Title: E r a s e a n d R e w i n d
Author: Mysticalmyst
Email: ochbas@msn.com
Spoilers: Medium is the Message and Borrowed Time (partial spoilers)
Disclaimer: I own nothing! Don't Sue! The song I used in this chapter was 'My All' By Mariah Carey and it's all hers!
Rating: PG13 (Just to be safe)
Summary: This is the sequel to 'You Complete Me'. You don't have to read it (but I'm not stopping you ;). I noticed there was hardly any M/L fics about, so I wrote this! This story is for the shippers out there! Anyway both Logan and Max are trying to find cures for the virus and are becoming emotionally closer to each other. But will a transgenic with a mysterious power and hidden abilities post pone their romance? Enjoy!
A/N: Thank You to all who have reviewed so far, keep 'em coming! This chapter's kinda short but it'll give you some background on the mysterious "Shadow" from the last chapter…
Chapter 3: Wisps of a Dream
Max raced along the streets of Seattle, loving the feel of the wind in her hair as she rode her motorcycle with a reckless edge. All the while a single word running through her head, 'Logan.' Just being in his apartment made her feel lightheaded but to have him staring at her like that, with the candle flames reflected in his cerulean blue eyes…shivers ran up and down her spine. Which is why she had made a hasty retreat, right when the air had become a little too charged. 'Not like anything could have happened…'
Max shook that thought out of her head quickly and concentrated on the road. She was on her way to Joshua's to make sure he was all right; she knew that he got pretty lonely all by himself in the house with nothing to do but read books and paint. 'I wonder if Logan ever feels lonely, all alone in the penthouse, with Bling gone…STOP! Enough of Logan, we're thinking about Joshua, Joshua, Joshua, Log-no-Joshua, Joshua…' It was her mantra, if she just kept thinking about Joshua she wouldn't be thinking about Logan all alone in his penthouse, drinking wine, blue eyes clear as a summers' day looking out of the window, sadness reflected back at him in the panes of the glass---
Thankfully Max had just arrived at Joshua's, she ran in to his house like a bat out of hell in an effort to escape her thoughts. It didn't work.
"Joshua?" She asked the darkness, breathless.
"In here Max!"
She walked in to the main living room and found Joshua painting to an old pre-pulse song she hadn't heard before. The music was slow and deep, the singer's harmonious voice penetrated through Max and the words seeped slowly in to her body, she was powerless to stop them from reaching her heart.
~~~
I am thinking of you
In my sleepless solitude tonight
If it's wrong to love you
Then my heart just won't let me be right
'Cause I've drowned in you
And I won't pull through
Without you by my side
I'd give my all to have
Just one more night with you
I'd risk my life to feel
Your body next to mine
'cause I can't go on
Living in the memory of our song
I'd give my all for your love tonight
~~~
Max felt as if someone had carved her open like a turkey on thanksgiving and pulled out all the feelings that she had ever kept hidden. The words struck her hard and deep, she was rendered senseless as the song claimed her mind.
Joshua's paintbrush moved slowly on the canvas to the mood and rhythm of the music, his strokes were not broad and bold but thin and light, gentle; like a smooth caress to the skin. Max sank slowly into a moth eaten chair with a mumbled "Hey Joshua" and continued to listen.
~~~
Baby can you feel me
Imagining I'm looking in your eyes
I can see you clearly
Vividly emblazoned in my mind
And yet you're so far
Like a distant star
I'm wishing on tonight
I'd give my all to have
Just one more night with you
I'd risk my life to feel
Your body next to mine
'cause I can't go on
Living in the memory of our song
-^-^-^-^-^-
Max felt as if she were floating, soaring on an updraft of words that carried her far, far away to a place where there was no virus, to a dream.
She closed her eyes and the dream came to her as clear as day.
Sibelius' "Valse Triste played softly in the background, echoing in the small elegant ballroom, hovering in the air around her and filling it with music so sweet and soulful that her heart fluttered and her head swam. The edges of Max's vision were blurred, she felt as if she were nowhere and everywhere at once. The room glowed golden from tiny spherical lights hanging from the high ceiling, giving it an even more hazy effect.
A gorgeous white gown adorned her slim figure, fitting every curve. Her hair was done up with loose curls that coiled perfectly, a single stubborn curl laid on her left cheek and she tucked it behind her ear, only to have it fall out of place again when she moved.
Max glanced around at the dance floor and her gaze landed on a handsome man with shockingly blue eyes that gleamed in the light, wearing an equally handsome black tux. Logan was sitting in a wheelchair with his hands firmly holding the sides. It was as if he were nervous.
Max spoke to him with a softness she never knew she possessed, "Dance with me."
"I can't." He replied with an underlying tone of regret and longing.
"Sure, you can. Mind over matter."
"See, my problem is I can't walk."
"I'm not asking you to walk. Just dance." She pleaded with him. In response he got up and pushed the wheelchair away, it soon faded out of sight.
"Whose dream is this, anyway? Yours or mine?" He asked not expecting an answer, holding her tightly to him as they slowly moved on the dance floor.
"Don't ask me." Max answered in a breathy whisper, losing herself in his warm embrace.
-^-^-^-^-^-
Pulling away from the memory of the dream, Valse Triste slowly slipping away, a new song filled her head. It reminded her of the sorrow and despair of the present and she choked back her tears, listening to the words that displayed the deep and everlasting pain that was her life.
~~~
I'd give my all to have
Just one more night with you
I'd risk my life to feel
Your body next to mine
'cause I can't go on
Living in the memory of our song
I'd give my all for your love tonight
Give my all for your love
Tonight
~~~
Max would do anything to have just one more night with Logan, to be able to touch his sweet skin, to taste his creamy lips, to run her fingers through his soft hair, to rake her fingers down his graceful back…but that may never happen if she didn't do anything about it.
Max glanced over at Joshua's finished painting, trying to focus on anything other than how much she wanted Logan and how hopeless they were.
The canvas was painted a deep sapphire blue mixed with white and black; the brush strokes were visible and you could see that Joshua had painted in a spiral-like pattern that extended outwards from the center. But what caught her eye the most was the small golden circle that he had painted solidly within the center.
As Max watched, Joshua slowly stood back from the painting and examined it with a skeptical eye, he raised his paintbrush and dabbed at an imaginary spot, stepping backwards once again. He smiled widely, revealing large canine teeth and turned to her, "It's finished."
Max got up from her seat and joined Joshua in front of the painting, "It's beautiful."
"Joshua #62, Max and Logan," He announced proudly. Seeing Max's puzzled look he explained gesturing to the painting as he did so, "Dark colors---sadness, confusion. Bright Colors--- hope, love. Max and Logan gettin' busy." He smiled at her, "Have hopes up."
Max smiled back and inspiration struck her. 'Bingo'
~~~
Gillette, Wyoming----An Hour Southwest of Seattle
Shadow walked back to his perch on a tree outside the perimeter of the base, the only home he'd ever had; Manticore. His assignment was to protect the base in secret or at least it had been. Since the X5 rogues had escaped in '09 the committee had blamed him and they were afraid he would allow more of them to escape. X7's with hive minds had been made with a sole purpose to only protect the base and follow orders. But before that it had been Shadow who was used to watch all of the X series without them knowing, to make sure none of them would turn. It was a time when he was not known as Shadow, but as X.
Manticore had never made any like him; he was originally a mistake, created by accident. He was supposed to be their only invisible soldier. They hadn't counted on his ability to release daggers from his body on a whim or the fact that he could become visible in a human form, more powerful than they're 'superior' soldiers. To say the least, they were very surprised when they found one of their doctors pinned to a wall and a naked man with jet-black hair standing in the center of the room, a confused look on his face.
As soon as possible he was subjected to various training to help perfect his…abilities. He had been the best soldier Manticore could ever have asked for and they had constantly tried to 'clone' him but they had never been successful. Something about his genetic makeup was different and they never could figure out what, they tried many times and came very close but they never succeeded in making a perfect copy of him.
After he had completed his rigorous training he was issued an assignment to protect the base and closely watch the X series, he was forbidden to show his human form. For years he had watched the many soldiers Manticore created and perfected. But he especially liked to watch the X5's. They seemed different from all the other mindless drones Manticore created before him. X liked to watch them after lights out because they always gathered in the center of room and exchanged stories of the world outside. They spoke of what was beyond Manticore, of regular people who lived carefree lives, where no one ever got punished, no one ever got yelled at and when you woke up in the morning you could stay in bed as long as you wanted.
When they tried to escape, X hadn't been surprised. But he felt a closeness with them that he hadn't felt for anyone else on the base. Which is why he had let them escape and see the world they had always dreamed of.
X had been punished severely and had been brought to the basement with all the other anomalies, treated as the mistake he was. Not the prize soldier he could be. It was there in the basement that he had made up the name Shadow. It suited him well because he attacked in the black of night and pursued an unsuspecting victim with precision, sneaking up on them like their own shadows.
So here he was sitting on the gnarled branches of an old tree, months after Manticore had been burned to the ground. He had made up a new assignment for himself, to hunt and kill any who dared to set foot on the land Manticore had been built on.