So sorry for all the chapter swaps etc etc! Something went wrong with my laptop when I was fiddling round with a few things and I ended up deleting chapters and uploading the wrong ones and then managed to incur the wrath of the dreaded Blue Screen Of Death. What a nightmare! So once again, sorry!

Hopefully everything is now fixed...

UPDATED 02/08/2012

WOW. Has anyone seen the latest episode, and/or the promo for the next episode? HOLY CRAP! I can't wait for next week now! This show just keeps on getting better and better – it sucks that they only have ten episodes a season, but at least it's already been renewed for a third season XD

Here is the latest chapter – hope you all enjoy!

Thanks for all the amazing reviews guys. You rock!

PLEASE READ NOTE AT END REGARDING THE FIRST PART OF THE CHAPTER.

WE ALL BLEED THE SAME WAY

DANCERINTHEDARK101

Summary: [Set between S1 and S2] The three months where the Mason family dynamics changed so much; where Hal became the leader, Ben decided to pick up a gun and fight; and Matt was left just hoping his family came back alive.

CHAPTER 3

-FALLING SKIES-

He froze. He was standing there, gun in hand and Skitter right in front of his face and he froze. The six legged creature twittered something inaudible before moving forward, its mouth open in a snarl, ready to attack. And he still stood there, unable to move a muscle.

"Ben!"

Someone screamed his name and it was only then that the teen managed to regain control over his limbs. He took in a shaky breath before closing his eyes and pulling the trigger on his weapon. He felt the kick from the bullets leaving the chamber before slamming point-blank into the Skitter right before him.

Some kind of liquid splattered all over his face and body and somewhere in the back of his mind, Ben knew it was blood, but he continued to fire. He kept firing at the collapsed and motionless body of the Skitter. He kept firing until a hand gently rested on his arm, breaking him out of the trance he had been in.

Taking in huge, quick and gasping breaths, Ben looked up at the owner of the hand. It was his brother, Hal.

"Hey, Ben. You okay?" Ben ignored his brother in favour of trying to keep his breathing steady. Hal's hand gripped his arm tightly and he was dragged out of the way of the dead Skitter and into a nearby alley. Still ignoring everything around him, Ben struggled to get himself under control. His breathing was still a mess and he could feel himself trembling. What was wrong with him?

"Ben, breathe…Ben!"

Gasping, he felt his legs give way and he slumped against the wall before sliding down to sit on the ground, gun resting in his lap.

"Ben. Hey, Ben… it's okay. You're okay…"

Snapping his head up, Ben stared into his brother's eyes. He opened his mouth to say he was sorry, but nothing came out. Wiping a hand across his eyes, the middle Mason was shocked to see it come away covered in a dark reddish black substance; blood of the Skitter.

He gagged before leaning over and throwing up the meagre contents of his stomach. In the distance he could hear gunfire and the low mechanical moans of the Mechs. He leant back against the wall before looking at his brother again.

"Sorry…" And he meant it. He didn't think it was supposed to be this hard. He had seen his brother and father shoot Skitters all the time. Hell, he'd heard that his dad had captured a Skitter single-handed and had brought back to the high school as a prisoner of war.

So why was he reacting so bad?

"Ben… hey. It's okay. You're okay," his brother repeated before grabbing his hand and hauling him to his feet. "Just stick with me, okay? I'll make sure you're safe."

Nodding somewhat distractedly, Ben took a few deep, cleansing breaths to calm himself before fighting back the urge to get the hell out of there and followed his brother back into the battle-zone.

Immediately they were thrust back into the war, bullets zipping every which way and Ben looked past his brother's shoulder and saw a wall of moving Skitters headed their way. Behind them were three Mechs, lazers scanning the area and shooting when movement was spotted.

Feeling his breathing begin to quicken again, Ben closed his eyes and thought of everyone who was counting on him to keep it together. He had to be strong, for the rest of the group out tonight risking their lives for those back at camp.

"You hanging in there, Ben?" Hal asked. Ben nodded as his breathing eased a little. He could do this.

Gripping his gun tighter, Ben stopped and looked through the sight on the top of the weapon. Thinking of the training his brother had put him through only yesterday, the blonde-haired fighter let a deep breath out and pulled the trigger.

With his heightened senses, Ben could almost see the bullets whizzing through the air before they slammed into the middle Mech, throwing the machine backwards as they battered the head area, before it slumped to the ground, dead.

As the Mech fell, the two others accompanying it went into a frenzy, aiming their weapons towards where Ben and Hal were stationed. Quickly ducking behind an overturned car, Ben looked at his brother just as the Mechs opened fire on their location.

The bullets hit the car with astonishing force, sending the car into a roll before crash landing a few feet away and bursting into flames. Ben felt shrapnel from the vehicle slice into his cheek as he scrambled away from the wreckage to another hiding spot. But he couldn't see Hal anywhere…

"HAL!"

Ben screamed as he looked over the wreckage site for his brother. It took a few seconds of anxious looking before he spotted Hal's body lying underneath some of the metal that had been ripped off the car in the explosion. From this distance, Ben could see blood dripping from a cut on his forehead. He was unconscious.

"Oh god… Hal."

Trying to get his runaway emotions under control, Ben surveyed the area. To his left, Maggie, Dai and Anthony were facing off against four Skitters that were attempting to climb up the surrounding buildings in an attempt to reach them.

Some distance in front of him, Captain Weaver, Pope and several of the Berserkers were firing at the remaining Skitters – leaving the two Mechs to himself and Hal. Only Hal wasn't in any condition to fight. That left it up to him.

He quickly checked his remaining bullets, realising with dread that there weren't nearly enough to take down two Mechs. But that would have to wait. His first order of business was getting Hal.

Knowing that he wasn't going to be able to get any help in rescuing his older brother, Ben surveyed his options. The two remaining Mechs were heading their way and would be right on his brother in a matter of minutes. He was going to have to distract them in order to free Hal from the wreckage pinning him.

Ben saw the opportunity only moments later. Some kind of hand grenade was lying on the ground near him. Taking a closer look, he saw that it looked like the ones Hal carried. It must have fallen off his belt when the car was thrown by the explosion. It would do.

The middle Mason had absolutely no idea how to safely work a grenade, so he figured that he would just do what he had seen on countless action movies. They pulled the pin and threw the thing as far away as they could. Surely, movies wouldn't lie that much, would they?

Running out of time to think of a better option, Ben pulled the pin-like thing off the top of the grenade and threw it as far as he could; which actually ended up being a very long way.

Mouth open in shock, Ben watched in surprise as the grenade exploded as it hit the outer wall of a building a fair way down the street. The resulting explosion rocked the street as the walls began to crumble and collapse in on themselves. The Mechs turned and fired towards the area, their original target forgotten.

Shaking himself out of the shock, Ben quickly scrambled over to where his brother was lying and attempted to move the scraps of metal off his body. Putting two fingers on his neck, ben felt for a pulse and felt relief wash through him as he registered the steady beats of Hal's heart.

"Hal!" As soon as his brother was freed, Ben shook him in an attempt to wake him up. Hal groaned as his eyes sluggishly opened and Ben took a moment to revel in the fact before hoisting him up and rushing off to a safer place.

"Ben?" At hearing Hal's voice, Ben slowly lowered his brother to the ground, fighting back a gasp as pain shot through his right shoulder. "Wha… What happened?"

Getting the pain under control, Ben let out a breath before answering. "Mechs hit the car we were hiding behind. You got thrown when the car exploded; it knocked you out." He reached up and placed two fingers gently against the cut on Hal's forehead, apologizing quickly as Hal winced in pain.

"You're gonna have one hell of a headache later, bro."

Hal was about to answer, when a voice cut through the air.

"Hal! Ben!"

It was Captain Weaver. Come to think of it, Ben couldn't hear any gunfire any more. They must have killed all the Skitters and Mechs.

"Over here!" When had his voice become so hoarse? Ben struggled to contemplate that, his mind drifting. The next thing he knew, Captain Weaver, Dai and Maggie were standing before him, worried looks crossing their faces.

He smiled weakly up at them. "Hi." And then he promptly passed out.

-FALLING SKIES-

Hal sat in the chair next to his brother's bed, watching him as he slept. It had been an eventful day for the kid and not necessarily in a good way. He had woken about an hour before hand after passing out on the way back to camp. He now had several stiches in his forehead and a bandage around his right ankle where he had twisted it trying to get away from the exploding car.

Captain Weaver had explained to him what had happened, but there were still some things that had everyone puzzled and Hal had a feeling that Ben would know exactly what had gone down. He felt bed for thrusting his brother into a war zone so soon. He had thought that he might have been able to handle it straight off, but it was evident pretty early on that it was going to take a while.

The kid might be a natural with a weapon, but when it came to actually facing the Skitters… well that was an entirely different story. Hal had told the captain about Ben freezing up when coming face to face with a Skitter. He had been worried that Weaver would have taken that the wrong way and banned Ben from missions, but the captain was surprisingly lenient and understanding.

"So Ben froze?"

"Yeah," Hal nodded, still slightly drowsy from the pain medication and the headache pounding behind his eyes. "He was fine up until then, but when the Skitter snuck up on us and Ben turned and saw it… he locked up. It took me a few tries to get him to snap out of it and then he just kept on firing at it until well after it was dead."

Weaver looked apprehensive and Hal swallowed. This wasn't looking good.

"Do you think it will be an issue in the future?"

Shaking his head slightly, Hal answered. "No. I think that it was a one-time thing. It can be a huge shock actually coming face-to-face with them and with everything Ben's gone through because of those things already…"

Weaver nodded and Hal felt relief run through him.

"With what information I have managed to gather about what happened, it sounds like Ben saved your life, Hal. If it hadn't been for him, you would have stayed trapped under that wreckage and the Mechs or Skitters would have been on you in seconds."

"I know. I owe him my life. I actually think we all do."

Hal was brought out of his thoughts by a low moan coming from the bed. Leaning forward, the black-haired teen watched as Ben screwed his eyes up before slowly opening them. His brother blinked sluggishly a few times before turning his head towards him.

"Hal?" His voice was weak and hoarse. "What happened? Where am I?"

"You're okay. You're in the med bus. You passed out after you rescued me."

The memory came to Ben in a rush. Hal could see it in his eyes; they widened slightly before hardening into pools of deep green.

"The Mechs and Skitters are dead?" he asked, struggling into a sitting position and wincing as his shoulder was moved the wrong way.

"Take it easy, Ben," Hal urged. "And yeah, they're dead. Thanks to you."

Ben looked confused, so Hal explained what had happened after he had been rescued from the wreckage. "Was it you who threw the grenade that distracted the Mechs?"

His younger brother nodded. "Yeah. I didn't really think it would go that far though. I guess as long as it worked…" he trailed off.

"You saved my life, Ben. And everyone else's too. So… thank you."

He leaned forward and brought his brother into a light hug just as Matt came barrelling into the bus. Hal smiled and grabbed his younger brother into the hug as well, just happy that even though their father was gone, their small was still around to fight another day.

But even through the relief that was racing through him at his brother's safety, he couldn't help but wonder just how much the harness had affected him. With the increased stamina and now increased strength… just how far were these changes going to go?

Pulling out of the hug, Hal turned to Ben. "Get some rest. Doctor Glass wants that shoulder rested for at least a day. When you wake next, I'm sure that Captain Weaver's going to want to get your side of the story about what happened out there." He ruffled his brother's hair before standing, Matt following suit.

"I'm proud of you, Ben. You did great out there today and I'm sure that Dad would've been proud as well."

-FALLING SKIES-

Captain Weaver stood outside the med bus with Anne Glass as Hal spoke to his brother. Without Tom Mason around, both Hal and Ben were going to have to step up and take on more responsibility – Hal especially. He didn't want to have to thrust the two teenagers into the life of soldiers so quickly, but the 2nd Mass had to survive. He had a feeling that the battles they had to fight were going to grow in frequency, and he was going to need every able-bodied man available to keep the civilians safe.

Sharing a look with Doctor Glass, Weaver stepped away from the bus. He would give the Mason family the rest of the day off to spend together before their new duties began.

Well, there you have it :) Hope you all enjoyed the chapter and that the action was okay. I don't think I'm that great at action scenes… so I hope it read okay!

About the first part: I honestly think that (even though Ben is super, super awesome) coming face-to-face with a Skitter in combat for the first time would freak anyone out. I don't think that only a day after being taught how to shoot, Ben would be the awesome super-soldier you see in the first episode of season 2. But once that initial reaction, the adrenaline kicks in and instinct takes over, which is why Ben was still able to save his brother. I hope this makes sense? I just wanted to make it as realistic as possible, so I hope I have achieved that to some degree.

Oh, and I have another Falling Skies oneshot up – called Twister. It's a light-hearted snapshot about life with the 2nd Mass, so give it a read if it interests you.

Thanks for reading!

-Rachel