Disclaimer: Don't own anything dumb bum. Though I wish I owned Zack.

A/N You guys even still reading this? Plz check out the prequel to this story 'The days before' REVIEW!

Zack looked around but couldn't find the owner of the voice. "Who's there? Show yourself."

Max, unfortunately, recognized the voice. "Alec, what the hell are you doing here? What, Renfro got you following me now? Go away before I kick your ass."

Zack looked at her, his eyes questioning. "Who is it Maxie?" Inside, he was feeling angry at being interrupted, and also a little jealous because the voice was male and obviously knew Max. HIS Max. She might not know how he felt about her, but she would always be his girl only.

"Yeah, who is it Maxie?" the voice mimicked. Alec finally stepped out of the shadows. "Forgot we had a date?" he said, grinning.

'Date?' The jealousy inside Zack grew even bigger until he saw the guy's face. "What the fuck are you doing here Ben? Did you let Manticore catch you? Why did you stop contacting me and disappear?" he questioned.

Max felt the guilt and incredible sadness hit her at the very core. Zack didn't know Ben was dead, he didn't know she had killed him, and she was very much afraid that Zack would hate her and never forgive her if he found out. Max started squirming and Zack noticed the tension and sadness that was coming from her. He put a hand on her shoulder. "Are you okay Max?"

Alec also noticed the change in her mood. He walked forward and he squatted down in front of her making Zack scowl. Alec smiled to himself knowingly at Zack's behaviour then concern etched in his face. He wasn't completely heartless, far from it. "What's wrong?" he asked her.

Surprised by his show of caring what was wrong with her, she smiled. Weakly, but she did. She looked at both Alec and Zack, who were acting so protective. "I'm aiight. It's nothing."

Zack knew she was lying but figured he'd talk to her later. He turned to 'Ben'. "Well, what are you doing here Ben?"

Alec looked confused for a moment, then remembered who Ben was. "I'm not Ben," he stated.

Now it was Zack's turn to be confused. "What? What are you talking about?"

Then Max spoke up. "He's not Ben, Zack. He's Ben's clone or twin if you must. His designation's 494 but I call him Alec for smart-aleck. Oh, by the way, Alec, this is Zack, or 599."

"Clone?" Zack asked. "We have clones?"

"Some of you do," Alec replied.

"Oh, okay. Weird, but okay," Zack said. Then a thought occurred to him. "Wait a minute, Max, you're not in a unit, are you?" Max shook her head. "Then how do you two know each other?" Max and Alec exchanged a look, which Zack noticed and pissed him off. "Well?"

"Um…" Max started but Alec cut her off and said nonchalantly, "we're breeding partners," knowing fully what Zack was thinking and that he would probably want to kill him now.

'Breeding partners?' The word exploded in his head. 'If this guy even touched my Maxie there will be hell to pay.'

"Nothing happened Zack." Max hastened to assure him while giving Alec a look that said, 'I'm so going to kill you later.' Alec just smiled and grinned. "I kicked him across the room as soon as the words were out of his mouth."

This calmed Zack down a bit. 'I'm being stupid. I should've known Max wouldn't let any guy touch her. Especially not this asshole. Geez Zack, could you be any more jealous?' he berated himself. He tuned in to hear Alec saying, "And it hurt too."

"What are you doing here anyways, Alec?" she asked him. "Looking for you," he answered. "You weren't in your cell so I went looking for you before someone noticed you were gone." Max nodded, satisfied with his answer.

Zack looked at him suspiciously and said, "How come you care if she gets into trouble or not. Why didn't you report her?"

Alec just looked at him. "Would you rather I'd done that instead?"

"No." Zack's response was immediate.

"Well then, there you go. I'm not such a bad guy, you know. I mean, don't get me wrong, Max is a completely bitchy woman, but I wouldn't want to get her into trouble 'cause I felt like it. I'm not that type of person."

Zack nodded. Maybe this guy wasn't so bad after all. "Okay. I guess we should all get back to our cells before they notice we're missing." Both Max and Alec nodded and they started to go their separate ways. When Max was out of the gym, Alec called out to Zack. "Hey, buddy, wait up."

Zack stopped and turned. "What?"

"You like her, don't you," Alec said.

Zack looked flustered for a moment, then said, "Of course not. Are you crazy? She's my sister man."

Alec snorted. "Sister my ass. You guys aren't related and you obviously like her or else you wouldn't have grilled me a few minutes ago about how we know each other."

Zack just looked at him.

"Fine," said Alec, giving up. "Just saying. You don't need to worry about me being competition for you or whatever because a) Max hates me or dislikes me greatly and b) She's not my type. And if you have to know, Max, she's… I don't know. In some twisted way she's sorta become my sister or something." Alec looked uncomfortable. "I care about her, just not the way you do. And if you ever tell her that, no offense buddy, but I'll kill you."

Zack listened to Alec without interrupting and saw that he really did care about Max. It made him feel better that Alec wasn't interested in her, and he viewed the guy in new light. It was nice that at least someone watched over her when he was gone. "I appreciate you caring about her in your own way. It's good to know if something ever happened to me, she wouldn't be alone." Zack chuckled. "And I won't tell her about the whole sister thing."

Alec breathed a sigh of relief. "Thank god." He was silent a moment. "You're not so bad," he added as an afterthought. "But you do get jealous easy," he said, holding back a laugh.

Zack was about to deny his feelings for her once again, but after scrutinizing Alec, he decided what the hell. "I know. It's just so hard because she probably thinks of me as her brother when I never thought of her as my sister."

"I don't think so. I mean, personally, I think she's just confused. She doesn't know what her feelings for you are."

"Yeah, and Logan's probably screwing things up too," he muttered.

"Who?" Alec asked, confused.

"Logan Cale. God, I hate the guy. He and Max sort of had this thing. I'm not sure what, but something. He's also Eyes Only."

Alec whistled. "Whoa, he is? Well, he's pissing Renfro off bad. She wants him dead."

"I have to agree with her for once," Zack said bitterly. "He's the thing keeping me and Max apart."

Alec grinned at first but then his face fell. "I wish I could play Alec the matchmaker and get rid of this Logan guy but I'm stuck here."

"You could come with us," Zack suggested. 'Whoa, what's wrong with me, why am I being so… open. I guess this guy is practically family though so…'

Alec looked hopeful for a second, but then his face fell again. "I want to but, I screwed up on a mission a few months back, and if we get caught, they'll kill me for sure."

Zack wondered what he had done that was so bad that they would kill him if he screwed up again but then he reminded himself, 'This is Manticore'. "Think about it. What have you got to lose?"

"Yeah." He grinned again. "Thanks. It's nice to have a friend. People here aren't exactly good at socializing. Well, we better go."

"See ya tomorrow," Zack said. "Come with Max."

Alec nodded and they both left.