"Float Like A Butterfly"
Chapter 3: Perfect Version of Myself
by: Mochaije

Disclaimer: I do not own Dark Angel or its characters. Other than that, the story and characters are mine.
Summary: Zack and Max go undercover as telepaths on an Eyes Only mission. Bold type is... Well, you'll find out so on enough! Some swearing. Chapter title from Matthew Good Band - Indestructible.
Rating: PG 13

Max woke with a start. She was sleeping under a piece of camoflage tarp, on another piece of camoflage tarp, with a blanket over her. Well, over her and someone else. Zack had his arm around her. It's just for warmth. He's your brother. You're in love with Logan, remember? Sure, he's being an ass and you can't trust him anymore... But you're still in love with him. Oh well, he doesn't have to know that you spooned with a guy whose got a crush on you. After all, you didn't need to know that he and Asha were smooching, apparently. She looked behind her, at Zack. He was sleeping peacefully, even as the Vancouver rain pounded down at the tarp. She thought about waking him but decided that he'd be more on his toes later if he woke up on his own.

She was about to rest her head when a vehicle came roaring into earshot. She snapped up and turned her head to where the noise had been coming from. If Max closed her eyes and concentrated, she could hear voices about two miles away. It was ever so faint, but definitely a man and a woman. The man called her Asha, and she called him Logan at least once or twice. Hot damn, they've come to fuck up the plan again, she thought. Max woke an already-stirring Zack, spoke to him with hand signals, and they packed up their simple camp and moved the bike to a usable trail, then sped off.

Meanwhile, on the highway, Asha and Logan stood on the side of the road in the rain. They had gotten out because the Aztek had apparently ran over a medium-sized dog, and were now locked out in the west coast's steady downpour. Asha held her coat over her head and paced, frustrated. Logan stared at the dog and shook his head as the Aztek slowly rolled towards the ditch.

"I don't have a problem with Max, but she seems to leave a big 'ole trail of trouble behind her.. Like a plane and air interference and what have you," Asha mumbled through chattering teeth. "Doesn't this thing turn into a tent?"

"Yeah, when the doors aren't locked," he said bitterly. What the hell am I doing with Asha? I meet the perfect girl and completely and totally fuck up any chance I've got with her.. Now she's off with Zack, and he's probably comforting her--Logan, where are you? Someone's thoughts interrupted his own. I know that you're following us. Please go home. It was Max. Asha didn't seem hear, so he didn't say anything. The Aztek rolled over a rock and continued towards the ditch.

"No! No! That's my car!" The trunk suddenly popped and a redhead jumped out, as the car hit the ditch. The trunk slammed closed and Ima let out a frustrated shriek.

"For christ's sake. Wouldn't it be easier for me to just go with Max and Zack? Apparently not! I don't know how they'll pass for anything there, they don't have telepathic powers," Ima yelled over the now heavier rainstorm. She grabbed her shoe from a puddle and put it back on. Logan didn't say anything, but gave her a look that suggested that her previous statement was incorrect. Max's next message reached all three of the soaked, stranded Seattle folks.

We're on a rural highway. Don't come after us, I don't care what your plan is, this is really serious--another Pulse. We can't screw this up and we didn't have a four-person pep talk. Ima, are you there? Are Asha and Logan with you? Max sounded urgent and a bit too strong. Asha looked dazed.

"What the hell was that?" She asked, holding her head.

"I used the wrong..." Ima flung her hands a lot when she spoke, and her superiority was gone. "I used the wrong thing to get rid of Max's powers. She's about five times as strong as she was in every element--physical, sensations--stuff like that. And she can talk with her mind, and um... Move things, too. Anyway, hold on a second." Ima was quiet for a few moments. Max, I'm with Asha and Logan. The Aztek is in a ditch, we locked the doors and--Well, anyway, we're okay, and we're going to come after you but keep our distance, Ima replied soothingly. Max's answer came a moment later.

Fine. Do you have your pin back?

Yes, obviously...

There's guards about a mile away. Just stay close enough to come in and help if needed. We'll talk to you guys later. Max didn't say anything after that and Ima looked back at the drenched duo. The rain smothered itself into a brief sunshower, then stopped completely.

"How can we hear what Max says, if we aren't telepathic?" Logan asked after a while.

"Because she wanted you to, I suppose," Ima watched the sky above the trees and farms and Asha began breaking into the car.

-----

Max and Zack arrived at an unguarded door to the mountain hideout, Max in her usual leather get-up, Zack in normal clothing. "So, where's this reactor?"

"It's probably underground," she said, opening the door with her mind. Zack didn't notice. "Err wait, it's techincally all undergorund." He didn't say anything and the pair slipped inside a sewer-like atmosphere. Rats squeaked and Max cringed at the noise, having used her sensitive hearing to check for guards. They communicated with their hands and maneuvered themselves to a fork in the 'road'.

"Where are we going now?" Zack huffed.

"Shh... Shit, there's guards about a mile away, and they're coming towards us... Hey, there's a 'This way to Nuclear Reactor' sign on that tunnel there," she said, pointing down a hallway to a yellow blob that Zack couldn't see, even with his ehanced vision. They ran towards it, then headed left, just as it said. There was a heavy door with a biohazard signal on it at the end of the sewer. Max peeked inside the small window for camera dn the like and, finding none, she forced the door open with her mind. Zack gave her a look, then decided what he had seen was one of Max's illusions or something. The realization sunk in then.

"Why are we diarming these things by hand if you can open doors with your mind?" He asked. Max snapped around, looking uncomfortable.

"I can't remember what the inside of a nuke looks like," she said quietly. "I just... I didn't want to do it wrong and blow us all to smithereens." She was thoughtful for a moment, then looked back at Zack. "Those guards are closing in, but I can slam them into a wall or something. They haven't called for back up, yet," she gestured inside the room. "After you, Zack."

-----

"You guys could have just asked me to move the damned thing," Ima said with malice from the backseat.

"Maybe you should've thought of that before it started raining again," Logan told her, turning on the windshield wipers. Ima had eventually moved the car and unlocked it à la telekinesis, but not until Logan and Asha had both tried to heave it out of the ditch. He slammed to a stop, throwing the girls forward much to their protest, and then back into their seats. Logan eased the car into the forest, just out of view of the mountain and stopped. If they had to move quickly, they'd be able to.

"So... Are you two sleeping together?" Ima broke the slience and felt their cheeks burn at the question.

"Did Max ask you to say that?" Logan said calmly, but Ima could feel Asha's own jealousy float into his words, as if they spoke as one.

"I haven't talked to her since before we got the car out of the ditch, and only about us keeping our distance," there was a smirk in her tone.

"Yes, we are," Asha said suddenly. I don't know why it's any of her business... It's probably just to tell Max. May as well speak the truth though, right?

"So, how long have you known each other?" Ima questioned, as if it was regular banter to poke around in the sex lives of practical strangers.

"Asha's been doing Eyes Only work for two years," Logan answered with the same casualty.

"Yeah, but we've only been dating since January--"

"January?" Ima broke in. "Didn't you and Max start accepting your feelings for each other in May or so?" Asha looked at Logan, shocked. He looked back at her.

"We weren't going out at the time, remember?" Logan told her. "And how do you know all this, Ima?"

"People tell you a lot when they're stoned on moraphine from having a heart transplant. How come you didn't explain any of this to Max?"

"It wasn't important." Asha just observed their conversation. Ima and Logan clashed in every way but personality. Holier than thou, with two parts compassion and one part arrogance, especially with each other...

-----

"We've got company," Max whispered, snipping the final wire. She tucked the nuke closed and replace her wire cutters. The lack of security in the place irked her to the bone. Where they so arrogant to think that no one would find out that they were sitting on nukes? She heard Zack load a clip into his gun, and stopped him with a hand on his arm. "I could throw them into a wall and snap their necks without lifting a finger," she continued in her hushed tone. "No need for firepower." Zack replaced the gun with a sigh. They slipped back out of the nuke holding room and a taser slammed into Max's side. She let out a scream and collapsed into seizures beside Zack.

-----

Ima's head wracked with severe pain and she grabbed onto the back of Logan's chair, suprising him. She felt like she's just been attacked with tasers, but neither Asha nor Logan had one.

"Are you okay?" Asha asked. Ima held her head in her hands like a fragile piece of glass and nodded. Asha bit her lip and faced front.

"I wonder if Max is okay," Logan said, hiding his worry well.

"She's a telepath... I'm sure she's doing just peachy." After that they waited for almost twenty-four hours, snacking on some food Asha had packed in the trunk of the car, taking naps and listening to the radio. They would get up every hour or two and stretch, but they didn't talk much--and when they did, it was about how nice the weather was being. At the twenty-five hour mark, Logan finnaly spoke up.

"They've been in there too long," Ima said what was on everyone's mind. She knew that she and Asha were more worried because they should've been than because they cared, and Ima would admit to it in a heartbeat. She didn't know where Logan stood on the situation, however. He obviously cared about and trusted Max, but she seemed more like his muse and friend than a significant other. She was almost positive that he loved Max, and that she loved him, but there was nothing really there. The only thing that seemed to be burning either of them about the whole thing was not getting to talk any more, because he had betrayed her. Ima didn't want to read Logan's thoughts at the moment and fell asleep. An hour later or so, she felt the car move again and knew that they were headed back to Seattle.

-----

Max woke a while later, lying in the sewer. The right side of her abdomen burned. She still had a slight seizure and sat up, fished out her packet of Trytophan. She's started carrying around ten or twenty pills in case. She swallowed a few and rested her head against the wall of the hallway. Zack lay shaking a few feet from her, and she nudged him.

"Am... Am I h-having a seizure?" Max nodded to him and gave him some Trytophan.

"I think we got pegged with tasers, "Max observed, holding her side. "So why are still down here?" Why didn't they take us away and kill us or something? This is really screwed up...

Are you guys alive in there? Ima asked. Max's face lit up and Zack gave her a wierd look.

We're aiight. We're just going to wait for the side effects of getting stuck with tasers to wear off and then we're going to head back to Seattle. We'll see you guys tomorrow. "Zack, can you walk?"

"Yeah," he pulled himself up. "Are we gonna go?" Max nodded and they got up, walking through hallway after hallway after hallway in silence. Max easily opened the outer door with her mind. It swung wide and revealed the small, rocky hill and forest beyond. They ran at their top speeds--Max, of course, ran much faster than Zack. They reached Max's bike in about ten minutes and set off.

At about ten o'clock, they stopped at a gas station to refill Max's bike. The gas station was actually a huge, pre-Pulse McDoanld's, and Zack ran in to get some Big Macs. Max stood warily by the pumps. She felt tired, worn out. She remembered feeling like this before, with the Red Implant. You can only rev up a body so much, she remembered. And she had been revved up already before Ima had fucked up and given her even more power. Max sank against her bike and pulled the gas pumper out of it, and put it back on it's holster. She took her receipt and slid her $100 bill into the bill acceptor. Fuck, gas is expensive when you get it the legal way.. She parked the bike by the air pumps and sat on the curb. Zack joined her and they ate a late-night meal. She didn't tell him how horrible she felt, how uneasy she was about driving the bike the rest of the way home.

"So, where am I going to live now?" He asked, trying to engage in easy banter. Max looked like a sick puppy trying to hide it's illness. "Are you okay?"

"I'm peachy keen," she answered. "I'm just really tired."

"You don't get tired," he bit off a chunk from his burger.

"Maybe that's a side effect of being really revved-up," Max suggested. "I slept yesterday, remember?"

Zack nodded because he was chewing and didn't want to talk with his mouth open. He swallowed and spoke. "I'm leaving Seattle then, I guess."

"Oh, you would anyway," she told him bitterly, chucking her burger wrapper at the trash can.

"Fine then, I'll stay." Max gave him a look. "And I won't ask you to come with me when I leave."

She looked away. "Maybe we should just skip going back to Seattle. Normal wouldn't give me back my job, I can't pay for the apartment, I'm not doing stuff for Eyes Only any more--" She realized what she had just said and drew a nervous breath.

"Don't worry about it, it's not like I didn't know who Eyes Only was," he said, throwing out his soda. "We'd better go find a place to sleep." They boarded Max's motorcycle and sped off into the night.

-----

"I'm sure they're okay. They were okay last time, remember?" Ima consoled Logan. They had dropped Asha off on the way home. and were sitting on the couch in Logan's living room.

"I'm sure they're fine, I'm just worried about Max," he said, shrugging off Ima's sympathy. "Last time she got really revved up, she almost died."

She rubbed his back a bit. "Well, dying is no big deal for her, obviously. You care about her, don't you?" He moved away from her.

"It's that obvious, huh? Guest bedroom's second on the left." He got up and went to bed. Ima thought about what Logan had said and made contact with Max.

-----

Maz and Zack finished setting up their small camp and crawled in. It was cold, and Max would've fallen asleep almost immediately in Zack's arms again but Ima was bothering her.

So you've added a little extra to the cocktail recently? Ima asked urgently. Hearing from her in the first place worried Max a little, but the emotion in her thoughts worried her even more.

What do you mean?

I mean, have you revved yourself up lately besides what I did... Ima was being a tad impatient.

I stuck a Red implant in my neck to save my roommate once, Max told her. Logan and her ended up having to rescue me... I passed out. Just about died, Max thought tiredly. The other woman picked up on that.

Are you feeling okay? You don't sound like it, she pointed out.

I'm fine, why does everyone keep asking that? Max asked

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CHAPTER FOUR PREVIEW: TRULY MADLY DEEPLY

Max woke again in Zack's arms and was a bit less freaked out, because this time she was the one who had offered to cuddle. She noticed that she felt sick to her stomach and that her body felt like like lead. Quietly, she rolled out of Zack's arms, out of the small tarp-tent. and threw up several times. He woke up, a bit startled that Max was throwing up, and asked if she was okay. She held up a hand to show that she was fine, then reached for a water bottle and washed her mouth out.

"We'd better get going," she told him, slightly delirious. He disagreed.

"No way. You can't drive if you're puking."

"You can't drive either... Not the bike, anyway..."

"Yes, I can," he told her, a little forcefully. "Do you have any idea why you're sick? You weren't looking too well last night before we had McDonald's--" Max interrupted him with a hand on his arm.

"I'm fine," she looked right into his eyes and shook him once or twice. She tried to stand up and found that she couldn't. "Zack..." Max passed out.

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AUTHOR NOTE

Quick update: Not telling if it's M/L or M/Z yet! I know it looks pretty M/Z right now, but... Asha's currently with Logan if you were confused about that. There'll be another chapter up by the weekend.