Chapter 16: Turncoat

Max woke just in time to hear Logan's car start up and roar out of the crumbled drive. She rushed over to the window and pulled the curtains apart. She watched as Logan drove to the top of the street and then round the corner, disappearing fro view.

Max sighed and let the curtains lapse shut. Once again she was completely alone. The house, the entire street, was eerily silent. There was the occasional creek from the old wooden structure of Logan's house but that was it. Max was now the only soul around and it felt like she was back in Greenough waiting to be saved.

Shuddering, Max decided to get changed; the clothes form last night felt dirty, tainted with death's touch that bit at her skin. The air was cold but at the same time felt oddly stuffy and clammy. Nonetheless, Max opted for a winter look selecting a woollen black turtle neck and a pair of jeans before she proceeded to wipe away the remnants of last night's make up. Max ran a brush through her hair until the reflection in the mirror met with her satisfaction. She didn't know why she was concerned with her appearance; perhaps it was because it gave her a welcome distraction from…

Alec was dead; the reality sunk in. Max stood staring at her reflection. It was surreal just looking at herself, seeing her reaction to the thoughts she ran through her head. The girl in front of Max seemed meek; shoulders slumped, eyes red and watery, olive skin pale and a mouth down turned in a trembling stance of sadness. The portrait in front of her could not be Max Guevera. Where was the determination, the feisty and confident exterior, the glowing doe eyes and the radiant smile? Where had it all gone?

All her friends had now been taken, the construct of her personality removed. Everything she was had crumbled away with them leaving Max a hollow shell of pain and self-pity. The lonely figure that stood before Max: It was her; there was no getting around it. This was what she had been reduced too. She was pathetic, weak and lost.

A fiery anger began to well up inside Max. She wouldn't accept this fate, why should she? She had come to Seattle in search of a normal life, an entity she hungered for all those days spent in Manticore. In some ways she had been successful. She used to have a job, friends, she had even fallen in love. All of that was gone now, all of it except for Logan. He was still here and so there was still hope. The fire inside raged and burned; if Logan was still alive then there was still hope. Over and over, the words repeated inside Max's head, dared she hope again?

Although he had not been solely responsible for the disintegration of her life, Gray was a representation of all that Max despised. She hated him with a passion, not just because of what he had done to her, but because of who he was and what he wanted. Like Lydecker, Renfro, Ames White and his Conclave cohorts, the Reds, the ignorant society of Seattle, and every other shit kicker who had made her life hell; Gray had come to take Max down. She had to hand it to him though; he had almost succeeded where all others had failed. He had beaten her down, both physically and mentally and she had been ready to give up, just resign herself to defeat. That wasn't who Max Guevera was. Dare she hope again…yes because it would be worth it.

Max's hands tightened into fists as she glared at the reflection in the mirror. With a ferocious yell, she hurled a hammer like punch into the centre of the reflective surface. The glass shattered immediately, fragmenting and removing the pathetic figure that had stood there. The girl was lost in the shower of splintered glass shards that fell heavily to the floor. The damage did no stop there either; the entire wardrobe door, on which the mirror was positioned, was ripped from its hinges and sent clattering into the bedroom wall. There was a loud thump and the whole house seemed to shake.

Breathing heavily, Max attempted to calm herself down, the red mist now subsiding from her vision. Anger seemed to curse through her veins invigorating her entire body and soul. Suddenly Max spun round hearing somebody moving downstairs. Instinctively, her senses went into alert mode ready to deal with the situation. Quietly, Max crept downstairs keeping her body close to the wall. The intruder was in the kitchen and Max stood pinned to the side of the doorway, waiting for her chance to strike. Whoever it was, they had picked a bad time to walk into this house.

Oblivious to Max's presence, the uninvited guest walked out of the kitchen and into Max's fist. They reeled back in surprise and clattered into Logan's freshly sanded dining table. Max followed into the kitchen and saw Jess leaning against the table clutching at her bloodied nose.

"You bitch!" she yelled, her voice slightly muffled.

In response, Max smiled and rushed forward with the intent to attack again. This time Jess was ready and she parried Max's blow before countering with a stiff knee to Max's gut that drove all the air from her lungs. Jess then grabbed a sizeable chunk of Max's hair and jammed her face into the hard wooden surface of the table. There was no give and Max's nose began to bleed and her vision blurred.

Max had to recover quickly as Jess unleashed a flurry of kicks and punches. She blocked most of the shots but Jess was quick and she caught her with a kick to the chest that sent Max stumbling backwards into the kitchen sink. Jess gave her a cocky smile and wiped the blood from her nose.

Shaking hair form her face, Max again raced toward Jess's small but surprisingly strong figure. She feigned left before spinning right, dodging Jess's attempted strike. She aimed a sharp punch into Jess's kidneys before sweeping her legs away. Jess fell to the ground hard, exhaling loudly as she landed with a solid thud. Max leapt on top of her and pressed her knee against her throat, cutting off her oxygen.

"Give me one reason why I shouldn't kill you?" Max demanded.

"I came here to help you!" Jess answered breathlessly, her face turning a rosy shade of red.

"Help me? Look what you did to my nose! Max cried directing a finger toward the stream of blood that ran from her right nostril.

"You attacked me first!"

Max relinquished her hold and moved back allowing Jess to get to her feet. Jess coughed hoarsely and gave Max a scowl once she had caught her breath.

"Your nose?" Jess sounded upset. "Look what you did to my nose more like!"

Max shrugged. "You caught me at a bad time."

"I see," Jess said, massaging her neck while slumping into one of the dining chairs. Max leaned against the counter and surveyed Jess. She seemed exhausted, like she hadn't slept for years. Her hair was untidy and the bleary condition of her eyes suggested that she ha been crying. There was a rather nasty looking cut under her right eye. It seemed fresh and had survived Jess's attempts to conceal it.

"So how the hell can you help me?" Max asked handing Jess a kitchen towel for her nose. Jess accepted it gratefully and began to lightly dab at her wound.

"I can tell you all you want to know about Gray."

"Really, and why would you do that?"

Jess turned and looked straight into Max's eyes. "Because I want you to kill him."

Max was a little shocked by the sincerity in Jess's voice and her eyes. She seemed to genuinely mean what she had just said but Max couldn't help but be wary.

"How can I trust you?"

"You can't."

"Well that's not very good is it?"

Jess sighed. "Look, I don't expect you to understand but I have come to…to hate my life with Gray. I guess I want a chance to rebuild, start anew with a clean slate."

"I can understand that." Max said, remembering her time at Manticore and her desires for a normal life.

"Maybe," Jess paused and her eyes drifted towards the window where they lingered for a moment. "Before I can rebuild I need something that may be a little hard to get."

"What would that be…a training bra?"

"Redemption," Jess replied sounding like her mind had drifted out the window along with her gaze.

"Redemption for what?" Max asked already having an idea of what a companion of the malicious Gray would get up to.

"Well you can't really roll with a guy like Gray without committing every sin in the book and then creating some new ones so you can commit them as well."

"So you're telling me you were just like him?" Max asked her face curled up in disgust.

"Were being the operative word, but yeah I was."

"So what, you just woke up one morning and thought, 'hey I've had enough of dishing out pain and suffering, I think I might try opening my own pancake house and see how that works.' Is that it?"

Jess cast her face to the floor in shame. "Yeah something like that," she whispered.

Max bit her lip and then asked the question that was nagging at her brain. "Ok, that's fine but there is something I have to know. Did you have anything to do with what happened to Alec?"

"No!" Jess raised her head. "I swear I had nothing to do with that." She sighed and let her head fall once again, "I promise you."

Max found herself feeling a little sorry for Jess. It was entirely possible that Gray could take some poor misguided transgenic girl who had no idea about the dynamics of the real world, and mould her into an instrument of death…in his own image. Maybe, Gray stole Jess's real identity to feed his own need for a companion, after all no one likes to be alone. Jess had had her chance for a normal life outside Manticore stolen and the way she was talking now seemed to suggest that she was sincere in her ambition to change. There was something endearing about her timid manner and Max found herself wanting to trust this girl.

"Alright, I guess I could believe you." Max said deciding to take a chance.

"Thank you," Jess replied with a half smile.

Max had given Jess the opportunity to clean up before they got down to the business of Gray. She also seized the chance to clean up her own nose and make them some coffee. The rain outside was getting steadily worse as though it were building up to something and it beat mercilessly at the weak shell of Logan's house. Max was glad to be indoors but was starting to worry about Logan. She had no clue as to where he had gone or why and it bothered her not knowing, especially with Gray out on the prowl. Still the chances were she was being silly. He had probably just gone to buy groceries or maybe he had gone to get some fresh air. Even though they had never appeared to get on, Logan was probably hit hard by the death of Alec and needed to deal with it in someway that involved leaving the house. That was the most likely scenario, Max thought, as she struggled to shake off the sense of doom that crawled up her spine and into her head.

"Hey," Jess said as she returned to the kitchen, the blood now gone from her pale face. She sat in the seat opposite Max and glanced briefly out the window at the dreary conditions. "I hate rain," she murmured.

"Yeah," Max motioned to the mug that waited patiently in front of Jess. "That's for you."

"Thanks," Jess said as she cupped the mug in both hands and took a cautious sip. "I think this is for you, I found it upstairs." She handed Max a small piece of paper.

Max took the paper and read the writing scrawled on its surface: Max, Gone to get groceries. I will be back soon, all my love Logan.

Max smiled as re-assurance swept over her.

"Good news?" Jess inquired.

"Yeah," Max nodded. "Ok Jess let's get down to business…Gray."

"What do you want to know?"

"Well I guess my first question would be: just who the hell is he?"

"He's your twin," Jess answered rather bluntly.

"OK…" Max wasn't expecting such and outright answer. "Do you mean he's a clone of me or…"

"No he is your actual twin, as in same mother, born at the same time and all that. I believe that's why you have the same designation."

"So Gray is like my actual brother, a blood relative?"

"Yeah but whereas you were planned, Gray was not."

"What do you mean," Max was annoyed to find herself becoming confused so quickly. The working out of things was more Logan's strong point than hers.

"Well all transgenics are bred for a purpose yeah? Engineered specifically and born with a unique barcode. Thing is, Gray was not, he was a sort of by product of your birth."

"Are you saying he wasn't meant to exist?"

Jess nodded. "It came as a complete shock when they discovered your mother was carrying twins. You see Sandeman…"

"You know Sandeman?" Max interrupted, hoping Jess would have some information on the elusive father of Manticore.

"I only know of him, I don't know him personally…obviously."

"Ok," Max said a little disappointed.

Jess took another sip of coffee. "Anyway, Sandeman wanted to create a messiah like transgenic – that would be you by the way – and when Gray turned up it confused him."

Max could remember Logan telling her something about her being some sort of messiah. It had been just before the Terminal Siege during the hostage crises that occurred at Jam Pony. Strange black markings of some lost language had appeared on Max's body and Logan had deciphered them. He had told her that they indicated something biblically bad was coming and Max was like a messiah destined to stop it. At the time she had been sceptical; the idea of some random transgenic girl being the second coming seemed a little too far fetched. Consequently she had pushed the idea to the back of her mind and after the events at Terminal City, it no longer mattered. Now though, with Jess calling her a messiah and the appearance of Gray, Max began to think she had been too flippant of the warning that had been plastered over her body.

"Can you explain why I am the, as you said, messiah?" Max asked rather sarcastically.

"You know about the Conclave right?"

Max nodded.

"Well, apparently they are conjuring up something that will have seriously shitty effects on the entire world and the 'messiah', or you to be specific, was created to stop it." Jess explained.

"Unbelievable," Max said under her breath.

"I know, after meeting you, I find it hard to believe that you are our saviour. You're too…"

"Un-messiah like, no turning water into wine and floating on water, " Max offered, not taking any offence as she doubted she was the right girl for saving the world.

"No, I was going to say you were too much of a bitch." Jess said with a grin.

Max scowled. "If you want we can throw down again."

Jess laughed. "You probably don't feel like messiah material because, right now, you are incomplete."

"What?" Max was confused again.

"You and Gray are two sides of the same coin, that is why Sandeman was confused. He wanted a messiah and ended up with two separate transgenics that were both incomplete, not the all powerful being he had intended."

"Incomplete?" Max's mind struggled with the influx of information.

"Yeah, both you and Gray are flawed. He has an accelerated aging process and you, well you lack the strength and speed that Gray has."

"So I go the bum deal?"

"Pretty much but Gray is dying. Because he is incomplete, his body can't cope with the unnatural strength and speed he has." Jess looked at Max and saw her face was a mess of confusion. "Look, simply put, you and Gray are unfinished and the only way you can become complete is to kill the other. That is why he is here, chasing you, he needs your blood to survive."

"Right, so if I'm the messiah, like you said…what is Gray?"

"I guess you could call him the devil."

Max paused with a dumbfounded look on her face. "Of course…the devil, how obvious."

Jess chuckled. "It may sound like I'm feeding you large quantities of bullshit but I promise you, I'm not. Sandeman unwittingly created a benevolent and a malevolent force, an angel and a devil. He couldn't tell which was which and initially thought Gray was his messiah due to his superior strength and speed. Of course he changed his mind after it became clear that Gray was inherently evil, killing one of his fellow transgenics was a bit of a clue. Sandeman realised that, in his quest to save the world, he had put it in even more danger. I mean can you imagine an actual devil running around."

"I can as it happens," Max said with raised eyebrows.

Jess paused. "Of course you can…I'm sorry." She offered an apologetic smile

"Doesn't matter."

Yeah well…basically you and Gray are on opposite ends of the spectrum of good and evil and one of you is going to have to kill the other in order to become complete, as you were intended to be. Max, if you don't kill Gray then I think it is safe to say that we are all fucked. Not just because he will leave everything in ruins but there will be no one around to stop the Conclave when they do finally unveil their evil little plans."

"This just sounds so…"

"Implausible, stupid, daft, fucked up; it is all these things but I'm afraid it is true. Sandeman knew and he was so ashamed of himself that he left Manticore and arranged for a prophecy to appear on both you and Gray."

"What did this prophecy say exactly?"

"Well Gray's explained that he had great power but the cost would be his life, unless he became complete and to do so he would have to kill his opposite, his sister. I don't know about yours, shouldn't you know?"

Max shifted in her seat and tried to recount what Logan had told her. "Well it was a while ago but I think it said something about hidden power and the coming of something really, really bad. Would that be the conclave?"

"No, I think it would have been about Gray. That hidden power it mentioned will be unleashed if you kill him. There are dormant genes inside of you that will activate when you consume his blood; it's the same for Gray. Activating these genes will complete you and you will acquire Gray's strength and speed and you will become the 'chosen one' ready to deal with the Conclave."

Max collapsed back into her seat. This was not what she was expecting and she still couldn't quite manage to get her head round it all. Gray was her twin, her opposite. He was some sort of devil and she was an angel. They were both incomplete and needed to kill the other in order to become some sort of perfect transgenic. Sandeman knew this and had tried to explain things through cryptic prophecies written in some dead language. The Conclave were indeed up to no good and were planning some kind of apocalypse that Max had to stop but to do so she first had to kill Gray in order to gain the power to do so. This was hardly a normal life.

"Is there smoke coming out of my ears?" Max asked half-heartedly.

Jess smiled and then jumped as a shrill ringing began to come from somewhere on her person. She quickly went through the pockets of her jeans and retrieved her vibrating phone.

"Hello," she said.

Max could hear a man's voice on the other end.

"How did you know…" Jess was cut off and her face fell as she listened to the mystery voice on the other end.

"What's going on?" Max asked as Jess hung up the phone. She looked concerned, rattled by whoever had just called her.

"That was Gray," Jess stammered, " he uh…he knows I betrayed him, knows that I am here with you."

"How?"

"I don't know but he wanted me to tell you that he has Logan and unless you go to Terminal City, he will kill him."

Max's eyes widened as the news sunk in. Gray had Logan, the one person she loved above all else, the only person left in her life; was now in the possession of her devil twin, the most dangerous man on the planet.

Max could feel the desperation beginning to rise inside her but it was overshadowed by the accompanying anger. This was her destiny, she and Gray were destined to clash and it seemed now, with Logan's life on the line, the time had come to see who would become complete.

Rising to her feet, Max stood and looked down at Jess. "So if I kill him then I will have the power to stop the Conclave right?"

Jess nodded no longer able to speak, fear of Gray and the consequences of her betrayal taking their hold.

"Then I guess this is it, I'm going to end this…tonight."

Quick thank you to the encouraging reviews, they were much appreciated J I have actually finished writing the fiction on paper, my hand hurts like the dickens, and is now waiting to be typed and posted which should be soon I hope. Would like to apologise for any confusion or stupidity contained within this chapter, will flesh things out so they make more sense soon. Thanks again lateroo J