Hey guys, thanks for the great reviews! In answer to your question Tabitha, yup there's more to come. Like another 8 or 9 chapters depending on whether I can finally write up the finale. So hopefully people will stick around to read it, I'd love to get this story completely finished !

You know, this whole rewrite thing is tricky. This chapter has had minimal changes made to it, as it was chapter three onwards that I had issues with. So after this chapter, those who've read this story before will definitely notice the changes. *wink*

It seemed the tears would never stop flowing, that this pain would cling to her like a shroud forever. 'Why is it that you never seem to appreciate what you have until it's gone?' Max asked herself. Perhaps because you're too busy looking in the wrong direction. Came the reply. Little voices inside the head could be so unbearably loud sometimes.

As Max ran her fingers down Alec's still, expressionless cheek, she felt a faint muscle spasm beneath her fingertips. Her breath caught in her throat and she held onto it, not daring to move. Sharp feline eyes focused intensely on his face, waiting to see whether the movement had been real, or wishful thinking.

Several lifetimes passed by in the space of one minute, but the muscle spasm was not repeated. With her own heart beat increasing, Max laid a finger upon the side of Alec's throat to check for a pulse. At first, it seemed there was none. But then she felt it, faint, but unmistakably real beneath her sensitive touch. Could this be real? She was no longer sure.

"Hey, hey wake up Alec. Please, just open your eyes?" Pleading, Max cut off the urge to pry open his eyelids herself. She silently promised that if he woke up, she'd never say horrible hurtful things to him again. She promised that she'd be totally honest with him. "There's so much that I have to say to you, and while you're in my arms, you're going to have to hear it, so wake up!"

But there was no reply from Alec. Not even a twitch. His body lay as still and silent as the dead.

"Damn you Alec!" Max screamed in frustration as she gave his shoulders a particularly violent shake. With no regards to the large metal object protruding from his stomach. "This is not the time for laziness! Wake up God-damned it! Bip, bip, bip soldier boy!"

Max's voice was cracked and hoarse as she was overcome by emotions that had never before been accepted. With a will of their own, words tumbled out of her mouth as she alternated between pounding his shoulder and just plain trying to squeeze the marrow from his bones.

�I hate you for doing this to me! You can't die Alec please? You can't leave me here alone! Just please, wake up?�

So intent was she on venting her misery that she didn't notice his face occasionally wince in pain, or the breaths he struggled to drag into his lungs.

"Why can't you be serious for once and stop playing around? Do you want me to run through all the reasons why I love you before you open your eyes?"

Her own final words stunned her into silence. Love him huh? Where the hell had that come from? Her mind couldn't comprehend this final thought and so it promptly shut down on her.

It was during that pause in her tirade that she finally blinked away her tears long enough to take a deep breath and look down upon Alec's face. And at the eyes that had opened and were staring intently at her.

For a long moment, Max could do nothing but stare back. And then she smiled and said the first thing that came into her mind.

"You jerk. I'm so gonna kick your ass."

"Max... " Alec's brow furrowed as a stab of pain cut into him. "Max I'm feeling a strange sense of de-ja vu"

"You're going to be okay" Those words were as false as the smile she forced upon her lips and they both knew it.

"I didn't think I'd ever see you again Maxie." He smiled a little as he reached up to tentatively run a finger down her cheek. "I'm dying Max."

"Just hold on because Dalton's gone to get help. It's not as bad as it looks - you're an X5 don't forget? You're not going to die on me, I promise!"

There was no way Alec could survive the kind of wound he had. Especially here, now, with their home in ruins and absolutely no way to give him the medical help he needed to even have the slightest chance. So much for honesty. Max was practically choking on her lies now. But what could she do?

"I tried to find you Max. I wanted have the chance to..." Alec's words were interrupted by racking coughs and Max was alarmed to see fresh blood ooze out of his large abdominal wound.

"Shhh, it's okay" she whispered, trying to smile but failing miserably at the effort. Alec lay in her arms dying. So much time had been wasted on the wrong person. So many opportunities she had chosen to ignore because of a stupid dream to be a 'real girl'. Who did she think she was, Pinocchio?

Right here and now was the only chance she had left to try and put things right. Alec didn't have to die without knowing he was the most important person in her world, but the window of opportunity closing. His life was draining out of him in red rivulets through her fingers, his consciousness slipping away even faster.

"I never meant to be a disappointment, Max. I tried to make you proud of me. I was just trying to make sure we were all safe."

The words broke Max's heart. Even as he lay here dying, Alec's thoughts were on the supposed failings that summed up his life, or so he thought - so she had made him feel. How much hurt had she caused him? When all he had wanted to do was the right thing. All on account of her.

"Please don't speak like that. You're not a disappointment! You could never be a disappointment!"

It chilled Max that Alec's voice was so weak, it barely sounded like his own. She had half expected him to flash a grin and crack a joke at the situation he was in. "If this is what it took to be so close to your breasts, I would have thrown myself upon a steel truss long ago" would have been a fitting remark from the Smart Aleck she had come to know.

And love.

But as she looked into eyes that were so filled with pain and fear, Max realised he was too numbed by agony, and the anticipation of his own impending death, to care for wisecracks.

Max felt as if her very soul had been torn asunder at the realisation she would never be privy to his collection of one-liners ever again. Alec was the master of witticism, who else could she steal great phrases from? Gods, even now she was wasting precious time.

"There's so many things I should have done different" Max whispered, as she gently stoked Alec's forehead. It all seemed a horrible nightmare as she watched how his eyes struggled to remain focused. "I've spent my life searching for a home, and I only know now that home is any place where I can wake up next to you."

Alec's eyes widened in surprise as he was temporarily drawn back into consciousness by this revelation. Confusion flashed across his features as her words sunk into his mind.

For a few moments, Alec's mouth opened and closed soundlessly, then he drew in a ragged breath and whispered "I've tried to find you for so long Maxie. I wanted the chance to show you how much I've changed, that I'm not a failure. But after everything I've put you through, after everything I've done... how can you care about me?"

Holding in the sobs that threatened to erupt from her chest, Max struggled for composure, not wanting to spend these final moments mourning, when she would have a life time to do so after wards.

"No, you're not a failure. I'm the one who failed you. I left you face this world by yourself and expected you to cope without any support. I failed you. I failed all of you."

"I tried to do things right Maxie. Just that sometimes I didn't know who I was. Sometimes I wished I was back in Manticore. I needed you Max. You have no idea how much I needed you."

Alec's voice broke with long suppressed emotions on those final words but this only caused him to start a new round of coughing. This time, blood trickled from his mouth. As he struggled more obviously now, to draw in breath, Max was aware that it wasn't long now. And there was still so much that needed to be said.

"I'm so sorry, please believe me?" Max drew closer to Alec and rested her cheek upon his head. "You were right. Logan doesn't rock my world. You're the rock in my world, I need you to lean against, to hold me up. I can't do this without you!�

Reaching up to wipe away her tears and brush his fingers across her lips, he smiled weakly "You know I've always loved you Max. Even at my worst, I always loved you."

"I know." Max lightly kissed his finger tips, closing her eyes tightly for a moment to hold back the tears that threatened to blur her vision. She didn't want to ever forget those hazel eyes that now regarded her with such pain. Hazel eyes that should be twinkling with laughter. Hazel eyes that once closed, she would never see again. "I just wish I could turn back time and change everything for you. For both of us."

Alec was so busy trying not drown in his own blood, Max wasn't sure if he could even hear her. Taking into attention the condition of his injuries, Max drew him closer into her arms and kissed his forehead, her lips lingering upon his skin as she inhaled his scent. A scent tainted by blood and death.

She didn't know where she was finding the strength to hold it together. She put it down to sheer determination to make their final moments together as calm and peaceful as possible. There would be plenty of time for tears later. Like the rest of her life.

Why was he the one who lay here dying? Why couldn't it be her? How could she be expected to remain in this world without Alec? Where once his presence was annoying, Max now realised he had held her together, keeping her fired up with his jibes. How could she continue now, now that she realised all that would be missing from her life with the loss of Alec? This had to be wrong. A mistake. She'd surely wake up soon and find it all to be a long, painful dream.

Max took one of Alec's hands into her own as she felt his efforts to breath grow weaker. As if somehow she could keep his soul within him that much longer.

�It's going to okay� She smiled through the tears that began to run down her face. This moment felt so surreal. Alec's words of de-ja vu came back to haunt her now. �Have I ever told you about the good place? I stopped believing in it years ago, but if it were real, no one would hunt us there. We'd be free."

He was gone. No longer did he struggle for breath. The hand she held in hers had fallen limp. Tears flowed easily now. She was surprised she still had any left.

Adjusting Alec in her arms, his head tipped back slightly and she couldn't help but smile at how innocent and peaceful he looked. 'This can't be real...' She laid a kiss upon his blood-stained lips and rested her forehead against his. 'It just feels too wrong to be real.'

"I love you Alec" She whispered to him.

She smiled, content in the knowledge that this nightmare would all be over soon. Soon White's men would arrive, and finish her off. Soon... Closing her eyes, Max realised how tired she was. Wrapping her arms further around Alec's warm body, she resolved to stay here by his side. She was so tired...

�"Max, wake up� A large warm hand pulled back her head and pried her arms away from the body she held in them.

�Max. Max!"

Opening her eyes, Max looked into the large brown ones of Joshua.

"Joshua!" Max cried out both with relief and sadness to see her friend. But the relief was short lived as Joshua pulled her up and away from Alec's body and started to drag her away.

�Joshua stop! What the hell are you doing? I can't leave Alec here!�

Joshua looked down at Alec for a moment before tightening his grip on Max's arm and pulling her along once again. "Max come now. Alec has been looking for you."

Shocked, Max could only stare at Joshua as he began to explain haltingly, how Alec had been organising the remaining transgenics into units and planning their escape into the sewers. She couldn't understand this, any of this. How could he not see that Alec was lying dead at their feet?

�Alec is not organising anything except his payment into the next world Joshua! Alec is dead!� It was hard to speak, her mind felt as if it were tearing apart. Words came out with difficulty as though she were speaking underwater.

�Look down at that body Joshua, look at that face. There is Alec, and he's dead!� She tore herself away from Joshua's grasp and fell back to the ground beside Alec, throwing her arms around his neck, swearing never again to let him go.

�Max. How can you think that is Alec?�

Joshua was worried about Max. He didn't know this person she held so tightly to. Perhaps the trauma of the day was simply too much for her. He figured all he could do was pick her up and carry her to their make-shift hospital. Someone would know how to help her. He bent down towards her.

�How can you look at this person and say it's not Alec?� Max's words were muffled as her face was buried in Alec's neck. �Just go Joshua, you're not feeling well. Leave us alone.�

Max didn't know what was going on here. Was this a dream after all? She wasn't sure, but she was beginning to understand. She was losing her mind.

Joshua walked over to Max and lay a hand on her shoulder. �Of course he looks like Alec.� He spoke to her in a voice one would use when trying to rationalize with a child. �But he's not Alec.�

Mouth open, Max simply stared at her friend - knowing one of them was crazy but not sure who.

Sniffing the air, Joshua continued to try and explain what he meant, although he didn't understand why Max couldn't figure it out for herself. �He doesn't smell like Alec.�

Max raised her head at this last remark. �What the hell do you mean?�

Sighing, Joshua searched for the words, but a better idea came to mind. Lifting �Alec's� head forward to reveal the back of his neck, he pointed out the proof. �See, wrong barcode.�

Max followed Joshua's gaze. He was right. The last three lines of the barcode were all the confirmation she needed. Of course he had smelt of blood and death. Of course his voice hadn't quite sounded like his own.

The body she held in her arms belonged to Ben.

A/N: Traumatised yet? (Please say yes?  Just nod, smile, and humour my need to make people miserable...)  Post a review and tell Dr. SR all about it...

The Broken World//Next Chapter