"Keeping Secrets"
Chapter 6: No Alarms and No Surpises
Mochaije

Disclaimer: "Proof of Purchase" spoilers, but other than that the plot is mine. I own Milla's character post-faking-being-Max.
Summary: Max learns of her new predicament and must deal with the repurcussions.
Rating: PG 13
A/N: Italics are thoughts, obviously. I got the title of this chapter from a Radiohead song.

Max's baby blazed down the Seattle streets towards the doctor's house. What the hell is up with Logan? She almost passed the doctor's house, but skidded to a stop. Dismounting, she charged through the door to find the Doc himself sitting at a small table, eating an Egg McMuffin - which made perfect sense, it was only about 9AM. She grabbed him by the shirt, threw him against the wall, and slammed the papers Milla had given her into his face.

"Look, buddy, from what I hear you're pretty goddamned expensive, and that someone else has already paid you for half of this-" she wiped the paper on his face,"and I need the other half of your project right now, got it? And some antidote. I'll get the cash later but I want the bloody job done in the next twenty minutes, got it?" She tightened her grip, then let him dropped to the ground, throwing the papers at him.

"I... I've already got it done, the antidote too... In the drawer over there," He pointed weakly to his desk. She kicked him in a rather sensitive spot and he grunted, rolling over on his side into the fetal position.

"And you wanna tell me what's up with this whole kissing thing?" She quatted and looked at him.

"You can't kiss anyone with the same genetic sequences... While you have the virus," he grunted. He must think I'm the same Max that he met earlier. "Or theyll get it... And it'll be worse. Can't go within thirty feet of that Logan fellow," he wheezed a bit, rocking back and forth.

"And if I inject myself with this, will the people with the same genetic stuff as me be able to get near Logan?" She sounded like someone saying, "This friend of mine has this problem..."

"You'll have to kiss them or transfuse a bit of blood with them first... You got a clone or something?"

"Yeah," Max shrugged. "How long should I-I mean, she-wait?" She smiled nervously. If Manticore knew she had a clone...

"It's pretty instantaneous," the doctor said.

"Thanks," Max grabbed the antidote and cure and ran out.

The phone rang. Logan looked over, a bit lazily. The sores had started a while ago. He faded in and out of consciousness, and the ringing phone kept him awake. His head rolled back over to the other side and he looked around. He was on the floor. It felt like when Milla had given him the virus, but neither Max, nor Milla had touched him this time. The room began to spin and he closed his eyes. The phone stopped ringing.

Milla entered with Bling soon after that. He lived in the building but she didn't have a damned clue what his phone number was.

"Ya wanna go fix him up on the couch? I can't touch him and stuff... I'll explain later," Milla ushered a puzzled Bling towards Logan. A few minutes later, Logan was pass out on the couch. Milla and Bling went into the kitchen.

"What the hell do you mean you can't touch him, Max?" Bling leaned against the fridge and Milla sat on a counter. She felt horrible, like a knife was turning inside her. She wasn't quick enough to dodge's Max's kiss and now Logan was dying... She swore under her breath.

"Max was kidnapped from Manticore because she's perfect... Perfect, perfect, perfect. She's so perfect she's got a damned clone! Anyway, after she was shot and recovered, they subbed me in so that this S1W group could piss around with her... I was given a virus to kill Logan because I was Max, remember? If I touch him, he ends up like that-" she nodded towards the living room "-But in case that didn't work out, I'm also programmed to kill him.. And that could happen at any time. He also had an assassin but she got killed and... Anyway, Max got out and went into heat, so a bunch of us got together at Max's crib and played Truth or Dare, and she kissed me and I gave her the virus, but worse.. If she comes within thirty feet of him, he does that," she nodded at the living room again.

"Ouch," Bling crossed his arms across his chest. "So who are you?"

"I'm Milla," she stood up and went to the fridge. Bling moved away a bit and she opened the fridge and grabbed a can of Coke, opened it, took a few gulps. "Max is out seeing some doctor guy. "

Bling nodded and walked into the living room to check on Logan. Milla followed. Gee, for a person who had someone who wasn't supposed to touch them or come near them do just that, he's doin' pretty good. A few more sores had torn open, but he'd be okay if Max would just - the phone rang, snapping Milla back into the present.

"I'll get it- Yes? Hello? Oh, Max, thank God... You got it? Okay, meet you downstairs and you'll inject me with it... Yeah, I got Bling, he'll poke Logan for us..." Milla was silent for a moment. "Yeah, I was out getting Bling, sorry we didn't pick up earlier. Okay, I'll see you in a few."

Max slammed the phone down into its resting place and lay her head against the phone booth, shaking terribly. Worst effing time to get an effing seizure, Max. A loud ringing noise came from the phone.

"Shi- Hello?"

"Max! I knew you were still there. You sounded shaky as hell. I'm coming to get you. What's the nearest place to stash your bike? I'll get Bling to come down and inject me, I don't want you ripping up my ar-"

"Jesus Christ, calm down," Max yelled. "Sorry. Look, I'll j-just get there, get Bling to come down and we'll all go up together."

"Okay," Milla said. "I've never had someone dying on a couch before and the person holding the antidote across town having a seizure. Usually my C.O. took care of that."

"It's okay, I'll be there in a couple minutes," Max hung up and sped off on her bike. When she got to Foggle Towers, Bling grabbed her and gave her a bottle of Trytophan. She swallowed most of it and the seizure steadied enough for her to talk again.

"I-Is Logan o-okay?" Bling wrapped an arm around gave an affirmative yeah. They went into the foyer, where Milla was cleaning her arm for Max to give the injection.

"Pretty dirty place, that hotel room," she smiled up at Max. "I thought I'd at least make sure I was clean." Max smiled back at her and handed Bling the antidote and cure.

The foyer's layout was simple, but ritzy. Walk in, and there's a small room you must go through, either with a key or just call someone in their apartment and have them buzz you in. When you went into the actual foyer area, there were pop cans to the left, elevators to the right. There were seats for you to sit and wait, a wheelchair ramp, and some stairs to anopther, smaller level, with a couple benches. If you went down the hallway in either direction, there were the ground-level apartments and a laundry room. On the main level, past the Coke machines, there were some more soft, covered benches and a chair, sitting on a wall underneath a few windows. It started to rain, ruining whatever afternoon sunlight they had. Milla sat on the bench nearest the Coke machine, and Max sat in a chair beside her, curled up, still shaking. Bling sat down, put the antivirus into the hyperdermic needle, and stuck Milla. She blinked once, but she was used to it. No biggie. Just a shot. Bling finished and Max sat up.

"The only way for me to get cured is the same way that I got the problem," Max laughed through the seizure. "Pucker up, Milla." In about half a second, she raced over, kissed her sister again, then sat back down. Milla looked dazed.

"This isn't going to be a regular thing, is it?" The two girls laughed.

"How much longer until we can go back upstairs, huh?" Max stood up and brushed off her jeans.

"I'll call your beeper when he's back to good health, the antidote should've taken effect by then," Bling stared down at the small vial that he had not injected Milla with. "How much of this do I give him?" Milla told him and he nodded. "Well, there's about three times that much here." He looked back up at the two women sitting near the window. "I'll beep you," he said quietly, then hurriedly got in an elevator.

Logan fell off the couch. The pain of landing on many open sores tore through him and he came out of consciousness for a moment. Bling came in. Logan tried to move his mouth to speak, but it didn't work. Bling hoisted him back onto the couch and injected him with the antidote. Milla's eyes glazed over. Something, someone had taken complete control over her. Her mind searched. Where was Logan? Oh yes, he was in the penthouse. Getting through Bling and Max would not be a problem, not at all... And besides, Max was dozing. Seizures seemed to be the only thing that made her sleep. She shook once, twice, then stopped.

Milla stood up noisily. Whoever was controlling her was a clumsy git. Then the controlling stopped. Logan's face flashed through her mind, as well as an extreme urge to kill him. Max woke quietly and went afer her.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" She whirled Milla around by the shoulder and looked at her. "Why are you going upstairs?" Milla looked sick, stoned, and dead all at once. Maxes seizure started again, but barely even noticeable. It's that damned implant. Gotta get it out of there. A plan formulated in Max's mind. She punched Milla in the face to knock her out, but it did not faze her. She merely turned around and head for the elevator. Finally, Max pounced on her, barely three feet from the open elevator. Sitting on Milla's ribs, she punched the girl a few times. The urge to kill Logan would become stronger soon and Milla would probably act with the force of a Red, or worse - she was a transgen, after all. Max punched her in the face again. Her body was weak, all of it's forces trying to stop this thing from controlling her.

Milla reached up and flipped Max over. "X5-452, you are in my way," she spat.

That did it. "My name's MAX!" Lightning fast, she got a foot on Milla's belly from under it and kicked across the room, into the wall. She collapsed and Max ran over.

"Max," she tried to speak through the implants ever-rising control. "I'm so, so sorry," Milla began to cry, stood up as if she was a puppet on strings, then walked towards the elevator. She looked ridiculous, trying to stop herself from doing this, not being able to-

Max rushed her, grabbed her neck, snapped it. Milla's dead body slumped into her arms and Max placed her dead clone, sister, and friend on the floor as sobs wracked her already shaking body. Her beeper went off and she pulled herself together, then dragged Milla's body into the laundry room. The sun was going down. Covering Milla with a sheet from a nearby dryer, she walked back toward the elevator, away from her sister's dead body, toward Logan, who would not be hurt by any Frankenstein viruses any more...