TITLE: When Heroes Fall
PART: Prologue
RATING: R
PAIRING: Max/Alec!!! With slight L/A
DISCLAIMER: The characters belong to JC, Fox etc etc etc
AN: This is very loosely based on the Buffy ep. Normal Again which has to be the 2nd or 3rd greatest ep. of all time!!! (The other 2 being Fool 4 Love and Something Blue (guess who's a Spuffy fan lol))
AN2: Ok I'm not a Cher fan but I absolutely adore the song Walking in Mephis (X-Files fans will understand y) and that lead to the discovery of the song after which this fic is named
AN3: This is gonna be loooonger than most of my chapters but it's the prologue so bear with me
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Through the darkest night
I see the stars shine bright
When heroes fall
In love or war
They live forever
~Cher~ Song for the Lonely~
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PROLOGE
Max's mind slowly swam into consciousness, and she raised her head to peer at her surroundings. Fluorescent lights illuminated the room, their bright outlines burned onto her retinas. Her mind was still cloudy and things were out of focus but she was able to ascertain that she was in some sort of cell. The stereotypical loony bin from the looks of it, padded walls and all. She was still grasping at wispy memories that were slowly seeping back, trying her hardest to remember where she was.
A camouflaged door on the opposite wall swung open and Max stumbled to her feet only to have her now weak legs give out on her.
"Logan!" she cried in relief, when the familiar figure strode into the room, "And Asha," she added when the blonde trailed in after him.
"What the hell am I doing in here?"
"Are you alright Callista?" Logan asked, examining Max from a distance.
"Callista?" Max asked frantically, "What do you mean Logan? It's me. Max. You know me."
Logan sighed and opened the door motioning a man in a lab coat into the room.
"She still thinks she's in there," he informed the uniformed man.
"In where?" Max demanded, attempting to stand once more.
"I told you it would take a while. She's been living in that creation of hers for years, she can't just snap out of it. That's her life." The man replied, ignoring Max's outburst.
"My life?" Max asked, her brain still trying to clear away the cobwebs and understand what was going on.
"You talk to her," the doctor said softly to Logan, his eyes never leaving a frightened Max who sat in the corner, her legs splayed at awkward angles, "You're a familiar face and she'll take it better if it comes from you." Logan nodded and walked over to Max crouching down beside her.
"Hi Callie," he whispered, "you doing o.k. kiddo?" Max stared at him, this was not Logan, this man had something in his voice that she had never heard in Logan's, pity.
"My name⦠is Max," she shouted huddling even further into the corner, seized by an unusual paranoia and dread.
"No listen to me," Logan said grabbing her wrists, "You're name is Callista Halle and you're in Seattle High Security Mental Institution and have been for nearly three years now."
Max was now sure that this was not Logan. He was touching her and he was lying to her. She snatched her arm away and cradled it against her chest.
Asha winced and stepped forward, "Maybe you should take it slower," she suggested, reaching out to touch Logan's shoulder. Logan spun around and glared at her, "This has to be done. May as well get it over with. Like pulling a band-aide," he said hollowly, almost pushing her away from him. Asha backed away, hurt evident on her face but the doctor nodded in agreement with Logan.
"My name is Kenneth Logan and that is my wife, Emily, and Dr. Williams" Logan continued, his tone deceptively calm, while it was apparent a battle was raging inside.
The first tears started to trickle down Max's cheeks as she listened to this, "No," she sobbed, "Your name is Logan Cale and that's Asha and I'm not in a mental institution because I'm not crazy."
"No," Logan said comfortingly, "You're suffering from a rare type of schizophrenia in which you have created an entire life for yourself. A life where you are a genetically engineered solider created by a secret organization you've named Manticore. None of it's real Callie."
"Manticore's real!" Max cried, her eyes glazed over in blind fear, "It's all real! You're a fucking LIER!"
"You were checked into the hospital years ago and fell into your delusional world less than a week later. You took people from your old life and built a new one around them. Logan and Asha are versions of Emily and I, your adoptive parents. Zach, Ben, and Eva are your brothers and sister and the rest are various friends."
"No, no, no, no, no," Max muttered, all the while, trying to drown out this man's familiar yet alien voice, which was telling her lies. Trying to drive her crazy, break her, but that wasn't going to happen.
"We were really worried about you," Logan said, tears beginning to drip down his own cheeks, "You were showing improvement until last year when you started creating totally new delusions. These new one's started appearing and we could find no real world person to relate them to. It seemed you were slipping even further into your little make believe world."
"If it was all in my head how do you know all this?" Max asked, the first logical comment she had made since regaining consciousness.
"You talked out loud. We were able to determine most of what was going on through your disjointed ramblings." Logan explained, "Do you remember Rafer?"
"Yes I remember him," Max snapped, the absurdity of the situation suddenly hitting her. This was obviously someone's sick idea of a prank. Or maybe one of White's twisted plans.
"He was the first. The first delusion we couldn't trace back to your real life. That was the indication that you were falling even deeper into your fantasy world. You were creating people, as you needed them. Rafer was a fairly one-dimensional character so we weren't too worried but then came more. Joshua seemed to be the biggest threat. He was created to cater to your motherly instincts,"
"Why would I do this?" Max asked, the tears, having finally stopped leaving her eyes red and swollen, "Why would I create I world like I did. If that was all my creation why would I make the virus? Why would I kill Ben?"
"You had your reasons I'm sure," Logan replied.
"And why would my adoptive father become the love interest in these 'delusions' of mine," she continued.
"Father complex according to the doctors. There were a great number of orphans following the pulse, you being one of them. Emily and I adopted you when you were 9, we were 21, it seemed the only way we could make a difference."
"So why am I suddenly o.k.?"
"We don't know," Logan answered honestly, "We assume it partially due to the character you named Alec."
"Alec," Max snorted, "Yeah could probably make me want to leave."
"Actually he was the reason you wouldn't," Logan said.
Max let out a loud bark of laughter, "Shows how well you were listening to my 'ramblings.'"
"Alec isn't real. He was the final nail in the proverbial coffin, or so we thought. He was the most complex character you created. No basis in real life yet he had a many faceted personality and you developed this complex relationship with him. He was the breeding partner who followed you out into the real world. The one with the cutting sense of humor who annoyed you yet he was the only one to make you laugh. You had a connection with him. He was just like you and knew where you were coming from. Alec was the thing that kept you anchored," Logan explained.
"Oh trust me he's very real," Max drawled, pulling up the filmy paper material of her hospital gown to reveal her upper arm.
She gasped when she saw the smooth unmarked skin, "He bit me shortly after I met him. We were just playing around at Joshua's and I said something so he leaned over and bit me. It left a scar. Right here," she said, running a trembling finger in the general vicinity of where the scar should have been.
Logan grasped her chin, tilting her head upwards, "It's not there because it's not real Callie."
"It is," Max shouted, but the conviction weakening and her chin was wobbling.
"Something must've happened to break that cord and send you back into reality. You're going to be alright Callie," Logan said, pulling her to him, stroking her hair. Max leaned against his shoulder, loud sobs, wracking her body.
"It's real, it's real, it's real, it's real," she kept mumbling through the sobs. She pulled away from Logan, her eyes darting around the room, focusing on Asha/Emily, then on Dr. Williams, Asha again, before finally coming to rest back on Logan/Kenneth.
"Why don't I remember anything?" she asked, terror obvious in her voice.
"We're not sure. We just hope that through therapy you can go on to live at least a semi-normal life," Logan said. Max watched as two new doctors came into the room and slowly approached her. They each took hold of her, carrying her out of the room. Max struggled and screamed but her strength was to drained for the wild thrashing to do any good. Logan watched as she was carried away, pain clearly etched on his face.
"You did the right thing," Asha murmured, coming to stand next to him.
"I know," he sighed, running his hands through his hair, "She'll be safe now, as long as she believes what we tell her."
Dr. Williams approached the couple after giving them several minutes to collect themselves, "We've given her a brand of muscle relaxant which should suppress most of her heightened abilities. If she takes it thinking that it's keeping the delusions away she should be safe though this is going to be hard for her."
"I know, but she would never leave otherwise and she isn't safe here anymore. White's got men everywhere and the public is in a frenzy," Logan replied sadly, "I only hope that if she ever does realize what we did she can find a way to understand it."
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Should I continue??? REVIEW! You know u wanna.
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