The Gift of Darkness, part 10
by pari106
pari106@hotmail.com
http://www.pari106.homestead.com/index2.html
Disclaimer: See last chapter.
Rating: PG-13 (probably worse, for the language)
yadda…yadda…yadda…
Summary: The moment M/Zers and M/Lers alike have awaited for so long (I hope): a face-off between
Logan and Zack.
A/N: Wow…this is really turning out to be a monster! And the end isn't anywhere near – I've got so
much I want to do with the story. Am I dragging it on too long? Should I cut out some of my future ideas?
Am I getting carried away? Let me know. Review! Review, please! Thank you.
WARNING: Oh, and I might mention: there is some pretty rough cussing in this one. Sorry. But I just
couldn't picture Zack getting really pissed off and yelling a few dozen "hell"s and "damn"s, coupled with
the occasional "Gosh-darn-it!"s. And I was never very good at the whole censorship thing. Besides, after a
while it gets annoying to see a dozen different arrangements of @, !, #, and, of course, $. So don't read this
if you have a problem with "naughty language". E-mail me and I can send you a friendlier version of the
story. Thanks!
Gift of Darkness, part 10
by pari106
When they left the alley, it was hard to tell who was angry the most: Max, Logan, or Zack.
If she hadn't been so involved in her own frustration, Max might have thought to question exactly why her
brother was so ticked off in the first place. But having been interrupted in a moment with Logan, again, by
her brother, again, Max wasn't in the mood to question. She was in the mood to break something.
As for said brother, Zack starting kicking himself even before he started speaking. When he'd come upon
the two of them, wrapped around each other, he should just have backed off. It wasn't like he had anything
that spectacular to report to them, anyhow. But he'd been in a bad mood. Well, okay, maybe not more
than usual. But seeing Max with Logan put him in a bad mood. Seeing the woman you're in love with in
the arms of another man, particularly your rival, tends to do that. He didn't even know what he said he'd
seen them, but it had been a definite mood killer and now Zack was kicking himself for it.
And Logan would like to help. It wasn't his way to be confrontational. He was more the patient, live and
let live, back off type. Even with Zack, who tried his patience more than anyone else. He backed off
because he knew this was, really, a very young person he was dealing with. It was easy to forget just how
young the X5s really were, but Logan did his best not to. And he also backed off because he figured if
anyone was going to object to Zack's interferances with him and Max, it would be Max. It was her call.
And, usually, whenever Zack interfered it was for a good reason. Logan couldn't do anything about that.
But tonight's interference hadn't been for any reason, at all. What was the guy going to tell them? That he
hadn't found anything, most likely. Otherwise he probably would have mentioned what he had found.
And Max didn't look like she appreciated Zack's timing any more than Logan did. In fact, she looked like
the only thing keeping her from saying something to her brother about it was the fear that she might say
something she'd regret.
Of course, one might say that another good reason for Logan's backing off from Zack in the past stemmed
from the knowledge that Zack could literally crush the other man with one hand.
But when had Logan ever let something like the fear of death stand in his way of saying the wrong thing?
And even if he had, that wasn't, presumably, a problem now.
So before he could really think twice about it, Logan did the unthinkable.
He shoved Zack into a moving truck.
Not actually in front of one, but *into* one. He, Max, and Zack were just passing the street as this large
truck rumbled by at an unsafe speed, the large doors to its cargo hold wide open. So before he could think
otherwise, he grabbed Zack and tossed him into the truck. It took quite a bit of effort and planning on
Logan's part to carry it off. That truck was moving fast, and Zack wasn't a little guy.
The only thing that really made the whole fiasco work was the fact that the other X5 hadn't been expecting
to be tossed onto a moving vehicle by Logan Cale.
Then Logan jumped in afterwards. He would undoubtedly hear from Max about the stupidity of his
actions. And he'd undoubtedly regret acting without telling her what he was going to do, running off
without her. But he had something to do and he had to do it alone.
He had to have a little talk with Zack.
For the most part, Zack was amused. He was livid, but amused. The whole situation was so absurd, it was
actually quite funny. He actually laughed.
Logan Cale was so dead he wasn't worth being angry about.
"What the…"
"Calm down," Logan said, arms crossed, standing there, as if nothing had happed.
Zack actually sputtered. He sputtered. He was that shocked. Then he laughed again.
"Oh, man, you really are nuts."
"We need to talk," Logan simply said.
He'd expected Zack to be angry. Okay, to be honest, now that he finally realized the full import of what
he'd just done, pissing Zack off, he expected Zack to be homicidal.
Noone pushed Zack around. And Logan Cale had just pushed him into a truck.
'Oh…bad move, Logan,' he thought, but kept that calm air of composure he tried always to keep around
him in the face of danger. And since the face in front of him was, as yet, too frozen with shock to be
rushing at him as Zack went in for the kill, Logan supposed he still had a few seconds to plead his case.
And he planned to use them.
After all, he was the one who had a right to be angry here.
"I want to know what your problem is," he said.
"My problem!" Zack exclaimed. "My problem? You're the one who just tossed me into a truck, man,
so…"
"You know what I'm talking about," Logan heatedly interrupted. "So I repeat. What is your problem?"
Zack tried to calm himself down, he really did. The reasons why he didn't want to kill Logan Cale kept
repeating in his head like a mantra. But the look in Logan's eyes added concern to Zack's surprise and
anger. Did he know that…
"I don't know what the hell you're talking about," Zack mumbled, his hands clenched into fists at his side.
Logan tapped into that seemingly bottomless supply of patience of his, and somehow kept his voice as
calmly neutral as Zack was trying so valiantly, and unsuccessfully, to effect as well.
"Well, let's see. Let me explain it to you…" Logan stated his case to the X5, beginning to pace, as Zack
followed his movements, somewhat like a predator follows the movements of its prey. He didn't have to
follow far, however. Logan had only one point to make. He said, simply, "Max."
Zack just stared. Then he laughed. "What about her?" The words were supposed to sound nonchalant,
though to Zack's own ears, they didn't quite come off.
Logan simply stared at the other man. Zack stared back.
"You love her," Logan said, voicing his long-time suspicions, the source of his long-time insecurities, for
the first time aloud.
The next thing he knew, he was being thrown backwards against the inside of the truck with enough force
to raise him off his feet. And Zack was reaching for his throat.
With one hand, Logan was able to pry Zack's fingers away from his neck, but it took both hands to keep
them away. The two men grappled for the upperhand in the conflict, until Logan was finally able to push
the younger X5 off of him.
"Watch it!" he yelled when he could, taking a defensive position as Zack prepared to charge again. Both
men were breathing heavily. "I'm not human anymore. Remember?"
But that only served to antagonize Zack further.
"Neither am I. *Remember* ?" he snarled.
And then he leapt at Logan in a gravity-defying pounce that took him all the way to the very top of the
truck's considerably tall cargo hold.
Logan leapt at the same time.
And the two men met in the air, crashing into one another with painful force, and sending the both of them
tumbling out of the truck and onto the highway rushing past beneath them.
Logan wasn't sure when, but apparently the truck they were on had begun to loose speed some time before,
because he was certain that, had the truck been travelling at its original speed, neither he nor Zack would
have survived the fall. As it was, they hit the pavement with a sickening thud, both crying out at the impact
and loosing their grips on one another as pain replaced the fury in their bodies.
Logan broke an arm in two places, and several ribs, he knew…as well as no telling what else. Zack
dislocated a shoulder and broke his clavicle. Both were scraped and scratched from head to toe.
And neither of them let that stand in the way of the confrontation that had just been waiting to happen ever
since the two men had ever laid eyes on one another. Or on Max.
As soon as Logan sat up, spitting blood and regaining his ability to breathe, Zack was at him again. He
himself had just pulled himself off the ground, moving with the quick, choppy movements of a man
exhausted and beaten. Neither man was in the condition to fight, but they tried. Fists flew and made
contact. Sometimes Zack had the upper hand, and – for the first time in a long time – sometimes the tables
were turned, and it was Logan who was still standing, holding his own. Right up until the moment when
Zack would drag him back down again. And then the process would repeat.
As it did, the men argued amongst themselves.
"Who the hell…" Zack finally pulled back, gasping, with a split lip and a black eye. "Who the hell are you
to tell me how *I* feel. You've been an "X5"…" Zack said the word like a slur, emphasizing his lingering
suspicions that Logan was no such thing "…for all of several days. And suddenly you're a fucking expert
on how X5s feel? On how I feel? Fuck you!"
Logan pulled back, too. Both his knuckles were bloody and raw. And he was swaying on his feet.
Goddamnit, his head was pounding. His arms felt numb. 'Jesus…'
"Don't…" Logan had to work to form his thoughts into speech. The headache he'd had all night was now
splitting his temples. And his lungs were on fire. "Don't…fucking even try…try pulling that
sanctimonious, tough-guy, 'I'm so mysterious and tormented' bullshit on me."
Logan finally collapsed, sitting on the ground with a hard thud.
Zack finally allowed himself to sit down, too. Logan had broken one of his arms, as well, and he cradled it
to him, useless. He looked at Logan like he was insane.
"Sanctimonious? I'm sanctimonious?"
"Yeah," Logan yelled back. "You. With all your 'let's do things my way" bullshit. All your talk of
discipline and contact numbers and running away from anything even fucking close to the imitation of a
real life. Like Max. Like Tinga's family, your brother-in-law and your nephew. Like Max. And the way
you love her."
"You…"
"Don't even fucking try to deny it, Zack." Finally Logan's fury was beginning to abate. A good, old-
fashioned brawl seemed to have done the trick. Or maybe he was just too near unconsciousness to feel
much of anything else. Either way, his voice had lost most of its heat. "You love her. It's why you can't
stand it to hear me even mention her. Or do you just have a habit of throwing people out of moving
vehicles?"
It took Zack a few seconds to respond to that.
"She's my sister!" he insisted.
Even as he said it, Zack knew that sounded lame. Yeah, he'd stick up for his sister; for any of his siblings.
But, as the incident with Tinga had shown, the way he stood up for his other siblings was distinctively
different from the way he stood up for Max. For Tinga, or the others, he planned, he attacked. He helped
when he had to help, and he stayed objective.
With Max, he jumped in, fists first, throwing himself out of a moving vehicle without a second's thought
and all because someone had mentioned her name and 'love' in the same sentence.
Logan laughed. Actually, he tried to laugh. What came out was more of an odd-sounding moan. His lips
were split, too.
"You aren't blood siblings, and we both know it. Your mothers were different. You didn't have actual
fathers. Your DNA enhancements were each unique. You're no more her brother than I am."
Logan's words stilled the atmosphere like the calm before a storm. Those were the words. The words
noone had ever spoken, that noone had ever dared speak in Zack's presence. The words he'd used to
convince himself, time and time again, that he wasn't completely twisted for feeling for Max the way he
did. The words he still couldn't truly believe.
Those words disoriented Zack in a way he had never been. He didn't know what to do with them; how to
react. He was always so in charge, so in control. Even when he was wrestling with his irresistible
attraction to the one woman he absolutely could *not* be attracted to, he was in control…because he hadn't
actually given in to that attraction. He hadn't really admitted it, hadn't spoken of it, hadn't given any
reality to it.
Now Logan had. And Zack was totally lost.
"Do you have a habit of throwing people into moving vehicles?" he finally asked, not really even hearing
himself anymore. His genetically engineered mind was just working too fast on too many thoughts to deal
with anything else. "You just did," he reminded.
Logan sighed. "That's because I love her, too."
Another unspoken emotion suddenly spoken of.
Zack silently reeled. And everything seemed so quiet.
"I didn't bring it up bec…"
"Then why did you bring it up?" Zack quickly asked.
Okay, so he wouldn't deny it any longer. At least not here, not right now. Not while they were both
bleeding and cussing and he'd just gotten the chance to knock the almighty Logan Cale on his ass like he'd
wanted to do for so long. But if Logan wanted to make something of it…
The other man glared in his direction.
"Look I don't like you," he said. Zack laughed. "I don't like you either, miracle boy," he said. But he was
smiling. Another relief – to be able to say those words aloud, as well. To just come out and say it – that he
didn't like Logan without having Max get all ballistic on his ass.
Logan didn't smile. But seeing Zack do so eased the tension in the atmosphere a bit.
"But I understand you." Then Logan rushed to continue before the spark of irritation that had just ignited,
anew, in Zack's eyes had time to flourish. "Not everything. But I understand how you feel about Max. I
understand that everything you do, you do for her. To protect her, and the others."
Zack didn't know what to say to that. Because it was true.
"I understand that you would never purposefully hurt her," Logan told him. "I still worry sometimes that
even being near you is going to get her hurt anyhow…" Then he held up a hand to stop Zack's indignant
tirade before it began "But I understand that you would never purposefully let that happen."
Then Logan looked straight at Zack, totally serious.
"I just wish you could understand the same about me.
"You're a part of Max's life, I just have to deal with that. And I'm telling you, I'm going to be a part of
Max's life from now on, more than I ever was before. For as long as she lets me, I'm going to be there.
You're going to have to deal with that."
Logan felt like he was merely an inch away from death, he hurt so bad, but his words were stronger than his
body seemed at the moment. And his gaze as he stared at his rival was unwavering.
Then Zack snorted.
"Is that right?" The words weren't meant to be nearly as biting as they sounded, however. Somehow his
anger at the other man, at the fact of what he was to Max, of what Zack wasn't, seemed to have abated
considerably at the moment.
"That's right," Logan replied. "So you can drop in unannounced, you can lurk in dark alleys all you like.
It won't change anything."
Zack frowned. "That wasn't what I was doing," he muttered. Then: "You've really got room to talk, Cale.
Acting like you're fucking superman when if you'd pulled this stunt a month ago I would have creamed
you."
Logan struggled to stand, eventually making his way to where Zack sat.
"That was a month ago," he said, sitting. "And you still creamed me," he said, more to see how the other
man would react than anything. Zack just looked at him. Was Logan Cale actually making a joke? To
him?
"I'm just getting a little tired of the routine we keep going through. Max and I keep trying to make some
progress together, and you keep getting in the way. It's a little childish, don't you think?"
Zack snorted.
He motioned around them.
"And this is real mature."
Logan finally smiled.
But in the silence that followed, both men were still wrestling with the same doubts and disagreements
they'd had before this little fiasco.
"You're going to, you know," Zack finally said.
"What?" Logan asked, breaking away from his own private thoughts.
"Hurt her." Zack stared off into the distance, using that same, self-certain tone that always drove Logan
crazy.
"You say you don't want to but you will. By keeping her here in Seattle, involving her in your shit. You'll
hurt her."
He looked at Logan, waiting for his answer. And Logan gave it in the same self-certain tone that always
droze Zack crazy.
"The last thing I want to do is hurt Max."
Zack snorted, looking away again. "Yeah." A little muscle in his jaw began to flinch. "Well, we don't
always get what we want, do we?" he said.
And this time it was Logan who didn't know what to say. Because that was true, too.
**** ****
Meanwhile, a matter of miles away, Max stormed into an apartment building in Sector Nine.
Just as Logan had chosen to temporarily relocate, Bling had also taken up another residence. He'd gone
back to the apartment he'd lived in before coming to work for Eyes Only; a modest, but nonetheless
comfortable five-roomer on the very edge of the high-rise district. A long list of wealthy clients had made
the accommodations possible, and Bling had kept the place even after he went to live with Logan. He'd
been renting it out in his absence, but his last tenant had moved out only weeks before.
So now he was living there again.
And now Max was picking her way in, with an angry frown on her face and not a lot of patience in mind.
Therefore, when she was met by the sight of Bling standing on the other side of the door, firearm at the
ready, she skipped her usual pleasantries and just blew away a strand of hair that had fallen into her eyes.
"How's it hangin', Bling?" she mumbled, stomping into the apartment.
Bling just blinked. "Max?"
Belatedly, he put the gun away. "Hey, Max, sorry. I wasn't expec…"
"So, how're you doin', Bling? Nice place. Oooh, like the view."
Max walked around the room, pretending to admire the décor. And she did. But she was way too steamed
at the moment to pay attention to color schemes and artwork.
Bling just watched as Max paced. And immediately tuned in to the fact that his petite X5 companion was
highly pissed.
"Uh, thanks." Then he got to the point. "What's wrong?" he asked, walking into the apartment with her
and closing the door behind him.
Max shrugged. Extremely unconvincingly.
"Wrong? Why would anything be…what the hell is the problem with him, anyway?"
Bling kind of laughed. "Okay…uh, what…"
Max finally stilled, looking at him with a sigh. "Logan," she finally said.
"Logan?"
Bling immediately became anxious.
"Logan? What's happened? Why…"
"Bling! Bling, nothing's happened." Max seethed. "Yet, anyway," she said. Then she gave Bling an
apologetic smile. She dropped onto his couch.
"Sorry. Didn't mean to shake you up. I just…Augh!" Max felt like pulling her hair out.
Finally, Bling sat down by her. Kind of chuckling.
If Logan wasn't in that kind of trouble, then he was obviously in another kind.
"I just…I can't figure out the dealio with them, you know?"
"With who?"
"Zack and Logan," Max replied.
And Bling shook his head. "Zack and Logan?" Maybe he was wrong. He'd thought they were talking
about a problem with Max and Logan. "Zack and Logan" was a different brand of trouble altogether.
"What about Zack and Logan?" Bling asked, warily.
"Their kicking each other's asses," Max told him, calmly.
And Bling shot off the couch.
"What!"
"Calm down!" Max grabbed Bling by the sling and pulled him back into a sitting position.
"But…Zack…"
"There's nothing we can do about it," Max said. Then her eyes narrowed. She was seething again. "For
now. Even if I knew where they are, they're obviously determined to do everything they can to piss each
other off. So if that's what they want to do, I say let them."
'Liar.' She didn't want then to do any such thing. But what could she do? That truck had been out of sight
before she'd realized what was happening. She still couldn't figure out exactly what was happening.
"Max…" Bling said, getting her to look at him. "I don't know what the hell is going on. But, if what you
say is true…Zack is going to kill Logan."
Max shook her head.
"The playing field's even now, remember?" 'I hope,' she silently added to herself. "Zack isn't going to
kill Logan."
Then Max shot up.
"At least I hope not. I don't know…What the hell is wrong with them? Why does Zack always gotta be
there, you know? Trying to talk me out of being with Logan. Why does he hate him so much? And why
does Logan always got to be so goddamned secretive. Pushing Zack into truck…what the hell was he
thinking? Couldn't he at least have told me what he was going to do? What was he thinking?"
Bling just sat there, stunned, as Max ranted.
"Uh…"
He had no idea what she was talking about. What truck? But some of the other things she said rang true.
"Why does he think he has to do everything on his own?" Max continued. "Couldn't he have talked to me?
We could have talked to Zack together. I mean, there isn't really a 'together' with me and Logan yet, but I
thought…I mean I think…" Finally, Max stopped, looking at Bling again. Sighing again.
She raised her hands in a gesture of defeat.
"I give up," she said, sitting back down. "Men suck."
Bling laughed.
Finally, Max calmed down enough to smile at him again.
"Present company excluded, of course," she added.
And Bling patted her on the shoulder, fidgeting a little. Seems like ever since he'd come to work for Logan
Cale he'd been performing five jobs at once: bodyguard, therapist, personal aide, trauma counselor, and
Dear-Abby-wanna-be. Got a problem in your lovelife? Being stuck in a chair interfering with your would-
be girlfriend? Want to rant a little? Your genetically engineered brother causing trouble with your
genetically altered boyfriend?
Bling's your man.
Bling sighed, smiling.
"Come in the kitchen," he said, standing up. "I cooked." Then, at the hopeful little glint that appeared in
Max's eye, he laughed. "I don't cook like Logan," he warned. "But I cooked."
Max nodded. And they walked to the kitchen together.
"And while we eat…why don't you and I have a little talk about Logan?"
And that's what they did.
Or, at least, that's what Bling did.
As he reheated leftovers from the dinner he'd prepared after leaving Crash, Bling talked. He didn't so
much defend Logan's position, as he did explain it. Logan was pretty complex, so it might have taken a lot
of explaining. But Max knew Logan. And she was pretty complex herself.
And Bling had a way with explaining. After all, that's how he'd spent this afternoon – explaining to Logan
why that overdeveloped sense of guilt of his was misplaced. Now he was explaining to Max how that
overdeveloped sense of guilt came to be.
"So you think," Max said slowly, repeating what Bling had just told her, though in not so many words
"That all this ties back to before Logan was Eyes Only?"
Bling pulled a dish out of the microwave when it dinged and handed it to Max. Who set it down on the
counter without realizing it. She was thinking about a lot more than dinner right now.
And Bling continued to talk. "You know just as much about Logan then as I do. But from what I can
gather, he wasn't exactly Mr. I-Can't-Save-the-World-fast-enough all his life. He grew up rich and spoiled.
I'm betting 8 year old Logan didn't even realize the world needed to be saved."
Max shrugged. "So what's wrong with that? He was just a kid."
Bling nodded. "And then he was a teenager, still rich, still spoiled. Then he went to some nice, big, Ivy-
league university, no change. He married Val. He lost Val. To hear Logan talk, he was capitalism
incarnate."
Max shook her head. "Yeah, sure," she said sarcastically. When she'd first met Logan she'd thought that
very thing. Mr. Money Bags, living in his high-rise penthouse, living his happy, hedonistic little life,
oblivious to all the suffering going on all around him. But she'd learned better fast. Sure, Logan had a
much more privileged background than most. Sure, she still teased him about it sometimes. But now she
couldn't really ever imagine Logan not being…Logan. Not being all *too* caught up in all the suffering
going on all around him.
Bling just shrugged. "Who knows? I'm just saying, that's apparently how Logan sees himself now. As
having been some self-absorbed rich kid. Now I think he feels like he owes the world some kind of
restitution. Like he's making up for lost time. He made mistakes. And he feels like if he makes anymore,
he may never get out of debt."
Max laughed, but there wasn't any humor to the sound. She felt…sad. What Bling was saying about
Logan was true. He did have this attitude about him like he felt he owed society something. As if risking
his life for it, day after day, wasn't enough. As if nothing was ever enough.
And that was suddenly extremely sad.
"That's crazy," Max said quietly. Bling didn't say anything. "What makes Logan think he's so god-
damned special? Why is he so sure it's his debt to pay? Millions of self-absorbed rich people live in the
United States, in Seattle. And you don't see them taking any bullets for the downtrodden. They don't give
a shit and they never will. And Logan thinks *he's* the bad guy here?"
Bling smiled. She sounded like him.
Max shook her head then. "If Zack doesn't kick his ass tonight, I will."
Then Bling laughed, walking over and putting an arm around Max's shoulders. He liked Max. He really
did. He liked what she did for Logan, for Logan's life. And he just liked her. She was a good kid. Odd,
but he had a genetically engineered super soldier snuggling up to him and all he could think was what a
good kid she was and how he hoped she and his best friend could work things out.
Max sighed, leaning her head on Bling. "It's not just his fight, you know," she said. Then, quieter: "It
doesn't have to be."
Bling nodded, sighing, too. "Yeah, I know."
Then he looked down at Max.
"And Logan knows, too," he told her. "but it's gonna take him some time to get used to it. It was just his
fight for a long time. You saw what his family thinks of his being a cyberjournalist. No way they'd
support Eyes Only. And the men who worked closest to Logan since Eyes Only started died in that
shootout with Sonrisa.
"All his life, Logan had people like 'Uncle Phil' telling him compassion for people less fortunate than
himself was a waste of time. Much less to go out on a limb and do something for those people. His family
practically disowned him for even writing about them. He's just gotten used to treating his work like his
own, personal little secret. Because for a long time it was."
Max stood there, absorbing what Bling was saying. Thinking about it. Hating Logan's family a little more
that she thought about it.
And then her thoughts were disturbed as the door to Bling's apartment burst violently open.
**** ****
Zack and Logan remained that way for a long time – just sitting there, covered with dust and blood and
bruises, eyes closed, recuperating and thinking. Zack was trying to regain his breath, letting those healing
qualities of his kick in. He assumed Logan was doing the same thing.
It didn't occur to him that, as they were sitting there, Logan was only getting worse. The pounding in his
head had subsided and now Logan didn't feel it. He didn't feel much of anything, really. And for a man
who'd once been paralyzed this was a terrifying sensation, but his mind was too clouded to really latch onto
to that fear.
So Logan just sat there, telling himself it was okay. He'd be fine in a minute. He was just a little dizzy
from the alcohol he'd had earlier. He was just a little shaken up from falling out of that truck. He was just
a little sore from fight with Zack. He was…
'Jesus!' He was miserable.
Finally Zack pulled himself to his feet, feeling awkward now after the fight with Logan. But mostly after
the talk they'd had. What did he do now? What the hell did he say?
"Uh…I guess we better get you back to Sketchy's. Max is going to kick my ass as it is."
Then he actually looked over at Logan, and frowned.
"Hey, Logan, are you okay?"
The other man was just sitting there, eyes closed, his head in his hand. He was frighteningly pale.
For the first time it occurred to Zack that perhaps he'd done more damage in their fight than Logan was
letting on.
"Damn it! Logan, are you okay? Hey, miracle boy?" Zack's voice sounded just as it always did, but
behind his perpetually casual attitude, concern and guilt began to fester.
What if he'd really messed Cale up? Logan had seemed a pretty fair match while they were fighting.
Healing abilities or not, Zack still hurt like hell everywhere Logan's fists had made contact. So he hadn't
pulled any of his punches. Should he have? Logan just sort of groaned.
"Cale?"
Finally, Logan looked up. "Okay, okay, I'm fine. I've just got a headache. You don't have to talk so
loud."
Finally, Zack breathed again. Then he cussed. "Well don't just fucking sit there. I thought I'd killed you
or something."
Logan laughed. Then he flinched at the pain that movement caused. "Don't flatter yourself." He began to
stand…
Zack rolled his eyes. What an idiot. He'd been going all soft, worrying about Cale, and the arrogant little
prick…
…then Logan fell. He didn't even make it all the way to his feet, when, with a sudden pained yell, he fell
to his knees, clutching his head.
And then he started to seize.
"Fuck!"
Zack was at Logan's side in a flash, those advanced X5 reflexes of his coming in handy. He held Logan
down as the other man was suddenly wracked by strong, violent shakes.
"Logan! Logan, what the…"
'What the hell?!'
Zack's eyes were wide. And for the second time since they'd fallen out of that truck, Zack felt totally
shocked out of control. What the hell was he going to do?
That's when the truck driver decided to make himself known.
Sometime earlier, when he'd heard noises coming from his cargohold, he'd slowed so that he could pull
over and check it out. Obviously, something was in his truck but he had no idea what or who. But before
he could stop, suddenly two forms came rolling out of the back and down the dark, stretch of road behind
him.
He'd been horrified to realize they were people.
So, as soon as he could, he stopped the truck. And it had taken him forever to find somewhere to safely
turn around and go back.
When he'd come across the two men who had tumbled out of his truck, he'd expected to find them in worse
shape than they were, had feared to find them dead. But they were alive and probably two of the most
shocking people he had ever seen in his life. They were fighting each other with unbelievable strength.
The fact that they were even conscious seemed pretty unbelievable to him, actually. The driver had spent
the moments since then torn between the inability to turn away from the awesome spectacle, and the
panicked instinct to flee.
Now he rushed to Zack's side, causing the other man's eyes to snap up sharply. He didn't know where the
other man came from, how, or why, but under the current circumstances he didn't suppose it mattered.
"Hey, buddy, is he alr…"
The driver hadn't even spoken a full sentence, when suddenly Zack was on his feet, throwing Logan's still-
shaking form over his shoulder with a heavy groan.
"Is there anything I can do to help?" the man was continuing.
Zack didn't even look at him. Before the driver could determine the X5's intentions, Zack was halfway to
his truck.
"You can drive this rig back to Seattle as fast as you can."
by pari106
pari106@hotmail.com
http://www.pari106.homestead.com/index2.html
Disclaimer: See last chapter.
Rating: PG-13 (probably worse, for the language)
yadda…yadda…yadda…
Summary: The moment M/Zers and M/Lers alike have awaited for so long (I hope): a face-off between
Logan and Zack.
A/N: Wow…this is really turning out to be a monster! And the end isn't anywhere near – I've got so
much I want to do with the story. Am I dragging it on too long? Should I cut out some of my future ideas?
Am I getting carried away? Let me know. Review! Review, please! Thank you.
WARNING: Oh, and I might mention: there is some pretty rough cussing in this one. Sorry. But I just
couldn't picture Zack getting really pissed off and yelling a few dozen "hell"s and "damn"s, coupled with
the occasional "Gosh-darn-it!"s. And I was never very good at the whole censorship thing. Besides, after a
while it gets annoying to see a dozen different arrangements of @, !, #, and, of course, $. So don't read this
if you have a problem with "naughty language". E-mail me and I can send you a friendlier version of the
story. Thanks!
Gift of Darkness, part 10
by pari106
When they left the alley, it was hard to tell who was angry the most: Max, Logan, or Zack.
If she hadn't been so involved in her own frustration, Max might have thought to question exactly why her
brother was so ticked off in the first place. But having been interrupted in a moment with Logan, again, by
her brother, again, Max wasn't in the mood to question. She was in the mood to break something.
As for said brother, Zack starting kicking himself even before he started speaking. When he'd come upon
the two of them, wrapped around each other, he should just have backed off. It wasn't like he had anything
that spectacular to report to them, anyhow. But he'd been in a bad mood. Well, okay, maybe not more
than usual. But seeing Max with Logan put him in a bad mood. Seeing the woman you're in love with in
the arms of another man, particularly your rival, tends to do that. He didn't even know what he said he'd
seen them, but it had been a definite mood killer and now Zack was kicking himself for it.
And Logan would like to help. It wasn't his way to be confrontational. He was more the patient, live and
let live, back off type. Even with Zack, who tried his patience more than anyone else. He backed off
because he knew this was, really, a very young person he was dealing with. It was easy to forget just how
young the X5s really were, but Logan did his best not to. And he also backed off because he figured if
anyone was going to object to Zack's interferances with him and Max, it would be Max. It was her call.
And, usually, whenever Zack interfered it was for a good reason. Logan couldn't do anything about that.
But tonight's interference hadn't been for any reason, at all. What was the guy going to tell them? That he
hadn't found anything, most likely. Otherwise he probably would have mentioned what he had found.
And Max didn't look like she appreciated Zack's timing any more than Logan did. In fact, she looked like
the only thing keeping her from saying something to her brother about it was the fear that she might say
something she'd regret.
Of course, one might say that another good reason for Logan's backing off from Zack in the past stemmed
from the knowledge that Zack could literally crush the other man with one hand.
But when had Logan ever let something like the fear of death stand in his way of saying the wrong thing?
And even if he had, that wasn't, presumably, a problem now.
So before he could really think twice about it, Logan did the unthinkable.
He shoved Zack into a moving truck.
Not actually in front of one, but *into* one. He, Max, and Zack were just passing the street as this large
truck rumbled by at an unsafe speed, the large doors to its cargo hold wide open. So before he could think
otherwise, he grabbed Zack and tossed him into the truck. It took quite a bit of effort and planning on
Logan's part to carry it off. That truck was moving fast, and Zack wasn't a little guy.
The only thing that really made the whole fiasco work was the fact that the other X5 hadn't been expecting
to be tossed onto a moving vehicle by Logan Cale.
Then Logan jumped in afterwards. He would undoubtedly hear from Max about the stupidity of his
actions. And he'd undoubtedly regret acting without telling her what he was going to do, running off
without her. But he had something to do and he had to do it alone.
He had to have a little talk with Zack.
For the most part, Zack was amused. He was livid, but amused. The whole situation was so absurd, it was
actually quite funny. He actually laughed.
Logan Cale was so dead he wasn't worth being angry about.
"What the…"
"Calm down," Logan said, arms crossed, standing there, as if nothing had happed.
Zack actually sputtered. He sputtered. He was that shocked. Then he laughed again.
"Oh, man, you really are nuts."
"We need to talk," Logan simply said.
He'd expected Zack to be angry. Okay, to be honest, now that he finally realized the full import of what
he'd just done, pissing Zack off, he expected Zack to be homicidal.
Noone pushed Zack around. And Logan Cale had just pushed him into a truck.
'Oh…bad move, Logan,' he thought, but kept that calm air of composure he tried always to keep around
him in the face of danger. And since the face in front of him was, as yet, too frozen with shock to be
rushing at him as Zack went in for the kill, Logan supposed he still had a few seconds to plead his case.
And he planned to use them.
After all, he was the one who had a right to be angry here.
"I want to know what your problem is," he said.
"My problem!" Zack exclaimed. "My problem? You're the one who just tossed me into a truck, man,
so…"
"You know what I'm talking about," Logan heatedly interrupted. "So I repeat. What is your problem?"
Zack tried to calm himself down, he really did. The reasons why he didn't want to kill Logan Cale kept
repeating in his head like a mantra. But the look in Logan's eyes added concern to Zack's surprise and
anger. Did he know that…
"I don't know what the hell you're talking about," Zack mumbled, his hands clenched into fists at his side.
Logan tapped into that seemingly bottomless supply of patience of his, and somehow kept his voice as
calmly neutral as Zack was trying so valiantly, and unsuccessfully, to effect as well.
"Well, let's see. Let me explain it to you…" Logan stated his case to the X5, beginning to pace, as Zack
followed his movements, somewhat like a predator follows the movements of its prey. He didn't have to
follow far, however. Logan had only one point to make. He said, simply, "Max."
Zack just stared. Then he laughed. "What about her?" The words were supposed to sound nonchalant,
though to Zack's own ears, they didn't quite come off.
Logan simply stared at the other man. Zack stared back.
"You love her," Logan said, voicing his long-time suspicions, the source of his long-time insecurities, for
the first time aloud.
The next thing he knew, he was being thrown backwards against the inside of the truck with enough force
to raise him off his feet. And Zack was reaching for his throat.
With one hand, Logan was able to pry Zack's fingers away from his neck, but it took both hands to keep
them away. The two men grappled for the upperhand in the conflict, until Logan was finally able to push
the younger X5 off of him.
"Watch it!" he yelled when he could, taking a defensive position as Zack prepared to charge again. Both
men were breathing heavily. "I'm not human anymore. Remember?"
But that only served to antagonize Zack further.
"Neither am I. *Remember* ?" he snarled.
And then he leapt at Logan in a gravity-defying pounce that took him all the way to the very top of the
truck's considerably tall cargo hold.
Logan leapt at the same time.
And the two men met in the air, crashing into one another with painful force, and sending the both of them
tumbling out of the truck and onto the highway rushing past beneath them.
Logan wasn't sure when, but apparently the truck they were on had begun to loose speed some time before,
because he was certain that, had the truck been travelling at its original speed, neither he nor Zack would
have survived the fall. As it was, they hit the pavement with a sickening thud, both crying out at the impact
and loosing their grips on one another as pain replaced the fury in their bodies.
Logan broke an arm in two places, and several ribs, he knew…as well as no telling what else. Zack
dislocated a shoulder and broke his clavicle. Both were scraped and scratched from head to toe.
And neither of them let that stand in the way of the confrontation that had just been waiting to happen ever
since the two men had ever laid eyes on one another. Or on Max.
As soon as Logan sat up, spitting blood and regaining his ability to breathe, Zack was at him again. He
himself had just pulled himself off the ground, moving with the quick, choppy movements of a man
exhausted and beaten. Neither man was in the condition to fight, but they tried. Fists flew and made
contact. Sometimes Zack had the upper hand, and – for the first time in a long time – sometimes the tables
were turned, and it was Logan who was still standing, holding his own. Right up until the moment when
Zack would drag him back down again. And then the process would repeat.
As it did, the men argued amongst themselves.
"Who the hell…" Zack finally pulled back, gasping, with a split lip and a black eye. "Who the hell are you
to tell me how *I* feel. You've been an "X5"…" Zack said the word like a slur, emphasizing his lingering
suspicions that Logan was no such thing "…for all of several days. And suddenly you're a fucking expert
on how X5s feel? On how I feel? Fuck you!"
Logan pulled back, too. Both his knuckles were bloody and raw. And he was swaying on his feet.
Goddamnit, his head was pounding. His arms felt numb. 'Jesus…'
"Don't…" Logan had to work to form his thoughts into speech. The headache he'd had all night was now
splitting his temples. And his lungs were on fire. "Don't…fucking even try…try pulling that
sanctimonious, tough-guy, 'I'm so mysterious and tormented' bullshit on me."
Logan finally collapsed, sitting on the ground with a hard thud.
Zack finally allowed himself to sit down, too. Logan had broken one of his arms, as well, and he cradled it
to him, useless. He looked at Logan like he was insane.
"Sanctimonious? I'm sanctimonious?"
"Yeah," Logan yelled back. "You. With all your 'let's do things my way" bullshit. All your talk of
discipline and contact numbers and running away from anything even fucking close to the imitation of a
real life. Like Max. Like Tinga's family, your brother-in-law and your nephew. Like Max. And the way
you love her."
"You…"
"Don't even fucking try to deny it, Zack." Finally Logan's fury was beginning to abate. A good, old-
fashioned brawl seemed to have done the trick. Or maybe he was just too near unconsciousness to feel
much of anything else. Either way, his voice had lost most of its heat. "You love her. It's why you can't
stand it to hear me even mention her. Or do you just have a habit of throwing people out of moving
vehicles?"
It took Zack a few seconds to respond to that.
"She's my sister!" he insisted.
Even as he said it, Zack knew that sounded lame. Yeah, he'd stick up for his sister; for any of his siblings.
But, as the incident with Tinga had shown, the way he stood up for his other siblings was distinctively
different from the way he stood up for Max. For Tinga, or the others, he planned, he attacked. He helped
when he had to help, and he stayed objective.
With Max, he jumped in, fists first, throwing himself out of a moving vehicle without a second's thought
and all because someone had mentioned her name and 'love' in the same sentence.
Logan laughed. Actually, he tried to laugh. What came out was more of an odd-sounding moan. His lips
were split, too.
"You aren't blood siblings, and we both know it. Your mothers were different. You didn't have actual
fathers. Your DNA enhancements were each unique. You're no more her brother than I am."
Logan's words stilled the atmosphere like the calm before a storm. Those were the words. The words
noone had ever spoken, that noone had ever dared speak in Zack's presence. The words he'd used to
convince himself, time and time again, that he wasn't completely twisted for feeling for Max the way he
did. The words he still couldn't truly believe.
Those words disoriented Zack in a way he had never been. He didn't know what to do with them; how to
react. He was always so in charge, so in control. Even when he was wrestling with his irresistible
attraction to the one woman he absolutely could *not* be attracted to, he was in control…because he hadn't
actually given in to that attraction. He hadn't really admitted it, hadn't spoken of it, hadn't given any
reality to it.
Now Logan had. And Zack was totally lost.
"Do you have a habit of throwing people into moving vehicles?" he finally asked, not really even hearing
himself anymore. His genetically engineered mind was just working too fast on too many thoughts to deal
with anything else. "You just did," he reminded.
Logan sighed. "That's because I love her, too."
Another unspoken emotion suddenly spoken of.
Zack silently reeled. And everything seemed so quiet.
"I didn't bring it up bec…"
"Then why did you bring it up?" Zack quickly asked.
Okay, so he wouldn't deny it any longer. At least not here, not right now. Not while they were both
bleeding and cussing and he'd just gotten the chance to knock the almighty Logan Cale on his ass like he'd
wanted to do for so long. But if Logan wanted to make something of it…
The other man glared in his direction.
"Look I don't like you," he said. Zack laughed. "I don't like you either, miracle boy," he said. But he was
smiling. Another relief – to be able to say those words aloud, as well. To just come out and say it – that he
didn't like Logan without having Max get all ballistic on his ass.
Logan didn't smile. But seeing Zack do so eased the tension in the atmosphere a bit.
"But I understand you." Then Logan rushed to continue before the spark of irritation that had just ignited,
anew, in Zack's eyes had time to flourish. "Not everything. But I understand how you feel about Max. I
understand that everything you do, you do for her. To protect her, and the others."
Zack didn't know what to say to that. Because it was true.
"I understand that you would never purposefully hurt her," Logan told him. "I still worry sometimes that
even being near you is going to get her hurt anyhow…" Then he held up a hand to stop Zack's indignant
tirade before it began "But I understand that you would never purposefully let that happen."
Then Logan looked straight at Zack, totally serious.
"I just wish you could understand the same about me.
"You're a part of Max's life, I just have to deal with that. And I'm telling you, I'm going to be a part of
Max's life from now on, more than I ever was before. For as long as she lets me, I'm going to be there.
You're going to have to deal with that."
Logan felt like he was merely an inch away from death, he hurt so bad, but his words were stronger than his
body seemed at the moment. And his gaze as he stared at his rival was unwavering.
Then Zack snorted.
"Is that right?" The words weren't meant to be nearly as biting as they sounded, however. Somehow his
anger at the other man, at the fact of what he was to Max, of what Zack wasn't, seemed to have abated
considerably at the moment.
"That's right," Logan replied. "So you can drop in unannounced, you can lurk in dark alleys all you like.
It won't change anything."
Zack frowned. "That wasn't what I was doing," he muttered. Then: "You've really got room to talk, Cale.
Acting like you're fucking superman when if you'd pulled this stunt a month ago I would have creamed
you."
Logan struggled to stand, eventually making his way to where Zack sat.
"That was a month ago," he said, sitting. "And you still creamed me," he said, more to see how the other
man would react than anything. Zack just looked at him. Was Logan Cale actually making a joke? To
him?
"I'm just getting a little tired of the routine we keep going through. Max and I keep trying to make some
progress together, and you keep getting in the way. It's a little childish, don't you think?"
Zack snorted.
He motioned around them.
"And this is real mature."
Logan finally smiled.
But in the silence that followed, both men were still wrestling with the same doubts and disagreements
they'd had before this little fiasco.
"You're going to, you know," Zack finally said.
"What?" Logan asked, breaking away from his own private thoughts.
"Hurt her." Zack stared off into the distance, using that same, self-certain tone that always drove Logan
crazy.
"You say you don't want to but you will. By keeping her here in Seattle, involving her in your shit. You'll
hurt her."
He looked at Logan, waiting for his answer. And Logan gave it in the same self-certain tone that always
droze Zack crazy.
"The last thing I want to do is hurt Max."
Zack snorted, looking away again. "Yeah." A little muscle in his jaw began to flinch. "Well, we don't
always get what we want, do we?" he said.
And this time it was Logan who didn't know what to say. Because that was true, too.
**** ****
Meanwhile, a matter of miles away, Max stormed into an apartment building in Sector Nine.
Just as Logan had chosen to temporarily relocate, Bling had also taken up another residence. He'd gone
back to the apartment he'd lived in before coming to work for Eyes Only; a modest, but nonetheless
comfortable five-roomer on the very edge of the high-rise district. A long list of wealthy clients had made
the accommodations possible, and Bling had kept the place even after he went to live with Logan. He'd
been renting it out in his absence, but his last tenant had moved out only weeks before.
So now he was living there again.
And now Max was picking her way in, with an angry frown on her face and not a lot of patience in mind.
Therefore, when she was met by the sight of Bling standing on the other side of the door, firearm at the
ready, she skipped her usual pleasantries and just blew away a strand of hair that had fallen into her eyes.
"How's it hangin', Bling?" she mumbled, stomping into the apartment.
Bling just blinked. "Max?"
Belatedly, he put the gun away. "Hey, Max, sorry. I wasn't expec…"
"So, how're you doin', Bling? Nice place. Oooh, like the view."
Max walked around the room, pretending to admire the décor. And she did. But she was way too steamed
at the moment to pay attention to color schemes and artwork.
Bling just watched as Max paced. And immediately tuned in to the fact that his petite X5 companion was
highly pissed.
"Uh, thanks." Then he got to the point. "What's wrong?" he asked, walking into the apartment with her
and closing the door behind him.
Max shrugged. Extremely unconvincingly.
"Wrong? Why would anything be…what the hell is the problem with him, anyway?"
Bling kind of laughed. "Okay…uh, what…"
Max finally stilled, looking at him with a sigh. "Logan," she finally said.
"Logan?"
Bling immediately became anxious.
"Logan? What's happened? Why…"
"Bling! Bling, nothing's happened." Max seethed. "Yet, anyway," she said. Then she gave Bling an
apologetic smile. She dropped onto his couch.
"Sorry. Didn't mean to shake you up. I just…Augh!" Max felt like pulling her hair out.
Finally, Bling sat down by her. Kind of chuckling.
If Logan wasn't in that kind of trouble, then he was obviously in another kind.
"I just…I can't figure out the dealio with them, you know?"
"With who?"
"Zack and Logan," Max replied.
And Bling shook his head. "Zack and Logan?" Maybe he was wrong. He'd thought they were talking
about a problem with Max and Logan. "Zack and Logan" was a different brand of trouble altogether.
"What about Zack and Logan?" Bling asked, warily.
"Their kicking each other's asses," Max told him, calmly.
And Bling shot off the couch.
"What!"
"Calm down!" Max grabbed Bling by the sling and pulled him back into a sitting position.
"But…Zack…"
"There's nothing we can do about it," Max said. Then her eyes narrowed. She was seething again. "For
now. Even if I knew where they are, they're obviously determined to do everything they can to piss each
other off. So if that's what they want to do, I say let them."
'Liar.' She didn't want then to do any such thing. But what could she do? That truck had been out of sight
before she'd realized what was happening. She still couldn't figure out exactly what was happening.
"Max…" Bling said, getting her to look at him. "I don't know what the hell is going on. But, if what you
say is true…Zack is going to kill Logan."
Max shook her head.
"The playing field's even now, remember?" 'I hope,' she silently added to herself. "Zack isn't going to
kill Logan."
Then Max shot up.
"At least I hope not. I don't know…What the hell is wrong with them? Why does Zack always gotta be
there, you know? Trying to talk me out of being with Logan. Why does he hate him so much? And why
does Logan always got to be so goddamned secretive. Pushing Zack into truck…what the hell was he
thinking? Couldn't he at least have told me what he was going to do? What was he thinking?"
Bling just sat there, stunned, as Max ranted.
"Uh…"
He had no idea what she was talking about. What truck? But some of the other things she said rang true.
"Why does he think he has to do everything on his own?" Max continued. "Couldn't he have talked to me?
We could have talked to Zack together. I mean, there isn't really a 'together' with me and Logan yet, but I
thought…I mean I think…" Finally, Max stopped, looking at Bling again. Sighing again.
She raised her hands in a gesture of defeat.
"I give up," she said, sitting back down. "Men suck."
Bling laughed.
Finally, Max calmed down enough to smile at him again.
"Present company excluded, of course," she added.
And Bling patted her on the shoulder, fidgeting a little. Seems like ever since he'd come to work for Logan
Cale he'd been performing five jobs at once: bodyguard, therapist, personal aide, trauma counselor, and
Dear-Abby-wanna-be. Got a problem in your lovelife? Being stuck in a chair interfering with your would-
be girlfriend? Want to rant a little? Your genetically engineered brother causing trouble with your
genetically altered boyfriend?
Bling's your man.
Bling sighed, smiling.
"Come in the kitchen," he said, standing up. "I cooked." Then, at the hopeful little glint that appeared in
Max's eye, he laughed. "I don't cook like Logan," he warned. "But I cooked."
Max nodded. And they walked to the kitchen together.
"And while we eat…why don't you and I have a little talk about Logan?"
And that's what they did.
Or, at least, that's what Bling did.
As he reheated leftovers from the dinner he'd prepared after leaving Crash, Bling talked. He didn't so
much defend Logan's position, as he did explain it. Logan was pretty complex, so it might have taken a lot
of explaining. But Max knew Logan. And she was pretty complex herself.
And Bling had a way with explaining. After all, that's how he'd spent this afternoon – explaining to Logan
why that overdeveloped sense of guilt of his was misplaced. Now he was explaining to Max how that
overdeveloped sense of guilt came to be.
"So you think," Max said slowly, repeating what Bling had just told her, though in not so many words
"That all this ties back to before Logan was Eyes Only?"
Bling pulled a dish out of the microwave when it dinged and handed it to Max. Who set it down on the
counter without realizing it. She was thinking about a lot more than dinner right now.
And Bling continued to talk. "You know just as much about Logan then as I do. But from what I can
gather, he wasn't exactly Mr. I-Can't-Save-the-World-fast-enough all his life. He grew up rich and spoiled.
I'm betting 8 year old Logan didn't even realize the world needed to be saved."
Max shrugged. "So what's wrong with that? He was just a kid."
Bling nodded. "And then he was a teenager, still rich, still spoiled. Then he went to some nice, big, Ivy-
league university, no change. He married Val. He lost Val. To hear Logan talk, he was capitalism
incarnate."
Max shook her head. "Yeah, sure," she said sarcastically. When she'd first met Logan she'd thought that
very thing. Mr. Money Bags, living in his high-rise penthouse, living his happy, hedonistic little life,
oblivious to all the suffering going on all around him. But she'd learned better fast. Sure, Logan had a
much more privileged background than most. Sure, she still teased him about it sometimes. But now she
couldn't really ever imagine Logan not being…Logan. Not being all *too* caught up in all the suffering
going on all around him.
Bling just shrugged. "Who knows? I'm just saying, that's apparently how Logan sees himself now. As
having been some self-absorbed rich kid. Now I think he feels like he owes the world some kind of
restitution. Like he's making up for lost time. He made mistakes. And he feels like if he makes anymore,
he may never get out of debt."
Max laughed, but there wasn't any humor to the sound. She felt…sad. What Bling was saying about
Logan was true. He did have this attitude about him like he felt he owed society something. As if risking
his life for it, day after day, wasn't enough. As if nothing was ever enough.
And that was suddenly extremely sad.
"That's crazy," Max said quietly. Bling didn't say anything. "What makes Logan think he's so god-
damned special? Why is he so sure it's his debt to pay? Millions of self-absorbed rich people live in the
United States, in Seattle. And you don't see them taking any bullets for the downtrodden. They don't give
a shit and they never will. And Logan thinks *he's* the bad guy here?"
Bling smiled. She sounded like him.
Max shook her head then. "If Zack doesn't kick his ass tonight, I will."
Then Bling laughed, walking over and putting an arm around Max's shoulders. He liked Max. He really
did. He liked what she did for Logan, for Logan's life. And he just liked her. She was a good kid. Odd,
but he had a genetically engineered super soldier snuggling up to him and all he could think was what a
good kid she was and how he hoped she and his best friend could work things out.
Max sighed, leaning her head on Bling. "It's not just his fight, you know," she said. Then, quieter: "It
doesn't have to be."
Bling nodded, sighing, too. "Yeah, I know."
Then he looked down at Max.
"And Logan knows, too," he told her. "but it's gonna take him some time to get used to it. It was just his
fight for a long time. You saw what his family thinks of his being a cyberjournalist. No way they'd
support Eyes Only. And the men who worked closest to Logan since Eyes Only started died in that
shootout with Sonrisa.
"All his life, Logan had people like 'Uncle Phil' telling him compassion for people less fortunate than
himself was a waste of time. Much less to go out on a limb and do something for those people. His family
practically disowned him for even writing about them. He's just gotten used to treating his work like his
own, personal little secret. Because for a long time it was."
Max stood there, absorbing what Bling was saying. Thinking about it. Hating Logan's family a little more
that she thought about it.
And then her thoughts were disturbed as the door to Bling's apartment burst violently open.
**** ****
Zack and Logan remained that way for a long time – just sitting there, covered with dust and blood and
bruises, eyes closed, recuperating and thinking. Zack was trying to regain his breath, letting those healing
qualities of his kick in. He assumed Logan was doing the same thing.
It didn't occur to him that, as they were sitting there, Logan was only getting worse. The pounding in his
head had subsided and now Logan didn't feel it. He didn't feel much of anything, really. And for a man
who'd once been paralyzed this was a terrifying sensation, but his mind was too clouded to really latch onto
to that fear.
So Logan just sat there, telling himself it was okay. He'd be fine in a minute. He was just a little dizzy
from the alcohol he'd had earlier. He was just a little shaken up from falling out of that truck. He was just
a little sore from fight with Zack. He was…
'Jesus!' He was miserable.
Finally Zack pulled himself to his feet, feeling awkward now after the fight with Logan. But mostly after
the talk they'd had. What did he do now? What the hell did he say?
"Uh…I guess we better get you back to Sketchy's. Max is going to kick my ass as it is."
Then he actually looked over at Logan, and frowned.
"Hey, Logan, are you okay?"
The other man was just sitting there, eyes closed, his head in his hand. He was frighteningly pale.
For the first time it occurred to Zack that perhaps he'd done more damage in their fight than Logan was
letting on.
"Damn it! Logan, are you okay? Hey, miracle boy?" Zack's voice sounded just as it always did, but
behind his perpetually casual attitude, concern and guilt began to fester.
What if he'd really messed Cale up? Logan had seemed a pretty fair match while they were fighting.
Healing abilities or not, Zack still hurt like hell everywhere Logan's fists had made contact. So he hadn't
pulled any of his punches. Should he have? Logan just sort of groaned.
"Cale?"
Finally, Logan looked up. "Okay, okay, I'm fine. I've just got a headache. You don't have to talk so
loud."
Finally, Zack breathed again. Then he cussed. "Well don't just fucking sit there. I thought I'd killed you
or something."
Logan laughed. Then he flinched at the pain that movement caused. "Don't flatter yourself." He began to
stand…
Zack rolled his eyes. What an idiot. He'd been going all soft, worrying about Cale, and the arrogant little
prick…
…then Logan fell. He didn't even make it all the way to his feet, when, with a sudden pained yell, he fell
to his knees, clutching his head.
And then he started to seize.
"Fuck!"
Zack was at Logan's side in a flash, those advanced X5 reflexes of his coming in handy. He held Logan
down as the other man was suddenly wracked by strong, violent shakes.
"Logan! Logan, what the…"
'What the hell?!'
Zack's eyes were wide. And for the second time since they'd fallen out of that truck, Zack felt totally
shocked out of control. What the hell was he going to do?
That's when the truck driver decided to make himself known.
Sometime earlier, when he'd heard noises coming from his cargohold, he'd slowed so that he could pull
over and check it out. Obviously, something was in his truck but he had no idea what or who. But before
he could stop, suddenly two forms came rolling out of the back and down the dark, stretch of road behind
him.
He'd been horrified to realize they were people.
So, as soon as he could, he stopped the truck. And it had taken him forever to find somewhere to safely
turn around and go back.
When he'd come across the two men who had tumbled out of his truck, he'd expected to find them in worse
shape than they were, had feared to find them dead. But they were alive and probably two of the most
shocking people he had ever seen in his life. They were fighting each other with unbelievable strength.
The fact that they were even conscious seemed pretty unbelievable to him, actually. The driver had spent
the moments since then torn between the inability to turn away from the awesome spectacle, and the
panicked instinct to flee.
Now he rushed to Zack's side, causing the other man's eyes to snap up sharply. He didn't know where the
other man came from, how, or why, but under the current circumstances he didn't suppose it mattered.
"Hey, buddy, is he alr…"
The driver hadn't even spoken a full sentence, when suddenly Zack was on his feet, throwing Logan's still-
shaking form over his shoulder with a heavy groan.
"Is there anything I can do to help?" the man was continuing.
Zack didn't even look at him. Before the driver could determine the X5's intentions, Zack was halfway to
his truck.
"You can drive this rig back to Seattle as fast as you can."