Title: It's The End Of The World (As We Know It)

Author: Kyra

Disclaimer: I don't own them; if I did I wouldn't be writing fanfiction.

Summary: Everything changes when the bomb Parker and Hardison went after turns out to be a fake…And the real one goes off. In the aftermath of the Pulse, things only get more complicated when the Leverage team takes in a stray with secrets of his own.

Pairings: Very light Nate/Sophie and Hardison/Parker

Spoilers: Up through most of 'The Big Bang Job' for Leverage, goes AU on the train, and all of Dark Angel is fair game.

Warnings: None that I can think of.

Chapter 7: You're Ours

"You guys really shouldn't be coming in here with me," Ben tried protesting again even though he knew there was no use. His family was coming whether it was a good idea or not.

"Shut up, Ben," Eliot said as Parker glared at him.

"We're coming with you," Parker stated stubbornly. "We don't know them, you're not going in alone. You're ours."

"What part of 'dangerous radiation' don't you guys get? That's all I'm wondering," Ben said quietly as they slipped into Terminal City. "Not to mention the fact that this place is surrounded by cops and National Guard."

"Ya know, when Eyes Only said things were getting bad, I didn't think he meant siege bad," Hardison said as they slowly but surely made their way past the barricade without being detected.

A few minutes later, they slipped through a final hole in a wall and into an open area, only to stop short as five transgenics turned and trained their guns on them.

"FREEZE!"

"Hey, whoa, not looking for trouble," Ben said as he moved in front of the others, raising his hands to show he was unarmed.

The transgenics looked at Ben weirdly before glancing at the others with him, then back at Ben, then at each other, before finally back at Ben.

"Alec?"

"Okay, this is weird…" one of the other transgenics said.

"What do you mean it's weird?" another asked. "It's creepy is what it is."

"Shut up, you two," the first one, a blonde girl, snapped. "Alright, you're coming with us. Let's go."

The other two who had spoken moved to flank the group as the blonde started leading them further into the city, with the last two remaining behind to continue covering the post.

It wasn't long before they reached what must be the command center of the city. The blonde led them to a small group that was standing near a bank of computers talking.

"Wait here," she said as she stopped a couple yards away before continuing toward the group on her own.

"Syl?" a woman with long dark hair asked as the blonde, Syl, approached.

"Hey, we have some newbies you're gonna wanna see," Syl said. "Though I'm pretty sure five out of the six of them are Ordinaries."

"Why bring them to us?" a man with glasses asked. "We get new arrivals all the time."

Syl turned back to where they were standing and motioned for the two that had stayed with them to bring them closer. "Yeah, well, I think I'll let you see for yourself."

As they approached, the last person in the group turned around to face them and Ben and the others stopped short at the sight of him, their jaws dropping.

"…There's two of you…" Parker said softly as they all stared at the man that looked almost identical to Ben.

"God help us all…" Nate muttered, which snapped Ben out of it enough for him to turn and glare at Nate.

Turning back to his double, Ben tilted his head slightly as he studied him before stepping forward to take a closer look.

"Ben…" Eliot said softly, caution evident in his voice as he eyed the other group, as well as the rest of the transgenics around them.

"Ben?" the dark haired woman asked, staring at Ben in wonder, taking a step closer as well. "Ben…it's me…Max."

Ben turned to look at her in surprise. "Max?"

"Wait, your sister Max?" Sophie asked as the group looked between Ben, Max, and Ben's double.

"Maybe we should all introduce ourselves?" the man with the glasses suggested. "I'm Logan Cale."

"Max," Max stated with a nod. "Or X5-452. Though I prefer Max."

"Syl," the blonde said. "X5-701."

"X5-494," Ben's double said, eyes still on Ben. "Alec."

"Ben," Ben returned. "X5-493."

"I'm Nathan Ford," Nate said before taking Sophie's hand. "And this is my wife, Sophie."

"Parker. Just Parker," Parker said. "Though I don't have a number."

"Eliot Spencer," Eliot said, shooting Parker the look that they all knew meant he still thought she was twenty pounds of crazy in a five pound bag.

"And I'm Alec Hardison," Hardison said introducing himself. "Though everyone calls me Hardison."

Parker finally stopped staring at Alec long enough to really look at the others, only for her gaze to stop on Logan as she started staring once again.

"Parker," Sophie chastised. "Stop staring. It's not polite."

"You're Eyes Only," Parker stated suddenly, her head tilting slightly as she kept staring.

Logan looked startled for a moment before looking at Parker curiously. "What makes you think that?"

"Your eyes," Parker said, the 'duh' very clear in her voice. "If you're going to focus on one single feature, you probably shouldn't focus on such a pretty one. You have very recognizable eyes. Though I suppose being someone like 'Hairline Only' wouldn't have quite the same impact…"

Alec snorted before he started snickering softly.

Ben smirked at him. "Oh, if you think that's amusing you should have heard her when Eyes Only first started his broadcasts and she wanted to know why Eyes Only," he said. "Some of the alternatives she came up with were pretty interesting."

"I tried to get Hardison to change his name, but he wouldn't do it," Parker said with a pout.

"Thank God for that," Eliot muttered.

Ben grinned at the others. "Yeah, otherwise we'd have Ass Only Information Bulletins instead of Black King, White Knights Information Bulletins."

"You're Black King, White Knights?" Logan asked as he looked at Hardison and the hacker shrugged.

"We all are," he replied. "I do the bulletins and computer stuff, but it's a group effort."

"And that's why you wanted to know about the stuff with Manticore and the X5s over here. Your 'personal interest' in the situation was Ben," Logan said.

Nate nodded. "We knew it wasn't safe for him to be out here, but we needed to know what was going on so we'd know if it came to the point where he couldn't just stand back anymore."

"Where have you been?" Max asked, looking at Ben. "Zack said he looked for you, but you were the only one of us he couldn't find."

"So that's what the warning was about," Ben said. "Zack knew where everyone was and Manticore somehow found out…"

Max nodded. "Everyone but you. Where were you?"

"Boston," Ben replied with a shrug. "I was there when the Pulse hit, met these guys about two weeks later and I've been with them ever since."

"He's ours," Parker said suddenly, reaching out and grabbing on to Ben's arm. "You can't have him. You have your own anyway!" She pointed at Alec.

"What's with that, anyway?" Hardison asked. "'Cause I gotta say…creepy."

"Manticore twinned some of us," Alec replied. "Not sure how many of us were twinned, but there's the two of us, plus Max and her twin, Sam, that we know of. And at least a few others from your unit 'cause I know Sam and I weren't the only ones that spent six months in psy-ops after you guys escaped."

"What's psy-ops?" Sophie asked.

"You don't want to know," Ben told her. "Why did you have to spend six months in psy-ops?"

"Re-indoctrination," Alec said. "They wanted to make sure that we wouldn't attempt to escape like you did."

"And since you have identical DNA, they weren't just going to leave it to chance," Nate said and Alec nodded.

"Exactly."

"So why are you all here now?" Logan asked curiously.

"It got bad enough I couldn't just stand back anymore," Ben replied.

"And we weren't about to let him come alone," Eliot added.

"You know Terminal City isn't safe for Ordinaries, right?" Max asked as she finally pulled her gaze away from Ben.

Nate nodded. "We know. But Ben's important to us, he's family. If it comes down to it, we'll leave the city and set up nearby and help from the outside."

"Well, if you're going to leave, you should probably do it now," Max said. "We're about to raise our flag and show that we aren't going anywhere, that we're taking a stand. Ben will be fine with us."

Parker glared at her and clung tighter to Ben. "You can't have him," she repeated. "He's ours."

"Don't worry," Ben reassured her. "You're not getting rid of me that easily." He looked back up at the others just in time to see a brief flash of something in Alec's eyes. Hurt? Jealousy? He couldn't quite be certain.

"We're not going anywhere," Eliot stated firmly. "Not until we have to."

"Are you going to do the flag raising now?" Ben asked. "Or is there some time before you do?"

"We're doing it at dawn," Max replied.

Ben nodded. "Good. In that case, I hope you don't mind if I borrow Alec for a bit. New twin to get to know and all."

"I'm free," Alec said before Max could reply.

"Cool, then let's go find somewhere we can talk," Ben said before looking at Parker. "Parker, sweetie, you gotta let go so I can go talk to Alec."

"I don't wanna," Parker pouted. "What if he decides they wanna keep you?"

"I don't think that's quite the way it's gonna go," Ben told her softly and she tilted her head up to look at him curiously. He cut his eyes over to Max, Logan, and Alec for a brief second and Parker followed the look. It didn't take long before she noticed what he was implying; Alec didn't quite fit in there, but maybe he could fit in with them.

Parker nodded slowly and reluctantly let go of Ben's arm. "Fine. Go. But they can't have you," she said sternly as she settled into Hardison's arms.

Ben smiled at her. "I know."