Title: The Enemy Of My Enemy
Author: Drea Jackman
Email: webmaster@the-spacemonkey.net
URL:
Warning: If you're one of these people that can't get their head around non- m/l or m/a 'ships, turn back now. This fic is strictly for the open-minded ... and my fellow writers in the Conclave.
Disclaimer: Not my characters or my show...unfortunately. Just having a little fun with them for now, but I promise to return them to the shelf when I'm done ... though I might keep White a little longer ;).
The Enemy Of My Enemy
After staggering through the empty shells of building after building, Max finally selected one that seemed appropriate. Her criteria really wasn't all that hard to satisfy. Now she felt far enough away from the hunting party and that the building she had picked wasn't a glaringly obvious one, she was content to settle. They fumbled their way through the remains of a chemical plant, its many corridors and rooms giving them a labyrinth to get lost in if needbe. Hopefully the human Hunters would miss them too.
As they went, Max mentally kicked herself with every slowed step she took. She was helping White, there was just nothing right about that no matter how hard she tried to imagine the outcome of her actions. Save the psycho now so that he may hurt or kill her friends later - it was insane. She had definitely been hanging around Logan's high morals way too long. When you started to show humanity toward a killer, the boundaries of reason were sure to bend and crumble. Max wasn't even sure Logan would have gone back for him if he'd been in her place.
There was a room to the top of a narrow flight of metals stairs. It was hidden away from view no matter which side of the building you entered by, while still offering escape into the maze of tunnels if needed. It was perfect.
As Max began to take the narrow stairs first, she went side-on to haul White up each step with her. It was only at his grunt of either sheer annoyance or discomfort that she responded.
Gripping his arm tightly she hissed under her breath, "What?"
Without waiting for an answer, she dragged him up the last few steps and kicked in the door to their new hideaway. The second she'd stepped through the door, White pushed himself off Max and hit the wall beside him, probably harder than he'd intended.
"Suits me fine," Max returned and dusted herself off as if he had been some kind of highly contagious pathogen.
"You're just lucky I'm in a more tolerant mood, 452," he said calmly and tried to limp across the room using the wall as a support until he lowered himself down onto an upturned box.
"Were all you Familiars born naturally stupid or is it a finely selected genetic gift?"
White's eyes shot up and locked with hers, his eyes burning intensely as his jaw locked. He wasn't amused in the slightest.
"My name's Max."
"They day I address you as anything more than a freak with a designated number is the day you realise I'm so much more than you could ever hope to become."
His words were spoken slow and deliberate, keen emphasis on the irony that Max would never acknowledge him as such and so it was an empty threat.
"Like that'll happen," Max muttered under her breath as she surveyed the room quickly.
White smirked. "A sad irony indeed."
He stiffened uncomfortably as he began to shrug his suit jacket from his shoulder and cursed under his breath. Max didn't miss a thing.
"I thought that with all that superiority you had goin' for you, you'd already conquered pain."
White seemed more angry at her having noticed than at her reply. Without responding he braced himself and straightened up, suddenly fuelled by the humiliation of being caught at a weaker moment by the enemy. He yanked the jacket down off his left shoulder in one quick, solid motion. White didn't utter a sound, but Max was aware of the sweaty glow beginning to emanate from his forehead and down over his jaw. She knew that even though he hadn't dignified her with a pained response, he'd felt it all the same.
She grimaced slightly as she saw the state his shoulder was in. Now free of his jacket, his shoulder hung low as if flesh and muscle were all that held it in place. The shirt covering it was smeared with blood stains all down the arm. In the shoulder itself, there was a fairly large hole and the surrounding material was soaked through. Noticing her keen attention, White began to turn from her sight.
"Gives you a rush, doesn't it?"
"No," Max replied sincerely. She wasn't expecting to actually feel for him when she saw him injured. It was something both of them had expected her to take satisfaction in.
"Don't," he warned in a low voice as he checked the bullet wound.
"Don't what?"
"Look at me like that."
"Like what? You think I pity you? YOU?!" Max fired back, betraying the fact that 'pity' had occurred to her already.
"Weakness, keep it to yourself," he replied over his shoulder.
Max bit her lip. She wanted nothing more than to tell him exactly what she thought of him and his phoney superiority complex, but she daren't risk it. Starting a yelling match would only put her position in jeopardy and give her away to the pack searching the facility. It could wait.
"You're a killer, White. You bring nothing but pain and suffering to every life you touch. Your kind may think it's set to 'inherit the Earth' someday, but let me tell you, you'll be very alone when that day comes."
White, face hidden, didn't have to hide his inadvertent acknowledgement of her words. While his conscious mind rejected them as the ramblings of an insignificant lesser-being, something else made his stance come close to a physical cringe. He was conflicted, probably for the first real time in his life and the fact that it was a this particular transgenic doing it made it all the harder to swallow.
"Little dramatic aren't we?" he finally returned, but the sting was missing from his words. He wasn't up to par on filling his badass role at that moment.
"Your wife, what about her?"
"I loved her," White said firmly and turned a little more to face her.
"Love?" Max almost laughed. "Your wife was a means to an end and when you were through with her, you killed her."
"I had no choice."
It was then that White caught himself off guard and realised he was slipping. Into what he wasn't entirely sure, but he sure as hell wasn't having this conversation and certainly not with some transgenic filth. He turned from her abruptly and inhaled slowly to gather his temper.
Max felt the discomfort in the air too. Granted she'd felt uncomfortable in his company all night, but that had been familiar and expected. This was different. This time it was because she'd seen a flash of something different in him. There was no humanity in him to catch a glimpse of, so what the heck was she even thinking? Then again, there'd been a glimmer of something and she couldn't deny it. She decided to revert to their usual rivalry for support. There were some things you just trusted in, like longitude and latitude - White was her enemy.
"I'm going to set up a perimeter," she told him. "For your sake, you'd better be asleep by the time I get back."
"I don't sleep," he replied calmly, voice taking on the similar hostility it had held earlier that evening.
Max turned to look at him over her shoulder as she made to leave. From her position she could only see his back. She missed the fact that the smirk she imagined crossing his features at her expense wasn't there. His brow was furrowed as he awaited her reaction, no sign of pleasure being taken in his torment of the X5.
"Learn."
And with that, White was alone.
TBC
Author: Drea Jackman
Email: webmaster@the-spacemonkey.net
URL:
Warning: If you're one of these people that can't get their head around non- m/l or m/a 'ships, turn back now. This fic is strictly for the open-minded ... and my fellow writers in the Conclave.
Disclaimer: Not my characters or my show...unfortunately. Just having a little fun with them for now, but I promise to return them to the shelf when I'm done ... though I might keep White a little longer ;).
The Enemy Of My Enemy
After staggering through the empty shells of building after building, Max finally selected one that seemed appropriate. Her criteria really wasn't all that hard to satisfy. Now she felt far enough away from the hunting party and that the building she had picked wasn't a glaringly obvious one, she was content to settle. They fumbled their way through the remains of a chemical plant, its many corridors and rooms giving them a labyrinth to get lost in if needbe. Hopefully the human Hunters would miss them too.
As they went, Max mentally kicked herself with every slowed step she took. She was helping White, there was just nothing right about that no matter how hard she tried to imagine the outcome of her actions. Save the psycho now so that he may hurt or kill her friends later - it was insane. She had definitely been hanging around Logan's high morals way too long. When you started to show humanity toward a killer, the boundaries of reason were sure to bend and crumble. Max wasn't even sure Logan would have gone back for him if he'd been in her place.
There was a room to the top of a narrow flight of metals stairs. It was hidden away from view no matter which side of the building you entered by, while still offering escape into the maze of tunnels if needed. It was perfect.
As Max began to take the narrow stairs first, she went side-on to haul White up each step with her. It was only at his grunt of either sheer annoyance or discomfort that she responded.
Gripping his arm tightly she hissed under her breath, "What?"
Without waiting for an answer, she dragged him up the last few steps and kicked in the door to their new hideaway. The second she'd stepped through the door, White pushed himself off Max and hit the wall beside him, probably harder than he'd intended.
"Suits me fine," Max returned and dusted herself off as if he had been some kind of highly contagious pathogen.
"You're just lucky I'm in a more tolerant mood, 452," he said calmly and tried to limp across the room using the wall as a support until he lowered himself down onto an upturned box.
"Were all you Familiars born naturally stupid or is it a finely selected genetic gift?"
White's eyes shot up and locked with hers, his eyes burning intensely as his jaw locked. He wasn't amused in the slightest.
"My name's Max."
"They day I address you as anything more than a freak with a designated number is the day you realise I'm so much more than you could ever hope to become."
His words were spoken slow and deliberate, keen emphasis on the irony that Max would never acknowledge him as such and so it was an empty threat.
"Like that'll happen," Max muttered under her breath as she surveyed the room quickly.
White smirked. "A sad irony indeed."
He stiffened uncomfortably as he began to shrug his suit jacket from his shoulder and cursed under his breath. Max didn't miss a thing.
"I thought that with all that superiority you had goin' for you, you'd already conquered pain."
White seemed more angry at her having noticed than at her reply. Without responding he braced himself and straightened up, suddenly fuelled by the humiliation of being caught at a weaker moment by the enemy. He yanked the jacket down off his left shoulder in one quick, solid motion. White didn't utter a sound, but Max was aware of the sweaty glow beginning to emanate from his forehead and down over his jaw. She knew that even though he hadn't dignified her with a pained response, he'd felt it all the same.
She grimaced slightly as she saw the state his shoulder was in. Now free of his jacket, his shoulder hung low as if flesh and muscle were all that held it in place. The shirt covering it was smeared with blood stains all down the arm. In the shoulder itself, there was a fairly large hole and the surrounding material was soaked through. Noticing her keen attention, White began to turn from her sight.
"Gives you a rush, doesn't it?"
"No," Max replied sincerely. She wasn't expecting to actually feel for him when she saw him injured. It was something both of them had expected her to take satisfaction in.
"Don't," he warned in a low voice as he checked the bullet wound.
"Don't what?"
"Look at me like that."
"Like what? You think I pity you? YOU?!" Max fired back, betraying the fact that 'pity' had occurred to her already.
"Weakness, keep it to yourself," he replied over his shoulder.
Max bit her lip. She wanted nothing more than to tell him exactly what she thought of him and his phoney superiority complex, but she daren't risk it. Starting a yelling match would only put her position in jeopardy and give her away to the pack searching the facility. It could wait.
"You're a killer, White. You bring nothing but pain and suffering to every life you touch. Your kind may think it's set to 'inherit the Earth' someday, but let me tell you, you'll be very alone when that day comes."
White, face hidden, didn't have to hide his inadvertent acknowledgement of her words. While his conscious mind rejected them as the ramblings of an insignificant lesser-being, something else made his stance come close to a physical cringe. He was conflicted, probably for the first real time in his life and the fact that it was a this particular transgenic doing it made it all the harder to swallow.
"Little dramatic aren't we?" he finally returned, but the sting was missing from his words. He wasn't up to par on filling his badass role at that moment.
"Your wife, what about her?"
"I loved her," White said firmly and turned a little more to face her.
"Love?" Max almost laughed. "Your wife was a means to an end and when you were through with her, you killed her."
"I had no choice."
It was then that White caught himself off guard and realised he was slipping. Into what he wasn't entirely sure, but he sure as hell wasn't having this conversation and certainly not with some transgenic filth. He turned from her abruptly and inhaled slowly to gather his temper.
Max felt the discomfort in the air too. Granted she'd felt uncomfortable in his company all night, but that had been familiar and expected. This was different. This time it was because she'd seen a flash of something different in him. There was no humanity in him to catch a glimpse of, so what the heck was she even thinking? Then again, there'd been a glimmer of something and she couldn't deny it. She decided to revert to their usual rivalry for support. There were some things you just trusted in, like longitude and latitude - White was her enemy.
"I'm going to set up a perimeter," she told him. "For your sake, you'd better be asleep by the time I get back."
"I don't sleep," he replied calmly, voice taking on the similar hostility it had held earlier that evening.
Max turned to look at him over her shoulder as she made to leave. From her position she could only see his back. She missed the fact that the smirk she imagined crossing his features at her expense wasn't there. His brow was furrowed as he awaited her reaction, no sign of pleasure being taken in his torment of the X5.
"Learn."
And with that, White was alone.
TBC