Chimera452Bast - I understand your feeling. I feel like I've been drowning the past few days and I'm hardly at school. It's application time...ah! I'm glad you enjoy the story and I hope it gives you a little fun time in your busy day! Thanks!

Mari83 - Even though your behind in chapter reviews or so on, I hope you don't mind me replying to your review a chapter ahead. :p. I'm so thankful for all your quotes. It's good to know some of those parts you enjoyed since they were slightly in danger of being cut during the editing process. :p. Thanks for the luck. FIT is the fashion insitute of technology, a school in nyc. I'm hoping to learn how to be a seamstress and the applications for that department is huge. It's taking up most of my time. Thus, the semi-delayed update. :D

BlueAngel137 - I'm glad your like those parts:::does happy dance:::. Well, I use to be a political studies major and a lot of stuff has stuck. I can actually see Lydecker reading some of my required materials like The Art of War by Machiavelli...lol. But I've changed my major since it's somewhat depressing that you can't always help everyone and the egotism and arrogance it's out of it's world. But I still read political theory literature and as I was reading Civil Disobedience I found a lot that Max would believe in if she was ever philosophical. So...more character growth in this chapter I suppose. So, thanks for the comment!!!

angelstryst - Thank you so much, I love political literature (though spark notes are equally important to thank from me, wouldn't be able to fully comphend some things without it...lol) Thanks for the luck and I hope you enjoy the chapter! - More literary refernces...lol.


A/N: Okay, I've taken some 'quotes' from Thoreau's Civil Disobedience in this chapter. I hope you enjoy the character seperation, though I know you really would like some me time with the two. I sort of wish I could get them together so quickly and all of you could be happy but it just wouldn't work with the story line. So, sorry and enjoy!


Seven – Five More Minutes

3:10

Just five more minutes and her absolutely torture would be over. As a child, this would have been seen as a luxury. But, as an adult that always was on the move and always active, sitting still had become a challenge. Sitting still with absolutely nothing to focus on made it worse. She had the book in her bag, the book Logan knew she would understand, but she couldn't bare to have anyone think they knew her so it sat untouched.

She wanted to bang her head on the desk, again and again, until she was put out of her misery.

As soon as her eyes came in contact with the General, she knew that expected scolding would come.

"Will you ever learn you lesson, Ms. Guevara, or will it take suspending you to clean up the act?"

What did she do, exactly? At least she wasn't gambling with dice like Sketchy and Jasper. But at least they made a buck or two, she could really say being late to class was financially rewarding.

"Suspend me." Max offered honestly.

"You would like that. But, I have no plans on giving you a vacation."

"Too bad." Max shrugged, lowing her back against the desk. She looked at the clock, hoping that had given her some time.

3:11

Tormented, she decided to take out the book. Max began to appear busy so the General wouldn't bother her further. At first she had enjoy their little games, but now, it was just boring and unentertaining. There was only so much rebelling a girl could do against authority. Sometimes, she just wanted to be a good student and achieve her potential, but that was wishing too much. What was she suppose to do then? She would just be on the run, like all of her siblings, always looking over their shoulder and hoping not to get caught.

Cracking the binding, she began to read the first section. Her eyes became locked with the black ink that shared a man's views on a human's rights under a corrupt government nearly 170 years ago. Each sentence gave her a reason for living, a passion for being, and the motivation to understand the life she was truly meant to lead.

"The mass of men serves the state, but act as machines, with their bodies: they are the standing army."

The creation of Manticore. The beginning of life for the X5s. They were made not humans with souls, but an instrument of death.

"In most cases there is no free exercise whatever of the judgment or the moral sense, but they put themselves on a level of earth and stones."

No freedom. No choice. No sense between what was truly right or wrong. But they wanted her to rise to meet the deadly potential she was born for.

"Wooden men can perhaps be manufactured to serve the purpose as well."

Manticore. A death factory. Where more hollow souls appeared on the assembly line.

"Such command no more respect than men of straw or lump dirt. They have the same worth of dogs."

And just like Jack, they could be dragged away like defect needing to be dissembled. They could be tortured, beaten, and starved and no one cared.

"Their legislators, commanders to the state, lack any moral distinction and more likely to serve the devil, or believe they're God."

Lydecker. Her father, her teacher, and her creator. One time, he had been everything to her. Now she saw nothing but darkness in his space.

"A few heroes, patriots, martyrs, reformers in the great sense, serve the state with their conscience and do not resist it, and they are commonly treated by enemies by it."

Eva. The martyr. Zack. Her hero. Both of them were the most loyal. But serving their conscious branded them traitors.

3:14

Max looked at the final question stamped in dark ink.

"Must the citizen ever for a moment, or in the least degree, resign his conscience to the legislator? Why had every man a conscience then?"

For the first time, she reread a section and was left with nothing. No thoughts, no understanding, not even a spark of an answer to come. She was left empty and confused. It was the question she had been dreading all her life. What was her purpose? Why was she really created? What would the training prepare her for? What crimes would she have to commit?

Why did she have a conscience when all she was suppose to be was a machine?

3:15

"You better walk fast, Ms. Guevara, if you want to intercept a copy of the fresh referral I sent home."


3:10

Five more minutes and their session would be over. They would walk out of separate doors and Logan would never have to see his ex-wife again. He could even smell the alcohol across the table. Did she love wine so much she bathed in it, too? He used to believe he could find his wife in her again. There were times where her laugher would be the sweetest sound he ever heard. Now, he just wanted to get the divorce over. He had fallen completely out of love with her.

Now his heart remained secretly to an angel.

"I don't want a divorce." Valerie admonished. "My family doesn't believe in divorce!"

Logan blinked as Valerie's voice echoed through the room. Her lawyer closed his jacket before clearing his throat. "What my client means is because of her religious belief, it's unacceptable for her to give consent to the divorce."

"Then give her an annulment. She was probably drunk during the marriage ceremony anyway." Logan sneered.

Valerie grimaced. "Can't you see I'm sorry, Logan? God, you can't even see how damn sorry I am!"

"Not when I can smell the liquor across the table." Logan shot back.

"Alright, that's enough." Logan's lawyer replied. He took a deep breath in as the tension rose significantly between the two feuding couple. He had known Logan for the longest time. He wrote up his parent's will, helped his family's estate after their untimely death, and even helped him research his inheritance into the right investments. A lawyer for Cale Industries, he felt compelled to help the son of the heir to the largest company in Seattle. However, divorce wasn't his forte. Corporate law was.

On the edge of the seat, Logan raised his sleeve to see the face of his watch.

3:11

He wanted to throw himself out the window just to end the misery. Fear of heights wouldn't stop him. The redhead was enough reason to run. Words past through his lawyer's mouth. Were they discussing division of property or spousal support, he didn't know, and he didn't care. One thing he knew, she wasn't getting anything. He was already ashamed by Aunt Margo and scolded by Uncle Jonas by ever believing the pretty thing could stay a good thing. Funny how they praised him on finding a nice girl, then blamed him for it when things turned sour. But, damn he would be if he allowed any of the Cale property to fall into her hands.

Everything stayed in the family. Everything. Even the secrets and the lies.

"The rights to the equitable distribution of the marital property vest at the time of the parties' separation. The division of the things gained by both parties within the two year span is up for distribution."

Two years he thought he was in love. Two years. Two years he'll never get back.

"In most equitable distribution actions, Mr. And Mrs. Cale, the statues do not permit one party to recover legal fees from the other party. Do you understand that you'll be financing your way through the divorce if it's agreed upon?"

Logan agreed. Valerie didn't. Just like the use to fight over that stupid rug. She charged the Persian carpet on her account but because it was on his floor, he had to reimburse her two thousand dollars. He didn't even like that ugly thing, yet he paid for it anyway. But, he wasn't going to remain silent anymore.

"Well, there is one small exception to this rule allows a discretionary award of reasonable legal fees to the owner of separate property who sues the other spouse to regain possession of a separate property removed from the marital home." Her lawyer fought back

Logan couldn't believe it. Valerie was suing him? Why? If she didn't want this divorce, was she making it harder by suing him?

"What could I have possibly taken from you, Val?"

"You took my car." Valerie fought back.

"I bought that car." Logan argued.

"It was a gift." She articulated.

Logan couldn't believe his ears. So, everything she wanted from the settlement was a gift?

"I love that car. I love the memories that come with that car." Valerie bitterly remembered as she put her palms down on the table. "You gave it to me for our first anniversary." She sincerely said, remembering the fonder times they both had.

He cared about Valerie, he really did. He wasn't blind in seeing she really was sorry. He just couldn't accept it when he knew she wasn't completely herself, when she was under the influence. If the car meant nothing to him but a car, why couldn't he bare to give it to her? Maybe he was so hurt from her betrayal that a part of him wanted to punish her. To make her feel as bitter about the divorce as he did.

He began to sweat. He looked at his watch seeing when he would be able to escape.

3:14

One minute more.

"I can't give you that car, Val."

She sat back, defeated. "I want half of everything then. I want part ownership of the penthouse. I want equal dates to cabin. I want half of your family checks. I want everything if you won't give me another chance."

Peter Sooth stood up from the desk and looked at the Logan Cale's soon to be ex-wife and her five-star lawyer. He wasn't going to be intimidated by some rich family court lawyer. Even if he spent his life in the corporate world, he did have ethics. He soon realized family court might have been even dirty and villainous than business law. Loved ones, stabbing each other in the back for a silly car or the condo. It sickened him. At least in the corporate courts there were rules. Anything goes with a woman scorned.

3:15

"Then we will see you and your client in court."


TBC!