See chapter one for disclaimers.

Predators

2: Shadow

"So what are you trying to say girl?" Original Cindy asked, her russet-brown eyes glimmering with interest and compassion. Max had arrived about an hour ago, and the African-American woman had welcomed her with open arms. After questioning about her safety (which Max assured her that she was unharmed) they got straight down to business.

It had been quite difficult for Max at first, to open up about what she had been feeling for the past few days since the Incident (as what last weeks occurrence was now dubbed as). But OC finally got her to 'fess up'. And since then, they had been talking about Max's little 'problem.' 'Girl talking' as what the two lovingly called it.

Max sighed and hugged a throw pillow to her chest. "All I'm trying to say is that – is that, I don't really hate him all that much anymore. Alright, so I never hated him. Just that single time when he ruined me and Logan's chances of finally being together." She made a face. "Although now, I'm glad that he did."

OC blew on a newly-polished nail, and studied Max at the corner of her eye. "Go on."

"And even though he can be a pain in the ass, a thorn in the side, a cocky egotistical X5 male – underneath all that 'I'm-so-hot-why-don't-you-jump-me' exterior, he's got a really big heart." Max admitted, hugging a throw pillow to her chest. "The Incident proved that. And it wasn't just his Manticore training that got him to hold onto his sanity under White's extreme tortures – it was the fact that he wouldn't do anything to risk the safety of his family."

"You're doing good girl, keep going." OC encouraged, dabbing another coat of nail polish onto another perfectly-manicured nail. ('Girl talks will never be complete without nail polish,' OC enthused.)

"Alec has become someone I could trust my life with – someone I could trust my family's lives with...and—and I think that I'm falling for him...OC."

Cindy looked up from her nails and stared at her. "Well then! What's the problem sugah? Why aren't you and your boy getting busy right now?" her eyes narrowed. "Don't tell me he don't feel the same way you do coz' that's somethin' that Original Cindy will not be believin'! You two have been infatuated with each other ever since you two laid eyes on one another! You just don't know it yet, till now! And it's about damn time that you did!"

Max was at loss for words. "Wha—what?"

OC rolled her eyes. "Anyone who has eyes can see the pure attraction between the two of you."

Max waved that off. "That's not the point. The point is – I'm scared."

OC's sharply-tweezed eyebrows shot up. "Say what now?"

"He nearly died, Cindy. And you wouldn't imagine the pain I felt when I thought he was gone. It was like a piece of me had died too. A piece of my soul. I don't think I can handle that much pain anymore..."

OC tutted disapprovingly. "Now, now, boo. That ain't the way love works. When your truly, madly, deeply, insanely in love with someone, that feelin' just ain't gonna go poof! It's gonna stay in your heart forever. And no matter how much you stay away from him, ignore him, push him out of your life...that love won't go away. It'll just eat your heart until it bleeds..." OC's voice softened. "Just tell him, boo. Tell him how you feel. And everything will be alright."

Max eyed OC warily, although the hope that flickered within those deep pools of chocolate was not lost on the ordinary. "Really?"

OC smiled and gathered her girl in a big hug. "Really."

Max glimpsed the numbers 7:15 blinking green on her friend's digital alarm clock and she swore inwardly. "It's getting dark, Cindy. I have to go before the others will notice that I'm gone and start looking for me."

"Are you saying that you took a risk in coming here?" OC asked, raising an eyebrow.

Max smiled. "Some things are worth risking for."

OC hugged her again. "Just be careful alright? And – break a leg."

"Break a leg?" Max echoed, confused.

OC laughed. "It's a theater term for 'good luck', boo. And I'm sure that you'll badly need it." She glanced at her clock. "Now get going coz' Original Cindy has a date with a particularly hot sistah."

Max smirked. "Well then, break a leg."

"Lady Luck's always on Original Cindy's side!"

Max laughed and exited her friend's apartment, but not before shouting out a principally loud: 'Thank you'.

A "No problem, boo!" followed her all the way down the stairs.

If OC's date does turn out well, then that loud voice of hers will be keeping the neighbors up all night. Max shook her head in amusement before hopping onto her beloved Ninja and speeding into the night.

"I think we'd better call it a night," Alec said as he unsuccessfully tried to stifle a yawn. "It's already," he checked his watch. "7:20, and I'm dead on my feet. I'm ready to hit the sack."

Mole grumpily agreed. "Fine. But we haven't found anything yet and we've already asked around half of TC's population. And so far, none of them has seen any trace of Devon."

"Or if they did, it was when he was on sentry duty near the tunnels." Alec added.

"Well, we already freakin' checked the freakin' tunnels." Mole said dropping his cigarette – or what was left of it on the ground. His boot came plummeting down on it, crushing it into the ground.

"Do you think it was Lydecker who got him?" Alec asked as they moved around the corner and into TC's main district. A few X6s were still hanging around – the same ones that had been the victims of Alec's frustrations earlier.

"Since White's out of the picture, I have a feeling that it is him."

A loud noise interrupted the two transgenics' conversation, and they whirled around to face the source of the sound. Alec rolled his eyes when his gaze came to a stop on Terminal City's entrance gates. It was none other than miss Ice Queen herself – Max.

"I'm outta here," Mole grumbled. "I'm sure you can handle her yourself."

Alec rolled his eyes.

"Hey! Let me in, will you?" she called out from the outside, pushing her sunglasses up on her head. Her cheeks were flushed from her breezy ride, and her raven-black hair whipped behind her as the wind blew recklessly against her. She was dressed in her usual outfit—black pants, black shirt, black jacket. Black bike. To sum it all up, she was a sight to behold.

Alright, you know that Max is hot. But since when do you go with the whole descriptive thing with all the fancy words? A voice asked amusedly in the back of his head. He shook his head in an attempt to clear it and went over to the gate to let the 'black-beauty' in. She was wearing a small smile on her face, and her eyes were shining with something akin to relief and liberation.

It was quite a transformation from the expression she had worn several hours ago.

"Where've you been?" Alec asked, even though he knew (thanks to Joshua), he just had to ask her. He wanted to know if she was going to deny where she went or if she was going to just speak the truth. And for the first time in his life, Alec had no idea which of the two she was going to choose.

"Original Cindy's."

Well, that answered his question.

He finally managed to open the gate, and she drove in. He was surprised when she waited for him to close the gates. When he turned around after completing the simple task, he was even more surprised to see her staring at him. As in, staring staring at him. To be more clear – checking him out.

He smirked. "I know I'm hot, Maxie. But what's with the staring?"

She smirked right back. "You'll find out later. Hop on."

Alec blinked. Did she just invite him to ride with her on her Ninja?

Her smirk was starting to fade and turn into annoyance.

"Alright, alright. I'm on." Alec said, jumping up behind her.

She revved up the engine before taking off.

"Where are we going?" he asked.

"My apartment," she replied without hesitation.

He cocked an eyebrow. "You're not in heat are you?"

"No." she snapped. "I just have to tell you something – and it's important."

"This doesn't have anything to do with you're little girl talk with OC, now does it?"

"Actually it does. So shut up now and let me drive."

Alec obliged, to surprised to say anything else. Max was acting awfully strange tonight. Well, not too strange. But strange enough for her. She rarely played 'nice' to Alec. And it was starting to unnerve him. Maybe he had hit his head or something.

He was startled out of his thoughts when Max braked to a sudden, and sharp halt.

The result?

He fell off his seat. He winced in pain as the cool ground hit him hard. "Shit," he swore, he opened his eyes to see Max standing above him, laughing behind her hand. "Bitch," he said, feeling an amount of satisfaction as her eyes widened. He jumped up and was met by Max's fist connecting with his shoulder. "Ow!" he fixed her with a glare. "You know Maxie, maybe you should consider seeing a psychiatrist. Your addiction with causing other people pain is starting to become rather bizarre."

"Whatever," she said, as she sashayed up the stairs to her apartment.

Alec had to keep himself from staring at her ass as he followed closely behind her.

They had barely reached her apartment door when a loud voice called out from behind them. Alec glimpsed an exasperated look come across Max's face that clearly said 'what now?'. It was Dalton. An X6 with spiky blonde hair that had helped Gem out during the Jam Pony siege.

"Hey kiddo," Alec greeted him. "What's up?"

The young X6 was panting slightly which probably meant that he had run – or blurred, for that matter – all the way here. He must've followed them. "There – there are two X5s waiting outside the TC gates. They're new – said they just arrived in Seattle, and heard of TC where their family was staying. Mole wouldn't let them in. He was kind of suspicious."

Max rolled her eyes. "Mole's always suspicious." She sighed and gave Alec a fleeting look. "I guess this will have to wait." She said gesturing weakly towards her apartment.

Alec's curiosity was peaking, but he didn't let it show. His face remained unreadable – as always.

"Well, what're we waiting for? Let's go see who our mystery X5s are."

Max's face had gone blank the minute they were standing in front of their guests. Mole was already there, fingering his shotgun cagily. Alec on the other hand, plastered a neutral look on his face as he scrutinized the two X5s standing just a few inches away from the back gates.

One was male who was built along the same way as Manticore built Alec. Lithe and lean. Made for speed and stealth rather than for strength and power. His hair was a dark brown that matched his eyes perfectly. The female on the other hand – looked exactly like him. They were twins.

Both X5s were dressed in casual clothing, and both were wearing the same neutral expressions on their faces.

Yup. They were transgenics. Born and bred.

"State your designations." Max ordered.

Alec could've sworn that one of them – the male – stiffened at this order. And Alec most probably knew why. Just like every other X5 around – before they really had gotten to know Max – they hated traitors. Particularly the '09 escapees. And they sure as hell wouldn't have wanted one ordering them around.

He clenched and unclenched his fists to avoid from making a comment at the male X5.

"X5-360." The male said, looking everywhere but Max.

"X5-361." The girl said, more cheerfully than her companion. "But I go by Rian now. And he goes by Sean."

Max's expression softened. "So where you guys from?"

"Well, when Manticore was torched. We decided to lay low at Vancouver for a while." Rian informed them. "When that siege you guys at the messenger place broke out – it was all over the news. We heard 'bout TC, so we came here. Figured we'd be much more safer here than out in the open."

"Good move," Alec remarked opening the gates and letting them through. He cocked an eyebrow at 'Sean'. "Hey, you mute or somethin'?"

Sean gazed coolly at him. "No."

Alec shrugged. "Guy doesn't speak a lot does he?"

Rian shook her head with a roll of her eyes. "He's just a bit pissed that we had to leave Canada. We had a nice place there you know..."

Max smiled. "Well, TC may not be all that posh, but it's comfortable enough to live in."

"That's good enough for us," Rian said with a small grin. "A decent life is all we need."

"'Fraid to break your heart, sweetie. But when your living in Seattle. Life will be anything but decent." Alec said with a bitter smile.

It was nearing midnight, and Terminal City was bathed in total darkness. Somewhere near the tunnels a lone figure moved soundlessly, making its way towards the nervous transhuman who had been reluctant to be on sentry duty that night. Especially after an X5s disappearance.

It was then that the figure pounced, attacking its prey with a swift stab on the chest.

The transhuman barely had time to react, and with a noiseless cry, he fell to the cold ground with a heavy thud. As his vision began to blur, he futilely tried to catch a glimpse of his killer.

But it was too late. His whole world faded to black, and all he saw was a shadow.

A/N: Don't worry, Max will be telling Alec how she feels about him – soon. :-) Review.