DISCLAIMER: I dont own these characters

Max, Zack, Alec

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Chapter 26: Weakness

Max took a moment to try and keep her composure, keep a soldier's face, before saying what she wanted to say. Zack surely would want to be the one to talk, but Max wasn't going to have it that way. Alec had successfully pissed her off again, and he would damn well listen this time instead of just disappearing and leaving her to pick up the pieces.

As Zack shut the door, he once again questioned him. "Where have you been all this time, Ben?"

Max wouldn't give Alec a chance to make up some lame story to get out of it, or even explain himself. She didn't want to give him the chance to somehow explain how this wasn't horrible.

"That" she said with fury in her voice, "is not Ben. His name is Alec. He and Ben are twins, his designation is 494. Ben would never do something like this!"

Alec stared in disbelief. He didn't know exactly what Ben had done to be considered a 'failure' by Manticore's standards, but he was sure that Ben wasn't as amazing as Max would like to believe.

"Twins?" Zack said, taking it in. "But you're not one of our unit."

Alec nodded, "Exactly. So I really don't need to be here for your little family reunion, so I think I'll be leaving now."

"Oh, I don't think so!" Max said, shaking her head. "You aren't going anywhere, Alec. How could you do something like this? You know Logan! He's not some random rich guy to exploit. I can't believe you! So this is how you got all that money, huh?" She was thinking of how he had taken her out to the nicest restaurant in town the last time she'd seen him, now thinking of it with disgust.

"I didn't hurt anyone!" Alec said in his defense.

"No thanks to your own actions," Zack said, upset. "I'm the one who had to get rid of the attention you caused. Who knows, Manticore could have another team on its way here to capture you! Attention to Seattle is bad for Max, you put her safety in jeopardy!"

Alec allowed his green eyes to meet Max's. Her brown eyes were full of anger- no, worse. He saw hurt in her eyes. Did this mean he did mean something to her?

Alec also noted the look on Zack's face- X-559. The one who helped them all escape. He didn't seem to regard Max the way that a brother should.

"Why did you do it?" Max demanded. "Can't you at least explain yourself!" She finally gave him a moment where he might be able to save himself, somehow justify his foolish actions. It wasn't like he'd killed anyone, it was just that it was so stupid, it made no sense.

Alec didn't really know why he'd done it. It felt good he decided, to have no one to answer to, do what he wanted. It had started out as one hit, he was just going to do it a couple of times, save up the cash and live off it for a while. But the soldier in him didn't want him to stop. It was like his mission. Without a Manticore mission, what was he to do? He didn't know how to just "be free". Max had been fortunate enough to have years of practice, but he was new at this freedom stuff. In all his outside missions, he realized money was everything, you needed it to survive in the world outside of Manticore.

"I want to give you some answers," Alec admitted, "But I really can't explain my actions. I'm sorry."

Max didn't accept his apology. What, was she supposed to believe a liar all of a sudden?

"How did you escape Manticore?" Zack asked, "Or are you still working for them? What are you doing here?" He seemed very much untrusting of Alec.

Alec didn't want to explain himself to Zack, but he saw Max wanted the answers. It was difficult to answer, he really didn't know why he was there. Was he supposed to say that he felt a connection to Max? It didn't make logical sense, he couldn't tell them that.

"I only just recently escaped, I was on a mission but I never returned." Alec answered.

"Well, why didn't you escape earlier?" Zack asked.

"I didn't think of it until I saw other free X5s," Alec lied, feeling like he was reporting to an officer. He suddenly wanted badly to leave this interrogation.

Max didn't let Zack ask another question. "I don't know why the hell you are here or staying here other than to be my constant pain in the ass, but if you insist on making my life hell, you probably want to get a real job." she suggested.

Zack looked like he had more questions, but Max was done talking with Alec. She didn't care at the moment if she ever saw him again. "Get out of my apartment." She ordered Alec.

He stood there, shocked, not moving.

"Get OUT of my apartment!" Max repeated, more forcibly.

Alec grabbed Max's arm, forcing her to meet his gaze, "Max! I'm done, okay. I said I was sorry."

Max backed away at his touch, "Don't touch me! I really can't stand you right now. Do you know that? I want you to go."

Alec felt the sting of her words, more than she knew. He didn't want to leave. He wanted to make it up to her, show her she was wrong about him.

Alec didn't know what he could say, though, at the moment. She would need space. He left without saying goodbye.

Max turned to face Zack. He was surprised to see her eyes still held anger. "Max, you don't need to be so upset. We did good, trust me, he's done drawing attention to Seattle. Plus, I stopped the team, you're in no danger."

"I don't care about that right now, Zack!" Max replied. "You don't know where Ben is, do you?" His question to Alec was proof that he had no idea where her brother was.

Zack took a moment to read Max. Since when was she so concerned with Ben? Maybe it was Alec's striking resemblance. It brought memories, maybe. "I don't know where he is," Zack confessed, feeling his own failure in their brother.

"Well how long has it been?" She demanded.

Zack shook his head, "Anywhere from a few months to a year."

"A year?" Max asked. That meant he could be anywhere at this point!

Zack didn't know what to tell her. Ben's whereabouts were clearly all she was concerned with at the moment. He wanted to give her the answers she was looking for, but he couldn't.

"How could you just abandon him, Zack! Why didn't you tell me, we could have been searching!"

"Oh, is that all it takes for you to leave Seattle?" He asked getting upset. She didn't understand. If she only knew, she wouldn't want to find him so badly.

"Don't turn this on me, Zack. You never gave me a chance. If you wouldn't have kept me in the dark, I might have left. We'll never know since you didn't trust me enough. I think you owe me to tell me what happened, where did you last see him?"

Zack didn't understand. Why was it that he did everything for her, and all she could think of was her messed up brother? Zack was somehow getting her anger after everything he'd done.

"You have no idea about Ben, Max. He isn't the same little kid that we knew at Manticore."

"You left him, didn't you, Zack," Max asked, shoving her fists at him in frustration. "How could you abandon him?"

"He didn't follow his orders!" Zack explained, "He left his sanctuary! What was I supposed to do, call a search party? He didn't want to be discovered, Max, or he would have left a note, a trace of where he was headed, something! He's a good soldier, Max, he made sure there was no sign. He wasn't kidnapped, he left of free will. I was trying to protect you all." Zack didn't tell her the whole story. In truth, he should have killed Ben. But he couldn't bring himself to do it, Zack was too weak. He couldn't hurt Max, so he had fooled himself into thinking it would be okay to give Ben one more chance.

"So you admit that you didn't search for him?" Max asked, not pleased with his answers. "Why. Because he didn't follow orders? I'm not being the perfect Manticore soldier, either, Zack. I'm staying in Seattle against your wishes. Why don't you just abandon me?"

"I'm sorry, Max, I was a little preoccupied, okay! I'm sorry I had to die so I couldn't focus my every attention on Ben. Sorry that I was trapped at Manticore for the past few months."

Zack couldn't say anything else. Max would never understand. He would never get her to see. How could anyone understand? She didn't know what happened, she never would know the fullness of it. It wasn't her fault, it had been Zack's choice. When faced with it, he would do it again. Max meant more to him than anything, more than his own life.

What Zack didn't understand, was why she couldn't see it, everyone else did. He would never be able to abandon her. Even Manticore had known. He remembered what had happened when he made the choice to save Max. They wanted to know where everyone else was. He was so good, he was so focused. He wasn't going to crack.

He'd finally woken up to find himself off of the operation/probing table for once. He could feel the scars from where the needles had been inserted, the tubes, pumping mind altering chemicals into his body against his will just moments before. How long had he been out? How long until they tried again?

He could barely see anything, he was still dizzy from it all. He felt a terror come over him. He realized that he couldn't remember, he didn't know what had happened to him over the past few days. The last true memory he had was of Max, seeing her fall. He saw himself again, pulling the trigger, forcing them to save her over himself. What had been going on for the past few days? Had it only been a few days?

He swallowed as his darkest fears flooded his consciousness. What if they knew? What if he had lost it at some point, leaked out what they wanted to know?

"Zack!" Max called to him. He blinked. Was it really her? It had worked, then. She was still alive. He had succeeded in saving her life.

"What, what are you doing here?" He had asked her.

"Zack, we have to get out of here. You didn't tell them did you?" She pulled him in his weakened state to his feet. Zack stroked her cheek that he could barely make out, he was so glad to have her near him.

"No, Max!" he shook his head, allowing the tears to come, "I didn't tell them anything!"

She didn't believe him, "Are you sure? You didn't tell them where Tinga is? Where Ben is?"

"No!" Zack insisted, "Why don't you believe me! I didn't say anything!"

Max repeated the question. No, she rephrased it, "Where is Tinga, Zack? Where is Ben?"

Zack knew then, it wasn't Max. As his vision improved, he could see. It wasn't her at all. He lifted her off the ground with his remaining strength, his relief gone. "Where is Max! Tell me where she is!" He demanded before he felt a poke in his side. He'd been injected with another tranquilizer. It was just a trap.

If Manticore knew that Max was his weakness, why didn't she? It must have been that she didn't want to see it, didn't want to know what she meant to Zack, that thoughts of Max flawed Zack's otherwise perfect plans. That her safety always meant more.

Max realized Zack didn't know anything more about Ben. If he did, he surely would have told her. She felt the beating in her heart, ashamed of her behavior toward him. Zack had done more for Max than anyone in her life, probably than anyone ever could or would do. Her fists that were pounding him with fury, she changed to hands, pressed against his chest in defeat, in an apology. She wrapped them around her brother and hugged him, shaking in his arms. Here it was. The comfort she'd been seeking, the comfort she had turned to Alec for, but that only Zack could offer.

Zack held Max in his arms, trying not to take in her scent or the feeling too much. She was his weakness, getting too close would only make it harder to leave, harder to continue his mission. He had to find Ben for her. She was right, really. He had abandoned Ben.

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a/n: Thanks again for reading. This chapter was longer, the next will be shorter (kind of balances that way!)