Title: Blindsided
Author: Bent137
Rating: PG-13
Summary: Max is blindsided.
Disclaimer: I don't own anything.

Blindsided

It hit Max like a runaway train, completely unexpected. She had been minding her own business, just walking through T.C. as usual. They had been holed up for about 2 months. and while T.C. had retained some of it's grime and dipilidated camoflauge it had changed too. Some buildings were improved by renovations the transgenics had done.

Alec had scored some cleaning supplies and they'd made a party out of cleaning the headquarters, the infirmary, and the old seven story apartment building where a lot of them were living. Their number had expanded quickly with new arrivals, but then the number of transgenics arriving daily had slowed as T.C. became heavily guarded. Max had been grateful to get Original Cindy, Sketchy, and Logan out of the area before they had to really worry about being seen getting out.

Logan had pitched a fit of course, but she'd calmly told him that he couldn't stay. He had tried to reason with her, claiming he would be fine, and keep getting transfusions, and they could be together, just like before. Max wasn't having it though. That was no way to live and she told him as such. Aside from that, he didn't belong, he was human, and she had enough to deal with without having to deal with worrying about the other transgenics harming him, or him wanting to spend more time with her. It was simple enough, she just didn't have time for it. He'd squeaked, in that voice of his that was quickly grating on her last nerve, "You don't have time for me? But I love you Max! You know we're meant to be together."

Enough, was enough, and Max had told him in no uncertain terms that she didn't have time for his pasta dinners and stupid Eyes Only missions, and that she didn't love him, and they definately weren't meant to be together. She was meant to be with her own kind. "You mean Alec?" he had scoffed snottily.

This thoroughly pissed off Max, who responded with a heated "Maybe, who knows? I just know it's not you, and it will never be you."

Recently the arrivals had picked up again and they were looking for another building to clean and renovate for housing. In fact, Max had just come from checking out a building two blocks south and one block east of the headquarters when it happened. She heard the unmistakable thumps and groans of fighting coming from a building just ahead on her left. Fearing the worst, and hoping for the best, she hurried towards the sounds, coming to a stop outside the building.

She flattened herself against the wall and peeked around the corner. The sounds were definately coming from in there, but she couldn't see signs of anyone, directly across from the doorway was a wall that extended in both directions quite a ways before breaking into a doorway. She could see light coming from the rooms beyond. Suddenly a shadow moved across one of the doorways. Max cautiously moved into the building and crept toward the end where she'd seen the shadow. She flattened herself against the wall again as she neared it's end. She stuck her head slowly around the corner and found what she'd thought to be more than one room was actually one large room with large windows on the opposite wall. Sitting along the walls were nearly 20 X-6's, in the center of the room was a large blue mat, the X-6's were watching it's occupants.

They were men, Max deduced immediately, one dark haired, one lighter haired, both shirtless. They had each other in such tight holds and were moving so fast that Max couldn't see their faces. They appeared to be X-5, judging from their height. They danced around each other, and much to Max's surprise none of the X-6's were cheering on the opponents, they were observing them stoicly, their eyes following every movement. Suddenly the lighter haired transgenic flipped the darker haired one and he landed on the floor. The lighter haired one had his back to her, but she could see the smile on the darker haired one's face and the sweat rivults running down them both. The lighter haired one extended a hand to the darker haired one who gripped it and was pulled to his feet.

"You won," the darker haired one said. Max now recognized him as Mick, a transgenic who had been helping out immensely with the renovations since he arrived a week after the seige began.

The lighter haired one turned around and Max was shocked to see it was Alec. As soon as the shock wore off it was replaced by anger. 'How dare he be fighting for entertainment purposes, someone could get hurt!' she fumed.

Alec looked out at the X-6's. "You will learn all that eventually, but for now we'll start with the basics. Everyone pair up and get on the mat."

He was teaching them to fight. They'd discussed this, all of them, at first Max had been opposed to it, but Mole had insisted they needed to learn defense. There'd been a stalemate until Alec suggested that if Max really wanted to grant them their freedom she'd stop making choices for them, and let them decide for themselves. She'd agreed and the question had been posed to the X-6 representatives, a male named Bryce and a female named Nova. They'd discussed it with their fellow X-6's and returned the following week to the meeting of the heads of the various departments of T.C. with an answer. Yes, they wanted to be able to train if they chose on an individual basis.

Max had relented and said they would work on getting a space set up for them. She'd dallied though, and it seemed Alec had taken matters into his own hands, finding a space big enough, and mates, and setting up a time with Bryce and Nova in the space of a week and a half. Max hated to admit it, but she was impressed. Not only had he put this together himself, but he was taking his own time to teach them. He and Mick were actually teaching them together, the two transgenics did seem to get along well, but Max had always thought them to both be self centered, and here it turns out they've been training X-6's behind her back.

After a moments deliberation she stepped into the room. By now the X-6's had all found spots on the mat. Alec spotted Max however. "Just a minute," he said to the kids and walked over to Max. "Max," he whisptered lowly, "I know you were against this, but they voted."

"I know," she said simply, "It's good, that they got to vote for what they wanted. If they want it, then it's fine by me."

Alec looked at her quizically, "Are you-"

She cut him off, "Alec, they're waiting for you, you should teach them. I just want to watch."

Alec looked confused, but nodded anyway, "Sure, right, have a seat." He turned and walked back to the kids.

Max did just that, she sat against a wall and watched. Alec saw her watching, and was hyper aware of her for the first ten minutes, trying to make sure everything he said and did was nothing that would make her mad. Soon though, he was absorbed in teaching. When they stopped for a break he looked up and Max was gone.

Max was walking aimlessly through the streets at this point. Knowing, fundementally something had changed, but unsure or unwilling to acknowledge it. Finally, her inner self kicked her in the butt and made her acknowledge it. Her feelings for Alec had changed, a lot. She no longer loathed him. In fact, if she didn't know better, she might just say she loved him. Maybe she always had, maybe it was seeing his generosity to the X-6's that had brought it out. All she knew was she had a lot of thinking to do.

It was times like this when she really missed Original Cindy. Maybe she could sneak out and go to Crash that night. No, that was a stupid idea, her face was plastered all over the place. Maybe she could send another X-5 to go get her friend and bring her back in just for the night? Yeah, that was a good idea. Max turned and headed toward the headquarters.