ARCHIVE: No
By Valjean
The Devil You Know
Max watched as Donald Lydecker took out a zippered leather case and filled a syringe with clear liquid.
"What's that?" she asked, her voice emotionless, exhausted. She was holding Alec's momentarily limp, sweat soaked hand in hers, counting down the seconds until another bout in hell began. He'd just come out of a seizure, and was due for another any moment.
In fact, when Joshua had let Lydecker into the barracks she'd been lying on top of Alec, trying to hold him down with the weight of her own body, her hands tangled in his hair and her face pressed against his, pleading softly for him to hold on just a little longer -- to fight this bitch that was stealing him away from her.
"Max," Lydecker had said, touching her on the shoulder. She'd turned around, somehow surprised that he'd really shown up so quickly. "Get up. I need to examine him."
She'd complied, and now sat anxiously in a chair by the bed, keeping a firm grip on Alec's fingers.
"A sedative designed especially for your kind," Lydecker answered her question. "Enough to put a big jungle cat, or in this case an X5 male, down."
"What do you mean 'put down?'" Max questioned sharply, not liking his choice of words.
Lydecker smiled grimly. "Don't worry. You were right when you assumed I didn't want anymore X5 blood on my hands." He looked up at her, blue eyes crinkling, and added more gently, "And you ought to know by now I don't want to hurt your smart Alec."
"Because he's been so useful to you?" Max said sarcastically.
Lydecker pulled back the sleeve of Alec's black t-shirt, swabbed alcohol on his well muscled biceps, and expertly slipped the needle into his skin. "This should break the seizure cycle," he said. "All we can do now is wait."
Max couldn't take her eyes off of Alec's face, unable to trust that Lydecker hadn't just injected something lethal into the man she loved. She glanced at the clock, something she'd done a hundred times in the past few hours, counting down the seconds.
*****
"Tell me what you know about Rachel and the Berrisford assignment," Max said quietly, taking the opportunity while they sat there waiting to ask Lydecker something she'd always wondered about -- anything to break the deathly silence between them.
"You know about that?"
"As much as Alec would tell me, yes. But I'm sure there's more."
"That assignment going sideways set his career back badly."
"I bet it did," Max said, her voice sarcastic again. She looked down at Alec, then up at the clock. Five minutes had passed. Five minutes without another seizure.
"Did he tell you what happened ... afterwards?"
"No," Max said levelly, her eyes still on Alec and the soft rise and fall of his chest. She glanced up. "But I can guess."
"He was tortured because he found out there was a whole life on the outside that he wasn't supposed to have," the older man said, his voice actually tinged with sadness. "He was tortured because he fell in love and tried to keep Manticore from killing her." He looked away, stuffing his hands in the pockets of his leather jacket. His voice dropped to a husky whisper. "Then we tried to make him forget her, or at least not care."
Max smiled weakly. "Re-indoctrination. It didn't work."
"I know. At least not in the long run, and he was never trusted with another mission after that, solo or otherwise. We kept him confined to the base. Actually, for a short time 494 was content again at Manticore, training the younger ones ... probably would have been for awhile longer if you hadn't put him back on the outside. But sooner or later he'd have begun wanting more than he would have ever been allowed to have. Problem soldiers like Alec ... and you ... are the real reason I think the Committee abandoned us and gave Renfro free reign to terminate the program."
"What about the younger ones?" Max asked. "The X6's and X7's?"
"They were never going to be as good as my X5's," Lydecker said, more than a touch of pride in his voice. "My kids were the best. Afterwards ... the scientists began diluting the emotions, trying to breed out what they saw as flaws ... too much independence ... too much free thinking ..."
Alec mumbled something and Max was instantly at his side, her hand touching his face. "Alec," she said softly. "Come on, baby. Open your eyes."
Lydecker was putting away the syringe. "There was a fifty-fifty chance he'd never wake up," he said.
Max turned on him sharply. "You never told me that."
"What good would it have been for you to know? I had to give him a pretty massive dose. He would have died for certain if I hadn't."
"What now?" Max asked, relieved to see Alec turning his head from side to side as he tried to open his eyes.
"Go to Sandeman," he said with a shrug. "He's your only hope. Make him realize that if he can't fix this problem then all he's going to have to fight in his Apocalypse is an army of the dead."
*****
"So," Alec said, looking up into Max's eyes as she cradled his head in her lap, "our days really are numbered."
She shifted her weight slightly, finding a more comfortable position in the bed. Then her fingers went back to stroking his hair. The seizures seemed to be gone -- for now, but he was as weak as he'd ever been in his life -- totally vulnerable, and still very afraid.
"Even Lydecker can't help us," she said, "which just leaves Sandeman." She got a funny look in her eyes. "You know, in his own way, 'Deck really does care. He came right away to help you when I called. He didn't want you to die."
"That was smart I guess," Alec said, yawning and snuggling deeper in the warm blankets Max had tucked in around him. "Calling 'Deck. Even though it was kind of takin' a chance. He might have just come in here and shot me in the head to put me outta my misery."
She looked at him quickly.
He shrugged. "It's what they did to a lot of the kids who got the shakes back at Manticore -- killed them."
"I know," Max said. "But I wouldn't have let him do that to you." She thought a moment. "Still, I really didn't know what he was injecting into you. For all I knew it could have been poison."
"You had no choice, Max," Alec said, forgiving her even though there was nothing to forgive. "It was either Lydecker, or a hospital and White."
She ran her fingers over his bare forearm, lightly stroking his skin. He saw her swallow hard and knew what she was thinking. "Sandeman will help us," he said firmly. "He owes us. Besides, we're his army."
To be continued ...
Also, I'd like to encourage all M/A DARK ANGEL fans to read Max Collins' official prequel novel BEFORE THE DAWN. True, Alec isn't in the story (yet), but there's lots of canon background material in the book that would be pertinent to Alec later on. Plus, Mr. Collins says that Alec and Joshua will be "centerstage" in the DARK ANGEL sequel novel SKIN GAME coming out next February. -- author's note