Strong and Bright

DISCLAIMER: All "Dark Angel" characters belong to James Cameron and Charles Eglee (Cameron Eglee Productions) and "Dark Angel" itself belongs to FOX.

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Photo courtesy ofJensen Ackles World

Strong and Bright
By Valjean

This is a stand-alone story following the events of Max Allan Collins' DARK ANGEL novels SKIN GAME and AFTER THE DARK, and incorporating information revealed in D.A. Stern's THE EYES ONLY DOSSIER. -- author's note

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Colonel Donald Lydecker wriggled his hands into a pair of latex gloves and stepped forward to examine the prisoner. Naked, his wrists and ankles strapped down with cruel tightness, his badly bruised torso restrained in a five-point harness, his head immobile in a vice, the young male X5 lay with eyes closed, barely breathing.

The laser that had been delivering its agonizing red beam into the transgenic's retina and brain had been turned off, the fiendish device momentarily pushed aside. However, the results of the hideously painful torture could still be seen in the way the X5 occasionally twitched in his shackles, the unconscious 'tic' a remnant of the violent seizure the boy had just suffered.

Lydecker touched the X5's hand lightly, then traced a finger up his blood-streaked muscular arm to stop at the elbow crease where numerous needle punctures oozed red. The look in the New Manticore CEO's pale blue eyes was one of infinite sadness and loss, but his words were as cold as the sleet coming down outside the Seattle lab.

"Put him down."

"But sir," the doctor standing beside him spoke up, a look of disbelief in his pale grey eyes. Slender and slightly stooped, with wisps of thinning blonde hair covering his balding head, the lab-coated Manticore tech stared sympathetically down at his "patient." "You went to a great deal of trouble to recover this one in particular. You said he was an invaluable part of your plan to rebuild Manticore -- that he had the breeding to be one of your best soldiers."

When his boss remained silent, the medic implored, "Give me a day, two at the most, and I can stabilize his condition. I know he hasn't provided the information you want -- the secrets of Terminal City, a way to acquire the girl, their defenses -- but surely he's far too valuable to simply destroy. His broken ribs will heal. Other than that, there isn't any significant physical damage ..." His words trailed off as he saw they weren't having any affect on the colonel.

Lydecker smiled grimly and shook his head, even as a single tear of regret slid from the corner of his eye. Removing one rubber glove, he reached up and gently ... fondly ... stroked X5-494's soft dark blond hair, brushing it back off the boy's feverish forehead, a disturbing caricature of a father soothing his sleeping son. Then, his fingers trailed lower, lightly, almost reverently, touching the light beard stubble that had sprouted on his captive's jaw and upper lip during his three days of torture. This body, if not the soul it contained, was something very precious to him. Suddenly, another tremor ran through the young transgenic, and Lydecker squeezed his eyes tightly closed.

The doctor wondered if the sadistic bastard was praying.

"I said put him down," Lydecker repeated, his voice cracking. "He's worthless to me as a soldier. I'd hoped he could be salvaged, made to cooperate, be returned to the fold. But I was wrong. I should have known this one wasn't going to give her up, not after-- But still ... I'd hoped ..."

"But, sir--"

"Take DNA samples and prepare the body for organ harvest. At least this way some of my loyal kids will benefit from their traitorous brother's existence in this world."

"Sir," the doctor said, trying yet again. "One more round of the psychoactives might be all it takes to get him to give the information up. If it hadn't been for the seizures he probably would have broken by now. I know we had to stop the interrogation because it was killing him, burning him out -- the X5s are flawed in that way -- but let me stabilize his nervous system and we could try again in a couple of days."

Lydecker wasn't even listening. "Use morphine," he said quietly. "It should be relatively painless for him ... humane. He's suffered enough for her already." The colonel was running his hand through 494's hair again, petting his precious imperfect soldier one last time.

"His brother was psychotic, you know," he said, more to himself than to the medic, reminiscing. "His twin, 493 ... Ben ... Who knows? This one might have snapped eventually too. As it is, he's undergone reindoctrination twice before without success. Like all of the X5s, he was created too independent minded -- but this one in particular ..." Lydecker shook his head again. "He's just too damn stubborn. We could never trust him, back then or now, which means we have no use for him other than as a source of information about 452 and the other Terminal City X5s. But he won't betray them. I did my work too well, back when I was training my kids to resist interrogation." He looked to the doctor. "The morphine?"

Reluctantly, the doctor moved to take a vial off a shelf, then he loaded a syringe with a lethal dose of the clear liquid, enough to stop the hearts of three ordinary men.

"Put it in the I.V. line," Lydecker instructed, indicating the tube running into one of the bloody holes in 494's arm. He started to turn away, for some reason finding himself not wanting to watch as the X5 breathed his last ... as that big brave heart stopped beating ... as he lost yet another of his kids.

"Sir," the doctor said desperately, the needle poised but not yet inserted into the line. "About the DNA samples ..."

"Yes?" Lydecker said without turning around.

"What about semen? This is an X5 alpha breeding male. Surely the Committee wants to keep samples of his sperm."

Lydecker sighed heavily, then chuckled. "I suppose the boy's spunk is worth a king's ransom, isn't it. A million dollars an ounce, perhaps?" He waved at the quivering X5 strapped down on the table. "You have ways of getting what we need. Do what you have to, but I want his organs harvested by nightfall."

"Yes, sir," the doctor said, setting the needle down and moving to a cabinet on the far side of the lab. However, the sudden sound of gunfire outside made him pause. Startled, he looked to his commander -- but Lydecker was already gone.

*****

He was warm, floating in softness ... silence ... at peace. All around him was nothing but cozy comfort and a vague, but immensely satisfying feeling that he was loved. Even his mind was quiet ... resting ... released from the horror of--

Horror of what?

Alec's eyes snapped open, a lifetime of training unable to ignore reality. But oh, how he hated to leave that place of wonderful safety and solitude ... Had it all been a nightmare? Was he still dreaming?

He'd been so cold ... And they'd hurt him ... He swallowed, wincing at the rawness in his throat -- raw from screaming -- the laser beam ... the agony ... the drugs ... the questions ... Lydecker ...

But now ... Where the hell am I? Dead maybe? Is this what Heaven is? A warm bed and no pain?

He stirred and tried to move, was relieved to find he actually could move -- his arms and legs and other appendages apparently relatively intact (Although his ribs hurt like hell. So much for no pain ...). The last thing he truly remembered was hearing Max scream, and blurring to help her ... running onto a highway ... dodging through traffic ... There had been a monstrously large black SUV bearing down on him with a soldier at the wheel. And then--

Nothing, until he'd awakened to find himself strapped to a torture table and Lydecker looming over him demanding to know how to access 452 and the other Terminal City X5s. The Committee wanted its soldiers back, he'd been told -- now that the siege was over and the public hysteria had died down. The X5s were especially desired. Lydecker was the chief executive officer of New Manticore, and he wasn't going to take "no" for an answer.

Alec also remembered spitting in the bastard's face -- but after that everything was just pain and chaos in his brain.

He moved again, and realized there was soft fuzzy blanket covering him as well as something else rather heavy pressing on his stomach. The mattress beneath him was almost decadent in its comfort, the warmth truly feeling like the Heaven he'd been imagining to his sore abused body. Shifting one arm he saw he was wearing a dark T-shirt with a very large flannel shirt layered on top of it. (The sleeves were so long they were covering his hands.) Moving a leg, he recognized the feel of sweatpants, again a size or three too large.

The room was dark, but Alec's cat eyes had no trouble focusing on the arm draped across his midsection, holding him in a firm yet gentle embrace. What the ...?

And then he recognized Joshua, seated on the floor beside the low bed, his big shaggy head resting on that outflung arm as the Big Fella softly snored. Joshua's holding me ... watching over me ... keeping me safe ... I'm home ...

And with that wonderful feeling of reassurance, Alec closed his eyes and drifted off once more to a place of deep sleep -- a place where his body and spirit could heal.

*****

"Where are the secret tunnels leading into Terminal City? Where can the security be breached?"

"Go to hell!"

"Give him another dose."

"No! Please!"

"Just tell me how to capture Max, son, and all of this will stop."

"I'll die first!"

"Unfortunately, that's a very real possibility. Doctor, where's that needle?"

"I don't belong to you any more! None of us do!"

"And there's where you're wrong, 494 ... so very, very wrong ..."

Alec screamed, the sound incredibly primitive, as the needle plunged into his arm and the laser beam once more penetrated his cat-sensitive eye.

Logan Cale pressed the stop button on the videotape machine, unable to watch that horrific scene again. They'd liberated the recording from the lab where he and Max had found a barely alive X5-494. He'd already watched the entire tape three times, making certain Alec hadn't revealed any of their secrets while under the influence of the psychoactive drugs ... while undergoing the torture ... and each time the young transgenic giving voice to his agony at this point made the hair on the back of Eyes Only's neck stand on end.

Poor Alec ...

"It's bad, isn't it?" Max said from the basement doorway where she'd just come up the steps. Below lay the passage leading to Terminal City -- the transgenics secret way in and out of their colony when they didn't want to use the front gate. "What Lydecker did to him?"

"Bad, yes," Logan said tiredly, taking off his glasses and rubbing weary eyes. "But it could have been a lot worse. If we hadn't gotten Alec out when we did ..." His voice trailed off.

"They would have killed him," Max said quietly. "They'd have killed Alec because he'd never have given us up, nor would he ever have allowed himself to be turned."

"They were going to kill him," Logan said, remembering the last bit of the videotape that showed what had transpired in that chamber of horrors just before the rescue. "Lydecker had already given the order. The good guys were in the proverbial 'nick of time'."

"Oh, God," Max said, her hand going to her mouth. Then she raised dark eyes to the man she loved. "I should probably watch it, shouldn't I? I mean, I'm the leader. It's my duty to--"

"No!" Logan said quickly, and a bit more loudly than he intended. And off her strange look, "Believe me, Max. You don't want to see Alec going through this. He shouldn't ever see it either. It's incredibly ..." Words failed him for a moment, then, "degrading for a human being to be treated the way he was."

"That bad?" she whispered.

"Worse."

"But he never gave anything up? We're okay staying where we are, in this location? They don't know our strengths and weaknesses?"

"We're fine," Logan said. "Alec was ... incredible. I know I could never have held up the way he did. No ordinary human could."

"Alec's Manticore," Max said softly. "And stubborn as hell. His allegiances aren't won easily, but once he picks a side-- watch out. He's in it for the long haul." She smiled a little. "I never really realized that about him before. How loyal he is. It's one of the few traits he shares with Ben. I'm just glad the side he finally committed to was ours."

"How is he?" Logan asked. "Alec I mean?"

Max shrugged. "Joshua won't leave him, not even to get something to eat. I just took the Big Fella a couple of sandwiches. He says Alec's been awake once or twice, but what he really needs is to sleep for a week. Even an X5 has his limits ... And those seizures do take a toll, not to mention the broken ribs. Mole keeps hovering around outside the door too -- says he's just passing through but I can tell he's worried sick about his favorite boy."

Her eyes clouded. "When I saw him hit by that SUV I thought he was dead, Logan. The way it crashed into him ... flipped him over the hood ...and then he was just lying there in the road ..." She took a deep breath and looked away, out the window. "I tried to get to him," she whispered. "But Lydecker's men were too quick. They took him before I could--"

"Max," Logan said. "Stop blaming yourself. We've got him back now, and he's going to be fine." He thought a moment, then added, "But you know, I wouldn't tell Alec we have this tape. There's no need to know his ... ordeal ... was recorded for posterity. I imagine it would embarrass him to no end, knowing we ... I ... saw him like that, so helpless and scared."

"And brave," Max added with a little smile. "Don't worry. As far as I'm concerned you can burn the thing, now that we know what's on it."

"I'll probably do just that," Logan lied. "Don't you have a meeting at five?" he reminded her, glancing at a clock on the wall.

"With Dix about getting water hooked up to the new barracks," Max said with a sigh. "Duty calls." She headed for the basement door, but paused at the top of the stairs to look back at him. "Thanks, Logan, for checking out that tape for me. I don't think I could have stayed sane seeing Alec being hurt like that."

"Don't mention it," Logan said, returning her smile. However, as soon as the door closed, his expression grew grim. Reaching over, he punched the 'play' button on the tape machine again, forcing himself to watch .

"Why won't you give her up, 494? I don't understand. She's just a girl. Why won't you give me Max?"

"None of your business!"

"Why, damn it! Why? Are you in love with her? Are you in love with her like you loved Rachel Berrisford?"

There was a very long moment while Alec lay with his eyes tightly closed, his naked chest rising and falling in harsh pants. Then, his voice hoarse from screaming and exhaustion, the words difficult to understand--

"Yeah ... I love her ... I love Max. I love her so much ... And fuck you if you think I'm ever gonna let you hurt her."

Logan slammed his hand down on the tape machine, shutting it off, silencing for the fourth time the words he'd always feared he'd one day hear.

And then-- he spent a very long time just staring at the wall.

*****

"How is he?"

Joshua looked up at Max standing in the doorway. "Better," the dog man said in a hushed voice, gently stroking Alec's shoulder. "Sleeping. Sleeping lots."

"Rest is the best thing for him," she said. "He's healing. But ... how is he?"

Joshua knew what she meant. He shrugged, shifting his position on the floor beside Alec's bed so his back was against the frame. "When he wakes up he makes jokes. You know Alec."

Max quietly walked to the other side of the low bed and dropped to her knees, studying Alec's sleeping face, his relaxed features. He looked very, very young ... "He probably wants to pretend it never happened," she said, her tone still hushed so as not to disturb the wounded X5.

"You know Alec," Joshua repeated. "He's strong ... and bright. He's survived this before, Max. He'll survive again."

Joshua meant torture, and Max shut her eyes tightly, remembering the tape and the things she hoped she'd never have to see.

Alec stirred, and she bent over him, her cool fingers caressing his hot forehead ... his bearded cheek. "He's going to want to shave first thing," she said with a little smile, brushing the back of her hand against the stubble. "And get a nice, long hot shower at Logan's." She looked over at Joshua again. "Luke says all the drugs should be out of his system by morning, that he'll feel a lot better then."

"Max," Joshua said, reaching across the bed and putting his big hand on top of hers, reassuring her ... "Alec will be all right. Alec's always all right."

"I know he will be, Big Fella," Max said. She knew she ought to go back to Logan's ... talk over Terminal City issues with him ... see if he needed anything, be with the man she loved. But Alec looked so helpless lying there, all tucked into Joshua's oversized clothes, his chest rising and falling gently.

Logan could wait, she decided -- just for tonight. And then she eased herself onto the bed beside Alec where she curled up against his side, helping him stay warm, while Joshua's arm came around both of them in an embrace as protective as any either of them could ever hope to have.

This was family. This was home. And even without Logan here, this was love.

THE END

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