A/n: Hey everyone, thanks for your reviews. I'm going on holiday for a week on Wednesday so it will be a while before I update this again. But I'm not so cruel as to leave you on a cliffhanger that big for that long. Although I have left you on a smaller cliff this chapter. I can't help it. I think I'm getting addicted to them.

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Chapter 17: All For Love

"…This has been a Streaming Freedom Video bulletin, brought to you by the Eyes Only Informant Net." The staff of Jam Pony stared at the screen as it returned to the usual images of car crashes on the many screens behind the bar. Crash had never been so quiet.

Cindy and Sketchy looked at one another. "They're gonna be ok, right, OC?" Asked Sketchy, sounding desperate for reassurance.

"I don't know, Sketchy. I just don't know. Come on. The first place we'll hear any news is over at Sebastian's." Cindy's cell phone rang. "Yeah?"

"Cindy, it's me. Do you know what's going on?"

"Listen, Normal, right now we don't know much more than you. But we do know a guy who might. See you on the corner of 54th and Clancy in thirty minutes?"

"All right. I'll be there."

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Asfaloth turned to the guards with him outside Logan's workroom. "Go and get Cale's cousin. We need to get him out of there before the transgenics find us." The guards scurried away to fetch Bennett.

"You should go, my lord," said White. "I can handle Cale and 452."

"No. I am the leader of the Conclave; it is my duty…"

"It is your duty to escape, to regroup our forces. I am expendable; you are not. Take the secret passage, now!"

"You are right. We have already lost this complex; I must escape to prepare for the coming. Fenas'stol, Ames."

"Fenas'stol, Lord Asfaloth." The cult leader turned and hurried away to the secret escape route.

White turned to regard Logan through the badly cracked but unbroken window. "Now, Cale, I do believe you and I have some unfinished business."

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The blast startled Bennett from his thoughts. This must be what Logan meant when he said Max was coming. I just hope she doesn't bring the whole building down on my head. The sound of gunfire reached his ears. I wonder if Logan's caught up in that. Knowing him, he probably is. He always was a magnet for trouble.

The door to the suite opened quickly. "Bennett!"

"What are you doing here, Marianne?"

"Getting you. The building's under attack, we have to get out of here."

"And why would I want to go anywhere with you?"

"Because if you don't you'll be dead within the hour. The transgenics are killing everything in sight, they'll be here soon. I know a way out. Please, Bennett, come with me." She reached out to him, trying to take his hand. He jerked back.

"Stay away from me, freak! I know what you are!"

"I'm your wife, Bennett. How can you believe I'd hurt you?"

"My wife? Only because you were ordered to marry me by this 'Conclave'. Our marriage is nothing but a lie. My whole life since I met you has all been lies!"

"Not all of it, Bennett, you don't understand."

"You're right, I don't. And I don't want to. I loved you, Marianne. I would have done anything for you. I thought you felt the same."

"I do. It's true I was ordered to marry you. But I meant every word of our wedding vows. I love you, Bennett Cale!"

"You really expect me to believe that?"

The two guards burst into the room and went to grab Bennett.

"What are you doing with him?" Demanded Marianne.

"He's to be used to get Cale out of the computer room; he's broadcasting the wrong message. Lord Asfaloth's orders."

"He's to be killed?"

"Only if his cousin refuses to co-operate."

"I can't take that risk." Marianne pulled a gun from her pocket and shot both guards in the head without flinching.

"Now do you believe that I love you? I've just disobeyed the leader of the Conclave and killed two of my own people to protect you." Bennett just stared at her in shock. "Come on. We have to go." She grabbed his hand and pulled him unresisting from the room.

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Logan was oblivious to the discussion between Asfaloth and White. He was busily trying to lock down the familiar's armoury to prevent them getting weapons to fight the transgenics. He only glanced up about ten minutes later when he heard gunfire outside his workroom.

White had got bored of waiting for the guards to return with Bennett, reloaded his gun and fired several shots into the door at strategic points. Then he threw his whole bodyweight against it. The door fell inwards off its hinges, crashing into the computer station. Logan picked up a monitor and threw it at White as he burst in. It took him in the head and Logan used the distraction to dive for the gun in his hand.

The gun went off in the struggle and shattered a CPU behind Logan as he strained to overcome White. But the familiar's strength was too much for him. Without quite knowing how, Logan found himself flying over White's head, through the door, and landing against the wall of the corridor outside, hard. He cracked his head against it and consciousness started to slip from his grasp.

It was only then that he felt it. Max was close. Logan knew it with unbreakable certainty. With an almost superhuman effort, he tore himself from the grip of the blackness trying to claim him and opened his eyes.

White was standing over him, gun pointing at his head.

"This is your last chance, 'Eyes Only'. Tell me where Ray is and I'll let you live."

"Liar," he managed, still dazed.

"Five. Four. Three… stay still!" Logan was leaning against the wall, trying to stand despite the many bruises he'd acquired in the struggle.

"Why? You're going to kill me anyway. I might as well die on my feet. Spent enough time sitting on my ass."

"I'm warning you, Cale…" Logan struggled up and grasped the wall for support until the coloured lights stopped flashing in his brain.

"That's better." He said conversationally. "You wanted to know where Ray is?"

"Tell me or you're a dead man!"

"I can do better than that. I can take you to him."

"Where is he!"

"Give me that gun and you can join him." Logan's voice hardened into his Eyes Only tone. "I lied, Ames. Ray died in my car on the way back to the city. Your initiation killed your son."

"You're lying!" White was almost hysterical, punching Logan in the sternum with all his considerable strength. He slid about ten feet along the corridor on his back from the impact. He sat up, rubbing his chest and gasping for breath.

"Truth hurts, don't it, Ames? You murdered your only son as well as his mother." Once again, Logan staggered upright, doing his best to stall White until Max found them.

"No," said White, breathing heavily. "Ray is alive. I know he's alive. And I can find him without you." He smirked sadistically at the man who, in his view, had ruined his life. "Goodbye, 'Eyes Only'." Ames White pulled the trigger of his gun as his victim's eyes shifted from his face to something behind him, widening in surprise.

The sound of the shot was deafeningly loud in the narrow corridor.

The two men remained facing one another for several seconds before White collapsed to his knees, and then fell forwards onto his face and lay still, gun still in hand. Logan just stared at the body in astonishment, wondering why it wasn't him lying dead on the floor.

It was only then that Thula stepped out of an intersection in the corridor behind him, the gun in her hand smoking slightly.

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It's official. I'm really, really evil.