Old, decrepit, mildewy building. Again. Probably a warehouse. Maybe a basement.

She knew she was cuffed in rusty chains, and that those chains were attached to the ceiling. She hung by her wrists, one shoulder dislocated from the strength of the blow that incapacitated her, and her feet swung indiscriminately, unable to toe the floor below her. On top of all that, she felt dirty, and she could smell gasoline.

She had walked the alleyways home and had been attacked from behind by a masked man. She tried to fight back, but he knew her moves before she made them and had swung her face first into a brick building – by her shoulder, which was now dislocated. She figured her face was probably bleeding somewhere.

No sooner had Max strained her eyes, trying to find a light source, than she heard the spark of a match and saw its flame light up. She froze. The cold shadows played against his face as if emulating the silhouetted flame in a millisecond delay.

"Alec?" she asked, trying to enhance her vision to see him better.

"Try again," the man responded.

Max smiled with recognition. "Ben?"

"Very good, Maxie."

"Thank God it's you. Hurry up and get me down from here before that son of a bitch who tied me up comes back!" She swung a little in desperation.

Ben stepped forward confidently and another figure became visible behind him. "Now, 452, that's not very nice," came White's voice as he stepped forward, the flame beginning to illuminate his malicious expression.

Ben walked closer to Max and flicked the flaming match to the ground. It immediately lit the gasoline and circled around the three of them in a kind of Fibonacci spiral.

"What the hell's going on?" she asked, flames sending heat toward her toes.

"493 works for me now," White bragged. "I programmed him to find all other transgenic filth such as yourself. And here we are."

Ben didn't even blink. He was silent and stood statue-still behind White.

White removed a gun from its holster and offered the butt end to Ben. "Kill her."

Ben accepted the gun and looked over at his once-sister. He raised the gun to her but didn't shoot.

"Remember what we said, Maxie?" Ben started, the gleam of danger sneaking up into his eyes. "When we were younger? Do you remember?"

Max thought back to their shared childhood. She had broken so many of their rules, the rules Zack had spelled out months before their escape. Her eyes began to well with tears. "Yes, I remember."

"Then why didn't you?" he asked as if he were a scared kid.

"I'm sorry I didn't come back for you, Ben."