Photo courtesy of Supernaturalfan.net

*****

“You’re not going to believe this,” Sam exclaimed, his words waking Alec from a light sleep where he’d drifted off on one of the bunks. It was still dark outside, but the moon was on its way to setting, dawn not far off.

“What?” Alec mumbled, sitting up and shaking himself more fully awake.

“Where they’ve taken her,” Sam replied.

“You read my IM’s?” Alec groused as he swung feet over the side of the bunk and looked around for his shoes.

“Yeah,” Sam said unabashedly. “It’s my laptop.”

“My laptop,” Dean corrected him, looking back over his shoulder from where he’d been keeping watch at a window, Baretta pistol in hand.

“Bellingham,” Sam said. “They’ve gone to ground on the outskirts of Bellingham.”

“That’s real close to the Canadian border,” Dean remarked. “And it sounds familiar.”

“It should,” Sam said. “Dad’s got a whole two pages of his journal devoted to Bellingham. It was once a hotspot of supposed demonic activity fifty or so years ago, and I mean that literally. They’ve got an active volcano there -- Mount Baker.”

“Demonic as in Breeding Cult?” Alec said. “We know they worship the bastards and are part demon themselves, yours truly case in point. And a volcano would be just the ticket for a place to conduct services.”

“Why take Max there?” Dean asked.

Alec shrugged. “Maybe Logan’s lookin’ for more help now that he’s got a ticked off X5 on his tail.” He didn’t specify which Logan, not that it mattered. Both were equally devious and dangerous so far as Alec was concerned. “Maybe Bellingham is one of the Cult’s big headquarters.” He quirked an eyebrow. “Sam, has anything hit the news about my little party at Cale Enterprises?”

“Not a word,” Sam said, looking up at the X5. “Which means Logan’s got a lot of influence somewhere. He wants to keep all of this quiet. And there were a whole bunch of witnesses, too.”

“At least I’m not wanted for murder then,” Dean said under his breath.

“Does Talon give an address?” Alec asked, leaning over Sam’s shoulder to look at the IM’s his brother’s had been exchanging.

“They apparently stopped at an old residence on the north side of town,” Sam said. “They’re only about ten miles from the border.” He looked at Alec. “You think it’ll be easier getting Max out of there than it would have been from downtown Seattle?”

“Not necessarily,” Alec said, chewing on his lower lip. “I’m thinkin’ Breeding Cult Central which means we’re probably way outgunned even with me along.”

Dean just looked at him grimly and shook his head.

*****

When Max regained consciousness it took her a few seconds to get her cloudy mind to focus. The first thing she was aware of was that she still had her clothes on -- the hospital scrubs they’d been keeping her in -- which for some reason was a vast relief. The second was that she wasn’t in the same cell where the TASER had knocked her unconscious. This was some place different.

“Where am I?” she quietly asked the younger Logan Cale who, arm in a sling, was sitting in a chair outside of her cell watching her through the bars.

“One of the Cult’s strongholds,” Logan said simply.

“Why?”

“Because it will make it a lot harder for your insane mate to try a rescue.”

“Then he got away?”

Logan said nothing, but the tightening of his jaw spoke volumes.

“I told you I’d kill you if you tried to touch me,” Max said softly, smiling slightly at the sight of the bruises and abrasions on Logan’s face and neck that she’d put there before the guards had taken her down.

“Almost did,” he said. “Good thing I have loyal men.”

“Well paid, you mean,” Max snarked. She shrugged sore shoulders then slid down the back wall of the cell to sit cross-legged on the cold floor. “They won’t do you any good when he comes for me.”

“Even an X5 can’t beat a bullet,” Logan replied, shifting his position so she could see the mean looking pistol cradled in his lap. “Or so I’m told.”

“Your older self won’t like it if you kill him.”

The younger Logan smiled. “My older self can go to hell. He may have done me a valuable service tipping me off about the future and bringing you to me so I can survive in the Breeding Cult’s new world. But his usefulness is pretty much at an end.”

“You really think White’s people will let you live?” Max wondered. “Funny, but the Logan I used to know was never so naive. They’ll kill both you and me just as soon as they don’t need you and your Cale Enterprises any more.”

“They’ll always need me,” Logan said, speaking with more confidence than Max saw in his eyes. “As well as a few others like me ... Ordinary humans. Their ranks aren’t complete.”

Max snorted a laugh and shook her head. “Believe me,” she said. ‘Just as soon as that Pulse bomb goes off someone will be in here to snap your neck.”

Logan regarded her steadily, but she could see the slight doubt on his face and knew she’d scored a point. “Help me escape,” she said. “Help me get back to 494, and we’ll stop the Cult. You’ll still have your empire and your money, humanity will be safe, and me and Alec will be free. Is that too much to ask?”

“Yes,” the older Logan Cale said from the doorway. “It is.” Then he raised the gun he was holding in his hand and shot his younger self in the head.

Max had seen a lot of atrocities in her short life, but the sight of human brains spattering the wall made her cringe. “You didn’t have to do that,” she said when she found her voice again.

“He was going to betray me.” The remaining Logan looked down at the pistol in his hand, then over at his younger self’s blood spattered corpse, its blue-green eyes already paling with death behind the lenses of its spectacles. Then he leaned heavily against the wall, his legs trembling visibly. “I can run things without him,” he said simply. “My fingerprints ... retina I.D. ... voice recognition ... will get me into every nook and cranny of his empire.

“Not if you’re dead,” Max said. “Without Alec and me you won’t live long.”

“Don’t you think I know that!” Logan snarled. “But your annoying mate is probably already on his way. He’ll walk right into my waiting arms if it means saving you. And once he’s here, I’ll take whatever measures I need to in order to insure he’ll never escape again.”

“He’ll die first,” Max said simply. “And so will I. We won’t be your prisoners or your pets.”

Logan just smiled, his hand trembling as he still held onto the gun. “Maybe not,” he said. “And maybe you’ll never willingly come back to my bed. But in the end, I will have the pieces of your bodies that I need in order to survive.”

*****

“There really aren’t that many,” Alec said calmly as he peered through the trees. The three brothers were standing in a woods on the edge of a field. Across the five acres was the Cult stronghold, a castle-like structure of imposing stone that attempted to mimic its British and German counterparts, probably built in the early part of the 20th century, Alec thought, when pseudo-medieval was all the vogue. However, ridiculously pretentious as the place might be, it was also large, which meant a great many rooms both above and below ground, any one of which could be Max’s cell. There wasn’t going to be an easy way to do this. He could see that right now.

“What do you mean there aren’t that many?” Dean exclaimed, peering through binoculars at what the X5’s macro vision had already revealed. “I count six cars in the parking lot.”

“Seven,” Alec said, nodding toward the east side of the castle. “There’s a Caddy parked by the kitchen entrance, plates from Kansas of all things.”

“You can read the license plates at this distance?” Sam said, his voice tinged with awe.

“Yeah,” Alec said, not elaborating, but squinting slightly as the pupils of his eyes dilated and focused like a bird of prey’s, bringing things a whole lot closer.

“Which means there could be a dozen people inside,” Dean pointed out. “Maybe more.”

“We’re armed,” Alec said, nodding back toward the Impala and the imposing arsenal he knew was in the trunk. “That is if you guys are willin’ to share. Plus, you have me. Supposedly I’m worth ten Ordinary soldiers.”

“That’s not the point,” Dean snapped. “We don’t kill people.”

“No, but you kill demons,” Alec countered. “And these snake worshippers at least partly fit the bill. I’m livin’ proof of that.”

“We think,” Sam said carefully. “Alec, we don’t really know exactly what you are, or what they are.”

“You know they’re gonna destroy your kind,” the X5 said. “Humans. Humanity. Your world.”

“So you say,” Dean interjected.

Alec sighed deeply and turned a jaundiced eye on his twin. “It’s a little late to become a skeptic, Dean. Either you’re in, or you’re not. But I’m goin’ into that den of serpents and I’m gonna get Max out.” His look encompassed both of his brothers.

“I’ll help,” Sam said quietly, his eyes on Alec, not on Dean. This was followed by a long moment of silence.

“So will I,” Dean finally said. “But only ‘cause Max is hot.”

Alec smirked. “And what other reason could there possibly be?” he said, the smile reaching his eyes as he looked from one of his brothers to the other and read the silent promise of support in their gaze.

*****

“Come with me,” Logan said quietly to Max, with effort recovering his strength and straightening from where he’d been leaning heavily in the doorway. On the floor, his younger counterpart’s corpse continued to slowly bleed out, the rivulet of red staining the stones as it trickles toward a drain. There was a metallic stench in the air that Max recognized all too well ... the smell of a battle lost ... the smell of death.

“Where?” she said, eyeing the gun ... gauging the distance, even though they were separated by iron bars.

“Where you can see everything that’s going to happen,” Logan said, reaching for the key on the wall. “Where you can see the end, and the beginning.”

“End of what?” Max said, preparing to move as he approached the cell.

“The end of stupid humans, and the beginning of a superior world. I want you to be a part of that, Max. Once you see, you’ll come around. You’ll realize that you were meant to be my mate, not his. Soon, with his blood, I’ll recover and then you’ll want me again. It will be like before, only better. An X series and a Y series together, ruling the Earth. You’ll be my queen.”

“You didn’t used to think the Cult was superior,” Max said quietly, recognizing his insanity but, in spite of everything, finding herself wanting to save this remnant of the Logan Cale she’d once loved more than life itself. He might be irrevocably altered by Manticore, his body ruined, his mind veering into madness and megalomania, but she couldn’t help but think that somewhere inside that decrepit person facing her Logan’s innately good soul still existed.

“I didn’t used to think you’d ever fall in love with Alec either,” he countered softly, his hard blue-green eyes softening as his brow wrinkled with the effort of remaining on his feet. “Not that smart-ass jerk you used to complain so bitterly about ... the one who betrayed us with the virus ... the one who lied to you so many times. I thought we were forever, Max. All Alec ever had was good looks and a charm you knew full well wasn’t sincere.”

“I thought we were forever, too,” she said simply. “But you changed. And worse, you wanted me to change. I couldn’t be the person you wanted me to be, Logan. I tried, but I couldn’t. I didn’t fit into your world. And Alec--”

“Was your physical mate,” Logan finished for her, “and that’s a hard thing to fight, that kind of attraction. I knew it from the moment I first saw him, standing in the doorway of my apartment back in ‘19, gun in hand, come to take me to Renfro. I once was afraid it would be Zack, but Alec ... 494 ...” He shook his head, but kept the gun leveled on her as he inserted the key into the lock of her cage. “There was just something about him ... a kind of kindred spirit feeling that reminded me frighteningly of you.”

“Two sides of the same coin,” Max said simply. “I knew it then, too, Logan. Deep down inside. Alec ... he took longer to really see his part in the big scheme of things, but once he did--”

“He came after you,” Logan said. “And took you away from me. Was it because I was crippled, Max? Because I couldn’t satisfy you in bed?”

“No!” Max said harshly. “I left you long before I ever went looking for Alec. We were through, Logan. Finished. And our sex life or your disability didn’t have anything to do with it. Alec didn’t take me away from you at all. I was just lonely, and he was there, and he felt right.”

“More right than me?” Logan asked, the plaintiveness in his voice breaking Max’s heart.

“No,” she said truthfully. “Not more right than what we once had. But, like I said, you changed, and I couldn’t. Alec sees me like I really am, Logan. He doesn’t need me to be something I’m not.”

“You know I’m going to destroy him,” Logan said. “Once I have him in my hands again my doctors will cut his brain apart to make certain he’s never a physical threat again. He’ll be tame then ... compliant ... obedient ... no longer ‘Alec.’ He’ll be of no use to you. I’ll be the only one you can turn to.”

“I know you already tried to kill him once,” Max said. “Alec doesn’t remember, but I finally put two and two together. It was you who shot him in that warehouse, wasn’t it?”

“Yes. He was supposed to die. But like the stubborn ass he is, 494 just wouldn’t do the right thing. In the end, though, it was a good thing he lived. Without his blood I’m as dead as I once wanted him to be.”

“Let me go,” Max said as Logan swung the cell door open. “Walk out of here with me, Logan. Forget the Cult and their evil plan. We can all have a life here in this timeline.”

“Not me,” Logan said. “Not without Alec’s blood, and he’ll never give that to me willingly.”

“Maybe he will,” Max said, desperately seeking a way out of this with words. “If I ask him to help you he might--”

“What?” Logan said, his smile frightening this time. “Forgive me? No, I’ll capture him, and then I’ll harvest what I need from his body. The Breeding Cult has scientists who think they can eventually make a serum for me from 494’s brain that will hopefully be a true cure.”

“Alec’s not an animal to slaughter,” Max said tightly. “And I’m not an animal either.”

“Don’t be so sure of that,” Logan chided. “After all, we never really did determine if X5s have souls or not, did we?”

“No,” Max said, losing patience. “We didn’t. But then I think your soul is missing now, too, Logan.”

He shrugged. “Ask me if I care. Max, the day I lost you I lost my soul too.”

“Don’t lay this on me, Logan.”

He waved the gun. “Are you coming with me, or am I going to have to put you down, too.”

Max tensed to spring, but a sound from the hall made her freeze. She’d waited too long.

“Bring her to the control room,” Logan said to the three armed men standing in the doorway behind him. “I want her to see the end.”

*****

The room beneath the manor house looked like launch control for a rocket, which essentially is exactly what it was. A bank of computer terminals blinked as various screens showed news from around the world, including telemetry from several satellites, as half a dozen Familiars manned control stations.

“You’re really going to launch the Pulse bomb now?” Max said, her face paling. “It’s only 2006.”

“Hey,” Logan replied as his men escorted Max on into the room. “You’re the one who came back to change history. I’m just making a more radical adjustment. The Pulse will happen a few years early and the world will be caught totally unawares, just like in 2009 in our timeline. I, on the other hand, as the one and only remaining ‘Logan Cale,’ will become richer than you could even imagine because -- unlike before -- I’m financially ready for the consequences.”

“Money never used to mean much to you,” Max said, the disappointment in her eyes evident. “Except when you didn’t have enough for your crusades.”

“Money always meant a lot to me,” Logan said. “You just didn’t want to see that in me. Yes, I hid my greed well behind my Eyes Only facade. I even fooled myself for a long time, thinking that I needed my fancy penthouse apartment, luxury items, the latest computer equipment, and a model-perfect girl on my arm in order to help mankind. Well, Max, one thing my experience with Manticore and the Breeding Cult has taught me is that those creature comforts I once took for granted are more vital to me than I ever imagined. I want to be rich. I want to be safe. And, most of all, I want to be in power.”

“And the model-perfect girl on your arm?” Max had to ask, glancing at him. “The one who’s going to kill you just as soon as she has a chance? The one who’s blood you need to survive the Plague that will follow The Pulse?”

“Priorities change, Max,” Logan said, sounding almost apologetic. “If you won’t accept my offer, then I’ll have to live with that. I need your blood, but I don’t truly need your affections, especially now when you’ve already given them to someone else.” He looked toward a computer screen where a countdown had begun. “Five minutes left,” he said softly. “Five minutes until a new world begins.”

Max looked around the room at the guns pointed in her direction. She’d sacrifice herself if she had to in order to stop Armageddon. However, she honestly didn’t think she had a snowball’s chance in Hell of taking out all of the armed men before a bullet ended her life, or at the very least crippled her. Relaxing slightly ... standing down ... she watched the countdown, at the same time wondering mightily where Alec was.

*****

There really weren’t that many guards, and they weren’t expecting an armed assault, especially one led by a creature equal to themselves in strength. Sam didn’t shoot anyone, although his barrage of cover fire gave Dean and Alec the openings they needed to make their way through the large building and down the basement steps. Dean wasn’t quite so polite, his aim true and his determination set as he brought down at least two of the Snake Cult members. Alec, by comparison, was a positive executioner. Giving no quarter ... well aware of just what these creatures were capable of ... not to mention having been tortured at their hands on more than one occasion ... he showed no mercy, his own aim perfect as he shot guard after guard in the head, only sparing the last so he could lift him by the throat and growl in his face, “Where is she? Where’s Max?”

“Basement,” the struggling man croaked, his muscles almost -- but not quite -- a match for the X5’s preternatural strength. Alec broke a sweat, teeth gritting against the guard’s power, but in the end there was a loud “snap” and the man went limp.

“Down,” Alec said simply as he turned away, letting the body slide to the floor.

They descended, taking the steps landing-by-landing, their gunfire driving back the ones attempting to block their way. At the bottom there was a massive shield door with a radiation warning symbol on it that all three men ignored. Bursting into the room, Alec instantly took in the situation ... the three armed guards ... Logan Cale ... Max ... others sitting at science stations ...

“Don’t!” Cale commanded. “Or she’s dead!”

“Then so are you,” Alec returned, leveling his Glock pistol at the man who’d become his most hated nemesis. “Party’s over, Logan. You lose.”

“No,” Logan said simply, reaching behind him to one of the consoles and pressing a red button. “You lose.”

The countdown wasn’t finished. But then apparently it didn’t have to be. A red light began flashing overhead and one of the screens brought up a trajectory path.

“What did you do?” Max demanded.

“Ended the world,” Logan said. “The Pulse bomb is on its way. True, it will explode over Arizona instead of over Virginia, but that’s really not a problem. Chaos will ensue anyway, and I’ll be a rich powerful man.”

“You’ll be a dead man,” Alec said in a clipped voice as Dean and Sam continued holding the other guards at bay with their rifles. However, he looked to Max, his hazel-green eyes questioning. What now?

“Stop it,” Max ordered Logan. “Stop it or I’ll let him shoot you.”

“I can’t stop it,” Logan said simply, spreading his hands. “What’s done is done.”

“No,” Alec said quietly, his eyes lighting up as inspiration hit. “Not really.” And then he looked toward the ceiling.

“Sir,” one of the men manning a console said. “What’s that?” He pointed to a second blip on the screen, much larger than the Pulse rocket, as well as faster. It was moving toward the missile ... catching up.

Logan’s smile vanished. “What is that?” he demanded of Alec. “What did you do? You can’t have contacted the military. They’d never believe you. And Manticore doesn’t have the firepower.”

“Not what,” Alec said easily, a wicked smile touching his lips. “Who.”

“Talon,” Max breathed. “That’s Talon. He’s going after the rocket.”

“And catching it,” Sam remarked as he keenly watched the console, leaving covering the guards to Dean.

The two blips grew closer, then suddenly the first one ... the Pulse rocket ... vanished. The second larger one then veered off, soared higher, and disappeared from the screen just as a squadron of U.S. jet fighters entered the air space.

“Is he all right?” Max asked Alec.

“He’s fine,” Alec said, his eyes once again briefly flicking upwards. And then she was in his arms.

*****

“What about Logan?” Dean asked as the four of them stood outside the Familiar’s stronghold. “Won’t he and this Ames White guy just try again?”

“He has a point, Max,” Alec said. “Leavin’ Logan alive is gonna put this whole world at risk -- again.”

“I won’t have him killed,” she said softly. Her eyes met her mate’s. “Too many memories ... too much past.”

“He’ll probably die soon enough anyway,” Alec pointed out. “It’s not like he’ll have my blood to keep him going any more, and no one in this world can fix the damage to his Y-Unit chromosomes.”

“So, we just leave him locked inside for his Cult friends to find?” Sam said.

Alec shrugged. “If Max says so.”

“Max says so,” Max replied firmly.

“He’s also still gonna want your blood to protect people -- and himself -- from the Plague,” Alec said. “Which might or might not be coming. Lydecker will want it too.”

“Let them look for me,” Max said defiantly. It’s a big world, Alec. One you and I should explore.”

“Places to go, people to see, and loot to steal,” the male X5 quipped as he put an arm around 452 and regarded her fondly.

“So, the two of you are gonna take off again?” Sam said.

“Safer that way,” Max said.

“What about Talon, your brother-ship?” Dean asked as the four made their way down the stone steps toward the field and the adjoining woods where the Impala was parked out of sight.

“We can get to him if we have to,” Alec said, thinking about the hidden Raptor they’d brought to Earth, and also remembering that Logan knew where one was too, not that Talon would ever let Cale on board. “In the meantime, he’s havin’ a ball with this internet thing, exploring everything he can get his circuits into.”

“Keep in touch,” Sam said firmly. He held up his cell phone. “You have our numbers.”

Alec nodded. “I’ll let you know where we land,” he said, meaning it. “We’re family, and believe it or not, that now means somethin’ to me.” He looked at Max again.

“And what about Lydecker?” Sam had to ask. “He going to be looking for you too, his grown-up X5s.”

“We can handle ‘Deck,” Max said, shrugging the question off. “What I’m mainly worried about are the surviving X5 children. They’ll be needed in the future when the Cult tries another takeover maneuver.”

“Max,” Alec said softly. “We can’t risk it. We can’t help them.”

“They need us, Alec.”

494 sighed deeply, and looked to Sam and Dean for help. “I’m not gonna play ‘daddy’ to a bunch of X5 brats.”

Max just smiled. And then she leaned forward and kissed him. “We’ll see about that,” she breathed into his mouth.

“I guess we will,” Alec murmured as her lips covered his once more in a kiss that touched his soul.