Disclaimer: All things Dark Angel belong to James Cameron and Charles Eglee. No copyright infringement intended. Blah, blah, woof, woof

Spoilers: occurs after "Freak Nation"

Rating: PG-13 for some swearing and possible dark/adult situations that may arise later, but likely to be quite tame.

Summary: The arrival of a stranger in Seattle can only mean trouble, right?

Authors Note: Okay, this one's a long one, a lot of exposition going on, so it's quite boring. Hang in there though! The next couple of chapters are gonna be ansty, passion filled exciting adventures. It's just gonna take me a while. Hopefully not as long as these chapters have.

Also, please reserve character assassination judgement 'til the end, there is a reason behind it all.

-

Logan felt himself slowly surface from the cloying depths of darkness. Muted sound began to sharpen around him. A sharp, efficient voice was talking with strained patience to someone large hovering at his side. Gradually, Logan began to feel a tingling sensation course through his body, making him aware once more of his limbs, including, thank God, his legs. Something warm and furry seemed to have enveloped his right hand. The familiar discomfort of an IV lead shifted slightly in his arm.

With effort, he forced his heavy eyelids to open, only to close them again as they were assaulted by a harsh overhead light. He took a deep breath. Blinking his eyes he accustomed himself to his new surroundings. Blurred shapes shifted at first. A large figure loomed over him, coming close to his face. The vague smell of wet dog.

Joshua

Speaking. Someone was speaking to him. He blinked once more in an attempt to shake the clouds from his mind. The room swam briefly before coming into sharp relief with a jolt.

He was lying on a gurney in the Med Bay. One of the medics, Senseo perhaps, was standing over the foot of his bed. He shivered as he realised he was lying in only his boxers.

"Logan ok?" the concerned transgenic inquired with child-like innocence.

Logan tried an answer, but all that escaped his lips was a dry croak. He tried once more.

"Hey Joshua", he rasped. "What happened to me", Logan queried as he turned his attention to the gigantic beast. Joshua turned questioningly towards the ice blonde making notes on her flip chart. Senseo swept her eyes over Logan with critical appraisal before turning her sharp eyes on him.

"It seems Mr. Cale, that you picked up a particularly deadly bio-toxin from somewhere in Terminal City" Senseo answered with one eyebrow half raised in a curious gesture. "Tell me, have you ever had a transgenic blood transfusion before?", the medic asked suddenly, turning her full attention towards Logan's prone form.

There was a slight pause before Logan managed to answer.

"Yes, two actually" he replied.

"I should really have been informed of such pertinent medical history before now, Mr. Cale. You would make a very interesting study", Senseo spoke, initially attempting a chastising tone, but unable to cover her inherent curiosity. "However, that is no longer of any importance. Please elaborate for me, exactly how and from whom you received these transfusions", she finished as she moved to sit down on Logan's free side, her eyes brightened in anticipation.

This perplexed Logan slightly; he had assumed that the story of his returned mobility and close relationship with Max would have been a subject of gossip amongst the bored and besieged population over the last couple of months. Apparently he was wrong, maybe his little life was not quite as fascinating as he imagined. Perhaps he had been a little too wrapped up in his own drama to really understand the situation from the rest of the transgenics' point of view.

"Well?", Senseo prompted.

Logan took a deep breath, wondering how or where to start from.

Oh well, better start from the beginning.

"About two years ago, I was shot in the back. The bullet shattered into my spine causing irreparable damage, and I was paralysed. Some five months later, a fragment of the remaining bullet migrated and I was rushed to hospital with internal bleeding. I lost a great deal of blood. Being that this is Post-Pulse Seattle, blood supplies were thinly stretched, and my rare blood type meant that it was impossible to source plasma for me. But, Max likes to defy the impossible, and transfused me." Logan broke off to gaze at the overhead light, a gentle smile playing across his lips briefly, before his face became shadowed once more.

"A couple of weeks after that, I got some feeling back in my legs, the hyped-up blood beginning to repair the damage to my spinal chord." Logan turned to look at the young woman again, a short laugh of self-disgust punctuating his next remark. "I even started walking again, I thought I was getting my life back. Thought that I could be my old self once more. But it's never that simple. My body began to reject the stem cells from Max's blood, landing me straight back in the chair again."

There was another pause, both Senseo and Joshua had been listening in rapt attention to him, and it unnerved Logan slightly to have to dredge all this into the open once more. Just because he was walking again didn't lessen the pain of what had happened the first time, nor did it help him forget his fears that it might still occur this time. He had never been one to share, preferring to bottle up what was going on with him, to stay strong, like his father always wanted him to. He had to deal with enough as it was, without reliving his past demons, ones which never really went away, just got pushed further into the shadows.

Senseo was intrigued by Logan. She had always lived with the idea that she was a super-soldier. An advanced creation, surpassing ordinary humans. She, like so many of the transgenics, had always assumed she had suffered more, most of it at the hands of ordinary humans, and dealt with it all with superior strength of character. Because she was better, built to be the best. As an X-6, she had never suffered the flaws of the previous series, and was considered a success.

But now she was beginning to understand a little about the real world. Beyond the lines of hate and war, where ordinary people lived hard lives. It had always been "us" and "them" before. Humans, or "ordinaries", were like some other species. They had been taught to view them like commodities, to be used or disposed of as required. Some held power, and were merely an embodiment of authority. Others were inconsequential. But none of them were real. She'd never thought about their lives or feelings, the hardships and injustices they faced, never considered it at all. Why should she? She had never known love or care or any warmth from the Manticore humans. Only fear and pain and hatred.

When the facility had burned, her attitudes had not changed from the brief time she spent in the outside world. She had gone to ground, falling back on her training in dealing with anyone she met. The were pieces in a game. Not real.

But things were changing now. Here she was, trapped inside a bio-hazard garbage dump, with nothing to do but survive. Surrounded by hostility and hate on the outside, she had begun to question herself. Why did the ordinaries hate them so much? Why was it so wrong that they should live when they had been created by ordinaries in the first place? Why were they so angry at them?

Rumours of Logan's involvement in the whole thing had peaked her interest. As had some of the news reports showing pro-transgenic protestors. She had wondered why some ordinaries were different. Why some were willing to stand up and help them, like those that had helped the Jam Pony escape.

Logan's story was one she had not yet managed to discover. There were rumours of some sort of relationship between him and X5-452, or Max, as she was now. But though she had watched them both carefully, she had only been more confused by their behaviour. They seemed to avoid each other at all costs, but occasionally she would spot them gazing at each other, whilst the other was otherwise occupied. There seemed to be a longing in their eyes, a hunger that remained unsatisfied. They didn't even touch.

Joshua was just as spellbound. People often treated him like a simpleton or a child, maybe because they thought as the first one Father created, he was the most flawed, the biggest mistake. They thought he was stupid, and maybe he wasn't as smart as the others, but he wasn't as dumb as they all believed. He could understand things. He was special. Father had taught him that. Father had loved him, in his own way.

Even Max, his first true friend, treated him like a child sometimes. He couldn't help it if he was learning about the world for the first time, seeing it through the eyes of innocence. But it was different now. Now Annie had been taken from him. The world was much colder now, full of hate. But he had to keep hope. That's what Logan said. That's what Logan was.

Joshua wanted Logan to be right, but he didn't know if he could ever really believe that again. Since moving to Terminal City, he had drifted closer to the other nomilies. They were more alike, and could never be accepted like the newer X series, who all looked human. Logan had sought him out though, come to talk to him, had worried about him. Logan had cared for him. Maybe because he was different too, wasn't Manticore. And little fella stayed away from him all the time. Joshua could see that made Logan very sad, but he stayed all the same. Didn't leave with Original Cindy and Sketchy. Little fella had been mad about that, said he would get sick. Logan wouldn't go though, said it was best if he stayed, for all of them. Joshua wasn't sure what he had meant, but had a feeling that it was big, something important.

He had been right. Logan had come to talk to him about how important it was to stop the situation from turning into a bloodbath. That they had to be the ones to show that they weren't monsters, even when the humans outside were the real monsters. Logan had told him a lot about before the Pulse. About how life had been hard in the past too. About racial segregation, ghettos, prejudice. And that no matter what, you had to have hope, that it would get better. You had to keep hold of hope.

They had become friends, and Joshua was going to look after Logan now. He felt proud to have Logan as a friend, and proud that Logan was telling him this now.

Max had only ever glossed over the basics, explained things simply to him. He appreciated that Logan treated him differently. Telling him about complicated things with patience. Like he was more of an equal.

"That was so hard for me, after that brief taste of freedom, I was trapped again. I was stupid and selfish. I didn't realise what I had, only focussed on what I thought I would never have because of that damn chair!" Logan continued angrily. Thinking back made him recall his arrogant self-obsessed pity, something he would rather forget.

He remembered the gun with cold clarity, could picture it all so clearly. He had been going to end it all. To finish what Bruno had started. Life had been too hard. Max, losing his legs again, his accident, his failed marriage, his pathetic excuse for a life. Living vicariously through Eyes Only, hiding from the real world even when he could walk. Losing his mother.

That had brought unbidden images of his father rushing to the fore. His voice chilling as he reprimanded Logan for crying. Saying it was weak. Logan had always been too weak for his father, never good enough. Ironically, it was just this hatred that had stopped him pulling that trigger. He couldn't let his father be right. Then the whole Mrs. Moreno thing happened.

It should have been Max that stopped him. Thoughts of her, of others that might need him. But it wasn't. He was too busy wallowing in his own misery to realise, or care about anyone else. He was weak.

No, he had been weak. He had to be strong now. Like he had been for his mother. Like he was now for Max.

The look on her face when he had come in...

He suddenly realised where he was, the expectant faces of the two transgenics waiting for him to continue.

"But I managed to get over that" Logan continued with a slight derisive tone, mocking himself. "Almost managed to get over myself. Admit my feelings, take a chance. Then Zack found Tinga."

At the brief flash of confusion over both his listeners faces, Logan began to elaborate.

"Tinga was one of the original twelve to escape. She had found a life for herself, discovered the love of a husband and child, before it was all ripped away from her by Manticore. She gave herself up to save those she loved. Zack, the original unit CO, discovered where she had been taken.

"Tinga was hooked up in some kind of twisted experiment. When Max found her, it was too late. Lydecker arrived and captured Max. Apparently he had not been privy to any of this, his position being somewhat usurped by a new superior, Renfro. He got Max out and in turn she brought him to meet up with a TAC team Zack had assembled, including Syl and Krit, two other escapees from '09."

"Then Max went in to take down Manticore."

Logan paused briefly, taking a pre-emptive steadying breath before tackling his tale once more.

"Max wanted to finish it, to finally destroy Manticore and take from them what they had taken from her and her siblings. And with the advantage of having Lydecker to help, it seemed like there was a chance, one she couldn't pass up after Renfro had taken her sister from her."

"I went with them, I had acquired the exo-skeleton by then, allowing me to walk. I was their tech and comm support. The ride to the facility was a silent one, like a dark and ominous cloud hung over us all. When Max got out, it was almost as if she knew it was gonna go sideways."

"Anyway, they got in and destroyed the DNA lab. Then it all started to go wrong. Alarms started going off, I managed to lock Manticore out of their systems, so there was little they could do about it."

"It seemed like they were almost home clear when Krit and Syl piled into the van. But then Max's comm went dead. I ran out blindly searching, and that's when I found her. She'd been shot through the heart by her X-7 clone."

"She died in my arms. Lydecker had to knock me out, I wouldn't leave." Logan finished matter-of-factly, almost coldly.

Senseo looked at Logan carefully as he uttered those detached words. For all purposes he could have been talking about the intricacies of filling in tax returns, but she had been bred to look past such outward appearances and read underlying meanings. It was her skill. Logan did well to block himself off, but she still saw his raw pain, the complete despair that he had obviously been partner to.

"After that, everything is a little sketchy. I don't remember much until two months later. I managed to pull myself together to continue the fight, for Max."

"I put all I had into helping bring Manticore down. To finish what she started" he continued with a determined tone.

Logan paused briefly. He wasn't sure how answering Senseo's question had turned into this. Maybe it had been a subconscious effort to ease his soul, a basic need to finally tell someone the insane tale that his life had become. There was nothing to do but to go on, and try and recall the initial question at the same time.

Shaking his head slightly, Logan went on.

"Then one day, all my hard work paid off. I was ready to expose Manticore and all its ugly secrets to the world. But of course my computer system would choose that precise moment to crash."

Logan sighed briefly before a look of serene joy passed fleetingly across his features. A chuckle escaped his lips as he began again,

"Then, Max just turned up in my doorway, just like she always had before. I thought all my wishes had come true, that life was finally paying me my due."

Silence filled the small, run-down office, settling between them. It stretched out longer than was comfortable, the tale seeming to have exhausted them all.

Logan eventually let out a harsh laugh, before picking up his tale once more.

玓I guess that letting go of fairytale endings even in this post-apocalyptic America is a little harder than I believed. Especially when Manticore plays the evil antagonist so well" he continued with a harsh smile.

"Max thought she had escaped their clutches, hell, we both were too blinded by seeing each other to realise that Manticore had sent her as my assassin. They created a genetically targeted retro-virus specifically to react with only my DNA. The perfect test for a new super bio-weapon."

"That's when I first felt the effects of their nasty little concoction. Things got a little hazy for me after that. Alec showed up to take Max back, telling her that Renfro had a cure."

Logan's jaw became tightly set as he spoke that name. Forcing himself to continue, though Senseo easily picked up his underlying hostility for the X-5. Not entirely sure for the reasons behind his behaviour, she made a mental note to observe this facet more closely from now on.

"She left him tied up with me to guard over him. Unfortunately, I must have passed out shortly after, I don't remember anything else until after. After she came back again. Thinking she had finally finished with Manticore for good, but it had only really started something much bigger."

Logan paused to look at the young medic sitting attentively at his side. It had struck him occasionally, as he watched the other X-series and Nomilies, what they thought about that. He knew some resented what Max had done. Forced them into a world they knew little of, a world which didn't want them, where they were outcasts, freaks. Away from what they had always known, even if that had been harsh torture, a life so devoid of love, of freedom, he couldn't begin to understand. As much as they might not understand what was so wonderful about an outside world so bereft of everything now, wracked by poverty and disease, corruption and basic human rights. He could only hope that their struggle now might make it all the more worthwhile for them. Make them realise their new found freedom was something better, something...

A slight noise by the doorway stopped Logan's train of thought abruptly. All three turned their heads to discover Max pausing at the doorway. She looked pale, her mouth agape in shock, her features twisted in confused outrage.

"Max" Logan tentatively queried .

"How could you?", she replied shakily.

-

So, what do you think? Any good? Or complete rubbish?

I know that Logan spilling the whole story seems a little unlike his character, but I thought that he needed to unburden himself a little. Everyone needs to get stuff off their chest once in a while, and I reckon that Logan must have felt a little lonely trapped in TC without Bling or Sebastian to talk to.

Bye for now, I'm afriad it'll probably be a while, and I can't promise that you'll like the twist in the tale to come, but promise ML angst and possibly fluffy bunnies at the end. Whenever that is?