Together -- Chapter 71

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.).

“This is weird,” Becky said as they sat in a circle on the floor of the safehouse. She looked over at Sasha, who was still out cold, and shook her head in disbelief. “Then again, who here shouldn’t have seen this one coming?”

“White might be as freaky as we are, but he is more textbook bad guy than Lydecker was,” Max agreed.

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen Sasha this quiet,” Alec said. “When she finally comes to, she’s going to be pretty pissed off at all of you.”

“Gee, what made you come to that conclusion?” Max said.

“What are we waiting for, anyway?” Krit asked. “Shouldn’t we just call up Zack and Syl and get this over with?”

“I wish,” Max said. “We need Sasha to wake up so that she can tell us where White is or at least was.”

“Well, it looks like you won’t have to wait much longer and you’re going to be really glad that you cuffed her before we took her out of Jeff’s place,” Alec remarked when he noticed Sasha starting to stir. Sasha blinked, saw Max sitting across from her, and started to lunge as best as she could in that direction. Alec grabbed her shoulder and tanked her back. “I really don’t think that would be the most productive move there, Sasha.”

Sasha looked confused as to how Alec knew her name, but shrugged it off. “Really? That bitch cost me my chance to get my children back. Maybe you don’t know what it’s like, 494, because who knows where 734 is, but I need to get my little girls back and I will absolutely murder anybody who comes in my way. I’d sell out anybody; I’d even sell out Director Renfro to get back my daughters.”

“Actually, Renfro already sold us out. She was the one who lit the match on Manticore,” Alec said. “I was the one who knocked you out. I shot you with a tranquilizer dart when you were distracted by Max. And Brin is over at her apartment about ten minutes from here and I’m going to be a father within the next two weeks so I do have an idea as to how you’re feeling.”

“You’re joking, right? Renfro tried to have us all killed?” Sasha said skeptically.

“He’s not lying,” Max said. “I was in the room when she gave the order.”

“Why should I listen to you? You think you’re so smart, you damn ‘09er?” Sasha hissed. “How can you listen to one of them, 494? How can you stand being in the same room with one of them? You know damn well what the two of us had to go through because of those punks!”

“Six months in Psy Ops, being watched like a hawk for at least another year, been there, done that,” Becky said coolly. “At least they gave you and Alec the common courtesy of letting you know why you two were being singled out for the extra-special treatment.”

“How would you know that, 405?” Sasha asked. “You should have gotten the same three months in Psy Ops and that’s it that all the other five and six C.O.s got.”

“Actually Zack, whom you probably lovingly refer to as 599, is my older brother,” Becky said. “I didn’t find that one out until the summer. And did I scream and rant and beat the crap out of him for putting me through all that hell? No, I didn’t. I knew who was really to blame for all of that.”

“Yeah, well, you were practically Wyoming’s Little Miss Perfect,” Sasha said. She turned back to Alec. “How the hell could you be okay with it? Have you forgotten what your own twin did?”

“Ben had his reasons,” Alec said. “He had slightly different experiences than you and I did and they affected him differently. It could have been me or it even could have been you.”

“What, no ranting at me yet for ruining your life or have you just not gotten around to it yet?” Rena wondered sarcastically.

“Hell, I already said pretty much everything I was going to say to you,” Sasha said. “I’ve only got one ‘rant at or about an ‘09er’ speech. I guess it can be applied to different people. Don’t you love multipurpose speeches like that?”

“They’re the best,” Rena said, her voice dripping with false sweetness. “How about we drop this nasty bitch act and get down to business? Believe it or not, we all want to help you get the girls back.”

“Oh yeah?” Sasha said. “Try again later. I’m going to bring in 452 to White and I’m going to get my daughters and then I’m going off with them and I’m going to live as quiet a life as I can. I got to meet my twin again and it was just so much fun, but Jade and Julia are all of the family that I need and I don’t need your help getting them back.” She shrugged. “Maybe 494’s help, but nobody else. I don’t trust any of you.”

“You don’t know any of us, so I’d say that’s actually fair,” Jeff commented.

“You always were a little smug know-it-all bastard, weren’t you, 941?” Sasha said nastily.

“Drop it,” Rena snapped. “You know damn well that you can’t rescue your daughters by yourself and the odds are that even with Alec with you, the two of you wouldn’t have much luck trying to get them back. Before you even start with me on how many missions you went on and how I couldn’t have possibly gone on more than one group mission before I bailed on Manticore, how about I point out that even with all that experience that you might have on me, White still found you and your twins and is holding them and in essence you hostage? I don’t give a damn what you think about all of us helping you and I can even ignore how much it hurts to know that you think so little of me your own flesh and blood, but you are going to have to suck it up like the good soldier that I know that you were going to attempt to shove in my face and accept our help. We honestly care about you, Sasha. We care about you and we care about your daughters, who in case you forgot are also my nieces and they are my flesh and blood too and I’d also move heaven and hell to keep them safe. So what do you think about that or are you still too high and mighty to accept our help?”

Sasha looked stunned. “I—120—“

“My name is Rena just like your name is Sasha,” Rena said. “What, did the cat get your tongue? Don’t forget to say hi to the cat, it might just be a relative of ours too and it might also want to help.”

“You bitch,” Sasha said.

“It takes one to know one,” Rena said, smirking.

“I hate you,” Sasha said.

“You kind of already said that,” Rena reminded her. “I hate you, damn ‘09er, it was something along those lines. Don’t hold back, Sasha, tell us how you really feel.”

“Fine!” Sasha screamed. “I don’t hate you for running, I hate you for being right about running! I hate myself for not getting the nerve to make my own break! I even hated 494 for awhile for not giving us the idea to run from that God-forsaken place! There! Are you satisfied now, Rena? Does that make you happy?!” She burst into tears.

The other sat around, stunned. “Holy crap,” Max said quietly.

“Sasha, I’m sorry for yelling at you like that,” Rena said. “I feel horrible.”

“No,” Sasha managed to say. “I guess I had to get it out. I’m so stressed with getting caught and my babies…I just want to hold my babies…” She burst into tears again.

“You will,” Alec said. “Trust all of us, not just me. You don’t have to like any of the others right now, just trust them.”

Sasha nodded. “One question first, though.” She turned to Rena. “If you and Ben had known about me and 494, what would you have done?”

“My whole family’s first thing to do after busting out of Gillette would have been to go to Seattle and break you two out,” Rena said immediately.

Sasha looked at her twin and nodded. “I believe you.” She managed a smirk. “I’m not the best liar. How good can she be?” The others laughed.

“Not the best,” Krit agreed. “She could fool any and all authority figures, but we could always read her like an open book.”

“Speaking of open, let’s get you out of those cuffs, Sasha,” Max said. She reached into her pocket for the key and unlocked the cuffs from Sasha’s wrists and ankles.

“Thanks…Max,” Sasha said. “Thanks, 494, for not being a total ass to me.”

“Makes a first,” Max mumbled.

“I’ve known this guy since minute one,” Sasha said. “He grows on you...kind of like ebola.”

“Great,” Alec said. “Where’s 511 when you need him?” He sighed and smiled at Sasha. “You’re welcome, though. My name’s Alec.”

“I can hardly imagine why that would be your name,” Sasha deadpanned.

“I’m Becky,” Becky said.

“I’m Jeff,” Jeff said.

“I’m Krit,” Krit said.

“Brin’s obviously out of commission for the time being and Maggie should stay close to Brin in case something happens with the baby,” Max said. She saw how Alec started to get fidgety and smiled. “Don’t worry, Alec, I’m sure nothing will happen.”

“Yeah,” Sasha said. “My pregnancy was a breeze once I got past the three month mark, and I had twins. Brin will be fine.” She paused. “Brin is 734, right?”

“Right,” Max said.

Sasha’s cell phone rang and she took it out of her pocket and flipped it open. “Well, what do you know? It’s our favorite buddy calling us to say hi.” She answered it. “Hello, White. How are my daughters?”

“No worries, 121, they’re perfectly fine,” White said.

“I’ll believe it when I’ll see them,” Sasha said.

“I was just calling to check up on your progress,” White said. “You only have another five days left.”

Sasha made a gesture with her free hand to the others and Max made one back. “Actually, I don’t need five days. I’ve got her right now.”

“Really?” White said.

“It was easy. She saw me first,” Sasha said. “All I had to do was pretend to be my own twin and presto. I’d put her on the line, but she’s very grouchy when you interrupt her sleep.”

“I’ll believe it when I see her,” White mocked.

“No problem,” Sasha said smoothly. “Are you using a camera phone that can send and receive photo messages?”

“Yes,” White said.

“I send you a picture of 452 and you send me a picture of my daughters,” Sasha said. “That sounds fair, don’t you think?”

“It does,” White said.

“Good,” Sasha said. “Give me a minute.” She hit hold on her phone and Max got up and lay down on the floor. Alec tossed Krit, who was closest to Max, the cuffs that Sasha had been wearing and Krit cuffed Max’s wrists and ankles. Sasha used her camera phone and took a quick picture and sent it to White and then took him off of hold. “There you go. One bound and sleeping 452. I even got her all in one unbroken piece, just like you wanted.”

“Very nice,” White said. “You’ll find that photo message of your daughters in your inbox. Unfortunately, I won’t be able to accept 452 until our original deadline was going to expire. Can you keep 452 until then? You waited nine months for your children to be born. This shouldn’t be too hard. It doesn’t sound hard.”

“It’s not hard at all,” Sasha lied. Waiting to get my girls back is only the hardest thing I’m going to do in my life! “How are we going to execute the transfer?”

“I will arrive in Seattle and pick up you and 452 and then I will bring you over to your children and you will receive them and the three of you will be let go,” White said.

“I was trained better than that,” Sasha said. “That has to be the biggest load of horseshit I’ve smelled since I last heard Director Renfro speak to us. How about you meet me in Seattle, but I follow you with 452 in my own vehicle to the rendezvous spot? That sounds quite doable to me.”

“I’m willing to compromise,” White said. “When I meet you in Seattle in five days, if you’re there with 452 and another transgenic, we will go with your plan. I’ll call you again in four days to give you a rendezvous site in the city.” He disconnected.

Sasha disconnected and immediately opened the inbox and the new message that was inside it and gasped and put her free hand to her mouth. “My babies,” she whispered.

Rena looked over her shoulder and smiled. “They’re absolutely beautiful. Which one’s Jade and which one’s Julia?”

“Jade is on the left and Julia is on the right,” Sasha said. “I have a picture of them that I took last week.” She put her phone down and reached into her pocket and took out the picture that Rena had put back there before they moved her to the safehouse. “They’re not identical, thank goodness.” She grinned. “Neither of them have a barcode.”

“That’s a relief,” Alec said sincerely. “Who’s the father, Sasha?”

“Alec!” Max snapped as Krit was unlocking the cuffs.

“He’s actually asking a valid question,” Sasha said. “Unfortunately, their father is my breeding partner, 591. He’s some random X5 that was from the New York facility. I wish their father was someone else.”

“Who?” Krit asked.

“511,” Alec said.

“You were cheating on your breeding partner? Way to go, sis!” Rena said.

“I wish I had been able to cheat on him,” Sasha said. “511 and I had a romantic relationship for the past year or so before the DNA lab blew. It was obviously in secret. Alec covered for us a lot when we’d see each other. We were best friends our whole lives, us and Alec, but then 511 and I just…” She sighed. “Manticore got stricter on everything after the DNA lab thing and 511 and I couldn’t get around the breeding program and see each other after lights out like we used to do.”

“So I guess if you’re a part of or at least connected to my family in some way and you were stuck at Manticore, you had a secret relationship,” Max said with a smirk. “I bet if Brin had been there longer, she would have found herself a lab tech or a fellow transgenic to get her swerve on with.” She became serious. “I wish we could talk about it forever, but we need to get to work.” She and Krit got out their cell phones and dialed Zack’s and Syl’s numbers respectively and sent the phones down between them. “I just love conference calls. Here’s the dealio. Sasha, that’s Rena’s twin’s name, is here with us and White called her to check her progress. We let him believe that she got me and White’s gonna play her game only if she shows up with me and someone else.”

“Got it,” Zack said. “So we’ve got ten of us on this. That should be an adequate number even if White has a force similar to that when Suzanne died.”

“Ten?” Max repeated.

“Yeah, I hope you don’t mind me tagging along with Zack,” Wayne said. “He was going to relocate me to somewhere else in the southeast but since he was pretty worried after you got that call, I thought I’d make sure he didn’t wreck on the way over.”

Max laughed. I wonder how close Zack’s hands are from Wayne’s throat right now. “I appreciate it. Seriously, the more the merrier. All right, let’s get some ideas going.” They paused while they thought about it. “I think that we should confuse him. White seems to have control issues to me.”

“How should we confuse him?” Krit asked. “I haven’t dealt with him like most of you have.”

“How about a twin switch?” Syl suggested. “Have Rena get the babies and then when it looks like White won’t let you go, have Sasha step in. White won’t know which twin is which and that’s when the cavalry will come in.”

“That sounds like a good basic plan,” Zack agreed.

“One potential problem in that, though,” Sasha said. “I won’t put anything past my daughters, even as young as they are. They might be able to tell somehow that it’s not really their mom but their aunt that’s holding them. I don’t think they’ll react negatively to Rena, but I don’t want to chance it.”

“So we need to have Sasha be the one to get the babies,” Alec said.

“How about we still fake him out?” Max said. “We follow Syl’s plan but we don’t switch twins, we just switch barcodes. Rena and Sasha will get their barcodes removed and then we’ll tattoo the other’s barcode on them. If White decides that he wants to look at a barcode, he’ll see one or two that will apparently back up what’s going on if he gets the chance to look at them.”

“Nice idea,” Becky said. “What about the other transgenic that White wants with Max?”

“It should be either Becky or Jeff with Sasha and Max,” Zack said. “We need an ace in the hole for the second transgenic.”

“How about we up the confusion level?” Max said.

“What do you mean?” Wayne asked.

“I think I know what she means,” Zack said. “Becky, are you ready to possibly come back from the dead?”

Becky picked up on the idea and nodded. “Yeah, being dead is boring.”

“We burn off Becky’s barcode if she hasn’t done that on her own already and tattoo Syl’s barcode onto Becky’s neck,” Max elaborated. “When Sasha and Becky and I meet White here in Seattle, Becky has her face covered, but her neck accessible enough so that White can get to the barcode. Syl and Becky are about the same height and Syl’s hair is only a shade lighter than Becky’s. The most White can possibly know about Syl is that she’s a fair-skinned blonde. If Becky’s face is covered, they’re physically similar enough to convince White. If we need to throw White off of his game more than he will be, this should do it.”

“And the rest of us will follow you four,” Alec said. “Rena will get out at some point and move into a position where she can enter the building and confront Sasha. The rest of us will move into a position where we can provide the needed support. The exact points we’ll figure when we get there.”

“I’ll try to get any kind of recon done to see if we can find out exactly where White’s holding Sasha’s kids so we can get a better jump on him,” Jeff said. “I’ll probably need one or two others to go with me.”

“It sounds like we have it at least temporarily mapped out then,” Zack said. “We’ll make it work.”

“I hope so,” Sasha said. “It has to work. I’m going to get my children back and nothing will stop me. That’s it. No questions asked.”

TBC

Notes: For a continuation of this part, click back and go to my ‘Missing Moments’ series or click here.