PART TWENTY-FIVE : " Conundrum "

"Complete exhaustion, dehydration, malnutrition... how the hell could she have malnutrition after only being gone a few hours? She was fine before she left, if you don't count her miraculous recovery from that boxing match she had with White..." Beck complained loudly as she adjusted the IV drip.

Logan waited patiently through her tirade. "I already told you, we have no idea what happened. It probably had something to do with Legion. Is she going to be all right?"

Beck glared at him, then sighed and glanced again at Max's blood tests. "Come back in an hour. Maybe two. She's 'power sleeping' right now... her body went through something so strenuous that ... well, it would be as if you went at a full out run for a couple of days solid without sleep. I don't think I could bring her to consciousness right now even with drugs."

She looked up from the microscope. "Whatever happened, you probably need to run the troops that went with you through debriefing..."

A voice finished the statement from the door, "After which I'll be briefing the rest of the Terminal City occupants as to the official result of the mission and our current status."

Lydecker stepped into the room and glanced at Max. "She's still out? How long do you figure she'll take to recoup?"

"I might be able to give you an estimate of that if I knew what caused this. From all indications I can find, I'd give her at least a couple hours before she starts responding, and if that happens then a day or two to recuperate. Knowing Max however, she'll probably be awake in an hour and running around trying to find more ways to get into trouble." Beck sighed with an exasperation borne of experience.

Logan stepped over to her, made sure she was looking at him and smiled at her. "You're doing a great job you know. There's no one I'd rather have looking after her."

She looked at him crossly, but couldn't resist a faint smile. "OK, out of here. Both of you. I'll call you when she wakes, otherwise go do whatever it is you have to do."

He turned to Max, sighed and touched her cheek. Then he nodded to Beck and walked out with Lydecker.

* * * * *

A little over an hour later, Joshua walked up to Logan. "Beck said you should come to the infirmary. Said she had news."

"Thanks, Joshua." He clapped the big guy on the shoulder and walked off in the direction of the medical facility.

Logan walked in and found Max sitting up in the hospital bed. She looked drained. "Hey, good lookin'," he said as he walked over to the bed and kissed her forehead.

"Hey, yourself." she shot back, weakly. "Sorry to interrupt your vacation at Hotel Conclave. We heard the food was excellent so we had to crash. You know how it goes..."

Logan smiled gently. "You didn't miss much. The 'Flan Aux Poire' was much too sweet for my taste, and the service was terrible."

Max smiled back. As always, he felt his heart lighten at the sight. He held her hand. "Max, what happened in there? Lydecker and Alec released me, we heard a shot and when we got to the room you had just passed out."

The smile vanished and her forehead bunched up in concentration. Then her eyes widened as she remembered. "He was there... Legion."

"I know, I saw him. Wait, you mean in the room you were in?" he asked.

"He wanted me to join him. When I wouldn't, he shot me." Realization of what she said hit her, and she looked down where the wound would have been. "It went right through me."

Logan followed her gaze and then looked back at her in confusion. "Could it have been a blank?"

She shook her head. "It went right through me, as if it wasn't even really there. I heard it hit the wall behind me. Logan, it was so weird! It was as if everything slowed down... I could see the bullet as it flew through the air towards me, but he had motor control of my body again and I couldn't move. Then he vanished in the bright light."

He looked at her questioningly, but didn't want to rush her.

"When he fired the gun, I knew I couldn't move out of the way, being frozen and all. Beck and Cindy and I had talked earlier about my weirder-than-normal DNA, and my discussion with White later came to my mind..." she stopped, remembering.

"Logan! I moved a pen with my mind! Almost hit the creep dead center between the eyes too." Max chuckled.

He looked amazed at her and glanced at Beck, who shrugged. "She's probably got some tricks up her mental sleeve that I couldn't even guess at, at this point."

Max nodded in excitement. "Anyway, he fired the gun and I thought about trying to deflect it but I wasn't sure I could. Maybe I did, I don't remember everything. Just that the room felt like it was starting to glow, and he vanished. I was only vaguely aware of him, but it almost seemed like he disintegrated. Then I heard your voice and everything went black."

She looked at him. "Sounds pretty whacked, huh?"

Logan looked at her for a few moments before trusting himself to reply. In fact, it did sound pretty bizarre, but in the last few years the term 'bizarre' could apply to a large number of situations they'd been in together.

Finally, his thoughts came to a conclusion. "I think you've experienced something extraordinary. Maybe it even saved your life. We should try to figure out what happened, but what's more important is that you're all right."

Max smiled again, before taking a serious look at him. "Beck said she checked you out, that you're ok. Think you're up to some 'Eyes Only' work?"

He nodded. "I suppose so... what's up?"

"The Conclave isn't going to take what we did standing still. That means sometime in the near future we're going to have to take them head on. First, I want to find out everything we can about Legion. Some things he said to me on the Space Needle sounded very ominous, like he was some kind of demon or something; maybe something worse."

He looked somewhat dubious but nodded for her to continue.

She did. "Something happened in that room. It'd be in our best interest to find out. I don't believe in the Boogey Man, but I might make an exception in his case. We know the Conclave is going to try to destroy mankind. Something Legion said makes me thing it might be some kind of political takeover that starts it, you can confirm the details with White. We have to do something about it."

Logan squeezed her hand. "OK. But for now, you rest and get better. Some day you're going to lead this nation of transgenics, friends and converts you've brought together into a final battle for the lives of humanity. But not today."

Max looked at him somberly. "No, not today. Today I thank whatever deities helped us bring you home safe."

"Brought back both of us." he corrected.

"Save me from hopeless, self-sacrificing romantics." Alec called from the doorway. Glancing at Beck, he amended, "Mine being the exception of course."

Max scowled at him and briefly looked for something to throw. "Shut up. I like my hopeless romantic..."

Beck looked up from the microscope. "I like mine too. Come here and kiss me, then go away. Max still needs to recuperate." She looked at Logan, "That means you too, Prince Charming."

Alec complied, and in parting he stopped at Max's bed. "Thought you'd want to hear... no casualties and other than finding you unconscious, no injuries."

As he started out the door, Max called out to him. "Hey..."

Alec stopped at the doorway and turned to look at her.

She suddenly looked embarrassed. "I just wanted to say thanks... for the discussion we had. You were right."

A slightly surprised expression crossed Alec's face, but it promptly vanished. He was about to reply when Beck called out. "Bye, Alec."

Alec glanced at her, then back at Max and gave her a rare, sincere smile. "Anytime."

After he left, Logan stood. "Incidentally, I think I owe you a 'thanks' as well for coming after me."

Max grinned mischievously, "You can thank me when I get released from the warden over there."

He grinned back at her, gave a mock salute to Beck, and left the room.

Max turned on her side, content for the moment, and fell asleep.