A/N: Yeah, I know it's been forever, but I've been really busy. Sorry. Thankfully I only have about a month left of school, then I can update regularly again. And since so many people wanted to put their minor characters in this fic, I just put them all in. :)
By the way, due to a steamy scene in this chapter (all of you guys requesting that Max and Alec finally "do it" have worn me down) I'm going to change this fic's rating to rated R, just so that you know where to find it. Feedback is much appreciated!
WARNING:
There is some M rated content in this chapter
"Nothing!" she yelled back. "But I need to know what happened in the past before I can even think about being with someone right now! God, Biggs, I don't even know if 839 is even my designation! Or if I was an '09er! Or if my name used to be Vada!"
Stunned into silence, Biggs just looked at her, uncomprehending. He looked like a fish out of the water, just gaping at her.
"What are you talking about?" he asked in an incredulous voice.
"Yeah, what are you talking about?" Eva asked, her eyes narrowed in suspicion as she looked on from the doorway. Syl and Jack had equally confused expressions on their faces and the distrust in their eyes made Mina squirm a little.
"Nothing," Mina said, trying to diffuse the situation. I can't tell them anything until I know for sure. "It's nothing." She tried to slide past the doorway, but Eva grabbed her arm forcefully and threw her onto the couch. Her eyes were fierce and her attitude every bit of the soldier she was created to be.
"You can't just say something like that and expect to walk away, Mina," Eva ground out. "Now you're going to tell me exactly what is going on." Like how you know about Vada.
"I just need some sleep," Mina tried lamely, but the look on Eva's face told her that it wasn't going to cut it.
"What do you know about Vada?" Eva asked.
Mina twirled her long hair, as she often did when she was nervous and she looked away from her. "I think… that I used to be her."
"Bullshit," Eva snapped, but even as she spoke doubt began to form inside her as she looked Mina over. Vada would be around Mina's age if she were alive. And she always had the blondest hair…
"I don't know, okay!" Mina shouted. "Half a year ago my life was fine, other than being in Manticore. I didn't have stupid flashes all the time. I knew who I was! But then when Max and I met, everything started flooding back, and none of it made any sense. So you know what, yell at me all you want, but it's not going to change what I feel!" Her voice rose at the end and bordered on hysterical.
Jack stepped forward and put a restraining hand on his sister's shoulder, warning her to calm down. "Eva, she's right. If we're going to figure this out, you've got to listen to her."
"Like hell I do!" Eva retorted, shaking her brother's hand off. The Manticore mask had slipped from her face, and now her eyes were tearing up, the anguish in them almost unbearable for him to look at.
"No one was closer to her than me, Jack! And now after all these years of her being dead, someone just comes up and claims to be her?" She turned on Mina. "How dare you pretend to be my sister. How dare you start all this drama about her! You're a liar, and you know nothing about my family!"
Shocked at her outburst, Mina recoiled but forced herself to look at Eva. Look at all the trouble I've caused. I never should have opened my big mouth.
Eva was now angrily wiping the tears away from her face, her eyes blazing in anger. Jack tried to console her but she moved away from him, her eyes locked on Mina's pitiful figure. She watched as Mina rocked back and forth on the couch, tapping her knees lightly with her eyes closed. The strange movement made Eva's anger dissipate and wonder replaced it as she relived her past.
Flashback
"What are you doing baby sister?"
"I hate it when Zack and Zane fight. It was really bad this time," the young blonde whispered, her fingers nervously tapping her knees.
"They'll cool off by morning and then be best friends by lunchtime. They'll probably be at each other's throats again in a couple of days, but you know that they don't really hate each other. We're family, Vada. We always will be."
"I know."
Eva smiled and flicked one of her sister's fingers. "All right, kiddo. Time to get to bed."
End Flashback
Eva's eyebrows knit together as Mina continued to tap her knees, and her hands began to shake.
"Eva?" Jack asked with concern.
"What is it big sister?" Syl asked, reminding the others of her presence.
Biggs however, was more concerned with Mina's strange antics. He wiped the tears running down her face but she seemed to take no notice.
Eva shook her head disbelievingly. "It is her," she whispered. Regret filled her as she remembered her accusations.
"But I thought – " Syl started.
"I was wrong," Eva stated simply, her eyes low. She stepped closer to Mina and the other woman pulled back, acting as if Eva was going to hit her, but seeing that that wasn't her intention, she looked curiously up at her.
"I'm sorry, Vada," Eva said, wrapping her arms around her long-lost sister. "I'm sorry."
After a few moments, Mina relaxed into the embrace.
We'll always be family.
A minute later, the two women pulled away and Syl and Jack took their turns to hug Mina hesitantly, while Biggs looked on in utter confusion.
"And I thought us transgenics couldn't get any more screwed up," he muttered, shaking his head.
"I have to tell you guys something else," Mina said, remembering something else. She looked at them sheepishly. "It's about Kavi."
"I can't believe we're going to do this," Seth muttered. "Don't get me wrong, it's not like I care about these idiots, but T.C. stinks enough, don't you think? I mean, even us transgenics have a limit for the stench we can take."
"Come on bro, this trick's priceless," Zane said. "Remember back at Manticore? Poop Wednesday, we used to call it. These babies have serious effects." He watched in excitement as one of the ordinary soldiers picked up his coffee and gulped it down quickly. "Ooh boy."
"How much laxative did you put in there?" Seth asked. Zane only grinned at him in response, and Seth burst out laughing. His eyes widened and he clamped a hand over his mouth as two of the soldiers put down their coffee and headed toward the noise.
"Shit, how come the stuff's not working?" Zane cursed, watching the soldiers approach from behind their hiding spot.
"Which cups did you put it in, man?" Seth asked.
"The ones right beside the doughnuts," Zane hissed back. Seth looked at the position of the soldiers' cups and groaned.
"Dumbass, they didn't take those ones."
"Well, they're not on the table anymore, so who could have – " He broke off as he saw Lydecker standing in the corner, sipping from his coffee cup. Zane's eyes traveled from the table to Lydecker and back, and this time it was he who broke out laughing.
"We gotta get out of here," Seth said, tugging his brother's shirt. They ran down the hallway jumping over some pieces of rope carelessly lying around on the floor, the soldiers hot on their heels, when all of a sudden the following footsteps stopped. Seth and Zane made their way cautiously back down the hall, finding it completely deserted.
"Where did they go?" Zane asked, scratching his head in bewilderment.
"Uh, bro?" Seth said, pointing upwards to the ceiling.
"What the – ?"
The two soldiers hung upside down from the ceiling, their faces turning purple with rage.
"Do you remember planting this prank?" Zane asked slowly. Seth shook his head.
"Nuh uh."
"Get us down you filthy vermin!" one of the soldiers shouted.
"That's not nice," a female voice said. Stepping out of a utility closet, a leggy brunette with her hair carelessly tied back in a loose ponytail observed her work with a proud smile.
She grinned at the two brothers. "Kind of clashes with the décor, but they'll make a fine piece of artwork, don't you think?"
"You did this?" Seth asked.
"Yup. You gotta work on your skills baby boy, 'cause if you want to keep up with my superb pranking abilities then you better get practicing," she said. She winked at Seth. "Designation's X5-076, but my name's Wylie."
She looked at the two furious soldiers once more, and then stepped onto a skateboard she had hidden in the closet. "Catch ya later," she said, saluting them and riding off, leaving both Seth and Zane with their mouths wide open.
"Whoa."
"We need someone on the inside, Brother White," a woman with tribal markings on her face hissed. "I can feel that those transgenics are up to something. They're going to try to stop our destiny." She laughed, low and mean. "Not that they could. But I want this to go perfect without any interference. The Coming supposed to be a special day for us, and I don't want to be dealing with problems the day we take over."
"I understand, Sister, but we don't have someone on our side who can fit in with them. Us superior Familiars could never successfully pretend to be one of them vermin. They'd find us out in an instant."
"I never said we'd send one of our own," the woman said. "You do have X5-273 and X5-274 under your control, don't you?"
White nodded, understanding her plan. "I'll get right on it, Sister."
"Hey Max," Dix said as she entered T.C.'s headquarters. The deformed transgenic gave her a slight smile. "How've you been doing?"
"I'm okay," Max said, returning his smile with one of her own. "Just a little tired with what's been going on."
"Obviously," Dix responded. "But if you don't mind, I'd like to have some pictures of the runes so that I can start to decipher them. I'm three-quarters of the way through cracking the code on those disks you gave me, so it shouldn't take too long until we figure out exactly what we're dealing with."
"No prob," Max said easily.
"Hey Max, I'll take the pictures for you," an X5 named Taro said suggestively. "We could do it later tonight."
"Kiss my ass," she retorted.
"Love to, honey."
"I'd suggest not to, because the percentage of Alec beating you to a bloody pulp is about a 99 certainty," an IT concentrate named Braden piped up. He frowned. "No, make that 99.9. Jeez, I'm really off my statistics today."
"Horrors, nerd boy. You were .9 off. That's shameful to the whole lot of you," Mole drawled, taking a long puff of his cigar.
"Do you have to smoke in here?" Max asked, crinkling her nose.
"Please princess. It ain't like you're gonna get lung cancer or anything," he told her, defiantly taking another long drag. She scowled at him.
"Why are you so high-strung anyway?" Mole asked her, moving closer and purposely blowing a cloud of smoke her way.
"85 percent indicates that it's due to some unresolved sexual tension," Braden explained. At Max's glare, he hastily went back to doing his work and Mole grabbed a gun off of the desk.
"I'm going out on sentry duty," he announced.
"Make sure you're not seen," Max told him. "I don't want any more publicity than there already is." He nodded and left. She tensed at the feel of a hand on her shoulder and forced herself not to throw the owner of the offending limb across the room.
"Unresolved, huh? You know, I could – " Taro ducked at the last minute to avoid a punch to the head.
"Alec!" Taro said, holding his hands up. "I was just kidding, dude. You know I wouldn't go after your girl." He looked nervously at the alpha male. "Buddy?"
"Sure," 'Alec' said with a smile that was friendly yet dangerous at the same time. "Don't you have something to do?" he asked, as he wrapped his arms around Max.
"Yeah. See you later." Taro blurred out of there without a moment's hesitation.
"So, 'Alec' where have you been?" Max asked, turning to look at the man who held her. She grinned and kissed his cheek. "Thanks big bro."
Ben chuckled. "See how he ran out of here? That, my baby sister, is the power of the almighty Ben."
"Sorry to burst your bubble, but he actually believed you were Alec," she said. "So technically, it would be the power – "
"Of almighty Alec," Ben grumbled despondently. "Yeah, yeah. Did I ever tell you that having a twin sucks? I don't get any credit for what I do anymore. It's like Faith being compared to Buffy all of the time."
Max rose her eyebrow. "You watched that Pre-Pulse show?"
Ben's cheeks grew a little red. "No," he mumbled without looking at her.
"Right."
"They were showing old reruns and I was too lazy to turn the channel, okay?" he said defensively.
"Uh huh."
"What's going on?" Alec asked, walking into HQ. "I thought I'd find you here," he said to Max, bending down to kiss her.
"Ben was just telling me how you were taking over his life," Max said, ignoring the deadly glare coming from her brother.
"He has a life?" Alec asked, feigning surprise. "When did that happen?"
"Around the time I shoved my foot up your ass," Ben growled.
"Well, now that's a gross visual," Alec commented. He backed away from his twin. "Sorry, man. I guess we've got a Faith/Buffy thing going on, huh?"
Max rounded on him. "You too?" she asked incredulously. "Am I the only person who hasn't watched the show?"
"Well, Sarah Michelle Gellar was kind of hot. If she wasn't older than me… damn, she could have been an X5," he said.
"Yeah, I thought so too," Ben agreed. Max looked between the two men and rolled her eyes at their behaviour.
"I'm starting to think it was a bad idea that you guys ever met," she said. "Having two of Alec around – "
"See that's what's so unfair," Ben cut in. "I'm older. Why isn't it, 'Having two of Ben around?'"
"I can't believe you're arguing with me about this," she said blankly. "You're just as immature as Alec."
"See?" Ben pointed out, just to bother her. "You did it again! Why not 'Alec's just as immature as Ben?'"
Max breathed out slowly. "I'm surrounded by crazy people." She froze at the words, not believing what she had just said. She looked abashedly at Ben, hating her choice of words.
"Sorry," she said. "I didn't mean – "
"I'm fine, Max," Ben said kindly. "I went to see Father Destry a couple of hours ago. We had a nice long chat."
Ice gripped Max's heart at the mention of a 'chat'. Seeing the turmoil in her eyes, he gave her a reassuring hug.
"Chat as in actually speaking," he clarified. "Whatever Manticore did to me, they fixed me good. You don't have to worry; I didn't hurt him." He smirked. "Wouldn't want to ruin Alec's reputation by throttling a Father."
"Dude, you already have just by going into a church," Alec said gamely. "Now people will think that I'm some pious guy."
"I highly doubt it," Max said, arching a perfectly shaped eyebrow. Moving forward, she plucked Alec's camera phone from his jeans.
"What are you doing with my phone?" he inquired.
"I need to ask one of my sisters to take some photos of my runes. You need to do the same," she told him.
"You know, Maxie, it would be a lot easier if we just did each other, no pun intended," he said, wiggling his eyebrows.
"Ha, that's funny. That's exactly what Taro said to her," Ben said. He watched amusedly as Alec's teeth clenched.
"Taro?"
He stalked off and Ben chortled to himself until he saw his little sister glaring at him menacingly. Looking for an escape, he noticed one of the ordinary soldiers walking past HQ eating something.
"Ooh! Doughnuts!"
And with that, he rushed away from her.
Max sighed.
"Men."
"Here."
Tinga put a cup of coffee down on the table in front of Charlie and curled up beside him. "Drink this. It may taste like crap, but it's all we've got."
"Do you think we should go look for Case?" he asked worriedly. "He's been got a long time. And your brothers… don't get me wrong Pe – Tinga, but they seem a little bit on the wild side.
"Don't worry," she assured him. "The worst they're going to do is teach him how to beat people up, which isn't necessarily a bad thing considering he needs to be able to defend himself."
Charlie's face blanched and he shakily reached for his coffee. Tinga took notice of his reaction and chuckled.
"Like I said, don't worry. I think he's playing with his cousin and Scorch."
"Is Scorch an ordinary kid?" he asked her.
"No, he's transgenic too," she clarified. She rubbed his back. "By the way, you're going to have to leave soon."
"Leave?" he asked in surprise. "Why?"
"T.C's full of toxins, and you can get really sick. But don't worry baby, Max said you can stay at her friend's house. I think her name was Cindy."
"Pe – Tinga, I don't know if I should leave. I mean – Case…"
"He'll be fine here. He's immune to the toxins just like we are," she told him.
Charlie looked uneasily at her and finally nodded his head reluctantly.
"All right Pe – Tinga."
She smiled at him. "You can still call me Penny if you want."
"I don't want to," he said. "If we're going to have a life together, then I don't want any more lies. I want to know who you are as Tinga."
"I'm still the same, Charlie." She paused to think. "Except I can see in the dark, jump 20 feet, take out a former linebacker with my forefinger and thumb, dodge speeding bullets, hear and see really far, and go into heat once in a while, but really, I'm not all that different."
"Oh sure, you're just a regular woman all right," Jace said.
"Hey sis."
"Have you seen little Max?" Jace asked. "I can't find her anywhere." She nodded at Charlie. "Hi."
"Hi," he said back.
"You should ask Zane," Tinga suggested. "I think he's with the kids. They're probably fine."
"You!"
Case's eyes grew wide as the menacing soldier moved towards him, Max, and Scorch, dripping sour milk.
"You little monsters! You know what I'm going to do with you? I'm going to catch you, and then I'm going to – "
Little Max pulled a string and the soldier fell to the floor unconscious as various objects fell onto his head.
"Hihihi," she giggled.
"Good work, Maxie," Scorch said. The three of them tilted their heads to the side as they listened carefully.
"Another one's coming," Case said. "Get ready little Max."
Max held on to another piece of rope they had found in the utility closet and waited until she saw the man round the corner when she tugged hard. The man went down in an instant with a muffled groan.
Case frowned. "I know him." They moved closer and poked the man.
"It's de ugwy man!" Little Max shrieked.
"Wogan," Scorch declared, seeing the glasses.
Case looked around nervously to make sure that no one had seen them take him out. Looking at the others and nodding their heads simultaneously in agreement, they all backed away slowly from the scene of the crime, leaving Logan in the middle of the hallway.
Mole patrolled the perimeter high on alert, meeting Joshua at the entrance.
"Everything quiet?" he asked gruffly, crushing his cigar under his scaly foot and lighting up another one.
"No," Joshua said, shaking his head. "Baby – baby down the street crying. Doesn't like grocery store. And ordinaries screaming at each other. Pretty – pretty whack."
"Sure, dog boy," Mole said. A flash of movement caught his eye and he raised his rifle. "Who's there?"
Two unnaturally beautiful people blurred in front of him and Mole lowered his rifle slightly.
"You two X5s?" he asked them. They nodded without a word. Their eyes were strangely blank and their posture ramrod straight, so Mole raised his rifle again, suspicious as to their behaviour.
"Turn around and show me your barcode," he ordered. The complied swiftly and lifted their hair, showing him the black lines etched into their skin.
X5-273 and X5-274, he noted. Twins.
"All right," he said, lowering his rifle completely. "Come on in."
The two transgenics walked through the broken link in the fence and headed toward T.C. As soon as they were out of Mole's sight, they both grinned, and their eyes flashed black before they entered the transgenics' haven.
"Sam! Thomas!" Biggs shouted happily, walking up to his two former unit mates. "You made it out!"
They stood silently before him and he frowned. "You guys okay?"
"Yeah, we're fine," Samantha said. Her voice was colder than usual and the friendliness from her smile didn't reach her eyes.
"Where's Max?" Thomas asked.
"I don't know," Biggs said, still a little puzzled. "Probably around here somewhere with Alec."
"Where?" Samantha asked sharply. Biggs took a step away from them and regarded them cautiously.
I'm being too obvious, Sam thought. Relaxing her posture, she gave Biggs an apologetic hug. "Sorry. We just miss her."
"Well, she's usually at HQ, so you could look there," he offered helpfully.
"Thanks," Thomas said, matching his sister's tone. They left him without a word and Biggs scratched his head.
This
is a really weird day.
"I just need to get one more shot," Alec said, the camera in his hands. He moved in front of her where she sat with the back of her top zipped open so that he could get access to her runes, and he snapped one more shot of the runes on her collarbone.
"Done." He set the digital camera down on a counter in his room and flipped through the pictures once to make sure that they weren't blurry. "All we have to do now is give these to Dix."
"Okay, I better go then," Max said, trying unsuccessfully to zip up her shirt. "Can you help me?"
He moved behind her and let his hands trail down her back, making her shiver. Instead of zipping up the garment he unzipped it even further, making her half-turn to look at him.
"What are you doing?" she asked him, although she knew quite well what his intentions were.
"You promised later," he reminded her. He fingered her lacy black bra, itching to unclasp it.
"I know I did," she said, resting her head against his stomach. "But… I don't know. It just doesn't seem right to be doing this while there's so much going on. We should be at HQ figuring things out, trying to prepare for the Coming."
"The world will still be broken in the morning," he told her, inadvertently echoing Logan's words from 2 years ago. It was strange how she was almost reliving the moments she had had with Logan, except now with Alec. From the way they danced around each other back at Manticore to their 'we're not like that' phase.
But Alec didn't keep secrets from me, she reminded herself. And Alec understands me. It's not the same.
She gasped as Alec sucked on her shoulder, soft at first and then harder. He rested his hands at the hem of her shirt and then pulled it off in one rapid movement, leaving her torso bare save for her bra. She pulled his head up to kiss him fully on the lips while his hands massaged her back gently. Moving her hands down to his pants, she unbuttoned them just as quickly as he had taken off her shirt and pulled them off, not breaking the kiss throughout. He pulled his own shirt over his head and he smirked at her as she let her hands travel over his chest.
"Can't wait to get down and dirty with me, huh?" not letting a chance to make a sarcastic remark pass him up.
"Shut up," she told him, shimmying out of her own jeans. He helped her and put his lips close to her ear, nibbling lightly.
"As the lady wishes."
Soon enough they made their way onto his bed and he expertly removed her bra from her body and slipped her underwear off. She lay naked under his gaze and settled herself in comfortably.
"Max," he breathed, taking it all in. She pressed herself against him and took off his boxers in the blink of an eye, and pulling the blanket over them she kissed him again, harder this time. His hands roamed her body and she moaned as he moved against her, creating friction between them. His mouth moved away from hers and kissed and sucked her breasts, eliciting moans from her. Her fingernails scratched his back and he continued to touch her everywhere, driving her crazy. He grabbed fistfuls of her hair and she kissed his chest, making little bite marks here and there. His hands dropped lower to massage her insides, and her body jerked in ecstasy.
"Alec," she gasped. "Please."
She wrapped her legs around his body and closed her eyes in pure bliss as he moved himself inside her slowly, his tongue teasing her own as he picked up the pace. Her eyes snapped open, pools of dark desire, and he moved his mouth to her shoulder and bit down hard, drawing blood. She barely felt the pain while she repeated the gesture to him, and then they kissed again, their blood mingling in their mouths. The primal act made Alec pick up the pace, and finally they both climaxed, his body collapsing onto hers.
They stayed there for almost ten minutes before they started to breathe normally again, and he rolled over without removing himself from her, letting Max rest her head on his chest. He touched the mark he had left on her and kissed her sweaty forehead.
"Mine."
"Yours, always."
Minutes later, they both drifted off to sleep in each others arms.
A half hour later, Max's door started to creak open and Logan's voice came through.
"Max?"
A/N: Dun dun dun… Okay, so the last part was really different and kind of awkward for me to write, even though I tried not to make it too graphic, but I figured I owed all of you wonderful reviewers something, so I hope you liked it. Please review and tell me what you thought about the whole chapter, and whether you liked the MA, totally hated it, or thought it was too soon. I'd love to hear what you think because it's not something I normally write.
I've also already started to write the next chapter, so I'll try to get it out soon. Love ya guys, angelofdarkness78
