Title:
Never Fade Away
Chapter
Title: You Lied!
Author:
Restive Nature
Disclaimer:
I do not own the rights to Dark Angel or Angel the Series. They
belong respectively to Cameron/ Eglee and to Whedon/ Greenwalt. No
infringement is intended and this fiction is for private enjoyment
only.
Rating:
PG-13 for language
Genre:
Crossover
Type:
General
Pairing:
Max/ Alec
Summary:
In his mind at least, her memory would never fade.
Spoilers/
Time line: Post Series for both shows.
Feedback:
Always welcome!
Distribution:
Ask first please.
A/N:
This is based off of Illynne's challenge from Nuns With Pens. But I
couldn't resist turning it into a crossover. Hopefully it will be
enjoyed.
Never
Fade Away
Chapter
One
“You
lied!”
Max's
head came up as the angry snarl of words hit her like a freight
train. That she didn't immediately recognize the voice caught her by
surprise. She glanced around and then over her shoulder to see Alec's
angry visage looming down on her. “Alec?” she was confused, until
she realized then, that he must have found out about her little white
lie to Logan. That was the only thing that could have caused this
amount of upset in the other transgenic. She sighed tiredly, ready to
explain and defend herself. “Look, I-!”
“No!”
Alec's voice cut in harshly as he took another step towards her and
Max, tried to control the sudden trembling that his mien was evoking
in her. “You've had your chance. You've had plenty of chances, but
no more Max. It's my turn to talk. You lied to Logan about us being
together. And I know exactly why you did it.”
“Well
if you know-!” Max began to interrupt, about to point out,
reasonably in her mind, that it was a very forgivable thing. How many
times had his little white lies, or worse, bigger lies and scams led
them into trouble that she had had to rescue him from? But Alec's
face darkened and her mouth snapped shut as his fist flew, resounding
with a crash into the locker behind her in the headquarters of Jam
Pony, the bike messenger service they both worked at.
“I
said it's my turn,” he hissed lowly. He pulled his fist back,
apparently not noticing where the skin over his knuckles had split
slightly and were beading with a few drops of blood. “I had
thought, Max,” he sneered her name, “that we had been through
enough together that we could be honest with each other. After all,
wasn't that what that night was about?”
Max
winced as she recalled the night he was referring to. The night she
had rescued him from jail and had then shared the truth of Ben's
demise. The real truth, not the assumed one in which Manticore had
caught up with him and had put Ben down, not wanting a psychotic
serial killer on the loose. That Manticore would be more concerned
with minimizing exposure than saving innocent lives went without
saying.
“And
correct me if I'm wrong,” Alec went on, towering over her and Max
fought not to try and duck away from him. Always stand tall, she
thought, even when she was in the wrong. Which she wasn't... exactly.
“But didn't we agree to be honest with each other from now on? I
believe your exact words were 'with everything going down, we
can't afford to leave anyone out in the cold'?”
“I
know I said-!” Max tried again, meaning that she hadn't intended to
lie to him, more like just not tell him everything, because really,
Logan thinking that they were dating was not that huge a deal in the
larger transgenic and transhuman safety issues.
“And
then not even six hours later, you're lying again?” Alec thundered.
Max licked at her suddenly dry lips, realizing with a quick, avoiding
glance, that they were drawing a crowd. She inhaled quickly, trying
to get the sentence out before he went on.
“We're
drawing too much attention,” she hissed and Alec's face took on an
amused look. But it was not one that Max liked. No, this was...
twisted.
“Well
heaven forbid the great Maxie Guevara get any more attention that she
doesn't want,” Alec whispered sibilantly. He stepped back from her
and tilted his head a little to the side. “Well, I'm not sorry to
say this,” he announced loudly, playing, Max recognized, to the
crowd that was staring unabashedly at them. “But it's over Max.
Guess you're too much of a bitch for even me to handle.”
Max
gaped at him and there were some snickers in the group. “Alec? I-
you...?”
“I,
you, what?” Alec demanded. He paused but there were no words
forthcoming from her. “Face it Max, you keep pulling the bullshit
you do and people are gonna get tired of it. I'm just glad I found
that out before you sucked me in even further. So this is it. We're
done.”
“Done?”
she asked faintly, wondering exactly how done he meant.
“That's
right Maxie,” he smiled, but it was one that did not reach his
eyes. Max had never seen him look so cold. “I'm breaking up with
you.” Her eyes widened, not because of the words that he had
chosen. There was nothing there, because he was, underneath it all, a
Manticore bred soldier. He could keep up pretense with the best of
them. It was the emotion underlying the words that stabbed deep. “New
quid pro quo. Don't ever call me again and I sure as fuck won't call
you.”
With
those parting words, he spun around on his heel and took off, away
from her at a steady trot. Max stared after him as the crowd parted
to allow him through. He snagged a package from Normal, who had just
been coming out from behind the desk to see what all the brouhaha was
about. But seeing that it had ended of it's own accord, he simply
glanced after his favorite worker and then snatched up his clipboard
and marked something off before returning to his desk. But his snippy
words, reached Max anyway.
“'Bout
time someone put Missy Miss in her place,” Normal snarked under his
breath.
“A'ight,
this ain't no show,” Original Cindy's strident voice, loud and
authoritative broke through the slight haze that Max found herself
in. “Back to work people!”
She
felt her friend's hand on her arm and quickly shook it off, ducking
her head as she suddenly realized that she wasn't seeing Cindy
because there were tears in the way. She blinked rapidly for a few
seconds until the moisture passed away, luckily not down her cheeks
as she feared they would. She turned back to her locker and went back
to what she'd been doing just a few minutes previous.
“You
a'ight Boo?” Cindy asked gently from beside her.
“I'm
fine OC,” Max rolled her eyes and shook her head. “Just typical
of that creep to make a scene like that. Doesn't ever listen to
anybody, does he? Thinks he knows everything and when he finds out
that he doesn't, it's all me, me, me! He's just an attention whore,
ya know?”
“Uh
huh,” the black woman shook her head, but it
didn't even sound convincing to Max's ears. Nevertheless, as she
always seemed to when something had attacked her, she turned right
around and attacked back. The next half hour, found Max and Cindy on
runs together with Max complaining about Alec's supposed
shortcomings. Until at last even Cindy seemed to have had enough of
it and had waited until Normal had thrown another package Max's way
and Cindy had claimed that she needed to eat before she keeled over
from low blood sugar. Not seeing it for the escape tactic that it
was, Max had herded her to the employee lounge, claiming she'd see
her friend in a bit.
*****
“So
you an' Max were datin'?” Sketch asked, pulling up next to Alec as
their returns to Jam Pony coincided, though it was obvious to Alec
that the lanky man was looking for something more. “Niiiice,” he
drew the word out and Alec threw him a glare.
“Not
so much,” he disagreed. “In case it slipped your notice, that
chick is venomous.” A poor joke really, given the givens, but
Sketch was simply not aware of the truth and as much as Alec would
love to clue someone in, he cared too much about his skin and those
of his co-escapees to give up the goods now.
“So
seriously though,” Sketch continued, apparently oblivious to the
warning signs that Alec was sure were glaring like neon from him.
“Now that she's all free and clear...?”
“Seriously,”
Alec repeated Sketch's words and clapped his hand on the stoner's
shoulder until he gave in and looked Alec in the eye. “The bitch is
so damaging that I wouldn't even wish her on my worst enemy. Don't go
there Sketch.”
“Okay,”
Sketch breathed out, after studying the intensity burning in Alec's
eyes for a long moment. He shook his friend's hand off and then
frowned. “So after that little snafu, how you gonna handle havin'
to work with her?”
“Who
says I'm going to work with her?” Alec grinned slyly. Sketch's eyes
widened and then followed Alec's gaze over to Normal. And ready to
put plan into action, he strolled over to the desk where the boss man
was bipping out orders and with a suave charm envied by many, had his
routes cleared to the point where he and Max would only be in each
others vicinities by happenstance.
*****
Two
weeks had gone by and at first, Max had relished in the relative
peace. Sure, she got nasty looks from all the girls at work, but
since she'd never really been their friend to start with, it mattered
little to her. And since none of them knew Logan, there were no
worries there with letting that little secret slip to the hacker and
having him try to re-establish their impossible relationship.
But
then, she'd find herself turning to tell Alec something, whether
important about plans for Terminal City or just something funny about
her day, but he wasn't there, close to hand or hovering over her
shoulder as he often had been. At first, she told herself that she
was relieved that she wasn't having to bail his ass out of trouble,
or that she didn't have to listen to him whining, or regaling Normal
or Sketchy with obviously self-inflated stories of his awesomeness.
In fact, she had noticed real quick that she rarely ever saw him
anymore. He wasn't showing up at Crash for his nightly pool game and
Scotch with Sketchy. Which had depressed her blond friend. And
neither did she see any of the other transgenics that Alec had snuck
in under Normal's radar hanging around.
Finally,
after about three days, in which her temper had cooled and she
erroneously assumed that his had as well, she went over to his
apartment to make overtures. Something that she rarely did, even when
she was blatantly in the wrong. She was more likely to rationalize
behavior, rather than straight up admit the wrongness. And it was
fair, she reminded herself. Life was not black and white. There were
too many shades of gray in between.
But
Alec had not been home that evening. So she had trailed over to
Crash, thinking he might be there, but again no joy. So she had
headed over to TC, thinking perhaps he was visiting his buddies down
on Oak street. But none there had seen him. One of the transhumans,
Luke did give her a heads up about some trouble down on the
waterfront that they'd been tracking, but so far there was nothing of
note to worry about. So Max had put that in the back of her mind for
the time being.
That
night had ended up a bust. So she swallowed her dislike of public
scenes and arrived at Jam Pony early the next morning. She was there
as he wheeled his bike in. He saw her, she knew that he did, but he
just ignored her as he dropped of his bike and headed to his locker.
Figuring that there'd be a slighter modicum of privacy than the main
room had, she followed after him. But he'd completely frozen her out.
And did so every single time she tried to talk. It was like she
didn't even exist anymore. It hurt and pissed her off, but she
finally decided that if he wanted to be childish about it, that was
fine. She was the bigger person after all, so she decided to let him
have his little snit fit.
Until
the day came that she couldn't ignore his ignoring her any longer.
“Go
for Max,” she answered her cell phone that she blatantly ignored
that Alec had scored for her after that night in her apartment.
“Max,
it's Luke,” the transhuman announced. She waited. “We got a line
on what's up with those waterfront buildings.”
“What's
the what?” she demanded as she cased her surroundings with a
practiced eye. She had just been about to head down to Crash on her
baby, play a little foosball with her roommate and forget about the
evils of men for a while.
“We
had contact with a group, mixed, coming in from the cold,” Luke
informed her. “We directed them through perimeter sector police.
They were in the city proper when we lost contact. That was six hours
ago.”
“Why
didn't you call me then?” she demanded harshly, even though she
knew that was not protocol.
“Because
no news is good news?” the transhuman answered and Max wasn't sure
if he was being facetious or not. “Anyway, Dix picked up a private
surveillance feed and got the line. They were abducted out of an
alley. Looks like those goons you warned us about.”
“Familiars,”
she huffed out and swore silently. Just typical that White and his
merry band of morons would ruin her night. “You know where they're
at?”
“They
were held down in those waterfront warehouses you were worried
about,” Luke informed her. “We managed to get an operative close
enough to put a tracker on one of the vans goin' in.”
“And?”
she prompted.
“It
just came on line,” he offered and Max smiled grimly.
*****
Alec
was just lacing up his second boot when the pounding on his door
started. He checked himself from answering immediately. Before, he'd
have had no compunction about answering, but ever since he'd started
ignoring her, she had swung by a few times and tried to walk in as
she used to. So now he waited. The peephole in the door was a bonus.
But this night was different.
There
was no pretense at knocking. The banging was immediate and instantly
followed by her voice raised to be heard through the door. “Alec?
Open up! We got a situation.” He sighed and frowned, realizing that
one of the transhuman yahoos down in Terminal City must have called
her as well.
With
a swift decision making process, he decided that her help was better
than doing this on his own. And so, he finished with his boot, yanked
on his jacket, made sure he had the keys for his lime green Bandit
and the transponder that he'd already picked up and made his way to
the door. He yanked it open in mid-pound and jerked back from being
knuckled in the face.
“Oh
Alec,” Max looked startled that he actually answered. “Did you
hear me?”
“The
whole friggin' building heard you,” he snarled as he intimidated
her back out of his space so that he could pull his apartment door
shut. “How the hell you evaded the man for as long as you did,
given that your stealth is for shit, I'll never know,” he more
muttered than said.
“What
was that?” Max demanded as she scurried to follow after him. But
still tired of her attitude and her spurious logic and just the
simple fact that he was obviously nothing more than a tool to her,
kept him quiet. He just hoped that she would get the hint sooner
rather than later. “Look Alec, Luke called. Some friends are,”
her voice dropped and he wanted to roll his eyes, “in trouble. We
need to-!”
“Yeah,
I got it,” he snapped as he hit the stairwell. “Let's go.”
That
shut her up easily enough. Her Ninja was parked next to his recently
purchased Bandit and he had a momentary misgiving that he'd chosen
such a flashy color. But then, he hadn't imagined that he'd be doing
more than a little joyriding on it, not rescuing more freaks like
him. Switching on the transponder receiver that was linked to the
tracking bug, he mounted his bike and nestled it as best he could,
strapping it down to the fuel tank with a small bungee cord. Wouldn't
do to have to stop every few miles to check the route. From what he
could tell, they weren't out of the city yet.
He
thought he heard Max start to ask another question, but the roar of
his bike forestalled anything she might say. He pulled away and could
see in his side mirror that she was right behind him, looking as
usual, righteously infuriated. He wondered if someone had given her
some sort of ice maiden gene that froze her face like that. He
allowed himself a small grin for a moment and then focused on the
business on hand.
They
were only stopped by sector cops twice. Both times, Alec used his
loose shirt top and jacket to cover the transponder and none of the
cops noticed anything. Luckily for Max's admittedly fine ass, he
happened to have two travel passes with him and the simple tale of,
running up the coast to see his cousin who just had a baby, was
easily accepted. Max wisely held her tongue the first time, the
second, took only half a second before gushing on about how cute the
baby was sure to be and she couldn't wait to hold the little bundle.
The guy had smiled indulgently and waved them on.
“Nice
story,” Max had grunted as they'd moved on. Alec rolled his eyes.
The woman was oblivious to everything, wasn't she? Had she even
noticed the guard station was littered with pictures of the guard
with his family, the newest crop of pictures that hadn't curled at
the edging, was him holding a baby at the hospital. One of the
lessons he learned well was how to ingratiate himself with strangers,
give them some common ground and tug on the heartstrings.
They
ended up driving about sixteen miles up the road before Alec noted
that the transponder image had changed direction. He easily hooked up
his wireless headset and called in to base to get some idea of what
they were heading into, while he was sure he heard Max loudly
grumbling about him having to call his nightly hook-up and let the
girl know he'd be late. If he showed up at all. By that point, he was
ready to leave her ass in the dust and let her figure things out on
her own.
“They've
turned east,” Dix confirmed. “Not a lot out there immediately.
But about ten miles in, you'll hit a town. Fairly small population.
They're two and six, make that eight miles ahead of you. If it stops
in another four, we'll have the location, but I'll plan out further.”
“Thanks
man,” Alec replied to the quickly given Intel and hung up the
phone. He checked his phone to make sure that it was currently set to
auto answer. Max pulled up closer and yelled over the wind.
“How
much further?” she demanded, it sounding like a whisper. Alec
simply raised two fingers and then gestured to the east. He felt more
than heard or saw her disgruntled grumble as she fell back slightly.
Alec
saw the turn and while barely slowing, leaned into it. It took him
onto a dirt road and he smiled, knowing that his Bandit was made for
this kind of ride. But apparently, Max had already thought of this
possibility or knew this area enough that she had slowed
considerably. Alec glanced at the transponder again, noting that it
had slowed as well, but was still moving in an easterly direction. He
heard then the distinctive tone of his phone and the click as it
picked up.
“Yo,
what's up,” he greeted, unsure as to whether it was Dix, Luke or
someone else entirely.
“You
want to tell me what's going on, moron?” Max's voice rang clear in
his ear. Pursing his lips and removing one hand from his handlebars,
he pressed the end call button. After just a second, it started
ringing again.
“What?”
“Don't
you freakin' hang up on me Alec!” Max yelled in his ear and Alec's
hands tightened convulsively.
“Shut
up Max!” he resounded fiercely. “For two fuckin' seconds in your
life shut up! I need to keep this line clear for Dix, so that we know
what the hell we're rolling into. So get the hell of my line or go
the hell home!” And then with a satisfied smirk at her affronted
gasp, hung up on her a second time.
The
phone rang immediately again and Alec rolled his eyes, considering
stopping for all of the two minutes it would take to yank her off her
bike, hog tie her and leave her on the side of the road. With the
Bandit, because admittedly that little Ninja was doin' just fine, it
was a better color for concealment and it would so piss her off
mightily.
“I
swear to God Max-!” he began as soon as the call picked up, but an
amused chuckle broke through.
“Is
she on your ass again?” came the familiar tones of one of his
former unit mates, 964, now known as Bruno. The man was quite
familiar with the problems with Max, as Alec had used him as a rant
board a few times.
“In
more ways than one man,” Alec sighed. “What'd you need?”
“All
right, walked in to HQ and they roped me into your little project,”
Bruno replied, suddenly all business. “Anyway, about three miles
beyond that town you're headed to?”
“Yeah,
what'd you find?”
“There's
an old abandoned bed and breakfast just off the main road,” Bruno
informed him. “It's been empty for years, but about six months ago,
it powered up,” Bruno went on. “Gas, electric, water, all on
line. And there's plenty of outbuildings, not sure of their
condition. Barn for animal, quonset for vehicles. I'd search those
first. It'll be a mile north at the turn off. Watch for that.”
“All
right, gotcha man,” Ale returned and scanned the upcoming road
signs. “Hey, you know the name of the B&B?”
“Uh,
looks like the Flowering Springs B&B,” Bruno supplied. “Why?
You want me to make you a reservation?” he teased.
“Oh
maybe a massage would be good after all the ass kickin' I intend on
deliverin',” Alec smiled. Max had certainly put him in a foul
enough mood tonight. The grin stayed on his face
as he was able to make out the information, faded as it was, on one
of the road signs that Bruno had just given him. “Got it man. We'll
pull over here. Hide the bikes. Radio silence from here on out.”
“Gotcha
man,” Bruno replied easily. “Good luck. I think you're gonna need
it.”
The
line disconnected before Alec could reply. Pulling the ear piece from
his head, he stuffed it back into his coat pocket. A simple
depression of a button on his cell, holding it and he could faintly
hear the chimes, shutting his cell off. Knowing the Familiars
slightly and their abilities, he didn't even want to take the chance
that they'd hear the buzz if someone called him while the phone was
on silent.
Seeing
an excellent spot to cover their vehicles, Alec slowed and pulled
closer to the ditch. He knew that there was no way that he'd be
losing Max at this point of the venture, so he had decided that he'd
be professional. As long as she was. And he was
pleasantly surprised when Max followed after him, picking up on the
fact that they were hiding the bikes and there was probably a damn
good reason for it. She took care of hers efficiently and then helped
him finish his, needing more cover to hide the lime green tank.
“So
what do we got?” she asked, her voice low and hesitant, as if she
were unsure that he would answer. Alec was glad and honestly, a
little triumphant at holding all the cards this go around.
“Tracked
the van to this bed and breakfast,” Alec began quietly as they
crossed the road, looking ahead for the quickest, quietest, easiest
way to traverse the fields. There wasn't much cover, some random
seeming trees here and there. Luckily they were both dressed for
this. But then again, with her penchant for black, Max was always
dressed for this. “Place is go for occupation,” he reported, his
words rapped off in a staccato beat, resolved to treat her as just
another soldier while on this mission. Hopefully she'd get the idea
and back the hell off when it was done. Not that he held out much
hope for that. “Our people are most likely gonna be in one of the
out buildings.”
“Do
we have any Intel on the amenities the B and B was providing?” Max
asked from beside him and he chanced a glance at her, the sporadic
cloud coverage giving him enough light to see her shadowy form. She
was looking straight ahead, but he could hear the tremor in her
voice. Something was bothering her, but it was none of his concern,
because he wasn't hers. He pushed the thought away.
“Speculation
on that,” he replied, checking the transponder once more. It was
still stationary. “964 thinks there'll be some quonsets, maybe
barns.”
“They'll
probably hold them in the barns,” Max mused quietly. Alec had been
thinking the same thing. “Stalls for animals can be quickly and
easily reinforced and they'd probably want to separate our people
from one another.”
“Agreed,”
Alec nodded once. “But, just because that's what we'd do...”
“We'll
have to check both,” Max agreed. Her strides were lengthening and
Alec was glad. For so long, he'd always checked himself to match her
shorter stride and had unconsciously been doing so again. They picked
up the pace.
“You
take the quonset and I'll take the barn,” Alec decided. He
felt Max gear up immediately into one of her ranting protests and
threw up a hand to cut her off. “No arguments or I'll leave your
ass in the dust.”
“No,”
Max protested stubbornly. “I was just gonna ask why you're taking
the barn if we both figure that's where they are at?” she retorted
and Alec shook his head in resignation.
“One,”
he held up a finger as they moved through a small copse of trees,
“since they'll most likely be there, it's better someone our people
don't despise out of principle approaches them. Two, we need to get
this done as swiftly as possible, so splitting up makes sense. And
three, we need the Intel if any of the familiars are spread out,
waiting for us. Okay? Does that pass muster for you?”
“That's
fine,” Max's clipped tone betrayed her ire and Alec fought his
smirk.
“All
right,” Alec nodded. “Quiet now.” He chanced another glance and
as the cloud passed by the light of the moon, he could see the
thinness of her lips as they pressed together angrily.
The
miles in were covered quickly, and they found no sign of Familiars
patrolling the area. It worried Alec slightly, because this was
starting to feel like the earmarks of one of their enemies typical
traps. The truck, once stopped had never moved. It was making him
rethink that their people were being held in a barn, because most
animal shelters were not large enough to drive a vehicle into, unless
of course it was a small utility vehicle. But they couldn't discount
the possibility that their people had been removed from the vehicle
and moved to their holding cells.
They
came up on the bed and breakfast and paused, both of them falling
naturally into their training. Alec could only hope that Max wouldn't
take it into her head to go off on one of her tangent plans and fuck
things up for them. If she did, he was about tempted to let her stew
in her own damn juices. But he knew that he wasn't that vindictive.
Max
was hunkered down, by a fallen tree. She held up her hand and Alec,
from his position twelve feet away, turned his head warily to watch
her. Like an obedient, well trained soldier, she started informing
him of the Intel she was gathering from her position. She marked the
number of buildings and he found that she had caught sight of one
that he hadn't made. Her vantage point was fine and he nodded when
she paused. She marked the three out buildings that she would need to
search and the order in which she would move on them, starting at the
closest and working her way to the furthest. Alec agreed with that
and when she stopped, she dipped her chin once to him.
He
returned the favor swiftly, picking out the barn closest to them,
then the second barn, then what she had claimed to be a chicken coop.
The coop was closer to them, distance wise, but they both knew that
Alec would have to cross open ground to get to it, if he went after
the barn. It was better to circle around the perimeter than to risk
being seen. That decided, Alec made a call signal and Max waited.
'Whippoorwill
if you find them, dove if there's distress,'
he instructed and rolled his eyes at her annoyed look.
'Birds
don't call at night,' she
complained. 'Shouting would be a good indication, don't you
think?' Even with their sign
language she was being a smart assed bitch. And here Alec was just
trying to help her. Well screw that! Ignoring her once more, Alec
assessed the area and then moved off to his first objective. He heard
her indrawn breath, like she was going to protest, but then thought
better of it.
As far as he was
concerned, he was pretty much on his own. And that, he told himself
resolutely, was the way he liked it.
