Together -- Chapter 49

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.).

“I love who or whatever made Normal decide to give everybody the entire weekend off,” Max said to Original Cindy as they sat around the apartment.

“You and me both, boo,” Original Cindy said. “Why aren’t you out spending some quality time with your boy? Didn’t he get into the city last night?”

“I know that Zack got into the city last night,” Max said. “He’s going to come by in about an hour or so.”

“You need me to stay clear of the place tonight?” Original Cindy offered. “It sucks that you got interrupted the last time when Becky came back early from the Halloween party to change after that moron threw up on her.”

“I’ll let you know,” Max said. “But I’d say that—“ She and Original Cindy turned when the door suddenly opened. “Zack? Why are you early?”

“Get your jacket and come with me,” Zack said. “We’ve got to get to Becky’s apartment now.”

“Is something wrong?” Max asked. “Is Becky or one of the others okay?”

“Becky just said that it was an emergency,” Zack said. “Come on.”

Max was worried. She knew what the tone of voice that Zack was using meant. “I’m right behind you.” She grabbed and put on her jacket and wheeled her motorcycle out of the apartment as she followed Zack outside. She waited for Zack to get on his motorcycle before she got on hers and she followed him over to Becky’s apartment. They parked their bikes and went inside. They didn’t bother to knock when they got to the apartment.

“Thank goodness you guys are here,” Becky said. “You’ve got to get out of Seattle right now.”

“Excuse me?” Max said. “Why do Zack and I have to leave town?”

“I was downtown a little while ago,” Maggie said. “I saw this girl who looked so familiar to me and I followed her and I ended up catching a glimpse of a barcode and I recognized it and then the girl as my sister 662. The one who was supposed to have and that Becky and I and the rest of our family were told had died over seven-and-a-half years ago.”

“Maggie came over her as soon as she recognized her,” Becky said. “She told me what happened and we tried looking in the database for some answers. Like I’d thought, there was nothing in 662’s file that gave us any useful information. It just said that she’d died the day that we were told that she’d died on. We started to look through the rest of the database starting with the folder marked ‘Projects.’ We found a folder labeled with 662’s barcode number and that’s where we found out what had happened to her. Her execution had been botched and the gunshot wound that was supposed to have killed her instead put her into a coma for about three years. They figured when they’d shot her that she’d be brain dead fairly quickly, but she hung on past when 427 confessed and continued to hang on and then got better.”

“Not too long before 662 actually came out of the coma but around the time that she started to seriously show signs of improvement, Manticore somehow came across this new technology,” Maggie said. “It was a computer chip that could be implanted into the head. It could control a person’s thoughts; it could control their physical strength, those kinds of things. It didn’t say whether Manticore had invented this technology themselves or if they had stolen it from a foreign government or some private company or anything like that. They did say that they had tested this new chip in a few normal humans, but that it was too much for them to take and they wanted to see if a transgenic could handle it, so they made the decision to implant one of these chips into 662. They performed the surgery before she came out of the coma.”

“That’s completely sick,” Max said. “At least when they would do experiments on us, they would have the common courtesy to tell us right before they started what they were going to do. Even though we had no choice about cooperating with them, at least we still had that. Those bastards wouldn’t even let your sister have that much.”

“I know. It makes me so damn furious,” Becky said. “Anyway, they implanted the chip into 662 and the surgery itself went just fine and 662 continued to recover from the gunshot wound and came out of the coma just two weeks after the surgery to implant the chip. Her recovery was pretty quick once she actually regained consciousness. When they could properly test the chip, they did and it was everything that they hoped that it would be. 662 became even stronger and faster than she already was, even stronger than me. But what really made Lydecker and Renfro and all those other people happy was how easily controlled this chip made 662 to them. She could accept commands the same way any of us can, but if they typed up a command or a mission for 662 into this special program and hit that enter key...662 would perform it without question, without hesitation, just like a robot.”

“According to the file, that’s pretty much what 662 became once they implanted the chip into her. A human or transgenic in this case, robot. Little to no emotions. She just does what she’s told in the most efficient way possible,” Maggie said. “They also continued to use 662 as their favorite guinea pig. For instance, they needed a kidney from an X6 about three years ago because one of the guys from Unit 7 had been badly wounded while he was out on a mission with the rest of his unit, so they took one of 662’s kidneys and instead of leaving her with one kidney, they put a new biosynthetic kidney in to replace the one that she ‘donated’ to see how it would work.” Maggie sighed. “The part that really concerns you has to do with what they were prepping 662 to do when the fire happened.”

“After 662 had come out of her coma and it was apparent that the chip was a success, they transferred 662 to the facility near Syracuse in New York,” Becky said. “And of course, she came to Seattle when they combined the facilities after you guys and your brother Krit and your sister Syl blew the DNA lab. She had caught up to where she needed to be with her training at that point and even though she hadn’t actually been cleared to go out on a solo mission at that point, they were prepping her to go out on one. She was being prepped to go out and find your family and bring all of you back in to Manticore.”

“She doesn’t know that Renfro deliberately burned the place down to kill all of us, does she?” Zack said. “She’s obviously not been able to contact the base so she’s going to go ahead with the mission that she was about to be sent out to do. I know that she hasn’t gotten to any of us so far. What will she do when she realizes that there’s no base to take us back to?”

Becky looked at her brother right in the eye. “In the event that she is unable to contact base when she has a target in sight, her orders are to kill.”

“Oh no,” Max said.

“Exactly,” Becky said. She sat back down on her couch. “She’s out for the kill. And like I said before, you won’t be able to take her on like you would have under normal circumstances.”

“Is this chip anything like the implant that the South Africans used? Those Red morons. The implant that I’ve still got in my head,” Max said.

“If you’re asking if it can be shorted out, the database doesn’t say,” Becky said. “We’ve got to find a way to deactivate the chip in 662’s head. Before we can do that, you and Zack need to get out of Seattle, if for no other reason so that you can go out and warn your brothers and sisters.”

“And leave you by yourself here with your brainwashed sister?” Zack said. “You should come with us.”

“I’m not the one that’s on the hit list that Manticore gave her, you are,” Becky said.

“Becky, you could be in danger if you run into your sister again,” Zack said.

“You might be my big brother, but you do not have the right to order me around,” Becky said.

“You two can be quiet right now,” Max said. “This isn’t the time to start arguing and fighting with each other. I know how worried you two are about each other and I’m worried, too. But we need to stay calm so that we can figure everything out.”

“You’re right,” Zack said. He took a deep breath. “Who exactly is on 662’s list? Did the database give a complete list?”

“Yeah, it did,” Becky said. She turned the laptop around so that Max and Zack could get a better look at it and then went back over to them and started to read it again. “’The targets for X6-662’s mission are X5s 701, 157, 205, 210, 120, 369, and 798, as well as X5-599 and X5-452 in the unlikely event that they should once again go AWOL, as they are still classified as flight risks at this time.’ And it also says that Lydecker is on the list.”

“What do you think we should do, Zack?” Max asked.

“We need more information,” Zack said. “One way or another. I’ve got the impression that there are still a few holes left that need to be filled in.”

“How about we get you two to someplace safe in or close to the city,” Becky suggested. “Maggie and I or maybe we could get Alec and or Jeff to join us in doing some recon. Once we’ve gotten it and a clearer picture of what to do, you guys can leave town or whatever, though I think that you should leave town within two days at the most, even if we don’t have anything new by then.”

“That sounds good to me,” Max said.

Zack nodded. “That’s what we’ll do for now.”

TBC