Together -- Chapter 3

Disclaimer: All of the characters that appeared in 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 (X6-405, etc.).

405 waited patiently in front of the door to Lydecker's office while the soldier let him know that she was here. When the soldier came back out and nodded to her, she marched into the office and stood at perfect attention, her grey eyes glued to a point on the wall in front of her. "X6-405 reporting as ordered, sir."

"At ease, 405," Lydecker said, nodding approvingly. "I've got a small assignment for you. As you are probably aware of, we've recently retrieved X5-599 and brought him safely back home."

And I'm sure that Zack's about as thrilled about it as you are, 405 thought sarcastically. How much do you want to bet on that?

"599 is being, as you can probably imagine, unwilling to cooperate in helping us bring the rest of his...family home."

No shit, sherlock, 405 thought. You've only personally killed one and put the others through hell before they cut loose. I can't think of a reason why Zack wouldn't want to cooperate with you. Bastard.

"Your assignment, 405, is simple, almost too simple," Lydecker continued. "I want you to bring 599 his meals."

Huh? "Permission to speak, sir."

"Granted," Lydecker told her.

"Why me, sir? That sounds like a ordinary soldier or a lab tech's job," 405 questioned.

"It normally is," Lydecker agreed. "But we need to be able to control 599. I'm sure that you can imagine how combative he would be. We have already had several situations where he has injured, in some cases badly, some of  his guards. You are stronger and faster than he is, 405. We need to make sure that 599 is...properly supervised when we aren't working with him."

Torturing him. Call it what it is, asshole. "Yes, sir."

"Good," Lydecker said. He motioned to a tech, who walked up to 405 and handed her a lunch tray. "He will escort you to 599's cell and wait outside the door for you. 599 has thirty minutes to eat. Feel free to administer any motivation necessary."

"Yes, sir," 405 replied. She saluted Lydecker, somehow managing to keep her anger at him off of her face before following the lab tech out of the office.

Zack lay pretending to sleep on his bunk when he heard the door to his cell open. He continued to lay there with his eyes closed until he heard the door close again. When he opened them again, he was a little surprised when he saw a young woman in her late teens standing in the doorway. She was almost annoyingly familiar and Zack stared at her for a few moments before he recalled her identity. "405."

405 smiled a little. "You remember me. Zack, right?"

"How did you know my name?" Zack asked, tensing.

"Relax," 405 assured him. "There's only a security cam in here, no listening devices. Here. Lunch time."

Zack reluctantly took the tray. "Why do they have you on babysitting duty?"

"Lydecker said that they want to make sure that you're, I quote, 'properly supervised,'" 405 said. She made a disgusted face.  "Asshole."

Zack smiled fainly. "I had a feeling you weren't like the others."

"Damn right," she agreed. "I never hated you guys for running away."

"Do you have a name?" Zack asked.

405 shook her head. "No. Never thought of one that fit me. None of the aliases I've had on missions fit."

"Oh," Zack said. He frowned. "How did you know my name?"

"I'd overheard some lab techs complaining once, about a month after you guys left," 405 recalled. "I had to wait for some guards to escort me back to...well, after I'd had some blood drawn for testing. The techs were going over the intel that Lydecker had told them to look over about you guys." She smirked. "They were pissed at you guys for running because it meant that Lydecker gave them even more work."

Zack grinned. "I never liked them." He paused. "How could you have overheard them? You'd think that they would have taken precautions knowing that you could have heard them."

"They did, just not enough," 405 said. She laughed a little. "Remember that day about a month before you guys left when they had your unit and mine spar against each other?"

Zack nodded. "All but two of you guys went down fairly easy. 115, I think, could keep up with us but he wasn't as good as we were at the time. And then you were almost wiping the floor with us."

"Yeah," 405 said. "I don't know what went on with the X6s. All I know is that for whatever reason, about 15 percent of us can keep up with X5s and about another 10 percent of us, myself included, can hold our own with those little X8s. I have no idea why."

"Who knows what they did to us and why," Zack mused.

"Yeah," 405 agreed.  They were quiet for a good length of time while Zack ate.  When he was done, he set aside the tray and focused his attention back on 405.

"How old are you?" Zack asked.

"Seventeen," 405 answered. "My birthday is sometime in October, I don't know exactly when. I only know that much from when they had me take the tests to go on group missions back when I was eleven. The only thing I know for sure is that I'm the oldest X6, at least I am here in Wyoming."

"Will they be sending you out against us?" Zack asked quietly.

405 shook her head. "I hope not. I don't know if I could get myself to bring you guys in." She paused. "They're coming back."

"You should probably hit me," Zack suggested. "They might get suspicious if they don't see any marks."

"Good idea," 405 said. She raised her hand.

"Becky," Zack spoke up suddenly.

"Huh?" 405 gave Zack a confused look.

"Your name," he said. "Becky."

Becky grinned. "Thanks." She took a deep breath and slapped him hard, splitting his lip. "I'll see you tonight." She straightened as the door opened and Lydecker and two soldiers entered the room. "Sir."

"At ease, 405," he ordered. "You may return to your unit. Report back here at 1700 hours."

"Yes, sir," Becky replied. She saluted Lydecker and marched back to the library. She had to resist grinning. I finally have a name! Thank you, Zack. Thank you!

TBC