Disclaimer: Nothing, nothing, nothing
BORROWED TIME
"What is going on?" Lady demanded striding into the control room. Duke following close behind.
"We got a Manticore creature out on the lose," Tsarina answered. "And it still thinks it is on aission."
"Higher level thinking?" Lady asked, leaning over a scientist shoulder to examine the screen.
"As far as we can tell, none. It is just a well trained, deadly, animal!" someone called out.
"And it's mission?"
"Search and capture. Maybe kill," Duke said, quickly reading sheets of information.
"Shit," Lady mumbled under her breath. The phone rang.
"Lady, it is for you."
"Hello?"
"Have you heard?" a curt voice demanded.
"Yes Max I've heard. Do you need our help?"
"I need your help." Max was becoming more accepting of Lady but she didn't trust the cult as a whole. "I'm going to get Alec. Meet you at his?"
Lady winced. She did not want or need to be around Alec at the moment. She'd be quite happy if she never looked at him again. She put her hand to her neck where she could still feel the fading bruises from where he had attacked her. But Max needed help and it was her duty. "Yeah," she forced out and hung up the phone.
"I'm going in alone but can you guys be ready to bring back up if I call it in?" she addressed the rest of the room. There were nods of acceptance. Lady sigh and went in search of her sword.
"Be careful, Lady," Duke called out to her. She offered him a tight lipped smile in response. She ran a hand through her choppy hair in frustration. The last thing she needed right now was Duke acting like a human being.
She got to Alec's apartment at the same time Max did and the pair exchanged smiles in disguise as grimaces.
"Thanks for coming," Max muttered.
"No problem."
"Want to be here?"
"Absolutly not."
Max sent her a wry smile. "Can't say I blame you. I can think of other places I'd prefer to be."
"Anywhere but here" Lady responded.
"Actually Logan and I found a tempoary cure." Max stressed the word temporary.
"Goddess! Look if you want me and Alec to handle it," Lady offered.
"Nah. I let these guys out so I'm gonna sort this sitch out."
"Then get back to Logan?"
For some reason Max blushed and nodded. They reached Alec's door and Lady tried the knob, it was locked.
Max reached over to jerk it open.
"No wait." Lady exclaimed seeing Max about to break the handle.
"No time, sorry," Max answered wrenching it open.
Lady fished in her pocket and held up a silver object. "No I was gonna say, I have a key."
Max stared. "Oh."
Max strode into Alec's apartment whilst Lady lingered at the door frame. She had lived there for a while but it was Max the moved around the room with an easy confidence.
"Alec?" Max called urgently. "Alec?"
"Sleeping on the couch," Lady pointed. She didn't want to get any closer to the obviously very drunk Alec who was so tightly wrapped in blankets that he couldn't be seen.
Max went closer and all but shouted, "Hey. Wake up!"
The blankets moved. "Oh hey Max," a soft feminie voice filtered through.
"Asha?" Max asked.
Lady caught sight of the blond and felt her stomach drop.
Alec appeared from the bathroom with only a towel wrapped around his waist. "What?" He demanded seeing only Max.
"I need your help. Can you get dressed?" Max pleaded.
"Okay," Alec agreed instantly sensing the stress in her voice.
"Please hurry!" Max said.
Alec turned to find clothes and saw Lady for the first time standing silently in the door frame. She was trying to keep her face bland but her fists were clenched. He expected her to run away like she did everytime they saw each other now but instead she meet his gaze.
"One should rather die than be betrayed," she said softly, "Betrayal is the willful slaughter of hope."
Alec couldn't feel anything but numb shock. He had invited Asha home with the intention of her being a quick one night stand. Nothing serious but something to drive Lady's prsence from his mind. Instead all he had got was a serving of guilt and a quote. Lady delivered quotes when she wanted to express her opinion on something but didn't want to talk candidly or personally.
"Lady," he began.
"We don't have time to talk about this," Lady replied. Then she followed Max out of the building. He watched her walk away, sword strapped to her back, head held high and he felt like an idiot. Lady looked so much like Max it was uncanny. Not physically but attitude and clothes were similar now. Asha watched the exchange.
"Well someone's in a cranky mood," She giggled drunkly.
"Shut up," Alec snapped and went to find clothes.
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"Nothing happened."
"Alec, Shut up!" Max and Lady snapped. They were walking through the sewers with Max in between the fighting pair.
"Just clarifying," Alec mumbled.
Lady was doing the best to remain dignified and focused on the mission but it was hard. Hard enough with Alec, every five seconds assuring her that "nothing happened" between him and Asha. She wasn't sure if she believed him. Asha was tall and skinny and blonde and smart. She had heard of being blessed but that was just ridiculous. Besides Lady knew that Alec's weakness was girls.
Max was preparing to hit them both or lock them in a room where Lady would either kill Alec, which he probably deserved, or they'd sort out their issues. Either one would give her peace and quiet. She knew Lady was justified in her anger, Max could still remember her face as she had hauled the younger woman out of the pool, half strangled.
Alec was doing everything possible to make himself feel less guilty. It didn't occur to him to actually apologise because in his mind he was never wrong. He tried reasoning with himself that he was recovering from the brainwashing he had endured when he got back to manticore after watching the bomb explode. It was a reaction to finding Rachel alive. Then he started thinking about whether any of these excuse would wash with Lady. When he realised they wouldn't he went back to feeling guilty, which was a rare emotion for Alec to experience.
"Nothing happened," he said again.
Both woman groaned. "You know what Max. We'll probably sort this out better if we split up," Lady said. She shot a glare at Alec and stromed off in the other direction without waiting for Max's consent.
"Half the world is composed of idiots, the other half of people clever enough to take indecent advantage of them," she mumbled under her breath as she stalked away.
The X5's watched her retreating back and Max turned her icy stare onto Alec who shifted uncomfortably in the sielnce.
"So... one of the gossamers is loose in the big city, huh?"
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Alec couldn't exactly remember what had happened. He was sitting in the back seat of the car.
"Are we there yet?" Then he shifted. He couldn't move because he was restricted by some sort of sticky shell.
"Alec? Can you get out?" Max's voice demanded from the front.
"Yeah, I just thought I'd hang around. You know, 'cause it's so comfy." His sarcasm was mingled with panic as he realised what had happened.
"You can't move either?" Max was disapointed.
"Where are we?" Logan asked.
"Some junkyard. Gossamer musta brought you here."
"Wasn't Lady with you?" Logan asked.
"Yeah she got in a mood when she saw Alec with Asha!"
"Nothing happened," Alec all but screeched.
"So you saw Lady. How did it go?" Logan actually felt some pity for the man.
"She quoted at me. That woman could make Ghandi feel guilty." Alec was obviously upset.
A mans voice rang out, "Hey! Is somebody there?"
"What was that?" Logan demanded.
"Hey, get us out of here." Another voice yelled.
"Who's "us"?" Alec called out suspiciously.
There were a course of other voices. Other victims of the gossamar.
"I'm Hal. That's Irving. Then there's Gordie," the first voice said again.
"I own the place," Gordie offered helpfully.
"Get us out of here," Hal yelled.
"Before that thing comes back and eats us all!" Irving cried.
"Actually, Gossamer's an herbivore. He only kills for sport," Alec said loudly with a smirk.
"That's good to know." Max called out, "We're gonna get everybody out. Just hang tight." In a lower voice she addressed Logan and Alec, "Do you have any idea what Gossamer wants?"
"It turns out the dentist was using Keveral to fill cavities," Logan explained.
"What's Keveral?" Max looked confused.
"It's a material used in weapon casings and body-armor plating. My guess is Manticore trained this thing to track down enemy soldiers by targeting the stuff."
"Great. I'm gonna die with armor plating in my teeth," Irving snapped, overhearing the conversation.
"I don't want to die!" Hal wailed.
"No one's gonna die! I hope." Max said the last bit to herself. She turned to face Logan, "This quack didn't fill your cavities. Why'd it go after you?"
"I was holding the Keveral when it slimed me."
Alec groaned. "Please. Can we just concentrate on getting out of here before this goo monster comes back?"
"Joshua. He'll get us out." Max concluded suddenly
"Joshua...who we told not to leave my apartment?" Logan pointed out.
"Or Lady," Alec suggested.
"Who hates you at the moment," Logan said.
"You just got be negative don't you Logan!"
"I can't believe how screwed up all this is," Max groaned.
"I know," Logan agreed. He couldn't believe the bad luck he and Max had. Only a few hours and manticore had stolen that too.
"And to think I thought my night was gonna end up in a sewer. I wish." Alec said, completely unsympathetic to the heartache going on around him.
"For the last time, shut up," Max growled.
"You know, it's your fault that I am sitting here in this monster saliva to begin with!" Alec retorted with childish bitterness.
"It's not her fault," Logan countered.
"Yeah, right. It's not my fault. It's just my life. Even if we get out of this, what happens tomorrow, Logan? We still have the nomlies, and Manticore, and all fates against us. I shoulda known that one night was just too damn much to ask," Max ranted.
"How much time do we have left?" Logan inquired gently.
"Not enough." There was anote of desperation in her voice.
"Oh, Max...it wouldn't have been enough anyway. We knew that," He tried to comfort her.
Alec sat up straighter, "Whoa. Whoa, whoa, call me slow on the uptake, but am I getting the distinct impression that this virus thing is still hanging around?"
There was a pause. "Shut up," Logan said.
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Lady heard movement in the sewer and started in that direction. She had her sword raised in a defensive position.
She rounded the corner and came face to face with Joshua. His eyes were big and round as he saw her sword.
Lady breathed a sigh of relief. "Josh, thank the goddess it's just you. Have you seen the others?"
He pointed to the steps that led outside. "I can smell Little fella!"
"Let's go find them then," Lady said. She sheathed her sword and started climbing.
They emerged into a junk yard. "Alright Josh, lead on!"
Joshua lifted his nose to the air and ran to a decrepid car. "Max? Logan?"
"Joshua! Joshua, in here! Joshua!" Max's voice called.
"Hey, buddy!" Alec cried in relief.
"Joshua! Get us out of here!"
Joshua's face appeared by the window and so did Lady who couldn't help looking a little amused.
"I didn't stay put." Joshua said quickly preparing to get scolded.
"That's okay," the occupants of the car said at once.
"Come on. Come on, hurry up!" Max urged.
"Get us out of here! Hurry!" Hal shouted, sensing that there was help.
"Come on!" Max rdirected the focus. Joshua ripped the door off and Lady used her sword to cut the binds away.
"You okay?" Joshua asked concerned.
"Yeah." Max wasn't really fine.
"Hey, buddy. Back here. Back here. Come on!" Alec got impatient. Joshua went round to pull that door away and lady followed again with her sword. Once the door was gone and it was Lady's turn to free him Alec stared warily at the sword point.
"I'm sorry," He said. And it was so unplanned so earnst that it startled Lady and Alec.
Tears began to well up in her eyes. Shit, Alec though, hed made her cry just when she was about to use a sharp pointy thing in his direction. Not smart, he berated himself. But she got control and freed him without a word.
"Keveral! Where's the Keveral?" Max asked hastily
"By the phone. By the phone. By the phone. Right there." Logan pointed frantically.
"Oh! Gossamer!" Joshua growled
Max and Lady wheeled to face the creature. Lady recoiled. It was nothing like anything she'd ever seen before. Nothing like the transhumans at all. It was part lizard, part insect and it was angry. It tried to slime Max but she dodged the flying mck twice.
Max held up the Keveral. "Want some of this? Come on! You're going to get it!"
The gossamer lunged and while Max darted away, Lady got hit in the cross fire. She coped a full face of whatever the Gossamer used to paralyse their victims. She fell heavily to the ground but the Gomssamer didn't try to attack her as he was fixed upon the keveral.
She was lying on the ground thinking very sarcastiv things to herself. "Great, Lady. What a way to prove yourself useful. Were you trying to act all dignified in front of Alec? Because that failed!" She couldn't see much as most of her eyes were covered but she could hear yells and banging. Then silence and the dim murmur of voices. Why wasn't someone coming to help her?
A certain head filled her vision and she stifled a groan. Why couldn't Joshua come and save her.
She tried to tell Alec to go away but it came out muffled, she could hardly move her mouth.
He mistook it for panic. "Hey relax. I'm gonna help you."
Lady rolled her eyes and grunted. Alec delicatly cleaned her face. "Can you move?"
Lady made more gurgling noises.
Alec got a strange glint in his eye. "Talk?" Lady was getting suspciosus.
"Run away?... good! We're gonna have a little chat." Alec lowered himself into a seated position.
Lady made distressed noices.
"No. It's only fair. I really care about you Lady and no matter what happens Rachel will always be part of my life. What happened did damage to me but I don't want you to be Rachel. I fell for you just being you. With the weird clothes and the funny way of speaking. With your religious cult and tattoos. I'm not asking you to forgive me but I am truly and honestly sorry."
A tear leaked out of Lady's eye and Alec automatically wiped it away. This was the first time he had touched her since that fateful night and Lady reacted to him like nothing had happened. But the ache in her heart told her otherwise.
Alec dug his phone out of his pocket finding it too hard to look in her anguished eyes. "I'll call Tsarina. I'll wait here till they get here." He wasn't going to abadnon her and he wasn't going to dispaear from her life. Not if he had the chance of winning her back. He had thought he want to forget her, drive her out if his head but he knew that wasn't true.
AN: I almost didn't include this episode because not much happens but hey the Asha/Alec moment was too good to resist.
MD666