Disclaimer: I don't own these characters
A/N review plz! Also check out the prequel 'The days before'.
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Alec walked in Max's cell as usual the next day. He opened the door cheerily. "Hey Ma-." He stopped himself, immediately seeing that something was wrong. She sat with her head in her hands, eyes closed. "Max?" he asked tentatively. He walked up to her and put a hand on her shoulder. "Max?" he asked again. "What's wrong?"
Max slowly lifted her head. Alec could see the tear stains on her face and her eyes were red and puffy. This worried him even more because Max, the tough bad-ass chick, didn't cry very easily. She sniffled, then wiped at her eyes, cursing that she had shown weakness, especially in front of Alec who would probably make fun of her.
But Alec surprised her. He just sat down on her bunk and stroked her hair for a moment. "Max? Wanna tell me what's wrong?" he asked her, not forcing her to tell him but letting her know she had a choice.
She sat up straight and just stared at him, contemplating if she could trust him. She didn't want to admit it, but even though Alec was a complete egotistical pain-in-the-ass, he was starting to grow on her. She decided she'd tell him 'cause if she didn't tell someone it was going to eat her up inside.
She finally opened her mouth to speak. Alec encouraged her with his eyes, glad that she was going to open up to him. "I killed him," she whispered, tears threatening to spill from her eyes.
Alec was shocked by what she said, but didn't understand it. "Killed who?" he prodded gently.
"B-Ben," she finally stuttered out. The tears she tried so hard to keep in finally came flowing down her soft cheeks. "It was Ben," she said a little more firmly. "I killed Ben."
To say Alec was shocked would be like saying bombs weren't that explosive. He knew how much her family meant to her and this threw him completely off guard although he didn't show it. "Why?" he asked.
"He asked me to." She was crying freely now. "He was insane. Killed a bunch of people. I had to stop him. Lydecker was closing in on us in the woods and I had broken his leg from the fight. He couldn't walk and, and…" Max couldn't finish her sentence. She took a deep breath and wiped the tears from her eyes. "I don't deserve to live. I did the worst thing anyone could ever do. I killed my own brother Alec and I won't ever be able to forget that."
Alec understood her pain. To be forced to kill someone you loved deeply.
Flashback
"Rachel!" Alec screamed. "No!" A flash of bright light.
End flashback
"I know it's hard," he started slowly. "But you did what you had to do Max. It wasn't your fault, he asked you to." He went silent then said, "Does Zack know?"
Max looked up in alarm. "No. I could never tell him Alec, he'd hate me. Betraying my family was the worst thing I could do, he'd never forgive me."
Alec looked her right in the eyes. "I'm sure Zack would never hate you, Max, for doing what you had to. I'm sure he'd understand. You have to tell him Max, Zack deserves to know. Ben was his brother too. Tell him. I'm sure he won't hate you but you've got to tell him."
"I'm afraid though Alec. Maybe he won't hate me but he'll never be able to look at me without seeing Ben's murderer. I'll die if he thinks of me that way."
"You don't know unless you try," he responded. "You need to tell him, Max."
She sighed. "I know."
"Do you want me to come with you?" he asked.
"I'd rather tell him alone if you don't mind," she said.
Alec understood that this was something she needed to do on her own. "Okay. It'll be fine Max."
She smiled at him. "Thanks. For your support and all."
He grinned at her. "Don't forget though, I'll always be a pain-in-the-ass."
They both laughed and Max left to go to the gym.
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Zack paced around the gym. 'What's taking them so long?' he pondered. 'Were they not able to come?' He heard a noise and lifted his head. He saw Max walk in quietly and shut the door. He immediately noticed the thin tear tracks down her face. "Max!" he cried out in alarm. "What's wrong?" 'If Alec did something to her…' he thought before he dismissed it. 'No, I don't think he would.'
He walked up to her and cupped her chin. "Maxie, what's the matter?"
"Sit down," she said quietly. "I need to tell you something."
They walked over to a couch and sat down. Zack looked at her worriedly. What was so bad that it made her cry?
"I need to talk to you," she started. "About Ben."
He looked at her, surprised, then asked her, "Do you know where he is? I've been trying to track him down for months now."
She didn't say anything for a while and Zack's anxiety grew. She then said two words that sent a wave of sadness and pain wash over him. "Ben's dead."
"How do you know?" he asked, trying to keep his voice neutral.
"Because," she said, the tears threaten to overflow again no matter how hard she tried to keep them in. "Because," she repeated. "I killed him." Now that she started she found it easier to keep going. "He was killing people Zack, and I never meant to do it, I promise. He was pulling out their teeth to give to the blue lady. I found him in a church, then he ran away from me. I found him again after he kidnapped a man named Father Destry to hunt. I saved the Father, then we fought in the woods. I accidentally broke his leg and Lydecker was closing in on us. He asked me to, so I did." The tears were once again flowing freely. "He was afraid that they'd take him back and put him with the Nomlies. I didn't know what to do Zack."
Max squeezed her eyes shut, not wanting to see the shining hatred in his own. Her shoulders shook with suppressed sobs.
Zack had a pain in his chest that was almost unbearable. It wasn't because she had killed Ben, but because he had put her through this. He had known what Ben was doing, confronted him about it, but didn't do anything to stop him. So he forced it on Max to kill him. It was Zack's fault that she was hurting right now, his fault because his negligence made her do something she'd have to live with for the rest of her life.
Zack gently wrapped his arms around her and pulled her close. "It's alright Maxie," he murmured into her hair. "It's not your fault."
This wasn't the reaction she was expecting. She was taken aback when he wrapped his arms around her. She snuggled into them, happy that he didn't hate her, but was confused at the same time. "I thought you would hate me," she told him.
Zack was shocked. "Hate you? How could I ever hate you Maxie? How could you ever think that?"
She turned around in his arms and looked up into his eyes. They were so blue.
Flashback
"You're eyes look like the sky Zack," a nine year old Max told him.
Zack just smiled.
End Flashback.
She shook her head. "I've done the worst thing ever. I killed our brother, Zack." A tear escaped from her eye.
He reached down and wiped it away. "You did the right thing. You saved him Max. He's in the Good Place now. Besides, anything's better than going back to Manticore." Zack never believed in the Good Place but his brothers and sisters did and he would never take away anything that made them happy.
Flashback
"Do you think Jack is in the Good Place, Ben?" Max asked.
"I'm sure of it Maxie," he replied. "All of us will go there when the time is right."
"Is that true Zack?" She turned to him. "Will all of us go there when we die?"
Zack didn't want to break her beliefs in the Good Place so he said, "Sure, Maxie."
End Flashback
She rested her head on his chest, unconsciously rubbing her cheek against his heart – No, she had his heart. His artificial one then.
"You really think he's in the Good Place?" she asked, in a childlike voice.
"Positive," he told her. She nodded against his chest and they just stayed there for hours with him stroking her hair.
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Love it? Hate it? REVIEW PLZ! No Flamez! Don't worry. They're going to escape from Manticore soon. If you have any ideas for me to make this story better then tell me.
Thanks to –
shygirl1 – Thanks for all your support. I absolutely loved the ending of 'Together' and I'm already loving 'All of Us'. Update soon!
X5898 – Thanks for your review! I made Zack and Alec friends immediately because I wanted to show that Alec's good at making people feel comfortable around him.
kiwifruit03 – Thanks for your review. I know Zack seems kind of OCish. Sry if that's not what you wanted. He's not going to be like that for the whole fic, he was just having a 'moment of weakness' or something I guess. To make more sense, let's just say that since he died he changed a little and became nicer because he realized that life's too short to be mean to people. I don't know. Figure something out. LOL