Disclaimer: I don't own Dark Angel. Don't sue me. Claimer: I own Xandra. Borrow her for your fics if you like, but ask me first. Chapter 8 When Xandra woke up the next morning, she discovered that she had been sleeping almost upside-down in the only chair in Zack's apartment. She tilted herself upright, and threw the old, wool blanket off of her. Zack must've covered her up after she somehow fell asleep the night before. She adjusted her sky blue sweater and made her way into the other part of the room. Zack had left. Probably hours before. Oh well, she thought, feeling a little disappointed. She picked up her black boots and shoved them onto her sock-covered feet. "Where's my coat?" she asked to no one in particular, searching around the room until she finally realized that she had flung it over the same chair that she had been sleeping in. Xandra always did that kind of thing. She slipped the sliver vinyl-type fabric over her and headed out the door. It was almost noon, so Xandra figured that maybe she could go back to her apartment in the safety of daylight. *** Once inside the unclean apartment that was hers, Xandra peeled off her jacket and threw it across the room. At the time, she hadn't really cared where it was going to land. It was oddly hot for being almost January, and for once, it hadn't been raining, but then again, it hadn't snowed either. And she had been in Seattle long enough to figure out that it, on normal terms, snowed during this time of the year. Xandra shivered, walking down the small 'hall' in her sad excuse for a living space, shooting looks that could kill at the broken window. True, it wasn't actually that cold outside, but it was cold enough that spending winter at the North Pole this year sounded warm. She wasn't going to try and fix the window at this point. She had less than no time for that. And she couldn't decide whether someone had broken into the apartment or the window had just broken on its own. No, someone had committed a breaking-and-entering. Didn't steal anything though, because there really wasn't that much for even the most desperate delinquent to take. Unless of course they wanted the pitiful looking sandwich that she had constructed out of the last of her food a few days ago before getting paged by Logan (Again) and having to leave in the middle of a meal. Xandra glanced over at the phone. Shouldn't have even got one, she thought subconsciously. To her surprise, the message button was blinking. Her face twisted into an expression of curiosity, and she pushed the button on the machine. *** This was not a party. Max's message on her answering machine had said that Logan was having some sort of get-together at his place for New Year's. Naturally, Xandra had shown up looking for a good time. This 'holiday' was supposed to be somewhat fun, but all Max and Logan had been doing so far was hanging out staring at the Christmas tree and talking. It must've been oh-so fascinating for the two of them, but Xandra could recognize lameness run amok when she saw it. About the most close-to-fun thing that she'd done all night was finishing off the remains of Logan's candy cane stash. Neither of them had wanted any. They'd probably even enjoy themselves more if she left. Actually, she had planned on asking Zack to show up too, but that would've been rude. Especially since the party wasn't hers, and Zack and Logan had constantly been at each other's throats since the two had met. "Uh...you guys...I think I'm gonna head out." They didn't seem to be listening. Xandra closed the door behind her as she left. *** Ugh, Xandra thought disgustedly. She could feel the spiraling curls cascading around her face, heavily hairsprayed. It was one of the very few times that she had actually paid attention and took pride in her appearance, and she didn't have anything to show for it. When she was younger, and had just escaped, she had absolutely hated her hair. She was blonde, not fairy-tale, Rapunzel blond, but blond enough to stick her in the category. She had considered dyeing her way right out of that category, when something dawned on her. She liked being blond because it made people think that they could pick on you. And Xandra liked it when people thought that they could pick on her. Gave her a chance to give whoever it was a good ass kicking. Her thoughts began to drift, and Xandra found herself thinking about David. Asshole. How dare he hit her. She still had bruises and dried blood on her face. Damn him. But as long as he was alive, as long as she was alive, Lydecker would be looking for her. He had probably had David executed by now. That's the price that you pay for failure, she thought calmly. ***Meanwhile*** Max stared up at the lights on the leftover Christmas tree. Light from the nearby fireplace flickered quickly, and almost died. She'd been in Logan's apartment for a considerably long time. But hey, he was feeding her, so that was a good excuse for staying there for almost the entire night. It was close to midnight. She kind of regretted it in a way. The Seattle time zone was about the last to actually see the New Year, so that made the wait for it almost unbearable. Not that she was in a hurry. She had just noticed a few minutes ago that Xandra had left. It didn't surprise her. But she'd probably been gone for hours, and Max hadn't noticed because her and Logan had been talking up a storm. Nothing in particular. He was in the kitchen or something now, getting some kind of weird food Max had probably never heard of in her life. Moments later, Logan came wheeling hurriedly out of the kitchen, with a bottle of wine in one hand and the weird-food type thing in the other. Max could barely contain her laughter. This was bad-soap-opera cheesy. Logan however, must not have had any idea of what she was giggling at by the confused expression on his face. "What?" he asked impatiently. Max just laughed. *** Xandra's ears pricked, she heard a faint, weak scream. Her eyes darted in the direction that the scream had come from, she saw a shadowy figure slumping over in a bench on the side of the street, and another, taller figure running out of the deserted street. She ran. She didn't have to think about it. The man slumped over in the bench was old, and there was blood collecting in the heavy wrinkles on the side of his face. He was out cold. She looked sharply to the right, seeing the attacker running off and cutting into a nearby, empty parking lot. Xandra sprinted after him. He was fast, but she was faster. She felt her feet violently pounding the pavement as she ran, the literally launched herself, tackling him from behind. The man shouted in surprise, as he fell, tasting concrete. It took her a couple of seconds to pin the attacker to the ground, kneeing him in the stomach and forcing his head to the ground. When she looked up, her heart caught in her throat. It was Zack. She let go of his neck, and in an instant he flipped her, pinning her to the ground, her waist squeezed in between his legs, the heels of his hands pushing her shoulders into the ground. Xandra closed her eyes, then snapped them open again, "Zack...what the hell?" she said confusedly. He pressed harder on her shoulders, which were digging into the pavement. "What the hell do you think you're doing?" he bellowed at her. She managed to break her arms out of his grasp, and pulling his arms out from under him. All of his weight nearly collapsed on her, but she didn't have time to gasp for air. She threw him off of her, struggling to find her balance. Zack dove at her. She could've prevented the fall, but a thousand and one martial arts lessons had taught her not to. She took the fall as he tackled her from the front, but shoved a foot into his stomach, pushed, and flipped him onto his back. She gripped her small hand around his throat, "What the hell happened?" she screamed through gritted teeth. He explained. She thought he had nearly killed the old man, he had been running for help. She felt stupid, and let him up. Mistake. As soon as they both found their footing, Zack ran at her, placing his hands on her shoulders and giving a hard shove. Xandra hit the parking lot ground hard, "Ow!" she complained. She stood up, sprinted at the figure that had started walking off. Zack was a lot taller than she was, so she almost had to jump to jab her shoulder into the space between his shoulder blades. "Uff!" he grunted, almost falling over, then delivering a side kick to her stomach. Xandra stumbled backwards. Why were they fighting like this, over nothing? Though, she had to admit that it was kind of amusing to be fighting someone as strong and as trained as she was. Her rage had exploded, though she didn't even know what caused it. Sometimes this happened. Her anger and aggression built up until she couldn't stand it anymore, and she beat up on whoever crossed her path first. But this time it was Zack. Why?? She punched him. Hard. Not one of her well thought out punches, though, because it almost missed its target. He turned his now bruised face back to Xandra and muttered something nasty under his breath. Zack could be quite the asshole when he felt like it. Then she heard something. A siren. Someone had called what very few cops that there were in Seattle. Xandra saw Zack run off. North. She knew she wasn't going to follow him, going that way. She wasn't afraid, but she ran anyway. As far and as fast as she could, and didn't stop until she was back at her apartment. Happy fucking New Year, she thought furiously.