Title: ...Happily Ever After
Author's name: Roxy
Beta Reader: Rose
Category: Action, Humor and Romance. (M/L)
Rating: PG 13
Disclaimer: This story is based on characters and situations created by James Cameron and Charles H. Eglee. I don't own Dark Angel, though Noah and Lou do belong to me. I am making no money out of this. Summary: This is my hit at a 3rd season. Max and the others are trapped in TC, surrounded by White's men. A new little sister comes along. Deck reappears (isn't he just our favorite bad guy?). X5s reunion. More Familiars and how to deal with them.
Previous Chapter: Lou gets to meet Ames White as herself, Max and Logan get a close call at Logan's hospital. Eyes Only is now safe and sound (and healthy, except for the virus!!) in the facility with all the others.
Feedback: So this chapter took a lot longer to update than I first thought it would... blame it on the gods of computer crash. Chapter five has been sent already. I'll try and update once a month at least. On the whole, I can say that I don't have that many readers but at least those I have are faithful, thanks guys, it helps a lot.
M/L Only: A bit of everyone in this chapter... I love it when there are plenty of X5s. You like the developments? Well in the next chapter, things are going to get slightly more complicated and twisted... I'm also throwing in this chapter clues concerning pairings... I shall say no more lol!
Tabitha5: Thanks for the compliment about my characterization. It's hard when you have a lot of characters to all make them look real... but I've been portraying Zack for a while so I got a very clear image of how I see him. Lou? I hate her but she's just so much fun to write lol! And Alec... well your wishes might come true... once again, I shall say no more...
BlackRose: Glad you liked the previous chapter, hope you'll enjoy this one as well... The coming chapter, chapter 5 that is, is one of my favorite I think ;-) but you're gonna have to wait a bit to give me your advice on that.
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...Happily Ever After
Chapter IV: So Many Questions...She hoped they were all right, she really did. When she and Zane had heard about the air raids taking place in Terminal City, they had been on their way there. They were thinking that maybe they could be used as external help but they had been too late to be of any help.
Jondy had hooked up with Zane a little after Noah and she had left Santa Fe. She and Zane had both been really worried back then because Zack had stopped checking in on them, which was most unlike him.
They knew something had gone wrong; they just had no idea how many things had gone wrong. Zane and Noah were the only X5s Jondy had been in contact with, beside Zack-but that didn't really count as contact-since the escape.
Noah had found Jondy and Jondy had come across Zane by pure chance when they both had been living in LA a few years back. Gifted burglars tend to meet each other in the restricted circle of luxury crime.
They had both come to Seattle a few weeks ago and while wondering around Terminal City they had made the most unexpected discovery yet... Brin.
It wasn't old Brin but then again neither was it Manticore. She was jumpy, suspicious and seemed traumatized. She was physically in perfect health, but mentally, there was no saying what Manticore had done to her and what it had cost her to find her way back to herself.
Still, that made three of them now and Jondy thought that it could only be a good thing in their search for the others. Yesterday morning, she had picked up a daily paper which headlines read: 'Transgenics: still a threat'
There were rumors that the teams sent by the government hadn't found any bodies in TC and that transgenics had all escaped via sewers. Jondy knew better than to just believe rumors, but what she needed right now was something that could keep her hoping... even though hope was for losers, it was all she, Zane and Brin had left right now.
A man had established contact with them two days ago via some scumbag paid to deliver letters to them. The three of them lived in a small squat and it was surprising that somebody had found out where they were hiding out!
So they had changed squat of course, but the same scumbag had turned up with another letter yet; no escape possible... but a single question remained: who was that guy? They didn't think they had ever met the mysterious man but he seemed to know them pretty well. He knew a lot about the 09s.
He wrote that he didn't mean them any harm, that he had helped Max and the others out of TC and that he could lead them to the others. Jondy even thought that it could Lydecker? The letters were written in a way that made the reader want to trust their author.
But Jondy, Zane and Brin knew that friends didn't fall out of the sky like that and that they had more enemies than actual allies. Still, if the guy had wanted to do them any harm, wouldn't he have done so already? Unless of course, he thought that three X5s were too much for him. In his last letter, he had given them a place to meet him at night.
Jondy knew this was a bad idea, you shouldn't accept to meet strange people you know nothing about, especially when they know a lot about you. You should run away, that's what a real soldier would do.
But Jondy and the others had run most of their short lives and Jondy was getting tired of it. It was time to face her old demon: Lydecker and if he could lead them to the others, so much the better.
Jondy didn't really know what to think but she had come to the conclusion that she was willing to try anything in her attempt to find the others and she had decided to go and meet Lydecker - if it was him. Zane didn't approve her decision but he wasn't going to let her go alone and Brin... well, Brin always tagged along... like the zombie she had become.
So, there they were in a dark empty alley and Jondy was starting to wonder whether this had really been a good idea.
-------------------
Life in New Manticore didn't exactly rhyme with no chores and hotel life.
That seemed to be fine with some transgenics that were only too glad to have a roof over their heads, three meals a day and clean clothes. Others felt outraged having to wake up early in the morning to go to training and follow orders.
The latter not only included 'posh X5' but also all the 09ers minus Zack. While most transgenics had been out of Manticore for less than a year, the 09ers had been free for eleven years! That's a long enough time to make your little habits and start to get comfy in your life.
Trainings were certainly less tyrannical than they used to be but still no matter how much a soldier you were designed to be, you could hardly appreciate it when you've taken it on being lazy for over eleven years... well, that is, unless your designation is X5 599.
Zack had finished working out calendars and he, Lydecker and other X5s were taking in turns to supervise the Nomalies, X6, X7 and X8 trainings.
You never know when you'll come across Ames White and his Familiars and you want to be ready when you do. Lou, Logan and Max had found that out the previous week.
Logan was having a hard time. He was used to hanging around with transhumans now; surprisingly he was finding it harder to be with X series. You see when you think you have X5 471, Krit in front of you when you truly are talking to X5 472, Devon, things tend to get a little confusing.
Hopefully, X5 453, Sam wasn't around so that made only one untouchable girlfriend for him which was already nearly enough!
Lou had no clone either; not in the facility, not on the face of the earth. Lydecker said they hadn't cloned her for some reason. He didn't give Logan any details but Logan had come to the conclusion that Manticore scientists had identified the 'snooty' gene and decided to ban it from other specimens. That theory was fine by him!
-------------------
Piece of cake, Noah thought as she blurred between the trees.
It was nearly noon on a summer's day, X5s were training in the woods outside the facility and that just made training so much more enjoyable! The facility being located in the Mountains boarding the State of California, the weather was much warmer in this southern part (still located more at South than Seattle, anyway) of the country and Noah wasn't going to be the one to complain about it.
Today, she and Lou were the targets and the rest of the X5s were the predators. She and Lou weren't suppose to help each other, in fact, they couldn't because they had started off in opposite directions.
X5s usually chased X7s, being the fastest creatures in the facility but the latter series were in pool training and Noah wished luck to Mole and Joshua in supervising them. Try and put a bat into water!
Sweat was sticking her curls to her neck and face but she was enjoying herself, her legs could still go on for hours. She heard a noise behind her, a branch cracking and knew that she was being followed.
Now, now, who could that be?
She turned her head around while still blurring but didn't see anything. She was hit off her feet by a punch coming from her left.
Now, we're talking, this is getting interesting. Krit was standing in front of her, out of breath and just as sweaty as she was. However, it wasn't Krit, her brother, it was X5 471, the soldier.
"Well, well lookie here" Noah scoffed coldly, putting on her emotionless face.
"You're done X5 344" Krit barked his soldier face on as well "You know what betrayed you soldier?"
"What?" Noah said defiantly and getting up.
"Your coconut shower gel" he spit out coolly "Who's supplying you anyway?" he barked out.
"I have my ways" Noah shrugged.
"Betcha going out with the CO helps. I hate corruption!"
"Then, you're gonna have to do better then just tracking" she said putting herself in a fighting stance.
"I sure intend to" Krit said doing the same.
They circled each other for a few seconds, fists raised, never letting their guard down, never letting a smile twitch the corners of their lips though what they felt most like doing was burst into laughs at this whole soldier act. Krit was about to attack when-
"Calling All Units. Return to base" Lydecker's voice resounded through their individual transmitters "I repeat: all units return to HQ"
"Oh come on Deck, we're just starting to have fun" Noah complained in her transmitter, stumping her foot in the earth in a very Lou kind of way.
"This is no time for fun Noah, get your asses back here. We've gotta a situation"
Noah frowned and Krit said:
"Well, he seems as bright as a sunbeam"
"A sunbeam?" Noah scoffed at her brother's talking.
"It's an expression..." Krit stammered uneasy "I... I took it from Syl"
"Whatever" Noah smirked "Let's get back soldier boy. I'll race you" she winked him.
She disappeared into the trees, leaving her brother alone with an incredulous expression.
-------------------God she hated being back to all this! Being back to training! It reminded her of when she had been a kid...
What had they been thinking placing her in an X5 unit when some of them were 4 years older then her? She could barely talk and yet she was expected to accomplish the same prowess as the others.
Lou had been the second target of this morning's training and she had been caught... by Alec. He had popped out of nowhere and in two seconds flat, she had ended on the ground and him on top. She didn't remember Ben being so fast! Nor as strong for that matter! What was up with him, did he share gene's with Noah and Zack or what?!
Lou had left the training field after what she considered her lame failure and hadn't heard Lydecker's call. Lou knew, as she was now lying alone in her room, that some X5s had come after her because they had been too lazy to go after Noah.
Noah was the fastest and that was no secret; she had always been. She could probably win a race against an X7!
Lou hated it now just like she had hated it then! She was never as fast as Noah, nor as strong as Zack, nor as brilliant as Tinga, nor as good a contortionist as Brin, nor had as much endurance as Krit. She was just the youngest but that didn't make her special at all.
God, she hated Lydecker more than the others did for making her go through this when he just should've placed her in an X6 unit with kids her own age. Instead he had chosen to make her feel low and expendable when she truly wasn't.
He had made her feel like she wasn't good enough and having low self esteem had never helped anyone in life now had it? Awkward feeling to be experiencing especially when you're as high up the food chain as Lou was, genetically speaking.
Lou remembered Lydecker using the same technique on Jack except that he really considered Jack as expendable.
Lou closed her eyes to stop the tears forming behind her eyes. She tried not to think about Jack but her mind kept throwing flashes of him at her. He looked so tall to her; they all did back when she was five. They were all better, all special.
She hated Lydecker and she hated herself. It was all her fault, she just wasn't good enough! She was the one to blame for all this, it was her idea. She had led them here, in this dark and stinking rat hole! She hated it, she hated herself! She just couldn't bare the fact that Zane and Brin were going to pay for her mistakes! She was the one that had led them to White!
Wow! To White?
Lou hadn't led anyone to White. What the hell was going on?
She had started thinking about Jack and then it had all gotten so intense. Zane and Brin? She hadn't seen them since the escape. Why was she thinking about them now? Had she done something to jeopardize their safety? How could she? She didn't even know where they were.
But maybe somebody else does, Lou told herself. It was possible that while thinking about her sibs, she had sort of gotten her feelings mixed with one of them. Now the ten thousand dollar question was: who?
-------------------"Max!" Lou said bursting in Lydecker's office, "We gotta situation! I think Jondy, Brin and Zane are in trouble and-" Lou stopped dead as she noticed how crowded Lydecker's office was.
Logan and Zack were there, as well as Noah, Alec, Syl and Krit.
"We know" Max drawled.
"Oh... and you're all playing let's-not-move-and-let-our-sibs-die because..." Lou asked recovering her normal cocky mood.
"White has them and he wants to make a trade" Lydecker said.
"Really?" Lou said faking an interest, "Did he post you a date reminder? Or was it on the note slipped in the flowers he sent you?" she added annoyed because nobody felt like explaining.
"He did send a message" Lydekcer said.
Lou waved her hands dismissively to her sides, signaling that she was waiting for a more detailed explanation. What was up with them? Was their mind frozen or what?
"To make it short, let's just say that the privilege of cable hacking is not reserved to Eyes Only" Logan said.
"Oh" Lou nodded, "And what does White want?"
"Max"
"Oh" Lou paused, "That might come as a bit of a problem"
"How did he get to them anyway?" Krit asked.
"We'll ask them when we get them back" Zack said firmly.
"Ok... A plan seems like a good start. Any ... um... suggestions?" Lou said trying to stimulate brain work.
"Yeah" Max said.
They all looked up at her, dreading though perfectly knowing what she was about to say.
"We're making the trade" she said firmly.
"OK... Any other suggestions?" Lou asked hopefully.
"That's out of the question" Logan responded to Max.
"That's not for you to decide" Max replied.
"Cut it out!" Noah nearly screamed, "We're not sacrificing anybody anymore!"
An awkward silence filled the room. They couldn't sacrifice Max, not only because she was their sister but also because, from the little Logan had managed to translate from the runes on her body, she was the only one that could stop the Familiars.
Max knew that but she didn't regard it as a problem. She looked up at Lou and said calmly:
"Maybe that's why there are two of us... One's for back up"
Lou lost her cocky annoyed expression and she looked absolutely horrified at what her sister had just suggested.
-------------------
"452's gotta be quaking in her combat boots this very minute" Ames White snickered.
The meeting point was JC Bridge, 7 o'clock. He checked his watch and it said quarter to seven. His men were posted on the west side of the bridge, coming from Seattle.
"Uh... Sir?" Otto muttered from behind him.
"Yes Otto?" White said patiently lowering his binoculars.
"We're supposed to put an end to the transgenic threat, right? Then why aren't we kil- getting rid of the three we already have. I mean one against three. It just doesn't seem like we're winning Sir"
"In the long run, we are Otto" White said, "452 is at the head of the transgenics cause and if we take her, they'll be like a body without a head" he grimly smiled.
Otto nodded in agreement and White went back to scrutinizing the horizon with his binoculars. A black car was approaching; it parked on the east side of the river.
Logan was first to step out of the car, followed by Lydecker, then Lou and Max. All four of them stood on the east side of the bridge, eyeing White's armed men on the west side. White had obviously decided to go back to massive and expensive deployments.
"Nice to see you Mr. Cale" White spoke through his megaphone, "I believe I missed you last time"
"Sir? What are you talking about?" Otto whispered uneasily.
White plainly ignored him and went on:
"And Colonel Lydecker. Looks like we missed you too"
Otto wisely decided to let this one slip. It wasn't the first time his boss spoke of things that he had no idea.
"How do we know you're not going to shoot us once you've got Max?" Lydecker yelled so that his voice carried out to the other side of the bridge.
"You have my word" White said with a grim smile that made Lydecker think that his word was not worth more than Joshua's excrements.
"Boy do we feel so much safer now" Lou muttered to herself.
"Enough talking. Let's proceed. I haven't got all day" White said impatiently.
"Yeah, yeah, we know: lots of people to track down and kill yadda yadda" Lou whispered once more.
White waved at his men. And out of three different cars, handcuffed and surrounded by four agents each, came Jondy, Zane and Brin. However, only three agents led them to the middle of the bridge.
Lou led Max and there, at exactly 8 o'clock, the trade was made: one for three.
-------------------
The three captive X5s now handcuffsfree were proceeding to reach the east side of the bridge with Lou. Max was facing one of White's agents, her fists held straight in front of her so that he could handcuff her.
But before he could do so, she raised both her fists directly at his face and broke his nose. He groaned in protest and before the two other agents on either side of him could draw out their tasers, Max had punched one with her left fist and kicked the other with her right leg.
White's men on the west side, started shooting and Max used the three agents in front of her as human shields before jumping in the river.
However, Lou and the three other X5s hadn't reached the east side yet and the shooting did nothing to accelerate their progress.
In fact, things were looking rather bad for them. Logan and Lydecker placed themselves behind their car, drew out their guns and also started shooting. But bullets were also coming from behind them. Zack, Noah, Alec, Syl and Krit had arrived in a second car and had taken it upon themselves to start shooting at White's men to allow Lou and the three hostages to get back.
That was basically the plan they had come up with in Lydecker's office. And the plan wasn't really working. In fact, Lou thought, the plan sucked.
"Lou's not gonna make it" Noah yelled over the noise made by the firing guns.
Lou was having a hard time avoiding bullets. She was having a hard time because not only was she taking care of herself, she was also looking out for the other three.
It didn't look like White had invited her siblings to stay in his 5 star hotel room. Zane was limping, Jondy was holding her arm at a funny angle and blood kept coming out of Brin's arcade, blinding her.
Lou pushed Brin as a bullet was coming right at her but when she turned around she realized that another one had been aimed at her. It was too close to even try anything. Lou wondered if Noah would've been able to avoid it... maybe.
The weirdest thing happened just then. She felt herself lifted up in the air and next thing she knew, she was in the icy cold waters of the Columbia River.
-------------------
Zack and Noah were still shooting like mad. There weren't that many agents left. Most of them were either dead or falling back. White looked as pissed off as ever.
Zane, Brin and Jondy are going to make it, Noah told herself. But that was without counting White's anger in the whole equation.
White wasn't human, he was better and his vision was just as good as the Xs'. So far, he had spent his energy yelling strategic orders to his men but that was enough! He drew out his gun and pressed the trigger twice. And both times he touched his target.
Seconds later, on the other side of the bridge, Lydecker dropped his gun and Logan had to support him for him not to fall on to the ground.
"Brin!" Noah yelled.
She had almost reached the other side when she collapsed. Brin was on the ground and Jondy was making every effort possible to lift her up with one arm and drag her behind the car.
"Get the wounded in the second car and get all them back to the facility" Zack yelled, "Hurry! Alec ate a bullet too!"
-------------------
Lou was being dragged away by the current. At first, the cold had cut her breath, not that she would've been breathing under water, but the cold had also slowed down her reactions.
She first let herself sink to the bottom till she opened her eyes and saw Alec surrounded by a pool of red. It was blood! She swam to him and helped him reach the surface.
"You're hurt!" she said after gasping for air.
"Thank you, really I hadn't noticed!" Alec said sarcastically.
"Will you just shut up?! We gotta reach the shore"
Thankfully, she didn't feel his weight in the water but Lou knew that once on earth, that would come as a problem if the others didn't find them fast.
The bullet had hit Alec in the arm. Lou was slowly progressing, swimming with one arm and holding him up with the other.
When they reached solid rock, Lou got up but Alec remained on his knees.
"Is it bad?" she asked him.
"Well, the bullet's still in and it's bleeding like mad. But I supposed it could've been worse: you would've taken it right in the chest" he said trying to keep his humor so as to not to make her worry.
This reminded Lou of the last thoughts she had had before he had pushed her in the river: she wasn't good enough, she hadn't been fast enough!
"Wow, I guess you can be proud of yourself for saving the poor little defenseless kid!"
Well, at least, she's not worried about me, Alec told himself and prided himself in being a born liar.
Lou turned her back on him and started walking away, her feet stamping the ground at every step.
She was tired, she was wet from head to toe, her clothes were sticking to her body, not that they hadn't been when dry, but it just wasn't the same! All she wanted to do was; go home, take a warm shower and put on clean, dry clothes and eat. She was hungry but not hungry for the horrible food they fed her at the facility. She wondered if she still had enough cookies, those nice ones that Mum-
"Hey Lou!" Alec called after her, jolting her out of her thoughts.
"What?" she said angrily turning around; her long dark curls in her face.
He tried standing up but his legs didn't seem to feel like supporting his weight and he immediately fell back on his knees.
"While doing your spoiled brat one woman show, could you help me back to the car? I did save your life" he reminded her.
Lou rolled her eyes, walked back to him and yanked him back to his feet, putting in it a little more strength then required.
She slipped one arm around his waist while the other was firmly holding Alec's valid arm around her neck.
"Be careful, will you? I'm kinda fragile you know, because of that hole in my arm. So don't press too hard" he faked as he knew it would annoy her.
"I am not pressing at all! You are such a baby! Why don't you shut up and help me out a bit?"
"No thank you. I believe I've done my share. You know, doing my good action of the day and taking a bullet" he smirked.
This is too easy!
"Will you cut it out?" she nearly yelled.
She let go of him out of anger and the little balance Alec had acquired let go of him as well. He fell but she caught him before his knees hit the ground, putting her hands on both his shoulders. He winced at the pain spreading in his arm as she did so.
But then, he stopped all whining and she stopped all complaining. They just stared at each other, surprised as they realized the closeness of their bodies. Feeling both uneasy and yet not daring to move apart, both of them considering the other as something else than a pain in the ass for the very first time. Would 'Posh X5' have found her match in 'Goody sociopath X5'? Lou had never noticed that Alec's eyes held green, she had never really looked at them in fact and they also were-
"What have you two been up to? I could hear you yelling from where I was" Max popped out of nowhere.
Her dark hair formed long rattails, her shirt was a shade darker than it had been when Lou had last seen her and it was also stickier: Max was soaked from head to toe as well.
Caught by surprise, Lou immediately let go off Alec and he hit the ground with his back. He groaned for an instant but Max helped him back up.
"What are you two doing anyway?" Max asked them.
"Um.. we... um... he... can't keep his balance"
"Yeah... that's right, the balance. Having a hard time because of the bullet" he pointed at his arm.
"Yeah I saw that, but that wasn't the plan. You guys aren't supposed to be here. I was the only one suppose to be freezing my ass out here!"
Lou and Alec both looked at each other, finally understanding Max's previous question about what the two of them were doing here.
"Never mind" Max said, "We need to find the others"
As an answer to Max's request, a black car with tainted windows arrived.
"Wow, let me try! We need Lydecker to stop being such a killer joy" Lou paused before adding "and eventually two billion dollars"
Max smirked: this is all over, she thought. Zack was driving and Lydecker was in the passenger's side.
"Get in! We can't stay here!" Lydecker hurried them.
"So much for my wish" Lou sighed, "Maybe it only works with you, maybe you- "
Lou interrupted herself as Max opened the back door and what the two of them saw struck them like lightning.
"Hurry! Get in! We gotta get her back to the facility" Noah said.
Her caramel cheeks were covered in red and so were her clothes; a thick viscous kind of red that even stained the backseats' black leather. Brin was lying, her head on Noah's laps.
Alec immediately hopped in the trunk dragging Lou with him while Noah and Brin squeezed with Max on the back seats. Zack immediately started the car.
"What happened?" Lou asked her voice unrecognizable under the emotion.
"White! He shot her in the back, the bastard!" Noah said fighting against tears.
One of her hand was pressed against Brin's back, vainly trying to stop the wound from bleeding. The other one meant to whip the tears form her face, only succeeded in painting her face in red.
"Lou?" a weak voice said.
It was Brin's. Noah had Brin's back and head; Max, her legs. Lou extended her neck from the trunk as much as she could to see her stranger of a sister.
"Brin?" she said shyly and hopefully.
"I just wanted to see you once"
Lou's lower lip trembled, she opened her mouth to say something but she felt overwhelmed by tears. Only later did she realize that she had been holding onto Alec's hand.
"Max?" Brin said finally.
They weren't strangers. They had a history, not a very happy one, but one nonetheless.
"I'm here Brin" Max said as if she wasn't sure her sister could see her though she was right in front of her.
Brin smiled weakly and tried to raise her hand to Max's face. Brin being too weak to do so, Max took her hand in hers and did it for her, washing her sister's bloodied hand with her silent tears.
"I'm sorry Max... for you and for Tinga" Brin said in a jerky voice.
"You don't have anything to be sorry about sis"
"You're always here to help me whether I'm willing or not" Brin said weakly.
"And I'm still going to be here" Max said firmly.
"But I won't" Brin paused for breath "Remember that time on the roof with Tinga?"
"Yeah you sure did beat my ass that time" Max's laugh sounded fake, maybe it was because of Lou's sobs in the back.
"Sure did" Brin smiled one last time.
Her hand loosely fell from Max's face and it never rose again. Tears were still wetting Brin's face but they no longer were hers. They were Noah's who was looking down upon her sister inanimate body, her face hidden behind her untamable curls, her hands on each side of Brin's head.
Zack braked when he realized it was over and it was too late. His vision was blinded by tears anyway. Lydecker remained silent but he too hadn't been ready to loose another one of his kids tonight.
-------------------This was one of those times when she missed the Space Needle. Had she had her crazy little life back, she would have climbed up there tonight, to sit on top of the world and to look back on her afternoon with distance and maybe stop telling herself over and over that it was her fault.
She recalled Lou telling Alec when they had gotten Brin out of the car, that he should've saved Brin instead of her because Brin had deserved it a lot more than she had. Well, Max couldn't help but feeling the same way.
Brin had deserved a chance at another life now that Manticore was gone. Jondy and Zane had come home safe and sound and Alec and Lydecker's respective arms would get over it... Brin would be the only one who wouldn't.
She wouldn't because of White, but worst of all, she wouldn't because of Max.
It was White's job to be the bad guy. It was sort of like he had a license to do evil. Max didn't. She should've saved Brin. She should've seen it coming and handed herself in without causing that much trouble.
A bridge, it was too dangerous. If White had picked that particular spot it was for a reason.
"I know what you're thinking and you're wrong" Logan walked up to her and sat down as close to her as the virus allowed him too, not really enjoying the view from the top of the facility as much as she did.
"I should've handed myself in and you know that" Max voice echoed in the night.
"Are you naïve enough to believe that White would've taken you and let us go without a fight?"
Max shrugged. No, White certainly wouldn't have.
"The only one to blame is Ames White"
"How come it doesn't feel right then?"
"Because you're putting too many responsibilities on yourself. You're not responsible of other people's actions Max"
"No but I'm responsible for all the transgenics"
"No you're not" Logan said, "You can't possibly be. Even your extraordinary capacities don't allow you to be that"
"Then what am I? What am I here for?"
"You're Max. Just Max."
"What is 'just Max'?" she said fighting the knot forming in her throat.
Logan seemed to consider that question for several seconds before answering:
"The woman I love"
Max then remembered that there were good things in this world and that when she felt that she didn't have a place in the world, she would just have to think about Logan and she would know that her place was wherever beside him was.
-------------------
Lydecker was pacing his office.
They had won and yet the facility felt as sad and sinister as if they had lost. Another one... He had lost yet another one... And he had been standing there, helpless, impotent and powerless and watched her die.
He stopped in front of his desk and engaged himself in a stare fight with the filled bottle of scotch that stood there, tempting him
He took an uneasy step closer to it, and yet another. He reached out his hand but it stopped in mid air and remained there for several seconds.
Suddenly, letting go of all that rage eating him up ever since he had stepped out of the car -- when anger had taken over sorrow and hurt --Lydecker's hand went back into motion. The filled bottle of scotch ended smashed against the wall, leaving a large yellowish trail from waist level to the floor shattered with pieces of glass.
That bottle represented everything he hated in this world and everything he hated within himself!
There were so many questions he couldn't answer.
How had White found Zane, Jondy and Brin when they looked like ordinaries?
Was it pure luck or was he able to find others as well?
Were they still safe here then?
What were the Familiars up to?
What could Max really do against the Familiars?
Was Lou really just a back up weapon against the Familiars if Max ever got injured or killed?
Those questions formed a mental circle and his mind seemed to be having the best of times throwing them over and over at him. And when, one by one he turned them down with answers such as 'I don't know', 'Maybe', 'I don't know', the questions always came back over and over again; his mind never letting him have a moment of peace.
Lydecker knew the only way to put his mind at ease was to get to Sandeman.
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End of Chapter IV
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