DISCLAIMER: Dark Angel is not mine. Even after all these years…

A/N: Wow, this was kind of hard to write. I was supremely stumped for this prompt. I hope it just gets easier from here. Haha, though I seriously doubt it considering my muse has been wishy-washy about DA lately. I hope you still enjoy it though.

DAUGHTER

Alec walked round the corner just in time to see Max drop Sketchy from a chokehold in the back wall of Jam Pony. "If I ever hear about you so much as stickin' your pinky toe into Steelhead territory again, I'mma hand them to you myself. Do you understand?"

Sketchy nodded hastily, just glad to be able to breathe again.

"Say, 'I understand, Max.'" she intoned, her voice deceptively sweet.

"Yes, I understand, Max!"

Max glared at him, her dark eyes flashing angrily. "Idiot," she muttered, before shoving Sketchy against the wall one more time for good measure.

He grunted as he hit the brick wall with surprising force. "Uh, thanks again for, uh…saving me," he muttered lamely. Max bared her teeth at him into something that wasn't quite a smile before stalking off.

Alec hastily sidestepped Max but not before she placed a hand on his chest and pushed, "Get outta my way, Alec," she growled. He fell back against the lockers with a loud bang, his arms raised in mock surrender.

Two pairs of incredulous eyes watched as Max stormed out of Jam Pony. Alec turned towards Sketchy, "Might I ask why she's Little Miss Sunshine today?" he drawled, raising an eyebrow at his bewildered friend.

Sketchy just shrugged, pulling his leatherette vest back into place and then adjusting the collar of his shirt. "I mean, I paged her, right. Some Steelhead's accusing me of stealing a package, and well, from past experience, Max always has my back. I mean the girl can talk her way out of anything. It's cuz she's so hot, y'know?"

"Riiiight," Of course it was the hot factor and nothing to do with the transgenic factor at all. Alec grinned slightly.

"Well, then she comes around, tells me she's gonna 'handle this' and tells me to get back to Jam Pony. She gets back and well…you saw what happened," he shrugged, still slightly dazed. "Does she…y'know…work out?"

Alec rolled his eyes. Leave it to Max to throw Sketchy around in Jam Pony and then yell at him for using his Manticore gifts to scam some cash out of the poor sucker at pool. "It's probably just in her genes," he muttered. "Bet she's part gorilla or something."

Sketchy just stared at him, confused.

Alec smiled widely at his friend, "I'm kidding," he deadpanned. "I'm sure it was just adrenaline. She was pretty pissed at you."

Sketchy laughed uncomfortably, "Yeah, yeah, adrenaline."

Alec caught up with her later in her apartment.

"Get out!" she seethed, throwing a pot at him. He ducked easily and the pot hit the wall behind him with a loud clang. Granted he did just walk into her bathroom unannounced while she soaked in a tub filled with bubbles that smelled distinctly like—he sniffed—lavender.

His lips quirked, "Lavender is supposed to have a calming effect," he quipped, leaning against the doorframe and crossing his arms as he looked nonchalantly at her. She was ensconced in a tub filled with bubbles, her dark hair pinned up high, with tendrils gently curling around her face from the steam. There were candles flickering all over the room, giving it a gentle deceptively relaxed golden glow. The picture-perfect scene was marred by the dozens of pots that littered the floor near the tub, presumably having been used to transport hot water into the tub.

She glared at him while gathering bubbles closer to her. "I was calm until you came in and ruined the Zen," she bit out. "What are you still doing here?"

"We need to talk."

"Can't you see that now is a little inconvenient," she glared at him, her face twisted in a dark frown.

Alec wasn't fazed. "I'm not inconvenienced," he smiled, knowing full well that he was risking his very life by continuing to stand at the door.

Max's jaw dropped in indignation then she reached over to grab another pot and aimed it at Alec. "You're sick!" she cried, then threw the pot straight at him.

With transgenic speed, Alec blurred out of the way and closed the door just in time for the pot to clang loudly behind him. He chuckled loudly. "Better hurry before you turn into a prude…ah, I mean, prune," he called as he walked away from the bathroom door.

Within minutes she was outside, tying a bathrobe tightly around her narrow waist. "What?" she demanded, crossing her arms over her chest.

"Pink," he smirked. "Who would've thought you'd be prancing around in a pink robe?"

She snarled in impatience, "Alec…" she warned, her frown turning darker, her full lips pursed.

"Right," He scratched the back of his neck where his barcode ought to have been. The lasers sometimes irritated his skin. "Dix thinks that he may have located a Familiar enclave."

"And I care because?"

Alec frowned. "Oh, I don't know, maybe because they think you're Lady Jesus Messiah of all Mankind, The Chosen One, The Ruiner of All Snakey Plans…or wait, yeah, that's right…they also want all of us exterminated, that's why." He deadpanned. "What is with you, lately?"

Max rolled her eyes at him ignoring the question, before turning away to walk into her room. "Fine. I'll go. Whatever."

"Max!" Alec's voice was coarse with the need to get to her. "Stop it!" he cried. "Stop it right now!" He wrapped his arms around her, restraining her. He felt all of her strength straining against him. It felt like his arms were going to be ripped right off their sockets she was fighting so hard against him.

He had his arms wrapped tightly around her, while she kneeled on the floor. A Familiar laid unconscious, bleeding, beaten to a bloody pulp next to them.

Max's hands were bloodied too. Swollen from having delivered so many blows.

She had continued to batter the Familiar long after he had already fallen at her feet. She would have killed him if Alec hadn't stopped her.

"Max, please stop," he whispered, his voice soft and low in her ear.

It was the gentleness in his tone that finally reached her. The red haze that had filled her mind with rage faded and she felt spent. She sagged into his arms and she could literally feel the relief flow out of his body as he relaxed his grip on her.

But he continued to hold her, as if he understood that if he let go now, she would crumple to the ground. The feel of his arms around her, the solid length of him down her back just somehow broke the dam.

She felt a rush of emotion hit her like a wave until a sob broke out of her.

"Shhh…" he whispered, adjusting his hold on her until he managed to turn her enough that face rested on the crook of his neck. "What's the matter, Maxie?"

She stiffened in his embrace, as if realizing for the first time everything that had just happened. She had let her rage get the better of her. She had almost killed the Familiar at her feet. She hadn't been able to stop.

She would have made him proud.

With a quick twist, she was out of Alec's arms. She pushed him away from her as she got up. "Leave me alone," she snapped as she briskly wiped the tears away on the sleeve of her arm.

Alec looked incredulous at first, then his expression turned hard. He leapt to his feet and faced her. They circled each other for a moment.

Then without a warning, Max spun around to run away. But Alec had expected it. He was faster. He grabbed her arm, twisted it behind her back and slammed her against the nearest wall.

"We. Need. To. Talk." He growled.

Max let the pain from her twisted arm wash over and out of her. "There's nothing to talk about," she seethed.

"No?" he drawled icily. "Not that you're not normally a bitch or anything, but dammit, Max, the way you've been acting lately…the bullying, the rage, being out of control, the downright meanness, what is that all about?"

Her lips twisted into an ugly grin. "What if that's just the way I am, huh?"

"What? PMS on steroids? Because that really should come with a warning label."

"You're bent," she growled. "Get off of me!"

"Fine." He released her suddenly, stepping away from her cautiously.

She turned around and eyed him cautiously. "Get out of my way."

"No."

Her jaw set, her eyes focused, Max adjusted her stance, ready for a fight. "I said, get out of my way."

Alec instinctively reacted to her aggressive stance. He felt his muscles tighten, a rush of electric adrenaline and anticipation pumped through him. He clenched his jaw and shifted his weight towards the balls of his feet, he allowed himself to look deceptively relaxed. "Listen to yourself, Maxie," he drawled mockingly. "'Get off me!' 'Get out of my way!' 'Do this!' 'Do that!'…Bossy much?"

She bared her teeth menacingly at him. "You don't even understand."

He shrugged. "So make me."

"It's none of your business."

He gave her a hard look. "I don't know, Max, when you start becoming a liability to the mission, it becomes my problem. Trust me, I'd rather not care. But my pretty ass is on the line here, too."

Max pursed her lips disdainfully. "Figures you're all about the Mission," she said. "He really got to you didn't he?"

"Who?" he frowned in confusion.

"Lydecker. Manticore."

Alec could feel the anger roll over him in waves just at the two names. "No one got to me," he muttered through clenched teeth.

"No?" mocked Max. "Mission. Duty. Manticore. Isn't that what you live by? Isn't that what he taught us? That it was always the Mission that came first? That we were expendable?"

Alec stood quietly studying her. She was shaking slightly. Her eyes were glazed with an almost maniacal glow.

"I mean how could he do that to his own daughter?"

Alec frowned slightly. "What are you talking about?"

A stricken, defeated look entered Max's eyes and he could see her sag slightly into herself. "I just found out that Lydecker's my father," she spat out.

Alec blinked several times in rapid succession. "Wha—uh, we were made in test tubes from anonymous donors. How is that possible?"

Max rolled her eyes at him. "Apparently, good 'ol 'Deck was nice enough to sprinkle some of his…specimen into the candidate pool."

You even have her eyes.

Max shivered as she recalled Lydecker's voice in her head the night he told her that he had specifically designed for her to have his wife's eyes. "I'm his daughter," she murmured.

Alec stared at her, his face puzzled. "So?"

Max looked incredulously at him. "What do you mean, 'so'?" she cried. "My father is a murderer. He was a cold-blooded, calculating man who tortured children! Someone I spent my whole life running away from."

"So Lydecker was your dad. So he was a bastard. How does it change anything now?" he asked quietly.

Max sagged against the wall behind her as she looked up at him with disillusioned eyes. "We spend our whole lives wishing we had parents…only I find out I'm the daughter of my own worst enemy."

"Perfect. You're the Savior of the Human Race and the Devil's Spawn all at once," drawled Alec drily, cocking his eyebrow at her. "Congratulations."

"You are such an ass!" she growled. "I don't know why I even bother!" She pushed off from the wall and tried to shove past him. But a hand wrapped tightly around her wrist like a steel band. He pulled her up against him so that she was face-to-face with him.

Alec's face was cold. His hazel-green eyes were flat and almost unseeing. His lips were taut. "I know what it's like to wonder who you really are, to wonder what you might be capable of…all because someone who shared the same DNA as you made you question who you are."

It took Max a moment to register exactly what he was talking about. "Ben…" she whispered, her voice a broken thread.

"Right." He said stonily. "So Lydecker is your dad, blah, blah, woof, woof. Do you think it's any easier being made of exactly the same stuff as someone who is…oh, I don't know…cracked in the head?"

Somehow, somewhere along the line, she had stopped seeing Ben's face in Alec. But right now, when she looked at him, she remembered. They shared the same eyes, the same perfect face, the soft light brown hair, the chiseled mocking lips. They were identical. They were the same.

But they weren't.

"You're nothing like Ben," she whispered, her voice low but filled with steely conviction. "I see you, Alec. Only you."

Max could feel some of the tension that eased out of his body. He slowly lowered his head towards her, and for a moment, there was a flare of hopeful panic in her chest. But he only leaned in to whisper in her ear. "You're nothing like Lydecker. You're who you are, Max."

He stepped back and reached over to push a strand of hair away from her face. It was the most intimate gesture Alec had ever done. She felt a small shiver run down her spine. "And even if you are," he continued, "I'm sure he gave you the best of him and none of the worst."

Max scoffed slightly. "Next think I know, you'll be telling me I'm a unique creature unlike any other, right?"

Alec chuckled. "Hey, if it makes you feel better."

Max reached over and punched him lightly, playfully on his chest. "You're a pain in the ass."

"Always at your service," He grinned at her, and Max couldn't help but think he looked exactly like Ben. But then he winked at her and the twinkle in his eye was only ever Alec.

Max shook her head, "Whatever. Let's get outta here." She turned away and started for the door.

"I'll be right behind you," he called after her. He turned to look at the damage she had done, the signs of cruelty left on the fallen Familiars, and the smile faded from his face. Because what he didn't tell her was, sometimes he still wondered if he was exactly like Ben anyway. If he was meant to turn out exactly the same anyway. He didn't tell her that sometimes, he didn't think they would ever escape the dark pieces of themselves that made up the whole of who they were.

He didn't tell her, because he needed to believe that it wasn't true either.

END.