Cruel
Twists of Fate
2020
Logan sat beside Max's hospital bed, awkwardly holding her
hand in his own. "C'mon Max, you have to pull though this. How am I
supposed to accomplish anything without *you*?" He paused self consciously
rubbing at his eyes with his free hand. What was that old cliche?
You never know what you have until you lose it.
"Max, you can't let them
win. You can't let Manticore get the best of you. What's Zack going
to think? How will Tinga and Jondy feel if they know Manticore beat
you?" His voice was small with the next comment. "What will *I* do
if Manticore beats you?"
Max's figure stirred slightly. One eyelid
flickered. "Aw, Logan. I didn't know you cared." Max managed
to croak sarcastically in a scratchy voice.
Logan sat straight up,
dropping her hand in the process. "Max? Are you all
right?"
She opened one eye and looked at him incredulously. "Do I
look all right to you?" She paused, rubbing her throat with her
hand. "Could I get a drink of water or something?"
Logan nodded and
quickly wheeled himself to the doorway. "RX? Lori?"
"Coming,
coming. Hold your horses." RX mumbled. A moment later he was
walking down the corridor with his hands stuffed in his pockets. "What do
you want, Richie Rich?"
Logan's brow furrowed. "Max wants a drink
of water." He stated in a humorless tone.
RX stopped
mid-stride. "You...You mean she's awake?
"How else would she ask
for a drink of water?" Logan was beginning to lose patience with the
teen.
RX's eyes doubled in size. "In that case, I'll be back in a
jiffy.
X4*X4*X4*X4*X4*X4*X4*X4*X4*X4*X4*X4*X4*X4*X4*X4*X4*X4*X4*X4*X4*X4
"Lori?"
RX stopped in the doorway of her office to stare awkwardly at the sight of his
foster mother sobbing in her chair. "Lori, are you all right?" He
asked tenderly as he came around the side of her desk to squat in front of
her. "Yo, snap out of it, chica. Our favorite patient is up and
around."
That information drew Loren away from her tears. "Max is
awake?" She inquired between hiccups.
RX nodded. "She asked
for a glass of water. I thought I'd stop by and tell you she was conscious
before I filled her request. You gonna come down and take a look at
her? Because, if you are, you might think about redoing your makeup.
It's pretty obvious that you've been crying."
Lori blushed. "I'll
fix my mascara and be down in a minute." She whispered.
RX stood,
but turned back to her before leaving. "I could kill that Lydecker guy for
making you cry. He better never come around here again!" The scrawny
teenager threatened before marching back down the hallway to the
kitchen.
X4*X4*X4*X4*X4*X4*X4*X4*X4*X4*X4*X4*X4*X4*X4*X4*X4*X4*X4*X4*X4*X4
"Logan,
what happened? Where am I?" Max asked as she examined her
surroundings more closely. Her voice was stronger, but her throat still
needed that water RX had gone off to retrieve.
"You had a seizure,
Max." Logan explained carefully. It would be best not to tell her
that the seizure had been purposelly triggered by Lydecker. Knowing Max,
she would want to hunt the man down right now, and she obviously wasn't well
enough yet. "They took you to Reed Memorial Hospital. Somehow, one
of the doctors recognized your condition and knew what you are. She
brought you here to keep Manticore from finding you. She's been treating
you for that seizure now for several days."
Max's eyes narrowed.
"And it doesn't seem strange that she just *happened* to be there when I needed
her? How in the hell does she know about Manticore and the X-5s?
This seems just a little too coincedental."
Logan flinched. He had
been so caught up in his worries about Max that he had not stopped to give any
of those questions much thought. So much for Eyes Only. "She's not a
total stranger, Max. We knew each other as children..." He
protested.
"So? Children change a lot when they grow up,
Logan. She might not be the same person she was. I know I'm
not. I just don't understand why you were so quick to trust
her."
"I was worried about you." His volume dropped. "I was
willing to except help from whoever would offer it. I just didn't want you
to die, Max."
"Well, if you ask me, you're both being asses." A
young voice filtered from the hallway. "Loren is the most trustworthy
person on the planet. You don't know what you're talking about. She
would no sooner work for Manticore than she would sell her soul to Satan.
She hates that Lydecker guy, even if he is her god..." RX snapped his
mouth shut. He'd just made a huge tactical error.
"Lydecker is her
what?" Max demanded, half rising from the hospital
bed.
"Godfather." RX whispered. "Deck and her father were
Army buddies."
"I wasn't quite ready to tell them that, Raymond."
Loren commented in a steely tone as she joined them. "I hardly think my
deceased father's relationship with that bastard is of concern to any of
you." Her eyes traveled to Max, assessing her with a doctor's eye.
"I'm glad to see you're up, Max. Although, I would have prefered to
introduce myself when I was not defending my honor and integrity." She
held out her right hand congenially. "Dr. Loren Davis."
Max eyed
her warily but took the proffered hand. There were several seconds of
awkward silence before Max broke it. "Why did you help me? How did
you know about the X-5s?"
Loren's crystal blue eyes clouded for a moment
as she pulled a stray chair over to Max's hospital bed. "You'll never know
how lucky you were to have the other X-5s as your 'family' while you were in
Manticore. One of the X-4s used to listen to you at night. He envied
you your relationships...your love. After you escaped, he did his very
best to follow in your footsteps." She paused, pushing back tears.
"I never asked him how he escaped, it isn't really important. The only
important thing, is that he *did* escape."
"An X-4? When?
Where is he?" The guarded look had vanished from Max's eyes. This
man was a child of Manticore. Regardless of his number, he was still her
brother.
There was no hiding the sorrow in Lori's features.
"Shortly after you did. I met him two years later when he attacked me in
an alley." Carefully, she lowered the high neck of her shirt to reveal the
scar. "The police caught him, but I refused to let them press
charges. Instead, I had my mother adopt him. I knew what he
was...and in a round about way I was responsible."
"How?"
"My
father was the Department of Defense liason for the Manticore project. He
raised government funding for their experiments. I knew he was an X-4, and
I didn't care. He became my...best friend."
"Where is he? Can
I meet him?" Max's excitement was more subdued as she noticed the look on
Lori's face.
"I thought he was dead. I thought he died two years
ago. If only. Manticore captured him. He's operational
again."
That knowledge hit Max like a punch to the gut. It
completey winded her. "Those...."
Loren held up a hand to stop
her. "It's all right. He was, after all, only an X-4. He was
barely human."
"I'm glad you decided to listen to reason, Lori."
Lydecker interrupted as he entered the room with gun at the ready. "You've
done a remarkable job here."
"What took you so long, Deck?" Loren
demanded as she rose from her chair. "I called you half an hour ago and
told you I could deliver the X-5. You were supposed to be here
immediately!"
"I was making arrangments."
Lori rolled her eyes
angrily.
Logan sat stiffly in his chair, the betrayal of this situation
etched onto every feature of his face. He had trusted Loren, and she had
misplaced that trust. It had all been to this end. Loren had turned
them in.
Max was already trying to retaliate. However, she found
her body would not cooperate with her commands.
Lori smiled
wickedly. "Sorry, I put a special drug of my own concoction in that IV
drip. You won't be able to control your muscles well enough to fight for
several hours. By then...you'll already be at Manticore and it will be too
late."
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