Disclaimer: Well they are not mine and despite its cancellation they still belong to Cameron etc.

Authors Note: Okay my deepest, deepest apologies for the long delay in writing this chapter but as I explained last time my exams had just started. They are now over and provided you guys review then I will write more chapters! Fair deal? Thank you everyone for all of your reviews so far, you've all been great!

DARK TERROR

Chapter 18 - For His Sake

"Stop." The word escaped Lydecker's lips hoarsely. "Stop it." The medical technician looked up from his work at the sound of Lydecker's voice over the intercom. He looked from Lydecker to White for confirmation.

White shook his head at the unsure man. "Continue." He instructed. Lydecker's head twisted around to face White. His face was etched deeply with lines of stress and emotional exhaustion. The sound of Max's screams had long since faded into whimpers of pain, hardly audible.

"I said - Stop!" Lydecker yelled, his fist cracking against the reinforced window that separated him from the activity in the other room. Despite the strength of his fists impact the glass barely wavered in response.

White glared icily at Lydecker and pressed the intercom button once more. "We'll take a break now people. Sedate 452 for the time being." He turned to Lydecker. "Happy now?"

Lydecker realised his hands were shaking and clenched them tightly to hide it from the other man. "You…you said it wouldn't be as bad, that you would avoid hurting her." Anger and fear and a deep sickening feeling in his stomach were making it hard to think.

"And I have stayed my personal hand according to our agreement." White bit out, his expression tense.

Lydecker's head whipped around. "The hell you have, what do you think your doing to her in there!"

"These tests need to be done Colonel, her DNA is like nothing seen before. We need to find out what she is, what she's intended for." White recited in bored monotone, his head tilted to the side as he studied Max's body like a lab specimen. "You knew why we wanted her Deck." Lydecker followed White's gaze. Max was so still, so pale…so much blood…

"There must be other ways…other ways to do this…"

White gave a short empty laugh. "Trust me Deck, compared to her last visit, I am behaving admirably. Do you know what that bitch did? Because of her I had to kill my wife. 452 stole my son from me - I still don't know if he's dead or alive! Because of her, all because of HER!"

Faster than Lydecker could blink, White went from calm and reasonable to screaming rage. He instinctively took a step back from the unstable man and then cursed himself for showing his fear. "What did you do to her?" The question slipped from his lips without his meaning it to. Lydecker hadn't asked Max before what she had gone through with White, but now seeing the screaming maniac before him he couldn't help but imagine and pray that reality wasn't even close.

At Lydecker's question White's eyes drifted closed and a far away expression came onto his face. "I wanted to know where Ray was…If he was even alive. She wouldn't tell me. My men here said she had used some kind of mind trick to make herself forget, but I had to try."

Lydecker swallowed hard as he recognised White's description of forgetting under torture. "You didn't stop did you? When you realised she didn't know anymore." The words were damned with horror as visions of all the violence he had seen and perpetuated filled his mind.

"She needed to suffer, she deserved it. That animal is nothing - Transgenic scum."

White's silence on what he had done to Max spoke more of his transgressions then any description of physical acts could have. Lydecker fought down the acidic bile that rose in his throat.

"The experiments, they don't have to be done this way." Lydecker knew that if White wanted to he could spare Max some of what she was going through now. It killed him to say what he had to but for Max… "Please." If it ever could be said that Lydecker begged, this would be it.

White turned to look at Lydecker. For just one moment Lydecker thought White might relent and agree to more humane methods of getting their results. Then he saw the ice in his eyes and realised this man was no more human than a rabid animal.

"No."

The word was simple and easy to say. And it destroyed the small piece of hope that Lydecker had help that he had done the right thing it returning Max to this man, this monster. Lydecker closed his eyes in the instant, conceding defeat to his own conscience.

"If this is too much for you then you know you don't have to watch." As if he could read Lydecker's mind White continued to speak. "You did the right thing Deck. Thanks to you she's still alive and we can get the answers we need." White smiled humourlessly at the other man and started to walk out of the door when he stopped and spoke again, any trace of emotion gone from his voice. "Oh and Deck, you interfere in these tests next time and I promise you'll never see 452 again." White's eyes were deadly serious as he glared at Lydecker.

The door shut behind his exit, leaving Lydecker in the empty observation room. He unclenched his fists slowly as though he was afraid of releasing his tenuous control of his emotions. Walking to the window that separated him from Max he leaned forward, pressing his forehead against the cool glass. His hands spread out on the window and he breathed in deeply as he stared at Max's small form. "Max…" He whispered her name, his voice filled with grief. Her face was blessedly free from pain now, thanks to the sedatives White had finally allowed. The image of Max screaming, her face contorted with pain from the brutal experiment, haunted him.

"I'm sorry, I thought I was saving you… I thought I could protect you…Max…" Lydecker swallowed the horrible lump in his throat. How could he have made such a bad judgement in error? What was it about Max that made his reason and logic suspend itself in the vain hope that maybe things could work out and she would be his once more in any capacity. For the first time since he had thought Max had been killed in the raid on Manticore, Lydecker felt the burning desire to drink. To feel the numbing relief that alcohol could offer him.

In response to the thought Lydecker's hands clenched automatically, his blunt finger nails scratching piercingly over the glass surface. Lydecker flinched at the sound and came back to himself. He could fix this. It wasn't too late. Alec was still out there and he would be willing to do anything for Max. Even after everything she had said to him. Between them, they had to be able to save her.

"Just hang on Max. Please, just hold on for a little longer." Lydecker whispered, his tone perilously thick with emotion. Lydecker hadn't known what White had put Max through after her first abduction, he had only seen some of the results. Lydecker wasn't sure how much longer he would be able to hold White back from his personal vendetta. It was bad enough with just the medical torture. The other man seemed to have an almost pathological hatred for Max, bordering on obsession.

Lydecker traced the profile of Max's fragile body through the glass, as though he could caress her skin through sheer will. White couldn't afford for Max to die physically but it was her mind that Lydecker feared for now, her sanity. She had already fought her way back from oblivion once, he didn't think she would be able to do it again.

"I'll find Alec." Lydecker spoke through the intercom, his only way to reach her. He hoped on some level despite the sedation she could hear him. "Listen to me Max. Hold on for him, I know you love him. Please Max…For his sake hold on."

TBC.

A/N: I know its short but I'm just getting back into the swing of writing again after such a long break. I am also reeling from the news of DA being axed.