Genre: angst, drama, tragedy

Characters: Max and Alec

Rating: T

Warning: A/U and dark Max.

Song: Russian Roulette by Rihanna

Russian roulette

Take a breath, take it deep
Calm yourself, he says to me
If you play, you play for keeps
Take a gun, and count to three
I'm sweating now, moving slow
No time to think, my turn to go

It had been predicted that both of them would end up like this on other sides of the war, never on the same team. They were destined to hate each other but, Max couldn't help but marvel at the sight of him despite the situation. Chaos was going on all around them; people dying, people killing, people fighting, people running, people screaming, but their eyes remained strictly on each other. Not blinking, unflinching.

There was no coldness in his hazel-eyes like she was expecting. No hate. It was almost like this was a game to him; them standing their covered in blood of fallen opponents and their own, tired but training guns on each other. They could pull the trigger, she could shoot him dead before he knew what was coming, but there was also the possibility he'd have a faster trigger finger, and she'd be dead before she knew what hit her.

Stalemate; unlike the others who easily killed their opponents, and the opponents they'd killed before, they just couldn't bring themselves to pulling their triggers, at least not yet.

"You're on the wrong side you know," she commented, as the world seemed to die down and only the two of them remained. It took her a few seconds to realize that, she hadn't drowned out the killing around them, but the fighting around them was over, and their enemies and comrades were equally dead. Only in the distance could any form of war be heard, and even that was a muted fight.

He raised an eyebrow, surprised at her audacity; on the wrong side? "I think you got that twisted, sweetheart," was she really that brainwashed to realize exactly what her side was really doing? Was she so blind she couldn't face facts that they were wrong, that they were the one causing chaos and distraction.

"Why would you say that? When all we do is help these ungrateful bastards. We spill our blood and sacrifice our lives to protect them and how do they repay us? They persecute us like common criminals just because, they don't want to deal with the monsters they created," her words beginning confused almost unsure but, became strong and sure as she continued to speak. "Getting rid of the few bad seeds is the only way to ensure peace."

Alec had to admit she was right on a few things; ordinaries were selfish and he once believed that the world would be better of without them, but the killing of innocent people as collateral damage, it beat the purpose. In fact, it made them just as bad as them. It made them the monsters they were claimed to be.

And you can see my heart beating
You can see it through my chest
That I'm terrified but I'm not leaving
Know that I must must pass this test
So just pull the trigger

His long silence made her wonder if he was actually considering seeing it their way. If maybe this standoff would end with neither of them dead, but fighting on the same side. It could happened, only if she could convince him… but she knew any conceding on his part would probably be a trick, a strategy to gain her trust only to stab her and her own in the back.

"So what you're saying is more blood will compensate for bloodshed? Come on Max, open your eyes," he implored, but his gun remained trained on her. Convincing her would be better than another death, convincing her would mean ceasing the intra-killing within themselves.

Right now the world consisted of 6 breeds of humans, if you can call them that: Transhumans (who fell under transgenics), Transgenics, cyborgs, ordinary humans, hybrids (transgenic + humans), Familiars and mutants (a mutated human or transgenics).

The minorities due to disease were ordinaries and mutants.

Transgenics, hybrids and ordinaries allied with each other, cyborgs remained neutral or allied with transgenic, mutants and Familiars regarded themselves superior therefore allied with no one. Unfortunately, however, the transgenics were split between those who believed themselves the most suitable as leaders and were willing to kill off those who opposed, and those who just wanted peace and to fight the real enemies that were the Familiars and mutants.

"They are open!"Max immensely annoyed by the fact that he thought she was a dim and didn't understand the situation. She understood it clearly and had made a decision accordingly, "they are wide open, it's yours that remain shut to the truth. You think I wasn't like you? A pure idealist believing in the good in them and we'll one day just get along? I did. Until I saw their true colors and what they are truly were capable of doing." The memory of Eva slowly dying in her arms and her young son, Jack, nothing but a little unmoving bundle covered in blood, assaulting her mind with nightmare-ish force. But that wasn't enough to make her lower the gun, or get distracted. It would be a very idiotic move to get distracted went his stance remained unwavering. He could still kill her. "They are capable of the cruelest things; one of them once said. How right they were."

He didn't miss the pain that flashed through her brown eyes momentary, as if she was recalling a horrible dream. He wasn't ignorant or oblivious to how cruel an ordinary human being can be to something he doesn't understand or even to themselves; his mate and sister's deaths standing out clearly in his mind, but he was also privy to how caring, loyal and selfless they could also be. "Aren't we getting along with them fine now?"

"Because they need you to survive!" she sniggered with distaste at how vehemently he defended them, and he wasn't even one of them, "In the world only the fittest survive and the weak, they die off. Parasites however, survive by leaching from the fittest. The fittest in this scenario is us, the parasite? Them."

He really wondered if there was any convincing capable to turn her around, and if he was just wasting time talking when pulling the trigger would solve this quickly.

Say a prayer to yourself
He says close your eyes
sometimes it helps
and then I get a scary thought
that he's here means he's never lost

"I know they could also be kind and loyal Alec, I'm not oblivious to that because, like I said, I use to be like you. But you want to know what happened to them? They were killed, murder in cold blood for associating with me. Killed by their own kind," she added hoping to convince him because, honestly, she really didn't want to kill anymore of their people. That was where her people and herself differed, killing their own to make the ordinaries submit. In another life, maybe, they would have been fighting side by side, because as a leader of his people, he was excellent. Just too bad he adamantly remained on the wrong side.

He'd had this argument once before, the stalemate was like déjà vu really, and last time it ended with triggers being pulled, one dying and the other walking away to fight another day. "You're right they are selfish, cruel sons of bitches, and some days I really wonder if it's really worth all this hustle, but then I realize I don't want to be a monster like them. I was one, the worst kind. Killed people and actually smiled about it, but then the nightmares and body count caught up to me and made me see all the crap I was doing," he argued, "I still kill; I kill them and I kill my own kind but, I want it to stop. Max we can make it stop."

And you can see my heart beating
You can see it through my chest
That I'm terrified but I'm not leaving
Know that I must pass this test
So just pull the trigger

"Look around you Alec! Do you honestly think it will stop?" she asked, not looking at it herself, but her mind's eye could see a sea of bodies around them. Bodies covering the streets, bloody; the coppery smell assuring her of that chilling fact. Did she want a sea of bodies around her every morning due to their fighting? No. "Bombs are being dropped on us every damn day, by them; the ones who aren't even staying here. Do you think it's going to stop unless we take charge and stop it? I don't want blood to be shed Alec, I don't, but if it leads to peace…then it's a necessary evil."

Other nations did want the abominations that were the transgenics, dead or under their control. The transgenics, however, refused to be toy soldiers for ungrateful nations, neither Max's group nor Alec's, thus their punishment was to be eradicated. Max's people didn't kill most of the humans, humans from foreign nations did. Her people, however, killed those who they thought were in their way. Alec, in spite it, had made efforts towards talking to them and toward peace.

Foreign nation peace demands were: resolving or stopping all conflicts and Mutant and Familiars threats eliminated.

"It can Max, if you are willing to let it."

As my life flashes before my eyes
I'm wondering will I ever see another sunrise?
So many won't get the chance to say goodbye
But it's too late too pick up the value of my life

There was only one way to resolve this. And it was just the way destiny would have it: one of them dead. Who would see another sunrise, would depend on the person who was fastest on the trigger. If they both died, it would be up to their second in commands to deal with it. Peace was on the horizon, they could both feel it; 10 years and it was so close they could taste it. Who would join the ones lying around them without a chance to say goodbye?

Fingers pressed on the triggers, and it was too late to talk or contemplate whether or not the value of their lives would be wasted with their deaths or celebrated for sacrifice.

Their hearts were beating fast and hard against their chests, they were almost sure the other could see it beating through their chests. They were both terrified of dying, always were and always will be, but neither of them moved to retreat like their mind were telling them to, instead they continued to slowly pressed on the triggers. Who would leave alive…

And you can see my heart beating
You can see it through my chest
That I'm terrified but I'm not leaving
Know that I must pass this test
So just pull the trigger

Just as the night sky began filling with the light of dawn, one gun clicked empty while the other rang through the air from the released bullet. No cry of pain sounded, as the warring sides stopped and the streets filled with eerie silence. It was done one of them was dead, one was walking away to hopefully lead them to the peaceful future both sides were praying for.

--end

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