A/N: Only one more chapter to go! And you guys thought I wouldn't get it finished… well, I did too but that's not the point.

…………………………………………………………………………………………….

Chapter fifty-four: Stand Alone

…………………………………………………………………………………………….

'They are soldiers… and so are you. The only person you can rely on, Max, is yourself. Everything else is just a lie. It's phoney sentimentality. And it will get you killed.'

Zack (411 On The DL)

…………………………………………………………………………………………….

'You're the only one left standing

When everything else goes down

You're still the only one'

Life house (Only One)

…………………………………………………………………………………………….

The silence was deafening.

White opened his eyes when Erin began to laugh. He looked down at the detonator in his hand and pressed the button again in confusion. Erin laughed harder, clutching her sides.

The look of comprehension dawned of White's face and his face began to turn red with anger as Erin managed to get control over her mirth.

White looked back at her, his jaw silently working with no sound coming out as she looked up at him grinning, "Fooled ya."

"You-" White spluttered as he crushed the detonator in his hand, "You knew about it from the beginning! You took out the teams guarding them before you even got here!"

Erin straightened, looking at him like he just said something stupid. "Well, yeah. It's not like I could let you blow the place up."

White swore loudly as Erin knelt down to remove a hand gun from Braker's body. He threw the useless detonator to the ground and ran his hands through his short hair before spinning back around to glare at Erin. He watched her now, and actually jumped slightly when he heard the snap following the loading of a new clip. He paled as he watched her movements.

The smile slid from Erin's face, "Now, it's my turn to play." She began to stalk towards him slowly, fluidly.

"You don't have to do this, Erin" White searched the floor, looking for a weapon he could use.

"But it's so fun" Erin grinned, "watching your face go pale," she sniffed delicately, "smelling your fear," she licked her lips, "tasting your terror. Before I turned, I couldn't do any of this, my senses were so dead, so…human." She sauntered closer, the gun still in her hand, "I'm taking advantage of the moment."

She was in front of him then, flicking a piece of dirt from his shoulder. "I told you, you shouldn't have come here."

Erin picked him up and threw him a short distance away, he landed with a dull thud.

White scrambled to his feet as Erin looked up at the sky, allowing the rain to beat on her face, "If you and your pathetic version of soldiers hadn't arrived, I'd have had to go hunting." She faced him sideways, right foot forward as she aimed the gun in her hand at his head. The rain dripped from her hair, face and clothes. Some of it made it's way down her shades, and White felt like he was going to explode.

Why didn't she reveal her eyes? Why was she acting this way? They were never told she was insane. They were never told of her cruel smile and sadistic sense of humour.

"You don't understand!" He blurted out desperately as his eyes focused on the gun pointing at him.

"No, you don't understand!" Erin snapped before firing at his head.

White stumbled backwards as the bullet carved it's way through the air towards him. Something stopped him from moving and he looked down to see Erin's hand gripping his jacket. He looked up or rather down into her face before following her gaze to her other hand which she brought up to his face, right in front of his eyes. White forgot to struggle for a moment. Between her forefinger and thumb she held the shining bullet that should've lodged itself in his brain.

"I own your scrawny ass." Her words were calm and oh so certain. She dropped the gun to the floor, it had served it's purpose.

White found himself stumbling backwards, almost tripping over his own feet as she suddenly released her hold on his jacket.

"I'd rather die than help you!" White spat, his voice low as he backed up slowly.

"That can be arranged" Erin's brief smile held no amusement, "however, you will do what I want before that happens."

"Pain won't work on me" White replied defiantly, his feet still taking him backwards.

"Yet strangely enough, the others sounded like they were in a great deal of it." Erin replied, her hands crossed behind her back. She began to pace back and forth, ignoring the fact that White was nearly at the other side of the clearing from her now.

"You go on about how powerful I am, about what I could achieve if I wanted it, yet, the moment you're faced with the same dilemma you wanted me to force on my friends, you act like none of it is true. Is that it White? Is all you've said about me a lie?"

He seemed at a loss for words to that but Erin ignored him anyway.

"You shouldn't have come here" she ran her hands through her own soaked hair, "You should've just backed off and left them alone when you had the chance."

"You keep saying that like it makes a difference" White sneered, stopping when he realized he was getting too close to the surrounding transgenics, "Even if I knew you were here, I'd have come to destroy you all."

"Destroy us?" Erin snorted, still pacing like a caged animal, "You couldn't even blow us up!"

"It doesn't matter, others will come and you won't live long."

"It doesn't matter how long I live for, White. You'll be long dead by then." Erin stretched and cracked her knuckles above her head, "And you'll have told us everything you know long before that."

"I doubt it" White didn't even have time to blink before Erin was stood next to him with her hand on his throat, shoving him hard into the pillar behind him. She began to slowly raise him off of the floor, choking him.

"I have enough strength to drive my pinkie through your skull" she sneered into his face as she continued to lift him up until her arm couldn't reach any further. "But why would I want to damage my nails and cover it in that pathetic shit you call your brain?" She dropped him abruptly and was back at her original spot that she had begun pacing in before he had the chance to get his breath back from his position leaning against the wall for support. Her behaviour was erratic. She was dangerous, too dangerous.

White had no idea how to handle this girl.

"Don't you get it yet?" Erin continued, seemingly oblivious to the way she was acting, "There's no way for you to get out of this. No one to bribe, no one to kill. The only thing you can do is tell me what I want to know."

"It won't work, Erin. There's nothing you can do or say that will make me do what you want." White paused, his mind racing. "But… there is something you can do for me, if you help me, I'll help you."

Erin stood still, waiting.

"Get me my son, and I'll tell you what you want to know." If only he could see her eyes! He couldn't read anything from her body language, her eyes, he knew, would tell him everything.

"No" Erin replied bluntly, "Never in a million years."

"…but my son!" White saw all chances of escape, of finding his lost son, sliding away from him.

"Ah yes, Ray. You know, you're a real family guy, White. You put your bro CJ in an asylum, killed your wife and put your own kid in a coma. Don't even wanna think about what Sandaman's up to." Erin began to pace again. He knew what she was feeling, she was itching to hunt, itching to kill. They were taught all about the Destroyers' feelings after the change had taken them.

White frowned, she spoke as if she'd witnessed it, "How did you-"

"I saw it. But that doesn't matter."

Saw it? It didn't matter, he had only one goal in mind, "I just want my son!"

"Why should I give a fuck about him? Let's see what you've done for me shall we? You've taken me away from my family, my friends, my home, my life, my country, my time, and my whole freakin' world. When I get here- you chase me for God knows how long through some woods, you put my face on TV and you try to kill my new friends. Have I missed anything out?" She was looking down at her hands now, as she continued to pace, watching as she flexed her fingers, into a fist, out of a fist, into a fist, out of a fist.

"It was necessary at the time. I was following my orders." He had to keep her talking, had to control her actions somehow. If she snapped, he was the first she would rip to pieces. He knew she would make it hurt.

"Yes, and enjoying it all the same. How did you like it when I took Alec from under your nose, hmm? Were you enjoying it then?"

She stopped her pacing and looked at him blankly as he gritted his teeth, "Will you enjoy it when I tare you limb from limb?"

"The Conclave knows I'm here. They'll get you for this." White gave up on everything then. He couldn't control her, she was too far gone. He couldn't get her to work for him or help him in any way. She was unstoppable. Only the inner members of the conclave would stand a chance of defeating her, of bending her to their will.

White wasn't prepared for the smile he saw slide over her face. "Oh, I'm counting on it."

Her fist was impacting with his face before he knew she'd moved. He was really beginning to hate that. His body fell backwards, skidding along the concrete, grating his hands as he tried to stop his movement.

"You think you know what I'm capable of." Her foot in his stomach sent him skidding back some more.

"You think that your freak school knew all there was to know about me?" Another kick in his stomach send him further along the wet ground. He was bleeding, he was angry, and there was nothing he could do about it.

"Yeah, right. You know fuck all about what I'm capable of."

She picked him up and threw him further away, and the way she did it let him know that she was still holding back.

"I can fight, I can kill, I can hunt, I can torture, I'm fast and I'm incredibly strong." Erin lent in to White as he propped himself up in a sitting position with his back against the concrete. His legs, no longer able to hold his weight.

"You know what the funny thing is?" Erin asked him as if she was talking about the weather.

White's anger melted into pure terror as Erin lent in close. It looked like she was going to kiss him for a moment, her breath fanned his wet cheek before she turned a fraction to the side, to whisper in his ear "I'm still holding back."

White's eyes widened in part fear and part disbelief but he didn't get to say anything in return as Erin pulled back. The last thing White saw was his own reflection in her mirrored sunglasses as she smiled pleasantly.

"Night night."

A sharp pain in the temple from a single elbow move and he was unconscious.

Erin wasn't finished yet. The click of a gun and the almost silent rustle of cloth signalled movement behind her.

Erin had moved before the soldier even had a proper grip on his gun as he rose to his feet. One second, the soldier was swinging his gun around to face the girl in his sights, when he got there, she was nowhere to be seen.

Only the transgenics saw what she did properly.

Instead of moving to the left or right, Erin placed her foot high on the concrete pillar above White's slumped form, and pushed herself upwards, backwards into the air, arching over the head of the soldier to land softly behind him.

The soldier was turning around, and Erin backed up a few steps, as if wanting the soldier to see her face before he died.

He got that chance.

Before he could raise his gun, Erin had took those steps back, planting her left foot on his chest, she propelled herself upwards again, only this time, not as high.

She swung her body around in midair, twisting, her right leg following the direction of her body, to kick the soldier with enough force to snap his head back too far. Her right leg continued it's movement so she had twisted a full 360 degrees. She landed with both feet, her back to him, not bothering to watch him fall down dead.

Erin looked down at the floor. It seemed only now did she notice the blood that coated the concrete like dark splodges of paint.

Slowly, she turned, looked down at the dead soldier and sighed the sigh of the old and weary. Not something that one would expect from someone who had just destroyed an army of Familiars. She rubbed the bridge of her nose with a thumb, leaving a trail of blood across one cheek. She raised her face to the heavy rain and allowed the water to hit her face, the blood washing away like the aura of insanity she had cultivated. It was suddenly over.

Erin's shoulders slumped and her head dropped forward again. The animalistic force that possessed her melted away leaving the real Erin behind.

'I killed them…' Erin closed her eyes and clenched her fists, her shoulders tightening and her knuckles cracking. 'I killed them all to protect my friends…'

She locked the screaming part of her up, shrinking it smaller and smaller until she could push it away and lock it up into a small box in the back of her mind, compartmentalising to an extreme degree, something else that she had learned to do in her childhood.

'I killed them to protect my friends,' she told herself as she looked down at the wet concrete at her feet. 'They would've killed me and everyone else I care about in this world if I hadn't have done it. Or worse, they would've tortured them, and forced me to kill innocents to stay alive.'

She blinked against the tears that threatened to fall and took a deep calming breath, feeling the insanity, the rage melt away. She could handle this. She had to handle this.

Erin raised her chin and stared at the carnage she had wrought and looked away again. 'Don't look' she told herself, 'it'll be easier to handle if you don't look.'

Erin looked up at the floors and yelled over the rain, "Max, you okay?" Her voice came out only slightly rough, reminding her that until today, she hadn't talked in several months.

There was no answer to her call and she frowned, suddenly worried. How injured was she? What was it White had done to her? Another spurt of rage shot through her and Erin squeezed her eyes shut, forcing it back. She could control her emotions when necessary, or at least put them aside for another time when they would either all come out by choice or by force. It was one of the reasons why she had been seeing a damned shrink for so long- they said it wasn't healthy. Well screw them. It helped her get by day by day and right now it was one of the things stopping her going on another killing spree. Erin did not want anymore blood on her hands.

"Max?" she yelled again. When she got no answer, Erin's worry escalated. She looked up at the floor Max was on, squinting through the rain before she started to run to the stairs- the transgenic looked wary, but moved out of her path. It was their fear that stopped them from stopping her.

Erin didn't blur. She wouldn't allow any chance for the beast to make it's way out of her again. She could feel it there, under the surface, still craving violence, still craving it's fun. Instead, she jogged quickly up the stairs, the sound of feet behind her telling her that the others were following her, keeping at a distance.

Erin burst out onto the floor, her eyes looking frantically around. She skidded to a stop as she saw Max on lying on the couch, Jondy tending to her wounds and Joshua hovering over his friend.

"You're okay" Erin smiled, relieved as she walked closer to the couch and the fire that constantly burned before it.

The growl Joshua directed at her made Erin freeze. That hurt.

The others moved around her, heading towards their sister and friend, Zack reaching Max first, taking her hand and examining her face and the damage that had been inflicted on it.

Max gave him a small smile before looking at Erin. "You saved me. Thank you."

Erin shuffled slightly as everyone once again focused on her. This was worse than having hundreds of transgenics watching her. These people were meant to be her friends. They were looking at her like she'd grown a second head. They were looking at her like they didn't know who she was, like she was a complete stranger. They feared her. All of them. She could smell it.

Erin looked away, from their faces, moving over to the wall to look over it with her back to them. Her back itched with their stares.

"Someone's going to have to talk first" Cindy stated matter-of-factly from her perch on one of the couch's arms.

"Okay," Erin shrugged, turning around and folding her arms, she fixed Max with a stare, "What happened?"

Max sighed and looked down at the floor. "I was walking to the mess hall when someone jumped me." She frowned, "It was weird- all I saw was dark hair and that's it. The guy-"

"What makes you think it was a guy?" Krit asked from his cross-legged position on the concrete across from her.

"I don't know" Max blinked, "but whoever he was, he was fast…" she looked up at Erin who stood watching her, a frown on her own face, "like you."

Erin raised her hands in surrender, "Hey, I wasn't there, Max. I wouldn't hurt you, I wouldn't give you over to White!"

"I know" Max said simply.

"No, we don't" Zane moved forward into the light of the fire. He gave Erin a closed look, "Where were you when Max was grabbed?"

Erin shrugged, "What time was it? I only knew that Max had disappeared when I met Zack in the Cafeteria."

"It was the afternoon," Max replied, "Around 4.30 I think."

"Then I was with Dalton and Bullet" Erin shrugged, "We were at the ramp practicing." She met Zane's eyes, "Ask them if you don't believe me."

"I don't know if White was telling the truth, but when I questioned him about who knocked me out- he did say 'he'," Max met Zane's eyes and he relaxed a fraction.

Max looked back at the others, "And he was so fast, I didn't even get to see his face. He… he played with me. Kept making noises, kept me spinning." Max looked down at her hands in her lap, "He took me out with a single hit. White said that Manticore would've loved to get their hands on him, said he wasn't a soldier."

"It seems we have a new player in town" Zane muttered, staring at Erin, "Seems to be a lot of those around lately."

"What did White want?" Zack asked from his perch above her head as he sat on the other arm of the couch, "He didn't hurt you for nothing." He kept running his gaze over her battered body, his jaw clenched.

"It was just the usual" Max winced as Jondy, who was still sorting out some of her cuts and bruises, caught a rib. Max had refused to go to the infirmary until she had her questions answered.

"He wanted to know where his son was, wanted to know how much we knew about the cult's plans, blah, blah blah." Max met his eyes, "But that's not important. I told him nothing. What is important is where they took me. There's a lab under TC. It belonged to Sandeman. You guys have to check it out, there could be some clues there."

There were nods of agreement all around before Max looked back at the silent Erin. "Now it's your turn."

Erin had been silently watching Alec from behind her shades as she listened to Max. The pain in her heart was increasing. It was being torn to shreds simply by Alec's refusal to even glance at her. He just stood behind the couch with his arms folded, his face soldier blank, and his eyes on the fire. Erin forced the tears from her eyes, thankful for the shades she was wearing. She couldn't let them know how she felt.

"What can I say?" Erin shrugged, "I know what's going on about as much as you do. I don't know how he knows me, I don't know how he knows what I can do." She let her arms drop and allowed her voice to show some of the helplessness and confusion she was feeling. "You guys saw what was happening to me. I was dying. I don't know what's going on."

"You expect us to believe that you don't know anything about what's happening to you?" Syl's voice no longer held any of the teasing or even friendliness that it usually held when she was talking to Erin.

"No I don't" Erin replied simply, truthfully.

"What are you?" Tawney ask as he stood next to Alec, "I've never seen anyone move so fast."

She smiled sadly in response, "Consider me a freak.

Tawney snorted in response.

"I'm not one of you" Erin looked down at her arms, at the tattoos that adored her skin. She wanted to cut them out of her skin. "I don't know what I am" she said softly.

She turned to the stairs and started to make her way towards them, slowly, none of her blurring speed present, though the way she walked was still silently, too silent. Max's words made her pause to look at them.

"You're leaving?" Max tried to push herself up into a sitting position, but Zack's hand kept her from moving away from Jondy's healing touch.

Erin looked away from their stares. They still feared her. They still felt betrayed. "I can't stay here."

"Why?" Max gripped Zack's hand in her own, but her eyes didn't leave the girl.

Sighing, Erin took a single step towards them and as one, the others all took a step back. Erin looked at them all again, "That's why."

Deciding on a different course, she made her way back to her spot by the wall. "How can I stay here if you all think I'm going to hurt you, kill you?"

Shaking her head she jumped up onto the wall and gave them one last look, her eyes on the still silent Alec. "I don't want to hurt you anymore than I already have. I never wanted to in the first place."

Before they could stop her, she launched herself into space.

Brin, Krit and Tawney all rushed to the wall at the same time to see her land on the floor below, startling the transgenics charged with the duty of removing the bodies.

As if sensing their gaze, she looked back up at them, smiled sadly, she gave them a mock salute and blurred out of sight.

"She has left" Brin told them blankly as she and the others turned back around to face their family.

"What do we do now?" Tawney asked the question everyone was already asking themselves.

As one, everyone turned to look at the silent, blank-faced Alec as he continued to stare into the fire. He looked up at them, meeting Max's eyes briefly before turning and walking away.

Next Chapter: Today's The Day I…

Alec looked up as Joshua approached him.

"Alec alright?"

Alec nodded once, his trademark grin back in place but fooling nobody. "I'm always alright."

A/N: One more to go!