He was Right
Written for the prompt : Dark Angel, Alec/Rachel, "we don't belong with them" (Max's POV)
He was Right
For the first time, Max gets a glimpse of the man he could have been. Manticore created him, moulded him. They trained him and made him a weapon and then they set him loose on the world to wreak their devastation. He'd gone in like they'd said and while he was there he'd broken free of all the years of his creation and been a better man.
It had led him here. After months of re-indoctrination and suffering, more missions and trials and final freedom, he had ended up here seeing the truth of his own attempt to be real, the outcome of the sickness that was Manticore had murdered the life this girl could have had, but the weight of that rested on his shoulders.
Max knew for the first time that she'd misjudged him. He was more than she had ever imagined, he'd done more than she had any right to have expected of him to overcome the life he'd had. He had stumbled and now she was here . . . it was only right that she should help him back to his feet, like the friend she should have been, the friend he deserved to have. He was right, they didn't belong with ordinary people. No matter how they tried to break free, they were always going to be toxic.
She stepped back, giving him a little time, a little privacy. It was the least he deserved.