The last thing Cece saw as she died was the familiars catching on fire. Alec was right, she thought. I shouldn't have pushed it. Nevertheless, it was too late for the familiars who had tracked her and her team down. And so she died smiling. She had managed in her campain to smear the names of all the familiars that was in office or was a public figure: Money scandal, sex scandal, racism comments. Thanks to Peisinoe, they had managed to work fast and had left next to no fingerprints that could have led back to them. She had grown too confident and had made a mistake. But it was too late for the familiars, the campain had been launched, and now, the public was more concerned about crucifying their leaders then the transgenics. It was what the rebels and the transgenics needed for the next phase.
She had done her job, and she was fine dying while doing her job, and doing her part in preserving her kind, her family.
As she expelled her last breath, she sent her last thought to Max: 'It's your turn to work your magic girl. Don't let our death go to waste.'
Somehow, thousand of miles away, that thought reached Max. Ian was in process of training her when Cece's thoughts and feelings entered her mind. She wasn't supposed to 'receive' that 'broadcast'. She was supposed to receive Ian's thoughts. She panicked a bit as nothing had prepared her to welcome the jumble of thoughts and feelings. Just as she recognized Cece, just when she got accustomed to the onslaught of alien thoughts and feelings filling her mind, the flow stopped suddenly and she felt the intruder fade, evaporate.
"So did you hear what I thought?" asked Ian with a eager smile.
"I need to use your phone."
Ian tssked. "You know as well as I do that before we move out for the battle, all communications are forbidden."
"I. Need. A. Phone. Now!" she had used what Ian started to call her Alpha voice. She hadn't mean to. She tried to leash her emotions and breathed in and out. More calmly, she said, "It's really important. I think that Cece died."
"Cece? Who is Cece? I don't understand." the scientist was befuddled.
"Ian." she shrieked with impatience.
"Fine. Find Cameron, he'll show you a way to contact whoever it is that you want to..." he hadn't even finish before she blurred out the room.
"You're welcome." he muttered and then realized something. Max had managed to reach another mind! How exciting! Now, he needed to understand what in the process had put Max in the right direction.
Just as Ian's thoughts were all over the places, Max's emotions were doing the same thing. She was trying to marshall her thought into some sort of order. She had blurred away intent on finding Cameron but she was walking in circles now. It was the third time that she had passed the Mess Hall. She made herself stop. She made herself breathe. If Cece was really dead, panicking was not going to help her. Nothing could help her now, she thought. She was on the verge of hysteria when Ames found her. She didn't hear him calling her name at first. And then, he was touching her and his touch, that she recognized immediately calmed her down, focused her enough to stop her train of thoughts.
"Max." Ames called a fourth time.
She finally raised her eyes to meet his.
"Cece's dead Ames." she announced matter-of-factly.
Ames recalled a thin, short haired blond girl. He remembered nodding hello and her answering with no ounce of the animosity that he had found others of her kind felt toward him.
"Are you sure?" the question wasn't because he didn't believe her. If she knew, she knew. But her budding powers sometimes confused her. The last few days, she had started to have 'episodes'. The most memorable was when he took her hand during the last sonogram of their son. She had cried out and said that he was hurting her. The weird thing was that she was nursing her right arm and he was clutching her left hand. A few minutes later, Matthias, one of Ray's instructors had come looking for them because Ray was hurt. He had landed on his right arm. He was fine, Matthias had informed them. No bones were broken, but it had hurt. There was a bit of reproach in Matthias' tone suggesting that by his age, Ray should have a higher pain threshold.
Max had looked him in the eye and said: "Bite me!"
She had felt what Ray had felt and she wasn't in the mood to listen to the reproach of a know-it-all jerk.
It seemed that her powers were bursting and acting up on their own. This episode with Cece was the widest reach that she had managed.
"I don't know. I'm not sure. But something happened to her or maybe to someone next to her. I need to know Ames. I need to know." This tentative Max was a bit disconcerting for Ames. He was used to her acting before thinking, or making things up as she went. She was not the best planner, except when it was about her family. So he simply nodded and walked in the direction of Cameron's offices on the 2nd level.
He didn't bother knocking and when Cameron saw his face, he dismissed the three other persons in the room.
Max waited for the others to exit the room before starting. "I need to go upstairs."
Cameron knew her enough to not interrupt her there. When Ames called him to say that they were coming, he was a bit worried about security. Not that he thought Ames was setting a trap, in fact his worry came from Ames' mate, Max. She was unpredictable. But since she arrived here, apart from her little exploratory walk around the base, she hadn't tried to get out or to breach the protocol. She toed the line because of Ray and Ames. As long as her family was safe, she didn't struggle much with the rules. So he was willing to hear her out.
"I..." Max didn't know exactly how to explain what was happenning to her. "Something happened today. And I need to make sure that..." she hesitated again. "I just need to make sure they're okay."
The determination in her eyes convinced Cameron to help her. Ian kept him apprised of the progress the dark haired transgenic was making daily. Obviously something had happened today.
With that in mind, he simply said: "Okay. What do you need?"
"A safe way to contact Alec." she didn't need to add without giving our position away.
Cameron nodded. "I can arranged something in Nashville in 3 hours."
Max agreed. "I'm coming with you." said Ames.
As Cameron promised, three hours later, she was on a secure phone with Alec.
"Alec, where is Cece?" The absence of hope in Max's tone, made Alec lean in. He reached the conclusion that she knew somehow that Cece had died.
"Max...how did you?" his confusion clearly ringing through the phone.
"Just tell me Alec." she snapped. She didn't want to explain something that she herself didn't really understand.
Alec found himself answering.
"She took unnecessary risks and she got caught." he answered. "She...didn't make it."
"She was supposed to be out of there a week ago."
"I know. She disobeyed me. I guess she took your lessons well." There was no reproach in his voice, he was just being himself.
Max choked back tears.
"Sorry Max. That's not what I meant. If anything, she succeeded." Alec back peddaled. Just like any males, he was uncomfortable with women in tears.
"I know. We know. We watched the news."
"We're on the alpha site now." he informed her trying to change the subject.
Max didn't want to know that. "Did you find her?"
"She blew herself and the building up." he announced. "I don't know if they figured out it was us."
"I doesn't matter." she interrupted. "I needed to know that I wasn't going crazy." the last part was meant for herself but he heard her nonetheless.
"Going crazy? What are you talking about Max?" His ear perked up again. What was up with her, he pondered.
"Nothing. Just keep to the timeline. We'll be fine Alec. Remember we promised Mole an island." This time she was the one who tried to change the subject. Alec chuckled. If felt so good to hear his chuckle. As long as she focused on Ames and Ray, she didn't miss her transgenic family so much. But hearing Alec, feeling Cece, she was missing them something fierce.
"Keep up the good work Max. And can you tell a Mr Hanley that he was right. Things have settled down since you left."
Why she wasn't surprised that Hanley had contacted Alec.
"Do what you have to Max. Cece did just that. We all have to make sacrifices. This war is not going to win itself." There was nothing else to be said.
They were all going to shed their own blood and tears for all that they would lose in the coming month.
"I know. Cece reminded me of that." She had made it real. As long as she was tucked safely away, experimenting her powers and enjoying her family, she could tell herself that she would not have to fight, that Ames and Ray were going to be safe.
She had to gear up and face her destiny. Whether she was going to die or live, she had to face her powers head on, accept what she was and what she could be.
"Let's go back to the base Cameron." Max whispered as she hung up. "Let's make it all count."
There was a change in Max. Something that Ian Hanley had been waiting for. Cameron thought that there was a new resolve in her, Ian would say that her powers were finally, completely awakened and that she was welcoming them.
It was almost as if the air around her was crackling with energy. For the first time, Ames could see what his father had intended. She was truly magnificent and she was all his. Maybe there was something wrong with him, but this powerful Max aroused him even more.
