AN: Flashback’s are represented in italics

The Past & Present Future

By EMI

Part 1: The Return

She moved like water, smooth and fluid, silent and deadly. One would never guess that she hadn’t been outside the facility for three years. They would never know that each time the guards ventured into her cell, that they risked their very lives simply to deliver her food.

She never spoke; hadn’t since she’d been brought there, beaten and bruised with a dead look to her dark eyes, and was limply tossed into a corner of the 10x10 steel reinforced cell.

For the first six months of her incarceration each time her cell door was opened, she’d attempted escape, had lost count in fact of the numerous necks she’d snapped.

Twice she’d made it to the courtyard, before being recaptured and twice she’d been beaten and starved into unconsciousness. In the end she’d given up attempting to escape, instead she used her time to watch the guards, and learn their weaknesses, their strengths and to train. To sculpt her already strong body into a piece of steel, as strong and hard as the walls that enclosed her.

In her small cell she ran through every kataa that she knew, before beginning again. This had been her routine for the last two and half years; Lydecker would have been proud of his soldier.

The attack had been unexpected; one minute Max had been telling Logan the truth about her relationship with Alec. The two men had stood facing each other with her in the middle.

A look of resignation and hurt was etched across Alec’s features, whilst Logan had briefly looked elated, until the rest of what she was saying had sunk in.

The smash of breaking glass had destroyed the painful moment; as twelve armoured individuals had crashed through the windows of the house, spraying the room with bullet’s and glass. The unexpectedness of the attack had caught the two transgenics off guard, and that nanosecond of hesitation cost them dearly.

The cell door swung open and a young man sauntered in, with a lascivious look upon his swarthy face. She paused in her movements, her kataa momentarily forgotten as she gazed silently at her visitor. He was tall, at least 6ft and well muscled beneath his fatigues. Brilliant blue eyes blazed out from a handsome face, and topped off by a shock of jet black hair. She quirked an eyebrow at his presence in her cell.

“I hope you’re as good as you look slut; now take off your clothes and spread your legs,” he snarled as he began unbuckling his belt.

“I’m your breeding partner,” he’d said “we’re supposed to copulate every night until you get pregnant” he’d flickered his green eye’s briefly over her body, and a flash of momentary heat could be seen hiding beneath their shadowed depths “Now take of your clothes”.

For a brief moment she was struck by a flash of dejavu, and an intense longing for the smiling man her breeding partner had become. She watched in an unemotional silence as the man stripped, until he stood naked and erect before her.

“I told you to strip, whore.”

He advanced on her, but she stood her ground, not a single flicker of the fear she was feeling, graced her features.

The backhanded blow across her face was not unexpected, and neither was the trickle of blood that flowed from her split lip, as she continued to stare blankly at her would-be rapist.

“You don’t want to make this easy on yourself.” He said with a curl of lips, “Well that’s fine by me.” His face lowered towards hers and her sensitive nose, caught the scent of day old alcohol and cigarettes on his breath,

“I prefer it when my women scream anyway,” he sneered as he ripped the collar of her T-Shirt.

Her hand shot forward, and fingers jabbed him in the throat, crushing his windpipe in an instant. Her bare left foot shattered his kneecap, sending him to the floor with a muffled scream, that was quickly silenced by the sound of his own neck snapping. And for the first time in three long years, Max allowed herself to smile.

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They’d had taser’s ready as soon as they crashed through the large picture window...

As the pair of them had taken up a fighting stance, Logan had hedged his way towards his des, but before he was able to retrieve his gun from it’s draw a gunshot rang out, and a single bullet pierced his brain. Max only had time to scream his name, before she watched Alec being taken down, as a mere half a second later they came for her and she sank into a bottomless pit of blackness.

As soon as they’d heard the screams of their dying comrades, the guards had come barrelling through the detention block’s door’s, only to find her waiting for them. The only mercy they received were the quick deaths she granted them, as she made her escape. By the time she reached the courtyard, the alarms were already sounding, as soldiers rushed out to stop her. They didn’t stand a chance.

Spending three years alone in a cell, had given Max time to learn about herself, to discover the ‘animal’ inside as it were. In consequence her already acute senses were heightened further, making it possible for her to sense the bullet that was destined for the back of her head.

Stepping quickly to the side, the bullet instead splattered the brains of the guard that was running towards her, all over her torn clothing and coating her blank face with his fluids. Grinning like the proverbial Cheshire cat, she blurred towards his motionless body and grabbed up his semi-automatic…

She’d opened her eyes to find herself in what would soon become her new ‘home.’ Gingerly she touched her fingers to her brow; and felt her own already dried blood.

A dull pain in her side told her of, her broken ribs and scorched flesh from the taser burns.

Her mind quickly flashed her images of Logan’s death, and of Alec’s stunned face as he to, had been shot.

At that a small sob, slipped past her dry, cracked and swollen lips as she allowed the pain in her heart, and the pain of her body to send her back into oblivion’s warm embrace.

What she left behind her, was a tribute to Lydecker and his training. And for once in her life, Max was actually grateful to the cold-bloodied old devil. As gracefully she blurred across the open field and into the woods just as an explosion from behind her scattered the birds from their nests, and the scent of charred flesh drifted on the breeze; and the screams of agony filled the air.

Not once did she look back.

Eyes facing forward, the only thought in Max’s mind was to find the others; to return home.

_____________________________________________________________________________________

For six days she’d travelled, keeping to the woods and edges of civilisation. Only heading into any of the numerous James-towns that she’d passed, in order to steal fresh clothes and food, before moving on.

She never slept; hadn’t in fact since she’d remembered waking in her cell. But now the exhaustation and lethargy she’d been fighting since her escape was starting to take it’s toll on her fragile body. But she forced herself forward; commanding her feet to continue moving, and her eyes to remain open. She couldn’t afford to rest, at least not yet.

The second time she’d drifted back to consciousness, she found herself looking at the world through a haze of green liquid and glass. Blinking her eyes she tried to turn her head; to move her body.

Only to discover that tubes were connected to her battered body and a breathing mask was covering her mouth. The full horror of what was happening to her, hit her; the instant the figure of a woman came into view on the other side of the glass...

The grinning face of a hideously deformed Director Renfro was the last thing she saw, before the fluid around her began to bubble; and the pressure from the tubes felt as though it was sucking away he very essence.

Her head swimming and drowsy with the drugs that had been pumped into her body; sent her back to the blackness.

___________________________________________________________________________________

For the first time in years, Max found herself across the street from Terminal City. Huddled in the shadows of a building nearby; she watched as the inhabitants of TC went about their daily business.

The sector police no longer guarding the gates; Transgenics were freely coming and going; something that in her heart she thought she’d never see.

But she still hadn’t seen the person she’d been waiting for.

Movement to her left caught her eye; as she watched a female Transgenic unlocking the doors of a café’. Zooming in with her eyes, Max realised she knew her. It had been a while, and her hair had grown longer than the last time she’d seen her; but there was no mistaking her, no way Max could ever forget Gem.

Moving silently out of the shadows; she slowly made he way towards the other Transgenic.

Gem was just raising the shutters on the Terminal City diner, when a small sound from behind her made her turn. Standing in front of her wearing an oversized sweatshirt and ragged jeans; with her matted dark hair hanging past her waist, and a look of pure exhaustation on her grime covered face. Gem found herself looking into the dark eyes of a ghost from the past.

“Max”, she whispered.

Willing her vocal chords to start working again, Max asked “Alec. Where’s Alec?”, but what came out was nothing more than a strangled moan as her unused larynx refused to work; and tears of frustration and exhaustion began to fall, just as fatigue and hunger finally caught up with her, and she collapsed on the street.