Dark Angel Revised
Summary: Max comes to Seattle in search of her brother Seth. Alec has also just arrived in Seattle on the Berrisford mission. They cross paths and stuff happens. M/A
Disclaimer: I don't own or have anything to do with the creation of the show or its characters.
Spoilers: Anything is subject to altering from both seasons as well as Max Collins' book Before the Dawn
For instance, in this reality, the stuff in Collins' book takes place a couple of years before it says in the book in order to coincide with Max and Alec being in Seattle at the same time.
Chapter 13: The Dreading
Part 2
"Send units immediately. Not a full breach, just enough to confirm that she's our target. I want a report in ten minutes." Colonel Donald Lydecker hung up his phone before looking up to see Agent Peter Sandavol waiting patiently to be addressed.
"What do you have for me, Peter?"
"The Mercedyne situation has been handled. The autopsy showed a positive ID."
"I thought you weren't able to set up a plant."
"No. We never got anybody inside but it turns out we didn't need to. We intercepted an email. He tried reaching out to some people that could have exposed us confirming he was a threat that needed to be eliminated."
"Good. With eleven 'O9 escapees still left not to mention the most recent rogue, exposure is the last thing we need."
***
This was a bad idea. They were heading straight into trouble and they both knew it. But, alas, the problem was that Max didn't care. Women. Ever since Max had seen that cable hack, she had been hell bent on getting to L.A. to avenge her friends. No amount of reasoning or begging on his part had gotten her to reconsider. She was just too damn stubborn which is why he didn't bother to pull the "if you do then you're on your own" card. It wouldn't work and she'd be gone and they both knew it. So rather than let her go and get herself captured or killed he was going along with it despite knowing what a bad idea this was.
He didn't know who "The Brood" was nor did he really care. He did care that even though all accounts they had looked up in addition to the cable hack had pointed to them as the culprits of the massacre; the cable hack had also mentioned heavily armed black uniformed soldiers. Manticore. It had to be. It couldn't be a simple coincidence that the place where Max had lived for four years, conspicuously displaying her special abilities was also a place linked to a black ops military operation. Manticore was involved with this. He knew it. She knew it. But it was still the same problem, she didn't care. She had been determined to go back. Women.
So here he stood in what he learned was Max's old room. They had arrived in L.A. four days after the hack was aired. The corpses had long been cleared away but the whole place still stank of blood and gore; well maybe only to the two X5s with their genetically engineered olfactory glands and their early and thorough introduction to the smell of death.
The projection booth that served as her room overlooked a large theater which from the dark spots that still stained the various surfaces was the sight of where most of the massacre had taken place. There was, however, no blood in her room. Upon entering it, one glance and everything including the door less bathroom was visible therefore it wouldn't have made a good hiding place. But apparently, despite the size of the former movie theater, there hadn't been any good hiding places. No one survived. Every single member of the Chinese Clan had been present during the raid and every one of them had been slaughtered. As Alec accompanied Max to different neutral haunts where gang members of various tribes could be found he watched as she slipped deeper inside encasing herself into a thick emotionless shell as each person she spoke to nodded their head or gave a detailed account of how they knew that whatever person she was describing at the time was surely dead. It broke his heart to see it, but he knew it was necessary if she was going to get through this day. She had been stubborn and adamant about coming, but she wasn't naïve. She knew the danger they were in with the possibility of Manticore being partly responsible for this. She knew she had to be on her guard and that wasn't going to happen if she let her sorrow and grief over her friends' deaths turn her into a weeping basket case now. She could break later. And he'd be there for her when she did.
He looked over to where Max now stood. She was still leafing through the paperback book that had been by her bed. He could tell the book meant a great deal to her despite the sullen expression she wore as she turned the pages. It had been the first thing she grabbed up when they got there.
"I did this. This is all my fault."
She had been silent for so long, only staring at the pages, her voice startled him and he jumped slightly. But then when her words caught up to him, he sighed and moved closer to her.
"Max, Manticore may have had something to do with this but I'm willing to bet my Blockbuster card that your friends' deaths were a score The Brood settled. Manticore's only interest was finding you. Yeah they probably heard about the possibility of a rogue X5 being here which is why they backed The Brood in infiltrating this place. But if they found you they would have nabbed you and left. They wouldn't have wasted time killing a bunch of kids."
"Then I should have been here. I could have at least fought and maybe stopped it or got some of them to safety. Or maybe once they found me they would have just taken me and left like you said. They wouldn't have all died. Fresco. Moody. They might still be alive if it weren't for me.
"You're friends would have been killed if you were here or not, Max. The Brood would have found a way with or without Manticore's help."
"Yeah but the reason they hated us so much was because of what I stole from them."
"Was it your idea to steal that necklace?" At her small head shake he continued. "No. You were just one of Moody's soldiers following an order. He had you so he didn't come up with another plan on how to get it. But if you hadn't been in his group, he would have found another way to get what he wanted. From what you told me, Max, he'd been in the game a long time. He knew the risks."
"Okay fine. Maybe you're right. Maybe Manticore being here made no difference. I still have to go and kill all those Brood members." Max said. Alec's head dropped into his hand. "Fine." She conceded. "Then maybe just the guy who gave the orders. " Alec rolled his eyes but remained silent. Then Max's shoulders slumped. "You know if I would have killed him when I first met him instead of just breaking his nose, the clan would still be alive."
"Oh for the love of…Max, listen to me the only way you are responsible for their deaths is if you had been the one to come in here guns blazing. Blaming yourself is not the answer and like it or not neither is going after the Brood. If we cross paths with them fine. Feel free to kill any of them you see. But to go looking for trouble. We've come too far, Max. Manticore's already on our tail. The Brood might still be in contact with them. What if going after them leads us right back into Manticore's hands?"
"But-"
"Max." He drew out her name and gave her that look. The look that said 'you got nothing so why are still trying to wallow in the negative.' It was a look they both had to pull on each other in various times in the past. But Alec had perfected it and she didn't even want to think about what that implied.
"Maybe you're right." She mumbled.
"Of course I'm right."
"Alec it doesn't make them any less dead!" She raged.
"I know. I know. " He pulled her into his arms and began stroking her back. "I'm sorry Max. Shush. Shush." He said soothingly until he felt the tension that had flared begin to ease from her body.
But an instant later he felt her tense again at the same time that the hairs on his body stood at attention confirming they both heard the same thing. Then she was out of his arms and completely alert when a flicker of movement in the theater below caught both of their eyes. Max pointed to herself and then the door telling him she would take point. After a quick nod from him the two crept out of her old room.
Once in the hall, both Max and Alec heard the sounds of breathing of several different bodies in locations throughout the lower part of the building. The breathing patterns and the slightest ruffle of clothing and the even slighter sounds of footsteps told the X5s that their new company knew they were there and even worse they were the reason for the sneak and creep tactics because they were the target.
The duo continued down the hall until they came to a few sets of large thick curtains covering a wall. Max pulled Alec behind the set in the middle. He raised an eyebrow as he watched her remove her lock picking tools. There was no door behind the curtain. But when he saw her insert the tools into a hole in the wall he looked closer and noticed it was a door. The door knob was missing and the dark curtains kept the light out masking the door's outline and almost completely camouflaging it with the wall. Max pulled open the door ignoring the creak and nodded to Alec to follow which he happily did hoping it led if not to the outside at least to a stairway that would lead them to freedom. But once inside to Alec's alarm the door turned out to be for a tiny closet. Shelves of old movie reels took up most of the space leaving Max and Alec with barely an inch between them. The place became even more cramped as Max began taking boxes from the top of one of the shelves and placing them on the floor. Granted a cursory glance behind the curtain wouldn't reveal the small hole in the wall as an empty spot for a door knob, but she had to know that cursory was not exactly Manticore's style when it came to the search for an X5. So when they did find this door surely she didn't expect them to be safe hiding behind a bunch of boxes. Of course he couldn't ask her any of this because the sounds of footsteps were getting closer. He simply had to trust that she had a better plan, but that didn't keep his heart rate from speeding up. But then Alec saw it when she took down yet another box, behind the boxes was a vent big enough for a person to fit through. He couldn't keep a huge smile from forming on his face either.
The two crawled through the dusty rat dropping filled passageway with stealth far more superior than the soldiers currently searching the building. Max saw the blades of the large fan ahead that signaled the end of their trip through the theater's centralized air-conditioning system and allowed herself a small smile. No one had been better than her at escape and evade back at Manticore and being on the outside had actually allowed her to hone her skills even more. Turns out, there was a hiding place in the old building. Granted Max had to do a little construction such as removing the door knob and thoroughly clearing out the passageway. But it was something she had set up a long time ago in the event she ever did have to vanish in a hurry. As they passed under the large, years out of commission fan, Max could see through the vent to the outside and her night and telescopic vision picked up the single soldier stationed in front of the alley way.
They removed the vent and dropped down without the soldier so much as twitching with any sense that there was activity going on behind him. His focused remained on one of the side doors of the building. That is until he lost consciousness a few seconds later.
The night and their dark clothes provided them with extra cover as they darted and blurred until they were out of range of any of the stationed soldiers assigned to keep watch for them. The soldiers inside the theater had just finished up their first checks of the entire building when Max and Alec reached Max's Ninja and sped off into the night.
***
In a high rise penthouse apartment several miles from the city Max and Alec were currently fleeing from, a man sits in front of his computer. He swivels his chair back and forth in a soothing rocking motion as he remains deep in thought.
On his computer screen there is a news article. It was this article that had spurred on his current musings.
The article detailed the death of Robert Berrisford. The cause of death was a car explosion. Robert Berrisford's death was significant to this man because it was only four days ago that Berrisford tried contacting Eyes Only.
An arduous cyber journalist, Logan Cale spent two days researching this Robert Berrisford before reestablishing contact with him. Cale's research of Berrisford showed that he was the CEO of Mercedyne, a facility that specialized in gene splicing and stem cell research. When he contacted Berrisford on what he knew that could possibly be of interest to Eyes Only, Berrisford informed him that he came across some information about one of the agency's they subcontracted to. He didn't want to get into what information he'd uncovered until he had a face to face meeting, but he did tell Cale that the information was under a project called Manticore. That name was all that needed to be said for Eyes Only to agree to meet with Berrisford in three days.
Robert Berrisford died in two.
It always comes back to Manticore. Logan Cale thought. Just who the hell does this agency think it is? Robert Berrisford had a daughter. He was the only family she had left because her mother had died several years before. Yet they just killed him like he was nothing.
Just like they did Seth.
After confirming that the bank accounts of Jared Sterling were finagled to make it look like he had lost a lot of money thus the nominally reason for his suicide, Logan was convinced that Manticore had killed Seth and Sterling's death was part of the cover up. So many people had died that night. Sterling, his body guards, the Korean, Kafelnikov and Seth were all murdered so that Manticore wouldn't be exposed. Plus there was the Chinese Clan Massacre. Bad enough the agency was raising children to be soldiers they also thought that what ever they were doing was so important that they could kill whoever got in their way.
They had to be stopped.
This was something Seth had wanted to do from the beginning. Logan did feel a tiny bit responsible for the kid's death. It was, after all, an Eyes Only mission that sent him to the Space Needle that night. This could be his way of paying homage to him; taking down Manticore. But with Berrisford gone, the lab tech in the Arctic Circle, and Seth dead, he didn't have much solid evidence to go on that this covert operation existed.
Logan Cale's brow scrunched up in contemplation as he tried to think of a way around his lack of proof. Something that could get the ball rolling and maybe make the proof come to him. Logan Cale smiled as an idea dawned on him. He could drop hints in the meantime that he was on to them and maybe they'd get sloppy. He couldn't be traced and he couldn't be stopped so he wasn't in any danger and besides things were getting a little quiet around here.
Time to shake things up.
***
Unfortunately because they had managed to slip out of the theater without anyone noticing, Manticore was now convinced that it was indeed an X5 or possibly two that had been seen entering the theater. They couldn't risk going through a checkpoint that night. But L.A. was a great deal larger than the last city Manticore caught up to them in and closing down the borders to stop and search every person that went through was not an option. Therefore the two would just have to lay low in the city for a while, and then they could have visitor's passes drawn up that would put them arriving in the city well after the incident at the theater. Since money was no object, the cost to stay in the city for a few days as well as having the papers forged was no problem.
It was nice to just chill. Usually their time in different cities was spent doing recon, doing the heist, and then moving on. They had accumulated so much money that it was actually getting difficult to carry it around. This stop over would be a nice test because with their load, a time to settle down for a while was fast approaching.
They spent the first two days exploring the city, mainly looking for someone with the skill or connections to forge interstate sector passes for them. It wasn't a main concern because if they weren't able to find anyone they'd just have to break into the police station. Not something they wanted to resort to, but still a viable option. The nights they usually checked out different bars they'd heard about during the day and did their damnest to stay out of trouble. It was hard though.
By the end of the week, luck was on their side because they found someone to make them passes allowing them to leave the city whenever they wanted. As much fun as they were having, with Manticore still possibly scouring the area, they both decided that as soon as possible was probably for the best.
For their last night, they decided to check out a local carnival. They'd been seeing flyers everywhere boasting the spectacular fair for the past few days. However when they got there it turned out to be a gross display of false advertising.
There were only four rides. The majority of the attractions were things like face painting, character drawing, fortune tellers, and food stands. There were a few games to win stuffed animals like shoot the duck, knock down the pins, or get it in the hoop. Max wanted to turn around and go back to their room but Alec saw an opportunity to win back the money they wasted shelling out for the lame fair. There was one game stand that gave cash as its prize instead of a stuffed animal. The two split up and decided to approach it separately.
The game was guess what cup the balls under. Max played first and with her genetically engineered eyesight it wasn't long before she amassed a good amount of cash. It also wasn't before long that she sensed trouble on account of her winning streak.
Max watched as the frustrated carnie shuffled the cups in front of her but in her peripheral vision she noticed two punks watching her and then whispering to one another. When one of the guys discreetly, at least to anyone else it was a discreet gesture, showed his pocketknife to his friend a moment before looking at Max and the wad of cash she now had in her hand, she knew for sure their intention.
The vendor asked her for her guest and she absentmindedly gave the correct answer to the vendor's further mortification and the oohs and ahhs of the growing crowd. However most of Max's attention was focused on where Alec was currently. She relaxed when she spotted him even as the cup shuffler told her she reached her limit and had to move on and the thugs that kept eyeing her drew closer.
Unfazed that they were now directly behind her, no doubt following her until she made it into a less crowded area, Max continued walking towards Alec. He saw her approach and looked over to her and smiled. He was about to forgo the game and head to where she'd had just come from so that he too could make some money playing the cup game, but then he saw her eyes hold his and then motion to the two goons following her. That was all that was needed to get the message. Alec nodded and then turned away remaining in line. When Max was only one stand away from where Alec was about to take his turn on the game he had been standing in line for, Max spun on her trackers.
"Look I know you're thinking of jumping me and ripping me off, but I'm going to do you a favor. See that guy over there with the hammer about to take his turn in the test your strength game. Well he's my boyfriend."
The two guys were first startled that this little lady both knew their intentions and then challenged them on it, but they recovered quickly and decided to humor her by looking over to where she was indicating. They turned back to her with confusion clearly written on their faces before facing each other and then bursting into laughter.
Yeah the guy was tall and sure he had a lean muscular frame, but he still looked like a light weight pretty boy that wouldn't stand a chance against the two of them.
But then they saw him looking directly at them. His expression was chilling enough and they were equally relieved when he turned away from them to bring the hammer down on the target. That is until the metal piece that went up the scale marking how strong you were didn't stop at the very top and make the ding noise. Instead it shot through the steel bell completely and landed God knows where. The two punks stood in amazement along with everyone else until one of them saw that this deceptively slight man was now looking at them again with that same crazy expression. One punk tugged his partner's jacket and the two turned and fled leaving Max and her recent earnings alone.
Max looked over at Alec who shrugged and gave her a sheepish grin to which she winked back at him and smiled.
They didn't stay at the carnival long after that. Just long enough to grab some ice cream sundaes to eat back at their hotel room.
***
"My hero." Max said as she spooned some of her ice cream into Alec's mouth once they were seated together on the bed back at their hotel room.
Alec reached into Max's back pocket and pulled out a wad of cash. "My hero." He said showing her the cash.
She rolled her eyes dramatically before kissing him. The kiss was full of passion letting Alec know what she wanted from him now, so he didn't hesitate to drop his hands to the waist band of her pants to yank her tight tee shirt out of them. After removing hers, he quickly divested himself of his. Hungrily he kissed her again savoring the chocolate syrup flavor that was on her lips and tongue as he eased her onto her back and covered her body with his own. After pulling away and staring down at her swollen lips and sultry eyes for several moments he moved to the button of her jeans. Sitting up, he removed both his and hers. He then grabbed the remaining cup of ice cream.
"Don't want this to go to waste." He whispered before tilting it over her stomach. Max's entire body was aflame with need as Alec eagerly lapped up the cool treat from her body. Her eyes rolled to the back of her head when he made his way to her belly button and spent considerable time there because her moans of pleasure were prodding him on.
Max's hooded eyes were focused completely on Alec as he sat up from her stomach and crawled slowly up her body leaving open mouth kisses on different parts during the journey up. He stretched out over her, kissing her lips quickly before moving his head to her neck. Max was moments away from closing her eyes and throwing her head back in pleasure when the television that was formally blocked by Alec came into view.
Seeing the red, white, and blue banner, Max became rigid and a few seconds later Alec found himself on his back beside the bed.
"What the---"Alec said in shock as he watched Max scramble around with the remote before finding the volume button. For the first time, Alec felt his feelings for his "boob tube" turn deadly as he saw that Max's attention was completely on it instead of him. He turned to see what had gotten her so sidetracked that she threw him off of her just as she increased the volume to an audible level.
…Why was the government involved in that raid on those kids? Was it another attempt to dispose of a group of freedom fighters? Or was it something deeper? Were those armed soldiers perhaps looking for a fugitive from one of their covert operations? A covert operation known as Manticore? Tests and experiments done on soldiers fighting for this country without their knowledge was supposedly made a thing of the past with the Diaz-Jenkins Act of 07. But rumors are circulating that Manticore is using tests and experiments on embryos to CREATE soldiers. Eyes Only is gathering information and those involved will be brought to justice. You have been warned. This is a streaming freedom video. Peace out!
It was surreal watching a broadcast about what was essentially their family history. Both transgenics stared at the television with their eyebrows raised and their mouths agape long after the regularly scheduled program commenced. Eyes Only was on to Manticore.
"This is not good." Alec
recovered his speech first. But his
words were not what Max had expected to hear.
Yes it was shocking that this cable hacker knew about Manticore but to
Max it was also kind of exciting. Maybe
with someone putting the heat on them, they'd have to take the heat off looking
for her and Alec.
"Why's that, baby? I mean if somebody as "powerful" as that Eyes
Only wacko knows about Manticore and can expose them, all the more hard for
them to use their time looking for us."
"No, looking for us will become an even bigger priority not to mention a whole lot of other bad shit will happen." Alec said standing up and moving to sit back next to Max on the bed.
"Why would an Eyes Only broadcast make them come after us
more, wouldn't they focus more on going after him?"
"Exactly."
"And us being out, well you in particular, and Eyes Only suddenly doing broadcasts about them makes it seem like you are one of Eyes Only's new sources." Max said slowly as the realizations dawned in her head. "Find you, find him." She continued almost in a whisper.
"And vice versa."
"Shit, this is not good."
"Tell me about it. I don't even want to think about what will happen to the others if Manticore thinks their secret is out."
"What do you mean?"
"Come on, Max. How often did they drill into us how important it was that we never be captured by the enemy when we were little?"
Max shuddered at Alec's words unable to stop herself from reliving the training they had in forgetting under torture rather than revealing their secrets.
"When we got older and started training for missions they added to that by making sure we knew how important it was to never blow our cover. I don't know why but since that new director took over, Manticore has been insanely serious about remaining secretive. I've heard rumors that if word ever got out about it, they'd rather burn up the facility and everybody in it then let the public catch wind that it ever existed."
"You really think they'd go that far." Max asked with wide eyes.
"I do. They'd wipe out any trace. And instead of coming after us to bring us back, they'd be coming after us to kill us."
Max took a deep breath and let it out slowly. This was some weighty shit. Manticore being totally gone was something she'd dreamed about since being on the run. But if what Alec said was true Manticore's demise included all traces of the covert operation meaning her and Alec because like it or not they were Manticore too.
But then again with the money they had saved up, they could flee the country, set up new identities and probably drop off the radar screen forever. But the cost. Max shook her head knowing it was too much.
"As much as I want Manticore to disappear, I don't want the price of our freedom to be the deaths of our brothers and sisters still there. We have to get to this Eyes Only character before he exposes Manticore."
"We have to find him first though."
"Yeah." Max nodded her head. "But I think I know where to look."
TBC