Author's Note 2013: This story was my very first fan fic - my baby. Originally published here in late 2002, it was left hanging on the second to last chapter, much to the chagrin of readers who have asked me - even years later - for an ending! Unfortunately I had become stuck on the final chapter, and by the time I came back to it, I realised the whole thing needed refining. Dis-satisfied, I deleted the whole fic and reposted the revised edition. Still without that final chapter - until now!

Don't worry, the whole story isn't a songfic, but the lyrics to accompany this chapter is No Need To Argue by The Cranberries. It was this song which inspired the story in the first place. I strongly suggest you listen to the song as you read, just to really set the tone...

No Need To Argue

by Sorrow Reminisce

ll l lll ll l lll

Max looked down at the body lying battered and broken before her.

There's no need to argue anymore

Time stopped. It seemed as if the world around her had fallen silent in grief. She felt the surrounding buildings close in on her like giant towering gods. Condemning her for causing this happen. Only vaguely aware of someone standing beside her, she felt her mind explode into pieces. Seems those missiles had gotten in there too.

I gave all I could but you left me so sore

Unable to cope with the pain of this loss, Max's mind recoiled against the emotional blast that ricocheted through her. Instinctively, she allowed herself to sink into the almost-comforting detachment that came of the military training she had undergone half her lifetime ago. Old habits die hard.

Allowing her body to switch into auto-pilot, she felt as if she were floating above everything, looking at life through a bubble. A part of life, but detached from it at the same time. Given the circumstances, she didn't want to feel anything ever again.

When a voice interrupted the silence, she was curiously aware to find her body turning to hug the person beside her. She even found words within the banks of her memory to soothe this person's anguish. Funny that she could give someone comfort when all she wanted to do was dig herself a hole and jump into it.

From her viewpoint above, Max watched as the other person then turned abruptly and left. Neither caring if she'd scared or simply sent him away, Max was just relieved he was gone.

The numbness which had enabled her bruised and battered body to come this far, had been phased out at last. Unable to escape the inevitable, the onslaught of emotions that come when you loose a love you didn't even know you had, Max stumbled forward. Collapsing under the weight of her sorrow at last.

Dropping to her knees, Max drew the body closer towards her until she was cradling it in her arms. Smoothing back the brown hair that had clamped to the blood-soaked brow, she leant forward and kissed the still-warm skin. Wishing she could kiss away the death that hung about her like a thick blanket of prophesised doom.

And the thing that makes me mad is the one thing that I had

As her lips pressed softly against the blood-soaked brow, Max drew in ragged breathes and the tears which she had so carefully held in check - all of her life it seemed - finally descended like a black cloud that had at last found release. Sobbing aloud, she drew away and shook the body in the near-hysterical hope of shaking out some signs of life, as waves of anguish drove into her, piercing her bruised and battered soul.

All the things she should have said, along with all the things she should never have said, crowded her mind; filling it to burst. A thousand ghosts howling at once, a thousand things she should have changed. A thousand sharpened spears of guilt driving into her as she rattled the lifeless body, hoping - praying even, that she'd be granted the chance to bring him back. So she could kick his ass one last time.

I knew, I knew I'd lose you

For hours Max had scoured the rubble that was left of Terminal City, searching for signs of life. At first, she had told herself she was looking for anyone. Everyone. But after passing so many bodies of those she had come to know and love - Dix, Luke and the numerous X-series and Nomolies who had sought refuge within these toxic grounds - her hunt became more frantic for one specific person. One person who she needed now more than ever. And he didn't even know she cared.

You'll always be special to me

Ignoring her own injuries, Max stumbled over the remnants of what she had come to know of as home. No longer did she see the bloodied bodies lying where they had fallen - or where they had been torn apart. Instead her mind flashed continuously to the past year. The times she had shared with the person whom she sought. The times that she had never appreciated until this day. And the moment when her entire world was ripped wide open and gutted by a series of blasts that no one had seen coming.

So much for friends in high places.

And I remember all the things we once shared

Looking back on it, the bickering that had gone on between them was like... terms of endearment. At least, she hoped he'd seen it that way. Though she had the uneasy feeling that some of her more cutting remarks had hurt far more than she could ever perceive. He was just good at deflecting her negativity. She shuddered at the thought that he could die without knowing the truth.

And with that shudder, followed another, brought about by the thought of having to go through life without ever again indulging in his light-hearted banter and the smart ass smile which had slowly but surely broken down her emotional defenses.

Somehow she had gone from a pain in the ass, to realising he was her comrade; her partner in crime. At some point during these past few months, he had wriggled his way into her heart and made himself at home, in that laidback 'I'm gonna bug you til you learn to love me' manner that only he had. And she'd been too damn stubborn to admit until now, he wasn't anything like the schmoe she'd made him out to be.

He didn't deserve the crap she'd thrown at him in the past. He didn't deserve half of what she'd put him was enough human in her to realise she had to let him know she was ready to admit he was a friend. Not the screw up she always made him out to be. She owed that to him. If nothing else.

Watching TV movies on the living room armchair

As she stumbled her way across rubble, too shocked and exhausted for her own catlike agility, Max reflected upon the time she'd spent an hour holed up with him in a closet. The events of that day had taught her a lesson she had only learnt too late.

Trapped in that confined space, with no choice but to listen to his incessant chatter, he had confronted her with the very same questions her own innate sense of reasoning had been trying voice. Questions she recklessly chose to ignore. "Tell me - tell me that he's worth all this trouble, Max. I mean, tell me how he... how he rocks your world. Something." She couldn't tell him anything of the sort.

But she remembered the way he made her feel as they waited that length of time for the guards to change shift. Well, asides from irritated, he made her feel... alive. He fired her up with his smart-aleck remarks and blatant honesty. He knew her better then she knew herself.

And with every moment that she spent in his company he reminded her that she was on this earth to LIVE. Not to merely exist. She needed him. With him, she had the chance to feel something more than nothing.

'Where are you?' She whispered to herself desperately as she stood atop a high mound of shattered buildings. Her enhanced vision searched the scattered chunks of concrete and steel that lay around her, and the crumbled buildings that stretched out before her. Here and there, the living struggled with the dead. Like her, searching for signs of life. The air was filled with the stench of burning. Max shuddered to think of what kind of matter formed the source of those mixed odours

The sudden sharp cry of a baby peirced the air, and Max turned to see Gem slipping on a piece of rubble and throwing out one arm to protect the baby she held in the other. As Max helplessly witnessed Gem struggle to regain her footing from afar, she felt yet another sharp needle of loss stab itself into her stomach. Dalton was nearly always at Gem's side - and he was no where to be seen.

But they say it will work out fine

Max stumbled on in the opposite direction. A voice within her whispered that she should be helping attend the wounded, gather intelligence, plan a way to defend themselves against further onslaught. Flee. But she could do none of these things. She had to find him, nothing else mattered. No one else mattered. Not even herself.

Not all had perished in the series of explosions that had ruptured the silence of early morning and thrown everyone's life into a frenzied battle against a force they couldn't possibly stand up to - the force of a missile attack by unfair enemies who rained death upon them from the skies.

Her people were strong. This was exactly what they were designed for. Warfare. But the transgenics were unprepared for this assault from above, and caught off guard. And soon the enemy would be sending in the infantry to finish where the missiles had left off.

Was it all a waste of time?

She had set these people 'free', not thinking at the time that her kind had never succeeded in their quest for freedom in the past. Since she had escaped with a small group of fellow X5's in '09, they had been constantly hunted. If not by those who created and trained them, then by a darker enemy.

The ones she had released from the blazing fire of Manticore had never shared Max's desire for independence. They had no prior experience in autonomy. The world can be a hostile place, especially towards that which it can't understand. And so rather then finding freedom, these people were hunted down like rabid dogs. Yet for all her talk of family sticking together, she had effectively turned her back on them. Maybe bailing one or two out of trouble here and there relieved her conscience for a while but truth be told, she was too wrapped up in her own personal drama to care about anyone else's.

She'd deserted Zack, and he'd given up his life for her. He had literally given her his heart and she had returned the favour by giving him a Manticore-style dose of electric shock treatment. Well, one small comfort was that at least he was probably safe. Where ever he was.

She had expected Alec to adjust to life outside of Manticore in the same amount of time it had taken him to learn the piano. She'd been in the 'real world' half her life, and she was still adjusting. Hell, even Superman had problems coping with his identity. How could she have expected Alec to be a candidate for a Citizenship Award?

Shaking her head in self-disgust, she roamed further towards the fringes of Terminal City. Alec had been planning to meet with Sketchy and discuss a pro-transgenic article for New World Weekly. Seems the editor was supportive of the transgenics and their lost cause.

Maybe he wasn't even in Terminal City, or perhaps he'd been on his way back when the attack began. Stands to reason that he would use the wee hours of the morning when most ordinaries were asleep to sneak in un-noticed.

A flicker of hope sparked in Max's mind and ignited for a blissful moment, chasing out the demons which were gathering within the shadows of her conscience. The more she thought about it, the more likely it was that he'd still be alive. Probably recovering from a long night of beer and hookers with their pal Sketch.

Strangely, the thought of Alec indulging in such things was comforting to her right now. If it meant he'd still be alive then hell, he could be out in a forest chasing down men and ripping out their teeth right now for all she cared. So long as he would come back to her and give her one of those cocky grins, she could handle anything else life would throw at her. And she really needed one of those grins right now.

But before she could carry on that merry train of thought, a voice cried her name, breaking through the eerie silence of her surroundings.

Slowly Max turned to see an X6 running towards her. Dalton. At the sight of him, she broke into a relieved grin, remembering that he had volunteered to remain as a look out near the section of perimeter fence through which Alec had escaped. Surely he was coming to tell her that Alec was still beyond Terminal City, and therefore safe?

But the hope that had risen within Max at the sight of him, abruptly extinguished as she realised he wore an expression of alarm. Even before he reached her, she knew he carried bad news, and her fears for Alec suddenly tripled.

Skidding to a halt in front of Max, eyes wide with shock, Dalton stammered out a few barely audible words before the stress of it all overwhelmed him and he collapsed into Max's arms. Alarmed at this display of weakness coming from a soldier, albeit a young soldier, Max felt those few remaining tendrils of hope slip away from her like dandelion seeds, blowing away on the breeze.

Maintaining her patience to the best of her ability, she gently took Dalton by his shoulders and pulled him back from her. Looking into his eyes, she took a deep breath to steady her voice and asked, "where is he?"

Cause I knew, I knew I'd lose you

Dalton led her to the remnants of an alleyway amongst a cluster of what had once been buildings, but were now nothing more than giant gravestones for the dead buried beneath. The dead who would most likely never be laid to rest.

Stretched out on the ground lay a body, and of course Max knew who it was even before she saw his beautiful blood-caked face. Amid his many other injuries, a long piece of metal jutted out from his stomach. Sickly, Max briefly acknowledged how it had torn through his intestines. Even if he were still alive, there was nothing any one of them could do except watch him die.

Will I forget in time?

"I found him here. I didn't mean to lose him, he told me to stay behind and watch the fence till he returned. Stand guard for him." The small voice beside her cracked slightly beneath the weight of unshed tears.

"I did just that, but when they started firing on us, and the buildings started to collapse, I ran. I took cover. I didn't even know he'd returned until I stumbled across him lying here!"

They said I was on your mind

Somehow forgetting her own misery for the moment, Max drew Dalton into her arms. "I'm so sorry Dalton. I'm so sorry you had to be the one to find him".

"I stayed with him, hoping he'd wake up. But I heard others calling out. I heard people shouting to come and help them. I thought I could find help too. If only I had done so sooner!"

"There's nothing anyone could do." Came Max's increasingly detached reply. "You did well to stick by him."

During her search, she had felt almost void of emotion. Unable to cope with her fears, it was easier to push her feelings aside and focus on finding Alec. But at last the events of the day caught up on her, forcing the horror and pain to the surface at last. Without Alec in her life, she hoped she would feel numb forever, so that she'd never have to deal with the torment and grief that accompanied this loss.

There's no need to argue

Needing to be alone, Max adopted a commanding voice and prepared to bark out orders. It was what Dalton needed. It was what they all needed. Herself included. Except for once in her life, Max wished she could be taking orders from someone else.

"Now soldier, I need you to head back towards the medic-centre. Even if it no longer stands, that's where anyone still alive would have gone. Find a couple of people to come with a stretcher. We're taking Alec home."

'Where ever home may now be.' She silently added to herself.

"Yes Ma'am."

As Dalton turned and headed back in the direction they had come from, Max sank to the ground. At last, she had found the person she'd spent the morning searching for. Now she was left to deal with her grief.

There's no need to argue anymore