A/N: Dun dun dun! Chapter 10. Thank you for not making any attempts on my life and also for not hating me for killing off Josh. Thanks for the reviews, guys, and please tell me how you think I did on this one. The next chapter should be up pretty soon.
Disclaimer: These are getting pretty old by now. I STILL don't own Dark Angel or any of its characters; I'm sure that doesn't come as a surprise to anyone. Also, I'm still not rich enough to sue, so once again, don't bother. Dark Angel is the property of James Cameron, Fox, and Charles Eglee.
Chapter Ten
_____________________________________________________________________
Mourning
Sewers
Seattle, Wa., September 12th, 2021
"Shh. Shh, Max."
His lips sought her hair, and brushed the gleaming strands in a soft, tender kiss.
She turned her face into his bare chest, and trailing wetness seared flesh.
He stroked her bowed head, bringing his mouth to the curve of her cheekbone,
lingering there as he pressed his face to hers. He kissed her chin. "I'm sorry." The
words grated harshly in his throat.
She leaned into his comfort, her arms seeking to pull him closer, and his throaty
voice echoed within her ears...
"Max." He sounded tired now. Tired and sad. "Max, wake up."
She stirred, and found cold cement beneath her back. She couldn't feel him,
couldn't feel his body heat...and surged upright, frightened, disoriented. "Alec? Where
are you?" Max whispered, reaching out for him.
He crouched before her, and touched a hand to her fingertips. "Right here. Sorry
to wake you up, but you were dreamin', and-"
"It's ok." She eased into the wall behind her, blinking to clear the last fog of
sleep. "It's...fine." She looked up at him, moisture thick in her eyes. Her breath
fluttered out in a ragged sigh.
He swallowed hard. "I know, Max."
Sirens had urged them to flee that night, with only enough time for Alec to grab a
shirt and his jacket before they took to the streets, searching for some place to hide...and
leading Max to her presumably favorite refuge-the wonderful sights and smells of the
sewer systems beneath the city. They'd been in hiding for the past two days-wondering if
it was safe to come out, wondering what was going on in the world above them. But they would
have move on soon-the offensive stench was starting to get to both, and the lack
of food and drinkable water presented a serious problem.
Alec moved to her side. She shivered lightly in the surrounding damp and chill
air, and without a thought he circled both arms loosely around her quivering body,
lending his body heat.
His gentleness only reminded her of things best forgotten, and she jerked abruptly
away, blinking aside tears.
He released his hold, sliding with leisurely grace to the hard ground, pocketing
both hands in his jacket. A thick lump formed within his throat; he swallowed around it
with difficulty, averting his gaze to the cement beneath him. "Max..."
"Don't." she whispered, turning gleaming eyes to him. "I don't want to talk
about it."
He sighed. "I don't want to talk about it either. But don't push me away. I'm
tryin' to help you."
"I don't need your help, dammit." she snapped harshly, wondering at the same
time what had caused her to lash out at him like that. He'd done nothing but be there for
her the past two days, though if she thought about it, he'd really been there for her a lot
longer than two days.
His eyes widened in the face of her anger. She scrambled frantically to her feet,
leaning one hand on the cement tunnel for support, breathing labored. "This is all my
fault. He'd have been safer at Manticore; I should have just left him there.
Then...this...never would have happened." She heard him rise, and squeezed both eyes
shut, a few tears escaping.
"Max, we've talked about this before. You can't go blamin' yourself every time
something like this happens." he said quietly. "It wasn't your fault. You didn't kill
Joshua."
"I let him out into the world, didn't I? I let them all out; it was me who torched
Manticore. They're free; they're getting killed because of me."
"Would you have preferred Joshua stayed at Manticore? Havin' experiments
done on him? Havin' Manticore torture him until he wished he were dead? Max, I know
what's it like to be put through stuff like that-I went through reindocrination. Twice.
And believe me, I sure as hell prefer being out here, on the outside, takin' my chances
with the norms to being back at Manticore. You escaped when you were nine-you don't
know what those sick bastards started doin' to us after your unit escaped."
His voice vibrated with pain; Max spun toward him, her eyes taking in the soft
perfection of his face, the agony in that beautiful gaze. She felt another tear slip down
her face, and clenched her jaw to stifle the sob.
He reached out and gently cupped her cheek in his hand. "He's gone to be with
Annie, Max." Alec whispered, tears shining in his own eyes now. "They'll be happy
together."
He drew her toward him, into the protective cover of his arms. His fingers
cautiously sought her own; she peered up into his face through a thick film of tears.
"They will, won't they?" Max said, smiling slightly through her sadness. "He won't be-"
Her voice caught on a sob. "Alone."
Alec bent to kiss her softly on the forehead, turning his head to rest it against hers.
*Neither will you, Max. Whether you like it or not-I'm not leavin' you.*
They walked side by side without talking, hands thrust within jacket pockets, the
atmosphere taut and heavy about them. Only quiet intakes of breath permeated the quiet
of their surroundings, the noise augmented by genetically enhanced hearing.
She felt grateful for his warm presence beside her; more than he would ever
know. Bearing this alone would have been too much. But with Alec at her side, she
felt...stronger, somehow. More powerful.
Max snuck a look at him, his profile heavy with undulating shadows. In the dim
light of the sewers, he appeared almost ethereal. A godly figure given flesh and
substance.
He glanced across to her brooding figure, and found himself staring into deep
brown pools. His breath caught for a moment, a brisk inhale that wafted against her
sensitive ears. They turned quickly away from one another, almost simultaneously. Alec
felt his heart take up a thundering march within his chest.
Something about the oppressive atmosphere seemed to have changed, the very air
rippling with electricity. He felt it all throughout his body, a jolt that quivered his entire
muscular frame.
Max spoke first. "Alec..."
He stopped, mid-stride, and looked expectantly at her.
She couldn't meet his eyes, instead peering intensely at her shoes, as though they
alone held the meaning of life. "Look, I wanted to say...I *should* say..." she trailed off,
looking decidedly uncomfortable. Her voice lowered, until vocal cords caressed the
word in the softest of whispers. "Thanks."
He touched a finger softly to her chin. "For what, Max?"
"For what?" she said, peering at him through wide eyes. "For...everything, I
guess. For...being here with me now. For understanding what I'm going through."
"Logan would do the same thing." Alec said, his chest tightening at mention of
the older man's name.
Max shook her head, chestnut locks gleaming beneath the pale illumination of the
sewer tunnel. "Not like you. What you said before, about us needing to be with our own
kind...I'm starting to think you're right."
Alec's eyes widened. *Is she saying...*
"The norms are never going to stop fearing us, stop hating us. Even Logan...I've
seen the look in his eyes. He's afraid of us sometimes, afraid of what we are. I can't be
with someone who's afraid of me. And I've started to realize that..." Max hesitated, her
eyes flicking away from the intensity of his face.
His breath stilled inside his chest.
A sharp voice shattered the moment. "What the hell are you kids doing down
here?"
"I don't care what yo' have to do. I want to know where the hell my girl an' her
boy are!"
Logan swiveled to face the enraged black woman, ruffling the hair at the nape of
his neck. "OC, I'm trying my best, but they could be anywhere by now. They might not
even be in Seattle anymore. You have to understand, I'm just as anxious to find Max and
Alec as you are, but that-"
"Then get yo' damn ass in gear an' start hackin' into the police department; find
out if those two got their asses picked up by them cops."
Seated on the couch, her hands knotted at her lap, Asha rose to stand beside
Original Cindy. "Do it Logan. We have to find out where they are, what happened to
them."
His eyes, shadowed in grief and worry, perused her strained face. He squeezed
both eyes tightly shut for a moment, coaxing his breathing back to normal levels. "Are
you sure there weren't anymore bodies?" he asked quietly.
"Just doggy boy; I saw them take him out on a stretcher. And a couple o' humans
they found cold in the street, plus the remains of a couple o' kids. My Boo an' her
transgenic hottie weren't there."
"You don't know what happened?" Logan whispered, a cold fist closing tight
around his heart. He exhaled shakily.
"Neighbor was out givin' a report to couple a' sector cops when I got there. Said
some o' them tranny haters were harrassin' a couple a' kids in an abandoned car. Then
one o' them chucked a bomb at the car. Blew out the windows o' the house across the
street-doggy boy's house. Few minutes after that, she saw a fight, an' called the cops.
Them street thugs ain't goin' nowhere now. The two that survived were roughed up
awful damn good."
"Max and Alec." Asha guessed, exchanging a grim look with Logan.
"Shit." Logan swore softly. "Was the woman able to give an accurate description
of the people who attacked the street thugs?"
Original Cindy shook her head, pursuing full lips. "Lady knew they were
transgenics from the way they moved, but all I heard her say was that they were a
dark-haired young woman an' light-haired young man with no shirt on."
"That shouldn't be enough for the cops to go on. As long as no one saw them,
Max and Alec are relatively safe."
"Safe?" Original Cindy demanded. "Logan, are yo' high? Alec an' Max ain't
safe-not with White houndin' their fine little transgenic booties. An' the cops are lookin'
for Max, now that they know she's one o' them genetically engineered. Alec ain't much
better off."
"Maybe there's nothing to worry about." Asha intervened, crossing both arms
over her chest. "Maybe they had time to get out of Seattle."
"No. Them cops shut down all the sector points-they goin' over everyone with a
fine-toothed comb tryin' to keep any transgenics from leavin' before they can nab 'em.
They offerin' a fine reward for any leads on the transgenics who killed the norms."
"There was another murder, just yesterday- a woman found with her neck snapped." Logan
replied. "Sounded like the work of a transgenic. But here's the strange part; the cops
found her with her throat ripped out. The marks were made by human teeth."
"Jesus, Logan. Are you saying there's a crazy, cannibalistic transgenic on the
loose?" Asha whispered. "If the cops somehow find out that Max and Alec were the
ones to kill those people that did in the transgenic kids...they'll be blamed for the other
murder, too. We have to find them."
"Eyes Only has a lot of resources. Maybe I could talk to him-call in a few favors.
He should be able to find something out."
Original Cindy nodded, but the fear had yet to dissipate from the depths of her
eyes. "Get yo' ass to work boy-I want my Boo home safe and sound." she whispered.
* * *
Max and Alec froze.
The man approached warily, his footsteps reverberating throughout the narrow
confines of the tunnel. "I asked you what you were doing in here-nobody's supposed to
be down here."
"We're hiding because we're transgenics and some norms killed our friend so we
killed them in return and now we don't want the cops catching us." didn't seem to be the right
answer. Alec eyed Max, muscles tensing automatically in apprehension.
"Who the hell are you?" she blurted.
"I work for the city. I'm down here to check..." His voice trailed now into
oblivion. The cautionary gleam in his eyes flared abruptly into unadulterated fear. "Holy
shit. You're that transgenic bitch who's been on the news..." He stumbled backward a
step.
"Looks like you've been recognized. Nice to know you're gaining fans." Alec
said.
The man fumbled with something at his waist.
Light kissed metal in a telltale glint. Alec surged forward, a fist raised to deal the
blow that would render the man unconscious. His clenched palm merged with flesh, and
the gun leapt fantastically into the air at the same moment the man pulled the trigger.
A single shot echoed in the tunnel, followed by the terrifying thunk of an
impacting bullet.
Disclaimer: These are getting pretty old by now. I STILL don't own Dark Angel or any of its characters; I'm sure that doesn't come as a surprise to anyone. Also, I'm still not rich enough to sue, so once again, don't bother. Dark Angel is the property of James Cameron, Fox, and Charles Eglee.
Chapter Ten
_____________________________________________________________________
Mourning
Sewers
Seattle, Wa., September 12th, 2021
"Shh. Shh, Max."
His lips sought her hair, and brushed the gleaming strands in a soft, tender kiss.
She turned her face into his bare chest, and trailing wetness seared flesh.
He stroked her bowed head, bringing his mouth to the curve of her cheekbone,
lingering there as he pressed his face to hers. He kissed her chin. "I'm sorry." The
words grated harshly in his throat.
She leaned into his comfort, her arms seeking to pull him closer, and his throaty
voice echoed within her ears...
"Max." He sounded tired now. Tired and sad. "Max, wake up."
She stirred, and found cold cement beneath her back. She couldn't feel him,
couldn't feel his body heat...and surged upright, frightened, disoriented. "Alec? Where
are you?" Max whispered, reaching out for him.
He crouched before her, and touched a hand to her fingertips. "Right here. Sorry
to wake you up, but you were dreamin', and-"
"It's ok." She eased into the wall behind her, blinking to clear the last fog of
sleep. "It's...fine." She looked up at him, moisture thick in her eyes. Her breath
fluttered out in a ragged sigh.
He swallowed hard. "I know, Max."
Sirens had urged them to flee that night, with only enough time for Alec to grab a
shirt and his jacket before they took to the streets, searching for some place to hide...and
leading Max to her presumably favorite refuge-the wonderful sights and smells of the
sewer systems beneath the city. They'd been in hiding for the past two days-wondering if
it was safe to come out, wondering what was going on in the world above them. But they would
have move on soon-the offensive stench was starting to get to both, and the lack
of food and drinkable water presented a serious problem.
Alec moved to her side. She shivered lightly in the surrounding damp and chill
air, and without a thought he circled both arms loosely around her quivering body,
lending his body heat.
His gentleness only reminded her of things best forgotten, and she jerked abruptly
away, blinking aside tears.
He released his hold, sliding with leisurely grace to the hard ground, pocketing
both hands in his jacket. A thick lump formed within his throat; he swallowed around it
with difficulty, averting his gaze to the cement beneath him. "Max..."
"Don't." she whispered, turning gleaming eyes to him. "I don't want to talk
about it."
He sighed. "I don't want to talk about it either. But don't push me away. I'm
tryin' to help you."
"I don't need your help, dammit." she snapped harshly, wondering at the same
time what had caused her to lash out at him like that. He'd done nothing but be there for
her the past two days, though if she thought about it, he'd really been there for her a lot
longer than two days.
His eyes widened in the face of her anger. She scrambled frantically to her feet,
leaning one hand on the cement tunnel for support, breathing labored. "This is all my
fault. He'd have been safer at Manticore; I should have just left him there.
Then...this...never would have happened." She heard him rise, and squeezed both eyes
shut, a few tears escaping.
"Max, we've talked about this before. You can't go blamin' yourself every time
something like this happens." he said quietly. "It wasn't your fault. You didn't kill
Joshua."
"I let him out into the world, didn't I? I let them all out; it was me who torched
Manticore. They're free; they're getting killed because of me."
"Would you have preferred Joshua stayed at Manticore? Havin' experiments
done on him? Havin' Manticore torture him until he wished he were dead? Max, I know
what's it like to be put through stuff like that-I went through reindocrination. Twice.
And believe me, I sure as hell prefer being out here, on the outside, takin' my chances
with the norms to being back at Manticore. You escaped when you were nine-you don't
know what those sick bastards started doin' to us after your unit escaped."
His voice vibrated with pain; Max spun toward him, her eyes taking in the soft
perfection of his face, the agony in that beautiful gaze. She felt another tear slip down
her face, and clenched her jaw to stifle the sob.
He reached out and gently cupped her cheek in his hand. "He's gone to be with
Annie, Max." Alec whispered, tears shining in his own eyes now. "They'll be happy
together."
He drew her toward him, into the protective cover of his arms. His fingers
cautiously sought her own; she peered up into his face through a thick film of tears.
"They will, won't they?" Max said, smiling slightly through her sadness. "He won't be-"
Her voice caught on a sob. "Alone."
Alec bent to kiss her softly on the forehead, turning his head to rest it against hers.
*Neither will you, Max. Whether you like it or not-I'm not leavin' you.*
They walked side by side without talking, hands thrust within jacket pockets, the
atmosphere taut and heavy about them. Only quiet intakes of breath permeated the quiet
of their surroundings, the noise augmented by genetically enhanced hearing.
She felt grateful for his warm presence beside her; more than he would ever
know. Bearing this alone would have been too much. But with Alec at her side, she
felt...stronger, somehow. More powerful.
Max snuck a look at him, his profile heavy with undulating shadows. In the dim
light of the sewers, he appeared almost ethereal. A godly figure given flesh and
substance.
He glanced across to her brooding figure, and found himself staring into deep
brown pools. His breath caught for a moment, a brisk inhale that wafted against her
sensitive ears. They turned quickly away from one another, almost simultaneously. Alec
felt his heart take up a thundering march within his chest.
Something about the oppressive atmosphere seemed to have changed, the very air
rippling with electricity. He felt it all throughout his body, a jolt that quivered his entire
muscular frame.
Max spoke first. "Alec..."
He stopped, mid-stride, and looked expectantly at her.
She couldn't meet his eyes, instead peering intensely at her shoes, as though they
alone held the meaning of life. "Look, I wanted to say...I *should* say..." she trailed off,
looking decidedly uncomfortable. Her voice lowered, until vocal cords caressed the
word in the softest of whispers. "Thanks."
He touched a finger softly to her chin. "For what, Max?"
"For what?" she said, peering at him through wide eyes. "For...everything, I
guess. For...being here with me now. For understanding what I'm going through."
"Logan would do the same thing." Alec said, his chest tightening at mention of
the older man's name.
Max shook her head, chestnut locks gleaming beneath the pale illumination of the
sewer tunnel. "Not like you. What you said before, about us needing to be with our own
kind...I'm starting to think you're right."
Alec's eyes widened. *Is she saying...*
"The norms are never going to stop fearing us, stop hating us. Even Logan...I've
seen the look in his eyes. He's afraid of us sometimes, afraid of what we are. I can't be
with someone who's afraid of me. And I've started to realize that..." Max hesitated, her
eyes flicking away from the intensity of his face.
His breath stilled inside his chest.
A sharp voice shattered the moment. "What the hell are you kids doing down
here?"
"I don't care what yo' have to do. I want to know where the hell my girl an' her
boy are!"
Logan swiveled to face the enraged black woman, ruffling the hair at the nape of
his neck. "OC, I'm trying my best, but they could be anywhere by now. They might not
even be in Seattle anymore. You have to understand, I'm just as anxious to find Max and
Alec as you are, but that-"
"Then get yo' damn ass in gear an' start hackin' into the police department; find
out if those two got their asses picked up by them cops."
Seated on the couch, her hands knotted at her lap, Asha rose to stand beside
Original Cindy. "Do it Logan. We have to find out where they are, what happened to
them."
His eyes, shadowed in grief and worry, perused her strained face. He squeezed
both eyes tightly shut for a moment, coaxing his breathing back to normal levels. "Are
you sure there weren't anymore bodies?" he asked quietly.
"Just doggy boy; I saw them take him out on a stretcher. And a couple o' humans
they found cold in the street, plus the remains of a couple o' kids. My Boo an' her
transgenic hottie weren't there."
"You don't know what happened?" Logan whispered, a cold fist closing tight
around his heart. He exhaled shakily.
"Neighbor was out givin' a report to couple a' sector cops when I got there. Said
some o' them tranny haters were harrassin' a couple a' kids in an abandoned car. Then
one o' them chucked a bomb at the car. Blew out the windows o' the house across the
street-doggy boy's house. Few minutes after that, she saw a fight, an' called the cops.
Them street thugs ain't goin' nowhere now. The two that survived were roughed up
awful damn good."
"Max and Alec." Asha guessed, exchanging a grim look with Logan.
"Shit." Logan swore softly. "Was the woman able to give an accurate description
of the people who attacked the street thugs?"
Original Cindy shook her head, pursuing full lips. "Lady knew they were
transgenics from the way they moved, but all I heard her say was that they were a
dark-haired young woman an' light-haired young man with no shirt on."
"That shouldn't be enough for the cops to go on. As long as no one saw them,
Max and Alec are relatively safe."
"Safe?" Original Cindy demanded. "Logan, are yo' high? Alec an' Max ain't
safe-not with White houndin' their fine little transgenic booties. An' the cops are lookin'
for Max, now that they know she's one o' them genetically engineered. Alec ain't much
better off."
"Maybe there's nothing to worry about." Asha intervened, crossing both arms
over her chest. "Maybe they had time to get out of Seattle."
"No. Them cops shut down all the sector points-they goin' over everyone with a
fine-toothed comb tryin' to keep any transgenics from leavin' before they can nab 'em.
They offerin' a fine reward for any leads on the transgenics who killed the norms."
"There was another murder, just yesterday- a woman found with her neck snapped." Logan
replied. "Sounded like the work of a transgenic. But here's the strange part; the cops
found her with her throat ripped out. The marks were made by human teeth."
"Jesus, Logan. Are you saying there's a crazy, cannibalistic transgenic on the
loose?" Asha whispered. "If the cops somehow find out that Max and Alec were the
ones to kill those people that did in the transgenic kids...they'll be blamed for the other
murder, too. We have to find them."
"Eyes Only has a lot of resources. Maybe I could talk to him-call in a few favors.
He should be able to find something out."
Original Cindy nodded, but the fear had yet to dissipate from the depths of her
eyes. "Get yo' ass to work boy-I want my Boo home safe and sound." she whispered.
* * *
Max and Alec froze.
The man approached warily, his footsteps reverberating throughout the narrow
confines of the tunnel. "I asked you what you were doing in here-nobody's supposed to
be down here."
"We're hiding because we're transgenics and some norms killed our friend so we
killed them in return and now we don't want the cops catching us." didn't seem to be the right
answer. Alec eyed Max, muscles tensing automatically in apprehension.
"Who the hell are you?" she blurted.
"I work for the city. I'm down here to check..." His voice trailed now into
oblivion. The cautionary gleam in his eyes flared abruptly into unadulterated fear. "Holy
shit. You're that transgenic bitch who's been on the news..." He stumbled backward a
step.
"Looks like you've been recognized. Nice to know you're gaining fans." Alec
said.
The man fumbled with something at his waist.
Light kissed metal in a telltale glint. Alec surged forward, a fist raised to deal the
blow that would render the man unconscious. His clenched palm merged with flesh, and
the gun leapt fantastically into the air at the same moment the man pulled the trigger.
A single shot echoed in the tunnel, followed by the terrifying thunk of an
impacting bullet.