Dark Angel Fic: Music of the HEART (Part-2)- DA Reverse Bang
Art Title: Music of the HEART
Artist:
nanoks (all the love to you Hun for being an awesome artist and an awesomest(This word should totally exist!) partner)
Link to the Art Masterpost: Shower your love here!
Rating/Warnings:PG, None
Fic Title: Music of the HEART
Author: dollysdoodles
Beta- Reader: dollarformyname (Did I tell you I totally love you for helping me out even when you were so busy? You are the best!)
Parings/Characters: Max/Alec, Ames White, Senator James McKinley, Joshua, Detective Clemente, Dix ... yada yada yada
Rating/Warnings:PG, None
Word Count:~14,000
Summary:it’s a melody Alec can’t get out of his head-a song that was programmed in him. It is a song that is classically elegant, and lethal, one that may put Max’s life in danger.
Part I
“Tell me you got something good Otto.”
“We did, sir.”
“So, are there more transgenics with this implant?”
“Not exactly, sir, 494 is the only one.”
“Then how exactly is that good news, Otto?”
“Because we have discovered that this chip could be used to set 494 against a target, any target. When that happens, 494 would just be a pawn in our hands, assassinating his own people against his will.”
“Now, that’s what I call a good news.”
“Sir, we have also received communication from Desmond--the guy you deployed as an imposter inside TC. He said he was ready and had located the place where… umm contraptions were engrafted, whatever that meant.”
White ended the call and faced the senator, a smile tugging at his lips, “looks like this plan was great after all, Sir. Fenos to’l”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Alec was a jerk, and a stupid one at that. Max remembered asking the idiot about his injuries when they had entered TC last night. She even remembered OC offering him some meds. But Alec, being Alec, had simply muttered something about how he was always alright and stalked off to join Joshua. Now, he was lying unconscious in a make shift infirmary, with several lacerations across his chest, a possible hairline fracture in his right wrist, and whatever mysterious affliction made him collapse earlier.
When Alec had screamed and gone down for the count, everyone thought TC was under attack. It took Logan and Mole several minutes to get things under some sort of control and by the end of it, Logan was sporting a swollen lip, his shirt was in tatters and Mole had knocked out half of the guys to calm them down.
Soon, everyone realised that the only thing the hover drone seemed to be doing was filming their activities, trying to keep an eye on them, not attacking random transgenics.
All this time, Max stayed on the floor besides Alec, trying her best to awaken him after he had gone completely lax in her arms. Fat load of good it did.
Max had never felt completely helpless before, but now, she did. Fear gripped her and didn’t even let her think straight. It was Joshua who gently coaxed her into letting Alec go, encouraging her to take him somewhere more secure and better equipped to treat him. If she had been left to her own devices, she was pretty sure she would have continued kneeling at that very spot, cradling Alec in her arms and calling out his name in whispers again and again.
Now, almost an hour later, she was still sitting beside Alec, her hand caressing his, just to give herself some sort of assurance about him still being there. And this was strange; this was really, really strange.
When had she started feeling this way about Alec? When had they become so close?
Wasn’t she just using him to distance herself from Logan, to protect Logan? Was there a chance that the feelings about Alec she was faking in front of Logan were starting to take a turn towards not being so fake?
Max brushed away the thought. Of course not. She didn’t have any feelings for Alec. She was just stressed out and freaked out about what might be happening to him.
“Little Fella?”
Max looked at Josh. He looked scared and confused. He was really close to Alec and there was a time when she had been afraid of this friendship, worried that Alec’s carelessness was going to hurt Josh badly someday, but she had been wrong. Alec valued his friendships much more than she had ever given him credit for. It was one of the many qualities he had learned to hide well.
Max wondered what other things about Alec were still hidden from her. She suddenly realised how much she would like to know more about him, about his years at Manticore, about Rachel, about what they did to him after the Berrisford incident. She had never wondered before about these things--yeah, she’d been curious now and then, but never with this intensity.
“Max busy?”
“Huh?”
“Little Fella not answering.”
“Sorry, Joshua. I was just thinking about him.”
“About Alec?”
“Kind of, yeah. You remember when you were painting Alec? What did you mean when you said he is all darkness inside?”
“Alec won’t be happy if I tell you.”
“What do you mean?”
Josh was about to answer, but whatever his reply might have been, it was cut short by a barely audible whimper from Alec. He was stirring, his eyes moving restlessly beneath his eyelids, his hands gripping at the torn sheets underneath him.
He seemed to be having some sort of a nightmare. Max took his hand into hers and tried to calm him down.
“It okay, Alec. Hey, wake up, wake up.”
Alec’s eyed fluttered open and he looked around himself in confusion. His eyes were still glassy from the fever he had spiked about an hour ago.
“Welcome back, Sleeping Beauty.” Max tried to tease him.
Alec’s gaze settled on Max and he mumbled something before closing his eyes again and drifting back to sleep.
There was no way, a normal human could have heard what Alec had whispered in his moment of lucidity. But she did. She heard him say one single word: Max. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“This is the footage from a hover drone suspended over Terminal City. You can see the way these monsters are attacking each other? If they’re savage enough to attack their own kind, what will stop them from turning on us?”
There was a faint murmur of approval amidst White’s audience, but he was still sure a lot of them weren’t satisfied with his logic. He’d have to be a little more persuasive than that.
“This morning, Detective Ramon Clemente presented you with several reasons as to why we shouldn’t fight these people; he said he was sure all they wanted was peace. It’s with a heavy heart I have to inform you that Detective Ramon and his secretary were ambushed this afternoon, when he visited TC to try and have a talk with the transgenics.” There was a collective gasp of astonishment at his announcement.
White continued with his story, smirking inwardly at the reaction he was receiving.
“We have footage from a hover drone stationed nearby; it shows someone from inside opening fire on them as soon as they neared the city’s boundaries. Detective Neal died on spot from fatal gunshot wounds to the head and chest. Looks like, Detective Clemente tried to save himself by hiding behind a dumpster, but was later dragged inside the city. This transgenic lookout, responsible for opening fire, later shot at the hover drone too, disrupting communication.”
White stopped after that, the faint whispering around the hall had turned into angry shouts. Detective Clemente had been a man White hated to no end, but he couldn’t deny the good this guy’s death had done for him.
An hour later, the meeting was over and a motion to attack the transgenic base in Terminal City had been passed.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Mole was still shouting at his Manticore mates, lecturing them on their panic-driven stupidity earlier in the day, when a low thrumming noise filled the room. Looking outside the window, he spotted several hover drones lurking around TC.
What the hell is happening?
Just then, several red laser beam dots danced inside the room, and Mole knew what was going to happen a split second before it actually did.
“DOWN!!” he shouted, taking cover behind a pillar.
Within seconds, gunshots and screams filled the air. Mole growled as he saw a fellow transgenic collapsing from a gunshot wound to her chest she hadn’t been able to avoid.
They were under attack, and this time, it was for real.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Max seemed to have lost all track of time. Alec was still toggling between consciousness and unconsciousness, and was yet to be lucid for more than a few seconds at a time.
It might have been hours since she last heard him call out her name, or maybe it’d been mere minutes-she couldn’t really say for sure. Either way, she still couldn’t find it in herself to get up and walk away from the infirmary, even just to check on the situation outside. She was their leader, after all, the one who’d asked them to stay back and fight for their rights, she has promised to lead them into freedom and now, she was huddled in the infirmary, beside an unconscious friend, hardly making any move towards this so-called highly important freedom.
“Little Fella, something happening out there, people running, shouting, screaming.”
“What?”
“Come here, look.” Joshua said, pointing through a hole in the almost crumbling side wall of the room. The transgenics had covered it with plastic sheets.
Max got up, leaving Alec’s side for the first time since she arrived in this room with him hours ago, and joined Joshua to take a better look.
People, were indeed running every which way, taking cover, shooting at several hover drones lurking inside the city limits from behind barricades and crumbled walls. There was too much noise: too many screams and gunshots.
“Shit! Joshua, we need to get back there, they’re attacking us! I thought after that message from Eyes Only and after seeing how we’re not attacking, those idiots might back off!”
Panic cascaded inside her, making it almost impossible for her to even move. It looked like a dozen hover drones had surrounded their central building, the one that housed most of their weaponry and battle trained transgenics. The HDs seemed to be firing only at this one building, so at least the ones out here were safe…for the time being.
Just then, she saw few X5’s trying to haul some sort of jury-rigged catapult as much near the central building as they dared, to try and hit the HDs.
But as soon as they came within the hitting distance of the wretched machines, the things turned in their direction and started firing at them before they could even think of taking cover.
Max felt as if someone had picked her up and dropped her in her worst nightmare.
TC was being attacked. What the hell was she doing here? She should have been out there, protecting her people. She had promised to do that for god’s sake! So why in the hell was she still here? It wasn’t like Alec was dying, and even if he was, his life was nothing compared to that of hundreds out there she had sworn to protect.
Shivering from dread, Max moved away from the hole in the wall. “Josh, help me hide Alec in a corner. He is not awake, he can’t protect himself and we need to go out there.”
Joshua moved hurriedly and together they both lifted Alec from his improvised gurney, his body totally lax against them as they propped him against the only wall in the room which didn’t seem like it’d collapse at the first stiff breeze that rolled through.
“You need to wake up now, Alec, Please,” Max whispered urgently in his ear. Alec remained completely still. It wasn’t like she had hoped for any response, yet still, the silence hurt her and frightened her in ways she couldn’t describe. What the hell was wrong with him? He was genetically improved, they all had great healing powers and though his injuries were bad, they weren’t the worst he had received. He should have been conscious by now, irritating her with his wise cracks and earning himself a couple of whacks over his head for the same.
“Max?” Joshua called out to her.
“Let’s go, Josh. I’ll try to find OC and sketchy. May be they both can keep an eye on him. They certainly would be safer here. I just hope they are fine.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
James Walters was one of the most gifted members of White’s Cult. The way he’d gotten information from barely sane Manticore scientists in their captivity, was impressive. Thanks to him, White now had all the information he needed on Manticore's attempts to control rogue transgenic soldiers. Unfortunately, 494 was the only one alive with one of those implants. That was a setback, having more of these robots at his disposal would have made his work a lot easier, but now, he had just one pawn and he had to be really creative in using him.
494 couldn’t be used to kill just any transgenic: he was needed to take out specific people in Conclave’s hit list, and, to White’s great pleasure, 452 topped that list.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Alec had been floating in an uncomfortable haze for quite some time now. He'd tried to surface several times--especially to the repeated sound of his name in barely audible, urgent whispers--though he hadn't been very successful.
Darkness seemed to have too tight a hold on him. Didn’t matter how much he tried to see past it, to rise past it, it just kept on swirling around him in endless circles and just when he had lost all hope of ever being able to emerge from it, it started dissipating.
“Hey buddy, you with me? You gave everyone quite a scare back there.”
Alec knew this voice, the name of its owner was just on the tip of his tongue, and yet, for the life of him, he couldn’t remember what it was.
He pried his eyes open--they felt gritty and heavy as lead. Still, the relief he felt from the darkness finally fading was undeniable.
The first thing he saw was Sketchy’s blurred face, barely a couple of inches away from his nose.
“Damm it, Sketchy, don’t do that!” Alec rasped, his heart beating too loudly.
The gravelly sound of his voice made him realize how bad his throat felt, like someone had forced him to swallow rusty, iron nails.
“Dude, I was just trying to see if you were okay.” Sketchy muttered sheepishly, backing off.
“Yeah, listen I know Normal is hot for me, but I really don’t swing that way.”
Sketchy laughed and helped Alec to his feet. For a moment he swayed, but luckily, the world stopped spinning soon after, and he avoided landing on his butt in front of Sketchy--‘coz that would have been really embarrassing.
“Where is everyone?”Alec asked, trying to get a better hold on the situation. His brain felt murky and he didn’t remember anything past the point where he collapsed amidst a room full of transgenic soldiers, most of whom were under his command.
“In and around the computer room or taking cover wherever they can find it in this junkyard of a place. They started firing on us, Alec! And if Gem hadn’t pulled me out of the way when she did, you would’ve been looking at a totally dead version of me right now. Max and that big dog guy were with you all this time, but they had to go back and help defend TC. She sent me here to keep an eye on you.”
Firing? Defending TC? What the hell had happened while he was out?
“What are you talking about?” Alec asked, his mind reeling.
“We were barely out of the computer room when a dozen or so hover drones surrounded the damm building and started firing on us. Dalton, Gem and her baby was with me. We were taking them somewhere secure when they opened fire. Thank god, we were where we were right then. At least little Emma is safe.”
Alec shook his head in disbelief.
“I need to go help them, Sketch. Stay here and, no matter what, don’t go outside. This room is the most secure and the most hidden one around here. If they are just concentrating on the central building, they won’t be able to find you. Just don’t do anything stupid, alright?”
“No, no no no. Wait, Alec. Max asked me to make you stay here if you came around.”
“Why in the hell would she ask you to do something like that?”
“Because she…um…I didn’t ask,” Sketchy answered, a quizzical expression wrinkling his face, making him look funnier than he actually was.
“Of course you didn’t,” Alec replied, rolling eyes. “Just stay here, okay?”
“But Alec, those things are firing at anything or anyone trying to come even close to that building. You won’t be able--”
The rest of Sketchy's sentence went unheard. Alec darted outside without sparing him a second glance. He needed to get to the central building right away.
Outside, he could see the hover drones zipping around the building, firing at at any opening they could find. Alec picked up his pace, tired muscles protesting and his heart beating wildly. He had a killer headache, and his chest felt as if someone had stomped on it a few hundred times.
Still, this was his fight too and he needed to be there among his kind, fighting for them, fighting with them.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“Otto, it’s been a fucking hour, for heaven sakes! Why is 452 still alive? ”White said, glaring at his subordinate. It was frustrating enough that he had gone to great lengths arranging a specific hover drone to give commands and directions to the controller chip embedded in 494’s neck; it was unbearable on whole other level that his team had been unable to locate him in the chaos that'd overtaken Terminal City.
“Sir, we have our hover drones in place, but 494 is nowhere in sight. We have locked 452’s location, though. The drones still have enough ammunition to take her out.”
“No! 494 is the one who gets to do it. Getting your leader murdered at the hands of their second in command is something no military unit can ever recover from and we don’t want them to be able to recover from this. Extend your search, go as far into that wretched city as you have to, to get 494’s location. Do it, Otto, and do it fast!”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The day might have started on a positive note for Detective Clemente but he wasn’t feeling so great right now. He was stuck inside an old, neglected lab facility in a city contaminated with radioactive waste, currently crawling with supposedly hostile transgenics. He had a sprained ankle, a dislocated shoulder, and nothing to protect himself with. To be honest, it was the worst situation he could have possibly ended up in.
Earlier that day, Senator James McKinley had asked him to lead a delegation, the main purpose of which was tonegotiate peace with the transgenics. It was supposed to be a super secret mission, because the senator hadn’t wanted to get anyone’s hopes too high, nor did he want to give transgenic haters a chance to wreak havoc on the city.
The delegation was supposed to visit TC in private, negotiate with transgenic leaders and work out something that could benefit everyone and still keep the situation peaceful.
Detective Clemente had tried doing just that, only, things hadn’t turned out the way he’d hoped. The moment his group had reached the most toxic and lethal entrance to TC, someone from inside opened fire, Clemente’s subordinate, Detective Neal, had been killed on the spot.
Somehow, Ramon had managed to take cover behind a corroded dumpster to save himself from the same fate. He had spent the entire morning fighting for the rights of these so-called super humans; he had repeatedly told everybody, how the transgenics weren’t much different from normal humans, how transgenics only wanted peace. Boy, was he wrong!
In that moment, Ramon had felt anger like never before. He hated backstabbers more than anything, and from the looks of things, the transgenics were just another horde of backstabbing humans, only they were genetically improved too.
He was about to get up and shoot at whatever bastard had killed Neal, when he noticed something strange about the delegates that had accompanied him. None of them were hiding, none of them were taking cover or firing at the transgenics inside the city, In fact, they all had their pistols aimed at one single target:
Him!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“Sir, I think we have him, but the hover drones need to come back and regroup. Transgenics are shooting at them. We can’t let them destroy the hover drone controlling Alec’s chip.”
“Otto, I don’t care how you do it, but you need to make 494 attack 452 now! And save the hover drone too. It’s your headache, but you should know this: if you fail to achieve this objective in next hour, I don’t have much use for you.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
There was too much screaming, too many shouted orders, too much firing going on around her, and yet Max became aware of Alec’s presence as soon as he stepped inside the building. Their eyes locked for a brief moment before Alec had to duck down in order to protect himself from the hover drone that had started firing in his direction. Max wanted to go after Alec, to make sure he was fine as he ducked and stumbled to make his way towards Mole, but she couldn’t. Original Cindy was hurt-she’d been shot in the shoulder when the attack had started, Dalton and Gem had good medical training, and they were doing their best to help her, but she had no idea if OC was going to make it.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Otto never liked taking chances, but he had to today. Those transgenics were too powerful, too organized. Even with a dozen hover drones surrounding their central building and shooting at them, they didn’t seem to slow down. There’d hardly had been any casualties: few were shot, but from the footage Otto had been receiving, none of them were dead yet, and that irked him to no end.
The main mission behind sending this batch of attacking HDs over TC was to bring the hover drone carrying X5-494’s controlling chip as close to him as possible. Earlier, they had been able to make contact with the transgenic from a wide range, but if they needed to give him specific commands, they had to be really close to him, like, being present in or around his exact location.
The attack was just a distraction--more precisely, it was just a cover for this hover drone to be positioned over TC. It had taken them almost an hour to make contact with 494. He must have been too far inside the city limits. White had gone ballistic on him, and for a moment back there, Otto was sure he was going to pull out his pistol and shoot him. Luckily, he had survived the tantrum.
And now that the hover drone was finally in range of the transgenic, Otto wasted no time.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Alec had been specifically trained in battle strategy back at Manticore. He could easily anticipate his enemy’s next move and that talent had come in handy more times than he could possibly count.
Alec looked around himself in trepidation. There were a dozen or so hover drones deployed around this building, shooting at any opening they could find, but they seemed to be almost out of ammunition, judging from the intervals between the aims. There was something off about this whole scenario. Why were the HDs placed only around this building? If this was a full blown attack on TC, there should have been a lot more of these. Also, these things were good at taking aim, they were designed specifically to be target driven, and yet here they were, shooting wildly.
As far as he could tell, the only purpose these things seemed to serve was keeping the Transgenics sidelined. No one could safely come out their hiding places, without getting shot by these things. Something clawed at the back of his mind. Alec’s entry inside the building had been much easier than he anticipated. It was almost as if they turned their guns the other side as soon as Alec came near the building. May be the hover drone thingies closest to him were out of ammunition? Well, whatever.
Alec needed to destroy these things, and he needed to do that fast. Turning back to Mole, he told him his plan.
A couple of minutes later, he could see Mole quickly moving down the stairs. The HDs fired several rounds at him, but he was fast, too fast, and his leathery skin too tough to be damaged by those pesky bullets. Alec grinned and looked upstairs, to where he had last seen Max standing. She was still there, but this time, she seemed to be kneeling beside someone. Gem was there too along with Dalton. They both had good medical training and them being there kneeling besides someone meant only one thing, someone was hurt. Badly.
There was a time when Alec had actually forgotten to care. The whole Rachel incident and the re-indoctrination he had endured afterwards had turned him into a machine. He didn’t care about anyone else. He couldn’t care. He would get commands from Manticore officials and his only thought would be to follow orders and look out for himself along the way. But then, Max burned down Manticore and he was free. For several months, all he did was roam about, fucking random but extremely hot girls and drinking.
Then his paths crossed with Max again and she chided him for his selfish streak. Later, he almost killed her and she saved his life, at the cost of losing the cure which would have enabled her to be with Logan again. Alec still wondered at that selfless act on her part.
He always used to think that to care meant to suffer. Heaven knows he had suffered a lot the one time he actually cared for another human being. So, yes, having any type of feelings for anyone scared him to no end but these last few months, Max had made him realise that being indifferent to everyone around you might make you suffer less but it also made you as inhuman as you could possibly become.
A high-pitched screech interrupted his train of thought. He felt a sudden pressure at the back of his neck, as if someone was trying to pull something out of his head and, just like that, he was surrounded by music again Only, this time, the music wasn’t a cacophony of high-pitched screeches and off-key notes. This time, the musical notes held meaning.
Everything was washed in several shades of red with only one grey spot: Max.
A sudden desire to kill filled every inch of his being, and without thinking, without caring, Alec picked up his gun and moved in Max’s direction.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Ramon had a split second to act before his fellow delegates started shooting at him. He ducked and moved out of a range, the thin, corroded metallic walls of the dumpster being the only thing separating him from his death.
A hover drone was buzzing over head, and Ramon knew those things recorded footage and delivered them to nearest precinct every fifteen minutes. He thought of waving at it and sending an SOS. Maybe, someone would come to his rescue. Then again, maybe not. Ramon was on his own right now--even if help arrived, it might already be too late for him. He rummaged through his coat to get his gun out. If he was to die, he was going to take as many of them as he could with him.
He waited for the firing to start.
It didn’t.
Instead, the fence separating them from TC creaked open and out came the transgenic that had earlier opened fire on them. Ramon had seen many transgenics in last couple of days, and while some of them barely looked human, none of them had the coldness being reflected so clearly in this guy’s eyes.
He moved towards him, caught hold of his neck and dragged him inside the city limits so fast that Ramon barely had any time to even consider pulling the trigger of his gun.
Several hours later, he awoke inside a crumbling laboratory, his shoulder broken and his ankle swelling to twice its actual size. He could hear the transgenic moving around in the adjacent room, the walls too broken to repress much noise. He was talking to someone, telling them that he was ready and that he had found where--what had he said? Yeah, he had found where the contraptions were engrafted.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Otto should have thought about this; he should have turned off other HD’s before he set 494 on his assassinating mission. Because now, as the transgenic came out of his hiding place down the stairs, the HD closest to the window took aim and shot at him.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~`
Max saw Mole moving out of the building, she heard those fucking hover drones, firing at him as soon as he got out. For a moment her heart stopped, but she shouldn’t have worried, Mole made it out without as much as a scratch on him. That guy was fast and one tough son of a gun.
She looked down at Alec and caught him looking back at her. He seemed to be immersed deep in some thought but there was a smile playing at his lips. Her heart skipped a beat. Alec had a killer smile; girls at Jam Pony used to babble about that all day and it irked Max to no end. Now, she could just see what all the rage was about.
Alec suddenly closed his eyes and held his head as if he was in pain, and Max’s heart stuttered to a stop.
Was he having that headache/seizure attack again?
But Alec didn’t scream this time, nor did he collapse on the floor. Instead he looked straight at her, his face devoid of any emotion, his eyes so cold that it froze Max in her tracks for a minute. She saw him taking out a gun from his pocket and moving away from the stone ledge he had been using as his cover.
The coldness in his eyes scared her. Alec had never been so cold. Indifferent yes, but even then she could see his kindness and despair underneath all those layers he wore as a mask. Now, there was nothing and why in the hell was he pointing his gun at her?
Several things happened simultaneously: the hover drone outside the window started shooting in Alec’s direction, Max screamed at him to get away, Alec staggered as a bullet hit him in his abdomen, and then, he stood right back up and fired at her.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Part III
Artist:
nanoks (all the love to you Hun for being an awesome artist and an awesomest(This word should totally exist!) partner)
Link to the Art Masterpost: Shower your love here!
Rating/Warnings:PG, None
Fic Title: Music of the HEART
Author: dollysdoodles
Beta- Reader: dollarformyname (Did I tell you I totally love you for helping me out even when you were so busy? You are the best!)
Parings/Characters: Max/Alec, Ames White, Senator James McKinley, Joshua, Detective Clemente, Dix ... yada yada yada
Rating/Warnings:PG, None
Word Count:~14,000
Summary:it’s a melody Alec can’t get out of his head-a song that was programmed in him. It is a song that is classically elegant, and lethal, one that may put Max’s life in danger.
Part I
“Tell me you got something good Otto.”
“We did, sir.”
“So, are there more transgenics with this implant?”
“Not exactly, sir, 494 is the only one.”
“Then how exactly is that good news, Otto?”
“Because we have discovered that this chip could be used to set 494 against a target, any target. When that happens, 494 would just be a pawn in our hands, assassinating his own people against his will.”
“Now, that’s what I call a good news.”
“Sir, we have also received communication from Desmond--the guy you deployed as an imposter inside TC. He said he was ready and had located the place where… umm contraptions were engrafted, whatever that meant.”
White ended the call and faced the senator, a smile tugging at his lips, “looks like this plan was great after all, Sir. Fenos to’l”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Alec was a jerk, and a stupid one at that. Max remembered asking the idiot about his injuries when they had entered TC last night. She even remembered OC offering him some meds. But Alec, being Alec, had simply muttered something about how he was always alright and stalked off to join Joshua. Now, he was lying unconscious in a make shift infirmary, with several lacerations across his chest, a possible hairline fracture in his right wrist, and whatever mysterious affliction made him collapse earlier.
When Alec had screamed and gone down for the count, everyone thought TC was under attack. It took Logan and Mole several minutes to get things under some sort of control and by the end of it, Logan was sporting a swollen lip, his shirt was in tatters and Mole had knocked out half of the guys to calm them down.
Soon, everyone realised that the only thing the hover drone seemed to be doing was filming their activities, trying to keep an eye on them, not attacking random transgenics.
All this time, Max stayed on the floor besides Alec, trying her best to awaken him after he had gone completely lax in her arms. Fat load of good it did.
Max had never felt completely helpless before, but now, she did. Fear gripped her and didn’t even let her think straight. It was Joshua who gently coaxed her into letting Alec go, encouraging her to take him somewhere more secure and better equipped to treat him. If she had been left to her own devices, she was pretty sure she would have continued kneeling at that very spot, cradling Alec in her arms and calling out his name in whispers again and again.
Now, almost an hour later, she was still sitting beside Alec, her hand caressing his, just to give herself some sort of assurance about him still being there. And this was strange; this was really, really strange.
When had she started feeling this way about Alec? When had they become so close?
Wasn’t she just using him to distance herself from Logan, to protect Logan? Was there a chance that the feelings about Alec she was faking in front of Logan were starting to take a turn towards not being so fake?
Max brushed away the thought. Of course not. She didn’t have any feelings for Alec. She was just stressed out and freaked out about what might be happening to him.
“Little Fella?”
Max looked at Josh. He looked scared and confused. He was really close to Alec and there was a time when she had been afraid of this friendship, worried that Alec’s carelessness was going to hurt Josh badly someday, but she had been wrong. Alec valued his friendships much more than she had ever given him credit for. It was one of the many qualities he had learned to hide well.
Max wondered what other things about Alec were still hidden from her. She suddenly realised how much she would like to know more about him, about his years at Manticore, about Rachel, about what they did to him after the Berrisford incident. She had never wondered before about these things--yeah, she’d been curious now and then, but never with this intensity.
“Max busy?”
“Huh?”
“Little Fella not answering.”
“Sorry, Joshua. I was just thinking about him.”
“About Alec?”
“Kind of, yeah. You remember when you were painting Alec? What did you mean when you said he is all darkness inside?”
“Alec won’t be happy if I tell you.”
“What do you mean?”
Josh was about to answer, but whatever his reply might have been, it was cut short by a barely audible whimper from Alec. He was stirring, his eyes moving restlessly beneath his eyelids, his hands gripping at the torn sheets underneath him.
He seemed to be having some sort of a nightmare. Max took his hand into hers and tried to calm him down.
“It okay, Alec. Hey, wake up, wake up.”
Alec’s eyed fluttered open and he looked around himself in confusion. His eyes were still glassy from the fever he had spiked about an hour ago.
“Welcome back, Sleeping Beauty.” Max tried to tease him.
Alec’s gaze settled on Max and he mumbled something before closing his eyes again and drifting back to sleep.
There was no way, a normal human could have heard what Alec had whispered in his moment of lucidity. But she did. She heard him say one single word: Max. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“This is the footage from a hover drone suspended over Terminal City. You can see the way these monsters are attacking each other? If they’re savage enough to attack their own kind, what will stop them from turning on us?”
There was a faint murmur of approval amidst White’s audience, but he was still sure a lot of them weren’t satisfied with his logic. He’d have to be a little more persuasive than that.
“This morning, Detective Ramon Clemente presented you with several reasons as to why we shouldn’t fight these people; he said he was sure all they wanted was peace. It’s with a heavy heart I have to inform you that Detective Ramon and his secretary were ambushed this afternoon, when he visited TC to try and have a talk with the transgenics.” There was a collective gasp of astonishment at his announcement.
White continued with his story, smirking inwardly at the reaction he was receiving.
“We have footage from a hover drone stationed nearby; it shows someone from inside opening fire on them as soon as they neared the city’s boundaries. Detective Neal died on spot from fatal gunshot wounds to the head and chest. Looks like, Detective Clemente tried to save himself by hiding behind a dumpster, but was later dragged inside the city. This transgenic lookout, responsible for opening fire, later shot at the hover drone too, disrupting communication.”
White stopped after that, the faint whispering around the hall had turned into angry shouts. Detective Clemente had been a man White hated to no end, but he couldn’t deny the good this guy’s death had done for him.
An hour later, the meeting was over and a motion to attack the transgenic base in Terminal City had been passed.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Mole was still shouting at his Manticore mates, lecturing them on their panic-driven stupidity earlier in the day, when a low thrumming noise filled the room. Looking outside the window, he spotted several hover drones lurking around TC.
What the hell is happening?
Just then, several red laser beam dots danced inside the room, and Mole knew what was going to happen a split second before it actually did.
“DOWN!!” he shouted, taking cover behind a pillar.
Within seconds, gunshots and screams filled the air. Mole growled as he saw a fellow transgenic collapsing from a gunshot wound to her chest she hadn’t been able to avoid.
They were under attack, and this time, it was for real.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Max seemed to have lost all track of time. Alec was still toggling between consciousness and unconsciousness, and was yet to be lucid for more than a few seconds at a time.
It might have been hours since she last heard him call out her name, or maybe it’d been mere minutes-she couldn’t really say for sure. Either way, she still couldn’t find it in herself to get up and walk away from the infirmary, even just to check on the situation outside. She was their leader, after all, the one who’d asked them to stay back and fight for their rights, she has promised to lead them into freedom and now, she was huddled in the infirmary, beside an unconscious friend, hardly making any move towards this so-called highly important freedom.
“Little Fella, something happening out there, people running, shouting, screaming.”
“What?”
“Come here, look.” Joshua said, pointing through a hole in the almost crumbling side wall of the room. The transgenics had covered it with plastic sheets.
Max got up, leaving Alec’s side for the first time since she arrived in this room with him hours ago, and joined Joshua to take a better look.
People, were indeed running every which way, taking cover, shooting at several hover drones lurking inside the city limits from behind barricades and crumbled walls. There was too much noise: too many screams and gunshots.
“Shit! Joshua, we need to get back there, they’re attacking us! I thought after that message from Eyes Only and after seeing how we’re not attacking, those idiots might back off!”
Panic cascaded inside her, making it almost impossible for her to even move. It looked like a dozen hover drones had surrounded their central building, the one that housed most of their weaponry and battle trained transgenics. The HDs seemed to be firing only at this one building, so at least the ones out here were safe…for the time being.
Just then, she saw few X5’s trying to haul some sort of jury-rigged catapult as much near the central building as they dared, to try and hit the HDs.
But as soon as they came within the hitting distance of the wretched machines, the things turned in their direction and started firing at them before they could even think of taking cover.
Max felt as if someone had picked her up and dropped her in her worst nightmare.
TC was being attacked. What the hell was she doing here? She should have been out there, protecting her people. She had promised to do that for god’s sake! So why in the hell was she still here? It wasn’t like Alec was dying, and even if he was, his life was nothing compared to that of hundreds out there she had sworn to protect.
Shivering from dread, Max moved away from the hole in the wall. “Josh, help me hide Alec in a corner. He is not awake, he can’t protect himself and we need to go out there.”
Joshua moved hurriedly and together they both lifted Alec from his improvised gurney, his body totally lax against them as they propped him against the only wall in the room which didn’t seem like it’d collapse at the first stiff breeze that rolled through.
“You need to wake up now, Alec, Please,” Max whispered urgently in his ear. Alec remained completely still. It wasn’t like she had hoped for any response, yet still, the silence hurt her and frightened her in ways she couldn’t describe. What the hell was wrong with him? He was genetically improved, they all had great healing powers and though his injuries were bad, they weren’t the worst he had received. He should have been conscious by now, irritating her with his wise cracks and earning himself a couple of whacks over his head for the same.
“Max?” Joshua called out to her.
“Let’s go, Josh. I’ll try to find OC and sketchy. May be they both can keep an eye on him. They certainly would be safer here. I just hope they are fine.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
James Walters was one of the most gifted members of White’s Cult. The way he’d gotten information from barely sane Manticore scientists in their captivity, was impressive. Thanks to him, White now had all the information he needed on Manticore's attempts to control rogue transgenic soldiers. Unfortunately, 494 was the only one alive with one of those implants. That was a setback, having more of these robots at his disposal would have made his work a lot easier, but now, he had just one pawn and he had to be really creative in using him.
494 couldn’t be used to kill just any transgenic: he was needed to take out specific people in Conclave’s hit list, and, to White’s great pleasure, 452 topped that list.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Alec had been floating in an uncomfortable haze for quite some time now. He'd tried to surface several times--especially to the repeated sound of his name in barely audible, urgent whispers--though he hadn't been very successful.
Darkness seemed to have too tight a hold on him. Didn’t matter how much he tried to see past it, to rise past it, it just kept on swirling around him in endless circles and just when he had lost all hope of ever being able to emerge from it, it started dissipating.
“Hey buddy, you with me? You gave everyone quite a scare back there.”
Alec knew this voice, the name of its owner was just on the tip of his tongue, and yet, for the life of him, he couldn’t remember what it was.
He pried his eyes open--they felt gritty and heavy as lead. Still, the relief he felt from the darkness finally fading was undeniable.
The first thing he saw was Sketchy’s blurred face, barely a couple of inches away from his nose.
“Damm it, Sketchy, don’t do that!” Alec rasped, his heart beating too loudly.
The gravelly sound of his voice made him realize how bad his throat felt, like someone had forced him to swallow rusty, iron nails.
“Dude, I was just trying to see if you were okay.” Sketchy muttered sheepishly, backing off.
“Yeah, listen I know Normal is hot for me, but I really don’t swing that way.”
Sketchy laughed and helped Alec to his feet. For a moment he swayed, but luckily, the world stopped spinning soon after, and he avoided landing on his butt in front of Sketchy--‘coz that would have been really embarrassing.
“Where is everyone?”Alec asked, trying to get a better hold on the situation. His brain felt murky and he didn’t remember anything past the point where he collapsed amidst a room full of transgenic soldiers, most of whom were under his command.
“In and around the computer room or taking cover wherever they can find it in this junkyard of a place. They started firing on us, Alec! And if Gem hadn’t pulled me out of the way when she did, you would’ve been looking at a totally dead version of me right now. Max and that big dog guy were with you all this time, but they had to go back and help defend TC. She sent me here to keep an eye on you.”
Firing? Defending TC? What the hell had happened while he was out?
“What are you talking about?” Alec asked, his mind reeling.
“We were barely out of the computer room when a dozen or so hover drones surrounded the damm building and started firing on us. Dalton, Gem and her baby was with me. We were taking them somewhere secure when they opened fire. Thank god, we were where we were right then. At least little Emma is safe.”
Alec shook his head in disbelief.
“I need to go help them, Sketch. Stay here and, no matter what, don’t go outside. This room is the most secure and the most hidden one around here. If they are just concentrating on the central building, they won’t be able to find you. Just don’t do anything stupid, alright?”
“No, no no no. Wait, Alec. Max asked me to make you stay here if you came around.”
“Why in the hell would she ask you to do something like that?”
“Because she…um…I didn’t ask,” Sketchy answered, a quizzical expression wrinkling his face, making him look funnier than he actually was.
“Of course you didn’t,” Alec replied, rolling eyes. “Just stay here, okay?”
“But Alec, those things are firing at anything or anyone trying to come even close to that building. You won’t be able--”
The rest of Sketchy's sentence went unheard. Alec darted outside without sparing him a second glance. He needed to get to the central building right away.
Outside, he could see the hover drones zipping around the building, firing at at any opening they could find. Alec picked up his pace, tired muscles protesting and his heart beating wildly. He had a killer headache, and his chest felt as if someone had stomped on it a few hundred times.
Still, this was his fight too and he needed to be there among his kind, fighting for them, fighting with them.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“Otto, it’s been a fucking hour, for heaven sakes! Why is 452 still alive? ”White said, glaring at his subordinate. It was frustrating enough that he had gone to great lengths arranging a specific hover drone to give commands and directions to the controller chip embedded in 494’s neck; it was unbearable on whole other level that his team had been unable to locate him in the chaos that'd overtaken Terminal City.
“Sir, we have our hover drones in place, but 494 is nowhere in sight. We have locked 452’s location, though. The drones still have enough ammunition to take her out.”
“No! 494 is the one who gets to do it. Getting your leader murdered at the hands of their second in command is something no military unit can ever recover from and we don’t want them to be able to recover from this. Extend your search, go as far into that wretched city as you have to, to get 494’s location. Do it, Otto, and do it fast!”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The day might have started on a positive note for Detective Clemente but he wasn’t feeling so great right now. He was stuck inside an old, neglected lab facility in a city contaminated with radioactive waste, currently crawling with supposedly hostile transgenics. He had a sprained ankle, a dislocated shoulder, and nothing to protect himself with. To be honest, it was the worst situation he could have possibly ended up in.
Earlier that day, Senator James McKinley had asked him to lead a delegation, the main purpose of which was tonegotiate peace with the transgenics. It was supposed to be a super secret mission, because the senator hadn’t wanted to get anyone’s hopes too high, nor did he want to give transgenic haters a chance to wreak havoc on the city.
The delegation was supposed to visit TC in private, negotiate with transgenic leaders and work out something that could benefit everyone and still keep the situation peaceful.
Detective Clemente had tried doing just that, only, things hadn’t turned out the way he’d hoped. The moment his group had reached the most toxic and lethal entrance to TC, someone from inside opened fire, Clemente’s subordinate, Detective Neal, had been killed on the spot.
Somehow, Ramon had managed to take cover behind a corroded dumpster to save himself from the same fate. He had spent the entire morning fighting for the rights of these so-called super humans; he had repeatedly told everybody, how the transgenics weren’t much different from normal humans, how transgenics only wanted peace. Boy, was he wrong!
In that moment, Ramon had felt anger like never before. He hated backstabbers more than anything, and from the looks of things, the transgenics were just another horde of backstabbing humans, only they were genetically improved too.
He was about to get up and shoot at whatever bastard had killed Neal, when he noticed something strange about the delegates that had accompanied him. None of them were hiding, none of them were taking cover or firing at the transgenics inside the city, In fact, they all had their pistols aimed at one single target:
Him!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“Sir, I think we have him, but the hover drones need to come back and regroup. Transgenics are shooting at them. We can’t let them destroy the hover drone controlling Alec’s chip.”
“Otto, I don’t care how you do it, but you need to make 494 attack 452 now! And save the hover drone too. It’s your headache, but you should know this: if you fail to achieve this objective in next hour, I don’t have much use for you.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
There was too much screaming, too many shouted orders, too much firing going on around her, and yet Max became aware of Alec’s presence as soon as he stepped inside the building. Their eyes locked for a brief moment before Alec had to duck down in order to protect himself from the hover drone that had started firing in his direction. Max wanted to go after Alec, to make sure he was fine as he ducked and stumbled to make his way towards Mole, but she couldn’t. Original Cindy was hurt-she’d been shot in the shoulder when the attack had started, Dalton and Gem had good medical training, and they were doing their best to help her, but she had no idea if OC was going to make it.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Otto never liked taking chances, but he had to today. Those transgenics were too powerful, too organized. Even with a dozen hover drones surrounding their central building and shooting at them, they didn’t seem to slow down. There’d hardly had been any casualties: few were shot, but from the footage Otto had been receiving, none of them were dead yet, and that irked him to no end.
The main mission behind sending this batch of attacking HDs over TC was to bring the hover drone carrying X5-494’s controlling chip as close to him as possible. Earlier, they had been able to make contact with the transgenic from a wide range, but if they needed to give him specific commands, they had to be really close to him, like, being present in or around his exact location.
The attack was just a distraction--more precisely, it was just a cover for this hover drone to be positioned over TC. It had taken them almost an hour to make contact with 494. He must have been too far inside the city limits. White had gone ballistic on him, and for a moment back there, Otto was sure he was going to pull out his pistol and shoot him. Luckily, he had survived the tantrum.
And now that the hover drone was finally in range of the transgenic, Otto wasted no time.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Alec had been specifically trained in battle strategy back at Manticore. He could easily anticipate his enemy’s next move and that talent had come in handy more times than he could possibly count.
Alec looked around himself in trepidation. There were a dozen or so hover drones deployed around this building, shooting at any opening they could find, but they seemed to be almost out of ammunition, judging from the intervals between the aims. There was something off about this whole scenario. Why were the HDs placed only around this building? If this was a full blown attack on TC, there should have been a lot more of these. Also, these things were good at taking aim, they were designed specifically to be target driven, and yet here they were, shooting wildly.
As far as he could tell, the only purpose these things seemed to serve was keeping the Transgenics sidelined. No one could safely come out their hiding places, without getting shot by these things. Something clawed at the back of his mind. Alec’s entry inside the building had been much easier than he anticipated. It was almost as if they turned their guns the other side as soon as Alec came near the building. May be the hover drone thingies closest to him were out of ammunition? Well, whatever.
Alec needed to destroy these things, and he needed to do that fast. Turning back to Mole, he told him his plan.
A couple of minutes later, he could see Mole quickly moving down the stairs. The HDs fired several rounds at him, but he was fast, too fast, and his leathery skin too tough to be damaged by those pesky bullets. Alec grinned and looked upstairs, to where he had last seen Max standing. She was still there, but this time, she seemed to be kneeling beside someone. Gem was there too along with Dalton. They both had good medical training and them being there kneeling besides someone meant only one thing, someone was hurt. Badly.
There was a time when Alec had actually forgotten to care. The whole Rachel incident and the re-indoctrination he had endured afterwards had turned him into a machine. He didn’t care about anyone else. He couldn’t care. He would get commands from Manticore officials and his only thought would be to follow orders and look out for himself along the way. But then, Max burned down Manticore and he was free. For several months, all he did was roam about, fucking random but extremely hot girls and drinking.
Then his paths crossed with Max again and she chided him for his selfish streak. Later, he almost killed her and she saved his life, at the cost of losing the cure which would have enabled her to be with Logan again. Alec still wondered at that selfless act on her part.
He always used to think that to care meant to suffer. Heaven knows he had suffered a lot the one time he actually cared for another human being. So, yes, having any type of feelings for anyone scared him to no end but these last few months, Max had made him realise that being indifferent to everyone around you might make you suffer less but it also made you as inhuman as you could possibly become.
A high-pitched screech interrupted his train of thought. He felt a sudden pressure at the back of his neck, as if someone was trying to pull something out of his head and, just like that, he was surrounded by music again Only, this time, the music wasn’t a cacophony of high-pitched screeches and off-key notes. This time, the musical notes held meaning.
Everything was washed in several shades of red with only one grey spot: Max.
A sudden desire to kill filled every inch of his being, and without thinking, without caring, Alec picked up his gun and moved in Max’s direction.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Ramon had a split second to act before his fellow delegates started shooting at him. He ducked and moved out of a range, the thin, corroded metallic walls of the dumpster being the only thing separating him from his death.
A hover drone was buzzing over head, and Ramon knew those things recorded footage and delivered them to nearest precinct every fifteen minutes. He thought of waving at it and sending an SOS. Maybe, someone would come to his rescue. Then again, maybe not. Ramon was on his own right now--even if help arrived, it might already be too late for him. He rummaged through his coat to get his gun out. If he was to die, he was going to take as many of them as he could with him.
He waited for the firing to start.
It didn’t.
Instead, the fence separating them from TC creaked open and out came the transgenic that had earlier opened fire on them. Ramon had seen many transgenics in last couple of days, and while some of them barely looked human, none of them had the coldness being reflected so clearly in this guy’s eyes.
He moved towards him, caught hold of his neck and dragged him inside the city limits so fast that Ramon barely had any time to even consider pulling the trigger of his gun.
Several hours later, he awoke inside a crumbling laboratory, his shoulder broken and his ankle swelling to twice its actual size. He could hear the transgenic moving around in the adjacent room, the walls too broken to repress much noise. He was talking to someone, telling them that he was ready and that he had found where--what had he said? Yeah, he had found where the contraptions were engrafted.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Otto should have thought about this; he should have turned off other HD’s before he set 494 on his assassinating mission. Because now, as the transgenic came out of his hiding place down the stairs, the HD closest to the window took aim and shot at him.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~`
Max saw Mole moving out of the building, she heard those fucking hover drones, firing at him as soon as he got out. For a moment her heart stopped, but she shouldn’t have worried, Mole made it out without as much as a scratch on him. That guy was fast and one tough son of a gun.
She looked down at Alec and caught him looking back at her. He seemed to be immersed deep in some thought but there was a smile playing at his lips. Her heart skipped a beat. Alec had a killer smile; girls at Jam Pony used to babble about that all day and it irked Max to no end. Now, she could just see what all the rage was about.
Alec suddenly closed his eyes and held his head as if he was in pain, and Max’s heart stuttered to a stop.
Was he having that headache/seizure attack again?
But Alec didn’t scream this time, nor did he collapse on the floor. Instead he looked straight at her, his face devoid of any emotion, his eyes so cold that it froze Max in her tracks for a minute. She saw him taking out a gun from his pocket and moving away from the stone ledge he had been using as his cover.
The coldness in his eyes scared her. Alec had never been so cold. Indifferent yes, but even then she could see his kindness and despair underneath all those layers he wore as a mask. Now, there was nothing and why in the hell was he pointing his gun at her?
Several things happened simultaneously: the hover drone outside the window started shooting in Alec’s direction, Max screamed at him to get away, Alec staggered as a bullet hit him in his abdomen, and then, he stood right back up and fired at her.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Part III