Disclaimer: I own…an extra large Spongebob (with detachable Gary ;-)), a drum set, and $4.32 in pennies…but no Dark Angel, but hey, life's tough all over, right?

Rating: PG-13 for language and violence

Time-frame: post AJBAC

A/N: Yeah, I've been a bad girl. Not updating and such. But a lot of stuff went down. I was in school, and then Halloween passed, and I had mid-terms, then Thanksgiving came and lost a friend to suicide, but hey, got a nice car. Then right before Christmas, I crashed it…and so therein lies my run of bad luck, therefore preventing me from giving in to my many fans (you do still love me right?) But now, it's a new year, and I'm starting off on the right foot…that is, I'm updating. Besides, the story's almost done, and I think I'll just post a new chapter every three to four days for the next week and a half, and then we'll be done, cuz I got a new story I wanna share. Sound good? Ok, let's get it started!

I'm so in love with you, you set me free

I can't do this thing called life without you here with me

Cuz I'm dangerously in love with you, I'll never leave

Just keep lovin me, the way your love be lovin me

-'Dangerously in Love' Destiny's Child

Chapter 12

Reunited Realizations

So this is what it's like to be in love? …awesome…

It came then, the sudden rush of memories that Max had been waiting for the past few days. The voices floated in her head; there were streams of feelings and flashes of light that hit her like a ton of bricks. It washed over her, and her body stilled, as she concentrated on making sure that every memory returned in tact. Logan pulled away, slightly bewildered.

"Max, are you okay?"

She didn't respond, but kept her eyes closed. When she spoke, it was in a soft whisper.

"I remember…I remember everything."

Logan's heart nearly stopped. Had he heard what he thought he just heard? Was Max really back, all of her?

She opened her eyes and looked into his. Her mind drifted as she recalled what had happened to her. "I remember you…I remember Eyes Only, I remember it all. I tried to make myself forget, because Manticore wanted to know who you were. But I wouldn't tell them. Something must've happened, between the seizures and the medicines they were giving me, everything went haywire. Sometimes I would lose gaps of my memory, but then they would come back….I don't know, it was all just a blur." Her gaze dropped to the floor.

Logan swallowed the lump that had formed in his throat. I am so sick and tired of having people I care about get hurt because of Eyes Only…there has to be a way to stop this…The only thing he could think to say was "Lydecker told me what they did to you."

Max pulled away from him at that. "That bastard did what?" Her eyes narrowed in anger, and she turned away from Logan, going to sit on the couch. Slowly, he followed, and sat next to her. Her consciousness once again floated, and she felt a sudden chill, and attempted to ward it off by wrapping her arms around herself. "It was terrible Logan. Every single day was a struggle. From the very night they trapped me there. And Zack…" her voice broke off.

Logan had forgotten about her older brother up until the present moment. Zack may not have been his favorite X5, but judging from Max's voice, Logan was sure he wouldn't have wished whatever had happened to him on his worst enemy. He felt his eyes water a little, and laid a comforting hand on her shoulder, his voice was barely a whisper. "How did you get through it?"

She turned to look at him. "You." When his forehead narrowed in confusion, she tried to explain. "I thought of you. Every time they hit me, every time they hurt me, every time they touched me…" she closed her eyes momentarily against the memory. "I just thought of you. I wanted you to come save me; I waited for you. They knew it too. They kept telling me that you weren't coming, that you didn't care…and I never wanted to believe them, not for a second. But minutes turned into hours turned into days turned into weeks, and you never came."

"Max, I—"

"I just wanted to be with you. I just wanted to see your face…hear your voice…your laugh…your smile." She raised a hand to lay on the side of his face. "I missed you," she whispered.

Logan leaned into her palm. "Oh, Max, I missed you too." Max leaned into his shoulder, and immediately his arms enveloped her tiny waist. "I couldn't do anything for days after it happened. I couldn't eat; I couldn't sleep; I couldn't think. I felt like I lost my best friend. But then, I had this dream, and somehow, I just knew…my heart told me you were alive…waiting for me. After that, I searched for you everyday," he whispered into her hair. "Even when everyone else told me that you were already gone. I never believed it. When Lydecker told me what happened to you, I wanted to kill every single one of them for hurting you. I wanted to rip their hearts out the way they ripped out mine."

Max pulled away and looked up at him, but couldn't say anything.

"Never leave me again, Max," he ordered in a soft voice that came out as more of a plea.

"I won't," she replied reassuringly. "I promise I won't."

He leaned forward a little, needing to seal their deal the only way he knew how.

"Guess she remembered huh?" Syl's voice floated through the air toward them.

Neither Max nor Logan looked toward her, but rested their foreheads together.

"Hey Syl," Logan finally acknowledged her. "I see you got my invitation to join us. Thanks."

Krit, who stood beside her, cocked his head in confusion. "There was an invitation?"

Max smiled and looked at her siblings. "He was being sarcastic."

It was then that Syl's cell phone rang. She hit the button and brought it to her ear.

"Syl here."

Max turned to Logan and smiled. He started to say something, but suddenly, Max froze in her spot. A split second later, she grabbed him by the arms and threw the both of them to the floor, her body covering his own. No sooner had they hit the floor than a shower of bullets rained through the window, cutting through the furniture, the wall, and everything in its path. Stray pieces of glass from the shattered window flew around the room. Max was automatically in defense mode. Her top priority was making sure Logan was okay, but she couldn't even look up to see if her brother and sister were still alive. The stream of bullets continued destroying everything in its path, until Max decided they were safer on the move than staying in their present position.

"Ok, Logan, we gotta move, and we gotta move quick." He knew better than to try to talk her out of anything when she was in this state of mind, so he nodded shortly, and waited for her instructions. "When I say go, get to the door and out into the hallway. If I don't show after a minute, leave."

Logan started to dispute, but she put a finger to his lips. "I'll be okay."

A look of uncertainty crossed Logan's face. He had just gotten her back, the last thing he wanted was to lose her again, but his trust of her won out in the end, and he nodded.

"We need to meet somewhere…" her voice interrupted his thought process, and he snapped back to reality.

"My cabin," were the first words out of his mouth. "It's the only place close enough I can think of that they don't know about."

Max nodded. She wanted to say something semi-sentimental, being as how this might be the last time she saw him, but she couldn't find her voice. Logan understood, and raised his hand to stroke her cheek. Then the vase on the table next to them was shattered by gunshots, and the moment was broken.

"Go!" she hissed, "And stay low."

He took off for the door without another thought, and made his way toward freedom

Good luck, Logan Max turned away once she saw Logan make it to the door, and crept down the hallway, whispering her siblings' names.

"We're in here!" someone hissed from the guest room. It was then that the shooting stopped. Max cautiously made her way into the guest bedroom and shut the door behind her.

"Boy am I glad you guys are—," she turned to face her guests, but instead of seeing two familiar faces, all she saw were two semi-automatics pointed at her head. Uh-oh.

The soldier who must've been the commanding officer stepped forward. "Surrender, 452. Come with us now, and no one else will be hurt."

Usually, Max's brain was flowing with a multitude of cynical comebacks that she was none too shy to annoy them with, but for once, her mind drew a blank and she was at a loss.

"We're thirty stories up…how the hell did you guys get in here?"

The CO smirked. "The same way you did…"

He didn't elaborate, and Max found she really didn't care. All that mattered was finding her brother and sister, and getting back to Logan. She'd promised him that she would never leave him again, and she'd be damned if she was going back on that promise.

"Come with us, 452." The steady monotonous voice broke into her thoughts.

"Yeah, you said that already," she replied. "But I think I'll pass. I'm not going back to Manticore; I've seriously worn out my welcome in that place." Without another word, she blurred over, and took out the soldiers without even breaking a sweat. She looked down at their unconscious bodies. "And my name is Max." That was the last thing she said before she felt the electricity of the tazers travel through her body, and everything went dark.

Logan sat outside his door. A minute had come and gone, and Max still hadn't shown up. He found that he had absolutely no willpower to simply leave her there. Why couldn't she just have gone with him? Together, they would have escaped, and if anything had happened to her siblings, well…they would have dealt. But they would have dealt together, alive. He heard several footsteps coming up his stairwell, and decided it was time to move. The fire exit seemed to be his only means of escape, and he took it, setting off a blaring signal to whoever may have been chasing him. He sincerely hoped, as he half-jumped half-slid down the numerous flights of stairs, that whoever was behind him wasn't genetically enhanced.

Syl watched the scene from her hiding place with growing interest. "Well Krit, can we do something now?"

He sighed. "If you insist." The two left their shadowy dwellings behind, and crept up on the group of soldiers that had surrounded Max's lifeless body.

Syl decided she'd had enough, and threw caution to the wind. She leapt out and landed a hard blow to the back of the head of the soldier nearest her. He fell to the ground and didn't get back up. But his three buddies quickly aimed their guns at her. "Aw come on fellas, what kind of welcoming committee are you?" she complained.

Krit decided to join in the fun, and together the two of them took out the remaining soldiers. Syl tilted her head toward the door, listening hard.

"They have troops coming up the stairs, they're about two floors down, we gotta get her outta here," she commanded. The other X5 nodded his agreement, picked up his sister's unconscious body, and the three headed toward the living room. "Through the skylight." She pulled one of Logan's coffee tables to just underneath it, and hopped on it before jumping, and catching the latch. It took a couple tries, but she finally got it, and held on tight as she pushed the hood open and climbed out onto the roof. It was then that they heard a loud alarm sound in the hallway. "Quick, hand her up."

Krit lifted Max onto the table, and shifted her still body up into Syl's waiting arms. She helped him up, and seconds later, he was out on the roof with her. She closed the door softly, just as a swarm of soldiers entered the apartment through the front door.

"That was close," he openly admitted, and when Syl didn't oppose, he knew she'd been afraid too. "So where do we go now?"

The petite blonde just shook her head. "I don't know. I don't know what happened to Logan. I hope he's okay. But we gotta get Max somewhere safe until she wakes up. Maybe she knows where he might've went."

"After you," Krit conceded, lifting Max once again. Together, they headed off into the darkness of Seattle.

Logan stood staring out the window into the darkness. Something was wrong. No one had shown up, and he had been at the cabin for over the past three hours. Max would have at least called by now…if she had gotten out. No, I can't think like that…maybe she's just not near a phone. Yeah, that must be it…what are you saying Cale? You're going out of your mind with worry. You don't even know if she's alive. Logan took a deep breath to try to calm himself, and looked out the window for what must've been the eight hundredth time in the past hour, just in case she was out there, waiting for some sort of signal from him. As though the smoke billowing from the chimney wouldn't give her some inclining to the fact that someone had indeed taken up residency inside his cabin. Not that he'd be able to see her anyway. Max was invisible when she wanted to be, and even if she wasn't, it was pitch dark outside.

The thing that worried Logan most was that although Max hadn't given a play by play account of what had happened to her back at Manticore, he was pretty sure she wouldn't survive going back a third time. He wasn't even sure if she'd try. She had seemed beyond traumatized when she finally remembered everything, and Logan remembered getting the distinct feeling that she herself would rather die than go back for a repeat performance. He couldn't say that he blamed her.

Logan finally pulled himself away from the window, and took a seat on the sofa, facing the fire. The flames danced a soft waltz before him, and his eyes followed them closely. After a long moment, he buried his head in his hands, his imagination running wild with the thought of all the things that could have happened to her, and he sighed.

"Max, where are you?"

Max slowly came to, the ringing in her head becoming more and more distinct by the second. She opened her eyes to see clouds drifting by through the window. She groaned softly and sat up, looking around. It took her a moment to recognize the two people who sat in the front of the car.

"Guys?" she croaked.

Two heads whipped around to stare at her, and only the loud honk of an oncoming car took their attention from her. Syl swerved the car back onto the road.

"Whoa," Syl whispered. "Sorry about that, guys."

"Max are you okay?" Krit asked her.

Max rubbed at her temples, but nodded. "Yeah, just got a little headache that's all." She paused for a moment, looking out the window. "Um, whose car is this?"

Krit and Syl glanced at each other and shrugged.

"Don't know," her brother finally answered her. "Found it in the parking garage. We're just borrowing it."

"You're 'borrowing' someone's Lexus…?" Max wondered aloud. "Right. Where are we anyway?"

"Uh, somewhere outside Seattle."

Max took a moment to try to get her brain to catch up. It seemed to be doing a lot of that lately, and she was tired of being clueless. Right…outside Seattle…because we're running from Manticore. That's right, they attacked us in Logan's pent—oh my god. Logan! Where's Logan

"Guys, where's Logan?" she asked quickly.

Once again, her siblings glanced at each other. Then Krit turned around to face her.

"Don't look at me like that, Krit," she ordered. "Where is he?"

"We don't know, Max," he replied softly. "We haven't seen him since the penthouse."

Sheer terror seized Max's heart. "Did he at least get out okay?"

"I don't know," was the only response.

It seemed as though Max's headache grew ten times in intensity, and she nearly fainted from the incessant throbbing in the side of her head. "We have to go back."

"What?" Syl glanced in the mirror at her.

"We have to go back," her sister insisted. "I was supposed to meet up with Logan at his uncle's cabin. It's not that far from here."

"Max, we don't even know if he made it."

"Don't say that! He made it…I know he did. We have to go back." She leaned up between the seats to look at her sister. "Please."

Syl slowed the car to a standstill and looked over at her younger sister. "Okay," she concurred. "But even if he had to walk, he'd be there by now. So if he's not, we gotta hightail it outta town."

Max nodded and sat back in her seat, not bothering to mention that she had absolutely no plans of leaving Seattle, especially if Logan was missing. But she chose not to say anything, giving thanks to whatever deity that Syl had agreed to begin with. She sat back, and looked out the window as they made a u-turn and headed back towards the city.

I've never believed in a God before, but if there is one…please, please let Logan be okay…

Max's mind was still racing a mile a minute when they finally pulled up outside the familiar wooden cabin. Her heart and her breath both seemed to be dueling with each other and her thoughts to see who could go faster. Syl had turned the lights out before they pulled into the driveway, not wanting to alert anyone inside, just in case they weren't in friendly territory.

"Max," she whispered. "Relax; you're gonna give yourself a heart attack. I'll go check it out, if I'm not back in three minutes, you guys leave."

"No," the youngest X5 quickly countered. "I'll go. I know the layout better." And if he's not in there, I'm not going anywhere.

Her siblings nodded their approval, and she quietly got out of the car, closing the door behind her. She crept around the perimeter, checking to make sure everything was in order. There's smoke coming from the chimney, that's a good sign at least. With her heart in her throat, Max snuck in through a window. Her feet padded softly on the hard wooden floor, and she slipped into the living room. What she saw made her heart stop. Logan sat on his sofa, staring into the fire. It was quiet for what seemed to be a very long time, but had probably only been a minute or so. Then his voice broke the silence.

"Max, where are you?" He buried his head in his hands. It was more of a desperate plea than anything, and Max found she could no longer hold herself back.

"I'm right here," she responded.

In nanoseconds, he was on his feet facing her, and with speed that would counter any X5's, his arms were around her.

"Thank God," he whispered into her hair, "I thought I lost you."

"It's okay, Logan," she whispered back tightening her arms around him, "I'm right here."

"I waited for you, outside my apartment," he began, his words coming out in a senseless prattle, "but you didn't come, and then there were soldiers coming up the stairs, and I had to leave. I tried to wait for you; I didn't want to leave you…"

"I know," she replied, pulling out of the embrace and leaning her forehead against his. "I went looking for Krit and Syl and I thought I found them, but it was actually a TAC team waiting for me. They took me out with tazers…I don't really remember anything after that."

"Are you okay?"

She nodded.

"And Krit and Syl?"

"They're fine. Speaking of, they're out in the car waiting for me right now. I'll be right back." She started to pull away, but Logan's grip on her tightened. "I promise," she assured him, and it was only after that did he release her. She opened the front door and disappeared.

After about five minutes, she reappeared, closing the door softly behind her. He gave her an inquisitive look.

"They said they've got something to do. They'll be by later on to get me."

"To get you?" Logan questioned.

"Yeah, we're taking out Manticore once and for all."

Post: Ok guys, that's it for this chapter. Oh, and BTW, thanks to everyone for answering my question. I think I got it now ;-) Tap the little blue button in the bottom left hand corner of the screen and leave a review. Thank you.