missions at all. As much grief as 908 used to give him when she was still our C.O. and he was our S.I.C., 494 was always ready and always prepared for training missions and in the real deal as well. He always came through.”

“I’m wondering if the daughter had something to do with it,” 849 said slowly. “You said that 494 lost it when he saw that she had been injured and maybe even killed. If he grew to care for her in some fashion, maybe even love her, that would almost certainly get that kind of reaction out of somebody.”

“I can see your point, but I don’t know if I can really see 494 falling for somebody like that,” 511 told her. “The guy is a huge flirt. He loves to charm women and all, but he doesn’t fall in love. That’s not him.”

“No offense, 511, but you were like that once upon a time,” 228 pointed out. “Remember? Then you fell in love with 121 and the rest is history.”

“She does have a point,” 121 admitted. “Whatever the exact reasoning is behind 494’s actions, the fact of the matter is that the poor guy is going to be going through hell for the next few months. I wish to everything holy that he isn’t, but he will be.” She shivered. “It was horrible when we were thrown in there when we were kids back in ’09 for that six month stretch and that was back before they had the Psy Ops soldiers on active duty there. Can you imagine what it’s going to be like now with them picking apart your mind while those asshole ordinary trainers and guards physically torture you?” She closed her eyes.

“Are you okay, sweetheart?” 511 asked quietly.

121 nodded and opened her eyes. “Yeah, I’ll be fine. It’s just some bad memories from way back when.”

“What can we do?” 849 wondered.

“I don’t think there’s anything that we really can do at this point about 494. He’s stuck in Hell for the next six months,” 511 said. “What we will need is your moral support. This is going to make for one hell of a shitstorm.”

“If you want it, you’ve got it,” 849 promised. “No questions asked.”

228 nodded in agreement. “Consider it done. We’ve got your backs.”

“Thank you,” 121 told them gratefully. She and 511 stood up. “Wish us luck. We’ve got to walk right into that storm and tell the rest of our unit what happened.”

“Good luck,” 849 said.

“Thanks,” 511 said. “Take care.” He and 121 left the library. As soon as the door had closed behind them, 121 leaned against the hallway wall and put her head in her hands.

“This isn’t happening, this isn’t happening, this isn’t happening, this isn’t happening,” she repeated. “Damnit, 511, why the fuck is this happening to 494?”

511 pulled 121 into his arms and held her tight. “I don’t know. I’m just as worried as you are, baby. It’s going to be okay, though. 494 is as tough as they come. If the two of you got through those six months in Psy Ops back in ’09 when we were still kids, then he can get through this now. I don’t care if they’ve got those telepathy and telecoercion specialist soldiers on active duty in Psy Ops now, 494 still can and will get through this with flying colors. You know it.”

“I hope so,” 121 said. She took a deep breath. “Okay, let’s do this.”

“Just remember, keep your cool,” 511 instructed. “If and when they make nasty comments about 494, don’t lose your temper. Just pull rank on them when they get out of line and they’ll shut up, even 908.”

121 nodded. “I will.” She took 511’s hand and gave it a squeeze and the two of them walked off to find the rest of their unit.

TBC