By Catrina

It Started with a Mission

Chapter 4

By Catrina

A/N: Yes, Yes I know. It has been way to long since you have seen an update from me…I bet most of you had given up on me but… Ha! I had you fooled…here I am with a new chapter.

This is the first time that I have ever experienced writers block and I do sincerely apologize for taking as long as I did to post this chapter…as always I have no beta-reader so all mistakes are my own.

Enjoy!

00-00-00-00

So Max found Alec was a lot better at acting like nothing happened then she was. Because every time they even came close to touching she would blush, then she would get mad because dammit! She didn't blush and not because of Alec. She was stupid, and it didn't help that she thought of him before she went to bed and was pretty sure that she was dreaming of him when she woke up because he was her first thought every damn morning and that just wasn't fair when he could act like absolutely nothing was wrong.

Maybe this was what Karma was?

She had been so mean to him in the beginning and now this, maybe this is turn about fair play…but she didn't like it.

"Hey Max, we scored!" Alec said walking into her office like a proud king; arms spread wide and smile on his face.

Scored? Wow her mind went a scary place with that comment, instead… "Scored?"

Alec placed the backpack on her desk and pulled out a packet and then handed it to her. "You owe Dalton a huge 'thank you', and then Logan needs to kiss our feet." His hazel eyes were bright with laughter and his body language was completely relaxed…damn him.

"You got the software?" She asked looking at the packet then tearing it open… it looked just like a little disk to her.

"Poor Dalton had to dress up in the UPS uniform and everything…don't get me wrong a lot of people look good in that uniform, but brown is not his color." He flipped open his phone to show a picture of the poor boy, who did look awful in brown, but he seemed happy enough to be flipping Alec the bird.

"This is great…Thanks Alec." She let a small smile slip but she was still tense behind her desk. She knew that Alec knew too…damn bastard.

"I need to go and see Alyssa, she says she wants my blood, I think she just wants me." He turned and walked away, "Catch ya later Max…call me if you need me."

Then he was gone…

The man was insufferable.

And it pissed her off, but she was like that around Alec a lot. But she had never, ever shared a kiss like that with someone, and then just pretended like it didn't happen. She was used to it being awkward, or in Logan's case, deadly. And now he just walked around like he was fine with the world… that all was good and normal and well just…damn him.

"Max?" She looked up from her thoughts to see Jack there, she motioned the other woman in and the girl walked in and dropped into the chair. This was odd in its own; she never really got a lot of visitors.

"Well the food that Alec got will last us about one month. I was thinking that maybe we need to set up a regular day that we go and get food, so that we don't run into the problem again. Either that or rotate within in the week depending on the sector police. I spoke with Alec about it and he was up for the idea. He said that Raven had handled the pick-up yesterday, and that maybe it was something that he and I could be in charge of as a unit, and then report back to one of you on a weekly basis. What do you think?" It sounded like an idea, people never shared ideas with her, they always shared them with Alec and then he would pass them along. People only came to see her when there was trouble, like yesterday when Jack had said she was running out of food.

Max looked at the other girl and thought her plan through. "Who do you want to use for the actual pick ups?"

"I wasn't sure, I know that we did it with three last time, and Raven said that Alec didn't do a lot, but I think that he would have to go along for the first few times, simply because he is the face that everyone knows."

"True, and I doubt that Alec would have a problem with that, but are you thinking a team to go with you every month?"

"Well, I would like to add two more, just to make it go quicker; I don't like to have them out on the outside for that long."

"I agree, but I think that it should be the same people all the time, who did you have in mind?"

"Jer and Andy." Jack stated. Jer was an older X6, and Andy was a younger X5. They got along like brothers, but Max wasn't sure how well they would do in a team.

"Do you think that they would be able to work side by side, with Raven as a leader?" Max looked at Jack with all her attention. Since she and Alec had fought yesterday, she did realize that she wasn't always hearing what was being said. So she was trying to practice and in doing so, she decided to try to stop multitasking.

"I think that it is worth a shot."

"Okay, I trust your judgment, but since Alec will be along in for the first couple times, he has final say as to whether or not that team stays permanent. Okay?"

"Okay." Max noticed that the other girl relaxed when that was all said and done. Had she been nervous?

"Why did you come to see me, Jack?" Max asked her curiosity got the best out of her, but hell- it was in her DNA.

"Well, I threw the idea by Alec and he said that he had no problem but it was up to me to sell it to you."

Max lifted a brow in question and smirked a little, "Oh did he now?"

"Yup! Thanks Max, if it weren't for you and Alec, we'd be lost. Don't work too hard now." The other girl stood and walked out of the office and in that minute Max realized what he had done.

He had just made her office into the open door to ideas…

Damn him…why did he have to be smart too?

00-00-00-00

"So how's the cure?" Alec asked watching as his blood flowed out of the tube into the small file. It was the fourth one that she had taken already.

"Good, but I'm finding so much more in your blood Alec, it's amazing. So many of the problems, the aging, and the seizures, you never had them did you?"

"No."

"I didn't think so."

"I don't understand what you are mean. Max is the one with the perfect DNA."

"We she may have the perfect DNA, but you have the perfect immune system. There are X5s all around with specialties. I even heard of an X5 that had perfect blood before. My guess is that you and 493 were similar, and since I don't have your records and his records only have a few years it's hard to get real data. I have tested everything I have on file against your blood, everything from the warfare…"

"Which we all are safe against…" Alec interrupted.

"To the common cold, polio, flu, strep, nothing seems to even bother you. It's strange. Max may have perfect DNA, but she could, in theory, still get sick. You I don't think ever will."

"So anyway…the virus."

"Yes, I see promise, if that is what you're asking. But I know better then that…what's going on Alec? You are starting to act like you won't be here soon. I know how much you hate to delegate and you are letting other people work with you now." She was referring to him talking Dalton and Raven with him last night.

"I realized the other night…"

"The night you got shot?" Alyssa asked; Alec nodded.

"That any night, hell, any day someone could get lucky and Max or I could be dead. It's not right that I'm the only one with connections. Even if something happens to me, I don't want to leave my kind hanging."

"Alec, you could never do that. Not on purpose. You love TC."

"Yeah, I do."

"And you and Max run it well."

"I know." He said with a cocky little smirk, he didn't even try to defend against the smack to his head, sometimes he deserved it

"I'm done with you, get out." The words were mean but the smile on her face was kind.

"I'm out." He pulled on his sweat shirt as he left the building and pulled the hood up against the chilly wind. Rain was moving in because, yeah, his days always sucked. His thoughts drifted back to Max from this morning. He knew that he was being immature but seeing Max so nervous and edgy made him feel better. It showed him that that kiss, had meant something to her. To him it was most likely the best kiss of his life, but with the way that she had reacted he figured that she didn't feel the same. So he did what he always did, he put up his mask and moved on. But the way that she blushed, the way that she pulled away, even the way that she couldn't make eye contact said something about the way she really felt about that kiss.

His guess was that she liked it.

The problem he saw, was that she still saw him as just Alec, her friend, her SIC, another X5. She didn't see him as a man, an attractive man that was very attracted to her. Part of that may have been his fault because until now he had been trying to hide the fact that he lusted after the leader of TC.

So now what he really needed was a plan of action.

00-00-00-00

Why was it that every time she saw Logan she never really knew what to say? It was the same old Logan. He was tall, with brown hair, blue eyes red and hidden by his frames today, but still he was Logan.

"Hey you." She leaned in the doorway looking at him. He was attractive, very good looking for man older then her, but being around all the other transgenics had made her see that they really had been made beautiful. Just take Alec for example, his lean muscular body, his dark blond hair, his amazing hazel-green eyes, he even had freckles. And his lips, those amazing bow shaped lips, they had been very soft.

She shook her head and blushed when she realized that she had been fantasizing about Alec in Logan's apartment.

Damn him!

"You okay?" Logan asked his blue eyes studying her carefully.

"Yeah, I'm fine, just been a strange couple of days."

"Oh…" He drew out the word like he really didn't believe her, but was willing to pretend…like he always did.

"So, Alyssa, you remember her don't you?" She waited for a nod before she continued. "So she has been working on a cure, for the virus. I was told today that she was close."

"Really?" Logan looked up completely surprised.

"Yeah." She couldn't actually seem to make eye contact with him, Logan seemed to notice this.

"That's amazing; I didn't know that you guys could do that."

"Do what?" Max asked, she could already feel her ire start to rise, she tried to reign her temper in, but she could feel it bubbling under the surface.

"Well, be able to come up with a cure."

"We aren't just fighting machines, yeah, we know how to kick ass, and do you think that we don't actually know how to use the brains they gave us?"

"No, Max, I never said that. It's just that I spent all this time trying to find a specialist and none of them can help us but then you guys can?" His face seemed to show his doubt that they would ever find a cure at all, but she knew that he still held on to lingering dreams of them being able to be together in the future. She didn't have the heart to tell him that she didn't see the same future…not anymore.

"Yes, we can. Look I came here to give you that, now I need to leave, so I'm gonna bounce."

"All right, call me later." It came out a sentence but she could hear the question that it really was.

"Yeah, later." She turned and left knowing that she wouldn't be calling him for a while. Just like she knew that the next time they spoke it would have something to do with an Eyes Only mission. Because no matter how much he loved her, he loved being a hero more.

00-00-00-00

Alec smiled as he watched the combat training. The X-6s were really amazing. They caught on really fast but they did seem to get stuck in a rut. Often when they did matches or drills they paired up with people that they knew. And it gets to the point where it is predictable.

Just like when be spars Max, they have gotten to know each other too well over the time that they had spent running TC, so when they fought it was more to relieve tension. And he got that feeling when she walked in the door.

Max angry was a scary and beautiful sight at the same time. Her doe eyes held more of a gleam to them and there was a rosy hue to her cheeks. She also seemed to walk with more of a sway in her hips, it was one of the ways he first learned how to tell when she was angry.

He could tell by the way she walked to him. So he knew exactly what she was here for. She had been to see Logan and now she was pissed about something or the other.

He knew just as well as she did that Logan pissed her off more then anything these days. While he wasn't sure what the man said, or what the man did to make her mad, Alec knew that Logan did it every time he talked to Max. Now Alec knew that Logan didn't do it on purpose just like he knew that Logan had no clue that the two of them had grown so far apart already, but Alec also knew that Max for some reason what not ready to let go of the man.

His guess was that Logan was a security blanket, and she just had to drag it along with her for a little while longer.

Plus Logan had one thing going for him that Alec never would. He was a normal human.

He couldn't see in the dark, he couldn't smell the perfume a woman was wearing 20 feet away, he couldn't memorize blueprints in the blink of an eye, or learn to play the piano in day. He was just plain and ordinary. The one thing that Max wished she was 95 percent of the time.

So in the end Alec knew that he was screwed. Especially with the cure right around the corner. The most ironic thing however was that he was the key to the cure and he was just handing it right over to them. Sometimes he questioned his own sanity.

"Max, what's up?" He asked glancing her way. Fox looked a little off today, "Fox tighter on the top, you're going to let a fist into your…never mind." Fox was flat on the ground.

"You know yelling like that…"

"If they can't deal with me yelling, how will they be able to fight through gunfire?" Point to Alec…that was if he was actually keeping score… but he wasn't that kind of character.

"Do you need a hand?"

"You just need to beat someone up." Alec said a small smile. "What happened?"

"Nothing."

"Let me guess, he wants us to do something for an 'Eyes Only' mission, and he does not seem to realize that we are fighting for our livelihood here, all he really thinks about is the next person he can become a hero to. And the fact that he thinks we are…are fighting machines."

Her silence was his answer. She didn't really want to tell him that he was close enough.

"Max, he doesn't get it."

"I know."

"It's not going to change."

"I know."

"Why are you here?"

"I'm looking in on the training."

"Liar."

"Max, you can't keep coming to me." Alec looked at her his green eyes serious.

"Why not? Isn't that what friends are for?"

"I'm not going to be around forever." Alec mentioned and she turned her eyes on him in a glare.

"Where the hell else are you gonna go?" She propped her hands on her hips and glared at him and he knew at that time that he had most likely said something wrong.

"What if something happens to me on the next mission, huh?"

"Nothing's going to happen to you, not when I'm around." She crossed her arms across her chest and glared at him. Alec tried to think his way through this conversation. He really didn't know how to plan this conversation.

"Max, I throw myself into danger, just like you do, every day. Someday, someone out here will get lucky."

"Not on my watch." She muttered

"I'm not always on your watch."

"I'll make it so you are."

"Max what is this about?" Alec motioned Biggs over and then took Max by the arm. They were starting to distract the students. That was not a good thing. The young ones really did need to be able to concentrate on these things.

"I don't know what you mean."

"I mean that the closer and closer that Alyssa gets to the cure the more nervous you are about everything. If you don't want to be with Logan than it is time to tell him that. You know more then anyone that sooner or later you will have to let go of this idea that you can have a normal life. You are just like me, we are unintentional leaders of our kind and no one else can understand you but me, but I'm not a security blanket either." Alec looked around noticing that they were in a nice quiet corner, but still he didn't think that was quite enough. He grabbed Max's hand and walked with her out the door. He walked her down to the 'park' that could be found in TC. He sat down on a bench and then patted the seat beside him. With a huff Max sat down and once again crossed her arms.

"Even though we dance around it, I kissed you. There is no other way for me to really tell you what…" Max's hand cut him off.

"Can't we just pretend that that never…"

"Isn't that what we are doing now?" Alec asked. "Not working so great. Plus I would like to do it again sometime."

"Well I don't care; let's continue to ignore it until tomorrow. What else is on the agenda today?"

"Tonight we are taking the X-6s out."

"Beyond the fence line? They are getting antsy…" She agreed.

"Yeah, this should calm them down, and get them to realize the danger and that it's really not so great out there."

"They are going in twos?" They always went out with a more 'experienced' transgenic.

"Yeah. You wanna take one?" Alec asked her.

"Sure, you have one that needs a friend." It was always kind of fun to take out a younger transgenic. It did a couple things; it showed them that there was danger, but also how to lay low and how to act normal.

"Yeah, you can go with George."

"George?"

"You know her, I think you named her…" Alec had to think back, he couldn't remember all the people that she had named, he just remembered warning as many as he could to chose their own names unless they wanted them to suck. "So we still avoiding the issue?"

"Yeah…avoiding… how's the cure?"

"Done… Alyssa didn't contact you?"

"I just got back from seeing Logan." She reminded him, but it also reminded her why she was upset. "You know if all the people think like he does I understand why they don't like us."

"What do you mean?" Alec asked, glancing at his watch, they had 20 minutes. Right now they should be showering and would be meeting back in the dojo so that they could leave.

"He was surprised that we could come up with the cure ourselves. I think that they just see us as fighting machines and as monsters."

"As long as we don't fight they can't think that. Sooner or later they will see that was are human just like them…or close enough." Alec told her, slinging and arm over her shoulder. She sank into the comfort that he offered for just a minute or two before straightening up.

"Let's go."

They had started these outings after four of the X6 had left TC and ended up getting caught by White. One of them had been smart enough to hang back and not get caught and then ran back to TC to get Max and Alec. They had been able to get in that same night to get them, White and the familiars had not know about the forth member of the group and did not realize that they would find out so soon, so the kids weren't too heavily guarded. They were however punished with garbage detail for over a month. But after that had decided on having these outings so that the older X5's could take them out and teach them what to look for. Many of the younger ones that had escaped hadn't really known what was going on when they escaped, they had never been on missions, so they really didn't have a lot of common sense when it came to spotting danger. Only so many things can be taught in a book and common sense was not one of them…Manticore didn't specialize in it anyway.

When everyone met at the dojo they left in only 12 pairs of two. It worked best to only keep a couple in a sector. Today Alec was with Pom. Pom was a tall and gangly X6 that hadn't filled in his muscle yet, but it was obvious that he had the genes. He was taller then Alec, had blue eyes and black hair. He had similar facial features and more then once Alec had wondered if they had some of the same DNA.

The kids loved to go out with him and since Pom was 17, Alec decided that a strip joint was most likely the last place that they would run into a Familiar. He was wrong.

Sometimes Alec wondered about his luck.

Was it bad? Or did he just not have any at all?

"Pom, sneak out the back and go find Max."

"What?" The boy looked away from the girl on stage. When she turned her head he knew why White was here, that stripper was a transgenic.

"See that girl up there?" At his nod Alec proceeded, "What's special about her?" Alec watched as Pom focused on her, and watched looking for something about her.

"She's hot?" He wasn't seeing it. Pom shook his head and looked at her.

"Look harder." Alec ordered keeping his head low. Alec saw Pom's eyes widen as he saw what Alec saw.

"She's one of us." He said it on a gasp.

"Now look behind me, and find the familiar." Pom glanced back, he was smart enough to make it look like he wasn't looking for anything, and he looked to another girl and then looked back again.

"The guy in blue."

"Good, now move, sneak out the back and go find Max. Tell her White is here."

"Who is she with?" Alec was proud of Pom, he was acting very calm in the face of danger, and Alec could tell even then that his pulse was sure and strong instead of being frantic.

"George, now go." Alec watched as Pom blended with the crowd then disappeared from his sight. He sat watching the show, until he sensed that White was about to make his move. He moved up to the stage, acting like he was going to talk to the girl. Then he got up and looked back, he caught White's eye then headed for the exit. He just hoped that he had given Pom enough time to find Max.

He walked out the door, and then blurred down the block to what he suspected was an empty warehouse. White was right behind him.

"Well, well X5-494. I didn't think that I would see you again." White had looked surprised too when their eyes had finally met. "And I bet if you are around, then that pesky X5-452 is around too."

"Well you know that rumor about bad pennies." Alec said with a shrug of his shoulders. He had a gun on him but there was already one trained on him so…

Think…

Think…

"Well this time I'm not taking a chance." White said, and then with out preamble pulled the trigger.

Alec was already in motion, running to the side and up the stairs, he blurred through the stairs making it to the roof. Here, this was better.

White was faster then he remembered however, and it was a second before he felt a bullet ripping through his shoulder, he had been fast but not fast enough.

Damn…again? And why was it always the shoulder…at least it was the other one this time…

He barely saw the butt of the gun before it hit his temple.

Then darkness was all he saw.

00-00-00-00

George and Max walked back towards TC, they had went to a movie, sneaked in of course, went out to eat, and then hung out in the park. The walk back to TC was slow and boring, but Max had had a good time and George assured her that she had had a great time as well.

George jumped and Max turned toward her. "What was that?"

"I just got a text." She pulled out her phone, "I wasn't expecting that." She flipped it open. "It says White is after Alec." She looked to Max, who looked confused and startled. TC was already visible to them.

"Where are they?"

"I don't know." George answered.

"Ask him!" She ordered and the other girl, dialed quickly, "Pom?" Max grabbed the phone.

"Where is he Pom?"

"We went to a club. Sector 8, and he just showed up. One of the strippers was one of us." His voice was choppy like he was running and then she could see the boy in the distance.

"He took you to a strip club!?" Max took a moment to be enraged and then moved back to worried.

"He told me to go and get you." The boy stopped in front of them and disconnected the call.

"You two back to TC. I'm going to go get Alec. Have Mole send a jeep to sector 8." She ordered and watched the two X6s blur off to the distance and she was on her way. She ran faster then she could ever remember, to the point where she was sure that she couldn't be seen by human eyes. When she hit sector 8 she heard the gun shot. She followed her ears to a warehouse and saw that the door had been broken down.

Bingo!

She made her way into the building and she heard the second shot.

Damn.

She turned ran for the stairs scanning each floor as she went. Then she hit the roof. Alec was down on the ground, face first, pale and there was blood.

"Shot like the animal he is." White told her turning around and aiming the gun at her. "Just like you will be."

"I'm not that easy to kill." She told him, her eyes were burning into him and she could feel hatred humming though her veins.

But she could hear his heart; Alec wasn't dead, not yet. She still had time.

"Funny, he was." White turned his gun back to Alec, but Max ran forward grabbing his gun arm and bringing her knee up. On a normal person that would break their arm. White just dropped his gun. Max ducked as a fist came around and almost hit her face. She brought her knee up but it just hit his thigh not his crotch like she would have hoped. She turned the spin adding momentum as she brought her leg down on his back.

White stumbled away from Alec, but stood up. When he looked at her he straightened his tie and glared.

"I don't really understand why you fight so hard. Even you guys know that you're animals." He didn't give her a chance to respond just rushed forward grabbing her around the waist and aiming for the side of the building. She fisted her hands together and brought her elbows down right between his shoulder blades. He let go as he hit the ground.

He sprung back up, and he punched out with his fist and they dodged, and parried, exchanging blows and blocking as they could. White aimed a kick for her head and she ducked, then she was caught off guard with a sweep kick. She fell to the ground the air knocked out of her.

White had picked up a pieced of wood. She looked across the roof to see pieces scattered around. He held it; like he was testing the weight then was rushing toward her, like he was planning to stake her like a vampire.

As he approached she kicked her legs up and hit him in the midsection, she pushed him up and over her. She jumped back up to brace herself for the next attack when she realized that it wasn't coming.

White was gone.

Walking to the edge of the building, she looked over the edge. She had kicked him right over the edge. He was laying face down, with the wooden weapon that he had planned to use on her through his stomach. Even from here she could smell the blood. Tires squealed and for a second she feared that the cops were here already.

It was just Mole, and the Jeep that she needed. She motioned for him to come up.

She looked over to Alec, and then walked over to him. He had a large bruise on his temple, but the bullet wound had gone in and come out, and it was mostly a scratch.

She brushed the hair back away from his face and smiled just a little, he must have moved to avoid being shot fatally. He was pale and there was his blood on her hands but there was something that she had just realized

She couldn't avoid it anymore.

00-00-00-00

I think that the next chapter will be the end of the story. I would like to thank everyone for their patience for this story. Please as always, let me know what you think.

Thanks for reading,

Cat