Dark Angel 1. Carry On Wayward Children

_Once upon a time there was a young girl with many brothers and sisters who lived under the rule of an evil king. One night the young girl and many of her siblings escaped and fled into the world where they hid for many years, afraid and alone._

_One day the young girl, now a young woman, returned to the evil kingdom and in a blaze of fire and wrath laid siege to the kingdom and freed the rest of her family. Some were battered, many were broken and some looked so strange they had to make up words for what they were but they were all family. Together they went in search of a land where there were no cages, or bars or rules or damnation._

_They found it, in an abandoned campground hidden deep in the woods. A place free of prying eyes where they could figure out their place in the world. A world where for the first time their kind could be born rather than made._

_The young woman overlooked the new kingdom and smiled._

One year ago Joshua's painstakingly painted flag went up over the abandoned campground the transgenics now called home. It's a vivid memory; the black, red and white flag snapping in the wind. A cry of triumph had burst forth, a mixture of voices human and some not-so-recognizable, that filled the surrounding forest. No one had slept that night as they ate and laughed and danced around bonfires that seemed to lick at the sky.

Max stood alone at the edge of the festivities, a silent observer, avoiding any beckons to join in and as much eye-contact as possible. Finally, she quietly slipped away into the darkness. A quick jog from the campground they were making their home (the name 'Haven' had been bandied about) lead her to a huge rock overlooking the river below. Letting her legs dangle free off the edge she closed her eyes and let the cool breeze stroke her face. It wasn't the space needle but it would do.

A familiar scent tickled her nose and she frowned. Company was not what she needed right now-

"Hey, Max," Alec sat down next to her and let his legs join hers in dangling.

"What do you want, Alec?" Max asked wearily.

"Can't a guy join you in your solitude?"

Damn the man, she could _hear_ his blasted smirk.

"Y'know, it's not really solitude if you're not solitary."

She opened her eyes and glanced over at him, a little older and wiser looking than when they'd first met. Then again, she probably looked the same. The same exhaustion in the eyes and the same sag in the shoulders like the weight of the world was on their shoulders which, in a way, it was. Max had gone from a child of Manticore, to fugitive, to leader of a nation wobbling on baby legs before her twenty-fifth birthday and somewhere along the way Alec had weaselled his way in as her Second in Command. It bothered her that she hadn't even noticed it happening, just one day she'd given him orders and not even bothered to turn around to know he'd get it done. Somewhere along the messy line that was their relationship (and lord how Max hated that word) Alec had somehow learned to give her what she needed before she even realized she needed it. How when the madness of her heat had struck in the messy days immediately following the transgenics gathering together in the abandoned campground he'd found her and kept her locked in a shed. After it had passed and he'd let her out she'd expected a barrage of teasing, but he hadn't said a word about how she'd acted. It had puzzled her for a while when she'd looked back on him grappling with her and slamming the door to her room between them. The memory of the wild and hungry look in his eyes made her realize that Alec understood more than his mouth let on.

She pulled her legs up and rested her chin on her knees. Sometimes, after so long alone, it was hard to remember that she now had people who understood exactly what she was going through. Original Cindy, Logan, they tried so hard but there was always this piece missing.

Her puzzle was still a mess but at least she felt more and more like she wasn't missing bits from the box.

"How's your rash?" Alec, perhaps sensing her inner emo, spoke up.

Max glanced down at her arms, currently bare of any of the Minoan script that had appeared on her body before they established the transgenic camp. Logan had managed to translate some of it until they'd suddenly vanished. Max had figured that was the end of it (or rather fervently wished that were so) until they'd reappeared covering the left side of her body for three days until once again, poof. They seemed to appear and disappear without any rhyme or reason anyone could figure on various parts of her body and every time they did it was like the ultimate middle finger from Manticore. Life getting too manageable? Here, take a good long look at the freak show that is your body.

Alec watched Max's face carefully, maybe to an ordinary person it would seem emotionless or inexpressive, but to someone trained to read every inch of a person's body language she was an open book. A loud, painful open book.

"So what's bothering you now? Something new or the same old pile that's been growing over the past year?"

Max glared at him but said nothing.

"Come on, Maxie, you're a leader of what basically amounted to a tribe of lost children. Soldiers, children, mothers with babies and folks you almost couldn't tell had a drop of human in them look to you for guidance all the while we are rapidly running out of food and supplies to the point we won't be able to sustain ourselves after another eight months. Not to mention you rarely get to see your friends or Logan any more."

Max didn't respond and with a sigh Alec got up to leave, maybe Devon had some of that home brew left-

"No, wait."

Alec looked down at Max, her face still intent on the horizon. The faintest flicker of light had begun to peer admits the trees signalling the onset of dawn.

"You can stay," she whispered softly.

Alec sat back down, a little closer to Max this time, and in silence they watched the sun rise.


	2. Point of Know Return

Max didn't need much sleep thanks to the shark swimming in her DNA. That didn't mean she couldn't sleep or didn't enjoy it, but when your past came rushing forward up close and painful in your dreams, it seemed best to avoid it. Lately, though, her dreams had been changing, and Max found herself catching naps where she could just to relish the brief disconnect she experienced when she woke. Before the world came crashing back on her head, she could pretend just for a few seconds that she was lying in a soft bed in her own home, maybe even next to someone, and any moment the birds would start chirping and the smell of coffee, real coffee, would start to waft through the room.

Max rolled over and let the world close in on her. Alec was still asleep on his bedroll a few feet away.

She should wake him, get up get some food in her belly and get back on her bike, hit the road and continue on what felt like an endless expanse of highway. The prospect would have thrilled her once upon a time. Her bike and the road were the only freedom she had ever known.

Yet here she was, on a ridiculous crusade to create a 'transgenic underground' across America.

_Give me your_ _tired_, _your poor_, _your huddled masses..._

The whole idea had actually been Alec's. No one had been more surprised than Max when he'd spoken up at the council meeting suggesting that the solution to their problems, namely staving off starvation and getting ahold of the powerful black market hormones that suppressed heats, lay out in the world. What they needed was to lead the supplies home, or what was currently passing for home. At first, Max had been suspicious. She didn't want to be turning out packs of thieves because all the world needed was an actual reason to hate and fear them.

Alec looked a little hurt at her words.

He brought up that when the news about test tube people hit stations (and they would, probably sooner rather than later), they would need good press. Good press came from humane stories plus allies and ordinaries who could help them. There was certainly no way, as they were, that they could survive without aid. The garden Gem had begun last season was a start, but it just wasn't enough yet.

Max was an obvious choice to go, people tended to be a little more agreeable if they thought they were being treated like they were important, and what made people feel more important than a high mucky-muck making time for a personal face-to-face? The others agreed she couldn't go alone, even X5s needed the occasional backup. No one outright said 'bodyguard' because they all liked their faces and limbs where they were. Another X5 would be best just for the practicality of moving unseen and one with good people skills to aid in negotiations would be even better, so Alec was nominated.

Max had fought the idea. She argued she could take care of herself, she'd survived for years on her own, and didn't need a damn handler, and when her voice started to give out and everyone looked ready to toss her out the nearest window, she'd snapped he was just plain annoying.

Alec hadn't even heard her because he'd fallen asleep in his chair. He slept right through Max finally admitting he had skills that would be useful. No one had come out and said Alec was a good foil for her sometimes abrasive people skills but Max wasn't an idiot and the irritated and exhausted looks being tossed at her were clear enough.

After the meeting was called (and Alec was woken up by a well placed smack to the back of the head), she'd stomped back to the cabin she was sharing with nine other X-series and sulked. Ralph had glanced over at her a few times, a concerned look on her face, but she knew better than to prod. Like dogs, it was best to let Max lie.

Normal, in his new 'eyes open to the world' point of view, was fine with Alec and Max taking some time off from Jam Pony. He grinned and nodded so much at Alec, Max had wondered if his head was going to tumble from his shoulders.

When Max and Alec had slipped out onto the highway in the dead of night, she'd taken a long look back at what they'd dubbed home, watched the gates close and Joshua's almost mournful silhouette be swallowed. Taking a deep breath to calm the twisting in her stomach, she'd turned to Alec to make a snide remark about marching order when the words had died on her lips. He was looking at her and _grinning, _the typical Alec mischief in his eyes sparkled alongside what looked like pride, trust and confidence.

Alec thought she could do this. Lead a people, be a diplomat, save a race. Alec, who had faith in nothing but himself and sometimes not even that, trusted her to do the job right.

She swallowed hard around the lump in her throat. When had he become someone she didn't want to let down?


End file.
