Together -- Chapter 27a

Disclaimer: All of the characters that appeared on the TV show Dark Angel (Max, Zack, Logan, etc.) 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.).

“Have fun on your trip?” Max asked Becky several days later after Becky had gotten back to Seattle.

“Yeah,” Becky said. She dropped her bag on her living room floor and threw her jacket on her couch. “It was great seeing Kyle and Xavier again. Kyle has a skanky girlfriend.”

“He is a male teenager,” Max said. “I think he’s thinking with something other than his head.”

“My thoughts exactly,” Becky said. She went into her kitchen and poured herself some juice before adding casually “She tried to put the moves on Zack when Kyle left the room.”

“Oh?” Max said. “She did?”

Becky saw Max’s reaction and tried not to laugh. I knew it. She’s got it bad for Zack. “Tried being the operative word. Zack didn’t go for her. I calmly took her aside and explained to her why she shouldn’t be thinking about cheating on my younger brother. Sorry to disappoint you, but I didn’t leave any physical scars.”

“Why would I be disappointed?” Max asked.

Gee, let me take a few minutes to think on that one. “I don’t know. Anyway, we spent about two days with Kyle in Reno before we headed to Arizona to check up on Jondy and Xavier. Jondy really misses you and she told Zack to tell you that. Xavier’s doing pretty well. He’s holed up in some abandoned building in Phoenix with various other drifters. The first day Zack and I were there, some drunk guy tried to pick me up at the place we had lunch at.” She looked over at the calendar on the wall. “The swelling should be down by now and enough of the pain will be gone by tomorrow for him to start think of jerking off again.”

“Nice,” Max said, snickering.

“Thanks,” Becky said. “I couldn’t do anything fancy in a public place, so I settled for old number one.” She sat down on the couch. “How’ve things been in Seattle while I’ve been away? Nothing too exciting?”

“No,” Max said. She sat down next to Becky. “Been relatively quiet on the White front. I guess other transgenics have been giving him plenty to handle at the moment. Alec’s still a pain-in-the-ass. I dropped by the restaurant that Jeff works at earlier this week.”

“How’s he doing?” Becky asked.

“Pretty good,” Max said. “He asked about you.”

“He did?” Becky said. “That was nice of him.”

“It was,” Max said. “Of course, the guy only has a massive crush on you. I’d say the feeling is mutual. Right, Becky?”

Becky opened her mouth to deny Max again but was saved by the ringing of Max’s cell phone. “Saved by the phone, thank goodness.”

“Lucky,” Max said. She checked the phone number on the caller I.D. and answered it. “What’s up, Logan?”

“I’ve finally cracked the codes on the information about the X-series in the Manticore database,” he said.

“Becky’s with me. We’ll be right over,” Max said. She disconnected and turned back to Becky. “Want to head over to Logan’s?”

“Sure,” Becky said. “I’m curious.”

The two of them got up and left Becky’s apartment and rode over on their motorcycles to Logan’s penthouse. Max opened the door and they walked in to find Logan waiting for them in the computer room. “Did you look through the files yet?” Max asked.

“No,” Logan said. “I thought you might want the honors.”

“Thanks,” Max said.

Logan clicked on the folder marked X-Series and typed in a password to open the folder. “Here it is. There’s a folder for each generation created, plus folders labeled ‘X10’, ‘X11’, and ‘X12,’ plus another folder labeled ‘Siblings.’ I thought you said that the youngest generation was the X9s.”

“They are,” Becky said. “I’m guessing that X10, X11, and X12 are the children that were conceived during the breeding program. They put the oldest three surviving generations in the program, so that’s why there’s three new X-series folders.”

“What about the siblings file?” Max asked.

“Let’s see,” Logan said. He opened the file and got a word processor file and three more folders marked ‘Identical Twins’, ‘Clones’, and ‘Other Siblings’. He opened the word processor file and began to read. “’In every generation, there are several pairs of siblings created for research purposes. Some are clones and some are simply brothers and sisters made from the same two genetic donors. We have also had several instances of identical twins occurring naturally. For the most part, these siblings are kept separated in different units, though there is three sets of siblings per generation kept in the same unit as the other, one set for each facility, again for research purposes. Also see Experiment 56X1B. Siblings are noted by their designations. A non-clone or non-identical twin has a designation that is a numerical combination using the numbers of the designation of the intended older sibling.’”

“Of the intended older sibling?” Becky said, confused.

“You can’t always predict when a woman will go into labor,” Logan said.

“True,” Becky said.

“Experiment 56X1B?” Max said. “What the hell is that?”

“Beats me,” Becky said.

“Why don’t you just skip ahead to the X5 files,” Max said.

“Wanna see if they know all your dirty secrets?” Becky teased.

“Very funny,” Max said.

“Coming right up,” Logan said. He got back to the X-Series folder, then opened the file labeled ‘X5’ and opened it. He clicked on the ‘Gillette’ file and then clicked on the file for Max’s family and then on the file marked ‘X5-452.’ “Here it is.”

“Not my best picture,” Max quipped as she looked at the information. “’Barcode number, designation, blah, blah, blah...” She looked at the subject line marked ‘Siblings’ and laughed. “Ha! I knew Krit and I were actually related!” She thought for a bit. “452 isn’t any kind of combination of one, five, or seven that I can think of.”

“Maybe 157 is of four, five, and two,” Becky said. “Oh yeah, it is. Four squared plus five cubed plus two to the fourth power is 157.”

“Maybe you have a sibling,” Max said.

“Yeah, right,” Becky said. “The odds aren’t that great. There’s only a few per generation, remember?”

“You never know,” Max said. “405...someone who has a designation divisible by nine, maybe?”

Becky laughed. “Kevin actually used to call me ‘nine’ when we were younger because my designation is divisible by nine. Let’s see, 405 divided by nine is 45 and 45...” She thought for a moment before her eyes went wide and her face paled. “Logan, pull up either my file or Zack’s. Now.”

“Sure,” Logan said. “Why?”

“Just do it,” Becky insisted.

“Are you okay, Becky?” Max asked as Logan got to work.

“I think so,” Becky said.

“Here’s Zack’s file,” Logan said. “What are you looking for?”

“Scroll down...there,” Becky said. She looked at the monitor for a moment before she backed up. “Oh my God.”

“What?” Max said. She took a look at what had gotten Becky rattled and gasped. “Holy crap.” She turned her head to look at Becky. “I can’t believe I didn’t think of this before.”

“Zack’s my brother,” Becky whispered.

TBC