"Keeping Secrets"
Chapter 4: Party Time
Mochaije

Disclaimer: "Proof of Purchase" spoilers, but other than that the plot is mine. I own the new character.
Summary: A suprise shows up.
Rating: PG 13
A/N: Italics are thoughts, obviously. Don't get me wrong here, I love Asha's character, but I needed her out of the way for a bit.

Max grunted and slammed the spoon on the ground. How long had she been doing this? Months? Did Renfro even know about her kidnapping?

She remembered the day. A week after her transplant, someone had just pushed her bed out of Manticore and all the way here, to an alley that she somewhat remembered. Had it been Doc Vertes' office? The glass in the ceiling of the main room still hadn't been repaired and it rained in the room beside hers. She was in a small patient's room that had probably been used by homeless people for the past few months. It was windowless - barely a closet. It faintly reminded her of the little torture rooms Manticore had, where you were stuck in a small pit with no light, except this room had light. She picked up the spoon again and kept digging. The brick broke. She smiled and sat up against the wall, almost laughing. She was getting out of here. Another brick came loose, and soon there was a sizable opening.

Joshua snored on the floor. Alec snored on the couch. Logan snored in his room. Max slept in a chair. It was a good thing that everyone was asleep, or they'd notice that she was dozing. Max didn't doze. She'd been exactly like Max to this very moment. She came out of a dream state, realized what she was doing, and went to sit in the kitchen.

How convienent! A rope already here. Max stood over the place where she usually dropped into Logan's apartment. Should she go to Original Cindy first? She needed to brush her teeth and shave. Badly. Oh well. She slid down the rope and landed softly on the floor. Everything looked the same. She was sitting at the kitchen table. Wait a second.

Max's glance shifted over to the hallway. "X5-452, it's about time," she got up and sauntered over to where the real Max was standing, in the entrance of the hallway.

"Who the hell are you?" She took a whiff. "And why does the place smell like blood?" Out of the corner of her eye, she saw a man that looked like her brother Ben, and a mutant creature that looked like something from... Not from Manticore, everything from Manticore looked handsome and beautiful.

"You were kidnapped, because the Reds are still after your blood. So is a man named White," Max's clone smirked. "You're perfect, Max. Perfect to the reds and to people who've seen your DNA. I'm X5-453 if you're wondering. You've all got clones, raised in your image to be like you. Renfro thought I was actually you and gave me a virus, it really hurt Logan's feelings when he discovered that he can't touch... You."

Max looked worried and stepped closer. "What? Virus? And who are they? Is Logan okay?" She looked in the general direction of the window and then back at her clone. She told Max to sit down with her and they talked. Her clone filled her on recent happenings since her operation.

"Look, I'm tired as hell. I'm gonna go crash in the guestroom." She got up but Max grabbed her arm.

"I should probably kill you or something. I mean, you know about Eyes Only, you know about everything."

"No," her clone shook her head. "I like your life. I'ts nice, peaceful, you've got it good, girl. Can I be your twin or something?" Max could tell she wasn't lying. If she turned her clone away, she may snitch on Logan...

"Fine," Max said after a moment. "You can't be Max, though."

"I like the name Milla," her clone said hesitantly. "I found an old magazine, pre-pulse. Milla Jovovich was a pretty famous model, I think." She fidgeted with a crumb on the table.

"I don't fidget. How old are you, anyway?" Max was wide awake, unlike Milla. She looked about ready to pass out.

"Well, I'd never met you, so.. I'm 19. You're 21."

"Well, you're 21 as of now." Max ran a hand through her still short (and curly) hair. She liked Milla's uncut Manticore hair, but not as much as her own. "You should probably be asleep as of now too," Max chuckled. Milla got up to go to the guest bedroom and Max caught her on her way out.

"If you blink wrong, I'll defenistrate you right here. And I don't want to do that, but if I have to, I will kill some cloned, transgenic ass, got it?" Max looked Milla in the eyes and spoke sternly. Milla gulped and nodded. "Have a good sleep then," Max grinned.

The next morning, Logan got up, put on his exoskeleton, and brushed his teeth. It's been used, he thought. Max? No, she wouldn't be silly enough to put her germs on here. Must've been Alec. He shaved, put some gel in his hair, and walked out of the bathroom Alec was awake, Joshua ws awake, Max was awake, and Max was awake too, and they were all playing poker on his kitchen table. Max and Max. Logan walked up to the table. Joshua nd Alec sat on one side, and a curly-haired Max and a straight-haired Max sat on the other. Yup, he dreaming, couldn't be two Maxes, nope, not possible. The curly-haired Max looked up at him and said his name quietly, then got up and went to him, touched his arm. He backed away instinctively - he couldn't touch Max, even in a dream.

"Logan, I need to talk to you," She was faster than him this time and grabbed his arm. They went into the hallway. Logan found this all completely normal, after all, he was dreaming. Then curly-haired Max kissed him, he felt it, it was real, he was not dreaming.

"Max," He said, their heads still in each other's hands, "What's going on?" She broke away.

"The other Max is actually Milla, a..clone of mine," She smiled. "I'm Max. No virus. Please stop acting like you're dreaming." Logan stood and looked at her in disbelief.

"Well..We have to..uh..get to the cabin. Max..your clone..Milla, I mean, is triggered to kill me, but they won't set her off unless she's near me, and they're only tracking her in Seattle, so we're all going to the cabin." He looked at her while he spoke. Cheap jeans, cheap jacket, cheap t-shirt, as if she'd been held captive for the past few months by some place other than Manticore, some place without enough money. She was still curvy, curly-hair-to-the-shoulders Max, not straight-haired and skinny Milla. She looked almost as uncomfortable as he did having this conversation.

"Thank God you're alive," He said at last and kissed her.

"No, I win!" Joshua pounded the table in frustration. Milla rolled her eyes, set her cards on the table, leaned back, ran her fingers through her hair.

"Fine, Joshua, you win," She sighed. Playing poker with her fellow transgenics was useless. One was smarter than her, one was more stubborn. She may have been the better poker player, but using her skills against those two was like bitch-slapping a Red. Useless.

"Well, I need coffee, it's only nine in the morning," Alec dropped his cards and walked into the kitchen. "You want some too, Milla?" She told him yes. Max and Milla had explained the situation over a game of Crazy Eights, after Joshua noticed how many Maxes were in the room. Logan came back into his penthouse, and Milla wheeled around in her chair.

"Where's the brat?" She asked with a chuckle. "Sorry if I led you on, Logan, but y'know."

"Yeah, I know. She had to go to work," Logan sat down beside Milla and gave Alec a ayell to get him some coffee. Alec returned with three mugs of coffee and handed them out. Joshua growled at him and he barked back.

"I wonder who was holding her, and where, and stuff," Alex wrapped her hands around the warm coffee cup. It felt good not being a complete and total fake any more. Logan's cellphone rang, and he went up and answered it.

"Max? Hi. What the..? Lab creeps?" Three heads at the table turned on his last two words. "Yeah. We'll come get you and go to the cabin from there. Out back? Okay, see you soon." He set down the phone and grabbed his jacket, walked towards the door. "Let's go."

Milla got up and walked towards him. "Guys holding Max checked on her this morning and she wasn't there so they checked the crib?" Joshua and Alec followed behind her.

"Yup," Logan said. The quartet waited for the elevator.

----

Max ducked behind some garbage cans and began to shake. No, no, please, not now... She breathed in deeply and used her enhanced vision to check for anyone, or anything. The coast was clear until Logan's Aztek pulled up and the door opened. She smiled widely and ran over. The car pulled away.

Max turned around in her seat. She was about to ask Milla why she was sitting in furthest-back seat and checked herself. Milla decided not to stay quiet, though.

"So who was holding you? Where? Tell us, we need to be entertained," Milla spoke quickly and in a perky voice. She was a bit irritating now that she wasn't trying to be Max.

"Reds, I guess. Big strong men and a blonde, until a few weeks ago. They put me in some tiny-ass room at Vertes' lab," Max looked at Logan. This reminded her of the last time they'd gone up to the cabin.

"Vertes? How come you didn't bust out earlier, then?" Logan asked her.

"Let's see how long it takes you to dig out of a brick room," she said quietly, barely above a whisper.

"What, Max?" Logan turned to look at her, a bit worried at the sarcasm he heard in the words he coudln't understand.

"She said that she wants to see you dig out a brick room, Logan dahling," Milla chimed in from the backseat. "Super human hearing is quite the nice thing to have."

Alec looked behind him. "You're really imma-"

"Alright, children, let's just drop it." Max's voice came firmly and seemed to echo. Joshua grunted and fell asleep in the seat behind her.

They arrived at the cabin, pulled in, got out. "I gotta go take a leak," Milla called as she raced for the door. Max chuckled and leaned against the car as the three males walked towards the cabin. She called out one of their names and when he turned around, she motioned for him to come over to the car.

"Max," Logan said when he'd returned to the car. He stood beside her and leaned against the car. "I'm sorry for snapping at you. It's just wierd... You were around and I couldn't touch or anything, and now you're actually back, and I was a bit... Well..."

"Bitchy?" She looked at him with a smile. "Yeah, me too. Don't worry about it," She glanced at the cabin and gave a nosy Milla a dirty look.

"We're good then?" Max nodded at him and started shaking again.