A/N: I figured out a way to deal with my...er..continuity issue. Thanks again to ElleMsa for pointing it out so I could take a shot at fixing it!
Cold War Chapter 10 - Going Solo-by Infie
"Here, Alec. The final list." Dix handed over a sheet of paper, hand shaking ever so slightly. "We lost 18, and we counted 29 enemy dead before we pulled out."
Alec took the paper without looking at it. He already knew all the names by heart. "Thanks, Dix. Are we ready to start moving out? Everyone got their paperwork?"
Dix gave him a long look. "Yeah. Yeah, we're ready."
"Good." Alec folded the paper with rapid movements. He patted Dix on the shoulder. "Lighten up, Dix! This is a good thing for us." He flashed his trademark grin. "Trust me!"
"Of course!" Dix assured him hastily. "I'll let everyone know." He scurried away.
Alec watched him go, a smile curving his lips. Dix had been a godsend the past three days, the master organizer at work. Once Zane had dropped his bombshell, Alec's decision had been made. He had been preparing for the eventuality from the moment Zane had demonstrated the tattoo technology that could hide them in the real world, and the temperature masking drugs had just made it all the easier. With the addition of asylum and citizenship in Canada for the transhumans, plus the exposure that the transgenic - Familiar fight had caused for Terminal City, Alec knew the time had come. It was time to give the order; time to go to ground.
Max slid under his arm, cuddling close. She was still leaving, but she had agreed to wait and help with the organization of the exodus. The knowledge of her impending absence had made every touch and caress something to be treasured. She felt it too, and had made an effort to demonstrate her feelings at every opportunity. Now, she placed a hand on his cheek and turned his head to give him a quick kiss.
"It's almost time," he told her.
"I know." Her eyes searched his. "This is the right decision, Alec. Exactly right."
He smiled at her. "I know." He hugged her closer. "You were right, by the way," he said casually. "The medical records show Case's barcode faded before he was a year old. Gia is a lot happier with the thought that the twins won't have to be tattood."
"Good! I knew there wasn't one visible until Lydecker got hold of him." She shuddered, then wiggled a little closer. "Alec, I'm going to leave tonight." She paused, then continued more tentatively. "I'd like to see Zane before I leave."
Alec laughed. "I suppose we should let him out sometime." He turned dancing eyes on her, drinking in her relieved smile. "He'll be there. I promise."
"So, you've finally decided to let me out of here." Zane looked tired, hungry, and supremely unimpressed as he glared through the interlocking wire of the cage. At some point he had managed to get his hands free, and now he folded his arms and waited crossly.
"Yep." Alec leaned over, grabbed the mesh near the base of the cage, and lifted with a grunt. The cage flipped up away from its floor and crashed onto its side.
Zane stared at the cage floor under his feet in shock. "It wasn't locked?"
"Nope." Rhys laughed from his position at the doorway.
"You... You..." Zane spluttered at him, fists clenching.
"Why are you blaming him?" Alec snickered. "Could have been my idea."
"No." Zane's voice was certain as he glared at Rhys. "Your sense of humour would have been to weld it shut."
"Couldn't find a propane torch," Alec admitted.
Zane couldn't help it; he laughed. "OK," he said, giving in with good grace. "Let's get out of here." Alec stopped him and handed him his transmitter.
"These are expensive," he said with a grin. "You might want to give this one back to them."
They headed up and out of the depths of the basement, Zane moving more stiffy that usual but otherwise seeming none the worse for his captivity. Alec steered them towards the cafeteria.
"Hey... where is everyone?" Zane lifted an eyebrow at the echoing hallways.
"Most have headed out already." Alec told him brusquely. Zane stared at him, startled. Alec took pity on him as they entered the eating hall, where Max was waiting for them. "We're scattering." He shot a sideways look at Zane. "Most of the transhumans and about three quarters of the X-series have decided to head for Canada. We've already gotten the paperwork from the Canadian embassy. I have to say, they work fast."
"They wanted everyone, but some of us decided to take a slightly different mission." Max grinned as she handed Zane a mug of coffee and a sandwich.
"Everyone was sad to go; but with the fact that we're now undetectable, it made sense." Rhys chimed in, grabbing hiw own cup of coffee. "The fact is that most of us want our kids to grow up in the world, you know?"
Zane nodded slowly, catching Alec's eye. Alec just looked back at him blandly. When Zane spoke, it was to Max. "So, you're still leaving then?"
"Yeah." Max shook her hair back over her shoulder. "I want to find the others. And there's a lot more who feel the same way." Alec put his arm around her shoulder and hugged her close. Zane thought she looked more relaxed than she had since he'd arrived. "There are a lot of us that have friends that are still accounted for," she continued. "So we're heading out to round 'em up and send them to one of our secure locations, to get tattooed and a supply of the drugs and new paperwork."
"We've got six safe houses already." Alec told him. "I've been working on this for a while. The rest, like Rhys, are heading out tonight." He grinned as he saw Joshua enter the room and head towards them. "Josh and I are staying here."
Joshua huffed happily as he reached them. "Alec and Joshua, making trouble," he laughed. Alec cleared his throat hastily.
"Uh.. we're going to be co-ordinating from here," he said, looking as innocent as possible as Max glared at him. "The CDC was extremely interested in the information we gave them. They say they want to deal." Alec's eyes hardened, and his voice grew icy.
"They don't know who they're 'dealing' with." Rhys quipped, and Alec gave a swift grin.
"No deals," he said. "Just terms."
"Virus bitch, going down!" Joshua contributed.
Alec's lips twitched at the familiar statement, but manfully he refrained from comment. "The important thing is that everyone knows how to stay hidden, and live their lives as normal or not as they want."
Joshua's eyes gleamed. "Transgenics, living in the light." He said seriously. "This, you gave us, Alec. You and Max."
Alec opened his mouth to answer, but Max beat him to it. "It was all Alec," she declared. "I would never have come up with this." Her lips twisted in a self-deprecating smile. "I'm a little too focussed on staying in one place to think of scattering to the winds and hiding in plain sight."
Zane shook his head in admiration. "I had no idea you'd thought so far ahead, Alec. You organized this in an amazingly short time."
Alec looked at him with expressionless eyes. "Mobilization 529," he said. "You must have missed that class."
Rhys snickered, and Max licked her lips to hide her smile. Zane rolled his eyes. "Still," he replied. "I'm impressed."
"You can't kill what you can't see, Zane." Alec sounded impatient. "Our problem has always been visibility." He ran a hand across the back of his own freshly tattooed neck, which looked like perfect, untouched flesh. "So the answer was obvious, don't you think?"
"Hide, obscure the scene, leave, or join the enemy." Zane nodded.
"Sometimes the answer is 'all of the above'." Rhys piped up softly.
"Zane." Max's voice was hesitant. "I was wondering... would you come with me?"
The silence at the table was absolute.
Max gave a nervous look at Alec, then forged ahead. "I just think we'd have more luck with your resources behind us, and well... The others might believe me more easily if you were there too."
Zane still looked stunned. "I'll have to check in, Max. But I think it would be OK."
Max grinned, then looked up at Alec's still face. She hugged him, and under the guise of nuzzling his jaw she asked, "Are you all right with that?"
Alec's lips quirked and he kissed her, then buried his nose in her hair. "It's ok," he murmured back. "This one looks at you like a brother." She laughed.
Johan arrived, black jeans, charcoal turtleneck, and leather jacket showing off his Nordic good looks. He flashed a grin at the group and shifted his canvas duffel from his hand to his shoulder, then shook Zane's hand. "Welcome back!" he said, then turned to Alec. "I'm off, Boss."
"Safe trip, Johan." Alec shook his hand and clapped him on the shoulder.
"Where you headed?" Zane was curious.
Johan and Rhys exchanged a grin. "I'm heading to Toronto," he told Zane with a wink. "There's a bunch of nuns I hear would really like to meet me."
Alec stared at the urn in his hand. He'd arranged for the bodies of his fallen friends to be cremated, knowing how they would hate the idea of being used as fodder for experimentation again, even dead. He'd given orders to have the ashes scattered in the ocean off of Matthews Beach Park, but he'd kept the task of releasing this particular set of ashes for himself.
He looked up, bracing himself as a gust of air rocked him a little. He blamed the tears in his eyes on the lash of the wind, and placed his hand on the lid, ready to unscrew it. He stopped, unable to make his hand move.
Another hand covered his, helping him, and Alec turned his head to see Joshua, tears glittering in his inhuman eyes. Joshua lifted his hand from the lid and turned it himself, then helped Alec turn it over. The wind took the dark stream of ash and flung it into the sky, into a glittering shower of motes against the moonlit sky. Alec heaved a deep breath. "A beauty in death he knew not in life." he quoted softly.
"This was a good choice, Alec." Joshua patted him on the shoulder.
"Ah," Alec said dismissively, shrugging and pursing his lips. "I just couldn't see a desert soldier being happy with being dropped in the ocean. And the last thing I want is Mole's ghost pumping that shotgun in my ear for the rest of my life."
Joshua laughed, and there was an answering rich chuckle from inside the deck. Alec threw up his hands and rolled his eyes. "It's a good thing I don't come up here for privacy," he declared with annoyance. Rhys poked his head out, then swung himself onto the roof with unconscious grace. He crossed and looked out at the still falling glitter of ash.
"Bye, Mole," he said simply, raising his hand in a wave. Alec just stared at him. He opened his mouth, but Rhys forestalled him with a gesture. "Don't even start," he told Alec without turning. "I'm not going, and you can't make me." Now he did tilt his head, shooting Alec a sideways look. "Just think of me as the other half of the relationship that just won't end."
Alec recognized the uselessness of arguing. "Great." He smirked. "Whenever I envisioned being stalked, I always pictured someone a little more... feminine."
"Uh huh. You know, Biggs told me all about Normal, Alec. I'd say I'm a step up." Rhys exchanged a grin with Joshua. "Plus, I don't actually want to..."
"Enough!" Alec cut him off with a grin, then he looked at the urn in his hand and his face became stern. He straightened to attention, and Rhys and Joshua followed suit, Rhys with perfect precision, and Joshua with a good imitation. "We say goodbye to a good soldier, and a true friend." The three snapped their arms up into salutes in perfect unison, as if they had rehearsed together for years. After a long moment, they relaxed, and turned away.
Rhys reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out a bottle of Glenfiddich. From the other, he produced two small glasses. He gave an apologetic look. "I didn't know Josh would be here," he said by way of explanation, then handed him one of the glasses. He passed the other to Alec, poured them both a generous portion, and raised the bottle.
"To absent friends." he said, and Alec saw on his face that he was thinking of Biggs. He and Joshua raised their glasses, then, before they could drink, Alec gave a wide smile.
"And to present ones."
"To friends, here... and gone." Rhys said firmly, and Alec and Joshua nodded.
"To friends, here and gone!" they chorused. They saluted each other, and drank.
{The END}
A/N: A special thanks to Maia, who was the closest thing to a beta she could be and not be awarded the title, and to alecsangel and Dani, who were very close seconds. I love all three of you.