Prophecy -- Chapter 9

Disclaimer:  The TV shows Dark Angel and Supernatural, all of the characters that appeared on them, and everything else that has to do with the shows belong to their respective owners, not to me.  No money is being made off of this fic.  I only own the original characters (Dylan/X6-175, etc.).

“Do you know what you need?” Alec asked Dylan as the two of them, as well as Max, entered Alec’s apartment late that night.

Dylan groaned.  “You mean besides the gun that I’m tempted to use to shut you up?  And I swear, if you’re going to suggest getting laid, I will hurt you.”

“I wasn’t going to suggest getting laid…exactly,” Alec defended.  “Just that you’ve been a little tense and off your game all day and needed to relax.  If going out and having some hot, steaming…”  He ducked the swipe that Max took at him.  “…you-know-what is the way that you choose to de-stress, then that’s what floats your boat.”  He walked into the kitchen, returning a few moments later with three bottles of beer.  “This works just fine, too.”

“I guess,” Dylan said as he accepted one of the bottles.  He took the cap off drank some of it’s contents, savoring the cold feeling as he swallowed the mouthful of beer.  “I think what I need more than anything is a decent night’s sleep.  If I get that, I’ll be good to go in the morning.”

“You do remember that Dylan’s only eighteen?” Max pointed out.

“I know,” Alec said, sounding a little annoyed.  “It’s one beer, Max.  It’s not as if I’m handing him a bottle of Johnnie Walker and telling him to go to town with it.  He’s also a transgenic and thus, can handle his liquor, and please don’t tell me that you weren’t having a beer or two when you were his age, maybe even younger.  What’s going on, Maxie?  You somehow channeling your dear Logan?”

“Whoa, time out!” Dylan exclaimed.  “I have no clue what brought this on, but can you please stop it?”  He yawned.

“You look you’re about to pass out on your feet,” Alec observed.

“Got it in one, Captain Obvious,” Dylan mumbled.  “I’m going to borrow your bed if you don’t mind.  Or do mind.  I’m too tired to care.”  He shuffled off in the direction of Alec’s bedroom.

Max frowned as she took one of the remaining bottles from Alec.  “Dylan did have a point.  I don’t want to argue with you.”  The frowned changed into a smirk.  “We do that so often, I don’t want it to lose its charm.”

“How does your wit remain this sparkling?” Alec wondered.  “But yeah, you’re right that Dylan’s right.  Stopping the argument would be a good idea.”  He set Dylan’s unfinished bottle down on the coffee table, opened his own, and drank.  “Though on the subject of Logan, and I’m really not trying to re-start our latest shouting match, I’m really not certain how his being a source is going to work.  I really don’t know why we even need Logan keeping his eyes open when we’ve got Dix and his crew here in Terminal City.  Damn, I wish I hadn’t had to leave the meeting to go on that run when we were about to discuss that.”

“We need all the sources that we can get,” Max reminded him.  “Even though our own people are the more skilled hackers, Logan’s got more contacts.  He’s going to move out of Joshua’s crib and into a new apartment.  Not the penthouse, but something half-decent that’s easily accessible from Terminal City.”  She made a face.  “I don’t really like the whole dealio, either, but we’ve got to do what we’ve got to do.  Ugh, it’s times like this that I want to hunt down Lydecker just so I can punch him in the face.”

“Well, if anybody’s going to be first in line to play ‘Hit the ‘Deck,’ it would be you,” Alec commented.  “Then your brothers and sisters, then the rest of the people who came from Wyoming, and finally everybody else.”

Max laughed.  “True that.  And maybe you can sweet talk somebody into letting you cut in line to get a punch because Renfro’s not alive for you to someday take a swing at her.”  She raised her bottle in a toast.  “Here’s to maybe one day punching Lydecker.”

Alec raised his own beer.  “Oh yeah.”  They clinked bottles and drank.  “Hits the spot.  Speaking of Josh, what did you think about his idea of setting up a playground for the kids?  I thought it was a great idea.  Those X8s need a place where they can burn off some energy.  They’re like Energizer Bunnies.  I don’t know what the doctors and scientists did when they put together those kids.  Maxie, do you know how to wire a constant source of caffeine and sugar into somebody’s DNA?”

“Nope,” Max said.  “I think it’s more of a little kid thing than a transgenic thing, though.  I remember back when I was a kid how unnaturally hyper Krit, Jondy, and Rider used to be.  And now that I think about it, Wade was pretty twitchy himself when I would see him in the hallways or in the cafeteria.  Did he stay that way after he was transferred to your place?”

“For a little while,” Alec recalled.  “He was transferred over about a year after you and your sibs left, so he was about eleven or so.  It didn’t last too much longer.  Not because he naturally grew out of it, but because they caught him being fidgety when we were lined up one time when his unit had martial arts with mine.  A week and who-knows-what-they-did later, he’s as physically as calm as can be.  I wonder how he managed to control himself around Lydecker.”

“That’s easy,” Max said.  “Nobody can scare the crap out of you like Donald Lydecker.”

“Yeah,” Alec agreed.  “I didn’t see the guy very much, but that was more than enough as far as I’m concerned.”  He drank some more of his beer before putting it down next to Dylan’s.  “All he had to do was look at you out of the corner of his eye and you found yourself fighting the urge to piss in your pants.  If he wasn’t God-knows-where and if Renfro was still alive, I’d still choose Lydecker over the bitch any day of the week.  Lydecker was Lydecker.  Renfro was…”

“…a sadistic bitch straight from the bowels of hell?”

“Something along those lines.”  Alec frowned.  “She would try to suck you in, know what I mean?  Pretending to be as friendly as a superior could be to one of us before taking the proverbial mask off and showing her true colors was a favorite little game of hers.  She was like that when she took over the old Seattle place a couple of years ago.  She even seduced a couple of the other guys.  No joke.”

Max made a face.  “That’s sick.  I don’t know who was the sicker one: Renfro or the guys that actually fell for her crap and slept with her.  Just please tell me that you weren’t one of the guys that did the deed with the bitch.”

“Neither Biggs nor I were dumb enough to have sex with her,” Alec assured her.  “She didn’t even try to seduce either of us.  Dylan didn’t get an invite either, though she did sleep with a few of the older male X6s.  Renfro seemed to go with very tall, very brawny, and very dumb.  Biggs and I weren’t quite tall enough and way too smart for her and Dylan was too scrawny at the time and always too smart.”

“So Renfro had shitty taste as well,” Max noted.  She blushed when she realized that she’d said that out loud.

Alec grinned.  “What are you saying, Maxie?  You’ve got a thing for younger men?”

“No,” Max said, rolling her eyes.  “I don’t.  Even if I did, he’s Audrey’s, whether Audrey’s ready to totally admit it or not.”

“If you’re not referring to Dylan…”  Alec forced a grin on his face to cover his sudden attack of nerves.  “Why Maxie, I’m flattered.  You really think this highly of me?”

“Nah, just that low of Renfro,” Max said quickly, unable to meet Alec’s gaze.  “As bad as my opinion of you can be sometimes, it can never sink as low as what I think of that sadistic dead bitch.  I even hold Lydecker in higher regard to Renfro, so that should give you some idea, you know?”

“Oh, Maxie.”  Alec kept the grin on his face as he slid a little bit closer to Max on the couch.  “You can admit it.  I—“  The sound of somebody gasping from the bedroom caught both his and Max’s attention and they immediately ran into that room to find Dylan sitting straight up in bed, wide-eyed and pale.  Alec reached his friend first and laid a hand on Dylan’s shoulder.  “Dylan?  Are you okay?  Dylan?  Come on, buddy, focus on me.  Take a deep breath a focus on me.”  He waited for a few moments before Dylan finally calmed down and focused on him.  “There you go, kid.  What happened?  Bad dream?”

“Yeah,” Dylan managed to say.  “Bad dream.”  A really bad dream.

“What was it like?” Alec asked.  “Do you want to talk about it?”

“No, I don’t.”

“Please, Dylan,” Alec said, genuinely concerned for his friend.  He frowned.  “Don’t you want to get the load off of your chest?”

“I already told you, Alec.  No.”  Dylan shook his head and started to look in Max’s direction, but quickly swung his gaze back to Alec.  “I don’t want to talk about it.”

Alec decided to try a different tactic.  “Come on, Dylan.  You can tell me what happened.  I know that nightmares can be as sucky as well as anybody around.  Is it because Max is here?”  He grinned wickedly.  “Afraid to sound like a little boy and not a man around Audrey’s friend, hmmm?  Think she’ll tell Audrey that you’re a wuss?”

“No,” Dylan said honestly.  He smirked.  “But while we’re on that subject, do you think that Max will believe that you’re a wuss if I tell her about the time that—“

“How about we not tell her about that?” Alec asked, shaking his head and mentally cursing himself for giving Dylan the opportunity to change the subject.  “You’re okay, though, right?”

“Absolutely,” Dylan assured Alec.  I hope.  He swung his legs around and hopped off of the bed.  “I’ll probably be even better when I can crash in my own bed.  I should get going.”

“That’s not a bad idea,” Alec agreed.  He slapped Dylan on the back.  “If you have any more dreams tonight, I hope for your sake that they’re nice ones.  Like maybe Audrey lying on the beach wearing—“

“Shut up,” Dylan interrupted, rolling his eyes as he, Alec, and Max walked back into the living room.  “You know, you can substitute—“

“Time out, boys,” Max said.  “I should be going, myself.  I think I’m actually going to be sleeping tonight.  Take care, Dylan.”  She gave the teenager a hug before turning to Alec.  “I guess I’ll be seeing you at the meeting tomorrow morning.  Take care, Alec.  Don’t get into any trouble before then.”

“What makes you think that I’ll find myself some trouble between point A and point B?” Alec joked.  He and Max exchanged grins before Max left the apartment.  Once she was gone, Alec focused on Dylan.  “I guess it’s just you and me, kid.”

“Yep,” Dylan agreed.  “And it’s gonna be only you.  I’ll see you tomorrow, Alec.”

“See you then,” Alec said.  He smiled as he watched Dylan go, but as soon as the X6 was out of sight, the smile turned into a look of concern before Alec sighed and closed the front door of the apartment.

TBC