A freak odyssey
By Sinful Starlet
Disclaimer: is it even worth writing these things anymore? Probably not, but you all know nothing DA related belongs to me right? Would it be cancelled if that wasn't true?!
Rating: PG-13 / R. I have issues with ratings - basically I go more on a general atmosphere than anything else, and I think this isn't too kid-friendly!
Summary: Set somewhere during a now hypothetical third season. After the situation at Jam Pony, as the siege at TC continues, Max has just started to get her life back in order, when an old enemy resurfaces to wreak havoc on her life again. And guess what? It's another M/A - completely unapologetically, self-indulgently M/A! I don't care what the writers on the show thought, they are still my favourite couple!
Author's note: Flashback #7finally up! Sorry it's taken so long to get this chapter up but I just got back to uni after Christmas and haven't had much time to myself. Not that I imagine you wanted to know that but anyway! This chapter is the final flashback - my re-working of 'Freak Nation'. Oh yeah, and just to say there's yet another version of the 'photographing Max's runes' scene here, and I know I've already done that in other stories, but to be fair, this was the first version of that scene I wrote. Think that's enough of my babble so hope ya like it!
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A freak odyssey
By Sinful Starlet
Flashback #7 - 'Freak Nation'
Max was more than a little apprehensive about going to see Logan that afternoon - Alec had volunteered to go instead, but Max got the impression that wouldn't have worked too well. She steeled herself, telling herself she was making too much out of this and just walked round to the back door, letting herself in. She could see lights on in the living room so she knew he was home, but she was a little taken aback when she finally walked into the room and saw how different it looked.
Joshua's painting supplies and canvases were all gone, even though Max knew that Joshua himself hadn't come back to take them all yet, and the place was starting to resemble Logan's apartment more and more as he was completely surrounded by computer equipment. "Hey," she called, not sure at first whether he had even seen her. He actually hadn't but he called back a slightly awkward hello when he realised she was there.
She walked round to the desk but he was already standing up to greet her. "How've you been?" he asked. "Okay I guess," she replied, managing a smile, but still not crazy about being there. She cast her eyes down to the desk for a second and recognised a few symbols. "Oh I'm still working on those runes," Logan said, "trying to get a translation together". Max nodded, seeing the capture on the computer screen of her arm as she had held it up to the camera for him to see.
"Well I got a little more for you to go on," she said, reaching into her jacket pocket and pulling out a stack of about twenty polaroids. "These just appeared last night I guess but they seemed to be fading fast so we got some pictures done before they faded completely". "'We'?" Logan asked, but he already knew the answer really, "You said 'we' took the pictures". "Oh," Max said, letting her eyes drop so she didn't have to look at him as she said, "I meant Alec, he uh...he found them". 'Perfect' Logan thought, 'why exactly did I just ask her that?'
He scanned through the photos, looking at the various groupings of the symbols. "So where were they?" he asked, more to break the awkward silence than anything else. "My back", Max said, "there should be a picture in there of the whole pattern". Logan kept leafing through and eventually found the shot she had been talking about. Max's shirt had been pushed off her shoulders and unzipped down to the small of her back. Other than the symbol groupings her back was completely bare. He tensed as he realised exactly what position Max and Alec must have been in for him to have seen them.
Max noticed of course, realising what he must be thinking and not bothering to correct him. "Well there seem to be a lot of new symbols here," Logan said, turning their attention back to work, "there might be enough to complete the alphabet but I'll have a look, see what I can find anyway". "Thanks Logan," Max said, already starting to walk out, "I really appreciate this". She had to leave then, Logan's accusing eyes were a little too much, and he hadn't even been right in the first place. The situation with her and Alec had been a little more...intimate than they were used to, but it wasn't what Logan thought at all.....
She had gone over to see OC that night, realising that she was going to have to move into Terminal City for safety's sake - Cindy's as well as her own. She hadn't planned on staying, but Cindy had insisted they had one last night in as a goodbye thing before Max left. She couldn't exactly say no to that, so she had stayed the night and packed her stuff to leave the next morning. She called Alec to help her with her stuff, asking him to bring a car. He made some crack about girls always packing too much, but he said he'd be there.
He was just a little early. When he got there Max was still in the shower, but OC was on her way to work. She let him into the apartment, figuring there couldn't be too much of a problem with Alec waiting for Max there. He might as well be there as sitting on the doorstep anyway. OC hugged Alec tightly as she left, knowing she wouldn't be seeing either Max or Alec so often anymore. "You take care okay?" she said, still holding him tightly. "Always do!" Alec said, flashing her his best smile.
"And you best take care o' my boo!" Cindy said, making her face more serious as she said that. "Trying!" Alec replied, joking a little. OC hugged him one last time and then set off for work, leaving him to wait for Max. He sat down on the sofa and flicked through a few channels on the TV, but then he heard the bathroom door open. Max knew OC would have left for work by then, but she hadn't figured on Alec getting there so early.
Both of their faces were a picture of surprise and a little embarrassment. Max had walked out of the bathroom still towel drying her hair with nothing but another bath towel covering the rest of her. "Um hi!" Alec said awkwardly, "Guess I'm early!" "Apparently!" Max said, smiling despite herself, she wasn't sure who was more embarrassed. "Who'd have thought that'd happen?!" "Hey!" he said, protesting a little, but smiling too.
"I'm about ready", Max said, "You're not in a hurry are you?" "Nah," Alec said, "take your time - gimme a TV and some snack food and I'll wait all morning if you like!" She laughed a little and threw him a bag of chips that was sitting on the kitchen counter. She started to walk back towards her room when he stopped her, calling her back. "What?" she asked, but he just motioned for her to turn round. She was a little suspicious but she did so.
She wondered what was going on, then got a little more concerned as she felt his fingers parting her hair and touching the top of her towel. "Hey!" she said, "You mind telling me what you're doing?" Alec thought for a second and he couldn't resist making the obvious joke, "Well if you have to ask, I'm obviously not doing it right!" "Alec--" she started, about ready to walk away from him, but he stopped her again. "You've got some more of those symbols on your back," he explained, tracing her skin with his thumbs, "they start out by your shoulder blades but obviously I can't see how far they go down".
"They don't look too new though," he went on, "they look like they're already fading". He stood back then, letting her turn to face him. "So what do you wanna do?" he asked, not sure whether he should ask, but doing it anyway, "You want me to drive you over to Logan?" "No", Max said firmly, "I can't go over there like this". "Well I wasn't suggesting you go without a change of clothes!" Alec interrupted, "But I see what you mean". He looked up at her, but she still clearly didn't know what to do.
"Tell you what," he said, "wait right here - finish drying and put some clothes on or something and I'll be back in a minute". Max looked at him inquisitively, but he was practically already out the door, she nodded in agreement and he left then, leaving her to shake her head - oh no, her life wasn't too weird. Alec got back about fifteen minutes later, letting himself back into the apartment and looking around for her. Max called to him that she was in the bedroom and for him to come in. He paused for a second, a little apprehensive, but walked forward, opening the door to find her inside.
She had dried off her hair and was just finishing brushing it out. She'd also dressed, wearing a black cat suit that she used when she was riding her ninja. She looked at him expectantly, waiting for him to announce his plan. "Oh," he said, eventually getting the hint. He reached inside the bag he had with him and pulled out a Polaroid camera. Max nodded, "Good idea". She started to walk over to him, but stopped when he started to talk again.
"Uh, so how do you wanna do this?" Alec said, still feeling more than a little awkward, "I mean this isn't exactly a move-your-collar or raise-your-shirt kind of situation," he said, recalling that day in TC. "I can call Cindy or something if you'd rather--". "It's okay Alec," Max said, smiling at him and sitting down on the bed in front of him, pulling her hair over one shoulder. "I trust you," she said. It was lucky she had turned round actually, because she missed the gaping, fish-like expression Alec was pulling.
She may have had the top half of the suit on, but it was mostly unzipped at the back, displaying plenty of skin and the black strap of her bra across the centre. "Of course if you tell Sketchy about this I will have to kick your ass!", she joked, trying to make both of them feel a little less uncomfortable. "Fair enough!" Alec said, laughing a little. He gently edged her forward a little so he had room to sit down on the bed too and then gently eased her top back so he could see what he was dealing with. Unfortunately they went a little lower and wider than Max had thought so he had to unzip the suit even further, stopping at the small of her back and easing the sleeves off her shoulders.
That seemed to be about all of them, he thought, but he had to suppress a moan as he started his next job. Her bra straps were unfortunately right in the way of two sets of runes so he had to undo the central clasp and lift those off her shoulders too. This done, Max crossed her arms against her chest to hold the rest of her top up and he reached for the camera. "I guess there's not much point in asking you to smile!" he said as he started to take the pictures. Max did laugh a little, but she was just as awkward as he was really. She was having mixed feelings for Alec already and that was before she was sitting semi-naked in front of him on her bed, with his hands running all over her back.
She shivered slightly under his touch as his hands moved lower. "Sorry, he said, "you really sure you don't want me to call Cindy?!" "It's fine," Max lied, gritting her teeth to stop a sigh escaping, "it's just your hands are a little cold!" She wished that that was all it was, but she couldn't quite suppress the memory of White ripping her shirt back so he could take a look at some of her earlier runes. "Oh!" he replied, taking his hands away for a second and rubbing them together. When he touched her again, she didn't shiver so much and he carried on taking the pictures.
"I think they stop here," he said as he practically reached the zip at the small of her back, "I don't suppose you want me to check your ass - y'know, just in case!" Max felt her cheeks flush a little, but she recovered quickly, "Sorry to disappoint you but I already did that," she said, adding, "mirror in the bathroom," as an explanation. She laughed as he swore under his breath, but she knew he wasn't serious either. "Thanks for doing this Alec," she said as he worked, "I just couldn't face asking Logan to do it right now".
"No worries," Alec said, forcing himself to sound casual, "maybe you can repay the favour sometime!" "What?" Max laughed. "Well I could get Joshua to draw some funny faces on my back and then you could get me semi-naked and photograph them for me!" Max's shoulders shook a little as she laughed now, but it had worked, they both felt a little more relaxed now. It only took him about another minute after that to finish up. He put the camera back down on the bed next to the stack of pictures and gently lifted her bra straps back onto her shoulders, fastening the clasp in the middle.
His fingers fumbled slightly with the clasp and he coughed, slightly embarrassed, "Y'know these things are a lot harder to put on than take off!" he said before zipping her top back up again. "Not exactly convincing me of your gentlemanly character!" Max said, instantly regretting it as her cheeks flushed again. She managed to calm herself down though, turning round and practically colliding with him in the process - she hadn't realised that he'd been sitting so close to her. "Well I uh...I do have a reputation to uphold!" Alec said eventually, but his voice sounded a little strange to her as he spoke.
The fact that she had dropped her eye level making it seem like she was staring intently at his lips really wasn't helping his concentration. She stood up then, breaking whatever moment there had been between them and taking the stack of pictures off the bed, flicking through them as she did. "I can take those over to him for you if you like," Alec offered, also standing. Max thought seriously about that for a second, but decided that it probably wouldn't help whatever remained of her relationship with Logan if she sent Alec over with the photos now.
"It's okay," she said, "it's probably better if I go". Alec nodded, he already understood why. "I'll drop you off," he said, picking up one of the boxes off the floor that he had come to help her move in the first place. "Thanks Alec," she said, again, picking up her jacket from the bed and reaching up to kiss him lightly on the cheek. He practically dropped the box then, though luckily she was already out of the room and calling for him to catch her up. And he had thought this was going to be a dull morning.
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Max was getting more and more tense as the siege at Jam Pony progressed. They had waited for the cops to get back to them about transport, but then White had hi-jacked the move, getting Cece killed in the process. They were just waiting now, trying to figure out what to do - and everyone seemed to be looking to her. Her thoughts drifted to Alec for a second.
She had patched up his shoulder and he had gone off on watch now, luckily the bullet hadn't gone too deep, but it was still a problem. She had been fairly concerned as well when she arrived and saw the blood on his shirt, but he had waved off her worry, telling her with a smile that he was "always alright!" And then there was Logan. She looked up in time to see him getting into a fight with Mole, which she had to go and break up before it got too serious.
Logan had been trying to exert a little authority and that hadn't gone down too well with Mole. She managed to break up the fight taking Logan aside afterwards. "I know you're only trying to help," she said, trying to be as kind as possible, "but he's not gonna take orders from you - none of us are". He opened his mouth to interrupt then, but she stopped him. "We're all from Manticore," she said, "you're not. We're used to taking orders from each other, but not from outsiders". "Look, Max I--" Logan started, but he stopped as he saw Alec come down the stairs.
Max turned round when Logan stopped talking, realising who he had seen. "Come back later?" Alec asked as he had been going to make a report to Max. Max looked back at Logan, but then said, "No it's okay. I'd like to go over a few things with you if that's okay". "You were a C.O. right?" she said, not seeing the look of disbelief on Logan's face. 'He was a C.O.?!', Logan thought, 'how the hell did that happen?!' "I figure you're probably a lot better at dealing with these situations than I am," Max said, "You got ten years training on me for a start!" Alec nodded, waiting for her to go with him.
"Are we done?" Max said, at last turning back to Logan. He wanted to say no - to try and have some kind of conversation with Max about what was happening, but he could see that he was completely out of it now. "Guess so" he said, walking away to talk to OC and Gem. Max hesitated, feeling bad for a minute, but she had to ignore her personal feelings right now and get back to concentrating on the situation in hand, so she turned away, following Alec.
* * *
The fight after that had been fairly brutal. The breeding cult soldiers were surprisingly strong and they had trouble taking them down, but they managed it in the end. One of the female soldiers managed to pin Alec to the ground, spotting the blood stain on his shirt, she aimed a savage blow at his shoulder, knocking a lot of strength from him. Logan saw this going on, and knew he had to help him, however much he wished he didn't have to.
He distracted the soldier, aiming a kick at her, which because of the exo-skeleton knocked her halfway across the room. The fight was over pretty soon after that, all of them walking back into the main room, Max smiling at Alec as she saw he was okay. Then they found Joshua and White. Max pleaded with Joshua to let him go, but it was Alec that ultimately convinced him, pressing his foot into White's chest as Max delivered her last little message. Logan just stood, watching the scene playing out in front of him, trying to ignore Mole's comment about Max and Alec making 'quite the team!'.
It was Alec that had come up with the idea of using the soldier's uniforms to get out too. Max took OC to the side while the two of them changed, out of sight of the guys, but making sure, more importantly, that they were out of her sight. That would have been just a little too awkward, she thought. Both Logan and Alec stripping down to their t-shirts and underwear while they put the soldiers uniforms on - where the hell was she supposed to look? Or rather, who the hell was she supposed to look at? That was the real problem of course, but naturally, she didn't want to focus on that right now.
Nobody said anything else until they were in the vans and safely driving away. She shot a smile to Alec as they were safely driving away, seeing him trying to valiantly hide the pain from his shoulder. "Y'know just for the record," Logan said, not able to resist one last jibe, pissed off as he was, "that chick was kicking your ass!" Alec was a little pissed off by that, but managed not to show it. "I had it," he breezed, "I was just...setting her up". "Yeah!" Logan said, all sarcasm.
"Oh for the love of--!" Max cursed under her breath, "Logan he'd just been shot! He didn't have to fight at all, but he did!" Everyone went quiet in the van then - Logan angry, Alec even more confused than he was before, Joshua also confused and Mole just slightly amused by the mess these three were in. Thankfully the moment was interrupted as Sketchy called through to them on the radio about where they were going, providing Max with a welcome distraction. She could see that she was going to have some questions to answer when she got back to TC though.
Right, final flashback out of the way now - hope ya liked the alternate 'Freak Nation' - quite different from the ep, huh? Hee hee! I'll try and update soon, but not sure how soon that'll be! *SS*