RECONCILIATION
Seattle
January 2041
It took a long time until they received the first clues. They had enjoyed Christmas as much as possible and shortly before New Year's Eve the first tips came to Alec.
Max had gone to him but he had holed up in Joshua's old house over Christmas like he did every year. He then sat there for days, playing the piano and was unresponsive. She now knew why he completely isolated himself from time to time and she wanted to finally talk to him as soon as he was responsive again and relieve him of some of his heavy burden.
So far, Oliver had not been able to reconstruct the route of the vehicle in which Gray was kidnapped. They had fragments but it didn't make a complete route.
It was approaching January 15th and therefore the birthday of the older Y2 group. And Seth became more and more restless every day. He wanted to celebrate his birthday with Gray and the clues only slowly formed a picture from which they could develop a plan to get to Gray.
Max and Alec had finally arranged to meet after Alec had emerged from his obscurity and they sat down with all the documents, information and everything they needed to talk about upstairs in the room where Gray and Seth had spent the last few weeks. A few more tips were added and they laid out the puzzle pieces on the floor to get an overview. Alec was standing in front of the large area of papers and pictures when Max looked at him sideways and the question blurted out:
"Can you remember exactly how Ben came to be?"
"You mean whether I wanted to do it or just whether I can remember details".
"I'm more referring to your feeling about it."
"Feeling, no, I don't have feelings, you know."
As always, he tried to get out of it with sarcasm and irony so as not to have to deal with his feelings. She had looked a little too deeply into his soul too often.
"Alec, please, it's important to me."
He looked at her pleadingly, he didn't want to dive in there himself, but he would actually do almost anything for Max and so he sat over on the bed and put his head in his hands. He began to tell the story. First, from the day the kidnappers caught him. Then how he kept waking up and how he stayed awake longer and longer could stay. They were practically always under observation except when they were taken to their cells and the gas was supposed to make them incapacitated again. At first he wasn't able to stay awake for full days. At first it was a few minutes, later a few hours. He knew the area and he soon knew that he was not being held there alone. And then the day came when he realized that everyone under the influence of the drugs was doing exactly what they were told. Nobody spoke, everyone was silent and walked in step like zombies. He didn't know how long they had been there, but he felt that there were always gaps in his daily routine during which he couldn't stay awake at first. He then realized that all of the female X5s were succumbing to their heat through the cat DNA but were controllable through the drugs.
Then he found himself in a shared cell with Max and he knew he wasn't able to escape yet so he had to play along. He wasn't allowed to speak, that would have given him away and he wasn't allowed to turn her away because the instructions would have been clear and he would have been exposed immediately. He looked at Max shyly. Did she actually want to know?
Max had never seen him so embarrassed when it came to sex. He was a womanizer, a teaser and over the last few years had not had a relationship but bed stories and casual dates, sometimes even several at the same time and now he sat here and looked at her shyly like a boy who had plucked up the courage to do this for the first time topic to talk about. Alec told her how he had gradually managed to regain full consciousness. It was a tough fight and even worse, it reminded him of all the years he had already trained harder since their escape. But all of that somehow didn't take away his strength, but rather made him stronger than everyone else there. When he knew exactly how the days went, where exactly everyone was staying and when the fewest guards were in the house, he worked harder than ever to stay fully conscious and, despite everything, to carry out his orders exactly. He had stuck to remaining silent unless asked something, and when the awake ones felt like hitting or torturing someone, he had been one of the first ones they had grabbed after they realized that he occasionally had more awake moments than the others . One of the guards particularly targeted him and tortured him not only with physical torture but also with extreme psychological violence that he would remember forever. He tried to do exactly what they told him to do, but when it came to Max he couldn't always do exactly what he was supposed to because he never wanted to hurt them. But the guards realized that he still had his own instincts and they should be driven out of him.
"I felt like a greasy creep when we were put in the cell together."
She took his hand and looked at him. Did she forgive him for this abomination that he could not forgive himself?
"Logan knew what they had done to us, they told him everything at the time of his kidnapping and, as if that wasn't enough, they also showed him the videos."
"Videos?"
Max looked at him in horror.
"Yes, everything was documented, otherwise I would have found a way to get out of there sooner."
"At least you found a way."
Max looked at him and it wasn't a bit of contempt but admiration. Alec was surprised. All these years he had punished himself to atone for this sin. Max still had his hand in hers, now pulled him over and they hugged while she whispered in his ear.
"I forgive you what you cannot forgive yourself. For many years you have done everything that I was unable to do. I'm sorry. I left you all alone with this burden."
She felt a tremor in his body, like that time on the roof of the van. That was when he recognized the guard who had tormented him for months. Only today was Max able to realize how great his fear must have been and she hardly recognized him, because fear was something that could only catch up with a person like him if he had experienced real horror.
He could only look at her but couldn't say a single word. Then she did the unthinkable. She kissed him and he returned the kiss. It was the first kiss in his life since his mission with Rachel that he was actually serious about. He felt! Tears welled up in his eyes.
Max now looked at him:
"I don't kiss so badly that you even have to cry about it, do I?"
"Max, you managed to ruin the most beautiful moment of my life."
"The most beautiful moment in your life?"
"Yes, that kiss, I could hear my heart beating and something inside me felt like I could feel something".
She looked at him for a long moment and then she just let herself be carried away by this wonderful moment. She pulled him close.
He was surprised:
"Are you sure?"
She said nothing but put her jacket aside and pushed his leather jacket down over his shoulders, looking him straight in the eyes. He was a womanizer, the teaser and the one who usually took the lead but today, for the first time in his life, he accepted being led. She set the pace and he followed, it was wonderful, almost unbelievable. Later they lay close to each other for a long time.
"Can you keep your bragging mouth shut for now," Max said with a grin and Alec just nodded again.
"Have you been left speechless once and for all?"
Max looked at him challengingly.
"Thanks Max!"
"So this is the first time someone has thanked me for that."
Alec jumped up and she saw him trying to put his facade back up.
"Will you be able to let down your wall for me in the future when we are alone," Max asked him as he slipped into his pants.
"Alone? In the future? Max, what does that mean?"
"Haven't you ever heard a woman say something about the future after you were in bed?"
He fell on his stomach next to her and kissed her. He looked relieved and happier than she had ever seen him since she had known him.
"I've never seriously listened to it or believed it before but I think I could do it this time."
He looked at her mischievously and smiled mischievously.
She also got dressed and then walked barefoot over to the pieces of paper spread out on the floor.
"Put all your clothes on, I've got it."
Alec hurried to put on his sweater and quickly grabbed his jacket before following Max, who was already on her way to the door after gathering up the stack of papers.
"Shoes!"
She looked down at her feet and laughed.
"So much for remaining incognito, I almost messed it up myself."
He took the stack of papers from her and she quickly put on her shoes then they went down into the hall together. He was just as excited as the others she had gathered on the way to the platform.
She put some papers with clues, pictures and addresses next to each other and now Alec also recognized what she was getting at.
The videos from the hacked drones and the clues combined to provide a path that led to an apartment they knew.
"Ames White!"
The name came out of Alec like a curse.
Her arch-enemy at the time lived there and it looked like the apartment was still owned by the family.
They immediately contacted the shared apartment and now it was time to make a plan.
The boys had already discussed some of the procedures in the shared apartment and Max had everything explained to him in detail. She and Alec agreed to the plans and had to admit that the two of them had done a very good job and that it looked like they had internalized their theoretical training sessions optimally.
You could tell that Seth was relieved to finally have a lead and be able to do something.
"But we still can't let Ben out of here otherwise the shared apartment will be exposed."
Ben looked over at Seth angrily and it was clear he didn't agree with Seth.
He turned around and walked out of the computer room, noticeably angry. He had briefly paced back and forth like a tiger in a cage; things were seething inside him. He couldn't control himself any longer, he was locked up here forever and now he was the one who was supposed to continue sitting around here again.
By the time the others realized what he was planning to do, the door to the apartment had already slammed shut. Nika was already on the move:
"I'll do it, get the plan ready and then we'll get started together."
"Don't underestimate him, hurry up and be careful."
Seth wasn't sure if Ben could still be caught. When he had such a short circuit he was almost unstoppable, fast and unpredictable and all in a city that was virtually unknown to him.
Nika, however, immediately had an idea where he was probably going. He was similar to his mother and Nika knew that Max also had a place where she could find peace. Jack had told her that after Max had handed him over to her care and Nika suspected that she would find Ben there too.
She quickly grabbed her jacket and went out into the street too. Since they had probably been exposed the moment Ben appeared down there on the street, it didn't matter now that they were seen because the shared apartment had to be evacuated one way or another.
The others also knew this and were already packing everything to go to TC with all their belongings. However, many things had to be taken into the sewer system beforehand so that they could be picked up later. They used the route that Alec had taken last time and stowed the less important things in the basement, everything else they put out and directly a few steps further down into the sewer. Everything was safe there for the time being. Oliver had the most important components of his computer unit in his backpack, the rest remained as it was.
The whole team headed to TC. Before closing the shared apartment door, Seth looked back wistfully. This had been a kind of home for him for a long time. Now he had to get used to TC as a home for the moment. Without Gray he couldn't even imagine being happy again at the moment, so he urged the others to come to TC quickly and finally implement the plan.
They all arrived in TC safely but were wondering why there was no family to be seen and why everything had gone so smoothly. Something had taken them all off the streets. It must have been something important because not a single one of these bastards was in sight anymore.