The Second Key
By Be Boring
Chapter 3: Keep Your Friends Close And Your Enemies Closer
Logan was sitting in the room Joshua had agreed to share with him as long as he was here. In spite of the fact that it was a hot day for Seattle, he couldn't stop shaking. He wobbled on his feet whenever he walked and it took all his effort just to cross the room. He knew the atmosphere in Terminal City was starting to take its toll on him, but he had hoped it wouldn't start in so fast because of Joshua's blood in him. At least he hadn't lost the ability to walk on his own, but because of his new weakness he still used the exoskeleton. He just hoped that as soon as he recovered once he was out of here that his legs would regain their strength.
Logan had sensed all day that something was wrong with Max, but she refused to talk to him. He couldn't understand why she'd be upset, he'd already heard the news that Jondy was here. He had figured she would be delighted about that, yet she was acting anything but delighted. There was something she was keeping from him, but why wouldn't she tell him? His first guess was that she was too concerned about his health to worry him with it, but then that annoying little voice in the back of his head spoke up. It was the voice he associated with his family, even when they weren't there it would pipe up and say something negative about whatever he was planning on doing, and it was usually something his family would have said if they knew. What it kept telling him now was that Max didn't want his help, that she was getting comfort from somewhere else. Of course, she had told him that she was seeing Alec, but he hadn't seen Alec around today. Still, that little voice kept telling him that Max had moved on and didn't need him any more. That hurt him more than anything, but as long as he didn't know for sure, he was going to give Max the benefit of the doubt.
When he heard a knock at the door, he prayed for it to be Max. He went as fast as his failing health would allow, then nearly collapsed when he opened the door. What was Zack doing here? Zack allowed himself a smile when he saw the look on Logan's face.
"Do you think I'm here to kill you, Wonder Boy?"
Logan forced himself to take a deep breath and calm down, Zack seemed to hate him no more than usual. "That was my first assumption, seeing as how that's what you were set on doing last time."
"I have better things to do with my time than bother with you."
"Then what are you doing here?"
"Max wants me to get you and the other two out of Terminal City before you get too sick, but if you want to stay, I won't hold you back."
"I'm sure that's true. Are you doing this alone? I doubt it, no matter how good you are this is one thing you couldn't pull off on your own."
Zack's jaw clenched visibly, but other than that he didn't show any other signs of being affected. "Brin is here with me."
Logan was immediately curious, but he knew he wasn't going to get any good answers out of Zack. He would wait till later, then call Max on the video screen. Maybe once he was out of here Max would tell him what was going on. "When do we leave?"
"Now."
Brin walked down the hallway towards where she had been told Max's room was. She was finally starting to get excited, she couldn't wait to see her sister again. She hadn't really gotten the chance to get to know Max after the escape, the only times she'd seen her was when she was sick and when she was fighting on the side of Manticore. Now they would get their chance to catch up on each other's lives.
When Max answered the door and saw Brin's face, the two just stared at each other. For almost an entire minute they didn't do anything but stare, then a wide smile spread over Max's face and she jumped forward and hugged her sister. Brin wrapped her arms around Max's slender frame tightly, not wanting to let go. This was the best cure for sadness, getting together with family.
Max had hesitated when she first saw Brin because she wanted to make sure it was really her, not the soldier Manticore had turned her into. When she had gotten a good look at her sister's warm eyes, she knew for sure she had the real Brin back.
When they stepped back, Brin broke the silence. "Well, are you going to invite me in or do I have to stand out here in this breezy hall all day?"
Max blushed and stepped out of the doorway to let Brin through. "How have you been? You don't have that Progeria problem anymore, do you?"
"No, Manticore pretty much took care of that. The only downside is that they couldn't get rid of my heat cycles because it would risk a relapse."
"Well, you can't get into too much trouble with that. How many have you had since getting out of Manticore?"
"Three. One was right after I got out, I wound up sleeping with my landlord. My next one was when I was taking care of Lydecker after I found him, with that one I left him alone a few days and slept with some guy who picked me up thinking I was a hitch-hiker. Then, with my last one, Kay had to find a way to take care of me since I was hurting myself."
"Who did she give you to? I'm assuming that's what she did, right?"
"Yeah. Actually, she gave me to Zack."
Max's eyes nearly popped out of her head. "Zack? That couldn't have been a very good situation once you were out of heat. Let me guess, he thought you would never respect him again and you felt like a slut for sleeping with the leader?"
"Something to that effect. Kay and Ben convinced us to work it out, so we're okay now. Do you really think I would have come here with him if I was uncomfortable?"
"I suppose not. Where is Zack right now?"
Brin rolled her eyes. "Messing with Logan's head."
"What! He's with Logan? I gotta get over there!"
Brin grabbed Max's arm as she started to run out the door. "Relax, he's not planning on killing Logan, I warned him about that. He might let Logan believe he's about to die, but he won't really do it."
"How sure are you about that?"
"Pretty sure."
Logan followed along quietly behind Zack as they headed for Sketchy and Original Cindy's room. The X5 hadn't said another word to him, which was just fine with Logan. All he wanted was to get out of here so that maybe Max would tell him what was wrong. Zack wasn't going to let him find out like that though.
"I would think you'd be more upset. After all, she told me you were friends."
Logan was thoroughly confused. "What are you talking about?"
Zack stopped walking and turned to face Logan, who was rather relieved to give his legs a rest. "I'm talking about Kay. She said she was friends with you, so I would think you'd be more sad about the fact that she died."
"What?"
Zack crossed his arms, watching everything on the other man's face. "You heard me. Kay died a couple days ago, how is it you're not upset about that?"
Logan kept his face as calm as possible, he could see Zack was waiting for him to weaken. "I wasn't told."
Zack smiled coldly at this. "Oh, I see. So Max didn't feel the need to tell you? Well, that is certainly understandable. After all, you are pretty weak right now."
Logan felt a chill as the X5's eyes lowered to his legs, which he was trying to keep from trembling. "I could have handled the news, as you can see."
Zack was slightly impressed inside, he considered it a strength to be able to hide emotions. He would never let Logan know that though. "Let's get going. I don't want to be in your company any longer than I have to."
Kay stood in the shower, shivering under the cold spray. She wasn't sure how long she'd been in here, maybe a half hour or so, but hell, it wasn't her bill. The thing she was going for was relief on her back. Perhaps an hour after Ames left, her back had started burning in such a fierce way that she choked back screams. It felt like the burn was fresh rather than a couple days old. She had spent that night trying to get comfortable, but her back wouldn't allow that. It wasn't until this morning that she discovered how good a cold shower felt. If she could, she would have jumped into a pool of ice cubes. Despite the fact that the cold water felt so good, it was horrible to get back out of. She had stayed in it a few minutes and then tried to get out, but her back started hurting worse than before, so she jumped back in the shower and stayed there. She remembered the cream White had left for her, but the muscles in her back would never allow her to twist herself into a position to apply it to herself.
The hotel room door slamming was what snapped her out of a practically standing sleep. She could hear White's swinging strides as he walked across the room and opened the bathroom door. Luckily, he couldn't see through the shower curtain. Kay poked her head out the side of the curtain.
"Do you mind?"
His eyes coldly rested on her, then he walked back out. Kay felt a chill go down her back that she knew wasn't due to the cold water. He had absolutely no emotion in his eyes, it was like staring into the eyes of a dead man. Her cheek throbbed where he had hit it, but it was nothing compared to her back. It wasn't even that bad, the purple wasn't there anymore and the swelling had gone down considerably. The only reminder of it was the dull throbbing. It was more than enough to remind her of the look in his eyes just before he hit her. It was a mixture of disbelief, anger at her for telling him his son was dead, and pain about his son. It wasn't a look she ever wanted to see again, but this look was worse. It was as though since last night he had cut himself off, threw away whatever feelings he had left inside him. That was bad news for her, it might make life miserable for her.
Kay finally convinced herself to turn off the water and get out of the shower. She carefully put a robe from the hotel on, gingerly laying it over her back. The burning sensation was back full force now, but she had an overwhelming feeling that she needed to talk to Ames before he became unreachable. She didn't need him to become completely cruel, after all, she was at his mercy.
When Kay walked out into the main area of the hotel room, Ames was sitting on his bed while removing his shoes. Kay had no urge to sneak up behind him, she wouldn't be able to handle it if he managed to get in a good hit at her. She walked to her own bed and sat down, trying not to wince at the pain that shot through her. His back was to her, so she didn't have to look at his cold eyes again. Kay lay down on her bed, so chilled from her shower that she was more than ready to sleep with the robe on.
"How well did you know her?" White's voice nearly scared Kay out of her skin.
"Who?"
"Wendy."
Kay was truly surprised, she had at first thought he was talking about Max. "I knew her pretty well. We lived in the same house." She didn't see any point in lying to him, maybe it would make him feel worse about killing her. She saw his body tense. Good, she knew that bit of information would have an effect.
"You lived together?"
"Yep. I've heard all the details of her childhood, your wedding, and pretty much all about her life as a mother and wife. You'd be surprised at some of the things I know."
He didn't say anything to that, he just sighed and finished pulling off his shoes. Kay made no sound as he undressed himself and pulled on a pair of sweatpants to sleep in, the room was a bit cold. It wasn't until he lay down that Kay worked up the courage to ask him something she knew he would react to.
"Did you even care about her?"
Now he rolled over on his bed so he could look her in the eyes. "Of course I did. You can't live with someone for so many years and not care about them."
Kay smirked. "I lived with the other transgenics in Manticore my entire life, and you don't see me being wildly in love with them."
"What about the one that I shot? The one that looked like 494?"
Kay clenched her jaw, then struggled to keep her voice steady. "I didn't spend my entire life around him, just the first ten and then a few months recently." She knew he was looking for a nerve to crunch, so she made sure not to give too much away. She could feel his eyes on her face, looking for a change of expression.
"I take it Wendy was around him too?"
"Every transgenic you saw that night was around her. We all lived in the same place."
"How did you know?"
"Know what?"
"That I killed her?"
Kay hated how emotionless he sounded about that. "You're the only person who would ever dare to hurt her." Now she could feel the anger radiating from the other bed, but she refused to look at him.
"I didn't want to. I had to."
"That's just an excuse so you can protect your world-class ego."
"No, it's not. The Conclave ordered me to get rid of her because she knew too much. I would never have done it otherwise."
Now Kay turned to look at him. "So you would rather kill someone you claim to love than disobey a bunch of people who don't give a damn about you? You and your kind have some serious problems." She felt his anger again, but he didn't comment. Kay turned her face away from him and started to roll over, then barely managed to hold in her scream when the burning came back again. It wasn't ten seconds before she heard footsteps go to the other side of the room, come back, she was flipped onto her stomach, and she felt a large amount of weight come down on her backside. Kay craned her neck so she could look up at White, who was now sitting on her tailbone.
"What are you doing?"
"I'm going to hear you groan all night about your back, so I'm taking care of it. Take the robe off."
"I don't fucking think so!"
"Well I do fucking think so," he mocked, already reaching up to start removing the top of the robe. Kay pushed his hands away, simply because he let her, then pulled her arms out of the sleeves of the robe. She was laying on her stomach, so it wasn't like he would see anything. He pulled the robe down far enough so he could see the entire burn, then picked up the bottle of cream he had brought over. Kay was more than uncomfortable now, but she decided she may as well just bear with it.
"What happened at Manticore after the explosion, anyways?" she asked as he opened the bottle and squeezed some of the cream out onto his hand.
"I started to jump away from the building just a couple seconds before you did, but it was enough so that I didn't get burned. We were both knocked unconscious when we hit the ground, but I came to pretty shortly afterwards. I knew you would be useful in getting my father, so I carried you out of there. I saw one of the X5s who was with you come through the area looking for you, but I already had you out of sight so he didn't see you. I just brought you here after that."
Kay shivered as the cream touched her back. It felt thousands of times better than the cold shower. The only thing she tried to ignore was the feel of his fingers sliding over her back. All her muscles relaxed pleasantly and she almost could have fallen asleep. That was when she started to feel different.
Logan had his hands full. Zack was walking with Sketchy down the hall, but Sketchy at least still had some strength left. Logan was left to half carry, half drag Original Cindy down the hall. She had all she could do to keep her eyes open, so it wasn't like she could make it easier on him. The only thing Zack ever did was turn to look at them and smirk. The muscles in Logan's arms and back were shaking and sweat was running down his forehead. It wasn't until they reached Max's room that he got any help from the X5.
Zack propped Sketchy up against the wall next to Max's door and headed back for Logan and Original Cindy. As much fun as it was to watch the other man struggle, he didn't want Max to know about the little bit of fun he was allowing himself. She would be furious, especially since he was using OC in his fun. He easily scooped the young woman up into his arms and walked back towards Sketchy, leaving Logan to reach the door himself. I may be helping him get out of here, but there's no way in hell I'm going to carry him out.
Logan rolled his eyes as Zack walked away, it was annoying as hell when Zack made it obvious he was stronger than him. The exoskeleton felt heavy on his legs, but he knew his legs wouldn't support him without its help. He pushed himself as fast as he could go, and just made it to the door when Zack knocked on it. He took a few deep breaths to try and refresh himself, and some of the redness had left his face by the time Max answered the door. She looked relieved to see him, he figured it was the fact that he was near Zack and was still alive. Hell, I'm relieved about that, too. Max looked into her brother's face meaningfully.
"There haven't been any problems here, has there?"
Zack's face was blank and in complete soldier mode as he answered. "No, there's been no problems so far. Brin, are you ready?"
Brin stepped into the doorway next to Max. "Yeah, I'm ready."
Zack nodded stiffly. "Okay, let's go."