Alphabet

A/N: Thank you to everyone who reviewed! I apologize for any errors that might be in this chapter. I don't have a Beta right now, but I've done my best to look through it for any errors.

Disclaimer: I don't own Dark Angel or any of the characters. The prompts are nickeldime17's, not mine, and I won't even pretend that my attempts will be nearly as good as hers.

L – K+

Last

They had managed to last this long. Barricaded inside Terminal City, they survived. It wasn't the lap of luxury, but none of them had ever really experienced that before anyway. It wasn't really freedom either, but it was a lot like it and that was something. That was more than they'd had before, and that was something too. At least, if you were Max it was something, and if you were Joshua it was something. But to others... it was just a cage with a little less structure, a little less reliability. You can take the soldier out of the training, but you can't take the training out of the soldier. That was how Logan tried to explain it. Max thought that was stupid, because she wasn't anything like that. When he pointed out that, well, who had been using her powers for petty theft in the not too distant past, Max had sniffed and left Sandeman's house with an indignant "I gotta blaze." That was for survival! How else was a girl supposed to eat?

Things were different now. They were working hard to get on the legit side of things. The government was eyeing them, they were doing their best. The world was going to see eventually. It was just going to take time. Everyone would see. Everything was going to work out. They would be completely free eventually. The world would accept them and they could live happily ever after just like all those stupid fairy tales. Max knew it. They hadn't worked this hard, lasted this long for it to happen any other way. Sure, protests still happened just outside the barricade, and sure the sector cops were more than a little prejudiced. But that was human nature, right? You were suspicious and you hated the things you weren't familiar with, but then you accepted them. Happened with minorities and women in the past, now it was their turn. Max was optimistic.

Max was wrong.

It wasn't the first time that the human race had systematically eradicated anything. Genocide was nothing new, and Max was fighting so hard to believe that things could be normal that she never saw it coming. Was blind to it like she was blind to so many other things. The news reports, Sketchy's intel, she turned a blind eye to all of it. Things were going to turn around. They just had to wait. But even the great Eyes Only, with all his hacks, couldn't change the opinion of the blind masses. The fearful. Humanity had a herd mentality, just as base and animalistic as anything cooked up in Manticore. When the herd panicked? They stampeded. Only the blind, dumb fear that gripped the public wasn't so dumb and it wasn't so blind when you got to government levels. It was armed and it was fixated. And Terminal City? Made a perfect target.

Logan got the information to Max barely forty-eight hours before disaster was scheduled to rain down on them. The sector cops had tripled in their numbers around the barricade, and Dalton had reported seeing tanks roll into Seattle earlier in the morning while he was out on a run (that he shouldn't have been on, but that, despite Max's orders, Alec had let slip). They were locking down and closing them in. Blocking all exits so that, when the air strike happened, they had nowhere to run.

Mole, predictably, was the first to blow up. He shouted and he raged and he threw things for a good half hour. Max couldn't get a word in edgewise. Luke and Dix simply sat aside quietly, Joshua was more confused than anything else, and Alec bided his time. Dalton eavesdropped just outside the commander center with a handful of his buddies, determined to figure out what was going on despite having been tossed out on their asses by a livid Max. At least, they were determined until Alec pulled the door open and caught them. Mole's booming voice instantly flooded the hallway and Dalton scrambled back. His buddies all made a run for it, but Alec caught him by the front of his sweatshirt. The blond X6 flashed a sheepish smile that was his best attempt at looking innocent, but Alec's hard gaze had him opening his mouth to apologize before the older X5 even said a word. Alec didn't get a word out when there was suddenly a surprised bark from Joshua, followed by the telltale sound of flesh making contact with flesh and then a stifled cry from Max. Alec instantly released the mischievous X6 and wheeled around. Mole was seething, hand still fisted, and Max was hauling herself up off the ground with a murderous look on her face, lip clearly split open.

"Get out," Alec was the first to speak as Mole rested his shotgun on his shoulder and Max stalked toward the scaly transhuman. Both stopped and looked at him, but Alec was only looking at Mole.

"What's the matter, Princess, your girlfriend off limits or something?" Mole drawled, completely unimpressed with Alec's sudden anger.

"I said get out, Mole. That's an order," Alec pulled rank without the inflection of his voice changing an ounce. The muscle in Mole's jaw ticked as he glared hard at Alec, and the room settled into a tense silence. The two had an uncomfortably long macho stare down and just when Max was about to make a remark, Mole growled and stormed past Alec, slamming his shoulder into him and sending Alec staggering a few feet to the side. "Don't go away angry, just go away!" Alec called after him in a mockingly cheery tone. The door hadn't even slammed shut and he was already heading over to Max, one hand lifting up so he could rest it against her face - but she immediately slapped it away, glaring. "I just want to-"

"We have work to do," she snapped and brushed past him. Alec turned around, a bemused look on his face and he rolled his eyes.

"I'd call it running for our transgenic lives to be more accurate," he commented, shooting a look to Joshua, who nodded conspicuously and shuffled over to Dix and Luke, shepherding the other two transhumans elsewhere - the order already given. He was going to catch hell for it later, but Alec had talked to Mole long before they all got into a room together. Max would never agree to going to ground, but Alec knew what had to be done.

"We're not going anywhere," Max said, true to form, and Alec sighed. "I just need to get Clemente on the phone. Or Logan can do something. We just need to work this bitch out," she said and Alec scoffed.

"They have bombers on their way here, Max. Were you even listening? Tanks, sector cops. We're going to be lucky if we get out of this at all," Alec leveled seriously. "We need to grab what we can, trash any computers, delete databases, we need to cauterize-"

"Don't talk like that!" Max interjected, voice rising. "Don't talk like that. This is our home, this is our-"

"This is going to be our grave if we don't get moving!" Alec cut her off.

"No, we'll figure something out," Max insisted blindly. "We'll figure something out. We'll take precautions, but we can do this. We can make a stand."

"We won't be making a stand, Max, we'll be making the last stand if we stay here!" Alec barked. "Get it through your head: they're going to blow this place off the map and we need to not be here when it happens."

Max stared at Alec for a handful of seconds, dark brown eyes flooded with a dozen different emotions, and he could practically see the wheels turning in her head. Moments ticked by and Alec hoped she was getting it through her skull. Max swallowed and, just when he thought he had managed to get through to her, she let him down. "No. We're not going anywhere. I'll talk to Logan and-"

"The order's already been made, Max," Alec admitted guiltily, clearing his throat and not looking directly at her. "Me and Mole worked it out before we even came down here." Max stared at him, jaw slack and eyes wide. "I knew you wouldn't want to budge, but no one else wants to be a martyr. No one else needs to be."

"I can't believe you!" she erupted after her voice finally came back to her, and Max was shocked at just how utterly betrayed she felt. Alec, of all people! Just when she was beginning to trust him. "How dare you-"

"Save the self-righteous guilt trip for later, Maxie," Alec said, lifting up a hand. "Listen."

She fell silent and just when she opened her mouth to tell him that he knew she hated that name, Max tensed. Clear as day, even as faint as it was: gunfire.

"The calvary's early, I'm betting," Alec said and he strode forward, hand clamping on Max's elbow and he hauled her toward the door. "We gotta blaze and we gotta blaze double time," he said, and for the first time, she realized how strained his voice was, how tense he really was. This was real. This was really happening. It had taken her down to the very last instant for her to finally piece it together, but now it crashed into her and if it weren't for Alec dragging her along, she wouldn't have been able to move.

He hauled them both through the building and burst through the door only to instantly reel backward when gunfire showered around them, pinging off the doorframe and the door. Alec shoved Max backward and threw himself inside as well, slamming the door shut and locking. The wounded hiss he gave told Max what she needed to know.

"You got shot," she said, tone almost accusing.

"Had to. One last time, for nostalgia," Alec quipped and they rushed to find another way out.

It proved almost impossible. They could hear gunfire, hear people storming through the building. "It makes no sense!" Max insisted, "I thought they were going to drop bombs."

"Flushing us out, corralling us," Alec answered stiffly, his good hand clutching his wounded shoulder as they hurried through the building, keeping low and quiet. They finally made it to an exit that wasn't being watched and Alec peeked out to make sure the area was really clear. He turned to talk to Max when he suddenly realized it was suspiciously quiet. They slipped outside and Alec glanced up just in time to see a jet scream by, the sound following seconds behind the craft. "Oh shit."

The first bomb took out a building a few blocks over and Alec let go of his shoulder and grabbed hold of Max's hand, yanking her after him as they blurred through the empty streets, heading for the closest entry into the sewers. The sound of the explosions were almost deafening, and it wasn't until the building they were racing for burst into a cloud of brick, smoke, and fire that Alec realized they probably weren't going to get out.

"Max! Max," he stopped abruptly, and she turned around to shoot a panicked look at him.

"We're almost there, what are you doing?" she shouted at him, glancing over her shoulder in the direction of the sewers that were only a few short blocks away. They could be home free in a few minutes. She didn't like the resigned look on Alec's face. That look that was so hauntingly, painfully familiar. The sweat that was on his brow, the pale color his skin had taken on with the blood loss, that look that was a mixture of fear and defeat. "No way," she shook her head and reached for his arm. "Not gonna happen Hot Boy," she insisted, but Alec pulled his hand away. Another explosion near by caused the ground beneath them to shudder.

Three years of living in Terminal City. Longer since he'd first laid eyes on her, not quite as long since he'd called her a good friend. Not nearly as long as he counted her as something more. And it was all about to get blown away. He could hate her, if he had more time. Hate her for being stubborn, for that goddamn martyr complex she was always so quick to embrace. But there wasn't time for that. She read his face, and Alec hated that look that dawned across hers. He stepped back from her again, putting more space between them, because it was easier that way. The building beside them shook with an explosion, but Alec barely heard it. One last chance to get out what he wanted to say. He'd made the mistake of not telling Rachel and he wasn't going to make that mistake again.

"Max-"

The world lit up and then went horrifically black.

Max woke up and her head was throbbing. The light was so bright it burned while her eyes were still shut and she squeezed them tighter in an attempt to ease the glaring red that was blinding her. She groggily attempted to run through her mind and figure out why she was where she was... which, she realized she needed to find out where that was before she could do that. Cracking one eye open just slightly, she only took in some really bad wallpaper when it all rushed back to her.

"Alec!" Max's eyes snapped open and she sat up. Immediately, hands were on her shoulders pushing her back down and she struggled against them.

"Calm down, Ice Queen," the gruff voice could only belong to one person and Max's brown eyes finally focused on the large, scaly, incredibly irritated transhuman.

"I'm gonna kick your ass, you slimy traitorous-"

"Calm down," Mole cut Max's angry rant off prematurely, repeating himself in a bored tone. "You ain't kicking nothing for awhile, Your Highness," he pointed out. And, after taking a moment, Max realized he was probably right. Especially with the way the world was suddenly spinning. She slumped back down, wincing at the soreness that was radiating through her entire body.

"Where's Alec?" she insisted weakly, trying to look around and see if there were any other familiar faces.

"Hell if I know," Mole said carelessly. "I was too busy hauling your carcass underground." He chomped on his cigar, the only sign that maybe he was uncomfortable with the topic. "Call it a casualty," and with that, he got up and walked out. Max barely had time to shoulder the guilt and the grief that was crashing onto her shoulders before she slipped into unconsciousness again.

"Little Fella," the thick, chuffing noise filtered through her mind, and Max distantly felt a pressure on her hand. It took a moment for her to realize that it was enveloped between two much larger ones. "Little Fella awake?"

"Joshua," Max's eyes fluttered open and, after a moment, Joshua's large face came into focus incredibly close to her own. "Hey Big Fella," she offered quietly, voice heavy with weariness, pain, and grief as Mole's parting words filtered back through her mind. Her eyes started to cloud over with tears and Joshua frowned.

"Max in pain?" he asked, concern etched into every syllable.

"Yeah, not just physical," she admitted apologetically. Would Joshua forgive her for getting his good buddy Alec killed? "I'm so sorry, Joshua," Max apologized tearfully. Who else had been lost?

"Very touch and go," Joshua commented gruffly, sniffling. "Little Fella almost bought it," he added helpfully and Max couldn't help but wonder who had taught him that turn of phrase.

"Joshua, about Alec...," she started uncomfortably.

"What about Alec?"

Max snapped her head over to the door of the room, and she stared blankly for a handful of moments. "Cat got your tongue?" the horrible, stupid turn of phrase left his mouth like nothing had happened and she wanted to throttle him. Or kiss him. Or kick his ass for a week straight. Or hug him. Or punch that stupid grin off his face. She didn't know. But there he was, in all his stupid, no-good glory. His arm in a sling, a bandage wrapping around his head and leaning on a crutch. What an asshole.

"Mole said-" she trailed off dumbly.

"Mole's just bitter I pulled through," Alec said with an uncomfortable shrug, and he's never been more relieved to see anyone in his entire life. The blast had knocked them both down and out, and for some suspicious reason (the lizard claimed he forgot his cigars) Mole had found them both and hauled them to safety. Alec had been ragging on him from the instant he had regained consciousness. He knew the transhuman had a soft spot somewhere! "He doesn't want me blabbing that he came back for his two most favoritest transgenics ever," Alec quipped with a soft smile. It had been a day, and he had been terrified that Max wasn't going to wake up. Not that he'd ever tell her that. He'd come so close to showing her all his cards there at the last second, but now... he'd tucked them all back up his sleeve. Alec caught himself in what could probably only be called a gaze, looking over Max, and he quickly cleared his throat. Confessions would have to wait for another time. "Hated to crush his dreams, but what can I say? I'm built to last."