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

It was raining. Alec was on the edge of town, sitting on his Duke at a stoplight just before the last Sector checkpoint, hunched against the wet and cold, when his cell phone rang.

He knew he should ignore it ... that even if it was Max he wasn't going to go back. He told himself to not even check the number of the caller. However, he couldn't help it. He had to know if she was going to try to stop him ... in the depths of his heart hoped she would ... Some things are stronger than even a genetically enhanced supersoldier. Thumbing the cell phone on, he said, "Yeah?"

Alec, a familiar voice (but not the one he wanted to hear) breathed into his ear. I need to talk to you.

"Asha?"

Please, can you come to my apartment. It's important. Maybe even a matter of life and death.

The light turned green. Up ahead was the highway leading out of Seattle and heading south, to Los Angeles.

Alec, please! I need your help!

Alec rolled his eyes, weighing his options. Then -- he made up his mind. Hell, he'd already ruined one woman's life today. Maybe he could partly make up for it by going to the aide of another.

*****

Asha opened the door at his first knock, and he immediately smelled blood.

"What's wrong?" he said, his eyes scanning the apartment behind the girl and his hand reaching for the gun he unfortunately wasn't carrying in his belt.

"Nothing," Asha said. "I mean ... I need to talk to you. I wanted to thank you for your help getting my mother back, and I also didn't want to leave things like they were between us the other night.

Something was wrong. Alec's transgenic senses were practically screaming. "Where's your mother?" he asked.

Asha's eyes nervously darted to a closed door on the other side of the room. "Sleeping," she said. "We talked a long time and she was really worn out." She glanced toward the kitchen. "Would you like a drink?"

"Yeah, sure," Alec said, still looking around the apartment, his sixth sense telling him something was badly amiss.

"Scotch?"

"Yeah."

She poured liquid into a glass that was already on the counter and handed it to him. Alec downed it in one gulp, and made a face. It tasted terrible, which is when a horrible thought occurred to him. You idiot ... you incredible idiot ...!

"Was that poison or a sedative?" he quietly asked the girl who was now watching him far too closely.

Asha's looked away. "I don't know," she said, her voice barely above a whisper. "He just told me to give it to you, and I know how you love your Scotch."

"He?" Alec's head was starting to swim, but he thought he had a good idea who "he" was. "You mean Lydecker?"

Asha nodded, the look in her eyes now one of true apology. "I'm sorry, Alec," she said. "But if I hadn't done what he said, he would have exposed me."

Reaching out, the X5 touched the back of the couch, steadying himself, wondering how much time he had. "Exposed you?" he said, not understanding. What could Lydecker have on Asha Barlow?

"As a member of the Breeding Cult," Asha said. "Or rather someone who was supposed to be a member."

Very few things in life could surprise X5-494, but what Asha had just said absolutely floored him -- so much so he wasn't sure if it was the drug now making his head spin or the shock of her words.

"You're a Familiar?" he said, his grip on the couch tightening. "No way!"

"I'm not one of the Purebreds," Asha said, as if ashamed of that fact. She cast her eyes down. "That honor went to my brother Ilya. He was the light of my father's life."

"Zane Barlow -- your father -- was in the cult?" Alec said, trying to wrap his mind around this bizarre turn of events.

Asha nodded, although she was still watching him closely. After all, a transgenic -- even a drugged one -- could still be a formidable foe. "My father was head of a faction that opposed Mathias and White," she said. "And he was killed for it. My brother, too -- in the car crash."

"But your mother?" Alec said, glancing toward the closed bedroom door.

"Never knew about the cult until the very end," Asha said. "She never knew her two miscarriages were caused by my father putting something in her food. Then Ilya was born and he was so proud of him ... so proud that he let me be born, too, even though I couldn't pass the initiation."

"Like C.J.," Alec murmurred, feeling as if the room was receding. He knew he had to get out of here, to run before Lydecker returned, but he couldn't seem to make his feet move.

"When my father and brother were killed," Asha said, "the cult was going to eliminate her too, but then they decided she'd make a good hostage ... that if my mother was imprisoned it would keep me in line, maybe even make me of use to them."

"So, you've been workin' for the Snake boys all along?" Alec said. Which is when clarity struck in spite of the barbituate in his body. "You're the one who told White how to get to Logan last year!" he exclaimed. "We thought it was a spy inside Terminal City, but it was you all along!" Alec's mind went further. "And you were the one who tipped off Bostock and his boys that we were headed for Appleton to get White's kid. Hell, you probably had a hand in Bostock takin' care of Logan's uncle in the first place."

It all fit so perfectly, the pieces falling into place like an elegant jigsaw puzzle with Asha the key to everything that had happened with regards to the cult and the transgenics over the past two years.

Well, not quite everything ...

"But you never tipped White off about me and Max workin' at Jam Pony," he said. "You never turned us in. Why? You could have been rid of Max a long time ago ... gotten her out of the way so you'd have a free run at Logan."

"It was White who wanted Max so badly," Asha said. "Not Bostock. At least not back then. Bostock didn't even believe the 'special one' really existed. Besides, why would I help the ones who'd killed my father and brother and held my mother prisoner if I didn't have to? True, I told White some things -- they made me -- but he had no reason to think I knew where X5-452 was, or who Eyes Only was for that matter. As for you ..." She smiled sadly. "I liked you, Alec. A lot. White would have killed you for what you are, and I didn't want to see that happen."

"But your mother's safe now," Alec said, holding his head up only with effort, his breathing becoming ragged as his stubbled upper lip beaded with sweat. However, if he was going to die tonight, he was determined to die knowing the truth. "Why hand me over to Lydecker now?" he asked. Then he remembered the smell of blood that had struck him when he walked through the door, and once more he looked toward the bedroom. "Oh, God, Asha, you didn't ..."

"I know where I belong now," Asha said gently, reaching out and touching the back of his hand.

Alec knew he should break her neck (he still had enough strength for that), but he couldn't ... even after what she'd done he just couldn't ...

"By killing my mother, someone who's not one of us and a potential danger, I've earned a spot within their ranks even though I can't pass the initiation," she said. I've got a home and family again, Alec. You, of all people, ought to know what that means."

"Your mother was family," Alec croaked, failing to see the logic. "But Lydecker ..." He paused, not certain what he'd been going to ask, his thoughts whirling as badly as the room around him.

"The transgenics are the enemy of my people, Alec," she said. "I'm sorry, but this is better than killing you. Besides, you're worth six million dollars to us alive. My leader asked me to help satisfy their deal with New Manticore, so they can collect their money. Maybe someday you and I will meet in battle, Alec. But until then ... at least I know you won't be helping Max fight my family."

"You should have just killed me," Alec growled low in his throat, his eyes narrowing to green slits as he summoned strength from somewhere deep within. However, just as he reached for her, the door burst open and a squad of soldiers came pouring through.

Whirling, Alec leaped high ... over their heads ... landed in the hallway, and stumbled into a run.

"Get him!" an old hated voice shouted.

The electric prods cutting into his back and delivering their jolt finished what the massive dose of sedative had started. Alec cried out as he went down, then fell into a blackness so profound it might as well have been death.

"Take him out the back," Colonel Donald Lydecker said, his eyes cold and calculating as his boot toed the twitching X5 lying at his feet on the floor. "And give Ms. Barlow her money."