Disclaimer: I don't own any of the Night World or Dark Angel, even tho I wish I did. (Especially Alec…)
Note: DA time frame. I no this is a little screwy cos the Night World is supposed to be before the millennium, but I don't care, ok? Max and Logan are not together. Its after Freak Nation, but freak nation didn't happen, if that makes sense. So they know the prophecy, but Cici never died, and they aren't trapped in TC. Please also note that u probably wont understand much of it if u haven't read Night world, even tho I decided to put it in the DA section. So… go read all the Night World books, cos they rock, and then come back! Or just try to work it out as u go along….
Whatever, here's the story.
Realms- Chapter 1Once again, Max found herself face to face with White, neither of them moving, waiting to see the other's first move.
"Not like you to be so quiet." Max almost purred, "You're usually telling me how disgusting and pathetic I am. How your people will conquer the Earth, blah, blah, blah…" White sneered, and rushed her. Max grinned, getting her desired result, and twisting out of the way at the last second, tripping him with an outstretched foot. He's stronger than me…then fine, I just don't play fair. White actually growled as he sprung back to his feet. He kicked at her face, she caught his foot and threw him off balance. "Really not on your game tonight, are you?" Max smiled. White yelled out in pure fury and exploded upwards, knocking Max across the room. She groaned in pain, trying to clear her head as he lifted her by the front of her shirt.
"You really have no idea what you're dealing with, do you 452?" he whispered, holding her close to his face, "We aren't wackos like you think, bitch. We draw our power from a realm you can't even imagine, and this pathetic little world you think belongs to you will soon feel the wrath of the darkness!"
"Bit of advice? Your breath stinks." Max said, kicking him full force in the stomach, causing him to lose his grip and let her fall as he flew backwards. Max tried to sit up, every part of her body aching, blood dripping from her lips, damn he's strong, she thought. She looked towards him, groaning as she saw him rise, huh? Two whites? No…three…ooh, that's not good… she heard a vague yell before she passed out.
"Max!" Alec shouted as he, Joshua, Mole and Cici ran to her aid. White stood to face them, and Joshua growled deeply, a sound that shook even his friends to their souls. White surveyed his four opponents as they approached, and knew he couldn't win. He smiled faintly, shaking his head, and fled. Joshua would have chased him if he hadn't seen Max at the same moment. Cici had already gone to her side, checking her vitals.
"Is she…?" Mole asked, still watching the spot where White had been.
"Just unconscious." Cici answered, "We should get her back." Alec nodded, and Cici moved aside, allowing Alec to pick Max up. She frowned slightly, noticing Alec was slightly paler than usual, and that he had a look in his eyes… Cici shrugged the feeling off, it was probably just a trick of the light, she thought to herself.
Back in Terminal City, Max soon came round. She looked around, slightly embarrassed, hating to show weakness. To lighten the worried mood, she said,
"That guy really is a screw-ball, y'know?" Alec smiled, acknowledging the evasion; he knew what she was feeling. "He was talking even more bull than usual today. Drawing power from dark realms 'n crap."
"Wacko." Joshua echoed from a previous conversation.
"Complete and utter. Max, we're late for work, you up to it?" Alec asked. Max smiled momentarily, realising that Alec was actually helping her avoid the awful pampering everyone tried to force on her when she'd been hurt. She hated being weak. Simply to keep up their usual battles, Max frowned,
"You just don't give me a break, do you?" Alec gave her a half smile, and they silently agreed that formalities could wait. She sighed overdramatically and stood up, not allowing anyone to see the slight wince when she felt her aching body move. "To work then, but I gotta change first. I don't think Normal will take to blood covered clothes all too well." She smirked, "He'll probably report me for murder again." Alec frowned and followed her out of the room.
"He…?"
"Long story." She smiled, reminising about easier days, then laughing to her self… those were easier days…ha! God my life stinks.
Later that day, Logan paged Max at work and she and Alec headed over to Joshua's old house to see what was up.
"Hey!" Max called when they entered.
"Hey yourself." Logan answered. Max and Alec sat on the couch, while Logan stayed at his computer.
"What's up?" Max asked. Logan grimaced,
"You're gonna think this is odd."
"Story of my life. Hit me." Max said. Alec punched her arm playfully, and she grinned despite herself, "You're pathetic." She whispered in tones only he, and not Logan could hear.
"Well, an informant, a bit of a paranoid nut I have to say, alerted me to the fact that animal attacks and natural disasters have begun to boom in the last few years."
"Meaning…what?" Max asked, knowing he would tell her anyway.
"I don't know for sure, but I looked into it, and he was way too right. In the last five-ten years, numbers of those sort of occurrences have increased hugely!" Max shook her head frowning, with a 'so what' expression.
"Those are natural things. What's that got to do with Eyes only? You gonna rat out Mother Nature?" Logan shot her a withering look, and threw some papers over.
"Look at those figures, and tell me that's natural." Max's eyebrows slowly traveled further and further skyward, as did Alec's as he read over her shoulder.
"Shit." Max gasped.
"Exactly. It's as if the world has suddenly woken up, and decided it's not entirely sure it's happy to have us."
"But that's ridiculous!" Max exclaimed, praying her life wasn't about to get even weirder.
"I'm not the only person looking into this kind of thing. I found several well-covered trails of searches into all this stuff, and I'm not talking weather men, or wildlife fanatics. Something strange is going on."
Else where-
"Huh. Someone just got very interested in all this stuff." The short, dark haired girl said, frowning.
"What?" asked her companion.
"All these 'animal' attacks and natural disasters… oh crap."
"What?" the other girl repeated.
"I think he might have traced my searches."
"I thought you said they were untraceable."
"They are." She smiled, "He didn't get far. But all the same, the extent of these searches… I think we should tell the others."
"You think it's them?"
"No clue. For all I know it could be a gore-obsessed kid. But on the other hand, it could be anyone from the Council, to a rogue gang, or some one who could potentially help us."
"I get ya Claire. You trace this guy, and I'll tell them."
Seattle-
"You're late, missy-miss." Normal yelled as Max and Alec walked in. Max rolled her eyes.
"You'd think he'd have given up on saying that every day by now, wouldn't you?"
Alec smiled. He quickly sidestepped, expecting an elbow in the ribs. The attack didn't come.
"You ok?" he asked Max. She smiled sarcastically and then nodded. She took a breath, then spoke,
"I just… thanks. Y'know, for yesterday. If you guys hadn't turned up, I'd be dead, and then when we got back, you deflected the attention from me. So thanks. I hate being weak."
"You mean you hate seeming weak. You aren't weak Max. He's just stronger." She smiled slightly. Alec could read her well enough to know that that was yet another thanks.
Several days later-
"You got it yet?"
"No. This guy is good. Damn it. It's in one of those sectors I told you, but I can't get any more specific. Sorry." She heard a groan on the other end of the line.
"It's ok. I've got the others here; we'll find him. Call me if you get anything more."
"Sure thing. Be careful, ok?"
"Always, Claire." The flaming-red haired girl cut the call off, and put the phone away.
"Any joy?" Asked the dark haired girl near-by. The redhead shook it.
"No. We're gonna have to start looking around. See if we can find any sign of them, or any of our people. We should split. You and Quinn go tha…"
"Uh-uh. No chance, hun. I know you hate it, but I was assigned to make sure nothing happens to you. That means I cant let you go off alone."
"I wont be alone."
"Don't care. The boys can go together, I'll come with you."
"Rashel! I do not need a body guard!"
"I know girl! But people are shitting themselves with fear that they'll get to you guys anyway, without you running around playing hero! I know it sucks, but my orders were not to let you outta my sight."
"It doesn't suck, it stinks." The redhead said, sitting down, hard, and resting her head in her hands. "I'd 'a thought it'd be wicked to have power like this, but nooo. I have to be baby sat, in case I get eaten."
"Don't joke." The redhead dug a finger nail into her thumb until blood welled up. She held out one hand, palm up, and Rashel watched in awe as a ball of pure blue energy swirled in her companions hand. "It's beautiful." She gasped.
"You've never actually seen it?" the other girl asked. Rashel shook her head, not taking her eyes of the fire-like energy. The redhead clenched her fist and the fire disappeared. "We should get moving. Tell Quinn and Morgead, ok? I'll get supplies."
"Ok." Rashel grimaced, "They're not gonna like this, are they Jez?" Jez Redfern, one of the most dangerous people you could ever meet, grinned wickedly,
"Why'd you think I gave you that job?"
Max was leaning over Logan's shoulder, looking at more and more unbelievable stories, all apparently natural, when Logan exclaimed,
"Oh shit!"
"What?"
"Some one's been tracing me!" he sounded utterly outraged, and Max smiled.
"Thought eyes was untraceable?"
Logan frowned,
"They didn't get right through, but they might have got to Seattle… at least. Crap! How did I not notice?" The smile turned into a grin, Max loved it when Logan got freaked out about other people approaching his level of computer skill. She dropped the grin when he smiled. "Ha! I couldn't trace the search any further, but a phone call was made from the same computer." Max frowned,
"How'd you…?"
"Don't worry about that… yes! I traced it."
"Gimme the address and me an' Alec will check it out."
"It's a cell…hmm, like everything dodgy in this town- South Market."
Max grinned again,
"Everything in this town is dodgy Logan… except you, of course." Logan frowned at the slight lilt of sarcasm in her voice, even as he passed her a slip of paper with the address on. "I'm going, I'm going." Max said, raising her hands in mock surrender. She left for Alec's with a smile on her face, and the address in her pocket.
Max and Alec crept down the alley, eyes trained on the dark van parked at the end.
"I'm still confused." Alec whispered. Max stopped, rolling her eyes.
"You usually are… what about?"
"Are we stalking this guy cos we think he's tracking Logan, or because he like's looking into natural disasters?"
"Which ever… both… I'm not sure. Just shut up, would you?"
Alec grinned in triumph, and they continued their approach. Max signalled for Alec to hang back, and continued to the van. Trying to look through the back window, she cursed, finding it was too tinted even for her eyes. With no warning, not even the slightest sound, Max found her self slammed against the van by strong arms. Furious she hadn't heard anything, Max thrust her head backwards into her attackers face. She heard no satisfying nose crunch, but the pressure slackened, and Max managed to twist away, dropping into a fighting stance, but soon freezing, eyes wide. In front of her stood two women, maybe even girls, younger than Max for sure. The dark haired one hand a hand over Alec's mouth and a …wooden… knife against his throat. The other, the one who'd attacked her, had flaming red hair, and blood flowed from her nose where Max had head butted her. They were both stunningly beautiful, but that was not why Max's eyes were wide. The redhead who was bleeding had her hands held out slightly from her body, and in each cupped hand flared what could only be described as blue fire. The girl's eyes were a flaming silver colour, and Max was forced to swallow. It was hard to draw your gaze away from those eyes.
"Who are you, and what the hell are you doing snooping around here?" the red head said. Max frowned,
"We were only snooping cos you were snooping into my friend's business."
"What?"
"On the computer, brainiac. Or at least whoever was snooping called you on a cell… its sloppy, they're easy to trace." Alec frowned at Max, slightly pissed that she was doing the badass thing when he had a knife to his throat. Max rolled her eyes, trying not to acknowledge the fire balls the red-head was still wealding, "Look, we didn't mean anythin' by it, just wanted to know who it was, in case they were… bad guys." The redhead closed her fists, extinguishing the flames, and sighed.
"So who are you?" she asked.
"You tell first."
"Look, my friend only tried to track your's cos he was looking into some stuff that's pretty important at the mo. We came to Seattle looking for him, cos we wanted to know why he was interested."
"How 'bout you get that knife outta my boy's face and we talk?" Max conceded. The redhead turned to the other girl, who shrugged, and released Alec. "Name's Max." Max said, holding out a hand. The redhead hesitated, then shook her hand,
"Jez. This is Rashel."
"That's Alec." Max nodded to him. "What's with the… whatever it was?" Max asked, indicating Jez's hands. Jez looked at her oddly, and Max had the weirdest feeling she was reading her mind… which she was.
"Huh. You really don't know."
"Ok, what the hell was that?" Max gasped, stumbling back slightly. Jez frowned,
"You felt it?"
"Well yah. How the f*ck did you do that?"
[You mean this?] Jez's voice said in Max's head, and a wry smile curved Jez's lips.
"Woah, girl!" Max exclaimed, "What are you? Transgenic?"
"No. What's a transgenic?" Jez asked, and even without reading her mind, Max knew she was serious.
"Great. I knew it. My life's gonna get even weirder, isn't it?" Both Rashel and Alec were looking on, amused, as each had rarely seen their companion this put out. Jez turned to Rashel,
"She doesn't know about any of it, but she felt me read her mind. You ever heard of that before?" Rashel shook her head, and Alec's eyebrows flew up,
"Read her mind?"
[That's not all I can do.] Jez said in his mind, and laughed when she got the desired reaction.
"Ok, enough pissin' around." Max decided. "What does all this natural disaster, animal attack stuff mean?"
"You don't wanna know. You're extraordinary, I have to say, but you don't want to get involved in this."
"Kinda already am. I'm real curious."
"You know what they say, curiosity killed the cat." Max almost laughed at the pun Jez didn't know she'd made. "Why was your guy looking into this stuff?"
"Cos a friend bought it to his attention and the guy who is not, by the way, 'my guy' likes looking into things."
"Well it's gonna get him killed if he isn't careful."
"Look, simple as this, are you good guys?" Max said it as if it were the most simple question ever, and Jez smirked,
"Yeah, we're good guys."
"Well so are we. I'm getting the feeling that there is a lot more to all this than you're letting on, and if we can help, then…"
"It's not that simple." Rashel butted in. "This isn't some short term thing Max. This is life or death… for a lot of people."
"Then I probably have to help. Just spill, ok? If we can help, we will, if we can't, we wont tell." Max ignored Alec's sound of protest when she signed him on involuntarily. Jez shook her head slightly, in disbelief, at the same time Max felt the odd sensation again, "Hey! Will you quit that!?" she snapped, and Jez felt a smoke screen whip up around Max's thoughts. But she already had her answers.
"She's sincere." Jez said to Rashel, "I don't know why, but she is." Then she turned to Max, "How did you know how to block your thoughts?" Max frowned,
"I didn't… I thought you could read my thoughts."
"Mostly, but I guess you're just a quick learner. Ok, we can talk, I trust you. I'll call the others." The last bit was directed to Rashel. Max was almost certain Jez was calling out telepathically to someone, she could sense it, even though she didn't know what was being said. Jez noticed the look on Max's face,
"What are you girl?" she asked, "Cos I know you aren't… like the people I know." Max frowned again, wondering if she should trust these people so blindly. She looked to Alec, and saw the same question cross his face. When their eyes met, they both read the meaning in their gaze, they seemed good enough, and anyway, they didn't seem to have much choice.
"I'm transgenic. You must have read about Manticore in the tabloids?"
"No way, I thought that was just a rumour!"
"Take a look for yourself." Max said, holding out her arms as if opening herself up to Jez, and Jez found the appropriate memories and thoughts flowing to her. Max was projecting… how strange, Jez didn't know humans could. In a few moments, Jez knew all there was to know about transgenics, including some stuff Max hadn't told some of her closest friends. Max knew that holding back would make Jez suspicious, and in the mind link they shared for those few seconds a silent agreement was made. Max knew her secrets were safe.
"Oh my god…" Jez gasped. She hadn't realised there could be this much pain when a person didn't even know what the Night World was. But if the mind link told her one thing, it was that Max could handle this, and she believed Alec could too, so that was enough. Jez reached out and touched Rashel's forehead, relaying only the necessary info to her friend, who also gasped. Max swallowed,
"Your turn." She said simply, hoping she could be as faithful with Jez's secrets as she knew Jez would be to her. Jez stood right in front of Max, and beckoned to Alec,
"It's easier this way, and better if we do it all at once."
Max nodded, and Alec looked confused. Then Jez placed a hand on each of their foreheads, and showed them the secrets of the Night World. Alec got as much as was needed to understand, but Jez felt a strange bond to this dark haired girl, and gave her the equivalent of what Max had given her. The deep brown eyes met Jez's silvery ones with a look of understanding sorrow, and a weird acceptance. Max had seen enough in her life to take all this without question, and any doubts that tried to surface were quashed by the purity of the mind link. The four sat around, each finally understanding the others protectiveness. Max looked up at Jez, sensing a flicker in her telepathy, and moments later, two men joined them. Jez glanced at Max, knowing she had sensed Morgead's telepathic greeting.
"This is Morgead and Quinn." Jez told Max and Alec.
"What are they doing here?" Morgead asked suspiciously. Jez glanced again at Max, who nodded, understanding the other girls meaning, and Jez showed the two men what they wanted to know.
"Shit." Quinn said, making Rashel grin. Morgead just swallowed,
"Wow."
Max frowned, going through the information Jez had given her, then, without really considering how, Max sent a thought to Jez,
[He's your… soulmate?] Jez smiled, surprised,
[I don't get how you do that, you're human!] Jez answered. Max shrugged,
[Don't think I could send thoughts to a normal person, I think its just cos you have the power to pick them up.]
[Still, most people can't. I guess your weird genetics have opened you mind more than most humans.] Max thought a little,
[Do cats project?] she asked. Jez laughed, both mentally and out loud, and Max smiled. She definitely liked this girl.
"So now what?" Alec asked.
"I wanna check something out." Jez said to all of them, "Something about one of the things you showed me, Max. This White guy, and the stuff he said about drawing power… if his people are human, then no amount of selective breeding would give them those powers. So I'm thinking maybe they're drawing on some Night World power."
"I didn't think of that." Max said, "I mean, even after you showed me. It's possible… and that means the real bad guys have a whole bunch of followers."
"Who are idiots." Morgead cut in. "No matter how strong they think they are, or how connected, when it comes down to it, they're human, and if they help the darkness to come, then they'll be swallowed up like everyone else." No one spoke for a moment, Morgead's harsh words cutting deep.
"Then we have to stop them." Max said quietly. Alec flashed her a look, but figured this wasn't the time to bring up the prophecy. What he didn't understand was the fact that Jez gave her the same look, if slightly tinged with confusion. "Look, I guess you guys should meet Logan." Max continued.
"The guy who traced the call?" Jez asked. Max nodded, while everyone else present wondered how she knew.
"He's trustworthy, and he knows about us." She and Jez made eye contact for no more than a second before Jez nodded,
"Ok."
"Whoa, Jez, we don't know anything about this guy." Rashel cut in.
"We know these guys trust him, and that he was looking into the same stuff we were. That's good enough for me."
"Jez." Morgead said, his voice laced with protective caution, "The fact he was looking up the attacks an' stuff could mean he's actually working with the Night World. As for their word, we hardly know them." Jez smiled slightly, seeing that Max fuming.
[Cool it girl] she told her [he doesn't mean it… about Logan. We've just had quite a lot of reasons not to trust people of late.]
[I know. But he better watch it, dissin' Logan like that. Logan's one of the best people you could ever meet.] Max answered, loving this new way of communicating. Jez just nodded.
"Morgead, I trust them. I know these guys are ok." She looked pleadingly round at the others, and after a moment's thought, they nodded,
"Ok."
Please review, there is more to come.