Welcome to Our Life -- Chapter 19: Kevin (X6-773)

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.).

I sat in my Culture class, listening to the trainer go on and on about something stupid.  I couldn't help glancing over next to me to the empty seat that Kyle would have sat at.  It's been a week, but I still can't believe that he's dead.  My best friend is gone.  Yeah, I'm second-in-command of the unit now, but I don't care about that.  I'd rather have Kyle be alive.  I quickly glanced over to where Becky was sitting.  I could tell that she was having a hard time dealing with that as well.  She and Kyle were as close as Kyle and I were.  She didn't show it, but that's Becky for you.  She's always so strong for us and I couldn't be more grateful.

"...so you need to pay attention to how they interact--"  The trainer paused when we all heard a knock at the door.  "Come in."

"I'm sorry to interrupt," a guard said after opening the door.  "But Colonel Lydecker wants X6-405 and X6-773 in his office immediately."  The trainer nodded and Becky and I got up and followed the guard over to Colonel Lydecker's office.  We went inside and stood at attention and saluted.

"X6-405 reporting as ordered, sir!" Becky said.

"X6-773 reporting as ordered, sir!" I said.

"At ease," Colonel Lydecker said.  He waited for a moment and then gestured next to Becky and me.  We turned and saw three other X6s standing there, two girls and a guy.  "405, 773, there have been additions to your unit.  These three X6s have been transferred to your unit from an X6 unit in our Seattle facility that has been recently de-commissioned.  This is X6-312, X6-334, and X6-728.  312, 334, 728, this is your new commanding officer, X6-405, and this is your new second-in-command, X6-773."

"X6-312 reporting for duty, ma'am," 312 said, stepping forward and saluting.

"X6-334 reporting for duty, ma'am," 334 said.

"X6-728 reporting for duty, ma'am," 728 said.

Becky nodded.  "It's good to have the three of you on board.  Welcome to Unit 1."

"Get the three of them settled into your barracks," Lydecker ordered.  "After you are done, you may meet the rest of the unit for lunch.  You are dismissed."

"Sir, yes, sir!"  The five of us saluted Lydecker and then Becky led us out of the office and back to our barracks.

"Here we are," she said once we had finally reached the door.  She opened the door and we went inside.  "There were fifteen of us originally, we were one of the smaller units to begin with, and our numbers were down to twelve."  How she managed to keep her voice level, I have no idea.  "The arrival of the three of you brings our total back up to fifteen."  She pointed out the empty bunks.  "There are twenty bunks in this room.  I guess they wanted to be prepared in case of transfers or anything like that.  There's a dresser next to every bunk and also a trunk at the foot of every bunk.  The male bathroom's over through that door over there and the female bathroom's through that second door.  Pick a bunk and get your things put away."

The three new soldiers nodded and started looking around and found bunks that they wanted.  I saw the guy, 312, put his duffle bag down on Kyle's old bunk and I couldn't help wincing.  312 saw this and looked up at me, concerned.  "Is something wrong?  Are you okay?"

"Nothing's wrong.  I'm fine," I said.  "That was our former second-in-command's bunk."

"Former?" 312 said.

"He was killed on a mission a week ago," Becky said quietly.

"I'm sorry," 312 said.  "I could find another bunk if you like."

"No, it's okay," I said.  I managed to smile.  "I need to hear somebody snoring on both sides of me to be able to get to sleep."  I pointed to my own bunk.  "I'm directly to your left."

"I can't believe that we all share one room," 334 said.  "Back in Seattle, they split us up and put us in individual cells in the same block once we hit puberty."

"We used to share one bathroom," I said.  "They added the second bathroom to every barracks years ago.  I guess they're trying something a little different at every facility."

"Maybe," 334 said.

Becky and I waited while 312, 334, and 728 put their things away.  By the time that they were done, it was time for us to head to the cafeteria to get some lunch.  We marched behind Becky and went inside the cafeteria and got on the lunch line.

"We eat over there," Becky said, pointing to our table.  I noticed that Zack, Tinga, Kenny, Zane, Jack, Eva, Jondy, Krit, and Max had arrived first and had pushed our tables together like we always did.

"Why is pushed together with that table and why are there X5s sitting there?" 728 asked.

"Over here, we have what Colonel Lydecker calls a mentoring program," I explained.  "Every X5 unit is paired up with an X6 unit.  The X5 unit is supposed to mentor the X6s along and by working together and eating together occasionally, the performances of both units will improve.  We're paired up with the top X5 unit, Unit 2."

"Are you guys the best X6 unit here?" 312 said.

"You bet we are," Becky said.  We grabbed our trays and sat down at various places around the table.  "We had a few soldiers transferred to my unit from the facility in Seattle.  This is 312, 334, and 728.  Guys, this is X5-599, C.O. of both X5 Unit 2 and the entire squad of X5s here in Gillette, X5-656, X5-987, X5-205, X5-417, X5-766, X5-210, X5-471, and X5-452, second-in-command of both the unit and the X5s here."

"Welcome to Gillette," Max said.  "When did you guys get in?"

"Today," 312 said.  "Just a little while ago."  He started to say anything, but then he noticed the rest of Max's family come in and he, 334, and 728 did a double take and just stared at them.  Actually, they were staring at Rena and Ben specifically.

Rena gave them a weird look as she and the rest of the X5s sat down.  "Okay...I don't think I've grown a third arm or anything like that."

Max noticed the weird looks but decided not to say anything.  "That's the rest of our unit.  They're X5s 369, 493, 831, 552, 164, 798, 537, 120, and 701.  These are X6-312, X6-334, and X6-728.  They were just transferred to 405's unit from Seattle."

"Sorry about that," 312 apologized.  "But the two of you have twins or clones or something back in Seattle."  He pointed to Rena and Ben.  "We saw and talked with 494 and 121 the day before we left to come here.  They're even in the same unit together."

"Back the truck up," Rena said.  "We have twins?"

"Well, you and 493 do," 334 said.

"Oh," Ben said.  He grinned wickedly.  "Is he as good looking as I am?"  Most of us groaned and Zack rolled his eyes.

"He's identical," 728 said.  "And 121 is identical to 120."

"You're as bad as he is," 334 said, but she was giggling.  I wonder if she had a crush on Ben's twin.

"Oh my God, there is two of them," Zack said.  I tried not to laugh.

"494 is the commanding officer of both his unit and of that facility's X5 squad, just like you are," 334 said to Zack.  "And 121 ranks third in both her unit and the squad."

I heard a noise and turned to see Ben banging his head against the table.  "Wait a second.  You're telling me that my twin who is apparently genetically completely identically to me is the commanding officer of both his unit and that X5 squad and I'm only ranked fifth in my unit and seventh in this squad?  How the hell did that happen?"

"Personally, I think the X5s back in Seattle might just not be as good as the X5s here," 728 said helpfully.  "494, his second-in-command 511, and 121 are all really good, but every other X5 that I've seen go against any of the three of them didn't seem to come too close.  I could even beat at least a good percentage of the X5s when they've had me spar against them.  Well, I couldn't beat 494, 511, and 121, but like I said, you know?"

"You're on X5 level?" Becky asked.

"Yeah," 728 said.  "I'm on the X5 level physically.  I still wasn't ranked at the top of my unit, though."

"Where were you ranked?" I asked.

"I was ranked eighth in my old unit," 728 said.  "I was my old unit's field med."

"How about the rest of you?" Becky asked.

"Third in my old unit," 312 said.

"Sixth," 334 said.  "I was also our backup comm. specialist."

"Becky, who are these guys?" Brent said as the rest of my unit sat down with us.

"Why did he call you Becky?" 334 asked.

"We have names," Becky said.

"Names?" 312 repeated.

"Yeah," Zack said.  "All of us do.  We gave ourselves names years ago and when they first started the mentoring program a few years ago, we gave them names as well.  If you guys want names too, you can have them."

312, 334, and 728 looked at each other for a few minutes before 312 nodded.  "Sure.  We'd love to have our own names."

"Is there any ones that you like?" Tinga asked.

"Yeah," 312 said.  "When I was on this one mission last year, I got the chance to see this classic horror movie on my off hours.  It was so awesome!  The name of the director was Wes Craven.  I want to name myself Wes, after that director."

"Cool," Becky said.  "What about you, 334?"

"This one time, they had 494's unit take us through this exercise out in the woods," 334 said.  "During the exercise, one of their unit mates got injured somehow and it was a bad wound."  334 started to look a little green, but she shook her head and continued on.  "The sight of it made me sick and I threw up and 494 made a comment about me having to go ralph, which I know now is slang for throwing up, but I actually like Ralph as a name, even if it is really a guy's name so I want that as my name."

"Hey, I'm the same way," Brent said.

"Actually, I like the name Layla," 728 said almost shyly.  "On my probation mission, it was the alias of one of the X4s that was also on the mission.  I think it's really pretty."

"Well, welcome to the family, Wes, Ralph, and Layla," Max said.

"Family," Wes repeated.  He smiled.  "Cool."

We re-introduced ourselves, this time giving out our names to Wes, Ralph, and Layla, before we concentrated on our food and we all ate relatively silently for a few minutes before Ralph looked up and noticed some of the expressions on our faces.  "You want to know why we're here, don't you?"

"Yeah," Reese said.  He winced when he saw the looks on their faces.  "It was bad, wasn't it?"

"It was worse," Wes said.  He started to tell us what had happened and I couldn't believe it.  It must have been horrible for all of them, especially for Wes who'd actually seen the whole thing.  I couldn't believe how they'd just lost their entire unit.  "...determined who it was who'd leaked the bad information to us, but we didn't hear anything more on that front before we left the Seattle facility."

"Oh my God," Zack said quietly.

"I just hope that if they send some people back there to try to get 941, 111, 520, and 646 back that we go with them," Ralph said angrily.  "I want a crack at those fuckers."  She looked embarrassed.  "Ooops.  I didn't mean to use that word."

"No apologies necessary," Max said, shaking her head.

"I hope that they do send somebody back," Layla said.

"They will," Zane said.  "Colonel Lydecker doesn't like for somebody to beat him at his own game.  There'll be somebody sent for that reason if nothing else."

We were quiet until Wes spoke up again.  "So, 4...Becky, what do we have next?"

"We actually have a training mission with these guys here," Becky said.  "We'll be getting our briefing on the mission in Room 17 and then we head outside immediately for the start of the mission.  It's actually scheduled to take us most of the rest of the day, so we'll be packing some rations with us because we won't be here for dinner."

"I hate field rations," Ralph said.  She made a face.  "If there's anything else that could make me puke, that's it."

"Is it going to be fives against sixes or are they going to mix us up?" Layla asked.

"They usually mix us up," Max said.  "I wouldn't mind going fives against sixes.  That could be fun."

"Yeah, because you guys have the numbers," Suzanne said.

"Holy crap, Suzanne, do you always have to whine every time that you might end up on the team with the fewest numbers in an exercise?" I said.

"Yes, I do," Suzanne said.  She stuck her tongue out at me.  "Thank you very much."

Becky sighed.  "That's our family.  I hope you realize what you've gotten into."

"Yeah, I'm still good with it," Wes said.  He looked down for a moment before he looked back up at us again.  His smile also seemed a little bit more forced than it had a moment ago.

I smiled and patted him on the back.  "It's okay, Wes.  We understand."

Wes smiled back.  "Thanks, Kevin."

"You're welcome," I said.  Hey, he might be new to our family, but he's still a part of our family now and still my brother.  Neither he nor my two new sisters would replace Kyle, but I had a feeling that this was going to work out fine.

TBC