Knocking on Hell's door
As with all of these stories, DA is the property of 20th Century Fox, James Cameron and Chris Eglee.
This story takes place three years before Tima's Story and fills in some gaps that have been mentioned in both it and in Kito's story. Bear with me… I hope you enjoy it!
Darwin
Prologue: The Loss
The year is 2027….
"Do not attempt to adjust your set, this is a Streaming Freedom Video Bulletin. The cable hack will last exactly sixty seconds, it cannot be traced, it cannot be stopped and it is the only free voice left in this City…
"Manticore X-5 has lost one of its own… Max Guevera died in a hail of gunfire yesterday, her killer… Donald Lydecker… The head of the Manticore project…and her own creator. He is a man of power, who has in the past claimed the capture of the missing X-5's, his 'Children', as his top priority…
"That priority is no longer the capture of the rogue X-5's… it is to terminate them and quickly. Any X-5 with in the sound of my voice… take heed and stay alive. Don't let Max's death be in vain.
"This has been a Streaming Freedom Video Bulletin…"
Logan listened as the announcement played and echoed for the fifth time from the TV's set at each end of his Penthouse. He felt numb, detached, unaware of the tears streaking down his own face as the details of Max's death played again and again through his mind in horrifying bloody clarity.
Flashback:
It was a quiet spring night, as Logan and Max made their way slowly home. It was still chilly out but neither of them felt it. They said little as they turned down the street and headed for the shortcut through the park. They had just finished a wonderful evening out celebrating the happy news, dinner, dancing, and even a movie that had been halfway decent to watch. Now they were just enjoying each other's proximity.
Logan glanced over at Max smiling warmly, then his eyes drifted down to her waistline slightly larger, evidence of her pregnancy. His brows furrowed, before yesterday, he hadn't even noticed it, but now that he knew it seemed to stand out like a signpost. Four months… and neither of them had known.
Logan and Max had been married just over a year, and they had found out just the day before that "the rabbit had died". It had always been hard to tell with Max, her cycles were odd due to her genetic enhancements and they had not had a clue until she started to get sick several times a day over the past week. Logan had insisted that she go in and be seen, and though she had been reluctant he had finally convinced her. Sam had confirmed it, and Logan had been ecstatic.
Max wasn't so thrilled about it however, she hated getting sick, even if she was happy to be starting a family with Logan. She had an even smaller appetite than usual and almost everything that she did eat tended to come right back up. It was almost to the point where she stopped trying.
Tonight she managed to keep her highly expensive meal down and she looked happy, so Logan was doubly so. She smiled back at him noticing his gaze, and squeezed his arm tighter as they headed down the last leg of their return trip to their shared Penthouse suite.
Logan paused, Max continuing on, as an odd feeling passed over him, it was something he didn't recall ever having felt before. It was almost like an anxiety attack, only much more acute, a feeling that something bad was about to go down. Logan looked around him quickly, knowing something was wrong but unable to explain why he knew.
Max stopped just a few steps ahead of Logan and turned back. She was still smiling but her brows were knit together to express her confusion at his sudden halt, "Logan? You OK?"
Logan blinked as the sound of her voice jarred him into motion again, "Yeah, fine," He lied still glancing around him. The feeling in his gut intensified until he thought that he was going to lose his dinner.
As they continued on Logan's eyes locked on an anomaly, and against his wishes they refocused bringing it into close up detail. The involuntary act made him dizzy as his brain fought to filter what it was seeing. That was the newest of the still surfacing abilities that Max's blood transfusions had brought on, and it was not something that he was either used to or comfortable with happening. He had no control of it yet, and it was more a nuisance than help. He blinked several times trying to process what he was seeing as his eyes began to water.
Max followed Logan's gaze drawing in a sharp breath as she voiced what she saw, "Lydecker's men," Max whispered pulling at his sleeve, "We'd better get out of here."
Logan's lips thinned as Max's words gave what he was seeing the proper relation, and his brain quickly used it as a template to assign the proper interpretation for the next time his eyes did that. Unfortunately his eyes would not refocus to normal, and as he turned to follow her he shook his head unnerved by the sensation. It was playing hell with his retreat.
Max stopped short and Logan looked up with watery eyes seeing that they were now surrounded. They stood side by side sizing up the opposition, "You ready to try out those new legs of yours now?" Max jibed him deadpan, reminding him of his unwillingness to practice his newfound abilities prior to this.
He looked briefly up at her face before averting his eyes again, "Right now I'd settle for not being able to see every pore of your skin in microscopic detail," Logan retorted still trying to get his vision back to normal, if it didn't change his depth perception was going to be shot and he would be worth nothing in a fight anyway.
She looked back seeing his overly dilated eyes, "Shit," She grumbled realizing the problem that posed, she turned back looking to a spot down the alley a bit, "see that wide spot in the troops off to the right?"
Logan looked that direction, relieved when the change of focus jarred something loose and his sight returned to human standard, "Yes."
"That's where we're headed. Use the bin to get a leg up to the second story," She instructed him.
"Do I have a choice?" he said grimly.
"No."
He drew in a deep breath letting it out slowly before saying, "Alright."
They waited a count of ten before moving watching anxiously as the circle of guards began to close them in. Max tensed next to Logan and he reacted in kind as she ordered, "GO!"
They both sprinted diagonally across the alley headed for the spot Max had pointed out, as guns lit off all around them. Logan cried out and collapsed as one of the bullets tore through his left thigh rolling with a thudding stop into the bin he should have been on top of. He grit his teeth as the wound began to bleed profusely laying both hands on it to try and staunch the flow.
Max stopped and looked down at his incapacitated form, she began to climb down to assist him in gaining his feet. He looked up at her shaking his head to stop what she was about to do, "Forget me… go! It's you they're after!"
"But you?" She asked, not willing to leave him behind to fend off the soldiers not with what he was capable of now, if they found out he'd end up another Manticore experiment.
"They don't know about me!" He argued through his pain. He glanced back up at her again, as she remained shaking her head mouth agape, "Damn it Max… Listen to me for once! Go!" He growled as the soldiers came upon them.
Max's reaction was slow as she turned and leapt to the second story ledge, she gained momentum as she leapt immediately for the third floor. Logan watched her go through tears of pain, then glanced at the soldiers that were now surrounding him, watching in indifference as he slowly bled out on the alley floor. Logan was unsure now of what they would do with him. Surely they would use him as bait, to bring her to the rescue.
"Shoot her!" Logan heard a familiar voice boom, and he whipped his head back to get a look. There stood Lydecker watching Max's retreat, not even glancing at his people, knowing they would follow his orders unquestioningly.
"No," Logan protested weakly.
He watched in what seemed slow motion as one of the guards near Lydecker hit one knee, took aim and fired three rounds at Max's retreating form. The gunshots seemed to echo forever in the alley, and he saw her body jerk as each found a mark. She lost her footing hanging by her arms from the ledge of the third floor. She tried to regain her footing unable to manage it as her consciousness ebbed and her grip relaxed.
Logan was forced too watch in silent horror as she lost her tentative grip on the ledge and fell back to earth. Logan jumped up in spite of his pain, pushing through the soldiers around him and running to where her body had landed. He screeched to a halt as he found her staring in disbelief at her broken and unmoving form. More slowly he knelt down and gathered her gently into his shaky arms.
"Max?" He asked softly his voice raw.
Her eyes flickered a moment and then slowly opened looking into his distraught face. She smiled a small smile, "I'm getting slow, too much good living," She tried to joke, but her pain was evident.
Logan tried to smile but couldn't bring himself to do it. He could see in her eyes she was slipping away from him. Even her genetically enhanced body couldn't cope with three bullets and a three-story fall. His tears began to fall on her face as her eyes rolled back into her head and her body went slack in his arms.
"No," he whispered burying his head against her neck, as his shaking became more profound, "No Damn you!" He cried, unconsciously rocking her limp body back and forth.
The last thing he remembered was the sharp pain before blackness overtook him.
He had wakened to the sound of approaching sirens dizzy and ill from loss of blood but coherent enough to realize Max's body was no longer in the alley with him. They had taken her body and left him behind to live or die, as fate might want. He cursed Lydecker in his own head, unable to form words before he lost consciousness again.
Present:
Logan wished many times in the past twenty-four hours that he had died there beside her, instead he was left behind, to deal with the aftermath of Max being gone, he wasn't sure that he was strong enough. Logan opened his eyes looking around the Penthouse, so quiet now… it had been filled with sounds when Max was here. She would shuffle about always singing or talking to him or herself depending on the day. Then there was that awful Rap Music that she had insisted on listening to. Now he could only wish that last night had been a nightmare and she would stroll by the study, as she had every day for the past year. He wished he would play just one more rap song to drive him crazy and ruin his concentration.
But it hadn't been, the harsh reality was that she was gone… and with her their child. Logan laid a hand onto his bandaged left thigh, another piece of shrapnel to add to the list, and this one carried an even heavier toll than losing the use of his legs had. This was not as permanent, but it was definitely more painful, physically and emotionally, than paraplegia.
If he had only trained harder with what she had taught him none of this might have happened. If it hadn't been for him she would have escaped, she wouldn't have lingered, and she would still be alive right now. His eyes pinched shut and one fist came down hard on his left thigh, shocking his system, reminding him again that he had survived with only the wound he had suffered at Lydecker's hands. He held in his cry of pain at the act and felt the warmth as the wound began bleeding again, ignoring it as it quickly soaked the bandage…was nothing in his life ever going to be easy?
He slowly drew his hands away and reached for the crutches. He awkwardly stood hopping on one leg as he adjusted the crutches under his arms, then slowly headed for the couch in the living room. He couldn't bring himself to try and sleep in the bedroom after what had happened. There were too many memories of them in that room and it would be too much for his already shredded emotional state.
Logan lowered himself gingerly to the couch and swung his legs up onto it, grimacing in pain. Slowly he covered his chilled body and tried unsuccessfully to go to sleep