People's lives are shaped by the past. Everything that has ever happened comes together to create the present as we know it.
Max has many defining moments, ones that even now, years later, are shaping her world.
When Lyle broke his arm during basic training and the doctor told him about family to distract him, it was first time they thought of themselves as more than a unit.
When Zack and Tinga decided they all needed names, it was the first time they had an identity of their own.
When the Blue Lady came through the janitor, that night, and Ben created hope for them, it was the first time they had something to believe in.
When 421, who refused a name, was killed by Syl's stray bullet, it was the first time one of their own had fallen.
When they ripped the convict apart for being a Nomlie, it was the first time they were exposed to the beast inside of them. The bloodlust was something she could not soon forget, the warmth in the back of her mouth, the death still clinging to tiny hands.
When Jack was taken away and cut up, it was the first day one of them had outlived their usefulness.
When Lydecker shot Eva through in the chest with a cold gun and a cold heart, she lost the ability to kill in cold blood. Guns still remind her of that, of the cold.
The escape shaped her the most, though. If Zack hadn't gotten them out, she wouldn't be in a bar with Original Cindy and Herbal Thought and Kendra and Sketchy and Natalie. She wouldn't be drinking and laughing and playing pool.
There would be no bike messenger, just an assassin, a weapon, a tool. Runs would be missions, and signatures would be debriefs. Heists wouldn't be about making money for Walter and her bike and Vogelsang, but about power plays and information.
She thinks about this as she watches her friends from the bar. She's only known them for a year or so, but she would do anything for them.
Original Cindy is the best friend she's ever had. Outside of Manticore, that is. OC's nice, and spunky, and makes her feel like a normal girl. Makes her feel like one of those regular people she sees on the streets, wrapped up in their own little world, not looking over their shoulders for soldiers.
She knows it isn't smart to lose sight of herself, and of the danger she's in. The phrases, "Never let your guard down," and, "The enemy is everywhere," project themselves into her mind. It's so much a part of her instinct, that she can't help but scan the bartender for weapons, and peer at the girl at the entrance with cat eyes.
Much to her surprise, the girl catches her watching. There is a burning in Max's chest, an aching almost, but it stays long after the girl looks away.
Those eyes look so familiar, Max thinks.
Max must look distracted, and she is, because when Original Cindy walks up, she says, "Hey girl, what's wrong?"
"It's nothing," Max dismisses. The thought of Original Cindy finding out about what she is, of losing the only real friend she's had, is so painful that it must be avoided at all costs.
Original Cindy isn't convinced, Max can tell, but she knows that Max has secrets that aren't meant to be revealed.
Max and Original Cindy go back to the table with another pitcher of beer, talking of Normal and work and trying to forget their day.
A while later, after Natalie has taken Sketchy home, the four hang out in mostly silence, as only good friends can.
Max offers to get another pitcher, and even though the others refuse, she makes her way back to the bar for a refill. She catches a glimpse of the girl on her way there. She's dancing with Timothy, a sleaze who hits on Max every time she sees him. Her long black hair flies in every direction when she spins, but settles back, straight and perfect.
She finds herself at the bar. She asks for another, and turns back to study the girl. Her features are lighter than Max's, mostly Caucasian, but with a hint of exotic origins. The light blue eyes are rimmed in a much darker shade, and they stand vibrantly out of her face.
She throws her arms around Timothy and looks over him at Max. Her eyes narrow, and the passion and joy on her face are overshadowed by cold calculation. I know you're watching me, they say.
Max pulls herself away, and takes the pitcher from the bartender. Her eyes can't help but seek out the girl as she turns back to the table.
The pure pleasure of the dancing, and of the music, has returned to her as she spins in a wild and beautiful move. With her hair whipping around, Max can just make out a blur of black on the back of her neck.
"Oh the Blessed Lady," she whispers. The pitcher slips from her hand and shatters on the floor. She stares at it, frozen, as many look on.
And then she turns and runs. Blurs so fast Original Cindy can barely yell out before she's gone.
She doesn't see the alley, just the trees and the snow and the soldiers on her heels.
Later, she finds herself hiding in the closet in her apartment. Barely breathing for fear the girl will hear her. She struggles to slow her heart with personal knowledge that a Chimera could actually hear it beat.
The panic grips her, when she thinks of what will happen. They will find her. They will take her, and brainwash her, and turn her into that again. A killing machine with no identity of her own. They'll strip away Max until 452 is all that's left.
She's calmed herself, now, and is almost in a meditate state when the phone rings. And rings. She's too afraid to answer it, to give away her location. "Stay alert in enemy territory," she thinks. "Stay hidden in enemy territory."
And then the machine picks up, and it's Original Cindy, and she sounds worried. "I'm here," Max says in the phone, and Original Cindy finds her way back to herself.
"What was that about?" she asks.
"I just saw someone I'd rather not from...my past." Max jumps slightly at a low creak, and keeps her eye on the door.
Original Cindy is overwhelmed with curiosity as, for the first time, Max brings up her mysterious past. But Max sounds wound up, and so she doesn't push it. "Everything aiight, boo?"
Max slowly picks up a knife from the counter, hand shaking slightly. I won't go back there, she thinks. I won't go back. But she answers Original Cindy in a quiverless voice. "Yeah. It's just something I didn't want to deal with right now."
Original Cindy seems to understand, as she always does. "Cool. We can talk about it later, if you'd like."
Max would never like to talk about it, not with Original Cindy, not ever. But she agrees, and hangs up the phone.
She walks cautiously over to the door, debating whether or not to take her bike and get out of town, or to hide here until Lydecker, who she's sure is behind this, gives up and gets out of her town.
And she feels in her chest the twisting that makes her unable to deny the possibility that the girl followed her, that there's a tac-team outside, ready to storm the apartment.
When she opens the door, the girl is waiting for her. Before Max can stop herself, she's dropped the knife and is leaping on the girl. They fall to the ground and struggle for control.
The girl kicks Max off her with a force that would kill a regular person. They both pull themselves up, and circle each other, like predators. The girl gets off the first hit, but Max blocks the following punches with a precision forced on her through years of training. But there's something loose about Max's fighting that she can't help. There's a softness to her stance from years on the outside.
As Max switches to the offensive, she's surprised to notice something similar in the girl. She trained as anyone from Manticore is, but her moves are roughened with disuse. Could she be one of the twelve? The thought hits Max so hard that the girl is able to take her down.
The girl stands over her, her face as unreadable as Zack's ever was. Max reacts instinctively and knocks her feet out from under her in a swift twisting kick move that has always been Max's favorite.
The girl falls, but catches herself with her arms before her face hits the ground. Her hair falls forward, and in the second before she can move, Max sees her barcode.
332340090210.
X5-210.
Jondy.
May the Blue Lady be with me, Max thinks.
Jondy jumps up from the ground, ready before she's fully upright. Max just stands there, eyes wide, face frozen, body limp. It's odd behavior for an X5, and Max does not seem like such a threat at the moment, so Jondy hesitates before striking.
For a moment.
But as she swings her arm back for momentum, Max whimpers Jondy's name, and she stops.
"What did you call me?" Jondy asks, her voice so powerful, yet so close to breaking.
"Jondy," Max says, more sure of herself now. "It's me. It's Max."
Jondy doesn't believe her. "No. No, it can't be," she shouts. "I left Max under the ice! I left her to die!" And she starts crying, her stance slackening. Max turns and pulls her curls aside, flashing her barcode at Jondy.
"Maxie?"
Awhile later, after Jondy's cleaned up and Max has fixed them coffee, they sit in Max's kitchen and talk.
"I can't believe you're really here!" Jondy exclaims once again. Her whole life the memory of the water and ice and hummers over the hill has haunted her. She always felt like she betrayed Max. She still does, a little.
Max just smiles. After the fear, and the shock, and the fight, a strange and wonderful calm had come over her.
"Who have you been since the escape?" Jondy asks, no longer willing to dwell on a nightmare that's over now.
"I stayed with a family for a while, but the pulse hit and I got out of there. I wandered around for a while, thieving to keep my head above water, and ended up here. I met some friends, and they got me a job at a bike messenger place." She rubs her finger along the rim of her untouched coffee, remembering.
She looks up at Jondy, who watches her, fascinated. "The friends I met, they're great. It's the first time I've felt part of something like this since you guys." Max only hints at how much the need to find her family consumed her life.
"Anyway, what about you?" Max asks. This is what she's being waiting for since they were separated nine long years ago.
Jondy shrugs off her former enthusiasm, but maintains the joy of being a sister again. "I found my way to Seattle pretty much right after I got out. I joined a street gang for a while, until I learned what it was like out here. Then I found a place to stay and started working, with a little pilfering on the side. A few years later, I met a guy, fell in love, and got my heart broken." Max has never been heartbroken, or in love. She's too busy hiding to let love in.
Jondy sighs. "I know. We're not built for that kind of thing. I was tragically inept at it. But anyway, I left town, and moved to California. San Fran. I worked days as a mechanic, and nights as a bartender."
Max absorbs this. She wants to know why Jondy's here, but can't bring herself to ask.
Jondy continues. "I'd just lost my job at the bar because my boss is a jerk, and I'd been missing Jeremy, so I hitched a ride to Washington."
Jondy hasn't found Jeremy, and Max promises they'll look for him.
The next day, Max takes Jondy to Jam Pony to meet her friends. Original Cindy stands at her locker, struggling to open it without damaging her newly manicured nails.
"Hey, Original Cindy," Max calls. "Get over here."
Jondy looks around nervously. Normal, eyes narrowed, walks up to her.
"Who's your friend, Missy Miss," he asks Max. "And what the firetruck is she doing on company property?"
Original Cindy glares at Normal as she approaches. Smacking him on the shoulder, she says, "None of your business, fool. Get away." Normal takes it, annoyed, but tolerant, and walks off to attend to more important business.
"Original Cindy, this is Jondy," Max says. She sends a sidelong glance at Jondy. "She's my sister."
Original Cindy is surprised, but figures it was one of the many secrets that shroud Max, and is glad to be able to see a piece of that. "Nice to meet you," she says, and stretches out her hand for a shake.
They make small talk for a moment, but then Normal comes up and informs them they're needed on a run.
"Normal," Max calls after him. "I'm taking today off to spend it with my sister." They laugh when he throws up his hands in exasperation.
"I gotta jet," Original Cindy tells them. "Hot run, you know?" She turns to Jondy before she leaves. "It was nice to meet you."
Max and Jondy start their search for Jeremy in Sector Five. Jondy could sneak past the Sector Police, as she did before, but Max wants to search here before they resort to more extreme measures.
They go by some of Jeremy's old hangouts, in the hopes he's still there.
As they leap a fence that surrounds a warehouse, Max asks, "So what's so special about this guy anyway?"
"He's just so sweet, you know? He's the most innocent person I've ever met." Jondy tries the door, and when she finds it locked, she gestures for Max to do the honors. "I wanted the innocence with me always, but he took it like I thought he was naïve."
They enter the building silently, catlike in their nature. When it appears empty, Jondy goes on. "This was his workshop. I learned everything I know about mechanics from him." There are some engine parts lying around, and plans for cars strewn across a large table. Jondy walks over to it, running her hands slowly over everything.
"Did you ever tell him?" Max asks softly, looking around very carefully.
Jondy's hands settle on the back of his chair, and she turns her face toward Max. "No," she says. "About a million times I almost... But no. I didn't." She watches for Max's reaction. When they were children, Max had always been the impulsive, bold one, going off on adventures, wandering around the facility at night. Jondy often came along, but it is not in her nature to explore or take risks.
But Max understands. She hasn't told her friends, she hasn't been willing to lose another family to who she is.
To shift away from the heaviness of the subject, Max tells Jondy, "It doesn't look abandoned. From what I can tell, he still lives here." Jondy agrees.
After a period of indecision, Jondy decides that they should come back later, when Jeremy's home. She leaves him a note on her way out.
The sisters make their way through many a back alley before the reach a lively avenue. Street urchins call out to them, and an old man begs for money, but they're in their own world now.
Max is telling Jondy about Sketchy and Herbal when Jondy stops dead in her tracks. On a phone pole, not ten feet away, is a wanted poster with a picture of Jondy. She's a little younger there, and her hair is shorter, but it is definitely her. She's wanted for murder, with a reward of 50,000 dollars.
"Wha..." is the only word Max can form, but Jondy has no trouble letting out a string of curses.
"I had a run in with Lydecker about two years back, when I was still in Seattle," she explains, angrily glaring at the poster.
Max accepts this, and pulls Jondy away from the poster. They make their way to Max's apartment to strategize what to do next.
As they turn onto her street, a hoverdrone catches Max's eye. "Jondy," she cries, and Jondy quickly ducks her head.
Later, in Max's apartment, they decide the hoverdrone probably didn't get a good look at her. They start planning for if this is not the case, but Kendra comes in.
"Hey, Max," she says, her voice as gravelly as ever. "Who's your friend?"
Jondy flips her hair a little, feeling awkward. Max answers, "Kendra, this is my sister Jondy. Jondy, this is my roommate Kendra."
They size each other up, Kendra innocently, and Jondy not so innocently. Jondy nods at her, and they shake hands.
Kendra picks up a bag she left by the door, and sets it on the counter. "Max, I've gotta work this afternoon, but I'm making dinner tonight, okay?"
Max nods, and Kendra extends an invitation to Jondy.
After Kenda has changed and left for work, Max and Jondy reminisce on their lives back at Manticore. As Jondy speaks of Ben's stories, familiar thundering sounds freeze them both.
Her fear tangible, Max says, "They're here."
The troops storm the building, but the girls dive out of the window before they bust into Max's apartment. Jondy lands more gracefully than Max, but the fall phases neither. Blurring, they fly down the street, away from everything.
But a hummer that neither noticed—everything blends together at that speed—blocks the end of the street. Soldiers pile out of the car and charge at them, bullets flying.
Max leaps into the air and does a sort of pirouette, landing between two soldiers. She kicks them with more force than necessary, before tucking into a roll that ends with her lashing out at another from the ground.
Jondy takes care of the other four, using their strength against them, even though she's stronger than any of them.
They jump onto the hummer, and from it leap to the roof of a nearby building. They race across it, barely shifting their stride to get from building to building. A helicopter locks onto them and starts shooting.
As they leap over an larger than average gap, a bullet catches Jondy in the leg, and she barely grabs onto the ledge.
"Max!" Jondy yells, and her sister reaches down to pull her up. Another bullet grazes Max's shoulder, and her recoil causes them to fall into the alley below.
This time, neither of them land well. Max struggles to recover, to stand up, but a endless row of soldiers spills into the alley, and knock the transgenics out.