Disclaimer: I got about five cents to my name and two of them went into this story so if you'd like three cents go ahead and sue. You won't get anything because I don't own anything. .

Paring: M/A

Summary: Max returns to Seattle to find that she's not the only one who's changed.

A/N: Sorry it took so long to update but you know how school is.

Revised Borrowed Time,

Chapter 12,

Home Coming:

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"Don't worry Ray honey, that town is far behind us now and we're never gonna go back." And as she said it she knew that it was true. That no one would ever go back she had made sure of that. In anger she had tracked down the men and women Rosy had mentioned in her story and skillfully the feral X5 executed each one of them teaching the town hopefully not to judge to quickly who was one of them. They had after all accepted max and Ra without question. But Biggs… at least she could tell Alec when she got back to Seattle that his best friend's death had been avenged. She wasn't proud of what she had done, she never was of killing, but sometimes there was a need to release the monster inside of her, greater then the need to control it and be normal.

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Days morphed into weeks as Ray and Max made their way across the devastated country. Little by little the X5 changed her appearance even more rendering herself unrecognizable by the time the first buildings of Seattle came into view. She had dyed her already super short hair a reddish brown. Her clothing became ones totally unlike her own and she got Ray into the habit of calling her aunt. It would make it easier, once in TC, to start over and create a new life.

A new life… Max liked that thought. Being able to start over in a utopia of her own, one in which her people were accepted, one in which food and water came easily but as she well knew utopia meant no place and no place was where they belonged.

With a sigh the petite X5 looked up at the checkpoint as it slowly approached. "Now Ray what are you gonna say when we get up there?" Max asked her eyes not without worry in them.

" That I'm coming to live with my aunt because my mommy died."

"Very good sweetie." Max smiled half heartily running her fingers through the child's hair.

As Max's borrowed car rolled forward and stopped at the sector gate she rolled down her dingy driver's side window. She did her normal bit saying she was a Jam Pony messenger, flashing her pass and getting ready to go on. To her surprise though the sector police detained her.

"How long have you been out of town? What we're you delivering?" The questions poured down upon her and Ray as they sat there holding up traffic into the city.

"I've been gone six months." Max answered truthfully. " I was sent out to do a special delivery for the boss, something for a good friend of his or what ever, and as I was heading back I got word that my sister died. Is there a problem though officer?" Blinking innocently up at the uniformed man she hoped that they believed her story… they had to other wise she didn't know what she'd do. Getting herself out was no problem but with Ray.

"So you didn't hear about the Jam Pony incident did you?"

Max shook her head genuinely surprised. "No, what happened? Am I out of a job now mister?" Max asked faking hysteria.

"Naw, don't worry your self little lady. There was a hostage situation there a few months back involving the transgenics. I'm sure you'll hear all about it when you get back to work. There up and running again you know."

"Thank you." Max replied and the man waved her on through. Extremely confused Max drove away from the checkpoint to her old stomping grounds.

"What was that all about?" Ray asked from the seat besides her.

" I don't know baby but I intend to find out."

Meekly the little boy nodded and looked out the car window once more. It had been a long time since either of them had been back there. If it was possible the city looked dirtier then it had been al those months ago. More homeless seemed to line the streets and the outfits even on the working seemed old more ragged and tattered then ever before.

In a bar not to far from the first sector point into the city Max learned about the Jam Pony accident. Its occurrence chilled her to the core. Three transgenics, two of them monstrous creatures, had held the employees hostage along with a pregnant women and a little boy. The police later found out that the woman and the boy had been transgenics too and that during the hostage situation the woman had given birth to a healthy baby girl. The owner of Jam pony, the bar keep said, supported the freaks now and his business had been sagging ever since.

A little flame of hope was kindled inside of the X5 as she heard of Normals change of heart. If he could change maybe there was hope for her kind yet.

Max and Ray passed a couple of days in a motel close to TC just so that she could check out the situation. With each new day it seemed more and more impossible to get in… the fence surrounded as it was. In the end Max decided that she'd have to make contact… that she'd have to hope that OC still kept in touch with Alec and that her presence in her best friend's life wouldn't cause her harm.

And so that's how Ray found himself in a strange apartment the next day with a slender black woman starring at his aunt like she had said something shocking.

"You know Max?" OC asked as the shock washed out of her face.

"Yea." Max answered giving Ray a stern look. "She told me that you knew a safe place for transgenics to go."

"Where did you see her? Is she ok?" Calmly, almost like a robot Max answered her friend's questions, a pain in her heart growing all the while. It hurt her to lie once again to her friend but at least she knew that her disguise worked. Ray's presence also helped through OC off. In the end she invited the duo to stay the night saying that she's have safe passage for them soon. With a forced smile Max thanked her telling OC that her name was Cherry and that her charge was Ray. Ray didn't even blink at Max's use of a different name. Each town they had entered she had assumed a different identity usually he got a new one too. At least this time he got to keep his name he thought as OC lead them to Max's old room.

In the morning the child felt that there lives would be different once again. Sleepily he crawled into the bed and Max gently tucked the sheets around him before sitting down on the sagging matrices besides him. Taking her head into her hands the strong X5 silently grieved for all that she had left behind and all that she had come back to. It hurt her to know that some of her friends had died while she was gone. That her whole world had gone on without her… and the problem was that taking herself out of it hadn't solved anything like she thought it would have.

Maybe there was no such thing as happily ever after after all she thought as Ray drifted off to sleep. In the morning or later that night she'd have to face Alec, deep with in her heart she knew it. All that she could hope though was that he to wouldn't be able to see through her. The sky grew dark and the sounds of Seattle flowed over Max and her little liability and as it did Max had a sudden urge to go somewhere that she hadn't been in over six months. As the impulse grew stronger she weighted leaving the sleeping boy in her friend's care and in the end decided that it would be ok. It was only a short trip to the space needle after all.

A/N: Reviews are welcome and ty for reading.