Prompt #72, Fixed: Designation? What Designation? - Dark Angel/NCIS
Title: Designation? what Designation?
Fandoms: Dark Angel/NCIS
Characters: Logan Cale/Tony DiNozzo
Prompt: #72, Fixed
Rating: G
Summary: In this crossover universe, Dark Angel S2 starts with cousin Tony DiNozzo learning that Max was killed, and that his cousin Logan is not handling it well. Tony to the rescue!
Cross-posted to
fauxcynic and published at http://www.fanfiction.net/s/4032037/1/
A/N: "Fixed," because the things that made S2 awful for most M/L fans will be removed or redone to make it very M/L friendly! Five weeks after Max’s “death” in the S1 episode, And Jesus Brought a Casserole.
DISCLAIMER: Characters and situations borrowed from Dark Angel and NCIS. No profits made. Unless you’ve read Concurrent Jurisdiction, this one may take a bit of explanation: Tony DiNozzo (NCIS) is Logan’s cousin, and still with NCIS in 2020. The cousins have always been close, even if they had been geographically distant from each other in the past several years. This story begins a few months after Tony came to Seattle due to the circumstances raised in Concurrent Jurisdiction. By the end of that story, we’ve learned that Tony kne about Lydecker and Manticore from a 2009 assignment for NCIS, and that he realized Max is an X-5, all of which he revealed to Logan. Also, by the time he left to return to DC, he had figured out that Logan is Eyes Only - but has not told anyone that he knows.
Designation? what Designation?
I.
It had all started with a phone message - or, rather, it was how Tony DiNozzo was pulled into events and back to Seattle. He’d been out in the field since very early that morning and when, close to midnight, he came back to NCIS, he discovered a phone message e-mailed from the central operator. He’d had a call from a woman named Cindy McEachin, who needed him to call as soon as possible, day or night. He wracked his brain but knew he didn’t know the name - until he recognized her area code as Seattle’s...
Cindy ... he realized immediately, with the location. Max’s friend, Original Cindy ...
The fact that she was calling, rather than Logan or Max, raised a immediate, irrational fear in his gut...
He grabbed his cell phone, heading to the elevators and out the door as he dialed, both for some privacy and a sudden feeling of claustrophobic fear and helplessness that the District was so far away from Seattle...
“Hello?” The voice on the other end of the line was uncertain, emotional. Maybe she was reacting to the phone number, too...
“Cindy - it’s Tony DiNozzo. I got your message...”
“Oh, Tony...” her voice was now full of pain and emotion, “I’m sorry to call an’ all, but I didn’t know what else to do...”
The sound of it, coupled now with her words, made DiNozzo’s blood run cold. He forced himself into the emotionlessness of his autopilot investigator mode and said evenly, “Cindy, it’s okay, I want to help. What’s happened?”
“Max ... “ she started, and was silent for another moment before she continued. "Max is dead,” she managed, as Tony felt the words cut through him, “an’ Logan is torn up over it, he’s getting worse by the day...”
Not injured, then, himself, Tony presumed for the moment, in a guilty, emotional rush of relief. “Tell me what happened, Cindy,” he pressed, turning his collar up against the wind as he stood outside in the nighttime chill. Oh, but without Max...? Logan must be devastated...
“It’s complicated,” she hedged, “but Max was killed - shot - an’ Logan has been like a zombie - no food for days, no sleep the first week, and then hell-bent on finding the people who killed her. He still ain’t eatin,’ he still ain’t sleepin,’ an’ I know he ain’t lookin’ after himself like he should, all that goes on with a body that’s been shot like his was. He’s livin’ on coffee and adrenaline and just don’t care what happens to him, he’s all about finding...” she hesitated, as if she suddenly realized she might be saying too much, “about finding who did this to her...”
Tony grimaced to himself, new threads of fear for his cousin tightening his chest - the threat of Manticore’s cold willingness to exterminate anyone getting in their way ... and the threat of this latest pain and loss forcing Logan so far over the edge that he’d hunt Lydecker or die trying. “Manticore,” he breathed. It wasn’t a question...
Cindy paused, slightly, before responding, tentatively, “you know about them.”
“Yeah, I do,” he said, heavily. Logan, don’t do this ... he closed his eyes slowly, sickened by the news.
“Then you know they’re some serious motherfuckers and you know if Logan thinks he can go after ‘em he’s as crazy as he’s lookin’ these days. And he’s starting to think that maybe Max isn’t dead after all - here she dies in his arms, shot through the chest, and the man is starting to think she just walked it off and is in hiding, somewhere ... or worse...”
“Cindy, how long ago was Max shot?” Tony asked abruptly. Until that moment he had assumed it had just happened...
“Five weeks tomorrow...”
Five weeks... Tony’s gut took another hit to learn that he hadn’t heard from Logan by now with such painful, tragic news. He’d have called if he was handling things okay, he knew...
“Tony, he ought to be gettin' on with things by now,” Cindy’s concerned voice pressed him, “at least the basics - not gettin' all crazy and more delusional every day.”
“You’re right.” Tony started walking again, but now back inside the building, back to his desk. “Look, Cindy - I’m glad you called. I’m going to do whatever I can to wrap up a few things here and get out to Seattle at the very first chance I can - I hope it won’t be more than a day or two. Can you keep an eye...?”
“Been doin’ it - some of us from work - me, Sketchy, the other guys - we’ve been sort of taking turns dropping in on him, you know, checking in when we’re out on runs in the area. Max would kick our asses if we didn’t watch out for her boy...” The woman’s strong voice suddenly quavered again, reminded of her loss.
“She would,” DiNozzo agreed softly, “but thank you from me too, for looking out for him. I’ll call you when I know how soon I can get there - we’ll work something out.” He ended the call and immediately went to work wrapping up loose ends, delegating assignments and cross-checking field comm lines before preparing, at 3:42 a.m., a formal leave request, filling in the appropriate “family emergency” information. He knew how Gibbs felt about family and knew that his rare request would be honored. Luckily his work was in between major assignments and could be carried by the senior agent on his team if he was away for a few days.
Running upstairs to Gibbs’ office, he left the request form on his secretary’s desk, with a note asking to see him as soon as he was available. All that accomplished, rather than going home for the night, he settled back in at his desk to wait for Gibbs, as he did, sending an e-mail to the FBI’s SAC in Chicago to call in a favor and dialing up highly classified, supposedly encrypted files relating to Manticore that he’d managed to gather over time...
II.
DiNozzo walked down the corridor though Sea-Tac's security and out into the arrival area where he was surprised to see the woman he remembered as Original Cindy waiting there for him - with a tall, baby-faced policeman standing next to her. She looked relieved to see him, her recent loss still clear in her eyes.
“Hey, Cindy,” Tony came close and, in the circumstances, gave her a hug, knowing she needed it, knowing it might fortify him. He pulled back to look at her, looking for some indication of what lay ahead. “You doing okay?”
“Yeah, sugah, a lot better with you here, to look out for Logan. The boy needs someone to get through to him, and you two bein’ so close...”
Tony just nodded, and not feeling glib enough to say anything reassuring at the moment, nodded toward the officer. “Who’s your friend?”
“Friend of a friend,” she managed a wan smile, rueful embarrassment coloring her cheeks. “I wanted to come pick you up, but most of us common folk don’t have ready access to wheels the way your cousin does. So ... I got desperate-- an’ I called a mutual friend.” She smiled a toward the officer, who held out a hand to Tony.
“Officer Jason Elco, sir. Detective Sung said to send his regrets that he couldn’t come himself, and to tell you if you need anything at all while you’re here in Seattle...”
Tony’s face relaxed in appreciation, and he offered his hand in return. “Thank you, officer ... for the ride, and for bringing Original Cindy.” Logan’s little posse again, Tony realized. Thank God he has them all...
“My pleasure, sir...” the young cop tipped his head slightly, squeaky clean and eager to help out a federal agent. “Are we ready to go?”
Tony glanced down to Cindy, who nodded. “All set,” Tony confirmed, adjusting his carry-on more comfortably on his shoulder as they set off through the airport. “I’ll try to give Matt a call myself too, but tell him I appreciate him sparing you - and his invitation to call if needed.”
“I was going off duty anyway, sir, glad to help.” The cop seemed genuinely sympathetic. “The detective said you both might use a bit of help...”
Original Cindy snorted softly, trying to summon a bit of humor to lighten the mood. “I know that’s right, when Original Cindy has to call the po-po for help...” she muttered, but her smile didn’t last. It was just too hard, with all that had gone on. Tony’s look to her was an understanding one.
“Not a bad idea.” He encouraged, “Matt’s come to the rescue before, as I understand it.”
“That he has...” Cindy nodded... and fell silent.
They both did. The silence was awkward, but it was even more awkward to discuss what had happened with the officer in the car with them. Cindy had already filled Tony in on everything she knew when he’d called her back to say he was on his way; Logan was still mourning, shell-shocked; not eating, maybe compromising his health. He never called, never let me know that he’d lost Max, Tony worried again. He would have hoped that his cousin would call him with such news, even if he did tend to withdraw into himself at times like this, when he lost his parents, when he’d been shot ... yet their recent visits had brought the cousins closer than ever, and DiNozzo had hoped that his cousin would turn to him let him help, instead of shutting down...
He must not have said anything to Bennett or their Aunt Margo, either; Tony was certain that if Bennett knew, either from his mother or from Logan himself, he would have phoned. Cindy said that even the people at Jam Pony don’t know about what happened, he reasoned, maybe because Manticore was involved? Why did Logan insist that Cindy not tell the others the truth - because of some safety or security concerns? Or because he was still holding some insane hope that Max wasn’t really gone?
DiNozzo again sorted through the stunning events that he’d learned in the eighteen hours since Cindy had first called - from his own assault into government files using a combination of his security clearance and a talented hacker on the NCIS staff, he found that Manticore was still indeed alive and well and had developed not one but two facilities on the outskirts of Seattle in the past few months. One, apparently, had been breached and shut down very recently, an old silo at the municipal line. The other, about an hour outside of Seattle long on the books as a VA hospital, carried a good deal of recent activity relating to personnel changes, funding requirements - and security provisions.
That in itself would be enough to raise suspicions. But add to that the flurry of intel and additional security in the facilities over the past few months, all thrown into hyper-drive by the public outing of Manticore by an underground, cyber-vigilante based in Seattle called Eyes Only...
And now, as Tony headed back to Seattle with the bike messenger and a cop with whom she’d hitched a ride, Tony wondered if Cindy also knew, as he did, that his own cousin was Eyes Only. DiNozzo had figured it out on his own and had never even admitted to his cousin that he knew. Even as Logan skirted the edges of sanity he had managed to pull off an Eyes Only hack, telling the public about Project Manticore and what their very own government had been doing for the past two decades...
At least for now, Tony wouldn’t get close to spilling the beans about Eyes Only, in case Cindy wasn’t in that deep on all the facts. Either way, they were spinning their way across Seattle to see Logan, now on the ‘enemies’ list’ of an awakened and deadly Manticore. Not for long, if I can help it, Tony vowed, because no matter whether this is outside the box or not, even if Gibbs fires me for going off on my own mission with unauthorized use of government resources - this has to be done. For Logan ... for the public, at large ... for all the living, breathing products of these demented experiments ... for Max...
III.
On their arrival at Fogle Towers, Officer Elco pulled the police cruiser into the parking garage and into an empty stall, turning off the engine. As Tony reached for his door handle, Original Cindy was already leaning toward the front seat. “Thanks for the ride, Officer. I know you gave up your free time...” She stopped, seeming lost for words suddenly, then went on, “an’ you don’ have to wait; Original Cindy can find her way back when she’s done here...”
“I’ll wait a while.” The officer’s eyes softened a little as he glanced back toward her, then to Tony, understanding from the discussion earlier that both these people were concerned about Detective Sung’s friend, high above them all in the penthouse upstairs. “You may not be all that long, and it’s getting dark out there.” He wasn’t going to add that if things were that wrong with the guy, it might not be a bad idea for him to stick around for a few minutes be sure they didn’t find him needing some emergency assistance, right away...
Cindy shrugged but looked as if she felt better, having him wait. Tony got out to stand by the cruiser, watching the determined young woman getting out on the opposite side, not making eye contact with him, not allowing further discussion about her going upstairs with him. She stepped to the officer’s open window, though, to allow him one last chance to leave. “Okay, but you know whenever you want to leave - it’s good. You already done more than you needed...”
“Better go see your friend,” the officer said, nodding toward the elevator.
Original Cindy looked at him, long, and a ghost of a smile crossed her face. “You’ a good man, Boo.” She said, and a small smirk lightened her worried face just a little. “Whatever is the world coming to?”
At the officer’s grin in response, Cindy patted his arm in thanks and walked around the car toward the elevator. At his open door, Tony watched her for only a moment before leaning down to speak to Elco, too. “Officer, thank you. And thanks for sticking around - it should only be a few minutes...”
“Sounds like it. Hope your cousin’s okay, Agent DoNozzo.”
“Yeah, me too...” Tony murmured, but then looked back to the young cop. “Tell Matt thanks, and that I hope I can say hello before I go back. And thanks again, Elco -”
“Glad I could help, sir.” He paused a moment, then added, hopefully, “Good luck.”
“Yeah,” Tony nodded, straightening, knowing he needed to focus, to be ready for whatever he might find. Not much different than the last time he’d arrived here, he realized, back in Seattle for the first time in several years, knowing he’d find his favorite cousin in a wheelchair and not sure how he’d be able to handle it. Back then, the thought that he had to steel himself to face his cousin made a tough situation even tougher. But it had all come out okay, that trip, and in some ways, the cousins had actually ended up closer than ever.
But as he came around to join Original Cindy at the elevator, he realized that, especially for Logan, even bouncing back from a devastating physical injury would be easier than bouncing back to reality, if he’d decided it was just too painful to face it now...
As he came to her side, Tony watched Cindy pressed the elevator button impatiently, already lit from the first two times she’d hit it. She had insisted on riding up to the penthouse with him, saying that he needed her along in case Logan didn’t answer the door. He had to admit it made sense; she had Max’s key to his place, left behind along with Max’s other personal effects on the night she’d left to go rescue her sister.
But Cindy had another half dozen reasons she wanted to go along, all of them churning in her thoughts as the elevator finally opened to let them in. She wanted to check in on Logan again, to be sure he was okay; she wanted to be there for Tony, for when he’d first see his cousin and see how around the bend the boy had become... to be there in case she could do anything for the man her Boo loved so much, and who was hurting so badly from losing her, and who might be a bit rattled to see his cousin just show up after not telling Tony what had happened...
They rode up in silence until Cindy offered suddenly, “you know, even if you’re here - if Logan needs anything, or if you do, or if you need any of us to help with ... whatever ... we’re here for you, aiight? I don’t know what he needs or what you got in mind, but ... Logan’s a good man, an’ he’s helped out a lot of people, me and mine included. So anything we can do...”
Tony’s worried expression smoothed slightly in his appreciation as he turned to her. “Thanks, Cindy. I hope I won’t need to ask, but it’s good knowing you’re all here, if I need to call in some reinforcements.” He watched as she nodded, looking away again, a picture of sober concern. What has she seen in him that has her so worried? Tony wondered again.
The elevator opened almost silently onto the penthouse floor, and Cindy crossed the hall to Logan’s door, rapping on it loudly and calling to him as she did. “Logan? Hey, it’s me, Boo. Just wantin’ to see if you ever bought yourself some groceries...” At Tony’s glance to her, his eyes asking if that too had been a problem, she shrugged and looked back at the closed door, listening for sounds inside. “C’mon, Logan...” she added softly, more to herself than to the man on the other side of the door.
The seconds dragged by silently, no sound in the corridor, no sound in the penthouse. After a few more moments Cindy dug into her pocket, ready to pull out her keys, when the door suddenly swung open and a gaunt, harried-looking Logan opened the door, distractedly. “I’m fine, Cindy; I got some...” His eyes, red-rimmed and feverish, suddenly widened at the sight of his cousin. “Tony?” His eyes suddenly misted slightly, as if his cousin’s appearance reminded him that he - and things - were very far from ‘fine.’ “How...? What are you doing here?” He stared at his cousin, trying to process his unexpected appearance. He made no move to let them in.
But Tony was just as stricken as his cousin was, not only at seeing firsthand the signs of an unhealthy, desperate obsession taking Logan over, but at finding him on his feet, standing, walking, as if his shattered spine and resulting paralysis were all a bad dream. Shaking off the obvious questions for now, and blatantly ignoring the fact that his cousin was leaving them standing at his doorstep, Tony took a step or two past him, coming inside, and said evenly, genuine concern in his voice, “I wanted to be here, Logan - Cindy told me what happened...”
As Logan turned to follow DiNozzo’s movements, his glittery green eyes welled again and his voice thickened, “I didn’t want you involved in this, in case...”
Tony hoped his expression conveyed only a question, and not the dread that his cousin’s words caused in him. “‘This,’ what?” Tony asked, peering close at his cousin, seeing a depth of hurt more extreme that he’d ever seen in him, a final straw in the long ledger of all the man’s pain and losses over the years, all the hurt he’d borne ... he saw, too, a edge of desperation, an obsessive, driven look of a man bent on accomplishing his mission, no matter the cost. Cindy was right. Logan seemed past caring about himself now, his previously spiky hair now long and limp, untended; his scruffy chin was now almost softened into a beard, probably unnoticed. Logan looked like a recluse close to losing his grip on rationality. DiNozzo felt a sudden chill that he might easily have been too late, if Cindy hadn’t called. “What were you going to do?” he pressed gently, hoping his tone was as soothing as he intended.
Logan blinked back at him, clearly not wanting to say anything more, seeming to assess what he saw in his cousin, before him - afraid of endangering me and others, or afraid that I might try to stop him? Tony wondered. Logan’s look was wary, as if he were assessing an intruder who had invaded his home. Abruptly, however, Logan’s expression shifted and his eyes veiled over, hiding his thoughts. With a sudden, haunted smile, Logan shrugged, “she’s gone, Tony - not much I can do...”
The change in Logan - and the sudden, moment to moment changes he’d just observed - made Tony’s throat tighten and his mouth taste like ash. Maybe it’s just the surprise that I’m here, making it worse... Tony tried calming himself, and his lack of sleep and food, maybe even dehydration ... DiNozzo let his eyes flicker over the unsteady figure before him and started sorting out how best to approach what he’d found. Forcing himself to proceed not as family but as an investigator, with all of the tricks and tactics he’d picked up over the years, he offered a soft smile of his own for Logan, and nodded, “so lets catch up, cuz, okay?” He swallowed hard, ready to do whatever it took, for his cousin’s sake. “Cindy...” he turned to the woman still standing by in silent worry, still in the hall, watching the pair. “Thanks for the ride. I owe you... and I'll give you a call after a while, alright?”
Furrowed brow frowning a little deeper, Cindy nonetheless offered a trusting nod to the agent, and she stepped in closer. Deciding that if anyone knew how to handle what was happening with his cousin, DiNozzo would, she raised a gentle hand to Logan’s arm as she looked to the agent first. “Okay, Tony. You need anything, you know where to find me. Logan?” She looked to the younger man, waiting for his eye contact before saying anything further. “Call me, y’hear?”
“Yeah, Cindy... sure...” Logan seemed to suddenly rally a bit, as if he realized he had crossed a line with these two. He tried another smile, shrugging awkwardly, but his voice trailed in a listless, false cheer. After another moment Cindy dropped her hand from his arm, looked to Tony once more, briefly, and crossed back to hit the elevator call button. As the door opened immediately for her and Cindy stepped inside, DiNozzo turned back to his cousin and pulled the door shut behind him.
“C’mon, cuz...” he said softly. “It’s just us. Let’s go in and talk ...”
Logan shrugged again, distractedly, but would not meet his cousin’s eyes. He drew himself up straighter, breathing in deeply, and focused on his cousin’s sudden presence, trying to leave behind for the moment the new leads and intel he’d just gotten on Manticore. “Not much to tell...” he began, walking back toward the kitchen and crossing to lift the coffee pot. Looking at the nearly blackened dregs left sloshing at the bottom, he put it down to root around in the cabinet and pull out his coffee canister, now with barely enough grounds inside to tell what it had once held. “Oh, hey, I guess I’m out of coffee...” he looked up at Tony, apologetically. His voice had taken on a far away, vague sound, as he looked from coffee pot to cupboard; his eyes now held the same light. “I have some errands I need to get done anyway, so if you’ll let me just go to the market and get a few things, we can...”
“Logan, for God’s sake!” Unable to watch his cousin unraveling any further, Tony grabbed Logan by the shoulders and turned him quickly to face him, nearly pulling Logan off his feet in the process and setting up a mechanical whirring as Logan grasped Tony’s forearms for balance. Tony’s eyes went wide, realizing that in his worry for his cousin, he’d forgotten that Logan shouldn’t even be able to move his legs, let alone to stand or walk like this. He stood rooted, letting Logan steady himself, and watched as Logan’s eyes looked into his, a new question forming there, his usual clear gaze almost as muddied as some of the drug addicts DeNozzo had busted over the years.
Suddenly, almost eerily, Logan smiled again - a terrible, demented smile this time - as he asked, “don’t you want to know how I managed to be as tall as you are again?”
Tony took a deep, steadying breath and loosened his grip on Logan’s shoulders, but didn’t let go. “Yeah, I do...” he said softly. “But even more than that ... I want to know what the hell happened out here, Logan.”
In another, sudden shift, an unearthly anguish rippled in his cousin’s eyes. Tony felt him sag slightly, and he knew he was coming closer to connecting with his cousin, underneath it all, than he had since his arrival. “She died in my arms, Tony,” Logan’s whispered voice was nearly a plea, “but ... “ he wavered, uncertain if he could trust his cousin enough to admit the rest. “Tony ... if she were really gone, I’d know it. I’d feel it...” He searched Tony’s face for his reaction, and seeing only a calm, listening expression there, added, “...she’s not dead. She can’t be, or ... she’d be gone, here...” He touched his chest lightly, and said, “she was gone, for a little while, and I thought I’d lost her. But now...”
DiNozzo swallowed his fear for his cousin’s sanity at that moment and put aside his feelings for Logan, focusing on the task ahead. “C’mon, cuz,” he urged softly, gently turning him and moving with him to the living room. “We can worry about coffee later - let’s sit down and have a talk...”
IV.
Six hours later, nearing midnight, local time, Tony finally stretched out his knotted muscles, straightening from his laptop from where it was perched precariously on the edge of Logan’s coffee table, then leaned back, deep into the chair’s contours, rubbing his hands over his face tiredly. He looked over again at his cousin, stretched out on the couch now, exhaustion claiming him. His wheelchair was at his elbow, once again needed...
An exo-skeleton? Tony thought yet again. I’ll be damned. It made no sense that it worked, given Logan’s injury, and it must be nearly impossible to walk in the damn thing for someone who couldn’t feel anything waist down, but his cousin was managing, and was back on his feet, at least part time, because of it.
But DiNozzo shook himself back to more pressing matters - his cousin’s miraculous contraption could wait. It had been a long and emotional day, and Tony was fighting his own exhaustion, thanks to recent long hours with little sleep. Since he’d gotten Original Cindy’s call about 24 hours before, he’d grabbed only a couple hours sleep, and those after another 24 sleepless hours on a case. He’d arrived in Seattle to find his cousin half-crazy with grief and obsessed with avenging Max’s death - or her ‘disappearance’...
Tony was still concerned about Logan, but was a little more hopeful about his stability as he had some time to talk with him. He was not responding in a healthy way to Max’s death, true; he was obsessed and careless about his health. But what Tony - and apparently Original Cindy - had feared might be encroaching madness seemed to be just the grieving man’s emotional resources dwindling with the lack of sleep and food, coupled with a helplessness to act and a growing hope that things weren’t all that they seemed...
“Just...” the agent repeated to himself. Still an awful lot for anyone to endure...
Tony watched the troubled man as he dozed, yet again vowing to get his cousin through this, to keep him safe and get him back, healthy and sane. Once Tony got him talking, Logan managed to hold back his emotions and keep himself together, but just barely; his grief was held at arm’s length only by his focus on outing Manticore ... and finding Max.
Tony let himself consider Logan’s belief that Max had not really died. “I held her, Tony,” Logan had whispered, “she bled out, and she was gone. But then Lydecker showed up and ... and knocked me out, and the next thing I knew I woke up in back town at some free clinic ... no Lydecker, no X-5s ... no Max.” It seemed impossible to think that anyone could survive such an injury, that even the best medical techniques, even if readily available, could repair such a wound. Given the circumstances and the location, outside of town, it seemed fantastical. But then, so is just about everything that comes with building a human in a test-tube...
Tony had worked information out of Logan gently and carefully, as he would with any fragile witness. Over the next several hours, he made them coffee from a new supply delivered by Jam Pony after a follow up call to Original Cindy, and, after shooing Logan in for a shower, managed an uninspired but hot and filling meal thrown together from his nearly-empty pantry. During that time, in between his cousin’s rambling memories of the night Max died, his vague but insistent belief that she was alive somewhere, and his single-minded intent to destroy the government project that had destroyed his world, Tony managed to discover additional, necessary information from Logan about what had happened and what Logan knew of Manticore’s current status. That, together with all that Tony had been able to learn this far, painted a surprisingly solid picture of the previously elusive, black project so long operating under the radar.
DiNozzo glanced back at his laptop’s screen and the latest information he’d been sent by the local FBI office, heartened that he had the attention of someone here in Seattle who was apparently well aware of Manticore’s presence and had been aching for an opportunity to shut them down. Just as Logan had suspected, it was likely that Lydecker was still involved, and, as he’d hoped, was apparently still working against Manticore, too. Sadly, it also seemed likely to Tony, no matter Logan’s certainty, that Max could not have survived. As far as anyone knew, though, her siblings were fine, but neither they nor Lydecker had contacted Logan since that night. He hadn’t been able to locate any of them, and Tony’s FBI source had no information for him on that front, either. And while Logan had only just figured out, earlier that same day, that the VA Hospital outside of town was likely the primary Manticore facility, Tony had it confirmed it as fact by McGee, who’d gotten the word from the Seattle FBI agent in charge, while he was still in Washington. He now had blueprints, personnel rosters and security details. Enough to mount an assault, Tony imagined...
So Logan was in the process of trying to shut them down, singlehandedly. Tony had known that his cousin would attempt it, too, and probably die trying. Once in Seattle, finding his cousin like this had simply strengthened Tony’s resolve to prevent his doing so - and he suspected that the best way was to do it first. He got up, quietly, and moved into the guest room, closing the door so Logan wouldn’t hear him. Pulling out his phone, Tony hit a new speed dial entry and didn’t have long to wait. “Special Agent Gitry? Yeah, this is Tony DiNozzo. I got your e-mails tonight; thanks. Are you sure you don’t mind talking shop this late?” When Seattle’s assistant SAC, the one with a fixation about Manticore nearly as focused as Logan’s, assured him that she didn’t, Tony smiled softly. “I appreciate it, Gitry - I think I have a few ideas for what we might do. Is your line secure, too?”
V.
A rarity these days, Logan awoke to find himself in his bed and the aroma of fresh coffee making its way into his senses.
Tony...Logan remembered. So it wasn’t just another dream, this one with his cousin appearing, out of the blue, on his doorstep?
He glanced at his bedside clock - 10:30 - and wondered in some surprise at how dark his room was, until he noticed that his blinds had been drawn completely closed against the daylight. So his memories of Tony fussing over him last night hadn’t been a dream, either...
Feeling a little more alert and rested than he had in some time, Logan sat up and blinked himself further awake before getting up and moving. It wasn’t too many minutes later that he came out of his bedroom to find his cousin perched on a stool at his kitchen bench, coffee in hand, studying some information on his laptop. As Logan came in, Tony deftly closed out a program - Logan knew the signs well - and smiled at him.
“Hey, cuz,” DiNozzo offered. “You’re looking a bit better rested than last night.”
“Yeah,” Logan agreed, ruefully, “I guess I haven’t been sleeping too much lately. It’s just that the longer I wait, the more likely it will be that they could shut down the facility here and take off to establish their base somewhere else...”
Tony tried to hide his concern that, even barely awake yet, Logan was already fidgeting about getting back to his search for Manticore. “You know, I was thinking about that...” Tony began smoothly, getting up to find Logan a cup and pour him some coffee. “Look, let’s go in there,” he nodded toward Logan’s dining room “and I had some toast already; want some?”
“No, I...” Logan’s words died as Tony ignored him, putting two slices in the toaster and snapping them down. “...yeah, sure,” he acquiesced. He watched Tony grab his own mug, fill it too, and cross over to the dining room with both. Logan dutifully followed, pulling up to the table and snapping on his brakes. “Thanks,” he said quietly as he took the proffered coffee. “And ... thanks for coming, Tony,” he looked up at his cousin, still standing by the table. “I’m afraid I haven’t been much of a host...”
Tony dismissed his apology quickly. “We’re family. It’s not a ‘host’ thing...” After a long draw on his own coffee, he put it down on the table and went back into the kitchen, still within easy view of his cousin, and asked, casually, as he pulled some butter and jam out of the refrigerator, “so where’s Bling? Isn’t he coming over as often as he used to?” Tony was certain that he wasn’t; no way would the dedicated, cautious trainer have let Logan get even close to the state in which DiNozzo had seen him the previous night. He just wanted to know why he wasn’t...
“Oh ... he’s been gone a couple months...” Logan began, his voice taking on a distant sound again - mind probably elsewhere already, Tony frowned to himself, “his father’s a heart patient and hasn’t been doing too well. He went back to be with him for a while, see what he could do to help.”
“Sorry to hear that,” Tony came back to the table and placed the butter and jam with a knife in front of Logan. “Did he plan to stay there permanently?”
Logan shrugged, eyes far away and his voice noncommital. “Oh - no, he said he’d be back ... but, you know...”
Tony took in the listless voice and slightly withdrawn, protective expression he saw as Logan concentrated on his coffee. Bling’s gone, Max killed in his arms ... and Logan is doing all he can not to feel like that abandoned kid he was twenty years ago...
“You know, cuz ...” Tony began, slowly, “it would be great to have you come back with me to Washington. You know... get away from Seattle for a while. You probably have a lot of memories here, and maybe a change of scenery...”
“I can’t leave,” Logan shook his head immediately, coming back to the present, his voice quiet but resolute. “Not until Manticore is gone.”
“Logan ... look,” Tony began. “You know that Manticore is a serious, well funded, well-outfitted military project. Your ... network of friends here is impressive; I’ve seen you in action and I have all respect for what you can do. But it doesn’t change the fact that this is a David and Goliath scenario you’re talking about -” The toast popped up suddenly and Tony moved back to the kitchen to get it, again within line of sight of his cousin. “You and whomever you can pull together against the federal government’s blackest and most elite special ops guys?” he continued as he quickly grabbed a plate and dropped the toast on it. He came back to place it in front of Logan, making his point as he did, sitting across from his cousin. “Logan - no one is that good...”
But Logan was shaking his head, stubbornly. “I have to do this, Tony. You won’t talk me out of it...”
“I know,” Tony said quietly.
Logan looked surprised. “But ... you just said...”
“I want to help, Logan. I told you my about my own run-in with Manticore. I should have made more noise about them years ago.” He paused, then went on, watching Logan carefully as he said, “I saw the hack -” As Logan’s eyes suddenly snapped up to his, looking at his cousin in apprehension, Tony went on smoothly, “Eyes Only’s hack - and whether or not I’d have agreed at the time that it was a good idea, the word is out now.” He saw that his cousin now wondered if he might have a clue who Eyes Only really was. “It’s time to take them down.” He saw Logan react to that, and went on, “I want to help - and I have some ideas.” Tony drew a breath, and with a small smirk, pushed the plate of toast a little closer to his cousin, raising his eyebrows in a silent suggestion that he eat. With a smile at Logan’s small snort in response, DiNozzo started to speak again as Logan reached for the jam and spread it on the cooling toast. He would still offer the truth, but would use it in a way that he hoped would keep his cousin safe. “When I heard from Original Cindy I started pulling some information about Manticore together, as best I could. I’ve also called a friend in the FBI. He’s getting me in contact with their local office.”
Logan looked surprised first, then wary. “To do what?”
“Take them out,” Tony answered readily.
“What, one government agency against another? I don’t believe they’d go for that,” Logan argued, “and even if you wanted to help, Tony, no way would the FBI, or even NCIS, stand by and let you...”
“I think that Manticore’s gone rogue, after all this time off the books, and they think they’re untouchable by the oversight committee, or anyone else, for that matter. Now that they’ve become involved in murder - at least in the murders of Max and her sister, most recently - whatever protection they may have had will be gone. Logan, I know you’re in a hurry to get rid of them, but if you’ll give me a little time, I might be able to get the FBI and other assets involved in shutting them down for good.”
“How much time?” Logan asked, immediately resisting the delay. He had managed to finish the first piece of toast, and Tony nodded down toward the second one before he spoke again.
“Just a couple days, three or four at the most.” Tony promised smoothly, and leaned forward, eyes locking onto Logan’s, urging his agreement. “Let me help you, cuz. You’ve got to admit that if I can manage to get the larger agencies involved, we might have a chance at shutting them down, and it will be safer for everyone involved - for you, for any of Max’s siblings still out there...”
“For Max, too ... if you’re successful.”
Tony swallowed the emotion he felt rise at seeing his cousin clinging onto such a thin hope, but decided to use even that in order to keep Logan safe. “For Max, too,” he agreed.
“Okay...” Logan nodded, slowly. “But will you let me help?”
“Look, cuz, the players in this might have a problem with a civilian involved. I’ll have FBI involved at the very least; Manticore is likely to reach to the Army and possibly other services...”
“Tony, I have a lot of local research I’ve done...” Logan offered intently, his desire to be of help palpable. “Maybe some things they won’t find so quickly, or have time to develop before it’s too late...”
“Yeah, sure; okay,” Tony murmured soothlingly, knowing that Logan’s information would likely be of some help, and hoping that this much participation would let Logan would stand back for a few days, giving him some time to act before his cousin insisted on getting back in to the line of fire. “But I want you sticking around here, just laying low until we get up to speed, alright? I know you’d never mean to set things back, but when you have the feds involved, who knows what will get their nose out of joint...”
“Yeah,” Logan nodded, again vaguely, but then looked up to his cousin with a look Tony remembered from when his cousin was quite young. “Tony, I’m glad you’re here ... and that you want them gone, too.” Logan’s shoulders slumped and he suddenly, again, looked so very tired. “Honestly,” he admitted, in a low, broken voice, “I was starting to think it was hopeless, to try to defeat them.”
“No doubt,” Tony urged softly. “They’re a pretty big organization, cuz, with lots of powerful backers.”
Wouldn’t be the first time, Logan thought to himself numbly. Why should this time be so much harder? He drew a steadying breath, “I’m glad you want to help,” he repeated, “because ... this time, I could use a hand.”
DiNozzo looked at his cousin, broken and hurting. “Hey,” he bumped Logan’s hand with his to make his point. “We’ll get them, Logan.”
“I think you will,” Logan smiled faintly, feeling an exhausted relief that his big cousin had appeared to save the day. And if ever I was right about Max, let it be before Tony’s efforts aren’t too late for her, too...
VI.
Sometimes, Max would tell herself it was like she’d never left Manticore. The drills, the barked orders, the regimented schedule... sparring partners who could match her, even best her, in speed and strength and hand to hand combat; others who could keep up with her in stamina and agility and tactics. But she knew she was merely sounding out the thought, knowing how untrue it really was. During the daytime she was always on guard, knowing that at some moment in the middle of training or testing, she’d be called in yet again to see the Director, and the bitch would try once again to break her, to get a reaction from her. She was always aware that she was surrounded by the Enemy, whether across the mat in hand-to-hand drill, or across the table in the mess hall, or in the Director’s office as another tactic was tried to break her back to being merely 452. Renfro was bad enough, but it sickened her to think that these others in training with her, those who should rightfully be her siblings, too, would be so ready to turn her in, to kill her, at the slightest word from their commanders. They considered 452 to be a traitor, corrupted and corrupt, a carrier of both germs and dangerous, perverted ideas.
So she watched, and never, ever let any of them catch her with her guard down.
But at night ... at night, alone, in the dark, locked in her cell, even with the constant electronic surveillance in Manticore’s stronghold, she began to sense an odd level of freedom because as she was locked in, so were the others. As best she could tell, the non-engineered, military jailers - “ordinaries,” she’d heard the other X5s call them, once, behind their backs - didn’t feel safe on the sparser, night detail unless every last one of the X-series creations under their command was locked up tight. And even the Director had to get her beauty sleep. So as Max was locked in, the others were locked out, and she was allowed to dream ... to weep, privately... to remember...
When she let her thoughts wander as she did now she remembered the best of times in that strange little life that she had almost started taking for granted. Maybe a hard life, at times, but free, and peopled with those she loved and who loved her, no matter who she was. Original Cindy... everyone at Jam Pony, even Normal... she smiled a little to herself...
... Bling...
She gulped a little, then acknowledged,
Logan.
Her eyes moistened again at the thought of him, missing him enough to make it a physical ache. Where was he now? Safe? Home and alive and well? Her last memories of Logan were muddled and sharp, painful and numb, all at once. She had taken a blast from a modified assault weapon, full in the chest; searing pain had shifted too quickly to cold numbness and she fell, aware but unaware, until suddenly Logan had her in his arms, willing her to waken, willing her to live...
Until the blackness swallowed her, whole...
She’d had no word of him for those first weeks as she recovered in Manticore’s prison, no idea if he’d made it back alive, no clue at all where he was and if he was alright ... if he knew that she was alright...
She only learned for sure just thirteen hours earlier, when the Director had let it slip and, unwittingly, had given her such hope... “He thinks you’re dead, which is why he’s causing so much trouble for us,” she’d said...
“... he’s causing so much trouble for us...” she let the thought play over and over in her mind.
An Eyes Only broadcast, then? It made sense now why some of the guards seemed distracted and nervous, and it was confirmed when she overheard a pair of them talking near the mess hall: “Eyes Only says he has the location and is going to broadcast it...”
“He’s bluffing. If he knew it he’d say...”
“It’s just a matter of time. We’re only an hour from Seattle; how hard will it be for him to find us? This is Eyes Only; you know what he can do...”
Max’s tears spilled over again in the dark, remembering, but now they were tears of relief and joy and a new found will to survive ... and an even greater determination to escape again. Logan was still at it. He might think she was dead but he hadn’t given up the fight -- in fact, was calling them out. She’d be out of there, soon, she vowed.
So that night, she doubled her slow, methodical efforts to dig her way out of her cell, and managed to pull out the first cement block keeping her prisoner. Another night’s work and she just might have a hole big enough to slip though, with luck letting her make it to the winding corridors she’d heard below. She’d been working at it for a while, but the certainty that Logan was there, ‘still rocking the boat,’ gave her a whole new reason to beat her captors once again. Wait for me, Logan, she closed her eyes tightly, imagining the green eyes and artistic hands, his fierce principles and his gentle words for her. You’re not going to take this bitch down without me there to help...
Fandoms: Dark Angel/NCIS
Characters: Logan Cale/Tony DiNozzo
Prompt: #72, Fixed
Rating: G
Summary: In this crossover universe, Dark Angel S2 starts with cousin Tony DiNozzo learning that Max was killed, and that his cousin Logan is not handling it well. Tony to the rescue!
Cross-posted to
fauxcynic and published at http://www.fanfiction.net/s/4032037/1/
A/N: "Fixed," because the things that made S2 awful for most M/L fans will be removed or redone to make it very M/L friendly! Five weeks after Max’s “death” in the S1 episode, And Jesus Brought a Casserole.
DISCLAIMER: Characters and situations borrowed from Dark Angel and NCIS. No profits made. Unless you’ve read Concurrent Jurisdiction, this one may take a bit of explanation: Tony DiNozzo (NCIS) is Logan’s cousin, and still with NCIS in 2020. The cousins have always been close, even if they had been geographically distant from each other in the past several years. This story begins a few months after Tony came to Seattle due to the circumstances raised in Concurrent Jurisdiction. By the end of that story, we’ve learned that Tony kne about Lydecker and Manticore from a 2009 assignment for NCIS, and that he realized Max is an X-5, all of which he revealed to Logan. Also, by the time he left to return to DC, he had figured out that Logan is Eyes Only - but has not told anyone that he knows.
Designation? what Designation?
I.
It had all started with a phone message - or, rather, it was how Tony DiNozzo was pulled into events and back to Seattle. He’d been out in the field since very early that morning and when, close to midnight, he came back to NCIS, he discovered a phone message e-mailed from the central operator. He’d had a call from a woman named Cindy McEachin, who needed him to call as soon as possible, day or night. He wracked his brain but knew he didn’t know the name - until he recognized her area code as Seattle’s...
Cindy ... he realized immediately, with the location. Max’s friend, Original Cindy ...
The fact that she was calling, rather than Logan or Max, raised a immediate, irrational fear in his gut...
He grabbed his cell phone, heading to the elevators and out the door as he dialed, both for some privacy and a sudden feeling of claustrophobic fear and helplessness that the District was so far away from Seattle...
“Hello?” The voice on the other end of the line was uncertain, emotional. Maybe she was reacting to the phone number, too...
“Cindy - it’s Tony DiNozzo. I got your message...”
“Oh, Tony...” her voice was now full of pain and emotion, “I’m sorry to call an’ all, but I didn’t know what else to do...”
The sound of it, coupled now with her words, made DiNozzo’s blood run cold. He forced himself into the emotionlessness of his autopilot investigator mode and said evenly, “Cindy, it’s okay, I want to help. What’s happened?”
“Max ... “ she started, and was silent for another moment before she continued. "Max is dead,” she managed, as Tony felt the words cut through him, “an’ Logan is torn up over it, he’s getting worse by the day...”
Not injured, then, himself, Tony presumed for the moment, in a guilty, emotional rush of relief. “Tell me what happened, Cindy,” he pressed, turning his collar up against the wind as he stood outside in the nighttime chill. Oh, but without Max...? Logan must be devastated...
“It’s complicated,” she hedged, “but Max was killed - shot - an’ Logan has been like a zombie - no food for days, no sleep the first week, and then hell-bent on finding the people who killed her. He still ain’t eatin,’ he still ain’t sleepin,’ an’ I know he ain’t lookin’ after himself like he should, all that goes on with a body that’s been shot like his was. He’s livin’ on coffee and adrenaline and just don’t care what happens to him, he’s all about finding...” she hesitated, as if she suddenly realized she might be saying too much, “about finding who did this to her...”
Tony grimaced to himself, new threads of fear for his cousin tightening his chest - the threat of Manticore’s cold willingness to exterminate anyone getting in their way ... and the threat of this latest pain and loss forcing Logan so far over the edge that he’d hunt Lydecker or die trying. “Manticore,” he breathed. It wasn’t a question...
Cindy paused, slightly, before responding, tentatively, “you know about them.”
“Yeah, I do,” he said, heavily. Logan, don’t do this ... he closed his eyes slowly, sickened by the news.
“Then you know they’re some serious motherfuckers and you know if Logan thinks he can go after ‘em he’s as crazy as he’s lookin’ these days. And he’s starting to think that maybe Max isn’t dead after all - here she dies in his arms, shot through the chest, and the man is starting to think she just walked it off and is in hiding, somewhere ... or worse...”
“Cindy, how long ago was Max shot?” Tony asked abruptly. Until that moment he had assumed it had just happened...
“Five weeks tomorrow...”
Five weeks... Tony’s gut took another hit to learn that he hadn’t heard from Logan by now with such painful, tragic news. He’d have called if he was handling things okay, he knew...
“Tony, he ought to be gettin' on with things by now,” Cindy’s concerned voice pressed him, “at least the basics - not gettin' all crazy and more delusional every day.”
“You’re right.” Tony started walking again, but now back inside the building, back to his desk. “Look, Cindy - I’m glad you called. I’m going to do whatever I can to wrap up a few things here and get out to Seattle at the very first chance I can - I hope it won’t be more than a day or two. Can you keep an eye...?”
“Been doin’ it - some of us from work - me, Sketchy, the other guys - we’ve been sort of taking turns dropping in on him, you know, checking in when we’re out on runs in the area. Max would kick our asses if we didn’t watch out for her boy...” The woman’s strong voice suddenly quavered again, reminded of her loss.
“She would,” DiNozzo agreed softly, “but thank you from me too, for looking out for him. I’ll call you when I know how soon I can get there - we’ll work something out.” He ended the call and immediately went to work wrapping up loose ends, delegating assignments and cross-checking field comm lines before preparing, at 3:42 a.m., a formal leave request, filling in the appropriate “family emergency” information. He knew how Gibbs felt about family and knew that his rare request would be honored. Luckily his work was in between major assignments and could be carried by the senior agent on his team if he was away for a few days.
Running upstairs to Gibbs’ office, he left the request form on his secretary’s desk, with a note asking to see him as soon as he was available. All that accomplished, rather than going home for the night, he settled back in at his desk to wait for Gibbs, as he did, sending an e-mail to the FBI’s SAC in Chicago to call in a favor and dialing up highly classified, supposedly encrypted files relating to Manticore that he’d managed to gather over time...
II.
DiNozzo walked down the corridor though Sea-Tac's security and out into the arrival area where he was surprised to see the woman he remembered as Original Cindy waiting there for him - with a tall, baby-faced policeman standing next to her. She looked relieved to see him, her recent loss still clear in her eyes.
“Hey, Cindy,” Tony came close and, in the circumstances, gave her a hug, knowing she needed it, knowing it might fortify him. He pulled back to look at her, looking for some indication of what lay ahead. “You doing okay?”
“Yeah, sugah, a lot better with you here, to look out for Logan. The boy needs someone to get through to him, and you two bein’ so close...”
Tony just nodded, and not feeling glib enough to say anything reassuring at the moment, nodded toward the officer. “Who’s your friend?”
“Friend of a friend,” she managed a wan smile, rueful embarrassment coloring her cheeks. “I wanted to come pick you up, but most of us common folk don’t have ready access to wheels the way your cousin does. So ... I got desperate-- an’ I called a mutual friend.” She smiled a toward the officer, who held out a hand to Tony.
“Officer Jason Elco, sir. Detective Sung said to send his regrets that he couldn’t come himself, and to tell you if you need anything at all while you’re here in Seattle...”
Tony’s face relaxed in appreciation, and he offered his hand in return. “Thank you, officer ... for the ride, and for bringing Original Cindy.” Logan’s little posse again, Tony realized. Thank God he has them all...
“My pleasure, sir...” the young cop tipped his head slightly, squeaky clean and eager to help out a federal agent. “Are we ready to go?”
Tony glanced down to Cindy, who nodded. “All set,” Tony confirmed, adjusting his carry-on more comfortably on his shoulder as they set off through the airport. “I’ll try to give Matt a call myself too, but tell him I appreciate him sparing you - and his invitation to call if needed.”
“I was going off duty anyway, sir, glad to help.” The cop seemed genuinely sympathetic. “The detective said you both might use a bit of help...”
Original Cindy snorted softly, trying to summon a bit of humor to lighten the mood. “I know that’s right, when Original Cindy has to call the po-po for help...” she muttered, but her smile didn’t last. It was just too hard, with all that had gone on. Tony’s look to her was an understanding one.
“Not a bad idea.” He encouraged, “Matt’s come to the rescue before, as I understand it.”
“That he has...” Cindy nodded... and fell silent.
They both did. The silence was awkward, but it was even more awkward to discuss what had happened with the officer in the car with them. Cindy had already filled Tony in on everything she knew when he’d called her back to say he was on his way; Logan was still mourning, shell-shocked; not eating, maybe compromising his health. He never called, never let me know that he’d lost Max, Tony worried again. He would have hoped that his cousin would call him with such news, even if he did tend to withdraw into himself at times like this, when he lost his parents, when he’d been shot ... yet their recent visits had brought the cousins closer than ever, and DiNozzo had hoped that his cousin would turn to him let him help, instead of shutting down...
He must not have said anything to Bennett or their Aunt Margo, either; Tony was certain that if Bennett knew, either from his mother or from Logan himself, he would have phoned. Cindy said that even the people at Jam Pony don’t know about what happened, he reasoned, maybe because Manticore was involved? Why did Logan insist that Cindy not tell the others the truth - because of some safety or security concerns? Or because he was still holding some insane hope that Max wasn’t really gone?
DiNozzo again sorted through the stunning events that he’d learned in the eighteen hours since Cindy had first called - from his own assault into government files using a combination of his security clearance and a talented hacker on the NCIS staff, he found that Manticore was still indeed alive and well and had developed not one but two facilities on the outskirts of Seattle in the past few months. One, apparently, had been breached and shut down very recently, an old silo at the municipal line. The other, about an hour outside of Seattle long on the books as a VA hospital, carried a good deal of recent activity relating to personnel changes, funding requirements - and security provisions.
That in itself would be enough to raise suspicions. But add to that the flurry of intel and additional security in the facilities over the past few months, all thrown into hyper-drive by the public outing of Manticore by an underground, cyber-vigilante based in Seattle called Eyes Only...
And now, as Tony headed back to Seattle with the bike messenger and a cop with whom she’d hitched a ride, Tony wondered if Cindy also knew, as he did, that his own cousin was Eyes Only. DiNozzo had figured it out on his own and had never even admitted to his cousin that he knew. Even as Logan skirted the edges of sanity he had managed to pull off an Eyes Only hack, telling the public about Project Manticore and what their very own government had been doing for the past two decades...
At least for now, Tony wouldn’t get close to spilling the beans about Eyes Only, in case Cindy wasn’t in that deep on all the facts. Either way, they were spinning their way across Seattle to see Logan, now on the ‘enemies’ list’ of an awakened and deadly Manticore. Not for long, if I can help it, Tony vowed, because no matter whether this is outside the box or not, even if Gibbs fires me for going off on my own mission with unauthorized use of government resources - this has to be done. For Logan ... for the public, at large ... for all the living, breathing products of these demented experiments ... for Max...
III.
On their arrival at Fogle Towers, Officer Elco pulled the police cruiser into the parking garage and into an empty stall, turning off the engine. As Tony reached for his door handle, Original Cindy was already leaning toward the front seat. “Thanks for the ride, Officer. I know you gave up your free time...” She stopped, seeming lost for words suddenly, then went on, “an’ you don’ have to wait; Original Cindy can find her way back when she’s done here...”
“I’ll wait a while.” The officer’s eyes softened a little as he glanced back toward her, then to Tony, understanding from the discussion earlier that both these people were concerned about Detective Sung’s friend, high above them all in the penthouse upstairs. “You may not be all that long, and it’s getting dark out there.” He wasn’t going to add that if things were that wrong with the guy, it might not be a bad idea for him to stick around for a few minutes be sure they didn’t find him needing some emergency assistance, right away...
Cindy shrugged but looked as if she felt better, having him wait. Tony got out to stand by the cruiser, watching the determined young woman getting out on the opposite side, not making eye contact with him, not allowing further discussion about her going upstairs with him. She stepped to the officer’s open window, though, to allow him one last chance to leave. “Okay, but you know whenever you want to leave - it’s good. You already done more than you needed...”
“Better go see your friend,” the officer said, nodding toward the elevator.
Original Cindy looked at him, long, and a ghost of a smile crossed her face. “You’ a good man, Boo.” She said, and a small smirk lightened her worried face just a little. “Whatever is the world coming to?”
At the officer’s grin in response, Cindy patted his arm in thanks and walked around the car toward the elevator. At his open door, Tony watched her for only a moment before leaning down to speak to Elco, too. “Officer, thank you. And thanks for sticking around - it should only be a few minutes...”
“Sounds like it. Hope your cousin’s okay, Agent DoNozzo.”
“Yeah, me too...” Tony murmured, but then looked back to the young cop. “Tell Matt thanks, and that I hope I can say hello before I go back. And thanks again, Elco -”
“Glad I could help, sir.” He paused a moment, then added, hopefully, “Good luck.”
“Yeah,” Tony nodded, straightening, knowing he needed to focus, to be ready for whatever he might find. Not much different than the last time he’d arrived here, he realized, back in Seattle for the first time in several years, knowing he’d find his favorite cousin in a wheelchair and not sure how he’d be able to handle it. Back then, the thought that he had to steel himself to face his cousin made a tough situation even tougher. But it had all come out okay, that trip, and in some ways, the cousins had actually ended up closer than ever.
But as he came around to join Original Cindy at the elevator, he realized that, especially for Logan, even bouncing back from a devastating physical injury would be easier than bouncing back to reality, if he’d decided it was just too painful to face it now...
As he came to her side, Tony watched Cindy pressed the elevator button impatiently, already lit from the first two times she’d hit it. She had insisted on riding up to the penthouse with him, saying that he needed her along in case Logan didn’t answer the door. He had to admit it made sense; she had Max’s key to his place, left behind along with Max’s other personal effects on the night she’d left to go rescue her sister.
But Cindy had another half dozen reasons she wanted to go along, all of them churning in her thoughts as the elevator finally opened to let them in. She wanted to check in on Logan again, to be sure he was okay; she wanted to be there for Tony, for when he’d first see his cousin and see how around the bend the boy had become... to be there in case she could do anything for the man her Boo loved so much, and who was hurting so badly from losing her, and who might be a bit rattled to see his cousin just show up after not telling Tony what had happened...
They rode up in silence until Cindy offered suddenly, “you know, even if you’re here - if Logan needs anything, or if you do, or if you need any of us to help with ... whatever ... we’re here for you, aiight? I don’t know what he needs or what you got in mind, but ... Logan’s a good man, an’ he’s helped out a lot of people, me and mine included. So anything we can do...”
Tony’s worried expression smoothed slightly in his appreciation as he turned to her. “Thanks, Cindy. I hope I won’t need to ask, but it’s good knowing you’re all here, if I need to call in some reinforcements.” He watched as she nodded, looking away again, a picture of sober concern. What has she seen in him that has her so worried? Tony wondered again.
The elevator opened almost silently onto the penthouse floor, and Cindy crossed the hall to Logan’s door, rapping on it loudly and calling to him as she did. “Logan? Hey, it’s me, Boo. Just wantin’ to see if you ever bought yourself some groceries...” At Tony’s glance to her, his eyes asking if that too had been a problem, she shrugged and looked back at the closed door, listening for sounds inside. “C’mon, Logan...” she added softly, more to herself than to the man on the other side of the door.
The seconds dragged by silently, no sound in the corridor, no sound in the penthouse. After a few more moments Cindy dug into her pocket, ready to pull out her keys, when the door suddenly swung open and a gaunt, harried-looking Logan opened the door, distractedly. “I’m fine, Cindy; I got some...” His eyes, red-rimmed and feverish, suddenly widened at the sight of his cousin. “Tony?” His eyes suddenly misted slightly, as if his cousin’s appearance reminded him that he - and things - were very far from ‘fine.’ “How...? What are you doing here?” He stared at his cousin, trying to process his unexpected appearance. He made no move to let them in.
But Tony was just as stricken as his cousin was, not only at seeing firsthand the signs of an unhealthy, desperate obsession taking Logan over, but at finding him on his feet, standing, walking, as if his shattered spine and resulting paralysis were all a bad dream. Shaking off the obvious questions for now, and blatantly ignoring the fact that his cousin was leaving them standing at his doorstep, Tony took a step or two past him, coming inside, and said evenly, genuine concern in his voice, “I wanted to be here, Logan - Cindy told me what happened...”
As Logan turned to follow DiNozzo’s movements, his glittery green eyes welled again and his voice thickened, “I didn’t want you involved in this, in case...”
Tony hoped his expression conveyed only a question, and not the dread that his cousin’s words caused in him. “‘This,’ what?” Tony asked, peering close at his cousin, seeing a depth of hurt more extreme that he’d ever seen in him, a final straw in the long ledger of all the man’s pain and losses over the years, all the hurt he’d borne ... he saw, too, a edge of desperation, an obsessive, driven look of a man bent on accomplishing his mission, no matter the cost. Cindy was right. Logan seemed past caring about himself now, his previously spiky hair now long and limp, untended; his scruffy chin was now almost softened into a beard, probably unnoticed. Logan looked like a recluse close to losing his grip on rationality. DiNozzo felt a sudden chill that he might easily have been too late, if Cindy hadn’t called. “What were you going to do?” he pressed gently, hoping his tone was as soothing as he intended.
Logan blinked back at him, clearly not wanting to say anything more, seeming to assess what he saw in his cousin, before him - afraid of endangering me and others, or afraid that I might try to stop him? Tony wondered. Logan’s look was wary, as if he were assessing an intruder who had invaded his home. Abruptly, however, Logan’s expression shifted and his eyes veiled over, hiding his thoughts. With a sudden, haunted smile, Logan shrugged, “she’s gone, Tony - not much I can do...”
The change in Logan - and the sudden, moment to moment changes he’d just observed - made Tony’s throat tighten and his mouth taste like ash. Maybe it’s just the surprise that I’m here, making it worse... Tony tried calming himself, and his lack of sleep and food, maybe even dehydration ... DiNozzo let his eyes flicker over the unsteady figure before him and started sorting out how best to approach what he’d found. Forcing himself to proceed not as family but as an investigator, with all of the tricks and tactics he’d picked up over the years, he offered a soft smile of his own for Logan, and nodded, “so lets catch up, cuz, okay?” He swallowed hard, ready to do whatever it took, for his cousin’s sake. “Cindy...” he turned to the woman still standing by in silent worry, still in the hall, watching the pair. “Thanks for the ride. I owe you... and I'll give you a call after a while, alright?”
Furrowed brow frowning a little deeper, Cindy nonetheless offered a trusting nod to the agent, and she stepped in closer. Deciding that if anyone knew how to handle what was happening with his cousin, DiNozzo would, she raised a gentle hand to Logan’s arm as she looked to the agent first. “Okay, Tony. You need anything, you know where to find me. Logan?” She looked to the younger man, waiting for his eye contact before saying anything further. “Call me, y’hear?”
“Yeah, Cindy... sure...” Logan seemed to suddenly rally a bit, as if he realized he had crossed a line with these two. He tried another smile, shrugging awkwardly, but his voice trailed in a listless, false cheer. After another moment Cindy dropped her hand from his arm, looked to Tony once more, briefly, and crossed back to hit the elevator call button. As the door opened immediately for her and Cindy stepped inside, DiNozzo turned back to his cousin and pulled the door shut behind him.
“C’mon, cuz...” he said softly. “It’s just us. Let’s go in and talk ...”
Logan shrugged again, distractedly, but would not meet his cousin’s eyes. He drew himself up straighter, breathing in deeply, and focused on his cousin’s sudden presence, trying to leave behind for the moment the new leads and intel he’d just gotten on Manticore. “Not much to tell...” he began, walking back toward the kitchen and crossing to lift the coffee pot. Looking at the nearly blackened dregs left sloshing at the bottom, he put it down to root around in the cabinet and pull out his coffee canister, now with barely enough grounds inside to tell what it had once held. “Oh, hey, I guess I’m out of coffee...” he looked up at Tony, apologetically. His voice had taken on a far away, vague sound, as he looked from coffee pot to cupboard; his eyes now held the same light. “I have some errands I need to get done anyway, so if you’ll let me just go to the market and get a few things, we can...”
“Logan, for God’s sake!” Unable to watch his cousin unraveling any further, Tony grabbed Logan by the shoulders and turned him quickly to face him, nearly pulling Logan off his feet in the process and setting up a mechanical whirring as Logan grasped Tony’s forearms for balance. Tony’s eyes went wide, realizing that in his worry for his cousin, he’d forgotten that Logan shouldn’t even be able to move his legs, let alone to stand or walk like this. He stood rooted, letting Logan steady himself, and watched as Logan’s eyes looked into his, a new question forming there, his usual clear gaze almost as muddied as some of the drug addicts DeNozzo had busted over the years.
Suddenly, almost eerily, Logan smiled again - a terrible, demented smile this time - as he asked, “don’t you want to know how I managed to be as tall as you are again?”
Tony took a deep, steadying breath and loosened his grip on Logan’s shoulders, but didn’t let go. “Yeah, I do...” he said softly. “But even more than that ... I want to know what the hell happened out here, Logan.”
In another, sudden shift, an unearthly anguish rippled in his cousin’s eyes. Tony felt him sag slightly, and he knew he was coming closer to connecting with his cousin, underneath it all, than he had since his arrival. “She died in my arms, Tony,” Logan’s whispered voice was nearly a plea, “but ... “ he wavered, uncertain if he could trust his cousin enough to admit the rest. “Tony ... if she were really gone, I’d know it. I’d feel it...” He searched Tony’s face for his reaction, and seeing only a calm, listening expression there, added, “...she’s not dead. She can’t be, or ... she’d be gone, here...” He touched his chest lightly, and said, “she was gone, for a little while, and I thought I’d lost her. But now...”
DiNozzo swallowed his fear for his cousin’s sanity at that moment and put aside his feelings for Logan, focusing on the task ahead. “C’mon, cuz,” he urged softly, gently turning him and moving with him to the living room. “We can worry about coffee later - let’s sit down and have a talk...”
IV.
Six hours later, nearing midnight, local time, Tony finally stretched out his knotted muscles, straightening from his laptop from where it was perched precariously on the edge of Logan’s coffee table, then leaned back, deep into the chair’s contours, rubbing his hands over his face tiredly. He looked over again at his cousin, stretched out on the couch now, exhaustion claiming him. His wheelchair was at his elbow, once again needed...
An exo-skeleton? Tony thought yet again. I’ll be damned. It made no sense that it worked, given Logan’s injury, and it must be nearly impossible to walk in the damn thing for someone who couldn’t feel anything waist down, but his cousin was managing, and was back on his feet, at least part time, because of it.
But DiNozzo shook himself back to more pressing matters - his cousin’s miraculous contraption could wait. It had been a long and emotional day, and Tony was fighting his own exhaustion, thanks to recent long hours with little sleep. Since he’d gotten Original Cindy’s call about 24 hours before, he’d grabbed only a couple hours sleep, and those after another 24 sleepless hours on a case. He’d arrived in Seattle to find his cousin half-crazy with grief and obsessed with avenging Max’s death - or her ‘disappearance’...
Tony was still concerned about Logan, but was a little more hopeful about his stability as he had some time to talk with him. He was not responding in a healthy way to Max’s death, true; he was obsessed and careless about his health. But what Tony - and apparently Original Cindy - had feared might be encroaching madness seemed to be just the grieving man’s emotional resources dwindling with the lack of sleep and food, coupled with a helplessness to act and a growing hope that things weren’t all that they seemed...
“Just...” the agent repeated to himself. Still an awful lot for anyone to endure...
Tony watched the troubled man as he dozed, yet again vowing to get his cousin through this, to keep him safe and get him back, healthy and sane. Once Tony got him talking, Logan managed to hold back his emotions and keep himself together, but just barely; his grief was held at arm’s length only by his focus on outing Manticore ... and finding Max.
Tony let himself consider Logan’s belief that Max had not really died. “I held her, Tony,” Logan had whispered, “she bled out, and she was gone. But then Lydecker showed up and ... and knocked me out, and the next thing I knew I woke up in back town at some free clinic ... no Lydecker, no X-5s ... no Max.” It seemed impossible to think that anyone could survive such an injury, that even the best medical techniques, even if readily available, could repair such a wound. Given the circumstances and the location, outside of town, it seemed fantastical. But then, so is just about everything that comes with building a human in a test-tube...
Tony had worked information out of Logan gently and carefully, as he would with any fragile witness. Over the next several hours, he made them coffee from a new supply delivered by Jam Pony after a follow up call to Original Cindy, and, after shooing Logan in for a shower, managed an uninspired but hot and filling meal thrown together from his nearly-empty pantry. During that time, in between his cousin’s rambling memories of the night Max died, his vague but insistent belief that she was alive somewhere, and his single-minded intent to destroy the government project that had destroyed his world, Tony managed to discover additional, necessary information from Logan about what had happened and what Logan knew of Manticore’s current status. That, together with all that Tony had been able to learn this far, painted a surprisingly solid picture of the previously elusive, black project so long operating under the radar.
DiNozzo glanced back at his laptop’s screen and the latest information he’d been sent by the local FBI office, heartened that he had the attention of someone here in Seattle who was apparently well aware of Manticore’s presence and had been aching for an opportunity to shut them down. Just as Logan had suspected, it was likely that Lydecker was still involved, and, as he’d hoped, was apparently still working against Manticore, too. Sadly, it also seemed likely to Tony, no matter Logan’s certainty, that Max could not have survived. As far as anyone knew, though, her siblings were fine, but neither they nor Lydecker had contacted Logan since that night. He hadn’t been able to locate any of them, and Tony’s FBI source had no information for him on that front, either. And while Logan had only just figured out, earlier that same day, that the VA Hospital outside of town was likely the primary Manticore facility, Tony had it confirmed it as fact by McGee, who’d gotten the word from the Seattle FBI agent in charge, while he was still in Washington. He now had blueprints, personnel rosters and security details. Enough to mount an assault, Tony imagined...
So Logan was in the process of trying to shut them down, singlehandedly. Tony had known that his cousin would attempt it, too, and probably die trying. Once in Seattle, finding his cousin like this had simply strengthened Tony’s resolve to prevent his doing so - and he suspected that the best way was to do it first. He got up, quietly, and moved into the guest room, closing the door so Logan wouldn’t hear him. Pulling out his phone, Tony hit a new speed dial entry and didn’t have long to wait. “Special Agent Gitry? Yeah, this is Tony DiNozzo. I got your e-mails tonight; thanks. Are you sure you don’t mind talking shop this late?” When Seattle’s assistant SAC, the one with a fixation about Manticore nearly as focused as Logan’s, assured him that she didn’t, Tony smiled softly. “I appreciate it, Gitry - I think I have a few ideas for what we might do. Is your line secure, too?”
V.
A rarity these days, Logan awoke to find himself in his bed and the aroma of fresh coffee making its way into his senses.
Tony...Logan remembered. So it wasn’t just another dream, this one with his cousin appearing, out of the blue, on his doorstep?
He glanced at his bedside clock - 10:30 - and wondered in some surprise at how dark his room was, until he noticed that his blinds had been drawn completely closed against the daylight. So his memories of Tony fussing over him last night hadn’t been a dream, either...
Feeling a little more alert and rested than he had in some time, Logan sat up and blinked himself further awake before getting up and moving. It wasn’t too many minutes later that he came out of his bedroom to find his cousin perched on a stool at his kitchen bench, coffee in hand, studying some information on his laptop. As Logan came in, Tony deftly closed out a program - Logan knew the signs well - and smiled at him.
“Hey, cuz,” DiNozzo offered. “You’re looking a bit better rested than last night.”
“Yeah,” Logan agreed, ruefully, “I guess I haven’t been sleeping too much lately. It’s just that the longer I wait, the more likely it will be that they could shut down the facility here and take off to establish their base somewhere else...”
Tony tried to hide his concern that, even barely awake yet, Logan was already fidgeting about getting back to his search for Manticore. “You know, I was thinking about that...” Tony began smoothly, getting up to find Logan a cup and pour him some coffee. “Look, let’s go in there,” he nodded toward Logan’s dining room “and I had some toast already; want some?”
“No, I...” Logan’s words died as Tony ignored him, putting two slices in the toaster and snapping them down. “...yeah, sure,” he acquiesced. He watched Tony grab his own mug, fill it too, and cross over to the dining room with both. Logan dutifully followed, pulling up to the table and snapping on his brakes. “Thanks,” he said quietly as he took the proffered coffee. “And ... thanks for coming, Tony,” he looked up at his cousin, still standing by the table. “I’m afraid I haven’t been much of a host...”
Tony dismissed his apology quickly. “We’re family. It’s not a ‘host’ thing...” After a long draw on his own coffee, he put it down on the table and went back into the kitchen, still within easy view of his cousin, and asked, casually, as he pulled some butter and jam out of the refrigerator, “so where’s Bling? Isn’t he coming over as often as he used to?” Tony was certain that he wasn’t; no way would the dedicated, cautious trainer have let Logan get even close to the state in which DiNozzo had seen him the previous night. He just wanted to know why he wasn’t...
“Oh ... he’s been gone a couple months...” Logan began, his voice taking on a distant sound again - mind probably elsewhere already, Tony frowned to himself, “his father’s a heart patient and hasn’t been doing too well. He went back to be with him for a while, see what he could do to help.”
“Sorry to hear that,” Tony came back to the table and placed the butter and jam with a knife in front of Logan. “Did he plan to stay there permanently?”
Logan shrugged, eyes far away and his voice noncommital. “Oh - no, he said he’d be back ... but, you know...”
Tony took in the listless voice and slightly withdrawn, protective expression he saw as Logan concentrated on his coffee. Bling’s gone, Max killed in his arms ... and Logan is doing all he can not to feel like that abandoned kid he was twenty years ago...
“You know, cuz ...” Tony began, slowly, “it would be great to have you come back with me to Washington. You know... get away from Seattle for a while. You probably have a lot of memories here, and maybe a change of scenery...”
“I can’t leave,” Logan shook his head immediately, coming back to the present, his voice quiet but resolute. “Not until Manticore is gone.”
“Logan ... look,” Tony began. “You know that Manticore is a serious, well funded, well-outfitted military project. Your ... network of friends here is impressive; I’ve seen you in action and I have all respect for what you can do. But it doesn’t change the fact that this is a David and Goliath scenario you’re talking about -” The toast popped up suddenly and Tony moved back to the kitchen to get it, again within line of sight of his cousin. “You and whomever you can pull together against the federal government’s blackest and most elite special ops guys?” he continued as he quickly grabbed a plate and dropped the toast on it. He came back to place it in front of Logan, making his point as he did, sitting across from his cousin. “Logan - no one is that good...”
But Logan was shaking his head, stubbornly. “I have to do this, Tony. You won’t talk me out of it...”
“I know,” Tony said quietly.
Logan looked surprised. “But ... you just said...”
“I want to help, Logan. I told you my about my own run-in with Manticore. I should have made more noise about them years ago.” He paused, then went on, watching Logan carefully as he said, “I saw the hack -” As Logan’s eyes suddenly snapped up to his, looking at his cousin in apprehension, Tony went on smoothly, “Eyes Only’s hack - and whether or not I’d have agreed at the time that it was a good idea, the word is out now.” He saw that his cousin now wondered if he might have a clue who Eyes Only really was. “It’s time to take them down.” He saw Logan react to that, and went on, “I want to help - and I have some ideas.” Tony drew a breath, and with a small smirk, pushed the plate of toast a little closer to his cousin, raising his eyebrows in a silent suggestion that he eat. With a smile at Logan’s small snort in response, DiNozzo started to speak again as Logan reached for the jam and spread it on the cooling toast. He would still offer the truth, but would use it in a way that he hoped would keep his cousin safe. “When I heard from Original Cindy I started pulling some information about Manticore together, as best I could. I’ve also called a friend in the FBI. He’s getting me in contact with their local office.”
Logan looked surprised first, then wary. “To do what?”
“Take them out,” Tony answered readily.
“What, one government agency against another? I don’t believe they’d go for that,” Logan argued, “and even if you wanted to help, Tony, no way would the FBI, or even NCIS, stand by and let you...”
“I think that Manticore’s gone rogue, after all this time off the books, and they think they’re untouchable by the oversight committee, or anyone else, for that matter. Now that they’ve become involved in murder - at least in the murders of Max and her sister, most recently - whatever protection they may have had will be gone. Logan, I know you’re in a hurry to get rid of them, but if you’ll give me a little time, I might be able to get the FBI and other assets involved in shutting them down for good.”
“How much time?” Logan asked, immediately resisting the delay. He had managed to finish the first piece of toast, and Tony nodded down toward the second one before he spoke again.
“Just a couple days, three or four at the most.” Tony promised smoothly, and leaned forward, eyes locking onto Logan’s, urging his agreement. “Let me help you, cuz. You’ve got to admit that if I can manage to get the larger agencies involved, we might have a chance at shutting them down, and it will be safer for everyone involved - for you, for any of Max’s siblings still out there...”
“For Max, too ... if you’re successful.”
Tony swallowed the emotion he felt rise at seeing his cousin clinging onto such a thin hope, but decided to use even that in order to keep Logan safe. “For Max, too,” he agreed.
“Okay...” Logan nodded, slowly. “But will you let me help?”
“Look, cuz, the players in this might have a problem with a civilian involved. I’ll have FBI involved at the very least; Manticore is likely to reach to the Army and possibly other services...”
“Tony, I have a lot of local research I’ve done...” Logan offered intently, his desire to be of help palpable. “Maybe some things they won’t find so quickly, or have time to develop before it’s too late...”
“Yeah, sure; okay,” Tony murmured soothlingly, knowing that Logan’s information would likely be of some help, and hoping that this much participation would let Logan would stand back for a few days, giving him some time to act before his cousin insisted on getting back in to the line of fire. “But I want you sticking around here, just laying low until we get up to speed, alright? I know you’d never mean to set things back, but when you have the feds involved, who knows what will get their nose out of joint...”
“Yeah,” Logan nodded, again vaguely, but then looked up to his cousin with a look Tony remembered from when his cousin was quite young. “Tony, I’m glad you’re here ... and that you want them gone, too.” Logan’s shoulders slumped and he suddenly, again, looked so very tired. “Honestly,” he admitted, in a low, broken voice, “I was starting to think it was hopeless, to try to defeat them.”
“No doubt,” Tony urged softly. “They’re a pretty big organization, cuz, with lots of powerful backers.”
Wouldn’t be the first time, Logan thought to himself numbly. Why should this time be so much harder? He drew a steadying breath, “I’m glad you want to help,” he repeated, “because ... this time, I could use a hand.”
DiNozzo looked at his cousin, broken and hurting. “Hey,” he bumped Logan’s hand with his to make his point. “We’ll get them, Logan.”
“I think you will,” Logan smiled faintly, feeling an exhausted relief that his big cousin had appeared to save the day. And if ever I was right about Max, let it be before Tony’s efforts aren’t too late for her, too...
VI.
Sometimes, Max would tell herself it was like she’d never left Manticore. The drills, the barked orders, the regimented schedule... sparring partners who could match her, even best her, in speed and strength and hand to hand combat; others who could keep up with her in stamina and agility and tactics. But she knew she was merely sounding out the thought, knowing how untrue it really was. During the daytime she was always on guard, knowing that at some moment in the middle of training or testing, she’d be called in yet again to see the Director, and the bitch would try once again to break her, to get a reaction from her. She was always aware that she was surrounded by the Enemy, whether across the mat in hand-to-hand drill, or across the table in the mess hall, or in the Director’s office as another tactic was tried to break her back to being merely 452. Renfro was bad enough, but it sickened her to think that these others in training with her, those who should rightfully be her siblings, too, would be so ready to turn her in, to kill her, at the slightest word from their commanders. They considered 452 to be a traitor, corrupted and corrupt, a carrier of both germs and dangerous, perverted ideas.
So she watched, and never, ever let any of them catch her with her guard down.
But at night ... at night, alone, in the dark, locked in her cell, even with the constant electronic surveillance in Manticore’s stronghold, she began to sense an odd level of freedom because as she was locked in, so were the others. As best she could tell, the non-engineered, military jailers - “ordinaries,” she’d heard the other X5s call them, once, behind their backs - didn’t feel safe on the sparser, night detail unless every last one of the X-series creations under their command was locked up tight. And even the Director had to get her beauty sleep. So as Max was locked in, the others were locked out, and she was allowed to dream ... to weep, privately... to remember...
When she let her thoughts wander as she did now she remembered the best of times in that strange little life that she had almost started taking for granted. Maybe a hard life, at times, but free, and peopled with those she loved and who loved her, no matter who she was. Original Cindy... everyone at Jam Pony, even Normal... she smiled a little to herself...
... Bling...
She gulped a little, then acknowledged,
Logan.
Her eyes moistened again at the thought of him, missing him enough to make it a physical ache. Where was he now? Safe? Home and alive and well? Her last memories of Logan were muddled and sharp, painful and numb, all at once. She had taken a blast from a modified assault weapon, full in the chest; searing pain had shifted too quickly to cold numbness and she fell, aware but unaware, until suddenly Logan had her in his arms, willing her to waken, willing her to live...
Until the blackness swallowed her, whole...
She’d had no word of him for those first weeks as she recovered in Manticore’s prison, no idea if he’d made it back alive, no clue at all where he was and if he was alright ... if he knew that she was alright...
She only learned for sure just thirteen hours earlier, when the Director had let it slip and, unwittingly, had given her such hope... “He thinks you’re dead, which is why he’s causing so much trouble for us,” she’d said...
“... he’s causing so much trouble for us...” she let the thought play over and over in her mind.
An Eyes Only broadcast, then? It made sense now why some of the guards seemed distracted and nervous, and it was confirmed when she overheard a pair of them talking near the mess hall: “Eyes Only says he has the location and is going to broadcast it...”
“He’s bluffing. If he knew it he’d say...”
“It’s just a matter of time. We’re only an hour from Seattle; how hard will it be for him to find us? This is Eyes Only; you know what he can do...”
Max’s tears spilled over again in the dark, remembering, but now they were tears of relief and joy and a new found will to survive ... and an even greater determination to escape again. Logan was still at it. He might think she was dead but he hadn’t given up the fight -- in fact, was calling them out. She’d be out of there, soon, she vowed.
So that night, she doubled her slow, methodical efforts to dig her way out of her cell, and managed to pull out the first cement block keeping her prisoner. Another night’s work and she just might have a hole big enough to slip though, with luck letting her make it to the winding corridors she’d heard below. She’d been working at it for a while, but the certainty that Logan was there, ‘still rocking the boat,’ gave her a whole new reason to beat her captors once again. Wait for me, Logan, she closed her eyes tightly, imagining the green eyes and artistic hands, his fierce principles and his gentle words for her. You’re not going to take this bitch down without me there to help...