A Final Farewell
Chapter 11
A/N: Okay if you didn't guess it by last chapter's ending, the accident turned Carmen back into Max for real this time I promise. So on with the story please read and review I really enjoy hearing what you think of my story. Thanks for reading!!
Pulling up to a small sleazy motel, Max gawked at the sight of it, she expected her sister to stay in something a little bit more swanky. Getting out of the car, she was still unsteady on her feet, and it was odd to her that the accident had shaken her up so much. When she pulled up Syl was leaning against the side of her car staring into space, now she looked right at Max.
"So would you like to explain where you've been for the past four months?" Syl couldn't keep the anger that she felt from seeping into her voice.
"I can't tell you that." Max said softly.
"Can't or won't?"
Max whirled on her sister. "I want to tell you, but you'd hate me for some of the things that I've done."
"Max we've all done things that we aren't proud of, nothing that you've done could make me love you any less."
"I almost shot the man I love, Syl and then somebody shot him because I couldn't do it, and now he might die because of me."
"You didn't know who you were, you didn't know who he was, you can't blame yourself for what Manticore did to you." Max knew that Syl was trying to make things better but she wasn't succeeding very much.
"I saw his face and I felt nothing, not a glimmer of love, or recollection of who he was. Who you love isn't just someone that you forget, I could never forget him and yet I did. I let Manticore take me away from the one thing in my life that was stable, the one thing in my life that I could count on… and now they're going down for it."
"Max, come on we can't stand out here all night, you'll feel better after a good nights sleep and a shower, then in the morning we can talk rationally, maybe by then Logan'll be awake and you can put all your fears to rest." She made her way down the hall to her room, unlocked the door and stood in the doorway waiting for Max to follow.
"I'm not waiting around that long, I'll take a shower an hour nap at the most and then I'm out of here, Manticore will be burned down to the ground before first light."
"Max it's not that simple and you know it, you'll never make it in and out of there alive. Now come inside before you freeze to death out there." She put the space heater that was situated near the window on full blast, which by her terms was more like a very light low setting, but it kept the evening chill out of the room.
The room was small, but clean with two single beds and a miniscule bathroom. Dropping her things on the small table by the door Syl disappeared into the bathroom emerging a few seconds later with water dripping off her face. "So what do you remember?" Max had sat down in the chair near the table putting her head down on it.
Going to the small dorm size refrigerator, Syl grabbed out a bottle of water and set it down near Max on the table. She had learned long ago never to touch the water that came out of the taps in a big city such as Seattle it was almost guaranteed to be contaminated. Bottled water was hard to find and was expensive when you could get it, but at least it was clean, not that they could have caught anything from it anyway.
"Drink it, calm down, take a shower and sleep before you have a nervous breakdown. Impossible for us I know, but at the rate you're going, you're on the way to becoming the first one of us to crack- make that second one of us to crack under the pressure of being out here."
Twenty minutes later Syl was lying on one of the beds falling asleep, when she heard the door to the hotel room open and shut. Sitting upwards, she heard the shower still on in the bathroom and looking around the room she saw that Krit was home. "God Krit was the hell are you trying to do, scare the crap out of me." She said in a hushed voice.
"I thought you were asleep I didn't want to wake you. I saw your car what the hell happened?"
"I had a little run in with Max, literally. She's here taking a shower, she's had a long day."
"What do you mean you had a run in with Max, Syl, Max is dead you know that, you haven't been drinking have you?" Almost as if on cue the door to the bathroom opened and Max entered the main room. Krit looked as if he had been hit with a ton of bricks, his mouth opened into a wide 'o'. Without thinking he stepped forward and enveloped his little sister in a bear hug.
"How did you, what… I don't understand, how did you survive?" Krit was on the verge of squeezing Max so tight that it almost cut off her air supply.
"It's a long story, Syl will fill you in, because right now I have a gigantic bitch to take down." Shifting her attention to her sister, Max said, "Do you have any clothes that I can borrow, preferably black and comfortable. I only have the maids outfit from the hotel where I found Logan and I'd rather not wear that it's a little embarrassing."
"Yeah sure," headed to the chest of drawers on the front wall Syl pulled out a set of clothes, loose fitting black pants and a black long sleeve shirt. Max went into the bathroom and emerged a few minutes later.
"Max tell me you aren't going to do anything stupid." Syl frowned, she knew her sister all too well, she wouldn't stop until she got what she wanted.
"Don't worry, when I'm done Manticore will be gone for good, before anyone even realizes what's going on." The confidence in her voice was evident, she just hoped that, that confidence stayed with her throughout the next few hours.
"Just be careful, we don't want any replays of last time, none of us will be there to save your ass if anything goes wrong." Krit said matter-of-factly.
Smiling at her brother's concern she replied, "I know Krit, I'll be careful don't worry. Just stay here all right and after everything is done, there will be no more running, no more hiding, we can finally have normal lives. Or as close to normal as people like us can get." she said smiling sardonically. "If anything changes with Logan here's my cell phone number." Writing it on the small pad of paper on the table near the door. "I need to ask another favor… can I borrow your car, I don't think mine will make it to Gillette and back in one piece. Oh yeah and please." She said thinking it better to sound grateful and use some manners when asking for something on the higher side of big.
"Yeah, why not," Syl agreed instantly, knowing also that Max's car wouldn't make it, "I already smashed the crap out of it running into you, just don't blow it up or anything, I might need it later." Syl said knowing that it wouldn't do any good, she knew that Max didn't care what she destroyed as long as Manticore was taken down in the end.
"Thank you, and I promise that this time I will come back in one piece with all my organs inside my body and all my limbs attached." Max said trying to be funny but the wittiness of the joke was lost in the seriousness of the moment. Pausing for a moment to look at her sibling's faces she hugged both of them in turn and walked out the door glancing back only once to see Syl standing in the doorway with the keys to the car dangling from her hand. "I might need those." Stopping as Syl threw them to her, catching them expertly one handed, Max waved a last goodbye and was on her way.
Two hours and a tank of gas later she pulled up the long driveway to the compound. The compound looked menacing and this time she wasn't even coming there as a prisoner, she was coming there as a volunteer and she was starting to wonder if it was a mistake, coming back. She could have had a wonderful life away from Manticore, Logan and her could have left the country and started a life away from the confines of the city of Seattle. Away from everything that reminded her of what she had lost and everything that reminded her of the past she wished to forget.
She knew that nothing was that easy, she couldn't just leave behind the life that she had lead up to that moment. She had a job, she had friends and for what it was worth she had a life one that made her feel sometimes like a normal girl. The front door to the compound opened and she knew when 5-armed guards came to escort her into the facility that she was in deep shit, and she had masses of explaining to do.
Renfro sat behind her desk and was looking very unhappy at the moment. Lydecker was standing in the corner of the room staring out the window. Max sneaked a glance at him as she entered the room. "Ah, Carmen how wonderful of you to join us." She paused and gave the guards who stood by the door a venomous look, then motioned for them to leave the room. She waited as the door opened and closed as they exited, frowning she said, "Now would you like to explain to Colonel Lydecker and I why you didn't carry out your assignment, and even when it had been you proceeded to take him to Harbour Lights Medical."
"Ma'am people saw me go into his hotel room, I thought that if it looked like I made an effort to save his life then I would be ruled out as a suspect and as it is, Dr. Carr who I dealt with said that he's not going to make it. The bullet one of your goonies put in him collapsed his left lung and caused severe internal bleeding." Max stopped dead in her train of thought, the severity of the situation, immediately being brought to her attention was something that she had been trying to repress until that moment. "Now I would really like to get some sleep, please."
"You still have not explained to me why you didn't shot him at the penthouse." Renfro said suspiciously.
"I had no weapon, he had a gun turned on me so I jumped out the window to save myself. He followed me to the Space Needle where we fought, he got away and went to the hotel and I already told you what happened from there."
"Good enough, you are dismissed, show up here tomorrow morning at seven for your debrief, Colonel Lydecker will be conducting it." Renfro seemed a little preoccupied by something but before Max had a chance to call her on it, the phone rang and Max took it as her cue to leave the office. Opening the door, it was pulled from her hand by Lydecker who followed her out of the room.
"Good show you put on in there Max, I think even she believed it." He said quietly once the door was shut.
"How did you- no never mind don't answer that."
"An assassin would never take the care to explain her actions, she would have taken the criticism that her superior gave her and with a straight face. You never could keep your temper, when someone was questioned your actions." He smirked, "I'm just wondering how long you can keep this up."
"We'll you won't have to find out because I don't plan on staying here any longer that I have to which won't be long at all."
"And how pray tell do you plan to get out of here."
"I plan to leave this place in ashes, so if there is anything of value to you here you might want to get it out of the bui-" She stopped talking when a group of soldiers passed by, saluting to Lydecker who saluted back. "Could you do me a favor?"
"Depends on what the favor is."
"I need to talk to Al- I mean 494."
"I'll see what I can do."
"Thanks." Max said walking away.
"Good luck, Carmen." Deciding not to answer him back she continued walking down the hall smirking at the use of her alias, he always knew how to push her buttons.
A/N: This chapter was originally shorter then this but after going back to this and revising at three thirty in the morning it got a little longer and I'm very happy with the way it turned out. I hope you liked it as well, I would really like to know what your honest opinion of the story is, whether it be flames, criticism, constructive criticism, or warm fluffy bunny stuff. Please take the time to give me some feedback, I'd really like to know what I can improve on, or what I am doing well. So once again thanks for reading.