A/N two chapters in one go- aren't I good to you?

21

Max loved the night time. There was something about the way that the stars glistened that she just adored. Most of her favourite memories took place at night; breaking out of Manticore, hiding out from Lucy's father in the back yard, climbing the space needle and just riding around on her motorcycle when everyone else was in bed. There was just something quiet and secretive about the night…not just the fact that she was breaking intro Alec's office to steal those damn maps.

She had seen the look in his eye when she asked for them and knew that he thought something was wrong. It stood to reason that he would then hide the maps so that if she came into his office during the day she wouldn't see them. Not that that would stop her anyway. Plus she knew Alec.

She picked the lock on his door and wondered for a second why on earth he bothered. The place was full of soldiers who could pick a lock easier than they could pick their nose…and suddenly she had a bad image in her head.

Mentally shrugging off the disturbing image of Mole with his scaly fingers up his nose she pushed open the door and crept silently into the darkened office. Moving cautiously she edged to the desk and rifled through the papers on the off chance that he had actually just left them there, no such luck.

Moving quickly she jimmied open his filing cabinet and began to rummage though.

She heard a noise and spun around.

Alec was leaning casually against the door with his arms folded and rolled up maps in his hands.

"Looking for these Max?" he raised an eyebrow.

Max straightened and watched as he unfurled himself and walked closer.

"Actually yeah," she reached out her hand, ready to forget the way that he had found her sneaking into his office at this time of night.

"Working late?" he asked amiably ignoring her outstretched hand.

"You know me, shark DNA might as well get some planning done." She shrugged and let her hand rest on her hip.

That look was still in his eyes, the one that she had seen when she had originally asked for the maps. It was like he was trying to figure something out and feeling really suspicious of everything that she said.

It was kind of cute actually.

"So why do you need these plans?" he asked cautiously "You asked me to take care of the supplies so it can't be that."

"Tactical advantage," She lied quickly "I wanted to know where all these bases were just in case we needed to mount any kind of offensive. It might be handy to be able to lock down the base so that they were unable to mount an attack."

"So it wasn't urgent?"

Max shook her head.

"So why did you creep in here, couldn't you have waited until tomorrow?" his reasonable voice was starting to grate on her.

"Just give me the damn maps," She demanded having had enough of this circular conversation.

"Tell me why you want them," he folded his arms again, this time looking wary instead of the casual pose of before.

"I told you," she began but he interrupted

"I don't believe you," He moved slightly "See Maxie, I'm not the only one who has noticed differences in you recently and we're all worried about you."

"I'm all right," she shifted a shoulder, her eyes on the papers in his hand.

He gritted his teeth at the casual phrase, "No you're not Max."

"Alec," her voice went quiet and sweet- which meant danger.

"Look they are just maps, I don't see what the big hassle is. Just give them to me okay?"

Alec held them behind his back "Not until you tell me why you want them."

"Maybe it's none of your damn business," A flash of anger made him feel slightly better.

"Look Max I'm not doing this to get you mad but ever since White," he paused as Max flinched and something clicked. He looked from her tight face to the maps. "You're looking for White."

The epiphany was so simple he almost slapped his own head for not figuring it out sooner.

"Dammit Max, you're looking for White, you're gonna try to take him out. Are you crazy?"

Max just stared at him with that blank face that he was starting to hate.

"What the hell are you thinking huh? That you're just gonna march up to the headquarters and ask for him "Oh yeah hey can I speak to the insane masochist who spent three months torturing me?" that your plan?"

Alec started pacing as his voice got louder "The guy put you in a coma for hells sake. You should be avoiding the guy like a plague."

"Calm down," She said with an amused tone.

"Calm down? Max what you are planning is certifiable and there's just no way that we are gonna let you do this."

"And you're planning on stopping me… how?"

When Alec looked up at her it was like he was watching a stranger. There was no Max in those eyes, it was someone else and for a second he wondered if she was a clone rather than Max.

He had to ask "Max?"

"It's me." Her lips twitched in half amusement.

"Wh-?" he began but Max quickly placed her finger to her lips telling him to be quiet. He listened hard and heard a faint tapping sound coming from outside his office.

When he looked over at Max, her eyes were fixed on the wall beside the door, her whole body tense and posture at attention. She slowly made her way to the door without making a single sound.

Max wrenched the door open in a quick move and simultaneously pulled something out from behind her back.

"Hold it," she commanded.

Alec raced to the door and saw a frantic Luke shaking at the end of Max's gun.

"I was g-g-going to get some w-water," He stammered.

Alec, who was watching Max's face, just nodded at Luke and replied in a soft voice.

"It's okay, Max, it's Luke. You know Luke, he's not the enemy." Luke looked worried at Alec's tone.

"She okay?"

"Sure Luke, just don't make any sudden moves right now. Max, Max it's me, Alec, and that's Luke, he's not a threat you can put the gun down." He moved his hand out slowly to touch her gun arm all the while talking in the same soothing voice.

"Max, put the gun down."

Max didn't appear to have heard him at all, she kept her gun trained on the trembling transgenic, her eyes cold and hard.

"At ease Soldier!"

The shouted command made Luke jump and Max's gun dropped to her side and she stood to attention.

Alec motioned to Luke that he should go.

"O-okay buddy i-i-if everything's under c-control," He stuttered stumbling away.

Alec barely noticed him as he walked around Max to face her.

"Max, it's me, Alec, I need you to calm down okay baby, just calm down." He noted her shaking shoulders and trembling hands.

He placed his hand on her gun arm and gently lowered it until the gun was pointing at the floor. Then he softly placed his hands on her shoulders and shook her slightly until her gaze lifted to his and some life came back to her empty eyes.

"Maxie?"

"Alec?"

A sigh of relief ran from his body.

"Hey," He smiled down at her "Welcome back."

"What the hell happened?" the angry tone in her voice had never been so welcome.

"You tried to ice Luke."

"I did?" Max's small voice sent a wave of feeling down Alec's back and he wanted to pull her to him and hug the bitch back into her but he knew she needed to "come correct" about a few things first.

"Why did I do that?" 

"It's called battle relief. When a Soldier switches off all extraneous feelings, emotions and processes and focuses on the ingrained training and their instincts. I saw it back at Manticore when we were sent out on the most dangerous missions. It was taught to only the most promising of soldiers because they would be taking on the worst missions, assassination and infiltration."

Max shivered, "I don't remember anything like that."

"That's because you were too young to have it," Alec frowned and looked down "When did you start packing Max? I thought you hated guns."

"I do," she whispered staring down at the barrel of the gun. In truth it hadn't left her side since she had found it. She had taken it from the bedside table of the hospital room where she had found it once she had woken up and hadn't been apart from it since.

She tucked it into the back of her jeans during the day where it was covered by her leather jacket or t-shirt. At night she slept with it under her pillow and she even placed it on a chair next to the shower.

It was scary to her the way the weapon made her feel slightly safer when she had always abhorred the things but there it was, just one more change in the life of Max.

Her hands started to shake again, "What is happening to me?"

This time he couldn't resist and he pulled her into his chest and wrapped his arms around her waist.

"Shh Maxie, it'll be okay," He stroked her shoulders marvelling in the soft skin beneath his fingers.

"No it won't," she pushed him away her eyes suddenly hard again "He's taken too much I won't let him do this to me. No one has ever, not even Mr Barrett and I won't let him…"

"Who's Mr Barrett?" Alec asked confused at the fierce look on Max's face.

Her gaze snapped up, "No one."

"Max." he sighed, looks like they were back to that and just when he had thought that they might be making a breakthrough.

She ran her fingers through her hair and shook her head. She moved away from him and sat on the edge of his desk.

"Alec," She bit her lip "I need your help."

His eyes brows shot to the ceiling, Max was asking for his help? "Sure Max whatever you need."

"I need those maps and I need you to help me find White…and kill him."

Alec watched carefully in her eyes to see any hint of the joke he was sure she was making.

"Say again."

"I want to kill White."

"Uh Max, not that I'm against the whole death to the sadistic freak who put an explosive device in my brain stem but this guy isn't exactly Joe regular, I mean he is a Familiar."

Max shrugged, "I want him dead."

Alec ran a frustrated hand through his hair "Max you know that I would do anything for you but that is suicide."

The room was silent except for the sounds of their breathing for so long that Alec wanted to scream. He was about ready to agree just to make noise when her soft voice broke the air.

"When we first escaped, back in 09, I ran into a small girl called Lucy. Her mom couldn't have any more children and so they adopted me, no papers or anything, just took me back with them. Mrs Barrett was nice but Mr Barrett," She swallowed and looked down "He made Lydecker look like a prince. When he wasn't passed out from drinking he would hit us. I was new in the world and didn't know how things were. Manticore and its punishments were all I knew, so I took the beatings and the constant abuse. Things were bad, really bad at times and sometimes I wanted to be back at Manticore where things were easy." She gave a small laugh "But I told myself that this was what Zack had wanted, for us to be free and so I stayed because no matter how much he hurt me or Lucy I was still free. Then he started to come into our room at night and took Lucy away, she'd say that he hadn't hit her so it wasn't so awful but she would cry so hard afterwards. I think he left me alone at first because I looked too much like an orphan, shaved head and scrawny. But as Mrs Barrett fed me up and my hair grew, I guess the temptation grew too much and one night he came to the room and took me instead of Lucy."

Alec had frozen; his face a mask of horror.

"Oh he didn't rape me; I wouldn't let him get that far... not quite that far. I broke his nose and he never touched me again. He used Lucy to keep me in line after that; if I messed up he would hurt her really bad. I hated him but never let him take anything away from me. He couldn't do it even though he tried, I wouldn't let him."

Max stared down at her feet, continuing with her story.

"When the pulse hit and I finally left the Barrett's I lived in a park, sleeping on the grass or in alleys scavenging what I could and stealing what I couldn't. I met a lot of people, good ones bad ones, people like Clark," Her eyes darkened, "and Moody," She smiled slightly "But no one has ever taken anything I didn't want them to. I kept my innocence and my love and hope. Everything I had was mine to give away and no one could take it from me," she took a breath. "Except White. He took something and I want it back."  

"What?" his voice was a whisper

"My self," She looked up at him with haunted eyes "He took me away Alec and I don't feel safe anymore. I used to trust me, that I could keep me safe and that I could keep me okay. But I'm scared, I have never been afraid in my life," a single tear ran down her cheek. "Not when I was hungry or cold or hunted, not when we used to hide from Mr Barrett in the cellar and not when Lydecker was trying to kill me. But White scares me Alec. When he showed me that picture of you dead I have never been so terrified in my life."

"Max," her name a sigh he walked forward and wrapped his arms around her cradling her to his chest. "I had no idea."

And he hadn't, he had always thought that the 09ers had had it easy when they escaped but he had never given a thought to how they lived and suddenly he felt ashamed that he had never even bothered to ask. He had thought that Max's life had been all fun and games but child abuse, rape, poverty and neglect? At least at Manticore they had had three square meals a day and somewhere warm to sleep at night.

She stared up at him with glistening eyes, "I don't need your pity Alec, I survived, that what I do. But I need your help to beat this bitch. Will you help me?"

And there it was; Max had finally asked for his help. And it was for something important to her and there was no way that he could turn her down, not even if she had asked him to follow her to hell itself.

He kissed the top of her head.

"You don't even need to ask Maxie, I'm here for you. I'm always here for you."

~~~~

White was at a loss. He had stationed men at every hospital for miles for weeks and no sight of 452. The sector guards proved that they had been chosen for brawn rather than brain when he asked if a female had broken through the check points at any time in the past few weeks. White was getting worried, it was just like she had vanished into thin air and he knew that that was not possible. With the injuries that she had she should be decomposing somewhere but they had combed every wood and had hounds out and all sorts and nothing. The bitch had gone to ground and he was rapidly getting to the point where he had to either find and destroy or go to the conclave and admit his mistake. That wasn't really an option since it would result in his, rather permanent, dismissal.

But where the hell was she?

He stopped pacing and tried to think logically. Okay so wasn't dead- unfortunately. Which meant that at sometime she would go back to Terminal City to see if any of her kind had managed to survive his "attack." He let his lips curve at the thought of 452 thinking all her friends were dead, especially the ever charming 494.