A/N: Thank you to everyone who read and reviewed the first prompt! This one came to me as I was re-reading N is for Name in my last Alphabet series. This is somewhat of a companion piece to that however that one doesn't need to be read to understand this one.

B is for Ball

Her movements faltered, every nerve was on fire as she felt him. She hesitated just long enough for her opponent's fist to crack against her jaw causing her head to snap to the right. Her eyes narrowed as she caught the thug's arm before he could land another blow, using his momentum against him as she brought him to the ground and brought her foot down on his head.

With the last of the guards down for the count her head whipped around to catch a glimpse of him even though she already knew it was futile. Although she ached to see him, she only ever felt his presence. A whisper in the wind, a familiar faint brush of him against her senses. She released a sigh and turned to the computers to download the information for Logan. She knew that he was already long gone.

One Year Earlier

"Come with me," She requested. Really it was more of a demand. Her chest tightened as she met his sorrow filled eyes and his head shook ever so slightly. "Come with me," she asked again, her voice becoming sharper, frantic.

His head dipped down and he caught her lips in a bruising kiss. Max hated it because she could feel the finality in it. She met his ferocity with her own, punishing him, begging him. When he finally broke away and she caught his eyes again any remaining hope she had of convincing him burned away, ashes falling to the cold forest floor.

"I can't Max," he sounded tired. It was an exhausted argument. He'd helped her break out, helped her plan her escape but he always fell short of agreeing to go with her. "You don't know what they'll do to the rest if I leave," he told her, somehow he sounded a million miles away. "Renfro knows she didn't really break you, she's expecting you to try to escape. If I go with you everyone else will be punished," he told her for the hundredth time.

"They'll know you helped me," she reminded him, desperate.

"I know."

"They'll kill you," water filled her tone, her eyes.

He leaned down for one last kiss, softer and sweeter than the last. "Go. Now," he demanded as he broke away, pushing her towards the fence. Tears blinded her vision as she forced herself to leap over to the other side, she blurred forward towards the tree line. She stopped briefly, throwing one last glance behind her and choking back a sob as she saw him with his hands up, a group of X7's surrounding him with their weapons drawn.

Now

She still couldn't tell you how she had been able to force herself to turn back around and continue running from that prison. Leaving a soldier behind. Lydecker would be so disappointed in her. She'd been in Manticore's clutches for eight months. The first three were filled with re-indoctrination. The last five were filled with him.

Seventeen Months Earlier

"That's sick," she said, tone filled with disgust as she took in the sight of her 'breeding partner'. Ben's twin.

He shrugged. "Yeah well, it's your own fault. If you and your unit hadn't blown up the DNA lab then they'd still be whipping up embryos and putting them in surrogates. Instead we all get to be pimped out, so thanks for that," came his irritated reply.

"It ain't happenin'," Max grit out, pushing down her rising guilt.

494 shrugged. "Suit yourself, I wasn't chomping at the bit to get whatever diseases you've picked up anyway," he said as he tugged his shirt back on, ignoring her offended glare as he gracefully lowered himself onto her cot. "Wake me in an hour."

It had been two months since that first meeting. She'd since named him, unable to refer to him as a number any longer. Alec. He wore it well. They talked a lot more now. He'd make himself comfortable on her cot and ramble on about anything and everything. Talk of the breeding program rarely came up. It was so nice to hear him say her name, it was a consistent reminder of who she really was.

Sometimes she thought that he knew that. Those times, when she'd had a particularly rough day before he was brought to her cell, he'd say her name more often than usual. "Whatcha thinkin, Max?" "I ever tell you the one about the priest and rabbi, Max?" "Glare all you want, Max, I know you just want my ass." Like he knew that she needed to hear it. He became her tether to reality and it was one of the things that made her love him.

"How long are they gonna continue this before they give up?" she finally asked one night. Alec came to her cell twice a week and the next day they always reported that their copulation was successful. Renfro just smirked and continued on. Other 'couples' were being rotated out as females fell pregnant but still Max and Alec always stood in that line, unmoving pillars in a crumbling world.

Alec was quiet for a long moment. Max was starting to think he wasn't going to respond which just caused her anxiety- and suspicion- to rise. When he did speak she was so lost in her circling thoughts that it startled her. "Renfro knows that we're not having sex, Max," he said quietly. Her head jerked up so that her narrowed eyes met his.

He continued on before she could start interrogating him. "She never believed we were. My orders…" he trailed of hesitantly and pulled his eyes away from hers, staring at the ceiling instead. "My orders have always been to watch you. To aide your escape once you make it and to follow you."

Max reeled back as though he'd struck her. "Why?" she needed to know what they were after.

Alec met her eyes again. "Eye's Only," he said lowly. "They want Eye's Only."

"Why are you telling me this?" she asked, her voice a low growl. Rage was building up within her and while she wanted to be mad at him but she couldn't be. He didn't owe her anything before and he didn't owe her his honesty now. No, her rage was directed at the right source, this time. Manticore. Fucking up her life since the year 2000.

Alec shrugged and his eyes darted away again. "I shouldn't be. If they find out I'll probably be parted out," he mused darkly. "Thing is...Renfro didn't count on me getting to know you, Maxie," he shrugged again. "Maybe I don't wanna be responsible for destroying your life."

Now

The rest of that visit had been spent in silence as they both contemplated what they'd learned and revealed respectively. She'd fallen for him a little bit more that night. She had been drawn to his strength, his ability to fight back against Manticore when they were all he'd known his entire life. His ability to look past her history as a traitor and get to know her. To care about her.

She'd been out with the general population enough at that point to know that he was a singularity in that respect. She was still widely hated by most. Taunts and passing jibes had helped fill in the blanks of what had been done to them in the wake of her unit's escape. Whispers of sympathy towards Alec reached her when they didn't think she was in earshot. The twin that had suffered the most because of them paired with the traitor. And yet after those first few weeks he hadn't shown any hostility towards her.

After that visit she'd started working harder on her escape. It was hard to find time, between her training, drills and Alec's visits. Lucky for her she was a night model and found the extra time. She didn't keep it secret from him though.

Thirteen Months Earlier

Alec had been frequenting her cell for four months now and she'd recently been moved from her previous cell in the middle of the complex to one on a lower level. She was suspicious of the move but studying the concrete walls she realized that escape might be easier to grasp now. She let the bunk fall back into it's horizontal position just as the door swung open and Alec walked through. His eyes fell to the cot before amusedly catching hers.

The door clicked to a close behind him as he sauntered over to the cot and pushed it up, eyeing the saw marks in the concrete. "Renfro is getting anxious for you to make your move. It's why she moved you here," he told her conspiratorially.

Max sighed, "I figured."

"She's started thinking that maybe you're not smart enough to plan an escape on your own," he smirked. "I don't agree with that but it does beg the question of why you're still here," he said with an eyebrow raised in curiosity.

"The last cell was less than ideal for a breakout," she said with a shrug. It was partially true, it wasn't as good a starting point as this cell but there was more behind her hesitation and she let him know this, in her typical actions over words way, when she tugged his head down and kissed him hello.

His lips lifted up in a grin as he returned it, letting himself fall over her as she tugged him down onto the cot with her. They never went any farther than a heavy make out session and even though she wanted more she knew that it was best to keep things as they were for now. They were both panting when they broke away a while later and Alec rolled so that he was on his back, pulling her into his side.

"What'll you do when you get out?" he asked.

Max sighed. "When we get out, we could go back to Seattle. I could get you a job at Jam Pony, I bet Normal would love you. We could go back to my little life in this big broken world."

"I'm not sure your boyfriend would approve of that," Alec joked.

Max tensed a bit at the reminder of Logan. When she had first kissed Alec about six weeks ago it had been with no thought towards Logan. "We were never really like that," she reminded him. They'd already had this conversation. He just hummed in reply and she wasn't sure what he was thinking. He was hard for her to read, his Manticore mask was well built.

"What do you want to do when we get outta here," she changed the subject. Usually he humored her but tonight he tensed up beside her and answered the question with another burning kiss.

"C'mon, let's get to work," he murmured against her lips before springing out of bed and pulling her along with him.

Now

A part of her had known all along that he wasn't planning to go with her. She couldn't figure out the reason why though. She knew him well enough to know that he hated Manticore. They had done something to him, something he didn't talk about, and it had broken whatever trust he'd had left in them. Still, he would only humor dreams of him escaping with her. Sometimes coming up with his own fantasy but mostly just letting himself be drawn into her woven stories about what they could have beyond those gray walls.

After they had finished sawing out her escape brick they'd use their 'breeding time' to traverse the tunnels beneath the building, figuring out the best way to escape. Watching guard cycles through barred windows, mapping them out and plotting strategy.

It was down there where they'd had their first big fight. The one that let her know exactly what he was really thinking.

Just Under Thirteen Months Earlier

"What do you mean you 'aren't coming with me?'" she asked incredulously, her fury rising at his blasé eye roll.

"Come on Max. You knew that I wasn't really going to leave," he said as though it was an obvious fact.

"Like hell I did!" she seethed.

"Like it or not Max, like them or not, this is my home and leaving it wouldn't just affect me!" he blew up, arms raising in exasperation, like she should have known all this. (Which if she were honest she'd admit that she kind of did. Like she'd said, she'd heard the whispers.) "My escape would be a weakness that everyone else would pay for. I've been through it all before, Max. We've been through it all before!"

That shut her up and had her stepping away from him. The reminder of what she'd done to them, to him, albeit unwittingly was a slap in the face coming from him. She didn't blame him though. How could she? It was because of her unit that they had suffered and she didn't have the right to be mad at him for not wanting to subject their people to that torture again.

She softened and stepped closer, raising a hand to his cheek. "I love you," she murmured softly. She could tell she caught him off guard. She was a little caught of guard herself until she reminded herself that, as unconventional as it was, this was the most stable relationship she'd ever been in. The last seven weeks she'd found things out about herself that she'd never known existed. He brought it out in her.

He didn't say anything in reply, just pushed her up against the barred window and kissed her until they were burning up.

When they broke free he stared into her eyes for a long moment, trying to communicate something with her that he just couldn't quite find the words for. She thought she understood anyway. He took a shuddering breath before speaking again. "I have to tell Renfro something about our progress. She's starting to get suspicious." Max had nodded her agreement and kissed him again. It was a dangerous game they were playing.

Now

She never stopped trying to change his mind. It was during those attempts that she realized the first real thing she hated about him. His stubbornness. Unfortunately she also discovered that she also loved it about him. Still...she hated that he didn't choose her. Only, at the end of the day- during that last day that she saw him- she supposed that really, he did.

Twelve Months Earlier

When Alec walked into her cell that evening he was unlike she'd ever seen him before. The air crackled with electricity and all her hair stood up on end in reaction to it. As soon as the guard's footsteps disappeared down the corridor he spoke with a seriousness she wouldn't have previously believed he could achieve. "You have to go now. Tonight," he told her as he flipped the bunk up.

"What?" she'd asked, caught off guard but quickly pushing it aside and helping him remove the cement block. "Why?"

"Found out a little more about the sweet director's diabolical plan," he said succinctly as he jumped down into the basement before reaching up to needlessly help her down. He continued to speak as they navigated the winding corridors. "Now that she's got what she needs going to enact her fail safe plan. Tomorrow they were going to pull you out of drills for an exam where'd they'd dose you up with a retrovirus targeted to Eye's Only DNA. One touch and dead," he explained briskly.

Max blinked in surprise as she tried to wrap her head around his words. "How'd they get his DNA?" she asked blankly.

"Dunno, but from the way the white haired bitch was cackling I don't doubt that they're sure it's his," he muttered. "I'm under strict orders to make sure you don't escape tonight."

They had spent the last few dasy painstakingly sawing through the thick metal that barred them from the outside world (progress would have probably been faster without the hot and heavy make out sessions) and they weren't quite ready yet. Alec was a man on a mission though as he grasped the compromised bars and yanked them back, bending them to his will to create a gap big enough to escape through.

Her hand flew to his shoulder as he went to pull himself up and out. "You have to come with me. She'll know that you betrayed them," she pleaded with him again, more desperate this time because she knew that not even Alec would be able to talk his way out of this.

He didn't argue with her, not then, just swooped down so that he was nose to nose with her, his hands on either cheek. "I do love you, Max," he told her before placing a quick kiss to her lips and then her forehead. Then he was gone, out the window and his hands were there, ready to pull her out with him.

Now

Renfro had doubled the guard around the perimeter that night, like she knew that Alec was going to betray her. Maybe she did. That was the last time she'd seen him, arms raised as the X7's swarmed him. She didn't remember making it back to Seattle or mindlessly wandering into Logan's penthouse. She didn't snap to attention until his lips were on hers and they were all wrong.

Twelve Months Earlier

"Stop," she whispered brokenly as she gently pushed Logan away from her.

"Max?" he asked, half confused half elated. "Oh god, Max. I thought...we all thought you were dead," he choked out, drinking her in as though he'd been lost in the desert and she had appeared as his salvation. It was hard knowing she had to tell him she was really just a mirage.

"I'm sorry," She breathed out.

Now

She couldn't really tell you what she said the rest of that visit with Logan but whatever it was had gotten the point across. That she was heartbroken because she had to leave someone she loved behind. Meaning she had fallen in love. With someone who wasn't Logan.

It had been hard to bounce back from that. Logan had spent the previous eight months conducting a witch hunt on Manticore, even going as far as accepting help from Lydecker. Max had avoided the cyber hacker for months, dodging his calls and having Original Cindy run defense when he stopped by the apartment. Cindy had finally had enough and ordered Max to talk to Logan and spell things out for him. Lay down the law. So, reluctantly, Max did.

Nine Months Earlier

"Hey," she said as she let herself into the penthouse. Logan spun in his computer chair, pleased surprise filling his eyes and lifting his lips.

"Hey you," he replied softly with a warm smile. She winced a bit and looked away. She'd give anything to be seeing mischievous hazel green eyes and a smirk right now, she felt a bit guilty about that. After all, before him she and Logan had had...Something. "I was hoping if I just gave you some space you'd start to come around," he told her. She nearly snorted at his definition of space.

"What I said that night that I escaped…" she began before trailing off, waving her hands as though she could make the words come to her.

Logan's eyes darkened a bit. "That you met someone else? That you loved him?" he asked, his voice low and she could hear the hurt and anger in it.

Oh. So that's what she'd told him, she thought apathetically. "Yeah," she agreed distractedly. She perched herself on the window sill and watched the world below.

"Did you mean it?" he asked, then. He wasn't able to keep the hurt at bay and Max flinched at the rawness in his voice.

"Yes," she said softly. "I named him Alec," she told him, smiling sadly at the window panes. "He was sent in to spy on me and help me escape so he could find out who you were," she told him, glancing over at his wide eyes. "I fell in love with him over those last five months. He covered for me, helped me plan to escape, told me what his mission really was," she paused. "He saved your life," she told him significantly.

"He…" Logan choked off whatever he was going to say as she nodded.

"He was supposed to make sure I didn't escape the night I did. Manticore was going to inject me with a retrovirus that was targeted to your DNA. We touch and you die. I still don't know how they got your DNA," she mused absently. She cleared her throat. "Instead of following orders Alec did everything to make sure I did escape that night. He sacrificed himself for you. For me."

"Why?" she heard Logan ask reluctantly. She knew how hard it was for him to accept those actions from someone who'd been raised in Manticore their entire lives. Once upon a time she would have been right there with him.

She looked at him then, straight in the eye with another sad smile. "Because he loved me," she told him simply.

For a long time the only sound that filtered through the penthouse was the echo of the clock as it ticked down the seconds. Strangely the silence wasn't uncomfortable. She doesn't know how long they sat there before Logan finally found his voice. "Did they kill him?" he asked quietly.

Max shook her head. "I don't know. Probably," she murmured. "I didn't see it."

"I'm surprised he didn't escape with you," he said then, and for the first time Max could detect the bitterness in his tone. She didn't blame him.

"He refused," she said so quietly that if there had been any other noise in the apartment he would have missed it. "He had to choose between leaving with me and subjecting the rest of them to the same torture they went through when my unit escaped or letting me go and taking the punishment himself," she smiled again, pride mixed with the sorrow this time. "He chose them."

Original Cindy's kind words echoed in her head 'he chose you too, boo.' she had said when Max shared her story. Max knew she was right. It didn't hurt any less though.

"I never wanted to hurt you Logan," she said then, standing up, strong and firm as she looked at him kindly. "And I still want to help you with your Eye's Only work. I just...we can't go back to how things were before."

"Now? Or ever?" he asked, a sliver of hope filtering into his tone.

Max just shook her head sadly and let Logan take it however he needed to. She couldn't make him any promises but she knew that the chances of her ever recapturing the feelings for him that once seemed so strong were slim. She sent him one last smile and slipped back out of his place.

Now

Things had slowly adjusted into a new normal and Logan had, albeit reluctantly, respected her newly drawn boundaries. Their interactions were mostly confined to Eye's Only missions and the occasional news about something Transgenic related. It was six months ago, the first time she'd felt his presence.

Six Months Earlier

Logan wasn't gonna hear the end of this...assuming she made it out alive. His intel was less than accurate and now she found herself out manned and outgunned. She cast an expert eye around her surroundings as she spouted off some smartass comment that would really only serve to rile her enemies up more than necessary. But hey, she is who she is.

She felt him a moment before the shot rang out. Her heart stuttered as she watched the thugs surrounding her drop one after another. Her world slowed down even as chaos reigned around her, the men desperately trying to find the sniper or run for cover. It was too late for them. He was an expert shot, they all were. They were child sex traffickers so she held no sympathy for them as they lay dead at her feet, a distant part of her likened the scene to that of a cat dropping it's kill proudly at his mistress' feet as she looked around wildly for him.

She ran out of the building, running towards where every nerve in her body told her he was. She never found him though. Through the disappointment she laughed. A genuine, hearty laugh. He was alive.

Now

She still hadn't seen him, she knew that he was staying invisible on purpose. Afraid to let her see him, afraid that if she did then he'd never go back. She respected that. Logan hadn't been happy that all the child traffickers had been killed (she never would understand his qualms about killing evil) but she had been so ecstatic that she hadn't cared in the slightest.

There had been several times over the last half year that she had felt him. Watching her, providing back up. He'd gotten her out of a sticky situation more than once. Whatever they had done to him after she escaped he hadn't forgotten her. She'd be damned if he lived the rest of his life in that cage.

That night had borne a new mission. Manticore was going down and one way or another she would free Alec and every single Transgenic that he had sacrificed so much to save. She had Logan working round the clock and had even reached out to Lydecker again. The next time they went in it wouldn't just be to blow a lab. She would tear down the entire structure. The ball was in her court and she was just itching to play.