A/N: I found Pollo Loco to be a very disturbing episode and these verses are the result. Poor Ben. I felt to sad for him. He couldn't cope with life on the outside, but I also doubt his ability to cope with life on the inside. I think his imagination and consequent great fear of the unknown must have led him to this passe – his self-hate. Something Max, with her love of life, would find totally foreign and be unable to relate to.







The Good Soldier



Ben, what went wrong with you?

You were the one with the imagination,

Your stories kept us amused.

Was it your fear?



Brother, did you believe your own tales?

The nomlies in the basement,

The Blue Lady, the good place.

They were all butterfly shadows on the wall.



X5-493 – did you really enjoy killing?

Didn't you know it was wrong?

Was it really your purpose in life?

Did you want to die?





You were so strong, so beautiful.

You were my brother,

My childhood friend

My story teller.



How could you hate yourself so much?

How could you kill yourself over and over?

Why couldn't you make sense of life?

I don't understand.



I think you came to believe

The tales you told us.

But you had your own nomlie -

It grew inside you.



Good soldier

I sensed your need to die – your fear

Your eyes begged me to end it all

Snap… it was so easy.



But now I grieve for you.

I no longer have a brother Ben.

Your light is gone from my life

Like a butterfly on gilded wings.



The evil of Manticore

Is gone from your life now.

You're in the good place

Where no-one ever gets punished…