Alec, Max? If you guys don't get a move on and MEET UP already, I know one or two people are gonna be REALLY annoyed with you - and one of them is most definitely ME!


When he first heard that ringing sound Alec thought his body was giving out and the ringing just inside his ears. But when he grabbed the big fella's arm and motioned for him to stop, he suddenly noticed him taking a comically huge mobile phone out of his pocket. The big guy actually sniffed at the device before he finally pressed a button and said,

"Hello! Hello?"

The ringing didn't stop. Alec almost laughed. Joshua had a cell phone? "Dude, where did you get that? Here we're trying to find Max when all this time we could have just called her?" he asked incredulously. Joshua looked at him guiltily as he tried to press another one of the buttons of the cell. Alec shook his head in disbelief, then stretched out a hand to turn the phone around for his friend. "You'll wanna talk into this side, big guy. That one is for listening," he explained.

"Logan's phone. Logan gave Joshua cell - cell phone for emergencies."

Alec nodded, then pressed the Answer-button for his friend. "Try it now," he said.

He didn't need genetically enhanced hearing to understand everything the person on the other end said. The voice was so loud that every word was clearly discernible even from where he stood.

"Geez, Joshua!" Max said, sounding somewhere between worried and annoyed. "What the hell is going on? Why did it take you so long to pick up?" she called out angrily, much to Joshua's bemusement.

"Sorry, li'l fella. Joshua and phone not friends yet."

"Oh; 's alright, big fella. Logan should have given you a better one..." 'A simpler one,' she meant to say, but kept that thought to herself. At least he did have a phone... "Anyways. So you guys are alright? - Did you hear about the attack?"

"The attack?"

Alec tensed as he heard that. There had been an attack? "Gimme the phone, Josh," he ordered, instantly transitioning back into soldier mode. Knowing Alec enough to not be offended by his tone, Joshua handed it over without complaint.

"Max. Where'd it happen? You alright?"

"Alec!" she sounded surprised. And now that he held the phone this close to his ear, she also sounded like she was running. "Listen," she said, "The S1W bombed the Town Hall. They have a hostage situation down there. Logan's already on his way. He's meeting Asha there, but we're not sure we can trust anyone from the S1W anymore, not after what they did to you, not after this... So stay the hell away from them, you hear me?"

"Copy that. - Max."

"Alec, this has to have something to do with you getting shot, and I wanna know what. I'm on the way to your apartment right now - I know it's not too far from the hospital, but I need the exact address. - You mentioned something earlier; did you stash something away there? Something that could-"

"Hold on, Max!"

"-help us out? Background info-"

"Max! Listen!" When he finally had her full attention, he gave her the address, then went on to tell her what he had meant to earlier, "It's documents. Files. I wanted you to go and get them when I thought I couldn't do so myself. They could be crucial if we want to stop this..."

"Stop this?" Max asked, but he ignored it. There was no time for lengthy explanations, especially not on the phone.

"If they're still there, they're with the Tryptophan," he told her and hoped she remembered where he had used to keep it back in his old place in TC. Thankfully, she didn't ask him more about the content of those files. Even if she hadn't had as much military training as him, she wasn't stupid. And he was sure that her "training on the streets" was on some level much more profound than his Manticore one could ever have been.

"The Tryp-"

"Yeah, Max. I'm on my way - we're gonna meet you there in ten."

"Roger that."

Joshua wanted to say something then, but Alec shook his head. Max didn't know that he hadn't yet recovered as fully as a transgenic like him should have done by now and he sure as hell wasn't gonna allow Joshua to clue her in on that fact. Nope, definitely not.

"The file..."

Okay, maybe he had been a little quick in assuming she'd let it go so easily.

"Curiosity killed the cat, Maxie, remember?"

"Alec! This is-"

"Serious business, I know. Sorry Max, I promise we'l talk about it as soon as we get there." He heard her huff. He could picture the accompanying pout all too well and had to smile at the image in his brain. "Now try and stay under the radar," he eventually said, "Don't do anything stupid -"

"You're telling ME that?"

"I know you, Maxie. You tend to overdo the 'lone soldier who can't trust anyone but themselves' thing..."

Before Max had a chance to retort, Joshua suddenly managed to wrestle the phone out of a startled Alec's hand and said, "Max to meet us here." Alec tried to win possession of the phone back, but even though he might be an X5, Joshua was still Joshua - he was too tall, too strong.

"Josh, what-?" he protested, but to no avail.

"Alec not alright. Alec to rest. Will wait with Joshua at," he turned around, scanning the surroundings, then talked to Max again, holding the phone awkwardly in front of him, not to his ear, "At dumpsters behind 'Pulse City Cafe'. Max be safe now and hurry."

With that, he hung up the phone, hitting the right button on his first try. Great, Alec thought, and glowered at him. The big fella only shrugged. Then, as if to show him it had been the right decision, he wrapped an arm around his friend again and helped him walk over to the other side of the street.

"The dumpsters, Josh? Really? But my place is only ten minutes from here, tops. And it smells so much nicer, like you wouldn't believe..." Alec tried again, but he knew that Joshua could see right through him, could see that he was only whining because what Max had said worried him and he tried to mask that worry.

They had started it. They had really started it...


The apartment lay in total darkness when Max reached it, not two minutes after she had gotten off the phone with Alec and Joshua. Of course darkness didn't necessarily mean someone else hadn't already searched the place, someone who might still be there, because, Max pondered, you didn't actually need artificial light to search for someone or something now that daylight had completely replaced the haziness of dawn.

Max stood and waited in the shade in front of the apartment complex, a dark silhouette against the walls. For a full five minutes, she scanned the area and tried to see whether anything was moving, whether anything looked conspicuous. When she was sure that no obvious threats were lurking in the corners, she blurred over and into the building, up the stairs until she stood in front of a dark green door. It didn't take her long to pry it open.

As quiet as a cat, Max stepped into the half-darkness of the flat. A part of her doubted she would find anything here. If these people had gone to all this trouble, had shot and captured Alec, they had to have gone looking for those documents. They had to have found them.

Thinking about Alec made her knees feel weirdly wobbly; the memories of all the blood, his blue tinged skin, that lost look on his face… Suddenly she remembered the lonely boy she had seen in him all those months past when first he had entered her life displaying the cocky, careless attitude of an arrogant jerk. And she had believed his show, though only for so long...

Unfortunately, all that was left of those bygone days was a peculiar sense of forlornness, of regret. Why had she never tried to confront him when first he stole his way into, then out of her life? Why had she let him escape, let him hurt her so much? And why did he still hold so much power over her that all she could think of now was Alec, X5 494? How had he gotten to her so much?

All the blood, the light tingling feeling of his breath on her face, the touch of her lips on his forehead...

She forced herself to focus back on the apartment. The place looked barer than she had imagined it. It didn't allow much room for hiding things. Then again, this was Alec's apartment. He would find room to hide stuff practically anywhere. Even here. Plus, she knew where to look.

She hadn't gotten much farther than into the kitchen when suddenly she heard a creaking sound somewhere to her left, coming from the entrance. Max shrank against the fridge, trying to make herself as invisible as possible.


In the end, Alec couldn't just sit and wait for Max behind some reeking dumpster. Even though Joshua had tried to persuade Alec to stay and wait for Max to come and get them, Alec simply couldn't do it. He knew his body needed the rest. But he also knew that Max was in danger. The goings-on he had come here to investigate and to put a stop to if necessary were finally under way. They had started it all... A week early...

Soon everything might be out in the open, everything might be too late. He needed to stop this now, he needed to stop her.

If anything, he at least had to make sure Max was okay. So he had continued his walk all the way to his apartment, an anxious Joshua at his side. He felt close to passing out when they finally got there. But there was no more time for resting, so he opened the door as quietly as possible and let them both in.

Suddenly a huge shadow crept across the walls.

Max had only gotten so far in her musings about what to do should the newly arrived presence honestly attack her, when all too suddenly the light in the kitchen was turned on, killing even the too small shadow she had been hiding in. As the light revealed her to the newcomer, all she could see was the black silhouette of a tall and brutish looking man standing only a few feet away from her, his form in stark contrast to the blinding lights. Max couldn't help but grin stupidly at finding herself stuck in such a ridiculously standard situation. Her instincts kicked in then and she blurred forward, arms raised to cover herself and to lash out at the shadow.

Right then, though, the stranger raised a gun, so quickly Max wasn't sure she had actually seen him do it. Before she got a chance to blur, he aimed it at her and shot. She heard a numbing, ear-splitting sound before she even saw the man move to shoot.

The following second stretched on way too long, until she heard the stranger call her name in a voice that sounded all too much like Alec's.

"Max!" he said as her knees gave way and the ground rose to meet her. In a whirl of air, she felt something weigh her down, force her to the ground. She heard him call her name again, like a whisper this time. "Max…"

Then, her eyes, dark and wide, finally found his. Her fingers clenched his shirt.

"Alec?"


Uh oh, that's not the way you were supposed to meet again, guys...