Welcome to Our Life -- Chapter 1: Max (X5-452)

Disclaimer:  The TV show Dark Angel, all of the characters that appeared on it (Max, Zack, Jondy, 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 (Elle/X5-164, etc.).

Notes:  This is an idea that’s been floating in my head and refuses to go away. This is a ‘what-if-they-didn’t-escape’ AU story. This is a different AU than the other one that I’m working on, but most of the same original characters from that AU such as Becky, Wayne, etc., will be in this AU as well. Jack and Eva are both still alive in this AU. This starts at about the beginning of the pilot (when they escaped) so maybe spoiler-ish stuff for that episode. I’m going to at least start out writing this fic in first person P.O.V.

I hate seizures. I bit my lip and prayed for it to end. I tried to breathe in as deeply as I could and eventually I could feel the seizures pass. I just lay there for a few minutes and waited for the last of the trembling to be over. They better find a cure for these seizures soon. We’ve had some close calls lately. Yesterday, Jack had gotten a bad one and had barely managed to keep it under control until we’d gotten back here to our barracks.

I heard a noise to my left and I looked over and I saw Jondy stir and blink her eyes and look over at me. “Are you okay, Maxie?” she asked worriedly.

“Yeah, I’m fine,” I assured her. “It’s over. It wasn’t that bad.”

“That’s good,” Jondy said. We both looked over at the clock on the wall. “0230. We’ve got four hours until we’re supposed to get up.” Her eyes lit up wickedly. “Let’s go to the bathroom and soak some paper towels and dump them on Jace!”

“I’d do it if it wouldn’t wake Zack up and make him angry at us,” I said. I smiled. “We should wait until at least 0530 to do that.”

“You are so bad,” Jondy said, giggling.

“You’re worse,” I said, also giggling.

“Hey, what about me?” Rena asked from her bunk.

“Ooops, did we wake you up?” Jondy asked.

“Yeah, but it’s okay,” Rena said. “I’ve already gotten some sleep and I’ve still got a few hours to get some more.” She got up from her bunk and walked over to us and sat down next to me on my bunk. “What are you guys talking about?”

“We’re planning on getting Jace later,” I said.

“Can we get Syl while we’re at it?” Rena asked hopefully.

“Maybe,” I said. “Look at the weather outside. It looks like it’s going to snow.”

“And snow something fierce,” Jondy said. She smiled proudly. “I got that slang right, didn’t I, Rena?”

“Yeah, you did,” Rena said. “Maxie, what do we have on our schedule for tomorrow?”

“After breakfast, all of us are going to run the obstacle course and other outside exercise from 0800 until 0900,” I said. “Then from 0915 until 1115, Zack, Tinga, Kenny, and Zane have live ordinance, Elle, Ben, Reese, you, and Wayne have Psychological Warfare, Gale, Syl, Parker, Jace, and Brin have Language, and Jack, Eva, Jondy, Krit, and I have Field Med. From 1130 until 1230 we’ve got the briefing on the training mission, then lunch, and then at 1330 we meet outside by Yard A for the training mission that’s supposed to take all afternoon and we go to dinner immediately after that. From 1900 until 2100 we’ve all got martial arts, and finally from 2115 until 2215 we have an hour in the library to go over our lessons.” I grinned. “We actually have forty-five minutes free before lights out!”

“Easy day,” Jondy said. She sighed. “I was hoping we’d go parachuting again.”

“We might have another run in a few days maybe a week at most,” Rena said. “If I’m lucky, I won’t be sent on a mission so I won’t miss it.”

“Quit bragging about how you can go on missions and Max and I aren’t cleared yet,” Jondy said. She stuck her tongue out at Rena. “Besides, you’ve only gone out on two so far counting your probation mission and all you did there was the dirty work for that group from X4 Unit 8. Even on your second mission, you were with Zack and Tinga and Zane and Gale. It wasn’t solo.”

Rena stuck her tongue out at Jondy. “You know that none of us will be cleared for solo missions until we’re about seventeen, give or take a few months.”

I was laughing when suddenly I heard faint sirens coming from the outside. I motioned to Jondy and Rena and we snuck to the nearest window and looked out. “Can you guys see anything?” I whispered.

Jondy shook her head. “Not a thing.” We heard a soft noise behind us and we turned our heads at the same time and saw Zack standing behind us.

“What’s going on?” he asked.

“I don’t know,” I said. “None of us can see anything from here.”

Zack nodded and motioned for Rena to move out of the way so that he could have a look, which she did. He zoomed in but he also shook his head. “I can’t see anything either.”

“This is really odd,” Jondy said. She sucked in a breath. “I hear snowmobiles. They’re heading in all directions away from the building.”

“I hear them too,” I agreed. Something caught my eye and I zoomed in and I gasped. Running across the snow and heading towards the perimeter fence and the woods was a soldier. Not just a soldier, but another X5. “Zack, Jondy, Rena, do you see that?”

“Oh my God,” Zack realized. “Some X5s are escaping.”

I noticed the edge in his voice and the look in his eyes. “You’re jealous.”

Zack looked at me in the eye. “Aren’t you?”

I thought about it. Maybe I am jealous. Life here is horrible. The training, the experiments, everything…I just have the feeling that it’s not supposed to be like this. I mean, we are kids. I know that Zack and Tinga are teenagers, but that’s still not adults. They’ve been on more missions than the rest of us who have gone on them and they’ve both said that they never saw other kids like this.

Rena looked at us and like she and Ben usually like to do, tried to lighten the mood. “Wow, somebody beat Zack to an idea. There goes his month.” It worked, at least for Jondy and me. We both giggled while Zack glared at Rena.

“That’s enough, Rena,” he said. He focused his attention back on the window and we continued to try to follow the X5. “Come on, make it, make it…”

“He or she didn’t,” Jondy said quietly as we saw the X5 become surrounded by guards a few yards short of the perimeter fence. He or she tried to fight them off, but the soldier was hit by a taser and taken away back towards the building.

“Was that X5 the only one who tried to escape?” I wondered.

Zack shrugged. “Who knows? We probably won’t find out until the morning.” We stood up. “Get back into your bunks and at least try to sleep.”

“Yes, sir,” we said. We crawled into our bunks and lay there. Rena and Zack both fell asleep again, but Jondy and I just lay there, either staring at the ceiling or each other or in the direction of the window. I knew that I should try to sleep since I did have a seizure, but my adrenaline was pumping from seeing that X5 try to escape.

“I wish that X5 had made it,” Jondy whispered.

“Me too,” I whispered back. We continued to lay in our bunks silently for awhile longer before we heard footsteps coming towards our barracks. Several pairs of footsteps. Jondy and I looked at each other nervously and then our door was slammed open, waking up everybody. We all sat up straight in our bunks as Colonel Lydecker entered the room. I swear, I’ve never seen him look that angry before.

“We have a situation,” he said. “X5-599 will taken for an indeterminate period of time. X5-452, you will be in command of the unit until his return. X5-656, you will be 452’s second-in-command.” He made a motion and three of the guards who had accompanied Lydecker stepped forwards and over to Zack’s bunk. Two of them grabbed Zack and hauled him out of his bunk while the third held a Taser out at him. I saw Zack tense and start to struggle out of reflex, but I shot him a worried look and he relaxed a little and let the guards usher him out of the room. Lydecker and the other guard who was with him also left the room, closing the door behind them.

“What’s going on?” Tinga asked. “Max, do you know what’s happening? Why did they take Zack?”

“I don’t know exactly,” I said. “But a little while ago, he and Jondy and Rena and I saw another X5 escaping. The sirens were on outside and everything. The X5 was captured, though. Maybe that has something to do with why they took Zack.”

“Where are they taking him?” Ben asked.

I sighed. “I wish I knew.” I shook my head. “I don’t think that we’re going to know anything until sometime in the morning at the earliest. Let’s try to get some sleep.” They all nodded and lay back down in their bunks, but I didn’t see any of them go back to sleep, at least not right away. I also lay down, just as awake as the rest of my brothers and sisters. Don’t be gone for too long, Zack, I thought. Please don’t let anything happen to him!

TBC