Part 7
May 26, 27 2001.
Note: I'm terrible at action scenes--sorry for skimming over that kind of stuff.
Victor hadn't known. His eyes had been round, mouth parted in shock, frozen in surprise even as Jace had drawn out her gun. He truly had loved Jace. He hadn't lied to them, he had wanted a life free from Manticore where he could create a future for himself and his family. He hadn't been able to comprehend that Manticore was more than an organization--it was a way of life, a manner of thinking, something cold and hard that sunk into the hearts and minds of those who had been born into it. Victor might have cried out his confusion or his love had he been given time enough to find words enough to express his emotions. His body had jerked, head snapping back, and he had fallen.
Max had stared at her sister, disbelieving. She had understood in that moment the pure rage Zack had been choking on since they had agreed to aid Jace. Max had desired nothing more in that instant than to attack Jace--to beat out her sense of betrayal on the other woman's body. She had heard the rumble of approaching military vehicles--when had Jace found time to contact Manticore out of their sight?--and had known that she would truly be lost should she engage Jace in a fight. Max had met Zack's eyes--a moment of understanding between them--and he had struck out at Jace, hard enough to make her crumple to the ground. Max and Zack had separated, heading in opposite directions.
They had found her little over an hour later. She had waken with horrified cries from nightmares such as this in the past. The thought of Manticore so close to capturing her had been a source of terror for Max since she had first escaped them. There had been some close calls in the past, but Max had never before been so close to being captured--she had always had enough warning to escape without fighting her way free before. She had fought fiercely, so caught up in her desperate desire to remain free that Max had given herself up fully to instinct and training. She had always attempted to avoid killing in all her previous physical confrontations. She hadn't pulled her punches when confronted with Manticore's men. It hadn't been enough.
Max's eyes peeled open to find Jace before her. "How could you?" Max demanded, speaking the words which had been twisting inside her since she had been made aware of Jace's betrayal. "Victor. Your baby." She struggled to push herself up further, inching her way up the wall at her back until she sat straight. Dark strands of hair had tumbled before her face, catching at her eyes and mouth. Max made an unconscious motion to push the hair back, only to be drawn short by the cuffs around her wrists, pinning her hands tight behind her back.
Jace rocked back on her heels, hands lightly clasped between her bent knees. "I am a true soldier," Jace said calmly. "I did only what was required of me. We were aware that Victor was passing information to Zack when I first became involved with him."
"You used him."
"He betrayed Manticore," Jace shrugged.
"He loved you," Max responded, unable to believe that her sister could be so untouched by Victor's obvious devotion to her.
Jace shrugged again, slower. "I know."
Max licked her lips, finding the blood at the corner of her mouth. She couldn't recall being struck there. The entire battle was a blur, Max could not even think of how she had been taken out. "The baby, did you lie about that, too?" Max asked.
Jace stood, a single smooth motion. "No," she answered. "I am pregnant."
Max's chest was tight. Her throat was burning with the attempt to hold back tears. "You told me what they do to babies, Jace. They'll do that to your child--they'll hurt it like they did us, more, maybe. Don't you care about that?"
Jace had changed back into her uniform. Her dark hair was brought back into a tight pony-tail, leaving her face bare. She held her hands loose and ready at her side. Jace's face was painfully devoid of emotion as she looked down at Max. "You're seeing Manticore through a child's eyes, Max. What happened to us was necessary--it was meant to forge us into skilled soldiers capable of defending this country. I would be proud for my child to be a part of such a goal."
"What if your baby is like Jack? What if he's considered defective and they take your child away, cut him open and pull him to pieces to better examine him? What about Clay? Or Ro? Kip? You remember what happened to them? You want your baby to suffer like they did?" Max demanded, her voice rising to a near-scream by the final word. She could hear the men ranged through the room behind Jace, some of them shifting uneasily with her words. "You're going to deliver your baby into the hands of torturers and butchers, Jace. Manticore can't possibly have so stripped you of emotion that you don't feel something at that!"
"I am doing what is necessary."
Max choked. "They've already asked far more from you than is necessary, Jace."
Jace didn't respond. She turned her back on Max, moving away from her. "Prepare X5-452 for transport!" Jace commanded, her voice ringing through the room. She cast a glance at Max over her shoulder. "You'll be reminded of your duties soon enough, soldier."
Max hadn't asked Jace about Zack. A soldier did not admit concerns or ignorance about the situation to their enemy. She had wondered if Zack had managed to evade Manticore, or whether he too had been captured and was being held apart from her. Max hoped that he had made it, but she wasn't about to risk waiting for help that might never arrive. She was nearly certain that Zack would show up eventually, if he were able to do so. If not. . . she would worry about that later.
The situation was optimal for an escape. Max was still in the cuffs, Jace gripping her upper arm as they moved towards the waiting helicopter. The troops under Jace's command were arranged around them, weapons ready. Even were she to somehow disable Jace while bound, avoiding being hit by Jace's men would be difficult. When had she ever been bothered by the odds before, anyway? she thought as she readied herself for action. Better to go out fighting than allow herself to be docilely led back to Manticore.
Best to get going before she over-thought the entire situation--Max nearly laughed at that. They had been taught to consider conditions from all angles, to plan out a mode of attack. Max didn't have the patience for careful attention to detail that some of her family had. Jace, Max recalled, had always been by-the-book. She had been methodical, studious, careful. That had given Jace an edge over Max in some of their training exercises, but Max had a more creative fighting style. She could improvise where the unexpected always threw Jace off a fraction--not enough to be damaging against normal opponents, but it was certainly noticeable by other X5s.
Better yet, Jace's pregnancy had had some impact on her physical abilities. Max could use that to her advantage. She could take out Jace. . . if none of the men shot her first. Better not to think of that. They were fast approaching the helicopter--someone was eager to see her again, Max thought with a twist of her lips. Lydecker would simply have to deal with his disappointment.
Max managed to take Jace by surprise--Lydecker would be so very disappointed, Max thought, her lip curling as she watched Jace double over. It was awkward fighting while restrained. Max had not been in a situation where such was necessary in a long time. She had slipped in her training, no longer practicing the less straight-forward techniques she had been taught while at Manticore. She was still faster than any of the men Jace had with her. All she had to do--
"Max!" Zack's voice caught her attention.
Max grinned and flung herself towards the helicopter. It always was a pleasure working with Zack--he knew how to make an entrance.
...~*~...
Zack hadn't said anything along the lines of "I told you so"--Max would have decked him if he had. He had tersely explained how he had gained control of the helicopter, after which the two X5s had fallen silent, each lost to their own thoughts. They hadn't gone far in the stolen helicopter as they were too exposed in the air. Both of them were more at ease disappearing into the streets below them.
"I can't believe she could do something like that," Max said through gritted teeth as Zack dabbed at the gash at her thigh. She hadn't been quite as fast as she thought she could be. She had been nicked on her less than graceful lung towards Zack. Max figured that she had been suffering from more injuries in the past several months with Zack than she had in all the years following the escape. "And don't you dare say it," Max warned, holding her fist before Zack's face.
"I wouldn't dream of it," Zack answered flatly. He rocked back on his heels, absently wiping his blood-stained hands on the thighs of his jeans. Looking over his head, Max could see the first hints of light creeping between the aisles in the store they had broken into. "I shouldn't have agreed to help her," Zack growled, snapping Max's attention back towards him.
"I thought we weren't playing that game," Max said, eyes narrowing. Fine, she'd started this line of conversation, that didn't mean she wanted to go over how incredibly stupid they had both been about the Jace situation.
Zack didn't pay any attention. He had risen to his feet, one hand running through his hair. "What I should have done was wring her neck." Zack had turned his back to Max, hands in the pockets of his jeans. His shoulders were stiff, back straight. "I failed him again, Max. I promised Tosh that they wouldn't get away with his death, and she was right _there_, and I got sucked into misdirected sentimentality."
"Zack. . ." Max breathed. She found her feet, wincing slightly at the pull on the slice in her leg. He never had been one to make promises easily. Max came up beside him, maneuvering so that his arm was draped over her shoulder, her arm around his waist. "I'm sorry," Max said, not quite sure what she was apologizing for. She had believed that offering their help to Jace was the best thing to do--she hadn't believed that any of her family would willingly remain at Manticore. She had wanted to help her sister find the freedom she had been denied for so very many years, to make sure that her niece or nephew didn't grow up as she had.
"You don't have anything to be sorry about, Max. I didn't have to agree to help Jace."
"Would you have, if I hadn't been there?" Max asked hesitantly. He had admitted that she was a weakness for him. Had she somehow impacted on Zack's decision? Had her vote in Jace's favour held any sway with Zack, despite his own objections?
"I don't know," Zack responded after a long pause. He lightly hugged Max's shoulders before pulling away. "How's the leg?"
"Fine," Max answered. She knew what was coming, and she didn't like it any more than she had the first time.
"We have to split up for a while, Max. They know our faces now. We can't risk staying together while Manticore is on our tail."
"I know," Max said.
Her agreement was met with a tight smile from Zack, relieved that she wasn't being difficult. "We'll give it a few weeks for the hunt to cool down before we hook up again. Just lay low--"
"I do know how this works, Zack," Max cut him off, mildly irritated. "I did receive the same training as you did." That came off a bit bitchier than she had anticipated, but she wasn't in the mood to be told how to evade Manticore when she damn well knew what to do. Max sighed, rubbing her hand over her eyes. "Forget it, sorry, okay?"
"Right, fine," Zack answered coolly.
"Damn it," Max growled. She stalked forward, fingers winding tightly in the hair at the nape of Zack's neck. She pulled at his hair until he winced, rising to her toes to kiss him. She drew back, hand still tangled in his hair. "We aren't fighting now, you get me?"
"That line might work a bit better if you weren't trying to rip my hair out," Zack said. "We aren't fighting," he repeated once Max sheepishly let her hand slide free from his hair. "I'll see you again soon, Maxie." Zack cupped her cheek, laying a soft kiss against her forehead. "You take care of yourself."
"I always do."