A/N: An asterisk () denotes an Author's Note of explanation at the bottom.
The Light at the End of the Tunnel
Sequel to A Light in the Dark
Chapter 4: Welcome Back?
In the headquarters of Terminal City stood Alec, Max, Mole, Joshua, Dix, and Jake, all eyes focused on the computer in front of them. Alec and Max had come to Dix as soon as they had gotten up that morning, to tell him about the bug and their black mystery van.
"This is computer feed from the camera close to your building," explained Dix. Turning to Joshua, he said, "How long ago did you hear the device?"
The dog-man shook his head. "Last night was first time. Heard small high noises before, but thought it was...how medium fella say? Max telling Alec 'good job.'" Mole laughed openly, unconsciously moving farther away from the now infuriated brunette. Dix, as impossible as it may seem, turned bright red.
"Dammit Alec!" Max exclaimed, punching Alec on the shoulder.
"What?" Alec's voice was serious, but his eyes were glinting with bottled laughter.
Max glared at Alec, then at Mole who was still laughing around his always present cigar.
"You guys are better than tv, honestly," Mole said to the couple. "Just as entertaining, but free. Someone remind me to bring popcorn next time."
"You bring popcorn and you'll be wearing it," Max warned.
"Well," Dix interjected loudly. "Back to the question at hand...let's see if we can't go back a week and time lapse the footage. Maybe we'll get lucky. His fingers clicked away rapidly on the keyboard of the computer and the footage started to speed up.
"Hey look at that," Max said, pointing to the screen. "It's our mystery van."
"Any way to enhance it so we can see who's driving?" Alec asked.
"No, footage is too dark and grainy. Angle's all wrong, too," Dix replied absently. "But look there, someone's getting out. That I can enhance."
Once the picture was as clear as it was going to get, Dix asked, "Anyone recognize him?"
"No, I don't know him," Max replied, disappointed. She turned to Alec in hope.
"Neither do I," he said, shaking his head. No one else knew the mystery man either.
"Well, let me...What the hell!" Dix exclaimed as several gunshots rang out somewhere in the city.
He quickly pulled up the feed from several cameras and saw a man running out from behind the mess hall. The man was holding his arm, a dark stain rapidly appearing beneath his hand.
"He's coming straight for HQ. Must be a transgenic."
"Or a bad dream," Alec muttered as he recognized the trademark scruffy face and spiked hair of the man on the screen.
Max looked at him questioningly and then looked back at the screen.
"Well shit. They missed." Mole had recognized the injured man as well, apparently.
"Guess we should go get him." Max was already heading out the door as she spoke.
"Yeah, time to save his ass again," Alec commented, his hands unconsciously balling into fists at his sides. 'Talk about bad timing,' he thought.
After the couple was out the door, Jake, Joshua, and Dix all turned their gazes to Mole. He was frowning harder that was even usual for him. There were very few people who could elicit this kind of a response from the lizard-man. And only one that would make Alec so angry by just showing up. They needed confirmation anyways, and Dix was the one who asked.
"Who is it?"
"The one and only Eyes Only."
Max and Alec crept carefully towards the area in which Logan had last been seen. Neither knew what to expect, but obviously whatever it was wasn't friendly. Alec smirked at the thought. 'Or, maybe they are friendly. After all, they shot him didn't they?'
As they rounded the corner of a building, they saw him, sitting on the ground with his back against a wall. Max brought her hand up by her head, two fingers extended, and motioned in Logan's direction. She was falling back on her Manticore training without even realizing it.
"Ooh, I love it when you go all in charge commandery," Alec whispered before he followed her directions. This elicited a small smile and a shake of the head from her before she followed behind him.
"Thank God you guys came!" Logan said, a little loudly. Max and Alec glared at him.
"Well all the sneak and creep we did was just wasted," Alec spat, grabbing one of Logan's shoulders after glaring at him.
"Sorry," Logan whispered. He hadn't truthfully thought of being quiet. Why should he? 'I just hope this gunshot is convincing enough. It sure hurts convincingly enough,' he thought.
Max wordlessly grabbed his other shoulder and the man cried out in pain. She adjusted her grip, but didn't utter a word in apology. In fact, not one of the three spoke until they had reached headquarters.
'Oh, I'm so glad the virus is cured. Now she can physically injure me personally,' Logan thought bitterly as he was roughly placed into a seat in headquarters by Max.
"So I have a few questions for you now," Alec asked. His tone was light, but his face was stone cold. He was going to treat this like an interrogation, Manticore style, until he was convinced he had a reason not to.
Logan nodded, but asked, "Can I get this looked at first?" He gestured to his shoulder, which was now bleeding profusely.
"During," Max said shortly. "Lena, go get one of the med-techs," she directed to a slender blonde. Lena nodded and quickly went to comply. Even after all this time, Max could tell she'd had to fight the urge to salute.
There was a long pause, each of the three staring at one another. Max stole side-long glances at Alec, who always smiled reassuringly before turning to glare at Logan. Alec was the first to break the silence.
"So...let's start with how you managed to get shot in the middle of my city."
Logan quickly recapped what he'd rehearsed before he spoke. "I was coming to warn Max...to warn you both. I heard about the attempt on Jake's life, I wanted to help. So I got a hold of some camera footage and discovered something...disconcerting."
Max rolled her eyes almost imperceptibly. 'Was he always this high and mighty? Who the hell uses 'disconcerting' in normal conversation?' she thought.
"And what exactly did you find that was so...disconcerting?" Alec asked, barely able to hide his amusement. Max wasn't so lucky. She stifled a laugh with a cough. Alec smiled.
"I know this is very hard to believe, I mean he's supposed to be dead. But...Ames White was there. He's the one that made the shot. And he was aiming for Alec, not Jake," Logan finished, extremely pleased with himself. Max couldn't help it. She dissolved into laughter, laughing so hard she thought she would fall over.
"I don't see anything funny about this, Max," Logan stated indignantly. "You need to get serious. White is alive and tried to kill Alec." Now Alec was laughing too. "What's so damned funny?"
"It's just...we...already...oh man this is too good. You got...yourself shot for...nothing," Mole managed to squeeze out between laughs.
"What do you mean?" Logan glared at the lizard-man confusedly. It was no secret there was extreme animosity between the two of them. 'They're laughing at me!' he thought angrily.
Max cleared her throat and tried to gain her composure. "We already knew all of this. We got the same footage the same day it happened. We've known all along."
"And me getting shot is funny why?" he bristled.
"Well, Logan, you getting injured in any way is just all around funny to begin with. But you managed to make an ass out of yourself while doing it...and damn...that's so much better," Mole explained, big smile cracking around his cigar.
"Mole, behave," teased Joshua. He didn't really much care for Logan either. He'd hurt Max too often.
"So what you're telling me, is that I risked my life to give you information to help you, I got shot, and because you already knew and didn't have the common decency to tell me, you laugh at me?"
All the transgenics in the room turned to each other, sharing knowing glances. "Yeah, that pretty much sums it up," Alec stated.
"Yup," Mole said.
Even Max nodded. "Why would we tell you this? You haven't been in contact with us for about...4 years is it now? Why would we suddenly call you in on this? You left."
"Why would you...? Max, you guys need me!" Logan couldn't believe his ears. This was not going according to plan.
"Need you? We haven't ever needed you. We didn't when you were here, and we haven't since you've been gone. I'm sorry you got hurt trying to help us, but we don't need you now either."
Alec was in shock. In all the years he'd known Max, never had she spoken to Logan like that. Granted, Logan hadn't been around for most of the years that he'd known Max, but still. 'This is great,' he thought, grinning.
"Okay, alright. That's enough. Back on topic; who shot you, Logan?" As much as he loved seeing Logan sputter, unable to come up with anything condescending to say, Alec needed to know what had happened.
"Familiars. White's men. They were following me, because I found something else. Something I'm almost certain you don't know...couldn't know." Didn't need him? He'd show them. They'd be begging for his help.
"What do you know?" Max asked commandingly.
Logan faltered. He'd never heard her so demanding before. She'd obviously grown as a leader since the siege. "I...I found an abandoned warehouse in Yakima. White has a set-up there. The Familiars are planning something. Something big. Again. Only this time I don't think they expect a comet to do it for them."
This raised a few eyebrows. Max turned to Alec who was already staring at her. "Do you think we should...?" she began.
"Already done," Alec replied. He used the Manticore hand signals to tell Jake to assemble two units to keep watch around headquarters and two more to do recon around the area Logan was seen. He even gave orders for a team to be placed around their apartment building.
Max smiled at the last order. There was no need for that, and Jake knew it. She'd given that order the minute they'd gotten home from the botched press conference. Only she'd made it for two teams.
Turning quickly back to Logan, Max decided that it was her turn to do some interrogating. "Okay, I wanna know the when, where, how, and why. I would also appreciate hearing you explain why, if you wanted to help, you came here knowing that Familiars were following you." Max settled into a chair across from him. Noticing that Lena had come back with two med-techs, she motioned for them to come over and attend to Logans wound.
He cried out as a dark haired transgenic pulled off his jacket none to gently. 'Oh man, this is gonna be a long day,' Max thought, dropping her head into her hands as she listened to the shouts of pain coming from the man in front of her. She didn't notice the open look of glee that the love of her life wore as he watched Logan wriggle and whine under the med-techs ministrations. But as content as he was in this moment, Alec couldn't shake the feeling that something was wrong. Terribly wrong.
To be continued...
A/N 1: The virus was cured through events described in the official Dark Angel book Skin Games by Max Collins, and explained in the book After the Dark. I guess for any of you who didn't read the books, all you really need to know is that the virus is no more. Not that it makes any difference in my world.
A/N 2: Yakima is a city in Washington...my geography is horrible, but I guess I just wanted you guys to know that it's still in Washington...not in another state...
A/N 3: "The Familiars are planning something. Something big. Again. Only this time I don't think they expect a comet to do it for them." In the book, After the Dark in reference to "The Coming." The Familiars believed that a comet that was going to pass close to Earth held a virus that would wipe out all humans. They're belief was proven wrong, however, when the comet passed by and not a damn thing happened.
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