Chapter 7: Awake

Max slowly opened her eyes. For some reason they felt like they had never been used before as a burning ache washed over as she struggled to see. There was nothing and Max felt very alone as she blinked vigorously in an attempt to reintroduce herself to her own senses.

Where was she? Max was confused, her mind a jumble of nonsense. Everywhere she looked she could see nothing but a thick darkness that stretched for eternity. It didn't make any sense; Max knew who she was but she had no idea where she was and more importantly, how she got here.

Slowly rising to her feet, Max dusted herself off. Despite the initial dilemma with her eyesight, she felt perfectly normal. Scanning her surroundings, Max tried desperately so see something, anything, other than blackness. It was no use though, she couldn't even see herself as she held her hands to her face.

"Hello," Max's voice echoed through the deserted void. There was no answer. Reluctantly Max decided to make a move, gingerly raising her right leg and stretching it forward. She was relieved when it met with solid ground.

"Max," a voice came from behind her. Recognising it immediately, Max spun round to see Logan standing in a brilliant stream of white light. After her eye's adjusted to the much appreciated light, Max could see that Logan was smiling, his arms reaching out to her.

"Logan!" she cried as she raced towards him, no longer concerned about where she was. Just as she was about to fall into his arms, Max found herself passing straight through Logan and then hitting the ground hard. Shocked, she rolled over so that she was again facing Logan. He wasn't smiling anymore, his mouth now twisted in pain.

Max could only watch as a small patch of blood appeared on Logan's chest, gradually getting bigger as the dull liquid cascaded down his front like a gruesome waterfall. His eyes bulged as the scything sound of metal tearing flesh intensified to an audible level.

"No!" Max cried in horror as Logan's now limp body fell carelessly to the ground in a heap. His blood spilt across the lit up floor, lapping its way around Max's feet.

Now a different figure stood before her and Max found that she couldn't move no matter how hard she tried; she was powerless, hopeless and alone.

"Gray?" she said, identifying Logan's killer. The man smiled as he nodded slowly, his eye's burning red with rage.

He took a step toward her but still Max couldn't move a muscle. She could see the bloodied knife in his hand and began to panic as the blood dribbled off his hand down to the ground.

"You know my name, but do you know who I am?" Gray asked.

"I don't know what you're talking about," Max replied as she tried, in vain, to move even the slightest inch. Gray laughed hoarsely.

"I doubt that you even know yourself, let alone who I am." His deep voice mocked her as he came closer, now standing above her unmoving form.

"I am you in a sense," he continued.

Max felt intrigued as she fought back the fear that was welling inside of her.

"What do you mean?" she asked.

"I am what you see in the mirror, a reflection so to speak. Yet, at the same time I am everything that you are not."

"So who are you?" Max persisted.

"Alec," he replied.

"…What?"

"Max, it's me Alec."

As if surfacing from an eternity under water, Max bolted upright air rushing out of her lungs in one huge gasp. Her face now felt sore and swollen and her jaw creaked as she adjusted it form side to side. Taking in her surroundings, Max realised she was back in her house in the post-pulse town of Greenough. Gently massaging her jaw, she remembered Gray effortlessly kicking her ass. She let out a groan as the feeling of his boot crashing into her face crept over her. That was the last thing that happened before…she struggled to recall what had just passed. The eternal darkness, Logan dying and Gray's cryptic words: all were now beginning to fade from her memory.

"Max are you ok?" Alec's voice came from her left. She turned to face him; he didn't look too good. A deep gash ran along his temple and there were various cuts and bruises scattered around his cheeks and jaw. His hair was not it's usual perky self and now just hung loosely around his head. He looked concerned, not surprising considering that an entire town was dead and two X-5's had just had their asses handed to them by one guy.

"You look like shit," Max croaked, her throat sore. Alec grinned before reaching under the bed and retrieving a large piece of reflective glass, no doubt recovered from the Watering Hole. He held it up so that Max could examine her own injuries. Her Jaw was like one big bruise down the left side and there was also substantial swelling around her mouth. A deep cut ran vertically down her bottom lip and was crusted with dried blood. To make things worse, her nose had been broken and was now flat and heavily bruised and cut. Hopefully her superior transgenic healing powers would fix this and so it wouldn't have too great an effect on her social life. Still it hurt like hell.

"I am what you see in the mirror," Gray's words resurfaced from the far reaches of Max's mind. In that case, she thought, you're a battered girl concerned about her looks and whether it will matter to a man you love and adore who you believed to be dead for the past year. Smiling, Max's mind trailed back to whatever it was that she had just been through; what she could best describe as a dream. If that was the case, then Gray's words had no relevance; Max had just conjured them up in her head. The problem was that it felt distinctly real: the darkness, Logan, Gray, all of it felt somehow familiar to Max as if it had already happened or something. All this thinking wasn't helping her splitting headache and so Max decided to save it for when she felt better.

Letting herself fall back on her bed, Max closed her eyes and drifted home to Seattle. If it hadn't been for Gray then she would already be there now; resting in Logan's arms while sitting next to a roaring fire having just gorged themselves on a ludicrously delicious dinner. Max let out a small sigh of pleasure causing Alec to stare at her a little disturbed.

"So that's how you get your rocks off is it? Getting your ass kicked." Alec's voice suggested that he was being serious. Opening one eye, Max peered at his face. She couldn't help but be amused at the ridiculous look he was wearing; one eyebrow arched, his face wrinkled in a mixture of confusion and disgust. He sort of looked like a dried plum, albeit a beaten up one.

Deciding not to dignify his question with a response, Max returned to Logan's arms. She felt safe as if nothing could touch her; it was just her and Logan alone together. Max could almost feel his fingers running through her hair and the electric tingle when his skin touched her face. It was a calm sense of euphoria and she felt at ease. Suddenly and without warning, Max jolted upright, a rush of pain coming over her head a she did so.

"Oh my god Alec, what about Dave! I mean Gray killed everyone…what about Dave…the cure…" Max's voice trailed off as she saw Alec's face drop. It was like someone was draining all the hope and joy from her body and she now felt sick with sorrow again.

"I'm sorry Max…he's dead." Alec sounded genuinely upset, that could only mean one thing to Max: the cure was lost and with it any chance of her and Logan ever being together how she had imagined all those days alone.

The news was almost enough to shatter her heart. After what had just happened today, Max only wanted to be in one place; in Logan's arms, to be able to hold him and find comfort in his touch. That bastard Gray had torn it all away from her, she had been so close and now it was out of her reach lost forever.

"Look on the bright side," Alec said, "at least he finished that cure of his before he snuffed it."

Max shot Alec a look that suggested she was about to rip him apart. "What!" she raged.

"He finished the cure. That Gray must have come back here after he kicked our asses, found poor Dave and killed him. Doesn't make much sense but that's the way I figure things happened." Alec stopped a moment, noticing the look of disdain on Max's face. Feeling a little nervous he decided it might be best to keep talking, make amend s for whatever it was he had done wrong.

"Anyways, look it's in that syringe on the table next to you. Damn Max, I thought your eyesight was good, I mean its bright yellow for fuck's sake."

Max didn't know whether to laugh or cry as she picked up the miracle she had been waiting for. She didn't really know Dave and had thought he was a bit of an idiot, but, after seeing the gift he had left for her, Max felt a pang of regret now that the poor man was dead.

But you sounded like…" Max turned to Alec, her voice trembling.

"Yeah I know, I just figured you would be upset cos like Dave is you know…dead." Alec seemed a lot more cheerful now. "Go on, try it out," he urged.

Turning back to the syringe, Max proceeded to pat her arm until a nice healthy vain rose through the skin. She then slowly injected the vibrant liquid. She waited, half expecting to start glowing or floating or something else extraordinary.

"I don't feel any different, maybe it hasn't worked," Max's pessimistic streak began to shine through.

"Should have known you'd be like this; you just can't accept good things happening to you can you Max? Look it's getting late so perhaps we should head back to Seattle, then you and Logan can test the cure together. Now, how does that sound?"

"Sounds perfect," Max replied smiling.

Before they left, Max and Alec decided to burn the town of Greenough to the ground. With everyone dead, the town itself was just waiting to be put out of its misery, its reason for existence stolen like the lives of its occupants. As they left a cloud of smoke rose up above the horizon and the once clear air was now thick with the stench of burning death. Max felt sick, she was supposed to be used to death and what it meant, but today was different. The people of Greenough may have been a little backwards, but they didn't deserve to die.

Night had set in by the time they got clear of Greenough. Alec was driving Dave's small red car while Max sat in the uncomfortably hard passenger seat. Now that she had time to think, Max began to reflect upon the days events. It was only now that she realised just how lucky she and Alec were to be alive. Gray had slaughtered an entire town, Dave included, in fact he had left her and Alec and then killed Dave. I t didn't make sense, from what Max could gather Gray had come to kill her specifically and yet she was the only one left alive, well besides Alec but he hardly counted.

"So who do you think this Gray guy is?" Alec's voice interrupted her chain of thought.

"I don't know," Max replied still staring blankly at the far off horizon.

"He wanted you didn't he?"

Max nodded: "Yeah can't think why though."

"Cos you're the hero and all the mean guys want a crack at the hero." Alec gave her a quick grin before turning his attention back to the narrow road.

"Yeah and he was one mean son of a bitch." Max sounded distant, her mind troubled by the display of strength and speed put on for her benefit by the mysterious Gray. Just what the hell was he? Could he be a transgenic? What did he want with her? Why hadn't he killed her and Alec? Would he be coming back?

Max's head began to spin with the lack of answers to the endless stream of questions. She looked out across the countryside, now coated in a husky silver as the moon emerged from the departing rain clouds. The surrounding tree's looked like mythical beasts as they swayed in the gentle breeze and the grass still glistened with the remnants of rain. Everything seemed so peaceful and this helped sooth Max's frenzied mind. At least she would be with Logan soon and with any luck, Dave's cure would have worked so they could be together properly. Then she would deal with Gray, she would get the bastard back for what he had done not only to her, but to all those people he had needlessly killed. It didn't matter how tough he thought he was; Max was going to bring him down and take great pleasure in doing it.

Shall I wake you when we get there?" Alec asked, noticing Max slipping to sleep.

"Yes please," she murmured, grateful for the chance to rest.