Summary: It all started when Colin found out about the clones. From there his secure, safe life was thrown into a downward spiral of killer-clones, murderers, and genetic DNA structures his mind couldn't fathom. Throw in a few mad scientist and you have one hell of a ride. Colin/Felix. M/M.

Author Note: Characters might be OOC slightly or a lot. I'm terrible at characterisation. *meek expression* ENJOY!

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-Live Fast, Die Young-

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Chapter | ONE:

Lightning cracked across the sky, sending off sparks in the dark expanse. Colin stared hard at the sky, watching the lightning spark and crackle like electricity. Felix stood beside him, a warm presence at his side, one of Felix's arms was snaked around Colin's waist, holding him close. It was a comfort, especially since the sight before him had rendered him speechless. Not the lightning, but Sarah Manning. Felix's deceased sister. Only she wasn't dead, didn't look it if the wry smile was anything to go by. She stood a meter in front of him, her dark eyes watching him steadily. Colin had the strange urge to reach out and touch her arm, just to make sure he wasn't seeing a ghost, an apparition, a trick.

He swallowed, it was thick and stuck in his throat, it made a noise and Felix heard it in the silence of the street. His fingers bunched around Colin's hip, holding on and holding Colin on his feet. If it wasn't for Felix, he'd have blown over with the slight breeze. His knees felt shaky, like they might decide to buckle any second. His hands trembled and his jaw hung open, seemingly unhinged. Felix shifted next to him, his warmth moving at Colin's side surreptitiously.

"Say something," Felix said. His voice was quiet, and Colin wasn't sure whether he was talking to him or Sarah. He didn't have the words to speak them anyway. None were forthcoming. They were trapped somewhere in his chest, held in his lungs along with his breath. Lightning danced across the sky, sparking brightly for a beat of a second before leaving the sky dark and shadowed with night. Colin flicked his eyes over Sarah's figure, half shrouded in shadow. She looked so much like the corpse Felix had identified. Yet, it couldn't possibly be her, not when she was standing, breathing, smiling a wry smile in front of him.

"So this is the boyfriend?" Sarah said suddenly, and Colin realised Felix must have been speaking to her previously. Her lips were curved into a half smile that didn't quite reach her eyes. It was obvious that she was slightly amused by Colin's flabbergasted expression. He could almost sense that she wanted to say something about his unhinged jaw and wide, round eyes.

Felix shifted again, his fingers tightening on Colin's hip, digging in and keeping him close. "Told you he was real." Felix quipped. Colin couldn't take his eyes away from Sarah, but he could imagine the sly smile stretching Felix's plump lips. He closed his mouth and swallowed again, hoping to dislodge some words. His throat bobbed around the swallow and he blinked at Sarah.

"You're supposed to be dead…," was all the words he could manage. It was a wonder that they came out in the right order.

Sarah's wry smile grew wider. "You've bagged a smart one, Fee." She joked. Felix gave a nervous titter of laughter, but the pressure of his fingertips digging into Colin's hipbone was enough of a giveaway that he was nervous. His palm was warm even through Colin's jacket and jeans.

Another spark of bright lightning shattered the night, illuminating Sarah fully, she looked exactly like the dead woman identified as her, only she was here, standing in front of him, breathing and very much alive. A shiver crawled down his spine, digging its claws into his bones and making him tremble. Felix tightened his arm around his waist and held him securely.

"You can't be alive," Colin managed to say passed the ball of dread that had climbed into his throat and lodged there. "I saw you, you were — dead."

"It wasn't me." Sarah informed and Colin's head began to spin in dizzying circles. When he muttered out a breathless, quiet; 'what?' Sarah elaborated. "It was another person," she looked to Felix as if asking silently for his help.

"Now Colin, I don't want you to freak out on me, okay? Dealing with dead people is one thing, but what we're about to show you will shock you. Lean on me if you need to. Alright?" Felix said all in one breath. Colin looked to him, tearing his eyes away from Sarah. Felix's brown eyes were large and solemn. He was being completely serious, so Colin agreed with a jerky nod of his head. "You can come out now." Felix said, but he wasn't speaking to Colin or even Sarah.

Felix's eyes watched the shadows behind Sarah, and Colin followed his line of vision to stare into the darkness. It was only when another bout of lightning ripped across the sky that he saw in full what Felix was asking him not to freak out about. Two women, identical to Sarah save for different hair cuts and clothes stood a few meters behind Sarah, watching him with cautious, alert eyes. Colin, his heart ricocheting around his chest, almost passed out from sheer surprise. Then his mind kicked into gear and tried to find out the most logical explanation.

Triplets? Surely that had to be it. But that didn't explain away the body in the morgue.

"What's going on here?" asked Colin, more than a little put out. Felix's grip on his hipbone was strong, bruising almost, but a comfort and he leaned into Felix's warmth.

"You're not going to believe this —" Sarah begun.

"Try me," Colin said, desperate for some answers. Felix flexed his fingers on Colin's hipbone. Colin could hear Felix breathing shallowly as if he was afraid what was to come, or perhaps he was just afraid of Colin's reaction. Either way, his breathing was shallow and shaky and it made Colin nervous and hesitant.

Sarah breathed out a sigh, a huff of air that was long and breathy. She flicked her eyes up to stare at Felix, and she clearly saw what she wanted to see, for a moment later she looked back at Colin and said, in such a serious voice; "we're clones."

Colin's breath was stuck in his lungs. Held in by shock and the trapped air made his chest burn. Felix let go of his hipbone, sliding his arm from around his waist and touching his arm gently. It grounded Colin enough for him to utter a breathless laugh. A laugh that was more surprised than humorous. He lifted his hand to fiddle with his glasses, adjusting them as if that would help him unsee the 'clones'. It didn't. They stayed before him; watching him just as carefully as he watched them.

"You're…clones?" Colin said, half asking, half stating.

"Yes. We are genetically identical." Confirmed the clone with dreadlocks. She wore thick rimmed glasses and gave Colin a grin. Colin tried to return it, but it died on the way up.

"And the woman Felix identified as you?" he asked Sarah, "who was she?"

"Another clone. Beth Childs." Sarah said.

Colin's head was whirling in circles and a headache was beginning to form behind his eyes. Lightning flashed through the sky, crackling, and then a deafening boom rented the air. The approaching storm was getting nearer. Sarah looked up at the night sky as did the clones just as a thick sheet of rain plummeted down upon them.

Seconds into the downpour Colin's glasses were crying with rainwater and he took them off to dry them on his sleeve.

"This must be a shock to you," said the other clone, her fringe stuck to her forehead and, from what Colin could see, she gave him a small smile. "You're taking it well."

He put his glasses back on, slipping them up his nose and stared at the woman, who looked so much like Sarah, yet different in many aspects. "Is needing a stiff drink taking it well?" Colin asked with a half smile.

— —

The glass of beer wasn't the type of drink he had been hoping for. It wasn't strong enough, but it would suffice. Colin twisted the glass on his knee, sitting on Felix's sofa, the glass left a sticky ring on the dark denim. Felix sat next to him, comfortable and laid back despite the situation. In front of him stood Sarah and the two other women. All watched him with matching stares. It was unnerving and he cleared his throat to break the silence.

He didn't need to, however, for the one with the fringe spoke. "I'm Alison Hendrix." She said with a tiny wave of her hand. Then she cupped her jaw, drumming her fingers on her cheek. It was almost nervously done.

"Cosima," said the woman with the dreadlocks.

He supposed they already knew his name, but he offered it regardless. "Colin." He said quietly. Lifted his glass to his lips, took a big mouthful and then swallowed. The alcohol tasted weak and he looked to Felix who was leaning back next to him, watching the awkwardness unfold. "Got anything stronger?" Colin asked Felix.

Felix got to his feet, sauntering into the kitchen area.

"Something for me too, Fee." Sarah said.

When the drinks had been collected and given out Felix sat down again. The sofa cushion dipped as he sat close to Colin, offering support even when all the support Colin needed was in his glass. The tequila burned on the way down but made him feel calmer and more open to asking questions. Mainly how and why.

"How is this possible?"

Cosima, a glass of red wine in her hand, took a step forward. Outside lightning and thunder reigned ominous. Battling with one another and creating quite the show of sound and light. "It's all very confusing," was the best answer she could give him.

Colin made to speak up, to demand answers from the women when a loud booming rattle rendered him speechless. The air caught his shout of surprise and at first he thought it must have been the thunder and lightning, that is until it repeated itself, again and again.

Pain flashed in his calve muscle, searing white-hot and harsh. A graze of something hot burned his cheek, and he heard Alison scream four words that tore down his walls and crumbled them to dust. What was left of his calm facade shattered and he dropped to the floor, spilling his drink in his haste.

"Someone's shooting at us!"

He felt Felix drop into a crouch beside him, a swear word on his tongue and spilling into the bullet full air. Machine guns blared and sung a tune of death. Colin crawled, as best he could with the searing pain in his leg, for safety, making sure to snatch Felix's wrist and drag him along in tow.

He met Sarah halfway to Felix's small kitchen area and she was pulling out a gun from a holster underneath her leather jacket, shielding Alison with her body. He wanted to ask why she would have a gun on her, but he figured it wasn't the time. Not when they were being shot at. He clamped his lips together, to keep the unwanted questions in and to hold back the grunt of pain that threatened to be expelled from his body. His leg seared and ached and burned. It wasn't until Felix and him were hiding behind the kitchen counter that he realised he'd been shot in the leg and narrowly missed having his ear blown away by a bullet.

"Stay down!" he heard Sarah shout.

Then, as abruptly as they had started, the rain of bullets stopped.

A quiet that was thick with unspoken tension clouded them like an invisible fog. Colin reached for Felix's hand and gripped it hard in his own.

Heavy breathing was the only sound to be heard.

"What's happening?" Cosima questioned, quietly. "Who's shooting at us?"

"Helena?" Sarah breathed roughly.

Cosima shook her head, dreadlocks brushing onto her cheeks momentarily, as she dispelled that idea. "There's more than one person out there." She said. It didn't take a science geek to realise that much. Felix squeezed Colin's hand tight, bone breaking tight, and Colin turned to look at him, his eyes flicked past the sliding door which was gaping with bullet holes, looking like swish cheese and then they landed on Felix's brown gaze.

Fear, that's all he saw.

He had no words to dissipate the fear shining in over-bright eyes, so he squeezed Felix's hand back just as strongly.

Then, as if they had heard Sarah and Cosima talking, the mysterious people behind the swish cheese door doubled their attack and bullets surrounded them once more. Cosima, her hands shaking just as bad as Colin's were, dived behind the sofa while Sarah dragged Alison behind her to where Colin and Felix were behind the counter.

"Shit, shit, shit," Sarah cursed in one breath. Colin saw it first; the blood. Staining her white T-shirt red, her blood was so red, so dark, it almost looked black. It bloomed in the shape of a rose on her abdomen and then she was dropping Alison's sleeve and her gun and applying pressure on the wound as best she could. Felix dropped Colin's hand and tried to help stem the flow of blood that was beginning to puddle on the ground and smear on the floorboards. Crimson leaked and dribbled over Sarah's and Felix's knuckles. Alison was reaching for the gun and positioning herself over the counter, ready, ready for the attack.

"Get a knife," she said, lowly, to Colin. And, shaken from hearing Sarah's grunting and Felix's curse words, he pulled a knife from the knife block and held it securely in his hands. He could feel a lick of blood trailing down his cheek where the bullet had grazed him and he wiped it away on the sleeve of his jacket.

When the bullets stopped for a second time, no one spoke. But they were ready. Sarah muffled her laboured breathing with gritted teeth and Felix quieted his profanity. Colin and Alison wielded their weapons as confidently as possible and from behind the sofa Cosima peered at the door as it slowly, on broken tracks, began to open.

What was revealed took Colin's breath away, and made his lungs feel tight and overused. He gasped for air and tried to hold his courage steady. But it slipped from his grasp like sand through the cracks of fingers. He dropped down behind the counter and shut his eyes briefly. He could hear Alison fire the gun, a surprised shock of sound that bah-boomed into the quiet space. Hear a grunt that was male and then felt the knife being pried from his grasp. When he opened his eyes Felix was gone and dread choked his throat.