Chapter six: Revelations

"You really want back in?" Logan asked confused by the intensity of Tima's desire.

"It's where I belong," Tima answered emotionally, "I was loved there, they were my family," She was on her feet overrun by her emotions.

"But... you were five... how could you be sure that they still feel the same way?"

"I'm sure!" She bit out, "This world holds no interest for me or about me. I have spent my entire time on the outside as an outcast, no one wanted me, and no one loved me. I have had to scrounge out a living my entire life and I'm tired of it. I want back in where they actually gave a damn about me."

"I'm sorry, I just don't understand that logic," Logan whispered. He sighed, his brows furrowing again, "Max spent her entire life running from Manticore and the treatment she received there. I was under the impression that you were the same way, that you felt abandoned by them, that you resented them."

Her eyes were hot on him now, "Resent them? Why would I resent them? They taught me everything I know. I can't blame them for losing track of me. It is a big wide world out there, and we were taught that if we got lost in it we were to check in within two days with the facility nearest our position. If that didn't happen, we were written off as a casualty. If Max ran from them then she was a fool... All of X-5's were fools!" she spit, "Throwing a good thing away and for what?"

Before she had realized what happened, Logan was on his feet and had backhanded her across the face. She stared in shock into those angry blue eyes and the pain that she had glimpsed several times this night was there to be seen again just under the surface.

He was very close to her now, "Lydecker is a ruthless megalomaniac who spent years hunting the X-5's down. At first he was just interested in recapturing them, but then he began to kill in cold blood those who continued to run. He maimed and killed anyone whom he saw as an obstruction to his objective. Zach was tortured nearly to death, and then buried alive."

His eyes glanced off her face to look away, and she saw that they were watery with tears.

"They hounded Max. For nearly all the time that I knew her, they tracked her here to Seattle and tried to capture her. She had refused to run anymore…she had decided that I was worth standing and fighting for.

"She stayed here for me you see, even when she understood that Manticore was close. She stayed for a cripple in a wheelchair," He sighed, "At first I think it was because she felt guilty. She felt that she was the reason that I had ended up there. Even after I was back on my feet she stayed around, because by then she had another reason to stay

"It grew into something else…We fell in love. We married four years ago. Interesting really being able to do the things Max did. She insisted as my abilities grew that I practice them," He stopped again and the pain was plain to read on his face now, "Fat lot of good it did when they finally caught up to Max. Despite all the training that Max had given me, I was powerless to stop Lydecker," Logan finished in a whisper.

Tima, unsure what to say, asked, "They captured her?"

His eyes were back on her his face ugly with anguish, "They..." He trailed off swallowing hard, "They killed her," he continued to stare at her, remaining silent as he warred with demons within himself.

When he regained his composure he continued, "We were out for a walk, just enjoying the night, enjoying each others company.... When we were ambushed near here by Lydecker's men. We tried, and almost succeeded, at escaping them. One of the soldiers' bullets caught me in the leg causing me to stumble and fall. I was bleeding badly, the bullet had passed through my thigh and I was in too much pain to continue. I... told Max to keep going, to just forget me for the moment, as Lydecker's men surrounded me. She didn't listen to me, she hesitated, just as they had known she would.

"I kept admonishing her to leave me, finally convincing her that she did not want to end up back in a cage," He swallowed again, "She waited too long. Lydecker ordered his men to shoot her and I watched helplessly as one hit a knee and began firing. The bullets caught her as she was leaping for the third floor of the nearest building. They were kill shots.

"She tried desperately to hang on, but eventually she lost consciousness and fell back to Earth. I broke free of the soldiers, ignoring my own pain and weakness as I ran to her broken form. I could only cradle her in my arms and watch as her life slipped away," Logan looked down at his hands, which were white-knuckled on the chair he was standing behind. He consciously made himself let it go before it split, "Before I could do anything, release the rage that was building inside of me they knocked me out. I am still surprised that they didn't kill me right then. I guess they thought that I would bleed out before help arrived and just left me. I woke later, alone, only a pool of blood next to me, a mingling of Max's blood and my own. The alley ended up being her final resting place.

"To add insult to injury, in killing Max that night they also took our baby."

"What?" Tima said softly.

Logan nodded, "Max was four months pregnant at the time. They never realized that they got two for the price of one that night. They didn't even know it... if they had possessed a clue about the baby they never would have taken the shot. It would have been of too much value in research," He laughed not amused, "I can only assume they took Max's body to reap her DNA for future projects…" Logan paused again taking a shaky breath.

"I'm sorry," Tima said softly.

The apology seemed to catalyze something in Logan because his face darkened into an ugly anguished and angry mask, "THAT is the Manticore I know, Tima. Ruthless bastards willing to do anything to maintain control of their technology. They treat their soldiers as property, as cattle! They feel that they have the right to trade, buy, or kill their 'kids' as they see fit."

His intense eyes bored into her as he continued to speak, "If they ever find out about what Max's blood has done to me…Can you imagine just how much interest a human with Manticore abilities would generate for Manticore? Can you think of just what lengths they would go to in their attempt to get me into a cage? I am not going to go down like that, and I am not going to become some prize experiment for them to poke and prod at. I can't get involved with you…You are going to prove bane to me…to my freedom."

Logan smiled but there was no humor in it, more like a wolf baring its teeth.

"But you know things…Where the installations are. Why won't you help me go back?"

"I've only just met you!" He growled suddenly, "That I've told you so much already scares me. What would stop you from telling Lydecker about me?"

"I wouldn't…I promise that," Tima argued.

"Oh yeah? Max told me of some of the methods they use to extract information from unwilling subjects. You would be unable to stop yourself.

"Even if I did trust you…Didn't you hear what I told you? Lydecker doesn't take Manticore renegades back anymore…he kills them."

"He won't kill me," Tima argued, "Because I want to come back…the others didn't, that was why reindoctrination didn't work for them. No, Lydecker will take me back."

"You're deluding yourself," Logan growled again then fell silent again, no longer able to meet her eyes, lost in his own thoughts. This time Tima had enough sense to keep her mouth shut and let him be.

After agonizing minutes Logan sighed scratching his head and seeming to relent from the hard line he had just given her, "Let me see if I can locate a Manticore operation in the area for you. I am sure that Lydecker and Co. will be more than happy to have you back," He turned away and moved stiffly back toward the study where this whole line of discussion got started.

Tima was confused, "But I thought..."

Without looking back he said, "If you want to go back... who am I to say no?"

A wave of excitement welled up in her at the statement, realizing that she was very close to realizing an eleven-year-old dream. She was going to go home…Finally! She began to wonder what her brother's and sisters would say when they saw her come back after such a long absence.

A cloud passed over those happier thoughts as Logan's own account of Manticore rattled through her head. Did it really change so much from when she was there? Logan's version of what Manticore was an ulcer in her mind and casting doubts on her own memories of her five years there. She followed wordlessly as the want of acceptance surged to push back her doubt.