Max stood frozen in the middle of TC. There were about a million things she needed to do, but she didn't know where to start. There were hurt transgenics and dead transgenics, she needed to find Rocky again and help him, and more than anything, she wanted to find Alec.

But she was just standing there. She had so much to do, and instead she wasn't doing anything. She didn't think her legs would move even if she tried. She wanted to start moving, but she was afraid of who she would find as she walked.

Bodies littered the street and she didn't want to know who they had lost. As long as she stayed in one spot, she wouldn't have to know. But staying in one spot meant that she wouldn't get to Alec. But he could be dead too, and she couldn't live with that. He had to be ok.

A tear fell to her cheek without her realizing it. She wanted to know and she didn't want to know if she'd lost Alec.

"Max!" Mole suddenly said, walking up to her. He was bleeding, but he was in one piece and she was so relieved to see him. He surprised her though when he pulled her in for a tight hug. The lizard actually did care. She instantly hugged him back. She didn't know what she would have done without him either. He did more for TC than she even realized.

"Where's Rocky?" Mole asked after a moment, pulling back from their hug.

"He got hurt. I had to leave him in one of the buildings with Spark," Max replied. She was surprised by how thick her voice sounded.

"What about Carter?" Mole asked softly.

Max shook her head and whispered, "He didn't make it." Mole pulled her in for another hug as the tears started to fall again.

Mole soothed her as much as he could. He let her get it all out, and then when she calmed down he said, "C'mon, let's go get Rocky and bring him inside. Then you can go check on Alec, and then we can go from there, ok?"

Max nodded, grateful that Mole had given her a direction. Together they walked through the battleground of their home. Some of the transgenics she knew, Jen and Reggie were among them. Some she didn't, but she felt their loss just the same. Some were kids, and she couldn't even bare to see them.

It took them a while to get back to Rocky, but Max was relieved to see him once they got there. He gave her a small smile once she got to him. They didn't say anything as she helped him up. Mole said he would catch up with them as they started their slow walk back to Command. Spark stayed with Mole to help him move Carter's body.

The closer they got to Command, the more Max had to force herself to keep going. The closer they got, the closer she would be to finding out if Alec was gone. Rocky squeezed her shoulders, seeming to know what was causing her to walk slower.

They walked through the ruined halls of Command, slowly getting closer to the Infirmary. Closer to Alec.

Max took a deep breath before the door to the Infirmary. She didn't know what she would do if Alec was gone, but she couldn't spend all day in the hallway. Now that she was here, she had to know what had happened to him.

"Sit. Stay. That's an order," Max heard Bear say from the hallway.

Then the most beautiful voice she had ever heard grumbled, "I'm not a dog."

Alec was alive! Max nearly let go of Rocky at the joy that shot through her. Alec was alive!

"Bear!" Rocky called out after he heard Alec's reply.

They heard footsteps, and then Bear said, "What did I just tell you?" Before she appeared in the doorway. She ran forward once she saw them and threw her arms around Rocky. She moved to support him after a moment and nodded for Max to go ahead.

That was all she needed to hear for her to run through the doorway. Alec was stubbornly pushing himself up when she came in, but he stopped and looked up when he heard her footsteps.

"Max," Alec breathed out in relief. He pushed himself up the rest of the way, but he didn't move closer to her.

He had a couple of tubes in his arm that ran to two bags on a pole. One had blood in it and the other had fluids.

She ran forward though and couldn't help but slam into him. She threw her arms around his neck and his arms wrapped around her waist, crushing herself to him. She buried her face against his neck, breathing him in. She felt his hand move to her hair, and if possible, he held her closer.

Even though he had practically been at death's door earlier, she felt so much better in his strong arms. She just wanted to stay like this forever. He was alive.

"Max," Alec whispered after a few minutes, "I love you and I would like nothing more than to stay like this forever, but I gotta sit down."

"Oh Alec, I'm sorry," Max said quickly. She helped him sit back down. She couldn't believe how pale he was. His freckles over his nose were standing out, and Max felt the urge to kiss every single one of them. She settled for just kissing his cheek, and then lightly pressed her lips to his.

He grabbed her hand when she started to pull away and brought her a little closer. "I know you probably have a lot to do right now…but you wanna sit down for a second?" Alec asked quietly.

Max nodded, and then quickly went to find another chair. She sat as close to him as she could get and grabbed his hand. She absentmindedly traced the lines on his palm as she sat by him.

"Freckles…I mean Chase…is dead," Alec said softly with his eyes down.

Max looked over at Alec and squeezed his hand. "Carter is gone too…" Max said reluctantly.

Alec hung his head and nodded. Two of his friends had died in this fight and Max didn't know how many more.

"On the plus side, the General's dead," Alec said, trying to force some levity into his voice.

Max looked over at Alec, and then lightly put her hand against his cheek and turned his face towards her. He leaned into her touch and looked back at her with sad eyes.

They jumped apart though when Rocky said, "It's good to see you made it through." Bear was helping him walk and she eased him down to sit on a mattress on the floor. "Not to say that I ever doubted you, but you really had us worried."

"What happened to you?" Alec asked instead of acknowledging Rocky's concern for him.

"A tank happened," Rocky replied.

"A tank!?" Alec shot a look between Max and Rocky.

It was quiet for a moment until Max finally said, "It's taken care of." Alec seemed to sense that she didn't want to talk about it, and he let it go. She figured he would bring it up again later when they were alone, and that would be alright with her. She just couldn't talk about it yet. It was too soon.

Max looked around the room; people were setting up the beds again and bringing in the wounded. Doc was moving from bed to bed, checking on each of them and helping the most critical first.

Alec suddenly moved next to her, bringing her attention back to him. He dropped his head into one of his hands and stayed like that. He looked exhausted and Max rubbed his shoulder to try and comfort him.

"You should be lying down," Max whispered to him.

"I'm alright," Alec muttered back, but he didn't move to try to convince her. "Besides, others are in worse shape than I am…"

"No," Doc suddenly said behind them. "Max is right. You need to be lying down."

"And we already have a bed set up for you," Bear announced to them.

Alec turned his head to glare back at her, but he slowly started to move after a moment. Max immediately helped support him, and she went with him all the way to one of the beds.

"I could just go back to the apartment to sleep," Alec said, his words slightly slurred.

"Alec, I don't even know if the apartment is still standing," Max replied. "Besides, I want you where people can keep an eye on you so you can't get into any more trouble."

Alec was already starting to drift off. Max kissed his cheek and ran her fingers through his hair. She waited until she was sure he was asleep before she moved away from him. She wanted to stay with him, but she needed to start taking care of those they had lost.

Max carefully picked up one of her fallen people. He was just a kid, maybe 12 years old, but he was gone. Max felt the loss of each one, but she was too drained now to cry. After she'd left Alec, she'd gone out to help move the bodies. They needed to set up a burial, but first they needed to move them to one spot.

"Max," Mole suddenly called out. Max kept walking though, and Mole ran to catch up. "Max, you should take a break. You've been at this for a few hours now."

"I'm fine," Max replied. She gently set the kid she was carrying next to another transgenic. There was a line of them in the street; 27 were already there, and she knew more would be in the buildings. "I need to do this."

"Max, this wasn't your fault," Mole said. "You can't blame yourself for this."

"I should have listened to you. They would still be alive if we hadn't all stayed together," Max said quietly.

"No, they probably wouldn't be. They would've been hunted down one by one. And they would've never known what it was like to belong somewhere, to have a family. You gave them that, and they died protecting that," Mole argued. "And yes, it's sad that they're gone, but we will mourn them and continue with our lives. This isn't your fault, and you need to get it through your thick skull before I have to drag Pretty Boy out here to talk some sense into you."

Max looked up in alarm when he said that. She didn't want to drag Alec into this, he needed his rest and she didn't want him to see this. "We still need to set up a burial ground so we can start digging. And we haven't even searched the buildings yet to clear those-"

"Max."

"Yeah?"

"Shut up. Take a break," Mole said. "I can put a team on clearing buildings and I already have a spot cleared for the graves."

"I'm not taking a break," Max replied after a moment. Mole started to protest, but she stopped him, "If I take a break…I don't know when I'll get moving again."

Mole still looked like he wanted to argue, but he finally nodded, "Ok, follow me. You can approve the grave site and we can start planning out a ceremony."

Max thought about it, and then agreed and followed Mole.

Alec felt extremely groggy. He'd had an adrenaline rush when he'd shot the General, and then again when Max came in. But then his energy had drained, and all of his pain had crashed into him at once. He couldn't tell how long he'd been asleep, but he was on a bed now and he couldn't really remember moving from the chair to the bed.

Someone grabbed his wrist, and Alec instinctually tried to pull away. But the hand around his wrist tightened, and then a low voice reassured, "Easy Alec, it's just Doc." Alec relaxed a little as Doc checked his pulse.

"-Could only give you one bag of blood, so you won't be back to normal for a while, but I think you're going to make it through." Doc was talking to him, but he only caught part of what he said. "As long as there are no more bombs or surprise attacks on TC anyway…" Doc suddenly shined a light in one of his eyes and he flinched away.

Alec pushed Doc's hand away and tried to brace himself up on his put his hand on his chest and barely pushed down. Alec collapsed back to the bed under the light pressure, but glared up at Doc.

"Don't give me that look," Doc said with a scowl. "After what you put me through, I should handcuff you to this bed. But luckily for you, I don't have any handcuffs with me at the moment."

"I could get out of them anyway…" Alec muttered.

Doc didn't look amused. "I have things I need to do, other patients to see-"

"Don't let me stop you," Alec said with a smirk.

Doc's eyes narrowed, "You stay in this bed, or else I'm gonna knock you out." Alec looked at Doc like he didn't believe him. "I mean it, Alec. I've spent too much time patching you up. Stay in the bed, or else."

Alec rolled his eyes, but he stayed lying on the bed. Doc gave him one more look, and then moved over to the bed next to his. Alec was surprised to see that Lucky was in the bed next to him. He remembered that Lucky had been hurt in the fight, but he didn't remember Lucky being next to him.

"Looks like you won't need surgery after all," Doc told Lucky. "Both bullets went right through and the one in your side missed all of your major organs. You should heal up nicely in a few days as long as you rest. Blood would help you heal faster, but we're in short supply at the moment…"

"Thanks Doc," Lucky replied quietly. Doc patted Lucky's uninjured shoulder before he moved on to the next bed.

"You are one lucky son of a bitch," Alec said to Lucky once Doc was gone.

"How do you think I got my name?" Lucky replied with a small smirk.

"You're just lucky that your name wasn't ironic this time," Alec said.

Lucky chuckled, "Yeah, you have a point there."

Alec shifted a little, but then winced at the movement. "Do you think Doc was kidding when he said he'd knock me out?"

"No," Lucky replied slowly, "I think he was being serious."

Alec tried to get comfortable again since he was going to be stuck there for a while, but he couldn't. "Maybe I'll get up just to see if he'll do it."

"Or do you want to get up because you're in too much pain to sleep and if he knocks you out then you won't have to worry about it?" Lucky asked.

Alec glared at Lucky, but then asked, "Where did Bear and Rocky go?"

Lucky pointed across the room, and Alec looked to where he was pointing. A slow smile spread across his face when he saw them. They were both in one bed, fast asleep, holding each other.

"Well that's adorable," Alec muttered. He looked over at Lucky and said, "I'd like to think I had something to do with that. They're together because I put them in the same apartment."

"Congratulation," Lucky replied dryly, but he was trying to hide his smile.

Alec lay back on his pillow with a wide smile. He still wasn't comfortable, but he did feel a little better.

Max paced in the Infirmary. It had been a few days since the attack, and they had buried all of their dead, but they hadn't done the ceremony yet. She was going to give a speech at the ceremony, which was why she was pacing.

"I could give the speech," Alec offered again, interrupting her pacing. Max would love to have Alec give the speech, but this was something she felt like she needed to do.

"No," Max grumbled.

Alec was sitting up in bed, and he looked a lot better than he had two days ago. He was still pale and he couldn't stay standing for long thanks to the blood loss, but he was better. He had even talked his way into going to the ceremony today. He had to stay seated the whole time, but he was still going.

"You shouldn't be worried," Alec said. "It's a good speech."

"I just want to do them justice," Max replied. "They gave their lives to protect this place-"

"Max, you're gonna do fine," Alec cut in. "I've heard your speech over 100 times, you know it, and it does them justice."

Max walked over to his bed and sat on the edge, "What if I forget what I'm supposed to say?"

Alec shrugged and replied easily, "Just speak from the heart. This ceremony is so we can have a chance to say goodbye, so just say that if you forget." Max didn't say anything for a moment, and Alec moved closer to her. He gently touched her cheek, and then tucked her hair behind her ear. "It's gonna be fine."

Max leaned forward and lightly pressed her lips to his.

"Alright you two, break it up," Rocky said as he hopped into the room. There was a brace on his leg and he was using crutches to walk around. Bear walked in behind him and she shot Alec and Max a small smile when she saw them. "Where's Lucky?" Rocky asked as he eased himself down to sit on Lucky's old bed.

"Doc discharged him two hours ago," Alec grumbled.

Bear chuckled lightly as Rocky let out a deep laugh. "He let Lucky go before you?!" Rocky asked between his laughter. "That's hilarious. The kid had two holes in him! He shouldn't have been discharged for another day at least."

"Doc's just doing it to get back at him," Bear said in amusement.

"It's not my fault that he was the most qualified to cut me open and take out a bomb," Alec quickly defended.

"I'm never doing that again by the way," Doc said as he walked into the room.

Alec groaned when Doc walked in, and pushed himself back on the bed. Doc walked over to him and started doing his check. Alec didn't argue with him and he actually moved around before Doc even told him to. Alec was used to these checks now and just cooperated to get it over with faster.

Doc carefully pulled Alec's t-shirt up and checked his back, and then pulled out his stethoscope and listened to him breathe. He was doing a longer check than normal and Max was hopeful that Alec would actually be released today. She liked having him where he couldn't get in trouble and could be looked after, but she also wanted to take him home. She was really tired of staying in the Infirmary every night.

"Alright…" Doc said after a minute. "I can't think of a good reason to keep you here." Alec broke into a wide smile and Max felt her own smile appear at seeing his. "But you still have to take it easy," Doc continued. "I'm not clearing you for any activities, like supply runs or clean up. I'm just letting you go home, understand?"

"Got it," Alec replied. He was already starting to get out of bed and Doc looked up at the ceiling like he'd made a bad decision.

"Today we remember those we have lost," Max said. She was standing on the ruined steps of what used to be an apartment building. Alec was sitting off to the side away from the crowd. Max could still see him, but he couldn't stand for the entire ceremony so he had found a good spot beforehand where he could sit.

"They fought to protect those they loved and for something they believed in. Something we all believe in," Max continued. She shot a look over to Mole and he gave her a small smile in return. Bear was standing near Max, her sharp eyes focused on the crowd for any threats. Rocky was sitting next to him since he couldn't stand up there with Max.

"We honor them today and will forever keep them in our hearts." She got a little choked up when she said 'hearts', but Alec figured he was the only one that noticed. They were in the center of TC; it was the only place big enough for their burial.

Max paused in her speech and Alec looked at her in concern; she hadn't paused when she'd been practicing. He started to get up, but Rocky pulled him back down. "Give her a second."

"They were our friends, our family." Alec knew that wasn't part of her original speech. "And we're going to miss them." She had to stop for a second to take a deep breath and collect herself. "But we will never forget them."

Max took another deep breath, and then looked over to Mole. She looked back at the crowd and said, "We're going to read the names of those we've lost and if anyone wants to say anything…um, they can…"

This was the part that he wasn't going to be able to handle. He knew them all, and hearing other people share their memories or their last moments was going to be heartbreaking. But he couldn't leave. He owed it to them to be here.

"Auto," Max read out.

Alec couldn't help his small smile. Auto was the clumsiest transgenic Alec had known, but he could make anyone laugh. He worked on all the cars that they managed to steal and took parts from the broken down cars to fix them. He and Crank had given each other their names. Crank stood up now to say a few words for Auto.

"Jen," Max said once Crank was done.

Rain got up and Alec couldn't help but drop his head into his hands. Rain and Jen had gotten together after they had finished setting up the apartments. Alec had worked with both of them to get them what they needed and they were perfect for each other. Rocky put his hand on Alec's shoulder as Rain spoke.

Max kept reading out names, and someone stood up and said something about each one of them. Spark stood up and spoke for Reggie. They had become really good friends since they had bonded doing supply runs on his team.

Carter had multiple people stand up for him. His entire team said something and Spark stood up again and said how he saved her.

43 had died in the attack, and Max had read almost every name. There was only one left, and Alec knew who it was.

"Freckles," Max said. She looked up and her eyes met his. He took a deep breath and stood, slowly walking up to where Max was standing.

Alec looked at all the gathered transgenics; some looked confused since they didn't know who Freckles was and others looked surprised to see that he was there.

Alec cleared his throat, and then said, "A lot of you didn't know who Freckles was, and those that did…well…let's just say he didn't have many friends. But he was my friend. He didn't owe us anything, but he helped us fight. And he saved my life twice." Alec shot a look over at Max and she gave him a small smile in return. "I'm gonna miss him and everyone we lost, but Max is right, we're gonna remember them forever."

Sorry for the long wait for this chapter, but I hope you guys all still like it! Next chapter will probably be the last!