DISCLAIMER: I don't own Dark Angel. But I do own both seasons on DVD.

Faceless Anonymity

Chapter One: Killer Unleashed

Logan paced in rapid circles, pausing occasionally to chew his thumbnail, or tug at his hair, or rub the stubble on his chin. He repeated this for some time, again, again, again, and again. Mole sucked on one of his famous cigars, a wisp of smoke curling around his head, and Joshua sat by his elbow, slumped in his seat, eyes following the worried hacker's retraced steps until his eyeballs were too wound up to move any further. The dog-man grunted, shaking his shaggy head, then recommenced his staring at Logan once his eyes could rotate freely once more. Mole watched this scene with growing boredom, and eventually had to light another cigar, muttering about what a waste of time this was. Few other transhumans were bustling around them, busied with their individual activities, not really paying attention to the single human in their midst.

Finally, someone entered Control Centre. Mid-bite on his thoroughly devoured fingernails, Logan let his raw fingertips fall away from his mouth (he had started chewing the skin around his nails as well, without noticing). He turned, relieved, to receive –

"Max," announced Alec, coming through the doorway, "is not with me." He strode into the room, severely damp and waterlogged. A few transgenics waved to him, and he returned the gestures only half-heartedly.

Logan's eyes narrowed. "What do you mean she's not with you?" he said, trying not to sound accusing, but failing miserably. Alec noticed this, and also tried to conceal his growing irritation at the ordinary's demanding demeanour. "I was talking to you, then you cut off!" continued Logan, but Alec shrugged, already kind of regretting throwing his phone away. It seemed like a good idea at the time.

"Bad signal," he answered casually, doing a better job of controlling his emotions. "Max is not with me," he reiterated next, as if conversing with a child who didn't understand. "I looked for her everywhere, including the Space Needle, but I couldn't find her." Why am I explaining myself to an ordinary? he thought to himself indignantly. The look Mole sent him told him the transhuman was thinking exactly the same thing. This is so damn degrading.

"Well, you obviously weren't looking hard enough!" snapped Logan, momentarily losing whatever cool he had left. He turned away, cursing to himself in an undertone. But, of course, all the transgenics in the room all heard him clearly; Joshua looked to his knees, unsure of how to react and Mole stopped chewing his second cigar, glaring at the hacker's back, not noticing that ash was collecting on his boot (and singeing it slightly) as it fell from the rapidly burning end towards the butt. Alec shot him a glance and raised a hand to say I can handle this, and walked further into the centre of the room so that he could command more of Logan's attention.

"Logan, if you want to find Max so badly, why don't you just go out there and help instead of sitting on your ass and letting others do all the legwork?" suggested Alec, a touch of force behind his words. Mole and a few other transgenics smirked as the human got a bit of bashing from Alec, the one who was usually getting the same treatment from Max. But their leader wasn't here, and, undoubtedly, Alec filled the role of SIC, and wasn't about to get bossed around by a human.

"I had to monitor things on the news and the net!" exclaimed Logan vehemently, as if this explained everything. Mole snorted derisively.

"Yeah, and chasing your tail in circles is really monitoring the news, ain't it?" he remarked with a sarcastic nod.

"That's not the point," said Logan, flushing slightly. Mole smirked at his discomfort. "What matters is that I tell Max what's happening outside of TC."

"Why you not tell Medium Fella to tell to Lil' Fella?" asked Joshua reasonably, finally deciding to break his silence.

"I'd rather give her the news in person," said Logan pompously. Alec and Mole rolled their eyes.

"You might as well just admit you don't trust us," sighed Alec. He cut Logan off as he was about to protest. Even so, it wasn't as if Max or the other transgenics in TC didn't have any contact with the outside world; in fact, with all their surveillance and monitering equipment, there was little the transhumans didn't know about in the human side of the city. "What's so important, anyway?" asked Alec with curiosity. "Why can't wait?"

"I'll tell you once we find Max," said Logan. "Speaking of which, we'd better start right away." He grabbed his coat from a chair nearby and stuffed his arms hurriedly through the sleeves whilst making for the door.

"Woah, woah, wait," said Alec, throwing out an arm to catch the hacker before he exited the room. "We're not going outside again, are we?" Logan gave him a Well, duh look and Alec shook his head quickly. "Nuh – uh. No way. I'm going out into the rain again!"

"Look, Sweetcheeks," said Mole, peering down the barrel of his favourite shotgun and cocking it loudly. "I know your hair will get wet again, and that's depressing and all, but really, we don't want hacker-boy here to give himself a hernia because Miss Queen of the World has gone AWOL. Besides, I want to find out what he's got to say."

Joshua grinned and stood up. "Joshua come too," he announced, happy for a chance to get out of TC. "Joshua help find Max."

A nervous panicky fluttering erupted in Alec's stomach; he knew exactly where Max was, but knew better than to disturb her again. She had made it clear that she was deep in 'Max-time' and was not ready to share whatever was on her mind… with him. But what if Logan went up to confront her? Would she feel more compelled to open up to him, the love of her life? Alec uneasily considered revealing where Max was, when Dix waved to get their attention.

"Someone just entered TC," he told them, pointing to a screen that was relaying images from a camera overlooking one of the enter/exit points to the transgenic central. Alec made out the dark shadow of a female sloshing through the puddles to get to shelter and warmth.

"Max," Logan breathed and dashed off to meet her.

Alec and Mole's eyes met and they followed, Joshua not far behind.

"He's so whipped," commented Mole, carrying his shotgun by his side.

"Hell yeah," replied Alec with a charming grin, though inside, he was largely relieved that the leader of TC had just returned safe and well.

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Max slumped morosely into TC, long straggly hair clinging to her face and neck like dark strands of seaweed. Her clothes felt heavy, and stuck to her form like a second skin. Serves you right for staying in the rain for so long, she scolded herself. However, refreshing and cleansing as her contemplations in the rain had been, she could not rid herself of the looming worries that never ceased to grab her attention. They were like annoying flies that kept buzzing around her head, landing on her nose and cheeks every now and then, but when she tried to swat them, they flew away gleefully, only to repeat the irritating process again. Max wanted so badly to squash the flies once and for all – and with her transgenic speed, she probably could – but in the metaphorical sense, the flies just kept coming and coming. The anxiety just kept coming and coming. I really need to get insect repellent, she thought tiredly. Speaking of which…

Max eyed Logan and the other people that had come to see her with wariness. Lately, she had been distant and consumed in her own thoughts, just trying to seek solace from her fellow friends and the responsibilities of running a little city of freaks. She had been moody and on the edge. Alec and Mole knew this, so why did they lead Logan straight to her? Alec especially; after what he had done on the Space Needle, she was surprised that he hadn't sent Logan home straight away. Then again, she couldn't hide from important matters for much longer.

"Max," greeted Logan upon reaching her. She forced a curt smile – Logan didn't seem to notice – and bypassed Alec, nodding to Mole and smiling sincerely to Joshua.

"Hey Max," waved Alec, trying to get some form of acknowledgment from her.

Max ignored him. "What are you doing here, Logan?" she asked the hacker. "You shouldn't be here; the toxins are bad for ordinary humans."

Logan's normally composed expression softened. "I wanted to brief you on a certain situation," he said softly. "You really need to know."

Max's curiosity was aroused and she waited for Logan to carry on. He cast a significant glance at the transgenics beside him and didn't elaborate. "What do I need to know, Logan?" said Max after a few beats of halting silence had erected itself up around the strange group.

Logan cleared his throat. "I have some bad news," he declared.

"So we've heard for the last few hours," muttered Alec. Logan glared.

"Shut up," Max ordered.

"It's true," sniffed Alec.

"Do you want to hear what I've got to say, or not?" said Logan impatiently.

"I don't know, is it bad news or good news? Cos I'm not sure if I can take any more bad news," moaned Max. "And knowing me, it's gonna be really bad news."

Logan turned to her seriously. "Well, when you put it that way…" He paused and Max groaned. "It's crap news," said Logan dully.

"Well hurry up and get it out, then," snapped Mole authoratively. "Might as well take it as it comes."

Logan extracted sheets of paper from one of his pockets (Alec wondered briefly how the hacker had managed to stow away so many sheaves of paper in his pocket). He handed a couple to Max, who inspected them closely. She looked up into the grim face of Logan, her expression now mirroring his. Wordlessly, she passed the pieces of paper on to Alec and Mole; Joshua kept trying to steal glances of whatever they were looking at over their shoulders. He caught sight of a lot of red, and when Alec eventually shoved the papers under his nose, he whined in that doggy way of his and stopped trying to look.

"One body, found early this morning," supplied Logan, tucking the grisly pictures away. "The previous two were not in Seattle, and a further five were also found outside this city."

"What's this got to do with us?" asked Max, puzzled. The photos had fazed her for a few moments, but, gruesome and morbidly graphic as they were, they had absolutely no connection to her.

"I was hoping you could tell me that," said Logan, eyes boring into hers as if her were probing for some sort of truth from her.

Max quickly became incensed. "Are you implying that I did this? Or a transgenic?"

"No, no!" said Logan hastily, throwing up his hands in a defensive manner. He took a pause to rephrase. "It's just a possibility, you know, that maybe something not human did that to all those people."

"First of all," started Max, a chill in her voice that made even Alec shiver, though it was not directed at him, "transgenics are not 'something' – we are just as 'human' as you are. And secondly, who the hell do you think you are, coming in here and accusing us of something that we didn't do? You said it yourself, there were bodies found outside of Seattle; why would someone from TC bother running out of the city to murder a couple of ordinaries and then come back again?"

Go Max, Alec applauded her in his head.

"I wasn't implying anything against you," said Logan as evenly as he could manage. Alec and Mole scoffed. "But listen to me, Max, those victims' necks were snapped; nearly every bone in their bodies was broken! Even some of the muscle tissue and organs were missing. Tell me who could do that, without the aid of superhuman abilities."

"An animal," offered Alec, "Or an ordinary with big muscles and a strange taste for flesh." He shuddered at the memory of the bite mikes that had torn away at the flesh of the poor humans in their homes, oblivious to the fact that they were about to be killed (and partially devoured) by some psycho murderer or rabid beast. "Could be some insane cannibal escaped from an asylum," he suggested some more of his ideas.

"Your argument is getting weaker and weaker," said Logan, dismissing his comments.

"Hey, it could happen," yelped Alec, offended. "Remember that guy, you know, White's brother? He escaped from an asylum – run by equally mad cult people, might I add – and he could have easily been a cannibal. Well, he was a complete nutcase instead, but it's all the same thing, but without the whole eating human flesh thing, if you get my gist –"

"So you're saying that a psychotic cannibal attacked all those people, broke all their bones, ate some of their flesh and drained them of their blood?" said Logan sceptically.

Alec shrugged. "Isn't that what psycho cannibals do? Besides, it's a better idea than yours," he said pointedly. "Because a transgenic did not do this."

"And if you have a problem with that statement, you've got me to answer to," warned Mole, stroking his shotgun lovingly, one finger curling around the trigger dangerously.

"Hey, back off," said Max, but she lacked conviction in her voice. It hurt that Logan, of all people, had implied that transgenics had committed the foul murders. She inspected his ruggedly handsome face, small glasses and scruffy hair, wondering what was going on behind that flushed expression and clouded eyes. He was trying hard to conceal his emotions from her and she knew it. Just like that, she sensed all her connections with him cut off and it left her feeling like a rock in the middle of a white sandy beach. Odd. Alone. Cold. And really wet.

"It could be White and his Familiars," said Alec. "They keep showing up everywhere – could explain the bodies appearing all over the country."

"Yeah, because the Familiars really like eating humans," said Mole sarcastically.

"Who knows, maybe they introduced, like, a new thing into their cult ceremony of initiation; see who can hunt and eat a human in the fastest, bloodiest possible way."

"That's not funny," chastised Logan. "These people have died in the worst way imaginable."

"I'm not laughing," responded Alec.

"So stop making the wiseass jokes."

"Stop accusing transgenics."

"I wasn't accusing transgenics."

"My ass you weren't. You've been acting like we're evil agents of the Devil all of a sudden; what the hell's going on? You know we didn't kill those people."

"Oh, and this is coming from the mouth of a man whose twin brother was a psychotic murderer," snarled Logan ferociously.

Alec, Max, Mole and Joshua all froze at this last line. Alec felt the cold finger of dread caress his skin in soft touches, numbing his mind to all thought. Everything came down to Ben. Ben. X5 453. Twin brother, Ben. Why did people think he was a cold-blooded killer? Because of Ben. Why couldn't Max stand the very sight of him? Because of Ben. Why was he being singled out by Logan? Because of Ben.

"Stop!" Max growled angrily, placing herself between Logan and Alec before they could further the argument to a more physical level (Logan would be no more than a pile of pulp by the end of the fight). Mole placed a reassuring hand on the other X5's shoulder, and Max backed Logan away.

"You went too far," she told him furiously. "That was totally uncalled for."

Logan sighed heavily and ran a hand through his short, spiky hair. Then he turned on his heel, marched to a crumbling wall nearby and thrust his fist into it. He pulled his right fist back from the chipped bricks and pounded his left fist into the same place straight after the first.

"Logan!" Max shouted, alarmed, and Joshua rushed forward to restrain the self-harming hacker (the virus still prevented Max and Logan from touching). Logan cried out fiercely, lashing out with hands and legs, fighting to break free of the dog-man's vice-like grip. The three other transgenics watched with utter lack of comprehension of what was going on, jaws unhinged and stuck to the ground at Logan's volatile behaviour.

Joshua deposited Logan a safe way away from the wall, and Max walked cautiously up to the man that she thought she loved but couldn't touch. She could see the tears in his eyes, and the pain that he was feeling was now written all over his face. He was gasping like a junkie desperate for a fix, breaths coming out in haggard puffs of white vapour in the cold night air. All past transgressions against her and her kind forgotten, Max softened to the man in front of her and asked him what was wrong. She still felt cut off from him though, and this alarmed her slightly; she pushed those feelings away for the time being, there were more important things to be worrying about. Like the state of Logan's mental health.

The man in questions sniffed loudly, trying to mask his tears, but in the end he gave up and settled for rubbing his eyes as furiously as he could, to rid them of water. Alec's eyes met Max's and the same fires of curiosity burned in them both. Logan had been acting strangely throughout the day, and they wanted to know why.

Finally, when his sobbing had dissipated somewhat, Logan cleared his throat to speak. When he did, his speech came out in a raspy whisper, so that even the transgenics around him had to strain to hear what he had to say.

"Two of the victims – I knew them," he said haltingly. Max's eyes went wide, and Logan answered the rest of her unasked question with the second part of his sentence.

"They were my sister and her daughter, my niece. Bitsy and Brittany were murdered five nights ago."

A/N: Firstly, I have got to extend a VERY BIG THANKYOU TO ALL MY REVIEWERS! (LOL, Babyface).That was honestly my most-reviewed chapter of fanfic ever (though I've only written seven chapters in all); I know, how sad am I? Well, anyway, I doubt Logan would care much if his sister and niece died, but I thought I'd make him all upset and mood-swingy to see how the chapter would go. I'm sorry if the characters were OOC, but they all had to adjust to each others mood swings, if that makes sense…? Hope you enjoyed, and PLEASE REVIEW!

Daygoner