Ben was dead. She had broken his neck herself in the forest as Manticore soldiers closed in on them. You don't just get up and walk away from a broken neck. Life isn't that easy.

Unless of course, you're a cat with nine of them.

This was a twist Max hadn't anticipated. That she could pour out all these feelings at last, and they were to the wrong person. Ben. Poor flawed Ben had died again in her arms - for the final time. And she hadn't even realised it was him.

Her intense relief to know Alec was alive, was marred by the shock of losing her brother all over again. Never before had she felt such ambivalence as two opposing emotions waged war inside her mind, neither side winning.

"I'm sorry Max.  I... they were dressed so similar I didn't notice the difference... I never knew that Alec had a twin..." 

Max tore her eyes from the body at her feet, and turned to see Dalton standing beside Joshua.  She wanted to reassure him that he'd done nothing wrong, but couldn't find any words within her.  Or the energy to speak them anyway.

�Come Max.� Joshua's soft gruff voice broke into her thoughts. �We have to go now.�

Max leant against her friend and he wrapped his arms around her. She was so, so tired. If only she could just leave this body of hers and let someone else take over it for a while. She didn't have room within her to deal with a single thing more.

�Not without Ben.� Max whispered at last.

Letting go of Max, Joshua knelt to pick Ben up. Max turned her head away as he pulled from Ben's stomach, the offending object which had caused his death. After doing this, he lifted him into his arms and motioned to Max he was ready. �Come Max�

Dalton fell into step beside her, but with the exception of the odd worried look both he and Joshua turned to give her, there was no interaction between any of them.

Still unable to comprehend that Alec was alive, and that Ben had been the one lying in her arms.. once more, Max's mind crumpled beneath the weight of confusion and grief.  Her body switched into autopilot as she stumbled through Terminal City, occasionally steadied by Dalton.  She had no idea where she was going, she could be following Joshua into Hell for all she cared. Perhaps she was.

It seemed as if she had been doing this forever: placing one foot in front of the other behind Joshua. She looked up from the ground and noticed Ben�s head had fallen back against the crook of Joshua�s arm. He looked so peaceful. He looked surreal. The sight of him brought fresh pain as memories plagued her. New tears welled up behind red, sore eyes. Max found it was much easier to simply stare back at the ground.

Finally the sound of voices entered Max's head. She ignored them for a while, figuring it was yet another sign that she was losing her mind. But when at last Joshua stopped walking, and she collided into the back of him, Max looked up and discovered the voices hadn't belonged to her after all. One small relief.

Someone had found Joshua's flag and propped it up at the top of a mound of rubble. It served as a pillar of strength for those who were left as well as a landmark for the survivors to rally to. Plans to evacuate were well under way, and it wouldn't be long before the flag also became a target when the Army chose to strike again.

Those few who hadn't already left TC were gathered here now. Decampment was a work in progress, it was hard to slip past the National Guard and the weary lines of defeat were etched on every face. So many had died, and in a morbid kind of way, it was just as well. It would be easier to escape with fewer of them.

Max scanned the small crowd for faces she knew. For one face in particular.

�Max! What took you so long?� The voice that rang out behind her made her heart beat faster and her stomach churn with trepidation. �Did ya bring pizza?�

Turning, she saw Alec standing behind her. Although he smiled and jested, his eyes were sad and serious. Haunted by the death of so many of their kind that day.

Funny how your mind can suddenly become utterly blank when confronted by someone who you hate then love, think is dead, then find to be alive... all in the space of a day. Less than an hour ago Max thought she had been crying over the body of the man who stood this moment in front of her. A man who was watching her expectantly, waiting for something intelligible to come out of her mouth. An insult or two perhaps.

No sound at all was forthcoming. Max had no idea what to say or do. She wanted to simply throw her arms around him and never let go, yet she held back. How would he react to such an uncharacteristic show of affection from her? After all the things she'd said and done to him in the past, why would he even care?

After all, she was the one who had disregarded everything and everyone in her search for him today. Had he even wondered if she survived or not?

It was safer not to know. Better just to hold back, lock her heart away in a secret compartment so that nothing could ever rip it out again. After every thing she'd done to him, and after the way she had deserted her people today, she didn�t deserve him.

"Uh hi. Alec� Joshua finally relieved Max from the responsibility of speech, causing Alec to look towards him and notice the body that lay in his arms.

"What the..." Surprise captured an expression on Alec's face that Max could have found humorous under different circumstances. Joshua too could see the Kodak moment and inappropriately chuffed aloud. The sound was so out of context with the situation, it broke Max's trance.

�What the hell is so funny?� Brown eyes blazed in anger as she turned a fiery glare upon her dog-like friend.

�Uh, nothing Max.� Joshua lowered his head in embarrassment and decided he'd best depart the scene. Not knowing what else to do, he forced the body into Alec's arms and quickly headed away from the hurricane he could see brewing within Max's eyes, while muttering �Sorry Max, sorry� as he went.

Alec now found himself holding the corpse of a person who undoubtedly looked just like himself. What else could he do except ask, �Max why the hell am I standing here holding myself?�

His face crinkled in such a look of confusion, Max could have laughed if she didn't feel such an overwhelming desire to be violently sick. Seeing Alec standing there holding Ben's body in his arms was causing bile to rise in her throat. She raised one hand to her forehead while the other hand clenched at her stomach. This was indeed too much.

�Max, please, this is not a time to stand around posing.� Alec rolled his eyes in exasperation. �Tell me, when is Mini-me going to run over and grab at my knee? I mean, I know I'm hot but, how many more of me are there out there? I don't think I can handle all this competition!�

�Alec!� This was just the straw that broke the camel's back. �Shut up!�

�Can you just side step your ego for one moment and quit fooling around? How dare you stand here and joke? God, that you even survived today amazes me. It truly does. I expected you to be the first target they'd go for - the guy standing on a rooftop pulling silly faces at the fighter planes!�

Somewhere within her, the quiet voice of reason asked why couldn't she just be relieved to have him here alive - hadn't she recently lamented the loss of that unique Alec witticism? Unfortunately, she had silently asked earlier if someone else could take over her body for a while. At this moment in time, it appeared that wish had been granted.

Alec's mouth dropped open, a flabbergasted expression imprinted itself upon his face. The heat of Max's words were scathing. "Max... what the hell is your problem? Would you prefer it if I had been the first target?"

His words shocked Max into halting her tirade, and she instantly regretted her foolishness. Her gaze dropped to the ground, and she fumbled for something to say. She wanted so much to close the gap between them and pour out the fears she had held all day - fears that she had lost him.

These were questions Max knew she couldn't ask him. She couldn't expect him to care for her, when up until today she had never treated him with anything but disrespect - as if he were nothing more than an annoyance. And this truth of her own intolerance was the hardest to deal with. To admit it would be to drop the wall of armour she clutched so tightly to herself. And she couldn't do that, could she?

Instead Max covered her self-doubts with yet more anger. And from that anger sprung words that she knew to be entirely inappropriate, even as they burst from her mouth. �Do you have any idea what's happened to us today Alec? To our people?�

As the words left Max's lips, Alec's expression turned so cold, she abruptly shut her mouth and scanned her brain to recall what had just been said.

�Yes I do have an idea of what happened today Max.� Alec's tone was quiet and dangerous. �I was the one who helped pull our dying from the wreckage that surrounded them. Something you should have been doing. I was the one who dug Dix's grave and made those who could stand, dig the graves of their friends and loved ones. Something you should have been doing.�

Max took a step back, away from the pain and anger radiating from the man standing before her. But he hadn�t finished getting his point across yet.

�I was the one who sent scouts to the perimeter of Terminal City to learn how close we are to being invaded by our own country's army. Something you should have been doing. I was the one who made a count of those able to walk, and paired them with those who couldn't, so no one will be left behind when we move out... Where have you been all this time Max?�

�With you.� It made no sense. Nothing she could say would. There really were no simple answers anymore. �I thought you were dead. I thought I was going out of my mind Alec. I didn't mean what I said, I just don't know how to... I'm sorry, I really am. You have no idea how many times I've said that today...�

Alec's expression softened as he took in the bedraggled sight of her. Noticing the dejected slump of her shoulders, and the face stained by blood and tears, he felt his anger dissipate. And then her words sunk in.

Had she believed that this body which had been so awkwardly thrust into his arms to be him? And had she cried over him? No, he must have it all wrong, Max would never cry over his death. Then again, he couldn't recall a time when he'd seen her look so lost and frail - that too went against her nature.

Max nodded wordlessly and Logan suddenly felt awkwardly out of place, and unsure of what direction to look in. For months he had tried to come to terms with knowing Max and Alec were together, he had tried to tell himself it was enough for him just to be there for her as a friend. As time passed and Max continued to treat Alec with the same disregard as she always had, he had even begun to hope there was a chance that she still loved him. But seeing them now... he didn't want to meet either of their stares, and display the hurt he felt at seeing Max with someone else... with Alec.

Instead, his gaze fell upon the body lying upon the beat up old car, and he started in surprise. �What the..?"

Feeling the air beside her stir, Max opened her eyes to see Alec step past and walk back to the body of his dead clone. She could hardly imagine what he was thinking - to have his crazy twin, the brother who had caused him so much pain back in Manticore, here now. And none of them had even known.

�I don't know how." Max stepped forward, unsure of what she could do to ease Alec's distress. "I mean, I was supposed to be dead, and so was Zack. But Manticore brought us back. Amazing what things can be achieved when you combine Mary Shelley's �Frankenstein� with modern technology."

�Oh come on Alec, you enjoy the attention!"

Alec grinned and shrugged his shoulders, but the smile slid from his face as his eyes fell upon Ben's body once more. Max watched as he closed his eyes, a pained expression crossing his face, and she looked over her shoulder, guilt suddenly enveloping her at the sight of Ben stretched out on the bonnet of the car - as she stood bantering with his twin.

Slowly Max shifted her eyes towards Logan, his tone was low and serious and held no small measure of hesitancy. Reluctantly she asked, "more bad news?"

The cyber-journalist nodded and waved his cell phone in the air. "I spoke earlier to a... contact. He's adament that the US government gave no authorisation for this attack."

"What do you mean? Could he be lying?" Max felt her stomach churn uneasily. "Who else would have the power to do all this?"

Logan said nothing, but simply frowned slightly, knowing that Max already knew the answer to that question.

"White? The familiars? Do you mean to tell me they have their own secret army with fighter jets and all, stashed away under Mt Rainier?"

"Not quite." Logan idly flipped the cover of cell phone open, and snapped it shut again, before repeating the action once more. "Although to be honest, it wouldn't surprise me in the least. They've been at this game for thousands of years."

"But it would jeopardise their positions - their own lives!" Despite her protests, Max knew something as trivial as the lives of their own people, would hardly stop the Conclave from giving orders such as these.

"White was willing to betray the government and admit to the existence of transgenics wasn't he? No doubt on orders of the Conclave." Alec checked his watch. "And we seriously need to get a move on. At the moment I bet the Army are running around like headless chickens, trying to figure out what the hell is going on. This is our opportunity to get the hell out of here - and White's opportunity to send his super team in to finish us off."

Fortunately, Alec and Mole had already set up teams to clear the sewers, and had begun to move transgenics out as soon as it had become possible. Those who still remained in Terminal City were a dozen soldiers who had volunteered to search through the rubble for survivors, and a few of the Nomolies who adamantly refused to leave Terminal City - deciding they were better off standing their ground here, then spending their life on the run and hiding in the shadows.

"I'm not going until I've buried Ben."

Alec winced, knowing Max was going to say that, and knowing also that they were cutting it incredibly close if they were to have any chance of getting out. But of course he couldn't argue over such a matter as this. Seeing the pain jump back into Max's eyes at the thought of the task, he stepped forward and pulled her close to him. "Of course. We'll do that first."

Logan coughed slightly, uncomfortably. "Well uh, I'm going to head back to Sandeman's house and see what information I can dug up through the Informant Net."

Max nodded and glanced to Logan, offering him a small smile. "Okay then. We'll meet you there."

Nodding, Logan paused as he began to turn away, words entered his mouth but became trapped upon entering his throat. Finally he forced them out, and tried to pretend there was no innuendo to them. "Be careful."

Max hesitated before offering a quiet, "you too."

The team moved silently through the smouldering remains of Terminal City, ever watchful for signs of movement in the rubble around them. The wasteland had been shattered into pieces. Buildings that once stood neglected, now ceased to stand altogether - except for a few that stood out amid the concrete chaos, like skeletons.

At a glance, one would find it hard to believe anything could have survived the attack. But these people knew that transgenics were like cockroaches. They had survived the burning of Manticore, they had survived the months of persecution that followed, and somehow - there would be some among them who would have survived this.

Occasionally a sound broke into the eerie silence that surrounded the team as they cautiously scoured the scarred and bleeding earth. The tortured moan of a half ruined building as it gave in to death and sank into the ground, the scraping rumble of shifting rubble. And once or twice, the pained cries of transgenics crushed beneath it all.

The team leader knew that any able survivors would be long gone by now. But still, she followed procedure, and hoped to get lucky. Perhaps she had been left behind, deserted by her own kind for bringing about the destruction of their home, and the deaths of their fellow brethren. Perhaps she was one of the trapped and dying.

Twelve of the finest purebred familiars had been selected by the Conclave as the transgenic clean up crew. Upon entering the remains of Terminal City, they had split into two groups. Four of these familiars had made up the first team of Phalanx sent to execute X5-452.

The team that had failed, and brought the greatest dishonour upon themselves for not only allowing themselves to be captured, but to be ridiculed by humans in the process.

This time, there was to be no failure.

If they failed, and the transgenics spared their lives once more, they would lose all chance of redemption in the eyes of their Gods. They would be unworthy, weak, useless - nothing more than genetic pond scum. And the Conclave would have no qualms in eradicating those who they perceived to be bad blood.

Whatever. Thula's thoughts were so focused on gaining revenge for the embarrassment and dishonour 452 had dealt to her three months earlier, she no longer cared what the repercussions would be if other transgenics escaped. Her mind was fully focused on finding and killing 452.

As the robust warrior woman combed over the ruins and drew closer to the lone freak flag that perched atop a pile of brick and splintered wood, she prayed to the Snake Goddess that X5-452 was here still. And she hoped to Gods that she'd get to the bitch before Ames White did.

"I know it's human sentimentality, but I thought this would be appropriate." Alec returned to Ben's grave holding a small statue of the Virgin Mary.

"I mean... I... when you ran off..." Max felt her cheeks begin to flush with intense heat as she fumbled for words, suddenly feeling as if she'd been shoved upon a stage, beneath a spotlight. "I thought you weren't going to come back..."

All of a sudden Max wasn't so sure if she could trust her legs, and so she held tighter to Alec, drawing him even closer in the process. 'This is it.' She thought as she paused to recover from the shiver which ran down her spine. 'This is the part which will make or break me.'

And maybe it was just as well that he didn't want her. After all that had happened today, with so many she had cared for dead, and emotions so raw, how could she know if what she felt for him was real and not some kind of post-traumatic stress? How could she suddenly decide in the course of a day that she loved this man, when she had shown him nothing in the past except contempt?

Ames White sent a forceful kick into a fallen concrete pillar. In times like this he would have welcomed the feeling of pain brought about by such an action. At least it would offer him some kind of release from the frustration building up within him. But no, he felt the sensation of his booted foot connecting with the pillar, but his body simply refused to register the feeling as anything other than a vague tingle.

Dragging his fingers through his hair, the familiar sought for calm within himself. He knew that the Phalanx bitch... Thula... would be wanting to find 452 just as much as he. But while she wanted to simply kill the girl, with perhaps a side dish of torture in the process, he wanted to extract information from the transgenic - while torturing her.

White just knew 452 had survived the bombings. And although the odds of finding her here in Terminal City were minuscule, especially as it seemed all other survivors had fled, he was certain she remained here still. Be it intuition, or the whispered echoes of a long dead Goddess, he had no doubt of this. However, he did hold doubts that he would be the one to find her.

Turning towards his team, he began instructing them to spread out further when the distinct sound of footsteps beating across the ground reached his ears. Quickly he scanned the area. The sound echoed off the remnants of buildings, making it hard to pin point the direction the runner was heading in. White swore in frustration, and gestured wildly to his team to spread out in all directions, a fierce expression on his face as he turned about, trying to get a fix on the footfalls.

Finally a figure burst into view, and White grinned madly to see it was indeed 452, running blindly in his direction, and oblivious to the fact that she was about to be fully surrounded by familiars. Stepping out from the shadows of the wreckage he stood by, Ames White raised his gun. Primeval excitement surged within him, the hunter finally had the hunted in his sight... now he just had to decide whether to simply fire a warning shot, or ground the girl permanently.

Alec kicked himself mentally. What had he done wrong? Why did Max react like that? Had he somehow hurt her feelings simply by maintaining a dumbstruck silence? What else had she expected from him?

Perhaps she'd never be willing to give him a straight up explanation, maybe she would simply notch yet another grudge against him for some abstract Max-like reason. But one sure certainty was that he had to find her, and they had to get the hell out of Terminal City. Whatever new issue that stood between them, it could be resolved later.