Disclamer: I don't own it never have and never will

HI! so...this is a Dark Angel/Harry Potter crossover. the prologue is errrr...maybe 2 years before Harry's 1st year, and during the escape. You should know, this will be Max/Zack, I don't hate Logan, so I didn't write him in. Enjoy.

Prologue

November 19, 2009

It had been Zack's decision. He was their commanding officer, and he always took care of them. Even when he knew it would be easier to let them be punished by the trainers, he tried to keep even the weakest of their group safe by picking up any slack. It must have been the small amounts wolf DNA that the scientists had decided to put into that X-5 group. It helped them stick together, and he, as their leader, was willing to give any thing to keep his baby brothers and sisters safe.

Despite the speed with which the plan was put together, it had been planned out flawlessly. Two days ago, during the morning inspection Jack had begun seizing. This wasn't the first time, but thus far Zack had managed to keep the seizures a secret from the trainers. Jack tried to remain still for as long as possible, but eventually he fell to the floor. All of them watched him with worried eyes as the guards dragged the boy away, but even this small sign of concern was greeted with a harsh command to keep their eyes forward. It was Max, his S.I.C. who discovered what had happened to Jack. Because of her shark DNA she had even less need for sleep than most of the others. It must have been fate that caused her to wander down the hall near the med. center that night. Hearing a muffled scream she poked her head around the corner. In horror she stared at Jack, strapped down to one of the tables, thrashing as some of the doctors inspected him opened abdominal cavity. It was when the light reflected off the shine of a coffee mug that Max first noticed Lydecker standing a few feet away from Jacks head. Silently she withdrew, sneaking back to the cell where the X-5s were kept. She woke Zack and within a few hours had come up with an escape plan, they would spend the next day briefing the others, the following would be spend collecting supplies and hacking through security systems. Zack would lead the others, while Max killed the guards ahead of the group without letting any of them alert Lydecker. It would have been perfect all 16 of them would escape, leaving in pairs to a designated place that only Zack knew of. Max and Zack would leave together and contact the others when it was safe.

Of course God has a cruel sense of humor. Then again, since you can't really call a group of genetically engineered killing machines "God's creations" maybe you should blame it on Murphy's Law instead of God. Either way, everything went to Hell in a very serious way. It was 2:30, about half an hour before morning inspection, nearly two days after Jack was carried away, that Max started having a seizure. Zack knew, how could he not after the hours of drilling in timing that he should have waited and let Max be taken if he wanted the best chance for escape. The others had been briefed, but the security system hadn't been shut down yet, but he hesitated. This was Max, his S.I.C., the only one that he allowed to help him when the pressures of trying to keep his family safe became too much. Knowing it was a mistake, he turned to Eva,

"Can you do it?" he whispered, half-hoping she didn't hear him. That was of course a vain hope thanks to their transgenic hearing. No explanation was needed, after Max, Eva was next in the chain of command. She knew that if anything happened to Max she would be depended upon to complete her part of the mission.

"Yes...I think I...Yes, Affirmative, sir. I can do it." Her uncertain answer did little to help Zack's worries. He was about to give up and wait out the day, and hope that Max survived until then. Glancing again at her, he felt his stomach clench. He knew that if she could speak she would tell him to stop being an idiot and forget about her. She was just as protective of her family as he was. But then he remembered what she had looked like the night she saw Jack. She had stood over his bed and after waking him just stared at him for a few minutes with tears gleaming in her huge doe brown eyes. She had started crying softly as she told him what she had seen. Zack was at first more surprised by her tears than what she was saying, Manticore was so strict about punishing emotions, the X-5s never even cried in private. Seeing those big eyes again, pained because of the seizure, he realized that he could never stand at attention while they dragged Max away.

Eva tried, and she was good. How could she not be? Still, one of the guards managed to alert Lydecker. So close to escape, the X-5s traveled with Zack following the trail of dead guards left by Eva, Jondy supporting Max as she began to recover. Zack caught up with them after killing the trainers who were supposed to conduct morning inspection. He froze when he heard the gun shot ahead of him. As they turned the corner, he stared Eva fell dead. He reacted quickly, dispatching as many of the guards as he could before signaling for the others to follow him as he went through the window. He only spared a glance as Dani was shot as they tried to make it over the fence. The next hour was a blur as they ran, Zack trying to stay in contact with the others. When he judged it safe to pause and reorganize he signaled for everyone to stop.

Signaling to each of them, he split them into groups of two and told them where to go. When he came to Max he decided to let her stay with Jondy. Seeing the look of surprise in her eyes he hoped she would understand that it wasn't that he thought she would slow him down, he just couldn't afford have on of the others on their own. He could take care of himself.

Each of the teams ran off in different directions, Jondy and Max running towards the lake. Behind them they could hear the gun shots. They couldn't know that Fio and Tom had been caught and killed. As they ran across the lake they could hear the men coming closer. Yet again the combination of Murphy's Law and God kicked in. The ice under Max's feet cracked, and she soon found herself plunged into ice cold water. Jondy turned ready to pull her out. Max, clinging to the side, but unable to pull herself up with the slippery surface, signaled for her to come no closer because the ice was slowly cracking near the hole Max was in. At the sound of the approaching soldiers, Jondy looked at Max with a mixture of panic and sorrow. Mouthing an apology she turned and ran. Max understood. Their was no way to get her out before the soldiers got there and then they'd both be dead. She had to save herself. She waited until the soldiers had almost gotten to her position before going under. She crawled on the bottom of the ice. She knew that she could hold her breath for nearly six minutes after that...better dead than Manticore. She was lucky, the soldiers left. It took her nearly and hour of treading in icy water before she got out.

She knew where to meet Jondy. It wouldn't take her long to catch up. Then, they would just have to wait until Zack contacted them. She stopped. Her mind flashed back to a practice mission they had done two years ago when she was six. It had been a disappointing lesson. Bryn had been shot with a paintball in what was declared a nonfatal place, which was penalized with a 10 minute slow down for her to imitate the time it would take to treat the wound, and in order the succeed in the limited amount of time, Zack decided to leave her. Bryn managed to wait out the time and catch up with the team. She had unfortunately been followed, had the mission been real, many of their team could have been killed. Max couldn't risk it. As she walked through the woods she saw a pair of headlights. As the car went by she could see a blond woman in the driver's seat. She was tempted to step onto the side of the road, maybe she would help her, maybe not...but it would be so much warmer in that car. Again, she hesitated. She recognized that woman, she worked at Manticore. Sighing, she continued.

1 month later

Max curled up as well as she could in the corner of the alley. She had managed to steal a sweatshirt that was about five sizes too big. Well, it was five sizes too big about three weeks ago, since then she'd lost about fifteen pounds. She still had her Manticore issued blue cotton pants. It was cold. A different sort of cold than she was used to. At Manta core, the winters had been brutal, but she hadn't been completely dry since she had gotten off the plane in England that she'd snuck onto and it was starting to get to her. 'Oh well,' she mused, a bitter smile twisting her face, 'freezing is better than Manticore any day.'

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Lupin looked out the window of the pub he'd at for the past few hours. He really hadn't drunk anything more than one or two glasses of beer. He knew that thinking about his problems for so long wouldn't do him any good. He had a job working in a library, mostly organizing ancient documents and the like. Of course when his employer found out about his "illness" he was given the boot. Now, just a day after being fired he had to meet with Severus Snape, at Dumbledore insistence, Snape was willing to help Lupin by making him the Wolfsbane Potion. Of course since the potion was still having some of the kinks worked out he need several materials from Lupin, hair, skin, etc. Lupin looked at the slushy snow falling outside, 'The full moon isn't for two weeks yet, he didn't really need to meet with him tonight.' He gave himself a mental shake before paying his bill and leaving. Walking slowly down the street he thought back. Meeting Snape brought back memories. He still felt a pang when he thought of his old friends. James and Lilly had been killed, betrayed by Black. And their son, Harry...he'd be 9 years old now. Lupin hoped that he was happy with his muggle family. Lupin had wanted to take him, but who would give a child like Harry to a werewolf. He turned hearing something that sounder like a whimper. He peered down an alley. Looking closely he made out a human shape. He was just going to continue, he had always sympathized with the homeless, but there were many of them, most of which couldn't be helped. The population of homeless had begun to swell since the pulse had caused muggle technology to fail in the US only a week ago, sending a wave of immigrants. His nose gave it away though, it wasn't near the full moon, but it was still sensitive enough to tell the difference between a drunken old man and a little girl. He could also smell blood.

"Child," he said in a soft soothing voice as he inched forward, "I don't want to hurt you. I want to help. Can you tell me your name?" He could make her out more clearly now. She was skinny, too skinny, and though she didn't seem filthy, she had a layer of grime ad a generally unkempt appearance. Her short dark hair was spiky and unkempt. Her dark eyes looked feverish, and though they looked hallow her increased breathing and the trembling of her lips gave away her uncertainty.

Licking her lips she muttered out a stream of numbers under her breath. She bit her lip, and looked him in the eye. Her nose flared once like an animal scenting the air before she lifted her chin in a determined sort of way and said, "Max, my name is Max." The look in her eyes determined, but she seemed like she was expecting to be punished.

Smiling in what he hoped was an encouraging way, he held out his hand saying, "Well Max, my name is Remus Lupin. I'm getting reading to go to a healer about getting some...medicine. You seem cold here. Would you like to come with me?" Max wasn't sure whether or not to trust him, he didn't seem like a pedophile or anything, but there was really no way to know. So far his body language had seemed benevolent. Oh well, there is so much of a fight one can put up when their hands and feet are numb, and all of their limbs were staring to stiffen. Mentally crossing her fingers, she took his hand.

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Snape was not having a nice evening. Dumbledore had asked him to help the werewolf who he hated to control his illness by mixing a nearly impossible potion. Fine. Said werewolf decided that arriving nearly half an hour late was acceptable. Lovely. But when the man decided to bring with him a child, a muggle as a spell soon determined, who looked like she hadn't eaten for a week, and had been beaten half to death expecting him to help, this was a little over the top. Mixing a healing potion should be a calm, careful thing, instead Snape was throwing in ingredients as hard as he could, wishing the cauldron would explode. After dosing the half conscious child he stood back while Lupin preformed some cleaning spells on the girl and her clothes. Snape frowned, the potion should be working, but it seemed like the injuries were taking longer than they should to heal. As Snape reached across her to check the cut on her arm, her hand whipped up and grabbed his wrist. As he tried to move his hand her grip tightened dangerously. He opened his mouth to order her to release him when he looked into her eyes. They were cold and hard.

"Max, this is Professor Snape. He is the healer I told you about," Lupin said. Snape raised his eyebrow at the word 'healer', but didn't complain as the girl let go of his wrist. Wonderful, another smart assed brat to deal with. Glad to see his Winter Break was good for getting away from work. It wasn't that he hated children, he was just so sick of brats that thought they were so important just because they could wave a wand and say a few spells. Snape longed for just a few students who could respect their teachers without making it pathetically obvious that they had no talent and were just trying to get their teachers to go easy on them. But you rarely get what you want.

His eyes snapped wide when he heard a firm voice saying, "Sir, I apologize. You have helped me and I have been ungrateful. Please accept my regrets." He looked at the girl getting ready to scold her for being mouthy, but stopped just short. She lay there, with a bruise on her upper cheek and a split lip, her hair stiff and barely more than fuzz. She was skinny couldn't have been ten years old. But her eyes were serious and older than they should have been. She looked him in the eye, and she didn't seem scared or cocky, just...prepared.

"Apology accepted," he muttered. She was a muggle, but at least she had manners. "You should try to sleep. This potion is working slower than it should be and rest should speed it up."

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