Umm yea chapter totally got away from me (again). This is what happens when I add random things so late in the game. Good news for those who aren't ready for this story to end because I'm pretty sure it means I need to have four chapters after this instead of the three I had planned. I'm sorry to those who are more than ready for that after sooooo many chapters. Thanks for reading!
(Oh and Alec is a little off in this chapter, I'm aware…He just did not want to cooperate with me).

Oh and if you want reminders as to who the original characters are:

Zen (you really should know him by now): Blonde, surfer dude attitude, blue eyes, Logan's best friend and around his height.

Vida: Zen's live in girlfriend, lived with Logan for brief spurts of time at the very beginning of the story. Light brown wavy hair, naturally highlighted with gold. Friends with Max.

Cassia: Vida's good friend. Wanted Logan. Alec drooled over her. Really hot with straight coopery brown hair. She and Max do not like each other, but share the same group of friends so they put up with each other.

Kera: Friend of Cassia and Vida's. Not at all important to the story with blonde hair.

Luna: Joshua's partly feline girlfriend. Very nurturing individual, she helped out with the young transgenics and babies at the start of the story. I think gray fur/hair when I write for her, but you can picture her anyway you want.

Chapter Seventy-Eight

Multitasking

She was having a breakdown, while actively trying to prevent a catastrophe from occurring for real….

She'd returned downstairs to find Cale in charge of putting the antiseptic on Alec's wounds before Alec put the band aid on.

Alec would flinch or groan mostly for show and Cale would giggle.

"Hey Max, think I figured out what your kid's going to be when he grows up, a dominatrix…actually what do you call a male…"

"Can you just focus for once?" she snapped.

Hazel, blue and green eyes all shot over to her. All in shock, especially the youngest pair.

"What the hell's-" Alec cut himself short suddenly remembering the youngster in front of him.

"Hey, Buddy," Logan said standing, "it's past your bedtime."

Dammit, dammit, dammit, she thought to herself, still seeing her son's stunned reaction.

She was about to say, 'I got him' when she realized she wasn't in any position to soothe his nerves.

"Night kiddo," she said with as kind of face as she could manage, not that hard to do seeing his sweet little chubby cheeks, she stroked one quickly with a thumb.

"Hey," Logan said placing a hand on their son's back, "kiss your mom goodnight."

He did as he was told and Max enveloped him in a hug before releasing him to scamper up the stairs leaving Logan to follow him.

"So what the hell crawled up your ass?" Alec asked applying the final bandage.

"Transgenics planning on taking out-"

"Nah, Maxie," Alec said pulling down a pant leg, "that's not it and you know it."

It wasn't a question of him knowing her well, it was the basic fact that she'd been fine, well kinda pissy a half hour before, but she'd returned full-blown bitch. "Just drop it," she quickly nodded before settling into the spot Logan had just vacated.

-o-o-o-

She went to work on the sketch artist program Logan had installed on his computer and was finished with it before Logan returned downstairs and Zen and Vida arrived to take copies of it around to all known transgenic homes and hangouts.

Now she was listening with one ear as Alec and Mole went at it, while Josh and Luna ran around showing the printout to everyone he could find.

A crowd would start to gather soon, wondering what was going on; they'd automatically head to the main hall.

She snapped into action realizing that. If they came they'd find out. She could hear it now, the mutterings that 'that's what they should have done years ago.'

The mob would start to take over; their voices would grow louder, clearer.

These were those society would never accept. Always outcasts. It was why they'd remained in Terminal City, why they could only leave for darkened tunnels…

She couldn't allow them to find out, not like this. It would mean the end of them, maybe of all of them.

"Good, blow them all up, that's what I've been saying all along," Mole said still chomped down on his stogie.

"Yea and you think you won't be next," she asked with a quick nod. "They think it's us, they'll take us out."

"Let 'em try," he dared.

Alec chuckled and leaned back crossing his arms, "They're not gonna come after you the old-fashioned way."

"Nukes, chemicals," Max shrugged and played it off as if she was unaffected, "they'll take out half of Seattle or hell, half of Washington, pollute the ocean, just to 'stop the threat,' our country's not exactly known for its kindness."

She watched him grind the cigar with his teeth, amazed he didn't snap it in half.

"You guys can try running, but it's not like you can blend in with the rest of society," Alec poured salt in the wound. Mole had to be stopped and he had to be on their side once everyone else started to find out. These were people who had spent their whole lives following orders, they'd simply found a new person to follow and unfortunately for them all, that person had become Mole.

The cigar twisted in his teeth, "Do what you have to do," she started seeing bits of tobacco scatter out onto his teeth. "Dammit," he turned and with one quick movement tossed it across the room and into a waste bin.

-o-o-o-

"X6-639," Zen's voice greeted her on the phone.

"No name?" she asked.

"Kid I talked to said they hadn't seen him since that night, apparently he got separated from his unit quickly."

"Who'd you talk to?"

"Archer, lived over in the-"

"Yea I remember him, any clues as to who his mystery companion might be?"

"Assuming it's someone from his unit, I got all the names of everyone blonde. Two kids been MIA since Manticore, an X6-675 and an X6-721."

"Not like that does us any good," she scoffed.

"Yea well I got Archer heading over to TC right now, Logan's sending over the program, we'll get an idea of who we're looking for if it is one of them."

"What about those who made it to TC? No one's saying he couldn't have met up with them again later," she asked as she paced in the small room she'd retreated to upon hearing his ring, away from the prying ears of those Alec was trying to calm the nerves of. At the moment they appeared to think something bad had happened to 639 like it had happened to Biggs.

"I've got an Aram, a Perry and a Nelson. I'm pretty sure I know Perry and Aram, but not enough to make any judgments on them."

"Same here, I'm sure I've met them all, but they haven't made any lasting impression. Can you-"

"Get their addresses and the names of anyone else from their unit? Already did it. Meeting up with a few people, going to divide up the list we've got and split up, see if anyone knows anything or anyone's address Archer didn't know. Figured we shouldn't go in alone, in case their waiting for us."

"Smart move," she wondered if she'd been thinking enough to realize she should have ordered that. In fact just sending Zen and Vida off on their own hadn't been her smartest move. "Call when you've got anything."

"Will do," he promised.

-o-o-o-

"You need to go," Max came storming into Logan's house.

"What the-" Logan looked up and quickly stood.

"We don't know what they want, we don't know what they're going to do. You and Cale need to go," she turned around and started heading for the stairs to pack for their son.

"Max," Logan said quickly following tugging on a pair of gloves.

He caught up in front of Cale's door; he tugged her back and pulled her into his room. "What the hell are you talking about?"

"We don't know who they're working with, could be someone from inside TC. Everyone there, hell everyone from Manticore knows who I am. Too many transgenics know about this place for you to be safe. They know I'm after them, they'll go after who I care about," her look was deadly as she gazed into his eyes.

He would have fought once…Not anymore. There were more important things at stake.

"I'll dump the drive, can you pack?"

-o-o-o-

Odd to realize how many things you realized were vitally necessary to life with an almost four year old as you rushed to pack. Favorite toys, favorite outfits, they were stuffed and loaded into the car in no time.

Exo quickly donned in case of a sector check as Max simply carried the entire tower from Logan's hidden room to the car instead of trying to transfer and dump it in record time.

Food vital to the health of a picky eater thrown into bags.

Logan tossed as much clothing as he could grab in less than two minutes into a weekender.

"What's going on?" Cale murmured as his mother scooped him up blankets and all as his father snatched the pillow from underneath and the cat that had fallen to the side of the bed.

"We're going on a little adventure," she quickly moved down the stairs leaving Logan to trail.

"Wherewegoin?" his sleepy voice asked.

"Gonna go stay at a new house for a few days, you and Daddy, maybe Zen and Vida will come to visit, maybe Alec, I bet I could talk him into bringing over that racing game you like so much," her voice was as calm as it could be with the threat of something happening to the two males she loved more than anything else in the world.

Logan quickly dumped the stuff into the backseat as he moved about the car to double check Max's previous findings of no tracking devices or explosives.

"But I'm supposed to be with you tomorrow," his disappointed voice questioned.

"I'm just going to have to come to you then," she smiled as she strapped him in to the car seat. "Even Aunt Cyn's gonna come."

"Hey." Logan said turning and handing off the small cat, "you hang on to Cat and Mommy's going to meet us at the new house okay."

He looked puzzled.

"I'll be right behind you guys," she kissed the top of his head. Stepping away to shut the door on her son's questioning face and scan the area for anything out of the ordinary that had occurred as she said goodbye to her son.

-o-o-o-

Logan was the kind of guy who was good at escape and evading and throwing off a tail, she'd never fully gotten from him how he was, but it didn't change the fact that he was.

Still though, she followed him behind him and clued him in on the times she was sure they weren't being followed and gave less noticeable hints when she wasn't sure.

Logan's excuse to the checkpoint guards they passed carried back to her ears, "Pipe burst, flooded out the basement and the babysitter didn't notice…Took out the furnace in the process. Figured we should spend the night over at a friend's."

The cops were still muttering about him as she pulled up and they like normal checked her out. 'Damn yuppy,' they were saying, 'his fuckin car's nicer than my place.'

Yea right, she smirked to herself, was there a single checkpoint cop that wasn't on the take? Everyone bribing their way into different parts, on the take from drug dealers to the everyday citizen that just wanted to escape. Then again Matt seemed to be the only cop she'd ever met not on the take, of course he paired that with the illegal activities that aided Eyes Only.

Even the noble had to be corrupt in this town.

-o-o-o-

Original Cindy was cursing up a storm as she walked in twenty minutes after they did to the safe house south of his old place. Cale already tucked into the bed he'd be sharing with Logan.

"Not a single word," she said raising a finger to Max, a green mask on her face only half scrubbed off, her hair wrapped earlier than normal to keep it away from the gunk.

"She's acting like I didn't let her throw on clothes," Alec said walking in full of attitude.

Cindy turned and glared, a pair of jeans were tossed on instead of the boxer shorts she'd been wearing. Sneakers with no socks…

"Rifled through all of my things," she glared.

"You were taking too long," his eyes looked up innocently.

Max suppressed a chuckle; she could almost see the smoke fuming out of her friend's ears.

"Oh and this one," Alec turns and points a finger at her, "runs back to the apartment after we've left because she forgot a steak."

"Prime rib," she said holding it closely to her, "I could take on you and Max for this baby."

Logan chuckled, "I'll take that," he reached out to grab it, "Max grabbed some ice and a bunch of frozen foods before we left my place, it should keep until the fridge starts to cool."

-o-o-o-

"Find this bad guy Boo," OC said as she quickly hugged Max as she was going to leave as Zen and Vida arrived their part of the list being handed off to others so Max and Alec could leave worry free to resume their end of the hunt. "So I can kick your ass worry free for doing this to me."

Max smiled, "Will do. Watch my little guy will ya," she gave a quick nod.

Original Cindy smiled gently, "I'll watch both of your guys Boo."

Max nodded quickly as she was instantly re-hit with the pain of finding that ring.

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing," she hastily replied

"Nothing?" Cindy coaxed.

"Nothing that won't keep," she gave a watery smile. "Just watch them for me," she nodded.

"You got it."

"Hey Logan," Max said walking towards the back door where she'd left her bike, "you got everything you need?"

He looked up mid-setting up what he could of his computer as he adapted it to his laptop. "For now," he nodded. Cassia had already been heading over to his place with Kera to grab anything of value or anything further linking them to the house, leaving a slew of people still out in the field tracking down the households and hangouts of that unit to start.

"You got my list," Cindy asked as Alec stood to rejoin Max.

"Yea," he said pulling it out, "pants, who the hell puts pants on here."

"My leather ones," Original Cindy said turning to Max, "don't even think about returning here without them."

"I won't," she promised.

-o-o-o-

Next afternoon, TerminalCity

"I've got some good news and I've got some bad news," Alec said walking over to Max.

She just looked at him rather dejectedly, "I don't suppose I can just hear the good news…." She'd just made the most important people in her life miserable. Cindy was going stir crazy after less than a day, Cale had cried when he found out he wasn't going to school and Logan, well he was being intelligent enough to keep his mouth shut.

They had people watching his house and her apartment; no one had shown up so far. They'd tailed a suspicious looking car away from Logan's but had lost it because of a checkpoint.

Maybe that wasn't so surprising though, after all they did have the same training as everyone else. They'd known the others would be lying in wait. So maybe they'd adverted at least one crisis. Max just didn't want to hear about anymore.

"Good news it is Perry and Aram's alibis check out."

"What about Nelson?"

"Zen said he packed up a few months ago with a few others and headed south in search of better weather….Can you believe they didn't like all this wonderful gray?"

"Alec," she sighed.

"What I thought you didn't want the bad news?" he chuckled.

She just looked at him through weary eyes; every possible lead they'd turned up had turned out to be a dead end.

"Well I've got some more good news; his friends say he's more Zen than Mole. Guy honestly did just seem to want good weather and girls in bikinis," Alec grinned, "actually maybe he's more like me than Zen."

"Do I want to know what the bad news is?" she asked.

"Well, we've canceled out three of five possible suspects, assuming that is, he is working with someone from his unit and it's not just a dye job."

She glared.

"We only know for a fact that that 721, made it out of Manticore alive," that information had been provided by a Nomilie that had seen him in the woods. "No idea what happened to X6-675, no idea where either of them could be."

"Have I told you today that I really dislike you?"

"Aww Maxie," he flung a hand over his heart, "that hurts, it really does."

She sighed.

"How's Logan doing?"

What did he know? She thought startled.

"He turn up anything yet?"

Oh. "Nothing's that turned up anything. He's reaching out for defected members, trying to find groups they might have come in contact with…"

"Basically it's all been a whole lot of nothing all day," Jeff said walking up to them.

She looked up as he extended a foil wrapped burger.

"Eat this."

She took it without much enthusiasm.

"Maybe you should go crash for a few hours," Alec said upon seeing her unnatural disinterest at the greasy sandwich.

"That's what I've been telling her," Jeff chimed in with.

"You know what, last time I checked neither of you were my mother."

"Yea well let's pretend I am, so I can say, 'I'm really not liking your attitude lately missy,' I mean seriously Max what the fuck crawled up your ass and died," Alec snapped back with the intensity she'd been giving everyone lately.

Jeff looked interested in hearing the answer to that as well since she'd been hot and cold to him since this started either as artificially sweet as she could be or a full blown bitch.

"I'm just fuckin sick of this," she tossed the burger onto a table, "I'm fuckin sick of all this. I just want a god damn normal life!"

Alec looked at her coolly, "Well then maybe you shouldn't have let us out Max."

"Ask me if-" she paused and stopped herself. She didn't wish that, honestly she didn't, she wouldn't have Cale, she wouldn't have the majority of her friends, but she would have HIM. Him and maybe a chance at a normal life. Didn't they get that? Didn't they get how much she had lost while they had gained so much? They didn't care, they didn't appreciate it, they just wanted more. They took until there was nothing left.

She spun on a heel and left.

-o-o-o-

She couldn't remember the last time she'd cried like this, maybe it had been for her brother, maybe it had been never.

She sat atop the Needle as the sun was starting to set and she cried.

Cried so hard she ended up gasping for air on a few occasions.

The tears that had started off slowly and in a steady stream ended leaving her with a blinding headache and a nausea that made her think she'd never eat again. She was too weak to cry anymore.

She climbed back in through the busted windows and curled up beneath it.

There was just nothing left to her.

Hmmm…Well I don't think that was the chapter I was asked for, for New Year's. Sorry?

Happy New Year folks!

And woohoo Senorita DLH, you like another one of my stories…I always feel extra special when an MA-er doesn't despise my story.