Imbroglio
Setting: Right after and Jesus Brought a Casserole
Rating: PG-13
Disclaimer: I don't own any of these Dark Angel characters, I'm just obsessed with them, and can your blame me? Also, I'm not stealing quotes from "The Princess Bride, just borrowing, they fit so nicely, I couldn't resist.
Date started: 7.27.01
Date completed: 9.9.01
A/N: I have about a million scenarios as to what happens after the finally, so here's a combination of the best of them.
Max laid on the hard cot in her cell at Manticore and for a fleeting moment a small hope festered in her mind. The poem Logan had written about her that she had taken from his book. That night she had carefully tucked it away in her bra. Her hand flew to her chest in hopes that Manticore had developed a thing for modesty, "Oh God, what was I thinking?" she quietly said allowed. "They gave you a new heart. Think they left your bra on while they operated?" A new heart. A new X-5 heart that belonged to Zack. *I shouldn't be alive. Zack once told me that he would rather die than go back to Manticoreso he did, he died for her * Those thoughts were hurting on her brain so she tried to recall the soothing words Logan had written. "Forever eyes, Dark. Somebody's angel." Maybe she was somebody's angel, but Zack had been hers. He had helped her all his life, he had loved her in a way that she could never return to him. Max moved her hand to the back of her neck. Her sense of touch was so sensitive she could feel every line of her barcode, or perhaps she just imagined she could. That had been there before she was even born, and it would stay there until she died. She had been born into bondage. Moving her fingers lower she felt the tiny scar left from where she had put the implant in.. It acted as a tracking device that couldn't be removed without killing her. Just another reminder that no matter how far she ran, she could never escape. If it had not been for the events that had happened over the past year she would not be feeling this bad. Life really was easier when she just didn't give a damn.
A few hours later soldiers filed into the room that contained her cell block. Only one of the soldiers actually looked like he had military experience and knew what he was doing. The others looked as though they had been picked up off the streets. Perhaps the destruction of the lab really did result in pay cuts. *seven men, this should be easy* Max waited silently, looking over the men. No tranquilizers, no tazers, they must want her conscience, so why only seven men? She heard the click of the lock on her cell releasing and prepared to make her move. The one decent looking solider was fiddling with something in his hands, What was it? She would have to check it out after they were unconsience, because the men were advancing and it was time. Max had planned to jump up and knock the two approaching men together to get her started and take care of the rest in what ever manner was deemed appropriate. Only she couldn't move.
Max was in shock. Often before she had a seizure her body would freeze up for a second, but this was lasting far too long. There were few things that Max hated more than losing control of her body. Renfro then entered the cell block and Max shouted in a voice that sounded more like a growl, "What have you done to me?!" Wishing she would wipe that evil smirk off her face Max watched as Renfro nodded at the solider with the thing in his hand. He fiddled with it and Max fell to the floor, once again in control. "I've taken advantage of the implant in you, had it rewired so that your movements could be controlled by remote." Renfro replied in a voice so daunting Max wanted to go over there and rip off her head. Yet, when Max got over to Renfro instead of the decapitation she had planned, she hugged her. Even though her mind was completely sickened by this action, she could take no physical action by her own mind to stop it. Finally she was aloud to break the hug and step back. As if this wasn't bad enough, the next words to leave Renfro's mouth made her even more sick to her stomach. "A bug has been installed inside of you, so that we can always monitor your conversations." "why are you telling me this?" Max questioned, fearing that the answer would simply be that she enjoyed watching the looks of pain sweep across her face. Avoiding the question Renfro continued by saying that the lab technicians were working on a camera that could be put into Max internally so all that she saw could be monitored with absolute discreteness. "Also, I've taken the liberty of upgrading your tracking hardware, so now, I can track you in such a large range, there just about isn't anywhere in the world you can go where I can't find you."
As Renfro's face got brighter Max's got Darker, and Max knew she was enjoying it. "I'd love to do some field testing." Renfro said, not exactly to Max. "Make sure everything's in check." Against her will Max, surrounded by soldiers, followed Renfro and the seventh soldier down the bleak halls of Manticore and out into the training field, which was opposite the forest. Max was then put through grueling activities that entailed having someone, who was not her, make her body perform extreme acrobatic stunts, as well as take out each of the six soldiers. Max felt like a puppet, nothing more than a minion of Manticore. At least she wasn't mindless. Every chance she got Max spat some smart-mouthed insulting remark at Renfro. Unfortunately her efforts to degrade the bitch's self worth were ineffective. That smile remained as evil and daunting as ever.
Max had been training for about three hours now and twice so far the remote had malfunctioned and as Max regained control she fell to the ground. Dismayingly, each time she was back under remote control before she could rise again.
Escaping was imperative. It would be difficult, for she knew it would only be a matter of time before they tracked her down again. But Max had something she had to do, something she had been regretting for a while, and now that she had her mission, well, if anyone got in her way they would only have two options: back off, or help out. Renfro's cell rang, she answered, said about five whole then left. *Good* Next time there was a malfunction she could not fall. Then it happened, the sweet release of her constraining bonds being removed. Though she fought hard to stay on her feet, she inevitably came crashing to the ground. She would just have to make the best of her few remaining seconds of freedom. Using her arms to propel herself Max sung her legs around and knocked down the remaining solider, the one in charge. As he fell the fragile remote slipped from his hands and fell to its destruction. A look of pure satisfaction crossed Max's face as she saw it shatter into pieces. For the time being she was free of its power and limitations over her. She gave the solider a nice hard kick before soaring over the perimeter fence to be sure that he would not be calling for backup any time soon.
Running faster than she had ever run before she made her way to a nearby town. Max told herself that she could not stop, she wanted to put as much distance between her and Manticore as possible, but even a genetically enhanced killing machine couldn't go on like this for more than a half hour. In one swift movement Max mounted, hot wired, and stole the first motorcycle she crossed paths with. Desperately needing a faster mode of transportation, she acknowledged the fact that stealing an air craft wouldn't be easy. They would have noticed her absence from Manticore by now, tracking her, probably making a new remote. They would come with there soldiers, and choppers, and take her back, but it didn't matter, she was out now.
Passing an airport reminded Max that if she didn't get a plane to Seattle she probably wouldn't make it. Leaving the bike in the parking lot she entered the airport terminal. Next plane to Seattle didn't leave until tomorrow, but one to Olympia was now boarding. So all she had to do was get pasted customs and bored without a ticket. Max spotted a pathetic, but cute looking in the line she needed to be in that she could easily take advantage of. Max painted a seducing look on her face as she approached him. He welcomed her — practically with arms wide open and asked, "What's your name baby?" in a soft, gentile voice. "Max." she whispered in his ear. By looking at his eyes she could tell that he was under her spell. Max gave him a coy look, one to welcome his touch. He went in for the kill, and so did Max.
The two inched out of line and into a near by broom closet. As soon as the door shut the guy went to kiss and grope her, though, Max had other plans. She gently moved her hand to the back of his neck and applied pressure to a certain point so that he was rendered unconscious. Max slipped her hand into his pocket and pulled out his ticket. "I'm sorry." She told the incoherent boy. She slipped out of the closet and made her way back to the line. Max was beginning to get anxious as she sat waiting for the plane to take off. She anticipated seeing Logan again, his blue eyes, scruffy beard, and sexy glasses.of course she couldn't stay long they would undoubtedly be tracking her, so she would have to constantly on the move. As much as she would like Logan go on the lam with her would be out of the question, she couldn't ask Logan to give up on his life. But just to see him again, say what she had to say, that would make every thing she was going through worth it.
Max got off the plane at some run down airport about 80 miles away from her destination. She easily stole another motorcycle and began to finish her journey. Having to take detours to avoid sector check points four hours later Max found herself standing out side Logan's building. Her heart skipped a beat as she climbed the stairs to his pent house, then she did something she rarely did — knocked on the door.
The door opened and there eyes met. Logan was at a loss for words. He was afraid that if he touched her she would disappear like some beautiful dream. Max raised her finger to her lips, not wanting Renfro to hear a thing. She may know where she was by now, but Max sure as hell didn't want her to know anything more than a dot on a monitor. She entered, put her arms around him and kissed him. This was enough to tell Logan he was not dreaming. Max broke the kiss, went over to the stereo turned it on and up. The music was blasting, but at least it would offer the privacy to do what she came here to do. "I'm bugged. Try not to speak too loud." Max said in a whisper. "I thought you were dead." Logan Said. "Logan, I have to tell you this. I love you. And not even death can stop true love. Just delay it for a while." "And I am in love with you. I wish I had told you sooner, but you're here now, and that's all that matters." Then a look of terror, plagued Max's face. "Shit!" She thought. "What's wrong?" Logan inquired in a worried tone. "I'm screwed. They've taken advantage of the implant, they can control my body. They can also track me about half way around the world. I smashed up there remote before I left, but apparently they got a new one, cuz I can't move. "what can I do?" asked Logan? "Chances are, they are moving in on me right now."
"Then we'll go. It will be harder for them to track you if your moving.
"No, I can't ask you to give up your life here for me. They'll just keep coming."
"Your not asking, I'm doing."
"We can't run form them."
"Then we'll fight them, destroy them."
"How? We'll never succeed."
"What do you want me to do? Leave you here for them? Let them re capture you? Let THEM win!? I will do anything and every thing I can to protect you. And I know you know it, and I know your trying to do the same.but that night, you died in my arms, and a part of me died too. Now that I know your alive there is no power on this earth that will stop me from being with you. Even if they do catch you, and take you back to Manticore, they'll be draggin' my ass there too. I am not going to lose you again Max! We will find a way. I promise."
"Thank you"
"For what?"
"Loving me."
Logan picked her up , they went to the car and just started to drive.
Logan looked over at Max from time to time as he drove, "Poor thing, he thought. And I thought it was horrible having my legs taken from me, she can't move any thing from her neck down. Sick bastards."
They drove on for what felt like hours, neither saying a word, for they were too busy trying to think of a way out of this. It seemed like at any second the Manticore troops could sneak up on them and it would be all over. In direct combat, the two didn't stand a chance. As long as Max couldn't move this would have to be a battle fought with brains, for Logan simply did not offer the amount of brawn necessary, and even with Max at her best, alone, neither did she.
Logan hadn't really been concentrating on where he had been going, so when they approached a radio broadcasting studio, he was a bit surprised, for he had never seen it before. "Logan, is that what I think it is?" Max spoke for the first time since they had gotten in the car.
"If that radio station is broadcasting,"
"The waves might block the signal on the tracking device,"
"And the remote." Logan finished up.
Logan pulled the car up to the front door of the radio station and got out, he then went around to take Max out. Picked her up and stood her next to him. Just as he did she began to fall, but landed in Logan's strong arms. Neither tried to hold back the smiles of relief. Max entered the building and walked strait into a room where Logan could not follow, the ladies bathroom. Now the new Manticore recruits were practically off the streets and would not enter a female designated lavatory either, so they were staked out in the men's room, the same one that Logan unfortunately decided to enter.
The soldiers, were told to use any means to get to the escaped X-5, so when Logan entered, they attacked. He managed to ward off one of the men, but another had a knife to his throat and demanded the whereabouts of the girl. On e can only imagine what could have happened if the average Joe walked in first. These men were careless and sloppy. Max thought she heard the sounds of ass kicking in the other room, and of course imagining that Logan may be involved entered the men's room without a second thought.
What she saw did not make her feel any better, in fact, the sight of Manticore soldiers and Logan on the floor tore at her heart. Because of the extreme emotions Max was feeling she managed to take out every solider in the room in less than a minute. Once they were all down she went to Logan's side. All the spilled blood made her nervous, and the gash at the throat wasn't helping any either, but there was a pulse.
Max firmly placed her hand over the laceration and as she knelt there by Logan's side she felt a strange sense of dé j`a vu. The bathroom was an unruly site of mangled looking bodies, blood, and broken things. All in all, it was rather depressing. So she picked up Logan and left. There were enough people there for her to walk amongst them inconspicuously. She found a small, room, empty with the exception of one desk, a chair, a computer, and a phone. Max entered and locked the door behind her, not because it would offer any form of protection when they came for her, but for the act of actually doing it.
Max moved her hand from the cut and noticed it had completely healed. She then looked at her hand and saw that it took bore the mark of a healed cut. She hadn't even noticed getting slashed during the fight, and her revved up blood must have gotten into Logan and healed him. She looked over at the computer, perhaps she could hack into the Manticore system and make them think she was on the move again, then perhaps they would leave and she would have a chance to at least think of some far fetched escape plan that would never work but give her the illusion of safety, like the locked door. She woke the computer up from it's low power sleep and found that she would need a password to log in. *Ok max, you can do this, just do what you always do.* She typed in some random words, hoping to get in, no such luck. *I know there is a way to get around thisLogan would know* she looked over at him, he seemed ok, breathingand despite all the shit they were going through right now, just looking at him gave her a feeling of happiness, and it was then that she went over and kissed him. Almost hoping for some snow white effect, no matter how far fetched that sounded.
Max returned to the computer and sat there not so much trying to get around the simple security but thinking of what they were going to do next. Typing anything that came to mind in the meanwhile. A few minutes later a voice came from behind, "Any luck?" Max spun around to see Logan standing behind her, and she hugged him as she said no. Logan sat down in the chair and hacked his way in to the system in no more than sixty seconds. "Logan," Max began, "Krit and SYL are okay, right?"
"Yeah, they made it outand they left me a number to contact them if there was an emergency."
"That's very good, because I've been thinking about that sweet back at Manticore Zack had once mentioned, and that were probably going to end up there, unless"
"Krit, SYL we get, you guys into Manticore now and you destroy any and all the equipment used for tracking and Remote controlled soldiers, as well as blue prints, lab notes, anything, but don't worry about the computers, Logan's sending them a virus that should take care of destroying there hard drives, but do smash up any disks you see. Stay as low as you can until you see the chopper arrive, we should be on it and ready to fight. Once we land, move in, and take out as many men as you can, then make a run for the perimeter fence. Got it?"
Max waited for there positive response, then hung up the phone. "So how much longer do you think it will be until they come for us?" Max asked
"It shouldn't be to much longer, this building isn't that big."
"Do you need any more time?"
"No, I've hacked into Manticore security again and Krit and SYL should be able to get in unnoticed. I also send a virus to them that will turn every computer there into a really expensive piece of plastic."
"Are you okay with this plan?"
"I was going to ask you the same thing. I don't like the idea of surrendering to Manticore, even if we are destroying more of there information and escaping as soon as we arrive. But we really don't have many other options"
"I'd kiss you, but — oh, the hell with it." She then went to kiss Logan.
As he held her in his arms he noticed that she was shaking. "it's going to be okay." Logan reassured her just as some brute soldier-types busted though the door. "ShowTime." Max whispered.
They were almost immediately surrounded by at least twenty men, all brandishing high powered rifles. "That's some crappy artillery you've got there." Said Max in a voice that showed none of the fear that was practically bursting out of her. The head of the unit just grunted and stated that he had come to take her back to Manticore alive. Also, that if she did not cooperated her "Little Friend" would get his head blown off. Max could see the anger raging behind Logan's eyes, but he didn't say a word, nor express it in any other way that someone besides Max could see.
They walked down the hallways and up to the roof where a chopper awaited them. Max had five men surrounding her, while Logan only had two, but he was the one with the guns pointed at his head.
The beating of the helicopter propellers seemed exceeding loud in Logan's head, and it gave him a feeling of entrapment, no, wait it was the guns at his head that were giving him the extremely not comfortable trapped feeling. They took off and as the radio station became nothing more than a dot on the horizon, Max stiffened up, as once again being under the control of Manticore. Logan watched Max and all the others with them very carefully, he didn't even blink once through out the duration of the entire trip. Despite the fact that Max finally managed to keep her balance when her body was released from it's invisible bonds Logan knew exactly when that event occurred. And when it did, it was comforting, reassuring, for the first time all day Max felt that they could in fact succeed, and maybe she wasn't doomed to a life sharing the honeymoon sweet in the Manticore barracks.
The chopper neared the Manticore landing pad and using her enhanced vision Max scoped out the entire perimeter. Renfro was standing there, remote in hand. Could it be that Krit and Syl had not been successful? Perhaps they got captured, and putting Max back in control was just some sick trick, like as soon as they landed Renfro would turn it back on, and she would be rendered helpless, or worse, an instrument of evil's hand.
No, it couldn't be, there were Krit and Syl, hiding in the background, waiting to make there move. Renfro probably just didn't know that all her other equipment had been destroyed. Logan felt his heart start to race as they landed, this was it, what happened now could very well determine the rest of his life. It was time, he nodded to Max to signal that he was ready. Max looked to Krit and Syl, flashing them the signal. They were ready. Manticore was going down. The second they touched ground Max kicked the men closest to her in the groin, they never saw it coming, thinking she wouldn't be able to move. The two soliders guarding Logan turned their heads at the distraction thus granting Logan an opportunity to grab their guns and use them against them. Meanwhile Sly was busy taking out the pilot and any other solider on the helicopter, as Krit was wreaking havoc on the minimal security surrounding the landing area. Max and Logan left the chopper full of carnage and the four of them continued to fight their way to an exit. Renfro watched in horror so upset, confused, furious and straight out scared that it took her a moment to really react. Bullets were flying, as were any soldiers who got in the way of the four. There was so much disorganization, Logan was kicking some serious ass, fueled by pure adrenaline. At some point in time a bullet struck Renfro. Who fired it, no one really could tell, but they all saw the blood fly and they all saw her fall to the ground. She was dead. The four hijacked a vehicle that was sent with backup. As they busted out the front gate, they knew they wouldn't be followed. Too much damage had been done, too many men down, and with Renfro now deceased who would give the order.
"Everyone okay?" Krit asked once they were a few miles down the road.
"We will be." Max replied, "We will be."
"Going back to Seattle little sister?" Syl inquired
"You know I am. It's home." Said Max, looking directly at Logan.
"I always knew you would succeed Maxi." Krit said, in such a manner that he could only be referring to the fact that she had fallen happily in love with Logan.
And for the first time Logan really felt that he could be in Max's life, that he could be in her family.
*****Back in Seattle — five hours later*****
"You know how long it s been since I've had one of your one of your Cale cooked culinary masterpieces?"
"Much too long."
"So will you make us some dinner?"
"As you wish."
** Back at Manticore — three weeks later - the new CEO was giving his speech**
I know it's been hectic and confusing these past few weeks, with the lose of Elizabeth Renfro, the destruction of her motion control project, and having to deal with the desolation of all our computers. I know many of you felt that those events would truly mark the end of Project Manticore, but I have always been a firm believer in Captain Lydecker's original dream, to create a superior race of soldiers. So today marks the beginning of a new start. We will forget all about all the preliminary X-series, yes everything from the X-1s to the X-7s. It is far too difficult to deal with the past. Let us think only of our potentially glorious future! The creation of the X-8s will begin as soon as possible, funding is no longer a problem, for I have just bought the largest chain of coffee shops, yes, Starbucks, and I've already collected over ten million dollars from that. We are to forget all of Manticore's past mistakes as we continue are research for the prefect human being. I know we can do this people, you are the brightest and the best. Failure is not an option.