Hmmm, okay well I was reminded a few days ago that I had promised a sequel to Omens. I guess this is it in more of a one shot deal. It's not Max and Logan, so don't complain afterwards, I warned you. This is Max's past, what led to her being who she is. Oh and if the structuring of the story bothers you I'm sorry, nowhere I tried to switch to italics of insert a line break seemed to like me, but hopefully you won't get past and present confused.
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Okay breakdown of the story so you don't have to reread the previous chapters
Max stays in AJBAC, skips over any running and pussyfooting over her relationship with Logan and instead falls right into it. The last chapter was just under two years in the future in relation to the start of this story, Max and Logan were married and expecting their first child.
Max made a face as she took a sip out of the goblet. "Do not walk over with a wine glass with what looks like wine and not have it be wine."
Logan laughed sitting down next to her, "You're pregnant you can't have alcohol, what makes you think I'd give you wine."
She pouted, "Today's special."
"Yea well my son would like all neurons to end up in their designated places."
"Just for this," she said raising the glass, "I'm having a girl."
"Please don't threaten that," he said pulling her in close for a kiss, "I can't handle two of you."
Two years before that though, they hit a rough patch as they tried to figure out what happened to Lydecker's wife.
"Oh now see this is were it gets kinda good, she was involved in manipulating genes to prevent illness. It was top secret then, everyone thought she was doing normal drug research."
"So what, you think Lydecker was working for the people who killed his wife? That he killed her?"
"Well I don't think he killed her, I don't think he had any idea what she was doing at work, in fact I'm pretty sure what she was doing back then was illegal or at least the FDA wasn't aware of what was going on. Not the kind of thing you tell the all American boy."
Max groaned, "Why did you just describe Lydecker as the All-American Boy?"
Max's annoyance at having to see the pre-Manticore version of Lydecker only grew as they traveled to Toren, Oregon, not only the resting place of Lydecker's wife (Julia) and son (Matthew), but had been a family vacation spot for decades and had been the place Julia had been killed. This is where they meet Dorothy Woodrick who owns the local diner; she drops a cup seeing Max for the first time as she's reminded of Julia. She tells Max of Lydecker's past as she assumes Max is their daughter.
Logan uncovers the whole truth about the lies involving Julia Lydecker; Max however only knows bits and pieces. Max ditches Logan and goes to see Lydecker on her own after Logan uncovers his location.
She changed the subject, "Why'd you say you wished me could take me away from Manticore?"
His answer was simple, "You kids deserved better."
"You didn't say kids, you said me."
He knew these were the last moments for honesty, probably the final weeks of his life; Manticore was looking for him, what point was there to lie anymore? "Max, you were always like my daughter, no blood relation to me, but my wife's eyes. Eyes I'd always expected to see in our daughter, when you were born and you opened your eyes," he took a moment before he continued, "I saw my son in that first moment; it took weeks for your eyes to darken to her shade."
"What about my name?" Max asked in a hushed whisper.
"I don't know how that happened." he shook his head, partly in shock that she knew, partly still in shock that it had happened. "You were so little, just a baby, how could I call you 452 when all you were was an infant. A little girl who looked like she was waiting for her parents to come take her home.
So one day when you wouldn't calm down, I said 'It's okay Maxie' as I lifted you up to my shoulder and you stopped. I'd tried every position to get you to quiet down, I'd paced, I'd rocked, but when you heard your name you stopped. I made sure I stopped calling you Maxie by the time you were 18 months, a normal child wouldn't remember anything before 3. There are rare memories in some children when they're two…At 18 months your brain isn't developed like it should be, even in you, that information should have been erased."
"Then I started calling myself Max"
He nodded, "I should have just taken you. I knew the first time I held you that you didn't belong there; there was something different in your eyes. All the other babies they could self soothe, you left them alone they stopped crying. You didn't, you needed to be held, but I just left you there." He wondered about the words coming out of his mouth, when was the last time he'd been this honest? It felt almost as if he had been drinking…
Max returned home to the apartment and Logan and found out Sketchy's words were correct.
"Woah, Max," Sketchy shook his head as he saw her walk into Jam Pony, "I would've hated being the guy taking you to the prom."
She looked at him confused, not shocking since this was Sketch and he had definitely taken one too many to the head, "What the hell are you talking about?"
"Your dad," he shook his head again, "scariest man I've ever seen."
Logan is forced to tell her the truth after he finds out she simply left the information with Lydecker instead of telling him about it.
"Max, she was a scientist who was manipulating genes. She was a woman who had lost her son to genetic disease. If you had that power, what would you do with it?"
Max shook her head; she wouldn't allow that thought to enter her mind.
"Max this isn't one those things you can ignore because it makes you uncomfortable. Max if you had lost a child like that what would you do?"
"Make a child that would never get sick." she whispered.
"You're why they killed her. I don't know why exactly, if she was refusing to part with the research or if it was that she refused to part with you. I finally got my hands on the employee list for Kleinfold, found one name that was on the same list as the one we found Hannah on."
By the time Max makes it back to Lydecker's place he's gone, all he's left her is a stack of disks and keys to a safety despot box and a note only saying 'I'm sorry.'
The box had contained everything he'd been before Manticore, before his wife died. Photo albums, scrap books, the medals he'd been awarded, the deed to the cabin in Toren, the life of her father, not the man who'd existed in his body afterwards. That was putting it too bluntly and Logan told her that all the time, but it was all she could handle. The Donald Lydecker who had been trying to have another child with his wife was not the one who raised her that was clear in every single picture she saw of him, it was clear in the journals Julia had left, which Max still hadn't found the courage to read in full. In just under two years, she had only made it three years into the journals. There was one entry that remained in Max's mind though. It was shortly after the 17 year old girl, her mother had found out she was pregnant, she read it over and over again, it had reminded her of her final words with Lydecker.
'I guess one day you're going to be reading this, you or your siblings. I don't know how this all is going to have turned out; I don't know if Deck and I will fall victim to the statistics, if we'll fail. I doubt it just because of how stubborn he is, but I don't know what lays ahead for us, for you. We're doing things out of order, I'm sorry you're not coming into a perfect world, but I've got to believe everything's going to be alright. Even if it's not, I know we'll have tried our hardest and they'll be good memories to go along with the bad. I'm pretty sure the good's gonna outweigh the bad, even though things seem pretty scary right about now. Even if it doesn't though, at least we were in it together. Can't worry too much about tomorrow right? Today, right here and now that's the only thing we're guaranteed.'
Lydecker had fallen off the face of the earth after finding out the truth. Max only knew bits and pieces, knew that he'd survived the immediate fall out of what was going on with Manticore since he'd sent her the name of a doctor to remove her implant a month after she'd seen him. He'd also exposed Kleinfold for their illegal activities, but hadn't succeeded into toppling Manticore along with them. That's how the story was left and now we're going back in time to that fateful day two days after Max had left the documents leading Lydecker to the truth.
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I hope you enjoy and wow that was a long sum up, but summing without the quotes would have been boring. Gotta try to make it a little interesting. Let me know what you think, don't forget my disclaimer at the start :-D Thanks for reading!
Chapter Twenty Two
Frozen Memories
August 2020:
Icy blues eyes as cold as steel without even the barest hint of fire were awaiting Harry Lever as he walked into his den. He realized seeing them that the shiver that had coursed through his body as he left the heat of the August day and entered his air conditioned house hadn't been a shiver of relief, it had been one of his doom.
He always knew his fate if Don found out. They had promised him his safety, promising to eliminate the other man if it became necessary. They had both been important to Manticore, but if the truth ever came out Donald Lydecker would go from being vital to its biggest threat. Manticore would falter without him, but at least it would go on.
He'd experienced this feeling of doom once before as the rumors had been floating around that last week of May. He was probably the only person in the entire country that had felt relief as instead the country came tumbling down around them like a house of cards. The greatest act of terrorism the world had ever seen had saved his life. He'd realized in that week that those above him would sacrifice him first instead of preemptively taking out their golden boy. He was only a scientist in their swarm of scientists; Donald Lydecker had been a leader. The fact that twelve had escaped that night in February and had avoided every single person they'd ever sent after them had proven that Deck had done what he'd set out to do. He'd created the best soldiers the world had ever seen.
And he, Harry Lever had killed that man's wife.
He was a dead man walking.
It still didn't stop that basic instinct to try to survive.
His eyes betrayed him as he tried to gauge his distance to the panic button, since trying to get the gun within his top drawer was futile. If he could keep him talking though-
"Don't bother, I disabled it," even his voice was cool as he was leaned back in the brown leather armchair, the gun casually resting in his hand on the arm rest. "Why don't you have a seat?" he didn't bother gesturing with the gun, actions like that were just gratuitous, totally unwarranted and excessive, his head made only the slightest gesture instead to the seat opposite of him.
Everything within Harry told him to run, but his 67 year old scientist frame was no match against Deck's, he'd seen the younger man go up against soldiers less than half his age at Manticore and come out the victor.
So he moved into the matching chair and waited, refusing to plead for his life; his life was ending, he refused to lose his dignity in these final moments in any acts of futile desperation because he knew they would be futile.
"She respected you, almost worshipped you," Lydecker said with no need to elaborate. They both knew who he was talking about, Julia Lydecker who had met Dr. Harry Lever her second year in college as she was already in an upper level genetics seminar. She had quickly proven herself his star pupil and he had talked her into lessening her course load that summer and taking an internship at Kleinfolds, he'd even talked those above him into allowing her son into their daycare so she could see him throughout the day as she'd done in school. He'd had her in a paying position before she'd even graduated college, made it so she didn't need anymore scholarships to continue the education he knew she barely needed, the company had willingly paid for it as she proved herself quickly.
"And I loved her like a daughter," he responded.
The briefest of fire flashed behind the blue eyes and Harry was made aware that there was no truth the other man didn't know. His mind returned to that day over twenty years ago, finding Deck in his office stacks of resumes on his desk as always as they were constantly adding to the doctors, nurses, caregivers, psychiatrists, and psychologists to shape and care for the young minds they were creating in addition to the soldiers and officers they were slowly recruiting for the day their young soldiers were ready to truly begin on their path. There were also specs for the base, along with enough literature to even make a geneticist flinch, but Donald Lydecker never did anything half assed, ever the Boy Scout and always prepared.
He hadn't been looking at any of that stuff though, instead in his hand had been a picture of her... The eyes that had looked up at him already harshly lined by the loss and the hard living that had followed, looking decades older his thirty. Harry had remembered in that moment meeting him for the first time…
Leaving his TAs in charge of supervising the test as he'd gone out to get coffee, the younger man with the light brown crew cut, dressed simply in jeans wearing a band tee, the name his mind could no longer recall, so at odd with excess that was still so prevalent, that along with the muscular nature of the other man immediately informed him the young man had to be from the base not too far from there. He'd been sitting on the floor legs stretched out with a young child less than a year who just barely had more hair than his father, a child's book discarded to the side of them.
Blue eyes had looked up at the opening of the door before returning to his son.
'Are you waiting for someone?' his mind could hear his words as clearly as he'd said them over three decades earlier.
The eyes had looked up again, 'My wife, we're a little early.'
'And your wife is?'
'Julia Lydecker,' the young man had said.
Harry had hated the other man on sight with those few words, they weren't even a month into class and it was their first test, but he had seen her potential. She never raised her hand to answer a question, but always had the answer when he'd randomly call on people, in a sea of confused students she'd only ask questions that went into graduate level course work; on more than a few occasions she'd stumped even him.
The man and child before him then had instantly clarified his confusion and annoyance as to why he could never talk to her for more than a few minutes after class, why'd she'd been absent at more than a few classes. Not that attendance was necessary and he'd known more than a few of his students paired up and exchanged notes, but the realization that she had turned into one of those students had saddened him.
He had been sure that the man before him was going to destroy her potential. He had been positive in that moment that her life would turn out to be mediocre compared to what it could be. He had been wrong though as he'd been going to enter the grades his TAs had calculated he had seen hers, he could still remember it, a 93. She not only skewed the curve, she'd destroyed it, on a test where the average had always been in the sixties, she'd gotten the highest grade by 9 points, the grade below her had been earned by the girl whose notes she used and had apparently studied with.
He realized soon after that she simply absorbed knowledge like a sponge; she had an intensity in class and in her studies that he had frequently seen in his own studies. She should have been at an Ivy, but instead that husband child that he had originally resented had done him the biggest favor and brought someone like her into his life.
She had become his muse, she inspired him to levels he'd known he'd never reach without her. At a time when others her age were bemoaning everything and living meaningless lives she had been spectacular.
Loss had propelled her to heights he hadn't imagined, like a physicist, she'd soared at such an early age before her mind was held back by the limitations of the world. She'd manipulated his studies, his research and that of others into something viable; she bridged that final gap in the research.
He had never expected to be the person who had stunted her from reaching her potential. He had though, just a month after he'd taken her out for her twenty seventh birthday, he had. He'd pleaded, begged, tried to coerce, it hadn't worked though. He could easily claim the research as his own; easily pass it along, but not without her exposing him. In the end he had seen no other choice and now thirty years later he knew his time had come to pay the price.
That man before him now who had sat behind his desk looking at the picture of the woman that he had taken from this world, 'I miss seeing her. Beauty like that…' The other man's voice had trailed off in a weakness he wouldn't have shown to anyone except for him. He was often found behind his desk looking at her picture, he had found he could no longer easily look into a picture of his son as more children were joining the ranks, but no one realized that, most forgot in time that there had ever even been a picture of a young child on his desk. It had been removed from his file by those above him who didn't wish anyone to question his suitability for the role he was born for.
There hadn't been many changes needed to be made in the embryo she had created and Deck had gotten to see into her eyes again.
Harry realized this was his own fault, he'd been foolish…selfish…there were a whole list of adjectives to describe his actions. He had felt guilty, been guilty and he too had missed her so he created 452 and never told anyone the truth about her. He was going to die now because of a girl who was supposed to have called him uncle; life was full of unexpected twists.
"Why?" asked the man holding the gun.
"It was business Deck," was all he said.
Almost thirty five years of being a military man was the only thing that not only kept Lydecker from killing him in that moment, but prevented even his hand from tightening around the gun. "She was innocent," he paused, "she didn't deserve…" his voice trailed off, she'd had no childhood, she'd killed for the first time at eight. "She didn't deserve any of what we forced upon her."
"They were always children Don," Harry shook his head, "we knew that going in."
"My daughter, that makes things a little different." Blue eyes looked hard into gray, "You were by my side as I buried my son."
"And I gave you another child," he supplied.
Lydecker shook his head for that ever so slightly as he scoffed, "You killed my wife and took my child."
"I did what you asked; she would still be frozen if it weren't for me."
Lydecker knew he was right, he had thought briefly once or twice about what had happened to the embryos that had remained after Julia's first and only IVF had failed, but he would have never done anything about them even if they had been left in the storage facility as he'd assumed they had been until he unearthed his wife's ever meticulous records before coming here, which informed him they'd been moved shortly after Matthew's death. He would have never risked going through that again, especially not without her. "Why?" he asked again.
"I thought she would have gone with me," the man answered honestly, "she hated the military, wanted you home." She couldn't do it though, almost talked her into it a few times, but she'd told him in no uncertain terms in those final weeks she wouldn't allow him to do it either. Deck had returned home and his normally hardcore scientist had fallen back into the role of happy housewife with thoughts of motherhood on her brain. If only the other man had stayed gone…He probably could have talked her into it.
"So you killed her," he said still trying to understand it.
"I went to talk to her again," he nodded, "things got out of hand."
'Out of hand?' His mind repeated the words remembering coming home, calling out her name as he walked in with his friend, Frank, to warn her that wasn't alone, that he was joined by the man who'd picked him up early that morning since he hadn't wanted to leave her stranded at the cabin since they'd driven out together. They'd come in through the back door, entering in the kitchen so as to avoid traipsing in any dirt and fish smells.
The cabin was small, so he hadn't need to walk far to find her, just the other room. She'd been half in the living room, half in the entry way, she'd been running, trying to get out of the house. An end table had been knocked over, a lamp smashed; she'd grabbed the cordless off the desk as she ran past it. Her attacker had caught up to her though as she reached the arch between the rooms, her head had been cracked into the frame, they said she'd lost consciousness then, her attacker had finished her off by strangling her.
Her attacker, not that vagabond he'd caught up to, her mentor, her friend. He'd always been haunted by how afraid she must have been, caught off guard alone in their house, the terror she'd lived through in those final moments. He couldn't have even imagined what it must have been like to realize someone she thought loved her had been the one trying to hurt her.
He raised the gun up at that point and barely heard the "I'm sorry" of the other man, didn't see his face, saw hers…Saw her cold limp body cradled in his arms, her eyes forever shut. He didn't feel the trigger beneath his touch before he stood and walked past the other man's now dead body and back out into the unnatural sunshine, all his mind saw was her. Her in that last moment and all the emptiness and despair that still accompanied him twenty five years later.
There's one more part coming. I decided to break it up since this was already finished and it was a decent length. Next part's in the future and stars our favorite heroine.
