Everything happened in a blur. The shot, its echo, the fall, someone else's weight crashing down on her, and then… Alec's flushed face appeared right over her as he hoisted the dead weight off of her.

It was the lifeless body of a heavy-built man in a black combat suit. She had never seen him before. With awkward fascination Max hefted her gaze onto the hole that had appeared in the man's throat and which was spurting unimaginable amounts of blood. That echo she had heard, it must have been a second shot. Her eyes wandered away from all the blood and to the gun that dangled from Alec's grasp. He had shot that man, and not a second too late. Her brain was still a little sluggish or she would have been more annoyed by the fact that he'd surely boast about having saved her for days to come.

She was about to slowly get up and testing her arms first, she flinched when she felt pain shoot from her shoulder all the way down into her fingers. Before she could so much as get out an "ouch," Alec suddenly bent down to touch her brow and his worried voice penetrated the eerie silence that had followed the shot.

"Oh crap, Max! Did he hit you? Are you-" He knelt down right next to her. His hand flew briefly to the tender area at his side before he moved to gently pat her down, searching for a source for all the blood that was soaking her clothes. "Max…"

It took her a moment before her mind caught up with the situation. There was no real pain, just a dull pulsing in her shoulder. The shot that had been aimed to kill had gone astray and lodged itself in her shoulder instead of her heart. She had Alec to thank for that.

Staring up into his face, Max couldn't not frown. Her bewilderment evident, she eventually raised a hand to touch his cheek. She couldn't believe what she saw. He was here, with her. She tried to get up, but Alec stopped her.

"Easy, Max," he said.

"I'm okay. It's just the shoulder," she muttered as she rose into a sitting position. Delicately, she felt the tender flesh and flinched. Great, this would slow her down unnecessarily all because she hadn't been fast enough to get out of the shooter's way. At least she wasn't bleeding too badly, she figured, just as it finally registered with her that Alec and Joshua had been supposed to wait for her at that Café. They were not even supposed to be here. Frowning at her fellow X5 she asked, "What the hell are you even doing here? How did you get here so fast? You were supposed to wait with Josh-"

"You're welcome, Max! My pleasure saving you and shooting the guy who was about to kill you only a minute ago." In his tone she heard both amusement and annoyance. But he masked the latter pretty well. He smirked at her and gently peeled her jacket off her shoulder to inspect the damage. "Guess you're right: you'll live."

"Thanks for the confirmation, Alec. I'm so relieved now. You know, I wouldn't be in this situation if I hadn't answered your call earlier," she said, poking his chest with her finger. She couldn't help the snarky remark escaping her unchecked. Though she tried not to look at him, she did notice an odd expression on his face. He looked slightly... upset?

"Alec and li'l fella alright?" Joshua stood a little off to the side, in the darkness of the hallway. Max hadn't even seen him before. Somewhere in the back of her mind she started wondering whether she was turning too soft: for someone who had been bred specifically for the purpose of being a soldier she was doing a bad job at it lately.

"Blood all over Max," Joshua continued, sniffing the air, "Max's blood. Joshua can smell cat, different cat than Alec... "

Slowly, Alec got up and placed a hand on Joshua's broad chest to stop him from bending down to inspect Max's injury. "Oh yeah? If your nose is so great, big fella, it should also tell you that it's mostly the other dude's blood." He nodded over to where the body of the stranger lay. Joshua frowned. "Hey, could you grab a towel from the bathroom?" Alec asked to distract his friend from the disturbing sight. "It's the first door on the left. We gotta patch Max up after all, clean her up some, make her a little more presentable."

She rolled her eyes, "Just give me that towel and I'll clean myself up. Maybe I could borrow a shirt, though, seeing as I had to use the other one to patch you up earlier - and now my jacket is a mess too..." she shot Alec a meaningful glance and he smirked at her.

"Max really alright?" Joshua wanted to know when he finally brought her the towel. She smiled at him. "No worries, big fella." Joshua looked skeptical, but when he sniffed the air some more, his nose seemed to come to the conclusion that she and Alec had been telling the truth. It was mostly the other man's blood.

"Come on now, let's get that bullet out," Alec announced. Before she could so much as protest, he had already knelt down again and with a swift movement extracted the metal, making her gasp. "Ouch! What the hell, Alec?"

He grinned apologetically. "Sorry, Max, but I don't think there'll be time for us to make a detour to the hospital - I say we better get the files now and get the hell outta here. There's bound to be more where this guy came from, and I don't know about you guys, but I really don't wanna throw 'em a welcome party. Come on, sweetpea, let's get you a clean shirt and go."

With a smirk on his face he got up again, though Max noticed that his movements had become a little less smooth, a little less quick. She was still debating with herself whether she should comment on it, when she saw him steady himself against the wall while he made his way to the door of his bedroom to get her - and himself - some clean shirts.

"Alec?"

He raised a hand and smiled. "Geez, these assholes really did a number on me," he muttered, barely noticing it when Max appeared at his side. He smiled at her weakly, making her shiver involuntarily. "I'm good. Just a little bit of something unwanted coursing through my veins it seems. Clever bastards. - At least I still got to save the girl."

"Yeah, right, my knight in shining armor." Max put her arms around a reluctant Alec, but he was too drowsy to fight her much. Damn those bastards, what had they given him that made him feel so out of it? "Come on, smart-ass. Let's sit you down and then I want you to stop the act already and talk!" Max ordered. "No more stalling, you hear me?" She glared at him, but her worry about him was so evident that the effect of her anger got lost and he merely grinned at her some more.

"Alright," he finally said as he allowed her to help him sit down on the ground. She was right, it was time he finally began to tell her what he knew and so he did.

Five months earlier...

Rommie was staring at Alec expectantly. He looked at her, searching her face for something to tell him whether he could still trust her.

Three months ago, when he had first set foot in her office and told her about his suspicion that the S1W had been infiltrated, she had believed him. She hadn't contacted the Seattle cell to try and confirm what he had told her. Instead, she had taken him at his word and had developed a plan with him to take care of things before the infiltrators could take over the whole group. She had proved to him that she did indeed deserve his trust, hadn't she?

He had just decided he'd tell her everything he knew when he noticed her pupils widen then narrow in a most curious fashion. There was no source of light that could have caused the reaction, a reaction he had only ever seen before in people that had been subject to PsyOps hypnosis...

"I'm not sure," he slowly said, keeping his gaze locked on her, observing her tiniest movements.

"Yo, Roms," Greg suddenly interjected. "You saying that bitch ain't even real S1W? Like, seriously? Sheesh, man. That's fucked up. We should - I don't know, man, shouldn't we, like, lock her up and question her or something? I mean, bombs, that's some serious shit right there..."

He didn't get much further than that when Alec heard a shot coming from the left and saw his comrade fall to the ground beside him, a stunned look of surprise on his face."

Alec had to react fast and he did. With a swift movement, he got out his own weapon and shot another round into Greg's dead body for good measure. He closed his eyes briefly, grateful for the fact that the guy had been dead already. "Too bad, the kid wasn't half bad. Wrong time, wrong place, I guess," he said as he pocketed his gun again and looked at Rommie with an unwavering stare.

"Indeed," she agreed. With a curt nod in his direction, she sat down at her desk, taking up a file that he had not seen there before. He recognized the standard dark folder with its golden imprint at the front instantly, though. He would know that seal anywhere.

"Good to know that we're on the same side," he tried not to look too hard at the file, "I wasn't sure, back when I first got here..."

"Neither was I. It's a good thing we now know where our loyalties lie, then."

"Yes," he improvised, "It's time we finally got this under way." His eyes were shuttered as she scrutinized him. But deep down he wondered whether she could see right through him and his mouth went dry.

"Things have been under way for quite some time already, 494..."

[The present]

With a glance at Alec's face, Max noticed that a sick pallor had replaced the previous flush. Lightly, she cupped his cheek. She whispered his name, forcing him to look at her. She had made him sit down before his knees could give way, before he passed out. All the worry from the previous night was suddenly back again as he finally started to talk.

"Sorry I messed up, Max. I guess the whole series is flawed. Manticore should have seen it coming and terminated all of us when they had the chance. After Ben, I mean," he muttered. It gave her a pang to hear him talk like that.

"Manticore doesn't know anything about what's a flaw and what isn't, Alec. You should know that."

"Right. Yeah, well... I mean, they're trying to right their wrongs now, I guess."

Max looked at him in bewilderment. Manticore was about to right their wrongs? Was he delirious again? Or was she? - Rubbing her sore shoulder, she tried to ignore the odd feeling that had started to spread from the shot wound, but part of her already wondered whether the bullet Alec had extracted might have been poisoned just like the one that had injured him not even 24 hours earlier.

"They gave me something, Max." Alec's voice had lost a lot of its snarky alive quality again. She didn't like that at all. "That bullet - I think it might be something like that virus. You know, what they gave you to get rid of roller boy Logan? Though this feels... It's eating me from the inside, Max... It's..."

"Alec, focus!" she ordered. "What did they give you?" His hollow stare frightened her, but she tried to ignore it. One of them had to stay focused and in control. Clearly it wasn't Alec and just as clearly it wasn't gonna be Joshua who was nervously pacing the apartment until Max told him to go and get a glass of milk for Alec, just to keep the big guy occupied.

"Come on, Alec. What is-"

"I didn't mean to leave TC, you know? Honestly. But then I saw her, and - I knew I had seen her before. I knew it. And I couldn't let her go without first... I just thought it was weird how she didn't admit to anyone that she was Manticore and so I thought it best to dig a little deeper. I mean, did you honestly think things were over when Manticore burned down, Max?" he asked her. His hand had clenched painfully around her wrist, but he was looking the slightest bit better already. Or maybe she imagined it.

Just then, Joshua returned with the milk and she made Alec drink some. He didn't even try to protest.

"Don't worry, whatever it is, I think it's finally leaving my system, or I'm getting used to it or whatever. Someone must have messed up. I'm pretty sure they didn't want me to survive this," he chuckled, which soon turned into a cough. She put a hand on his chest, the simple gesture enough to quiet him. "Aw, come on, Max. Why so serious? There's always time for a little fun and joking, no?" He smiled. Of course she only acknowledged his stupid remark with a glare. He rolled his eyes. "Alright, alright. No more joking."

"Who were you talking about?"

"What?"

"The one you had seen before?"

"Oh, her. - Fawn of course. You ever met her? Prior to her turning up as one of the S1W I mean? Tall chick? Brunette? She has those weird pools for eyes that make you go all... you know, that thing all those PsyOps guys got going for them... Like Mia and what's his name, that dude with the... geez, I can never remember anything about him."

"Brain."

"That's him, right. - I don't even know what he looked like anymore, except for his eyes... they were just like hers... Could see right through you and all..."

"Alec," she jolted him out of his musings again. "I don't remember anyone named Fawn..."

"Course not. Didn't you listen? She's PsyOps, Max... Anyways. I followed her. I mean, when Asha told us that some of her folks were joining other cells and that Fawn was one of them, I knew I had to follow her, find out what was going on. I'm not even sure why I did that. I just got that odd feeling... The next thing I know is I'm part of the S1W, playing my role as an Ordinary, always staying close enough to observe. - Gotta admit, though, I never expected it to be so big. I thought maybe she was trying to do her little thing. Or that she just wanted to blend in and stuff. You know how it is. When people know who you are, what you are, they tend to be hostile. I thought maybe she just wanted her chance at a normal life. Like you did, you know? Back in the day when you still thought Logie-boy would turn you into an honest respectable lady?" he chuckled again and Max had to restrain herself from slapping him. She bit her lip. She didn't want to give him the satisfaction of knowing that his comment had gotten to her.

After a minute of silence, Alec suddenly looked at her again, all humor gone from his features. "Manticore is back, Max. Fawn - that Town Hall bombing? You're right, it's part of this. But it was only the beginning. They're trying to take over the government in the first couple of cities. Soon it's gonna be the state's government, and then... We have to stop them, Max. We have to stop them before it's too late."

Max wasn't sure she had heard him correctly. Manticore? Back?

That couldn't be true...