A/N: Hey everyone, I'm back! Also I am grateful for all the reviews I have received but I'm a little disappointed with amount my last chapter got. Don't stop reviewing, because it really brings me down and I'm not encouraged to write. So please, please review!
-Doppelganger-
Walking through the trees it finally came to the clearing where by looking across the large field, it could see the airplane hangar and a dozen or so humans patrolling and milling around the area, it even saw a few kids playing a game of soccer. Its devilish smile widened when it recognized one of the children as Hal's little brother Matt; this was going to be one of its all- time highs!
Morphing its expression to portray exhaustion and fear it purposely stumbled forward, breathing heavily as if it had been running for a long while and even threw in a few shouts of 'Captain Weaver!', desperation coated its words but on the inside it was fantasizing about the mayhem it was about to cause.
The children stopped their game, staring at it as it came closer to the hangar. Some of the adults quickly ushered the children inside in case of danger, but Matt stayed where he was, a huge smile on his face at the sight of his 'oldest brother'.
-Matt-
It was Hal! His big brother was back!
He knew Hal could get away from the aliens, he just knew it!
"Hal!" sprinting towards his brother he met him halfway and collided into Hal, wrapping his arms around him.
"I knew you'd come back!" he exclaimed, lifting his head up to smile at his oldest sibling, his whole body glowing with happiness.
Hal smiled down at him, affectionately ruffling his moppy blond hair and smiling, "of course bro, if I wasn't here then who would kick your butt at soccer?"
"Son you are a sight for sore eyes" both looked up and saw Captain Weaver with a group of soldiers trailing behind him, including Dai, Anthony and Maggie. All were armed and on edge in case of an attack.
-Weaver-
Having heard the shouting Weaver rallied up a few of his soldiers and went to see what was going on, grabbing his own weapon in case it was a skitter attack.
Exiting the building, they walked a few feet and he froze when he saw the apparent cause of the yelling, it was Hal Mason.
From afar, he looked like the same old Hal Mason that he had known before he was taken; but they had been fooled before, and he wasn't going to put his people in danger in case this was a trick by the aliens.
Approaching the two siblings, he pasted a smile on his face, not going to get his hopes up just yet, Hal had been with the aliens for some time, they could have done something else to him and was actually one of their pawns now; Karen was a prime example of what they could do to a human being.
Getting closer to the two, he spoke, "son you are a sight for sore eyes" strapping his rifle, depending on the soldiers behind him to continue holding their weapons, he stepped forward and grabbed Hal's left forearm, firmly gripping it and bringing Hal in for a manly hug. Friendly slapping the teen on the back as well when he pulled back.
"It's good to see you again Hal" though he was acting friendly, as he had decided before, he wasn't going to completely trust the teen until he had been proven otherwise.
Hal smiled back at him, keeping a firm hand on his little brother's shoulder as Matt continued to beam with pure giddiness. Weaver hated to think what the boy would think if this all turned out to be a trap.
"Good to see you too sir, all of you" he looked at each person in turn.
-Doppelganger-
Things were going better than expected, originally it had planned an immediate attack but after some thought it decided that even juicer way to annihilate the 2nd Mass. Was to first gain their trust then betray them, the look on their faces would be priceless, especially that of Matt's. The young human was so thrilled at having his 'brother' back that the moment he gutted him the absolute shock and confusion would be like heroin.
It could tell that Weaver and a few of the soldiers were distrustful of it, that was fine, it couldn't expect to trick them all but it could try and that alone was a thrill, because with every gain of trust he got the better the slaughter would be.
Following the group back towards the hangar it noticed some of the soldiers subtly trying to look back at it, curiosity and wariness coating their eyes.
Entering the building it was met with a large crowd of people, all were shocked to see Tom's oldest again, most of them had believed that 'Hal' was lost to them, forever doomed to be an alien slave, in a way they were right.
A few people patted it on the back, telling it how happy they were see 'him' but more of them quickly ushered their children away, throwing way looks at it, the human who made the most huff about 'Hal's' apparent return was who it identified through memories as Pope.
Scanning through Hal's memory it saw that when Tom had returned from his stay with the aliens he was the first to vocally paint Tom as a traitor and possible spy for the aliens; he had demanded that Tom be locked up and interrogated.
He was going to be a problem, that it was sure of.
Pope glared at it as it walked past him, looking it up and down, probably sizing it up, it was doing the same and it was disappointed to find though this human appeared to have a muscular build it also saw through memories that Pope let his anger lead him and it could easily use that against him, goat him into a fight then take him down with one blow.
Weaver led them into a tent that had been set up, there was a table in the center with a map of Massachusetts laid out.
"Not that I'm not glad to see you Hal but how the hell did you escape? I know you're a damn fine fighter but getting away from a whole colony of them is not easy" Weaver walked around the table, stopping when he was on the other side, facing it.
A phony story began to brew in its head and it had to be sure that it didn't take too long to think of one, but then again making up lies was one of its many talents so it thought up one rather easily.
"They had me locked up in this room, there weren't any windows and the door was bolted shut. Karen would come in every so often and talk to me, telling me what they planned to do with me since I was 'defective'. Initially they had wanted to kill me but later decided that I could be used as a worker, helping the harnessed collect scrap metal and any other job they could think of" it trailed off, pretending to be lost in the memory of its 'sorrows'.
It was about to get even juicier.
"One day Karen came into the room, she kept going on and on about how I was going to be her new 'pet' and all the tricks she was going to teach me. When I thought she was distracted I lunged at her and tried and knock her unconscious but she threw me to the side like a freaking rag doll, I didn't even get a hit in" but that wasn't the best part, it internally smiled at its next few words.
Matt squeezed its hand, trying to comfort his older brother.
"As punishment she went out then returned with these three kids and a skitter, they couldn't have been more than ten and she lined them up in front of me, and it was like the day Karen and I had been taken, I knew what she was going to do before she even gave the order. She actually smiled at me as she nodded at the skitter; I kept screaming at her to stop, to punish me instead! But it was like she got some perverse pleasure from it because her smile just grew and the skitter slashed each of their throats open, they didn't even react, they collapsed to the ground and were just gone"
By now, its head was slightly down, it made its body tremble just the slightest and it conveyed just enough sadness in its pose that by the utter silence it received made it positive that they had bought its act, now it just to do the grand finale.
"You still haven't told us how you managed to save your ass" Pope interjected, standing in the background with his arms crossed against his chest.
-Pope-
He wasn't buying this bullshit! Every word out of this kid's mouth was a goddamn lie, and he would know because could bullshit with the best of them.
Something was off with the teen, it was all in the eyes, they were dark and uncaring, not at all the way they should be. Now if you asked around people would tell you that his own eyes could fit into that description, but he could plainly see the darkness that emitted from this Mason.
The darkness smoldered his way when Hal turned to face him, some survival instinct in him shuddered and his body involuntarily stepped back, warning him that this being in front of him was dangerous. But it seemed that he wasn't the only one with these thoughts, judging from the looks some of the other soldiers were giving the teen.
"After that I just snapped, my body started moving without my knowledge and I just found myself attacking Karen and I think I even killed those skitters, I can't remember, it's like my mind shut down and my body took over...when I 'woke up' I was in the woods. No clue how I got there and I just started walking" Hal finished, looking down at the floor.
While Hal was speaking he watched every twitch he made, analyzing each and every tick. The voice seemed sincere but once again it was all in the eyes, no emotions flickered through them, they remained impassive, like the light in them had died and had yet to be replaced.
-Doppelganger-
It had them now, not everyone appeared to have believed its lie, the main human being Pope, but he was distrustful by nature, Pope had been suspicious of it from the moment he laid eyes on it.
He would need to die first, it couldn't let him ruin its plans.
As thoughts of ways it could kill Pope Ben rushed into the tent and froze when he laid eyes on 'Hal'.
-Ben-
Before hearing about Hal's return Ben had been laying in Matt and his quarters, staring up at the ceiling and tracing the cracks with his eyes. There was one particularly jagged one that from the center of the ceiling all the way to the far right corner of the room, he was sure that the more cracks developed and the longer they grew they would eventually all connect and the ceiling would come crashing down.
Just yesterday a large piece of plaster in the hangar had fallen and almost crushed a little girl who had been playing underneath it, luckily her father had moved fast enough and grabbed her out of the way in the nick of time.
The hangar was falling apart, and they would have to move soon.
He had just gotten back from a scouting mission and he was exhausted, not physically, because that almost never happened ever since he had been harnessed, but mentally exhausted.
The fight that he had had with Matt still haunted him, the look on his little brother's face was a look that he never wanted to put there again, absolute sorrow.
Weaver had told Ben that he wanted him and Dai to go out on a scouting mission to look for possible base locations they could move to.
While he was loading his rifle Matt came in bouncing his soccer ball, Ben continued his task, not paying him any attention.
Since they're father and Maggie had left to go after Hal he had been spending almost all his time looking after Matt, Dr. Glass and a few of their other friends were there as well but when they were too busy Ben was left to him and at first he loved looking after his little brother, having someone depend on him like that made him feel needed but when a few days passed that neediness turned into asphyxiation.
He loved Matt, he loved his entire family, that was without question, but it came to a point when all that closeness went into overdrive.
Matt had asked him if he would play soccer with him and the other kids but he told him that he was busy. A few minutes by and Matt pleaded with him to play, he kept telling him that he was getting ready to go on a scouting mission and that he could play with him when he got back.
While he was talking Matt continued bouncing the ball but he lost control of the ball and it bounced up and smacked the ceiling then traveled down and collided with several objects before finally being stopped by hitting a pile of bullets that were set out and sending them scattering across the floor.
Both looked at the mess that surrounded them, Matt's eyes were wide with shock and his mouth was slightly open, slowly he met Ben's eyes.
A tidal wave of anger and frustration rushed over him and his filter failed him, "what the hell Matt?! Do you know how long it's going to take me to pick up each and every one of those bullets? Do you?! I've told you a hundred times now not to bounce your ball around in here! Why won't you just grow up already so that I don't have to constantly clean up after you!" he roared.
A beat of silence enveloped them, Ben's words echoing in the room.
It started out soft then a slow build of hiccups and whimpers shook Matt's small frame, tears dribbled down his chin and landed like punches in Ben's heart.
"I'm-I *hiccup* sorry *sniff*" Matt wiped his eyes but more tears quickly took their place.
What had he just done? he wanted to kill himself for the emotional pain he was putting his little brother, Matt was the most innocent one in the entire Mason family, the only one who hadn't killed and he was stamping on that innocent heart over an accident, one that wasn't a big deal. Overreacted was a major, major understatement.
"Matt-" before he could finish Matt ran out of the room, his cries echoing back and stabbing him in the heart.
He ran after Matt and when he found him he found Dr. Glass holding his little brother's trembling form, shushing him and rocking him back and forth.
As if sensing his presence Dr. Glass looked up at him and beckoned him over with her free hand. He was hesitant but she somehow managed to convey a message with her eyes that said 'he needs you'.
Giving in he walked over to them and put a hesitant hand on Matt's shoulder. Matt froze then cautiously turned his head to look up at him. Caution was in his eyes and Ben desperately wanted to earn his trust back.
"Sorry doesn't even begin to cover what I need to say to you Ben, just know that I will never, ever say or do anything to you that will cause you this much pain ever again. Your my little brother, and I love you, that will never change. You don't have to forgive me now but just know that I am going to make it up to you" tears were filling his eyes as he spoke and his voice was cracking.
Matt simply looked at him for a few seconds before responding. His little brother untangled himself from Dr. Glass and flung himself into Ben's arms. Ben wrapped his arms around him and lifted him up from the ground, mumbling apologies into his hair and rubbing his back.
Dr. Glass rose from the ground and gave him a sincere watery smile, she gave him a slight nod then headed back to her clinic.
He carried Matt back to their room and laid him down in his bed, pulling the covers up over him and kissing him on the head.
Ben turned to leave so he could finish getting ready for his scouting mission but stopped when he heard Matt's small, sleepy voice. Turning around he walked back to Matt's side and sat down on the edge of the cot.
"Yeah buddy?" he asked, running his hand down Matt's floppy blond hair.
"I miss mommy"
His heart stuttered, "me too Mattie, me too"
This had all happened two days ago, though Matt had forgiven him he had yet to forgive himself, he may never find the redemption he needed to mend the hole in his heart.
Just like Matt he wished their mother was still alive, she would know exactly what to say and do to make things right again. She had been the heart of the family, the one that kept everyone going and when she had died they had had to learn to function without their most vital organ. They had slowly mended and grew closer but there was still a void that would never be filled.
His musings were interrupted by the approaching sound of thundering footsteps. Sitting up he watched as Jimmy approached, until he was standing in front of him, breathing heavily and resting his hands on his knees, bent over trying to catch his breath.
"Jimmy what is it? What's going on?" he was terrified that it was a skitter attack but he was sure that he would have sensed them if that was the case.
The gasping boy shook his head, straightening his form out he raggedly told Ben the urgent news.
"Hal...he's...here"
Eyes widening Ben sprung from his cot and bolted, not even stopping to ask him what condition he was in or where he was he just moved, he had to see for his own eyes that Hal was truly back.
Entering the main part of the hangar he saw that a few people had gathered around Weaver's tent, talking amongst themselves and throwing glances towards the tent.
Going on assumption Ben hightailed it towards the tent and quickly ducked inside. He froze when he entered and saw Hal, in the flesh, a little beaten up and dirty but he was really there.
But something was off, there was a tickling sensation at the back of his skull that just wouldn't go away and something told him it had something to do with Hal's return.
A/N: The next chapter will be filled with a lot of important moments and I will tell you this now a character will die, review if you want to find out who