Disclaimer: I do not own Dark Angel, if I did - well if wishes were horses and all that jazz. You get the idea.

A/N: This coming to the end. I think this chapter and then maybe an epilogue. A really, really short one. I kinda lost faith in this, because nothing I write here comes close to what I see in my mind's eye when I think back to the lost book. Sigh

Chapter 4

The sounds of the battle raging by the back door faded behind Alec as he made his way through the warehouse. Inside it was very quiet. Whoever had built this place had done a good job. A very good job. There was no sign of Max and for a long moment Alec thought that White had moved her and it had all been in vain.

Just as he was about to give up all hope a soft murmur reached his ears. Taking deep breaths Alec controlled his body as much as he could. Heartbeat, once going like a metronome, slowed. Breathing stilled and quieted as if he not just fought off two Familiars, his rage channelled into beating the embodiment of all he had come to despise in the last few months. His senses on high alert, Alec scanned the warehouse for the second time, paying the closest attention to the darkest corners and nooks. Moving forward, the shaded warehouse became his own jungle. A gun was lightly held in his right hand, leading the way around every corner. The world narrowed down to the most basic senses as he held onto that murmur and let it lead him to his quarry. Hidden away in the darkest corner of the warehouse was Max.

She lay, propped against a crate, bloodied but never beaten, a weary expression on her face, eyes tightly closed against the horror that lay in her lap. All Alec could see from this vantage point was a shock of blond hair, but the words Max had whispered over the phone hours before now made chilling sense. In a way Logan had been right. The deeds all over Seattle had shown all the hallmarks of Ben's, because it had been Ben doing them. Alec's heart broke into so many pieces he wasn't sure he would ever be able to repair the damage and that was nothing to what Max must be feeling at that time. As soon as he had heard the old man in the park mention the man who looked just like him, Alec had convinced himself that the thought at the front of his mind could not possibly be true. There was no way this could be true. It was too horrendous. He did not know how White had managed to bring Ben back from the dead and was not sure he would ever like to know. Some things were meant to be taboo and disturbing the rest of the dead was one of them. Sadly that did not dissuade the greater bastards of this world from doing so anyway. Some people had no ethics.

Slowly, Alec crept forward, determined not to startle Max. There was no accounting what this episode had done to her. As he came closer, he saw that Max was moving, one handever so slowly stroking the hair filling her lap. Stroking along the line of the jaw and moving to caress the neck before fisting into the shirt. Moving on to straighten the shirt again, one finger tracing along the lines of the face. It was enough to make even the hardest heart cry. But then again, the man who stepped out of the shadow behind Max at that moment made the hardest heart look like a bit of sun-warmed taffy. A truly malicious grin on his face, Ames White stood behind Max, one hand lightly resting on her shoulder.

Hot rage attempted to wrest Alec's control from him, but this time was the end. This was the last battle. Not a flicker of emotion played across Alec's face as helet that hot rage fuel his energy and make place for a cold sense of purpose.

"Well, well, well. If it isn't 494. Come to rescue your princess? How romantic."

"You could say that." Alec looked at White, truly looked at him for the first time in all the time they had been adversaries and laughed. "You think you can actually stop me? You? With your pathetic little cult, that hasn't managed to go through with a single one of their plans? Laughable."

White's face darkened considerably, as he struggled and failed to check his emotions. "You forget, I have your little slut in my power."

Alec's only response was to raise the gun in his hand, faster than the blink of an eye and shoot White smack in the centre of his forehead. "Not anymore."

Max hadn't even flinched throughout the exchange. Moving swiftly Alec grabbed White by his feet and dragged him behind a crate, then hastened back to her side. As he sank down before her, he got a good look at the person in her lap. It was a carbon copy of him, down to the last hair on his head. Uncanny really and vaguely spooky.

"Max. Can you hear me?" Gently, he pushed a strand of hair behind her ear, allowing him a better look at her tear-stained face.

Max lifted her eyes from the body in her lap, eyes only slowly focussing on the man kneeling in front of her. Sluggishly one hand lifted to his face and cupped his cheek.

"Alec?"

"Yeah, it's me."

"You came. You really came." A slow tear dripped from her eye to join the others staining her cheeks, chin and shirt.

Alec swallowed past the lump in his throat. "Of course I came. I would never let you down."

"I know, Alec." Max's voice had never risen over a whisper throughout the exchange. Her eyes fell back down to the burden in her lap. "I couldn't save him, Alec." Heartbroken eyes lifted up to meet his.

"I really tried, but he wasn't listening. He just didn't listen. Why didn't he listen, Alec?" The last came out as a wail that tore at the fabric of Alec's soul.

Deep inside, Alec wished he hadn't gotten rid of White so quickly. The man deserved to suffer a thousand deaths for what he had done to Max.

"Oh, sweetheart, I don't know." Taking both her hands in his, finally stilling her incessant stroking of Ben's face, he continued. "White is an evil bastard. But what he brought back there is not Ben. He looks like Ben, maybe even sounds like him, but there is no way in hell, Ben would have not listened to you. He listened in that forest a long time ago and he would have listened now. This is just a semblance of Ben, created to torture you and make you suffer. Created by a sick, twisted man wanting nothing more than to break you." Alec let his eyes rove over Max's face to see if she was taking in what he was saying. His relief knew no bounds when he saw the light of understanding return to her eyes. Moving as slowly as possible, ready to stop if she made even the slightest gesture to stop him, Alec shifted Ben and laid him out on the floor, crossing his arms over his chest and pressing closed his eyes. At one time he would have freaked out completely at seeing his own dead eyes staring up at him, but Ben was finally at one removed from him. They were not the same person, thanks largely to the woman sitting in front of him.

Max's hands, bereft of their burden, had dropped into her lap, plucking at a loose thread. Distracted as she was, Alec took a moment to evaluate her injuries. There was an ugly scratch along her neck, along with what were undoubtedly choke marks. Her shirt was ripped in a couple of places and he could see by the way she was favouring one side that the ribs on that side were damaged. Her right knee was swelling as he watched, indicating a sprain at best. But most heartbreaking of all was the defeated look in her eyes. Gently he sat down next to her and placed an arm around her shoulders. He was only slightly surprised when Max crawled into his lap, burying her face in the crook of his neck, arms closing around him like bands of iron as silent sobs finally, finally forced their way from her lips and shook her small frame.

A long time later, after the medic had been and gone, ascertaining that Max seemed to be more or less okay, bar the shock, Biggs quietly joined them to report that all resistance was broken. His eyes hardened as he caught sight Ben and glinted with satisfaction at the sight of White's body.

Alec looked up from his position on the floor and silently asked Biggs to deal with the bodies. He didn't need to see his friend's nod to know that his order would be fulfilled. Arranging Max more comfortably in his arms, Alec effortlessly stood up and carried her out of the warehouse and to the van Dix had sent over. The entire time Max didn't speak a word, then so quietly Alec almost missed it, she whispered: "I knew you would come."

"Maxie, it's okay. Who else would you call?" The attempt to be even the slightest bit flippant failed completely.

Leaning back in his arms, Max stared at his face for so long, Alec started to feel uncomfortable.

"No-one."

"Come again."

"There is no-one I would have phoned except for you." Closing her eyes, Max let her head fall back to its place on Alec's shoulder.

"Huh."