Changes: Part Eight
DISCLAIMER: I don't own anything in relation to Dark Angel. No money is involved (story of my life).
SUMMARY: Find out the connection between Alec and Grandall but will Max find out more than she ever bargained for? M/A
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A/N: Thanks to all who reviewed and have patiently waited for me to update.
The mirror was huge, ten maybe twelve feet in height. Its wood frame was stained to a rich dark burgundy red and gleamed with a recent layer of conditioning oil. I took note of the décor of the room and wondered where the hell I was. Books lined the walls from floor to ceiling; the shelves done up in the same wood as the mirror frame. Posh furniture done in black leather offset the wood nicely.
Something shimmered out of the corner of my eye and I turned back to the mirror, but my reflection wasn't there. In fact nothing of the room could be seen; only an eerily familiar white room. Images of people appeared out of nowhere. They were reaching towards me, mouths working. 'Help us!' they cried as their hands pierced through the surface into my reality.
And I was rooted to the floor…
Someone shook me awake before the dream could get any worse. My eyes fluttered reluctantly then opened to mere slits. Alec sat on his heels and brushed stray hairs from my face. "Morning, sunshine," he said against my skin his butterfly kisses caressed my forehead. I groaned and closed my eyes wanting nothing better than to get back to sleep. He had no business being so chipper with so much crap going on.
Soft, expert lips brushed mine in silent demand and before I knew it I was breathless. Thrills went down my spine and my lower abdomen quivered. When he pulled away I opened my eyes to see him standing with his hand out. "I hate you," I grumbled playfully and climbed out of the blankets, completely ignoring his offer.
Every muscle felt stiff from inactivity, but my wounds were reduced to fresh pink scars. From the degree of healing, we had been asleep for three or four days. Holy shit! Any number of things could have happened to Grandall. We had to get back to Alec's apartment and start planning.
Soft plush carpet crushed underfoot and a voice at the back of my mind kept trying to tell me something but I was caught up in my thoughts. I started to look around for my clothes and suddenly that voice was very clear. We weren't in Jake's hidey-hole.
The rational part of my brain felt that if Alec was calm then there was a perfectly good explanation for our current situation. However, it was a small part and took a backseat to the irrational panic. I grabbed Alec's hand and blurred toward the door regardless of my state of undress. Survival first. Modesty later.
Alec must have realized where I was taking him and stopped dead in his tracks. I lost my grip on his hand and hesitated a moment before continuing on to the door. He was a big boy; he could take care of himself. In that small moment of distraction the door flew open and I ran straight into Grandall. Quickly I dropped all fours and ducked under his legs as he made a grab for my arm.
Since I didn't know the size or layout of the joint I slowed to run. The hallway looked ordinary enough but I didn't have the luxury of time to examine the woodwork. Lights triggered by unseen sensors flashed to life as I ran by. There were no windows but a slash of sunlight caught my eye. It poured in from the only open door at end of the hallway. There was hope yet.
It was the same room of my dream from the walls lined with books right down to the posh furniture. The room-dominating mirror was blissfully absent. In its place were three large picture windows. A meadow stretched out in front of them. An occasional flower covered bush popped up from the green grass adding a bit of color. High mountain cliffs rose up at the meadow's horizon and curled in towards the room as if the entire building sat in a crater. I was so caught up in the spectacle of it all that I didn't notice Alec and Grandall enter the room until they were right behind me.
They made no move to contain me and I began to lose the edge of panic. In fact they were smiling, sharing some private joke between them. Money passed from Grandall's hand to Alec's and I was thoroughly lost. "What? How? When? Where?" I stammered repeatedly unable to complete a single question.
After the third round Alec chimed in. "You forgot, who and why," he said cheekily and chuckled until it held the edge of his bass purr.
My body started to relax. Nope, not happening pretty boy. I wanted answers before calm and I'll be damned if Alec was going to steal that away from me. Pitching my growl as low as I could muster, I turned my confusion to anger and let him know it.
Undaunted, Alec half-turned away from me and upped his tempo. I stopped growling for a split second and I couldn't hide it from him. He gave Grandall thumbs up and a few hand-signals I didn't recognize. Arrogant bastard I thought but my anger seeped away and I wound up returning both his purr and his smile. Hopeless, whipped, but true.
" 'What?' After realizing their error, Seattle's finest released me. 'How?' The crane, not government property mind you, was scheduled to be demolished by it's owner, me," Grandall explained. "Whoever hacked into my files was good but I deliberately set up files to mislead cyber-pirates. The dormant worm I planted in the hacked files should have activated once their virus programs scans it." He broke down into rumbling laugher until tears squeezed out the corner of his eyes.
"They released me about 2 hours after they figured out they couldn't hold me. I came for you folks after I was certain I wasn't being followed and brought you here for a few days R&R. That takes care of your 'when'." Grandall motioned us to sit so he could continue.
The world suddenly felt less solid and I sat down on the couch in front of me only to jump right back up. The leather was cold and only now I noticed I didn't have a thing on. Two guards wandered into view outside the first picture window and stared open-jawed at me, yet I made no move to cover my nakedness. First I didn't have anything to do just that and second I was still disoriented.
Grandall circled around and drew down the shades. He was laughing so hard he nearly snapped the cord he was tugging on. Alec, also laughing, stepped forward and wrapped me up in a soft blanket. His scent covered every inch of it and I couldn't help but snuggle into the familiar warmth. We arranged ourselves comfortably on the couch and waited for Grandall to continue.
"We are in the center of an extinct volcano. Everything you see belongs to me." He walked the entire circuit of the room and ended up sitting behind his desk.
"But you're an X5. I'm sure of it," I said louder than I meant to, accidentally interrupting him. He was obviously in charge, not hired muscle. Again I took in my surrounds and my mind couldn't put it together. What was an X5 doing in digs better than Logan's?
Grandall's face broke into a wide smile that affirmed my conclusion. "As X5-691, I was assigned infiltrate and watchdog one of Manticore's most wealthy yet most questionable financial backers. The company needed a new CFO. Guess who just happened to show up with the right credentials, of course.
Well the whole mission ran smoothly. I should have known something was wrong. Everything was easy, too easy and the head honcho caught me. He pulled me into this very office where I was sure a bullet with my designation on it was waiting."
As Grandall continued on my mind began to paint a picture of what had happened. Phantom images appeared. The former CEO sat in Grandall's place. As described, he was a spry old man, roughly in his 70s. He had steel gray eyes and there was nothing in his entire demeanor that said mercy.
A slightly younger version of Grandall appeared beside us. He was bound in shackles similar to the one's used on me at the warehouse. Faceless guards stood behind him armed with tazer rods.
"What is your designation?" the CEO asked, his querulous voice carried well in the large room. Grandall stood in stony silence and the man laughed. "Come now, I know what you are and who sent you. Has Manticore decided to cauterize this old wound?"
He rose from the desk to stand in front of Grandall. "On your knees," one of the guards barked holding the tazer dangerously close to Grandall's neck.
Grudgingly Grandall complied. The CEO walked around to his back and Grandall knew this was it. He had been expecting the searing hot sensation of a bullet entering his body but when cool fingers touched his barcode, Grandall flinched.
"Ah. X5-691." The CEO strode back to his desk and leaned back into it. "How well do you know your keepers?"
"Sir?" Surprised that the man could read barcode, Grandall gave the only response he could think of. "They feed and house this unit. Duty, Mission, Discipline are a X5s only concerns."
All the images disappeared and I was pulled back in the present. Grandall finished by explaining how the CEO broke his conditioning and made him realize there was so much more than Manticore who had written him off as MIA and irretrievable.
"He groomed me to replace him, even gave me his name but his real agenda wasn't clear until just before he died. He was aiming to take down Manticore." Grandall looked our way but not at me.
"That's when I was sent in," Alec chimed in and got up to lean again the desk much like the old CEO had in my mind. "Simple wet work mission. Get it, take out the target," he aimed a thumb at Grandall, "and get out."
"Wait, wait. He was your target? That's not exactly a relationship building point." I was getting a headache.
"No but he made me an offer I couldn't refuse. Spare his life and I get to keep mine in return." Alec and Grandall shared a laugh but I was still confused.
And then it hit me. "Your side 'missions'. Grandall offered to be your outside contact," I said rubbing my temples. "In turn you fed him Manticore information.
Well, I suppose that takes care of 'who', but 'why'? Why didn't you tell me all this before? Especially you," I pointed at Alec and a look passed over his face. It said that I wasn't going to like what he was about to tell me next.
Alec sighed and pushed off the desk. "Before we started to mutate, I thought you hated me. Every time you opened your mouth it was to tell me to shut mine or that I was a screw up or any number of insults you could think of."
"Oh." He sounded petulant but I guess I couldn't blame him. I did ride his ass pretty hard. I stood to meet him halfway and lay my head upon his shoulder. "And now," I mumbled into his collar.
"Now? Now is different," he murmured into my hair. "Manticore was forced to regroup at other facilities after they had burned the Seattle facility down. Grandall had operatives in each one. That's how we got those research notes. Our recoding wasn't done in Seattle but in Canada."
Canada? Oh no. Logan had been shipping transgenic refugees off to Canadian destinations. Had we accidentally sent them into the lion's den? Nah, Logan was on our side. He would have made sure they were safe.
"Jake's mom, Sam, had infiltrated the facility at White Rock and had been smuggling information to me up until three weeks ago. Her last broadcast was to tell me about this disk and haven't heard anything from her since." Grandall tapped away at his keyboard.
Right on cue, Jake burst in holding a picture frame. He was hyperactively excited and insinuated his small body between Alec and me. The corners of the frame were sharp and banged painfully into my legs. Alec hauled the boy up into his arms arrested the frames movement. He gently pried it out of Jake's hands to get a better look and set him down.
Alec let go of my arm so fast I stumbled and tripped on the edge of my blanket. He was transfixed to the picture and completely missed my glare of death. Jake helped himself to my recently made available lap. He snuggled in and giggled at the man in front of us. "Mama," he nodded patting my leg. Was he calling me his mother?
Clouds thickened in the sky quickly cutting off the sun. The air cooled, and I suddenly felt uneasy. I had a funny feeling things were going to get strange. As the rain started to beat down with a vengeance, Alec flipped the picture around and I was staring straight at myself. I hate it when I'm right.
Deep lines were burned into the cherry wood frame, barcode lines. X5-453. I have a twin? Why didn't that surprise me? Manticore must have done that with the entire '09 batch. No wonder Jake was confused.
A woman appeared at the door hands on hips. Her hair had pulled from its band in several places and she didn't look as if this was a social call. The annoyance blazed in her gray eyes as her gaze never wavered from the boy in my lap.
Jake had the temerity to giggle but he did get up after pecking my cheek and took hold of the woman's outstretched hand. She closed the door behind them but I could still hear Jake chattering away completely oblivious to the woman's admonitions.
Soft cursing broke my concentration. Grandall scowled as he continued to type furiously. Another stream of curses, this time in different languages, drew me from the floor. With Alec on my heels, we made our way to Grandall's side to see what all the fuss was about.
Nothing on the screen was legible. Symbols popped up randomly like an old screen saver. The command line blinked steadily at the bottom. It seemed to be annoying Grandall the most. As he began to type, the command line disappeared. Ah, now I saw the problem. He couldn't begin to decrypt the disk because he couldn't see if he was getting anywhere.
"Did Sam say anything about this?" I asked and shook my head. An intermittent high-pitched whine emanated from the disk drive and drove into my skull like an ice pick. I had to press the back of my ears to ease the pain. Grandall was too busy restraining himself from pounding the keyboard into bits but Alec's face pulled into a wince. He too kept shaking his head but instead of his ears, he kneaded the base of his neck where one of his plates peeked out of his shirt collar.
We were given only a few seconds reprieve before it started up again. Through the pain I tried to figure out some sort of pattern, yet with each cycle the tempo seemed to double. Alec clutched the edge of Grandall's desk until his knuckled turned white. Two tears rolled down his cheeks his entire face a mask of agonizing pain.
"STOP IT!" he cried out and brought his fists down on the desk with enough force to set everything, except the monitor to bouncing.
I'm not sure if it was the added pain in his hands that helped, but Alec straightened up slowly. His brow smoothed out and he took in deep breaths through his nose. When he opened his eyes, they were alert and focused. My blood ran suddenly cold. He was using Manticore distancing exercises. Was I going to lose my Alec to 494?
"Code, Morse code," he said tightly. Although his words were clipped, I relaxed. There was a hint of Alec in that tone. Two more cycles and he had the translation. "Form. Shift. Reveal." Before I could get him to clarify, his eyes bled to yellow his claws unsheathed and bit into the desk.
As soon as I followed Alec's lead I had an entirely different view of the computer screen. Sam had left decrypting instructions but they weren't visible to regular transgenic sight. Our enhanced 'cat-vision' allowed us to see different color spectrums as well as thermal differences. The instructions glowed black but they were riddles.
Arms wrapped around my waist and Alec's comfortable weight against my back dulled the pain in my head. He rubbed his cheek against mine and rested his chin on my shoulder to view the screen as well. The first riddle read: Silence reigns when Bobtails ornaments ring. Maybe our twins were crazy after all.
A distant memory surfaced. It was my first winter in Original Cindy's apartment, December I believe, late December. Strings of what looked like metallic fur lined all the windows and cupboards. O.C. was in the kitchen cooking breakfast singing a song that made no sense whatsoever: Jingle Bells.
"Bells!" I blurted out. "Type bells," I urged Grandall. The moment he pressed 'Enter' the ultrasonic Morse code ceased. Blessed silence and Alec whispered 'about friggin' time' in my ear. I grinned and wholeheartedly agreed with him.
On to the next riddle: Bake me for a blue furred monster or a Hacker's band-aid to end at the start. Even reading it out loud, I couldn't wrap my mind around it. My head pounded and I didn't want to think anymore. I didn't have to.
"That's one of the oldest hacker counter hacks. Type in cookie," Alec chuckled and cuddled me further. Good thing for him he sheathed his claws beforehand. He would have sliced clean through the blanket.
"Didn't I tell you I wasn't your touchstone?" I teased.
"Do tell. Isn't this where you tell me you are going to kick my ass?" he retorted.
"If you two are quite done, I believe I'm in," Grandall sighed and completed his decryption program.
They all watched it run smoothly thorough every failsafe and the screen faded into focus. Sam appeared and she looked frightened. I could see cleaning supplies in the background like she was in a storage closet. Loud pounding sounded out and that earlier bad feeling I had got worse.
"Open up 453, we know you're in there!" a guard shouted.
"I don't have much time," Sam began. "I've already sent you the message that this disk is coming your way but it has nothing to do with Max or Alec's changes. Since the 09' escape Manticore has been working with an outside entity for their retrieval. When Seattle facility was burnt to the ground, they enlisted this entity's help as well. All those found by this entity were shipped off to Yellowknife, Canada as punishment."
She spun around suddenly. The door was cracking and she pulled a few shelves down to give her some more time. When she returned tears streamed down her cheeks. "I recorded a few of their transmissions to this entity…" The doors exploded behind her and Sam started to hide her equipment. "The recordings will play once I'm done. Tell Jake I love him." The screen went black once more and Alec was rocking me. I didn't even realize I had been crying until he wiped the tears from my cheeks.
Grandall rose from his chair to give us a better view of the screen. It faded in and a brown-haired man I didn't know walked into view. He sat down in front of a large screen, waiting for his contact to call I supposed.
The screen came to life but the room in the background was too dark. I could make out a dark shadow of what I thought was another man similarly seated at a desk or table. The shadow rose and I could make out a soft whirring sound. It was familiar but I couldn't place my finger on it.
"Greetings." The man in the office spoke very formally. He smiled and chills ran down my spine. He seemed very pleased with himself. "I understand we've acquired something rather special."
"Yes. Ray should give you plenty of information on how the breeding cult works," the man onscreen said and stepped into the light. "Max was very helpful. I want to thank you, by the way, for coming up with that virus thing. Associating with her is bad enough." Logan sneered.
I could feel Alec and hear him; he was yelling at Grandall to shut it off but I couldn't speak. I stared at the now blank screen blinking slowly. I couldn't quite comprehend what was going on. They say the brain will shut down in order to protect itself from insanity. Mine wasn't so kind.
At first the images came slowly. My B&E into Foggle Tower, the countless times we almost got closer during that first year of dancing around each other. Then the memories pounded into my head and I closed my eyes against them.
All this time he had been working with Manticore. His acceptance that I was a government project and his willingness to help me and mine out, all made sense now. Getting me to fall in love with him: that was his sick little twist. And with that thought I was thrust into the insanity my brain had been trying to protect me from.
The purest hate I had ever felt grabbed a hold of my heart and squeezed. I had to fight to breathe and when I could it was to scream, long and loud. The world went red and my claws sprang into view.
Alec and Grandall wisely stayed back while I raged through the room. I sent the couch crashing into the desk and worried the leather. It sounded so much like flesh tearing I became incensed and tore until I had eviscerated all the stuffing.
More images came. Fixit, Ralf, Bugle, Zack, Tinga's boy and husband: all those people Logan supposedly sent to a better place in Canada, they were now suffering and I was too blind to stop it. Why didn't I see it? "WHY!" I howled and threw an end table across the room with such force it didn't just break it exploded.
"WHY!"
Suddenly I felt as if the walls were closing in on me. I had just enough of me left to hear Alec yell 'Max don't' before I slashed through the middle picture window and ran.
My naked body did not come through the window unscathed. Blood mixed in with the rain as it beat down upon me. My lungs screamed for air and my legs began to burn but I couldn't stop. I had to get away from all the pain and pushed on.
About halfway through the meadow I tripped over a low-lying bush and skidded a few feet. Stunned I lay there and the grief finally caught up with me. I curled into a tight ball, hugging myself tightly against the wound in my heart. Hot tears streamed across my face. By the time Alec caught up with me I was crying harder than I had been the first time he had seen me like this.
I didn't fight him when he gathered me in his arms. I had nothing left to fight with. I clung to him, to my mate the only solid thing left in my world and cried.
"We'll get them back," Alec promised and carried me back into Grandall's mansion.