Summary: Drastic changes occur in Max and White's lives, when an unexpected event puts more then their own at stake.
Disclaimer: Me no own, you no sue.
A/N: FINALLY I finished this chapter, and I hope chapter 3 will be out a bit sooner… ;)
Chapter 2 – I took a wrong turn
So let it come
It made me sacrifice some more
I know you're watching me real close
'cause I've come pretty far
I tried to run but
It kicked me back just where it could
Got sick of all that comes before
Thought I've come quite far
~Krezip – You can say~
Ames White calmly walked through the streets of Seattle, ignoring the rustle around him. His only focus was to keep the teams from the Conclave out of the city for a few days, knowing 452 had escaped to here. This was her home, her territory. He'd realized it when the sightings that had been made of her always came from this city.
It was also the way he'd caught her. His plan had been simple, he'd cornered a small group of transgenics in the city, and she'd come to the rescue. But, he'd been prepared. With a heavy dose of sedative, he'd cornered her. She hadn't been scared, something that always seemed to make fighting her a lot rougher then it really was. But finally, he'd succeeded in sliding the needle through a vein that had been exposed when he'd attempted to strangle her. She'd gone limp in his arms in just a few seconds.
When he'd delivered her to the Conclave, he'd thought he'd gotten rid off her for the rest of his life. But, had he been wrong. They had told them about the plans they had for her, and at that time he could only enjoy the fact that she would spend the remainder of her days locked up in a cage, baring children to the Conclave.
Never had he thought that, at the same time, they'd also had plans for him. Plans that reached further then his imagination ran.
After 452 had been told about the plans they'd had for her, she'd looked as if she were about to go into hysterics. She'd successfully knocked out one of two men holding her before they'd managed to sedate her. When 452 closed her eyes, he'd sensed someone sidling up behind him. Before he had been able react, he'd been knocked out too.
When he had come to consciousness again, the Priestess had calmly explained what had happened, as if it had just been a regular procedure. She'd even shown him 452, smiling as she told him about the leader this child would be. Never once had he questioned them about knocking him out, thought he felt distrust slowly starting to seep through his veins.
And his doubts hadn't been small. He found himself sneaking into the building late at night, just to see if 452 had awoken yet. His mind had been racing over plans, and many times, the thought of simply killing 452 had been the most appealing one. But, with the Conclave watching him like a hawk, he'd known his own funeral would've been soon to follow should he ever even attempt that.
The only option that had been left to stop the disgrace of being laughed at behind his back when this certain event came out was to help 452 escape. Something he'd never thought he'd do, but seemed to be the only option left now. When the tests had come out positive, his plans had gone into work.
Sneaking into her cell had been one of the easiest parts, since he was authorized to come into every room. He wouldn't admit it, but he was rather surprised to find her crying.
Nevertheless, had he ignored her weakness, handing her the key; a great risk; and telling her what to do. She'd obeyed in silence, having been quite confused by his actions.
Later that night she'd sneaked out of the building, not knowing he'd disabled the security system
Allowing her to run had been the hardest thing, but killing her would've arisen suspicion from the Conclave, something he didn't need with the doubting that had been going on already.
When her absence had been noticed, a good three hours after her escape, nearly every team had been ordered to hunt for her, which had been quite a pain. Something he didn't feel, and something that could easily be evaded. He'd travelled to Seattle himself, never making his position known to the Conclave.
So here he was, walking around some poverty-ridden street of what obviously was obviously some kind of odd market, almost pre-pulse with the gossip. He shook his head, shaking off the thoughts. Instead he focused on his task: driving the teams away from Seattle.
***
'Getting harder and harder to ignore the crowd,' Max thought, moving through the thick mass of people that stalked around the market. Seattle's locals were ignorant of other people's need for free space, and being bumped around wasn't making her mood any better.
Her eyes searched the booths, until her eyes fell upon the one that had supplied her with Tryptophan in the past. Recalling seeing the wares she'd need there on those visits, she made her way over the van that served as a booth.
The stall owner's eyes widened at the sight of her old costumer, obviously not having forgotten the way she'd been dragged over the counter to spit out the name of the hospital she'd gotten her Tryptophan from.
"Hey Kim," Max greeted with a smile, hoping that she wouldn't scare the woman off with her past stunt.
"You need Tryptophan? It's not available anymore, you know."
Max shook her head, "Different order today," She fumbled in her pockets, pulling out the small list she'd made before leaving Logan's. He didn't know what she was planning to do, and she'd rather not have him finding it out.
Finally she managed to pull a slightly fumbled list out, and Kim nodded,
"What do you need?"
Max looked at the list of herb names she'd written down, hoping Kim wouldn't realize what she was about to do,
"Parsley Root Tincture," She looked at Kim who searched through the cupboards, and then pulled out a small bottle, and send a questioning gaze to her, she took a deep breath, then continued, "Dong Quai, in tablet form," Nodding, Kim grabbed a small bottle. Max's finger when down to the last item on her list, "Black Cohosh," Kim quickly reached behind her, grabbing another bottle, and then dumped the three items in a bag, she looked up at Max with a smile,
"Fifty-five dollars miss."
She pulled the bills out of her pocket, putting them directly into Kim's hand. After a quick count, she waved her away with a smile,
"Bye." Max muttered, walking back into the moving mass of people. After a few minutes, she could sense someone staring at her. Quickening up her pace, she tried to look as casual as possible while hunting for a possible exit routes.
White froze for a few seconds when he saw a woman moving away from a booth. For that moment, his mind sprang to 452's frame. The clothes matched the ones she'd been wearing when she'd jumped the fence.
Slowly he mingled in with the crowd, following her every move, while trying not to be caught on it. When she quickened her pace, he cursed to himself. Years of training obviously did not make perfect if this freak could sense him.
Fastening his own steps too, he managed to keep up with her easily. She'd never know what'd hit her when she'd left the crowd. He still wanted the answer to the question of whether Ray was alive, and the opportunity to do so was walking right in front of him.
The entire crowd seemed to stop dead in their tracks as a loud crash was heard. White looked up from his inner musings, just in time to see a large van catch fire in front of him. The part of the crowd that had been right behind it quickly moved away, and he cursed, realizing 452 was with them.
When he finally managed to evade the burning van, she was gone from his sight. Angrily, he pushed himself through the mass of people until he was at the exit point of the market. Standing on the small bridge that connected the market to Seattle's streets, he glanced around, angrily balding his fist around the rails as he realized she'd managed to get away from him.
Again.
Max softly closed the door of her crib behind her, and threw her jacket over the chair that stood next to the counter. Nothing ever changed. She hadn't been here in the last few weeks, preferring to be at Logan's ever since the virus had been cured.
Well, she wouldn't prefer being there now. Not with what she was about to do.
She rumbled around in the small bag she'd been carrying with her, pulling out the small bottle of pills. She popped open the lit, and shook it. Two small, white pills fell into the palm of her open hand.
"Popping pills now Maxie?"
The voice was as unwelcome as a clash of thunder on a summer day. She spun around to face Alec, and glared at him.
"What are you doing here?"
"Just visiting a friend who got back from vacation," He paused, snatching the pill bottle from the counter. He read the label just before she tore it from his hands.
"What are you doing with Dong Quai tablets?" When she didn't answer straight away, he ran over the uses in his mind, most of it came out as use for more womanly problems. Blinking, he handed the bottle back to her, "I don't even want to know…"
"Good, can you go now?" She quickly set the bottle back down onto the counter, and crossed her arms.
"Sure, sure," he muttered in a half-dejected tone, making his way over to the door, almost proceeding to trip over the bag she'd placed there earlier. He shrugged, and kicked it towards her in a gesture of annoyance. The bottles clinked together, and Max hastily shoved the bag behind her.
At Max's possessive gesture, a smirk appeared on his face.
"What's in that bag anyways?"
"None of your business," she said, wishing he'd just go away.
"Right," he made a move to turn away, but then suddenly grabbed the bag, a playful smirk on his face.
"Hey!" Max shouted at him, trying to grab the bag from his hands. He gave her a smile in return, and pulled out its contents.
Alec stared at the items he held in his two hands for a moment, reading the labels. His mind ran over why Max would buy herbs that were mostly used for illnesses. Then it clicked, and he stared up at her with a questioning look in his eyes.
"Please, just give them back to me Alec," Max softly said, but he shook his head.
"Tell me you aren't going to use these for…" his voice trailed of on the end, and Max sighed, quietly nodding.
Alec quickly recovered from his shock, and then stuffed the pills into the pocket of his jacket, "Guess you aren't anymore."
"Alec, you don't know the full story!"
"Well, tell me what there is to know, cause I have a feeling it'll be the same as what I'm thinking."
Max sighed and shook her head, not wanting to tell. She'd just wanted to quietly get this over with, but it seemed as if Alec wasn't going to let the topic drop.
"Why do you want to kill an innocent kid?"
"Because it's anything but innocent." She turned away from him, choosing to stare out of the window onto the floor below, unwilling to tell him the whole story.
"C'mon, it can hardly move Max, this is not the way I know you, why don't you talk to Logan first?"
"It's not Logan's," She whispered, and for a moment it seemed as if Alec had frozen.
"What?" he breathed, not sure if he'd understood right.
Max raised her voice, "I said, it's not his!"
"Were you in heat, wait, of course, and when you –"
"It was nothing like that Alec," he stared at her for a few seconds, speechless. She took advantage of his moment of silence to tell the tale, thought leaving out the part where she'd found out who the person was that they'd decided to glue her DNA to.
For long moments, nothing was said, and Max shifted the weight on her feet every few seconds, biting her lip nervously.
"Say something, even Logan was more talkative."
"So I guess he does know," Alec muttered under his breath, and she sighed.
The phone suddenly rang, and she quickly picked it up,
"Max here." Holding up her hand to stop Alec from saying something, she quietly waited for the person on the other end of the line to respond.
"Hey," a smile found its way onto her face as she heard Logan's voice.
"Hey yourself too, found anything out?"
On the other end of the line, Logan nodded, as if she were standing in front of him, "Yeah, and it's not all good news."
"Shoot."
"It seems the Conclave isn't exactly into storing files on their computers,"
"They always seemed to like writing with ink and a feather better."
"Yeah, but they weren't taking any risk with getting their samples mixed up."
"What kind of samples?" Max asked, confused.
"DNA samples, eggs samples… All having 452 at the end of their tab."
"They can create mini-soldiers anytime they want," Max said, immediately catching his point.
"Exactly," Logan sighed, running a hand through his hair.
"Where are they storing them," Max cast a glance at Alec, who was undoubtly eaves-dropping on the conversation.
"They're still the school."
"Then we blow them up."
"Who's we,"
Alec shook his head, and Max grinned.
"I think Alec's in the mood for a little explosion."
"Alright Max, but be -"
"Careful, I know."
With that she hung up the phone, and moved towards Alec.
"Can the discussion come some other time, as you can see, I need to prepare a campfire, and you're helping." With a grin, she pulled the bottle out of his pocket and set it down on the counter, before moving towards the door, a baffled Alec following her.
=-=
A/N: Long sigh here guys, I wasn't happy with it, but I couldn't leave you waiting much longer.