A/N I know my Logan portrayal has been a little weird and very bad, but I wanted him to sorta drive Max and Alec together and I think that it worked. Thanks for all the reviews! I'm glad everyone liked my story. If anyone wants to contact me to tell me stuff I did wrong or what you would like to see more of, my E-mail address is sirena192005@yahoo.com. I'd love to have more input so don't be shy! Oh, and I'd love to get a ton more reviews. I know my stories are far from perfect and input is always welcome, even flames!

"So, Alec, is that what you call yourself now 494?"

No answer came from the X5 tied to a metal post in the abandoned warehouse that served as the base of operations for the Seattle branch of what was left of Manticore. Ames White smiled to himself and circled the man. It was going to be all too easy to break. All he had to do was convince him that he had Max, the obvious love of his life. Only a matter of time.....

Max was staying calm. Or trying to anyway. Alec had been captured and she knew that he'd never make another deal with White. He was too smart and too good to do that again. He loved her to much to do anything like that, but then again, she didn't want him to be killed either. And she knew she couldn't find him on her own. So she was forced to go to the man she had once been in love with. The man who had betrayed he, called her an animal, threatened to turn her in to Manticore and said her relationship with Alec was incest. She was forced to go to Logan.

"Logan, I need your help. White's got Alec." Max told him as she walked into his penthouse twenty minutes later. "I need you to find out where they're holding him. I have to get to him before they kill him."

Logan hated Max with a passion, but he liked Alec. Alec was a good man, even if he was from Manticore, and he would do anything he could to make sure he never had to go back to the awful place that had created him and hundreds of others. He wasn't however going to let Max save him by herself. He had every intention of going with her.

"When did they capture him?"

"About twelve hours ago. I didn't find out about it until I got home from work."

"Okay. I'll get right on it and I'll let you know when I find something"

"Logan, I really appreciate you doing this. I know you think I'm sick for being with him, but I really do love him."

"I know, Max. Alec's a good man. I'll do everything I can to make sure that we get to him before it's too late."

Max left and went to search the city on her own. She had covered the two sectors closest to Logan's apartment when her beeper went off. Looking at the number, she saw that it was Logan and she hurried back to his penthouse. He was waiting for her and so was Asha. They were planning on going with her. She did not see that happening.

"You two are so not going."

"Well, if you feel that way, Alec'll just have to die." Asha said in a singsong voice.

"Fine, but let's get one thing straight. I call the shots. You listen to everything I say and you don't second-guess my judgment. I've dealt with these people and I know what they are capable of. You don't. If you don't listen to me, chances are that you're going to end up dead. Got it?"

Logan nodded and Max led them out. She was glad that neither of them was going to fight her. She would've hated to see both of them die before they needed to. Logan told her where the building was and she walked ahead of them, anxious to get the rescue over with.

"Max! Slow the hell down! We aren't genetically engineered like you!" Asha yelled, running to catch up with her.

"Well maybe you should've stayed home! I certainly don't need you. Right now all I care about is getting Alec back, so you can either go home and wait for me there or keep up!"

"Well, maybe if you were a better girlfriend, then he wouldn't be captured in the first place!"

"What, you want me to hang on him every moment of every day the way you do to Logan? Alec needs a little bit of freedom. I don't cling to him. If some people could grasp that concept, then maybe they could actually get a boyfriend without having to steal him away from his girlfriend, who happens to be a transgenic who is fully capable of and looking forward to kicking your ass!"

"Well, maybe if you were a little more clingy, you'd still be with Logan instead of having him dump you on your ass and then you just had to go hook up with Alec, who is nothing but a cold blooded killer. Just like you! And, I'm thankful I'm not a transgenic because then I'd be associated with you! And furthermore, I thank God every day that you never slept with Logan. There's no telling what kind of diseases whores like you have and I wouldn't want Logan to catch anything. He always was too good to turn animals away, even skinny undernourished slutty ones like you, but I never imagined that you could convince him you were good enough to be called human!"

Max turned and walked away, leaving Logan and Asha behind. She knew they'd try and catch up, but she didn't feel like making it easy for them, so she broke into a run and arrived at the old warehouse faster than a normal human could ever hope to. She scoped out a safe place to hide until she could decide when to move in and crouched there until nightfall. There was still no sign of Logan and Asha. She was thankful for that.

Once it was dark, Max wasn't worried about being caught. She was too fast for cameras to catch and too strong for any guard to take down. So, she left her hiding place and scaled the building in one bound. A small window was her only means of entrance and it was closer to the top of the building so she had to be on the roof to get in it. Once inside, she realized she hadn't thought her plan out very well. Alec was unconscious and bleeding, but not fatally injured. He was also very well guarded. She swallowed and approached slowly, still covered in the darkness offered by the shadows that covered the whole room. Moving slowly and silently, she circled the room until she was directly in front of Alec and behind all the guards except three. She'd have them unconscious or dead before the others realized what was going on.

One kick to the stomach sent one guard stumbling off into the darkness. Another high kick knocked another guard unconscious. She had struck him in the nose with the heel of her boot and he was immediately knocked out. The third and final guard she had to deal with was quicker than the other two. He alerted the other guards before attacking her. He should have waited for them to arrive before he tried anything, but he wasn't that smart. She punched him in the nose, and kneed him in the groin. The other five or six guards were somewhat harder to defeat, mainly because they all attacked at once, but with a series of kicks, punches and jabs, she managed to knock them all out in under two minutes.

"Very good, 452. Those were some of my best soldiers. Normal soldiers that is. But let's see if you do as well while fighting me. Let me see, I'll make you a deal, if I win, I get to keep you and 494 to kill, reindoctrinate or use for genetic testing. If you win, you take 494 and leave. Do we have a deal?" Ames White said coming out of the shadows from where he had been watching the fight.

"Deal." Max said, charging him. He dodged and landed a solid blow to the back of her head. She spun and kicked, moving at the last possible moment to kick him in the knees instead of the stomach, where he was ready to block. He fell to the floor and lunged up at her, trying to take her down to his level so he could have a semblance of a chance of winning. She was mad and fighting to save the life of the man she loved and nothing was going to stand in her way. She dodged his blow and instead, cracked his head against the cement floor. He appeared to be out cold.

Max ran around the pole that Alec was tied to and broke the ropes. She picked him up, and knowing that other soldiers and guards were probably on their way, she slung him over one shoulder and started for the door. That's when Logan and Asha arrived. She pointedly ignored them as she walked over to White and rolled him over with her foot. He looked like he was knocked out so she started for the door. She didn't see him open his eyes and reach for his gun, but Logan did.

"No!" Logan yelled, running into the line of fire. White pulled the trigger and the bullet connected solidly with Logan's stomach. Max paled considerably and set Alec down long enough to go slam White's head into the wall. If he wasn't already dead, he would be soon.

"I do not have time to deal with this right now. Asha! Are you strong enough to help him get out of here?" Max asked the older woman, motioning to Logan. She nodded slightly and pulled him up, wrapping one of his arms around her shoulder and one of her arms around his waist. Max motioned for her to follow and hurried as much as she could without leaving Asha behind. Logan needed to get to a hospital and quickly. He was losing a lot of blood and needed immediate medical attention. Alec could live without it, and would heal up pretty quickly back at their apartment as soon as he woke up. So, Max helped Asha get Logan to the nearest hospital, told her to tell the doctors that they had been mugged and he had been shot. It was a believable story and would get him the care that he needed without questions they didn't need.

Once she got Alec back to their apartment, Max laid him down on their bed and went about undressing him and cleaning out his wounds. Most of them were superficial, but a few of them needed bandaging so they could heal properly. She redressed him in a pair of boxers and a T-shirt and called the hospital to check on Logan. He was doing fine and would recover completely. She talked to Asha, who was acting like a bitch, but did thank her for helping to save Logan's life. Max even had to admit that Asha had done a very good job. If she hadn't been there, chances were that Logan would have died because Max couldn't touch him without killing him.

Alec woke up early the next morning. He was groggy and had no idea where he was. Wasn't he supposed to be in his cell at Manticore? Waiting for the doors on his cell to open so he could go down to training? Where the hell was he?

Max opened the door and smiled widely when she saw that Alec was awake. "Good morning sunshine! I was beginning to worry."

Alec looked at this gorgeous woman strangely. She seemed oddly familiar, but he couldn't place her. "Who are you?"

"Very funny Alec. I'm Max. You know the woman who saved your ass, the woman you live with and are engaged to. Any of this ring a bell?"

"No. And why are you calling me Alec? My designation is X5-494. Why am I here?"

Max paled and sank down onto the edge of the bed. He really didn't remember her. That was worse than if he'd said he didn't love her anymore. Instead, he's totally forgotten about everything that had happened between them. Getting an idea, she leaned over and kissed him warmly, lovingly, passionately. He didn't recoil, but didn't kiss her back either. She drew back and looked at him.

"You still don't remember me?"

"No, but I'll try harder."

Max couldn't help laughing at that "Alec, Manticore doesn't exist. I destroyed it and freed all the transgenics. You've been living in Seattle Washington for almost a year and we've been dating for seven months. I'm X5- 452 otherwise known as Max Guevera. I love you and I know that you love me too. Please try and remember."

"I don't remember you. All I remember is Manticore and everyone there. I'm sorry."

Max managed to smile, but tears welled up in her eyes none the less. She turned her back and wiped them away. Then, she walked over to the dresser and picked up a picture frame. It was a picture of her and Alec taken by Original Cindy at Crash a few months earlier. She had caught them sneaking a kiss at the bar and taken a picture of it. It had been sitting on their dresser ever since. She walked back over to Alec and handed him the picture. HE looked at it and then at her.

"Why can't I remember you? We were obviously together quite often."

"Alec, we live together."

"Where's you bedroom?"

"Right here."

"What about mine?"

"Right here."

"Then, we are sexually involved?"

"Yeah, I guess you could say that."

Max spent the whole day trying to trigger a memory in Alec's head. She didn't make any progress. He just couldn't remember her at all. He didn't remember any of the places they'd been to together or any of the places they'd seen just in passing and wanted to return to later. He remembered nothing about the last year of his life. She was having a hard time trying to be patient and understanding when they hit another dead end, but she was dealing with all the failures.

That night, Max laid on the couch and Alec slept in their bedroom. She didn't want to crowd him by asking to stay in the same bed, so she pacified herself by going and checking on him every couple of hours. Around two in the morning, he started having a nightmare. She rushed to his side, but didn't dare wake him up. She knew that X5's tended to be violent when waken up in the middle of a nightmare. He woke up on his own about two thirty and grabbed her by the back of the head, pulling her into a hard, hungry kiss. It felt like the Alec she loved kissing her, so she kissed back. He pulled away and looked at her like he was seeing her for the first time since she'd rescued him.

"I remember everything, Maxie."

"Are you sure?"

"Positive. But just to prove it to you, I remember that the first time I stayed at your apartment, Cindy hit me in the back of the head with a skillet because she thought that you were in heat again.

Max launched herself into his arms and he caught her. She was crying, but they were tears of happiness. HE kissed her again and they collapsed against the pillows. Together. The way they were meant to spend eternity.



Sorry this chapter is shorter and probably not as good as the others, but I wrote it in one day and for me, that's quick. TBC ( to be continued)