Damn the consequences: Chapter 3

Disclaimer: smacks forehead ...uh, yeah, right. I totally forgot… runs off to production studios …………... huh! Would any of us be writing fanfiction then?

A/N: Okay, not too satisfied with this one (either, I might add). And I'm not quite sure where I'm headed with this, but we'll see…. I post it today rather than later as a special thanks for all those of you having been so sweet to review, and for all those of you who read this so far.

"Sorry, dude. I understand why you'd be wantin' that kinda gun in days like these. Man, with those fuckin' freaks croppin' up all over the place, an honest man's gotta protect his own…," the shop owner said loudly, shaking his head in pure-felt sympathy. "But, see, they won't even letcha get close to th' city with that on ya. No chance. Shoulda think they'da welcome any sorta help in getting' rid a those monsters, but no… How 'bout you gettin' one a these instead, huh?"

He pointed to a standard kind of shotgun that Zack had seen Buddy use for shooting rabbits on his little Sunday outings. Not his kind of weapon. What he was going to hunt down required more effective arms. It had to be the other one, the one that would enable him to kill swiftly, effectively, mercifully…

The X5 checked the name embroidered on the guy's hunting-style vest and leaned over the counter in a slow, unintimidating movement, thus bringing his head so close that his lips nearly brushed the other's ear.

"Well, Leo," he whispered, "As it is, one of the… freaks stole my girl." He paused shortly, taking in the man's shocked and sympathetic expression at this statement, then continued in a more conspiratorial tone, "One of those, Leo, with one of us. My girl. This has got to have consequences, don't you think? Help me or not, I will find a way to take revenge on this thing and I will need the best firearm I can get for that."

He made as if to leave, knowing with absolute certainty that he wouldn't have to take more than a few steps toward the door.

As on cue, Leo exclaimed a somewhat desperate sounding "Wait," surely arguing with himself about what he was going to do.

Zack's face was still set in a deadpan look as he turned to the fidgeting man again.

"I know she's a small babe, but… how ya gonna smuggle her past those cops patrolling the perimeter fence, huh? Dudes all have those weapon detectors on 'em, you forgot?" He looked at his customer sternly, still not quite willing to part with the handgun. But he felt for the poor kid. Just considering the possibility of his Candace hooking up with one of those goddammit freaks made his stomach turn. He sure as hell would kill the bastard with his own two hands.

"Let getting into the city be my business, okay? I have my ways…"

Zack felt himself begin to grow impatient. Things didn't happen because you talked about them, but because you did them.

What was it with those ordinaries and their need to talk everything over? It irritated him no end, and he knew that he had wondered about that urge to talk rather than act before…

But it was hopeless, the return of his memory was still too fragmentary, too incomplete for him to place that near-recollection with any specific experience, or any specific person.

Right then Leo said hesitantly, "Yeah." Something about the kid's strange attitude – no real exasperation, no display of hurt feelings, that sort of things – had started to unsettle him. Just a bit…

"Shouldn'tcha better use a high-powered rifle on them, though? Wouldn't wanna get too close to those bastards, right? I have an M40A1 here, just got it in…. Sorta. …. Great sniper rifle, that. Sure is damn effective, 'n ya could just shoot'em freaks without lettin' 'em so much as hear ya do it."

Zack sighed. "It's not them, it's him. And I don't have time for this."

And with that said he blurred over the counter, broke the safety glass that protected the weapons from unauthorized retrieval with one punch of his fist, and grabbed the pistol he had wanted all along, by doing so startling the ordinary into backing away and staring at him open-mouthed. Zack nearly felt sorry for the guy as he stood there, his world shattered now that he had realized he had been talking to one of the "freaks" all along.



But Zack's mission urged him onward, and with one last glance at Leo he blurred out of the shop to the parking lot. He needed to get to Seattle as fast as possible, only too aware of all the weeks that had passed since he had let his brother escape.

Not remembering who he was at the time did not qualify as an excuse. By now Ben had already had too much time on his hands to leave the city and continue killing people all over the country.

Zack couldn't let more precious time pass and so he had even gone as far as stealing Buddy's red pickup truck, having felt a pang of guilt for doing this to the man who had treated him so kindly all those weeks. He hadn't even said so much as goodbye, hadn't left a message for the guy and his wife.

Buddy had been like a father to him. And as "Adam" the X5 had finally learned what that meant…

When Zack reached the car and sat down on the driver's seat, his newly acquired handgun balanced in his lap, he tried to piece together the few bits of memory he had regained of his brief encounter with Ben, but it all didn't seem to add up.

Why had he attacked his brother although he hadn't known who he was then? Why had Max been there? Why hadn't he remembered her at first? It didn't help that there were still so many gaps in his memory. They merely left him more confused than before, when at least he had known he was Adam; …with all the conviction a man with amnesia could have.

No time for contemplations like that, either. It was not important what happened to him, this was all about taking care of his siblings. And now Ben needed him. He had to find him before someone else did, before the cops or the military, or some enraged ordinary eventually got to him.

Ben deserved better than to be shot from a distance, not knowing what had befallen him. He deserved to see the familiar face of a sibling and to not be alone in dying…

Back in the shop, Leo had been too stunned to make even one single move. Somewhat dumbly he yelled after the transgenic.

"Uh… Just ya make sure ya remember it's a semi-automatic, dude!"

But of course the transgenic had already vanished from view by then.

"Fuckin' hell!" Leo mumbled, and added loudly, "He's one a them! I been talkin' to a damn freak the whole time! Shi-it!"

Logan frowned as two transgenics barged into his – Joshua's – house without so much as a knock on the door or at least a curt nod of acknowledgment.

"What happened? Where is he?" Max immediately demanded to know, her eyes fixed on Logan's face.

"Hallo, Max," he greeted and looked sideways at the other transgenic who had accompanied her. "Alec."

"Logan," Alec acknowledged the other man and made a face, his eyes pointing warningly in Max's direction.

Logan couldn't help but feel a little irritated at her bringing along her constant companion of the last couple weeks. Hadn't she complained about him almost constantly in the past? And then, all of a sudden, there had been that awkward moment when he had seen her and Alec… The way the other one had put his arm around Max's shoulders in a half-hug casually.

It had looked so naturally intimate.

In an attempt at concentrating back on the situation at hand, he told them what little had transpired in his phone-conversation with Buddy. "Um. Yeah, well. As it is, Zack seems to have regained at least some parts of his memory." He stated, focusing his gaze on Max while speaking. After all, it was her brother, and she had been the one involved in saving Logan by sacrificing Zack. She was the one who cared about him, who would eventually have to deal with the whole damn affair once more. It was a thing they had been through together, Max and Logan…

So why was Alec here?

'Stop it,' he thought, reminding himself of the precarious conditions out there in which the transgenics were caught. She couldn't possibly have come to him alone. Too dangerous. And of course she couldn't have brought Josh for company. The big fella was just too…extraordinary looking to go unnoticed, especially in times like these in which everyone suspected their fellow citizens of being "one of them freaks."

"Logan!" Max exclaimed, when she noticed he had been lost in thought. Now, of all times… "Zack?" she prompted, waiting for more information.

"Right. Sorry. Apparently, there has been an incident at a bar-"

Alec smirked at that and said, "Seems the guy eventually learned to enjoy himself after all, huh?" Which earned him a punch to the shoulder by his fellow X5. "Ow. I was just saying..."

"Don't," she muttered under her breath and glowered at him before returning her attention to Logan.

Logan talked on as if he hadn't noticed the little scene, "Some confrontation with a local about a girl – "

"Always that…," Alec remarked because he just couldn't help it. When Max looked at him again, though, her face only wearing a mask of worry and not showing any signs of being infuriated by his words, he regretted having opened his wide mouth. He knew how much she cared for her… siblings. Even though he still hadn't quite grasped that whole concept of a unit regarding themselves as family, he at least knew what it meant to care for someone with all conviction. He grimaced at her apologetically, then lowered his head slightly and examined the floor in an attempt at preventing himself from uttering more such crap.

Logan, who had watched the other two closely, furrowed his brow and turned from Alec back to Max. He had to force himself once again to ignore the feeling that something about their whole "relationship" seemed a little off. But then, who was he to judge? Hadn't his never-quite-was-one relationship with Max also seemed somewhat like that? And he knew for sure that he had always loved her. Still did. Okay…

"Buddy called to let me know that Adam – Zack – has left the farm sometime last night. He didn't leave any traces, didn't say where he was headed. Nothing…. Stole Buddy's car, too. Max…. the last one who saw him, a friend of Buddy's," this was not easy for him to say, so he just decided to get it over with quickly, "He said your brother nearly choked that local. And before Zack left the bar the man heard him say…. well, as I was saying, seems like he's regained his memory, Max. Anyway, he at least remembers his true name."

Max gasped audibly. Her eyes widening, she made as if to grab Logan by the arm, only remembering the virus when he backed away warily. She just stared at him then, her hand still in midair.

Oh god. How could she have forgotten…It had always been him that was more careless about the virus, and she had been the one to insist on a safe distance.

It only half registered with her when Alec gently took her hand in his and gave it a reassuring squeeze, before using mild force to make her lower her still outstretched arm again.

"Max," he spoke softly into her ear, not aware of how intimate this gesture looked to the ordinary, who stood there, taking them in silently.

"Max…. just let's go, alright? We better go and find your runaway bro before he starts going off the deep end again, shall we? We wouldn't want to see poor Logan here with a third eye, now would we? I mean…, that'd give the name Eyes Only a whole new meaning, huh?" Alec said jokingly, trying to ease the peculiar tension that had so abruptly entered the room.

And it seemed to work. Gladly he detected the first hints of an upcoming huff in Max's pretty features.

And he didn't have to wait long for her to say his name in this special tone of hers, always reserved for him, and for him alone.

"Alec!"

"Sorry," he mouthed, not feeling sorry in the least. Good that she was back to normal again. He couldn't bear her being so upset. It… just didn't feel right.

How did Alec manage that, Logan wondered. Humoring Max by teasing her. It had never been like that with him and her, and it upset him to realize this now.

Ugh! Stop. It. He told himself once again, although he knew he wouldn't be able to.

"But we don't even know what exactly he remembers. Does he remember anything about Manticore; about us? Maybe… Oh god, Logan, what if he remembers whatever has made him go after you, this cranial implant is still inside his head, right? – Better lay low until we found him, okay? I'll tell some of the others to go check on you every once in a while, to make sure you're safe" Max said worriedly, getting more and more restless by the minute.

God, how Logan hated to be considered the weak ordinary, the victim; not strong enough to defend himself. Hadn't he shown her that he could fend for himself? Hadn't he even saved her damn Alec – genetically-engineered, mind you – that day during the Jam Pony incident?

Logan sighed heavily. "Max, we don't know that. Sam – Dr. Carr – wasn't even too sure about whether the thing really survived it when you sent that shock jolting through Zack. He – "

"He said it's a pretty safe bet that, sooner or later, the whole fucking thing'll happen again, Logan. I remember him saying it, word for word, okay? – Minus the swearing, but still… Don't try to act brave on my behalf, alright? I don't need that. I just need you to LAY LOW. Understand? I – I can't afford to lose you, okay?"

Logan looked at her, baffled. From the corner of his eye he saw Alec smiling – actually smiling a warm smile.

"Uh, Max…"

Her chin had started to wobble and she was dangerously close to shedding some actual tears. She couldn't lose him. It was just that he was Logan. Her one link to the normal girl life she still dreamed of living one day, right?

Right?

And then there was Zack, and she didn't know what she was to do about him. She loved him so much. What was she supposed to do now? Where was she to look for him? And what then?

She just couldn't bear to lose another sibling. Couldn't bear to kill another beloved brother.

It was all so much. Too much to cope with.

Not able to say any more to Logan, and not waiting for him to reply, she suddenly blurred out of the house, out into the night, trying to leave everything behind.

Only when she had already been a long way down the dark rain-glistening streets into the center of the city, did she suddenly feel the presence of someone else behind her and tensed. It had been so, so stupid to walk down the streets in a city that had actual freak vigilantes patrolling the streets…

She closed her eyes briefly, bracing herself for what was to come. Then she turned around in a blur…

A/N 2: righty, hopefully it's going to get a little more interesting in the next part… As always: grateful for any kinds of suggestions, whatever. Thanks for reading, guys! ... And don't worry, I am not into reading much (if any) ML, so do you really think I would be writing it? (if so, re-read the lines more closely...) (: