"Keeping Secrets"
Chapter 2: Where the Wild Things Are
Mochaije

Disclaimer: I do not own Dark Angel or its characters. Other than that, the story is mine.
Summary: Max has to remove Asha--if that is her true identity.
Spoilers/Timeframe: Occurs right after "Proof Of Purchase".
Rating: PG 13

Sketchy staggered out Crash's back door and blew chunks. He wheezed and just about fell in his own bile, but a gloved hand snatched the neck of his shirt first.

"Less beer really is more, moron," Max giggled. She sat him up against Crash's back wall instead of his puke and interrogated him.

"Remember that tabloid you showed me with the beast guy on the front?" She still had a grip on his shirt. He nodded. "You seen him? At all?" Sketchy blinked, burped, pointed to Max's left. Joshua blinked, too, and cocked his head a bit.

"Max," he said in his dog-voice. "You blaze?" Max nodded at him and then hit Sketchy upside the head, knocking him out. Hopefully he'll just think it's a drunken delusion... She and Joshua climbed onto her bike and sped off.

"You seen Alec lately?" she yelled over the gusts of wind her bike created.

"Who is Alec?" Joshua's long hair waved in the wind as Max peeled around a corner.

"He's the guy who tried to kill me earlier!"

"He blaze!"

"What?"

"There!" Joshua yelled. Max left skids as she stopped and jumped off the bike and onto Alec, knocking him into the ground beside a dumpster.

"Go in heat much, Max? Get off me!" Alec threw her off, a few feet away, closer to her bike. They both stood.

"I need a favor. Manticore spy is giving an Eyes Only informant a hard time. Remember the blonde girl?" Max flipped her hair out of her face and put a hand on her hip.

"She's no biosynth, Max. I took a gun out of her hand like I was stealing candy from a baby." Max winced at his verbal skills.

"She is. I saw it. Her barcode." Alec was quiet for a moment.

"She's no biosynth, Max. She cares about Logan, she should've kicked my ass into a wall." They sat on some boxes and talked.

"She doesn't care about him in that way. Then she'd really be replacing me..." Max picked at her gloves and took a deep breath.

"Are you saying you don't care about Logan?"

Max looked at him with big eyes. "I do! I mean I think I do... Anyway, I don't know if she's a spy or not, we better kick her ass."

"Who says she's not saying the same thing to herself? 'What's the dealio with that brunette, she's a biosynth!'" Alec said the last phrase in a high girlie voice and Max smiled. She looked away from him then and continued picking at her gloves.

"I care about him but I don't want Asha getting to Eyes Only and revealing him… And I was supposed to kill him remember? Maybe Asha got involved with Logan after Manticore put me back in a cage. Then, in case I didn't whack him..." Max and Alec's eyes widened simultaneously as the realization sunk in.

"You're out of the picture for the night, but blondie isn't. And it's the first time you've really been out of the picture since you got back, right?" Max nodded as Alec spoke.

"Why didn't she kill him while I was away?" Max ran a hand through her hair nervously.

"You think Manticore would want her to do that? You'd be on a guilt trip if you were the one who killed him, and you'd feel even worse if he got killed while you were--"

"Out lookin' for my family so we could whack his friend..." Max finished his sentence. It was brilliant. Asha comes around while Max is away, Max almost kills Logan but it backfires, so Asha switches to Plan B. Take a shower while Max is over and display her barcode, have Max think she's a powerful biosynth, Max goes out to get her fellow transgenics.. But wasn't Asha in her mid-twenties? She'd have to be an X4 or one of the first X5s. Max could take her, no problem. But no, she goes out to get help and leaves Asha there with Logan.

"Oh my God," Max said quickly. "Joshua, we blaze!" She waved a hand signal at Alec and the three of them--albeit barely--managed to fit on the bike as they sped towards Foggle Towers.

"This is delicious, Logan," Asha smiled widely at him as she wolfed down some spaghetti. They were sitting at the dining room table, across from each other. He smiled back and said thanks, then went back to eating.

Asha cleared her throat and put down her fork. "Did you ever consider that Max is a spy?" She folded her hands underneath her chin and grinned at him.

Logan chewed and swallowed, shook his head, and shoved another forkful of the Cale family's secret recipe spaghetti into his mouth. Damn, I'm a good cook… Max? Spy? He put down his fork also and looked at Asha.

"What the hell gave you that idea?" he said quickly, not returning her grin. Asha put her hands in her lap and showed too much teeth.

"Well… She seems awfully interested in your broadcasts and stuff… Your computer equipment. Wouldn't be surprised if she went and got her friends to whack you and me... 'Cause I could kick her ass, me being an X5 and all." Logan had resumed eating when she'd started talking again and choked when she said that she was an X5.

"What?"

Asha spun her fork in her spaghetti. "Your girlfriend knows, I heard her talking to you. I didn't leave the hallway while you guys were blabbing or anything. Fact of the matter is, Max is a spy now." She put her fork down. "I was sent here when her clone whacked her, in case she came back, y'know, reprogrammed to kick your sorry ass. She wasn't reprogrammed to kill you as soon as she saw you, not even with this virus she's got. I wouldn't let that happen. But there's a trigger that they attatched to her Red implant, and when they want you dead they just push a button."

"Oh..my God," Logan swallowed hard. "It's so clear now...That she's a--"

"Spy. Yes, she's a damned spy." Max walked in from the hallway where her usual rope drop-in was. There was a crash as Joshua landed and Max winced.

"Sowry Max," Joshua said. "We blaze!" he said to Asha. She sighed and shook her head, standing up and pushing in the chair, crossing her arms over her chest. Joshua turned to Max. "Can we blaze again? It's fun." Max shook her head impatiently and ran back towards the rope, looked up.

"Alec!"

"Uh..What..?" He clung to the rope about ten feet away from Max.

"Come down!"

"I..can't.." Alec gripped the rope and tried to move down a bit.

"Then just let go!" Joshua ran over and looked up.

"Cat in his cocktail.. .He'll land safe." he said to Max.

"Hear that, Alec? Just drop!" And so he did, and he landed on his feet. Joshua nodded at Max. The trio headed back into Logan's main room. Asha and Logan now stood in the center of the room. One of Asha's arms was wrapped around Logan's neck, the hand covering his mouth. With her other hand she poked the side of Logan's head with his own gun. His eyes darted around. He tried to call Max's name when she reappeared but his cry was stifled.

"Hey, Maxie, you didn't kill Eyes Only here with the virus so I figured I'd better end his life. And yours, seeing as you practically ended everyone's life at Manticore. Where are those kids gonna go, Maxie? Do you know what you've done?" Logan struggled but it was pointless.

"When did Manticore recapture you? The night after the escape?" Max said softly. Now that she had a good look at Asha, she knew the blonde was one of the 11 other X5s that escaped with her.

"A week after. Good thing, too, my seizures got pretty bad, and a lot of people thought it was weird that I didn't sleep." She tightened her grip on Logan, adjusted the gun, and pulled the trigger.