Max and Logan stared directly at one another, tears coating over their burning eyes and their emotions unfolding. He nearly had fallen right out of his wheelchair at the sight of her, and he would've pulled himself along the floor by the tips of his fingers if it would have put him any closer to Max. Any closer to stroking his chocolate curls, to staring into her big, brown beautiful eyes, to kiss her sweet rosy lips. He would have done anything.

But, instead, he remained seated in his wheelchair that wasn't really even his, fingering the brakes as if they somehow would propel him across the room to her.

Or maybe he was dreaming and had finally gone insane after all the mental pressure Lydecker had put upon him. No, Logan firmly told himself, this is Max. This is what you spend every minute-awake or sleeping-dreaming about. This is the girl you write poetry for. This is the person that doesn't give a damn about the wheelchair and loves you nonetheless.

He would have done anything just to kiss her right then and there.

Max's heart had dropped right out of her cavity and had fallen somewhere inside of her stomach. He was alive! Logan was alive! This was what she had hoped to find. But, now that he was alive, how could she free both he and herself?

She fingered the cold metal that wrapped around her wrists like cheap jewelry. Unlike some of her fellow X5s, she was unable to snap the chain that held the two bracelets. Zack certainly could, Ben and Zane perhaps, and Tinga was a possibility. But her? If she tried it, then would Lydecker kill Logan right in front of her so that his blood would forever stain her soul?

But, all she wanted to do was kiss him, and tell him how sorry she was for everything.

Lydecker had been carefully watching the unsaid feelings pass between Logan and Max. For a moment, he thought of abandoning the entire plan he had set up to begin with because it was so sweet to watch them together.

He shook his head silently to himself. No. You give up on this plan, you'll give up on all of Manticore's future. Just do it. You know what has to be done.

"Max," he said quietly to her. "You may go to Logan."
Although she was in handcuffs, Logan was not. She knelt down on the floor and crawled towards him, praying that Lydecker wasn't about to stab a gun into her back.

Logan's fingers finally came unglued from the arm of his wheelchair, and they reached for Max like a drowning man reaches for the surface. He wrapped her cold body up in his arms, and he held her for what seemed like an eternity. Tears fell from both of their eyes, splattering the clothing that they wore, and also making it rather difficult to see each other through blurry eyes.

Just as they leaned their heads up to kiss, Lydecker spoke, bringing down the ax upon their heads.

"Now that you know each other are alive, I'm assuming that you'll both be willing to cooperate in any future plans that I may have. Otherwise, if you do not cooperate, the other person will die."