DISCLAIMER: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement was intended.

AUTHOR'S NOTE: This is a little shorter than my usual chapters but I'm still trying to decide how much detail to go into about the reindoc and psy ops that Max and Ben undergo. This seemed like the best place to leave it until I figure that out. Next chapter should be out by the end of the week.

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Max woke up slowly, it was a unique experience. It gave her plenty of time to panic. The first thing that she noticed was the pain. Her whole body throbbed with it but her head, that was something more akin to a white hot agony. Her mouth was dry. Cotton mouth and morning breath went hand in hand and she had a feeling her breath could have knocked out an elephant at a hundred paces. Her eyes weren't opening. Why the hell weren't her eyes opening?

She realized she was restrained when she tried to reach up and touch her face and the level of fear she felt shot way beyond the panic stage. Knowing it wouldn't get her anywhere, she struggled to get her breathing under control and remember what had happened.

Ben, she remembered, she'd been fighting Ben in the woods, trying to save Father Destry. He'd been holding back, at least she'd assumed he'd been, because back before the escape, he'd been more than capable of holding his own against Zack and Seth and those two were the best athletes in the unit.

Ok, they'd been fighting, she thought, reminding herself to stay on task, then what? Even as she struggled to remember she was frantically trying to open her eyes, which she now suspected, were crusted over with sleep. She managed her second objective before her first and wished she hadn't. A quick glance around was all it took to know she was in hell. She recognized this place. It had been the stuff of nightmares during her childhood. She was in the infirmary. She was back at Manticore.

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Ben didn't have to struggle to remember what had happened the way Max did. No, he remembered with perfect clarity. He'd been prepared to kill his baby sister and then himself to spare them this fate but even as he'd squeezed down on the trigger his gun had been shot from his hand by Lydecker and then he'd been shot. He'd had just long enough to look down and see the feathered tufts of a tranquilizer dart in his chest before his eyes rolled back into his head and he fell bonelessly to the forest floor.

He remembered alright, so waking up in 5x10 foot cell didn't surprise him in the least. His fear of the nomlies warred with his relief over returning to the only home he'd ever known. Right up until Maxie's comment at the Space Needle surfaced, "I bet he'd love to find out what the hell went wrong with you." Her voice echoed through his mind, words overlapping with images of being taken apart by Lydecker, until his head was filled with a senseless cacophony so loud that he never noticed the cell door opening or the child that moved to kneel in front of him. He didn't notice the small hands that gripped his face but by the Blue Lady he sure as hell noticed the pain of another's will overpowering his own.

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Manticore was buzzing with the news that Colonel Lydecker had managed to capture not one but two of the 09'ers and had brought them back to base.

Two of the soldiers felt more strongly than the others about that news.

X5-734, Brin to her brothers and sisters, was of two minds. On one hand, part of her was excited, curious even, about which of her sibs had come home, thrilled that she'd no longer be here alone. But on the other hand, a small part of her, the tiny spark that made her Brin that Manticore couldn't stamp out no matter how they tried, was saddened, because she knew most of her family would rather die than be recaptured.

X5-494 on the other hand was furious. Since his dealings with the guards made him privy to the fact that one of the X5's that had been recaptured was his twin X5-493, the sole cause of so much of his childhood pain, he shook with anger and a desire for revenge. He didn't feel bad to hear that his twin was being worked over by the best of the best of Psy Ops. Nope, no bad feelings about that at all. He didn't feel sorry for the crazy little bastard he'd shared a test tube with. Not at all. If he didn't know better, he'd think that he was trying hard to convince himself that he didn't care. But he did know better. Didn't he?

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Looking up at the sound of the door opening, Max wasn't surprised to see Lydecker come striding in. After all, she was back in hell, it only made sense that her own personal Satan would be there too. She watched him warily as he approached the foot of her bed and began looking over her chart. Her life was back in this man's hands until she managed to escape again and she hated the very idea of it.

"Multiple contusions and abrasions, concussion..." He said as though he was talking to himself. "They had to pick tree bark out of the laceration on the back of your head, so they're speculating that the concussion was a result of a run in with that oak tree we found you bleeding all over." He looked her over with a small, satisfied smile, apparently unaffected by the death glares she was shooting his way. "Little spat with brother Ben?" He asked mockingly, "I'll really have to remember to find Eyes Only and thank him personally for contacting me and letting me know where to find you."

Max's teeth clenched together so tightly she was surprised they didn't shatter. Logan wouldn't have betrayed her, Lydecker was just playing mind games, she told herself.

Lydecker watched her eyes narrow and her face tighten with resolve, he knew she was convincing herself that her trust hadn't been misplaced, and he had to fight back a chuckle. Pulling a tape recorder from his pocket he placed it on the table beside her and pressed play. It was actual conversation they'd had, the audio experts had had to do very little tampering to making the evidence damning.

"Innocent people are dying. I don't know what your agenda is, but if you don't stop this guy, I'm gonna go public with this. Then you'll know what exposure is." The voice was unmistakably Eyes Only.

"You're bluffing." Lydecker heard himself reply, his eyes on Max's face watching closely for her reactions, his kids were all good at hiding their feelings, only the faintest flicker of confusion passed over her face. "You wouldn't do anything...if it put Max at risk."

"If you don't do something about him, then I will." Eyes Only replied. "Max isn't the one I'm worried about. Ben is and she's gone after him. I put a tracking device on her motorcycle, I'll give you her coordinates but you have to promise to put a stop to the murders that Ben has been committing." He demanded.

"If you give me the coordinates, I can promise you son, you'll never have to worry about either of them again."

Lydecker reached out dispassionately and turned off the tape recorder. "He sent me straight too you. I'm disappointed Max, I taught you better than that." He started walking towards the door, knowing that giving her time to think over this betrayal would be the most effective move at this point. Pausing in the door way, he mentioned, without turning to look at her, "I sent Ben down to Psy Ops. I expect him to be a model soldier again in no time. You, on the other hand, I'm not sure whether you can be salvaged or not. You were always more strong willed then 493."