Chapter One
It had been easier than he'd expected to deal with the Steelhead issue, because it had been one of those rare times when ignoring something really did seem to make it go away. He'd just stayed out of Sector Four for the week, which made running into them on accident much less likely, and none of them had come back to Crash since Lux had left Friday night. He'd stopped selling the Andy, but that just made good business sense, like he'd told Max. He'd definitely stopped because Andy killed people, not because he was afraid of stepping on anyone's toes. So he'd stayed out of their way, they'd stayed out of his, and everything had been going just fine.
Until Max had found out that they had Zack with them.
Alec sighed as he slowly made his way over to the bathroom door. He was already moving a lot better than he had been when he'd called in to work that morning, so he knew the injuries he'd received during the rescue were healing. He'd made it back to the long-abandoned and condemned hotel he was currently calling home the night before, and he'd done it with no help from anyone. Of course, he'd fallen right into bed and passed out, and had only woken up long enough to call Normal, but that didn't mean anything. He was still limping a bit from slamming his knees into the pavement from four feet up, but he was fine.
He was less than thrilled at having been forced to put himself back on the Steelheads' radar after he'd just managed to get himself off of it, but he couldn't really blame Max for wanting to save Zack. And he couldn't blame Zack for needing to be saved. After everything that Manticore had done to the guy, it just wasn't fair for him to be turned into some sort of mindless toy soldier for a bunch of petty criminals on the outside.
He reached the bathroom sink and turned the tap on, for once thankful that there was only cold water in the pipes. He leaned his elbows against the front of the vanity and let the water run across his wrists and down his hands, restoring his alertness somewhat as he washed away the last of the dirt from the alley he'd been dropped to face-first.
Alec had been right when he told Max that the next time the Steelheads came after him, they'd be packing. And maybe he was just being touchy, but when they'd run into those two in the alley – and the short one really had gotten that new arm he'd been talking about – they'd been aiming their guns at him, not at Max. So maybe they had saved Zack, and that was great, but Alec would have to start watching his back again. And since he'd never gotten around to telling Max about them the first time, and because she was going to be busy taking care of big brother Zack for the immediate future, he'd have no one to back him up if anything went wrong.
Not that he'd been counting on Max for back-up or anything, because he hadn't. He didn't need her help. He'd always managed just fine on his own, and he didn't see any reason why he wouldn't be able to handle this the same way.
He cupped his hands under the faucet, letting them fill before splashing the cold water on his face. He felt the sweat and grime washing away, taking at least some of his tension with it. After a few handfuls of water, he tossed his head back and looked at himself closely in the mirror.
The bruises on his neck, the perfect imprints of Zack's fingertips, still showed green and yellow against the pale skin of his throat. Even so, they were lighter than they had been before. His throat was still sore, but the swelling had gone down enough that he could finally swallow again. His body was healing itself, the damaged blood vessels repairing themselves with their usual speed. They would fade completely in the next hour or so, and all visible evidence of his near-strangulation would disappear.
The memories of the day before, though, feeling the cold metal of the exoskeleton on Zack's hand squeezing his throat and cutting off his oxygen supply, would linger long after the bruises were gone. The minutes that had passed with his feet dangling in the air, all of his weight suspended from his neck, feeling himself starting to lose his grasp on consciousness... and Max, standing there so calmly, more upset that Zack didn't recognize her than that he was killing Alec. Max dismissing him as unimportant, painting him with the same brush as she did the Steelheads, casually mentioning that he wasn't "in their unit."
Those would stay with him.
He didn't understand why it bothered him so much. In fact, he was fairly certain that it shouldn't bother him at all, but it did. Units were ridiculous things, bad for morale, and made their members too dependent on each other. He hadn't been a member of a unit since he was nine years old, and he couldn't remember a single day that he'd missed the others. He certainly hadn't ever considered them family of any kind, let alone siblings, like Max did.
There were certain lessons that Manticore had taught him that he had learned well.
He was a single soldier and not part of a larger whole. He had no greater purpose; without Manticore to give it to him, he had no purpose at all. He didn't matter to anyone outside of his immediate usefulness to them. He was not irreplaceable. If he failed in his mission, there were a dozen other soldiers waiting for their chance to perform. He had no feelings, and even if he did, they wouldn't matter. He had one job and one job only: do as he was told.
That was the way he'd been raised, and that was the way he wanted it. He'd lost his purpose when Manticore burned to the ground, and he hadn't managed to find a new one yet, but a solitary life was still the one he preferred. The less people in his life the better.
But sometimes, a solitary life just wasn't possible. The life of a normal human seemed to require being surrounded by other people, and if there was one thing Alec knew how to do, it was fit in with his environment. For better or for worse, he had managed to build himself a circle of companions. He didn't know quite enough about them to consider them friends, but they were the people in his life, and when it came to playing normal, they were better than nothing.
So he would finish cleaning himself up and head to Crash, because it's what he did every night. He'd be there for the "Welcome Home" party for Zack that Sketchy had called and told him about. He'd go take part in the celebration of a victory that he'd played a large part in securing but doubted he'd ever be thanked for. Through it all, he'd smile and laugh and play it off like nothing of any importance had happened to him for the past few days.
If only those damn bruises would fade faster, so it would be easier to convince himself that it was true.
He'd noticed the way Zack looked at her the second he'd walked through the door.
He was willing to admit that he just might be a bit wary of the guy because he'd tried to kill him with his bare hands the day before, but Alec was convinced there was something wrong. Max had told him that all of Zack's memories had returned, but he hadn't reacted to Alec's presence – or his face – at all. He hadn't called him Ben. He hadn't actually called him anything, because he hadn't said a single word to him all night.
But Alec had been watching. He'd seen the looks Zack kept shooting over his shoulder at Max while he was playing foosball with Sketchy. He'd seen the way Zack looked up every time he heard Max's voice. He'd seen the way Zack smiled at her when he thought she wasn't looking. And while he'd seen Max looking at Zack with nothing but sisterly affection, the looks that Zack were giving her were far from brotherly.
He'd thought it would be a good idea to let her know what he was seeing, because it looked to him like she didn't know. He'd thought she would appreciate input from an outsider's perspective. He'd thought she'd thank him.
He'd been wrong about that.
Okay, maybe his delivery hadn't been the greatest, but she'd pushed him into saying it faster than he'd planned. He'd wanted to ease into it, and she'd wanted him to spit it out. So he had. And it hadn't been the least bit graceful.
So she'd told him to stay out of it and called him sick.
"Ya know what, Max? Never mind. I just thought I should give you a heads up."
"Yeah, well next time you think you need to warn me about something, do me a favor and don't." The almost playful tone of voice she'd been using through the whole conversation was still there, but it was starting to get a harder edge to it.
Alec grabbed her arm as she turned away, and she spun back to him with disgust in her eyes. She wanted him away from her. She wanted him gone. That much was obvious. He could give her that, at least for a few minutes. He held his hands up in submission and lowered his head.
"I'll get the beer, okay? You don't want big brother thinking you've wandered off or anything."
She shoved the pitcher into his hands. "Fine," she said as she turned away She shot him a frosty look across her shoulder as she walked toward the back room again. "Try not to get lost."
He shook his head as he watched her walk away, wondering how long he should wait before he tried that conversation again. Something was off about Zack; he wasn't wrong about that. The way he looked at Max, the things he said to her and about her – how did she not notice how not fraternal those were? No, big brother was far from okay, and Alec knew that it was going to cause a problem. He'd just have to make sure he stuck close enough to Max to be there when things went bad, whether she wanted his help or not.
He was still shaking his head slightly as he walked toward the bar. He hadn't expected her to be thrilled with what he had to say, of course, but for some reason he hadn't expected her to be so nasty about it. He put the pitcher down on the bar and raised his hand to get the bartender's attention.
"Can I get a refill?"
Someone bumped into him from the left, hard, and he turned his head. The dark-skinned Steelhead was standing there, looking down at him and smiling. Before Alec could do or say anything, he felt a sharp pain in his lower back.
"Ow!" His hand went to his back automatically, searching out the source of the sudden sting.
"Sorry," he heard a voice say.
He spun around quickly. Standing behind him at the bar, smiling like a cat who'd just eaten a dozen canaries, was the short Steelhead with the new metal arm.
He realized then just how much trouble he was in. The pain in his back had vanished almost as quickly as it had struck, and waves of numbness were starting to spread out from the original location. Had he honestly been so distracted by Max and Zack's issues that he'd let these Steelheads get close enough to dose him with something? He managed to take one step back on legs that were rapidly losing feeling, but he bumped into the Steelhead behind him, and dark hands gripped his upper arms tightly just as his knees started to buckle.
"Careful there," the Steelhead said. "Don't wanna fall down."
He wanted to push away from them, but his body wouldn't respond. He wanted to beat them down like he'd done at the market, but his arms wouldn't move. He wanted to look to the back room and see if Max had noticed anything, but the only part of him that would move was his eyes. He wanted to yell for help, but his tongue wouldn't work.
Alec felt his arms lifted and draped across the shoulders of the Steelheads, but he knew he hadn't put them there, because he couldn't move them by himself. As they dragged him away from the bar and toward the stairs, with his feet trailing on the floor behind him and the Steelheads giving bullshit explanations to the people they passed, he finally got a glimpse of Max and the others. They were all gathered around the table in the back room, all of their focus on Zack, whose focus was undoubtedly solely on Max. They were too busy to pay any attention to what was going on at the bar. They were laughing, joking, celebrating.
And then he was being dragged up the stairs, his feet banging from step to step – and he wondered if they heard that or not – and he couldn't see them anymore.
The drug finally reached his neck, leaving it unable to support the weight of his head, which fell forward until his chin banged against his chest. As they exited the muggy warmth of the bar and emerged into the chill of the early fall evening, his eyelids fluttered closed and the darkness pulled him under.
Max glanced around the bar as she wondered again where Alec was. He'd been gone a lot longer than he should have been just to get a pitcher of beer. As the minutes ticked by, with neither beer nor Alec showing up, she got irritated. As those minutes grew longer, and O.C. mentioned Alec's absence, too, that irritation gave way to anger. When he'd been gone so long that even Sketchy had noticed, the anger started turning to concern.
"Be right back."
She stood from the table and walked quickly toward the front of the bar. She looked from side to side as she went, checking every corner and every table for Alec's familiar features, but he didn't seem to be anywhere. By the time she reached the bar, her concern was mounting into full-blown worry.
"Hey!" she called to the bartender, who ignored her. She was not in the mood to be messed with, so she took a deep breath and tried again. "I said hey!"
She wasn't entirely surprised when he ignored her again, but she was done wasting her breath on this guy. When he walked past in front of her, her hand shot out, grabbed his collar, and yanked him forward until his face was only inches from hers.
"I'm looking for somebody!"
"Who?" he asked without hesitation.
She'd have smiled at his sudden willingness to help if she hadn't been so worried about Alec. And yes, she was willing to admit to herself that she was worried about him. If he wasn't in real trouble, he'd have hell to pay for making her care.
"Name's Alec. Tall guy, kinda good looking, dark blond hair, green eyes..."
"Black t-shirt and jeans?"
Max nodded quickly. So he'd made it as far as the bar, then. Whatever had happened to him had happened after that. That was information that might come in handy.
"He left," the bartender went on. "Half an hour ago or so."
Max started in surprise. "Wait," she said. Her confusion was evident in her voice. "He left? Just... left?"
The bartender nodded. "Yeah, with a couple of friends."
"Friends?" She knew she was just repeating what the bartender was saying to her, but it didn't make any sense. Alec didn't have any friends; the only people who even remotely qualified to be called that were all sitting in the back room wondering where the hell he was.
The bartender shrugged and straightened up as Max released her hold on his collar. "Well, he left here falling down drunk with his arms around them, so yeah, I'm guessing they were friends. Now, you want anything or not? I got customers waiting."
Max blinked and shook her head, her mind still swirling with questions. "No. I mean, yeah. Gimme a pitcher."
The bartender nodded curtly and moved away to get the beer. As Max watched him fill the pitcher, the worry and concern that she'd been feeling turned back into anger and irritation, partly at herself for having gotten so worried over nothing, but mostly at Alec for making her.
He'd left with his arms around a couple of friends. He'd volunteered to get the beer, and then he'd forgotten about them and had just left with a couple of friends. He'd gone without a word to anyone, he'd left his leather jacket there, and he'd made them worry about him. He'd made her worry about him because he'd just left.
'Damn him,' Max thought as the bartender put the full pitcher down in front of her. 'He's so gonna pay for this one.'
She felt an arm wrap around her waist and spun in surprise, only relaxing when she saw Zack smiling down at her.
"Everything okay?" he asked.
Max glanced around the bar once more for good measure, as some small part of her argued that Alec wouldn't just leave like that, not without telling someone and definitely not without getting his jacket. It told her that there was something off about what the bartender had said about him. She saw nothing disturbed or out of place, nothing to make her think that the bartender had been anything but honest, but she couldn't shake the feeling that there was more to Alec's sudden leaving than she was hearing. There was something seriously wrong with the image of Alec throwing his arms around anyone, but still, anything was possible.
'Alec's a big boy,' she told herself. 'He can take care of himself.'
"It's good," she said to Zack. "Alec bailed."
Was she imagining things, or did Zack's smile brighten at that? She really didn't want to think about what Alec had said, just like she didn't want to think about the way Zack had snapped at Logan earlier in the day. Zack was fine; he was just having a bit of trouble adjusting to being back out in the world as himself instead of a Steelhead's favorite toy. That's all it was.
It had to be.
"Let's get back to the others," she said as she picked up the pitcher. Alec was gone, but she was sure he was fine, wherever he was. She had her brother by her side and her friends waiting for her in the back room. There was nothing to worry about. She had a smile on her face by the time she'd turned around.
"They'll start sobering up soon if we don't get this beer to them, and you really don't wanna see that."