Road To Discovery (DA)
7 Feb 2010 20:36![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
skylar0graceTitle: Road To Discovery
Author: SkylarGrace.
Status: Multi-Chaptered.
Rating: PG-13.
Summary: Sometimes the thing you’re looking for is right in front of your face.
Spoilers: Set after Freak Nation so all of them
Disclaimer: Dark Angel and all related elements belong to Cameron Eglee Productions and FOX. No infringement intended.
Notes: Okay, so this is the first DA fic I worked on and is old in terms of my writing style. One day I'll get around to redoing it but until then, you can all check out what I was originally doing :)
Chapter Three
The cafeteria was the entire first floor of an office building. Before the pulse there was a small food court and the inhabitants of TC had cleared the space and knocked down a couple of walls to enlarge the area. Numerous round tables had been placed there and Fix-It and Luke had salvaged what they could from the previous stalls to create a functioning kitchen. They had even gotten a large freezer working which helped TC store perishable items. Joshua had originally taken to the cooking but had soon relinquished that when a few residents stepped forward to change the menu from macaroni and mini hotdogs. Old cook books had been found and with the high IQ’s of a few, regular meals were cooked for all. Today’s dinner was macaroni, Joshua’s favourite.
Max sat down with her food at one of the larger tables and was followed by her hungry brothers and sisters who quickly tucked into their food. Zane looked across at Max.
“How do you do it, Max?”
An expression crossed his face that Max couldn’t decipher as he searched through his memories. Max frowned.
“You are going to have to be more specific than that.”
An amused expression crossed the faces of everyone else at the table. Zane looked up a little confused.
“Not see Ben I mean.”
Max visibly stiffened. She didn’t want to talk about Ben and most of them at the table didn’t know she had killed Ben. It was still something she kept very close to her and as she gave a furtive glance around the table, she doubted anyone else knew the truth.
“What do you mean?” Max managed to say, her voice cracking. She noticed Syl give her a small, sad smile and she panicked, wondering if they had found out. Zane noticed the change in Max’s tone and frowned.
“With Alec. I mean they look identical.” Max let out a deep breath she didn’t even realise she had been holding and relaxed the tense hold she had on her body.
“Oh! They’re nothing alike, trust me.” Max rolled her eyes. “I mean, when I first saw him, I thought it was Ben but then he opened his big, stupid mouth and that was it.” She shook her head and Zane laughed.
“He can’t be that bad. He seemed like a good guy,” Jondy said.
Max rolled her eyes. “Just wait til you spend time with him. He drives me crazy!”
Max continued eating her food, missing the raised eyebrow from Zane and the small smile from Jondy.
“So, how did everyone get here?” Max asked looking over the group seated before her. Jace spoke first.
“I headed out and bumped into Krit and Syl in Mexico.”
“Yeah, she was taking down a couple of guys who were a little too touchy-feely,” Syl said with a smile. “We hung around after that. She needed the help with Max coming.”
Max nodded, a part of her proud for her siblings sticking together. Max looked to Zack. He seemed to take note of her gaze and sighed.
“I don’t blame you for sending me away Max,” Zack said looking in her eyes.
“I’m really sorry. I was just trying to…”
Zack cut her off by raising his hand. “Don’t apologize. You did the right thing and I was only there til this siege began. Up until that point, I only had a few memories and they were in my dreams. When I saw you and Alec on the TV, I started remembering and Buddy filled in the rest. I thought you may need some help so I started looking for everyone again. Found Zane and Brin first and the others not too long after that. When we got to Mexico, I found someone from Psy-Op’s. She helped sort out my memories.” Max gave a big smile.
“Mia?”
Zack turned his head slightly to the side. “Yeah, friend of yours?”
Max shook her head softly while laughing. Everyone turned to her, surprised to hear her laughing so freely.
“Not really. She kept putting the whammy on me and Alec while she was here.” Zack raised his eyebrow.
“Eww! Not like that. When Alec first got out he was ring fighting for money. Monty Cora.” Max rolled her eyes. “She convinced the idiot to go back into the ring so she could save her boyfriend from some mobsters and kept making me forget she was Manticore so I wouldn’t stop him. I tried to get Alec to take a dive because he was drawing too much attention and the last time White caught his ass. But he was making too much money so he refused.” Zane suppressed a smile and looked knowingly at his baby sister.
“So how did you get him out?”
Max smiled devilishly. “I went into the ring and took him down. Didn’t play fair either.”
Max looked around the table. Zane and Zack looked slightly pained while the others smiled. Max looked up as Sam walked past the table with a slightly worse for wear looking Richie. Max frowned.
“What happened to Richie?” Max asked Sam before she walked past them. Richie kept walking as Sam stopped and looked at Max.
“He was sparring with Alec. Krit took over though,” Sam replied. At Max’s raised eyebrows she shrugged. “Krit said he needed to blow off some steam. Something about sitting still too long and Alec was already letting off quite a bit of steam,” she finished, pointing a thumb in Richie’s direction. Max lowered her eyebrow and Sam left to get food.
“Were you guys driving for a while?” Max asked.
Zack looked over at Syl quickly. They had stopped just outside of Seattle the night before so they only had a short distance to TC. Krit needing to blow off steam sounded like a blatant lie so he left it to Syl to field the question. Syl closed her eyes for a second thinking of how to answer Max without lying. She knew that Krit didn’t fight unless he needed to. He occasionally sparred but he was usually gentle. She had a feeling that his sparring with Alec would be anything but gentle.
“We stopped last night but had to make up the rest of the difference this morning,” she answered truthfully. Sam sat beside Max and Syl gave a quick glance at Richie who was favouring one arm.
“Does Alec usually beat up the others?” she asked pointing a finger at Richie. Max glanced over at him and shrugged.
“Don’t know. Sometimes he just says he needs to work out and disappears for a little while. I don’t think he meant to hurt Richie. I’d kick his ass if he did it deliberately.”
She continued to watch Richie missing Sam rolling her eyes and the others casting knowing glances at Sam.
~
Alec was sitting in his office when there was a soft knock on the door.
“Come in,” he said, sifting through papers. He looked up to see Syl standing in the doorway.
“Hey Syl, what can I do for you?” He put aside his papers and she walked in carrying a bowl of food.
“Thought you might be hungry.”
“Thanks.”
“So, I heard you had a sparring match with Krit. He says you’re pretty good too,” Syl said as she sat down in the chair opposite his. Alec smirked.
“Well, that’s what I’ve heard.” Syl smiled at his brazenness. He was definitely nothing like Ben.
“So, how long have you been in love with Max for?” Syl smiled again as Alec began to choke on the mouthful of food he had.
“What?” he managed to get out. Syl just looked at him pointedly. “I have no idea what you are talking about.” Syl laughed.
“We have only been here for a few hours and every single one of us has noticed.”
“Noticed what?” he asked cautiously.
“They way you two look at each other, body language, etc.”
Alec shook his head. “Well, I don’t know what you think you’ve been seeing but you’ve got it all wrong. Max is my CO. We have a VERY tenuous friendship which sometimes, from Max’s end, borders on incivility. I think you guys are seeing something that is simply just not there. Besides, she is dating Logan.” Syl held up her hands in surrender.
“Sorry, guess we misunderstood.” She stood up. “Hope you enjoy your dinner.” She turned and left his office, leaving Alec to ponder what on earth they thought they had seen.
~
Syl sat on top of the building looking down. She knew why Max loved it here. After all the stories Ben used to tell, it was comforting. Syl didn’t need to look behind her to know who was joining her. She smiled as Zack, Brin, Krit, Jace, Sam, Jondy and Zane sat down. They all looked out over TC. Sam was the first to speak.
“So, how did it go?”
Syl laughed. “Oh yeah, Krit was right. He thought we were imaging things and gave me a list of reasons why we were crazy too. I guess it’s just obvious to everybody but them.”
Krit winced as he spoke. “Kicked the crap out of me. He was just so damn angry.”
“Well, I like him better than Logan,” Sam said and was joined by groans of affirmation from everybody.
“She should just be happy,” Zack said quietly.
“Did you guys know that she knows his scent?” Sam asked.
“Are you kidding?” Jace asked enthusiastically giddy. Sam smiled and shook her head, laughing softly to herself.
“What’s the problem with that?” Zane said and Jace turned to him.
“Do you know us by our scents?”
Zane shook his head. “But I haven’t spent a lot of time with you guys.”
Jace laughed causing everybody to turn and look at her. “It has nothing to do with time. I’ve only met a few that knew each others’ scents. They were all mated couples and Manticore tried to pull them apart. When we went into heat, Manticore had us all locked down. I was 15 when two X5’s from my unit mated and Manticore hit the roof when they found out; sent them both into Psy-Op’s. They didn’t understand at the time that it didn’t help and eventually they had to separate them. Mating was seen as a weakness and it isn’t that common either. At least it wasn’t in Manticore.”
“But that doesn’t make sense,” Krit said confused.
“Mating is for life,” she explained, “It’s like finding your soul mate. It’s odd that she knows him by scent because he’s not her mate, it’s as though they have some of the effects of a mated couple but not all of them, obviously, because they’re not. I haven’t heard of that happening before. After that first couple mated, Manticore began to understand the implications, that all of that feline DNA was bound to have some side effects, like growling, purring, etc. When a mated female was in heat, none of the other X5’s went near her and I think we all know how hard it is to keep the sexes separated during heat. She was simply off limits. They were possessive of each other too and none of the mated couples could be sent on missions together because, instinctually, their mates came before the mission. Mating screwed up the perfect soldiers so fraternisation was off limits.”
“At least until the breeding program was started,” Sam continued, “One of the women here explained it to me. When you guys took out the DNA lab the only way to get back on their feet was to have the X5’s breeding. They selected your breeding partner based on genetic compatibility to produce the best offspring. It worked on most though a few of the mated couples resisted and the exception being Max and Alec.”
Sam smiled. The others looked at her shocked.
“They were breeding partners?” Jondy asked. Sam continued smiling.
“Yep,” she said almost gleefully. “And the only non-mated couple who resisted.” Zane laughed.
“Max right?” he asked.
Sam laughed. “Yeah. Alec told me that he came in and explained the situation to her and Max was repulsed by the idea. She kicked him into the door and said, and I quote, ‘that is the only physical contact you and I are gonna have!’” Resounding laughter was heard and Sam paused before continuing. “I think that also says something about their relationship too.”
“What? That it was volatile from the beginning?”
“That he let her get away with it. There are more than a few X5’s here who were extremely upset over that whole situation. The males were told to get the job done one way or the other and they either had to use force or they faced the consequences. Alec lied to Renfro for Max; made her believe Max was complying. He would have been sent to Psy-Op’s again if Renfro found out he was lying.” Sam paused briefly before continuing.
“I’ve been in TC for a little while and they are always arguing but I think it’s mainly a defensive mechanism. I mean, he lets her beat down on him all the time.”
Krit looked up surprised. “He must. Because there is no way that Max would have been able to take down that man I fought today. And he was holding back.”
Sam laughed. “He always holds back. Except once.” Seven pairs of surprised eyes looked at her and Sam looked out over TC. “Mole told me it was after Alec got back from a mission. Said he was beating himself up for one of them getting shot. Non fatal, but blaming himself none the less. He said they had been hostile before Alec left and Max started in on him when he got back; blaming him for the accident and he snapped. Mole said he didn’t hurt her but he scared the hell out of her. I think when he returned she’d been scared that it could’ve been him.” Sam turned to look at them.
“I remember hearing about him back at Manticore. He was one of the best soldiers. Not only because he got the job done but because he survived; he’d been in Psy-Op’s more than any other solider. We went through hell after you guys left. Us twins. They tried to ‘simplify’ us.” Sam grew quiet and looked back over the city. “After Ben started killing people, they had to make sure it didn’t happen with Alec, that it wasn’t genetic. Another six months in Psy-Op’s. I remember being surprised he was still alive. He was everything they wanted him to be but he still managed to hold on to who he was. On one of his solo missions he finally slipped up and fell in love with the targets’ daughter. He tried to warn them about the bomb he’d planted but his handlers had already caught on that something was wrong. They blew them up anyway and took him back to Psy-Op’s.” Sam looked sideways and saw tears running down Syl’s face.
“I hadn’t met him til White sent me after Max. White wanted to trade my husband and son for Max. I hated her then but she got me back my family and Alec was the one who tried to make me stop hating her. He even cornered me once I had gotten here and told me to fall in line or get out.” Sam smiled and continued to look out over TC. “I asked him why he followed her. I mean, he was born to be a leader. Everyone knew 494 back at Manticore; aspired to be like him. He told me she was better and I knew then that he loved her.” Sam shrugged.
The eight of them looked out over TC, sitting in silence and thinking about what had been said.
“So what are we going to do?” Zane finally asked. They all smiled.
Author: SkylarGrace.
Status: Multi-Chaptered.
Rating: PG-13.
Summary: Sometimes the thing you’re looking for is right in front of your face.
Spoilers: Set after Freak Nation so all of them
Disclaimer: Dark Angel and all related elements belong to Cameron Eglee Productions and FOX. No infringement intended.
Notes: Okay, so this is the first DA fic I worked on and is old in terms of my writing style. One day I'll get around to redoing it but until then, you can all check out what I was originally doing :)
Chapter Three
The cafeteria was the entire first floor of an office building. Before the pulse there was a small food court and the inhabitants of TC had cleared the space and knocked down a couple of walls to enlarge the area. Numerous round tables had been placed there and Fix-It and Luke had salvaged what they could from the previous stalls to create a functioning kitchen. They had even gotten a large freezer working which helped TC store perishable items. Joshua had originally taken to the cooking but had soon relinquished that when a few residents stepped forward to change the menu from macaroni and mini hotdogs. Old cook books had been found and with the high IQ’s of a few, regular meals were cooked for all. Today’s dinner was macaroni, Joshua’s favourite.
Max sat down with her food at one of the larger tables and was followed by her hungry brothers and sisters who quickly tucked into their food. Zane looked across at Max.
“How do you do it, Max?”
An expression crossed his face that Max couldn’t decipher as he searched through his memories. Max frowned.
“You are going to have to be more specific than that.”
An amused expression crossed the faces of everyone else at the table. Zane looked up a little confused.
“Not see Ben I mean.”
Max visibly stiffened. She didn’t want to talk about Ben and most of them at the table didn’t know she had killed Ben. It was still something she kept very close to her and as she gave a furtive glance around the table, she doubted anyone else knew the truth.
“What do you mean?” Max managed to say, her voice cracking. She noticed Syl give her a small, sad smile and she panicked, wondering if they had found out. Zane noticed the change in Max’s tone and frowned.
“With Alec. I mean they look identical.” Max let out a deep breath she didn’t even realise she had been holding and relaxed the tense hold she had on her body.
“Oh! They’re nothing alike, trust me.” Max rolled her eyes. “I mean, when I first saw him, I thought it was Ben but then he opened his big, stupid mouth and that was it.” She shook her head and Zane laughed.
“He can’t be that bad. He seemed like a good guy,” Jondy said.
Max rolled her eyes. “Just wait til you spend time with him. He drives me crazy!”
Max continued eating her food, missing the raised eyebrow from Zane and the small smile from Jondy.
“So, how did everyone get here?” Max asked looking over the group seated before her. Jace spoke first.
“I headed out and bumped into Krit and Syl in Mexico.”
“Yeah, she was taking down a couple of guys who were a little too touchy-feely,” Syl said with a smile. “We hung around after that. She needed the help with Max coming.”
Max nodded, a part of her proud for her siblings sticking together. Max looked to Zack. He seemed to take note of her gaze and sighed.
“I don’t blame you for sending me away Max,” Zack said looking in her eyes.
“I’m really sorry. I was just trying to…”
Zack cut her off by raising his hand. “Don’t apologize. You did the right thing and I was only there til this siege began. Up until that point, I only had a few memories and they were in my dreams. When I saw you and Alec on the TV, I started remembering and Buddy filled in the rest. I thought you may need some help so I started looking for everyone again. Found Zane and Brin first and the others not too long after that. When we got to Mexico, I found someone from Psy-Op’s. She helped sort out my memories.” Max gave a big smile.
“Mia?”
Zack turned his head slightly to the side. “Yeah, friend of yours?”
Max shook her head softly while laughing. Everyone turned to her, surprised to hear her laughing so freely.
“Not really. She kept putting the whammy on me and Alec while she was here.” Zack raised his eyebrow.
“Eww! Not like that. When Alec first got out he was ring fighting for money. Monty Cora.” Max rolled her eyes. “She convinced the idiot to go back into the ring so she could save her boyfriend from some mobsters and kept making me forget she was Manticore so I wouldn’t stop him. I tried to get Alec to take a dive because he was drawing too much attention and the last time White caught his ass. But he was making too much money so he refused.” Zane suppressed a smile and looked knowingly at his baby sister.
“So how did you get him out?”
Max smiled devilishly. “I went into the ring and took him down. Didn’t play fair either.”
Max looked around the table. Zane and Zack looked slightly pained while the others smiled. Max looked up as Sam walked past the table with a slightly worse for wear looking Richie. Max frowned.
“What happened to Richie?” Max asked Sam before she walked past them. Richie kept walking as Sam stopped and looked at Max.
“He was sparring with Alec. Krit took over though,” Sam replied. At Max’s raised eyebrows she shrugged. “Krit said he needed to blow off some steam. Something about sitting still too long and Alec was already letting off quite a bit of steam,” she finished, pointing a thumb in Richie’s direction. Max lowered her eyebrow and Sam left to get food.
“Were you guys driving for a while?” Max asked.
Zack looked over at Syl quickly. They had stopped just outside of Seattle the night before so they only had a short distance to TC. Krit needing to blow off steam sounded like a blatant lie so he left it to Syl to field the question. Syl closed her eyes for a second thinking of how to answer Max without lying. She knew that Krit didn’t fight unless he needed to. He occasionally sparred but he was usually gentle. She had a feeling that his sparring with Alec would be anything but gentle.
“We stopped last night but had to make up the rest of the difference this morning,” she answered truthfully. Sam sat beside Max and Syl gave a quick glance at Richie who was favouring one arm.
“Does Alec usually beat up the others?” she asked pointing a finger at Richie. Max glanced over at him and shrugged.
“Don’t know. Sometimes he just says he needs to work out and disappears for a little while. I don’t think he meant to hurt Richie. I’d kick his ass if he did it deliberately.”
She continued to watch Richie missing Sam rolling her eyes and the others casting knowing glances at Sam.
~
Alec was sitting in his office when there was a soft knock on the door.
“Come in,” he said, sifting through papers. He looked up to see Syl standing in the doorway.
“Hey Syl, what can I do for you?” He put aside his papers and she walked in carrying a bowl of food.
“Thought you might be hungry.”
“Thanks.”
“So, I heard you had a sparring match with Krit. He says you’re pretty good too,” Syl said as she sat down in the chair opposite his. Alec smirked.
“Well, that’s what I’ve heard.” Syl smiled at his brazenness. He was definitely nothing like Ben.
“So, how long have you been in love with Max for?” Syl smiled again as Alec began to choke on the mouthful of food he had.
“What?” he managed to get out. Syl just looked at him pointedly. “I have no idea what you are talking about.” Syl laughed.
“We have only been here for a few hours and every single one of us has noticed.”
“Noticed what?” he asked cautiously.
“They way you two look at each other, body language, etc.”
Alec shook his head. “Well, I don’t know what you think you’ve been seeing but you’ve got it all wrong. Max is my CO. We have a VERY tenuous friendship which sometimes, from Max’s end, borders on incivility. I think you guys are seeing something that is simply just not there. Besides, she is dating Logan.” Syl held up her hands in surrender.
“Sorry, guess we misunderstood.” She stood up. “Hope you enjoy your dinner.” She turned and left his office, leaving Alec to ponder what on earth they thought they had seen.
~
Syl sat on top of the building looking down. She knew why Max loved it here. After all the stories Ben used to tell, it was comforting. Syl didn’t need to look behind her to know who was joining her. She smiled as Zack, Brin, Krit, Jace, Sam, Jondy and Zane sat down. They all looked out over TC. Sam was the first to speak.
“So, how did it go?”
Syl laughed. “Oh yeah, Krit was right. He thought we were imaging things and gave me a list of reasons why we were crazy too. I guess it’s just obvious to everybody but them.”
Krit winced as he spoke. “Kicked the crap out of me. He was just so damn angry.”
“Well, I like him better than Logan,” Sam said and was joined by groans of affirmation from everybody.
“She should just be happy,” Zack said quietly.
“Did you guys know that she knows his scent?” Sam asked.
“Are you kidding?” Jace asked enthusiastically giddy. Sam smiled and shook her head, laughing softly to herself.
“What’s the problem with that?” Zane said and Jace turned to him.
“Do you know us by our scents?”
Zane shook his head. “But I haven’t spent a lot of time with you guys.”
Jace laughed causing everybody to turn and look at her. “It has nothing to do with time. I’ve only met a few that knew each others’ scents. They were all mated couples and Manticore tried to pull them apart. When we went into heat, Manticore had us all locked down. I was 15 when two X5’s from my unit mated and Manticore hit the roof when they found out; sent them both into Psy-Op’s. They didn’t understand at the time that it didn’t help and eventually they had to separate them. Mating was seen as a weakness and it isn’t that common either. At least it wasn’t in Manticore.”
“But that doesn’t make sense,” Krit said confused.
“Mating is for life,” she explained, “It’s like finding your soul mate. It’s odd that she knows him by scent because he’s not her mate, it’s as though they have some of the effects of a mated couple but not all of them, obviously, because they’re not. I haven’t heard of that happening before. After that first couple mated, Manticore began to understand the implications, that all of that feline DNA was bound to have some side effects, like growling, purring, etc. When a mated female was in heat, none of the other X5’s went near her and I think we all know how hard it is to keep the sexes separated during heat. She was simply off limits. They were possessive of each other too and none of the mated couples could be sent on missions together because, instinctually, their mates came before the mission. Mating screwed up the perfect soldiers so fraternisation was off limits.”
“At least until the breeding program was started,” Sam continued, “One of the women here explained it to me. When you guys took out the DNA lab the only way to get back on their feet was to have the X5’s breeding. They selected your breeding partner based on genetic compatibility to produce the best offspring. It worked on most though a few of the mated couples resisted and the exception being Max and Alec.”
Sam smiled. The others looked at her shocked.
“They were breeding partners?” Jondy asked. Sam continued smiling.
“Yep,” she said almost gleefully. “And the only non-mated couple who resisted.” Zane laughed.
“Max right?” he asked.
Sam laughed. “Yeah. Alec told me that he came in and explained the situation to her and Max was repulsed by the idea. She kicked him into the door and said, and I quote, ‘that is the only physical contact you and I are gonna have!’” Resounding laughter was heard and Sam paused before continuing. “I think that also says something about their relationship too.”
“What? That it was volatile from the beginning?”
“That he let her get away with it. There are more than a few X5’s here who were extremely upset over that whole situation. The males were told to get the job done one way or the other and they either had to use force or they faced the consequences. Alec lied to Renfro for Max; made her believe Max was complying. He would have been sent to Psy-Op’s again if Renfro found out he was lying.” Sam paused briefly before continuing.
“I’ve been in TC for a little while and they are always arguing but I think it’s mainly a defensive mechanism. I mean, he lets her beat down on him all the time.”
Krit looked up surprised. “He must. Because there is no way that Max would have been able to take down that man I fought today. And he was holding back.”
Sam laughed. “He always holds back. Except once.” Seven pairs of surprised eyes looked at her and Sam looked out over TC. “Mole told me it was after Alec got back from a mission. Said he was beating himself up for one of them getting shot. Non fatal, but blaming himself none the less. He said they had been hostile before Alec left and Max started in on him when he got back; blaming him for the accident and he snapped. Mole said he didn’t hurt her but he scared the hell out of her. I think when he returned she’d been scared that it could’ve been him.” Sam turned to look at them.
“I remember hearing about him back at Manticore. He was one of the best soldiers. Not only because he got the job done but because he survived; he’d been in Psy-Op’s more than any other solider. We went through hell after you guys left. Us twins. They tried to ‘simplify’ us.” Sam grew quiet and looked back over the city. “After Ben started killing people, they had to make sure it didn’t happen with Alec, that it wasn’t genetic. Another six months in Psy-Op’s. I remember being surprised he was still alive. He was everything they wanted him to be but he still managed to hold on to who he was. On one of his solo missions he finally slipped up and fell in love with the targets’ daughter. He tried to warn them about the bomb he’d planted but his handlers had already caught on that something was wrong. They blew them up anyway and took him back to Psy-Op’s.” Sam looked sideways and saw tears running down Syl’s face.
“I hadn’t met him til White sent me after Max. White wanted to trade my husband and son for Max. I hated her then but she got me back my family and Alec was the one who tried to make me stop hating her. He even cornered me once I had gotten here and told me to fall in line or get out.” Sam smiled and continued to look out over TC. “I asked him why he followed her. I mean, he was born to be a leader. Everyone knew 494 back at Manticore; aspired to be like him. He told me she was better and I knew then that he loved her.” Sam shrugged.
The eight of them looked out over TC, sitting in silence and thinking about what had been said.
“So what are we going to do?” Zane finally asked. They all smiled.
