Author's note : This is the 16th chapter.

I think, i'm not sure, but i think that this one is rated R too. Because of some events depicted. But there are not that much depicted. So be warned.

I hope you like the Chapter 15(i replaced the author's note by the chapter in question). Tell me in you reviews if you liked it or not, i've pratically updated the two chapters together.

So again, i wish you all a merry christmas, and a happy new year. Thanks for all the reviews and alecs-dark-angel-452 – about the episode of Alias, i just saw it last night (i live in France, and M6 the chanel who diffuse the serie just finished the 3rd season last night.), but yeah, in a sense it can remind you of that. Though now i think that Alias has become way too complicated. Their lives are too entangled, but i loved the final of this season. What did her father do? Can't wait for the 4th season. But i'm not reallly into Alias though i like it.

She was watshing Ames taking a fighting stance. She had closed her eyes for a few seconds, searching for a solution fast. Not that she didn't wanted to kill Ames. No. Her fists were already itching to hit him.

No she needed a solution for after. And then, it was like her brain had opened a path toward the solution. When she opened her eyes again, she felt the power overwhelming her. Yes, there was no other word to describe what was happening to her. She had gained power. More abilities. She didn't really understood why, but she did. She clenched her fists more tightly and the fight begun.

Ames didn't stand a chance.

« I killed Ames. » she said again. « That's when i choose to go feral. »

« It's been 15 minutes, sir. » informed the youngest Seeker as he eyed Max menacingly, and yet with curiosity.

« She's not dead yet. » stated the Elder.

« In fact she isn't. But it was to be a test. And we only gave her a small amount of the vial. She wasn't supposed to die, sir. »

« What i mean, is that her mind is still alive behind this mask of madness. »

One of them was eyeing her with more interest than the other ones.

« My unicorn. » he whispered into her ear.

He was so close and he had spoke as quietly as possible that only Max had heardwhat he said.

« What did you said, Brother Harris? »

« I was looking into her eyes, Elder. She's a frightened animal now. She's not a threat anymore. Soon she'll be crazy just like the dog at your feet. » the man named Harris replied nodding toward Ames' second. « She won't live more than 5 days. »

Silence.

« They started to talk about me as if i wasn't there. My memory gets blurry sometime. I think it was what they gave me. But there was something odd. They knew all my medical back ground. The DNA thing, the period i went back to Manticore and the exams they put me through. The 'problems' I got when i was younger...i guess it was when i was 7 or 6. i don't really remember. They knew everything. »

« I still think that we should bring her back with us. »

« No! » said the Elder. « We won't bring an impure with us! You know the rules! Let her die alone. We've enoughly played with her. No one will find her here. One more day, and all she'll want is to kill herself. And it'll be the end of the story. We don't want to be called monsters. Do we? We always leave two people alive. To tell the tale. If they'll be able to speak again! »

The Elder laughed along with all the others.

Strangely, Max felt like she had already heard the voice before. But where she couldn't place it. Or was it those kind of déjà-vu things?

« They only left us there because they were sure we would die. »

« Ames' second was still alive? » Krit asked.

She nodded and turned her gaze away.

« He was very interested in me. He said i was a myth that i wasn't supposed to exist. And yet here i am. »

« Heresy! » shouted angrily the Elder. « She can't be! She's an impure! An animal! »

« But the writings says... » tried the same man who had called her a unicorn before.

« You know as well as i do that those writings don't mean a thing. Such a thing just can't exist. »

« There is somthing so ...innocent about her. And yet...lethal at the same time. Feral. Must be the DNA. » commented Brother Harris as he leaned in closer to study 452.
The youngest one throw Brother Harris throught the warehouse. He was obviously, the Elder's lapdog.

« Sandeman made her purposedly this way! Don't forget it! She's nothing more than a mere illusion! »

« I remembered they watched me...during two days. They were right i was losing it all. Soon i felt like a cat imprisoned in a human's body. Even now, sometimes i still feel it. Like i'm two inside this body of mine. And i don't have any control on the other part. But that part took control of the things so that i could survive. Even then i still clung ot the idea that you'll get me and bring me back safely to TC. » she said looking at Alec.

« And i waited after they left. And after you came. You really came to save me. »

« Oh God Max! I'm sorry it took that long to get you. » Alec apologized.

« You don't need to. » she said taking a step back. « What happened, happened. We don't need to linger on. »

And with that last sentence, she left the main room, to enter the bedroom.

She heard them slowly going away. 'Good' she thought, she couldn't handle their questions and their guilt for now. They shouldn't have made her remember. No. Now, she remembered what Ames did to her.

« You know, you're a good looking for a freak. » snarled Ames.

« Go to hell. » snapped Max.

« Tss tss! Not nice 452. » and with that he ripped her clothes apart. « I'm going to teach you to be nice with me! » said Ames.

« No! No! » she cried as her assailant unbuckled his belt. « Please don't! »

She was crying silently, staring at an invisible point on the wall.

« Max. » called Alec.

She panicked. She couldn't let Alec in. After what happened to her, after what Ames did to her, Alec wouldn't probably want to touch her anymore. Afterall, she was tainted.

Hearing no answer from her, Alec entered.

Immediately, Max brought her hands around as if protecting herself from an ennemy. He knew that his hypothesis was right the minute he entered their bedroom.

« I'm not going to hurt you. » he whispered.

« I know. » she replied. « I know. »

« Can i sit next to you? »

She just nodded.

« What did Ames do to you? »

« I can't tell you that Alec. » she immediately retorted.

« Why? I'm your mate. We have no secret to each other. You can lie to the other but not to me! » he said calmly.

« I can't. Because if i do you'll run away from me. » she said, her voice barely above a murmur.

« How could i run away from you? » he asked. He had to get her tell him that she'd been...he couldn't get to use that word. 'Rape'. A genetically enginneered soldier just didn't get raped.

« I'm tainted. » she uttered between sobs.

« No, you're not! » he said angrily. « You're not. » He took her in his arms. « You're mine! » he said protectively. « I'm sorry you had to remember. I'm sorry baby. »

« I should have fought harder. » she cried as she buried her head in the crock of his neck. This was where she belonged.

« No! You fought the best you could. And now you're safe. »

He didn't know what else to say.

« Max, look at me. »

She raised her head hesitantly.

« I love you.I won't leave. »

Max's heart skipped and she clung to him more tightly.

They laid together on the bed, holding each other. Finally, because of all the crying probably, Max fell asleep. During long minutes, Alec looked at her.

'That will never happen again.' Alec told himself. 'No. Never again. You'll be safe as long as i breathe.' he promised. And he needed to make sure of that from now on.

He rose to his feet and left the appartment.

« There you are. My special little girl. » said a male's voice while he took a little girl in an hospital gown in his arms.

She's barely 5 and her hair was shaved like the military ones.

« Come on. Do you remember what we did yesterday? What i taught you? »

The little girl shook her head yes.

« Fe'nos tol. » she said.

« Good. Now each time we see each other you'll say that... »

He was interrupted by Lydecker. »

« What are you doing Sandeman? » the colonel inquired.

« Testing her abilities. She's very special to me. I'll probably make a program only for her. »

« Put her down! » Lydecker ordered to the scientific. « I don't care about your program, she's already in my personal group. »

Sandeman complied unhappily, and put the little girl back on her feet.

« Remember i created them. » said Sandeman.

« And i'm in charge of their upbringing. » barked the Colonel. « 452! In your unit immediately. »

The little girl snapped to attention and obeyed immediately, fleeing out of the room.

452 was just out of the PSY OPS area when she woke up.

« What did you do to her? » asked Lydecker. For a little girl of her age, she already had dark circles under her eyes, and bruises, without counting the cuts.

Once more, he had arrived too late, thought Lydecker.

« She's a sleeping agent now. » answered Sandeman calmly.

« She's just 5. She hadn't enouugh training! » shouted the Colonel.

« You'll give her all the training she needs. »

« What's so important about her? » asked Lydecker sill very angry.

« She's special to me. Just like she's to you. Do you think you would have reacted this way if it was another mere X5? I don't. »

« I don't know what you're talking about. » said the Colonel while looking at Max.

« Oh i do think you know! » maintained Sandeman. « I know all the people who are working here, and when i say i know, i really do. From their underwear of the thrusdays to the name of their grand mother. I know that when you came here, you asked for favor, a favor concerning your wife and now 452 has her eyes. I understand. That's why i choose her, because you'll protect her. With your life if needed. »

And with those last words, Sandeman left the room leaving Max with Lydecker.

When she woke up, Max was very nervous and worried. It was too real to be a dream. No it wasn't a dream. It was too vivid.

She had to get out of the room, out of TC. She needed to get some fresh air.

She took her jacket and left with her baby between her legs. She didn't even notice Joshua waving madly at her.

Alec had just gave the order that Max was not supposed to go out without bodyguards with her.

The ride with her baby wasn't enough to ease her mind. Sandeman taught her things, things she didn't really want to know. It was way too real to be a dream.

If the ride wasn't enough, maybe the Needle would do the trick. As soon as she set foot on the top of the Space Needle, Alec yelled at her.

« Where were you? It's been 2 hours that we're looking for you! »

Max was so taken aback by the situation that she stared at Alec. « I'm sorry...wait, why exactly am i apologizing to you? » she inquired.

« God Max! You disappeared! Joshua said you ignored him. »

« Me? Ignore Joshua? Come back to earth Alec! »

« Why did you left? » he asked.

« I...needed some fresh air. It's not the first time that i do that Alec. Why worry? »

« God Max you disappear. You didn't tell anyone where you were going. Which is why i ask you, why did you left? »

« What's this? A pop quizz? If i answer i'll get a candy? I'm a grown up girl Alec! I can take care of myself. » It was the soldier in her that was talking. « I was doing fine without you worrying on me during ten years. » she said referring to her status of 09er.

« You just got shot a few weeks ago and you just remembered! I was worried sick okay! »

She opened her mouth to say something but closed it. Alec was staring at her.

« I'm sorry. » she said this time really meaning it. « I really didn't notice Joshua. I needed some timee alone. »

Silence.

« What are you afraid of? » she asked.

« Losing you. » he admitted after a few seconds of silence. He turned his gaze to the city.

She didn't know what to do yet. Things, at least for her, have changed since she remembered. She couldn't anymore approach him naturally and lock her arms around him. She was, in a sense, afraid of men. She knew it was ridiculous to fear Alec. He wouldn't do her any harm.

« You won't lose me. » she simply said. « Things have changed. I need time. I didn't want to remember. But you made me. And now i've opened a path in my brain that i don't fully understand myself. »

His attention was back on her.

« I know things have changed. But i'm not leaving you. I won't. I'll never. It's not because you've been raped Max that i don't want you.You need to understand that that wasn't your fault. It was all Ames' fault. For God's sake Max you were his prisonner. You didn't comply to do that. »

If Ames wasn't already dead, he would have killed him by now. Carefully, as if he was afraid he would break her, he stepped in front of her, and took her in his arms.

Tears started to fall again on her cheeks.

« It's not what i meant...well i wasn't only talking about that. »

Alec frowned.

« I'm a sleeping agent. » she informed him.

After the shock, he tried to rationalize.

« It's impossible, you left Manticore way to young for that program to start and your little come back wasn't enough time for them to turn you into that. »

« I know. But i am. It's Sandeman. He did it. It was in the dream. I saw him. »

« Max, maybe it was just a dream. You had a rough month. Maybe it's all the pressure. »

« Oh, don't patronize me Alec! » she said pulling out of his embrace. « It was way too vivid to be a dream. Plus you know that the only dreams that haunts us are those of the things we did at Manticore. It wasn't a dream. I still can smell Joshua on Sandeman the first time he took me in his arms. I remember he had many arguments about me with Lydecker. I remember everything now. » she concluded.

« So what did he do exactly? »

« He taught me to read the runes, the familiars' language. But for the most important things he sent me to psy ops to become a sleeping agent. He said that the day i'll be ready, i will unleash my knowledge. »

« Sandeman sent you to psy ops at 5? Max, you're sure about that? »

« Yes. I guess i'm ready coz i remember all those things, many details, the sounds, the smell, the sessions in room 314. I remember when the sessions stopped. I was going on 7, i think.

« Ok, what to you think the keyword is? » he inquired.

« I already know it. But i can't say it. »

A moment she remained silent, looking at Seattle as she had been doing those last years. It was different. The world was going to change. She had already changed.

« We should get back to TC for that. » she said.

« Ok. » Alec agreed.

« Do you think we can stay here a moment? » she asked.

« Sure. » Alec replied.

'Things are going to change', Alec thought too. And were going to change a lot. 'Max already has'. He understood why she wanted to stay here a bit longer. The Needle had been the constant in her life. It was one of the things she clung too. He knew that she had celebrated a few moments here. Like the 10th anniversary of her escape, the fact that Jade was going to have a baby named after her, finding Zack, her family, Logan had come here too. He was less pleased about the last part but he knew that she allowed a few people to see her 'high place', and he was glad that he was one of those people.

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