A/N: Please give patience to my ramblings; I will try to be brief.
First, it's wonderful to be back writing this story, and hopefully my readers haven't abandoned me.
Second, I find it's humbling to learn that all of your readers are either more creative or more capable of writing your story than you are. To those who responded to my challenge, if you didn't guess the trigger you probably came up with a better idea. I seriously considered changing the trigger to Sibelius or Logan's cooking after reading your replies. However, given the very linear way my mind works, I couldn't reconcile it with my plans. Nevertheless, I hope everyone won't throw rotten tomatoes (or reviews ) at my lack of ingenuity.
Finally, one of the readers pointed out a potentially confusing issue that I promised to clarify. Max's siblings in my story assume Zack is alive because they don't know what happened in the emergency room of AJBAC. When Syl finds Zack's grave in chapter nine of my story, she doesn't think anything of it (except an eerie shudder) because Lydecker told her to expect it.
That particular image is from Season one, episode "The Kidz Are Aiight". In it Lydecker and company bury Zack in a marked grave to trick him into thinking he's escaped so he will contact Max. Therefore, my assumption is the presence of the grave doesn't send off any warning bells since it is just a leftover from that situation. Hopefully, that clears up any questions.
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Fogle Towers…
The rain fell in quiet dark strips outside his picture windows.
For nearly all his life, Logan had personified the Seattle rain. At certain points of his existence, especially the past two years, it had most often felt like a reflection of his inner turmoil, the tears he himself had been unable to cry. At other points, it had felt like an angry fist, pounding down on the unsuspecting, anxious to flood out and destroy. Still at others, it had felt like the cleansing hand after a cathartic moment, healing and life-giving. During all those moments, Logan was sure it had never felt like this.
Tonight, surrounded by bruised and burning X5s who were all casting dark and despairing glances at the woman on his couch, their mutual betrayer and object of affection, the rain felt surreal. Like its presence signaled the transition from reality into some darker, preternatural world, with the central unnatural element embodied in the prone figure living nearby, the apparition of Max.
She had to be some sort of ghost or supernatural visitor, a figure who resembled his adored friend and their beloved sister, but was not her. Max could never act as this woman had.
Since she had whispered back into his life, Logan had often been struck by the irony. The familiar features, the longed for voice, the well-known gestures – all uncannily focused in an alien mind. It was enough to drive one to despair.
But yet, Logan didn't despair.
Like Pandora, he had hope trapped in a box, a literal box that was sitting in front of him, waiting for her to awake. Not a particularly big box, but a familiar one. A box that had been passed between him and her on at least one memorable occasion.
A box that contain one last hope.
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Troy never thought much about the rain. He was an X5, meant to endure, meant to overcome, meant to survive, and to him the rain was just one more obstacle in a long life of such things. He expected annoyances.
And so he sat, quietly if not patiently, waiting for an opportunity to act. He let the rain beat down on him, never distracting him from the picture in front of him - an affluent apartment, filled with 10 conscious people, all of whom were too wrapped up in their own thoughts to look up at the skylight and notice the face peering in.
For another person, the image he painted would be symbolic, a dark figure, a top of a tall building, on the outside looking in – but Troy wasn't such a person. He saw things crisply, clearly… he saw Max.
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Max found herself in an increasingly familiar situation – waking up from having been rendered unconscious. It was a pattern that she was going to have to remedy, if only to regain her dignity as an X5.
Despite the disorienting sensations flooding her, Max forced the mist clouding her mind to subside. Conscientiously, she reached out with other four senses to determine as much as possible, before daring to open her eyes.
The first thing she sensed was rain, smattering on the window panes. It was an inconsequential point, but briefly, it made her feel sad.
Shaking off the thought, Max concentrated on other more useful clues that assailed her senses. She recognized the heady scent of cherry wood and fresh food, taking it as her signal that she was back at Logan's. She also deciphered, from the her sense of touch, that she was in the living room, the surface of her residence too hard to be the bed but far more giving than a table. Most importantly, she determined that she was surrounded by her siblings who seemed to be engaged in a heated debate with Lydecker.
It was one storm she could do without.
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Restless noises like clothing shuffling and fingers crackling, alerted Max to the tension in the room even before she heard anyone speak. Quickly it became apparent what, specifically, they were discussing…
"So lay this out for me one more time," Syl demanded. "How did Max miraculously forget three years of life experiences?"
"We're wasting time." interjected Lydecker overbearing and clipped voice, his pitch indicating that he was located farther away from Max than the others.
"Humor us." Zane's voice snapped, coming from Max's left.
"Okay, one more time for the rows in the back," Krit wearily replied. "We assumed Max buried the memories she didn't want Manticore to discover the deepest; the way we were taught."
"But she didn't," stated Seth, impatient to get on with it.
"No. She must have realized that as soon as she forgot Logan was Eyes Only that she'd begin to leave gaps. And eventually, she'd stop the progress because she would be unable to identify why she was using the strategy to begin with. So instead, she must have broken the memories down into different parts, burying small details first, removing things that wouldn't disorient her."
Max could feel her heart speeding up at Krit's words. Logan was Eyes Only, the pain in the ass cyberjournalist that Manticore scientists had continued to pry into her mind to find?
Despite the need she felt to get that information back to Manticore, Max also recognized that this was further evidence that it was her siblings, and not her unit, who was telling her the truth. The thought made her feel slightly nauseous, and yet she continued to listen.
"So, she forgot her work place, her friends, her apartment." Coreen supplied, something about her voice was off – as if she were talking through a wall.
"Yes." Derek piped in. His own voice was somewhat excited. Given his love of psychological warfare, Max figured he had natural interest in what they perceived to be her predicament.
"But my guess is that she buries a lot of the emotional stuff first. Think of it like this, if she takes out her feelings for her friends, Logan, Original Cindy… then her remaining memories become much easier to contain within a trigger. This allows her to proceed with the process, while burying her emotional responses to the memories she still has. Without the emotions, she'd be less vulnerable if Manticore found something out. It's brilliant actually. I mean Manticore always identified emotions as being a weakness, but it seems like Max is the first one to link the danger of emotions to memories and the blanking technique"
Thanks Derek, Max thought, it really would be brilliant if she'd actually thought of it. But try as she might, she just couldn't remember doing so.
"Makes sense, though," Krit added, "She would have seen the danger of letting emotions cloud one's memory triggers with Zack."
"So what does this mean?" Syl asked. "In a practical sense?"
"It means two things." Derek continued. "One, her memory is far more splintered than we realized. Even if she recovers a memory about, say, Jam Pony, she might not remember how she felt about the situation. And two, it also means that her closest memories will theoretically center around the things she most needed to forget…presumably, Logan, Seattle, and Eyes Only…."
"And how about things that aren't theories," Lydecker seethed, breaking into the current conversation. "How about the fact that as we sit here, calmly discussing the ways your sister forget about her friends, that Manticore is out there looking for her. And that she is eventually going wake up and attempt to figure out how to get back to them. Where, I might add, she will promptly tell them where Eyes Only is, where you are, and how to find you."
His voice was like spark to a simmering fire – Max's emotions exploded inside her, she could barely think for all the anger and confusion that was clashing and streaming in her head – god, she hated that man. It also seemed to set off her siblings, all of whom seemed dangerously on edge, the product of their close escape.
"We get it Lydecker!" Seth bellowed. "Max is turned. Is that what you want to hear?! You want us to admit how our baby sister just betrayed us to or worst enemy. How we almost ended up back in hell as her gift wrapped package and she used Zack as bait!"
It was the waver in his voice, the emotion in it that made Max's stomach sink. If they wanted to hold a trial, she could save them the trouble: she was guilty as charged.
"We need to ask her where he is. She might tell us now." Jondy stated, hoping to defuse the tense situation.
"What, Jondy?! You think she'll just spill where Zack is? It's her leverage over us, and she knows it." Zane remarked, for once no hint of humor in his voice.
"It's worth a try."
"Face it. Until Max gets her memory back she's a danger to herself and to us. She sees us as the enemy."
"That doesn't mean she's our enemy," Jondy stubbornly insisted.
"Both Zane and Lydecker have a point though," Coreen added darkly. "How do we keep Max from turning us in?"
"Like I said before," Lydecker coolly stated, ever the soldier. "We need to figure out how Max was turned, what method Manticore used, and how to contain her. Otherwise, we're running up against a brick wall. "
"Care to explain that Lydecker," Derek questioned.
Max wasn't sure she wanted to hear this, something told her she wouldn't like the answers she received.
"Max would have come back to Manticore, even after her memory loss, with all her childhood knowledge of the place – including the reason she ran. Command would have needed to break Max of her dislike of the place in order to make her loyal…"
Although Max couldn't see it, a shudder ran through her brothers and sisters, and quietly, Jondy made her way to stand beside Logan and put a supportive hand on his arm.
"… Manticore uses different methods for its indoctrination process. But, the most common means is a sort of chemical and visual assault on the bodies processing system. When the method has been completed the subject loses any ability to self-reflect, to go into his or her inner mind and relate to past experiences. The soldier essentially becomes a vessel for sensory data. She responses to what's around her, but can't relate it to past experiences. Eventually, the mind begins to build new associations, but not until psyops has filtered in messages about loyalty and duty to Manticore. Getting back what has been lost after such a procedure can be difficult."
Max's mind did a series of calculations and came to a conclusion that was voiced by Krit…
"Brin."
"Yes. Your other sister was reindoctrinated by that method."
"So why are we just hearing about this now." It was Logan's voice that was speaking, low and steady but with an unmistakable edge to it. "Didn't you assume Max had undergone the same treatment when she returned?"
"I suspected it, certainly, but there are… signs that I've been watching out for that Max never exhibited. Characteristics that are indicative of individuals who had gone through that method." Lydecker responded.
"What signs?" Derek asked.
"A certain clipped, machine-like quality to the subject's voice. Nearly non-existent emotions, calm to the point of unresponsiveness. And very literal interpretations of one's surroundings… often the subject can't decipher levels of sarcasm or irony in another's voice."
An unwilling chuckle burst from Zane and, if she could have seen it, Max would have noticed a few smiles from the others as well.
"I can see why Max didn't apply." Logan stated dryly.
The storm that was threatening Max's well-being continued to pick up speed at Lydecker's words. She was remembering a hundred different conversations with Brin, the faraway look in her eyes, the small signs of emotions that had never felt totally genuine… It made sense and filled with her pity as she remembered her own terrifying moments when her inner mind had nearly been destroyed and her inner thoughts invaded, the moments before Eva had come to her.
Again Max was confronted with evidence that it was Manticore who had lied to her, an effort that had been spear headed by Brin. Why else would they have felt the need to put her through the process if she hadn't been coming in from a long time on the outside?
She wasn't an idiot; she could feel the evidence mount, but still Max clung to her love for her other family, sure that Brin was beginning to make progress, sure that there had to be another explanation if she could just speak to her friends.
"So let's assume Max wasn't turned like that," Logan pressed, his voice jarring Max from her thoughts. "How did she resist it?"
"I don't know." Lydecker unequivocally replied.
"What other methods could they have used?" Derek asked, interest creeping in despite himself.
"The other methods tend to be cruder. Torture. Isolation. Verbal assault. But, as you see, fear doesn't seem to be at the heart of Max's conversion. She seemed willing to betray you of her own free will."
"So where do we go from here?" Syl asked, voicing the question everyone, including Max, was thinking. "I mean, it's not clear what's going on with her. She offered us up to Manticore with one breath and then saved my life with the next."
"It could be Max is fighting off the effects of her indoctrination," Lydeckered commented, "in which case it would be most advantageous of us to pursue that line of questioning."
"And what about her memory loss?" Krit asked. "I mean, we're so close to getting this."
"First Manticore, then her memory." Lydecker's voice warned.
Max wasn't sure what it was, but she knew something was happening in the room, something unrelated to Lydecker's words. She had no way of knowing that all eight of her sibling's eyes were directed at Logan - that the stiffness of his shoulders and the sudden blaze in his eyes signified that something had clicked.
All Max knew for sure was that Jondy's voice came out quietly and questioningly: "Logan?"
Deciding that now, while her siblings were distracted, would be a good time to get a look at the layout of the room, she cracked her eyes ever so slightly. Through her eyelashes, Max viewed the room's occupants. Lydecker was farthest from the group, pacing in front of hallway. Zane and Derek sat on the love-seat next to her, the latter paused in his actions of wrapping a bandage around Zane's forearms. Coreen was sitting in the chair, her legs propped up and a bag of ice on her swollen face. Almost everyone, except Krit and Derek, was covered in bruises and scrapes, and everybody's' eyes were directed at the tall, handsome ordinary in the room, whose own contained a searing look, directed right at Max.
If he saw her eyes move, he gave no sign, but instead directed his question to Krit: "You two sure it's Eyes Only that's the final memory and not Seattle? Max use to sit on the Space Needle a lot, think about things, it was an important place for her. That view might be the key."
"Nearly positive." Krit replied, "She'd have wanted to forget Seattle's significance to her life, and if she wiped her memory of Eyes Only before removing Seattle – and with all the other memories gone – she wouldn't have been able to recognize why she should remove it. Plus, the space needle would have been too risky. They surely would have shown it to her. Even if Max doesn't remember Seattle, Manticore surely did."
She couldn't see the nod Logan gave, or the way he gripped the box in front of him tighter. In fact, all she could concentrate on was her own turbulent thoughts that were desperately seeking order in the chaos that reigned inside her.
The way her siblings spoke, the hope in their voices – everything, confirmed their story. She found herself actively rejecting that idea, looking for any means of finding an error. As the tempest inside her reached a fevered pitch, Max realized if they were on the level , if her family was right, that would mean all that she'd done in the past few months had been deeply, unforgiveable wrong. The night Valjean died came back to her in haunting accuracy, the live ordinance exercises, the times she had chosen Manticore over escape, and most accusingly, her exploitation of Zack's memory. They just couldn't be right because then everyone and everything Max believed in was untrue.
It was too much, and without warning Max opened her eyes and moved into attack mode, determined to kick the ass of all her self-doubts.
It was Lydecker who addressed her first: "Stand down soldier. You're out-numbered and out-flanked."
The steel in his voice coupled with the military command helped Max retain her outward appearance of calm, as she bit out with attitude: "Make me, Donald."
"Listen up, soldier, I want to know to whom do your loyalties lie? Under whose command do you serve?"
The formality of it made Max answer back instinctively: "My loyalty is to my unit and my country."
For the past twenty years, Donald Lydecker had been hoping for such a response from his kids. The fact it was Max who said it made it even more poignant for the Colonel, and for the first time in the X5s' collective memory he faltered, at a loss for words.
It was Derek who stepped up, versed enough in psyops to know what it was about Max's reply that was unusual, what she hadn't said. "What about the chain of command? Is your loyalty to your commanding officer?"
The hesitation Max felt caused her pause. Through her mind flashed all the horrific acts Renfro had exercised on her person over the past few months – the torture, the psyops evalutions, the humiliation, the breeding program… "I serve all those loyal to the will of the United States," she reiterated, politic in her answer.
"And what about those who are not loyal? Who are they?" Derek pressed.
"I'm not at liberty to discuss the internal affairs of my barracks, if you'd be interested in taking a tour of the facilities I'm sure that could be arranged."
"Dammit, Max," Seth bit off, "how could you say something that twisted."
Derek held up his hand to silence Seth.
Jondy was the next to speak: "And what about your family Max, doesn't any of your loyalty belong to us? Don't we deserve something?"
Max didn't answer, she simply stood there, stone-faced as her inner walls began to crumble.
"Tell us what you know, Maxie." Derek coaxed. "We're your family. You can trust us."
Suddenly images that Max had been repressing came back with ferocious strength – she saw dozens of images flash before her eyes: Her siblings marching down corridors, participating in training exercises, sneaking up to the roof. She saw Zack's prone body in a pile of snow being zapped by adult soldiers with tazers as she ran; she saw Eva dead on the floor; she saw Jack…
She had betrayed them; betrayed them all, and unable to contain it, Max let vent to the storm raging inside her.
"You're my family, huh?" Max demanded, furious and irrational. "Then where were you for the first six years after the escape? You know, when I was cold and lonely and scared? Where were any of you the first time I had to steal food so I wouldn't starve or the first time the shakes came on me so bad I thought I was going to die in the abandoned warehouse I was crashing in? What about the first time some creep came on to me? Do you know how old I was when that happened? I'd been out of Manticore three weeks – I was nine and had no idea what the sicko wanted!"
Max stared into the faces of her stunned brother and sisters, who were all reliving their own moments after the escape,"… I'll tell you where you were. Every one of us was far too busy saving our own hides. We were out for number uno, saving our own selves from our own horrors– and if one of us was sick or hurt, then it was just too bad. Because we were on our own. We stopped being a family the second we escaped."
"That's not true, Max. And somewhere not so deep down I think you know it. No matter what Manticore did to you, I know that you know we're still a family." Jondy answered back, her own voice shaking with emotion.
"Yeah, a really great family. Guess I missed your latest Christmas card, Jondy. It's a little difficult to send well-wishes when you don't even know where in the hell your family is. Who cares about things like actually being there…"
"Is that why you attempted to turn us in to Manticore, Max? You wanted us to be together?" Derek quietly probed, as the beginnings of the strategy they had used to convert Max began to surface.
"Maybe just maybe, I wanted us to be a real family, again." Max conceded. "At least at Manticore we'd be together. You wouldn't have to hide or fight for yourselves – we could be together and fight for a cause. That's what it's really like in there – it's your unit, your family, helping you out, working together. It might be gray and dark and difficult, but it isn't so bad when everyone's together."
"Damn, I didn't think she had it in her…" Lydecker stated, shaking his head.
"Excuse me?!" Jondy nearly shouted.
"Renfro, the director," Lydecker clarified. "I didn't think she'd have the sense to use a more subtle form of manipulation like this. The bitch is usually after blood."
Max snorted, unable to help herself. The description was apt.
The eyes of Logan and Max's siblings exchanged meaningful looks, before Jondy finally nodded, stepping forward to take the lead.
"You want to know where we were, Maxie, all these years?" she began. "We were right there with you. Stealing, scared and lonely. We might not have been there for you in body, but Max, we were there with you in spirit. You were never alone, not even in that abandoned warehouse or on the top of the Space Needle."
The guilt pressing down on Max threatened to burst through all of her Manticore defenses, she couldn't take them looking at her with eyes of love and understanding, couldn't stand their compassion. They needed to know who and what they were dealing with. Max could take their anger, but there love was too much.
"I went back…," she confessed, her manner still confrontational, daring them to ignore the implication behind her words. "to Manticore. I went back three years ago of my own free will, and I've been hunting you down ever since. So all that stuff about how I'm your sister, about how all I need to do is tell you and it will all be better… You should know who you dealing with – Brin, Tinga, Ben…. I'm the one that tracked them down, found them to bring them home, back to Manticore."
Max allowed her words to hang out there, to sink in. She was their huntress; they her prey. And until they recognized it, they couldn't proceed. What stared back at her were nine pairs of astonished eyes, Lydecker simply look satisfied. But the eyes didn't immediately fill with disgust as she thought they would. Instead, the eyes began to look back and forth, in counsel with one another until Derek, the one who'd always excelled at psychological warfare, nodded to Jondy, the most emotionally apt of the group, and stepped forward to help.
"And the genetics lab?" Derek asked. It was the flaw in her story, the one thing Manticore couldn't explain.
"I was on the outside, tracking down Zack when I ran into either him or Lydecker," Max responded, her emotions once again covered by the military click as she related events she had no memory of. "I'm not sure if they hooked up before or after, but my guess is that Lydecker put me in a situation where I felt Manticore secrets could be compromised. I initiated the blanking technique, and in my weakened state they, Syl and Krit convinced me to betray my unit. The rest you know…"
"Unit?" Lydecker scoffed, stepping up. "Mere hacks compared to the group of you."
"They're my family!" Max growled, stepping threatening toward Lydecker.
"We're your family," Jondy yelled back. "None of what you're saying is true, Max. Manticore lied to you, manipulated you. You weren't alone, none of us were. Zack found us all. One by one, he tracked us after our escape and kept us safe. We might not have agreed with his methods, but there was never anyone with nobler intentions. A child himself, Max, and he found us and watched out for us like the big brother he was. That's us, that's our family."
"Zack's dead!" Max spat, determined to finally make them despise her. "He's dead and I knew it!"
Shocked eyes stared back at her, stunned by her admission, trying to come to terms with it.
"And you know what else?" Max relentlessly continued.
"No, don't say it, Max" Jondy pleaded, suddenly aware what she was going to say.
"Too bad, sister, because it's true. I killed him. It was my fault!" Max finished, an almost triumphant gleam in her eyes.
It didn't make them even, not by a long-shot, but Donald Lydecker did something just then that went a little ways toward making amends to his kids.
"And how did you do that, soldier?" he taunted. "Gun, explosives, poison? How exactly did you kill your CO?"
"I…" Max stopped, unsure of how to proceed.
"You survived a gun-shot wound point nearly point blank to the heart. How did you do that?" Lydecker asked, letting everyone draw the connection.
"You knew?!" Max challenged, anger sweeping through here. How dare he play with them if he really knew what had happened. How dare he let her walk them into a trap!
"No, I didn't. But let's just say I'm aware of Manticore's persuasion techniques." Lydecker responded.
Whatever one wanted to say about Donald Lydecker, it couldn't be said that he didn't know his kids. He had known Zack blind-folded and tied to a chair, had recognized his anger. He also knew Zack's loyalty and sense of responsibility. In the same breath, he knew Max hadn't been responsible for his death, at least not in the traditional sense. Aware of the way words could be twisted, he saw it all with perfect clarity.
"Renfro did a hell of a job convincing you that you were responsive for your brother's death."
"Convince her of what? What's going on," Syl demanded.
"Your brother's heart," Lydeckered told them. "Lives on in your sister."
Max stalked closer to him, determined to silence his words. But as his meaning penetrated her siblings' minds, Max heard the gasp of realization and needed to make them understand.
"He felt guilty the mission went sideways, knew that he'd betray his command." Max attempted to explain.
"Get real, soldier!" Lydecker answered. "You know that didn't happen. Those are Renfro's words. Face it, she lied to you. Your unit lied to you. Even your sister, Brin, lied to you."
Max tried to stop the truth pouring into her ears and into her consciousness. It threatened to engulf her and drown out the voices of her unit, of Manticore. Turning to face the room of siblings, even as she strove to put physical distance between them, Max saw the understanding and love.
How desperately she wanted to capitulate to it… to them. Images of loyalty, duty, service flashed before her eyes, Manticore's message, but it failed to quail her inner turmoil or her siblings' empathy.
Finally, she began to respond: "I…"
But before another syllable would be uttered a large crash of shattering glass was heard, and within an X5 flash, Troy was by her side, a semi-automatic weapon in hand, pointed directly at Lydecker.
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"Move and I kill your commander!" he barked, never wavering in his vigilance.
"Commander?" Zane couldn't help but respond. "Sorry. You got the wrong group, buddy."
Troy's attention wasn't distracted by Zane's quip, and in a low undertone asked: "You alright, Max? Can you move?"
"Yes." Quickly she came to stand beside him.
Troy had been waiting for this, a moment when Max's figure would become separated from the crowd of X5s, when he'd have a clear shot at Lydecker. It was their best chance for escape, and he intended on using it.
"Listen up. All I want is Max. The rest of you can scatter. It should be a few hours before we can make it back to command and get a response unit together to begin pursuit. Ample time for you to get a head start."
"Hell of a risk, soldier," Lydecker comment. "Coming in without your unit. One might think you'd breached op set to come get her. Hardly the actions of an X5, let alone a Commanding Officer…"
"I wouldn't concern myself with that if I were you." Troy barked, refusing to be intimidated. "So what's it going to be? Are you going to let Max go back? Or are we going to see how many of you I can bring down before you can disarm me."
"Troy!" Max warned, attempting to get his attention.
"Not now, 452" he commanded. He meant business, and if he had to take down a few of her siblings to get her out… then so be it.
"Logan." Krit stated, a covert signal to intercede.
The unexpected sound drew Max's attention back to the man standing catty corner to them. The oddly familiar ordinary, who so disturbed her. She saw that his jaw was clenching in agitation and his eyes refused to blink, remaining intensely focused on her and Troy.
"I'm surprised she puts up with that," said Logan with a grim smile, his position almost as near as Lydecker's. "She was never good at taking orders."
Max felt the smallest tug of an answering smile, but held back as she shifted toward the exit. They needed to get out of there before any of her siblings got hurt.
"Back off," was Troy's only reply.
"Max." Logan began again, directing his words solely to her. "Listen to me. You know that something's off with Manticore's story. You need to believe us, believe me, that you haven't been there for the past three years. You've been here, in Seattle, living a normal life. That's what you blocked out, that's what you can't remember, you were attempting to protect us..."
"Quiet!" Troy demanded, unintentionally taking a step closer to Max.
"Max, this is your chance to ask someone. Ask him, if you've really be in Manticore. " Logan's eyes pleaded with hers, and against her will Max found herself seeking out Troy's glance – asking for confirmation.
"One more word and I shoot." Troy responded, moving his aim from Lydecker to Logan.
Logan's eyes blazed, but he made no move to talk, aware that the X5 wasn't bluffing. A few heartbeats they stood like that before Max's hands wrapped around Troy's forearms, pulling his target off Logan.
"Max?" X624 asked.
"They won't stop us." Max answered. "Let's go."
As soon as Troy's gun was removed, Logan began speaking again, aware of how close he was to losing her: "I know you feel guilty, Max. Responsible for everything that's happened. But listen to me, you have nothing to be sorry for or ashamed of." His words were deliberately evocative of their past, hoping some trace of remembered emotion would slip through her screen.
Although Max gave no outward signs of recognition, she didn't turn to leave either.
"Just do me one favor. Look at what's in this box Max. I think it might be your memory trigger. The thing that you relate to Eyes Only… the private symbol that you could have run into during your public travels. At least look at it. What have you got to lose?"
In his hands was a shiny wooden box, so seemingly innocuous. Could it really contain the key to her memories? Without coming to any outward decision, Max gaze wondered up to Logan's own. His eyes seemed to grip her with a stunning force, refusing to let her go, and almost imperceptibly Max nodded.
"Make one move toward opening that thing and I'll kill you where you stand," Troy's voice broke into the moment.
"Troy?" Max asked, but didn't look at him, unable to tear her gaze away from Logan's and the unknown object in the box.
"We don't know what it contains. It could be weapon of some kind." 624 attempted to temporize. Nothing about his voice revealed his own inner turmoil or the fear that began to spread within him as he thought about the implication of this man being right.
"We're leaving now, that's a direct order." Grabbing Max's forearm, Troy gave her a hard tug, pulling her away from the lure of other man, who he already hated.
It was the stupidest thing he could have done. It told Max everything she needed to know.
She pulled her arm away from her CO's grasp, stepped in front of the gun's aim, and firmly stated: "Open it."
In mere seconds, Logan had unlatched the box and set out its content.
Sitting in front of her was the golden Statue of Bast.
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It wasn't like lightning bolt or a hammer. The memories didn't flood back like a tidal wave. It was more gradual than that. More like watching an old silent film where the flickering of the frames was discernable.
It drew her in, away from the present, and into a past she was just recalling.
Max felt herself creeping down a hallway. After a moment, she recognized the location – she was in the same apartment that she currently stood. Except it was dark, nearly all the lights were out, and her body felt tense and ready for action – as if she were unwelcome intruder worried about being caught.
She continued to creep along, taking small, expensive looking objects from the shelves and placing them in a small bag in her hand. The implication was obvious; she was a thief.
Everything was silent; everything that is until a familiar voice penetrated the silence. It was a voice she had heard dozens of time – slightly skewed, but familiar nonetheless. The words set off a bolt of further recognition.
Eyes Only.
The memory was slightly disorienting. Max knew she recognized the words, "Do not attempt to adjust your set..," but she couldn't remember from when. Nothing about where she knew this from came back to her; though she knew that it should.
Silently, she crept around the barrier separating her from the voice. Although the person who was speaking was turned away from her, his face was visible in the monitor facing her.
No name came with the face. If she hadn't already met the man behind the mask, she wouldn't have been able to locate him, wouldn't have known that he was Seattle's savior, and she couldn't have linked him the expensive building in sector 9.
No… whatever else Max had done when she had forgotten this particular memory, she had made damn sure that no one else would be able to find this man. She had protected him… and not from Lydecker, that much was apparent.
She listened to the cable hack, but the words didn't interest to her. Slowly, she turned her head and saw the lovely golden statue on a raised platform. She reached for it and smiled just as the memory began to dissipate.
There was a bit more, but Max had no time to ponder it as a harsh voice jarred her back to reality.
"Max! Listen to me. Everyone – Brin, Alec, Biggs – they're waiting to see you. We have news on Renfro we need to discuss and the longer we say here the more danger everybody's in. Please. Come now."
A command would never have done it, could never persuaded her to leave. But Troy's request reached her. As Max's eyes lifted from the statue they briefly connected with Logan's. He could of sworn he saw a flicker of recognition, and the extended pause after he'd shown her the statue was enough to give him hope.
But he couldn't be sure.
Quickly, Max turned away and before he could do more than call to her once: "Max!!" she was gone, up the rope that led to the roof top and out of Logan's and her sibling's lives.
And despite the pain, the feeling of defeat, the poetic symmetry wasn't lost on Logan as Max fled his life exactly the way she had come into it.
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A thank you to Lisa for her beta and continued support of this story! TBC...