Photo courtesy of Supernaturalfan.net

*****

“John Winchester,” Lydecker said out loud as he studied the information that came up on his computer screen -- a file buried so deeply in Manticore archives it had taken a technician to ferret it out. “Wife Mary. Place of residence in 1979 -- Lawrence, Kansas.” He glanced up at the clock on the wall which read 2:04 a.m. He wasn’t sleepy, however. Not when the trail was getting hot.

Hospital records showed that Mary Winchester gave birth to a healthy male child on January 24, 1979. She and John named their son “Dean.”

“Dean Winchester,” Lydecker said out loud again to the room -- his quarry. A niggling seed of suspicion was planted in his brain, although how an “ordinary” born in 1979 had acquired X5 powers he couldn’t imagine. Then there was the bar code he’d seen in the video. Still, if Dean Winchester was, indeed, going around impersonating an X5 Unit it would explain everything, mad declarations of time travel not withstanding. The thing to do, of course, was to find said “Dean Winchester.”

Manticore had a vast computer data base and access to even vaster ones. Speaking into an intercom on his desk -- knowing his assistant was still on duty in the other room in spite of the late hour -- he said, “Martin. I need someone found -- immediately.”

An hour later Lydecker had everything he needed in front of him. Dean Winchester hadn’t been all that difficult to track down. In fact, a simple search of the national police data base had revealed his name. The problem was, the boy had died on March 7, 2005 in St. Louis, shot after being the suspect in a series of murders. However, the trail wasn’t quite cold. Dean Winchester had a brother, Samuel -- someone Lydecker thought might well be worth questioning. The father, too -- John Winchester -- was still alive somewhere although records on him were out of date ... nothing recent. Mary, unfortunately, had died in 1983 in a mysterious fire. No help there ...

“KAZ2Y5,” Lydecker muttered.

“What’s that, sir?” his aide asked.

The Colonel looked up, eyes slightly narrowed. “Motor vehicle records indicate a black 1967 Chevrolet Impala registered to ‘Dean Winchester’ in Lawrence, Kansas with that plate. That’s a classic car, and I’m betting maybe the brother, Samuel, kept it after Dean’s death. Or ...”

“Or what, sir?”

Blue eyes twinkled. “I’m wondering, given our video evidence, if reports of Dean Winchester’s death have been greatly exaggerated. Either way, I want a sweep done of the Gillette area for that car. Shouldn’t be hard to spot if it’s here. If you don’t find it, expand the search to Cheyenne.”

“Yes, sir,” the young officer said to his superior, saluting smartly before turning on his heel and leaving the office to attend to his task.

*****

They should have left last night. Every cell in every fiber of Dean Winchester’s being was screaming that fact. Alec had accomplished his so-called “mission,” delivering a very forceful message to the head of Manticore that should be ample warning about the coming apocalypse. However, of all things, when they’d packed the car last night, piled in, and he’d gone to start the engine of the Impala there’d been a horrible screeching sound, the whole car had shaken, and smoke had erupted from under the hood.

A locked up compressor was going to a day to fix, provided the local garage could find a compatible part. In the meantime, they had two options -- wait for the car to be repaired, or rent (or steal as Alec blithely suggested) another vehicle.

For Dean this wasn’t even a question. He wasn’t going to leave his baby behind. So now here he sat in a restaurant booth across the street from Joe’s Auto Repair in Gillette, Wyoming sipping hot black coffee and waiting for either the Impala to be ready or for a goon squad to show up. The others were still at the hotel, Sam refusing to leave him and Max persuading Alec that they couldn’t just abandoned his new found relatives to the wrath of enemies that shouldn’t even be their own.

He heard the helicopter but didn’t really pay much attention -- not until the sound of the blades became annoyingly loud. Wondering if there’d been a wreck or a fire or something nearby, Dean wandered to the window of the cafe, warm coffee cup in hand, and idly looked up and down the street. The sound of a back door bursting in was his first hint that something was really wrong. The second was the appearance of armed soldiers filling the dining room and the half dozen patrons shouting in alarm, some scrambling for cover.

Instinctively, Dean began to reach for the pistol concealed in the back waistband of his jeans. However, the sight of the lean, sharp featured blond man with deadly blue eyes who was obviously the commando squad’s leader made him rethink that plan. Never one for suicide, he slowly raised his hands, his most manipulative smile on his lips. “Hey guys,” he said. “What’s--”

The intensely sharp pain in the side of his neck told Dean’s brain that he’d just been shot. However, before he could even begin to process that fact ... before his hand reached the wound ... a wave of black enveloped the room and everything simply went away.

*****

When reality returned it came with a rush of blinding white light and the feel of brutal fingers squeezing his face. However, instinct kept Dean's eyes closed ... kept him feigning unconsciousness.

“He’s received an overdose, sir,” a second voice said. “His body can’t tolerate the level of sedative you administered.”

“Nonsense!” a gravelly voice replied. “The dosage was required to be that high to bring him down.”

“If he was an X5, sir.”

“He is. He has to be.”

“He’s human, sir. Even a cursory examination shows that. His basal body temperature is only 98 point six, and his eye structure isn’t compatible with--”

“You saw those tapes, corporal. You saw the bar code on the back of his neck. You saw that leap.”

“Sir, there’s no bar code.”

“Then he’s disguising it somehow ... has had it removed!”

“Sir, the X5s’ barcodes are genetically encoded. They can’t be permanently removed and there’s no sign of recent laser scarring to disguise it.”

“I don’t care! This is the male on the tape ... Dean Winchester.”

“A male who’s human,” the exasperated corporal said. (Dean -- in spite of his throbbing headache -- was almost beginning to feel sorry for the poor guy.)

“I want a complete DNA series done on this Unit,” the older man whom Dean now realized was probably Alec and Max’s dread “Colonel Donald Lydecker” commanded. “As well as an MRI, X-rays, CT scan, and a spinal. I want to know how this male managed to not only infiltrate this base twice, but how he knocked the shit out of my most elite squad and escaped by vaulting a 12-too high fence.”

“Yes, sir,” the corporal said with a huge sigh.

“When will he be awake?”

“I don’t know, sir. You administered enough Halidol to bring down a tiger. An X5 would be out for hours. A human ...” Dean sensed a shrug.

“Inform me the moment he regains consciousness,” Lydecker snarled.

“Yes, sir.”

“Oh, and find the brother, Samuel. He’s bound to have some answers for us as well.”

There was the sound of a door opening and closing. Opening his eyes cautiously, Dean looked through slits at the clean white walls and gleaming cabinets, his nose wrinkling at an antiseptic smell. He was alone in the room -- for now. Then he tried to move.

Shackled -- wrists, ankles, and waist. And naked as the day he’d been born, which was why he was shivering.

“Sam,” Dean whispered out loud, his heart soaring that Sam apparently hadn’t been apprehended too. I hope you’ve got enough sense to get out. But of course Dean knew that wasn’t going to happen. No way would Sam abandon him. There’d be a rescue attempt, and they’d both probably end up dead or worse, permanent prisoners of the military.

But then Dean also remembered something else: Sam Winchester wasn't his only brother.

*****

“Okay,” Alec said, surprised at how difficult it was to keep his voice calm and steady as a wild-eyed Sam confronted him. “’Deck’s got Dean, and he probably thinks it’s me.”

The onslaught of military personnel and a black ops helicopter hadn’t gone unnoticed in the small town of Gillette. He and Max had been stealthily making their way back from a supply run, i.e. a trip to a local grocery, intending to meet Dean and Sam at the cafe before figuring out a place to hide until the car was fixed, when they’d heard the ominous whump, whump of the chopper blades -- a sound both knew far too well.

“Damn,” Max said grimly as they knelt in the trees at the edge of the woods, keeping an eye on the cafe down the road as it was surrounded by soldiers. “’Deck moved fast on this one.” Then a limp figure was carried out -- Dean.

“Is the car still at the garage?” Alec asked, his mouth going dry at the sight of his twin helpless in Lydecker’s hands.

“Screw the car!” Sam hissed. “You got Dean into this mess, now the two of you can get him out!”

“The base is fifteen miles up in the mountains,” Alec said, ignoring the outburst. His hazel-green eyes grew calculating. “I’m gonna need transportation.”

“We’ll steal something,” Max said matter-of-factly.

“Not we. Me” Alec said. “Deck doesn’t know about you.”

“Yet,” Max added. “He’s got to wonder who was with you on your first visit, Alec.”

“But he didn’t see your bar code,” her partner argued, rolling his eyes in exasperation. “Not that I’d mind the company. You know me. I’m not exactly a one man army, or a martyr. But no, Max. You’re in the clear for now. You and Sam get out. I’ll get Dean.”

“I’m coming, too,” Sam declared hotly.

“You’ll just be in my way,” Alec replied patronizingly as he checked the clip in the Glock pistol he’d appropriated as his own from the Impala’s trunk.

“Will they kill him?” Sam asked tightly, his jaw working with anger and frustration as he shrugged deeper into his jacket, his breath a vapor in the cold mountain air.

“No,” Alec said, unlike his younger brother not particularly feeling the cold even though it was in the low 40’s and starting to drizzle. “If they think he’s an adult X5 they’ll wanna study the hell out of him and figure out how he can even exist.

“But they’ll soon realize Dean’s just an ordinary human,” Max said. “All it will take is a DNA test.”

“I know,” Alec replied as he shoved the Glock into the waist band of his jeans. He flashed her a cheerful grin. “Which is why the real McCoy needs to shag ass and get back on that base.”

“Alec,” Max said sharply, grabbing hold of his arm. “You’re not trading yourself for Dean.”

“Hopefully not,” Alec said, meaning it. “Hopefully I can get both of us out of there. Hell, the surprise factor of me droppin’ in ought to give me a big advantage to begin with.”

“The surprise factor of both of us dropping in would be an even bigger advantage,” Max said evenly. Two X5s? ‘Deck has no idea what we’re really capable of. They always did say we were a one-man army even by ourselves.”

“You’ll never be able to sneak back onto that base,” Sam said tiredly, raking hands through his long hair. “Once was luck, twice a miracle. A third time ...”

“Don’t worry,” Alec said, eyeing Max. “We’ve got more help than you know. Max and I will get Dean out. Promise. But Sam, you’ve gotta lay low. I don’t need to pull off two rescues. I’m not Superman, no matter what the label says.”

“All right,” Sam agreed reluctantly. “I’ll wait. But not for long. If you guys aren’t back by dawn I’m going in after Dean myself, even if it means coming clean to this Colonel of yours about everything.”

“Agreed,” Alec said lightly, knowing full well that ‘Deck would simply think Sam was a raving lunatic. “Ready, sweetheart?” he said to Max. “I’m thinkin’ a Ninja? Saw a few parked at that biker bar on the edge of town last night.”

“You just read my mind,” Max said with her own wicked smile as she stood, brushed past him, and as usual led the way.

*****

In X5-494’s opinion there was a time for stealth and subtlety, a time for bold frontal attack, and -- once in a great while -- a time when a soldier needed to be completely outrageous with his strategy. Now ... this situation ... was the latter. ‘Deck already knew there was an impossible X5 out there, and he also had to know by now that Dean Winchester, his captive, wasn’t him.

“Talon,” Alec said into the micro transmitter stuck on the mastoid bone behind his ear as he and Max crouched at the perimeter of the Manticore Gillette base looking down at the main gates. “Get us inside, now. Do whatever it takes.”

The narrow pulse beam of energy coming from the clear night sky above was invisible, but its effect was immediate. There was the sharp crackle of electrical overload and the wide front gate began to open, unmindful that no code had been entered, as alarms went off from every building in the compound.”

“That’s our cue,” Alec said to a grinning Max beside him as they both rose from a crouch. “To the rescue.”

*****

Dean Winchester had experienced more pain than this in his life, and he’d also been more frightened. However, rarely had he felt so frustrated. He couldn’t tell the truth. He wouldn’t betray his twin brother that way. However, he also didn’t know how the hell he was ever going to talk this megalomaniac of a colonel into letting him go. Then there was the truly real danger that a goon squad would scoop up Sam in which case all bets would be off, betrayal or not. No way would he let them hurt Sammy. No way at all ...

The technician adjusted the laser beam again, turning up the intensity as the mechanical device continued holding open the lids of his right eye. A tweak of a dial and a pencil-thin red light ground once again straight into Dean’s chemically dilated pupil, drilling into the pain center of his retina.

He couldn’t help it. He screamed long ... hard ... throat constricting ... at the same time writhing futilely against shackles that held his entire body immobile, leaving not so much as an inch to escape. However, he still said nothing.

“How did you do it?” Lydecker’s harsh voice commanded. “How did you acquire genetically superior capabilities without DNA manipulation? Who are you working for? What government sent you? How were you created? Who else is here with you? Are there more of you?”

Dean clenched his teeth until he thought the bone of his jaw would break. He couldn’t even swallow, the pain was so great, and all he could see was soul-searing red fire. Could this be Hell? However, no matter what Lydecker thought, he wasn’t an X5 and his pain threshold was merely human. Which was, in the long run, perhaps his saving grace. Dean’s scream became a hoarse whimper as his eyes rolled back in his head and his body began to shake.

“He’s going to have a stroke,” the technician said, watching the EKG machine hooked by diodes to Dean’s temples.

Lydecker made a cutting motion with his hand, his expression as grim as a Reaper’s. “We haven’t even reached the fifty percent level,” he said, sounding strangely disappointed. “One of my kids would be able to tolerate a lot more than this. Are you sure he’s not faking?”

The tech pointed to the graph. “Brain waves and EKGs don’t lie,” he said. “This boy’s going to die or be a vegetable if you don’t ease off.”

“Fuck!” Lydecker spat. “I need to know what government has acquired X5 technology and the ability to turn the DNA sequencing on and off. It’s the only explanation for this thing’s existence.”

“Sir,” the tech said levelly. “All of the DNA tests showed this subject is one hundred percent human. He’s not X5. He’s--”

“I know what I saw on that tape!” Lydecker snarled, his hand brutally grasping the unconscious young man’s cheeks, trying to somehow force him back to wakefulness so the torture could continue. “Can’s you give him a shot or something? I need answers!”

“His heart won’t take it,” the tech said.

“Fuck,” Lydecker said again, glaring angrily down at the handsome face of his captive. “We were never missing any genetic material,” he muttered. “494 and 493 were both casualties of gene splicing accidents. We preserved the broken embryos. They’re still in the storage facility. I checked. I don’t understand how--” The lights in the room suddenly dimmed and the alarm klaxon shrieked.

“Talk to me!” Lydecker said into his walkie-talkie, his voice suddenly cool and calm.

“Sir,” a voice on the other hand said. “We have a full base power failure. The main defenses are down. We appear to be under attack!”

A very faint smile was tugging the corners of Dean’s mouth, his senses having returned. “You expecting guests?” he drawled huskily. “’Cause if not, then I guess that’s for me.”

*****

Max, of course, had no weapon -- except herself. With Alec laying down covering fire, she expertly and concisely carved a way through the dozen or so soldiers rushing toward the main gate, a blurring hellcat of a fighter, her martial arts moves flawless and deadly. When nothing but fallen bodies still stood in their way, Alec reloaded his Glock pistol and looked around at the various satellite buildings surrounding the main complex. “Which way?” he asked, the question not directed at Max but at Talon.

The interrogation chamber is in use, Talon’s voice replied calmly in his ear.

The X5 didn’t need to ask for directions. He knew the way far too well.

*****

“One X5 equals ten ordinary soldiers,” Donald Lydecker said, reiterating the old adage as he leveled a pistol when the two transgenics burst through the door of the lab.

Alec’s eyes immediately went to Dean wearing hospital scrubs, shackled to a torture chair, and looking a good bit worse for wear. The way his heartbeat slowed as he saw the look of relief in his twin brother’s eyes surprised him.

“I gather the female is also one of your kind?” the Colonel continued, the gun slowly wavering between the two of them. “Did she come from the future too? Or do you have a different lie to tell about her? Answer me or I pull the trigger. You might be fast, but you can't beat a bullet.”

“You ought to know better by now,” Max said, sounding almost bored.

“Better than what?” Lydecker returned.

“Better how to handle X5s,” she said, blurring forward too fast for the eye to follow and disarming the Colonel.

Lydecker looked down at his now empty gun hand and blinked.

“Oh,” Max chirped as -- holding the weapon by two fingers -- she handed the gun to Alec who stuffed it in a pocket of his black leather coat. “I forgot. You only know us as children. Well, I’m no child. Not any more.”

“It’s no lie,” Alec said as Max took up a position to watch the door. “What I told you the other night about the future.” He indicated Lydecker’s radio. “Call off the goons or I end things here and now. And don’t think I can’t splatter your brains all over the wall and still walk out of here with my brother. You know I can. You know what I’m capable of.”

With a surprising lack of argument Lydecker, eyeing Alec guardedly, thumbed his walkie-talkie and simply said, “Stand down. I repeat, all guards stand down. This is Colonel Lydecker and that’s a direct order.”

“You value your life,” Alec said, smirking. “Wise man.”

“No,” Lydecker replied with typical coolness. “I value answers.” He looked at Dean still shackled to the chair. “I want to know where you came from, 494. I want to know how you exist.”

“I already told you,” Alec said. “I’m from an alternate future, one where X5-494 didn’t die in a test tube before being implanted in a surrogate. I was born in 1999, and I come from 2027. Dean here,” he nodded at his brother, “is the original I guess you could say. He’s got nothin’ to do with this other than havin’ my face. He’s not an X5. He’s just human.”

“And her?” Lydecker said, nodding at Max.

“Just along for the ride,” Max said blithely as she continued watching the hallway.

“Two of you then,” Lydecker said, “from the future. Come to warn me about this big bad event.”

“The Pulse,” Alec said. “Which doesn’t have to happen. You already have the resources to stop it, ‘Deck. And you can stop the plague that’s supposed to follow if you manage to raise your kids to adulthood. We ... the X5’s ... are the front line against the Breeding Cult. It’s what we’re really designed for, to fight those bastards and save the asses of your kind, the humans.”

“Sandeman,” Max chimed in. “Find Sandeman and you find the answers.”

“Never heard of him,” Lydecker said.

“Dig deeper,” Max snapped. “He’s behind everything Manticore. His own DNA is in your transgenics.”

“Why should I believe you?” Lydecker said, his cool blue eyes calculating and oddly calm.

“Because we exist,” Alec said simply.

“I can’t let you go, you know,” the Colonel said, sounding almost regretful. “You’re too valuable ... too much of a puzzle. But I admit, fantasy or not, it’s a revelation to see what my kids might have one day become.”

“Might have?” Max said quickly.

“My superiors have deemed the X5s too flawed,” Lydecker said, his voice catching in his throat. “They’re to be euthanized and our resources concentrated on the up and coming X6’s. They’re hopefully less prone to the seizure disorder--”

“I told you it’s just a serotonin lack!” Alec snapped.

“--and more tractable,” Lydecker continued. “Less rebellious, more amenable to taking orders. We made a mistake with the X5s beyond the neurological. They’re too independent-minded ... too self sufficient ... too hard to control.”

“Like me?” Alec said bitterly.

“Case in point. If you’re really 494,” the Colonel said sadly, shaking his head, “then you’re a huge danger to the world and I thank God there won’t be any more of you. Obviously, you’ve betrayed your own command, gone rogue, or else you wouldn’t be here.”

“My command is dead!” Alec said. “Which is why I’m here tryin’ to save yours ... your world.”

“I’m sorry,” Lydecker said, pressing a button on his walkie-talkie. “Truly, I’m sorry. But I can’t allow the two of you ...” He glanced over at Dean. “The three of you, to exist.”

Max’s brows drew down as she threw a puzzled look at Alec, which is when they heard the sound of hissing above their heads and a strange smell, like almonds, began to be noticeable in the room.

“Cyanide gas,” Lydecker said, for some reason smiling. “The last stopgap measure for preventing an X5 from escaping the base. And I’m more than willing to go down with the ship if it means protecting the rest of the world.”

*****

Alec’s command ... plea ... to Talon was silent, no time for words. Help!

The explosion that rocked the building around them could just as easily have killed them all as saved them -- a fact Alec made a mental note to discuss with Talon -- knocking Max and Alec to the floor, Lydecker as well.

“What the fuck?” Dean coughed as debris rained down and light shone through a huge hole in the ceiling. A second explosion struck near another of the base’s perimeter buildings, even the emergency lighting going out now as all power was disrupted. Alec didn’t answer Dean, but instead was at his side, working loose the straps holding his arms and legs to the chair. “Can you walk?” the X5 asked.

“Of course,” Dean coughed as he sat up and put feet on the tile. “What? You think a little torture is enough to--” His brother’s legs buckled and Alec caught him. With a grim look in Max’s direction as she picked herself up off the floor he slung his sibling over his shoulder. “Out! Now!” he commanded.

“But the X5s?” she pleaded. “Lydecker’s going to--” She looked down at the Colonel where he lay unconscious but breathing.

“Killin’ him won’t fix anything,” Alec said, reading her mind. “And we might need him as an ally. He doesn’t completely believe us, but he’s got to be thinkin’ there might at least be some truth to what we’ve told him.”

“We can’t just let him destroy them,” Max said, her grimy face set in a determined look that sent chills down Alec’s spine.

“Max, they’re babies. Not nearly as old as you were when you escaped and remember how hard it was even when you were nine. They won’t survive on their own, and we sure as hell can’t take care of ‘em.”

She was looking toward the X5 barracks.

“Max! We’ve got to get out!”

“They’ll kill all of them after this!” she practically wailed.

“Maybe not!” Alec said harshly, hoping he wasn’t going to have to knock her out and carry her too. “Max, come on! We’ve still got to stop The Pulse.”

“But they’re out brothers and sisters!”

“And so’s Dean!” Alec shouted right back, hoisting his brother’s body higher on his shoulder. “And Sam’s waiting! We owe them, Max!”

The mention of Sam seemed to be the deciding factor. Reluctantly -- and much to Alec’s relief -- 452 nodded. Then she turned toward the half collapsed doorway where light and freedom beckoned.

*****

*****

“What’s wrong?” Sam asked Max.

“Nothing.”

“He’s safe. They’re both safe. Even if I don't know how in the hell you pulled off those explosions. Why the long face?”

She shrugged. “Just a feeling,” she said. “Something I dreamed.”

“Dreamed?”

She looked at him. “You know,” she said softly. “You have them too.”

“What did you see in your dream?” Sam pressed, dark brows drawing down as true concern showed in his green eyes.

“Nothin’ much,” Max said, trying to sound light. “Just the end of the world.”

“Your apocalypse?”

“Worse,” Max said. “I think. Maybe it was from my own time, maybe not. I don’t know any more. But I hate them ... the dreams. So often I can’t do anything about what I see because I don’t have enough information ... don’t understand.” She looked at the young man. “Do we have a gift or a curse, Sam?”

“I honestly don’t know,” Sam said, looking over where Dean and Alec were talking. “All I do know is that I think you and I must have been given these abilities for a reason.”

“As a way to protect the people we love?” Max asked, looking at the twin brothers as well.

“Partly,” Sam said. “But there’s got to be more to our precognitive skills than that. A demon wants me because of it.”

“And the military wants me,” Max added with a laugh. “They made me like this with genetic manipulation, although I’m not sure it was intentional. Demonic genes ...”

“That I have in me too apparently,” Sam said quietly. He shrugged and pressed fingers to his right temple.

“Headache?” Max asked, sympathetic.

“One that your tryptophan won’t help,” Sam replied resignedly, used to the pain by now. Once again, he looked over at Dean and Alec as a cold chill ran down his spine.

“They’re going to die, aren’t they,” Max said, her tone so hushed he barely heard her.

“Yeah,” Sam said as tears clouded his eyes. “They are.”

*****