The Light at the End of the Tunnel
Previously in Chapter 7:
Alec launched himself at the man, his only thoughts were of Max. This man was responsible for taking something from her that she could never get back. He was responsible for the deaths of so many of Alec's family. He deserved to die, and Alec was hell-bent on insuring that his death would be a painful one.
The two men tumbled to the ground, rolling over and over in a fight for dominance. Alec was gaining the upper hand, throwing connecting punches as they rolled. But the other man had one advantage.
A single gunshot rang out.
A woman screamed.
A man groaned.
And then there was silence. Deafening silence that seemed to bear down on the whole world.
The silence streched, taking on a life of its own. After what seemed an eternity, a feral growl pierced the quiet like a knife. The sound was reminiscent of the cries of a wild jungle cat. In a way, that's what it was.
She emerged from the shadows. The woman who stepped forward, gun raised, was not the same woman she had been. She was no longer only Max; she was a soldier. She was a fierce animal who'd just lost her mate; she was a killer. Max stalked towards the man, gun arm never wavering as she trained it on him.
White looked at the wild woman, shock obvious on his face. He smirked, his own weapon already aimed at her as well.
"I should have known," he said icily, shaking his head. "The ordinary didn't last too long, huh, 452?" he jeered, a laugh bordering on maniacal escaping him. Max's eyes held a frigid darkness as she glared at the laughing man.
"You bastard," she spat, her tone holding unadulterated hatred. "He said you wouldn't kill him. That you wanted him alive."
"Well, he's not dead. Yet." Max chanced a look from the corner of an eye, searching the man on the ground for signs of life. A large stain, barely visible in the dark, had spread from the wound on his side. Trails of dark liquid dripped onto the grass. He was so still that at first glace, it seemed as if death had claimed him. Max's heart fluttered in short-lived relief as she saw the laboured rise and fall of his chest.
He was alive.
But if something wasn't done soon, that sparkle, the vitality that was Alec, would fade and die.
White's penetrating eyes examined his enemy. He could see the determination painted on the woman's face, but there was something else, too; resignation. Resignation to what, he didn't know. 'She's nothing but an animal that needs to be put down,' he thought, as he readied himself for her impending attack. He noticed the shift in her stance, her eyes roaming around, assessing the battle that waged around them.
During her hunt for White, she had seen her friends in action, fairing well given the circumstances. But they were suffering heavy casualties, something she found utterly unacceptable. She refused to let anyone else die.
Max's desperate eyes returned to the smirking man in front of her and the angry animal that dwelled inside of her began to relinquish its hold.
Getting Alec out alive was top priority, and she knew White would never let that happen. She knew what she had to do.
"Why do you want him?" she asked, glancing quickly toward Alec to make sure he was still breathing. He was. Barely. Her heart ached and told her to just kill the bastard who'd made him look so frail and helpless; so still. But the logical side calculated the odds of Alec's survival if she acted on her impulse. They weren't good odds.
White watched the emotions dance over Max's face before she turned her gaze back to him. As if by the interference of some unseen force, her face was suddenly emotionless. She was a soldier once more, the cold mask of her trade back in place.
"He's been a thorn in my side since he got out of Manticore. Almost as big a problem as you."
Max snorted. "He'd be so disappointed to hear that. We had a bet goin'." The sarcasm was there, but her expression remained cold and empty. "Looks like I won. Now answer my question."
White laughed with that air of superiority that always radiated from him in almost tangible waves. "You haven't won yet." Max just glared in response, silent, waiting for him to continue. "He was my bait. And look what a pretty fish I caught." White's face was a mix of amusement, concentration, and disgust.
"I'm hard to catch, you know that. And pretty, huh? I was under the distinct impression you though my kind were nothing but animals." A hint of emotion managed to fight its way to the surface of Max's expressionless face. She leaned in closer to him and whispered, "You into beastiality these days, Ames?" She wore a smirk that was almost identical to the one her fallen lover affected so often.
White snarled, his trigger finger twitching dangerously, as he grasped the gun in a white-knuckled grip. He said nothing as he regarded the thin brunette that so often spun his world into chaos. 'If only we didn't need her alive,' he mused bitterly.
Max watched carefully as her enemy neared her, emotion clouding his face. 'His emotions make him weak,' the soldier in her thought. A soldier that sounded an awful lot like her brother, Zack. "You may think you and your almighty cult groupies are better than us, that we're animals." She shot the words at him like daggers. She threw out an arm, gesturing to the horrific scene of death and fighting that surrounded them on all sides. "But look around you and then you tell me who the animals are!" She paused, gauging his reaction to her words. To his credit, he didn't show an increase in hatred. 'He's one tough bastard, I'll give him that.'
"You can still make this better, Ames. You can fix this. No one else needs to die. " Max could see that White wasn't ready to just throw down his gun and call truce. 'It was worth a shot,' she thought. Her shoulders slumped slightly as she realized the only option she had left.
White smirked as he saw her defeated stance. "What did you expect? Negotiations over tea and crumpets?" He laughed low in his throat, the sound cold enough to chill to the bone.
Max stiffened her shoulders, her back impossibly straight, mimicking the posture she had held so many times as a child . She held her head high; she would do this on her own terms. "Let all my people out -including 494- with no problems, and you can have me."
White was shocked. Never would he in his wildest dreams have thought X5-452, the leader of the transgenic nation, would turn herself over to him without a fight. It was too good to be true, but the look he saw in her eyes told him she was telling the truth. He would take her offer; but the others were another issue. "You're either very smart or very stupid."
"Probably a little of both,' she replied, looking White in the eyes. She could see the relief in his yes and it made her curious. "We've faced off before, Ames, yet you've never taken me out. So tell me, what's so special about me? Why not just kill me?"
From the corner of her eye, Max saw a Familiar approaching, gun trained on her. White was watching her so intently he failed to sense the other man.
White's eyes glinted and he snorted. "Not gonna happen, 452."
The familiar behind him stumbled in the dark, causing White to lose focus as his head whipped around. Max didn't hesitate. She launched herself at her enemy, catching his head with her boot, the sound of the impact cracking loudly, blood flying from his mouth as he hit the ground.
The intruder lunged at Max, toppling her to the ground, leaving behind a stunned White. Max wasn't able to react quick enough to keep herself from being pinned to the grass. She spat in the Familiar's face. "Why!" she screamed at him, unable to keep back her fury any longer. "Why do you people toy with me? Huh! Why keep me alive if you want me dead!"
The man wiped the wetness from his face, but not before delivering a powerful slap to Max's cheek. "You're the key to what we need." Max couldn't believe it; the idiot was gloating. "His father," the Familiar said nodding in White's direction. His voice held obvious disdain for the man; the creator of the 'transgenic animals'. "He designed you to save mankind, but..." He smirked as if trying to mimic his superior. "When used the right way, your blood helps destroy them."
"Why keep me alive? If it's my blood you want, why not just kill me and take it?" Max knew she was tempting fate, but this information could prove invaluable. 'If I ever get out of here to use it,' she thought, immediately throwing the negative comment away. She silently wondered if Sandeman was as smart as everyone had thought, doing something so dangerous.
"Sandeman knew that once The Conclave discovered your...unique DNA, we would simply eliminate the threat and take what we needed."
Max snorted. 'Eliminate the threat, my ass.' The Familiar glared and continued.
"He wanted to make sure we'd have to keep you alive. The specific enzyme we need from you will be neutralized if you die."
Max took in all this new information, storing it in her enhanced memory. 'Just in case,' she thought. Max was now banking on the fact he was telling the truth. He thought he'd won. As long as Alec was alive, she was the one who'd win.
A sound from the sidelines, a groan of agony, and Max's plan was thrown to the ground, crushed under White's proverbial foot.
Alec had woken up and was calling for her "Max?" he groaned groggily, his hand going to his side as he tried to sit up. The pain stabbed through him, reminding him why he was on the ground.
Max turned to assure herself that Alec was okay. Seeing the anguish in his features, without a moment's hesitation, she brought her hands up and twisted her captor's head. The bones snapped as his neck broke. Max threw the man off of her, and jumping up, she hurried to Alec's side. That moment of distraction was all White needed. He lunged at her, spinning her around when she was only a step or two from her destination. He put her into a headlock and brought his gun up to Max's head. Only too late did he realize that Max's own gun was on the other side of her head, the barrel pressed against her temple.
"You're slippin', Amesie. You should teach your underlings not to go revealin' all your evil plans before knowing for sure that you've won. Don't you watch movies? The villain always does that, and always ends up getting his ass kicked." Max clucked her tongue disapprovingly. "You're getting too cocky for your own good." She kept her gun firmly in place as White struggled, trying to shake her grip.
"Max!" Alec screamed, trying to jump up. His efforts resulted only in a coughing fit, as his injury made itself known. "What the hell are you doing!" Alec was puzzled. He couldn't figure out why Max would put the gun to her own head. It wasn't much of a plan to keep someone from killing you; they'd help you pull the trigger.
"Alec, stay the hell out of this. I know what I'm doing," Max ordered. She was not going to have him doing something heroic and stupid and end up dying. Not when she had a gun to her head to ensure that he stayed alive.
"Lover's quarrel?" White goaded, still struggling with Max.
"Ah ah ah. I would stop that if I were you," Max chided as White tightened his grip on her neck. "Wouldn't want me to accidentally pull the trigger with you shaking me so damn much. Can't damage the goods, right?" White growled in frustration, and Alec was beginning to understand. They needed her alive.
"We got a deal, Ames? Me for them. You let me see them walk out of here safe, let them take the injured and dead, and you get me." White knew he had no choice. She would pull the trigger before he could do anything, and all would be lost. Not just their plans. His life would be in The Conclave's firm grasp; he couldn't afford another failure at the hands of 452.
White loosened his grip only slightly on the transgenic's neck, and spat. "Deal."
"Max, no!" Alec had managed to stand up, but was becoming dizzy with the exertion. "Max, you can't..." He trailed off as he began to cough again.
"No, Alec! This way no one else has to die." Max could feel tears threatening to form, but she wouldn't let them. She had to be strong for Alec, for everyone. Her eyes searched the jumble around them, looking for someone, anyone. "Briana! Get everyone out. Now! Help Alec and the injured and gather the," she paused, closing her eyes in pain, thinking of the fallen transgenics she'd been powerless to save, "gather the bodies." Briana was a good soldier. She didn't ask questions, even though they were storming in her mind.
Briana came over to the three of them, putting an arm around Alec's waist to support him. "Max, please," he pleaded, doing his best to struggle against Briana's grip.
"Alec, I have to. Please, just go. I love you." Alec fought Briana the entire time she led him away. He didn't stop screaming Max's name until they reached their transport.
"I'm ready," Max said once she had seen to her satisfaction that everyone was safely out. They'd lost so many in this battle, and she felt selfish that she was only thankful that Alec wasn't among the losses.
White led her into the warehouse after discarding her weapon. She was placed in a small holding cell that reminded her of the rooms in the basement of Manticore. The Psy-Ops rooms. The walls were painted a blinding white - no windows, and the door was painted white like the room. Everything appeared seamless, as if there were no corners, no door, nothing but white. The irony was not lost on her.
Before he left her alone in the cell, she had to ask one question. "How are you even alive?"
White smirked at her once again and raised an eyebrow. "You think that Manticore's the only one to perfect cloning?" Then, without another word, he left, closing the door behind him. Max heard a bolt slide on the other side, assuring that she wouldn't escape.
She sat alone on the floor, broken. Tears threatened once more to form and fall, and this time she let them. She had nothing left. This was the price she'd paid for the lives of her family, her love. She'd traded not just her life. If she couldn't escape, she'd traded the transgenics for the human race. She sat alone defeated and wept bitter tears for the price of life.
Alright...Took me long enough to get this chapter done. Hope everyone enjoyed it :) Would feedback be too much to ask? I worked hard on this one...ask Shana!
A/N: Spoilers for After the Dark, an official DA novel by Max Collins that will increase your understanding of this fic:
FYI 1. White will NOT be asking Max where his son is, because, for those of you who haven't read the DA book After the Dark by Max Collins, the Familiars killed Ray and Ray's Aunt because White was becoming too obsessed.
FYI 2. In the same book, Joshua gets revenge on White because of him killing Annie by literally ripping his head off...The idea here in this chapter is that it wasn't White that Joshua killed, but White's cloned decoy.