Disclaimer: You know the routine...don't own...blah blah...not mine..blah blah..no money being made...blah blah. This is just a way for me to waste time at work. Plus, if I owned Logan/Michael Weatherly, he would be a too busy modeling nude for me and he wouldn't be have time to film Dark Angel.

Spoilers: Post "Rising" but before "The Kidz Are Aiight." Will have some spoilers from "Pollo Loco" and "Hit A Sista Back" in upcoming chapters.

A/N: I had a real heck of a time writing this for some reason, and I in fact re-wrote this chapter because the first one blew chunks. If this one sucks, well, it was because I was too damn lazy to re-write it again.

Thanks 'Meka for beta-ing this for me! As I said, I had a rough time writing this, and your input really made it flow so much better!!

Special thanks to BlackWolf, whose has an extraordinary knowledge of weapons. He was kind enough to help me on a couple of points.
Please R & R! Reviews really get me motivated to keep adding on to this story!! :)
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The Enemy Within

Chapter 6
Erasing the Past

Bling walked into Logan's apartment. He figured he had ten minutes to do what he needed to do and the get the hell out before the black helicopter guys showed up. Knowing that, he hurried into Logan's bedroom and headed straight for the closet. Pushing aside Logan's clothes, he found what he was looking for. Logan had informed him in the car that there was a rather large safe hiding there. He pulled a small piece of paper from his jeans pocket. Logan had weakly written the combination on it, and Bling read the numbers aloud as he turned the knob on the safe. He heard the clicking sound of the door releasing and he swung it open. Inside, he saw that it was crammed with numerous manilla folders, CD's and other important Eyes Only files, many of them filled with information that Logan had been able to gather about Manticore and the other X5's. There were also forged birth certificates, social security cards, passports, Sector passes, ID's and driver's licenses.

Bling took a small black suitcase from the corner of the closet and threw it on the bed. He unzipped it quickly and filled it with the contents of the safe.

"Damn, the man is prepared, if nothing else," Bling whispered under his breath while packing the assorted items. When he was finished with that task, Bling went back to the closet and took Logan's black leather jacket off its perch on a hanger and put it on. The fit was a little tight, but it would do.
He glanced down at his watch and noticed that only about three minutes had passed since he had first entered the penthouse. He figured he was making good time.

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Max sat in the seat across from Lydecker, gazing blankly out the helicopter's open door. She was aware that the man had not taken his eyes off of her since takeoff. He had this almost tender look on face, whether he knew it or not. It sickened her to think that he had some sort of father complex towards her. Good ole 'Deck probably thought that he was just doing what was best, getting her away from the messed up world outside of Manticore. She grimaced at the notion.

Lydecker's loud voice broke into her thoughts. "Max, it's gonna be nice to have you back. You were always one of my best."

"Am I supposed to be flattered?" she looked at him incredulously. "Cause I'm not. In fact, I'm nauseated."

Lydecker's radio crackled, stopping his forthcoming response, but not before Max saw the flicker of impatience in his eyes. Good, she thought. Let him be angry with me. Let him feel just a smidgeon of what I've felt for him for the past ten years of my life.

"Lydecker" he answered.

"Sir," came the voice from the other end. "We're on the way to the Cale place. E.T.A in about ten minutes."

"Very good soldier. I want to know as soon as you get there, and a full report immediately after your search of the premises is complete. I will expect to hear back from you shortly." With that, Lydecker disconnected and returned his attention back to Max. She thought he was going to say something to her, but he didn't.

She directed her gaze back out toward the sky. She thought of Logan, of the fact she may never see him again, and an almost physical pain pulled at her heart. Outside, the rain wasn't falling anymore, but the sky was gray, reflecting her emotions.

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In Logan's office, Bling packed the laptop and camera paraphernalia into a large black leather bag that sat underneath the desk. It took him a couple of minutes to unplug all the equipment and then make it fit haphazardly into the bag, but he accomplished it without too much difficulty. When he was done, Bling opened the drawer and took Logan's Vector CP1 pistol and its ammunition out. He checked to see if the gun was loaded, and gave a nod of satisfaction when he found bullets in its chamber. He quickly tucked the gun into the waist of his pants and concealed it with the jacket. He turned back toward the drawer and fished around inside until he found the small, rectangular device with a single black button on it. Placing that in his coat pocket, he used his other hand to hook the shoulder strap of the laptop over his right shoulder

Bling walked toward the huge windows overlooked downtown Seattle. He reflected on how Logan loved to contemplate life in this spot, usually whenever he had a problem he needed to solve, or whenever something was troubling him- that something usually being Max. He glanced down and noticed several black SUV's pulling up to the street below.

"Right on schedule, boys," he said to no one, and gave a little smirk.
Bling grabbed the suitcase on the way out, and at the door, he turned and gave the apartment one last scan. Almost imperceptibly, he shook his head before turning away.

"What a shame," he whispered, and shut the door behind him.

_________

Logan groggily opened his eyes. It took a bit to focus in on where he was, not only because he was without his glasses, but because he was also drugged with something. He wasn't shaking as bad as he was before, so whatever they had given him must have helped. He still felt disoriented and heavy from the drug, as well as from his body's internal struggle with itself.

When he was finally able to make some shapes out, he realized he was lying on a cot in what seemed to be a deserted warehouse that was acting as a makeshift doctor's office. At the door of his cramped room was a young soldier standing guard with his back to Logan. There was a large gun slung over the back of the soldier. Logan rolled his eyes. I'm not going anywhere pal, just in case you couldn't tell. Even if I wasn't drugged up and in this condition, I probably couldn't walk too far before falling flat on my face, he thought.
Max.

The name popped into his mind, as it did often- only every waking moment of the day, and every restless minute of sleep at night. Everything came rushing back to him, how she had given herself back to Lydecker and Manticore to help him, their too short car ride to the drop off point, the tears he had seen glistening in her eyes while she had so tenderly tried to care for him. How he wanted to hold her, touch her just one more time. He hadn't taken the chances he'd had to touch her very often in the months before; now he regretted that he hadn't tossed his damn pride aside and opened up to her. He wanted nothing more than just a chance to tell her what a fool he'd been.

He turned toward the window that was on the left wall of the room. Outside, the sky was gray and ominous, though it wasn't raining anymore. Logan didn't know for sure how long he had been knocked out, but he was almost positive that it had only been a couple of hours. He remembered snippets of things that had happened after the drop off, including waking up briefly and seeing Max leaving bound and chained with Lydecker. A pang tore at his heart as he thought about it. He had fallen almost immediately back into a slumber after that, not having the physical energy to stay awake, no matter how much he had wanted to.
"I'm gonna get you back, Max. I promise you. I just hope Bling can come through for me." He spoke the words softly, almost as if they were a prayer.

Logan lay there in the bed and wondered just how Bling had fared with their plan, before falling fitfully back into a drug-induced sleep.

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Bling was exiting the elevator just as several armed soldiers were filing in. He brushed nonchalantly past them, not one of them even looking his way. Once outside the main entrance doors for Fogle Towers, he strolled towards the Aztek, which he left parked on the opposite street curb. The building was surrounded by several military men who were no doubt headed up to Logan's apartment.

"Go ahead, boys. You ain't gonna find much up there." He joked with himself.

He unlocked the trunk and set the bag and suitcase carefully inside it
before shutting the hatch. Walking around the driver's side, he reached into the jacket pocket and pulled out the remote device he had taken from Logan's desk. He looked down at it thoughtfully, and then turned his attention back up to the tall building until his gaze settled on Logan's window.

"You owe me one Logan," he said and slowly pressed the button.

With that, Logan's penthouse exploded into a fabulous inferno, bursting the glass out of the windows and crashing it down in what seemed to be slow motion to the soggy street below. Soldiers and several pedestrians' faces snapped toward the building that was now spewing flames. There were female screams of shock, and loud male voices that almost immediately started barking out commands. Bling watched in awe as the blaze licked the muggy Seattle sky, then he swung his eyes down to the chaos that was ensuing below. He half-smiled in satisfaction and unlocked the car door. Once inside the vehicle, he began whistling a nameless tune. For the first time that day he thought everything might turn out all right, after all.