Logan couldn't sleep. Less than an hour ago, he had accused his informant, his work partner, the person who trusted him, his friend, of murder.

"Who would do that?" Logan asked himself flicking the blankets off him and moving on to his closet to get dressed. He decided that it would be best for everybody if he went over to Asha's place and apologize for jumping to conclusions.

~*

Asha's place was dark. Logan knocked on the door several times before deciding that she was asleep like every other sane person on the planet at this time of night. He couldn't help himself, he tried the door, locked. Logan started to check for spare keys, mat, loose brick, garden gnome, bingo.

Once inside Asha's apartment, Logan flicked on the light and headed for her room in a hope to wake her up and make her listen to long and most probably worthless apology, he had planned on his way over in the car.

Asha, however, wasn't in her bed, in fact she wasn't in the apartment at all.

Logan stopped in her office. The computer sat switched on, on the desk that more useless junk on it that information. He just couldn't help himself. He touched the mouse and the swirling colors ceased and an urgent message warning flashed on screen.

Logan opened the message knowing that he'd pay for reading her stuff without her knowledge later.

It said: I know that we've had this argument before but I'm getting past my tolerance on the matter. I don't care who they think you are! I don't care who you hurt in the process! Just deliver me 452's body like we discussed, THREE MONTHS AGO, then maybe we'll look at exactly where you stand in this scenario. Just remember, you came to me, I just happen to not care what happens to you.

Logan couldn't believe his eyes. He ran a search through Asha computer and found messages that told her just what to do once she had finished with Max. He found instructions telling her to make it a serial killing. He found that she was working for Ames White!

Logan started to panic, he'd deal with Asha, his friend who happened to be the transgenic serial killer. He wouldn't tell Max, he could fix this.

He raced back to his car and dialed Max's place.

Cindy answered the phone. "Hello, how the hell is this? It's two o'clock in the freakin morning!"

"Cindy, it's Logan." Logan rushed, he tried not to sound panicked. "Have you heard from Max?"

"What the hell do you mean?" Cindy asked drunk, tired and angry. "Why do I need to hear from her for? She's out at your cabin isn't she? Huh? Yes, I believe she is and you should really learn to be more precise when you're handing out instructions and do your own dirty work! People don't need to be running half way across the county because you need a favor done or a message delivered or a coke or whatever and another thing."

Logan could see that Cindy was very drunk and didn't have time to waste, "Cindy!" He yelled into the phone cutting her off mid sentence. "What the hell are you going on about? What do you mean running across the country?"

"What do you mean, what do I mean?" Cindy slurred, "You're the one sending poor Asha out in the middle of the night just so Max knows that her transport to China or wherever will be there at ten. Haven't you ever heard of the telephone?"

"You told Asha where Max was?" Logan asked disbelief. He didn't wait for Cindy's reply. "You told Asha that Max was at my family's cabin? You sent her to my cabin? She told you that she had to give Max a message and you told her where Max was?"

"Geez Logan, lighten up." Cindy struggled to get the words out in a straight sentence without bringing up all the alcohol that she had consumed in the past few hours. "Asha's your little work buddy or whatever. If you have a problem with her helping that perhaps you should tell her. Why the hell did you tell her to give Max a message if she wasn't meant to go and give it to her?"

"I didn't!" Logan yelled hanging up the phone and driving recklessly towards his cabin.

~*

Alec laid on the couch and tried to amuse himself as he counted down the time that he had decided to let Max cool down before he made his move.

Alec thought that he heard a noise outside but put it down to the rain that had started to fall rather heavily about ten minutes ago.

"Three minutes." Alec said to himself looking at his watch then looking to the door of Max's room.

At that moment, the noise that Alec thought he heard became fact, when the door to the cabin went flying open and a wet figure stood in the doorway.

Alec couldn't help but make a stupid remark. "You know that if you had knocked I would have gotten up and answered the door."

"Why don't you start by shutting your smart ass mouth!" A bitter voice returned.

Max followed her instinct and ran to the door. She flung it open half- expecting Alec to be standing like a dumb idiot in the middle of the living room with a broken lamp or something. Instead she found Asha with a gun pointed directly at Alec's head.

~*

Logan was driving like a mad man. He needed to be at the cabin before something bad happened. Thanks to Cindy's drunken state Asha knew exactly where she was going if she wanted Max dead.

The rain hadn't helped the situation at all. He was still finding it hard to believe that Asha was a killer and working for none other than Ames White!

He knew that Asha was already at the cabin if he was nearly there than it was a certainty that Asha would be there planning her attack or already carrying it out!

Logan took the next turn on the slippery road a little to sharp and went careering of the road and into the nearest tree.

~*

After Cindy's slightly unpleasant conversation with Logan and a vomiting session, she decided to climb into bed and sleep it off.

On arrival in her bedroom, Cindy noticed a small folded piece of paper on her bedside table.

She picked it up and read it, it was from Max.

"Asha's the transgenic killer?" Cindy asked herself.

~*

Logan was okay, sore and disorientated but still okay. He climbed out of his completely destroyed car just in time for it to catch on fire.

"No, no, no, no, no, no!" Logan yelled at the burning vehicle. He was starting to lose conscious and was developing double vision. He just wanted to lie down on the side of the road and go to sleep.

Logan started to walk. It was pouring rain and he couldn't see what he was doing or where her was going. He had lost a lot of his logical thought but could still compose himself enough to get the basic concept of what he was meant to be doing.

"I have to save Max." He mumbled slightly incoherent and kept putting one foot in front of the other and slowly worked his way towards the cabin.

~*

"Asha, what the hell are you doing?" Max asked when the gun moved from Alec head to hers.

"I'm doing what I should have done when you first came back from Manticore." Asha said calmly yet with a sense of craziness.

"You don't want to do this!" Alec said raising a hand and slowly starting in Asha direction.

Asha moved the gun back to Alec and he stopped edging forward. "I really don't think you should do that. I have enough bullets for the both of you.

Max looked at Alec. She wanted him to read her eyes and see that if he distracted her enough, Max could knock her out. 'Hell', she thought, 'we're genetically engineered for God's sake!'

When Alec looked at Max, Asha saw something pass between the two of them. "Oh my God!" Asha said in realization, "You two are having an affair!"

"No we're not!" Max and Alec both chimed in at the same time, staring at Asha as though she just revealed the world's biggest secret.

"You never loved him." Asha started softly and then worked her way into a shout. "You never gave a shit about him! You were using him! You treated him like crap, but he loved you so much that he couldn't see the real you, he didn't see the wool that you pulled over his eyes."

Max stared at her in disbelief. She stood up straight and looked directly at Asha, who at this point in time had moved the gun to her side after waving it frantically through the air yelling at Max, and said in a calm voice. "To bad that he didn't see you coming either!"

"You don't deserve him!" Asha screamed at Max. Asha was now looking for a fight. "You should have stayed away from him. You're a disease that spreads through society. No one even sees you, because they don't want to believe that you exist. You're kind were never meant to be here, you were a fault of human development. You were a mistake. Do you hear me? A mistake!"

Joshua could hear the yelling. It didn't initially wake him, the crash woke him. He knew Asha, not well, but he knew her.

He peered through the tiny space between the door and the doorframe. He tested different angles. He saw Asha, she looked very angry and kept waving a gun around yelling mean stuff at Max. Then there was Alec who tried to appear calm but wasn't fooling Joshua. And Max, poor Max was just standing there getting close to pinning herself against the wall, taking in everything that Asha said.

"Thanks Asha, you're real nice." Alec said trying to be smart. "First you bust in here without knocking, accuse me and Max of having an affair and now you're calling me and mine horrible things and I'm not going to stand here and tolerate it."

"Shut up Alec!" Max and Asha both cued on time.

Max was about to run at Asha and tackle her to the ground and punch the living shit out of her but by the time she was ready to run Asha had repositioned the gun and fired it.

~*

Logan could just see the cabin. The lights were on and there were people yelling at each other. Then there was a gun fired, Logan panicked and started running for the cabin.

He prayed that it wasn't Max. He hoped that she was all right. He fell over many times on his sprint to the cabin's front door. He could feel the blood on his head, it was thicker than the rain and sticky. It was the gash from the car crash. His track through the wilderness didn't help his legs or his exoskeleton, he could feel it starting to falter but thanked his God when it lasted the distance from the car to the cabin, through the pouring rain and didn't give in.

He could see Asha's slim form standing in the doorway of the family cabin. She stood frozen with the gun held out in front of her. She wasn't moving, Logan wondered if she decided that she had made a bad decision at the last second.

Max slid down to the floor with aid from the wall. She lay in a heap on the floor clutching at her left shoulder. She could feel herself slowly drifting into unconsciousness, the blood was leaving her body faster then she could comprehend.

Alec rushed to her side. "Max, Max? Can you hear me?" He said taking her face in his hands and stroking it thoughtfully. "You'll be okay, I promise. I'll make sure that you're okay."

Max couldn't feel anything, her whole body had gone completely numb on her. Her eyes kept trying to roll into the back of her head but she fought to stay alive. She fought so hard, but the numbness was becoming too much for her to handle. She didn't even notice Alec lean her against his chest and hold her. "I think."

"Shh, don't talk." Alec said rocking her back and forward gently, "Everything will be okay."

Tears welled in Max's eyes as she watched Alec look at her with an unbelievable amount of protection. She suddenly felt very tired, she closed her eyes and nuzzled right into Alec's chest. "Goodbye." She whispered to him.

"No," Alec demanded the dying Max. "No you don't. You're going to live. Sure you've lost a shit load of blood, but you're strong Maxie. You know it, I know it. Please don't go." Alec let tears spill out of his eyes, as he held Max close and felt her life slowly slip out of her body. He had his hand over the bullet wound trying to stop the blood loss but was doubtful himself.

Joshua couldn't believe what he was seeing. He flung the door open and started for Asha knocking her over onto the hard wood floor. He wanted to rip her into a thousand human pieces but could make his conscience do it so until he thought of something he could do, he took her weapon and threw it into the front yard and sat on her.

"Joshua?" Logan yelled as he got closer to the cabin. His vision just allowed him to see Asha hit the floor and the dog-man Joshua sit on her. "Joshua, where's Max?"

Joshua stood, spun around and then ran for Logan. "Asha shot Max." He said slowing when he reached Logan.

"What?" Logan questioned shocked and scared. "Is she okay? Is Max okay?"

"She's sleeping," Joshua remembered Max closing her eyes and Alec shaking her awake.

Logan ran passed Joshua, up to the cabin and through the empty doorway. He stopped when he saw Alec rocking Max and whispering things in her ear. "Is she okay?"

Alec looked up at Logan, his eyes full of tears that wouldn't stop coming. "No. I think she's gone Logan."

Logan started towards the wall Alec was leaning against arms out ready to scoop Max up. He fell on his ass on the floor when Alec put his hand up to stop him from touching Max.

"Do you want to die?" Alec yelled at him still gripping the unconscious Max. "Just because she's dead doesn't mean the virus is!"

Joshua reappeared in the doorway. "Asha gone!" He yelled at the males sitting in the corner grieving Max. "We gotta blaze. Hospital. Gotta save Max."

Alec had the worst feeling that there was no hope for her but they may as well try. He stood, scooping Max into his arms and heading for the front yard where Asha's four wheel drive was still parked.

Joshua helped Logan to his feet and escorted him to the car.

Alec knew that Logan was in no shape to drive and Joshua shouldn't be let behind the wheel of a car so he would have to drive.

He gave Joshua strict instructions on how much pressure to put on Max's wound. He put Max and Joshua in the back and the barely conscious Logan in the front and headed back into town as fast as the weather would allow him.

~*

Max was still asleep when the nurse came to check her vitals that morning and sent Alec and Logan out of the room. When the nurse started to fiddle around with her back and lower stomach Max decided that it was time to wake up. She flicked her eyes open wide and then closed them again when the light hit them. She let out a long agonizing moan and slowly opened them again.

"Good morning sleepy head," The nurse said removing her hand and recovering Max with the blankets. "We were worried about you."

"Really?" Max questioned still groggy from whatever antibiotics they gave her. "What happened?"

"From what I've been told, you were shot by some crazy bitch called Asha!" The nurse said remembering the heated argument between Logan and Alec during the night.

"Tell them I died and that they can come in and say goodbye now." Max said squeezing her eyes tight in a failed hope to extinguish her headache.

"Is that a good idea?" The nurse asked raising an eyebrow at Max. "Would you like some more pain killers?"

"God no!" Max said opening her eyes wide. "Just tell them I'm dead, okay?"

"If you insist." The nurse said heading for the door to Max's room and two very tired guys. "Um. how do I say this?" The nurse asked stopping in front of Alec and Logan.

"Oh my God, what happened?" Logan sat up in his wheelchair worried.

"She just passed on." The nurse said all most unable to control her smile.

"What?" Alec said jumping up and running into Max's room closely followed by Logan in his wheelchair.

When Alec saw her sitting up and staring at him with a big smile on her face he knew that the joke was for him. He smiled and ran over to her, jumped onto the bed and gave her a big hug.

Logan wheeled himself over to the side of the bed. "Man am I glad that you're okay." He said with a great deal of relief.

"Me too." Alec said looking at her quickly and then burying his face in her hair.

"I'm fine." Max laughed at Alec who was sprawled on top of her. "Alec, please get off me." She was glad when his weight was lifted off her but she still wanted him near her.

"We should be able to take you home soon, I hope." Alec said casually as he sat in a chair beside her bed.

"We called Cindy and everybody from Jam Pony." Logan started, "They told us to call when we knew exactly what was happening. Cindy said she'd be here as soon as possible."

"And here she is." Cindy said entering the room and hugging Max. "Don't you ever do that again, do you hear me. Never!"

"I promise." Max whispered trying to hold back her tears as she was held in the arms of her best friend.