A/N: Ok, obviously I haven't gotten this finished yet. Big suprise! The story really is almost finished, I swear! However to appease everyone, here is another short chapter.

Enjoy, everyone! And please review!

Till Death Do Us Part

Alec woke up slowly, his head was throbbing terribly and he was slightly disoriented. He kept his eyes closed for a few moments as he tried to get his bearings. He could tell by the sounds around him that he was surrounded by a lot of people. The pillow under his head told him he wasn't laying on the floor anymore either. Alec carefully opened his eyes to see…

"He's awake everyone! Hey Alec! How ya' feeling, buddy? Man, did you have us worried. You've been out for days and for a minute there we really thought we were going to lose you." Biggs's voice was booming in his exuberance and Alec winced at the sound. "Oh sorry, man. I forgot that your head might be hurting." Biggs whispered apologetically. Alec smiled slightly as he sat up and looked around. The whole team was there excepting Dren of course, and Max.

I'm glad Maxie decided to come back. I could never have forgiven myself if we had left without them. The thought of Max brought back all of Alec's memories rushing back. "Max! What happened to Max? I've got to save her!" Alec struggled hard to get out of bed while his teammates struggled equally hard to hold him down.

"Alec, calm down, please. You're going to hurt yourself!" Meeks voice was quiet but insistent.

Alec finally stopped struggling, but he glared at his friends. Don't they understand that Max is in trouble? "I have to help Max; we have to help Max." he repeated stubbornly.

The remaining members of Unit 7 looked around at each other awkwardly. No one ever wanted to be the bearer of bad news, especially not this bad news. Brin pushed past the others and sat down on the bed. Taking a deep breath she began, "Alec, I know you've been out of it for several days and you probably don't remember everything that happened, but I have some terrible news… Max didn't make it, Alec. She died in the explosion. The clean-up team found you both lying under a big slab of concrete. Max saved your life, but she gave up hers to do it." Tears were now running down everyones's faces. Everyone except Alec's, that is.

Alec began to shake his head, "No, you're wrong. Max isn't dead."

Biggs moved over and placed his hand on his friend's shoulder. "Alec, buddy…"

"No!" Alec shoved them all away and jumped up. "I'm telling you, she's alive! They lied to you. Max and I came back together." Alec was pacing now. "Something happened while we were gone. Manticore killed someone Max cared about, just like they killed Rachel, and when we got back here Max snapped. She attacked Renfro and then they dragged her away. That's how I got hit on the head, I was trying to protect her. Renfro told the guards to feed her to the nomalies. We have to save her!"

The team looked at their CO skeptically. It was obvious they wanted to believe him, Alec had never lied to them before, but this defied logic. Why would Manticore destroy something they'd spent millions of dollars creating?

Cale spoke up from the back of the group and all eyes turned towards him. "I believe you, Alec. When we asked Renfro for permission to search for you and Max, she said 'No'. She said you were expendable; 'soldiers are created to fight and to die, nothing more' those were her exact words. To her we're just another piece of government property to be used as she sees fit. And when we've outlived our usefulness, she'll have us destroyed. I don't know about the rest of the team, but I'm not going to let that happen, to Max or to me." As Cale was finishing his speech he made his way towards the front of the group to stand side-by-side with Alec. One by one, the rest of the team moved to join them.

"OK," said Alec. "Here's the plan…"

Max sat huddled up in a corner of the basement, terrified. She could hear scuffling sounds all around her, but try as she might her night vision couldn't penetrate the darkness. Max remembered the stories Ben used to tell them about the nomalies: "Nomalies can see everything, Max. No matter how dark it gets, they can always find you. There's no way to escape them either, they can fly and they can dig and they can run even faster than you or I. They can tear an X5 to pieces with their bare hands in minutes. They're all insane too. No one ever comes back from the basement." Max let out a small whimper and for a brief moment the basement was silent, then the scuffling sounds began moving in her direction.

Someone, or something, grabbed Max by the shoulders and pulled her to her feet. She struggled against the creature, but to no avail. As Max was dragged towards the center of the room, someone struck a match and the basement was illuminated by candlelight. Max was surrounded by nomalies; half human/half animal, there were cat creatures and bat creatures and lizard creatures and then there were the X2s.

Lydecker had told them about the X2s, "X2s are your predecessors. They were the first x-series to look fully human. Unfortunately, they were also so insane that we had to put them down. Out of the 250 X2s created only 5 were kept alive for study. They are kept down in the basement under lock and key. If you ever come in contact with an X2 'Beware'. The X2s are cannibals, if you do not kill it, it will most certainly kill you."

It was an X2 that held her now. "Well look what I've got everyone. Dinner!"

Max's legs gave way beneath her as she fainted.