Invincible

-No one is impenetrable, no one is indestructible... no one is invincible.

"It'll be fine Maxie. I'll be in and out like a flash. I can get those supplies easy-peasy. I don't need you to come too; you'll just cramp my style. I'll see you as soon as I get back."

It'd had been clear to Max in the city that Alec had needed some time out, time away from everyone else. The fact that no one could leave the city without putting themselves in danger meant people had been spending way to much time together. Max and Alec had been driving each other crazy since the siege had begun two weeks before. He, like the rest of the transgenics locked up in the city, had needed a break.

Max cursed herself once more for giving in to him.

"Why isn't he back yet!? He's over an hour late!"

"He must have just gotten caught up Max, let in lie and go get some sleep. He'll be back in the morning; you know how much Alec's wanted to get outside. Maybe he just lost track of time."

She had nodded, taken Logan's word for it, hopped into bed sick with worry and exhaustion and waited to see him in the morning.

Of course, what she had seen the next day was Mole's anxious expression as he explained that Alec wasn't back and still hadn't answered his phone.

"How dare you! How dare you lie to me!"

"Max, we, I..., maybe you should sit down for this."

"Don't baby me Logan, how long have you known and not told me?!"

Logan had spilled the whole story. He'd known since the night Alec disappeared that White had him, but he'd tried to 'soften her up' before he told her, make it so the blow wasn't as hard to bear. Made her comfortable while Alec lay dead or dying. She hadn't bothered to ask how he'd found out where Alec was, just slapped him with all the strength she possessed and screamed at him till he left. She didn't want anything else to do with him.

"You can't go alone Max. Take us with you. He's our friend too. We want him back just as much as you do."

She had severely doubted that, thinking about the feelings that had been stirring inside her, calling for Alec since the second she realised he was gone. The intensity of those feelings surprised her, she had never felt anything like them before. Half of her suspected that the whole situation had sent her slightly mad, making her think she felt things that she actually didn't. But the other half disagreed. It told her that maybe she had just been fighting the feelings off for a long time. And now that Logan had been sent off in disgrace her feelings for Alec could finally surface.

It was the thought that she could never tell Alec about how she really felt that had spurred Max on, the day they went to save him.

She had left the rest of the group to fight the familiars, and taken off towards his cell. It was with casual efficiency that she had dispatched his guards, and the door seemed to fly off its hinges as she pushed into the room, desperate to see him, to hold him, to tell him how sorry she was for taking so long.

She was too late.

"Alec! Alec! Alec, you need to wake up, we have to get out of here. The others are holding off the familiars, but they can't do it forever!"

"I don't think he can hear you Maxie..."

"White, you cold, calculating SOB, what did you do to him?"

"What does it look like eh Maxie? What does it look like I did to him?"

She hadn't even bothered to glare at White for calling her Maxie, just dropped next to Alec's body to help him. Wjhite didn't move from the corner he stood in, jsut watched. Alec's body was bruised, bloodied and broken. One eye had been swollen shut, the other almost as bad. Alec's shirt had been gone, exposing a black and purple chest, and obvious broken ribs. There were cuts and burns on his body, too many to count, and she hadn't even had a chance to look at his back before White attacked her. He had obviously seen enough.

It looked like White had tortured him. And now he would have to pay. She would make him pay.

"Alec, I can't leave here without you! White's down for the count now, but he'll wake up soon, and I know that there's more men on the way. You have to wake up! PLEASE! PLEASE ALEC PLEASE!"

Mole had apparently found her hysterically screaming at Alec, trying to wake him. Tears poured down her face as she fought him off her.

"Max, we have to go. Now. There's no time, can't you see that!"

"I won't leave him! I won't! Save yourselves, but leave me here!"

"Max, T.C can't run without you. They need you there. It's what he would have wanted."

She hadn't listened to him, just kept shaking Alec, begging him to get up and follow them out. She hadn't been strong enough to fight Mole when he grabbed her and raced out of the room carrying her over his shoulder. She had punched and kicked, desperately trying to escape his hold, but he hadn't relented.

They had flown down the corridor, back to where the battle raged. Things hadn't gone well for the transgenics;some looked a little worse for wear. They had followed Mole as he raced through the exit door of the compound, and managed to evade White's men all the way back to Terminal City.

"Go away. I said I never wanted to see you again, and I meant it. GO!"

"You can't live like this Max. It isn't healthy. And I know you hate me, but what I did was the best thing for you, and for the city. They need you, though I hate to admit it. You have to go back to leading them. It's what Alec would have wanted."

"What Alec would have wanted is not to be left to die in some stinking cell with White for company! But you left him there... I left him there. I abandoned him."

"He was already dead Max, and if you'd been thinking straight you would have noticed. But you weren't, you still aren't. Even is he had still been alive, do you really think he would have survived for long with all those injuries? He wasn't invincible. No one is invincible. I'm sorry he'd gone, we all are, but we need you functioning, the city needs you to run it."

Mole had left after that, left her to ponder his words.

"No one is invincible..."

That was her problem. She had always considered Alec to be the stable factor in her life. No matter what the situation he was consistently cocky, arrogant and a pain in the ass, she had never doubted for a second that he wouldn't be with her. That was where her grief came from, the one thing in her life she had always taken for granted, always assumed was untouchable, had been taken from her. And she was left in a world where nothing was safe. Nothing was dependable.

Nothing was invincible for her anymore. Nothing ever would be the same for her again.

She just wished she could have told him that she loved him before he left her alone in such an unpredictable world. She wished he had been invincible.

AUTHORS NOTE- Well, that sure was an odd little fic wasn't it? Hope you enjoyed it a bit. It's my first Dark Angel story. I'm not very proud of it, but eh, what can you do? PLEASE LEAVE A REVIEW! It isn't hard to do, I'm sure you've all done it before. Tell me what you think of my first story. Thanks, God bless.