TRUTH
Seattle
November/December 2040
Max quickly disappeared from Wyoming to avoid being discovered again. She had driven through the night and then driven aimlessly through Seattle on her motorcycle for what felt like endless hours. She had enjoyed it because it had been the last hours before she had to face the truth.
Now she was standing in front of the door, the door she had walked through hundreds of times. She took a deep breath and opened the door. The apartment looked almost exactly like it did when the Familiars destroyed Logan's headquarters. Back then, he had moved everything that was useful to the new headquarters near Terminal City and hadn't found the time to put things back in order. Since the apartment belonged to him, no one had ever come here and she had never had the courage to enter the apartment again. Until now.
She slowly walked down the hallway, remembering the situations with Logan, how he had caught her when she broke in here but also how she walked towards him and how he collapsed in the living room after he was infected with the virus and how they had sat here at the time, drinking wine and being close to each other. All the beautiful and not so beautiful moments flashed before her mind's eye as she walked through the hallway to the back room. There in the bedroom, in the back corner, next to the large wardrobe, was the hiding place that Lydecker had told her. He somehow sneaked into the apartment and hid all the files here of all places. There was an entrance to the ventilation system in the back corner of the wall. She cut the wallpaper at the edge of the paneling and pried open the lid. There they lay. A stack, 10 files with two names on each, one of them red and the others green. She grabbed the stack of files and made her way to Terminal City. She sent Alec another message: Come to TC!
Alec saw the message and became a little uneasy.
"What's up?"
Ben saw that Alec was getting nervous after reading the message and wanted to know if there was any news.
"We should get you to Terminal City soon."
Ben was almost happy to hear that. He had talked everything through with Alec more than once and the others in the shared apartment were constantly outside checking all the plans and procedures and exploring the route down to the smallest detail. They now had detailed records of where and when the Familiars were lying in wait and also where they gathered and seemed to be their headquarters. Ben and Alec had sorted the information and everyone in the shared apartment was busy gathering information. Now it started. Ben was happy to finally get out of the apartment.
"I'll go first, I won't put you in danger."
Ben was disappointed, he wanted to get out of here and better today than tomorrow.
"I can't sit here much longer. Can at least Seth come over again?"
Alec noticed how much Ben missed his brother and Christmas was soon approaching.
"By Christmas at the latest," Alec paused and took a deep breath, "we will be able to celebrate together."
Ben looked at him confused for a moment. What had Alec just breathed away?
They had talked a lot but mostly Alec had talked about what it was like until Terminal City was liberated and he became a city councilor but there was something else Ben wanted to know.
"Alec? I have one more question before you go?"
"Tell me"!
Ben squirmed a bit, he didn't know how to say it. He couldn't prove his assumption either, but he had had this feeling for a long time now and so he blurted it out:
"Are you my dad?"
Alec looked at him in shock. It had only been a matter of time before he was confronted with this question, but he was still so taken by surprise that he couldn't say a word at first.
"I have to talk to Max before I can answer this question."
"But can it be theoretically so?"
"Yes!"
Alec said it quietly and didn't look at Ben. He was unsure how to deal with it himself, because he said it out loud for the first time today and didn't really believe his own words yet.
He didn't expect Ben's reaction, as he stood up at the same moment and fell into his arms. He was shaking and Ben was shaking just like him.
"Can you keep this to yourself for a while until I know for sure?"
Ben looked at him and nodded.
At that moment Nika came around the corner and saw the two of them face to face. She looked back and forth and she too knew it at that moment. But she also noticed that it hadn't been said out loud yet.
"Are you having dinner with us?"
"Ben will stay here for a while. I have to go".
Alec grabbed his jacket and went to Oliver in the computer room to find out the best way to do it today. Oliver sent him to Jack, who recorded the plans, routes and guard posts. Alec went to him and Jack got his documents to explain the best way. It didn't take long before Alec was able to leave.
Alec quickly poked his nose into the kitchen and waved goodbye to everyone at the dinner table. Ben jumped up and came towards him. He hugged Alec and then looked at him like he had when Alec had held him on the way to Maple Falls. A shudder went through Alec and that feeling that he had wanted to be there for Ben back then was there again as if it had only been yesterday. Alec ruffled Ben's hair:
"Hold on, everything will be okay."
Alec had never felt so weak as he did in that moment as he turned away and walked towards the door. It had been almost a week since he had spoken to Max and now he set out to put all the puzzle pieces together.
He went into the basement of the house and slipped out the side of a window. There he was almost right next to the stairs that led up to the neighboring house. Up there on the roof it continued over several roofs until he could safely climb down to dive into the sewers. While he was on his way, Oliver had already informed Terminal City that Alec was on his way. Seth was waiting next to the platform when Max came around the corner. She rushed in right next to him. She got off her Ninja and had a lot of files with her, the contents of which were already clear to Seth, but he was very interested in the exact background. He told her that Alec was already on his way and she said that they should look at the files together. Gray came over and brought them both a cup of tea. He had cleared a large table and they sat there together to wait for Alec. It felt like an eternity until Alec was finally back. He came across the hall towards her and lowered his eyes as if he were a sinner on the way to his trial. He stopped in front of the table and looked at the files.
"I don't know if I can do it Max".
"I had enough time to think about it on the journey and you have already done much harder things than that. You freed us and we will now uncover everything else together."
"I can remember almost everything."
Max stood up and looked at him as if he were a ghost.
"You remember?"
"Yes, but I don't know the reasons for all of this, I just know that I'm probably Ben's father."
Max sat down again and took a deep breath. She didn't know how to deal with the fact that Alec hadn't said anything all these years. Seth and Gray also looked at him in shock. It was the first time someone had said it so directly and it almost echoed in the hall. At least that's what echoed in their heads. Gray caught himself first:
"How do we work through the files?" he asked matter-of-factly.
Max picked up the first file and began reading without saying a word. Alec, Seth and Gray followed suit and each took a file. They sat through the files all night long until, towards morning, only the one red file remained. It lay there in the middle of the table and none of the four dared to touch it until Gray plucked up the courage and opened it. Alec groaned and leaned back in his chair. On the first page of the file there was a picture of him and Max and the numbers 452 and 494 in large letters. Those had been their codes and, for a long time, their names.
What followed in the file were the guards' notes about her state of consciousness, the drugs that were administered and other records about her health and nutritional status. Alec now turned away as the reports of her stay there continued. They appeared to have followed all the instructions given to them under a mixture of drugs that had turned them into mindless zombies. The reports were detailed and Alec found it difficult to stay seated at the table while Max seemed to read through every page of the file. She kept stopping and looking at Alec. Now she realized why he had been shaking so much when they were lying on the roof of the van. He had kept everything from her, endured every punishment, every hardship and endured the torture despite his growing awareness, but all the details about their nights were also written there and that these bastards had taken advantage of the cats' heat to produce offspring as effectively as possible to obtain. The female So they were created to be divided into breeding pairs, as they were when Max and Alec met, and to do what was expected of them, controlled by their genetics.
He got up and walked over to the platform where he stared into space and was sure that from now on Max never wanted to speak to him again. He was startled when a hand was placed on his shoulder.
"Can you actually remember everything?"
"Yes!"
"Were you able to defy orders?"
"No, I was like a robot and it took a while for me to be able to control not only my mind but also my body again and then I just had to endure it for a few more weeks until an opportunity to act presented itself."
Max looked at Alec and she could see the deep pain she had seen so many times in his eyes.
She stroked his shoulder down his arm and made just a brief movement of her head towards the table, inviting him to come back to the table with her and the two boys. He was surprised and hesitated.
"Logan, knew."
Max jumped back and looked at him in shock.
"Logan, in the last seconds of his life, made me promise not to say anything."
"Why would he do that?"
"He wanted to forgive me but I couldn't forgive myself so he wanted me to take care of you. He also knew that the truth was hard to bear and how bad I am at speaking, so I agreed and have done everything since then to make sure you are okay."
"And you've been alone with all this for all these years?"
Max and Alec looked at each other. She knew that she was only able to understand all of this today and that she had not been available back then in her grief.
For nobody.
"Were you ashamed of what happened back then?"
"Yes and no, it took me a long time until everything came back completely and then the boys were already safe and I had a task to fulfill".
Seth and Gray looked at the two of them and then gave each other a long look.
"Ma, there's more here."
Max and Alec both sat back down. Alec was hesitant and reserved in a way Max had rarely seen him. Like a child who was afraid of the coming punishment. He leaned forward to look at the file and so did she, placing her hand on his. She looked directly at him. He pulled his hand back in shock, but her gaze relaxed him. She looked at him with warmth. He could hardly believe it. She wasn't evil!
She looked at him as a confidant, a brother, an ally and friend. And she was grateful that he had taken on the role that she had been unable to fill for all these years. He had cared for the children as if they were both his own.
Now they looked at the file together again. There, on the last pages, after the most intimate reports, there was still a lot that looked like research related to the fetus.
And it said: TARGET VALUE 100%
They compared this entry with the other files. There, too, there was always talk of a target value. However, in the other files the value was fulfilled to a maximum of 95%. At that moment, Max remembered the documents in her refuge in Wyoming but before she could tell the others, Dix called out to them. Up on the platform Oliver was on the screen and Seth had been wanting to talk to him about his project for ages so he was almost on the platform and Max put her stories on hold.
"Don't tell Ben, I'll go to the apartment and surprise him. I finally want to see him."
Luke held out a paper to her:
"One of the path plans"!
She grabbed the piece of paper and was already on her way. Gray and Alec sat up next to Seth and everyone in the shared apartment also joined Oliver in the small room. They told Seth and Gray how they managed to commute between the shared apartment and Terminal City without being seen. Ben was impatient to finally try it out. Aiden and Yara stood behind him, holding hands.
"You look good together," Seth said.
Yara lowered her eyes, somewhat embarrassed.
"It kind of happened after you left."
"No problem for me, I really wanted you to be okay," Seth looked at her lovingly and she knew he meant exactly what he said.
Jack and Damon, the little ones, rushed in all at once.
"Visit, visit!"
They were very excited and pulled on Ben.
Ben stood up and followed the two. Seth heard him in the background and would have loved to be by his side at that moment.
Ben came out of the computer room when Max entered the living room. Ben turned pale and froze.
"Max?"
"Yes Ben, it's me."
Ben couldn't remember but he heard her voice and knew that he had missed that voice all his life and his tears couldn't be held back. He walked towards her and fell into her arms.
"Are you coming to finally answer all the questions," he asked, sobbing.
"Let's sit down first."
She took his hand like a small child and pulled him to the sofa.
"Can Nika join us?"
Max called for Nika and Nika came quickly and sat down next to the two of them. Ben looked between the two of them and he was just happy in that moment. Max, his mother and Nika his soulmate.
He put his head on Max's shoulder and at the same time he held Nika's hand. It felt good and Ben almost wished he could just stay like that and never feel the problems of everyday life again.
Max stroked his hair.
"Alec is your dad."
It wasn't exactly a gentle greeting, that one harsh sentence. But Ben now knew who he had to say bluntly what was going on in his head
"I know, I've suspected it for a long time."