Title: E r a s e a n d R e w i n d
Author: Mysticalmyst
Email: daenyte@yahoo.com
Spoilers: Medium is the Message and Borrowed Time (partial spoilers)
Disclaimer: I own nothing! Don't Sue!
Rating: PG13 (Just to be safe)
A/N: The poem Logan writes in this chapter are 2 songs by Stabbing Westward combined. So Far Away and Torn Apart. Enjoy!
Chapter 2: So Far Away
Logan sat in his desk chair, memo pad laid in front of him with names of various doctors crossed out on it. He ran a hand through his spiky hair and sighed. He'd spent the whole morning and most of the afternoon searching for a cure.
A cure to break the invisible barrier between Max and himself, though last night had been incredible; they had talked and laughed almost like before. Almost. Max had originally come to his apartment to tell him that Joshua had accidentally splattered paint over the papers they had gotten from the lab tech, ruining them. She had been crying over the loss. The one thing Logan had wished for the most when the tears had spilt from her eyes was to be able to brush them away with the pad of his thumb and hold her close to him.
He sighed deeply.
Instead he had made a promise to put his energy in to finding a cure.
Cure.
A single four-letter word.
It drove him crazy every time it was uttered. It meant more things than a single word could contain.
The frustration of the day had started to eat at him, making it hard to concentrate on anything. Logan was starting to think that his brain would shut down and he would explode. So he took out a thick black book, filled with aged papers full of poetry and began to write.
He had found out at an early age that he had a way with words and when he wrote he could pour out all that he was feeling. Logan felt great when he wrote and even now, years later, he still wrote to clear his head.
So Far Away
Each night I feel the distance that has grown between usOpen up as lonely as the space between the stars
I wish that I could find
a way
To smash my fist right through these walls
Of ugliness and emptiness
And gently touch your face.
I wonder if you
recognize,
That silence now defines us.
That I may never find the strength to change how hopeless, we've become.
Our love has been denied too long,
Soon the night will take me
And save me from my pain
Cloak me in cold darkness
And help me lose your name...
Max.
"Logan?"
His eyes widened and he shifted his gaze from the poem he had just written to the raven-haired girl behind him.
"Max-Hey didn't expect you to come by today."
"Thought I'd drop by and see how the fight against the corrupt was going"
Max glanced down at the black book in Logan's lap. "Poetry?"
"Uh…yeah" A red tinge colored his cheeks.
"Bout me?" She teased.
At this Logan's cheeks turned a deep crimson.
'I'm guessing that's a 'Hell Yes'
Max smiled to herself. She withstood the urge to tease him further and changed the subject.
"So…got anything to eat?"
"Yeah, there should be something in the fridge." Logan replied, quickly putting away the book of poetry as he spoke.
He watched her walk to the fridge and couldn't help but notice the way her hips swayed as she walked.
"Well there is something going on…around the Manticore site" Logan began tentatively, unwilling to be the one to get her hurt again.
F l a s h b a c k
Images of X5's being trained,
X5's running on treadmills; tubes attached to their bodies,
Glass shattering and X5's jumping out of a window
Young Max running through snowy woods, hiding from soldiers riding on snowmobiles,
Close up of young Max beneath surface of a solid sheet of ice
E n d F l a s h b a c k
"Manticore? Is it a transgenic?"
"'Fraid so"
Max rolled her eyes and loudly bit in to an apple.
"4 men are dead and 3 are in critical condition. They were repeatedly stabbed in the back and left to die from loss of blood."
Max's face grew serious, "How do you know what killed those people? It could have been anyone."
"That's the thing, the men never saw who attacked them."
Max raised an eyebrow, "What are you saying? That there's an invisible transgenic running around somewhere outside Manticore?" She asked disbelievingly.
Logan nodded his head. "Manticore probably designed it to spy on the enemy. What better than an invisible soldier?"
Max sat heavily down on a nearby chair. "What were these guys doing snooping around Manticore anyway?"
"They were reporters, trying to get the story on the V.A. hospital."
"So what do you expect me to do? I can't find something I can't see." Max challenged.
"I didn't ask you to do anything about it I was just…letting you know what some of the transgenics out there in the world are doing to people." 'Oooh, that ones gonna piss her off Cale. The transgenics have always been a weak spot for her.'
Max's jaw tightened and her once-warm mocha eyes were dark in annoyance. 'Yup I was right, brace yourself.' "And of course because I was the one who released- sorry- forced the transgenics into the world I am now completely, utterly in charge of every single one that causes trouble, right?" She questioned, daring him to speak.
"Well aren't you gonna say anything?" Her eyes were now completely fixed on his, staring straight in to him.
'Words are very dangerous right now.' Logan thought to himself and began choosing his words carefully, "If that transgenic kills any more people, it'll be all over the papers and the press will soon realize that the place where the killings are happening is at the V.A. hospital. The same V.A hospital that is rumored to be a front for Manticore. Once people start realizing that…" He let the sentence trail off.
"Wait! Wait! Let me guess…its exposure for all of us."
Logan silently nodded his head. "Listen, we don't have to do anything about it right away…do you want to have dinner? I was just about to make something."
Max's stomach chose that exact moment to rumble loudly. The annoyed look on her face melted away and she laughed shortly. "You know me too well, Cale. I may just have to kill you."
"Just let me make dinner first, then you can decide whether or not you want to kill me."
----An Hour Later----
"You know, I'm still pissed at you, Logan." Max said in between bites of the Alfredo sauce covered pasta; so creamy and thick it coated her tongue with its unique flavor. The chicken he had made to go along with it was superb and he still amazed her with his skill in the kitchen.
Logan looked up from his dinner with an innocent look on his face. "Who me?" He said before taking a sip of wine, his cobalt blue eyes never leaving hers.
"Except I can't really remember why." She said smiling softly, returning his gaze.
They sat staring at each other, dinner all but forgotten.
"I-uh should probably go…I'll come by tomorrow night and we can deal with the whole transgenic thing."
"Okay see you then." Logan smiled.
Max smiled back and left, closing the apartment door quietly behind her.
* * *
Gillette, Wyoming----An Hour Southwest of Seattle
Xavier leapt over the fallen charred branches in the desolate forest, leaves whipped at him scratching at his face but still he kept running. The thing was gaining on him, he could sense it, feel it's dark presence behind him everywhere. A metallic clang echoed in the air and Xavier ran faster. He knew what that meant; the thing was hurling metal daggers at him again. They pierced the air around him and he could hear the air split as they whooshed by.
Xavier ducked and a dagger slammed into a tree above him, exactly where his head had just been. He watched in amazement as the dagger pulled free of the bark and returned to it's owner. Xavier immediately got up from the ground, his jeans were covered in mud and leaves were plastered to them but he was beyond caring. He pushed his legs harder, willing every muscle of his being to help him escape.
His camera bounced on his chest as he sprinted through the forest, the trees getting denser and denser making the going harder and harder. 'I'm not going to make it. Xavier thought to himself, there is no way I'm going to come out of this alive, especially since I can't see the goddamn thing!'
He had been walking through the ruins of the V.A hospital, where hundreds of people were killed in a deadly fire. Supposedly. Eyes Only had announced in one of his broadcasts that the V.A hospital was only a front for Manticore, a place where children had been genetically engineered and subjected to training. Training to become the perfect soldier.
So naturally Xavier's boss Victor had asked him to go check it out, said it was front-page material. Xavier was basically a nobody at New World Weekly and this was his chance to prove himself to the pompous reporters that worked there.
So here he was picking his way through crumbling walls and singed medical equipment, taking pictures. The place had a dark aura to it; like evil things had happened here, a deep foreboding welled inside Xavier's stomach.
He had just been about to leave and face the assholes at work, who had predicted him coming back empty handed when suddenly a sound erupted in the quiet gloom. Startled Xavier looked around, green eyes darting to find the source of the sound. He had heard a metallic clang that resonated in the still air.
Out of nowhere a blade whizzed right past his ear; he didn't see where it landed, he was too busy getting his ass out of there. Xavier ran like hell, he didn't know who or what he was running from but he definitely didn't want to hang around and find out. As he ran he looked behind him and saw a charcoal ebony shadow behind him, seemingly gliding over the glistening dewy ground.
Now he soared over fallen trees and dodged blades that glistened in the light of the just-risen moon. Xavier was exhausted, he had been running for hours on end and the ebony shadow didn't seem to be tiring at all. One minute Xavier was running the next he was tumbling on the forest floor, tripped by an outcropping of rock covered in moss. He waited a moment before getting up and turned to run. The last sound Xavier heard was the whirring of a razor blade on it's way to the back of his head.
The shadow moved towards the human, willing his trusty blades to return to him. 'Mission Completed.' It turned around and glided away, as the man's blood seeped out of the gash in his head, still warm.
~~~
A/N---So do you like it so far? Should I continue?