A/N: This is the sequel to Learning of Alec. It also refers to elements from Mission X5494-1109: Search and Seizure. It is not necessary to read either of those first, but it might help.
A/N: To summarize what went before: At the end of Freak Nation, Max and Alec were together.
Cold War-by Infie
Alec stood on top of the building that the Terminal City residents had designated as headquarters, staring out over the ruins. Six months of effort had resulted in the streets being clean between the deliberately created barricades, and the windows being scrubbed free of grime, but there was no hiding the nature of the place. Terminal City was an abandoned dream, and while the transgenics regarded it as a welcome refuge, it was still no home.
His lips compressed as he considered the passage of time. The initial blush of success had passed, and the unrelenting pressure of the siege was telling on everyone. While they could leave TC virtually at will, thanks to weeks of effort in terms of creating ingress and egress routes through the perimeter, only the X-series could pass unremarked on the outside, and even they were increasingly at risk as the thermal imagers became commonplace. The transgenics were working on that, but the best option was still to dress and act like someone who was unpleasantly ill. Not much fun. After the first twenty or so times of noisily sneezing on the closest sector cop, even playing sick could get old.
Then, there were all of the transgenics that had not made TC their home, scattered across the country. Every few days there was another story of a new lynching, a new atrocity committed in the name of purity. The influx of transgenics into TC was rapidly becoming more than the community could support, and everyone was becoming restive. White's Familiars and their constant harrassing attacks waged a war of attrition; a transgenic captured here, another there, and the ordinary population was kept on the razor edge of fear and loathing, preventing even a little progress towards unification. Then, there were the divisions within Terminal City....
Alec sighed and rubbed aching eyes with one hand. Despite the mounting list of casualties, Max still insisted on working a bloodless solution with the ordinaries. Bloodless for them, of course.... there had been enough transgenic blood spilled so far to float a canoe down main street. The people in TC hadn't been designed to turn the other cheek unless it was to spit defiance, and they increasingly saw Max's idealism as squeamishness, or worse, as a sympathy for the ordinaries over her kin. The problem was, privately, Alec couldn't bring himself to disagree with them. So far all waiting and negotiating had accomplished was a lot of dead and damaged transgenics, people Alec called friends. Max had to show some real leadership soon, something tangible; some concern for the transgenics... all the transgenics, not just her friends. If she didn't, she was going to lose control of the City. And no amount of support from him would change that.
{Christ. How did it all go so wrong?}
Alec was startled out of his reverie by the sound of the door to the rooftop opening. He spun around, instinctively stepping sideways into the shadow of the generator. He relaxed as he recognized Johan, a slim, blond, one time unit-mate from Manticore. Johan was grinning widely, and he looked as though he was trying to contain his excitement. "Hey, Alec! You've gotta come see this."
Alec looked at him warily, but followed him downstairs anyway. Johan led him into the main room, where a semi-circle of X5s stood with their backs to him. He stopped, and they turned, then stepped aside so he could see behind them. His face broke into a huge grin.
A tall, dark man dressed in black jeans and a snowy white dress shirt stood behind them. His black eyes glittered with pleasure, and a wide smile graced his face, even teeth flashing white in his caramel-skinned face. He spread his hands and turned in a circle, as if to say 'see'? His jet black hair was glossy in the overhead light, and a goatee made the smile faintly satanic. Alec heard a couple of the nearby women sigh.
Alec took two great steps and clasped the other man in a huge hug. "529!" he exclaimed. 529 returned the embrace with enthusiam, then broke away and clapped Alec hard on the shoulder, still grinning widely.
"It's Rhys, now." he laughed. "Going by 529 could get me into... uh.. hot water these days, ya know."
Alec nodded. "How'd you end up with Rhys?"
529's brows came together. "It's the weirdest thing," he said. "I was out in the field when Manticore went down, as you know. I'm coming back in through Toronto, and I stop by this church to meet my contact. Well, damned if I didn't run into a bunch of nuns, led by some woman named Sister Dani, who insisted my name had to be Rhys." He shook his head. "I haven't been able to shake it since."
Alec nodded wisely. "Those nuns know their stuff." he said. Rhys laughed.
"And, uh... you'll never guess who I ran into." Rhys took a couple of steps back, and gestured at the doorway. Another man stepped through the door warily, as if unsure of his welcome. He was dressed the same as Rhys, and had glossy black hair, but there the resemblance ended. His eyes were a warm, dark brandy, and his light skin marked him as a native of a more northern climate. His face had high cheekbones that made him look faintly slavic, and he had full lips that Alec bet the women were already fantasizing about.
Alec felt his face tighten slightly, but he walked forward and shook the man's hand.
"I see you remember Andrei." Rhys' voice was amused.
"Yeah." Alec grinned. "I never got to shake your hand for what you did in Uzbekistan." he paused. "Never got to do this, either." Without warning, he punched Andrei full in the face, sending him sprawling. "I told you I don't like being shot." he said evenly.
Rhys blinked as the semi-circle of transgenics closed up behind Alec, all looking at Andrei with distinctly unfriendly eyes. Andrei waved his hand at them. "I'm fine." he said.
"I don't think they were planning on helping you up." Rhys laughed. "I see that some things haven't changed." his eyes shifted to a disturbance just outside the door, and widened in appreciation. He whistled softly as Max strode through the door, irritation in her face. She stopped dead as she took in the scene, then moved to stand beside Alec.
"What's going on, here?" she snapped. Alec's lips twitched.
"This is Rhys. He was Biggs' com officer at Manticore." Max's face relaxed into a smile, and she shook Rhys's hand willingly. Alec turned to Andrei, who was just rising and brushing himself off. His grin turned malicious. He gestured to the woman beside him, talking to Rhys, but his eyes were on Andrei. "Rhys, this is Max, our fearless leader." Some of the trangenics behind him shifted a little, but Alec ignored them, watching Andrei's attention sharpen abruptly. "She was once known as X5-452."
Max shot him a frown, not noticing Andrei whiten as Alec said her designation with unholy glee. "The name is Max." she said firmly, finally turning her attention to the other man, extending her hand. She was shocked when he took a giant step forward and lifted her in an exuberant hug. Alec laughed.
"Max," he continued his introductions as she struggled uselessly to get loose. "This is Zane." Max stilled, and Rhys looked confused. Alec laughed again. "I believe you two have met?" Max pried herself loose from Zane and glared at Alec.
"Strange how you never mentioned that you had." Her tone promised a further discussion later. Suddenly she grabbed Zane and turned him around, examining his neck. She released him and pushed him away. "You don't have a barcode." she told him suspiciously.
Zane nodded. "That's right." he looked at Alec. "Can we discuss this somewhere else, 494?"
"It's Alec, now." Alec waved a hand, and the surrounding transgenics muttered but began to disperse. Rhys stepped to Alec's side with a stubborn expression that said he wasn't going to be removed any time soon, and Alec grinned to himself. He led the way to one of the common rooms, furnished with chairs that were almost comfortable. The four of them arranged themselves around the coffee table in the centre.
"Let's start with how you two hooked up." Alec's voice held the unmistakable tone of command. Rhys and Zane exchanged looks, then Rhys shrugged and started to speak.
"Like I said before, I was heading back through Toronto, stopped my the church, and I decided to hit the hockey game before continuing on." Rhys bit his lip. "Someone in the crowd had a thermal scanner, and was picking out the transgenics."
"I thought Canada was supporting the transgenics." Max interrupted.
"They are. This was some unsanctioned group, people I've never seen before. They were freaky, man. We weren't going anywhere without a fight, but these guys... they didn't seem to feel any pain. And strong..." he paused, eyes shadowed at the memory. "The cops came and broke it up, and that's when I ran into Andrei here. Or Zane, or whatever his name is. Of course, I remembered him." he shot Zane a dark look, and the other man laughed. "I try to remember everyone who fires a tazer into my chest. But we worked it out, and I knew he was transgenic, cause he'd been picked out of the crowd with everyone else. I knew that 511 was holed up here, so I figured I'd head this way."
Max's hand moved to Alec's knee at the mention of Biggs, and he patted her hand, giving her a smile. Rhys noticed the exchange, and his smile faltered. Alec turned to Zane. "You." he said evenly. "Talk."
Zane laughed again. "Where to start?" he thought a moment, looking between Max and Alec, then came to a decision. He addressed Alec. "When I left you, I headed back to the States for a bit. Hooked up with brother Zack, did some regular work for a while. I was working in LA when we were exposed a couple of years ago, so I headed north, hooked up with some old contacts, and went back to the mercenary business." Max blinked rapidly, and it was Alec's turn to squeeze her hand.
"The barcode, Zane."
Zane sighed. "Would you believe I lasered it off?" Alec just looked at him. "OK, OK. When I told you British SAS, I wasn't being entirely untruthful." he stood and began to pace. "They felt that the barcode was entirely too recognizable, and tried everything they could think of to remove it. Finally, they hit upon tattooing."
The other three exchanged a confused look.
"Tattooing?" Rhys' disbelief spoke for all of them.
"They tatooed over the barcode, with a complementary colour dye. To the naked eye, the different wavelengths of light cancel each other out, and you're left with my normal skin colour." Zane looked Alec directly in the eye. "You can only see the barcode under ultra-violet light."
Not looking away, Alec raised his voice. "Hey Dix!"
The diminutive transhuman appeared at the door of the common room as if by magic. "Yeah, Alec?"
"I need an ultraviolet light."
"Sure thing, boss." Dix scurried away, reappearing a moment later with a UV wand. He handed it over and left without asking any questions, and Rhys' lips quirked in a smile.
"You're running a tight unit here, 4.. Alec." he told his friend.
Alec's eyes still didn't leave Zane's, and he rose, gesturing for Zane to turn around. "It's Max's unit, Rhys." he said. "I'm just here for decoration." He flipped on the wand, shining the light on the exposed back of Zane's neck and ignoring Rhys' skeptical look. Max and Rhys came to look, too.
Zane's barcode stood out clearly, black against the purple glow on his skin. Alec glanced at Max, who nodded. It was her brother. Alec clicked off the wand and turned his gaze to Rhys.
"Hey man. Let me show you around." his eyes flickered to Max, who was resting a hand hesitently against Zane's rich, dark hair, tears in her eyes. "Give these two some time." Rhys nodded, and followed him out of the room.
Alec led Rhys throughout the headquarters, pointing out the cafeteria, the comms sections, and the central room used as the brain center of Terminal City, introducing him to the rest of the population of TC he didn't know, and grinning through the reunions with his old unit mates. Alec had expected him to want to break off with some of them to catch up, but Rhys stuck with him. He scanned each room eagerly, and after the tenth or twelfth time, Alec finally fingured it out. He stopped, stepped aside into an unused office, and shut the door. Rhys looked at him quizzically.
"He's not here." Alec stated baldly. "511... Biggs... he's not here."
Rhys straightened, face tightening. "Where is he, 494?"
Alec refused to look away. "He's dead. He was killed by a group of ordinaries a little over six months ago."
Rhys whitened, and swayed slightly, then moved and sat heavily in the office chair by the door. "What happened?" he asked hoarsely.
"He was in the wrong place at the wrong time." Alec spoke to the air, not looking at Rhys. "He got picked out by the thermal imager before we knew about it, and his face was splashed all over. We tried to warn him; tried to go pick him up, but by the time we got there..." he broke off.
"Tell me."
"By the time we got there he was already beaten to death." Alec's jaw bunched. "And hung by his ankles. While the ordinaries had a fucking party."
Rhys surged to his feet, knocking the chair over backwards, breathing hard. "Fuck." he said softly, fists clenched. "Fuck."
Alec swallowed, all his rage flooding back as if it were yesterday. He placed his hand on Rhys' shoulder, giving what comfort he could. "Yeah." he said. "Yeah."