Together -- Chapter 48

Disclaimer: The TV show Dark Angel, all of the characters that appeared on it (Max, Zack, Logan, 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: These next few chapters are going to be a kind of AU version of the season 2 episode “Some Assembly Required,” so there might be some spoiler-ish stuff for that episode here and there. Enjoy!

Lot of people out on the street today, Maggie thought as she walked through downtown Seattle one chilly day. It’s supposedly always been this busy the day after Thanksgiving. I vaguely remember a nurse saying to one of the other nurses one night before the pulse about how she was going to brave the crowds to go shopping on that day one time.

She checked her watch. I should probably grab some lunch soon. I’m starting to get hungry. I gotta remember to get those gross frozen dinners that Brin seems to like before I head back to the apartment. Why she actually likes that crap is beyond me. It must be one of those weird pregnant lady craving things.

She crossed the street to the next block and stared ahead. I hope the clouds go away and that it doesn’t rain. I hate rain when it’s cold outside. I actually like snow, I guess that’s what you get when you grow up in frozen middle-of-nowhere Wyoming, but cold rain drives me bonkers. Does it actually snow here in Seattle? I should ask Max about that one the next time I see her.

Maggie stopped in front of a restaurant. I guess this place looks like a good place to grab some lunch. Good thing it doesn’t look too expensive. I think...what the heck? She turned to look in the direction of what had caught her eye and saw a girl who appeared to be of Eurasian descent across the street from her. Do I know her? She looks so familiar.

She quickly crossed the street and followed the girl at a safe distance. Are you crazy, Maggie? Becky would probably give you a lecture about this one! I wish I knew why this girl looks so familiar to me. I know I didn’t see her around the Manticore facility that was here in Seattle, but I swear that I know her from somewhere! She continued to follow the girl until the girl stopped to wait to cross the sidewalk. At that moment, a breeze blew the girl’s hair off her neck and Maggie caught a very brief glimpse of a barcode and was shocked. There’s no way it can be her! She died years ago! She started to grab her cell phone, paused, and then turned and walked quickly away.

Becky stood in her kitchen as she fixed herself a sandwich. Thank goodness Normal decided to stay closed for the entire Thanksgiving weekend! I like having a day to relax and just chill out. Just me and my lunch and whatever crap is on TV right now. She heard a knock at her door and went to answer it and when she opened the door she saw Maggie standing there, looking as white as a sheet.

“Come in,” Becky said. “What are you doing here, Maggie? You look like you just saw a ghost.”

“I think I just did,” Maggie said. “I was in the city because I’ve got today off from my job and I was about to go get something for lunch when I saw this girl who looked so familiar. I could have sworn that I knew her from someplace. I started to follow the girl and don’t worry, she didn’t notice me following her. I know that following her was a dumb idea, but I swear I knew her from someplace. It was right on the tip of my tongue, so to speak, but I couldn’t quite remember. So she stops so she can wait to cross the street and the breeze picked up for a second and blew her hair away and I saw a barcode. It was impossible, Becky. It couldn’t have been her, she’s been dead for about half of my life, but it was. I know it was her.”

Becky grew concerned. “She had a barcode? Maggie, what was the girl’s barcode?”

“332500937662,” Maggie said. “It was 662.”

“Holy shit,” Becky said. She was stunned. “That is impossible. Lydecker himself told me that she had been killed for allegedly accidentally shooting that trainer in that training exercise we did with Unit 5 that day. I know that you’re not lying, but this is impossible.”

Maggie nodded and looked over at the coffee table where Becky’s laptop was. “What about the database? Does it say in her file that she’s actually alive?”

“I looked at all of our files, and her file said that she’d been executed on April 14th, 2013, the night of the training exercise,” Becky said. “I guess we should take another look and see if there’s anything else.” She and Maggie sat down on the couch. Becky grabbed the database CD and popped it in and opened it.

“The whole thing’s been decrypted, right?” Maggie asked.

“Yeah, it’s all been decrypted,” Becky said. She quickly got to the files on their unit and opened up the one on 662. “Here it is. ‘Died: April 14th, 2013. Cause of Death: Executed for the unintentional fatal wounding of Commander Henry Anderson during a training exercise.’ That’s all it says. There’s nothing here in this file that says in any way shape or form that she was not executed on that day.” She Maggie looked at each other. “It’s not in this file.”

“But it could be in some other file in the database somewhere?” Maggie guessed when she saw the look on Becky’s face. “This is gonna be tough to search for, Becky. Where should we look?”

“I’m not exactly sure,” Becky said. “How about we take a page from Max’s book and make it up as we go along? It seems to work for her.”

“That sounds like as good of an idea as any I can come up with,” Maggie agreed.

“Okay, then,” Becky said. “Let’s get back to the main file directory here and take a look. We know it can’t be under those folders and we’ve looked under those...here’s one that we haven’t looked at yet. ‘Projects.’ It’s been decrypted, but I haven’t had the need to look through it yet.”

“I’d say that we have the need to look through it now,” Maggie said.

“I’d say that you’re right,” Becky said. She clicked on the folder. “The breeding program has a folder in this directory. A folder for what I’m guessing is experimentation done with the X2s that were left. We definitely don’t have to look in that folder.” She paused and nodded. “We’ve hit the jackpot. There’s a folder labeled with 662’s full barcode number.”

“I’m almost afraid to open it,” Maggie said.

“You and me both, Maggie,” Becky said. She opened the folder and clicked on the file that was inside and started to read. Her eyes narrowed and she looked angrier the more that she read. “Those bastards.”

“Why? What did they do to her?” Maggie asked. She leaned forward to read the file. “They botched her execution. They stuck her in Psy Ops for six hours and when they shot her in the head afterwards, the shot didn’t kill her. She was in a pretty deep coma, but it didn’t kill her and it looked like she was heading towards brain death anyway so they decided to keep her alive and on life support so that when she was finally declared brain dead, how long it would take before her organs would start to fail. A week later and then 427 confessed to being the real shooter. 662’s condition remained the same for close to three years before she slowly showed signs of actually improving. The decision was made to use 662 to test the new...” Maggie’s eyes widened and she stood up and walked away from the couch. “They used our little sister as a human guinea pig?!”

“Like I said, they were bastards,” Becky said. “I’m angry as hell but somehow not that surprised.” She sighed and continued to read the file. “Subject X6-662 is being caught up on her training and is set to begin her mission...” Suddenly, Becky got pale. “No. This can’t be right.” She shook her head. “At the time of the fire, 99.9 percent of us couldn’t have known that Renfro deliberately tried to kill all of us. The only explanation that was logical to us was that someone else had attacked Manticore and that Manticore isn’t dead and buried. If that’s true, then they’ll still carry out whatever missions that they had been sent on or were about to be sent on.”

Maggie turned to look at Becky. This is not a good sign. Becky is usually so damn stoic around us. She never lets us see what she’s really thinking and feeling. If something’s gotten through her mental defenses as easily as this has, it’s got to be really bad. She went back to the couch and looked at the laptop and saw what had gotten Becky so rattled. “Oh my God.”

“Exactly,” Becky said. She turned and saw the duffel bag that was lying next to the couch and got out her cell phone and speed dialed a number. “Zack, it’s me. Get Max and get to my apartment right now. It’s an emergency.” She disconnected and closed her eyes. “This better not be happening. This better not be happening.”

TBC