A Family Affair
Chapter 18: Priddis Evac.
"I thought you were…"
"In a coma?"
"I was gonna say evil, but coma works too."
"Ah, the reindoctrination. I don't know, the hit Max gave me must have literally knocked some sense into me. I remember everything," said Brin. "The right way," she added.
"Good to know," said Alec, "You're on our side now?"
"Manticore's dead. This is what we wanted as kids. Freedom. When I woke up I talked to some of the residents from your Terminal City. Well after they uncuffed me and determined that I wasn't evil that is. So, what was that?"
"And who's this?" asked White, "Another freak undoubtedly but still."
"Who's he?" asked Brin.
"Woah, woah let's slow down," said Alec waving his arms, "I only know so much here. Okay, well irst off Brin, this is White, White Brin or as you would call her 734. She was recaptured by Manticore and reindoctrinated to hate Max, Max kicked her ass which landed her in a coma. White was the resident bad guy sent after Lydecker screwed up. Lydecker disappeared and we found out Manticore was built by Familiars which is what he is and they're pretty much just as strong as we are. Asha AKA Jondy went out with Max and was shot. Max was kidnapped, Prager called in, they tried to kill White, he knows where Max is, we're heading to Logan's and Eve showed up then you. And Eve is a very long story. Did I cover everything?"
"Why didn't Max fight back?"
"She's eight months pregnant."
"Max? Pregnant?"
"And married," said Alec holding up his left hand.
"You're Ben's clone aren't you?"
"452 married her adopted brother's clone, how romantic," said White, "Now if we're done with whatever reunion this is can we get going?"
Alec indicated the others to follow him as they crossed a few more buildings and made it up through Logan's penthouse window. They headed to his computer room and started everything up. Jesse's disk was already in the drive. Logan having been going over it some time ago.
"Manticore mainframe's, databases, blood write ups, Cerberus," said White clicking into it. He went through the files looking for the blueprints.
"So how'd you find us anyway?" asked Alec, "No one at TC knows what's going on. That reminds me I really should call."
"After I woke up and got out of the chains there were a couple things explained to me. You and Max sort of ran the place when you had the time, other than that it was Mole and Joshua. Nice set up they have there. Anyway I went out to find Max then after walking for about twenty minutes I saw what looked like Lydecker's cars and ducked into an alley, they kept going so I followed them. Before I knew it they were shooting at an alcove, then you looked out and I recognized you from that night I tried to kill you."
"Nice to be remembered," said Alec, "wait a minute you were there? Those explosions…"
"My work, it got you out of there didn't it?"
"But how?"
"It's surprising what people throw away these days. A couple of quickly made, well thrown explosives later you were off. Had a run in with that woman though."
"Eve. She wasn't after us then because she went after you," said Alec.
"Tough fight. I think she thought she killed me though. After I got knocked off the building she left."
"So back there when we were fighting, that was sort of payback?"
"It got her off us didn't it. Besides," said Brin, "Cats always land on their feet. Besides she's dead and…"
"She's not dead," said White, "Eve's a clone of Mezsima. Just ask 494 how tough her twin Koiohla was to beat. There may have been blood but trust me, a little skull fracture, if it's even possible, is not enough to stop her."
"She was a clone?"
Alec nodded and started to explain the whole future thing to Brin while White found what he was looking for and started printing it off.
"An X38?" said Brin, "Time travel? That's possible?"
"It's true, unbelievable but true."
"And this Cerberus place, has Max."
"Yes."
"A very pregnant Max whose child is Manticore perfection."
"Yes."
"And you're going to get them out?"
"Yes."
"And you trust an old enemy?"
" 'The enemy of my enemy is my friend'," said White, "I quoted it to 452 and now I'm quoting it to you two."
"Weren't you an old enemy like eight or nine months ago?" Alec asked Brin, "How can we be sure your truly on our side?"
"I'm not truly on your side," stated White. Alec rolled his eyes.
"So basically it's take what we got."
"Looks that way."
"Great so-"
Alec was cut off when they heard keys in the door. They looked at each other before Alec headed out quietly to the living room. He watched as the front door opened and Logan came in, pushing Asha in a wheel chair.
"Give me a heart attack," said Alec.
Logan jumped and then flipped on the lights, "How many times Alec…"
"Hey she saw me here," said Alec pointing at Asha, "They let you out?"
"Yeah, I'm good enough to go," she said, "We heal fast, still hurts, but I want to be here."
White and Brin came out of the computer room with the printouts. They had printed so that he could sort them in a certain order and everything they needed would be there."Brin?"
Asha and Logan stared at the defective transgenic as she gave them a small wave.
"She switched sides again," explained Alec, "Max hit her hard enough to knock her out of the whole trying to kill you guys things."
"Jondy," started Brin, "I guess I can finally say that it's good to see you…and that I'm sorry about the whole kicking the crap out of you thing."
"I've been worse," said Asha.
"I can see that."
"We met up with Eve, Brin helped us throw her over the roof."
"She dead?"
"When do they ever die?"
"Got that right," said Logan, "did you find the prints?" he asked White.
"Yeah, right here. You wouldn't happen to have any pictures of the outside compound would you?
"Actually I do, they were part of the jewel case."
White turned on a lamp and started to lay out all the copies onto the table. Alec handed Asha over to Alec's care before going to the jewel case. The two of them plus Brin made their way over to White.
"What the hell?" said Logan coming back confused, "These aren't them, they're different."
He handed the pictures over to White, "What do you mean?" he asked, "These are them."
"What?"
"Cerberus," said White, "The blueprints are also right, this is the exact layout. Multi-tiered and solid. The pictures are exact too."
Logan looked over at the printed out pieces of paper, "These weren't like this before…"
"They changed?" said White, " But if these prints are exact, then this isn't…"
"…their Cerberus," said Alec, "It's not Rachel and Jesse's, it's ours. We changed the future, but these plans are from the future so they must have…I don't know…."
"Conformed to our world," finished Logan.
"Configured to a new reality," said White.
"The TransFamiliar War never took place."
"We were warned, Cerberus became the primary objective," said White.
"And then there was Meszima's body giving them a head start."
"None of this happened in their future, we created an alternate timeline."
"So I get Ray, we destroy Cerberus, stop the rest of the Familiars and you freaks live in peace," said White, "Is an alternate timeline that bad?"
"I think I'm liking his plan," said Alec pointing at White.
"In this world we have the chance to get rid of Cerberus sooner rather than later…"
"Rachel never gets hunted down, she doesn't have to constantly watch her back…" said Alec.
"I don't die which all in all is a plus, but further more The Conclave doesn't get their hands on Ray and make him into what I was."
"And now all we have to do is find out where Max is, get her out and blow the place up. She likes blowing things up," said Brin, "She did it to Manticore."
"Yeah she's got a way with explosions," said Alec smiling before he sobered, "If they did anything to her…"
"That's why we have to hurry," said White, "She's probably being transported right now with Prager. Someone get me an atlas I can show you exactly where it is."
"So how do we get in?" said Alec as Logan ran for an atlas. Turning it to 'Alberta' be handed it to White.
"Vents and emergency tunnels. But it has to be timed. There are watch changes, sensors, cameras, you name it they pretty much got it. Do you think you could hack into it? If my clearance hasn't been revoked yet, can you get in and stay in?"
"I think so," said Logan, "I could try and get into the signal station, lock some things up. It takes time though."
"Something we don't have, if you could get control of the system it would help. A lot," said White as Logan handed him the atlas, setting it on top of the printouts he found the location, "Here. It's a little ways outside Calgary, in this area here," he ran his finger in a circle south west of the city, "They took out Priddis and rerouted the highways to build Cerberus. We let a small infection loose in the city. The people there either died or evacuated quickly. We sent 'specialists' up there to determine the cause and they made up a story about high oil fumes and underground lines that were poisoning the water source. Complete bullshit but they bought the story and let us build Cerberus under the guise of an oil well."
"This sucks so much."
"So it's just the three of us going in?" asked Brin.
"Unless we want a complete lock down to fight through."
"What about Eve?"
"We'll see her again," said Alec, "Whether she hunts us down directly or goes to Cerberus and waits remains to be seen."
"We need a plan and transportation," said Brin, "Any ideas?"
"Let's see if we can get into the networking system if you can reach it," said Logan to White, the latter nodded and followed the journalist. Asha, Alec, and Brin were left looking at the prints.
^^^
"When I get out of these chains I am so kicking your ass," threatened Max. She was sitting in a prison transport chained to the bench she was on, "I'm thinking some major pain, make you suffer just to watch you make all those funny faces."
"I knew I should have gagged you," said Prager. He was up in front looking back through the mesh wire screen, "Or at least rendered you unconscious."
"You're no fun you know that? I think I'm actually starting to miss White," said Max, "Why'd he look so surprised to see me?" she asked suddenly remembering.
Prager laughed, "Now that's a funny story. The Conclave brought me in over his head. You were my capture not his."
"Well he's sure to be pissed."
"Well hopefully Eve will find him and 494, and make sure they're both dead."
"What? Who's Eve?"
"I trust you remember Koiohla and Meszima?"
A feeling of dread rose up in Max's throat, her hand went instinctively to her stomach, "What about them?"
"Eve," said Prager, "is Mezsima's clone."
Prager happily watched the emotions play across Max's face, when she didn't say anything he continued, "Mezsima's body was recovered by The Conclave, after extensive test and experiments we managed to clone her. Eve is just as fast, just as strong, and just as vicious. With any luck she'll take care of White and 494."
"What does White have to do with this?" asked Max looking at Prager suspiciously.
"Nothing," he said quicky, "Absolutely nothing."
Max eyed him carefully. Something was up, she could hear it in his voice.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~
A/N: I think there's some brainwashed/converted controversy about what happened to Brin but in my world it was a little bit of both but I'm just gonna say reindoctrination for the simplicity of it kay?
Sorry it's not longer, but that's all for this chapter. Sorry for the long wait. I've just been majorly busy with life in general. All of my school work deadlines were scheduled for December 1st and 2nd so I had to get those done. *checks day planer* 6 assignment in 2 days, twas not happy. What's with teachers making things all due on the same day anyway?