#max and jondy

[oveliagirlhaditright]

Parallels.

[oveliagirlhaditright]

There's also Sylan from the Dark Angel video game (not to be confused with Syl):) She was a part of Zack's unit, apparently, and tried to escape with them all that night in 2009. But she was actually super brave and created a distraction so everyone else could getaway, and it sounds like she was probably caught and didn't make it out because of it. Max finally finds her in the game, where it seems like Manticore had somewhat come back and still had her. Or maybe it was i-Corp that nabbed her: which was sort of a sister of Manticore--but also sort of its opposite in some ways, in that they were more interested in making brainiacs than super-soldiers... it's been a long time. I forget where Sylan was, exactly, I just know that Max saves her:)

max + her brothers and sisters

[bigskydreaming]

Scoooooooore! LOL gotta love that wayback machine. Anyone remember me talking once about this series I did back in the Dark Angel fandom, one-shots of varying length focused around Max’s family who we never really saw much of in the show? So ever since then I’ve been trying to find them anywhere, since it was before Ao3, I didn’t use ff.net for that fandom, and all the fic sites and archives that were DA specific are pretty much dead and gone-zo nowadays.....but I kept coming up empty, mostly because my dumb ass wasn’t remembering my own titles correctly. So then I started searching by plugging in actual lines I could remember from the fics themselves, and that worked, and quick question self, but explain to me how it is you can remember LINES you wrote in individual fics almost a decade and a half ago, more clearly than you can remember the freaking titles of those fics themselves?

Ah, me.

Course, I still only found half of them, but that half includes most of the ones I really like best, and of the ones still lost the only one I’m really bummed about and still trying hard to find is “Little Lightning Girl,” aka Jondy’s story.

Its always a trip reading really old stuff of yours though. I’m surprised, like, there’s stuff I’ve written from around this same time, both fanfic and original, where I’m just like YIKES, no, hard pass, we’re just gonna pretend this wasn’t a thing....but most of these hold up surprisingly well? I’m pleasantly pleased? Chuffed, almost? 

Zane’s “Zen and the Art of Not Breaking Your Customer’s Fucking Face (remember: its bad for business)” is a definite keeper, heh, I amuse myself tremendously sometimes. 

Zack’s “Rules for When the Sky is Falling (plus side: this time its not your fault)” is a little weak in spots, like there’s stuff that in hindsight I could see easily strengthening the arc in that one but I’m wondering how much of that has to do with changing/evolving views on character types in general....just because Zack was never a fave of mine back when I was watching then, but falls into a character type I have a lot more appreciation and empathy for now, and that definitely would have led me to write his story differently now than I did then. 

Ben’s “They Keep Calling Me Crazy (I say: its the world that’s gone mad)” is kinda the complete reverse.....Ben falls into a character type I have soooooo much less patience for nowadays than I did back then, mostly because of well. The over-glorification of such characters and me being like okay but what about yawn though. Reading his took me back more fully to that mindset than I’ve managed in years though, so it didn’t annoy me as much as I thought it would lmfao.

Tinga’s “A Storybook Kind of Princess (a Grimm kind of happily ever after)” is as weird to me now as it was back then. Easily one of the most experimental “I have no idea what I’m actually aiming for here, just go with it” fics I’ve ever written, and apparently fifteen years later, I STILL can’t decide if I think it worked and I actually like how it came out or not. Hahaha, what is decisiveness though, other than a myth and hashtag Fake News.

Kavi’s “I Never Learned How To Play Ball (striking out comes naturally)” is still one of the weakest of the series, that hasn’t changed.....I didn’t have a really clear idea what I wanted to do with him or where I wanted to take that and that unfortunately kinda shows and the re-reading didn’t really spark anything in terms of what I would definitely have done differently if writing it now.

Vada’s “Chase Me To The Desert, Watch Me Live, I Bet I’ll Thrive (you better believe: I was born to survive)” is the complete opposite, because its another one of those very experimental pieces where I was totally winging it because we knew next to nothing about Vada in the series and I totally just pulled everything about her character and an entire storyline for her completely out of my ass and said sure, why not go with this, but surprisingly it worked I think, and it feels disconnected enough from the rest but standing alone well enough on its own that I can probably do something original with it, as I actually really like the voice I came up with for her.

Eva’s “Big Sisters Know Best (so when I say I’ll die for you: just say thank you and never look back)” I’m actually damn proud of, because its always fun when you successfully sucker punch yourself, let alone with a plot twist you don’t see coming on the reread even though you came up with it in the first place, lmfaaaaaao, and you’re like well hot damn, I do NOT remember doing that but guess I did, wow, go me.

But the big winner for me was Syl’s “The Kind of Girl You Bring Home To Meet Your Parents (when you’ve got the kind of parents that need killing).” That was always a fave, and I’m super stoked it held up as well as it did, cuz I’d hoped it would but wasn’t sure if I was just remembering it through nostalgia-colored glasses and it hadn’t actually been all that great. 

(One of the three longest ones in that series, it was a one-shot a whopping 30K in length, in which Syl wants to hijack the local mob’s operations in order to gain access to a Manticore facility in the same city so she can blow it to kingdom come, because Syl’s a little bit crazy in that ‘I know I’ve got issues and I’m totes fine with them, especially as long as I’ve got my trusty grenade launcher’ kinda way....and so to accomplish her goals, she seduces the son of the local mob boss in order to get close to his father and the inner workings of the mob. Only she eventually realizes this kid is a fucking innocent in every sense of the word, wants nothing to do with his family or their business, hates his dad, who’s abusive as hell, and once Syl concludes what she came there to do and has everything she needs, she’s halfway out the door - well, window, technically - before she stops and groans and bangs her head softly against the wall cuz she’s like, uggggh fuck, he’s totally gonna get blamed for this and his dad’s probably gonna kill him and my Jiminy Cricket’s gonna be a fucking BITCH about it forever, so, well, looks like I don’t have a choice, guess I gotta murder his dad and overthrow the mob so he can skedaddle and live a quiet life on a farm in Bumfuck, Whereverville, god, I so did not need this tonight, thanks a lot conscience, like DID I FUCKING ASK, UMM NOO?)

So like, I think that one’s got definite potential to do something else with, possibly turn into an original project, lol.

Anyway, randomness is random, but yay Wayback machine! Still kinda bummed that I could only seem to find half of them, you’d think that’d be enough to make it easy to find the other seven but nope, apparently not. Its really only Jondy’s fic that I still really want to track down though, the other six I could live without. Okay, I kinda want to reread Brin’s and see how that one holds up too. Okay and Jace’s so never mind, scratch that, still wanna find all the other seven, lmao. (I did NOT make it easy to keep track of anywhere I was or anything I was doing fifteen years ago. The mutuals on here who knew me all the way back then can attest to that, lol. Ah me, part two).

[geneticempath]

@praesaes  sent :  [ cover ]  for your muse to cover mine with a blanket  / avery ↳↳ accepting

     erik opened his eyes when he felt a shift beside him, wakefulness rising like the tide coming in before his dark gaze saw her. for a moment, he felt as if he were back in manticore, back in their barracks when they were kids, ignorant and helpless to the world outside of their barred windows. back when he had been able to lie back and listen to ben’s stories or to jondy and max gossiping while everyone else tried to sleep and there was avery, the cot beside his own and now here, again right beside him.

erik blinked slowly as she moved and he realized that she was slowly draping a blanket over him -- mink fabric tucked up to his chin so carefully like she thought he was still asleep and maybe he was, maybe he was watching her from some place outside of himself, maybe he was still back in manticore and was seeing himself through all the years and how after it all, all the nightmares and the horror and the blood, he would make it right back to her. erik let himself sink back into the couch, let the tide of wakefulness slip slowly back into the dark and carefully he reached for avery’s hand.

fingers curled slowly around hers before she could leave but he had no words, no late night confessions of being glad to have her back in his life, no whispered secrets of wishing their lives could have been different, no, he had nothing to say so he simply squeezed her hand and hoped that that would tell her all the things that he could not say before he closed his eyes and let himself fade.

[kappeita]

Semi-Headcanon

TBH... 

like you see Minamoto and Capeta’s helmets? I kind of imagine each of them to be the embodiment of a certain music track; Minamoto’s helmet being 1998 - NAOKI and Capeta’s helmet being MAX 300 (Super-Max-Me Mix) by Jondi and Spesh xd

[d-noona]

AERO

SUMMARY: In a future of political, economic and moral collapse, a genetically enhanced superhuman prototype named Y/N escapes from military confines and dwells amidst the decadent underground street life of *Seoul* to avoid government agents who want to bring her back into the fold.

WORDS: 1286

Jeon Jungkook x Reader

M.LIST | CHAPTER 11

CHAPTER 10 - ALL GOES DOWN THE DRAIN

A few days after Y/N's encounter with Jungkook, she was left hot and bothered knowing that Taehyung and Hoseok are out there. Y/N pulls up on her motorcycle. A sign says CLOSED. Y/N dismounts, knocks on the door but its open. She ventures into the laundromat and transits the corridor into Ardiente's office. She takes a look at the place. It's been trashed. Ardiente sports a mouse under one eye.

"What happened?" Y/N inquires, her voice was cold but her eyes gave her concern away for the poor man. He looks up at Y/N, puts a finger to his swollen lip to silence her, then by way of explanation scrawls on a pad as he speaks "Walked in on some hump ransacking the place. Disgruntled former client, or someone I'm looking into trying to see what I got. Or it could've been your garden variety junkie boost. Who knows?" he says as he holds up the pad with his writing saying: ROOM BUGGED. Y/N nods understanding. "As long as you're okay." She says. He motions Y/N toward the back door "if you need to freshen up, bathrooms over there." Y/N picks up the cue. "Please" she says as Ardiente steers her outside into the alley way. Ardiente's demeanor instantly changes.

"I don't know what your story is and I don't want to know" he says. "He's your money" as Y/N hands him the envelope, he doesn't take it. "Listen, whoever tossed this place wants you. And I'm looking to stay outta line of fire." Says the man.

"How's it about me?" y/n asks in a high pitched voice full of contempt. Ardiente kept wary of his surroundings turning left and right looking to make sure no one was listening in "They lifted my wallet to make it looked like a robbery. But there's a bug in my computer keyboard, a tap on the phone and a mic in the light fixture." Y/N knows that this is probably Aero Corporation on her tail, but she shrugs the information that Ardiente is giving her, not when she knows Taehyung and Hoseok were out there, somewhere. She needs to find them. "Like you said, maybe somebody's tracking one of your investigations."

Ardiente yanks Y/n's hand to make her realize her current situation as of the moment. "Hardware's too sophisticated. It's gotta be the government, and why do I think they're looking for you? You're on top of the food chain from all the searches. Most clients come in asking for help on cheating husbands, or lost dogs. If I were you Y/N I'd take that money and get outta town while you can."

He heads back to the laundromat, Y/n follows suit as Ardiente continues with his cover story. "Your fiancé has four previous wives. His M.O. is to clean em out and take off. Which is what you oughta do." Y/N smiles with gratitude but replies with an anguish tone to make them sound believable. "Bastard!"

"I'm sorry I couldn't come up with something more positive" says the man. She slowly leaves the office in response "You and me both" off she goes.

As Y/N gets on her motorcycle and heads off, she puts her collar up, pulls her hat down, glancing at the two men in a parked car who watch her closely as she passes.as one of the men raises a camera and clicks off several frames, Y/N looks away and drives back to her apartment.

Y/n arriving at her building emerges from the stairwell into the darkened corridor. Oli runs toward her waiving a flashlight, making the sounds of gunfire and explosion as he wages a five year old's war. "BAM! BAM! BLAAAAAAAM!!! You're dead" says Oli. As Y/N tries to wrest the flashlight out of his hands annoyed. "Turn that off Oli, before you get the cops on us."

Lita emerges from her apartment, calls in monotone for her son. "Come on, Oli, Its time to go to sleep." She scoops up the child, turning off the flashlight but not before the beam illuminates her face. Eyes are red, her cheeks tear-streaked. "Are you okay?" y/n asks in concern. Lita just nods. Oli wriggles out of her arms and runs into the apartment shooting at an imagine adversary. Lita turned to face Y/N "I took Felix to the hospital again tonight. He couldn't walk so I borrowed some money and we took a cab...but..." her chest begins to heave and she breaks down in sobs "H-he... he didn't make it. He's dead. Oh my God he's dead."

Y/N goes to find her and takes her in her arms, comforting the stricken woman. She rubs her back as she endlessly cries through the dark night.

The following morning grimacing, tortured by another seizure. Another wave of flashbacks occur. In the barracks, Y/N who is sprawled on the floor convulsing. The group of captive transgenics look up in fear as the door bangs open and a group of guards and orderlies come in. The group were ordered out of the way, but Taehyung and Hoseok along with the rest didn't want to give Y/N up, not after what happened to the last blonde girl.

As Y/N shakes, fumbling to open her pills. She dumps out handful, scattering some. She pounds them into her mouth as the flashbacks continue. As the group were being pulled out of the way protesting. The orderlies, yelling, grabbing Y/N, but Taehyung pushes one of the orderlies and the guy flies back and guards rush in with stun batons raised.

Jondy a plane crash survivor springs on one from behind and, quick as a flash she yanks his gun out of its holster. She puts a round into the ceiling, then pulls down on the guards. Screaming at them she waves the gun in an arc and they fall back. Leaving Hoseok crouched over Y/N with the gun. The rest join ranks without hesitation their eyes fierce. The guards and orderlies fall back through the door and the hybrids start to barricade it with steel bunk frames.

Y/N continues to convulse on the bathroom floor, her muscles are locked in a tetanic rigor. One fist shoots out and shatters the tank of the toilet. Ceramic shards and water pour over her. She pulls into a fetal position, shaking violently, as she rides it out. Her head raps against the flooded tile floor as brain wrecks more of her damaging past.

The group lead by Taehyung are running through a service hall in the lab complex. Hoseok and Max are pulling a stumbling Y/N along. They round the corner and lights blast suddenly into their eyes. Eva standing beside Max, Hoseok and Jondy, falls to her knees. Eva fires rapidly at the lights. A figure steps into the lights and fires back with one swift move. Eva is slammed backwards and slides in crumpled heap across the floor. The pistol skitters and comes to rest right in front of Y/N. The silhouette materializes out of the lights, White.

Outside the lab the windows explode outward as the hybrids crash through the glass in a suicide charge, dropping twenty feet to the know below. They hit and roll, and come up sprinting. Hoseok pulls Y/N with him as they pelt for the treeline. Y/N running in her hospital gown, she pounds through the snow, toward until she is just a rhythmic blur. She fights back her seizures attempting to stand as she hunches against the bathroom wall, struggling to push away her flashbacks. Her tremors subsiding. The shudders have been replaced by sobs. Tears stream down her face as her chest pitches, and she shudders with pain of the soul the pills can't touch.

[oveliagirlhaditright]

It really is too bad that in Dark Angel season two, scheduling conflicts kept all of Max’s still alive siblings from the previous season from coming back (Syl, Krit, and Jace, I think. I think they were the only ones still alive, sadly. And possibly Brin, if she survived the explosion at the end of season one, we honestly don’t know, and could have been rehabilitated. They also could have finally introduced Jondy and Zane: just saying). Because it really seems like when things started getting bad with the anti-transgenic movement, they would have shown up to help their baby sister. Especially when they maybe saw her on TV during the Jam Pony siege and all that. I feel like they would have tried to get there. And it feels weird and OOC that they didn’t, inside the story.

Even before that... you’d think if they’d gotten word that Max had freed all of the transgenics into the world--that sometimes was a huge hassle, because a lot of them did not know how to act or blend in in the real world (which actually makes no sense, story-wise, but shh)--they also would have been there for her then, and for their other siblings to help them adjust to freedom and stuff, since they’d been at this for years and knew what was up.

[oveliagirlhaditright]

So, if you watch the Dark Angel auditions in the season one DVDs, it sounds like originally it was about Jondy--not Brin--that Max and Zack were holding Lydecker hostage and interrogating him in "Cold Comfort", in trying to find her and save her.

I say, as someone who is obssessed with Jondy, oddly enough, from the little we got of her, and will put all of the available bread crumbs we have together to try and figure out who her character was.

But since we all know where this arc leads: Brin going back to Manticore, despite everything, and coming back brainwashed, I wonder if that was the original plan for Jondy, as well. And Max would have ended up having to fight her former best friends multiple times in that scenario.

Basically, I'm saying I wonder if the original idea was to make Jondy a villain, actually--and to hurt Max with that--and I know I've read at least one fic that did that. Like, Max finally caught up with Jondy, but it wasn't everything she'd hoped it would be, because it turned out Jondy was turned and betrayed her, saying how she’d never actually been as strong as Max was. And I wonder if that's because there was something there. Like, maybe we were supposed to get this feeling of dread, since they kept putting their reunion off, to the point it probably never would have led to exactly what Max was looking for with it.

Also, it seems like ordinary they were only going to be six kids who escaped, not twelve. And maybe maybe didn't have plans for Brin then, and that's why it was going to be Jondy and not her.

[loisfreakinglane]

@latrodectal:  AND FOR HER MOTHER LIKE FUCK. i’m sure nicole (brin) was busy and yeah every time max got in contact with another 09er it fucked her up (and i’m sure her experience being recaptured also fucked her up and there was the fact that she felt personally responsible for everyone she had let out) but it did bother me that she dropped looking for both of them afterwards, although i’m sure it was in the back of her mind especially as things were getting progressively worse for transgenics in s2.

i also remember hearing that ashley scott/asha was initially rumored to be jondy undercover and i wish we lived in the universe where that was the case and we found out what happened to her and how that would have effected everything in s2. I LOVE THE X5S

THAT WOULD HAVE BEEN SO FUCKING COOL WHAT THE FUCK?????? and I know (from the dark angel wiki lmao) that in one of the books it was revealed logan had already had an x5 informant in the past that he never told max about.... the show could have made it jondy.... god i’m SO DISTRESSED TBH jondy showing up in seattle pretending to be another girl, looking for max AND ZACK PROBABLY and following all these clues that lead her to eyes only and getting close to him trying to figure out what happened (or krit and syl told her idk whichever way) and winds up working with logan L I K E THAT WOULD HAVE BEEN SOOOOOOOO EPIC OMG I’M EVEN MORE MAD NOW

and omg omg YESSSSSSS WE KNOW MAX’S MOTHER IS OUT THERE!!!!!!! AND YET!!!!!!!! s2 just....... is gonna make choices that i’m not gonna personally understand. I’m sure I’ll enjoy it and like obviously max is my FOREVER GIRL I will love until the end of time but this shows priorities are clearly not my own lol

[oveliagirlhaditright]

So, the Dark Angel book “After the Dark” says that Jondy and Tinga were the only other ones of Max’s siblings who held hope in their hearts like she did: makes sense why Max was so close to the two of them, then.

[oveliagirlhaditright]

Saving the Siblings - A Dark Angel Lomax AU 2

What would have happened around C.R.E.A.M--when Max and Logan still weren't that close yet--if they'd agreed to have a more sibling-esque relationship? How would the entire rest of the story played out differently? But Lomax will still be endgame in this, I swear. https://www.archiveofourown.org/works/21821767

Author’s Note: I remember nothing about Vada’s personality from the books, so I’m making it all up myself. Yep. Also, this "episode" is technically "411 on the DL", but things are playing out somewhat differently than they did there, because of the ripple effect of Max and Logan deciding to try and just be sibling-like themselves. "So, lemme get this straight," Original Cindy said the next morning, as she and Max pedaled into Jam Pony and Normal glared at them for being late. "You told Hot Boy ya just want 'im to be your brother. And he took it well? Even though ‘e looked at chu all dreamy-eyed, when we talked about chu?" Max scoffed. And even in being a genetically engineered killing machine, who had grace like no other, she still almost ran into Normal's desk because of the absurdity of what Original Cindy had just said "OC! I highly doubt he did that! Logan and I aren't like that. And, yeah… he took it well. Goes to show that not all men think with their third leg, huh?" Original Cindy seemed doubtful about that, but didn't comment any further. Which was probably a good thing. Normal was currently snapping at them for being late and telling them to "bip bip bip", as he shoved packages into both of their hands. Max was about to take hers to its intended destination with no reaction, when suddenly she caught something with her cat-like eyes. This package had been slightly ripped open, and within it was a newspaper article. A newspaper article with her barcode number on it and an address. Normal, unfortunately, noticed what Max had done and was quick to try and take the package out of her hands. But she fought against him. "Hey, Missy! That right there is private property! You had no right to do that, and it’s coming out of your paycheck!" "Yeah, sure, whatever," Max said with a calm façade as she handed the package back to Normal, knowing he wouldn't trust her to deliver it now and that he needed to patch the rest of it up before he gave it to another deliverer, anyway On the inside, Max was panicking. With her number being in the paper, was it Lydecker trying to draw her out of one of her sibs trying to contact her? "You okay, Suga?" Original Cindy asked, in having seen Max become less of a fog bank there, in actually showcasing some real emotion right there… fear. And even though Max was trying to improve her relationship with everyone in her day to day life, by being more honest with them (save for Logan, perhaps, because of the mess of a situation she’d gotten them into), Max lied yet again when she turned to her soul sister with a sugary sweet smile on her face. “Of course I am.” ... The forefront of Max, as she was out in Seattle delivering a different package for Normal, of course thought that the whole thing had to be a trap. Of course it was that... how could it be anything else? But there was a stupid, rebellious part of her that hadn’t listened to warnings about “phony sentimentality”, that wanted to go check out this address… that she was thinking was a Playfair Cipher. But what was the key word to decode it? Despite how Max had at first not wanted to go see Logan about this—because surely he'd care that she was going to go risk her life, and would thus do away with their whole: "we're going to pretend to be siblings to each other” shtick for the moment—she found that she had to… she just needed his advice on this, like no other’s. When Max reached Logan's suite in Fogle Towers—and broke into it to get in, once again—the first thing she saw was Logan clearly coming out of the shower, as he pulled a towel off of his neck and put a shirt on... And almost immediately he was pissy: Max could read it on his face, probably because he couldn't come out of the shower on his feet any other hot-blooded male. Most of the time, Max didn't understand men at all... and so she pretended to not notice his tude, and prayed that he would leave it alone, too. "Max, what are you doing here?" Logan asked with great caring in his tone, as he wheeled over to where she was in his living room. Apparently, he was going to be civil today; and in thinking that he needed to be rewarded for that, Max winked at him before she instantly regretted it and tried to awkwardly move the conversation along. "So, Logan... dilemma time. Someone has put my barcode in the paper—and it’s like opening the front page and finding my undies, I tell you--and have put an address on where to meet up via a Playfair Cipher…. I just figured out that the key word was ‘Maxie’. But get this: when figured out, it leads to Vogelsang's address... Clearly, I can't go, right? I mean, it's obviously a trap. Vogelsang must have been compromised��� and found out things about me, he shouldn't know." Logan opened his mouth once—and via his pinched eyebrows, and the way he seemed about to motion that Bling should come in here to also talk sense into her, perhaps, Max could tell he'd been about to tell her not to go, too—but then closed it, before opening it again to say something he hadn’t been planning on before, she guessed. "I think, Max," Logan said, as he now wheeled away from her to put some distance between them, which immediately had Max feeling suspicious and offended as she put her hand on her hip and glared at him. "That it's one of two options. One, Vogelsang is trying to lure you into a trap or maybe even has a conscience and wants to warn you away from one... but would he really bite the hand that already abuses him? I don't know... I also don't know if he's clever enough to use such a cipher for you. “But I don't think it's Manticore trying to lure you out. They'd think you'd be too smart for it. And with their pride—even though you're all smarter than they are—I think they’d make the code more difficult to figure out… so I do think it might be one of your siblings." "And you think I should go after them," Max finished, as she straightened back up and chose to walk towards the man who was living dangerously right now, and suggesting that she risk her life. Again. Max tried to be happy about this news… that it could have been Zack, or Jondy, or Tinga, or any of the other siblings she normally would have been happy to risk her life for the chance to see… but she couldn’t quite get there… Something about Logan stepping into that role for her, making her less likely to want to give up what she’d built for herself in Seattle, mayhap? Outside, it had started raining again—as it always did here in Seattle... particularly when she and Logan were about to make a dumb choice about each other, and the Blue Lady sensed they needed some cold in the air in order to cool themselves off before they did that--and Logan said, "Yes... as a- a brother to you now, I suggest that you go. And I know if it were me, and I had siblings, I would." And so that only left one thing for Max to do, didn’t it? And she reluctantly smiled at Logan, for giving her the advice she had wanted… even though she didn’t know if she should do that or not, for so many reasons. ... Max went to Vogelsang’s before the specified time marked on the newspaper. She needed to stake the place out before anything unsavory happened there, and she was. And while her sibling could have been at good as subterfuge as she was right now (Max had decided to go into the ocean before she came here, to hopefully erase her scent from Manticore guard dogs if they were here, and had painted herself in black to even moreso fit in with the night), she just assumed they weren't here yet. But eventually, she saw a shock of short, blond hair a few floors above her—that could have been Ben, Zack, or Jack… if fate had been kind in some alternate universe for that last one, that was—and she jumped up that way herself, through the windowless opening and to the tenth floor... that looked a lot like a parking garage to Max. And once there, she saw who could have only been Zack—he looked just like she remembered, and she found herself blinking back tears and gasping at the mere thought of it—as he seemed to try and reach for an invisible person before them... Finally, Zack sensed Max—and whirled around with his fists out and one foot forward, clearly ready to fight—before Max washed the gunk off her face to show him who she clearly was… she was the only X5 kid who had had these kinds of features, after all. "Zack, it's me. It's Max. If you don't believe me, come around behind me and look at my barcode. I’ll put my arms up and not move." But her eyes must have been sincere... or he must have recognized her voice, or even now—and certainly not have just have memorized every inch of her because he loved her, Max would later try and lie to herself—because the next thing Max knew, she was in Zack's arms as he held onto her for dear life... and as Max clung to this brother of hers, she tried to breathe in all of what she thought she'd been missing for so long... but she felt nothing. "Maxie... is that really you?" Zack asked, as he buried his face in the crook of her neck... and a part of her beginning to go into heat, no doubt, wanted to kiss him for that action. "We thought- we all thought you were dead! That if you were alive, you would have found us all by now... So to honor you, we decided that—at least this first time—that if one of us ever went back to Manticore and we then heard they’d broken out… That I would put your barcode in the paper with this address, so they’d know where to find me for help. Right now, we’re waiting for Vada." "Vada? …As in that sweet sister of ours, who actually cared about makeup even back at Manticore? And tried to emulate what she saw on some of the guards’ faces with chalk?” And it was just as Max asked that, that said girl came up the flight of stairs that led to this garage on her motorcycle. And this didn’t really take Max aback… all X-series transgenics were spectacular with these vehicles, as it must have been in their makeup. …But this almost seemed too scripted to Max. And Vada seemed too sure of herself, if the hounds from Hell really were supposed to be on her tail… Her hair was also so long—something that Max couldn't imagine that would lend to her fighting for her life well… unless she had been on a deep cover op from Manticore for this, and had had to look as normal as possible for it… And if she’d done that quest for them like a little girl without trying to escape then… what were the chances that she had tried to leave now? "Vada!" Zack exclaimed the moment he saw her, with a wide smile on his face as he began walking over her to greet her. And Max couldn't believe that their CO Zack, of all people, was forgetting his training and exposing himself to the enemy so easily! Max got it, she did. Having a sister captured and rescued so easily must have been a dream come true to Zack, on the off-chance they ever tried to do this kind of thing again… but it was too good to be true, was the thing. "Zack... Listen to me… Do you really think Lydecker would have let Vada escape so easily? This is Lydecker we’re talking about! Who probably knew from our genetic makeup, just how long we could stay underwater. But he made us try it to tortured us, anyway!" Zack looked at Max furiously then—as Vada just seemed to look at them blankly—and here Max had thought that if anyone would have been arguing one of the others might have been turned, it would have been Zack and not her. But as far as Max was concerned, her life was making less and less sense all the time. "Max," Zack argued, as he reached to put a hand on her shoulder but then swiftly pulled it away, as if he'd been burnt. "There's no way Vada was turned! You should know that better than anyone! Our siblings always meant the most to you… and we all know how to forget things, even when under torture from Psy-Ops." "Actually, dear brother, Max is right. You should have listened to her,” said a sickeningly sweet voice in Max's ear—as she heard a gun being cocked behind her and felt it being pressed against her temple. Fuck. TCs had used grappling guns to get up here the same way she and Zack had, huh? Somehow, Max hadn’t stopped to think that anyone would be that well prepared at all. With how long she’d been free without Lydecker finding a trace of her, for the most part, Max had just assumed he had his thumb up his butt… but apparently that wasn’t the case. She sighed. "Vada," Max breathed, as she put her hands on her head. "Why are you doing this, dear sister? Do tell. Did they break you in Psy-Ops that easily? You were always more weak-willed than the rest of us." Max had expected Vada to hiss at her, and instruct the man under her command to hit her with the butt of the gun or something. But she did no such thing. Instead, her breath hitched in her throat and blinked back tears. And suddenly it hit Max that maybe Vada wasn’t as willing a participant in this as she’d first suspected, if she’d tried to give them a heads-up with her words. And the men behind Max and Zack—three of them actually had him in a chokehold—must have started to realize Vada was teetering on which side she was on here, because this time Max did have the gun slammed into her face… and it disoriented her some, as blood got into her eye. But she carried on, anyway. "Vada... you were reprogrammed back at Manticore, right? You never got out... this mostly was a trap for us. But at the same time, sister, I don't think you're completely buying their shit, either. Because otherwise, you wouldn't feel a thing about burning us. So, what? You're in the land of question marks now? Well, get out of it and do something, one way or another." That seemed to make something click within Vada... and Max could see warmth in her sister's eyes, even while she blocked their only exit: the kind that she'd seen reflected in her own so many times when she was with children... Could it have been that Vada was a mother and remembering that she had a child to return to? Where all X5 women particularly maternal? "Vada, please.” This time it was Zack: looking at their sister with begging baby blues that Max wanted to swim in, as her womb chose that moment to feel really empty. Damned heat! Max thought, as she slapped herself across the face before her hormones could make her want to jump the men holding her hostage, even. Before Zack could say anymore, at least ten Manticore men showed up behind Vada at the door… and she surprised everyone, as she suddenly powered her bike and mowed them all down with a vengeance. And just like that, both Max and Zack were done playing the pacifists. Zack took care of the three on him, as he jumped into the air and kicked at one’s leg—breaking it—and broke another’s neck with his hands… before landing on the third and beating their face in. Max, meanwhile, did some of the aerial attacks that she was known for. She did a backflip into the air, and knocked her guy out as she kicked out… but not before winking at him. She then punched out a man who was trying to grab her while she was in the air and landed on a girl’s neck… Max pinched the pressure point on the back of their neck—which felt good, somehow: that a Manticore soldier could have a weakness in that spot, too—and wished her sweet dreams. And that left only five new soldiers who had heard the chaos and were coming up to investigate behind Vada. "Zack, Max quick! Get on the motorcycle!” she begged. The two X5s didn’t have to be asked twice. They did just what their sister said, and ran these five men down as they made their mistake… and swept past a witless Lydecker once again. ... When Zack had left Vada under Max’s care (at least temporarily, as he went to get alcohol to celebrate their sis coming back to them… though Max herself wasn’t so confident about it yet), she had thought about taking her over to Logan's—because she had to.. because for whatever reason, she still had feelings for him, Max scolded herself—but in the end, she didn't. And this time it wasn't just because she was trying to keep them at the "just friends" level: it was because Max knew she'd have to rehabilitate Vada... and if her sister snapped and killed people, she really didn't want her to take out the beacon of all things good and true, Eyes Only. And while Max thought it was potentially more dangerous for Vada to be around Kendra—since Kendra had no training to be a "soldier", and hadn't signed up for any of this—she also was thinking that Vada would see that Kendra was a civilian (like Vada’s own baby girl, if Max was right about that) and take it easy on her... Or so she was hoping that, anyway. "So, yeah, Kendra," Max was telling her roommate now--loud enough so Vada could hear her, but not so much that she'd make Kendra realize there was anything weird about them… which wasn’t that easy to juggle. "This is my long-lost sister, Vada. She's gonna be staying with us for a while, if that's cool, until she can get things squared away with her family." Max put her hypothesis about Vada into her words, partly to see if she'd get a reaction from her that would prove Max right… and to assure Vada that if she did have a family... she was going to sort it out and go back there soon, so she wasn't constantly endangering Max’s roomie here. "Okay, Max," Kendra said as she paused in the translations she was making for her students and gave Max a considering look. "But one day you're going to have to dish about all this family drama of yours.” Oh. So, it seemed that that Kendra was still suspicious of what Cindy had told her had happened while she'd been in jail, after all. If that was the case—and she kept putting two and two together—then Max supposed might not have a choice on that front. "Soon enough, Kendra," said Max with a slight smile, shocking even herself with it. "Soon enough." At that point, Kendra had decided to go to bed—as she was tired from a long day of work—and Max perched on the footrest at the end of the couch Vada occupied in their living room. She did this so her sister would know that she was there and find comfort in it, perhaps, but also so she was elevated in case the other brunette decided to attack. It must have been the feline DNA in her making these decisions... because this way, Max knew she'd be able to see Vada move the moment she decided to attack—if she did that—and could then easily leap into her beloved air to fight. And Vada must have noticed that Max was somewhat skittish—though Max hated thinking of herself that way. And if she could've, she probably would have banned it from the English language after tonight—because Vada ended up answering Max's question from earlier as she nudged her leg with her foot. "You're right, Max. I do have a family... Damn. Why I ever let Lydecker turn me against them, I don't know... And I feel even worse in trying to help him bag you and Zack. I'm so sorry." "Don't feel too bad, Sis," Max said, as she patted her sister’s foot. "We're not all experts at resisting Psy-Ops and making ourselves forget information on our loved ones… or even our own names. I know I'm not." But even while Max said it, she didn't know if she believed her own words. After all she'd just detailed why Psy-Ops was a bitch, hadn't she? So, any brainwashing she’d once had was long gone, and would hopefully stay that way if she held onto such thinking. But since Vada had given in… did she really believe she felt bad about what had happened, and wasn't still under Manticore's influence? Max probably would have risked telling Vada she was full of shit, too, if at that moment she hadn't said the golden words. "And speaking of our family... you know that they have Jondy too, right?" "Jondy? How… why? How did they get the youngest of us now, and who let it happen?" And Max didn't care about anything she’d just thought of Vada… because they would get Jondy out with no consequences, and she would be her old self. She would be. Or else Max would just off herself, because she had no reason left to believe in this world. Author’s Note: I am so sorry for such a late update. I’m just working on a million stories right now. But I haven’t abandoned this story, and never will.

[oveliagirlhaditright]

Dark Angel definitely was not perfect when it came to how it portrayed female characters (and I've definitely complained about a things I disliked a few times, like how we got so much with Max's brothers and so little with her sisters in comparison). Though there was definitely so much good, of course--like Max herself--and they tried. And the show was leaps and bounds ahead of a lot of other shows at the time.

But one thing I've always appreciated about Dark Angel in the female character department, was how Manticore was creating female super soldiers, too. And that they were treated the same as the male ones were. Max's unit even had more girls in it than it did boys, and I've always loved that.

The girls:

Max, Brin, Tinga, Syl, Jondy, Jace, Vada, Eva, Sylan (Sylan was revealed in the video game. And even though their names are similar, she isn't Syl).

The boys: Zack, Ben, Krit, Zane, Seth, Kavi, Jack

[oveliagirlhaditright]

Okay. But no one can convince me that on the trip to find her mom at the end of "After the Dark", Max DIDN'T also look for her foster sister, Lucy, and finally make things right with her.

[loisfreakinglane]

@latrodectal: i was upset for YEARS when they didn’t bring back any x5s in season two but then i learned about them initially intending to kill off syl and krit and was like “okay maybe it was for the best at least now i can make up lives for them like maybe jondy’s a fashion photographer” (kidding i make up that they came back to find max when she and alec got exposed and they made their stand at terminal city) anyway i love the x5s with my whole heart

omg right like if that’s the level of respect they’re gonna serve up max’s siblings, as purely lambs to the slaughter for an easy emotional gutpunch they can keep it

I’m honestly eternally upset that they completely dropped max’s search for her siblings. i get that all of her reunions wound up like. completely fucking her up. wildly jace wound up being the most overall positive encounter, and she wasn’t even an 09 escapee. and I can do my own headcanons about how max was retraumatized at manticore after s1 and just couldn’t even think beyond the problems directly in front of her. but god?????? the fact she apparently never saw brin again even tho they were in the same fucking place? that syl and krit completely disappeared even tho lbr it would have made a lot of sense for them to become eyes only informants? and never seeing any of her other siblings, 09 escapees or not just....... lol I haven’t gotten to s2 in my rewatch yet but I have a feeling I’m gonna get aggravated

BUT I’M WITH YOU I’m just gonna daydream that all her other siblings made their way to terminal city and somebody even found brin and made her come with them to live happily ever after etc

it’s what we personally deserve

[oveliagirlhaditright]

Do you have any future fanfic story ideas for Bangel and Lomax right now?

Uhh... I feel like I’ve started a few where Angel becomes human--and I’ve already written one oneshot where that happened--but I don’t know if I’ll post or finish them, since I do seem to go for that idea a lot. I think I started another story for them that wasn’t this--it might have been what could have happened if Buffy was turned by some random vampire. Like, Angel trying to help her through that, and to ignore her worst impulses, and to find a way to get her soul back?--but I don’t know what I did with it... if that’s even what I was writing about. I don’t remember. This is the problem with me writing before I’m about to fall asleep. If nothing else, I’ve thought of that AU a bit, even if I’m wrong that I ever started writing it.

I also really want to write Dawn’s PoV about everything that happened with the Bangel storyline. One day when I was at work, I mapped it all out in my head... but now I remember none of it. But I’m sure a lot of it could come back, if I sat down to write it.

As for Dark Angel, I’m currently writing an AU for season one... where Max convinces Logan to have a sibling-like relationship with her--since that’s what she’s used to (and that won’t last, of course)--to see how that would change the story... and it’s actually leading to a lot of Max’s siblings be saved unlike in canon somehow? So I guess that’s why I called it “Saving the Siblings”. A wonderful title, I know. But while I definitely plan to work on and finish this story when I have the time, I was thinking my one Kairi from Kingdom Hearts story would be at the forefront of my writing priorities right now... but I might be changing my mind on that some, and last night I actually started chapter three for this DA story.

I also have written a oneshot AU, where it actually was Ben’s body at the morgue in Pollo Loco, and Max agreed to having dinner with Logan so he could try and cheer her up some. I just need to edit and post it...

I’m definitely not opposed to writing more Dark Angel in the future. I used to have so many ideas (like an alternate season two I was working on, but--tbh--as much as I rag on season two, and this story was supposed to be “better” than it, I think some of the actual season two were ending up being better than this. Maybe that would have changed in an edit, but IDK), but I stupidly deleted a lot of them because they were via text messages I sent to myself on my phone. I didn’t know about Sticky Notes at the time.

I’m also thinking about reuploading some of the Lomax stories I’d written, like, last year, but deleted when I recently got rid of all of my old social media accounts and made new ones. We’ll see.

Also, I just want you to know I got your ask about my favorite Buffy and Dark Angel videos. And I swear I’ll answer it... it just might take me some time to think of all of them. LOL

Edit: And yeeeeeeeeears ago, this one Lomax writer wrote this oneshot for them that ended open-ended on purpose, so that other Lomax writers could write their own ideas as a sequel/response to it. And this was such a fun idea, and I loved all of them. And I’ve thought of answering it myself, because no one used my idea. Basically, Logan asked Max if she could be any profession she wanted... without having to worry about things being in the way, what would she choose to be? And my answer was chef... because she loved food, and partly went to Logan’s for good food. And she did learn how to cook some during the series, when originally she knew nothing, so I could have seen her choosing to expand on that--if she could--and learning how to be a culinary master for herself.

Edit 2: I also love to write a lot of Dark Angel stories with Jondy--often in the Lomax ones. And she’s certainly in a lot of the ones I’m even thinking of reuploading--because I’m still mad the how and books never let Max find her favorite sister. At least the Virtual seasons gave us that... and a Zack/Jondy pairing, which is another reason I do prefer them to the Max Allen Collins books, even though I still like the books for the most part.

Edit 3: And I’ve now thought about writing an AU of “Borrowed Time” like we’ve been talking about:)

[oveliagirlhaditright]

If you could choose one character from any fandom to go on a coffee with and ask them whatever you want, whom would you choose (and quite honestly - what would you ask them)? You can do this for multiple fandoms if you want, but only one character per fandom.

Right now, I’m thinking I would go with Max Guevara from Dark Angel.

Because, first off, this girl has been my heroine for so many years. And probably taught me what an amazing female protagonist was when I was young.

But she just has such an amazing heart... to go through all that she did, but still care about people like she does. And to become a leader, and to have such a strong will.

I’d also probably want to give this girl a hug, and a warm blanket, and everything she could ever want.

But one question I always wanted to ask her, is how she went from being a little girl who knew nothing about the world--except for military tactics--to the normal seeming girl we meet at the start of the show. What was the transition like?

I also want to know if she ever found her mom... and about her life at Manticore--as tragic as that was--and all about her relationships with her siblings. Jondy in particular.

...And of course if she and Logan ended up together (I assume they did). And if so, what’s their life like together? Did she have children? Max always loved kids.

And I’d probably ask her questions that were never answered by the show, but that I wish had. Like, in one episode Lydecker eludes to some serious problem in all the X5′s genetic codes, and Max thinks he means that maybe they all have an early expiration date:( And I want to know if she ever found out more about that. Hopefully she was wrong to think this!

I’d also ask her for advice in keeping such a strong heart and light--despite everything--amidst trauma. 

I also wouldn’t mind learning about her genetic makeup, if she was willing to share, and if her blood did end up getting used to give everyone an immunity against the comet. And heck, if she ever found Sanderman, too (who was her creator, connected to all of that).

Thanks for the ask!