This is a short piece falling near the end of season two. Biggs drops by for a cup of coffee and answers to questions he doesn't know how to ask. Logan doesn't care.
As with my other shorter pieces, I'm just exploring ideas with some of the lesser players in the show and how they interact with Max and Logan and the few supporting regulars we all know and love even if we wouldn't admit it.
It's pretty straightforward in the delivery and there's not a lot of anything going on but as always, it gets an R for the violent bits.
Understanding is a Three Edged Sword
"Biggs?" Logan asked. He turned to find a soaking wet soldier standing in his borrowed but new living room. "You're Alec's friend Biggs, right? What are you doing here?" Logan looked at the young man. He was hard. He was lean and of what Logan knew about Manticore he knew this one was a prize specimen.
"Do you need something?" He asked. The soldier slowly shook his head. "So you're another one." He said. A rush of adrenaline coursed through him as he stared into the soldier's eyes. He had dealt with three of them now. Contracts on Eyes Only in case Max and Alec hadn't succeeded. Alec stopped two of them trying to fulfill the contract late one rainy night two days after Logan had moved in here. Joshua had helped and they had dragged the unconscious soldiers into the night leaving Logan sitting in the dark trying to process this disturbing new information. Now Biggs was here.
"I was the first one given the contract." Biggs said. "But an emergency had taken me to a clean-up in Colorado. They put the contingency into effect because of some new information."
"What new information?" Logan asked. He was sure it was the DNA information that produced the targeted virus.
"I don't know." Biggs said. A puddle had formed in the dirty carpet around his feet. He hadn't moved since walking in the door and had obviously been standing there for some time. "I was removing a threat to Manticore in Denver. Manticore was burning the night I returned."
"That's nice. You have free reign to do as you please." Logan said. Joshua wasn't here. Alec wasn't here and he was certain that Max wouldn't survive against Biggs even with his help. The soldier had that look in his eyes… the look of someone who had survived one too many suicide missions by his will alone.
"I want to know why." Biggs was staring at Logan as if that was his weapon. "I want to know why you felt the need to destroy my home."
"I did it for Max. Everything I do is for her."
"Why?"
"We've been through a lot, she and I. When they shot her, something in me snapped. I worked very hard to find the revenge I thought would satiate that need." Logan turned and walked into the kitchen. "You want a cup of coffee?"
"DON'T YOU DARE TURN YOUR BACK ON ME!!!" Biggs shouted. He moved so fast Logan had no time to react. He pulled Logan's head back and whispered in his ear. "They did something to me so that I would hate you. They messed with my head so that I would WANT to kill you. Extreme prejudice is the motivation. Violent death is the goal. They wanted you to suffer. It's why they came to me first." He explained still grasping Logan's neck and bending him at an awkward angle.
"Then Alec tells me I can get a sector pass from some guy. Alec, one of three people I trust implicitly, tells me you are a stand-up guy. He tells me you can be trusted and I get this feeling. You're a good guy. I have no reason to hate you because you do everything you can to help us and ask nothing in return. Then I learn the truth. You're Eyes Only. You're the one they wanted dead. This nice guy, this good guy is the contract. Do you know how much Manticore hated you? Do you understand how bad they had it in for your death?"
"You have no idea what I know, Biggs." Logan said. He knew X-series soldiers were given the contract in case Max and Alec failed. Manticore hadn't counted on Max destroying the facility though. That had been the projects downfall. They had underestimated her feelings for the man known as Eyes Only. Logan swallowed and took the chance. "Now let go of me. I want a cup of coffee."
"All I have to do is twist and you die. To hell with Max and her feelings. She is Rogue. They made us hate her almost as much as we hated you, but at least she's one of us. You're not. You're an outsider. You're supposed to be an enemy." Biggs shoved the back of Logan's head forcing him into the kitchen counter. Logan took a deep breath and straightened his shirt. He reached up into the cupboard and pulled out three cups. The coffee had already been brewing.
"You're not afraid to die?" Biggs asked stunned by Logan's apparent lack of interest in the assassin.
"I'm already dead." Logan said.
"What's that? Some sort of twisted psy-op?" Biggs asked.
"WHAT DO YOU WANT FROM ME?" Logan turned and walked right up to Biggs face. He looked down at the shorter man. "Tell me because I'd really like to know. What should I do? You want me to kill myself?" Logan asked. His teeth were clenched and he realized that one wrong move and it would be all over before he could react. "You think that would help? There is a virus inside of Max that will kill me if we bump into each other. There are powerful politicians and government agencies hunting me because of what I do and how I do it. There are any number of covert operations like the red series, and Rio Brazilia searching for me to get to the transgenics and vice versa to fulfill their own deviate agendas." Logan said. He turned taking a deep breathe and poured two cups of coffee. He walked back and handed one to Biggs. He was still a good host despite the current situation. Biggs looked at it without understanding. He was supposed to kill this man and instead they were sharing a cup of coffee.
"Why do you fight for her? For us?" Biggs sniffed the coffee suspiciously. "I mean if she carried a virus that would kill me I'd try to get as far away as possible."
"That's why you're here now. You don't understand." Logan challenged. He walked back into the living room sipping his hot coffee. It burned his tongue but he didn't really care.
"What exactly don't I understand? You put yourself out there against us and when you and Max won and The Manticore was dead, you started to help us. It doesn't make any sense. You are the enemy yet you are our only ally it seems." Biggs followed Logan into the room. "Every fiber of my being says I should protect you but all I know is how to hate you." He said. Logan just laughed. It was an almost psychotic snicker and Biggs stepped back a step not sure what to make of it. He wasn't afraid of Logan. He just didn't understand the man.
"It doesn't matter what happens to me. I don't care what you think of me, so I will make this as simple as possible for you. Kill me. Kill me right now if it makes you feel better but know this, everything I do is for Max. I have no reason to live without her. I have no right to a life for what my existence made them do to her. I deserve to die for the misery that virus has put her through. So do your worst. It's entirely my fault. Everything that happened to you and yours stemmed from a cable hack I ran. I care only about Max and her happiness. I don't care about anything else." Logan walked over to his computers and sat down. "So kill me if it makes you feel better and then carry my head around. Show it off if you think it will help. Manticore isn't the only one with a contract on my head. You would make a lot of people very happy and probably a lot of money to boot."
"You're Eyes Only. Killing you wouldn't solve the problem."
"This conversation is over."
"You're the only hope for this world." Biggs continued. "Some of us want help, make it easier for you like Max used to. Some of us want to fulfill our contract but Manticore is gone. All of us want to live normal lives." He paused. He sighed. "This freedom thing is scary. I watch others, especially the sixes and eights and I worry about the few nines that were taken out of the infirmary. What kind of life are they going to have if we fail? We'll they even survive if we don't? We want to experience life like you and the rest out here but we can't. Humans don't like us and that cult is hunting us. I came here to figure some things out." It was an admission that Logan knew from experience. Biggs thought he was revealing some deep dark secret about transgenics. It was hard for him to say it.
"Is there a point to this?" Logan asked.
"I need answers."
"I can't give them to you." Logan said. "I've got issues of my own to deal with. I can't solve every single crisis that each one of you has."
"You're ordinary. You've lived out here…" Biggs started. Logan cut him off.
"I'm sick of transgenics pointing out my inferiority when they have the social skills of a three year old. Get out or kill me but just stop talking." He sounded irritated. He was irritated. Logan started to punch some keys. His cell phone beeped.
"Yeah." He said. "That's very interesting news, thanks for the tip… This is definitely something Eyes Only will have to get into, I'll pass it along." Logan set his phone down and was completely engrossed in his files. He ignored Biggs.
"She Loves you." Biggs said after a time. "Every one of us can see it in her eyes when she looks at you on Mole's video rig over in Terminal City." Logan was not paying attention. Biggs watched him waiting for a response. He wandered around the apartment. He looked at books and fumbled with other things. He wandered into the kitchen and put the empty coffee cup on the counter. A few minutes later he wandered back into the living room.
"I'm sorry." He said finally. Logan was still ignoring him. "Hey Cale! I said I was sorry."
"Apology accepted, now get the hell out of here."
"Just like that?"
"Always like that. In a week or two, word will trickle to another one and I'll have another transgenic at my throat. Sooner or later one of you will succeed. If it isn't one of you then it will be one of the criminals I have taken down reaching out for me." Logan looked at the soldier. It was a solid glance. "I told you, Biggs. I care only about her happiness. Nothing else matters to me but Max. Nothing. Not even my own life. Now get out." Logan said. He didn't look up from his computer screen after that.
He stared at Logan for a while. He finally turned and left. Logan breathed a sigh of relief when he heard the door slam shut.
Outside in the rain, Biggs saw her. She was standing at the bottom of the steps and had listened to the entire scene. She was soaked. Biggs walked out in front of her and stopped.
"What would you have done had I tried to harm him?" He asked. Max didn't move. She just glared at Biggs.
"Do you Love him that much?" He asked.
Max nodded. "I won't live without him. Tried it. Didn't like the way it made me feel." She said. Biggs thought she might be crying but couldn't tell in the rain.
"He's more important to you than we are." Biggs said. Max walked past him not wanting to admit to a choice she has already made.
"I won't live without him. I will protect him no matter the cost." She said walking up the steps of Joshua's old place and through the door.
Biggs looked up into the sky. He let the rain splash on his face for a while. His thoughts were for the Blue Lady at that moment. A childhood fantasy he used to laugh at just to piss the others off. Now, it was becoming so much more.
He asked for a favor.
It was the first time he ever asked for anything.
Dark, yet hopeful I'd say. Let's face it. They've been trapped in a sheltered world and suddenly they have to deal with everything, all at once. It can get overwhelming, but then I don't have to tell any of you this.
There's more where this came from. Thanks again to everyone for the stellar reviews.
And as always, let me know what you think.
Mike
The Wyldegod