ARCHIVE: No

Artwork courtesy of Jensen Ackles Museum

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

Photo courtesy of Jensen Ackles Museum

*****

They gave her three days alone -- and then he was back.

"Your blood isn't going to be enough," Lydecker said, cutting straight to the chase. "This pathogen is going to ravage the world for generations to come and we're going to need an ongoing source of the antibodies. Unfortunately, the elements Sandeman endowed you with can't be artificially manufactured, and you, alone, can provide only a limited quantity of the raw source."

"Meaning?" Max asked dully. She hadn't eaten or slept since he'd last seen her. She knew only the colonel's influence had kept the doctors from taking her away for forced feeding. He'd told them he could persuade her cooperation, but time was running out, not just for her, but for the world.

"Meaning, you're going to have to reproduce," the colonel said. Your offspring will almost certainly carry the antibody factor as well. You'll help mankind survive today, but your children will be the salvation of tomorrow."

"Do what you want with my body," Max said in a monotone from where she lay curled in a fetal position on the sparsely padded bunk. "Take my eggs. I don't care."

"We no longer have the facilities or skilled personnel for in-vitro fertilization and embryo implantation," Lydecker said. "A significant number of Manticore's best minds have already succumbed to the plague, and many of those who remain have gone into hiding hoping to avoid infection."

She finally looked up at him then, her brown eyes widening. "You're saying I'm going to be artificially inseminated then?"

"The doctors would prefer natural copulation," Lydecker said. "There's a proven higher pregnancy success rate that way, especially among the X5 females we've studied."

"So, you're gonna have me raped?"

Lydecker winced, then sighed heavily. "It would be better for everyone if you cooperated, Max."

"No," she said coldly. "I can't stop you from using my body, but I sure as hell don't have to help."

"Very well," Lydecker said calmly. "Several potential X5 males are currently being screened to see if their DNA is compatible enough with yours to produce a healthy baby. Most of them are tried and true Manticore soldiers who will gladly follow orders."

"A real gang bang then?" Max said with a rueful smile. "I can't wait."

"Only one will be chosen to be your mate," Lydecker assured her. He turned to leave, but then, at the last moment, he looked back at her -- and played his trump card. "It's too bad you rejected X5-494. He's actually the most compatible male in our stable. But he's also the one soldier we know would refuse orders to forcibly inseminate you."

For the first time in days, Max felt the fog of despair that had been enveloping her lift a fraction. "Alec?" she said. "Alec's alive?"

"Very much so," Lydecker said. "At least for today. Unfortunately, he's being even more uncooperative than you are. But then again, even if he appeared to acquiesce to his fate we wouldn't be able to believe him -- not with his history of deceptive behavior." The colonel's blue eyes pierced her with a knowing look. "Manticore has no use for a soldier it can't trust. He's been kept alive and relatively unharmed up until now because we'd had hopes you'd willingly accept him as your mate." He shrugged. "But I can see that's a futile idea. Neither of you are going to play nice." Once more he turned to go.

"Wait!" Max shouted, running to the bars. "What will happen to Alec? What are you going to do with him?"

"Kill him ... eventually," Lydecker said matter-of-factly. "But first the forensic boys want to have some fun with his body -- pain tolerance for X5s, healing factors, perhaps cyborg limb implantation and rejection studies. Then, what's left of him will be harvested for organ transplant." Suddenly, the colonel dropped the nonchalant tone and gripped the cell bars, his face mere inches from hers. "They'll tear that boy to pieces Max. I know you loved Logan, but don't you have feelings for Alec too? Isn't he at least your friend? Accept him as your mate, talk him into the deal as well, and you'll both be a lot better off."

"Why?" Max cried in exasperation. "So the two of us can be together a few weeks, until I'm pregnant, then you'll haul Alec off for torture anyway and my baby will be taken from me when it's born?"

"You'll need to have lots of children, Max," Lydecker said. "Lots ... of ... children. If your offspring are like their mother, with the antibodies, then Alec, as the sire, would be considered almost as valuable as you. The Committee is frantic to start a successful breeding line from you, Max. If that means you, Alec, and the offspring of your union staying together as a family unit, then that's what could very well happen."

"Alec, me and our babies?" Max scoffed. "Living like animals in a cage in a zoo with everyone watching us? No thanks. I think we'd both rather be dead."

"That's Alec's fate then," Lydecker said coldly, "And his demise won't be fast or pretty. You're condemning him to a horrible death."

Max closed her eyes, a sudden vision of handsome smart Alec in her mind.

"At least talk to 494, Max," Lydecker implored. "Give the boy a chance. Believe it or not, in spite of his intractability I really don't want to see him destroyed. He's one of the best X5s we ever created, his genetics a rare and unique combination, his DNA as stable as it gets with your series, a one-of-a-kind since 493 was killed. It would be such a damn waste ..."

"All right," she whispered, the colonel's pleas and her own loneliness eating away at her. She looked up at her captor. "Bring Alec to me, and then leave us alone."

Lydecker nodded grimly. And then, for the first time in days, Max saw the man smile.

*****

"Max?" Alec said as he warily looked around her cell. "What's goin' on?"

Barefoot and dressed in green hospital scrubs, the young X5 looked exhausted and disheveled, but didn't seem to have been physically harmed -- yet. Lydecker had been telling the truth apparently about Alec's possible importance in the Committee's grand scheme. Guards had brought him to her at gunpoint a few minutes before, more-or-less throwing him into the cage. Now, X5-494 stood looking like a cornered animal, green-gold eyes wide and worried, his lean muscles and sinews taut for fight or flight.

Alec was expecting the worst. Truth be told, so was she. There was no way to sugar coat their situation.

Grabbing Alec by the shoulders, Max's fingers dug into skin until he flinched, her eyes snaring his.

"Owww!" he yelled, trying to pull away.

"Shut up!" she hissed, giving him a shake. "And listen to me. "Joshua, Mole, Dix, Luke ... all the others like them are dead."

Alec winced again, and a shadow clouded his eyes. "How--"

"Shut up!" she practically screamed, giving him another hard shake. "The Committee's kept most of the X5s and 6s. They want their army back. But they've decided you're too untrustworthy and therefore useless to them." She cocked an eyebrow. "Although I can't imagine where they got an idea like that," she added cynically. "Can you?"

Max then swallowed hard. So did Alec. He knew where she was going with this.

"They're going to kill you too," she said. "And it won't be an easy death."

"I can take care of myself," Alec said tightly. "You don't have to worry about--"

"Shut up!" Max screamed at him for the third time. She took several deep breaths, and for a second Alec thought absurdly that she was going to hyperventilate and pass out. On the other hand, he didn't feel so steady on his feet himself. His heart was beating like a jackhammer and he was more than a little bit lightheaded, aftereffects of the sedatives he'd been shot up with earlier and lack of food.

"Max," he said. "What are you tryin' to say?"

"What I'm saying is that we have one chance to save that gorgeous ass of yours."

Alec's brows drew down in confusion. He didn't understand.

"Why do you think you're here?" Max asked shakily. "In my cell?"

His eyes widened. Alec might be a lot of things, but slow on the uptake wasn't one of them.

Max saw the light dawn and nodded. "What's the one thing New Manticore could use you for, even if they can't trust you as an operative?"

"Oh, God," Alec whispered. "Max--"

She shushed him, placing two fingers against his lips, at the same time glancing through the bars and out into the cell block corridor to make certain they were alone (although the video camera in the corner belied any true sense of privacy). "They're going to force me to have babies, Alec," she said. "Something about passing on the immunity factor in my blood for the comet pathogen. One way or another ... they're going to force me."

"And they want me to be the daddy?" Alec said, his mind racing at this new development. He'd expected to be killed -- had been preparing himself for death ever since he'd been taken down by Tasers during the final Terminal City battle. But this ...

"You're the sire they've chosen," Max said flatly. "Your DNA is the most compatible with mine. Apparently Renfro knew what she was doing when she paired us off."

Alec shook his head. "No," he said. "I won't do it. I won't do that to you, Max."

"You ... have ... no ... choice," Max said, enunciating each word clearly and slowly. "We have no choice."

Alec gave a sarcastic little chuckle. "I'd like to see them try 'n make me," he said.

Max stared at him.

"What?" he said. "They wouldn't ... I mean, they couldn't ..."

"They'll take it from you, Alec," Max said in a low voice. "They'll rape us both."

Struck speechless with the horror of it, Alec couldn't take his eyes off of her, the thought of Max ... of himself ... His mind wouldn't even go there.

"I'll kill myself first," he said low under his breath.

"They won't let you," Max said matter-of-factly. "We have only one choice, Alec."

"And that is?" he asked, one eyebrow raised skeptically.

"You and me," Max said, gently taking hold of his shoulders this time and running her hands down his hard biceps. "I'll ... I'll let you so long as it means you stay safe. Lydecker knows you're all I have left, Alec--"

"What about Logan?" he interrupted. "You gonna just close your eyes and fantasize about the man you really love while the guy you pretty much hate jumps your bones?"

"Logan's dead. And I don't hate you."

Alec, about to say more, closed his mouth, his eyes filling with pity. "I'm sorry, Max," he finally whispered, small consolation as he knew those words were. "Are you sure? About Logan I mean?" For the first time he glanced up at the camera watching them.

Max thought a moment, a faraway look on her face. "I can't feel him any more, Alec," she said, her hand touching her heart. "In here."

She didn't try to explain any more, and Alec knew better than to question. Then her eyes were on him again. "You're it, pretty boy," she said with a sad little smile. "And I'm your only chance."

"And if we do the deed and you get pregnant?" Alec asked. "What then?"

"Lydecker promises we'll both be kept safe ... that we can keep our baby."

"And why would Manticore let us do that?" Alec sneered. "Max, as soon as you're carryin' they'll kill me. And when the kid's born they'll take it from you."

"They said I needed to have lots of children," Max countered. "And, in order for that to happen, you have to stay alive and I have to cooperate."

"Not really," Alec said, eyebrows raised as he thought about Manticore's vast medical resources.

"Maybe not before," Max said quickly. "Not the way Old Manticore operated. But Lydecker's right about one thing. If the Committee wants Manticore back, they're going to be a long time rebuilding. The DNA data base is gone. So are most of their scientists. If they want more soldiers ... my special children ... it's going to have to be done the old fashioned way." She took a shaky breath. "In vitro fertilization and embryo implantation is a complex medical procedure, Alec. I don't think they have the resources any more."

He just looked at her, and suddenly -- she enveloped him in a huge hug. "Us ... together," she said. "It's the quick, easy way. And--"

"--and what?" he asked huskily, at last giving in and returning the embrace, burying his face in her hair.

"And it could save the world," Max said quietly. She drew back and her eyes met his again. "You and me ... we could save the world, Alec. They ... the ordinaries ... know it. And that's why this is your one chance to live."

"Max," Alec got out. He sniffed loudly. "No. I don't want to. I'd rather just die than be used. It'd be different if you loved me but--"

"Even if it means weeks ... months ... of torture?" Max tried. "Even if it means them doing to you what they did to Zack and worse?"

Alec swallowed hard again, nausea rising in his throat as his heart started to pound even harder. They'd do it to me too. Cut me up. Hurt me. Bastards ...

"Alec," Max implored. "Please, let me keep you safe. I'll accept you as my mate. I don't mind."

He was still shaking his head no.

"Where there's life there's hope," she said firmly. "We'll get away someday, you and me. Alec, please, you're the only family I have left now. Don't leave me all alone. Just ... do what they want ... with me ... and we'll both be all right." Her hand traveled down his body, caressing his hard torso and lingering at his crotch. "Would it be so bad?" she asked. "Doing it with me? Tell me you haven't always wanted to."

"Max," he said, grabbing hold of her wandering hand. "Stop it. You don't really want me. I won't let you be a whore."

"So, you really won't do this with me? You won't save yourself?"

Alec closed his eyes. "No," he whispered. "I won't save myself at your expense." He laughed a little, bitterly. "Bet you didn't think I was that noble, did ya?"

"You've always been noble, smart ass," Max said sadly, her arms going around him again. "In your own unpredictable way."

And then she looked up into his eyes, and Alec was amazed at the emotions he saw swimming in those beautiful brown depths. If he didn't know better, he'd almost think the love there really was for him.

Now you, the reader, get to pick your own ending to this story:

THE END