Disclaimer: Sigh . . . . :lareina raises white flag in defeat: Alright, I give up! Y'all know I don't own 'em, I just like to play with them. Don't bother to sue me, all you'll get is my school loan, my car loan, and my Pikachu doll. Just let me have my delusions, ok?
A/N: I would like to give many virtual hugs and kisses to all the people who have reviewed my story so far. Yes, I know I haven't updated in a while, but you guys try working seven hours a day and finding time to be creative! Oh – wait, some of you probably do . . . ok, never mind . . . I was just ranting, don't mind me . . . . seriously though, thanks a lot; you guys keep me going!
A/N 2: And as always, huge amounts of hugs, kisses, and virtual flowers to my awesome betas, afan and angel_gurl!!!! You guys are totally cool; this story would so totally suck without you guys!! (Ok, maybe it wouldn't, but who knows? I don't want to find out!) Ok, enough yapping; on with the show!!! (Drum roll . . . . . . . . . . . )
Finding a Way Back, chapter 7
Max had no way of telling how long she floated in the blackness; time was irrelevant. Sometimes there were 'Nomlies chasing her, but most of the time she was left on her own to drift ghostlike through the void. At times, something nagged at her subconscious, something important she knew she needed to remember, but it always slipped away before she could catch hold of it.
Eventually, sensations returned. First was the feeling of lying on something hard and flat. A smell intruded next, a mixture of oil and gasoline – she was in some kind of vehicle. A sense of motion indicated that the vehicle was being driven. There was music playing, a pre-Pulse love song, and an off-key female voice singing along.
"I hate to tell you this, Brin, but you can't sing," a male voice joked; it sounded closer to her than the female. "Don't quit your day job, all right?"
"Sorry, Victor, but Manticore wasn't real big on choir lessons," the female voice threw back, laughing. "And I hate to be the one to break it to you, but we both just quit our day jobs, remember?"
Max frowned; the voices were familiar, as were the names they mentioned. 'Brin . . . Victor . . .Manticore . . .' the words ran around and around in her mind, sparking memories that turned into a flood. The attack on Manticore, getting shot by her X7 clone, meeting Victor, convincing Brin, planning the escape – the escape! Max's eyes flew open, and she looked around.
"Max!" Victor was leaning over her, a worried look on his face. "Are you ok? How do you feel?"
Max took stock of her surroundings before replying. She was lying on a cot in the back of a van – 'the one we used to drive right out the front gate, on our 'mission', she reminded herself. She was tied to the cot by what looked like bungee cord. She tried to speak, but her throat was dry and scratchy.
"Wait a minute; I'll get you some water," Victor told her. "Brin, pull over, she's awake!" he called to the front. Disappearing briefly, he came back with a cup and held her head up so she could drink.
"Victor, what happened?" Max asked once her throat had cleared. "Why am I tied down?" She felt the van pull over and stop.
"It was for your own protection," Brin said as she appeared next to Victor. "You were shaking pretty bad, and we didn't want you to hurt yourself while the medication was doing its work." A tired smile brightened her face. "How do you feel, baby sister?"
Max sighed as she assessed herself. "Like I've been fighting Zack in hand-to-hand for three days straight," she admitted. "What happened?"
"You had a seizure," Brin told her. She nodded to Victor, and the two of them began untying the cords that bound Max to the cot. "The medication works better when a seizure is actually in progress, so I gave it to you right away." She paused, and a look of concern passed over her face. "You've been out for almost 36 hours."
"36 hours!" Max sat up, rubbing absently at some spots where the cords had dug into her arms. "Did you know it was going to take that long?"
Brin shook her head. "When they gave it to me, I was in the advanced stages of the progeria; I barely knew where I was. They used certain drugs on me while I was unconscious, and when I woke up, I was loyal to Manticore again. It never occurred to me to ask."
Max frowned as she digested what her sister had told her. "But why didn't they use those drugs on me?" she asked finally. "Why go through all the hocus pocus?"
"Renfro wanted to break you herself," Victor told her. "Scuttlebutt around the labs was that she considered you a challenge – second in command of the X5's, one of the strongest, behind Zack. He was dead, so she made you her project. If she could have turned you, she would have had the Committee right where she wanted them; they would have given her anything – literally, anything."
"Sorry to put a crimp in her little power trip," Max muttered. "So, what's the plan? Where are we?"
"We're about half a day's ride from Seattle," Brin told her. "We were about to stop for a while anyway. We wanted to wait for you to wake up so that we could plan our next move."
"Well, I won't be much help 'till I get some coffee," Max groaned as she worked out a kink in her neck. "I feel like I've been run over by an armored car."
Victor laughed, and handed her a steaming cup. "We actually stopped at a fast food place a few miles back, so there's some food too if you're hungry," he told her.
After Max had eaten, the three of them sat under a tree to determine their next move. "I can't remember the last time I did this," Brin said quietly, staring up at the sky.
"What, snuck out of Manticore?" Victor teased. "Don't tell me reconditioning affected your memory that much. Weren't you about nine at the time?"
"Well, that wasn't much of a sneak, Victor," Max corrected him. "I seem to remember lots of lights and sirens."
"And shooting," Brin chimed in. "Don't forget the shooting." The brief smile faded from her face. "No, I meant just sitting under a tree, looking up at the sky. I've always been training, fighting, running, or hiding."
"Maybe someday Manticore will go down for good; then we'll all be able to do it," Max said softly.
There was a long moment of uncomfortable silence. Brin and Max couldn't help but think of their brothers and sisters who they would never be able to share that freedom with. Victor stayed quiet, not wanting to intrude on their memories.
After a few minutes, Brin sighed and shifted position slightly so that the three of them were sitting in a triangle facing each other. "So, what's our next move?" she asked.
"We need to get rid of those locators," Victor said immediately. "If we don't, they'll use them to track you down, once they realize you didn't carry out the mission."
Max turned that thought over in her head for a while, until the answer popped up almost of its own volition. A smile spread slowly across her face as she realized how perfect it was. "I've got it," she announced, jumping to her feet.
"What is it, Max?" Brin asked as she and Victor rose as well.
"You'll see," Max grinned. "Victor, head for the airport."
Victor's face reflected his confusion, but he nodded and climbed into the driver's seat. Max and Brin got in the back, and they were off.
When they got to the airport, Max signaled to Brin: 'Go quiet, mission active.' Brin nodded once in reply, her expression quickly slipping into 'soldier mode'. Max grabbed the black bag containing the locators, and the two women exited the van.
When they entered the main terminal, Max quickly picked a flight from the onscreen display, pointed it out to Brin, and made a series of hand signals. The two of them moved quickly out to the loading area, two figures lost in a crowd of people and luggage carts moving back and forth across the tarmac.
It was Brin who spotted their target cart first, moving slowly towards one of the airplanes. She pointed it out to Max, who moved to intercept it. Staying back just far enough to avoid alerting the cart's driver, she quickly dropped the bag atop the pile of luggage and returned to where Brin had waited. The two women made their way out of the airport as silently and swiftly as they had entered it.
"Well? What happened?" Victor demanded as soon as they entered the van. "What did you do with the bag?"
"We put them on a plane," Max shrugged. She and Brin grinned wickedly at each other as they made themselves comfortable on the rear seats.
Victor rolled his eyes. "No kidding you put them on a plane; we are at an airport," he pointed out, his tone heavy with sarcasm. "May I ask where the plane is going?"
"Oh, that? Why didn't you say so in the first place?" Brin asked, her smile as big as Max's. "It's going to Switzerland."
"We all knew Renfro would start hunting us down immediately once we didn't come back from our 'mission'," Max explained, taking pity on Victor's look of exasperation. "Keeping the locators in the same country as us would be stupid, not to mention counter-productive to our objective of disappearing. I sent them to Switzerland because of its location; you can get to several different countries fairly quickly. It should make it that much harder for Manticore to track us down – not to mention the fact that we're not even in Europe."
Victor thought it over for a minute, and then began to laugh. "That's perfect!" he agreed. "Great strategy."
Max affected an air of boredom, buffing her nails on her shirt and yawning. "What can I say?" she shrugged. "It's in the genes."
Victor shook his head and turned around in his seat. "So – where to now, ladies?" he asked, starting the van's engine.
"Fogle Towers," Max sighed, leaning her head back against the seat. "Home."
