Chapter Two

He couldn't move.

He vaguely remembered having been half-carried/half-dragged to somewhere because his body wasn't working right, but this felt different. He pulled at his arms, and he felt the muscles respond, but they didn't actually move. He tried it with his legs and got the same results. He blamed his brain – still muddled and sluggish from whatever he'd been dosed with – for taking so long to realize that he was tied down.

It only took a few more seconds for him to realize that it wasn't just his wrists and ankles that were restrained. There was a strap across his chest, too, and another across his knees. There was a rag or cloth of some kind in his mouth that was held in place by something tied around his head. He didn't know what he was laying on, but it was flat, hard and cold. And there was a sheet covering him from head to toe.

The rest of the memories of his Friday night, how he'd gone from buying a pitcher of beer at Crash to wherever he was, came crashing back when he heard the voices that were starting to filter through the haze in his brain.

"Hey, Eddy," he heard one of them say, and he thought it sounded like the big black one with the nails sticking out of his forehead. "You think he's got nanocytes inside him like the other one did?"

"Oh!" said another voice excitedly, and that one he knew belonged to the short one with the metal arm. "Let's hook him up to the machine and find out!"

"Yeah," said a third voice. Alec recognized Eddy's British accent immediately. "But first things first. We find soldier boy number one, and then we start tinkering with the both of them."

Alec froze inside and out when he heard those words. "Tinkering" with him and Zack? What the hell did "tinkering" mean?

"If nothing else, we'll have a fresh supply of organs for our friends overseas."

Okay, yeah, that sounded bad. He liked his organs just fine where they were, and he'd really like them to stay there. He started squirming as much as he could, pulling against his restraints even though he knew that doing so was pointless. Even if he could get himself loose – which honestly wasn't happening as sluggish as his muscles still were – where exactly was he going to go?

He thought that now would be a good time for Max to burst through the door and give him a lecture on getting himself captured.

Again.

He couldn't believe that he was in such a mess in the first place. He was getting soft without Manticore, that was his problem. He wasn't keeping up with his training, and his instincts were starting to fade. He'd let himself feel safe at Crash, even though he knew the Steelheads knew about it, even though that was where Lux had threatened him the first time. He'd let himself believe that it was a good place to let his guard down, and he'd let himself be drugged and dragged off by dumb and dumber.

Because he wasn't good enough anymore.

And yeah, now would be a really good time for Max to show up, lecture or no. He had it coming anyway, for being sloppy. And he didn't really care what she said as long as she showed up. The sooner the better.

The self-recriminations stopped as quickly as they'd started, when Eddy pulled away the sheet that covered him. Alec blinked against the almost blindingly bright light from the metal fixture directly above his head, but he was careful to keep a mask of boredom on his face. Eddy reached down and roughly pulled away the rubber tubing that had been holding the gag in place. Alec spit the rag out of his mouth and worked his jaw up and down a few times as he glanced around quickly.

He recognized the room he was in from some of the old movies and television shows that he'd been watching – an embalming room. He was in an embalming room. And he had fuzzy memories of being dragged through a musty old house filled with coffins to get there. It wasn't a far stretch from those facts to the conclusion that he was in what had probably been – once upon a time – a funeral home. That meant that the hard, flat, cold surface that he was tied to was most likely an embalming table, with grooves in the surface to channel the blood away from whatever body was being drained on it.

That did not bode well.

"Don't worry, soldier boy," Eddy said, as though he'd read Alec's thoughts. But he really didn't have to see into his mind, Alec had to admit to himself, because he was pretty sure it had shown on his face. "You're not dead."

"Not yet," the short one piped up from behind him.

"What do you want from me?" Alec asked, though he wasn't entirely sure he wanted to hear the answer.

"We want our toy soldier back," Eddy said. "Where is he?"

Alec tried to shrug, but the restraints made the movement barely noticeable. "How should I know?" he asked honestly. "I've never even talked to the guy."

Eddy looked down at him, the look on his face one of consideration. He didn't know whether Alec was telling him the truth or not.

"I don't really want to, either," he added. "He tried to kill me, ya know. Doesn't exactly inspire warm fuzzy feelings."

Eddy obviously didn't know what to do with that information. He turned to the other two.

"Was he at the bar alone, Bird?"

Bird shrugged. "Uh... didn't notice. You, Tuck?"

"Nuh uh," Tuck answered with a shake of his head.

Eddy sighed. "Well, what was he doing when you snatched him up?"

"Gettin' a pitcher of beer," Tuck answered.

"Yeah," Bird agreed, bobbing his head up and down.

"Oh, a pitcher?" Eddy turned back to Alec, who tried to shrug again.

"What? I'm a big drinker."

"Oh, shut up." Eddy enforced the order by shoving the rag back into Alec's mouth and pulling the tubing tight around it again. Then he turned back to the other two Steelheads and motioned them toward the far corner of the room. It was obvious to Alec that he wasn't meant to hear what they were discussing over there, which he took to mean they didn't know how sensitive his hearing was. He could hear every word they said, but there was no way he was going to let them know that.

"It could be that our boy was there, too, right under your noses. You check the back room?"

"Didn't know there was one," Bird said. "You, Tuck?"

Alec didn't know what Tuck's answer was, because he didn't say anything, but it was pretty clear that Eddy didn't like it. The next thing Alec heard was Eddy saying, "You twits!" and then the sounds of said twits being smacked. Alec ginned inwardly.

At least he wasn't the only one who knew that Eddy's sidekicks were idiots.

"You're going back there," Eddy continued. "And I'm going with you to make sure you don't screw it up again."

There was the slam of a door, and then Alec was alone.

It took a few seconds for that fact to sink in to Alec's still slightly fuzzy brain. But once he did realize it, he immediately set about trying to figure out how to get out of his restraints.

His left wrist felt like it wasn't secured quite as tightly as the right, so that was the one he focused on first. Once he had that wrist free, he'd be able to release the other one, and then his chest. After that, it would be a matter of seconds to get his legs and ankles free, and then he could make a break for it. He'd be long gone before the three stooges even got to Crash, let alone back from it.

He was paying so much attention to his efforts to free himself that he didn't hear the door open again. He didn't hear the soft footsteps that crossed the floor toward the table he lay on, either. He didn't know anyone was in the room with him until he felt the fingers close around his arm.

Less than a second later, he felt four steel spikes sink themselves into the skin above his elbow. He tried to flinch away, both from them and the voice that accompanied them.

"Hello, pretty," Lux said as she leaned down over him. "I'm so glad you're here."

The hour and a half that Alec had been gone had passed quickly from Max's perspective, but the words he'd said to her before he left were ringing in her ears loud and clear. Zack's behavior had been growing steadily more and more alarming as the night had gone on, and Max was finding it harder to deny that there was something seriously wrong with her brother. It was obvious that he had his memories back, but some of them, particularly the ones of Logan, seemed to be distorted.

"Where's Logan tonight?" Cindy asked. "He's usually here on Friday."

"He's busy," Max answered evasively, hoping that Zack hadn't heard the question. Logan wasn't really busy that Max knew of; she just hadn't asked him to come. Zack's reaction to him that morning had been less than friendly. In fact, Zack had been downright hateful. She was crossing her fingers that if she kept them apart for a few days, Zack would calm down.

But Zack had heard the question, and he didn't seem pacified by Max's answer.

"I thought he loved you," he said snidely. "What's more important than that?"

"Zack, don't," she almost pleaded.

"Ya know, the last time I saw him, he couldn't keep his hands off you." Zack reached across the table and laid his hand on top of hers. "I guess that's changed?"

Max shook her head. "It's complicated. And I don't wanna talk about it." She really didn't want to talk about it, about the virus she carried. But even if she had wanted to explain it to him, she couldn't. Not at Crash, and not when there was a chance of Sketchy listening in.

"You deserve to be loved, Max," Zack insisted, squeezing her hand tightly with his. "You deserve to be touched, and kissed, and..."

"Outside!" Max ordered abruptly. She jumped to her feet and pulled her hand away.

"Max?" Zack looked sincerely surprised by her reaction.

"Outside, Zack. Now."

Zack stood and walked toward the front door, but the look of confusion never left his face. Max sighed and turned back to the table to tell O.C. and Sketchy good night.

"We're gonna blaze, guys. I'm tired, and I don't think Zack's feeling so great."

"You okay, Boo?" Cindy asked. She knew all about Zack's situation, and she'd obviously noted his strange behavior.

Max nodded, grateful for her friend's support. "Yeah, it'll be fine. He's just still a little confused, I think. See ya at home later?"

"Nah," Cindy answered with a shake of her head. "You two have enough to worry about without Original Cindy gettin' in the way."

"I'll make it up to you, I promise." Max smiled quickly before she turned to leave. She turned back just a second later, though, as another thought occurred to her. "Alec's jacket..."

"Got it, Boo," Cindy answered, holding it up for Max to see. "Gonna give the boy a piece of my mind before I give it back."

"Yeah," Sketchy interjected, his speech slightly slurred. "Skipped out on his turn to buy!" He punctuated his declaration by staggering slightly and catching himself on the table, making the glasses clink into each other loudly. "Whoa."

Max huffed a quick laugh as she turned and hurried toward the front stairs where Zack was waiting for her. The last thing she heard from the back room was Cindy tiredly berating Sketchy. "You're gonna knock the table over, ya big drunk clutz!"

Zack was standing at the bottom of the stairs smiling broadly as Max approached. "Isn't Cindy coming?"

Max shook her head, took Zack by the elbow, and led him up the stairs. "I thought I told you to wait outside."

Zack still looked confused when Max opened the door a bit more forcefully than she needed to and pulled him out into the night behind her.

"I don't understand, Max. What did I do?"

She finally let go of his arm and turned to face him. The words 'Alec was right' were repeating over and over in her head, and she wanted to ignore them, but she couldn't.

"You can't act like that, Zack. You were acting like we're..."

"Like we're what?" he asked, stepping closer to her than she was comfortable with. She shook her head again and stepped away from him.

"Stop it."

"Stop what?" His voice was maddeningly sweet, innocent and... intimate. No, this was wrong. She had to be misunderstanding him. "All those months, Max, with no one to protect you. And I didn't know if you were okay. I don't know what I'd have done if anything had happened to you."

He leaned forward, and it took her longer than it should have to realize what he was doing. Just before his lips brushed hers, she stepped back again.

"Zack..."

"No one's gonna hurt you, Max. I just wanna take care of you. You know that."

And he was leaning forward to kiss her again. She couldn't believe this was happening; she couldn't let this happen.

She punched him.

"Stop that!"

"What's wrong? I love you, Max. I just want things to be the way they were."

"Things were never like that with us," she insisted. "You're my brother!"

"But I remember..."

Suddenly the look in Zack's eyes changed, became glazed and distant. Max didn't know what was going through his mind, but from the different expressions flashing across his face, she thought that none of it could be good. When the dazed look cleared and he snapped back to reality with eyes filled with anger and hatred, she knew that none of it had been.

It had been a long time since she'd seen anyone going through Manticore flashbacks, but now that she was seeing Zack come out of one, she realized exactly what was going on.

"Whatever you're thinking, Zack, you're wrong."

"It's him, isn't it?" Zack said, as though he hadn't heard her at all. She wondered if he really had. "How can you love him and not me, after what he did to you?"

"He didn't do anything," she said as calmly as she could. "Zack, you've got to listen to me."

"He betrayed us! He's a traitor!"

"No!" she insisted, glancing around quickly to make sure that no one was within earshot. "No, they did something to you back at Manticore. Logan is not the enemy."

"I died for you!" Zack cried in despair.

"I know," she answered. "I know you did, and I can never repay you for that. But you've got to listen to me..."

"He did this to me!" He threw his arm up in front of his face, staring at the exo-harness with disgust, then started pulling at the freshly-healed skin on his face without warning. "He's the reason I look like this!"

"Stop it!" Max cried desperately. "Zack, stop!"

But it was too late for Zack to stop. He stood in front of her, looking exactly as he had the day before. Pieces of skin still clung to the metal that covered the damage the bullet had done to Zack's skull the day he'd killed himself to save her life, and the red light where his left eye had been was blinking angrily.

"He's going to pay for what he did to both of us."

"Zack, no!"

She tried to grab his arm as he darted past her, but he was too fast. She turned and ran after him, but had only gone a few steps before she realized that his biosynthetics were giving him a distinct physical advantage; she'd never be able to catch him in time.

"Zack!" she called after him one last time, still clinging to the hope that he'd turn around and come back to her, and be her brother again, even though she knew he wouldn't. He was too far gone now, too tightly in the grip of whatever Manticore had programmed him to believe before she'd destroyed it.

He'd said he was going after Logan, and she had no reason to doubt that he'd do exactly that. She knew of a payphone less than a block away in the other direction, and she ran to it as fast as she could. Maybe if she warned Logan, he'd have time to get out of the apartment and get to safety before Zack got there.

Eddy pulled the large black car to a stop in front of Crash and climbed out. Bird and Tuck got out, too, and followed him to the door of the bar.

"You two knuckleheads go check that back room," Eddy said.

"What are you gonna do, Eddy?" Bird asked.

"I'm gonna stand right here and watch for soldier boy, in case he gives you the slip on his way out."

Bird and Tuck nodded in unison and walked through the door.

An hour later, they walked out again, as empty-handed as they were empty-headed.

"Closing time," Bird said. "And he's not in there."

"Last person out was that stoner guy we pounded a couple'a weeks ago," Tuck added. "The frail's mule."

Eddy shook his head in frustration. "And you didn't think that maybe he might know where our boy is?"

"We did," Bird said quickly. "But he bolted out the back door as soon as he saw us. Time we got outside, he was gone."

"Get in the car," Eddy growled. "Maybe Lux got the poofter to talk while we were gone."