Disclaimer- Max, Logan, and any other characters from the TV show are not mine. They
belong to Cameron and Eglee. Any other characters are made up by me.

Rating: R

This is my first fanfic. Advice is welcome

Homecoming

It was cold, dry, and sterile. The room she was in seemed devoid of
life, empty and terrifying, resembling something that can only be called the hospital from
hell. Lifeless white walls surrounded her on all sides, and the only sound that penetrated
her ears were that of the machines hooked up to her body through monstrous, transparent
tentacles that went into her mouth, pierced her wrists and arms with needles, and crawled
over her body like snakes. She focused her hearing on one the machines in particular. The
heart monitor. The steady beating of the heart that lay inside of her. Zack's heart. Even
though she was mostly unconscious as it happened, Max heard the last words of her
brother echoing through her mind. |Promise me you'll fight them, max. Promise me you'll
fight them, no matter what happens.| "I will" she whispered to herself. "I'll never be a
slave to them again, no matter what happens." She couldn't let him die for nothing. But
then her determination waned as she realized where she was right now. Back at
Manticore, the fucking hellhole where she and her family had escaped more than a decade
ago. The place where they were beaten down and tortured and experimented on. The
place where those who had too many seizures or didn't make the cut were killed and cut
open like frogs. The place where they all lived in fear that they would be the next casualty,
where they could be taken to the bad place and fed to the nomalies. |I've got to get the
fuck out of here!| her mind screamed at her. Desperate, she yanked with at the steel
restraints that bound her to the bed with all her might. They didn't so much as budge. She
kept pulling until her wrists were cut by the rough edges of the metal, and her blood
leaked across the stainless gray steel. She realized it was hopeless. She would have to wait
and bide her time before she could attempt to escape again. "No fucking way I'm gonna let
them turn me into a soulless monster like Brin. I'll kill myself first."
Logan Cale sat in front of his computer, his eyes fuming with exhaustion.
He had been at that seat for 10 hours straight, trying to hack into Manticore's surveillance
cameras, trying to find any indication at all that she was still alive. |Maybe Lydecker was
right, maybe she is...No!!! It can't be. I won't let it be that way. She's still alive, god
dammit, all I have to do is find something to prove it.| He didn't even hear Bling as the
large man crept behind him. "Give it a rest, man. You've got to let go of this, you're only
going to drive yourself crazy if you keep going at this rate." Ignoring him, Logan
continued to frantically type. "Look, I know how much that girl means to you, but you got
to at least consider the fact that she may be dead..." "NO! SHE'S ALIVE, SHE'S GOT
TO BE..." "Calm down!" Bling cried out. "If she is alive, then you'll have a better chance
of finding her if you get some sleep first." Logan stopped and gave it some thought.
Finally, he agreed. He walked over to his living room and plopped down on the couch. "I'll
get you something to eat, don't you dare move off that couch." Bling disappeared into the
kitchen. |What if she is really dead? What if she's gone forever?| She was the reason
behind his existence. The only reason why he woke up every morning after he took that
bullet to the spine. Why he continued Eyes Only, why he tried so damn hard to fix the
exoskeleton. He wondered what he would do if she was dead. Would he take the 9mm out
of the drawer and put it against his skull? Would he pull the trigger this time? No. She
wouldn't want that. She would want me to live on, to help the downtrodden, to fight the
good fight, the breathe and laugh and be happy. But how could his life go on without
Max? The only woman he has truly loved. |Guess I'll just have to hope and pray|, he
thought, as he drifted into sleep.
He awoke to the sound of the doorbell ringing. Bling moved to greet the
visitor. He opened the door and paused for a moment as he saw who it was. He called out
to Logan. "Someone's here to see you." "Should I let him in?" Logan sat up from his
resting place in a drowsy stupor. He was still tired, but it could be urgent. An informant,
perhaps. "Yeah." He was shocked to see Lydecker walk into the room. The 60ish, blond
haired man surveyed his surroundings. "Quite a lavish lifestyle you live, Mr Cale." "Not
many people these days can afford a high rise penthouse in the best sector of Seattle."
Logan glared angrily at him, memories returning of several nights past. He might have
saved her, had Lydecker not rendered him unconscious with the butt of a handgun. She
might still be here. Lydecker noticed his icy gaze staring daggers into his forehead. "Look
son, I know how you feel. I lost my wife when I was around your age. But I'm telling you,
she's dead. You've got let go—" "And why the hell should I? Why the hell should I listen
to you of all people, who hunted her like an animal for half of her life? You piece of shit."
"Look, despite what you might think, I did actually care about her. Her and all the others.
They were my life." "You have a funny way of showing it. You don't care for them, you
just want to use them, to turn them into mindless, perfectly obedient little slaves who will
do whatever you tell them! They're nothing but lab rats to you!" Deck remained perfectly
calm. "I didn't come here to argue about this. I've come to warn you. Figured it was the
least I could do since you helped us. Renfro's after me. She 's probably already sent a
couple of the kids in her control. She won't stop until I'm dead. I'm gonna lie low, maybe
head for Canada or something. I suggest you do the same. She doesn't know you were
involved, but it's better to be safe than dead. I wouldn't underestimate her ability to figure
out the identities of everyone involved." Logan smiled. "I've got things to attend to in
Seattle. I'll take my chances. Besides, something tells me Max is definitely still alive."
Deck stared at him. "Fine, be an idiot. It's your funeral." He turned and walked out of the
apartment.
Max awoke again to find the blond bitch and 2 X-7s standing at the foot of
her bed. A cluster of half a dozen guards awaited behind them. "Sedate her," the bitch
ordered a nearby doctor. Max felt a needle pass into her arm and she blacked out. She
didn't fully lose consciousness, however, and her thought swirled like a never ending
whirlpool. Where are they taking me? The guards released her from the restraints and
carried her across the room, the X-7's added to them to provide extra security. No need
really. She was too damn weak and drugged up to struggle. I recognize the X-7s, she
thought. One's the kid who looks like Zack, the other one's mini-me. Through her hazed
vision, she could only make out so much of the girl's face, but the resemblence to her own
at that age seemed precise enough to be frightening. The face in question was devoid of
all emotion. A walking human robot, soulless and empty. "What did they do to her?' she
could only imagine what horrors the girl had suffered in this place. She soon realized
what they were going to do. They were going to reindoctrinate her. Try to turn her into
the same unthinking monster her clone had become.
Next thing she knew, they were strapping her to a chair. A strange
substance was injected into her arm. Her mind and thoughts immediately became
cloudy and unfocused. A hideous contraption was used to force open her eyes.
Words flashed across the screen in front of her. Duty. Discipline. Obedience. Same
old Manticore doctrine, over and over again. Pictures of death and destruction, the
decapitated bodies of infants on the roadside, dead soldiers littering the streets, the
naked, shriveled corpses of holocaust victims and countless horrific atrocities
flooded her yielding consciousness. The drug made her brain compliant with the
words and images flowing into it, accepting the ideas they presented without too
much struggle. Pictures of Zack, Krit, Syl, Jondy, followed by words such as rat,
traitor, deserter, enemy. Destroy the enemy, remember what you are. A soldier, a
killer. Your sole purpose is to follow the orders of your creators, to... |No!| Some
part of her mind still screamed at her. |No, it's not true. It's all Manticore bullshit,
they're trying to poison your mind, trying to turn you into one of them!| She would not
let them break her. Not ever. She wasn't going to become a soldier again.
" She doesn't seem to be responding to the treatment" the doctors told her.
Renfro smiled to herself. " She's fighting it pretty damn hard." "Give her time.
She'll turn around. Continue the reindoctrination procedure tommorrow at 1000
hours." "Yes director." She had seen several escaped subjects successfully
reintegrated into the program before. This time was no different. She would break.
They all did. No one was strong enough to resist the process forever. As hard as
any of them fought, it was only a matter of time before the effects started to show.
They would gradually become more compliant, more willing to obey orders, less
resistant to any of the propaganda shoved at them. They would become to be what
they were meant to be. Mindless, emotionless, infinitely loyal killing machines.
Soldiers. Expendable yet far more effective than any normal individual would ever
be. She would present her accomplishments to the committee soon. They would
reward her. Ultimate success was in her grasp. If she kept things going at this rate
they would get the funding to proceed to stage 3. What a wonderful prospect.
|Hell, maybe I could retire early to a nice island in the bahamas or something.|
Glory and fame were hers for the taking. As for the DNA lab, well, they cleaned
that up pretty good. The committee would never hear about it. Besides, they had
plenty of suitable specimens to rebuild all the research that went up in flames that
night. Her eyes creased and flared with rage at the thought of Lydecker. "Oh well"
she told herself. He would be gone soon. Days before she had sent X5-868 to take
care of their information leak. |Deck always thought of him as his children. Pitiful
old fool. It was his damn fault they escaped in the first place. Too bad for him
he's outlived his usefulness.|
As soon as the young woman walked toward him, Donald Michael
Lydecker knew that it was his last moment to draw breath. Had to be one of his
kids. He recognized her somehow, the blond hair and facial features triggering a
memory of a small child in a dark, blue black room the color of a heavy bruise. She
was definitely good at what she did, she was smart enough to track him down even
after multiple identity changes, falsified passports, and loads of manufactured
documents that identified him as a citizen of Ontario, Canada. All that within the
space of a week. He stared at the face of death as it came towards him, not really
afraid, merely accepting his fate as it thundered towards him like a bolt of
lightning. It was a beautiful face, even though they all were, with short golden
locks that hung in curves around her head. She was wearing dark sunglasses that
hid the eyes. He tried to put a name to her, a barcode perhaps, but failed to
ascertain the identity of his killer. He merely stood as the angel of death, in a black
T-shirt and white slacks, walked up to him in the apartment hallway. "Time to die,
traitor." The last sound he heard was the report of a silenced 9mm as the slug it
fired pierced his skull and spewed a mixture of red, gray, and ivory white out the
back of his head.
|I have to accept the possibility that she may be dead. Even though I have
the feeling that no, she is dead, isn't she? Logan, you goddamn pitiful fool.
Keeping yourself alive on empty hopes and dreams.| Logan hung his head as tears
slowly flowed from his eyes. |For god's sake, what the hell was I thinking?|
Lydecker managed to get him important passwords and security codes that no one
but him knew about. Most of them still worked, allowing him to get past some of
the barriers that blocked him out of the database. A little help from Sebastian had
done the rest. The Manticore subject files confirmed his worst fears. X5-452 was
listed as deceased, killed by a single bullet that pierced the heart. So Max was
gone. And so was everything he had to live for. He sighed. There was no point in
going on. He might as well get it over with. Everything and everyone he cared
about was either a disappointment or was brutally taken from him. His parents,
Valerie, the informant net that he hoped would change the world, yet still left it
broken each and every morning. And now Max. He opened his drawer. Inside was
the most beautiful sight in the world right then, his sidearm, cocked and loaded.
With a feeling of eternal resignation, he took it out and put it to his forehead. If
they couldn't be together in life, then they would be together in death. |I'm coming
for you Max.| His finger tightened on the trigger.