"You Blaze!" shouted Joshua as Max turned slightly and smiled her goodbye. Max quickly turned away again and ran. She ran away from Manticore yet again, back to Seattle, back to her friends, back to her job, back to Logan, back to the odd little life she had made for herself.

As she raced through the woods, Max felt a powerful urge to stop running. It confused her but she ignored it and ran even faster in protest against it. She focused her mind on getting back to Logan but her heart refused to join in. Her heart was breaking with every extra inch of distance she put between her and Manticore. Not because of Manticore, but for the man she knew she was leaving behind, the man her heart now belonged to.

Max sped up the stairs of Foggle Towers, desperate to see Logan again. She was sure that as soon as she laid eyes on him, everything would be alright again, that she could forget about what happened in Manticore.

Standing in his apartment again brought back so many memories, some good, some bad, some great but none were enough to stop her heart from pinning for the man she'd left behind. The emotions the memories raised were not strong enough to stop her mind from recalling those moments she shared with him in her cell.

Max knew then and there that what she'd shared with Logan was over. She had fallen in love with another man and even if she never got to see him again, she could never bring herself to pretend that she felt otherwise. She couldn't betray him like that.

FLASHBACK

"Renfro's not happy with us!" he stated once the door was sealed behind him and the guard had left. "Did you eat the dinner they gave you?"

Max froze at his words. Her mind flashed back to the 'good for the baby' dinner they had given her an hour earlier and watched over as she ate. "Yes. They wouldn't leave until I'd finished everything."

"Shit!" replied Alec. "They did the same to me." Alec sighed and sat down next to Max on her bunk. "They've drugged us, Max."

"What?!" Max was incensed. "They drugged the meals?"

Alec nodded and leant back against the wall. "I overheard one of the guards on my way over here. He was talking with Renfro. She told him it wouldn't be long now. That conception was 'in the bag'!"

"What do you think they've done to us?" Max was starting to panic now.

Alec reached over and took both her hands gently in his. "I know exactly what they've done. They've already done it to some of the others. They've induced 'Heat' Max."

"Oh my God!" gasped Max. She knew what happened in 'heat', knew there was no way to fight against their orders once it started. Manticore were going to make her have a baby for them and there was nothing she could do about it.

END OF FLASHBACK

From the darkness of the doorway, Max watched Logan at his computer. He was searching down yet another lead on his never ending quest to save the world. She loved him for that, for his unending devotion to making the world a better place. She sighed inwardly. It was true, she did love him, but not the way she use to. He had been moved to the friends section of her heart and replaced by another.

FLASHBACK

"That's why I grabbed this for you." whispered Alec as he pulled a small bag out of his trouser pocket. "It counteracts the drug they gave you." he added as he placed the bag into her palm. "But you better take it quickly."

Max was stunned. "Why would you do that?"

Alec looked at her, a mixture of shock and surprise in his eyes. "Because." was all he replied.

"Why Alec?" Max pressed him again. He looked at the pills in the bag then back into her eyes. "That's why!"

Max started to feel her temperature rising, the 'heat' was starting. She quickly dry swallowed the pills and coughed slightly on the chalky aftertaste.

It took several minutes for the pills to take effect. Several minutes in which Max had been stalking Alec around her cell, several minutes in which, despite his weakened resistance, he kept enough distance between them to prevent anything from happening.

Like magic, the 'heat' faded away and Max slumped down on to her bunk once more, Alec joining her shortly after. She gazed at him in sheer disbelief. "You still haven't told me why Alec. Why did you do that? Don't you want it?"

Alec looked away. "Of course I want it! I've wanted you since that first night, but not like this. I wanted you to choose to be with me, not be forced into it by violence or drugged into 'heat'. It's not real if it's forced."

Max shook her head, trying to understand. It didn't work. "But…I… I don't understand, Alec."

END OF FLASHBACK

Max took a step toward where Logan was sitting. He finally realised that someone else was in the room and turned. The second he saw her, his face lit up. Max felt the joy explode out of him as he slowly got to his feet. The look in his eyes told her that he still loved her but she knew now, she could never return that feeling ever again. "Max?" sighed Logan happily as he took a small step toward her. Max wanted to run to him, have his arms around her again but how could she do that, knowing that he wouldn't understand it was just in friendship.

Logan didn't give her the chance to get away, not that she was planning to run. He quickly crossed the distance between them and ensnared her in his warm welcoming hug. "Oh Max!" he gushed as she returned the hug.

"It's good to see you again Logan. I missed you too." she said softly.

Logan instantly realised that something had changed between them. Max was acting differently. "Are you okay? Did they hurt you? What did they do to you?"

Max sighed sadly and moved away from the hug.

"When I was back there, in Manticore, they forced me back into training. They wanted their perfect little weapon back. They put me into their 'breeding program' too, guess they want more perfect little weapons."

"Breeding program?" gasped Logan. "Max, did you…"

"But they made one big mistake." Max replied, cutting of Logan's protest at its knees. "They clearly didn't realise just how many of their 'perfect little weapons' have minds of their own. Like the one they paired me up with. 494, but I named him Alec. He went against his orders. He went against them three times. For me!"

"I don't understand, Max. What happened?"

"What's to understand?" said Max, sighing again as another memory of Alec was triggered.

FLASHBACK

Alec sighed and sat forward on the bunk, dropping his head into his hands. "What's to understand. You named me, Max. You made me a person, not just a number or a fake ID. You use my name every time I come in here. I'm not 494 around you, I'm just Alec. That's not something I want to repay with raping you." He stopped briefly and took a deep breath before continuing. "After being fake all my life, you made me real, made 'me' exist. You made me do a lot of things…" he added with a strange laugh.

"Such as?" Max was beyond curious now.

Alec raised his head slightly but still didn't look at her. "You made me think, made me wake up, made me start to feel again, made me care." He looked up at her and their eyes locked. "You made me fall in love with you."

Max couldn't believe what she was hearing. Her feelings for Alec had been confused at first but had become clearer as they spent more time together. They had been forced together every night for the past two weeks and all he had forced out of her was conversation. They had talked about everything and anything, except her life outside Manticore. Alec hadn't allowed her to discuss that, fearing that a passing guard would overhear. Instead, they had talked about their hopes and dreams.

Listening to Alec's big plans for his life, Max had found herself falling for him in the worst way. Hearing his own confession spurred on her own. It was out of her mouth and into his ears before she could think. "I love you too!"

"You what?" he gasped. He pinched himself to ensure he was awake.

"I said," Max stated as she leaned closer toward him. "I'm in love with you, Alec!"

Alec gasped happily and quickly closed the distance between them. The second their lips met, an explosion went off inside their minds. They wanted each other so badly, it was beyond what 'heat' could induce, beyond anything earthbound.

Alec lowered Max gently on to her bunk, deepening their kiss as they moved. His hands tenderly caressing every inch of her body as the clothes were cast aside. They unleashed their inner animals and enjoyed the sensation of each others bodies as they moved together as one.

The guard, who came to retrieve Alec from her cell, was sent flying back out again. They weren't done with each other. The guard quickly locked the cell door again and called Renfro to come down. When she arrived, she instantly mistook their passion for 'heat' and ordered the guard to leave them to it.

When morning came, Max lay exhausted on her bunk, safely wrapped in Alec's arms. He was sleeping so peacefully. His warm breath on her neck, lulled her in to join him in slumber, which Max was only too happy to do.

END OF FLASHBACK

Logan listened intently as Max explained how Alec had refused to rape her during the program. His face continually switching between pale and panicked to relieved and impressed. He gasped in shocked horror when Max told him about being drugged, only for Alec to have snatched the right drugs to save her all over again.

Max cleared her throat. The last time he saved her was the hardest time of all. He had already risked everything for her but now he was giving her back to the life Manticore had stolen her from. As she spoke the words to Logan, the memory came back to haunt her as well.

FLASHBACK

"But I didn't tell them anything!" Max was shocked.

"Are you sure?" he asked, glancing at the door, watching the guard walking away.

As soon as the guard was out of sight, Alec dropped the act. "Max, they know you're trying to escape! They want you to!"

"What?" Max was beyond confused now. "You didn't…"

"NO!" Alec snapped. "They don't know that I know about that. Max, what they did to you, it wasn't an interrogation! They implanted something in you!"

"Oh my God!" gasped Max, she had a habit of doing that around Alec. "Do you…"

"Yes! It's a retro virus. Specifically, it's a virus targeted to someone called Eyes Only. They're convince that you know him. You do, don't you?"

Max was shocked at what she was being told. She nodded mutely. Alec sighed. "One touch and he's dead. Or so they think."

"What did you do?" Max knew Alec well enough now to know when he was up to something. Alec smirked happily and pulled a small vile and syringe pack out of his trouser pocket. "Just snagged something they wouldn't like you to be given."

Max smiled happily and instantly held her arm out toward him as he prepared the shot to give to her. "It's the cure, isn't it?"

Alec's smirk broadened into a wide grin. "They really shouldn't have trained me so well!"

Max laughed quietly as he injected the cure into her arm and kissed the mark it left better. Max hugged him closely and breathed in his scent deeply. "Come with me?"

Alec pulled away and his smirk faded. "You've got your own life out there Max. Manticore are expecting you to escape. If I go with you, they'll know somethings wrong. On your own, you can vanish. They'll never let us both go Max. You know that and I know that."

END OF FLASHBACK

Logan gently wiped away the tears that freely flowed down Max's cheeks.

"You really love him, don't you?" Logan asked softly

"He loves me too." replied Max, her voice barely even a whisper. "I wanted out, so he made sure I could be free!" Max didn't even try to stop the new tears that came.

"I love him so much, Logan. How could I leave him back there? How could I just abandon him like that? To them?!"

Logan walked back over to his computer and started typing again. Max stayed where she was. There was no way she could take another step without collapsing. She looked over at what Logan was doing. He was trying to fix a fault with his satellite uplink. "I know where the base is." Logan announced triumphantly. "Once I get this link working again, Manticore's gonna be front page news."

Max's tears vanished and she was instantly at Logan's side. "It'll expose them!"

Logan looked up at Max, a slight hint of worry in his eyes. "What will they do?"

"Get rid of the evidence!"

Max and Logan spun around at the sound of a third voice in the room. Alec stepped out of the darkness and smiled happily at them. Max was on him in a heartbeat. She threw her arms around him and buried her head in his neck, breathing in his scent as deeply as she could. Alec returned the embrace. "Looks like somebody missed me!"

"You must be Alec." stated Logan, a slightly hurt tone to his voice.

Alec looked up from the embrace and pulled back slightly. Max refused to completely let him go but allowed him a little space for this conversation, there were answers she wanted from him as well. "That's right." Alec said with a smile and loving gaze at Max. Max gazed right back up at him. The look in her eyes told him that she wasn't going to let him go ever again, not if she had a choice in the matter. He smiled softly and placed a gentle kiss to her nose before moving away completely.

"You're probably wondering… Well, a number of things." Alec started. "Somewhere along the lines of, Why am I here? How did I get out? How did I find you?" Alec smiled as he watched the others nodding silently with each question. "What you should be wondering about is… Manticore."

Logan instantly looked back at his computer. The uplink was re-established and Manticore's downfall was only the press of a button away, but something in Alec's tone had Logan worried. "What did you mean, 'Get rid of the evidence'?"

Max was worried about what that meant too. She was bordering on panic when Alec lowered his head and sighed deeply. "Alec?"

Alec raised his head and looked her directly in to eyes. A weak smile flashed across his face but failed to reach his eyes.

"When you escaped back in '09. They deemed your unit a failure. Everyone left behind was put through reindoctornation, to make sure no-one else got itchy feet. The twins and clones were dragged into Psy-Ops. We spent six months being mentally taken apart and put back together. Once they were satisfied that no-one else wanted to run, they banned names, friendships, the works. Everything that might make us want something more of life, like you had. They destroyed everything any of you had ever touched, even made the rest of us help, made the twins and clones light the damn bonfire. Then life inside Manticore carried on as if none of you had ever existed."

Alec paused and took another deep breath. He knew exactly what would happen if Logan pushed that button.

"When Ben went psycho and started killing people, I got dragged back in for another six months stay in Psy-Ops. They wanted to make sure it wasn't genetic. I learned about him all over again. They figured out that I was remembering him and two doses of deep probing later, I could barely remember myself."

Max gasped and wrapped herself into his arms once again, as though the simple act itself could erase what Manticore had done to him.

Logan cleared his throat. He had always known Manticore was a nasty place to be but until that very moment, he had never realised just how truly evil it was. It had to be stopped! "And if I push this button?" Logan asked, his finger mere millimetres above the enter key.

Alec swallowed hard and wrapped his arms tighter around Max. "Like I said. When Manticore is threatened, they get rid of the evidence. Only this time…" he looked down at Max. "…we are the evidence."

Max gasped as the true horror of what was to come, finally hit home.

Alec kissed her forehead softly before looking at Logan. "You push that button and everyone still in there dies tonight!"

Logan and Max gasped as one. Logan's hand shot away form the keyboard as though it would burn him. Alec sighed, pulled away from Max and walked over to Logan. "You don't, and Max dies tomorrow!"

With that, Alec hit the enter key himself. The Eyes Only broadcast began.

Max raced over to Alec and slapped her hands furiously against her chest.

"What have you done?!" she screamed while beating on his chest.

"I can't lose you Max!" the conviction in Alec's voice would not be denied.

"You've killed them! Their all gonna die!" she screamed, her voice fading into whimpers.

Alec pushed Max away and refastened his jacket. "Not if I can help it!"

"WHAT?!" demanded Max, her voice returning with frightening force.

Alec kissed her forehead softly. "I said I can't lose you, Max. I never said I was abandoning the others!"

Alec spun on his heel and sped out of the door. "I love you, Max!" he shouted back over his shoulder as he vanished form the apartment. "Then wait for me!" she screamed back to him as she grabbed her own jacket and raced after him into the night, into battle.

By the time Max arrived at the Manticore base, it was already burning. Glancing around, she could find no trace of Alec anywhere. With her enhanced hearing, she could her the others calling out for help. The screaming and pounding gave her the only incentive she needed to take those next steps.

Max raced along corridor after corridor, trying desperately to open the doors to each barracks she passed.

"They're jammed!" came Alec's shout from further down the next hallway. "Find the control room, use the override!"

Max did exactly that. One by one, doors all across the building sprang open. From somewhere further into the complex, she could hear Alec fighting with the door that still hadn't opened, his voice booming out to the others as they fled.

"Code Omega! Code Omega!"

Max felt her blood run cold at Alec's words. She heard the code being called out by the others, like a wave rippling through their world and crushing what they once held dear. Max felt her mind drift back to a small room many years ago, when that word first came into her life.

FLASHBACK

"Code Blue?" called the instructor.

"Serious Casualty!" replied the class.

"Code Red?" he asked again.

"Enemy in the ranks!" answered the class.

"Code Alpha?" the instructor called out again.

"Superior Officer in danger!" came the class's instant reply.

"Code Omega?" asked the instructor with a smirk.

This time the class stayed silent. They had never heard of that one before. The instructor paced to the front of the room and turned to face the class. His face was firmly set and the was a dangerous fire burning in his eyes.

"Code Omega is every soldiers worst nightmare. Betrayed by your own command. Should this ever occur to you, you are to immediately scatter and go to ground. You will not reveal yourself to anyone but your own and wait for the signal for further orders. Understood?"

"Sir, yes, Sir!"

"Good. Dismissed!"

END OF FLASHBACK

The sudden and tightening grip around her arm snapped Max out of her daze. She turned to defend herself, only to find it was Alec. Seconds after pulling her out of the way, the ceiling where she had been standing collapsed.

"Focus!" snapped Alec, pointing her toward the next control room before racing off down another corridor, shouting the code as he went.

'I can't lose you!' Alec's words echoed through her mind as Max raced into the last of the control rooms and released as many doors as she could. Glancing at a security monitor, she saw Alec standing very still in an empty corridor, staring at something on the wall. She watched as he ripped something off the walls notice board and disappeared into the door beside it.

Having done all she could, Max knew it was time to get the hell out of there. She raced out the doors and tried to turn for the nearest exit. Her feet refused to co-operate, they were in league with her heart. They weren't leaving without Alec!

She finally found him three offices down from the one she'd seen him run into. He was typing frantically on the keyboard of the only remaining working computer terminal and throwing disk after disk into a briefcase he had picked up somewhere.

"What are you doing?" Max screamed at him. "We've got to get out of here!"

"This is the last disk, Max, I promise!" he replied, mid-type.

"Of what? What are you doing?" she yelled, hearing yet another ceiling collapse.

"Us!"

"What?!" Max could barely hear him over the explosions and gunfire erupting all around them.

"US!" he yelled again. "It's the project subject list! It'll help us find the others after we get out of here!"

Max felt a swell of pride bubble through her. He had set her free, help to free the others and now he was gathering what he could to make sure they stayed free! If that didn't make her heart burst, that fact that he was all hers did!

Finally the last disk was finished. Alec grabbed it, threw it into the briefcase and grabbed Max's hand. "What do you say we get out of here?!"

Max laughed slightly as they ran at full speed toward the closest exit. As they raced across the outer compound, the guards in the watch towers were still firing down on them and the others. Alec pulled out a gun from his waist band and fired a single shot at the two closest, the two watch towers fell silent. Alec chuckled to himself as he put the gun away again. "Yip! Really shouldn't have trained me so well!"

Two hours later, after ducking and weaving through dense forest, Max and Alec were huddled together in the back of Logan's car and on their way back into Seattle. Alec stayed quiet the whole trip but Max could feel him fidgeting. "Alec?"

Alec didn't look at her, his gaze remained firmly on the briefcase at his feet. Max looked up and caught Logan's concerned gaze through the rear view mirror. She leaned forward and tried to pick up the briefcase but Alec snatched her hands back and held them tightly in one of his. He wrapped his other arm around her shoulders and drew her closer to him, pulling her flush against his side. Max closed her eyes and relaxed into his warmth.

When Max woke up, she was back in Logan's apartment. Looking around she realised that she was tucked up in Logan's spare bedroom, with Alec sleeping peacefully behind her, his arm draped across her middle protectively.

Getting out of bed as carefully as possible, not to wake Alec, Max made her way into the living room of the apartment. Soft snores from the other room told her that Logan was also asleep. After raiding a quick snack out of the fridge, Max spotted the briefcase tucked down beside the sofa. Curiosity got the better of her and within minutes, she had it laying open on the coffee table and was looking through its contents.

Inside the briefcase was all the information Alec had told her about. The disks had now been joined by paper copies of the information. Max wondered if Alec had let Logan see or perhaps had done it himself. The complete list of every transgenic, transhuman and anomaly Manticore had ever made was there for her to see. A short notation after each designation showed their current status. Max was appalled at just how many read 'euthanized for seizure studies'. Finding the designations for her unit, Max began to cry. 'X5-493 - K.I.A. Organs harvested.'

Max threw the page away in anger but found herself drawn to watching it land. The page it landed on immediately grabbed Max's attention and she pulled it out for closer inspection.

Breeding Program Updates: X5's

With direct orders from Director Renfro, all successful males are to be re-assigned to new breeding partners. Successful females to be re-housed together for security and monitoring. All contact between successful breeding pairs to be prohibited immediately. Teams to be given advance combat training for live birth retrieval.

Max felt her blood run cold, then suddenly boil. Her emotions dropped through the floor and then sky rocketed. She just couldn't believe what she was reading.

"Those bastards!" she hissed as she read the page again. "Live birth retrieval!" she cursed. "They were going to snatch our babies the second we gave birth?!"

Then the information truly hit home. Max's eyes scanned the page closer and closer.

'X5-494, X5-452, SUCCESSFUL'

Max's hand instantly shot to her flat stomach. "Oh my God!" she gasped. "I'm…"

"Pregnant."

Max's head shot round at the voice behind her. Alec was standing completely still in the doorway of the spare bedroom. A tear trickled down Max's cheek as she gazed over at Alec. He flinched forward slightly and Max was convinced he wanted to wipe her tear away. She stood up and turned to face him, page still in hand, as she opened her arms at him.

Alec didn't need told twice. He was instantly in her arms and wrapping his own around her waist, pulling her carefully against him. "I won't break." Max giggled.

"But I might." whispered Alec as his brought his lips softly to hers.

After a long, soft and sensual kiss, the two pulled slightly apart and made their way back round the sofa. Max sat down and Alec climbed around her to sit directly behind her. As Max leaned forward to grab another document from the briefcase, she felt Alec's arms snake around her and rest over her stomach. She smiled as he placed several gentle kisses to her neck and shoulders. "That's our baby in there." he whispered softly in her ear as his hand tenderly caressed the still flat area of flesh he had exposed.

Max forgot about reading any more and snuggled happily back into Alec's embrace. Together, they sat in silence, watching the sun rise over the city. Max rested her head back on Alec's shoulder and smiled as he laid a loving kiss on her cheek.

"If we have a daughter, I want to call her Dawn." whispered Max.

"And why is that?" Alec whispered back.

Max pointed toward the still rising sun. "The first thing we saw as a family!"

Alec smiled. "Dawn!" he stated proudly. "What if it's a boy?"

Max kissed Alec's cheek as she whispered into his ear. "You can choose."

Alec's smile grew. "Ethan!" he stated with a slight nod.

"Ethan?" asked Max. "I like it. Where did you…"

Alec turned Max in his arms slightly so that she was facing him. "I was on the civilian outreach program before the '09 escape. The woman who watched me called me Ethan. Manticore wouldn't let me keep it but I always wanted it back. Mind you, I like your name for me better. This way, I get to have both!"

Max wiped a small tear from her eye and turned back to watch the rest of the sun rise. She pulled Alec's hands over her stomach and held them there with her own.

"Dawn or Ethan, which ever one you are…" she said rubbing their combined hands over her stomach. "… we can't wait to meet you."

Max felt Alec's enormous smile as he kissed her hair. "Yeah," he whispered. "And we love you already!"

THE END

MALE

FEMALE

RESULT

X5-743

X5-691

SUCCESSFUL

X5-806

X5-217

YET TO TEST

X5-370

X5-465

SUCCESSFUL

X5-648

X5-627

SUCCESSFUL

X5-494

X5-452

SUCCESSFUL

X5-644

X5-341

YET TO TEST