Disclaimer: I own a blue pack of cards, a Twix caramel cookie bar, and the cardboard box that is currently known as my place of residency….nope, no Dark Angel. What were you expecting? If I did own it, do you seriously think I'd be living in a cardboard box?
Rating: PG-13 for language and violence; this chapter a little darker, got some dark references, but nothing past PG-13
Time-frame: post AJBAC
A/N: Hey guys, sorry about the time lapse between posts. I finally finished my finals, and moved back home. Things have been kinda hectic. But it's starting to calm down, so I'll post again soon.
A/N2: I would like to dedicate this chapter to a friend of mine who drowned last Tuesday. To Deshawn Canada 1985-2004, he'll be missed dearly. And now on with the story.
Chapter 5
Dark Progressions
Max's eyes partially opened, revealing a blinding light around her. Suddenly, a shadow moved to block it.
"Hey there, welcome back," it said.
She squinted, the light causing a flaring pain to sear through her head. She brought up a hand to her eyes to wipe them clearly, and was surprised to find that she was in a different cell. One on the main floor, not in the cellar, and she was no longer restrained. The face came into focus, and she gasped at the sight.
"Ben?" she whispered.
The boy cocked an eye at her. "Ben? You mean that insane psycho freak that cost me six months in psy-ops? No way. I'm his clone, designation 494."
Max struggled to sit up, but the scorching pain in her muscles prevented her from doing so. Instead she narrowed her eyes at him. "Don't you ever talk about him that way," she said in an even voice. "You didn't even know him."
"I didn't have to know him," 494 said with a slight smirk on his face, "I am him."
Max took a deep breath to calm herself down. She wanted to charge him; knock that stupid smirk right off his face, but she knew she was too weak to even climb out of bed.
"And you are 452," he continued.
"My name is Max," she said defiantly, as she had everyday since she'd been brought there.
"Still haven't beat that out of you yet huh?" he muttered to himself. "Anyways, now that we all know who we are, let's get this over with shall we?" He walked over to the side of the bed, and lifted off his shirt.
"What are you doing?" she asked him.
"I've been assigned your new breeding partner."
"Breeding partner?!" she spat.
"Hey, don't look at me that way; it was you and your crew that decided to blow the embryology lab and everything in it. Otherwise, we'd still be doing it the old fashioned way."
It was funny to Max how the 'old-fashioned way' to Manticore meant genetically engineering one-celled zygotes and placing them into surrogates, but she didn't voice her opinion. "Get the hell away from me," she hissed at him.
"It won't be so bad," he smiled cockily at her, reaching for her shoulder. "Maybe if you're nice enough, I'll even let you go before me."
Max narrowed her eyes at his innuendo, and lifted her arm, summoning all the strength she had in her to send one well-aimed fist flying straight between his legs. Seconds later, he was on the ground, rolling like an infant.
"What the hell was that?!" he gasped.
"The only kind of contact you and I will ever have," she replied, determination etched in her features.
He finally sat up. "Don't wig out, this ain't exactly no picnic for me either. You've been on the outside for more than a decade, who knows what you've got."
She decided to let the wisecrack slide. "'Don't wig out'?" she asked curiously.
"Slang 101, Manticore style. Had to set me up for my solo missions."
"You mean assassinations?"
He shrugged his shoulders. "Semantics." A guard knocked on the barred window.
"You ready?" he asked.
"Yeah," 494 stood, and nodded to Max. "See ya around, Max."
"Not if I see you first, Alec," she replied. He stopped and turned to look at her.
"Alec?"
"As in smart alec, which is exactly what you are."
For what seemed to be the hundredth time since she'd met him, he cocked an eyebrow. "Second choice?"
"You don't want to know," she said in a low, even voice.
"Ok," he retreated. "Alec's good for me. It's actually kinda got a ring to it." He turned to leave and then stopped to look at her again. "You know, I didn't expect you to be so surprised to see me. It's not like I'm the first breeding partner Manticore's sent to you."
Max searched her mind, but couldn't remember there ever being another.
"What are you talking about?"
"What, you thought they all were just going to wait for you to wake up? Not all guys are as nice as me." Triumphantly, he turned and left.
Max's eyes widened as the realization of what he'd said hit her like a ton of bricks. The thought of anyone but Logan touching her made her physically ill; and the fact that she wasn't even awake to fight them off caused the bile to rise in the back of her throat. She wondered how often it had happened, how many there had been before Alec. The thought made her heart break, and her eyes filled with tears. She closed them, and took deep breaths to take them away. Manticore had hit an all-time low, and she knew now more than ever that she had to get out. The door to her cell opened, but her eyes did not. Seconds later, she felt a stinging sensation in her arm, and she drifted off once again to unconsciousness, which was just fine with her. Reality was a bitch, and anything that got it away from her was more than welcome.
Logan looked at his watch; it was nearly 4:00. They'd be leaving soon to meet up with Lydecker. He turned back towards his computer, and printed out a copy of the blueprint of the old empty warehouse Krit and Syl had found. He had thought about sending Deck an email to let him know of the plans, but decided it better to wait until they were face to face. He didn't want the emails ending up in the wrong hands. A second later, he felt a hand on his shoulder.
"You almost ready?" Syl questioned him. She was dressed in all black, as was Krit, and they both looked as though they were ready to get it all over with.
"Yeah," he sighed. "Just give me a minute."
Suddenly the door banged open. "Anybody home?"
Logan stood and walked out to the front room, surprised to see Max's best friend there.
"Hey," he said cautiously, "what are you doing here?"
"Skipped out early on work, came by to see if you came up with any new info on my Boo. And judging from the looks of these two," she motioned to Syl and Krit who had come to stand behind Logan, "I'd say you came up with somethin'."
"What makes you say that?" Logan asked nervously. He hadn't wanted to get too many people involved; the more people involved, the more lives risked.
"Cuz only my Boo and her fam can dress in all that black, and still make it look good," she replied with a smirk. "Now tell Original Cindy what's going on. Did you find Max?"
Logan couldn't look her in the eye. "We haven't found anything yet, but I have to go meet with a contact. I'll call you if anything comes up."
Original Cindy walked over to him and looked him in the eye. "Richie Rich, does this look like the face of a girl who was born yesterday? Original Cindy knows somethin's about to go down, and she knows it has to do with her Boo. Don't you think she has a right to know everything?"
He finally let out a breath he didn't know he was holding and nodded, before turning to Krit and Syl, who had been waiting patiently beside him, taking the whole situation in. He tossed them the keys to the Aztec. "Would you guys mind loading up the car for me? I'll be there in a minute." They merely nodded silently and headed off to pack up their stuff. Logan turned back to Max's roommate and sighed. "Ok, after I had my dream and figured out that Max was still alive, I got an email from Lydecker."
"Max's black helicopter guy?" Cindy interrupted him.
"The very same. He said that he had some interesting news for me. So I called him up, and it turns out that not only is Max still alive, but she's been inside Manticore the whole time."
Cindy gaped at him, speechless for the first time in her life. She soon found her voice. "You're gonna get her out though right?"
Logan looked at her seriously. "We're sure as hell gonna try."
She nodded, and sat down on the couch. "So what can I do to help?"
He shook his head. "Nothing, just wait at home to hear from me."
Cindy scoffed at him. "Original Cindy had her Boo torn from her life, thought she was dead for the past three months, only to find out her Boo's been spending her summer in the eighth circle of Dante's inferno, and is about to be broken out, and you want her to just sit here and do nothing?" Logan didn't respond, he didn't know how to. "Look, I understand you got a lot going on in your life right now. But I love Max, almost, if not just as much as you do. Let me help."
He looked her in the eye, and nodded. "Ok, I may have an idea of how you can help. But right now, I have to go meet with Lydecker. Stay here until I get back."
"Original Cindy ain't goin nowhere," she said picking up the remote and leaning back into the sofa. "Her Boo's boy has cable."
Logan smiled at the way she had referred to him as Max's boy. If…no, when they got her out, he would do everything he could to make that saying a reality. He headed toward the door, and closed it softly behind him.
Lydecker sat looking around the small café. Logan would be there soon, and he knew there would be questions, questions he wasn't sure he wanted to answer. But he had to get Max out of Manticore. When she had lost consciousness, and been out for nearly a week, Renfro had decided to try to impregnate her using recombinant DNA from some of her fellow X5's. Lydecker had tried to talk her out of it, but his pleas had all been in vain. Now there was no choice. He had to get her out, time was almost out.
Speaking of time, Logan should have been there by then. Deck looked at his watch; it read 16:58. In two minutes, he was going to have to leave. He was already compromising his position by leaving Manticore for this extended amount of time.
"Been waiting long?" Logan asked as he approached the table.
Lydecker looked up at him. "Not really. Been procrastinating long?"
Logan raised an eyebrow. How had Deck known he had been sitting in the car, watching him, waiting for the right time to approach? "Long enough," he responded. "Can I sit?"
The Colonel gave him a curt nod. "I see you brought back-up with you," he told him, his eyes never leaving Logan's. But he had already noticed both Krit and Syl stationed near the entrance to the restaurant.
"Tactics 101, always have back-up. How do I know you're not here to take me back to Manticore to turn me in?"
Lydecker scoffed. "How do I know you're not here to take me to Manticore to turn me in?"
"How would I benefit from that, pray tell?"
"Your fears beg the same question."
"Ok," Logan sighed exasperatedly. "Enough with the courteous banter. I want Max. You can get her out. You want to take down Manticore for whatever reason. I can help you. But why would you want to help me?"
"I've done a lot of dishonorable things in my life. Most of them I can't fix, but this one I can."
Logan nodded. "What happened after the first attempt anyway? After Max died, you clocked me, and I woke up in my penthouse with Krit and Syl. How did you end up back at Manticore?"
"After I dropped the three of you off, I figured I'd head out of state for a while, but I got held up at a sector point. Damn things have become the bane of my existence. Those sector police don't know what it means to be a real soldier. They're just civilians in uniform." He stopped his rant at a look from Logan. "Anyways, it turns out the Committee had an APB out on me. So I was taken into custody. That was the first time I met that bitch, Renfro. She said the Committee wanted my ass on a silver platter, and she was all but ready to give it to them, unless I could prove myself worthy."
"And how were you going to do that?"
"They had closed in on two rogue X5s down in New Mexico. She wanted me to bring them in."
"Did you?" Logan asked, though he was sure he already knew the answer.
"I had to. I knew I needed to get back in the Committee's good graces. The first attempt was a sign that trying to take down Manticore from the outside would be a failure at best. The only thing left to do was take it down from the inside. That is what I have slowly been working at everyday since I went back."
"You said you've seen Max every day for six weeks. How is that possible? Why would they allow you to see her?"
Lydecker looked away. He wasn't sure if he should tell Logan the truth. It might affect his decision to aide him in his attempt to take down Manticore. "That information is classified, and on a need to know basis," he finally stated.
"Yeah, well I do need to know before I help you do anything. I need to know everything."
The older man nodded, and began slowly. "They put me in charge of her reindoctrination."
"You tortured her?!" Logan nearly shouted. A few faces turned to look at them, but resumed their business after a few moments.
"I did what I had to do to keep her alive."
Logan felt his blood boil, as anger flowed through his body. "How can you justify that? How is that keeping her alive?" His eyes narrowed. "What am I saying? You don't even care."
"You don't know what they did to her!" Lydecker hissed at him through clenched teeth. "They beat her. They tortured her. They raped her. They humiliated her. And that was only because I talked them out of doing what they had originally planned. Do you think I liked standing there everyday, watching them demean and degrade her? Those X5s were the closest things I ever had to real kids. So don't you tell me about not caring." He sat back in his seat, clearly perturbed by the whole conversation. "Look, we're not here to talk about my history. We're here to discuss how to get Max out. I don't want her there any more than you do."
Logan stared at the top of the table. None of his thoughts were completely coherent. He couldn't believe what he was hearing. It was long moments before he could get his neurons in line long enough to form a rational sentence. "Why are they doing this to her?" he whispered.
"They're trying to break her spirit. They want Eyes Only," Lydecker explained in a voice equally as low. "And she—"
"—won't give me up," Logan finished for him. "This is my fault. When's the soonest we can move out?"
"I'm thinking not until midnight tomorrow."
"Fine, I've got an idea. Let's go." He stood silently, motioned with his head to Krit and Syl, and they all headed out the door through the rain that had begun to pour, and towards the empty warehouse at the end of the block. Logan knew that no matter what happened now, Max would probably never be the same.
post: Ok, so that's it for this chapter, the next one will be up hopefully by the end of the week.