A/N: Those of you who thought Logan was too easy going about the whole
situation at hand- bear with me. I planned to have him react more in the
angry/angsty sorta way *after* he met Lex. There isn't gonna be a scream
fest between him and Max, but the less happy part is here. Those of you who
liked the way things were going- I hope you won't hate what I'm doing here.
Since this site was not working (for the 50 millionth time), I just made this one big, long chapter; originally it was going be two.
Thanks a million to everyone who reviewed- keep up the awesome work! =) Please let me know if I'm falling into any clichés; I'm trying my hardest to avoid them!
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Chapter 10: Race Against The Clock
After some deliberation, Max had decided to go get Lex by herself; she wasn't sure what Lex's reaction to the new situation would be. Slowly opening the door, Max saw Lex standing watch at the window and Jondy polishing up an old M-61. Jondy looked up and gave Max a 'brace yourself' look as she got and went to sit outside.
"Lex?" Max called as her daughter stood there like a statue, not making any effort to turn around. "Sweetie, please say something."
"Like what? Don't let me be the proverbial third wheel on your reunion? Or how about 'no, I don't want to go out there and play twenty questions'? 'Cuz I'm pretty sure you don't wanna hear either of those," Lex snapped coldly, her back still turned.
"And where's this coming from?" Max was not only shocked at what Lex had just said, but worried by the way Lex hadn't raised her voice, a sign that she was extremely angry. When Lex didn't answer, Max walked over and tentatively placed a hand on her shoulder, "Lex?"
"I don't want things to change," Lex angrily blurted out, shaking of Max's hand.
"It'll be ok, we'll still be a team," Max tried to offer her some comfort.
"No, we'll be a trio. And you're gonna move to Seattle and you two will get married and have kids and I'll be phased out 'cuz you'll have gotten a chance to do it all right," Lex vented under her breath.
Max couldn't believe her ears. Never had she expected Lex to react like this, not this angrily. Grabbing Lex's shoulders and jerking her around, Max looked into her daughter's watery eyes, "Am I hearing you right? You honestly think I'm gonna run off on you? That hurts, Alexa. A lot." Lex just stared back and swallowed hard. "Is that what you're so angry about?"
"I don't know," Lex grumbled in a failed attempt to walk past Max. "I just don't want things to change now."
"Well I can't promise you what will and won't happen," Max sighed, "but can you just calm down long enough to give Logan a chance?" Max gave one last plea when Lex diverted her eyes, "Please Lex, for me?"
Lex didn't say anything, but started to walk towards the door.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
"Head back to control," Lydecker ordered the troops once he'd located them.
Lydecker was still surprised that the rumor he'd heard about Max having a daughter was true. About five years back, Lydecker had come across copies of school records of several young girls. All the girls exhibited unusually advanced abilities in either intelligence or athletics, but one seemed to stand above the rest.
"Lydecker," a gruff voice interrupted his musings.
Turning his head defensively, Lydecker's face hardened at the sight that greeted him.
"I should have taken out your sorry ass a long time ago," White began to walk in a circle around him.
"You could have tried." Lydecker challenged back. "You had one of your familiars try to run me off the road, but that was your first mistake."
"Well, I'd hate to make it again," White threatened as he pulled his gun out of its holster. Lydecker held up a gun of his own in reply. "You really think you stand a chance in hell against me?" White mocked. "Your pathetic military training could never compare to thousands of years of selective breeding," White pulled the trigger.
Lydecker dove to the side, the bullet narrowly missing his head. From his position on the ground, Lydecker fired a shot into White's right shoulder.
"Oh, was that supposed to hurt?" White glanced down at his shoulder, which gave Lydecker the few second respite he needed to get up on his feet.
Lydecker kept his gun pointed at White, "You came here alone, didn't you?"
"Like I would need any help. My troops are out finding your precious 452 and her freak offspring."
"There's your second mistake," Lydecker quipped as he signed something with his free hand.
Before White had time to spit out a comeback, six shots rang out and pierced his chest.
"Never underestimate the enemy," Lydecker reprimanded White as he fell to his knees.
After a minute, White began scrambling for his gun, desperately trying to fire it.
"You'll never learn, will you?" Lydecker shook his head as he shot White in the forehead and again in the side his of his skull until he fell to the ground.
One of Lydecker's head came out from the bushes he had just passed when they got Lydecker's signal to go back, "No pulse, Sir. He's dead."
Lydecker nodded with a soldier expression, "Good job, Alpha two."
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Logan turned around as he heard footsteps coming around the corner. He felt his heartbeat quicken and his palms begin to sweat as Lex walked in, stopping as soon as she entered the room. Max came up behind her and gave her a push towards Logan, whispering something in her ear.
Backing out of the room, Max pointed behind her, "I think I'll go help Jondy for bit." Lex turned around to follow her, but Max gave her a look that dared her to go any further.
When Max was out of sight, Lex turned around and looked her father over. She had always heard, when she was eavesdropping on conversations between Max and Jondy, that he was a lot older than her mom.
"He doesn't look and older than his early 40s," she thought to herself.
His hair spiky, but beginning to gray at the temples, and he still seemed to be opposed to shaving every day. Lex shook her head as she found herself staring into his brilliant blue eyes, which she had heard Jondy tease Max about. She had to admit to herself that he wasn't exactly bad looking.
"So…" Logan awkwardly tried to break the ice. "It's nice to meet you."
"Um, yeah, you too," Lex replied quickly. "Ok, that's progress. Just keep being nice. Don't say anything bitchy," she thought, going back to having a conversation with herself.
After a tense pause, Logan let out a deep breath and broke the uneasy silence, "Sorry, I just don't really know what to say."
"Well in case, haven't you noticed you're not the only one with that problem," Lex quipped back. Her head snapped back up as she heard a light laugh come from Logan. "What?"
"Nothing," Logan shook his head, but stopped seeing an opportunity for some degree of conversation. "That sounds like something Max would say."
"Yeah, well, apparently attitudes are genetic," Lex found herself laughing a little bit, too. "Looks aren't the only similarity between us."
"Similarity is a bit of an understatement," Logan couldn't help the small smile that came to his lips looking into Lex's chocolate brown eyes.
"I guess so," Lex agreed as the tense silence between them returned. "Maybe twenty questions is the better option," she grumbled to herself.
"What'd you say?"
"Nothing. Never mind."
"Well, it might kill some time," Logan suggested.
Seeing his point, Lex shrugged, "I said 'maybe twenty questions is the better option'."
"And what is that supposed to mean?" Logan had no idea what she was talking about.
"Well before I was saying that coming out here would like playing twenty questions, because we both don't know what to say, that is. And since there's more awkward silences than small talk going on here, maybe we should just do that."
Letting out a breath that sounded like a laugh and sigh, Logan leaned back against the wall, "So, should you start or should I?"
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
"So you think they're saying anything?" Jondy asked, trying to listen in on Lex and Logan.
"Will you knock that off?" Max chided her. "As long as Lex is being polite, any form of talking is fine by me."
Just as Jondy was about to reply, they heard gunshots ring out from the park.
"Was that a gun?" Jondy perked up her ears.
Max listened in as to more shots sounded off, "Why would Lydecker be firing now?"
"You don't think Renfro's people are here?" Jondy searched her mind for who Lydecker's opponent could be.
"They were supposed to be taken out right after Manticore burned," Max shook her head. "Maybe we should go check it out."
"Beats sitting around here," Jondy reached inside and picked up a gun from the counter. When Max glared at her, she put her hands up, "It's for me, not you."
Rolling her eyes, Max scaled down the side, making sure no one was looking.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
"Have you heard from Agent White?" a team of men came up to Otto.
"No, he hasn't answered any calls. Nobody's been able to contact him."
"Do you think he could have captured 452?"
"No, he would have informed us of that," another one of White's men spoke up.
"Should we continue the search for 452 or search for Agent White?"
After some consideration, Otto shook his head, "You continue to look for 452, I'll find Agent White."
"We've searched the entire city, we can't find either of the X5s or the girl. Nobody saw them leave either. We questioned people in the building and people on the street."
"Where did 452 work?" Otto questioned.
"We don't know."
"Well find out and question the people there. They might know where the transgenics could be," Otto ordered, sounding almost like White.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
"Ok, so now that we have stupid questions out of the way, I have something else to ask you," Lex's smiled flattened.
Logan inwardly sighed, "Ok, shoot."
"Do you want to marry her?"
"Um, w-why do you ask?" Logan stuttered uneasily.
"Well, do you?" Lex asked again.
"I don't know where we'll go from here, but I'm not loosing her again," Logan professed after some thought.
"You really love her, don't you?" Lex suggested quietly, looking down at the floor.
"Yeah, I do," Logan smiled. "And I know it must really be a lot to deal with, but you think we could reach some kind of a truce?"
"Well, seeing a how mom would kick my ass if we didn't, why not?" Lex smiled back. "So what should the terms of this quid pro quo be, because I don't have any long-lost siblings I'm looking for?"
"How about we act like friends and take it from there?" Logan suggested. "I never expected to, well, to- "
"Find out you had a kid with Max after only sleeping with her once?" Lex finished.
"Um, yeah, you could put it that way," Logan had to laugh at Lex's frankness. Not only did she look exactly like Max, right down to her pouty lips and amazing smile, but she had her same bad-ass attitude that made Logan wonder what kind of relationship he'd be able to have with her.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
"I see them," Max signed across the jogging path to Jondy.
They crouched down as a tact team ran past, heading in the direction of the van. Once the team had passed, Max and Jondy went ahead, looking for Lydecker. Max was apprehensive about seeing him, but convinced herself that she had to. If Lydecker was trying to find her, she wanted to know why. They spotted him coming out of a clearing up farther on the path, and snuck up behind him.
"What the hell are you doing here?" Max demanded as she pinned him against a tree, covering his mouth.
Jondy reached over and took his gun; holding it up against him, "Don't think I'm going to trust you. Now why are you here?"
Turning his face out of Max's grasp, Lydecker indicated the field behind him, "Taking care of your problem."
"What problem?" Max snapped.
Jondy walked back into the clearing, stopping short as she saw, "Maxie, you might wanna come see this."
Pinning Lydecker's hands behind his back, Max went over to Jondy's side.
"That problem," Lydecker stated as he felt Max's grip tighten. "I've been trying to finish him off for years. I knew he would be tracking you and I used that as an incentive to get Cale on my side."
"And you expect us to believe that?" Jondy was still skeptical.
Max's response was relinquishing her hold on Lydecker's wrists and walking over to White's bullet-riddled body. After checking his pulse for herself, Max turned around, "What about his men?"
"They'll be lost without him. But they will be looking for him once they realize he's gone," Lydecker concluded.
"And I'm guessing those breeding cult familiars of his aren't gonna be too pleased either," Jondy added.
"Well we'll deal with them later," Max walked back over to Jondy and Lydecker. "Now with White out of the way, it's time to take care of the rest of them."
"And how do you want to do that?" Jondy asked, debating between her gun and her fist.
"I don't know, but let's head back. We'll figure something out there." Turning to Lydecker, she ordered, "You take care of the fucker's body."
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
"Mom?" Lex called out, walking into the back room Max had Jondy had been in before. "Aunt Jondy?"
"They're not anywhere else," Logan came in behind Lex.
"They're not sitting outside either," Lex sighed. "Dammit, where could they be?" Hearing something moving outside, she turned and looked down the side of the building. As Jondy's head popped up, Lex hopped out the window, "Where were you? I came back here and you two just disappeared."
"White's dead," Max stated bluntly as she climbed through the window, stopping and smiling softly as she caught Logan's eyes.
Rolling her eyes to Lex, Jondy walked out of the room and Lex followed.
"What do you mean White's dead?" Logan asked, almost bitter that he hadn't been the one to do it himself. White had robbed him of fifteen years with Max, not to mention seeing Lex grow up. "If that bastard had never had showed his face, I would have been there to feel the first time Lex kicked in Max's stomach, her birth, her first steps and words. I could have taught her to ride of bike, seen her off on her first day of school. All those memories I can never get back," he felt a rage inside him grow as he thought about that, making him want to go and decapitate White's remains.
"What's wrong?" Max asked, interrupting his hostile thoughts.
"Never mind, it's fine now," Logan tried to think up an excuse.
He smiled, pushing his previous thoughts away and walking over to Max, taking her in his arms.
"So, you two actually say anything or did she just sit there and scowl?" Max asked Logan about his first conversation with Lex.
"Oh she spoke," Logan laughed. After being away for so long he had to feel her in his arms again. "She's so much like you it's scary."
"Does that mean she was a bitch?" Max looked over Logan' shoulder as if the answer was written on the door.
"No, she wasn't. But you know your sarcasm is one of the things I love about you."
Max just laughed and buried her head in Logan's shoulder. Logan's thoughts inadvertently went back to Lex's question earlier. Would he marry Max? Turning and burying his face in her hair, he couldn't think if anything he wanted more.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
"Ok, you wanna elaborate on this whole White's-dead deal?" Lex chased Jondy down the hall.
"Lydecker killed him. Shot him to be more specific. Now I don't know what he's gonna do with the body, but knowing Lydecker, it oughta be good. "
"But I'm guessing this isn't over," Lex asked rhetorically.
"No, far from it. We still have the matter of White's cronies to deal with."
"Well what exactly are we gonna do? The sun should be up in about two hours, so we won't have the dark to work with anymore," Lex pointed out.
"That's what we need to figure out. We could just kill them all, but finding them and then finding where to hide the bodies would take way longer than we want. We need something fast and clean t drive them all out at once," Jondy groaned.
"Oh, yeah, and there are just so many ways to pull something like that off," Lex rolled her eyes sarcastically.
"I have an idea," Logan interjected as he and Max came around the corner.
"What kind of idea?" Max looked up at him questioningly.
"You remember how I got Lydecker off of Sedro Island?"
"You hacked into the signal of the walkie-talkies." Catching his drift, Max urged him on, "Keep going."
"And you remember how you brought down Bronk?" Logan clued.
"You mean saved you sorry ass from him even thought I was still mad as hell at you for being a total jerk?" Max teased him.
Logan closed his eyes for a long blink and looked up at the ceiling, trying his hardest not to laugh, "Max…"
Max laughed and playfully elbowed him in the side, "Yeah, I altered my voice and faked an Eyes Only hack."
Lex's head suddenly shot up as she got what Logan was saying, "I think I get it. You hack into the signal on the coms White's guys have and fake his voice to tell them to get the hell out of the city. They think it's White, so they do it and that'll get them all out in one sweep without having to kill anyone."
"Yeah, that's it," Logan was surprised she could put all that together and hit the nail on the head from his broken hints.
"That just might work," Jondy smiled excitedly.
Frowning, Logan spoke up again, "Wait, one problem. The computers are in the van, over in the park."
"Say no more," Lex jumped up and got her laptop.
Logan scrolled though the programs and was impressed to say the least, "Wow, where did you get all these?"
"A little thing I like to call the black market," Lex smiled mischievously.
Shaking his head, Logan suppressed a laugh as he tried to focus on the task at hand, "Well give me a second, and I'll have it all set up."
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
"All units, this is Agent White. The transgenics have been captured. Return to base and head to Washington, D.C. immediately," Logan spoke into the microphone on Lex's laptop.
One by one, all of White's men replied, obeying the order and heading out.
Otto was the last one to come through, saying little more, "Sir, I've been looking for you. You weren't answering your com."
"I went out looking for 452 myself. Now do as I told you," Logan impersonated White as best he could.
"Yes, Sir," Otto bought the hoax.
Breaking the connection, Logan turned and smiled and Max, Lex, and Jondy who jumped up and smiled at him.
"Now we should stay here for a few hours, just to make sure all of them are gone," Max cautioned.
"Well I don't know about you, but I want food!" Jondy argued, all of them having gone without anything since the last afternoon.
"Logan can go get something when the sun comes up. Right now, I need a rest," Max walked over and curled up on Logan's lap.
"Uh, aren't you guys forgetting something?" Lex piped up. The adults just looked at one another, reaching no consensus. "Lydecker?" she hinted.
Jondy grabbed her gun and looked around, "I vote take the bastard out."
"No," Max protested.
"And why not?" Jondy snapped her head around.
"I wanna know why he's here," Max stated, standing back up. "He obviously wanted to find me in a big way. I wanna know why."
"But he said he wanted to find White and used finding you as an incentive to get Logan to help him," Jondy rebutted.
"Yeah, but this is Lydecker we're talking about. If he only wanted to find White, he would have gone through looking into the FBI or the operation that was made to take out proof about Manticore, he wouldn't have just gone and tried to find me. And he seemed to know about Lex, too, at least on some level."
"Fine," Jondy reluctantly put her gun back on the floor. "We'll do things your way."
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
"Ok, so the plan is Lex goes up to Lydecker, Logan distracts the tact teams, and Jondy and I tie the bastard up to get him back to the Skylon," Max reiterated.
"Yes, ma'am," Lex mocked a salute, bringing on a threatening glare from Max.
"Let's move out," Max signaled.
One by one, they all four went to their tasks; Logan leading the tact teams to the other end of the park, Lex flagging down Lydecker, and Max and Jondy pouncing on him at just the right moment.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
"Thank you for traveling transgenic airlines, your flight is now landing," Jondy quipped as she dropped Lydecker on the floor of the Skylon.
Lydecker surveyed his surroundings as his blindfold and gag were removed, "What do you kids think you're doing?"
"What we're doing is getting some answers," Max said, pulling over a chair and sitting down. "Why are you coming after me?"
"I didn't want you to fall into White's hands," Lydecker started.
"And what, you have yet to realize I can take care of myself?" Max cut him off.
"I've wanted to take out White for years, ever since Manticore burned down. I knew he would have been tracking you; so that was my best bet to catch him. Looks like I was right," Lydecker went on, ignoring Max's interjection.
"Why not any of the others? He was taking out any proof Manticore ever existed."
"But he wanted you the most," Lydecker told her.
"What's so damn special about me?" Max was confused now.
"You're the one that could ruin everything his breeding cult has worked for."
"And how am I gonna do that?" Max rolled her eyes.
"It's your DNA. Perhaps you remember the time you were exposed to the pathogen in the snakes, but remained unaffected?" Lydecker explained.
Max nodded, but didn't say anything.
"Every strand of DNA in you has a code, a purpose. You have no junk DNA in you at all, unlike all the other transgenics Manticore produced and it's your blood that carries the antibody that makes people immune to the pathogen in that snakes. What the cult planned to do is expose the world to that pathogen. All the ordinary people would die, of course, and only familiars would be left."
"The Coming," Max began to put it all together.
"You've heard of it," Lydecker wasn't entirely surprised. "If White had killed you, then you couldn't spread the antibody to others. He wanted Lex to see if the antibody could be passed down to your offspring."
"Don't use the word "offspring" when you talked about my daughter," Max ordered, suddenly defensive.
"Fair enough," Lydecker wanted to avoid agitating Max. "Something else I noticed in looking at your DNA workups were studies done on what abilites you'd pass down to your o… children," he corrected himself. "It was concluded that as a result of your not having any junk DNA, a genetic helix would occur in your children, enhancing their abilities even further." Turning to Lex he asked, "Does she exhibit that?"
"My sight and hearing are better, but I'm not sure about strength and speed," Lex answered.
"She kicks ass," Jondy summed up. "Those abilities are at least equal to Max's."
"One last thing I'm sure you'd be glad to hear is that because Lex is half human, that DNA should even out the flaws in yours," Lydecker informed Max.
"Care to elaborate on that?" Lex wasn't sure exactly what he meant.
"No heat and seizures," Jondy stuck her tongue out at her niece.
"Well, that's all I wanted to know." Max got up to retie Lydecker restraints.
"Hold up," Jondy stopped her. Walking over to Lydecker, she got down close to his face, "Now that we're done, I wanna make one thing crystal clear. You leave us alone. No tracking, no dropping the dime on us, no nothing. You hear me?"
"The only excuse for you contacting us, without getting your ass kicked, is if you have new information on White's people," Max added in.
"Understood," Lydecker agreed to their terms.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
"All units, this is control. Return to base. Repeat, return to base. Over," Lydecker ordered the teams through his walkie-talkie once they had brought him back to the van.
"Thanks for taking out White, by the way. And contacting Logan," Max felt the need to thank him; after all, he had helped them.
"The enemy of my enemy is my friend," Lydecker repeated the familiar saying in response.
The tact teams piled into the van upon arriving; Max, Lex, and Jondy hid behind some trees to avoid being seen. When the sound of the engine was out of range, they came back out and joined Logan on the path.
As the first rays of sunlight peeked over the horizon, Max turned around, dragging Logan with her, "I think I'll take that nap now."
"Doesn't sound like a half bad idea," Jondy agreed as she and Lex followed them.
"But we'll take floor," Lex quickly added, laughing as she jumped up on Jondy's back.
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A/N: I feel this story coming to an end. And it feels like I just uploaded the first chapter yesterday….
Yes, this story is ending, and I hope to have the last chapter up soon. See, I leave for Europe on the 27th and I'll be gone for two weeks. So rather than having to go that long without an update I want to just finish it before then. And don't get all pissy; I'm planning a sequel. Unless of course, you don't review and tell me you want one….
Since this site was not working (for the 50 millionth time), I just made this one big, long chapter; originally it was going be two.
Thanks a million to everyone who reviewed- keep up the awesome work! =) Please let me know if I'm falling into any clichés; I'm trying my hardest to avoid them!
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Chapter 10: Race Against The Clock
After some deliberation, Max had decided to go get Lex by herself; she wasn't sure what Lex's reaction to the new situation would be. Slowly opening the door, Max saw Lex standing watch at the window and Jondy polishing up an old M-61. Jondy looked up and gave Max a 'brace yourself' look as she got and went to sit outside.
"Lex?" Max called as her daughter stood there like a statue, not making any effort to turn around. "Sweetie, please say something."
"Like what? Don't let me be the proverbial third wheel on your reunion? Or how about 'no, I don't want to go out there and play twenty questions'? 'Cuz I'm pretty sure you don't wanna hear either of those," Lex snapped coldly, her back still turned.
"And where's this coming from?" Max was not only shocked at what Lex had just said, but worried by the way Lex hadn't raised her voice, a sign that she was extremely angry. When Lex didn't answer, Max walked over and tentatively placed a hand on her shoulder, "Lex?"
"I don't want things to change," Lex angrily blurted out, shaking of Max's hand.
"It'll be ok, we'll still be a team," Max tried to offer her some comfort.
"No, we'll be a trio. And you're gonna move to Seattle and you two will get married and have kids and I'll be phased out 'cuz you'll have gotten a chance to do it all right," Lex vented under her breath.
Max couldn't believe her ears. Never had she expected Lex to react like this, not this angrily. Grabbing Lex's shoulders and jerking her around, Max looked into her daughter's watery eyes, "Am I hearing you right? You honestly think I'm gonna run off on you? That hurts, Alexa. A lot." Lex just stared back and swallowed hard. "Is that what you're so angry about?"
"I don't know," Lex grumbled in a failed attempt to walk past Max. "I just don't want things to change now."
"Well I can't promise you what will and won't happen," Max sighed, "but can you just calm down long enough to give Logan a chance?" Max gave one last plea when Lex diverted her eyes, "Please Lex, for me?"
Lex didn't say anything, but started to walk towards the door.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
"Head back to control," Lydecker ordered the troops once he'd located them.
Lydecker was still surprised that the rumor he'd heard about Max having a daughter was true. About five years back, Lydecker had come across copies of school records of several young girls. All the girls exhibited unusually advanced abilities in either intelligence or athletics, but one seemed to stand above the rest.
"Lydecker," a gruff voice interrupted his musings.
Turning his head defensively, Lydecker's face hardened at the sight that greeted him.
"I should have taken out your sorry ass a long time ago," White began to walk in a circle around him.
"You could have tried." Lydecker challenged back. "You had one of your familiars try to run me off the road, but that was your first mistake."
"Well, I'd hate to make it again," White threatened as he pulled his gun out of its holster. Lydecker held up a gun of his own in reply. "You really think you stand a chance in hell against me?" White mocked. "Your pathetic military training could never compare to thousands of years of selective breeding," White pulled the trigger.
Lydecker dove to the side, the bullet narrowly missing his head. From his position on the ground, Lydecker fired a shot into White's right shoulder.
"Oh, was that supposed to hurt?" White glanced down at his shoulder, which gave Lydecker the few second respite he needed to get up on his feet.
Lydecker kept his gun pointed at White, "You came here alone, didn't you?"
"Like I would need any help. My troops are out finding your precious 452 and her freak offspring."
"There's your second mistake," Lydecker quipped as he signed something with his free hand.
Before White had time to spit out a comeback, six shots rang out and pierced his chest.
"Never underestimate the enemy," Lydecker reprimanded White as he fell to his knees.
After a minute, White began scrambling for his gun, desperately trying to fire it.
"You'll never learn, will you?" Lydecker shook his head as he shot White in the forehead and again in the side his of his skull until he fell to the ground.
One of Lydecker's head came out from the bushes he had just passed when they got Lydecker's signal to go back, "No pulse, Sir. He's dead."
Lydecker nodded with a soldier expression, "Good job, Alpha two."
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Logan turned around as he heard footsteps coming around the corner. He felt his heartbeat quicken and his palms begin to sweat as Lex walked in, stopping as soon as she entered the room. Max came up behind her and gave her a push towards Logan, whispering something in her ear.
Backing out of the room, Max pointed behind her, "I think I'll go help Jondy for bit." Lex turned around to follow her, but Max gave her a look that dared her to go any further.
When Max was out of sight, Lex turned around and looked her father over. She had always heard, when she was eavesdropping on conversations between Max and Jondy, that he was a lot older than her mom.
"He doesn't look and older than his early 40s," she thought to herself.
His hair spiky, but beginning to gray at the temples, and he still seemed to be opposed to shaving every day. Lex shook her head as she found herself staring into his brilliant blue eyes, which she had heard Jondy tease Max about. She had to admit to herself that he wasn't exactly bad looking.
"So…" Logan awkwardly tried to break the ice. "It's nice to meet you."
"Um, yeah, you too," Lex replied quickly. "Ok, that's progress. Just keep being nice. Don't say anything bitchy," she thought, going back to having a conversation with herself.
After a tense pause, Logan let out a deep breath and broke the uneasy silence, "Sorry, I just don't really know what to say."
"Well in case, haven't you noticed you're not the only one with that problem," Lex quipped back. Her head snapped back up as she heard a light laugh come from Logan. "What?"
"Nothing," Logan shook his head, but stopped seeing an opportunity for some degree of conversation. "That sounds like something Max would say."
"Yeah, well, apparently attitudes are genetic," Lex found herself laughing a little bit, too. "Looks aren't the only similarity between us."
"Similarity is a bit of an understatement," Logan couldn't help the small smile that came to his lips looking into Lex's chocolate brown eyes.
"I guess so," Lex agreed as the tense silence between them returned. "Maybe twenty questions is the better option," she grumbled to herself.
"What'd you say?"
"Nothing. Never mind."
"Well, it might kill some time," Logan suggested.
Seeing his point, Lex shrugged, "I said 'maybe twenty questions is the better option'."
"And what is that supposed to mean?" Logan had no idea what she was talking about.
"Well before I was saying that coming out here would like playing twenty questions, because we both don't know what to say, that is. And since there's more awkward silences than small talk going on here, maybe we should just do that."
Letting out a breath that sounded like a laugh and sigh, Logan leaned back against the wall, "So, should you start or should I?"
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
"So you think they're saying anything?" Jondy asked, trying to listen in on Lex and Logan.
"Will you knock that off?" Max chided her. "As long as Lex is being polite, any form of talking is fine by me."
Just as Jondy was about to reply, they heard gunshots ring out from the park.
"Was that a gun?" Jondy perked up her ears.
Max listened in as to more shots sounded off, "Why would Lydecker be firing now?"
"You don't think Renfro's people are here?" Jondy searched her mind for who Lydecker's opponent could be.
"They were supposed to be taken out right after Manticore burned," Max shook her head. "Maybe we should go check it out."
"Beats sitting around here," Jondy reached inside and picked up a gun from the counter. When Max glared at her, she put her hands up, "It's for me, not you."
Rolling her eyes, Max scaled down the side, making sure no one was looking.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
"Have you heard from Agent White?" a team of men came up to Otto.
"No, he hasn't answered any calls. Nobody's been able to contact him."
"Do you think he could have captured 452?"
"No, he would have informed us of that," another one of White's men spoke up.
"Should we continue the search for 452 or search for Agent White?"
After some consideration, Otto shook his head, "You continue to look for 452, I'll find Agent White."
"We've searched the entire city, we can't find either of the X5s or the girl. Nobody saw them leave either. We questioned people in the building and people on the street."
"Where did 452 work?" Otto questioned.
"We don't know."
"Well find out and question the people there. They might know where the transgenics could be," Otto ordered, sounding almost like White.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
"Ok, so now that we have stupid questions out of the way, I have something else to ask you," Lex's smiled flattened.
Logan inwardly sighed, "Ok, shoot."
"Do you want to marry her?"
"Um, w-why do you ask?" Logan stuttered uneasily.
"Well, do you?" Lex asked again.
"I don't know where we'll go from here, but I'm not loosing her again," Logan professed after some thought.
"You really love her, don't you?" Lex suggested quietly, looking down at the floor.
"Yeah, I do," Logan smiled. "And I know it must really be a lot to deal with, but you think we could reach some kind of a truce?"
"Well, seeing a how mom would kick my ass if we didn't, why not?" Lex smiled back. "So what should the terms of this quid pro quo be, because I don't have any long-lost siblings I'm looking for?"
"How about we act like friends and take it from there?" Logan suggested. "I never expected to, well, to- "
"Find out you had a kid with Max after only sleeping with her once?" Lex finished.
"Um, yeah, you could put it that way," Logan had to laugh at Lex's frankness. Not only did she look exactly like Max, right down to her pouty lips and amazing smile, but she had her same bad-ass attitude that made Logan wonder what kind of relationship he'd be able to have with her.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
"I see them," Max signed across the jogging path to Jondy.
They crouched down as a tact team ran past, heading in the direction of the van. Once the team had passed, Max and Jondy went ahead, looking for Lydecker. Max was apprehensive about seeing him, but convinced herself that she had to. If Lydecker was trying to find her, she wanted to know why. They spotted him coming out of a clearing up farther on the path, and snuck up behind him.
"What the hell are you doing here?" Max demanded as she pinned him against a tree, covering his mouth.
Jondy reached over and took his gun; holding it up against him, "Don't think I'm going to trust you. Now why are you here?"
Turning his face out of Max's grasp, Lydecker indicated the field behind him, "Taking care of your problem."
"What problem?" Max snapped.
Jondy walked back into the clearing, stopping short as she saw, "Maxie, you might wanna come see this."
Pinning Lydecker's hands behind his back, Max went over to Jondy's side.
"That problem," Lydecker stated as he felt Max's grip tighten. "I've been trying to finish him off for years. I knew he would be tracking you and I used that as an incentive to get Cale on my side."
"And you expect us to believe that?" Jondy was still skeptical.
Max's response was relinquishing her hold on Lydecker's wrists and walking over to White's bullet-riddled body. After checking his pulse for herself, Max turned around, "What about his men?"
"They'll be lost without him. But they will be looking for him once they realize he's gone," Lydecker concluded.
"And I'm guessing those breeding cult familiars of his aren't gonna be too pleased either," Jondy added.
"Well we'll deal with them later," Max walked back over to Jondy and Lydecker. "Now with White out of the way, it's time to take care of the rest of them."
"And how do you want to do that?" Jondy asked, debating between her gun and her fist.
"I don't know, but let's head back. We'll figure something out there." Turning to Lydecker, she ordered, "You take care of the fucker's body."
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
"Mom?" Lex called out, walking into the back room Max had Jondy had been in before. "Aunt Jondy?"
"They're not anywhere else," Logan came in behind Lex.
"They're not sitting outside either," Lex sighed. "Dammit, where could they be?" Hearing something moving outside, she turned and looked down the side of the building. As Jondy's head popped up, Lex hopped out the window, "Where were you? I came back here and you two just disappeared."
"White's dead," Max stated bluntly as she climbed through the window, stopping and smiling softly as she caught Logan's eyes.
Rolling her eyes to Lex, Jondy walked out of the room and Lex followed.
"What do you mean White's dead?" Logan asked, almost bitter that he hadn't been the one to do it himself. White had robbed him of fifteen years with Max, not to mention seeing Lex grow up. "If that bastard had never had showed his face, I would have been there to feel the first time Lex kicked in Max's stomach, her birth, her first steps and words. I could have taught her to ride of bike, seen her off on her first day of school. All those memories I can never get back," he felt a rage inside him grow as he thought about that, making him want to go and decapitate White's remains.
"What's wrong?" Max asked, interrupting his hostile thoughts.
"Never mind, it's fine now," Logan tried to think up an excuse.
He smiled, pushing his previous thoughts away and walking over to Max, taking her in his arms.
"So, you two actually say anything or did she just sit there and scowl?" Max asked Logan about his first conversation with Lex.
"Oh she spoke," Logan laughed. After being away for so long he had to feel her in his arms again. "She's so much like you it's scary."
"Does that mean she was a bitch?" Max looked over Logan' shoulder as if the answer was written on the door.
"No, she wasn't. But you know your sarcasm is one of the things I love about you."
Max just laughed and buried her head in Logan's shoulder. Logan's thoughts inadvertently went back to Lex's question earlier. Would he marry Max? Turning and burying his face in her hair, he couldn't think if anything he wanted more.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
"Ok, you wanna elaborate on this whole White's-dead deal?" Lex chased Jondy down the hall.
"Lydecker killed him. Shot him to be more specific. Now I don't know what he's gonna do with the body, but knowing Lydecker, it oughta be good. "
"But I'm guessing this isn't over," Lex asked rhetorically.
"No, far from it. We still have the matter of White's cronies to deal with."
"Well what exactly are we gonna do? The sun should be up in about two hours, so we won't have the dark to work with anymore," Lex pointed out.
"That's what we need to figure out. We could just kill them all, but finding them and then finding where to hide the bodies would take way longer than we want. We need something fast and clean t drive them all out at once," Jondy groaned.
"Oh, yeah, and there are just so many ways to pull something like that off," Lex rolled her eyes sarcastically.
"I have an idea," Logan interjected as he and Max came around the corner.
"What kind of idea?" Max looked up at him questioningly.
"You remember how I got Lydecker off of Sedro Island?"
"You hacked into the signal of the walkie-talkies." Catching his drift, Max urged him on, "Keep going."
"And you remember how you brought down Bronk?" Logan clued.
"You mean saved you sorry ass from him even thought I was still mad as hell at you for being a total jerk?" Max teased him.
Logan closed his eyes for a long blink and looked up at the ceiling, trying his hardest not to laugh, "Max…"
Max laughed and playfully elbowed him in the side, "Yeah, I altered my voice and faked an Eyes Only hack."
Lex's head suddenly shot up as she got what Logan was saying, "I think I get it. You hack into the signal on the coms White's guys have and fake his voice to tell them to get the hell out of the city. They think it's White, so they do it and that'll get them all out in one sweep without having to kill anyone."
"Yeah, that's it," Logan was surprised she could put all that together and hit the nail on the head from his broken hints.
"That just might work," Jondy smiled excitedly.
Frowning, Logan spoke up again, "Wait, one problem. The computers are in the van, over in the park."
"Say no more," Lex jumped up and got her laptop.
Logan scrolled though the programs and was impressed to say the least, "Wow, where did you get all these?"
"A little thing I like to call the black market," Lex smiled mischievously.
Shaking his head, Logan suppressed a laugh as he tried to focus on the task at hand, "Well give me a second, and I'll have it all set up."
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
"All units, this is Agent White. The transgenics have been captured. Return to base and head to Washington, D.C. immediately," Logan spoke into the microphone on Lex's laptop.
One by one, all of White's men replied, obeying the order and heading out.
Otto was the last one to come through, saying little more, "Sir, I've been looking for you. You weren't answering your com."
"I went out looking for 452 myself. Now do as I told you," Logan impersonated White as best he could.
"Yes, Sir," Otto bought the hoax.
Breaking the connection, Logan turned and smiled and Max, Lex, and Jondy who jumped up and smiled at him.
"Now we should stay here for a few hours, just to make sure all of them are gone," Max cautioned.
"Well I don't know about you, but I want food!" Jondy argued, all of them having gone without anything since the last afternoon.
"Logan can go get something when the sun comes up. Right now, I need a rest," Max walked over and curled up on Logan's lap.
"Uh, aren't you guys forgetting something?" Lex piped up. The adults just looked at one another, reaching no consensus. "Lydecker?" she hinted.
Jondy grabbed her gun and looked around, "I vote take the bastard out."
"No," Max protested.
"And why not?" Jondy snapped her head around.
"I wanna know why he's here," Max stated, standing back up. "He obviously wanted to find me in a big way. I wanna know why."
"But he said he wanted to find White and used finding you as an incentive to get Logan to help him," Jondy rebutted.
"Yeah, but this is Lydecker we're talking about. If he only wanted to find White, he would have gone through looking into the FBI or the operation that was made to take out proof about Manticore, he wouldn't have just gone and tried to find me. And he seemed to know about Lex, too, at least on some level."
"Fine," Jondy reluctantly put her gun back on the floor. "We'll do things your way."
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
"Ok, so the plan is Lex goes up to Lydecker, Logan distracts the tact teams, and Jondy and I tie the bastard up to get him back to the Skylon," Max reiterated.
"Yes, ma'am," Lex mocked a salute, bringing on a threatening glare from Max.
"Let's move out," Max signaled.
One by one, they all four went to their tasks; Logan leading the tact teams to the other end of the park, Lex flagging down Lydecker, and Max and Jondy pouncing on him at just the right moment.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
"Thank you for traveling transgenic airlines, your flight is now landing," Jondy quipped as she dropped Lydecker on the floor of the Skylon.
Lydecker surveyed his surroundings as his blindfold and gag were removed, "What do you kids think you're doing?"
"What we're doing is getting some answers," Max said, pulling over a chair and sitting down. "Why are you coming after me?"
"I didn't want you to fall into White's hands," Lydecker started.
"And what, you have yet to realize I can take care of myself?" Max cut him off.
"I've wanted to take out White for years, ever since Manticore burned down. I knew he would have been tracking you; so that was my best bet to catch him. Looks like I was right," Lydecker went on, ignoring Max's interjection.
"Why not any of the others? He was taking out any proof Manticore ever existed."
"But he wanted you the most," Lydecker told her.
"What's so damn special about me?" Max was confused now.
"You're the one that could ruin everything his breeding cult has worked for."
"And how am I gonna do that?" Max rolled her eyes.
"It's your DNA. Perhaps you remember the time you were exposed to the pathogen in the snakes, but remained unaffected?" Lydecker explained.
Max nodded, but didn't say anything.
"Every strand of DNA in you has a code, a purpose. You have no junk DNA in you at all, unlike all the other transgenics Manticore produced and it's your blood that carries the antibody that makes people immune to the pathogen in that snakes. What the cult planned to do is expose the world to that pathogen. All the ordinary people would die, of course, and only familiars would be left."
"The Coming," Max began to put it all together.
"You've heard of it," Lydecker wasn't entirely surprised. "If White had killed you, then you couldn't spread the antibody to others. He wanted Lex to see if the antibody could be passed down to your offspring."
"Don't use the word "offspring" when you talked about my daughter," Max ordered, suddenly defensive.
"Fair enough," Lydecker wanted to avoid agitating Max. "Something else I noticed in looking at your DNA workups were studies done on what abilites you'd pass down to your o… children," he corrected himself. "It was concluded that as a result of your not having any junk DNA, a genetic helix would occur in your children, enhancing their abilities even further." Turning to Lex he asked, "Does she exhibit that?"
"My sight and hearing are better, but I'm not sure about strength and speed," Lex answered.
"She kicks ass," Jondy summed up. "Those abilities are at least equal to Max's."
"One last thing I'm sure you'd be glad to hear is that because Lex is half human, that DNA should even out the flaws in yours," Lydecker informed Max.
"Care to elaborate on that?" Lex wasn't sure exactly what he meant.
"No heat and seizures," Jondy stuck her tongue out at her niece.
"Well, that's all I wanted to know." Max got up to retie Lydecker restraints.
"Hold up," Jondy stopped her. Walking over to Lydecker, she got down close to his face, "Now that we're done, I wanna make one thing crystal clear. You leave us alone. No tracking, no dropping the dime on us, no nothing. You hear me?"
"The only excuse for you contacting us, without getting your ass kicked, is if you have new information on White's people," Max added in.
"Understood," Lydecker agreed to their terms.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
"All units, this is control. Return to base. Repeat, return to base. Over," Lydecker ordered the teams through his walkie-talkie once they had brought him back to the van.
"Thanks for taking out White, by the way. And contacting Logan," Max felt the need to thank him; after all, he had helped them.
"The enemy of my enemy is my friend," Lydecker repeated the familiar saying in response.
The tact teams piled into the van upon arriving; Max, Lex, and Jondy hid behind some trees to avoid being seen. When the sound of the engine was out of range, they came back out and joined Logan on the path.
As the first rays of sunlight peeked over the horizon, Max turned around, dragging Logan with her, "I think I'll take that nap now."
"Doesn't sound like a half bad idea," Jondy agreed as she and Lex followed them.
"But we'll take floor," Lex quickly added, laughing as she jumped up on Jondy's back.
________________________________________________________________________
A/N: I feel this story coming to an end. And it feels like I just uploaded the first chapter yesterday….
Yes, this story is ending, and I hope to have the last chapter up soon. See, I leave for Europe on the 27th and I'll be gone for two weeks. So rather than having to go that long without an update I want to just finish it before then. And don't get all pissy; I'm planning a sequel. Unless of course, you don't review and tell me you want one….