Title: Harm's Way
Author: Bent137
Chapter: Nine
Rating: R, Violence, Language.
Genre: Angst, Humor
Pairing: M/A Friendship with undertones, M/L angst
Summary: Max finds out how Seth came to die, and she's none too pleased.
Disclaimer: I do not own anything at all to do with Dark Angel, if I did it would still be on the air.
Author's Note: First, Thanks to Adrolien for taking a chance an unknown and new writer and betaing. This is a response to a challenge posted at NWP. It's the "After Seth" challenge posted by Vanessa_TaleWeaver, and includes spoilers for the entire run of the show and the first book "Before The Dawn."

Okay, so I just now noticed that throughout the fic Logan has still been living in his apartment in Foggle Towers, and I never mentioned anything about it. So I know this is slightly AU but White never shot up the penthouse. That's pretty much the only AU thing that has happened. I just thought that the conversations, particularly the Alec/Logan one from Chapter 3 had a much different feel in the penthouse than in Joshua's house.


Challenge: Here are the parameters:

1) Can be set anytime season 2, after freak nation, or in an alternate universe.

2) Alec and Joshua must help Max work through the fall out. OC would be nice too, but that's not compulsory.

3) Sketchy must make an appearance, in which he shows he's not as dumb as he usually acts. (long or as short as you want.)

4) Max must confront Logan about not telling her about Seth, and they need to have a rip-roaring fight.

5) Someone needs to point out to Logan that the deal he made with Max was extremely heedless of her safety, given what happened to Seth.

6) Logan cannot be portrayed as stupid or maliciously selfish. Narrow-minded, blinkered, and not nearly as accepting of Max's special abilities as he pretends to be, sure!

7) One of Max's other siblings must be mentioned. Living or dead, real-time or flashback, mentioned in passing or full-blown guest appearance - anything goes.

8) Whether Max forgives Logan or gets together with Alec is up to you. BUT she cannot blame any part of this mess on Alec, and they must be friendly, at least, at the end. Hot love and steamy sex are always preferred, however.

9) Alec cannot be the one to tell Max about how Seth died. He can be the first to know, but he cannot be the one to actually tell her.

Chapter Nine: Half Truths

Asha returned to where Logan was sitting at a laptop computer in the main room of the warehouse.

"Is he awake?" Logan asked without looking up.

"Yes," Asha observed Logan a second, her mind on what Alec had said, "What exactly is the plan?"

"I'm not really sure yet, I'm going to use Alec to get to Max."

"Won't she be pissed you took one of her friends?"

"Nah, she doesn't like Alec."

"Then why would she care you have him."

"Because he's another transgenic."

Asha's eyebrow knitted, this didn't make any sense to her.

"Let me get this straight. She found out about you and Seth, dumped you, told you she never wanted to see or hear from you again, and to never go near another transgenic or she'd kill you then took all of your computer equipment and you decided to take Alec for a plan you don't even have yet to win her back?"

Logan paused and tilted his head, looking thoughtful, "Yeah that's about it."

Asha's jaw dropped. 'The nerve of him,' she thought. 'He's such an ass for treating her this way. Alec was right, he's going to get himself killed, if not by Max then by Alec.'

Asha cleared her throat. "Okay, well, let me know when you have a plan."

Logan nodded and Asha walked away.

*

The headquarters was quiet. There were only a handful of people there now, as most had continued with their day. Dix was working hard at clarifying the picture Max had asked him to. Mole and Max were the only two left in the room. They were sitting across from each other, Max watching Mole clean his gun.

"Max! I got it," Dix exclaimed.

Max hurried out of her seat and up beside Dix. "I can't believe it," Max breathed when she saw the image.

"What?" Mole demanded.

"It's Asha."

"Who's Asha?" Dix asked.

"She was a friend of Logan's, a freedom fighter. She helped him while I was still in Manticore. But why is she taking Alec? They're friends."

"Maybe you should ask Logan," Mole suggested, biting down on his cigar when he said the ordinary's name.

Max sighed, "I really don't want to see him again. But, it's Alec, so I guess I'd better."

Mole smirked, "Need anything?"

Max looked at him. "Yeah," she said, nodding, "If I'm not back in half an hour, send a team out. We can't afford to waste any time. I'll call as soon as I get any word. Dix, I don't suppose you can see if you can pick up that van anywhere else in the city on the hover drones?"

Dix's fingers began flying over the keys, "I can try. Now that we know that van took him let me see if I can find footage of it and get a license plate number."

Max grinned, "Awesome."

*

Alec looked up warily when the door to the room opened. He was relieved to see Asha's silhouette in the doorway. "So, did he tell you his plan yet?" Alec joked.

"He doesn't even have a plan yet," she replied, studying him.

"Stupid."

"Very." She sighed. "You were right."

"Of course I was right," he shot back. There was a pause. "About what?"

"About Logan. He's a fool, he's going to get himself killed. I don't see how someone as smart as he is thinks this could work."

"People do crazy things for love."

Asha sighed, "Yes. They do. I did. Now I'm going to do an even crazier thing for love." Alec looked at her suspiciously. "I'm going to let you go."

"Let me go?"

"On one condition."

"What's that?"

"I know, you'll tell Max, but can you please try and get her to overlook this one situation. I don't want her to have him killed. Now that I know the deal, I'll do my best to keep him in check."

Alec tilted his chin and smirked, "Let me think about it."

Asha nodded, "Okay. I'll be back soon with something for you to eat. Any requests?"

"Yeah, I'm feeling like pizza, Hawaiian style."

Asha grinned and shut the door behind her as she left. Alec sighed.

*

Max exited Foggle Towers, putting her sunglasses on. She unchained her bike, she had chosen to take it instead of her baby because it was quieter incase she needed to do a rescue mission. She swung her leg over it and pedaled down the street. She stopped at a pay phone in the middle of the next block and picked up the reciever. 'Good, a dial tone,' she thought as she put a couple of quarters in and punched in the number for Terminal City.

"Terminal City, what can I do for you?" Mole's gruff voice answered.

"Mole, it's me," she answered looking around.

"Hey Max, what'd Logan have to say?"

Max snorted, "Nothing. He wasn't even there. Did Dix find anything out?"

"Let me check." Max could hear Mole talking to Dix in the background. "He says he tracked it through two sectors and is working on the third. From what he can guess it's either going south or towards the water."

"Great, tell him to keep it up. I'm gonna stop by Cindy's and have her let Normal know what's going on and then I'll be back."

"Okay, see ya then."

Max hung up and continued down the street on autopilot as she navigated her way over to her and Cindy's apartment. When she finally realized she was in front of their door she was confused as to how she got there. She had no recollection of the trip at all. With a sigh she opened the door and pushed her bike inside.

Cindy came out of her room with a smile, "You're back early, that's a good sign."

"Not really," Max sighed.

Cindy set her lips in a straight line, "Didn't go well with Alec?"

"Didn't go at all with Alec. Someone took him."

"You're kidding."

"No. Actually, Asha took him. I just swung by to let you know, and see if you could let Normal know whats up if neither of us make it in in the morning."

"Sure thing, boo. I know Normal would like to know that his golden boy was taken."

"Thanks Cindy, I'll let you know when we find him."

Cindy nodded. "You just go find our baby boo."

Max smiled at her and turned, going back out the door.

To Be Continued...