A/N: Thanks for the reviews, everyone! And without further ado, chapter one!

Chapter One

"Max? Hey, Princess, am I interrupting something, here?"

Max lifted her head from her desk and noticed for the first time that Mole was talking to her. Or rather, sarcastically insulting her lack of focus.

"Sorry if all my trying to keep Terminal City alive is interrupting your beauty sleep," He groused when he realized he had her attention, his ever-present cigar planted firmly in his mouth. He had become quite good at inhaling the noxious smoke while talking at the same time, Max noted with dull amusement.

"Most people knock," Max replied easily, indicating to the fact that he had just opened her door and barged into her private office.

Truthfully, everyone opened her door and barged in unannounced, and Mole knew that. Transgenics were many things, but patient and polite weren't among the list. "Think you could tune back to earth for a minute? Or at least tell me what's clouding your pretty little head this time. The guys and I could use a laugh."

She stood indignantly, crossing her arms over her chest. He was implying that whatever she was worrying about was probably stupid, and she resented him for it. The fact that Alec had taken a total one-eighty and gone from someone she could trust to someone that cruelly taunted her was hardly unimportant.

The thought conjured an image of Alec in her head, angry and just barely in control, and her face tautened as she struggled to restrain the whirlwind of emotions the memory brought.

When they had first met, flippant comments about Ben hadn't been unusual for him. Max assumed that he had, after all, retained a deep resentment for her unit-mate after having been put through rigorous Phy Ops evaluations as a result of Ben's instability. But, after that painful night that she finally released her sickening secret to Alec, of all people, things had subtly shifted between them. The arguing had become less violent – although perhaps no less heated – and there was a strange sense of companionship that allowed both of them to relax in each other's company.

She had always trusted him on some level to have her back. And she had always chosen Alec to accompany her on recon missions and rescue ops, despite the fact that she had numerous other X5's ready and willing to watch out for her. Perhaps it had just become habit, but she had to admit it wasn't a habit she was willing to break.

Well, he seemed to have no trouble breaking his habit. His habit of being empathetic about Ben, of not saying things that would cause her to remember the ultimate ending to that situation. She had trusted him completely with one of the most nightmarish experiences of her life, and last night he had thrown that trust right back in her face.

Her only question was: why?

Why had he felt the need to hurt her? Because that was undoubtedly his intention. Bringing up Ben would cause nothing but pain for her, and he knew that. Hell, their argument had been a pretty common one for them; nothing that should have upset him. He was forever risking his life unnecessarily, and she was forever ripping him a new one for not being more careful. It wasn't as if she had said anything to hurt him the way he wanted to hurt her.

So why did she feel as if everything were somehow her fault?

"Max!" Mole's rough voice instantly yanked her from her thoughts, and she glanced at him guiltily. "Keep getting lost in your head, and I'll seriously start to consider that something's wrong with you."

Max grunted in response and walked toward him. Mole tensed, looking slightly wary as he moved away from the door. But Max merely patted him hard on the shoulder as she slid by him. "Keep talking to me like that," Max responded sociably, though the threat still crept into her tone, "And you won't have a head to consider with."

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Alec stared at himself intently in the cracked, dingy mirror, noting with some indifference that his face looked a little wearier, his eyes a little darker and his skin a little paler. He registered the changes briefly and then discarded them, understanding that they were most likely brought on by all the stress he'd experienced lately.

Instead he focused his attention inward, and ran through the usual questions.

Was he feeling alright today? He gave the subject a moment's thought and decided that, despite his guilt over his fight with Max and the aforementioned stress, he was fine.

Any unusual thoughts or urges? He quickly pondered over his behavior as of late, but he couldn't recall a time when he'd thought about or wanted to do something strange. He'd had transgenic yearnings, sure, but nothing out of the ordinary. He hadn't wanted to kill anything; not the transgenics he saw every day, not the Ordinaries protesting just outside the gate, and not the mice that ran rampant through Terminal City.

….Well, okay, so maybe he'd had thoughts about the mice. But that wasn't so unusual; feline DNA, and all. Next question.

No confusion about his place in the world, what he was meant to do? Oh, hell. Plenty of confusion about that. For one, he didn't know exactly what he was supposed to be doing for Terminal City, or whether he was even up for such a joint effort after spending so much time on his own. And he didn't know if Max had a place for him in her life, if she needed him. He didn't know if he needed her.

But nothing that made him want to do anything… crazy.

Felt the need to hurt someone unnecessarily? Well, unless he counted the need to emotionally devastate Max, then no. He felt worry bubble in his stomach as he wondered if maybe that did count.

He shook his head quickly and continued to the last question.

How did he feel about teeth? He shuddered. Still hated anything to do with them.

Alec sighed, finally breaking his own gaze and glancing away from his reflection. Daily checkup complete. The analysis? Not crazy.

He took a deep breath and bowed his head, staring down at the dingy sink drain vacantly. He had long since memorized the answers to those questions; they'd asked him every day until he had finally learned the correct responses. Until he had finally started asking himself the questions out of habit.

His jaw clenched tightly as he remembered a time when he hadn't had all the answers.

"How you feeling today?" White lab-coats with clipboards, checking off his answers as if they were inventory.

494 stood straight and tall like a soldier, but inside he was nervous and, if he allowed himself to admit it, frightened. "Uh… fine." He replied after a brief hesitation. That missed beat garnered him a suspicious look from the doctor and a large tick on the clipboard. 494's eyes roved over the man nervously before refocusing on the wall in front of him.

"Any unusual thoughts or urges?" 494's gaze flickered back to the questioner again, and he had the misfortune of catching the lab-coat's gaze.

A gaze that narrowed and became hard as the man snapped, "Eyes front, 494!"

494's gaze snapped forward again. "No strange thoughts or urges, sir!" He barked, his voice echoing in the empty room. Another checkmark.

"No confusion about what you're meant to do here and what your purpose is?" The lab-coat questioned next, his voice distinctly colder.

"I…" 494 faltered, the words catching in his throat. His purpose? They had never told him that. He just followed orders. Was that an acceptable answer? Or were they looking for something else?

"494…" The man said Alec's designation low in his throat, like a venomous warning.

"I… I follow orders, sir!" He called to the wall, but he knew he had hesitated and fumbled too long. He struggled to maintain his gaze, even as he felt the lab-coat whisk by him and exit the room.

494 held his position and continued to focus on the vivid white wall, aware that his superiors were still studying him through the double-sided mirror. He could even pick out a few of their words with his advanced hearing.

"Not sure if… Needs more thorough investigation…. I'd suggest another couple of months… Psy Ops."

Dread, cold and heavy, spread through his system like ice. Sweat broke out on his forehead and his vision darkened as his mind screamed for him to move, run, fight, escape.

But he stood perfectly straight and still as the white-coats rushed in. He stood still as they shoved a needle in his arm. He collapsed willingly as they gathered up his drugged body and hauled him back to Phy Ops for observation.

Alec hadn't realized he'd grabbed the dingy old sink until he felt the porcelain crumble under his grip. He jerked out of his haze, eyes snapping open and teeth grinding together. He surveyed the damage and then released the sink lining, holding his hands out and observing them as they quaked.

Shaking hands wasn't a good sign, according to Manticore. Maybe Max was right.

He released a frustrated noise and clenched his hands into fists. Get a grip! His morning ritual had proved once again that he was sane. A comment from Max didn't change anything. It wasn't weird for him to want to use the skills Manticore had given him, and yes, to risk his neck on occasion. It wasn't like he didn't take precautions, and he had learned quickly from his mistakes.

But still, Max's remark had shaken him. Or more so, the way she had said it so deliberately had shaken him. There was very little doubt in her eyes, as if in that moment she had honestly believed it. Believed he was crazy.

She'd probably meant it, but not in the way he had interpreted it. Max couldn't comprehend his need to venture out of Terminal City and into the arms of the cruel, hateful city. She had worked hard to make Terminal City a haven for transgenics, a place they wouldn't have to leave once they had entered the rusty, well-guarded gates. But waiting wasn't something Alec did easily. He had never been the most patient of the X5's, which was saying something, considering none of the X series had much patience.

His behavior wasn't all that strange, really. It made perfect sense to him, at least.

Just like it made sense to Ben?

He gritted his teeth and clenched his eyes shut, willing the thought away. He knew next to nothing about Ben, having only heard what Max and Manticore had told him. His only relation to the unstable X5 was their shared genes. Unfortunate, but not something he could control. And not something he would let control him.

He was fine. Fine. Manticore wouldn't have kept him around if they hadn't thought him both capable and rational. They had performed their tests, as Alec performed his, and they had found no reason to believe he would or had lost his mind.

But even as he reassured himself, a cold, cruel voice scraped abrasively though his mind like a splinter. "Not sure if he's stable…another couple of months in Phy Ops."

End of Chapter One