Author: Restive Nature (aka Bavite)
Disclaimer: The characters and fictional placings of either of these shows do not belong to me. They belong to Cameron/ Eglee (Dark Angel), Joss Whedon (BtVS) and Whedon/ Greenwalt (AtS). Only the story belongs to me.
Rating: 13 (for now)
Genre: Crossover of DA/ BtVS
Type: WiP
Timeline/ Spoilers: Post Season 5 for Buffy. Up to LAtR for DA. Story set in DA time.
Summary: BtVS/ DA crossover. Life brings about so many changes. Especially when one has just risen from the dead.
A/N- Not all of the events that took place in Dark Angel will be present in this fiction. And there may be more time passing between events than it appeared on the show. So I guess that makes this AU.
Chapter Three
May 7th, 2021
"So what have you got for us Logan?" Alec asked as they entered the penthouse suite. Logan had been expecting them, so there was no moment of startlement. The transgenic pair had left Biggs behind at Crash to make their explanations to Sketchy and Cindy. If it had been just Cindy, they wouldn’t have worried. But Sketchy still was unaware of the reality of true transgenics in his midst and at the moment, they preferred to keep it that way.
Logan came out of his kitchen to see Max and Alec standing in the living room. Alec had picked up the digital camera that had been lying on the coffee table. Logan had figured that if Max already had more than one tattoo appear, she might have more. And judging by the way that she was resignedly holding her hand out towards the other male, another had appeared. He had decided to leave the camera in an easy to find place, so that if Alec or Max needed to, one of them could just swing by and take it as needed. He wasn’t sure that they hadn’t already done so. But if they had, there would have been more pictures waiting and a note or phone message telling him so.
"You’ve had another one," Logan announced. It was a statement of fact and not a question, so neither transgenic answered. He moved a little closer to see the marking on Max’s left hand. He tilted his head to the side as he tried to make it out. He hadn’t seen that one yet in his study of the subject. As far as he could recall. "Maybe that one will help the others make a little more sense."
"How so?" Alec asked as he glanced up quickly from the camera’s viewfinder.
Logan moved away again to let them finish and to give Max and himself a little breathing room. "Well, your friend Biggs was right. The marks are Egyptian. But they weren’t in the nature of the acceptable hieroglyphs. I had to dig a little deeper until I found the right sect."
"But you found out the meaning?" Max demanded, eager to know what she was facing so she could put a stop to it. Logan nodded and went to retrieve the papers he’d printed out when he could. When he returned, the camera was back on the table and both transgenics were seated. Logan set the papers before Max and Alec scooted a little closer so that he could see as well. Logan took a seat in the chair that Max had occupied the other night, but leaned forward to explain his findings. He waited until Max looked over the papers and had set them back.
"So as you can see," Logan gestured to the specific mark outlined on the paper that most closely matched the first mark to appear, "its literal meaning is ‘inferno’. Which makes no real sense."
"What about the second mark?" Max asked impatiently. "Did you find anything that matches?"
Logan nodded, shuffling the papers to show the next. "It was a lot tougher to find, especially considering Egyptian beliefs. It speaks of ‘life beyond life’ but not as it pertains to reincarnation. The closest thing I could come up with is resurrection. But that doesn’t make sense to me, again because of the Egyptian beliefs that when a body died, the soul was offered reincarnation. The chance to live again in another body."
"Whereas resurrection is bringing the dead back to life with the same soul of the dead person intact," Alec concluded. Logan looked mildly surprised, but then, he had very little idea what exactly Manticore had taught the older soldiers training for missions. And it seemed Alec picked up on that immediately. "Religious Theory 101," he deadpanned. "Useful for manipulating religious figures and fanatics by understanding how to debunk their belief systems." That the answer was followed by a cheeky grin didn’t reassure Logan one bit.
"Yes," he cleared his throat with a small grunt. "Well, that’s what that mark means."
"So inferno and resurrection?" Max threw out quickly. "Why doesn’t it make sense to you? I mean, I haven’t really given religion a lot of thought," she threw a quick glance to Alec, but he was inclined to say nothing. Especially since a lot of their talk after Ben was the development of the ‘religion’ of the ‘Blue Lady’ that had prompted their brother’s psychotic breaks. It was too personal a subject for them to be included in this conversation, and also because it didn’t seem to bear relevance since it was made up in a hodge podge of fears and assumptions on the part of young children.
"Fire, one way to die," Alec continued for her, "and resurrection, one way to live again."
Max stared down at her wrist for a moment, fiddling with the bracelet covering the first hieroglyph. She spoke softly, trying to make sense out of the mystery that her body had once again become. "Maybe it’s talking about the Manticore fire," she offered. "We ended their chance at life by blowing up the DNA lab. And then the second fire when Renfro tried to blow the Seattle base. But I went back and let everyone out. Gave them a chance at a new life."
Both men were quiet at that announcement. Neither accepted that, for different reasons, but it was hard for either to dispel the hopefulness they heard in her voice. Finally Alec spoke. "If that were true, then why didn’t the marks show up long before this? Like when you were actually doing those things? Why tell you about it now, when it’s over and done?"
Max stared at him, biting her lip. She glanced away and stood, moving to the large bay window and looking to where the lights of the city twinkled below them. "Maybe I have to do it again and I’m actually getting some warning this time. Maybe there’s going to be trouble in Terminal City." Alec would have protested, but Logan shook his head.
"Max," he interjected, before she could continue her theory. She turned back to look at him. "The reason why they made no sense to me is because the two marks seem to come from different sources. The word inferno doesn’t really exist in the Egyptian language. Not the same way it does in ours. To them, if we were to describe an inferno, it would simply be a large fire or blaze to them." He sighed and rubbed at his eyes behind his glasses. "And again, the word resurrection wasn’t part of their ideology at all. It was introduced some other way, probably by a culture that it did mean something to."
"Which culture?" Alec asked. Logan shook his head tiredly.
"I’m still trying to figure that out."
"So then the best thing to do would be to figure out this third mark," Max commented, her back to both of them again. "Then we can learn if it comes from one or the other language, or culture. Whatever you want to call it."
"Or a third one," Alec offered softly. Logan sighed. This wasn’t something he was really looking forward to. Strange, because the gathering of information was a big part of his tasks as Eyes Only. Usually, he enjoyed solving a mystery. But this mystery didn’t seem inclined to be solvable yet. It just kept opening up a new line of questions. But there was no other use for it. He stood.
"I’ll start working on it," he announced. "Do you want to stay and see if I find anything, or…"
Alec looked to Max, to see what she wanted. But she’d gone back to staring out the window. "Maybe we’ll stick around for a little while," he decided, still watching her. She gave no indication that she disagreed with his assessment. "Two sets of eyes looking is better than one." Logan nodded and went into his study. Alec spared one more look at Max and then followed the other man.
*****
The two men soon had a pattern down to their searching. Logan would enter the address of the web page they were looking for and Alec would quickly scan it. His eyes, more accustomed to the rapidity of the work missed nothing. But it still took nearly an hour before they found a match for the latest symbol. Logan called out for Max and she hurried into the room.
"What did you find?" she demanded as Alec gave up his seat to her. Logan had to lean back in his chair as she peered in at the computer screen. He simply pointed to where the information was, but it offered no assurance to Max. "Mouth? What the hell does that mean?" she almost screeched, looking at the other two as they shrugged helplessly. She flopped back in the chair; her energy drained off as quickly as it had come.
"Well at least we know one thing," Logan tried to buoy their spirits. "It’s from the same set as the first one. So the words are connected. How, I just don’t know."
"Maybe the marks aren’t telling you something," Alec offered cheekily, trying to lighten the moment. "Maybe it’s just describing you. I mean you do have a hell of a mouth," he teased. "I’ve seen vipers with less poison than you." Both Logan and Max had spun around to glare at him, though for very different reasons.
"Shut up Alec," Max warned tiredly, turning back to the computer. But Logan continued to stare at him, the stern expression on his face making Alec slightly uncomfortable. He held his hands up.
"What?" he grinned. "I was just making a joke. You’ve heard of those, right? You know, someone says something funny, then people laugh. Then someone else says something funny. We laugh some more and everyone feels better."
Logan shook his head. "No. What was that you said before?"
"About the joke, or the vipers?" Alec asked, not sure what Logan was referring to. But whatever it was the older man obviously thought whatever offhand remark he’d made was important.
"About the ‘hell of a mouth’?" even as he said it, whatever had prompted his concern seemed to dawn in his mind. "Oh. That’s it. Hellmouth!" He turned back to the computer and pulled up a new search engine, typing away furiously. Max and Alec shared a look of mystified wonder.
"Uh, you kind of lost us in translation there Logan," Alec joked, trying to get the other mans’ attention back. Logan glanced up, then back at the screen as his fingers continued to type things in.
"Hellmouth. I’ve heard that term before," he explained. "I just can’t remember where. Or when." He readjusted his glasses and sighed. His current search had turned up nothing. So he decided to try the two words separately, not typed together as he had originally input it. But as he’d thought nothing relevant came up immediately. He turned back to the pair. "Maybe you should go home. Get some rest. It looks like I’m going to be at this for a while."
Max nodded and rose slowly from her seat. She’d been a little excited when Logan had that burst of sudden inspiration. But she realized that she’d have to wait, same as the others. "Um, thanks again," she whispered to her former boyfriend. He glanced up and smiled gently at her.
"Not a problem," he assured her, then glanced in the direction of the living room. "Why don’t you take the camera with you," he suggested. "That way, if any more hieroglyphs show up, you don’t have to come all the way over if you need it." Even as he suggested it, his heart sank. It was about the only excuse that he had to see her now. But he’d already begun to take Alec’s advice and his own painful urgings to heart. She needed to be free of him. Max sighed and nodded and headed out that way. Before Alec could follow, Logan’s hand stayed him.
"Yeah?"
"Could you ask your friend Biggs about this?" Logan asked. Somehow, he just wanted to get to the bottom of this as swiftly as possible. Any and all information was needed and he didn’t care at this point where it came from. "Maybe he’s heard the term, if he’s at all familiar with Egyptian."
"I don’t think he is," Alec shrugged. But to do so was no skin off his nose. "But I’ll ask him anyway. You never know."
"Yeah. You never do."
*****
May 10th, 2021
Logan sighed again as he rubbed his face tiredly. He ambled back into his study, carefully setting the plate with the sandwich he’d just made for himself on the desk. It was more than he’d eaten in the last day and he wasn’t sure that he was even hungry for it now. But it had provided him with some distraction from staring blankly at the computer screen.
He’d finally had enough of scrolling through various pages and trying to decipher meaning out of something that had no recognizable pattern. Alec had called the morning after their last visit to inform him that Biggs had not recognized "Hellmouth". And none of their "acquaintances" had either. Logan hadn’t been so sure about involving more people, but Alec had assured them that it was done in passing. Just a light inquiry of something that interested him alone. And he told Logan, Manticore soldiers knew better than to ask for more information if it wasn’t something that dealt with them personally.
He could have thought on that for a while. But honestly, ever since he’d met Max, he’d had quite a stomach full of trying to discern behavior, learned and instinctive in that group. And that didn’t always make sense either. Logan Cale liked his life aside from Eyes Only to be simple, uncomplicated. It gave him a sanctuary from life when life got overwhelming. When the slime of the underbelly of this rotting cesspool of a world threatened to drag him down with it, he had some place to retreat. Some place where he could regroup, relax and recoup his dedication to bringing down that very slime.
So since Logan had been weary of looking through page after page of useless information, he’d downloaded and then printed said pages that seemed to offer information. And since he’d had as many marks and hieroglyphs that he could find, in case any more marks came up, he then turned his attention to possibly finding someone who would be more knowledgeable about this subject. And he’d found plenty of those. There were a lot more Egyptian theorists and people with doctorates in the study of Egyptian mythology, theology and life study than he’d thought there’d be in this day and age.
But since he was looking for information that wasn’t supposed to exist within that culture, he was mostly laughed at or meeting dead ends. Such as his most recent one. He’d found the name of a young woman who’d shown proclivity in the area. But when he’d researched further, it was to find that she’d died, well before the pulse had occurred. Which was a shame, he figured. She’d only been in her early twenties at the most. He grieved for her in that absent way that made all humans sad when a life was snuffed short. More likely, it was from the fact that she wasn’t there for him to pick her brain, thereby making his job that much easier.
Just as Logan resigned himself to once again trying a new avenue of search, the telephone rang. He glanced at his watch while his other hand reached for the telephone. It was after midnight. "Hello?" he asked, his voice gravelly with the strain of the past few days.
"Logan? It’s me," Max announced. Unconsciously, he straightened up and ran a hand through his unruly hair. He smirked to himself when he caught himself at it. She couldn’t see it. But somehow Max had always made him believe that he could be larger than life. The admiration that she held for him was noted and he always wanted to be at his best, just to see that admiration from her. He deflated a little when it hit him that there wouldn’t be many opportunities for that now.
"Hey Max, what did you need?"
"Well, I have some good news and some bad news," she hedged. Then with a sigh, she admitted, "I just don’t which is which."
"What happened?" he could tell immediately from her own weary tone that she was referring to the glyphs on her skin.
"Well, I got home from work today and noticed that the first mark had faded," she explained. Which Logan could see as being good news to her. But did that mean the others would fade away too?
"And the bad news?" he asked, a small smile lilting his mouth. She chuckled as well, glad that he was on the same wavelength.
"Another one showed up not long after," she offered softly.
Logan sighed and toyed with the plate before him. Did he say he was sorry? That seemed so pathetic. He had no control over the situation, yet he did want to express his sympathy to her. Not that he could ever understand what it was like to have weird marking suddenly show up on his skin. It was about one of the weirdest things he’d ever seen. And with her siblings and the transhumans from Manticore, he’d seen a lot of weird things. But at least all those things had explanations behind them. Albeit, there was a demented mind out there behind most of them. Logan pondered that for a moment. This whole thing would make sense at the end. He was sure of it. But just getting there was the tough part. He needed to have faith that it would explain itself in the end.
"Did you take a picture of it?" he asked finally.
"Yeah, Alec’s bringing it over," she told him.
"Alec is?" Logan spoke sharply. Despite what the transgenic said, there would always be a small corner of his mind that wondered about them. Hopefully just idle speculation. It was something he’d wondered about even well before the evening Alec had spent at her apartment.
"Yeah," Max went on. "It appeared on my right shoulder and I couldn’t quite get the angle right," she explained. "It kept coming out blurry. And Cindy was out, so I called Alec."
"That’s fine Max," he broke in. She certainly owed him no explanation.
"Okay," she muttered. "He should be there soon."
"Well, if he doesn’t mind, I might have him look over some stuff," Logan decided. He could almost see her nodding, biting at her lip as she did when she was nervous. "Call me if anything else comes up."
"Yeah, bye Logan." She’d hung up before he could make his own good-byes. But he said them anyway.
Alec showed up not too long after. He simply moved about his business, downloading the latest glyph on Logan’s computer while the older man continued to organize the reams of papers he printed out. Once Alec was done he turned to Logan to see what he’d been fiddling with. Logan held out the bundle of papers to him.
"Here," he muttered. "That newest glyph might be in there. Why don’t you look through them." Alec just shrugged and took the papers and then sat at an available chair. He glanced over at the sandwich that Logan had made earlier, still uneaten.
"You should eat, you know," he advised even as his eyes scanned rapidly through the material offered.
"Not really hungry," Logan grunted, seating himself before his computer again.
"Well you’re not going to help Max at all by passing out," Alec snapped out. He let the papers drift down to his lap. "I get that you want to figure this out, but neglecting yourself won’t get the job done."
Logan turned to face him. Something that had puzzled him from the very first niggling again at his mind. "Why do you care Alec? It’s not like we’re friends."
"No, we’re not," Alec agreed mildly. "But that doesn’t mean you’re my enemy."
"I thought everyone was the enemy," Logan chuckled without humor. Alec just grinned.
"That was Max’s mindset, not mine," he shrugged. "And I think that mostly came from big brother Zack’s influence."
"True," Logan couldn’t help but agree with that. In the beginning, that was how she’d felt. She’d changed, but she still didn’t just automatically take everyone and everything at face value. "But that still doesn’t answer my question."
"Got nothing better to do with my time," he shrugged. Logan nodded sagely. He remembered when he was younger. When the constant whirl of life as a bachelor had begun to lose it’s shine. Of course, that was what had led to his marriage to Valerie, that looking for something new, different and exciting. And once their divorce had been finalized, it was part of what had led him to Eyes Only. But was that truly happening for Alec? It had seemed to Logan that the younger man had plenty of time before that lifestyle began to pall. Especially since he’d only gotten free of Manticore, really free of it in the last few months. And there was always something else to take its place.
Logan shook his head and turned back to the computer screen, but all the images and words were starting to blur together. "Damn it!"
"What?" Alec asked blandly, moving to look over his shoulder. "Find something?"
"No," Logan sighed. "It’s that word. Hellmouth. It keeps eating at me. I know I’ve heard it before. But I just can’t remember!" He shook his head. Alec probably couldn’t understand how it was preying on his mind. After all, Manticore had designed them with accurate and total recall.
Alec sighed as well and retook his seat. "Word of advice Logan," he mumbled. "Relax before you give yourself a coronary."
Logan spun around in his chair. "I can’t relax Alec. What if it has something to do with this? And if I don’t remember, then something bad happens. Something I can’t fix?"
Alec stared at the older man, as if suddenly comprehending how much he did take upon himself. He’d always made jokes about Logan’s superhero complex. About how fanatical he could get about saving the world from the big bad things inhabiting it, when most other people were just inclined to make the best of it. But he was seeing now where it was coming from. Logan actually cared about these things. It wasn’t a job to him. He really believed that if he could help, then he should. And when he had the means to do it, he did. And while Alec wasn’t so inclined, neither was he so callous a bastard to turn his back completely.
"We don’t know it’s going to be anything…" he began, but stopped. That was just the problem. They knew nothing about this and every piece of information dropping into their lap was bringing up more questions. Perhaps Logan’s words did have merit. Rapidly processing that, Alec made a decision. "You’re right, it might be important. Would you do something if I asked you to?’
Logan looked slightly suspicious. "Depends on what it is."
"Nothing sinister Logan," he remarked caustically. "I just want you to relax and not think about where you heard that word. Just think about how you’re feeling right now"
Logan stared at him skeptically. But then sighed. Nothing else he’d tried had worked. He let his eyes drift shut and concentrated on what Alec suggested. He was tired, frustrated, and actually a little hungry. Alec’s voice continued to talk to him softly.
"All right, you’re hearing the word, Hellmouth. How does the voice sound of the person who says it?" Logan let himself float in his mind. There had been a difference in remembering that word. He let it flash in his mind.
"Soft," he answered. "Quiet. Familiar."
"Okay," Alec continued. "Was it a man or woman talking?" That answer was easy enough.
"It’s a woman."
"And how do you feel when you think about her?"
"Safe, loved," he answered quickly. "Young." That answer puzzled him for a moment until it all began to click in his mind. The soft voice, the scent of perfume that seemed to linger in the air. He opened his eyes and stared at Alec in shock. "It was my mother. She’s the one that said it."
"Really?" Alec’s eyes widened. He hadn’t expected that and he was pretty sure that Logan hadn’t either. "Did your mom know about Egyptian stuff?"
"No," Logan shook his head. "At least I don’t think so."
"Okay, close your eyes again," Alec instructed. Logan complied quickly. "Now picture your mom. She’s saying the word. Where is she?"
"In the kitchen," Logan answered, the image of his childhood home coming to his mind. "She’s talking on the phone."
"Are you there?"
"Yeah," he grunted. And he could see himself. A skinny kid, with too large glasses perched on his nose, scribbling something or other in a notebook. "I’m doing my homework." His eyes popped open again. "Huh? That was a long time ago."
"I don’t know," Alec smirked. "Seems to me you’re always doing your homework." He gestured at the computer and Logan smiled too.
"No, I remember it now," he explained. "When I was a kid. I had got home from school and my mom was on the phone. She was talking with her cousin. I had homework and while she was talking, she made me a snack so I could eat while I was working."
"Ah, I see. What were they talking about?" Alec wondered.
"Ah not much," Logan shook his head. "Same stuff as always, just catching up with each other."
"So why would your mom say Hellmouth." Logan’s eyes widened slightly.
"That’s right1" he snapped his fingers. "It was something her cousin said to her and I think she repeated it. Something my cousin said. Well, my second cousin. About the town they were living in."
"Well," Alec said firmly as he stood. "Now you know."
"Yeah," Logan agreed, then shook his head, but this time with a smile. "Still doesn’t help, does it?" He turned to regard Alec for a moment. "That was a neat trick. Where’d you learn that?"
Alec thought for a moment before answering and when he did, his tone was so flippant that Logan knew immediately it was a touchy subject. "You pick up a lot of things in Manticore. If you’re subjected to them enough."
Logan wisely held his tongue as Alec then continued to flip through the pages. "Hey! Here it is," he announced. He pulled the paper out of the ream and brought it over to the desk. They looked at it together.
"Offered freely?" Logan snorted. "What the hell does that mean?"
Chapter Four
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