ALL MY SINS REMEMBER'D BB FIC
Title: All My Sins Remember'd
Rating: M15+
Characters and/or pairings: Alec McDowell, Max Guevara, Alec/Max
Warnings: Violence, adult situations
Disclaimer
Spoilers: Set after Freak Nation in the non-existent season three :D
AO3 Link
Summary: It's one step forward, two steps back. Just as Alec and Max are trying to decide what sort of 'relationship' they have, Logan and Max disappear with Max leaving a note that simply says, "I'm sorry". Picking up the pieces of his broken heart, and the Transgenic city she has left behind, Alec takes control of TC and its people. Three years later and, with no word from her, Max suddenly turns up with no memory of who or what she is. Necessity demands that she learn all about herself and her past so that she is no longer a threat to them but Alec can't bring himself to tell her about their 'almost'.
Authors note: Written for darkangel_bb. The incredible sierraphoenix did a video for this which is absolutely fantastic! Check it out, though you might end up watching it repetitively like I am :P *squishes* for my beta homentheatre who puts up with my OCD and betas things for me at the last minute :P
I got the idea from a prompt over at NWP. I think it was MeryKey who posted it but it was a while ago so I'm not so sure anymore :P
Also, don't have a heart attack because it seems so incomplete! I know there are a couple of loose ends but there is enough from the missing parts to do well over another 10k fic so I thought I'd add it as my submission for the next round! Means that I will actually have something and I get to keep you guys hanging on by a thread!!! *insert evil grin*
Max eased the motorcycle into the carefully concealed spot and turned off the engine. Alec climbed off the bike first, his body tense with barely concealed rage. He watched her pull off the glasses and glared as she tried to look everywhere but at him.
“What did you think you were doing Max?”
She sighed angrily and kicked down the stand, pulling herself from the bike as she faced him. “I dunno Alec, maybe trying to secure food and medicine for our people? Just something minor!”
He grabbed her by the front of her jacket and angrily pulled her closer. “You don’t get it! That was just plain stupid!”
She pushed him away roughly, his body slamming into the wall beside them, neither noticing the shadow of the man who’d stopped in his tracks the moment he heard the all too familiar voices arguing. Logan pushed his glasses back up his face and pulled himself flush against the wall. They hadn’t seen him but he had no desire to be between them when they fought.
“Don’t be a jerk Alec! I’m more than capable of handling myself in -”
“What, like you did last week when you went off on that job by yourself and left the X6’s behind in TC ‘to protect them’? You’re lucky I found out when I did, otherwise you’d be dead at the bottom of the river by now!”
“Get off your high horse! I don’t need you or anyone else to save me; I can do fine on my own! I spent ten years without backup - I think I learned a thing or two!”
“What? Like how to end up in Manticore again? How to get yourself killed? Tell me Max, just when along this road of enlightenment did you learn how to run a city? To protect a people? Because you need to seriously think about getting a refund on that!”
There was the sound of scuffling and Logan chanced a look to find that Max had lunged at Alec and they were blurring around each other, the occasional fist the only clue they were fighting. He pulled his head back and slowed his breath. Breaking up was hard, especially when you had to see the woman you loved so often. A part of him was jumping for joy at the fact that they were arguing - no, fighting - because he might then have another chance. But a bigger part of him squashed it. They were fighting now but there was so much passion in the fighting and squabbling for him not to delude himself that the more ‘romantic’ side wasn’t equally as passionate. He loved her but he had to admit that ever since she’d told him that she was seeing Alec, he’d noticed she was happier. Scratch that, ever since she’d escaped Manticore she’d been happier. At least when Alec was around. There was a spark he couldn’t give her and he was man enough to admit when he was beat.
He saw Max shove Alec hard up against the side of the wall and there was a brief pause before they kissed, Logan’s eyes closing in hurt as he pulled himself back around the corner. To be honest, it was the first real kiss he’d seen between them but he felt as though he was being stabbed through the heart whenever he saw them together. Since his break up with Max, he’d begun noticing little things about the way they stood together and worked together. Even when Max was complaining and yelling at Alec, there was something there that softened the blow. When they went over schematics or plans, they worked together easily as if that was how they were meant to work together and he’d always seen it as a X5 thing; now he saw it as a ‘them’ thing. Not for the first time he wondered just how long they’d been seeing each other before he saw Alec leaving her apartment that morning.
“Stop it!”
Logan heard Max move toward her bike and let out a breath he didn’t realise he’d been holding.
“Max -”
“No, Alec, just... no!”
“Max, talk to me!”
“I can’t do it!” she yelled at him.
“Is this because of Manticore?” There was a pause. “Ben?”
Logan stilled upon hearing Max’s brother’s name. Ben had been off limits even to him. When she’d gotten back she’d barely said a word, and in all the time that followed, she’d said nothing more than that it was finished. He peeked slowly around the corner and saw Max sitting on her bike, her hand on the ignition. Alec was standing right beside her, his hand covering hers so she wouldn’t take off.
Max looked up sharply at the mention of her brother’s name and shook her head furiously, standing up a little from her bike. “What? No!”
“Max, it’s oka -”
“No, it’s not! You’re not Ben! You may’ve been mixed up in the same test tube but that’s where it ends! I don’t even see how you looked alike anymore - I haven’t for some time.”
Logan pulled himself around the corner and swallowed the urge to throw up. The idea that Alec and Ben were twins was ridiculous and he didn’t know how he couldn’t have seen it. He couldn’t read barcodes but even the fact that their designations were so close hadn’t clued him in.
X5-493.
X5-494.
It made sense now. And if Max was going to talk to anyone about what happened with Ben, it would likely have been his twin or one of her other siblings. But he knew that Max didn’t see Alec as part of that. Her unit was her family, her adopted brothers and sisters.
“It’s not because of Ben and it has nothing to do with Manticore pairing us up as breeding partners either. It’s... “
“Logan.”
Max nodded her head and looked down sadly. “I lied to him Alec. There was no closure, not when I was lying, and whatever this is, it can’t be built on that sort of foundation.”
“Max, he’s not gonna know the difference. He already thinks we’re together.”
“But I know and you know. And I’m pretty sure most of TC knows.” She gave him a wry smile. “I don’t want there to ever be any doubt and as much as this is freakin’ me out, the idea of losing it is worse. I need to tell him.”
He nodded reluctantly and she pulled her glasses on. “I’m gonna bounce. I need to clear my head but I’ll meet ya at home later.”
The bike rumbled and was gone almost in an instant. Alec glanced upwards once before taking a deep breath and lifting the lid to the nearby sewer. In a quick, graceful motion, he had disappeared from sight and the lid was once again in place. A short distance away, Logan was bent over, his hands on his knees as he struggled to comprehend everything he’d just heard.
He’d known there had been breeding partners assigned at Manticore after they’d taken out the lab. He’d even known Max had been assigned one, or at least, assumed as much. But that it had been Alec? The guy who looked like her dead brother? He wasn’t Max; he hadn’t grown up with any of them, he hadn’t been a part of anything back at Manticore. He’d had a family, been raised with a small family of blood relatives, so there was no need to adopt those in a unit to feel that closeness that a family should have. He didn’t see the distinction between Alec and Ben, didn’t see one as any less ‘family’ than the other, even though neither were related to Max. More importantly, he hadn’t seen anything in Alec worth so much of Max’s time.
But Alec was Ben’s twin.
Alec was her breeding partner.
He’d never had a chance. The thoughts swirled around and around until the bile rose and he emptied his stomach of the last meal he’d eaten. He was having trouble sorting truth from lies and without thinking, his feet moved him away from his place and toward the car he’d parked two blocks away. He climbed in, in silence. His fist hitting the wheel once before he turned the ignition, he put the car into gear and drove away.
___________________________________________
When Alec woke the next morning, he rubbed his sore neck and sat up straight. He’d been waiting for Max when he’d fallen asleep on the lounge, presumably in the awkward position he’d awoken to. He stood silently and walked out of his apartment and into Max’s. The place was empty and the bed hadn’t even been slept in.
He made his way out of the building and into Max’s office, only to find it empty as well; nothing on her desk had been touched and everything was as they’d left it. He popped his head out and called to Dix who was sitting in front of the security screens.
“You seen Max this morning?”
Dix shook his head as he turned around. “She still hasn’t come back yet. Were you expecting her to?”
The Transhuman’s eyes watched his carefully, no doubt wondering if he should put up the alarm on their missing leader. Alec relaxed his body and made a show of indifference.
“Nah, probably crashed at OC’s place. You know how she is. I’ll just head out and drag her lazy butt back here.”
He gave a small laugh, one that Dix returned, but Alec knew Dix wasn’t fooled. He kept searching Alec’s eyes, the one’s that obviously showed concern, but Dix was nothing if not a follower and he fell into line. If the 2IC wasn’t ready to put out an alert, there’d be a reason, and Dix had known Alec long enough to know that Alec would put one out in a heartbeat if he thought Max was in trouble.
___________________________________________
The sun had already begun to set by the time he reached Logan’s. It was the last place he wanted to look because if she was there, it meant that she’d patched things up with Logan after all and was still with him. Cindy’s had been a bust, as had every other place Max could have gone. There was no sign of her bike at any of the usual haunts she had left in the city and Cindy had promised to call him if she showed up. He let himself into Sandeman’s old place and saw Logan’s stuff scattered everywhere. There was no sign of anyone around and from the looks of Logan’s computer, he hadn’t been home since just before he and Max had shown up. Alec’s heart began to race as he eyed the desk in front of him trying to discern if there was something amiss. A brief thought flashed across his mind that someone had taken Logan and probably Max and he reached his hand into his pocket, his fingers closing over the mobile within. He was about to pull it out when he saw a note lying just underneath the keyboard, peeking out from the edge. He almost hadn’t seen it at all but it was clearly placed where it would be found. It was in Max’s handwriting and said simply two words:
“I’m sorry.”
He didn’t even put out a hand to brace himself as he fell to his knees, his strength leaving him as his heart broke.
She’d left - Max, and Logan, had left.
THREE YEARS LATER
There was a knock on his door and he looked up to see Fix-it in the doorway. She shifted from one foot to another and he frowned.
“What’s up?”
“Uh, um... you should probably hear this - it’s, uh... ”
One eyebrow rose and he stood and followed her exit. The usual hustle and bustle of Command was subdued and several Transgenics refused to look him in the eye, looking away as soon as he made eye contact. Fix-it was standing next to Dix at the relay station and there was a crackle of static before Zero’s voice came out over the speakers.
“Base, this is Bravo Zero. Uh, what are our orders? Over.”
Alec saw Kellie, the medic, come to an abrupt stop as she entered Command and her eyes immediately dropped. He began to get a sick feeling. She would only be rushing into Command for one of two reasons - either the drop had gone bad and someone had been injured, or the drop had gone bad and someone was dead. He walked over to the controls and hit the button beside the blinking red light.
“Bravo Zero, this is Base. SIT-REP? Over.”
There was a small pause before Zero’s voice came back.
“Base, this is Bravo Zero. We have the shopping. Picked up additional package... it’s Bellona One... over.”
Alec frowned at the light before leaning closer. “Bravo Zero - say again. Over.”
There was a static and Alec felt as though time had slowed down and was dragging itself out deliberately.
“Base, this is Bravo Zero. We have picked up an additional package: Bellona One. Contact was made and Bellona One is down as are Bravo Six and Bravo Niner. Please advise. Over.”
Alec looked over at Kellie and realised why she was standing there. Word had obviously filtered down through the Transgenic grapevine and she’d come as soon as she heard.
“Bravo Zero, this is Base. Do you have a medical emergency? Over.”
“Base, this is Bravo Zero. Negative. Team is able to return to base with medical standby. Over.”
“Bravo Zero, this is Base. You have it - return to base immediately. Over.”
Alec left Dix to finish the rest of the communication as he rushed toward Kellie and pushed her in the direction of the medbay. As they moved quickly, Alec saw Kellie gesture to several X’s standing nearby and watched as they ran off to do their appointed task. By the time they reached the concealed side, most of the X’s had returned with medical equipment and were setting up mobile stations.
“You thought she was dead, didn’t you?”
Alec looked across at her harshly. “No contact for three years? Nothing, not even with her unit. Something wasn’t right.”
“Still might not be. It might not even be her, it could be Sam.”
Alec shook his head. “No, Zero knows her. If nothing else, he would have confirmed her barcode. I just don’t know where she’s been.”
There was barely any time for a response as Kellie motioned to the X’s in the loading bay and the scout gave the signal for their arrival. The inconspicuous delivery van pulled in and Zero jumped out immediately. Alec didn’t even have to open his mouth as Zero ran around to the side.
“I don’t even know how it happened. One minute we’re loading the van, the next there was this quick blur that raced past. She just attacked Alec, I swear, we didn’t provoke her. I tried to tell her it was us but she didn’t even listen. Gale took her down with a pair of tasers.”
Kellie motioned for the two Transgenics on the stretchers to be taken to the medbay as she helped Max onto the stretcher. Alec knew as soon as he saw her that it was Max but she’d changed a lot. There was a thick scar running underneath her chin and partially down her neck and he wondered when she’d gotten it. Scars faded pretty quickly for them and to have one so prominent meant that it had been serious. Kellie quickly checked her vitals before placing an injection in her arm.
“What is that?”
Kellie looked up in surprise. “Sedative.”
“You’re sedating her? Why?”
Kellie motioned for the stretcher to be taken to the medbay and pulled Alec aside. “Let’s say for a moment that this is Max -”
“It is.”
“Let’s just say it is, Max attacked them. Without provocation. I have to take into consideration that she’s not quite herself and could attack any of us. It’s just until I make sure of who she is and how well she’s doing.”
Alec gave her a curt nod and turned to Zero who had been helping his unit unload the supplies. “Zero - I want a report on my desk within the hour, got it?”
Zero nodded and Alec turned away. As he moved through TC, Transgenics stared at him as though they could gather information just by looking at him. By the time he reached Command, he’d had enough and strode straight past an X6 trying to get his attention and escaped into his office. He closed the door knowing that it couldn’t keep anyone out even if he wanted to be alone but most people in TC knew that if his door was closed, he wanted to be alone. They’d learnt the lesson in the first few months after Max had left when he hadn’t had the patience for anybody. Mole had been the only one brave enough to enter without knocking and Joshua had been the only one who had dared breach the door to his apartment. It’d had been tough on him and that had filtered down to the rest of TC, but he’d gotten his act together and pulled through and TC had followed.
And just when he’d gotten himself into some sort of routine, she showed up again on his doorstep to turn his whole world upside down. If that wasn’t bad enough, she was taking it out on their people - though he had no idea what possible reason she could have for being angry.
True to his word, Zero had the report done within the hour. Twenty minutes after Alec had sat down to finish the requests in his inbox, a message popped up on his screen indicating that he had a new report. His eyes quickly absorbed the report, taking note of the fact that Max hadn’t responded to any of their calls and that it had taken two tasers to take her down. None of the supplies had been damaged and they’d already started distributing them around the city so he stood from his desk and halted only for a moment before squaring his shoulders and walking out of the office.
Several people glanced up at him but most kept their heads down and cast glances sideways as he passed them. He nodded to Dix who immediately accessed the newest report and archived it with the rest before walking out of Command and heading for the refitted labs that served as a medbay. The medbay had been one of the first things that Max had set up after the siege and had insisted that it always be kept fully supplied. Nothing had changed in the last three years except the addition to the staff who had filtered in with a group of refugees only six months after Max had left. Kellie, an X5, had been trained to infiltrate a hospital and had actually garnered a lot of knowledge about how things worked at Manticore. It was especially useful for decrypting the files that Logan had managed to get from Manticore’s database before they burnt it down.
Kellie looked up as he strode through the doors and immediately stood, walking into one of the back rooms and assuming he’d follow. When Alec entered, he saw that Max had been placed in the decontamination chamber which had been refitted into a secure room. It had been especially useful when the odd heat episode caught everyone off guard and was capable of holding an X5. Kellie pulled a clipboard off the hook on the wall and pointed into the room.
“I don’t know what to tell you. It’s Max. Her DNA matches perfectly, barcode is the same. I haven’t given her a chance to wake up yet but from all the tests that I’ve gotten results on, she appears to be perfectly healthy. There’s a few more that Beaker’s working on but I should have them in the next hour or so.”
Alec walked the length of the room, turning the corner to see her through the glass from a different angle. She was laying on the stainless steel counter that was being used as a bed and had a single drip inserted in her left arm. Other than the scar on her neck, she looked exactly the same, even down to the length of her hair. She was wearing a black, tightly fitted suit that had what he presumed was some sort of bullet proof lining over the chest.
“When did you plan on waking her?”
“When you got down here. I figured you’d be the one who’d want to do the questioning...”
Alec looked up at Kellie and saw the concern in her eyes. “I’m fine. Just wanna ask her where she’s been the last three years. If it all turns out to be some sort of mistake, we let her go. If she turns out to be a threat, we eliminate her.”
“Alec...”
He raised a hand to stop her. “No. It’s been three years. Clearly she’s moved on with her life, for whatever reason, and decided that TC was not worth her time. Our people come first. We’re in the middle of a war.”
“I know that. But we don’t know everything yet. Max is a good person - she wouldn’t have attacked the team unless something was wrong.”
“I didn’t think she’d leave either and she did. We obviously didn’t know her that well. From all accounts, the drop went smoothly - there was no double cross, no threat. No reason she should have attacked. Give me ten minutes to set things up with Mole and then we’ll wake her.”
Kellie nodded sullenly as he turned and walked out of the med bay. He ran into Mole almost as soon as he turned the corner and the gruff Transhuman took the cigar out of his mouth and pointed to the building behind him.
“Princess awake yet?”
Alec glared at him and the once often used nickname, but Mole seemed unperturbed as he pushed a paper into his hands.
“Dix wanted you to see the distribution list.”
“This could have waited until later.”
Mole shrugged and looked at the doors to the building again. “I thought I’d bring it down myself. Kill two birds with one stone. Figured you’d need a hand restraining her.”
Alec shoved the paper back at him and scowled. “I’ll be fine. I need you to hold down the fort for a couple of hours while I get to the bottom of this. Make sure you let me know if anything dire comes up and track down Josh for me, would ya? He’ll have heard about this and I don’t want him anywhere near this place. Keep him occupied with something until I need him.”
Mole nodded stiffly and the cigar shifted to the other side of his mouth. “You think she’s a threat?”
He took a deep breath. “I don’t know. But if she is- ”
“She needs to be eliminated.”
Alec tried not to meet the lizardman’s eyes as he nodded. Mole took it for what it was, a barely concealed attempt at covering pain, and decided not to press the issue. Alec knew there was more than enough people who could still take her out if he couldn’t - it would just be a matter of allowing them to.
Mole puffed out a cloud of smoke and turned away, crumpling up the paper in his hand as he did and Alec took the moment to let his head clear. Every now and then he found himself wishing for the relatively mindless state he’d had back at Manticore. If Max hadn’t helped them all escape, he still would have been able to do certain things without having to worry about emotion. Or, at least, that’s what he tried to believe until his brain caught up with his current line of thinking and shredded it for the lie it was. If it’d been true, he never would have failed the Berrisford mission.
He tried to switch of his emotions as he turned back to the med bay and he steeled his gaze in the hopes that if he could convince everyone else that he’d been successful in turning them off, maybe he could convince himself. Alec didn’t even glance at the Transgenics he passed as he headed for the room she was in - he just stared straight ahead, nodding once at Kellie as he took a deep breath in front of the door. She came to stand beside him, punching in a combination on the side panel that allowed the door to open and immediately walking inside once it had.
He tried, and failed, not to pause on the threshold and when he finally convinced his feet to move, Kellie had already begun lowering the dosage.
“How long?”
Kellie briefly looked up. “A couple of minutes, five at the max. She might be disoriented for a minute or so but everything after that is all her.” She caught his eye. “Do you want me to set up a guard in the outside room?”
He shook his head, not taking his eyes off of the woman on the table. “No, I’ll let you know if I need anything. Just keep the regular check up schedule going.”
Kellie nodded before exiting the room quietly and Alec moved to the foot of the table. He only had to wait a couple of minutes but if felt like hours as he watched her eyelids twitching. When she woke, her eyes opened slowly, almost lethargically and he decided that he’d give her the minute or two to be fully lucid before asking her anything. He still had no idea what he was going to ask; all of the questions seemed to have rushed into his mind at once and caused a pile up. He was still sifting through the debris as she looked at the ceiling and nothing else. He frowned before taking a step forward.
“Max?”
She didn’t move, not even a slight acknowledgement at her name and he titled his head as he watched her.
“Max?”
He wanted to move closer, reach out to her, but his instincts kept him rooted to the spot and he visibly cringed as his mouth opened again and the numbers tumbled out of their own accord.
“452!”
He wasn’t sure what horrified him more - that she didn’t acknowledge her name or that she didn’t even recognise her designation. Max lay motionless on the table, staring up at the ceiling and he pushed his instincts aside as he approached her. It was only as he got within arms reach that she moved and all she did was turn her head to the side. Her empty gaze fell on him and he felt the urge to crumble to the ground.
“Max?”
She turned to look back at the ceiling. “I’m not Max.”
Something the size of a golf ball tried to work its way down his throat and he bitterly swallowed as he moved a step closer.
“What should I address you as?”
She sat up in a fluid movement, swinging her legs over the side of the table and blinked at him. “I’m called Husk . Are you the doctor?”
He must have visibly blanched because she took her eyes off of him to look at the room she was in. She didn’t seem to recognise her surroundings and a small frown passed over her features before she became a blank slate again. He tried to keep his face expressionless as he took another step forward but the war raging inside of him was causing him to struggle.
“Are you...? Why did you attack the group before?”
She blinked at him again, something he was finding very unnerving in its slow, rhythmic pace, and placed her hands in her lap.
“Mission #381: eliminate the targets with minimal damage to their exterior. Are you the doctor?”
“Something like that. Who gave you your mission?”
Something flickered in her eyes and he could have sworn he saw her expression soften before it hardened and she leapt off the table. He immediately took a step back and was met with a blow as she rounded behind him and tried to place him in a choke hold. His hands grabbed at her arm, using her weight to throw her over his shoulder. She practically landed on her feet as she looked up at him.
“Who are you?”
“Alec. X5-494. Any of this ringing a bell?”
She looked up at him angrily and pounced, her hands wrapping around his throat straight away. He pushed her backward and the next few moves between them were merely a series of blurs as both tried to get the upper hand. She used her leg to kick him across the room and was noticeably surprised when he turned in mid-air and pushed against the opposing wall, landing steadily on his feet in front of her.
“What are you?” she asked through narrow eyes and he stopped, his arms falling to his side as he looked at her.
It wasn’t possible. As unlikely and incredulous as the situation appeared to be, Max had somehow been brainwashed but it was impossible for her not to know she was a Transgenic.
“I’m a Transgenic, like you.”
“I’m human. I don’t know what a Transgenic is but we’re nothing alike.”
“How do you think you move so fast? See further, think quicker?”
She stared him down, her body crouching a little lower as she prepared to strike. “I’m just that good.”
She leapt at him again but she’d barely moved when a pulse seemed to go through her and she shook, barely giving Alec enough time to launch forward and catch her before she hit the ground. She stopped shaking almost immediately, the stillness frightening him more than the attack and he quickly hit the green buzzer on the wall beside the keypad. Kellie opened the outer door almost immediately and rushed forward, quickly hitting in the combination to the door.
“What happened?”
“I don’t know,” he said as he carried her to the table and laid her down. “One minute she was attacking, the next she just seemed to drop as though I’d tasered her.”
Kellie looked up in alarm before quickly rolling Max onto her side and pressing the back of her neck. She pushed Max’s head forward a little more before she closed her eyes briefly and raced over to the cabinet behind her.
“She’s probably got a tracker in her. I’d say it’s rigged unless she shows up. I can’t believe I missed it!”
“Rigged? As in ‘blow your head off’ rigged?”
Kellie merely gave him an apologetic look and he found himself looking down at Max again. He could see that she was still breathing but she was completely out and he wished she was there with him to share the irony of the situation. Kellie didn’t even pause before cutting into Max’s skin just below the barcode and pushing a pair of tweezers in. The tweezers moved slightly as she got the right grip on the object before she picked up a new scalpel and began to remove it. Alec nearly shut his eyes knowing that if there was just the slightest mistake, there would be an almost silent explosion and any remaining hope of seeing Max again would be gone. Instead, he looked down at her face again and wondered what had happened to her.
“She wasn’t her,” he said, his voice small and quiet as Kellie pulled the tweezers out and looked at the small plastic item in the tray.
“If she’s got one of these in her, I’d say not. Max would’ve let her head explode before hurting us, right?”
He looked back at Max. “I’d always thought so.”
Kellie placed a small stitch on the back of Max’s neck and taped some gauze over the wound. “Did she say anything specific?”
“Just that she was on a mission. She didn’t know who Max was. Said she was called Husk. Didn’t go ape until I asked who she worked for; I should’ve known better.”
“You needed to know. I’ll have Beaker get back to me with those x-rays asap to see if there’s anything else we’re dealing with but I doubt it.” She looked down at Max. “What do you think happened to her?”
“I don’t know,” he replied, shaking his head, “I honestly don’t know.”
She left the room quietly after that and Alec rolled Max back over. He took the opportunity of her being still out to go over everything in his head. Obviously, Max had been brainwashed. At some point, someone had gotten their hands on her and managed to do what Manticore never had - force her to lose herself. Question now was, who was it? When had she been brainwashed? How had they even known about the drop off?
Manticore may have had one of its facilities burned down but they still existed and just because the Conclave and the Familiars became more of a threat to his people, it didn’t mean that Manticore wasn’t. They still had power, they still had money and were undoubtedly laying low for a short while after having their facility and organisation exposed. But just because they could’ve been behind it, didn’t mean they were. Whoever wanted Max had obviously not wanted her dead so she had to have been useful for something.
And just when had they taken her? Transgenics were trained to withstand any form of brainwashing or reprogramming and to completely erase everything Max knew, including that she was Transgenic, must have taken months. Surely if she’d gone missing, Logan would have called for help? Then again, he remembered when Max had been shot and Logan hadn’t asked for his help, even after knowing that Familiars were inside the locked down facility. If Logan thought he had it under control, he might not have called.
Alec made a mental note to go over everything from the initial plans to the van returning to see where the leak had been. He doubted that any of the Transgenics would be stupid enough to go over to the enemy. Transgenics and Transhumans didn’t always get along in TC; Max had been a bridge between them and there had been less fighting when she’d been around but they were unanimous in their loyalties and if there was ever someone caught betraying them, Alec had no doubt he’d be forced to eliminate them.
Looking down at Max again, he wondered how much damage had been done. Physically, at one point she’d been in a bad enough way that she’d been scarred, probably permanently. But mentally - there was a difference between repressing who someone was and giving them a new identity and erasing who they were. Manticore had the ability to erase and he’d seen it done before, been the victim of it before, but Manticore always kept them fundamentally the same. They still knew who they were, what they were... who was in charge. There was every possibility that Max had been too much of a threat to be allowed to keep even those basic notions and they’d completely wiped her. If that was the case, she’d more than likely have to be eliminated.
But if he could somehow reach her, somehow access ‘Max’, they might be able to save her. Having her leave was hard but he’d always known that she’d been out there somewhere; she just hadn’t wanted to come home. But eliminating her, killing her, was a very different thing and he wasn’t sure he could do it. Especially not after seeing her. There was a primal urge to protect her at all costs that was rising in him and he backed away from the table and stood on the other side of the room.
When she finally opened her eyes, Alec stood straighter and took a small step forward.
“Max?”
“I’m not Max. How many times do I have to keep telling you? I’m not a Transgenic either.”
Her voice was relatively flat and he realised that there’d barely been any change in it from the first moment she opened her mouth. He was beginning to miss the yelling.
“Your name is Max. Your designation is X5-452, although if you were in your right mind, you would have smacked me up the head for even mentioning that.”
“Doesn’t that tell you something? You have the wrong person.”
Alec shook his head and took another step forward. “Nope, you’re the one in the wrong here Maxie and I’ll be damned if I don’t at least try and do the right thing.”
“If you don’t let me go, they’re just going to come for me. There’ll be a bloodbath. This is your best option to walk away.”
He stalked toward her as he pinned her with his glare. “I’m not walking away from you again, Maxie. Not again.”
Her head tilted slightly and he was startled by the movement. It was uncharacteristic of anything he’d seen so far and he took as step back from her. His training was telling him that she was too far gone; that there’d been too much damage and they’d never get ‘Max’ back. But his instincts were screaming that she was there. That every little movement, every little flicker of awareness was proof that they could get her back if they just tried.
Kellie knocked on the glass and he turned his focus away from the woman in front of him.
“It would’ve taken her out.” she said through the glass, allowing his exceptional hearing to pick up her voice. “It was designed to give out short shocks, probably to incapacitate, but it just exploded outside when we tried to track the signal. I’d say they know we have her.”
He nodded and looked back at Max. “Did you hear that? The people you are working for just tried to blow your brains out!”
“They wouldn’t want me in the wrong hands.”
“Or they were just controlling you. I cannot believe that YOU, of all people, are coming to the defence of the cowards that are trying to control you!”
She remained silent and moved her legs to the edge of the table. There was nothing threatening in the move but he could also see that he wasn’t getting through either. He let out an exasperated breath.
“Where’s Logan?”
“Who?”
“Logan. Boyfriend. Has glasses and an exoskeleton slash wheelchair?”
She remained blank at the description and Alec closed his eyes. He wanted to get through to her. He’d been trained well enough to know that it could take days or weeks to get through to her, if he ever did, but that didn’t stop him from desperately wanting the quick fix.
“What about Zack? Or Tinga? Brin?” he paused. “Ben?”
There was a flicker across her eyes, almost like a passing shadow, but it gave him hope. Enough hope to know that somewhere, deep down, Max still existed. She’d never been one to do things the easy way and he knew it was going to be difficult but there was hope.
(PART TWO)
Rating: M15+
Characters and/or pairings: Alec McDowell, Max Guevara, Alec/Max
Warnings: Violence, adult situations
Disclaimer
Spoilers: Set after Freak Nation in the non-existent season three :D
AO3 Link
Summary: It's one step forward, two steps back. Just as Alec and Max are trying to decide what sort of 'relationship' they have, Logan and Max disappear with Max leaving a note that simply says, "I'm sorry". Picking up the pieces of his broken heart, and the Transgenic city she has left behind, Alec takes control of TC and its people. Three years later and, with no word from her, Max suddenly turns up with no memory of who or what she is. Necessity demands that she learn all about herself and her past so that she is no longer a threat to them but Alec can't bring himself to tell her about their 'almost'.
Authors note: Written for darkangel_bb. The incredible sierraphoenix did a video for this which is absolutely fantastic! Check it out, though you might end up watching it repetitively like I am :P *squishes* for my beta homentheatre who puts up with my OCD and betas things for me at the last minute :P
I got the idea from a prompt over at NWP. I think it was MeryKey who posted it but it was a while ago so I'm not so sure anymore :P
Also, don't have a heart attack because it seems so incomplete! I know there are a couple of loose ends but there is enough from the missing parts to do well over another 10k fic so I thought I'd add it as my submission for the next round! Means that I will actually have something and I get to keep you guys hanging on by a thread!!! *insert evil grin*
Max eased the motorcycle into the carefully concealed spot and turned off the engine. Alec climbed off the bike first, his body tense with barely concealed rage. He watched her pull off the glasses and glared as she tried to look everywhere but at him.
“What did you think you were doing Max?”
She sighed angrily and kicked down the stand, pulling herself from the bike as she faced him. “I dunno Alec, maybe trying to secure food and medicine for our people? Just something minor!”
He grabbed her by the front of her jacket and angrily pulled her closer. “You don’t get it! That was just plain stupid!”
She pushed him away roughly, his body slamming into the wall beside them, neither noticing the shadow of the man who’d stopped in his tracks the moment he heard the all too familiar voices arguing. Logan pushed his glasses back up his face and pulled himself flush against the wall. They hadn’t seen him but he had no desire to be between them when they fought.
“Don’t be a jerk Alec! I’m more than capable of handling myself in -”
“What, like you did last week when you went off on that job by yourself and left the X6’s behind in TC ‘to protect them’? You’re lucky I found out when I did, otherwise you’d be dead at the bottom of the river by now!”
“Get off your high horse! I don’t need you or anyone else to save me; I can do fine on my own! I spent ten years without backup - I think I learned a thing or two!”
“What? Like how to end up in Manticore again? How to get yourself killed? Tell me Max, just when along this road of enlightenment did you learn how to run a city? To protect a people? Because you need to seriously think about getting a refund on that!”
There was the sound of scuffling and Logan chanced a look to find that Max had lunged at Alec and they were blurring around each other, the occasional fist the only clue they were fighting. He pulled his head back and slowed his breath. Breaking up was hard, especially when you had to see the woman you loved so often. A part of him was jumping for joy at the fact that they were arguing - no, fighting - because he might then have another chance. But a bigger part of him squashed it. They were fighting now but there was so much passion in the fighting and squabbling for him not to delude himself that the more ‘romantic’ side wasn’t equally as passionate. He loved her but he had to admit that ever since she’d told him that she was seeing Alec, he’d noticed she was happier. Scratch that, ever since she’d escaped Manticore she’d been happier. At least when Alec was around. There was a spark he couldn’t give her and he was man enough to admit when he was beat.
He saw Max shove Alec hard up against the side of the wall and there was a brief pause before they kissed, Logan’s eyes closing in hurt as he pulled himself back around the corner. To be honest, it was the first real kiss he’d seen between them but he felt as though he was being stabbed through the heart whenever he saw them together. Since his break up with Max, he’d begun noticing little things about the way they stood together and worked together. Even when Max was complaining and yelling at Alec, there was something there that softened the blow. When they went over schematics or plans, they worked together easily as if that was how they were meant to work together and he’d always seen it as a X5 thing; now he saw it as a ‘them’ thing. Not for the first time he wondered just how long they’d been seeing each other before he saw Alec leaving her apartment that morning.
“Stop it!”
Logan heard Max move toward her bike and let out a breath he didn’t realise he’d been holding.
“Max -”
“No, Alec, just... no!”
“Max, talk to me!”
“I can’t do it!” she yelled at him.
“Is this because of Manticore?” There was a pause. “Ben?”
Logan stilled upon hearing Max’s brother’s name. Ben had been off limits even to him. When she’d gotten back she’d barely said a word, and in all the time that followed, she’d said nothing more than that it was finished. He peeked slowly around the corner and saw Max sitting on her bike, her hand on the ignition. Alec was standing right beside her, his hand covering hers so she wouldn’t take off.
Max looked up sharply at the mention of her brother’s name and shook her head furiously, standing up a little from her bike. “What? No!”
“Max, it’s oka -”
“No, it’s not! You’re not Ben! You may’ve been mixed up in the same test tube but that’s where it ends! I don’t even see how you looked alike anymore - I haven’t for some time.”
Logan pulled himself around the corner and swallowed the urge to throw up. The idea that Alec and Ben were twins was ridiculous and he didn’t know how he couldn’t have seen it. He couldn’t read barcodes but even the fact that their designations were so close hadn’t clued him in.
X5-493.
X5-494.
It made sense now. And if Max was going to talk to anyone about what happened with Ben, it would likely have been his twin or one of her other siblings. But he knew that Max didn’t see Alec as part of that. Her unit was her family, her adopted brothers and sisters.
“It’s not because of Ben and it has nothing to do with Manticore pairing us up as breeding partners either. It’s... “
“Logan.”
Max nodded her head and looked down sadly. “I lied to him Alec. There was no closure, not when I was lying, and whatever this is, it can’t be built on that sort of foundation.”
“Max, he’s not gonna know the difference. He already thinks we’re together.”
“But I know and you know. And I’m pretty sure most of TC knows.” She gave him a wry smile. “I don’t want there to ever be any doubt and as much as this is freakin’ me out, the idea of losing it is worse. I need to tell him.”
He nodded reluctantly and she pulled her glasses on. “I’m gonna bounce. I need to clear my head but I’ll meet ya at home later.”
The bike rumbled and was gone almost in an instant. Alec glanced upwards once before taking a deep breath and lifting the lid to the nearby sewer. In a quick, graceful motion, he had disappeared from sight and the lid was once again in place. A short distance away, Logan was bent over, his hands on his knees as he struggled to comprehend everything he’d just heard.
He’d known there had been breeding partners assigned at Manticore after they’d taken out the lab. He’d even known Max had been assigned one, or at least, assumed as much. But that it had been Alec? The guy who looked like her dead brother? He wasn’t Max; he hadn’t grown up with any of them, he hadn’t been a part of anything back at Manticore. He’d had a family, been raised with a small family of blood relatives, so there was no need to adopt those in a unit to feel that closeness that a family should have. He didn’t see the distinction between Alec and Ben, didn’t see one as any less ‘family’ than the other, even though neither were related to Max. More importantly, he hadn’t seen anything in Alec worth so much of Max’s time.
But Alec was Ben’s twin.
Alec was her breeding partner.
He’d never had a chance. The thoughts swirled around and around until the bile rose and he emptied his stomach of the last meal he’d eaten. He was having trouble sorting truth from lies and without thinking, his feet moved him away from his place and toward the car he’d parked two blocks away. He climbed in, in silence. His fist hitting the wheel once before he turned the ignition, he put the car into gear and drove away.
___________________________________________
When Alec woke the next morning, he rubbed his sore neck and sat up straight. He’d been waiting for Max when he’d fallen asleep on the lounge, presumably in the awkward position he’d awoken to. He stood silently and walked out of his apartment and into Max’s. The place was empty and the bed hadn’t even been slept in.
He made his way out of the building and into Max’s office, only to find it empty as well; nothing on her desk had been touched and everything was as they’d left it. He popped his head out and called to Dix who was sitting in front of the security screens.
“You seen Max this morning?”
Dix shook his head as he turned around. “She still hasn’t come back yet. Were you expecting her to?”
The Transhuman’s eyes watched his carefully, no doubt wondering if he should put up the alarm on their missing leader. Alec relaxed his body and made a show of indifference.
“Nah, probably crashed at OC’s place. You know how she is. I’ll just head out and drag her lazy butt back here.”
He gave a small laugh, one that Dix returned, but Alec knew Dix wasn’t fooled. He kept searching Alec’s eyes, the one’s that obviously showed concern, but Dix was nothing if not a follower and he fell into line. If the 2IC wasn’t ready to put out an alert, there’d be a reason, and Dix had known Alec long enough to know that Alec would put one out in a heartbeat if he thought Max was in trouble.
___________________________________________
The sun had already begun to set by the time he reached Logan’s. It was the last place he wanted to look because if she was there, it meant that she’d patched things up with Logan after all and was still with him. Cindy’s had been a bust, as had every other place Max could have gone. There was no sign of her bike at any of the usual haunts she had left in the city and Cindy had promised to call him if she showed up. He let himself into Sandeman’s old place and saw Logan’s stuff scattered everywhere. There was no sign of anyone around and from the looks of Logan’s computer, he hadn’t been home since just before he and Max had shown up. Alec’s heart began to race as he eyed the desk in front of him trying to discern if there was something amiss. A brief thought flashed across his mind that someone had taken Logan and probably Max and he reached his hand into his pocket, his fingers closing over the mobile within. He was about to pull it out when he saw a note lying just underneath the keyboard, peeking out from the edge. He almost hadn’t seen it at all but it was clearly placed where it would be found. It was in Max’s handwriting and said simply two words:
“I’m sorry.”
He didn’t even put out a hand to brace himself as he fell to his knees, his strength leaving him as his heart broke.
She’d left - Max, and Logan, had left.
THREE YEARS LATER
There was a knock on his door and he looked up to see Fix-it in the doorway. She shifted from one foot to another and he frowned.
“What’s up?”
“Uh, um... you should probably hear this - it’s, uh... ”
One eyebrow rose and he stood and followed her exit. The usual hustle and bustle of Command was subdued and several Transgenics refused to look him in the eye, looking away as soon as he made eye contact. Fix-it was standing next to Dix at the relay station and there was a crackle of static before Zero’s voice came out over the speakers.
“Base, this is Bravo Zero. Uh, what are our orders? Over.”
Alec saw Kellie, the medic, come to an abrupt stop as she entered Command and her eyes immediately dropped. He began to get a sick feeling. She would only be rushing into Command for one of two reasons - either the drop had gone bad and someone had been injured, or the drop had gone bad and someone was dead. He walked over to the controls and hit the button beside the blinking red light.
“Bravo Zero, this is Base. SIT-REP? Over.”
There was a small pause before Zero’s voice came back.
“Base, this is Bravo Zero. We have the shopping. Picked up additional package... it’s Bellona One... over.”
Alec frowned at the light before leaning closer. “Bravo Zero - say again. Over.”
There was a static and Alec felt as though time had slowed down and was dragging itself out deliberately.
“Base, this is Bravo Zero. We have picked up an additional package: Bellona One. Contact was made and Bellona One is down as are Bravo Six and Bravo Niner. Please advise. Over.”
Alec looked over at Kellie and realised why she was standing there. Word had obviously filtered down through the Transgenic grapevine and she’d come as soon as she heard.
“Bravo Zero, this is Base. Do you have a medical emergency? Over.”
“Base, this is Bravo Zero. Negative. Team is able to return to base with medical standby. Over.”
“Bravo Zero, this is Base. You have it - return to base immediately. Over.”
Alec left Dix to finish the rest of the communication as he rushed toward Kellie and pushed her in the direction of the medbay. As they moved quickly, Alec saw Kellie gesture to several X’s standing nearby and watched as they ran off to do their appointed task. By the time they reached the concealed side, most of the X’s had returned with medical equipment and were setting up mobile stations.
“You thought she was dead, didn’t you?”
Alec looked across at her harshly. “No contact for three years? Nothing, not even with her unit. Something wasn’t right.”
“Still might not be. It might not even be her, it could be Sam.”
Alec shook his head. “No, Zero knows her. If nothing else, he would have confirmed her barcode. I just don’t know where she’s been.”
There was barely any time for a response as Kellie motioned to the X’s in the loading bay and the scout gave the signal for their arrival. The inconspicuous delivery van pulled in and Zero jumped out immediately. Alec didn’t even have to open his mouth as Zero ran around to the side.
“I don’t even know how it happened. One minute we’re loading the van, the next there was this quick blur that raced past. She just attacked Alec, I swear, we didn’t provoke her. I tried to tell her it was us but she didn’t even listen. Gale took her down with a pair of tasers.”
Kellie motioned for the two Transgenics on the stretchers to be taken to the medbay as she helped Max onto the stretcher. Alec knew as soon as he saw her that it was Max but she’d changed a lot. There was a thick scar running underneath her chin and partially down her neck and he wondered when she’d gotten it. Scars faded pretty quickly for them and to have one so prominent meant that it had been serious. Kellie quickly checked her vitals before placing an injection in her arm.
“What is that?”
Kellie looked up in surprise. “Sedative.”
“You’re sedating her? Why?”
Kellie motioned for the stretcher to be taken to the medbay and pulled Alec aside. “Let’s say for a moment that this is Max -”
“It is.”
“Let’s just say it is, Max attacked them. Without provocation. I have to take into consideration that she’s not quite herself and could attack any of us. It’s just until I make sure of who she is and how well she’s doing.”
Alec gave her a curt nod and turned to Zero who had been helping his unit unload the supplies. “Zero - I want a report on my desk within the hour, got it?”
Zero nodded and Alec turned away. As he moved through TC, Transgenics stared at him as though they could gather information just by looking at him. By the time he reached Command, he’d had enough and strode straight past an X6 trying to get his attention and escaped into his office. He closed the door knowing that it couldn’t keep anyone out even if he wanted to be alone but most people in TC knew that if his door was closed, he wanted to be alone. They’d learnt the lesson in the first few months after Max had left when he hadn’t had the patience for anybody. Mole had been the only one brave enough to enter without knocking and Joshua had been the only one who had dared breach the door to his apartment. It’d had been tough on him and that had filtered down to the rest of TC, but he’d gotten his act together and pulled through and TC had followed.
And just when he’d gotten himself into some sort of routine, she showed up again on his doorstep to turn his whole world upside down. If that wasn’t bad enough, she was taking it out on their people - though he had no idea what possible reason she could have for being angry.
True to his word, Zero had the report done within the hour. Twenty minutes after Alec had sat down to finish the requests in his inbox, a message popped up on his screen indicating that he had a new report. His eyes quickly absorbed the report, taking note of the fact that Max hadn’t responded to any of their calls and that it had taken two tasers to take her down. None of the supplies had been damaged and they’d already started distributing them around the city so he stood from his desk and halted only for a moment before squaring his shoulders and walking out of the office.
Several people glanced up at him but most kept their heads down and cast glances sideways as he passed them. He nodded to Dix who immediately accessed the newest report and archived it with the rest before walking out of Command and heading for the refitted labs that served as a medbay. The medbay had been one of the first things that Max had set up after the siege and had insisted that it always be kept fully supplied. Nothing had changed in the last three years except the addition to the staff who had filtered in with a group of refugees only six months after Max had left. Kellie, an X5, had been trained to infiltrate a hospital and had actually garnered a lot of knowledge about how things worked at Manticore. It was especially useful for decrypting the files that Logan had managed to get from Manticore’s database before they burnt it down.
Kellie looked up as he strode through the doors and immediately stood, walking into one of the back rooms and assuming he’d follow. When Alec entered, he saw that Max had been placed in the decontamination chamber which had been refitted into a secure room. It had been especially useful when the odd heat episode caught everyone off guard and was capable of holding an X5. Kellie pulled a clipboard off the hook on the wall and pointed into the room.
“I don’t know what to tell you. It’s Max. Her DNA matches perfectly, barcode is the same. I haven’t given her a chance to wake up yet but from all the tests that I’ve gotten results on, she appears to be perfectly healthy. There’s a few more that Beaker’s working on but I should have them in the next hour or so.”
Alec walked the length of the room, turning the corner to see her through the glass from a different angle. She was laying on the stainless steel counter that was being used as a bed and had a single drip inserted in her left arm. Other than the scar on her neck, she looked exactly the same, even down to the length of her hair. She was wearing a black, tightly fitted suit that had what he presumed was some sort of bullet proof lining over the chest.
“When did you plan on waking her?”
“When you got down here. I figured you’d be the one who’d want to do the questioning...”
Alec looked up at Kellie and saw the concern in her eyes. “I’m fine. Just wanna ask her where she’s been the last three years. If it all turns out to be some sort of mistake, we let her go. If she turns out to be a threat, we eliminate her.”
“Alec...”
He raised a hand to stop her. “No. It’s been three years. Clearly she’s moved on with her life, for whatever reason, and decided that TC was not worth her time. Our people come first. We’re in the middle of a war.”
“I know that. But we don’t know everything yet. Max is a good person - she wouldn’t have attacked the team unless something was wrong.”
“I didn’t think she’d leave either and she did. We obviously didn’t know her that well. From all accounts, the drop went smoothly - there was no double cross, no threat. No reason she should have attacked. Give me ten minutes to set things up with Mole and then we’ll wake her.”
Kellie nodded sullenly as he turned and walked out of the med bay. He ran into Mole almost as soon as he turned the corner and the gruff Transhuman took the cigar out of his mouth and pointed to the building behind him.
“Princess awake yet?”
Alec glared at him and the once often used nickname, but Mole seemed unperturbed as he pushed a paper into his hands.
“Dix wanted you to see the distribution list.”
“This could have waited until later.”
Mole shrugged and looked at the doors to the building again. “I thought I’d bring it down myself. Kill two birds with one stone. Figured you’d need a hand restraining her.”
Alec shoved the paper back at him and scowled. “I’ll be fine. I need you to hold down the fort for a couple of hours while I get to the bottom of this. Make sure you let me know if anything dire comes up and track down Josh for me, would ya? He’ll have heard about this and I don’t want him anywhere near this place. Keep him occupied with something until I need him.”
Mole nodded stiffly and the cigar shifted to the other side of his mouth. “You think she’s a threat?”
He took a deep breath. “I don’t know. But if she is- ”
“She needs to be eliminated.”
Alec tried not to meet the lizardman’s eyes as he nodded. Mole took it for what it was, a barely concealed attempt at covering pain, and decided not to press the issue. Alec knew there was more than enough people who could still take her out if he couldn’t - it would just be a matter of allowing them to.
Mole puffed out a cloud of smoke and turned away, crumpling up the paper in his hand as he did and Alec took the moment to let his head clear. Every now and then he found himself wishing for the relatively mindless state he’d had back at Manticore. If Max hadn’t helped them all escape, he still would have been able to do certain things without having to worry about emotion. Or, at least, that’s what he tried to believe until his brain caught up with his current line of thinking and shredded it for the lie it was. If it’d been true, he never would have failed the Berrisford mission.
He tried to switch of his emotions as he turned back to the med bay and he steeled his gaze in the hopes that if he could convince everyone else that he’d been successful in turning them off, maybe he could convince himself. Alec didn’t even glance at the Transgenics he passed as he headed for the room she was in - he just stared straight ahead, nodding once at Kellie as he took a deep breath in front of the door. She came to stand beside him, punching in a combination on the side panel that allowed the door to open and immediately walking inside once it had.
He tried, and failed, not to pause on the threshold and when he finally convinced his feet to move, Kellie had already begun lowering the dosage.
“How long?”
Kellie briefly looked up. “A couple of minutes, five at the max. She might be disoriented for a minute or so but everything after that is all her.” She caught his eye. “Do you want me to set up a guard in the outside room?”
He shook his head, not taking his eyes off of the woman on the table. “No, I’ll let you know if I need anything. Just keep the regular check up schedule going.”
Kellie nodded before exiting the room quietly and Alec moved to the foot of the table. He only had to wait a couple of minutes but if felt like hours as he watched her eyelids twitching. When she woke, her eyes opened slowly, almost lethargically and he decided that he’d give her the minute or two to be fully lucid before asking her anything. He still had no idea what he was going to ask; all of the questions seemed to have rushed into his mind at once and caused a pile up. He was still sifting through the debris as she looked at the ceiling and nothing else. He frowned before taking a step forward.
“Max?”
She didn’t move, not even a slight acknowledgement at her name and he titled his head as he watched her.
“Max?”
He wanted to move closer, reach out to her, but his instincts kept him rooted to the spot and he visibly cringed as his mouth opened again and the numbers tumbled out of their own accord.
“452!”
He wasn’t sure what horrified him more - that she didn’t acknowledge her name or that she didn’t even recognise her designation. Max lay motionless on the table, staring up at the ceiling and he pushed his instincts aside as he approached her. It was only as he got within arms reach that she moved and all she did was turn her head to the side. Her empty gaze fell on him and he felt the urge to crumble to the ground.
“Max?”
She turned to look back at the ceiling. “I’m not Max.”
Something the size of a golf ball tried to work its way down his throat and he bitterly swallowed as he moved a step closer.
“What should I address you as?”
She sat up in a fluid movement, swinging her legs over the side of the table and blinked at him. “I’m called Husk . Are you the doctor?”
He must have visibly blanched because she took her eyes off of him to look at the room she was in. She didn’t seem to recognise her surroundings and a small frown passed over her features before she became a blank slate again. He tried to keep his face expressionless as he took another step forward but the war raging inside of him was causing him to struggle.
“Are you...? Why did you attack the group before?”
She blinked at him again, something he was finding very unnerving in its slow, rhythmic pace, and placed her hands in her lap.
“Mission #381: eliminate the targets with minimal damage to their exterior. Are you the doctor?”
“Something like that. Who gave you your mission?”
Something flickered in her eyes and he could have sworn he saw her expression soften before it hardened and she leapt off the table. He immediately took a step back and was met with a blow as she rounded behind him and tried to place him in a choke hold. His hands grabbed at her arm, using her weight to throw her over his shoulder. She practically landed on her feet as she looked up at him.
“Who are you?”
“Alec. X5-494. Any of this ringing a bell?”
She looked up at him angrily and pounced, her hands wrapping around his throat straight away. He pushed her backward and the next few moves between them were merely a series of blurs as both tried to get the upper hand. She used her leg to kick him across the room and was noticeably surprised when he turned in mid-air and pushed against the opposing wall, landing steadily on his feet in front of her.
“What are you?” she asked through narrow eyes and he stopped, his arms falling to his side as he looked at her.
It wasn’t possible. As unlikely and incredulous as the situation appeared to be, Max had somehow been brainwashed but it was impossible for her not to know she was a Transgenic.
“I’m a Transgenic, like you.”
“I’m human. I don’t know what a Transgenic is but we’re nothing alike.”
“How do you think you move so fast? See further, think quicker?”
She stared him down, her body crouching a little lower as she prepared to strike. “I’m just that good.”
She leapt at him again but she’d barely moved when a pulse seemed to go through her and she shook, barely giving Alec enough time to launch forward and catch her before she hit the ground. She stopped shaking almost immediately, the stillness frightening him more than the attack and he quickly hit the green buzzer on the wall beside the keypad. Kellie opened the outer door almost immediately and rushed forward, quickly hitting in the combination to the door.
“What happened?”
“I don’t know,” he said as he carried her to the table and laid her down. “One minute she was attacking, the next she just seemed to drop as though I’d tasered her.”
Kellie looked up in alarm before quickly rolling Max onto her side and pressing the back of her neck. She pushed Max’s head forward a little more before she closed her eyes briefly and raced over to the cabinet behind her.
“She’s probably got a tracker in her. I’d say it’s rigged unless she shows up. I can’t believe I missed it!”
“Rigged? As in ‘blow your head off’ rigged?”
Kellie merely gave him an apologetic look and he found himself looking down at Max again. He could see that she was still breathing but she was completely out and he wished she was there with him to share the irony of the situation. Kellie didn’t even pause before cutting into Max’s skin just below the barcode and pushing a pair of tweezers in. The tweezers moved slightly as she got the right grip on the object before she picked up a new scalpel and began to remove it. Alec nearly shut his eyes knowing that if there was just the slightest mistake, there would be an almost silent explosion and any remaining hope of seeing Max again would be gone. Instead, he looked down at her face again and wondered what had happened to her.
“She wasn’t her,” he said, his voice small and quiet as Kellie pulled the tweezers out and looked at the small plastic item in the tray.
“If she’s got one of these in her, I’d say not. Max would’ve let her head explode before hurting us, right?”
He looked back at Max. “I’d always thought so.”
Kellie placed a small stitch on the back of Max’s neck and taped some gauze over the wound. “Did she say anything specific?”
“Just that she was on a mission. She didn’t know who Max was. Said she was called Husk. Didn’t go ape until I asked who she worked for; I should’ve known better.”
“You needed to know. I’ll have Beaker get back to me with those x-rays asap to see if there’s anything else we’re dealing with but I doubt it.” She looked down at Max. “What do you think happened to her?”
“I don’t know,” he replied, shaking his head, “I honestly don’t know.”
She left the room quietly after that and Alec rolled Max back over. He took the opportunity of her being still out to go over everything in his head. Obviously, Max had been brainwashed. At some point, someone had gotten their hands on her and managed to do what Manticore never had - force her to lose herself. Question now was, who was it? When had she been brainwashed? How had they even known about the drop off?
Manticore may have had one of its facilities burned down but they still existed and just because the Conclave and the Familiars became more of a threat to his people, it didn’t mean that Manticore wasn’t. They still had power, they still had money and were undoubtedly laying low for a short while after having their facility and organisation exposed. But just because they could’ve been behind it, didn’t mean they were. Whoever wanted Max had obviously not wanted her dead so she had to have been useful for something.
And just when had they taken her? Transgenics were trained to withstand any form of brainwashing or reprogramming and to completely erase everything Max knew, including that she was Transgenic, must have taken months. Surely if she’d gone missing, Logan would have called for help? Then again, he remembered when Max had been shot and Logan hadn’t asked for his help, even after knowing that Familiars were inside the locked down facility. If Logan thought he had it under control, he might not have called.
Alec made a mental note to go over everything from the initial plans to the van returning to see where the leak had been. He doubted that any of the Transgenics would be stupid enough to go over to the enemy. Transgenics and Transhumans didn’t always get along in TC; Max had been a bridge between them and there had been less fighting when she’d been around but they were unanimous in their loyalties and if there was ever someone caught betraying them, Alec had no doubt he’d be forced to eliminate them.
Looking down at Max again, he wondered how much damage had been done. Physically, at one point she’d been in a bad enough way that she’d been scarred, probably permanently. But mentally - there was a difference between repressing who someone was and giving them a new identity and erasing who they were. Manticore had the ability to erase and he’d seen it done before, been the victim of it before, but Manticore always kept them fundamentally the same. They still knew who they were, what they were... who was in charge. There was every possibility that Max had been too much of a threat to be allowed to keep even those basic notions and they’d completely wiped her. If that was the case, she’d more than likely have to be eliminated.
But if he could somehow reach her, somehow access ‘Max’, they might be able to save her. Having her leave was hard but he’d always known that she’d been out there somewhere; she just hadn’t wanted to come home. But eliminating her, killing her, was a very different thing and he wasn’t sure he could do it. Especially not after seeing her. There was a primal urge to protect her at all costs that was rising in him and he backed away from the table and stood on the other side of the room.
When she finally opened her eyes, Alec stood straighter and took a small step forward.
“Max?”
“I’m not Max. How many times do I have to keep telling you? I’m not a Transgenic either.”
Her voice was relatively flat and he realised that there’d barely been any change in it from the first moment she opened her mouth. He was beginning to miss the yelling.
“Your name is Max. Your designation is X5-452, although if you were in your right mind, you would have smacked me up the head for even mentioning that.”
“Doesn’t that tell you something? You have the wrong person.”
Alec shook his head and took another step forward. “Nope, you’re the one in the wrong here Maxie and I’ll be damned if I don’t at least try and do the right thing.”
“If you don’t let me go, they’re just going to come for me. There’ll be a bloodbath. This is your best option to walk away.”
He stalked toward her as he pinned her with his glare. “I’m not walking away from you again, Maxie. Not again.”
Her head tilted slightly and he was startled by the movement. It was uncharacteristic of anything he’d seen so far and he took as step back from her. His training was telling him that she was too far gone; that there’d been too much damage and they’d never get ‘Max’ back. But his instincts were screaming that she was there. That every little movement, every little flicker of awareness was proof that they could get her back if they just tried.
Kellie knocked on the glass and he turned his focus away from the woman in front of him.
“It would’ve taken her out.” she said through the glass, allowing his exceptional hearing to pick up her voice. “It was designed to give out short shocks, probably to incapacitate, but it just exploded outside when we tried to track the signal. I’d say they know we have her.”
He nodded and looked back at Max. “Did you hear that? The people you are working for just tried to blow your brains out!”
“They wouldn’t want me in the wrong hands.”
“Or they were just controlling you. I cannot believe that YOU, of all people, are coming to the defence of the cowards that are trying to control you!”
She remained silent and moved her legs to the edge of the table. There was nothing threatening in the move but he could also see that he wasn’t getting through either. He let out an exasperated breath.
“Where’s Logan?”
“Who?”
“Logan. Boyfriend. Has glasses and an exoskeleton slash wheelchair?”
She remained blank at the description and Alec closed his eyes. He wanted to get through to her. He’d been trained well enough to know that it could take days or weeks to get through to her, if he ever did, but that didn’t stop him from desperately wanting the quick fix.
“What about Zack? Or Tinga? Brin?” he paused. “Ben?”
There was a flicker across her eyes, almost like a passing shadow, but it gave him hope. Enough hope to know that somewhere, deep down, Max still existed. She’d never been one to do things the easy way and he knew it was going to be difficult but there was hope.
(PART TWO)