A/N: This chapter had given me a bag load of Murphy's Law, but fortunately for you guys, I'm not going to harp on about. Anymore. You'll just have to grin and bear your way through the end result of my bad luck, which is this shoddy chapter. (I'm allowed to be grumpy at 4am right?)
Anyway, thanks to those who've reviewed! In answer to a question, no this probably won't be m/w, UST is probably the best you'll get from 'Breaking Tradition' (I have chapter 6 of that just about done, and half of chapter 7 written up), but hopefully there'll be better luck with 'Unfamiliar Territory' It's hard to realisitically pair up Max and White. As much as I love the ship, they're mortal enemies! These things can't be rushed... ;-)
"Are you sure this is gonna work Max?"
Hazel eyes held an intense stare as Max mulled over the same question herself. Of course the plan would work. At least, until White found out that it wasn't the entire Conclave that had betrayed him, but rather one familiar and his little group of loyal tagalongs. It was just one teensy detail Max had left out while explaining to White what had happened during the past several hours.
"Let's not worry about that now and just -"
"Let's not worry about what 452?"
Max jumped slightly in startlement, unaccustomed to being snuck up on. She turned, finding herself looking into eyes as cold and flat as the voice that accompanied them.
"Think you could try dropping the designation? My name's Max."
"Your name's mud, 452." A brief smirk flashed across the weary face of the familiar. "Now, what are we not going to worry about right now?"
"Oh you know, just whether or not you're going to play dirty and slit our throats when our guard is down." Max's tone was deceivingly light. "The usual questions that come up when you're working alongside your enemy."
"I wouldn't worry about that." White smiled, the expression lacking a single shred of warmth. "Somehow I don't think any of you will be letting your guard down around me."
Shrugging, Max nodded her head in agreement. "Yeah well, I'm not gonna argue with that."
Alec slapped his hands together and stepped forward. "Well that's great then. Now that we've got the shady trust issues out of the way, I'd just like to let you all know that I'm having the back seat okay?"
Blank faces stared back at him and the X5 rolled his eyes at the need to elaborate. " Well with all this talk of throat slitting, I really don't feel like having good old Ames White sitting behind me."
"We're not going anywhere without Logan."
Max's eyes met those of the familiar's as she spoke. Her face was set in an expression of fierce determination, this issue being one that above all else, she refused to back down on.
For a long moment, White studied her in silence, weighing up his limited options. He was a quick learner, and he'd certainly discovered by now that this transgenic had a stubborn defiance that he had almost come to admire.
What she didn't know however, was that there was no need for them to go anywhere. Soon enough their joint adversary would come to them.
It briefly occurred to White to tell her of this, but she'd find out soon enough anyway. Besides, there was always the hope that he'd be able to kill two birds with one stone, without having to sling any shots.
Glancing to the small body that lay on a tabletop across the room, White's jaw tightened before he demanded quietly, "make sure nothing happens to him while I'm gone."
Leaving the transgenics to their puzzled expressions, the suit-clad familiar strode from the room. His footsteps faded down the corridor before anyone spoke again.
"What the hell does he think we're going to do with his kid? We're not animals!" Alec swung his head towards Mole and Joshua, and his grin quickly faded at their stoical expressions. "Well, sorta."
"Does anyone else get the feeling he's not telling us something?"
Max's question snapped Alec out of his ascending blush and he quickly picked up on her line of thought, more to escape the glares of his not-so-human looking companions than anything else.
"Yeah probably. It's Ames White we're buddy-buddy with here. He's not your normal run of the mill Oscar the Grouch unlike sour-face over there." Alec indicated to a scowling lizard-man before continuing. "But hey, if he's keeping a secret, makes us even. After all, we're not exactly being entirely honest about who the killer of his son is."
"Shut up, idiot!"
Being that Alec was unfortunate enough to be within range of Max, she took the opportunity to slap him one before growling. "Let's not be letting the cat out of the bag!"
"Or the evil power-hungry familiar out of the trunk of the car." Alec winked at his glowering companion before turning to Mole. "Speaking of abductees, what say we check if he's woken from his nap yet?"
"Wait!" Max grabbed Alec's arm as he turned away, swinging him back around towards her. "What do I say if White comes back and you two are gone?"
Alec shrugged. "We had to go for a tinkle?"
"The pair of you?"
His expression becoming anxious, Alec bounced on his heels a little as his voice turned into a little kid whine. "But I neeeed to go!"
Suppressing a smile, Max shoved him away. "Well surely you don't need Mole to hold your... hand do you?"
Alec blanched as a gruff voice broke into the conversation. "You know, there's a time and a place for this kinda thing, and wherever you choose to indulge in the verbal foreplay, I'd prefer you wouldn't include any mention of me."
"Pfft! We're not... " Max's face contorted into one of horror at the implementation. Slinging his arm around her, Alec responded with a smart ass grin. "Yeah we are Maxie."
"Yuck!" Pulling away with a grimace, Max shoved Alec towards the door and pointed to the transhuman who wore a satisfied grin. "YOU can shut your mouth T-Rex and go outside with Alec. Seems he can't do it by himself after all."
With a knowing smirk, Mole followed Alec out the door, leaving Max alone with Joshua - and the dying embers of a flaming red face.
"What do we do now Little Fella?"
After the two transgenic jokesters left the room, the X5 sighed heavily and walked over to her friend, resting her head on his shoulder and closing her eyes as his arms encircled her in a warm hug.
"We wait Big Fella."
Weariness was sinking deep into her bones, but Max pushed it away and silently prayed to no particular deity, that this day could finally be over.
"You know, White'll come after us again. When he finds out we lied."
The deep rumble of Joshua's words reverberated through Max's head, filling her thoughts with guilt. Guilt that Joshua was forced to co-operate with the man who had killed Annie. And strangely enough, guilt that she was hiding the identity of Ray's real killer from the same man.
Max was finding it hard dealing with the turmoil of emotions within her, now more than ever. White was a monster, undeserving of any kind of sympathy. He had butchered her own kind, his own wife, and any civilian who got in his path. And she was more than certain that he never once felt the slightest bit of remorse over these murders. He could probably sleep pretty well at night too.
But she was pretty sure he wouldn't be getting much sleep at all anymore. And rather than feel smug about this, Max could only feel guilt.
However much Max wanted to see White miserable, she'd never wish the death of his son on him to achieve this. Max knew that he truly loved his son, and she could also see he was barely holding himself together. She'd expected an outburst of rage, she'd expected the pain to recharge him and drive him onwards like fuel to a fire. But she'd never expected to see him so broken, as much as he tried to force it under his mask.
Max couldn't even begin to imagine the grief that would come of losing your own child. She'd certainly never have imagined it would have crumbled a man such as Ames White. He seemed the kind of guy to butcher his own mother if it would get him that bit further in life. But then she thought of the home he had shared with his son and wife, the picture on the wall that portrayed a content family... perhaps it hadn't all been such a farce after all?
With another heavy sigh, Max wondered if she could confide her tug-o-war of thoughts with Joshua. He would probably understand her feelings far better than she could herself. Even the part about betraying the fragile trust White had placed in them. Joshua would never forgive White for murdering Annie. None of them would. But somehow the common ground they now unwillingly shared, had abated the dog-boy's desire to tear off the guy's head. Somewhat.
"It's sorta like we're just side-stepping the truth - for now. Not so much a lie. And it's not like we won't give him Cameron when he's helped us deal with the Conclave..."
No matter what way she tried to swing the story, there was no way to phantom the depth of White's anger once he was to realise that Cameron, the man who ordered the murder of his son, currently resided in the trunk of their car - and they were keeping this knowledge from him.
Cameron had told them of Ames's high standing among the cult, and that Ray was to have been the next Conclave leader. He'd thought that by getting the kid and Ames out of the way, he could then bring 452 to the Conclave... his place would be set. It was amazing what you could get a familiar to admit to when you were holding a gun to his head.
By the fact that the Conclave had never made moves to find the boy, Max could only hope that they had known of Cameron's plans, and had chosen not to intervene in Ray's execution. She strongly suspected that they now saw White as a liability and hoped for Cameron to take care of him too. White certainly had no hesitancy in believing the 'powers that be' were gunning for him.
"You know Josh, I have this really bad feeling that we should've told White about Cameron. He 'd have believed the Conclave sent him and it would've been a win/win situation. The Conclave would get their 'just desserts', White would have Cameron and Mac's heads to bash together, and we'd still have the 'honour' I lectured White about earlier."
Hindsight was a bitch.
"Cameron's not going anywhere Max. We can still give him to White - when he brings us Logan. We'll just say we were holding him for uh..."
"Collateral" Max finished Joshua's sentence with a smile. It was a plan that could indeed work.
Hands reached out to Ames through the grills of cell doors as he passed through the corridor. The mutterings of those obvious to all but the voices inside their own heads, were accompanied by the raging howls of the tormented and insane.
Over the past decade, Ames White had visited his brother on a scant dozen occasions. He found it hard having to pass the side-show of lunatics on his way to CJ's cell. His meticulous nature could not tolerate the state of the world his brother had been forced lived in. And maybe just a fraction of him felt guilty because of it.
But Ames had a strong sense of duty, regardless of the vast list of negative qualities he toted. He'd always felt responsible for the sibling who had never managed to make the transition from child to adult. In his own awkward way, Ames even had affection for his brother. And so he would stop in to see him from time to time. To check that he was still alive at least.
Today, he passed through these stinking, dilapidated corridors not to see his brother, but to fetch Logan Cale from the cell he had shoved him into. His amicable attitude towards the man's release would be surprising if it weren't for the fact that in a few hours, the guy would be dead anyway. Along with a good six billion or so others of his species.
Side stepping a crazy who sat on the corridor floor swiping at flying insects only he could see, White stopped at a cell and pulled out a set of keys. He stared at them in his palm, wanting to continue on down the hall, but finding himself unable to. As the keys jingled, a voice called to him from the other side of the door.
"Ames! Is that you? Have you come for me brother? Have you come to break me outta here? I knew you would!"
Ames sighed. It was the same questions every time. Wasn't he supposed to be bound and gagged?
Setting his jaw in an obstinate expression of semi-tolerance, Ames shoved a key into the lock and slid the door open. He closed his eyes for a moment to collect his thoughts, and entered the cell of the one his father had adored the most.
The stench of the room hit Ames immediately, filling his senses, making him want to turn away and retch. Little wonder. It seemed CJ's room mate had been doing some finger painting. At least, Ames hoped it was the room mate.
CJ had been allowed release from the confinements of the rotting mattress to which he was usually strapped. Now, he was leashed to the iron bedhead like a dog, allowing him a couple of feet of leeway. Surprisingly, even the straightjacket was absent today. Ames figured security was lax due to the pending apocalypse.
The roommate was no where to be seen, thus ruling out Ames's theory on who had been doing the doodles on the wall. He wrinkled his nose in disgust. It seemed CJ had developed their father's talent for art.
CJ's eyes held excitement and no small degree of fear as he greeted his older sibling.
"Fe 'nos tol my brother!"
Fe 'nos tol. Funny how the words now filled Ames with more distaste than the sight of the shit smeared walls. So many things had changed in the past few hours. Everything he'd ever believed in, had now been turned against him. Ames wasn't really surprised by this. He had lost his standing among the elite months ago, after making what was the last in a long line of stuff ups.
The silence in the room grew as Ames tried to force himself to say the words 'fe'nos tol'. Over the years, the greeting had become a well worn habit. For those among the breeding cult it was nothing more than a formality. But for CJ, it was like a security blanket he clung to. His younger sibling's genetic flaws meant that he should have died as a child. Because of their father's sentimentality, he'd managed to slip through the cracks. Classed as neither a familiar nor a human, CJ and the other oddities who lived in this broken institute were like lost souls.
For them, the words fe'nos tol were not even supposed to be uttered from their lips. For some reason, Ames had always indulged his brother with this one small allowance. Try as he might to blame him for causing their father to leave, he couldn't. Not when he looked at his pitifully weak body strapped down to a rank, sagging mattress, and knew that at the end of the day, father's favourite had gotten the raw end of the deal.
Ames broke out of his thoughts and looked to his brother, who waited expectantly for a reply with no small amount of undisguised apprehension in his face. He didn't even know why he'd stopped in here, although a niggling thought whispered that it was the need to have some kind of family to connect to once more. No matter how short that connection would last. It was a basic human instinct that even he with all of his superior breeding and mental conditioning, was not entirely immune to. Especially now, when CJ was all he had left. In the entire world.
"Fe 'nos tol little brother."
Ames quietly whispered the words at last. CJ's eyes lit up once more in relief. His brother could be kind, or cruel. Visits from him were like the lucky dip games he could vaguely remember as a child. You just never know what you'd be in for.
"You're breaking me out of here right? You've forgiven me for letting Max - uh, 452 get away? Are you taking me with you Ames?"
For the barest moment, Ames almost considered it. He had a feeling that CJ knew that it was nearly time. The kid didn't always seem to be the basket case he acted. He couldn't blame him for wanting to pretend during the final fragments of his life, that he was truly one of them. The strong. The powerful. The survivors.
But like everything else in life. It would be just a lie.
"No little bro." Ames's voice was toneless, a bare whisper. "I've come to say goodbye."
A look of utter betrayal crossed CJ's features before he set his face in a stony scowl and turned away, rather like a sulking child. "Uhh huh. And where do you think you're going."
Ames clenched his fists in frustration. He never should have come here. What had he hoped to achieve by visiting this half-wit? Some kind of peace of mind?
Stepping away from his brother, Ames turned back towards the door, setting back into place the mask of indifference that had temporarily slipped. The cold calculation had returned to his eyes by the time he faced his brother once more.
"Actually CJ, you're the one who's going to be leaving."
"Oh." CJ's tone fell flat. And then a light went on in his head and illuminated his eyes. "Oh! So you're getting me out of here after all are ya? I knew it!"
Fighting the infuriation that his lunatic brother often induced in him, White closed his eyes briefly before replying. "Sure. Wait right here though okay?"
As if he had any other place to go.
Ames left him then, the poor little sap, nodding enthusiastically as if his very head were on the brink of popping off his neck. But as he continued on his way down the corridor, towards the room in which he had locked Logan Cale, Ames White wondered if he might just keep that promise after all.
Then again, maybe not.
"I think our buddy's awake."
"Ya think?" Mole rolled his eyes in sarcasm as he picked up his pace a little, hoping to get to their prisoner first.
"Hey what's the hurry bro?" Alec grinned and increased his own stride, not wanting the lizard-man to claim all the fun of knocking out the familiar. "You did it last time remember?"
"Yeah well, if you want a job done proper..."
Shooting his friend a look of indignation, Alec exclaimed, "Hey! What are you tryin'a say?"
"That you hit like a girl."
Pausing to consider this for a moment, Alec replied with a smirk. "Well, if Max ever heard you insult her gender, she'd be kicking your green ass."
"Pfft!" Mole stopped walking and turned to the X5, a smirk etched on his reptilian features. "Hey, do you realise you just insulted yourself there?"
Frowning in puzzlement, Alec tilted his head to one side as he thought back over his words. Neither transgenics paid attention to the car a few meters away that shook as if a small war was being waged within its trunk.
"Yeah..." Changing the subject somewhat abruptly, Alec moved towards the car once more, taking his cell phone from his pocket as he did so. "You know, I think I'll give Dix a call. I've got a bad feeling about this."
"I'd suggest a laxative for that."
Raising an eyebrow, Alec nodded his finger towards the transhuman as he waited for Dix to pick up his end of the phone, and mouthed 'you'll keep' to his comrade with a grin.
Mole gave the trunk a thump then proceeded to unlock it and drag out the familiar from within, while Alec gave headquarters a run down of the current events.
The transhuman was feeling like shit. He'd lost his last cigar out of the window on their way to this dump. And Max had refused to let Alec go back to pick it up. Therefore, the familiar before him symbolised the frustration that came of such wastage. Right now, Mole felt a need to vent that frustration.
"Hey, how's the head?" Mole's tone was misleadingly good-natured as he directed the question at the glowering cult loony before him.
Ignoring the quizzical looks Alec sent his way, the transhuman nodded in understanding as the familiar embarked upon a torrent of verbal abuse regarding the treatment he'd suffered through in the past few hours. All the while, the lizard-man's smile grew, much like an alligator upon spying an antelope close to the water's edge.
Finally, Mole reached the point where he felt his patience reach it's ultimate limit, and he lunged forward. Before the familiar had even registered the movement, he found himself lifted into the air, before being driven head first onto the concrete. For the second time that day, the black oblivion of unconsciousness reached out to claim him.
Throwing him back into the car, Mole turned to Alec who was busy glaring at his phone. "What's your problem?"
"Stupid battery died." Shoving the phone back into his cargo pocket, Alec turned to his friend. "So we're set?"
"Yup."
They headed back towards the building in silence. At least until random chatter began to enter Alec's head.
"Hey, think one day someone will write a book about all this?"
"About us?" Mole eyed his friend critically, and then considered the idea. "Well, with my fine looks and devilish charm, I'm sure someone will."
"Hmmfh." Alec laughed at his friend and swept him up in a big exaggerated hug. "Ohh yeah. Cause you're so cute... Like a teddy bear!"
Aghast, Mole shoved the X5 away. "Hey! Keep that going and we'll end up with fan fiction writers tryin'a ship us!"
"Ship?"
Mole shrugged. "I dunno. Was just a word that came to mind."
The pair of crime-fighting superheros wandered back towards the building, ambling casually as they discussed their future fictional prospects.
"Though, if this were a book right now, that there building would probably be rigged to self destruct. 'Cause it would be the familiars secret base of operations"
Mole laughed at the notion. "Yeah. But of course, we'd get everyone out just in the nick of time, with seconds to spare."
"Oh of course!" Pausing to think of an idea more ridiculous than the last, Alec added. "And I'm sure Deck would be in there somewhere..."
Rolling his eyes, Mole threw in, "and at the end of the day, after all we did to make this story happen, it would end with Logan getting the girl."
Alec blanched and hit his friend across the head. "Dude that's just sick! Aargh! You ruined it now!"
"Ooh, and the dreaded Coming ended up being nothing more than -"
Mole's words were suddenly cut off by the abrupt sound of gunfire. For a fleeting moment, both transgenics were struck dumb. And then realisation set in that they were under attack.
Switching into soldier mode, they blurred towards the building as familiars poured into the car park like rats from the sewers, flanking them on both sides.
"Fucking White set us up!" As Alec screamed the words to his comrade, he couldn't help but note that the joke they had shared moments earlier, had been thrown back in their faces - it seemed the institute was the familiars' secret base of operations after all.
"Did we mention anything about us being gunned down in the story?"
"Nah, it's definitely not written in the -"
Mole's last word was torn from his mouth as a bullet caught him, causing him to stumble heavily. Alec grabbed his arm and pulled him onwards.
Alec had parked the car further back from the old rundown psychiatric institute where White had instructed them to meet, having not known what they'd be heading in to. It was such an unfortunate choice to make now that familiars were closing in and they hadn't crossed half the distance yet.
Bullet's whizzed around them, at a glance to either side, Alec estimated forty or so familiars were trying to head them off, fortunately only a few carried weapons but still, even if they made it into the building... it didn't bear thinking about right now.
Mole was struggling to keep pace, and he was half being held up by Alec. The X5 spared a glance and noted the bullet had torn through his thigh, the amount of blood that ran from the wound made a chill run down his spine. If he kept losing blood at that rate...
"Hold on Mole, not far now!"
The transhuman grunted in reply, and made an effort to increase his speed. There was just a matter of meters to go, and a good chance they'd make it. With no weapons on them, and so greatly outnumbered, Alec hoped there was a good damned back door out of the place. And that they weren't surrounded.
Alec threw a glance over his shoulder and was chilled to see the familiars weren't in any great hurry to advance upon them. It was as if they already knew they'd quarried their prey, and were arrogant enough to feel they could bide their time. He was looking forward to show them they shouldn't be so quick to misjudge the abilities of their opposition.
"Hope you're not gonna think that wound'll let you off the hook from kicking some cult ass buddy!"
Mole opened his mouth to reply but it seemed that it was his fate to have words stolen from him and replaced by bullets. At the moment when a witty retort was bound to have left his lips, another bullet ripped through the transhuman, bursting forth from his chest with a shower of blood. This time, he plummeted forward, a look of complete disbelief captured on his features.
Catching him, Alec hoisted his friend over his shoulder. "Shit Mole! You'd use any excuse for laziness!"
It was useless to try and make light of the injury and pretend their story would have a happy ending. As if Mole wasn't in enough danger from the first bullet wound, he now bled a dark red path down Alec's shoulder from the second. A small voice inside Alec's head told him he'd never make it in by carrying the heavy transhuman, that he should drop him and continue on. But that was the old Alec talking. Mr Self-preservation. Well, he wasn't like that now.
The air to one side of his head brushed his face as a bullet charged past, smacking into the wall of the building that was now only a few meters away. They could make it.
"Sweet as buddy, not far to go!" He doubted Mole could hear him, but he grunted the words anyway, more for his own comfort than anything else.
Four meters... three meters... two meters... sweet as... kiss our ass cult bred scum!
A sudden searing pain told him Alec they wasn't going to make it after all. He crumpled beneath the combined impact and weight of his friend, unable to stop himself from crashing to the ground.
One and a half meters...
Pinned under Mole, Alec struggled to rise, he had no choice but to shrug away the unconscious body atop of him and crawl forward. His legs felt heavy and refused to respond, and so he dragged himself forward on his stomach.
One meter...
The familiars were closing in, Alec could practically feel their vile breath on his neck. Pain tore through him, burning into him like fire, but he used it to fuel himself forward. His thoughts were on Max and Joshua within the building before him. With two men down, they'd be even more defenceless against the force of the familiars. But perhaps if White still maintained his side of the truce, there'd be one more on their side against the masses...
Half a meter...
He had to make those final feet damnit! Damned if he was to let Logan wind up in a hotel with the girl! It was the least of his worries right now, but the thought hit him none the less.
Unfortunately, so did another bullet.
His lower back erupted into fire, the pain so intense that unconsciousness immediately began to close in on him. He forced it back, and tried to pull himself forward. He couldn't move. His body was leaden, unresponsive. Alec screamed in frustration, channelling every bit of his will power into advancing forward.
Half a meter...
He couldn't do it. Heaviness was folding down on top of him, suffocating his mind, filling it with darkness. From the corner of his eye he saw boots stop before his face, and he knew then that it was over. Hands reached down and roughly grabbed him, as if anything could add to the pain. His mind sank deeper within himself. There was nothing he could do. For any of them.
Before sliding beneath the murky depths at last, Alec's final though was that he wouldn't find out how the ending of this story would turn out after all.