DISCLAIMER: All DARK ANGEL characters belong to James Cameron and Charles Eglee (Cameron Eglee Productions) and DARK ANGEL itself belongs to FOX.

ARCHIVE: No

Artwork courtesy of Valjean & JensenAckles.org

"Alec!" Max cried out again, taking hold of the barred grate with both hands as if she could somehow break him free. But they both knew it was no use. The other transgenic was trapped.

"Go!" Alec implored, his hazel-green eyes desperate now.

"Alec," she said his name once more, a whimper ... Reaching through the bars, she clasped his hand, their fingers intertwining.

"I'll be all right," the X5 said, promising what they both knew wasn't true, his voice deep and husky.

With one last look into the shining eyes of the man who should be her mate, Max nodded and said, "I'll be back. Just hang on." Then she whirled and sprinted for the exit hatch. She'd almost reached it when she heard a sound that made her heart momentarily stop beating.

A single gunshot. Then silence.

*****

"You know what's going to happen to you, don't you?" the woman said, her voice almost amiable in its quiet authority.

This was someone in charge. Alec recognized both the bearing and the look in those cool dark eyes. Lifting his head defiantly, he met that gaze with a haughty one of his own through the mesh of the cage they'd put him in. After Max had left him he'd found himself unarmed and facing over a dozen guards with guns. One warning shot and he'd decided to live to fight another day. After all, sometimes a soldier's best option really was surrender.

However, the woman looked familiar, and not just in a "Familiar" kind of way. Alec never forgot a face, and he knew he'd seen her before. Short cut, iron grey hair framed a square face that boasted keen eyes and thin hard lips. Dressed in an austere practical business suit, her stature was small ... diminutive even ... but her posture was regal. This was the "queen bee" of whatever kind of hive he'd stumbled into down here, and he was almost dead certain she was part of the Breeding Cult.

Ignoring her question, the X5 had one of his own. "You were at Big Sky that night, weren't you?" he said. "I almost didn't recognize you without the red robe and 'we're gonna conquer the world' attitude."

"494," the woman said, acquiescing to the recognition, her thin lips forming a chilly a smile. "Ames told me about you."

A shiver shot down Alec's spine that had nothing to do with the frigid air temperature of the dungeon-like cell he was in. Ames White ... dead Ames White ... Why did all trails seem to lead back to that bastard?

"Ames was actually quite impressed by you," she continued, her eyes raking his body in a decidedly insulting way. "For one of Sandeman's abominations you're actually a magnificent specimen."

"Your little cult scheme is over, sister," Alec said evenly, refusing to be baited by those wickedly glinting eyes. "Comet was a dud. No biotoxin. No world domination. You and your fellow snake worshiping freaks aren't any more special than the rest of us."

She laughed then, and Alec wondered what he was missing.

"You're one to call us freaks," she said easily. "You, who are part animal. Unlike your selfish kind who are concerned only with their own survival and propagation, the purity of the human race is our primary concern -- no, make that our only concern. My people intend to make this world a better place ... eliminate the weak and breed the strong. Sandeman thought he had a better way, but he was wrong. His creation of the transgenics was an affront to God, Nature, and all mankind. Magnificent specimen or not, destroying you will be an act of symbolic cleansing."

Alec still had a feeling he was missing something here, and it bothered him. "The comet," he said. "Why aren't you more upset about it bein' non-toxic?"

"Because it wasn't," his apparent mistress said. "Oh, at first we thought we'd miscalculated, but our people around the world have been watching ... waiting ... and now we're beginning to see the real effects of the comet. The biotoxin is here, on Earth. It's just spreading far more slowly than we imagined. It might take a generation or two or even three, but eventually ordinary mankind will, indeed, die out leaving only my pureblooded brethren and--"

Alec finished for her. "--and the transgenics, who were created to defend the Ordinaries."

"There won't be any of you left to perform that duty," the woman said, again with the cool smile. "Nor will there be a vaccine. How do I get to 452?"

Alec couldn't believe he was being asked this shit again. "Call her up and make an appointment," he snarked. "You want her cell phone number? I can give it to you. It's not like Max is in hiding, lady."

"No, she's not in hiding," the woman said. "But my people must be cautious now since some of us were exposed. 452 is a prominent public figure in the world. The biotoxin is supposedly only a false myth, but certain key people at the CDC and high government levels know that her blood theoretically contains a cure. If the pathogen is detected spreading around the world -- however slowly -- 452 will be sought out and there would be ample time to create a vaccine and inoculate the world's population.

"So, just kill her," Alec said, still not understanding why the Breeding Cult didn't go for the quick fix. It's what he would have done. But then it dawned on him what the woman was really saying. "You don't want the bad press," he said, shaking his head in disbelief. "Damn it, you're concerned about your public image. You don't wanna start a witch hunt for Breeding Cult members, and you also don't wanna raise suspicion in the government's eyes about the biotoxin. If Max is still important to you, then the bug might still be around. Right?"

"Clever boy," she said, eying him with approval in her cold eyes. "Sandeman truly did create something unique when he built you and your siblings in his test tubes."

"So," Alec continued, feeling his way through what was obviously a major plot, "you've gotta make Max's death look like an accident or something ... not an assassination."

"And you can tell me how to get that close to her," the woman said. Or better yet, you'll serve as bait."

"I'll never tell you anything," Alec said evenly. "And as for bait -- Max doesn't care about me so you can forget that, too."

"Ames said you were stubborn," she replied, eying the young transgenic in a way that made him want to squirm. "And you escaped from him twice, which attests to your cunning. As I said, Sandeman outdid himself when he created you and your kind. As for the bitch not caring ... methinks you protest too much. If 452 isn't bedding a fine looking young stud like you, then there's something seriously wrong with her genetically enhanced libido."

Alec really had no answer to that, and wondered when the torture would begin.