Disclaimer: I don't own neither Roswell, nor Dark Angel.
Category: Roswell/Dark Angel XO
Rating: ADULT
Pairings: Liz/Alec, Max/Raed, Maria/Zack, Krit/Syl
Summary: Takes place after series finale of DA and Departure on Roswell- except Max, Isabel, Michael, and Tess all left for Antar; set in DA timeline. When White and his agents get a trace on Liz they come after her and everyone she knows. Kyle is killed along with her parents and the Sheriff. Fleeing for their lives, Liz takes Maria to the one place she has heard of rebellion, where her sister is the leader of 'their' kind. Nothing is certain, but for a supersolid and her Ordinary friend- loyalty is their only protection.
Thank you so much to pijeechinadoll for this wonderful banner.
Chapter One
Terminal City had that smell about it- that unusual reek of street, sweat, and resistance. Alec had grown accustomed to the odd odor, but the sights of transgenic roaming free and unchecked, except by those of Max’s ranks, was an entirely different adjustment to accept. Nothing in TC had been the same since the day Max had raised their flag and declared war against specie-ism. Logan- eyes only- had been a great help for a while, but when he realized that his relationship with Max was not going to go any further- he pulled back. The cable hacks, the upstart speeches, the pompous “I will save the world” spiels- they all ended. He disappeared from Terminal City and the last Max had heard of him; Logan was with Asha and the S1W in Boston.
Alec thought the whole Logan thing was better where it was than where it could be; he was an unnecessary complication that required too much attention, and far too much babying. Max had been withdrawn at first and Alec had backed off, but when she refused to go on missions because of it- he had come forward and laid it out flat; get over it and get back to the mission.
Max had rolled her eyes, told him to shut up, and walked out with a slap upside his head. In some ridiculous way, Alec felt he had been the one to get her out of her stasis. Mission for food, fuel, and money were becoming more and more difficult. Mole, Joshua, and the other X operatives were finding it exceedingly hard to get passed barricades and in the underground to make the missions.
It was only a matter of time before the ward was won or lost- and Alec wasn’t so sure they were the ones going to win.
“Hey move it,” Alec jumped out of the way as a pregnant X6 waddled passed him.
“What’s the problem soldier?” She gave him a look like “did you miss the round stomach”.
“I’m in labor, now out of the way.” It looked like she was perfectly fine, but Alec knew that would not last and again thanked God that his breeding session with Max had been less-than-successful.
Alec made his way to control central, and found it busy as always. Max stood up on the top platform arguing with a blond haired transgenic male. His instincts were immediate: target threat and dispose of it. Max shouted something and then another male X5 stepped in to intercede. Two woman stood off to the side and their stance screamed submissive and prepared for orders.
“Hey Maxie. Need help?” Alec asked, then launched himself to her side over the guardrail.
“Who’s this clown?” The blond flicked his eyes up and down, examining Alec and then dismissing him to once again stare at Max with a stern expression.
“Zack, this is Alec, my second in command. Alec, this is Zack, my old CO. And next to him are Krit, Syl, and Jondy. They were in my original unit,” Max’s expression softened a bit when she mentioned the passed and who they were to her, but when her eyes landed once more on Zack she hardened herself to it.
"Second in command? Max, he’s not even in our unit. Give up this war, and dispatch everyone here. It’s better that way. At least when they break in here they won’t catch all of you,” Zack was practically shouting his opinion and Alec thought it was time to shut him up.
“You don’t want to be here? Leave. Why are you wasting our time? Maybe for you it’s easy to continue to be deserters, but those us who live in the real world know that anything worth having is worth fighting for. You fought to get out in ‘09, and now that they know about us they want to put you back in a cage, or worse exterminate you. You don’t think that’s worth fighting for? Fine, then go,” Max stiffened beside him as Alec ordered Zack to leave, but Alec stood by his answer.
“You do not understand us. Our unit did what we had to do. Now we have come back for our own. Back down soldier before I have to put you down,” Krit spoke up, and Alec had to restrain himself from taking battle stance.
“Krit! Back down before I put you down. This is my second in command. I am glad to see all of you again, but I cannot leave. I cannot keep running from my past and I don’t want to anymore. If you want to stay and be apart of my unit once more, then I am here and ready to take you on, but if you think that you can come in here and tell me that I cannot live my life than you have another thing coming,” Max told them in no uncertain terms. Jondy smiled at Max and stepped forward.
“I’ve missed you, my sister. I have heard of all the things that you have put up with, and all the things that you have done for us; I will stay and fight.” Jondy took up on Max’s side. Syl, the blond on Zack’s left, looked at Krit, and silently they communicated and the hard look that appeared on his face told Alec that she, too, was about to join up.
“You helped us once, sister, it’s our turn. Whatever you need, I’m here,” Syl took up on Alec’s left, and Alec watched as the muscle in Krit’s jaw worked before he too crossed beside her.
“I do not agree with this line of tactic, Max, but I won’t desert my unit when it needs me,” He announced. Max had no expression on her face, but Alec could practically feel the hum of her happiness.
Moments passed between Max and Zack, and Alec could feel the tension. “If you hadn’t sent word via one of your transgenic, I wouldn’t have remembered anything about this war, I wouldn’t have remembered you, or any of the others- but I do now. And I know you did it to protect me, to make sure my ignorance of who I am didn’t end up with me getting killed, but now that I do remember I cannot condone this. One of the more important rules of Manticore was to get out of enemy territory as fast as you can, now what? You want to sit in the thick of it?”
Max opened her mouth to say something, but he cut her off, “I understand your reasoning, but do you think you will win against a world of hate? Think like a soldier, what strategy is best? What statistical possibility that you will win this war?” Zack puyt his hands together in a pleading manner and then looked stone-faced at the others.
“I stand by my decision. War is not about the possibility of winning, Zack. War is about the possibility to change,” Max clenched her fists as she spoke, and Alec took an assessment of the situation: Krit, Syl, and Jondy were on her side, she had a good argument, and they were on her turf; technically this would be the point where cocky, overly-assured Max reared her head, instead she was standing as though she was in enemy territory facing defeat.
“Just give it a few days- think it over before you make a decision, okay?” Max beseeched, her face doing nothing to hide how strongly she felt.
“Two days and I’ll have an answer. Now where are the barracks?” A broad smile spread across her face, and Max turned to Alec.
“Take Syl and Jondy over to the main out-apartments; show them the washrooms, the rest areas, and the training centers. I want them prepped for the next mission. Krit will have to house nearby. I’ll take care of Zack. Meet me later,” She didn’t specify where to meet her, but Alec nodded and led Krit, Syl, and Jondy toward the abandoned low-rise on the sound end of TC.
“So how long have you known Max?” Krit questioned.
“Since she was recaptured by Manticore and we were paired as breeding partners.”
Jondy and Syl shared a look while Krit laughed.
“I’m sure that went well,” Jondy said with a smile to Alec. She had a beautiful face- Manticore perfect much like the other X operatives. Her high cheekbones and lush lips were flattering with her symmetrical facial structure. The olive-like complexion of her skin only added to her beauty and her long hair reached down to mid-thigh. For all her features though, she still seemed to be missing something. Alec didn’t know why he always felt this way about women, but he just couldn’t seem to picture anything lasting with any of them.
“Yeah well, I will definitely never forget it, that’s for sure. She makes one hell of a first impression,” Alec said.
“So, you’re what Ben would have looked like all grown up, huh?” Jondy seemed to be staring at Alec and his stride lessened slightly.
“Yeah.” Something passed over her face and Jondy’s eyes traveled to the floor only to settle there as they continued toward the low-rise. Alec stopped at their final destination, did a run down of what every room was and who slept where. Before he left, Alec set them up in the workstation and took off; he was headed back to meet Max.
When he reached control central, Alec noticed an off the side bet going on between Mole and another Nomaly. “Hey fellas, where’s the action?”
Mole twisted to face Alec and swept the cash onto the floor beside them- hoping he hadn’t seen. “Nothing doing, Alec. So any idea when the next mission is and who’s on the roster?" For a covert operative specially trained, Mole lacked subtly.
“Sure it’s in a week. Some new arrivals will be scouting though, looks like you have no need to worry.” Alec bent down and swept up the cash, “Hey look, it must be my lucky day- someone dropped their cash.” Alec smoothly folded it and put it in his pocket before patting it and smiling.
“Yeah, lucky,” Mole said. He and his companion shared a disgruntled look, but neither expressed their upset. “I don’t trust anyone new. Where did they come from? How do we know they aren’t undercover for White, or the Ordinaries?”
“They’re the ‘09ers, a part of Max’s original unit.”
Mole shook his head in distrust, but then shrugged, “Hell, it can’t hurt having a few more hands. Guess if Max wants them around we have to deal.”
Alec nodded patronizingly and then turned away to where he hoped he would find Max.
She sat in one of the rolling chairs, making every effort to connect to a proxy server, “Fucking Logan,”. Max slammed her fist down on the table and the structure started to snap in half. With blurring speed, Alec held the table together and kept the contents from falling.
“Easy Max, what are trying to do, kill our operation?” Alec joked.
She reached up and smacked the back of his head before getting up and storming away. Alec whistled to a nearby X6 and then took off after Max once the table was secure.
“Hey hothead, hold up a second. What is your problem today?” When Alec snaked a hand out to grab Max’s forearm, he found himself thrown over her shoulder and on the ground in front of her, “God Max, chill out.”
“You chill out.”
“Hey you were the one who wanted me to come by later. You don’t want me here? Fine. I’m gone.” Alec was on his feet and moving towards the nearest exit when he was halted by a petit figure blurring to a stop before him.
“Look, I’m sorry. I am not in the best of moods today. I’ve been getting a lot of whack shit from Zack today and Logan has been untraceable. Let’s go to the training center; I need to burn off some steam.” Max puckered her full lips in agitation and moved toward the same exit Alec had been headed for.
“Sure thing, Maxie.”
They walked in silence until they reached the gym area and then they broke apart to run individual laps. After five miles each, they took a break, grabbed some water and Max cooled down enough to discuss what she had planned.
“I didn’t know that my unit was going to show up. True I sent a retrieval team to get Zack, but that was more for his safety than my actual need to have him here. They are good soldiers- they will be sent on important missions, and I do not want to hear a word to naysay them, or me. The dealio with Logan isn’t as easy. I’ve been trying to get a hold of him- we need his technology to do some cable hacks of our own, but now that he dropped off the map it’s been a little difficult.” Max shifted uncomfortably in her seat.
“I figured as much. What’s the metal-head’s problem?” Alec asked, referring to Zack with a roll of his eyes and a quelling of his feral instincts. Everything in him screamed out that Zack was trouble and things were going to become complicated and quickly.
“Hey watch it. That’s my brother, not to mention the fact that I have his heart beating in my chest. If it had not been for Zack, I wouldn’t be here right now, standing in front of you.” The thought of Max not existing had Alec rethinking his stance on the bulky blond. Max had become one of his closest friends, and not having her around was an unpleasant thought.
“Got it.”
Alec watched as Jondy came in and joined the line of sparing partners who were paired off to face off in the main ring. It was a bit of a contest around Terminal City to see who was the strongest and most respected. Alec watched while listening to Max run down the linguistics of a money run to come. The basic get in, get it, and get out speech was recited, and Alec nodded as he watched Jondy take down two X6s and one X7; he laughed out loud when Krit got in the ring and had his ass handed to him.
“She is good, but then Jondy always excelled singularly at physical combat- she sucks at logarithms and strategy; got to hand it to the sister though, she has a way with weapons and her body,” Max chimed into his thoughts when she realized he was no longer paying attention.
“You think you could take her down?” Alec flicked his head back in her direction to see her
shrug in answer to his question.
“Probably, but that’s more because I was the uber cocktail back at Manticore.”
Max swiveled her chair to face the ring more fully and watched as Syl and Jondy faced off, “That’s probably not a good idea.”
“What?” Alec asked.
“Jondy kicking Syl’s ass in front of Krit. I mean in our unit they were paired,” Max said, mesmerized by the symmetry of the fight, and Alec had to admire the way that both women moved.
“Paired?” He hissed out an “ouch” when Syl ate mat, hard.
“With our X5 unit they decided to pair us off by mixing in a single strand of DNA that would make us want to mate one another- each of us has a partner.” The granite look on Max’s face should have warned Alec off from asking questions, but then he really was not one to take warnings.
“So who was your partner?” The question was irresistible.
“I don’t want to discuss that. All I know is that Krit looks like he wants to kill,” Max stated with a frown at the corner of her lips, and Alec’s brow furrowed.
Krit jumped back into the ring, tossed Syl out- she landed on her feet- and faced off with Jondy again.
“Krit!” Max shouted out to him. He turned to face her; a glare on his face.
“Get your ass out of that ring.” Max’s procession from her chair to the ring the center of everyone’s attention. In addition to the broad smile that swept Jondy’s face, Krit worked a muscle in his jaw- Syle stared on from the side; she was urging in a whisper that Krit get out of the ring, and saying how she was fine.
“Have you forgotten how to follow orders, soldier?” With the flex of her eyebrow, Max had Krit hauling ass.
“Come on, little sister. Haven’t fought you in years, let’s see if I can kick your ass,” Jondy called loudly from the ring.
“We always seemed to break even before, why would you think you could now?” Max rejoined.
Jondy merely tilted her head in acknowledgement before getting in fighting stance. Alec admired Max from behind as he made his way to stand ringside with Krit and Syl. Trangenics were placing bets all over the place and Alec thought about grabbing a piece of the action. The X6 taking down the money and the info glanced in Alec’s direction- knowing how much of a gambler he was- and Alec smirked.
“Six hundred on Max.” The X6 whistled and then held out his hand to Alec for the cash. Grinning now, Alec pulled out the roll of bills he had collected earlier from Mole and his friend and forked it over.
“Pretty sure of her aren’t you?” Syl’s head was to one side and Krit had an arm around her waist. A measuring expression was facial and passed quickly, but Alec had the feeling his actions were being analyzed Manticore style.
“I have been in the ring with her before; Maxie is about to double my money.”
Nothing else was said as Max climbed into the ring.
Max and Jondy circled each other and then stopped. They both kicked out, and then it was a blur of bodies. Occasionally one of them would land a punch and the scene would slow enough to be visible; and the more aggressive Max became the more she dominated.
“Come on Max, kick her ass. Think about how angry you are. Think about Logan, how he left you, how he moved on, how much of a pompous ass he is. Think of the Ordinaries, think of the war- think of everything you are fighting to win,” Alec shouted out to Max.
Suddenly, the sound of two bodies slamming together resonated throughout the hall. Max had Jondy pinned to the mat and was wailing away at her face- she pulled back when Jondy stopped struggling and it was official that Max had finished the match; coming out the winner.
“All right Maxie,” Alec cheered. Alec collected his cash and met Max and the others at the corner of the ring. Jondy had a bloody nose and a bit of bruising around her collarbone, but she was smiling. Krit and Syl were congratulating Max and Max herself was looking at Alec with a smile, while hugging Jondy in apology.
“Sorry I had to beat you down so hard, but if it makes you feel better you are a worthy opponent.” Jondy bumped fists with her and the smile never left her face.
“It’s alright, I figured I was done when you put on the speed, you were always faster than anyone in the unit. Good fight.” It was weird to watch someone praise the person that just handed them their ass on a silver platter.
“Nicely done.” Alec kicked in for the hell of it. Max smiled for a second, and then turned to Krit and Syl.
“You need to watch your attitude about Syl fighting. She is a soldier, she was built to fight, and Syl you need to watch your weak spots; Jondy would’ve had you pinned with another twenty seconds.”
Krit twitched his head, but nodded, and Syl shrugged before linking hands with Krit. Together they headed out to do laps.
“Not bad- you sound like a real CO,” Alec jibbed.
“Yeah well, guess there’s just some things you can’t forget, no matter how hard you try.” Max gave a quirk of her lips and then moved on to climbing the ropes.
Alec observed Max as she flew up the netting ropes; his head tilted back to watch her from below. The way that Max moved just enforced the fact that she had cat DNA- the graceful stretching and pulling of her muscles reminded him of a well oiled machine. In a split second decision, Alec smirked and began giving chase- racing her up the ropes and back down; under the wire; over the scaling wall; then proceeded to speed passed her as they broke out of the gym and into the city. Each pushed the other’s endurance, Max glanced at him in feline friskiness before cutting out ahead of him and into an abandoned unused building.
Crates and boxes provided them an obstacle course through which to run. Both reached the other side of the room in under a minute, and then broke out through the narrow windows- landing on their feet only to take off without a second glance.
As they drew close to one of the TC perimeter fences, Alec pulled to a sudden stop beside a still Max. Two figures sat on the ground just inside the perimeter fence.
“Name and rank!” Max called out, body instantly on guard.
“X5- 581,” The smaller of the two females called, “ Max, it‘s me- Adia.”
Max gaped at the name and Alec had to wonder just how much more interesting life was going to get as the two intruders slumped down passed out and bloody.
Author's Note: Surprise! For those of you that read Beyond Destiny I'm sure you didn't expect me to come out with another fanfic so soon, especially because I have another one going in the Other Shows Fanfic forum, but as I said in my first ch of BD it was a toss up between a CHMD/Ros XO and a DA/Ros XO- well now you have both. Let me know what you think, and if I should continue. Thanks, EK!
