It was by mid-afternoon that they returned and Max smiled widely as he found his father with his mother in the living room.
"Dad! You're back!"
"Max." Jim McGrath mirrored the smile and hugged his son.
His eyes tracked over him, checking for anything out of place, and Max just about kept from rolling his eyes. He was really getting tired of reassuring everyone that he was fine.
Steel zipped over to his first host, clearly delighted in turn, and Jim chuckled as the Ultralink fist-bumped him.
The presence of his parents, both of them, also reminded Max of something he had wanted to talk to them about. Them and his uncle.
Because it concerned all of them.
His family.
As he listened to his father talk about what had been going on politically, Max tried not to let his mind wander to the difficult topic he wanted to breach.
"You found the maker of the weapon?" he echoed when Jim mentioned it.
"Not him personally, but we found out who made it. The spear was created a very long time ago, around the rise of Makino to power. The parts are very old, probably from the first Ultralinks defeated and off-lined. The creator was a weapons specialist and he developed the spear, but he died a long time ago of old age. He spent his life trying to forge weapons against Ultralinks. Ven-Ghan's own weapon, the one that can separate a host from a parasite, is based on this man's inventions."
Steel shuddered. Max just played with the strap of his watch. It wasn't even a real thing, just part of Camouflage Mode, but it felt real. Steel usually teased him about things like that, but today he was silent.
"Max? Something wrong, honey?" his mother asked as she handed him a soda and sat down next to him.
"No. I'm fine. Really fine. Training's hard and Ven-Ghan's relentless, but a good teacher. I hate to think of more of those Skewers out there."
Steel gave an elaborate shiver and floated over to Max's side, hovering at his shoulder in a show of support. Their connection was alive and very active, though not even close to a deep-link.
Jim's eyes went from one to the other, lips twitching a little toward a knowing smile.
"I know Makino hurt us badly, too," Max said with a sigh. "He could take my armor, he could have killed us easily, but this is different."
His mother reached over and squeezed his wrist. "We know, Max. It's one of the reasons why you father is actively working with the Black Star Council. It's not just about your safety, but also to hunt down the Ultralinks still out there, those not free of their malevolent programming. And there are still a lot."
His father nodded. "Too many. And while they aren't controlled by Makino, they do a lot of damage on their own. That's why I needed the protection act for you, Steel. As Max's symbiont. Your lives are too entwined."
Max's head shot up and he stared at the older McGrath, mouth opening. Jim's expression was knowing.
"The two of you always had such a strong bond, Max. Even when I still had to get to know my family again, return to a life I hadn't lived in sixteen years, trying to find my bearings after existing as a battery abused by Makino, I realized that this was different from what I and Steel had shared."
Steel made a whirring noise, shifting left to right and back again.
"I realized that for Steel to open up so completely, to allow such a deep bond to form without absorbing the mind he is connected to, it was special. For life."
Max swallowed. "You knew?" he managed.
"I suspected. Now I know. You just confirmed it, son. We don't really know what you and Steel being linked as you are means for your life, Max. Or yours, Steel."
"Mine?!" Steel echoed, pointing at himself.
"Like I say, you are connected. One life."
Max looked a little pale.
"I suspect you were damaged throughout my accident, Steel," his father went on. "I overloaded and 'died'. When you were separated by force from me, you could have sustained some form of undetected damage to your matrix. It could explain your inability to renew your batteries without Max's T.U.R.B.O. energy."
"Uh, okay," Steel said slowly. "But I never detected any matrix damage."
Jim raised his eyebrows. "It might be a tiny line of code that causes the problems you have without Max. The two of us never had any issues with prolonged separation."
"Well, you don't need a conduit either," Steel muttered.
"No. I'm Takonian. Max is a living mass of energy. No Takonian was ever like him, to my knowledge. Even my reserves pale in comparison what you can do, son."
"Well, I'm not Takonian. I'm half human. And humans age! This sounds crazy!"
"I know, son. I know."
"Steel didn't change your life when you linked!"
The Ultralink hovered next to his host, confusion written all over him, and he placed a steadying hand on Max's narrow shoulder.
Steadying for both of them. Steel needed this as much as his host.
"He linked into my battle armor," Jim explained. "For you, he created the SteelSuit. It's him. Molecularly it's him. He fused you with a part of him and that part is now you. The suit contains you. He contains you. Without it, I doubt you would look like you do, and I'm not talking about the camouflage."
Max snorted. "Yeah, I'd look like fragments of me all over the place."
"No. You'd be Takion energy."
Max blinked, confused.
::You'd look like you did when Makino removed the suit:: Steel said softly. ::All energy::
::Crap…:: he whispered.
"Your power is tremendous, Max," Jim continued. "Running unchecked. There's an aging process in Takonians, but your cells are hybrid and there's no natural control over the energy. Steel's a conduit, but this isn't just about him siphoning it off. His decision to form the suit around you made you one."
Molly nodded. She had been quiet so far. "Takonians already have a longer life-span than humans. Mostly." She smiled at her husband. "The Takion energy inside their bodies changes their life expectancy."
Jim clasped his wife's hand. "I didn't know what would happen to our child, should we have children. I didn't know if Molly could even conceive and you were our pride and joy when you were born, Max. Since you are a hybrid, no one knew if you would have predominantly my genes or your mother's. There was no way to test you either."
Max chewed on his lower lip. He felt Steel's solid touch, the hand on his shoulder, and he leaned mentally closer to his Ultralink partner.
"Just like I didn't know whether my Takonian heritage might manifest in you," Jim added ruefully.
"So… because of that… and Steel… I'm growing really old?" Max whispered.
"In a way. Many factors came together. You are linked, Max. Bonded. For life. Steel's life."
And he was a bio-mechanical life-form, nearly indestructible, resilient, hardy, and feeding off Max's Takion energy. It was a life-circle.
He had had a lot of time to think about it inside the mountain, pinned to the ground. And later, after their rescue, throughout his recovery, and in the weeks following that. It was a concept that was hard to grasp and still harder to really understand in what it meant for his future. Their future.
It made his head ache and his brain spin.
::We'll be around for a while:: Steel chirped in his head, sounding almost chipper. A little bit forced, sure, but he wasn't as overrun by this as Max.
Because Max was human; had been raised human. Had lived his life like anyone else on this planet until some years ago, and that meant he knew his life was finite.
Now…
Everything was open.
He felt like the teenage lead in some cable network show.
::Yeah::
::BFFs for real::
He snorted, letting himself get caught in the humor, in Steel's lightness and attempt to chase away darker thoughts.
::Bosom buddies. Cronies. Soul mates::
Max glanced at the Ultralink and gave him a smile. ::Sounds about right. You're stuck with me, I'm stuck with you::
::Soul mates sounds more poetic than 'I'm stuck with you':: was the grumbled reply.
::Yeah, me, too::
"Max?"
He blinked and looked at his parents, both of them smiling knowingly. His father's eyes crinkled at the corners with amusement and his mother's tolerant expression said it all.
"Uh, sorry," he muttered. "Habit. Sorry."
"It's training," Jim only said. "Your way of communication, the link, it needs training just like your fighting styles. You need Steel to switch between your Modes, unlike me, so link communication is vital. Every fraction of a second counts in a battle."
Max nodded. He had been caught mid-change once or twice, and that had hurt. Enabling a faster transformation was a key goal.
"I know Ven-Ghan is training with you. You're using Berto's very impressive range, too. Since I'll be here for a while, should we set up a schedule?" his dad offered.
Max felt himself grin widely. "Sure!"
Steel bobbed excitedly. "Facing my old pal and battle partner? We'll kick your hero butt!" he exclaimed.
Jim chuckled. "We'll see about that, Steel."
"We need to tell Uncle Ferrus about this, right?" Max asked suddenly.
"It's only fair. And you're not just one of his men, Max," Molly said calmly. "You're family."
He nodded. "I want him to know. No secrets."
It was something his uncle had sworn to him after Makino's final defeat. No more secrets; complete openness when it came to truths about Steel or Max himself. Sure, he sometimes obfuscated a little, tried, but it wasn't as bad as before. Too much had happened because Forge had wanted to protect either of them, or because he had decided it wasn't their concern. He hadn't counted on Max's endless curiosity, his annoyance of being seen as a kid or just a rookie, and his drive to get to the bottom of secrets he knew were kept from him on purpose.
It had been a learning process for all of them.
Max loved his uncle, understood why he had done so many things the way they had happened, that he was the Commander in Chief of N-Tek and therefor responsible for the lives of everyone under his command. It changed the way a person acted and reacted, even around his closest family.
XxXxXx
Forge took the whole revelation rather stoically, almost as if he had known or highly suspected something like this was about to happen. Or had happened already.
"The offer still stands," he told Max, squeezing his shoulder. "To talk. Or just share a drink. Soda or milkshakes for you for now." He winked.
Max smiled. "Yeah. Thanks, Uncle Ferrus."
"Anytime, kiddo."
"So, does that mean I'm no longer benched, too?"
Forge chuckled and slightly shook his head. "You were never benched. You had downtime to recover, to heal."
"I'm fine again."
The older man met his eyes, expression serious. "Yes, you are. Physically, mentally… you are fine. I just want you to be open if something comes up, Max. Whatever it is."
"I will," he promised.
"You're back on the roster, which also means you'll start studying more." There was a sterner note to the words, though Forge's eyes danced with secret amusement.
Max groaned. "Studying."
"You still got a lot to learn. It's not all about hitting something hard."
"I know, I know."
Forge raised his eyebrows.
Max sighed deeply. "More training?"
"More training," his uncle confirmed with an almost evil grin.
XxXxXx
The grin faded when Max was gone, and it was replaced by deep worry and an uncertainty rarely anyone ever got to see on Commander Forge Ferrus' face.
"Crud," he whispered.
XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXx
Night had fallen and the city was lit up, a beautiful skyline against the backdrop of the desert. There were clouds hiding the stars and the moon only peeked out once or twice.
Jim McGrath had showered and changed into sweats, enjoying the calm life compared to what had been his life before. Sixteen years were gone, had never happened for him, as he had been used as living battery by Makino. It wasn't amnesia, just… there was nothing. He hadn't been conscious.
Sixteen years.
He stopped toweling his hair and fought back a wave of loss.
His eyes fell suddenly on the figure in front of the large windows overlooking Copper Canyon.
"Molly?"
She looked at him, her lips turning up into a smile, but it didn't really reach her eyes. Jim looked into his wife's eyes and saw both the love he had missed for so many years, the love that had been between them almost from the beginning, and the worry.
Worry for their son.
"Did you know this could happen?" she asked, sounding almost accusatory.
He frowned, tossing the towel onto a near-by seat. "The deep-link?"
She nodded.
Jim shook his head. "No. I didn't know and I never would have thought it could happen."
"I'm scared," she whispered, turning away and looking out the window over the dark city. "For Max. So much has changed and is still changing, and I never… I never thought this…"
He wrapped an arm around her shoulders and pulled her close. "I know," Jim murmured. "Neither did I."
"When he so suddenly developed his powers… when Steel linked to him… it was frightening enough. I mean, he was sixteen, Jim! Sixteen! He had powers, he had an Ultralink, and he was immediately forced to fight a fire elementor! He could have died, Jim! And we knew nothing of what he could really do…"
"And he had already been pulled into a war that had been going on for longer than his life," he agreed. "I wouldn't have wanted that for my child, whether he had my abilities or not." He pressed a kiss against Molly's temple. "No sixteen year old should risk his life like this, work as a special operative for a secret organization, and nearly die multiple times." He sighed softly. "He's strong. Incredibly strong. So much stronger than me, Molly. So much more powerful, with abilities he hasn't fully developed even now."
She nodded. "And he has Steel. We didn't know if he was the same Ultralink who had worked with you, who had confronted countless of his kind and taken out even more; or if he had reverted to his old programming."
"I doubt Steel could be his old self again. He broke the programming."
"We didn't know that!" she said forcefully, rounding on Jim. "You were gone, Jim! Steel had off-lined! And my son was suddenly… He was overloading and Steel activated and… They ultralinked! My only child was ultralinked! I knew what that menat and there were times when Steel took over…"
He wrapped her into his arms again. His strong, fearless, undercover operative for N-Tek wife. The woman he had fallen for and still loved so deeply.
"I know," he repeated. "I know, Molly."
"And now the deep-link! We all knew there was no remedy for Max's condition, that he would always have Steel to function as his conduit, but now they have a life-link, Jim!"
Jim was silent, holding her, his own thoughts so very similar to Molly's, the fear and anxiety almost the same. Yes, Takonians lived longer, comparatively to humans from Earth, but his son was not just Takonian or human. Underneath the SteelSuit he was energy. And Steel was now unbreakably connected to Max.
One life.
He briefly tightened his hold.
"There is nothing we can do," he told his wife. "And as much as that hurts and as much as it makes me want to scream, it is for their best. They protect each other; they need each other."
"Because he's a hybrid!"
Jim framed Molly's face, saw the anger and the fear still in her eyes.
"He's our son, Molly. That's all he is. This could have happened when he was just a baby. This might have been a possible future for him, in his mid-forties. It happened now and he had the help and the support he needed. That's what counts. Not the past, not the future. The present. He turns to us for help, sometimes with words, sometimes with gestures. That's what's important. For us to be there for him. Even if no one can know what might happen next."
And even if his home planet still existed, Jim doubted someone like Max had ever existed. Not because he was a hybrid, but because of what his mixed genes had made him.
"Knowing him, something will," Molly replied, a faint smile on her lips. "He's your son."
"Our son. You're just as much trouble."
She lightly cuffed his shoulder. "Says the alien war hero."
Jim leaned down and kissed her, lips brushing together. Molly hugged him close, burying her face against his shoulder, and they simply stood together, silent, breathing in sync.
tbc...
