Author's Note: For the record, this is where creative interpretation gets its workout. As far as I remember, Lena was never in the Future episodes, and she never had a daughter. Kaye is the dual creation of Luna Tiger and myself, and her father is very much open to your own interpretation.

"Losing by Inches"

It was hard to tell exactly when things had started going badly for them. For so long it had seemed like they were holding their own; just enough to slow Paradigm down but never quite enough to take him out for good. There was a stalemate for a long time, where Bends and Lena had to work hard to convince potential allies of the danger, Paradigm could simply brainwash his troops into doing whatever he said.

The day he perfected his mind control formula was a terrible blow. Even Bolton couldn't figure out how to counteract it.

Short sightedness and temper tantrums had always been Paradigm's greatest short comings – weaknesses that they tried to exploit as often as possible – but once things started going his way the Doctors' genius became apparent. Even Lena's inside information wasn't enough for them to keep up.

They lost the city by inches; first the ruling council, then the slums. Even the few people unaffected by the mind control couldn't leave once they'd been changed. The military was ordered to shoot alters on sight, and a perimeter was set up around the city, keeping the problem contained, but not wanting to risk going in themselves.

This wasn't a war where people died; the alternative was much worse. Every person captured was force fed the gene-slamming formula, and soon they were happy to fight at the doctors' side and spill every secret they knew. It made sense that the military didn't want to risk that, but Bends was always bitter about how they simply left the civilians to fend for themselves. There was safety outside the city…but that's only if you managed to make it that far.

Bends didn't want to leave, even if Lena occasionally wondered aloud if they should. They'd been fighting too long, and it was all too personal now. Bends wasn't going to quit until Paradigm was stopped, one way or another. The outside world was happy to just sit back while the city tore itself apart from the inside, but Bends wasn't going to let Paradigm just take the city like he'd always wanted. The mere thought of it made him sick. So many sacrifices they'd made…he didn't want it all to be for nothing.

Lena was different though. She had a daughter to take care of, and Fission City was no place to be raising a child anymore, but she stubbornly refused to leave. Once you got out, you could never get back in, and even after so long she still hoped that things might get better. Kaye had her mothers' dark eyes and stubborn chin, and always told her Uncle Bends he was being silly whenever the topic came up. Family was always supposed to be with you, no matter what.

He wasn't quite ready to disillusion her of that notion just yet. Hope was a fragile thing, better left to those a bit less jaded than himself, but it was nice to keep such people close at hand.

.:More to come soon:.