Welcome to Our Life -- Chapter 35: Syl (X5-701)

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:  I had said before that Krit’s designation in this AU was going to be the same as it had been in the show (471), but I decided to keep things a little more consistent that I would change it to what I had it as in the “Where Were You?”/ “Together”, etc. AU (157). I’m sorry if this confuses anybody. Spoiler-ish stuff for the pilot.

I tried to focus on driving the car down the road. It wasn’t too hard. It’s not like 836, who was sitting next to me, was offering any kind of conversation or anything like that. I have no idea why she had been assigned to go with me on this mission when I had been assigned to it last week. I know that I had joked around with Rena and told her that I would prefer 836 going with me than her even though she’d be recovered from her injuries from that God-awful exercise that she, Wayne, Ben, Reese, and Gale had gone though by then. But let’s be honest here, joking was all that I was doing. It’s not that I hated 836 per se, it’s just that she was being pretty damn anti-social. Oh, well. There wasn’t much I could do about it. I just hoped that she would pull herself together so that we could complete the mission that we were supposed to do.

I looked down at the dashboard for a split second and rolled my eyes. It’s amazing how the good people at Manticore had everything that even a country whose military had not been affected by the Pulse could have and yet not have the vehicles that they have set aside for use on mission filled with less than a full tank of gas. “We’re going to have to stop for gas, 836,” I said.

836 snorted. “Fine, 701. Whatever we need to do.”

I took a deep breath to try to keep down the urge to slap the daylights out of the woman. I spotted a gas station just up ahead and pulled in. I turned off the engine and figured out how to use the pump and got that started before I leaned on the car and stared down at 836. “It would help if you would be nicer to me while we’re out, 836.” I sighed. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to sound like I was snapping at you. I’m just a little bit annoyed.”

“With me?” 836 said in mock surprise. “There’s a shock. My unit and pretty much ever single trainer and other personnel has been annoyed with me at one time or another. Why should you be any different, 701, huh?”

This was not going to be easy. I shook my head but did not say anything as the gas tank filled. I unhooked the pump and went inside the little convenience store to pay the guy for the gas and may I say that six bucks a gallon for gasoline is a complete rip off? I’ve seen it for as little as four a gallon in other places in the country. I went back to the car, got in, and drove off. 836 and I were quiet for at least another ten minutes before I started to get bored. Man, do I wish that Krit was here. He’d always have me laughing. It never failed how he could always get a smile out of me, no matter how bored or depressed or angry I was at the time.

“Why are you blushing?” 836 asked.

Note to self: do not tell any of my sisters about this. “I don’t know,” I lied. Well, sort of lied. I think I knew why I was apparently blushing but I don’t know the exact reasons behind it. It’s not as if I like Krit in that way. I decided to change the subject. “It should only be another half an hour or so until we reach our motel.”

“Good,” 836 said. She shifted around in her seat. “I can finally get out of this car.”

“I guess lunch didn’t count?” I muttered.

“Excuse me?” 836 said.

“Just spill it, okay?” I said. “If you’re going to insist on having an attitude with me for this entire mission then seeing as I am the one in charge on this little excursion, I have a right to know why.”

836 was silent for another few moments before she opened her mouth again. “Do you have any idea what it’s like for people not to trust you or look at you like you’re a piece of crap, 701? I’m not just talking about everybody else, but my own commanding officer. That’s not to say that at least a quarter of the transgenics back at Manticore still look at me and 311 and 429 and the rest of our unit like we’re the scum of the Earth, but 333 himself, the guy who’s been leading my unit for the past sixteen years. I asked him the other day before you and I were deployed about it and are you aware of what he said to me? He told me it was because I had failed. Failed what, you might ask? Failed my mission, said mission being when we tried to make a break of it back in 2009. Oh sure, I made it over the perimeter fence that night but I only lasted nine months on the Outside before your beloved commanding officer and other unit mates and those other jerks from Unit 4 brought me back to the shit hole that we used to call home in Wyoming.”

I was floored. “Why?”

“Why what? Why does 333 hate my guts?” 836 guessed. I nodded and she shrugged. “How the hell should I know? Maybe he’s still angry about the fact that a TAC team caught up to him that night and I managed to stay one step ahead of them. I don’t have a clue and he sure as hell didn’t tell me the fine print underneath his reasoning. Whatever, I don’t care so much now that I know where 333 stands.”

I really didn’t know what to say to 836. “Oh.”

“I’m mostly furious with myself,” 836 continued. “How could I have been so stupid getting caught? I pull down the collar of my turtleneck for a second or two so that I could scratch where the stupid shirt label was making my neck itch and 272 I.D.s my sorry rear end. How dumb could I have gotten? Well, it could have been worse. I could have gotten caught the way that 311 did. How could he have missed a camera when he’d gone in to rob that guy’s place? I know that we had enough training even back then to know to be extremely thorough when checking for cameras.”

“Why did you escape?” I asked. I was curious. I’m not afraid to admit that. Besides, I knew that I wasn’t the only transgenic that wasn’t a part of 836’s unit that wanted to know the exact reasons behind what went down that one night back in March of ’09.

“So you can tell Director Renfro?” 836 said mockingly.

“No, because I’m curious,” I said. I want to be patient with her, but this bitch was climbing my nerves even quicker than Rena could when she wanted to and Rena was never mean or malicious when she did that. “It’s called cat DNA, remember? And I’ve got no reason to tell anybody like Director Renfro.” I narrowed my eyes as I glance quickly at 836 before looking back at the road. “Do you want to give me a reason?”

“No, ma’am,” 836 said. She shrugged. “You might be a part of the best X5 unit from Wyoming, but even you should know or have an idea at the very least of how bad it sucks at Manticore. It’s so damn tough there. They were always so hard on my unit in particular because we were not the best. We always struggled to get things right. That night once we had gotten back to our barracks after our training that day, 333 asked why we should have to put up with all of this stuff and we agreed with him. He came up with a plan and at around 0230, we evac-ed out of the building. Of course, we were barely out the door before they were wise to what was going on and I know that I barely made it over the fence and safely away that night. I could even see out of the corner of my eye my old unit mate 959 take one when she was trying to resist a TAC team that had closed in on her and of course I found out what had happened to everybody else once I was brought back to Manticore.”

“Wait a second,” I said. “You’re telling me that the whole reason that you and your unit decided to try to go AWOL from Manticore is because you weren’t the best and you thought it was too hard?” That wasn’t right. It was the right decision, I mean escaping from our home was a good and right decision, but it was made for all of the wrong reasons. “You don’t try to leave something just because it’s hard and it’s a challenge. That’s so childish, 836.”

“Well, we kind of were children then,” 836 pointed out. Good point. “Besides, I won’t be doing that again. What was my reward for following on 333’s idea? Nine months of being free from Manticore followed by six months of Psy Ops and then being looked upon as if I were pond scum. Thanks, but no thanks. I don’t know why the higher-ups are or at least were afraid of us running again because I have no intention of giving that another go. I already had six months of incredible shit, do you really think that I would risk that again especially with those Psy Ops guys now fully integrated into the thing there? No way.”

I guess you must not want to leave Manticore as badly as you think that you do, 836. If something is worth the risks, then you’ll do whatever it possibly takes for you to reach your goal. I didn’t say anything to 836 for the rest of the drive and she was quiet to me in return. Once we got to the motel, we got our things put away and 836 went into the bathroom to clean up while I sat on one of the beds, deep in thought. If something as relatively childish as it being hard and them not being the best X5s were the reasons why Unit 7 had tried to escape all those years ago, what would have been the breaking point for me and my family? We all hated Manticore and would love it if we were completely free from there. Why hadn’t we made our own try at freedom? I sighed. I knew that we were all watched closely in general by Lydecker and the trainers and everybody after Unit 7’s botched attempt and then later, we became close with X6 Unit 1 and they became an extended part of our family. I wouldn’t say that they held us back, far from it. We genuinely loved them like they were—and are—our younger siblings. But we never broached the subject with them. They didn’t seem like they completely shared the same feelings about Manticore that we did, except for maybe Becky. Maybe it would have taken something in particular to really kick our butts into action. What would have been our breaking point? Who knows? But I guess there’s no point in thinking about what could have been. Zack would tell me in his hardass-but-concerned-as-hell way to relax and Krit would put his arm around me and agree with me and calm me down. I shook my head as I turned on the TV and waited for 836 to finish in the bathroom. It certainly was food for thought in any case, wasn’t it?