Timebomb Central

By Rowe

A big thankyou for your great beta job, Sorrow Reminisce

All my fics are also posted at The Broken World and Gumboot Mafia. These are where you will find my NC17 chapters and are the places I first update.

Chapter 2: A little too close for comfort

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Sam. Her twin was dead. Max felt a twinge of pain. For her this girl was genetically the closest thing to a real sibling that Manticore had produced. They hadn't gotten off to a very good start but by the time she had left with her family, Max had started to really want to know the girl who looked exactly like her. Now it was all too late and there were no second chances. Though Sam was someone she had only known for a short while she had never given her the impression she was in a hurry to die, especially by her own hand. How could things have possibly gone so wrong? The sheer enormity of the situation hit that bit closer to home. She needed to talk to Alec. They would need to follow up on Sam's final movements. It was all rather gruesome but it might just be the lead they had been looking for. Her husband might even be able to shed some light on the situation.

Max checked over the jotted notes in the report, the section describing her barcode confirmed that this was indeed X5-453. The accompanying police report described similar sorts of circumstances to what they had been finding here in TC; the body was found in an isolated area, the death appeared to be from a single gunshot which through powder residual analysis was deemed to have been self-inflicted. The coroner had ruled out foul play and assessed it as a suicide. Max looked up at Logan with tears in her eyes. So far the victims had all been people she had barely known. This changed things, making it seemingly more real.

She shuffled back through the other reports. Skim reading through them she could see no other patterns emerging. Well, not any that could be readily identified. Turning to Dix she proffered the reports to him. Maybe he would be able to use them more constructively.

"Start creating a database. Try and see if there is any link, no matter how tenuous between them. We need to nail down anything, and I mean any little thing, we can." They needed something more than a pile of dead faces. They needed answers and they needed them fast.

She was starting to get angry with the absent Alec. Why did she have to deal with this without him? He was as much responsible for these people and their wellbeing as she was. When it came to logistical planning he was far better equipped than her with training. She was more of a people person anyway.

Max turned to Logan and nodded at him, "Thankyou for this." She needed to acknowledge his help. "We will try and decipher the reports, but thankyou for getting back to us with so much so quickly." She dismissed him with a smile and turned back to the others to start making plans.

They couldn't wait indefinitely to start getting something happening. Inside she was totally on edge. She knew her face gave her away. Looking around she could see that the others surrounding her in headquarters shared one thing, on all their faces was a hunted fear. Her body was demanding action. She would give Alec 5 more minutes before she went after his sorry ass.

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The voices in his head were reaching a deafening level. He sat slumped in his chair, physical exhaustion preventing him from pacing any further. Valiantly he struggled to cling onto consciousness, to stop from slipping over into the darkness that beckoned him with promises of horror. Running his hands over his face and up through his hair, he could feel his vision beginning to blur. His eyes were raw from all the hours he forced them to stay open. He was beginning to feel rather desperate cause he knew sleep was coming to take him again.

The slight nodding movement of his head he couldn't control. It was working him into almost a trancelike state and slowly relaxing him into submission. His body was screaming at him to relinquish control but he couldn't, he just couldn't face the terror again. His head slowly connected with chair back and he lost his battle.

The footsteps were getting louder. He had run for hours but the hunter kept managing to track him down. His exhaustion was making him clumsy and he stumbled. He heard the ominous tread quicken. This sinister figure was relentless. With horror, Alec knew he was cornered. Turning he dropped into a fighting stance and prepared to face his stalker. As the light silhouetted the shadowy figure as it entered the door, dread settled at the pit of his stomach. He somehow knew this was the end. For some reasons he knew he would fight, and then he would die. A sense of deja vu hung in the air, he couldn't put his finger on it but his memory tingled as though he had been here before, lived this before. The hunter stepped forward into a shaft of light and his face was illuminated. It was his own.

The brisk knock at the door startled him awake. Normally, he would have heard the footsteps as the visitor had approached but his mind was too numb to analyse the data it was receiving. He groggily turned towards the door. Before he could utter a word the knob turned and the unwanted and uninvited visitor entered. The one person he believed he could not face.

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When Max barged in it was to see Alec, slumped bonelessly in the armchair in his apartment. The feverish look in his eyes and the totally wretched look on his face made her pause. She was shocked by his physical state, seldom had she seen him looking in less than perfect form. The dark circles under his eyes and the prolific stubble on his face told a story of pain and suffering she feared to hear. It stopped her onslaught of words from falling, from adding to whatever haunted him.

As she moved towards him he flinched away, shaking his head. She stopped confused. Scanning the room she could see nothing out of the ordinary, perhaps it was a little messier than usual but nothing threatening. Looking back to him she began to move to his side again.

"No!" The desperate edge in his voice halted her. The fear and horror in his eyes tore at her heart. "Stay away from me."

"Alec, what's wrong?" She spoke as soothingly as possible to him, trying to calm him, to reassure him that everything was alright. The panic was still in his eyes. He just shook his head wildly, almost as though trying to shake something away. She took a step back and he seemed to relax a bit. Max realised that whatever was wrong with him she needed help. Continuing to back slowly out of the room, she realised how much Alec looked like a wounded animal cornered and confused. Closing the door behind her, she took off at run for headquarters. She needed to find Josh, he might have a chance of getting through to Alec.

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Max entered headquarters and scanned the room for Joshua. His tall figure was standing next to the much shorter one of Dix. She darted through the bustle of people towards him. This was urgent and Alec needed their help, even if he was too stubborn to ask for it. Josh saw her coming and smiled at her till he saw her more panicked than usual expression. She saw him start to move towards her but someone was blocking her way.

Logan saw Max dash in. He moved as quickly as he could to intercept her. So quickly in fact that she hadn't seen him move into her path and nearly collided with him. The frustrated glance she threw at him surprised Logan. As did her curt "Not now." He watched her retreating back as she dragged out Joshua talking animatedly at him as they went. He looked around quickly to see who had witnessed his dismissal, but all eyes were discretely focused on the tasks at hand.

Joshua was still a bit confused as Max clutched his arm tightly and pulled him in the direction of Alec's apartment. She was talking at him with some urgency. Something about Alec looking sick and needing help. The bits about him looking like an animal he just wasn't getting. He got her to let his arm loose when he made her realise he was following of his own accord. Together they hurried back to their friend.

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As Max once again entered the dim room, her eyes searched out Alec's lean figure. He was no longer in the chair she had left him in. Briefly she went into panic. Had he left while she had been gone? A slight movement in the far corner of the room drew her eyes. Hunched and whimpering sat a shadow of the man she knew. Gone was any trace of the cocky self-assure smart aleck. In its place was a broken and deeply distressed transgenic.

Beside her Joshua gasped in horror when he took in the sight of his friend. Moving slowly as not to startle him, he made his way across the room. The low growl that emitted from the shivering man's throat at his approach was frightening. How far gone was he that he could react so primitively? Keeping moving forward, Joshua reached Alec's side and carefully took hold of his shaking form. As if the effort to hold his body upright became too much, Alec collapsed into Joshua's arms.

The tears that were on his face broke Max's heart. She went to approach her two friends but Alec recoiled again when her saw her move. Standing frozen in the middle of the room, she stared helplessly at Alec. It seemed her presence was distressing to him but she didn't want to leave. She looked to Joshua for some idea as to what she should do.

Joshua saw the look of anguish on Max's face but he knew Alec needed him more at the moment. Speaking calmly her told her to leave them for a while. He would find out what was wrong. He watched as she took a long time assessing whether she thought this was right and almost sighed with relief when she agreed to go.

The moment she left the room, Alec's body relaxed even further. Joshua took his chin in his hands and spoke quietly, soothingly to the confused transgenic.

"Why is Alec so messed up?"

Seeming to lift out of his daze Alec looked straight into the canine-trans humans eyes and spoke with certainty.

"I saw the killer."

He looked away for a moment as he remembered the nightmare. Looking back he granted Josh's request for the reason he was a basket-case.

"It was me."