Max's Opening Monologue

Since the events that turned Seattle into Freak Nation (according to 8 outta 10 tabloids, the other not bothering to cover mutant stories and the last talking about how we should 'embrace our differences'… yeah right) I've come to realise some thing about myself.

I'm not done.

I escaped Manticore aged nine, and by 2019 I thought I had the world figured out. I thought I had myself figured out. But guess what? That's not the case. Cos I'm divided, parts of me don't fit together because I'm not sure who I am yet. There is a Manticore part of me; the way I'm stealth even when I don't have to be (like sneaking into Logan's apartment), the way I fall back on my soldier training if I ever get in a sticky situation… There is another part of me too, it's the part that believes a unit is your family and love is key, that's the part of me that wanted to escape but hated leaving Zack and Syl and Tinga and.. well, all of them. Even the Brain and Alec's of Manticore. Those are the two parts I figured out. But lately, hanging with all these X1's and X2's and even X3's, I've finally realised there is the feline side of me. It's another part, like a jigsaw. I always just lumped it with Manticore messing with me and mine, but I am part cat. How I know is that no matter how much I complain, there is a small part of me that likes going into Heat, loosing all my inhibitions and just clawing my way into some guy's pants. It's the same part that gets a thrill outta jumping of real tall buildings and the part which saw dinner when I looked at the chicken I brought over a year ago now. It's the part Alec can relate to, weather we admit it or not. I know now, after seeing all these X-5's interact with each other and with the Ordinaries (as Sketchy, Logan, and Original Cindy have been dubbed), that my Manticore self cannot truly relate to Alec's, his training is too far advanced and his torture lasted twenty-one years, not nine, and there is only so much one can do to a nine year old, the older ya get the more damage can be 'safely' inflicted.

The 'lower' X's (1,2,3) want me to be governed by my feline side, fight for my territory and don't back down until the last man is standing. Most others think it's the Manticore training I'm going by; secrets and deception (whatever it takes to win). But me, personally, I believe that it's my humanity that keeps me in check, and it's what's gonna keep me from killing all these Transgenics and from killing all the humans. It's what is gonna save us all.

Chapter One

Alec Vs Logan is a near constant situation these days. They never particularly got along in the World but now contained in Terminal City; it's like they're two studs locking antlers or whatever. Whenever Alec, who's trusted by the Transgenics, suggests something Logan, who I trust, automatically suggests something else. It's a real pain. Because while my human side loves Logan, my cat side wants to see them spar and follow the alpha male; which is obviously Alec, and my Manticore part just knows Alec is right, that Logan is different and can't handle who I am… It wants to run and hide from Logan.

Which is no longer a problem seeing as Logan left two hours ago to return to the city of Ordinaries. He says he needs to get Eyes Only up and running, that he can do more good from there; like spread the word that a barcode shouldn't mean being stoned to death, and he can help organise supplies from that side to. He's right, but I know that's not why he left. He didn't leave because he thought it would be more helpful or because of the virus. He left because he realised I'm not ever going to be with him. Fact of life. I love him and I want to be with him. But it's one vote to two, the cat and the soldier are already lusting after Alec… damn him.

Not really his fault, despite the way I tell him it is every day since we met. It isn't his fault he looks like Ben (genetics), it's not his fault I killed Ben (that'd be my bad), and it isn't his fault he chose not to kill me but to compromise my chance at getting rid of the virus (that is White's fault). It definitely isn't his fault he didn't rape me. (that's his good).

Rape. Because he'd had the chance. Back at Manticore. The guards wouldn't have cared, hell they'd probably have cheered him on. And he was ordered to.

At first I figured I was too tough for him, and he wasn't attracted enough to me. Then, after the thing with Logan I thought he was just trying to earn my truth. But now I understand what they suspected about me, I know that he was supposed to 'copulate' with me until we made a second generation X5 with my no-junk DNA and his skills. They really wanted a little me to train and study and brainwash and keep. Their perfect soldier. But he didn't, even as X5-494 he didn't have it in him.

But now I'm going into Heat and I have it in my to take him. The question is, should I?