Together -- Chapter 12

Disclaimer: All of the characters that appeared on the TV show Dark Angel (Max, Zack, Logan, etc.) belong to their respective owners, not to me. No money is being made off of this fic. I only own the original characters (Becky/X6-405, etc.).

Logan sat at his kitchen table, picking at a late snack. It had been a long day. He’d spent his morning and early afternoon with his Aunt Margo, listening to her whine about how his cousin had practically ‘abandoned’ her since Jonas had died, though Logan knew perfectly well that Bennett had visited with or at least called his mother once a day.

Good ol’ Bennett, he thought. The only sane person in the family other than my mother, God rest her soul. Dad was almost as bad as Uncle Jonas and Aunt Margo could have been plucked straight from one of those pre-pulse soaps that Mom used to love watching when I was at school. He finished his food and put the plate and fork in the sink and wheeled into his computer room, but stopped short of pulling up to the computer itself. After he’d gotten back to the penthouse from his visit with his aunt, he’d made another Eyes Only broadcast threatening to find and reveal Manticore’s location. Then there’d been the phone call he’d gotten from Lydecker only minutes afterwards...

“Cale.”

“Good to hear from you too, Lydecker. What do you want? Did you finally decide that you want to tell me where you think Manticore might be now?”

“Do you really think these broadcasts are going to help you get Max back? She’s dead. You have to accept it.”

“I won’t accept it.”

“Look, son, I’ve been in your place before. When my wife died, I’d refused to believe it. Even the day of her funeral, looking at her in her casket, I refused to believe that she was really dead. It was a long time before I started to accept it and really move on with my life.”

“And we all know what you did.”

“Listen, Cale. You need to stop doing these broadcasts.”

“Why? Correct me if I’m wrong, but weren’t you there with us that night helping us to blow the DNA lab? Didn’t you want to bring down Manticore?”

“Son, that project used to be my life. I know everything about it. If funding is cut, the X-series soldiers would have been quietly dispersed into the world, under orders not to reveal their true identities to anyone. If you find and reveal the location, the committee in charge of overseeing Manticore and other such projects will authorize Renfro to cauterize the site. That means that every soldier, not just the X5s, will be killed. Do you really want all of those deaths on your hands, Cale, all in the name of revenge? I once thought of going after my wife’s murderer myself, but I knew that I’d just be throwing my life away if I did that and that my wife wouldn’t want that for me. Do you think that Max would want the same for you?”

“No, she’d want me to move on.”

“You’re right.”

“You look like you’ve got something on your mind.”

Logan almost jumped at the sound of the familiar voice. He turned around and his jaw dropped in shock. “Max? It can’t be...”

“I know. I’ve heard that before,” Max said.

“How...?”

“Heart transplant,” Max informed Logan. “You’ve probably heard of them.” She smiled and leaned down and hugged him. “I missed you, Logan.”

“I missed you so much, Max,” he sobbed. “More than I can say...”

“I know,” Max acknowledged.

“What happened?” Logan asked. “How did you escape this time?”

“Oh, your broadcasts only provoked Renfo into torching the place,” Zack said coldly.

Logan broke the hug and saw Zack and a girl in her late teens standing in the room’s doorway. Something about the girl was vaguely familiar, but Logan was pretty sure he’d never seen her before. “Zack.”

“Logan,” Zack replied.

“Who’s she?” Logan wondered.

“She escaped with us,” Max told him.

“Are you sure, Max?” Logan asked suspiciously. “She could be someone that Manticore...”

“I know you’re a human, but even you should have been able to hear Zack tell you what happened,” the teenager said, her voice almost as icy as Zack’s. “The name’s Becky, otherwise known as X6-405. Thanks for the vote of confidence, by the way. Oh, and thank you for almost getting us and my unit and not to mention every other transgenic nearly fried by Renfro or shot at or shot by one of those little prick X7s. That was just what I needed to complete my day.”

Logan blinked. “Hello to you, too.”

“Sorry,” Becky apologized. She managed to smile a little. “It hasn’t exactly been the best of days.”

“I understand.” Logan gave her a nod of acknowledgement.

“Do you have a secure line available that’s ready to use?” Zack asked.

“Yeah,” Logan replied. He picked up the receiver of the cordless phone that was next to the computer and handed it to Zack. “Take your time.”

“Thanks,” Zack said. He walked back into the living room.

“Oh, I almost forgot,” Max spoke up. She reached into one of her pants pockets and pulled out the CD that she’d taken from Renfro. “Brought you back a souvenir.”

“What is it?” Logan wondered.

“Manticore’s database,” Max told him. “Before she lit the match, Renfro had me brought over to her office so she could gloat. She was gonna take the database and start over, Manticore would always live on, blah, blah, blah. I thought you could use a new hobby.”

“Gee, thanks,” Logan said dryly. He popped the disk in and looked at the prompt that popped up on his monitor. “Neither of you would happen to know any passwords that might help, would you?”

“Nope, sorry.”

“No,” Becky added. “I don’t have a clue.”

Logan nodded and kept trying to navigate through the disc’s contents. He tried typing several different commands, but was always re-directed back to the original window.  Finally, after nearly twenty minutes, he gave up and sighed. “It’ll take at minimum a few days for me to crack the passwords for this disc.”

“Should give you something to do between meals,” Max teased. “I missed those.” She turned to Becky. “Logan has to be the greatest cook alive. You should try some of his cooking some time.”

“I might, if I decide to stick around,” Becky agreed.

“I got in touch with the others,” Zack said as he re-entered the room. “They’re all fine. I’ll be heading out to check on them as soon as I get some new clothes and a new bike.”

“I should be getting some clothes and some kind of transportation myself,” Becky commented.

“Should I even bother asking where you’ll be, Max?” Zack asked.

Becky noticed the way that Zack was glaring at Logan. “I’ll stay.”

“What?” Zack asked.

“I think I’ll stay here in Seattle, at least to start with,” Becky reiterated. “If things get dicey, I’ll be out of here, but staying here for the time being seems like the best option.” Zack gave her a look, but she briefly looked over to Logan before looking back at Zack and Zack nodded.

“Great!” Max exclaimed happily. “You can crash with me and Original Cindy until you find your own place.”

“Original Cindy?” Becky repeated.

“My roommate,” Max informed the X6. “Speaking of which, I should get going back to my place and make sure my baby is okay. Not that I think Cindy turned it into a clothes rack like Kendra used to do, but...”

“Her bike,” Zack explained to Becky before Becky could ask.

“Oh,” Becky said.

“You guys coming with?” Max asked.

“Yeah, we’ll be right behind you,” Zack assured her.

“All right,” Max said.

“Max, do you have to...” Logan began to say.

“I’ll be back tomorrow after work,” Max promised. She left the room.

“Nice to meet you,” Becky said. The three transgenics left, leaving Logan by himself at his computer with a big grin on his face.

She’s back. She’s back!

 TBC