Chapter 10:

A/N: I don't think this could have come any later than this, for which I apologize. Hope you still read and enjoy.

Disclaimer: Still in college, still poor, still don't own em.

~*~

Alec's eyes flickered warily around him, searching deep into the dark shadows of the forest. He kept the pistol low, muzzle pointed toward the ground. He moved cattily, picking his way across the blanket of pine needles. His ears were trained for the slightest noise that was out of place, but all he could hear was the sound of his own breathing. This, in his mind, was not a good sign. It meant Zack and Ben were already fairly far ahead of him, or that perhaps he had tracked them the wrong way into the pine groves.

Alec's face was hard, mouth set into a grim line. He would have killed her. The image was there, playing at the forefront of his mind, his double kicking her, moving to kill her, Max. If everything Ben had meant to Alex before hadn't been enough, this made it so. He knew he'd told Max he'd try not to kill Ben unless he had to, but he yearned for blood. He wasn't going to capture, he was doing as he had been trained, going for the kill.

Ben had ruined his life at Manticore, condemning him to a slow hellish death in Psych Ops, making Alec doubt his own mind. Then he'd met Max, and his 'brother' had screwed him again. The only thing Max saw looking at Alec was a piss poor substitute for her brother, he was sure of it. Then he'd tried to kill her, and that was the final straw.

His contempt raged, welling into a ball in his stomach, prickling an already itchy trigger finger. He'd never felt such hate before in his life, such a burning desire to see life extinguished. Something in the back of Alec's mind cried out to be heard, but it was dim, distant. The cracking of a branch to his left, faint as it was, sounded like a gunshot to him. Eyes narrowing, Alec headed in the direction of the sound.

--

Back at the cabin Jondy and Max sat quietly. Max had returned to bed, and she was staring at her hands. Jondy sat on a chair, trading glances between the window and her sister. Finally, after ten minutes or so of silence, Jondy spoke.

"So, you uh, feel like telling me what's up?"

Max kept her eyes riveted down on her blanket. "What are you talking about?"

"You and Alec," she said bluntly.

"There's nothing up with me and Alec. He's Alec. He's selfish and underhanded. He's just there, all the time, annoying and...and..." she trailed off. "He's nothing like Logan," she finished weakly.

Jondy nodded, eyebrows raised. "Course not. He's just here, with you, when he doesn't have to be. He came hundreds of miles, trekked up a mountain, got attacked, got shot, and he's still here Max. That says something."

"I love Logan."

"That really isn't my point Max."

"If he kills Ben..." Max uttered darkly. "I don't know if I can forgive him."

Jondy's face softened. "He may kill the man that was in this room tonight, but Max, you know that wasn't Ben. Not our Ben. He's dead. And no matter what you think about Alec, there's no way this'll be easy on him. He's gonna need a friend if all this goes down like I think it will. I know it hurts, but we can't get Ben back, no matter what happens, he's gone."

"That's easy for you to say," Max spat out.

Jondy's throat tightened. "No it's not Max. He was my brother too. But I looked that guy in the eyes tonight and Ben's not there. Our Ben died the moment Manticore got him back."

Max bit down on her lip. Her eyes stung with unshed tears. "It's my fault."

Jondy moved to sit on the bed with her little sister. "Max it's no one's fault. You're the one who brought Manticore down in the first place."

"It is my fault," she insisted as the first of her tears slipped down her cheek. "It's my fault because I'm the one that left him for Manticore in the first place. I already killed him once Jondy I don't know if I can lose him again."

The elder transgenic's eyes shot wide. "What are you talking about?" She laid a gentle hand on Max's shoulder. And with that, Max spilled the entire story, from the teeth, to the woods, even telling him a story just before snapping his neck. Jondy listened in stone silence, holding her weeping sister in her arms.

--

Alec entered the clearing. Ben stood in the middle, chest heaving, blood pouring from a wound in his head. His eyes seemed to burn red with hate and rage. Astounded, Alec saw Zack lying motionless on the grass by Ben's feet. Only his superior vision let Alec know that the blonde transgenic was still breathing. Zack's gun lay on the earth a few feet to Ben's right. Moonlight glinted off the edge of the knife Ben held in his hands.

"Drop it," Alec demanded, his voice steely. Ben complied meekly, opening his palm, letting the blade fall tip first into the earth. His twin kept his hands up away from his body.

"You gonna shoot me?"

Alec swallowed hard as he stared into his own eyes. "Not unless you make me." He fisted the handle of his pistol uneasily. Alec recognized the man in the middle of the clearing. Not so much for being Ben, for 493, or even for Max's memories of him, but for recognition of what he found in the other man's eyes. Alec recognized himself.

He felt a pull at his gut when he realized that Ben was where Alec had been not too long before. There was no will to live left in the gaze that met his, no individual life, just the soldier, just Manticore. A rush of sympathetic understanding suddenly struck Alec, for just as he knew the lifeless eyes, he knew what had made them that way. He knew what Manticore had done to him. This man he'd grown up hating, the man whose accursed face kept him from Max, he was Alec.

Ben saw Alec lose his focus, the tip of his gun waiver slightly. He mouth pulled into a sneer, and he reached his hand slowly behind his back. His fingers closed around the backup pistol he'd kept there. Alec caught the movement. "Don't..." he started to cry a warning as Ben pulled the weapon out. He never finished, he merely reacted, firing quickly.

Ben cried out, dropping to one knee as the bullet ripped through his shoulder. Eyes blazing he aimed the gun again. Feeling sick, Alec fired, this time leaving a wound in his twin's forearm, forcing him to drop the gun. "Stay down," Alec told him quietly.

"My mission is incomplete," Ben answered robotically.

"Your mission is pointless. It's over Ben, you have to let it go. Don't you remember life before going back? Life with Max, Zack and the others?"

"I remember being abandoned. I remember being a child and being all alone. They ran from our home, from our destiny, and they deserve to die."

"No they don't." Even as he said the words, Alec knew there would be no reasoning with him.

"They will die. And you're in my way, so you die first." Ben rose from his knee, stalking purposefully toward Alec. "Just think what shooting me will do to Max. She'll never talk to you after this." He pace quickened.

Alec shook his head, taking a few steps back. "Stay there Ben. I'll do it." Ben broke into a run, rushing headlong at his transgenic clone. He was too close, there was nothing left to do. For the first time in his life, Alec closed his eyes when he pulled the trigger. He jerked when he felt blood splatter his face and jacket. There was a dull thud as Ben struck the ground. Alec's chin fell to his chest, the gun dangling by his fingertips. He stood there for a long time, staring at the figure on the ground. He blinked, put the gun in his belt and went to check on Zack.

--

Jondy felt her heart race when she saw two figures heading back for the cabin, walking side by side. She flung open the door for them. Zack came in first, walking slowly, clutching his side. Max jumped out of bed. Her elder brother bore a deep, but not terrible knife wound in his side. His head bled freely, grazed by one of Ben's bullets. He sat heavily in a chair.

Alec entered the cabin and Max felt her heart soar and shatter in the same moment. The right side of Alec's face was smattered with blood not his own. His face was drawn, eyes dull. He carried Ben in his arms, drenched in blood and barely recognizable. Alec set his twin down on the bed, turned and left the cabin without a word. max went to follow, but Zack grabbed her arm, halting her. "Let him be Max, let him be."

They buried Ben the next morning, in a grove overlooking the river. Jondy dug the grave, Zack and Max watching over the body that they'd wrapped in linens. Alec stood apart from everyone, feeling somehow awkward in the familial moment.

Sunlight split through the bows of the trees, casting a long arc on the overturned earth. A few yards farther on the ground dropped away, and the river rushed underneath. Max nodded. "This is a good place Ben," she smiled, tears welling in her eyes. "Maybe the Good Place, surrounded by your family."

Alec helped Jondy lower Ben's body in the grave before retreating once again. Jondy leaned over, saying her good-byes in private before climbing back out. Zack approached, casting a handful of dirt onto his brother's form. "Rest well brother." It wasn't much, but from Zack, it was enough.

Max came up and whispered her own memorial. "I'm sorry Benny. I wish...I wish things had been different. I wish you could have seen what I see when I look out on the world. Maybe this is better. I just hope you're happy now." Then they buried him, marking his final resting space with a small pile of rocks.

--

Alec was in his apartment, rummaging through a box a week and a half later. He and Max had descended the mountain together, barely speaking. When they'd arrived back at the ranch, Jondy's boss had been surprised to say the least. He'd said he'd figured them for lost when his horses had returned without them. Max mumbled a weak explanation that she was sure didn't hold water, but didn't much care. They'd separated as soon as they'd reached Seattle city limits, Alec back to his apartment, Max to Logan he was sure.

His apartment had been broken into while he was away. SO he'd spent most of the next few days cleaning up, and making plans to acquire some new furniture and the like. Normal had given him time off when he'd shown up to Jam Pony looking like he'd taken on a semi and lost. It suited him fine, it gave him time to heal as well as an excuse to avoid Max.

Alec knew she was there before she even knocked. "Hey," she greeted him quietly. Alec ducked his head lower, hands tightly gripping the cardboard box.

"hey," he replied evenly, not turning. This was the first time they'd been in the same room since returning from Colorado. "Staying for a while?"

"No, I just came to see how you are. I actually have to go meet..." her voice trailed off.

He smiled ironically. "Logan."

"Logan," she affirmed. "How's the arm?"

"It'll heal," he answered dully.

There was an awkward moment of silence. Then she asked the question she'd been dreading. "How are you?"

He turned, slowly, shoulders hunched forward. He lifted his chin, leveling her gaze with a solemn hazel stare. His jaw worked from side to side as he formulated a response. "I never thought it would be so hard," he told her truthfully. He didn't exactly want to rehash everything again in his mind, especially not with her, but he needed to.

He gathered himself, willing to speak what he had not yet dared admit. "I've hated him for so long Max. I hated him for what they did, because he was weak. And all that, so many years and still, I almost couldn't do it. He went for his gun and I shot him, twice. I told him to stay down. He came at me. You know I looked him right in the eyes and I didn't see Ben. it was just the good solider Max, it was me."

She bit hard on her lip as her heart tore itself apart. "I was staring right into myself. And all I could think was why wasn't it me? It's been running through my head for a week and I still don't know the answer. We're the same, so why did he lose it and not me? or has it just not happened yet?"

Max crossed the space between them in two strides. "You are not the same," she told him firmly. "Genetics only go so far."

Alec wasn't comforted by her assurances. "And I wonder, wouldn't it be ironic if the thing that kept me sane was the thing Ben most wanted to escape? Was it Manticore? A good soldier relishes the kill Max, I know. And that was him up in those woods, but it easily could have been me. That's what I was thinking when he came at me. It was like killing a part of myself, and knowing that I had to do it, even though it was so hard."

His voice sounded hollow, more lifeless than she had ever even imagined. "I killed him because of what I used to be, what I still am. We're the same."

"No," she shook her head vehemently. "The man you killed up there wasn't you, any more than that was Ben. I realized that. Alec you never met Ben, he died a long time ago." She lay one hand upon his cheek.

Alec closed his eyes, laying his hand atop hers. "I'm sorry I'm some guy walking around with Ben's face."

"Alec," she said, waiting for him to look her in the eye. "You don't have Ben's face, and you're not just some guy. And you know what else?" Alec blinked. "I think maybe the best tribute to Ben's memory there could be is standing right in front of me."

He shook his head. "What?"

"SO much of loved in Ben I see in you Alec. You're always there when I need you. You make me smile, just like he did. You make it safe. I think the best parts of Ben that died, were resurrected in you." he rested his forehead against hers.

His eyes searched her face. He cupped her chin in his other hand, and lifted his lips to hers, kissing her lightly. He pulled away, hesitant. Max let out a long breath and kissed him, sliding her hand from his cheek, down his neck to his chest. He deepened the kiss, pulling her closer. He needed her. Then suddenly she pulled back, holding him at arms length. her voice was pained. "I can't." Alec felt a heavy weight sink on his shoulders.

"I know." He grasped her hands, removing them from his chest.

"He's a good man," she started, as if to convince both of them. Then she stopped. "I do love him."

Alec tried to ignore the sharp pang he felt at those words. He nodded, not looking at her. "I know." She smiled sadly, leaning forward to kiss his cheek. She turned on her heel, moving for the door. Logan was waiting.

She had her hand on the door handle and was halfway out of the apartment. "Max?" She didn't answer, just paused in the doorway.

"I know you could probably list a hundred good reasons for you to leave right now. And for the life of me I can't think of one good one for you to stay........." Max held her breath, waiting. "Stay anyway." Her eyes shut and she clenched her jaw, feeling her chest tighten. Then she took a settling breath and turned back into the apartment, closing the door behind her.

The End

Okay, did I make you wait forever or what? I'm sorry for that really. But please, tell me what you think of this ending. I wrote the whole story around this scene.