A/N: So, last chapter... Hope you'll enjoy!

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Part Three: In the Beginning

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Scene Five

~Back at the small clearing in the woods outside of Seattle for one last time, December 30th, 2020~

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The night before New Year's Eve 2020 was cold. Cold enough to glaze over the slosh in the puddles that were left over from the constant rain the week before. Cold enough to be uncomfortable if you had to lie in waiting for an unknown amount of time.

Alec had never told them the exact date of his little mishap, but he did once confide that it had only been a day or two until New Years. That and the use of a lunar calendar had lead the Winchesters here this first day of the year's last full moon, fully prepared to stay in place for the next three days if need be.

Dean wasn't able to express how very grateful he felt when they had heard the first of two stuttering engines draw into the clearing. The cold had already seeped into his bones and his joints protested every time he changed position. There was no getting around the cruel fact: he was getting too old for this kind of thing.

When Alec appeared on the scene, walking out from under the dark canopy of the trees with a confident swagger, for all the world appearing as if he owned the whole forest, all three Winchesters tensed in anticipation.

A sudden thrill washed over Dean at seeing the X5 again.

From his perch against a tree trunk, well hidden in the underbrush from any prying eyes but close enough that his 'ordinary' eyes could still make out the proceedings, Dean first watched the young man out there and then that young man's mirror image to his left in amusement.

"Are we sure this isn't another shape-shifter?" Ben asked, skeptical and anxious alike, eyes riveted on his twin. Dean reached over to ruffle the kid's hair fondly. "Oh, we're damn sure!" he replied. "No shape-shifter this time!"

Sam was a comforting, steady heat at his back, all coiled muscles, intently focusing on the scene unfolding before their eyes.

Ben shifted position again, frustration and impatience transforming his youthful face into a grimace.

Those last few weeks had wrecked hell on everyone's nerves, tempers flaring, the air all but crackling with poorly concealed anticipation, especially once a hostage situation in Seattle involving transgenics made the news. Catching Alec's face in the footage had been a minor shock.

As well as Dean understood Ben's need to finally meet Alec, however, to talk to him, as much as he shared those feelings, Sam had been right about waiting.

Until the moment Alec crossed the Devil's Gateway he believed X5-493, his twin Ben, to be dead. If what they had read in his Manticore file was anything to go by, he was going to shoot a lookalike claiming to be 493 on the spot more likely than not.

While Ben had been right about the shape-shifter, Alec didn't know anything about the supernatural yet. Given that the kid had gone on and on about insanity being genetic it was doubtful he would even hear them out if they tried to explain.

No, Dean thought. After he crossed back into his own time, he would be more willing to believe the actual course of events.

At least they knew that that shifter wouldn't return. Sam had risked hacking into Manticore's database one last time to make sure the bastard was, indeed, gone for good, the silver bullet Ben had shot it with propelled to pierce its heart by its last fight. The broken neck had only sped things along.

Next to Dean, Ben tensed, switching his gaze from where it had been fixed on his twin towards the small dirt track on which the cars had arrived. Out there by the stone formation Alec cocked his head in the same direction.

A few seconds later Dean, too, heard what had caught the X5s' attention. Another car was barreling through the darkness, headlights quickly growing from pinpricks of weak light to two big but watery sources of illumination.

The Winchesters watched in tense silence as the shooting started.

Watched as Alec was hit in the shoulder and quickly ducked behind the stones out of the line of fire.

From where they were hiding, Dean had a good view of his little brother. Try as he might, he wasn't able to suppress the snort when he noticed Alec's ADD coming to the fore. Not that Dean honestly believed Alec suffered from the actual disorder. He rather suspected it was an unconscious rebellion against his upbringing, against Manticore and all the things they had tried to drill into him. It wasn't genetic at any rate, since – and Dean thanked his lucky star for that – Ben had never shown similar signs.

There was a lull in the hail of bullets when the shooters seemingly decided to take a break, and Alec's head peeked around the corner of one tall stone.

Big mistake.

As if they had been waiting for it, the shooters started up again, fresh clips in their guns all around. A stray bullet grazed the monolith mere inches above Alec's head. They all watched the young man stumbling backwards in surprise, grappling for a hold and failing.

Despite knowing it would happen like this, despite having seen it once before, Dean was still startled by the abruptness of the Alec's vanishing act. No clouds of smoke rising, no thunder, no blinding light. One second Alec was there, the most hilarious expression of shock on his face, the next he was gone.

And still the apparent turf war raged on, unaffected, not to say completely oblivious to the unique display of powerful, ancient magic.

Ben glanced his way, and Dean nodded, giving him the go ahead. Glancing over at his son, he encountered nothing but an empty space where Ben had been crouched no second ago. Dean hadn't even heard him move. Shaking his head in wry amazement (although, really, he should be used to it by now), Dean motioned Sam to follow him. They had to time this right.

Five minutes later, Dean delivered a healthy blow to the head with an appropriated shotgun to the last of the goons Alec had tried to make business with. The man folded like a house of cards. Grinning in smug satisfaction, he kicked the downed man one last time for good measure. When he looked up Dean saw Sam and Ben already tying the other downed men up and piling them into a heap next to one of the cars.

All they had to do now was wait. Dean couldn't help but think that that was the hardest part of it all. He just hoped Sam was right in his assumption that Alec would be returned to the same night he had disappeared and not a month later.

Leaning against one of the stones, Dean took the opportunity to observe his youngest brother's twin for a few undisturbed moments.

When he looked at Ben, he no longer saw a clone, a lookalike.

What he saw was the child Sam and he had taken in; a wary, confused, abused nine-year-old boy with eyes much too old for his age and a military training to rival John Winchester's.

What he saw was the mostly responsible if mischievous teenager he'd had a hand in raising.

What Dean saw when he looked at Ben was the closest thing both he and Sam would ever have to a son of their own.

Confusing as it was, his feelings towards Alec were a bit different. Although technically, Alec was the younger one of the twins, they had met when Dean was only a few years older, and Dean's subconsciousness placed him firmly next to Sam in the 'little brother'-category; baby brother as it was, but brother all the same.

Looking back on that one month thirteen and a half years ago, Dean realized that they'd latched on to Alec shockingly fast considering how closed off they usually were towards strangers. Part of it was the kid's looks of course; he did look exactly like Dean had when he had been that age. Part of it was Alec's annoying ability to get under their skin no matter how aggravating he could be at times.

Most of it, however, had nothing to do with Alec himself and all to do with the deal Dean had struck for his other brother's life.

Sam had felt so helpless back then, constantly aware of his big brother's one-way ticket to hell, knowing deep down that there was noting he could do to stop it. During that month he had focused a good deal of his attention on Alec. If he couldn't save one brother, he would do his best to help the other.

Dean, well. Dean just wanted to leave something of himself behind, even if it was just memories. And Alec was old enough (young enough) to be the son Lisa hadn't been able to give him.

He looked honestly forward to meeting up with him again.

"What if he doesn't want anything to do with me?"

Lost in his own thoughts as he was, it took Dean a moment to process that Ben had spoken.

"I mean, I'm the reason he got sent to Psy Ops not just once but twice!"

All three of them had read up on what happened in Psy Ops.

They'd all read Alec's Med Lab report, as well, and Dean still couldn't decide what was sicker: all those re-indoctrination techniques that involved starvation and sleep deprivation, or purposely inflicting first to third degree burns on a seven year old only to find out how fast he would heal.

"Calm down, Ben!" He understood Ben's anxiety. Dean, in Alec's shoes probably wouldn't feel too keen to meet his twin. All the same...

"He wouldn't have asked us to take care of you if he wished you bad." Sam voiced what Dean was thinking.

A loud thud and startled yelp in their backs had all three of them spin around. Dean turned in time to see Alec rubbing his tail bone with a painful grimace, raindrops glimmering in a mess of blinding red hair. Huh. A smug smile blossomed on his lips. He'd almost forgotten about that.

Ben, too, grinned at his twin's predicament, anxiety forgotten over the excitement of finally meeting the brother he'd only ever heard of from Sam and Dean's stories.

"You know, red really doesn't suit you, little brother!"

Exchanging a look with Sam, who was grinning so hard Dean feared his features would stay frozen like that, the eldest Winchester felt his own cheeks hurting from one of the most genuine and happy smiles that had ever grazed his lips.

Oblivious to the brothers, Alec stared open-mouthed at his twin, keen eyes flickering to the semi-automatic in Ben's waistband before clasping the helping hand the other young man offered as if in a daze. Ben was proud of that gun. It was the Colt 1911 that used to belong to Dean. The day Ben had mastered his first hunt on his own, Dean had passed it along to him.

"You're not dead!" Alec blurted out and Dean's smile stretched into a smirk. God, he had missed the kid!

Pulling Alec up to his feet, Ben replied, "Never was. The shape-shifter who stole my face, though, definitely is. We made sure of that. Temporal anomalies are a bitch, dude!"

The look of wide-eyed astonishment on Alec's face would have been comical if Dean wasn't still grinning like a lunatic himself.

Finally becoming aware of the two older brothers Winchester, Alec turned his stunned gaze on them only to start grinning like a lune as well.

"Dean? Sam?" he asked unnecessarily but with such unmasked excitement that Dean couldn't bring himself to voice the jibe on his tongue. Alec's next comment, however, made him rethink his show of good will.

"Oh my God, you're old!"

"Watch your tongue, heathen!"

Before Dean could do anything more than gripe, though, Sam beat him to the punch – as well as an amiably hard (and literal) punch to Alec's shoulder.

"Genetically enhanced super-soldier, my ass!" he crowed brightly. "You have the attention span of a four year old, dude. How did you manage not to get yourself killed?"

"Hey!" Alec protested reflexively. "I can focus if I absolutely have to!"

Looking over his shoulder at the weathered old stones, he scowled. "And anyway, this wasn't my fault."

Probably not. Although the X5 could have used a little more caution in his dealings with those low-life suppliers of his.

Turning his gaze from Dean to Sam to Ben to the tied up, unconscious forms of the six humans a few feet behind them, Alec shook his head, once again grinning from ear to ear. Green eyes sparkling with mirth, he carelessly tossed out a line that Dean had first heard him use thirteen and a half years ago.

"Max is going to kill me."

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~ End Part Three ~

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to be concluded...