Author's Note: Ok, once again Venus, you still have your views of TBW wrong. I sincerely urge you to actually join the place and take a look around. Now, I don't care what Yodes said because I've known for a long time that she doesn't like Logan, but as long as she doesn't come around throwing it in my face then I say she's free to have her opinion. Also, if you had actually gone to TBW yourself, you would have realized there are a few special sections for the different ships. She could have said what she wanted in the M/A section, in a review thread for an M/A fic, or even in her own fics, and I don't think it would upset anyone too much. M/L people can do the same things in their given areas. If you still don't like what you were told she said, then feel free to contact one of the moderators of TBW, Enigma or Sorrow. TBW is one of the friendliest boards I've come across in a long time, and it really upsets me to see that someone apparently has a grudge against it.
As for what you said about M/Lers never saying anything bad about Alec, that's not necessarily true. I used to be a member of an M/L board (which I will not name because I happen to find slandering another site to be a rather meaningless thing to do) that wouldn't read a fic that had Alec as one of the main characters, which I find ridiculous because he was one of the main characters on the show. If you had read half the things there about him, you wouldn't be so quick to say all M/Lers are accepting of Alec. By the way, I left that site no more than a week after I joined.
Don't worry everybody, we'll get on to the story soon. I still have to address one more person. Starfire, I think it's rather unfair to judge a person's writing by their ship or what characters they like. Not all M/A stories are bad, just like not all M/L stories are good. It all happens to be in your interpretation of the story. If someone happened to hate, oh, we'll say Joshua because he's not too involved, then wouldn't they be naturally prejudiced against any story that has him as a leading character, no matter how well it's written? And also, not that I find being called a White-lover offensive (it's actually a compliment in my book) but I've read some White-centered fics that make some of those other stories out there seem like five-year-olds wrote them. Like I said, it's unfair to everyone if you judge them by the characters they like.
Ok, on to the story. ;)
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Disclaimer: Haven't found any genies yet. They're so hard to find these days.
Dust In The Wind
By Be Boring
Chapter 4: Heart to Heart
Logan was immediately aware of a dull headache in his temples as his eyes finally opened. Colors still weren't in their correct places, and sounds seemed to come from miles away, but at least he was awake. He lay still for several minutes, struggling to focus his eyes and bring everything out of the strange, colored fog it was surrounded by. When things finally seemed to be at least somewhat normal, he braced his elbows against the old cot he was laying on and pushed himself up into a slouched sitting position.
"You're finally awake. I wasn't sure you were going to wake up at all for the next couple days."
Logan looked up to see Dana, a rather quiet psy-ops doctor, standing at the far corner of the room. "How long was I out?"
"About seven hours. You've been in a comatose state for most of that time, but you pulled out of it about fifteen minutes ago. The blood that Joshua's been donating to you has obviously done wonders for your recovery speed."
He nodded wearily. "If only it made me immune from headaches."
Her eyebrows knitted in concern. "I didn't know that was a side-effect of the drug you were given. How serious is it?"
He shook his head quickly. "It has nothing to do with what happened to me. I've just been getting more headaches lately, it might be the air in Terminal City. Last time I checked with Sketchy and Cindy, they said they were having them too. Just how toxic is the air around here anyways?"
To his surprise, Dana chuckled. "It's hardly anything to worry about, even if you weren't getting transfusions from Joshua. It used to be life threatening, but most of it has dissipated by now. Now the most it will do is make you sleep much more than usual, and occasionally give severe migraines. Then again, you're getting the blood transfusions, so you're just getting mild headaches and a little drowsiness."
"You make it sound like I've been jugging cold medicine."
"Cold medicine? Of all the things you could be jugging, you choose cold medicine?" Alec cracked as he sauntered into the room. "The least you could have done was break out the hard liquor."
Sensing the immediate change in the tension level of the room, Dana quietly let herself out of the room. She had hardly gone ten steps when X4-452's gruff voice reached her ears. "Is that guy awake yet?"
Dana turned and forced her regular fake smile onto her face. "Are you family?"
X4-452 smirked. "Are any of us actually family?"
"I didn't mean it literally. When we say that here, we basically are asking if you're close with the patient."
At this, X4-452 shrugged. "I haven't spoken to him, but seeing as how I was the one who determined what was wrong with him, I'm a little curious to see how he turned out."
Dana already didn't like the other woman. Just who did she think she was? "He would have come out of it the same way whether or not you'd announced what he'd been given."
"He wouldn't have if you had given him antibiotics," sneered the other woman.
"I wouldn't have," Dana snapped. "Now if you'll excuse me, I have other patients to see to. Just don't go into that room, the last thing he needs is to have you for a visitor."
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If it hadn't been for the fact that everything hurt so much, Max would have thought she was dead. Everything was so dark that her eyes hadn't adjusted yet, although she had no doubt she'd be able to see perfectly in under a minute. Also, the silence was so thick that if it wasn't for her instincts screaming that there was someone there, she would have believed she was alone. As silently as she could possibly manage it, she slid to her feet and started blinking her eyes furiously, trying to get them to adjust faster. As soon as she could see vague shapes, she headed towards what appeared to be a door.
"Where do you think you're going?" White's voice had hardly registered in her head before she found herself sitting on the ground, sporting a severely cut lip. A second later he dropped to the ground from where he'd been hanging on to the ceiling pipes. "You'd think after all that special training that one of the first things on your list would be to look up. Or was that class in the last ten years of Manticore's existence?"
Max reached up and touched her lip, surprised at the amount of blood that was left on her finger, then swung out her left leg and sent it sideways at his knees. He deftly jumped into the air, easily going over her leg, and kicked her hard in the stomach.
"That wouldn't have been too bad...if it had worked," he sneered, watching her eyes follow his every movement. He could see one thing for sure, his father had managed to make some incredibly dangerous creatures. If he wasn't on the top of his game, she wouldn't give him any second chances.
"Go to hell," she snapped, slowly raising herself to her feet. She couldn't believe he was letting her stand up, but it didn't take long to see why. As soon as she had adopted a fighting stance, he kicked her in the stomach again.
"You're in no shape to fight me. You're still getting over the little bit of medicine I gave you. Maybe you'll be a little bit more cooperative in this state. Should I just get out what we both already know is coming?"
"The only thing I'd be able to tell you is whether or not your son is in a casket, I don't know his location. Or should I say, the location of his grave?" The words had hardly left her throat when his fingers were digging into her flesh.
"Don't mess around with something like this, especially when you're dealing with me," he hissed, slamming her back against the wall. She felt a gentle trickle of blood make its way down the back of her neck.
"Why? Because you're such a tough guy? All I would have to do is use a dog whistle and bring your big doggie playmate from JamPony back for another round. You didn't seem so tough compared to him. In fact, I seem to remember saving your life. I don't suppose that gets me a 'Get Out Of Jail Free' card?"
"Maybe if we had a rulebook lying around, but I tend to break rules at every possible opportunity."
Staring him levelly in the eye, Max furiously sent a well-aimed glob of spit into it. "That makes two of us."
White hurled her against the far wall, rubbing his eye roughly. "I guess you don't have much interest in life? You must not, if you were stupid enough to pull a cheap stunt like that. You may be designed to last, but let's see how long you can make it without any nourishment."
Max could only hold her throbbing head as he slammed the door to her little personal holding cell shut.
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"So you're telling me they can't find Max?" Logan asked in disbelief. Wasn't he supposed to be surrounded by the most efficient trackers in the country?
Alec sighed and shook his head. "I don't know what to tell you. It was definitely White, Mole could testify to that. He was just too fast to catch up to."
Logan rolled his eyes. "He was carrying a young woman! I don't care how strong he is, a fast young transgenic that wasn't weighted down by anything should have been able to catch him. I don't like the thought of her being trapped by him, she might not have enough time left for us to get her out."
Alec rolled his eyes. "C'mon, he's not going to do anything until she gives up the information on his son."
The older man's glare cut Alec's glimmer of hope to shreds. "Now you come on, Alec. You've been held captive by that man before, do you really believe he'll keep her alive? It's not like she's the only one that knows about Ray. Everyone in charge of Terminal City knows he's alive, and I know his location. That's not even including my contacts that I used to set up a safe house for the kid. I'm sure he's realized that, and eventually his hate is going to take over and he'll kill Max. After all, she is the only thing that can stop the Coming, whatever the hell it is."
Alec hated to admit it, but Logan was right. Things weren't really looking good for Max so far. "You know what? I think I need a drink. I'll be back when I'm good and drunk, then we'll talk some more when I don't feel so damn morbid."
"Is it because you miss your girlfriend?"
The X5's head snapped up. Logan had never spoken so blatantly about the so-called relationship. "Well, it's not really that, I just..."
Logan held up a hand to silence him. "From what I heard the other day, I can't believe you're still playing your role as the boyfriend. You didn't seem to be too happy about it then."
"Are you saying...?"
He nodded. "Yeah, I know about how Max just used you as an excuse not to be near me. She thought she was protecting me."
Alec held up both hands. "Hey man, you've got to know I didn't even find out about her little story until long after you did. I tried to tell you at your house that one day, but I got the feeling I should just shut up and leave."
Logan sighed. "I know, I wasn't really in the mood for listening at the time. The only thing I don't get is why she chose you?"
"Isn't it obvious? I was convenient. I was always around, I'm a transgenic like her, not to mention the fact that I look like someone she used to be close to. It wouldn't have taken much to persuade you that I was with her, but she only did it because she loved you enough to give you up. Think that over for a little while."
As Alec left the room, Logan was more than aware that there was someone standing farther up the hall. He could feel the stranger's eyes on him, but he couldn't get a good look at them. A moment later though, he realized who it was as she came slinking into the room with that horribly familiar stride.
"How are you feeling?" X4-452's gruff voice asked amiably.
"Why do you care? I've never even met you before."
She smiled playfully, once again reminding him painfully of Max and the danger she was in. "I heard about what happened to you and I was simply curious. After all, the leader of this place is gone and you might know what happened. I'm a natural detective."
"For your information, I'm fine, but I'm not really in the mood for visitors at the moment. I just had a bad enough time with the last one."
To his surprise, she threw back her head and laughed. "Oh yes, I heard all of that. What's the reason she had to protect you anyways?"
"That's not something I'm comfortable discussing with complete strangers," he replied coldly, wishing she would just go away. Why was she so interested in his personal life anyways? It didn't concern her, and he didn't want her involved.
"I understand, I probably wouldn't talk about it either if I was in your situation, whatever it is. Like you said, it's not for strangers to know. What are you? An X4, X3?"
Logan had to quickly work to keep his shock from popping out on his face. Although he knew that strangers needed to believe he was a transgenic, he'd never expected to be asked what division he was in. He couldn't help but blurt out the first thing that came to mind. "I'm an I.T. concentrate, or a battle processor. I can say the almost exact possibility of something happening." Of all the times for me to think of Brain, he thought irritably.
Her eyebrows shot up. "Really? I was under the impression that all of your kind were fat and without any positive physical attributes?"
Logan felt his stomach drop uncomfortably as she made a quick scan of his body with her eyes, not even bothering to be subtle. "That's not true of all of us, just some. Why did you want to know?"
She shrugged. "Just trying to get you talking. It's awfully uncomfortable just sitting here in silence."
Logan tried not to groan. "You don't even have to be here at all. If you really want to have a conversation, why don't you at least start with the basics and not jump into the deep stuff right off the bat? How about something simple, such as: what's your name?"
"If you have to know, my name is Minx. I don't suppose you'll share yours?"
"Logan," he replied quietly. "And I'd rather be alone right now, if that's alright with you."
Rather than put up an argument, Minx nodded. "Yeah, you've been through quite a bit recently. I guess I'll see you later, hopefully. Oh, and I hope that Max girl comes back."
Despite his relief to her back as she headed for the door, Logan felt a twinge of guilt. He'd been rude just because she'd been curious. "Stop by again some other time, maybe when I'm a little more awake."
He could see the surprise on her face, but then she smiled and nodded. "I'll be sure to do that. Bye."
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Max tried to make herself comfortable on the cold floor of her temporary prison, but it was practically impossible. She couldn't stop worrying; Logan had been given a shot of the same stuff she had, undoubtedly with the same amount of whatever the drug had been. She just hoped he was ok. Of course he's ok, he's surrounded by transgenics, all with medical training. There's no reason that he shouldn't be just fine.
Still, that strange feeling that something was wrong with him wouldn't leave her. She kept feeling the sudden urge to run to him and make whatever was happening stop, but she could tell that she wouldn't be getting out of here any time soon. She just hoped that when she did get out, it wouldn't be in a body bag.
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Otto nearly spilled the coffee in his hand when White suddenly entered the room, a strange smile on his face as he slid something into his pocket. "Otto, my friend, things finally seem to be coming along nicely."
"Does this mean you caught 452? Shouldn't you contact--"
White quickly raised a hand to cut him off. "Yes, I caught 452, but no, I'm not going to contact anyone just yet. I have some stuff I need to take of with her first." Then, pausing and slightly squeezing the object in his pocket with excitement, he said, "From the way things are going, I just might get what I need sooner than I expected."
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Author's Note 2: Semester exams start tomorrow, so I figured I should squeeze this in before I had to devote all my time to studying. Actually, that's what I should have been doing while I was writing this, but we all have to take a break sometime, even a five hour one. :) Like always, leave a little something to cheer up my day. Flames are fine too, but just remember that it was your choice to come and read this, nobody held a gun to your head and made you. So, press the button directly below, and just type away!
