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DISCLAIMER: I don't own DA, Alec or anything of the like. They belong to people who don't appreciate them.

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WEB ADDRESS: http:/destined.to/prodigy

CHAPTER EIGHT – UNCHANGED

Alec's body was stiff. His joints throbbed but wouldn't move and the silence closed in around him like a malevolent presence. He longed to draw breath inside his aching body but it was if he was unable. He lay absolutely still, unmoving, not breathing, his heart not beating, a tomb of dampness and darkness encircling him. Is this what eternity was going to be like?

Alec woke jolted from the familiar dream. Something about it disturbed him beyond the borders of one of his regular dreams, and it sent a chill flooding down his spine, a chill that attached itself to his thoughts and wouldn't disengage. He stirred; relieved to find that he could in fact move all of his limbs and he drew in a deep, long breath.

He heard her stir in his bedroom. He had slept on the couch last night, given her his bed. He didn't know why, but it had seemed the proper thing to do. Heh! Proper! Alec thought about their time together several weeks ago in the coffee shop.

Antigone lay in his bed for a while before she dared stir. She breathed in the scent of him all around her and it made her feel so safe and warm. She didn't want to get out of bed that morning, or any other morning for that matter. She wanted to stay here forever. Her thoughts flickered back to last night. She was so embarrassed and ashamed for having showed her weaknesses to Alec, a man she hardly knew. Her uncle had raised her to be strong, telling her that emotions were weaknesses that restricted humanity's ability to advance. And yet she had poured her heart out last night to Alec in a flood of tears she felt would never end. And now she regretted it with equivalent intensity.

Suddenly, Alec appeared in the doorway, his body propped against the doorframe, an unsteady smile on his face. He seemed nervous. "Mornin'…"

"Hey…" Antigone greeted him back.

"Did you sleep well?"

"Yeah, thanks for the bed…"

Alec's smile softened as he watched her in his bed, hair disheveled and sleeping in one of his T-Shirts. On any other occasion, this would have turned him on, but there was an air of mourning about and she was so sad and fragile that he was afraid that if he touched her, she might shatter into a thousand irreparable pieces.

Antigone noticed his smile deepen and it touched her heart. He was so genuine sometimes, like an open book, so innocent, as if he was seeing the world for the first time. At other times though he was completely opposite, a dark cloud of enigmatic turmoil, his face a concert of mixed emotions, impossible to read. It was at these times that she was sure he had seen every kind of misery there was to experience in life, and been to the depths of a shadowy torment and back again.

"Heard you dreaming last night…"

The statement shocked Alec.

"Yeah, I told you I don't sleep well…" The warmth in his smile faded quickly, but he maintained eye contact.

Antigone spoke softly and gentle, she had sensed a change within him and didn't want to upset him further.

"Who's Rachel?"

Alec's breath caught in his throat at the question.

Antigone caught the movement in Alec's eyes, the… guilt?

"We've all lost people that we've loved…"

A deep sadness emanated from Alec and Antigone winced against his pain. Yet intermingled with his sorrow she could discern a heavy blanket of guilt.

"A transgenic killed her…?" the question was more of a statement than anything, Antigone felt she already knew the answer.

Alec cast his eyes to the floor. Antigone thought she saw a single tear slip from those beautiful hazel eyes. He was silent for a long moment. When he finally spoke, his voice was no more than a hoarse whisper, an elongated sound that mirrored all his emotions, rich with pain and sodden with a deep sadness.

"Yeah…"

Antigone never asked about Rachel again.

************************************************************

Max had tried hard not to admit that she missed Alec. Whenever she was confronted she would deny it profusely, even going so far as to tell Dix that she would relocate his testicles (that was assuming Manticore had mixed them into his disfigured genetic cocktail) if he continued to harass her about it. The truth was, she didn't want to miss Alec, but she did. The realization that Alec was important in her life disturbed her more than Logan's ambiguous phone call yesterday. It was about Alec, he had said, and it was bad news about Alec that he couldn't break over the phone, so Max had agreed to leave the sanctity of her radiation-ridden home to meet with Logan. That's why she was here this morning, wading through the sewer overflowing from the recent rains to Joshua's old house, to Logan and to news of Alec.

Her heart was racing. What if something had happened to Alec? She had only just discovered that she needed him, what if he was to leave her now? Max swallowed against the thought as she emerged into the unusually bright street outside of the house. It looked exactly the same. Everything around it had changed, including the chaotic world, and yet it remained, as always, a safe haven. Regularity in an unsure world. Firstly her creator had been there, he probably thought up her DNA structure right there in the living room. After him, Joshua had been there, Alec had once been there, and now Logan was there, waiting for her, thinking of her as all the occupants of the old house always had. Logan turned as he heard her open the door.

"Max is that you?" It was the same greeting, always the same greeting. She grimaced.

"Yeah" She appeared in the doorway. Logan sat at his computer, his hands resting limply in his lap, his eyes slightly glassy. Max noticed how small he looked, how frail he had become since the last time she had seen him in the flesh, as opposed to via streaming video.

"How've you been?" His voice was barely a whisper.

"Good" She didn't look him in the eyes. He shifted uncomfortably in his seat and she wondered what had him so… nervous?

"What is it?"

"Max…" Logan started slowly, his eyes slightly unfocused as he watched her face for a reaction. "It's about Alec…"

"Logan…" Max's voice was firm and directing. She just wanted him to get on with it. Her steady voice hid any trace of the fear that was eating at her heart.

Logan turned back to his computer and played around on the keyboard a bit, each tap on the key irritating Max more than the last. Suddenly the screen came to life. Max's eyes flicked as she recognized a figure in the video surveillance on the screen. It was Alec. He was standing at the entrance to an elevator. He looked nervous, his feet rolling onto their sides and then straightening, his hands in his jacket pockets. Max watched as a young woman approached him with steady, confident strides.

Logan added commentary for effect. "That's Antigone McKinley, god-daughter of Terry Caldwell and the niece of Senator James McKinley." Max nodded.

The girl, Antigone, remained some distance from Alec, her calm demeanor replaced by once as nervous as Alec's. He was the first to close the distance between them. He moved toward her, their bodies only inches from each other, and, gripping her hips firmly, directed her backwards into the elevator just as it arrived and the doors sprung open. A Russian couple exited, their eyes quickly averting from the scene before them.

Max took a sharp breath. Logan glanced at her quickly. "I think that Alec's position may have been compromised… I don't think he's able to perform his duties as a soldier any longer…"

"What are you getting at Logan?" Max snapped at him unwittingly.

"Max, not only is he cheating on you, he's doing it with the enemy… Antigone is a very well known anti-trangenic movement leader and a high-profile lawyer opposing all things transgenic. In addition to that, her family relations with the Senator and the Reverend automatically make her a threat to our cause."

Max turned to him slowly. "Logan, I think Alec knows what he is doing…"

"Max, he is CHEATING on you!" For the first time Logan's voice rose above the raspy whisper. "Don't you care?" Finally, his emotions erupted. "How could you be with him and not with me!"

"Of course I care! But I think the more important question here is has he been turned? Has he betrayed us? And me and you? I told you, it's over…"

Logan remained silent. Max seethed quietly.

After a long moment, Max finally spoke. "I'll have to make contact with him…"

Logan nodded, and Max turned and left the room.

************************************************************

The apartment looked the same. The same. But everything else had changed. It was funny how buildings – mere bricks and mortar, could remain, but people got swept away so fast, changed so suddenly. She stared up at it, contemplating going inside.

She knew Alec wouldn't have betrayed the transgenics, but he had betrayed her. Or had he? They'd never really been together, she knew that, it was just a front for Logan, but somehow she felt… cheated. She wasn't sure if she loved Alec, but she depended on him. She depended on him to be hers and hers alone. He was there for her to ridicule, for her to love or hate, for her to help or for her to annoy. Alec had always been hers, he got a job at her workplace, hung out with her friends, and he never did anything on his own. He was her sidekick, her dependent. And now he wasn't. She was jealous, and she knew it.

As if on purpose, Alec walked out of the apartment building at that exact moment, followed closely by Antigone. Max seethed inside. He hopped onto his motorcycle, Antigone got into her car. She watched them exchange the clandestine smiles of secret lovers before they parted and she longed to share that smile with Alec. But she couldn't and she never would. She knew that. Still, she needed to talk to Alec, so she followed him from a distance, hoping to catch up with him before he arrived at TIEO.

************************************************************

Alec sensed he was being followed as he pulled his motorcycle to a stop a few blocks away from TIEO. He also sensed who it was that was following him. Why she had come here he didn't know. But he knew it was dangerous, and a sickening pit formed in his stomach as that ominous feeling returned to him.

"What do you want Max?" Alec's voice was steady, unwavering.

Max slowed her motorbike and stepped off it. "Logan thought I should make contact with you."

"So it was Logan's idea to risk exposing me… I should have guessed"

"Alec please… That girl…"

Alec turned to face Max at this.

"What do you know about it?"

"Surveillance, remember?"

Alec winced.

"You know that she's the Reverend's god-daughter and the Senator's niece, right?"

"Yeah"

"So you know she's the enemy…"

Alec was incredulous. "The enemy? Max… you know me. You know I wouldn't betray the transgenics."

"Do I Alec? Do I really know you? Does anyone?"

Alec turned his back on her again. "Go home Max"

Max stalked after him, grabbing his shoulder and turning him roughly to face her. Alec shrugged her off him.

"Is that all you've got to say to me?" Her voice was charged… angry.

Alec almost spat the words at Max as he retaliated. "Yeah, that's it… GO HOME!"

He was looking down at her; his face an unreadable mix of emotions, and Max glared defiantly back at him, her eyes ablaze with anger.

"I know what this is really about" His voice was steady, taunting. "You're jealous"

"What?" Max screwed her face up in denial.

"You're jealous cos I'm out here, and you're in TC, you're jealous cos I can do things on my own, and that someone else would be interested in me, that someone thinks that I'm more than a screw-up, and that that someone isn't you!"

Max was furious, not because what he said wasn't true, but because he seemed to be able to predict her, and suddenly it seemed as if her actions weren't her own, like Alec was one step in front of her the whole time, like she wasn't in control, and Max hated not being in control.

Alec felt the blow to his chest and it knocked the breath out of him as he went crashing toward the ground. Alec sprung to his feet in an instant and put is defenses up, Max and him circling each other like predators.

Max was again the first to attack and Alec blocked her punches skillfully, and then knocked her off her feet. Max somersaulted back onto her feet and faced Alec once again.

The two trasngenics fought for some time, over a year of pent-up anger being released into the begrimed alley as they launched attack after attack, each equally matched and well-trained. But it was Max who finally gained the advantage, and as Alec slid down the wall where he had just been thrown, his body streaked with sweat, Max moved in predatorily. She watched him as he sat on the ground, a triumphant smile on his face, those green eyes flickering mischievously, and she smiled and outstretched her hand. No-one would ever be able to define their relationship, hers and Alec's, and she wasn't quite sure she'd want them to. She did know, however, that she loved him, maybe as a sister or a friend or maybe even as… whatever, but she loved him.

Alec reached for her hand, sensing the change in her demeanor, and his smile deepened.

But their moment was short lived. A shot rang out into the seething morning air, and Alec felt a fine warm spray on his neck and face. He looked into Max's eyes and they were large with shock and pain. It was then that he realized what was dripping down his cheeks – Max's blood. He reacted within and instant, leaping to his feet and blurring behind Max to the source of the gunfire. He grabbed the gun and the turned to face their attacker and Alec's heart sank. It was Frell. Frell stared back at him, surprised, and he stammered a reply, his usually deep voice heightened with fear. It was the first transgenic he had ever killed.

"She was… I thought it was gonna kill you. Did I do okay?"

A deep sorrow rose within Alec. He knew what he would have to do.

"Yeah… yeah, you did fine buddy…" And he reached for Frell as if to pat him on the back, but his hands found his neck instead. Within a second, Frell was dead.

Alec stepped back slowly, a single tear slipping down his cheek and he wasn't sure if it was for Frell or Max.

He heard Max sputter behind him and went to her side, picking her up slowly.

"Damn bullets…" She sputtered as deep red blood bubbled at her mouth. "It's like they're attracted to me… What am I? A bullet magnet?"

But Alec didn't laugh, he didn't smile. He placed her on his bike behind him and sped toward Terminal City silently, stoically.

And as the sun rose high above the city behind him, Alec headed to the shadows of Terminal City.