The meaning of the runes
By Sinful Starlet
Disclaimer: everybody! "Not mine, never will be, wish it was, etc etc"!
Rating: PG-13 / R - I'll warn in advance of any rating changes
Summary: Alternate take on events around and following 'Love Amongst the Runes' - certain aspects of the storylines around that time really bugged me! Basically Max discovers the runes, but they aren't quite as unique as she thought. What do they mean and what will that revelation mean to her and the ones she loves?
Author's note: Finally, chapter five is here! I'm sorry it's taken SO long for me to update but I have had no time whatsoever to write this week - evil university essays! Grrr! But I'm back - at last and hopefully you'll like this chapter. It gets a little darker for a while, the events during the siege at Jam Pony sucking a lot of the happiness quotient of the story. It will brighten up though, I promise, and this is an important part of the story. Hope you like it anyway, and I'll try and update again soon! *SS*
Just an extra note - in response to one of my reviews. Punctuation should hopefully be ok from now on - I'm putting my earlier errors down to laziness (probably not a good time to admit that I'm studying English at uni, right?)
5
The level of communication between Max and Logan had almost dropped to zero after that. He still called into Terminal City on the vid link, but spoke to Luke or Dix more than anyone else. It was obviously getting to Max as well, and Alec had to stop Joshua and a couple of the other transgenics from asking her what was wrong. He understood what she was going through, the sacrifice she had made to keep him safe, so the least he could do was watch her back now. And he really had been there for her, Max thought, for once 'screw-up' Alec seemed to be on hiatus. Of course, Alec being so decent towards her didn't make things any easier - just one more complication in the chaos that she laughingly called her life. And then it'd got really complicated…
*
So maybe surfing over the police on that hover drone hadn't exactly been the most discreet way of getting into Jam Pony during the siege, but desperate times and all that. It'd been the thing she'd been dreading for months. All the people that she had come to think of as friends at Jam Pony were looking at her like she was the enemy. Well, not OC and Sketchy of course, but basically everyone else, and she had actually cared about these people. If she'd had time to think about it more rationally, she would have realised that they were just confused and scared, but rational thought was becoming increasingly difficult.
She finally managed to convince everyone not to try and run, and convince Mole not to kill anyone (which had taken some doing). OC was taking care of Gem, which just left Alec, who was stupidly acting as if the bullet lodged in his arm was just an annoyance rather than something serious. She begrudgingly left Mole in charge and took Alec off to the lockers where they could sit down and she could take a look at his arm (AN. Because of course Alec's gonna let some little X6 kid he's only just met sort out his injured arm? I mean, I do like Dalton, but what the hell was that?! I should SO have worked on this show!). Working together, they removed his jacket and sweater, leaving the grey t-shirt underneath. Max turned him round to the side and ripped the sleeve of the shirt right up to his left shoulder so she could see what she was looking at.
It wasn't bleeding too badly now, but it still looked pretty ugly and the bullet was still in there. "You alright, Max?" came Alec's voice, shaking Max out of her trance. "Am I alright?," she replied incredulously, though her voice shook more than she would have liked, "sure - the complete lack of an open bullet wound in my arm is keeping me fine and dandy!" Alec laughed gently, looking away as she started to clean the wound so that she could see what she was looking at, "Whatever you say Max," he went on, still not looking at her, "you just looked a little pale is all". 'Damn', Max thought, cursing him inwardly for noticing.
"Well", she said, attempting to sound more cheerful than she was, "you may be a pain in the ass, Alec, but I'm not wishing you dead or anything!" "Gee!" Alec said, slightly sarcastically, putting his right hand over his heart as he said, "You're making me feel all warm and fuzzy, Max!" Max laughed softly and rolled her eyes, self-consciously trying to even out her breathing as she turned her attention back to his injured arm. Thank God he could still make her laugh, she thought, that - if nothing else - proved he was still ok, and she was surprised by how relieved she felt to know that.
She put down the scrap of cotton wool she had been using to clean up his arm and reached for the thin pair of steel tweezers, hesitating for a second. "Go on, Max," Alec said, "I trust you". "On three then," Max said, steadying her hand, "One…two…". She didn't wait for a three, quickly delving into the wound and pulling out the single bullet. Alec's breath whistled through his teeth as he tensed with the pain, but otherwise he didn't make a sound. Max quickly discarded the tweezers and applied a dressing to Alec's arm, not saying another word until it was done.
It was only then that she looked up into Alec's eyes, to find a little pain there, but something else too - something much deeper than the pain he was feeling, but she couldn't tell what it was at that moment. "Thanks Max," Alec said as together they managed to pull on his sweater and jacket again, "guess we better get out there, right? If we're all going to get out of this, us transgenics need our general". "No," Max said, standing and shaking her head, "we need two". Alec frowned, did she actually mean what he thought she did? He opened his mouth to ask her but she had already gone, leaving him to this thoughts.
*
It'd just got worse from then on. Max had arranged for safe transport with the police, but White had hijacked the situation and now they had CeCe lying dead in Normal's office. But even that wasn't the most of their worries. They also had Logan. Up until this point, Max had been holding it together, and keeping everyone under control, but one look at the expression on Mole's face when Logan arrived was enough to tell Alec that things wouldn't be under control for much longer.
Logan's arrival on top of CeCe's death had been a little too much for Max to take, so when she had disappeared into Normal's office, and Logan had made to follow her, Alec had made it fairly clear that that wasn't an option right now. When he had walked into the office he had found Max just standing there, no longer crying but with tear tracks drying on her cheeks. He hadn't said anything - not that he would have known what to say even if he could have spoken - just stepped over to her and pulled her into his arms.
They stayed like that for several minutes, no words passing between them, just silently drawing on the strength of the other. They only parted when the first shouts reached them, Alec running out of the office with Max hot on his heels. Alec swore under his breath as he reached the scene, this was so not what they needed right now. He and Max found themselves face to face with a very irate Mole who was pointing his shotgun right at Logan's chest - it'd clearly been the two of them that had been doing the shouting. Everyone else was formed into a kind of loose circle around the two, apparently not knowing what to say or do.
Alec took one look at Max, and then took the initiative, pushing through to the front of the crowd and stepping in front of Logan, just praying that Mole didn't have an itchy trigger finger - he really didn't fancy the idea of getting shot twice in one day. He heard Max's voice, before he saw her coming into the middle of the circle too, "What the hell is going on?" She had only been a few seconds behind Alec, but she was stunned when she finally saw what was happening - Mole's gun pointed at Logan with Alec standing in the way.
"All I was saying was---" Logan started, quickly, but Mole was already reaching for the trigger and looking fairly comfortable with the idea of pulling it. "Hey," Alec said, moving a little so he was now completely obscuring Mole's view (and shot) of Logan, "this isn't helping anyone right now - we need to work together if we're gonna get out of this alive". "You tell that to him!" Mole bit back, though he lowered his gun, realising that he couldn't shoot Logan without hitting Alec, "He's been here five minutes and already he's trying to give us orders!"
"I'm not trying to step on any toes", Logan interrupted again, missing Alec's eyes rolling skyward as he started talking again, "but we need some kind of plan here - someone has to get this organised". Mole seemed to take this as a personal affront, as did several of the other transgenics who started to advance forward, menacingly. "No one moves!" Max called, halting every one of them in their tracks, surprising Logan. "See? You're not getting this, buddy," Mole said, a smile appearing on his face, but he didn't loosen his hold on the shotgun, "you're not one of us. And that means that you don't get to say what happens here".
"There's exactly two people I take orders from," he started again, before Logan could reply, "and that's her," he said, gesturing to Max, "and him," he said, gesturing to Alec, to the surprise of more than one person in that room. Even Max seemed to have been stunned into silence at that point, so Alec stepped in, realising something needed to be said. "Ok - the rest of you feel like Mole here?" he asked, getting no objections, "Right, then you're all gonna sit tight until either Max or I says otherwise - clear?" There was a general chorus of agreement and the crowd began to disperse, heading for whatever seats they could find, with only muttered conversation passing between them.
Eventually, only Max, Logan, Alec and Mole remained, with a rather tense silence descending between them. Logan looked about to say something, but Alec cut him off, sensing Mole about to retaliate to whatever Logan was going to say. "I don't wanna hear it," Alec said, "and Mole's right - you're not part of this, and nobody here is gonna follow your orders, got it?" Logan really looked like he wanted to say something, but had the sense enough just to nod. "Good," Alec said, turning to Max, "we'll take next sentry duty - you ok here?"
"Yeah," Max said, "go - I'll be alright". Alec hesitated for a second, but then nodded, leading Mole away to the front of the building to relieve the sentries stationed there. "Jesus," Logan sighed when he judged that they were out of earshot, "Max, I---" he started but Max interrupted him, all patience finally gone from her. "Don't Logan," she said, so forcefully that Logan actually recoiled a little, "I know you think he's just a screw-up and an asshole, and only ever out for himself, but just bear this in mind ok? That asshole just saved your life". He didn't seem able to answer and she didn't stick around to see if he did - she had never been so angry with him as she was now.
Right, well, I know that wasn't exactly a bundle of laughs but I'm going for plot development here! The siege at Jam Pony will continue next chapter, but that should be it then, and the meaning of the runes will finally be revealed! *SS*